Anastasius I, Intrusive Patriarch of Constantinople

ANASTASIO I, usurping patriarch of CONSTANTINOPLE. — When the iconoclast emperor Leo the Isaurian expelled St. Germano from the patriarchal throne because he defended the veneration of images, A., who was the saint’s disciple and syncellus, accepted the position (730). As an usurper and iconoclast, he was excommunicated by Popes Gregory II and Gregory III. In 741 he supported the revolt of Ardabasdos, but the following year he was cruelly punished for it: Constantine Copronymus had him flogged and made him pass through the circus naked and seated backwards on a donkey; then he was restored to his see. The Menaia, on 10 February, commemorate him both because under Ardabasdos he favored the veneration of images, and because he founded a monastery at Oxia, as well as on account of his wretched death (754).