The Righteous Empress Theodora
Commemorated on February 11
The Righteous
Empress Theodora was the wife of the Greek emperor Theophilos the
Iconoclast (829-842), but she did not share in the heresy of her husband and
secretly she venerated holy icons. After the death of her husband, when Saint
Theodora governed the realm together with her in age minor son Michael, she
restored the veneration of icons, bringing back the deposed holy Patriarch
Meletios and convened a Council, at which the Iconoclasts were anathematised.
And by her was started the celebration of this event – the Triumph of
Orthodoxy, which annually is celebrated on the 1st Sunday of Great Lent.
Righteous Theodora did much for Holy Church and moreover nourished in her son
Michael a firm devotion to Orthodoxy.
When Michael came of
age, she was retired from governing and spent 8 years in the monastery of Saint
Euphrosynia, in ascetic deeds and the reading of Divine books (a copy of the
Gospels is known of, copied by her hand). She died peacefully in about the year
867.
In 1460 her relics
were given off by the Turks to the people of the city of Kortsyra.
© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.
