c. 735 - 814
Abbot and founder of the Sakkoudion monastery in Bithynia and uncle of Saint Theodore the Studite, he suffered imprisonment and persecution as a confessor for opposing the uncanonical marriage of Emperor Constantine VI.
Our Venerable Father and Confessor Plato, Abbot of Sakkoudion
Plato of Sakkoudion (also called Plato of the Studion) was a Byzantine monk and abbot, born around 735 and most closely associated with Constantinople and the monastic life of Bithynian Mount Olympus. He was the uncle and principal spiritual father of Saint Theodore the Studite, whom he drew into monasticism along with Theodore's brothers, and he is venerated as a confessor for his resistance to imperial interference in the canonical order of the Church.
After entering monastic life around the middle of the eighth century, Plato founded and led the monastery of Sakkoudion near Mount Olympus in Bithynia, taking a firm iconodule position during the period of Byzantine Iconoclasm and sharing in the restoration of the icons at the Second Council of Nicaea. He later opposed the second marriage of Emperor Constantine VI, the dispute that became known as the Moechian controversy, and suffered imprisonment and exile for that stand. He spent his final years as a simple monk at the Studion monastery in Constantinople under the leadership of his nephew Theodore, and reposed in 814; his feast is kept on April 4.
Plato established the monastery of Sakkoudion near Bithynian Mount Olympus around 782-783 and governed it as its first abbot. Under his guidance the community grew, and its church was dedicated to Saint John the Theologian.
He was known for a strict ascetic life. Later accounts describe practices of severe self-denial, including the wearing of an iron chain and a diet of minimal food, in keeping with the rigorous monastic ideal he pursued and taught.
Plato is especially remembered for his part in the dispute known as the Moechian controversy, which arose from Emperor Constantine VI's divorce of his first wife and remarriage to Theodote in 795. Plato and Theodore the Studite held that the divorce was unlawful and the new marriage adulterous, and they refused communion with those who sanctioned it, including the priest who performed the ceremony.
For this resistance to imperial pressure on the canons of the Church, Plato was imprisoned. The controversy made him, with Theodore, a leading voice for the strict application of the Church's discipline against accommodation of the emperor, and it is the principal reason he is honored as a confessor.
Plato was the uncle and primary spiritual father of Saint Theodore the Studite. After the Seventh Ecumenical Council he summoned Theodore and Theodore's brothers to the monastic life and received them at Sakkoudion, where Theodore confessed to him daily and followed his counsel.
When Plato withdrew from the active leadership of the monastery, Theodore succeeded him as abbot, and in his final years Plato lived under Theodore at the Studion in Constantinople. Theodore honored him with the name of father, reflecting the depth of his formative influence.
Uncle and spiritual father of St Theodore the Studite. Reposed c. 814.