Saint Emilian the Confessor, Bishop of Cyzikus

Saint Emilian the Confessor, Bishop of Cyzikus Saint Emilian, the Bishop of Kyzikos, lived during the reign of the Iconoclast Emperor Leo the Armenian (813-820). He and other bishops were summoned to the Emperor's tribunal, and Leo told the bishops to refrain from venerating the Holy Icons. Saint Emilian was the first to tell the Emperor firmly that the question of venerating icons ought to be discussed and decided only within the Church by its spiritual leaders, and not at the imperial court.