The Orthodox Church commemorates today Saint Martyr Pamphilus and Saint Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople.
Saint Flavian lived during the 5th century AD. and initially served the Church as a presbyter and skeuophylax (meaning “keeper of the vessels”) of the Hagia Sophia. In 447 AD he succeeded to the patriarchal throne Saint Proclus and distinguished himself with his morals, virtue and devotion to the Orthodox Faith.
Just a year after his enthronement, he convened a local council in Constantinople and condemned monophysitist Archimandrite Eftychis, who preached that Christ had only one nature, the divine one because the human nature was completely absorbed by the divine.
Saint Flavian paid dearly for his steadfastness in the Orthodox faith as he was humiliated and suffered torture during the so-called Robber Council of 449 AD, also known as Latrocinium, when Archimandrite Eftychis, who was backed by Dioscurus of Alexandria, provoked an insurgence.
The saint died three days after the end of the synod and he became a martyr after having remained steadfast in the Orthodox faith.
Source: Church of Cyprus
