ANASTASIO I, PATRIARCA INTRUSO DI COSTANTINOPOLI

ANASTASIUS I, intrusive patriarch of Constantinople. — When the iconoclastic emperor Leo III the Isaurian accused St. Germanus of the patriarchal throne because he defended the veneration of images, A., who was a disciple and syncellus of the saint, accepted to occupy it (730). As an intruder and iconoclast he was excommunicated by the popes Gregory II and Gregory III. In 741 he supported the revolt of Ardaban, but the following year he was cruelly punished: Constantine Copronymus had him flogged and paraded through the circus naked and seated backwards on an ass; then he was restored to his see. The Menology of Basil, under February 10, commemorates him both because under Ardaban he favored the veneration of images, and because he founded a monastery at Oxia, and also on account of his wretched death (754).