Empress Irene was considered to be an exceptionally beautiful orphan from Athens. When Constantine V held a beauty contest to determine who his son, Leo IV's, wife would be, she easily won the competition. There was a problem though. The Roman Empire was going through a massive political and theological conflict, much of this would lead to the West crowning for itself a new Emperor in Charlemagne. Leo IV was a strong opponent of the Church's teaching on the veneration of icons and he adhered to the false Council of Hieria which forbade the veneration of icons and supported the destruction of icons. Empress Irene was an iconodule. The agreement of the marriage was that her iconodulist position would remain suppressed and she would say nothing against the Emperor's iconoclastic views.
But this didn't necessarily work out too well as she was found by the Emperor Leo IV with icons which she had privately stowed away. She attempted to state that she had nothing to do with the icons but the Emperor hadn't wanted anything to do with that. The two never reconciled afterwards. Leo IV, a frequent attendee of Hagia Sophia, the Great Church, saw above its altar a crown. Consumed with his anger toward Irene and his iconoclastic viewpoints, as well as his envy for power, demanded the crown be taken down from the altar and placed on his head. No sooner did he do that then he became covered in boils and tumors all over his body. He died later that day in his heresy, a preparation for the worm which devours eternally.
She and her son returned numerous icons which had been stolen by the Emperor and even translated the relics of St. Euphemia from Lemnos to Constantinople, placing them in the Church she had built to receive them. The Empress Irene would provide a care for the Church hotly contrasted by both her husband, now consumed by the worm for his heresies and thievish actions, and her son who would himself turn out as abusive toward the clergy.
The Empress regent, ruling on behalf of her son Constantine VI, dealt with a crumbling Empire which faced treachery from inside and dealt with Arab foes on the outside. The Frankish Empire was beginning to bloom at this point too. She sought an alliance for her son with the daughter of Charlemagne but that marriage never came about as the daughter would repose before the marriage. The iconoclasts were everywhere within the Eastern Empire and a strong push for iconoclasm had always been a scourge for the Eastern Church. It would be the Empress who would convene the Second Council of Nicaea which would overturn the treachery of the Council of Hieria. She appointed the Nikephoros, also a saint and a fervent supporter of the veneration of icons who would be elevated to the Patriarchal throne of Constantinople, as her imperial commissioner at the Council of Nicaea, formally approved in 787, and the iconoclast heresy was condemned. Although this was by no means the end of the heresy, this Council would eventually lead to the finality of the disputation against iconodulism. The work against the heresy of iconoclasm would be completed by the Empress Theodora only half a century later.
The five brothers of the heresiarch Leo IV plotted treachery against the Empress having abandoned their oaths of loyalty to him upon his death. But the Empress was quick-thinking and knew political cunning quite well. She was able to quash their plots of treachery. Much of her reign required her to be constantly on guard from rebellion within her own interior ranks and the uprisings of the Arabs all around the Empire. Not to mention the heretics threatened the Church with persistent regularity. The Second Council of Nicaea was her first major victory in her regency. But the victories would not last for long though and the Empire would eventually give way to the interior turmoil.
Constantine VI was considered by his mother to be rather stupid. And he experienced difficulties with his first wife. As to whether or not Irene had any play in it is disputable as Constantine also was unable to produce a male heir from her. He took for himself one of his mother's ladies-in-waiting. This marriage was objected to by the Church for his first wife was still alive and the Church has always taken a strong stance in favor of the indissolubility of marriage. In his brief, seven year reign, he abused the clergy of the Church. Patriarch Tarasios would condemn the second marriage and excommunicated the priest who performed the scandal. Constantine VI, who may have been sympathetic to his father's iconoclast heresy, was suspected of treachery by his mother and in 797, she would lead him into the room where he had been born and blinded him. Some sources suggest that he died from the injuries sustained and others suggest that he was imprisoned by his mother until his death some time around 805 A.D. This event led to the Empress being crowned as Empress Regnant. The shockwave led to the Blessed Charlemagne's crowning as Emperor of the Romans by the Pope of Rome as the Byzantine Empire had proven unstable.
The Empress very quickly began to repeal the disasters done by her husband and son as she cut taxes and would be a contributor to monasteries. But this was to no avail. The rebellion and treachery against her continued. She had even attempted to propose a marriage to Charlemagne, hoping that an alliance with the Western Romans would prove fruitful for the Roman Empire as a whole and unify it under one monarchial head again. But the rebels eventually pushed her out. In 802, Nikephoros I led a group of Eunuchs to the Imperial palace while the Empress was in Eleutheria and he proclaimed himself as Emperor. The guards also accepted him as Emperor and under the threat of swords, the Patriarch Tarasios would crown him as Emperor. There was nothing that could be done for the Empress Irene who was ill at the time. She took this as a judgment from God that she was not worthy to reign over the Romans and she was sent off to Mytilene in Lesbos where she was forced to embrace a scanty livelihood. She went on to her Heavenly glory August 9, 803. She, along with the Empress Pulcheria, is celebrated on August 7. If our leaders took after the humility of the Empress Irene, we would see much more justice in this world. St. Irene, pray for us!
See also:
Dictionary of Saintly Women, Agnes B.C. Dunbar
Pious Kings and Right-Believing Queens, Protopresbyter James Thornton
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