Greatmartyr Theodore Stratelates

Saints commemorated

• Saint of the day

  Greatmartyr Theodore Stratelates

  Theodore Stratelates (†319) — "the Commander," from the Greek stratelates, a general — was a Roman military officer of the early fourth century, governor and garrison-commander of Heraclea on the Thracian coast of the Black Sea, and one of the two great warrior-martyrs named Theodore whom the Church honours. A Christian in the years of Licinius's persecution, he was so loved by the city that the emperor himself came to him; entrusted with idols of gold and silver to offer in sacrifice, Theodore broke them up and distributed the pieces to the poor, then openly confessed Christ. He was scourged, racked, blinded, and — the tradition holds — crucified, and at the last beheaded on February 8, 319. His faithful servant Varus wrote down the acts of his passion. He is closely associated with, and in the calendars and iconography often paired with, Theodore the Recruit (Tyron), commemorated on February 17; the two Theodores are distinct saints. His relics were translated to his estate at Euchaita, kept as a second feast on June 8.

• Holy Prophet Zechariah (6th c. BC)

  Zachariah (Hebrew Zekharyah, "the Lord has remembered") was the eleventh of the Twelve Minor Prophets and, with Haggai, one of the two prophets of the return from Babylon, active in Jerusalem from the second year of Darius (520 BC) as the exiles rebuilt the Temple. The son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, and by the Church's tradition of priestly (Levitical) descent, he received in a single night a sequence of eight symbolic visions — the horsemen, the four horns and the four smiths, the man with the measuring line, the cleansing of Joshua the high priest, the golden lampstand and the two olive trees, the flying scroll, the woman in the ephah, and the four chariots — and prophesied the coming of the Messiah with a clarity the Church reads at the heart of Holy Week: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion… behold, thy King cometh unto thee… lowly, and riding upon an ass" (9:9); the thirty pieces of silver (11:12–13); "they shall look upon me whom they have pierced" (12:10); and "smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered" (13:7). From a vision of a flying scroll curved like a sickle he is surnamed the Sickle-seer. He is commemorated on February 8.

• St Sabbas II, Archbishop of Serbia (1271)

  Sava the Second (c. 1201 – 1271), born Predislav Nemanjić, was the third Archbishop of Serbia, a prince of the Nemanjić house who followed his great uncle Sava the First into the monastic and hierarchical life. He was a son of the Serbian king Stefan the First-Crowned and thus a nephew of Sava I, the founder of the Serbian Church whose name he took in religion. Renowned for the austerity of his ascetic life, he made the pilgrimage to the Holy Land, was consecrated bishop of Hum (Zahumlje), and about 1263 succeeded to the throne of the Serbian Church as archbishop, which he governed until his death in 1271. He is venerated in the Serbian Church as one of the line of holy first-hierarchs of the Nemanjić age, and is commemorated on February 8.

British Isles and Ireland

• St. Kegwe of Monmouthshire (6th C)
• St. Oncho of Clonmore, poet and pilgrim (600)
• St. Cuthman of Steyning, hermit (8th C)
• St. Elfleda, abbess of Whitby (714)
• SS. Jacut and Guethenoc (5th C)

Troparia & kontakia

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