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411 ST. IRENE 411 where he was born, and there she at once had his eyes pnt out : a punishment to which he had condemned his own nncles a year before, for an nnsuocessfdl plot. While undergoing this torture, he cursed his mother. Then for seventeen days the clouds were so thick and dark that mariners lost their way and ships went out of their course. This darkness cul- minated in an eclipse of the sun. According to Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography^ which is accounted a great authority, he died the same day ; but Lebeau and Finlay say that he recovered, and became accustomed to his blindness, and survived his mother. She now had her wish, and reigned alone for five years, in great pomp and splendour. She made peace with her enemies and made favour with the clergy. She bethought her of her crimes, and sought to atone for them by abundant almsgiving; she established charities for the poor, for the old, for pilgrims and strangers. She lightened the taxes, which were most oppressive, and were reducing great numbers of her subjects to beggary. In 800, having no open rival or enemy, she lost some degree of her interest in a£fairs, and the power fell into the hands of ^tius, her favourite minister. He left no stone unturned to procure the empire for his brother Leo. Proud of his power, insulting the great, trampling on the weak, he drew more hatred on his empress than on himself. Seven eunuchs, all occupying im- portant posts, conspired to dethrone Irene and set up Nicephorus, a man of Arabian blood who had previously been suspected of disloyalty, but whom Irene despised too much to fear. She was at this time ill, and in the seclusion of the palace of Eleutheria she did not know all that was going on. Late one night the conspirators presented themselves at the great brazen gates of the palace, and persuaded the guards that the empress, to rid herself of jEtius, who was trying to compel her to leave the crown to his brother, had chosen Nicephorus for her successor. The guards saluted Nice- phorus as emperor, and his partisans had him proclaimed through the streets. Next morning, the aged patriarch Tara- sios, trembling at the point of many swords, crowned the usurper. Nice- phorus then visited the empress, whom he had kept a prisoner in her palace, and protested that he had been forced to accept the empire. He showed her that he wore plain clothes, said that he hated pomp and state, and pronounced a strong invective against riches and avarice. Irene saw that her cause was lost. She owned she had never been worthy of the crown, and that now God had taken it from her. He promised to leave her the palace of Eleutheria on condition of her giving up all her treasure ; but as soon as he had it safely in his grip, he sent her to a monastery she had built on the Prince's Island. This was early in November, 802, and before the month was out, he shipped, her o£f in stormy weather to Mitylene or Lesbos, where she was allowed to see none of her friends, and was left so poor and forlorn that she had to spin for a scanty liveli- hood. Here she died on Aug. 9 in the following year, 803, being about fifty years old. The people who in her life had called her a new Athaliah, but whom ten months of Nicephorus had taught to regret her, after her death declared her a saint, and the title was confirmed to her by that party in the Church which triumphed through her restoration of image-worship. Lebeau says the Greeks must have been deeply convinced of her penitence to place her among their saints. He says her day is Aug. 15. OrsecO'Slav. Calendar. Lebeau, Bas Empire, Finlay, Byzantium, BOttiger, Weltfjeschichie in Biographien, Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Boman An- tiquities, Smith and Wace, Die. En^ cyclopedia Metrop. H^Ssies Icotioclastes. Bepertoire des connaissances. St. Irene (13), July 28, V. Abbess. -f- c. 840, after the conclusion of the iconoclastic persecution and war. The Empress St. Theodora was guardian to her son, the Emperor Michael III. (842- 8(37), then a child. She chose St. Irene as a suitable wife for him, but Irene pre- ferred to become the spouse of Christ, and was eventually abbess of the convent