Venerable Theodora of Caesarea (VIII)

The Venerable Theodora of Caesarea lived in the eighth century. The saint’s parents, the patrician Theophilus and his wife Theodora, were barren for a long time. They grieved greatly over this and fervently besought the Lord for help, vowing that if they had a child they would dedicate it to the Lord. At last the King of heaven and earth looked with the eye of mercy on the pious couple and granted them a daughter, whom they named Theodora. When the girl grew up, her mother took her to the convent of Saint Anna and entrusted her to the abbess to be brought up. It was here that the blessed one learned Holy Scripture. The iconoclast Emperor Leo the Isaurian (716–741) decided to marry the maiden Theodora to one of his associates. She was taken to Constantinople against her will, where everything was already prepared for the wedding. But during the wedding feast the Scythians attacked the capital, and Theodora’s bridegroom, sent out to fight the enemy, was killed in the first skirmish.

The holy woman took advantage of the general confusion, hid unnoticed by anyone, boarded a ship and hastened to her convent. When the king’s official came for the blessed one, he found her already tonsured a nun. After this no one forced Saint Theodora to leave the convent. She spent the remaining years of her life in the labour of strict fasting, prayer and vigil, and wore iron chains until her death. The Lord’s chosen one reposed not later than 755.