Leo V
Leo V
(Leo the Armenian), d. 820, Byzantine emperor (813–20), successor of Michael I. A former general, Leo successfully defended (813) Constantinople against the Bulgars and concluded a 30-year truce with them. Reviving iconoclasmiconoclasm[Gr.,=image breaking], opposition to the religious use of images. Veneration of pictures and statues symbolizing sacred figures, Christian doctrine, and biblical events was an early feature of Christian worship (see iconography; catacombs).
..... Click the link for more information. , he deposed the patriarch NicephorusNicephorus, Saint
, 758?–829?, patriarch of Constantinople (806–15), Byzantine historian and theologian. St. Nicephorus attended the Second Council of Nicaea as lay representative of the emperor.
..... Click the link for more information. in the synod of 815 and persecuted the orthodox party led by Theodore of StudiumTheodore of Studium, Saint
, 759–826, Byzantine Greek monastic reformer, also called St. Theodore the Studite. As an abbot he was early exiled for opposing the marriage of Emperor Constantine VI to his mistress Theodota.
..... Click the link for more information. . Leo was murdered by the supporters of his successor, Michael II.