St. Theodore, Martyr November 9th “A zealous champion of the veneration of images... b. in 759; d. on the Peninsula of Tryphon, near the promontory Akrita on 11 November, 826... [coming from a] …More
St. Theodore, Martyr
November 9th
“A zealous champion of the veneration of images... b. in 759; d. on the Peninsula of Tryphon, near the promontory Akrita on 11 November, 826... [coming from a] distinguished family & like his [brother]... Joseph... Archbishop of Thessalonica, was highly educated. In 781 Theodore was ordained priest & in 794 succeeded his uncle. He insisted upon the exact observance of the monastic rules. During the Adulterine heresy dispute... concerning the divorce & remarriage of the Emperor Constantine VI, he was banished by Constantine VI to Thessalonica, but returned in triumph after the emperor's overthrow. In 799 he left Saccudion, which was threatened by the Arabs, & took charge of the monastery of the Studium at Constantinople. He gave the Studium an excellent organization which was taken as a model by the entire Byzantine monastic world... He supplemented the somewhat theoretical rules of St. Basil by specific regulations concerning enclosure, poverty, discipline, study, religious services, fasts, & manual labour. When the Adulterine heresy dispute broke out again in 809, he was exiled a second time... but was recalled in 811. The administration of the iconoclastic Emperor Leo V brought new & more severe trials. Theodore courageously denied the emperor's right to interfere in ecclesiastical affairs. He was consequently treated with great cruelty, exiled, & his monastery filled with iconoclastic monks. Theodore lived at Metopa in Bithynia from 814, then at Bonita from 819, & finally at Smyrna. Even in banishment he was the central point of the opposition to Cæsaropapism & Iconoclasm. Michael II (810-9) permitted the exiles to return, but did not annul the laws of his predecessor... Theodore... [continued] the struggle. He did not return to the Studium, & died without having attained his ideals... He is one of the first of hymn-writers in productiveness... & in elegance of language. 550 letters testify to his ascetical & ecclesiastico-political labours.” (1913, The Catholic Encyclopedia)
November 9th
“A zealous champion of the veneration of images... b. in 759; d. on the Peninsula of Tryphon, near the promontory Akrita on 11 November, 826... [coming from a] distinguished family & like his [brother]... Joseph... Archbishop of Thessalonica, was highly educated. In 781 Theodore was ordained priest & in 794 succeeded his uncle. He insisted upon the exact observance of the monastic rules. During the Adulterine heresy dispute... concerning the divorce & remarriage of the Emperor Constantine VI, he was banished by Constantine VI to Thessalonica, but returned in triumph after the emperor's overthrow. In 799 he left Saccudion, which was threatened by the Arabs, & took charge of the monastery of the Studium at Constantinople. He gave the Studium an excellent organization which was taken as a model by the entire Byzantine monastic world... He supplemented the somewhat theoretical rules of St. Basil by specific regulations concerning enclosure, poverty, discipline, study, religious services, fasts, & manual labour. When the Adulterine heresy dispute broke out again in 809, he was exiled a second time... but was recalled in 811. The administration of the iconoclastic Emperor Leo V brought new & more severe trials. Theodore courageously denied the emperor's right to interfere in ecclesiastical affairs. He was consequently treated with great cruelty, exiled, & his monastery filled with iconoclastic monks. Theodore lived at Metopa in Bithynia from 814, then at Bonita from 819, & finally at Smyrna. Even in banishment he was the central point of the opposition to Cæsaropapism & Iconoclasm. Michael II (810-9) permitted the exiles to return, but did not annul the laws of his predecessor... Theodore... [continued] the struggle. He did not return to the Studium, & died without having attained his ideals... He is one of the first of hymn-writers in productiveness... & in elegance of language. 550 letters testify to his ascetical & ecclesiastico-political labours.” (1913, The Catholic Encyclopedia)