Righteous Empress Theodora, Restorer of the Veneration of Icons (+c. 867)

The righteous Empress Theodora was the wife of the iconoclast Byzantine Emperor Theophilus (828–842), but she did not share the views of her heretic husband and venerated the holy icons. After Theophilus’s death Saint Theodora governed the country in place of her young son Michael; she restored the veneration of icons, returned Patriarch Methodius to his throne, and convened a council which anathematised the iconoclasts. By decree of this council, to the glory of the Lord, who had granted the Church victory over the iconoclasts and all heretics, the Triumph of Orthodoxy was established, which is celebrated on the first Sunday of Great Lent. The righteous Theodora also did much for the Church by bringing up her son Michael in faithfulness to Orthodoxy.

When Michael had grown up, the empress handed over the reins of government to him, and herself withdrew to the monastery of Saint Euphrosyne and gave herself to the labour of reading divine books (a Gospel copied by her hand is known). Saint Theodora died around 867.