Martyrs Theodore and His Mother Philippia, Dioscorus, Socrates and Dionysius (II)
The holy Martyrs Theodore, his mother Philippia, Dioscorus, Socrates and Dionysius (+c. 138–161) met their end in the time of the Emperor Antoninus Pius (138–161). When handsome and healthy youths were being chosen for military service, the young Theodore was brought with the others before the commander Theodoritus.
The commander demanded that the young man offer sacrifice to the idols, but he yielded neither to persuasion nor to threats. Theodoritus ordered the saint to be put into a heated cauldron and doused with boiling pitch, but as soon as they began to carry out the order a miracle happened: the earth shook, and water gushing from a crevice put out the fire. Saint Theodore, preserved unharmed, glorified God and invited the commander to repeat this miracle by means of the idols.
Theodoritus ordered the pagan priest Dioscorus to lie down in the heated cauldron and call on Zeus as his deliverer. Saint Dioscorus answered that he had already come to believe in Christ and was ready to throw the idol of Zeus into the fire. The angry commander again ordered the man, now a former priest, to lie down in the cauldron. Then the Martyr Dioscorus fell at the feet of Saint Theodore and asked him to pray for him, and himself stepped into the cauldron with the prayer: “I thank Thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, that Thou hast numbered me with Thy servants. Receive my soul in peace.”
Saint Theodore was harnessed to wild horses and dragged along. By the city walls the horses, exhausted from running, collapsed, while the martyr remained unharmed. Two soldiers, Socrates and Dionysius, saw how a fiery wheel that came down from heaven lifted Saint Theodore up. In amazement they cried out: “Great is the God of the Christians!” The new confessors were seized at once, and the next day they were thrown together with Saint Theodore into a heated cauldron. Heavenly dew cooled the cauldron and kept the saints unharmed. In the morning the commander ordered the soldiers to throw the martyrs’ burnt bones out of the cauldron, but the astonished servants told Theodoritus that the young men were unharmed. His mother, Philippia, came to Saint Theodore, miraculously preserved, and encouraged him.
Theodoritus advised the woman to offer sacrifice to the idols and so save her son. But Saint Philippia answered that before her son was born the Lord had revealed to her that he would die on a cross. Then Theodoritus ordered Theodore to be crucified and the others to be beheaded.
The holy Martyr Theodore hung on the cross for three days and glorified the Lord until he gave up his soul.
