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Next to the other categories of saints - apostles, equal apostles, saints, reverends, martyrs, righteous - are the confessors.

They are Christians, with or without church status, who openly and boldly professed their faith in the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ, and therefore remained in the history of the Church as confessors.

In terms of their feat, they are close to the martyrs, but they suffered not so much physically from torture, torture and death, as mentally, they performed a feat in the sense of what Jesus Christ said: "Everyone who confesses (recognizes) Me before men will I will also confess him before my heavenly Father, and whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my heavenly Father".

With this, the venerable Father Jacob the Confessor, who fearlessly professed his faith in difficult times for Orthodox Christians, also remained in the history of Christianity.

It is known that he was a monk in the Studio Monastery in Constantinople in the 8th century.

This is the time when the heresy of iconoclasm originates and spreads, i.e.

opposing and even banning the veneration of icons and other sacred images, writes BTA.

Jacob was a true ascetic, devoted to the faith and diligent in his ministry.

He had a good education and studied the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the holy fathers of the Church.

This helped him to keep within the framework of the Orthodox faith and to stand with word and pen against the iconoclastic teachings.

After a while he was elected bishop of the city of Catania, on the island of Sicily, and he took great care of his congregation.

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But during the time of Emperor Constantine Kopronimus (741-775), he suffered many trials and torments from the iconoclasts.

He was imprisoned in a dungeon, where they even deprived him of bread and water in order to break him and divert him from icon veneration.

Ended his life in exile.