Eikon

Theodoretus of Antioch

The Holy Hieromartyr Theodoretus, Presbyter of Antioch

Hieromartyr · Priest · d. c. 362, at Antioch

Commemorated 3 March — Beheaded at Antioch under Julian the Apostate, 8 March — Also kept on this day in part of the Greek tradition

Theodoretus (†c. 362) — Theodoret the Presbyter — was a priest of the church of Antioch and keeper of its sacred vessels, martyred under Julian the Apostate. When Julian's uncle, also named Julian, Count of the East, came to Antioch to seize and plunder the treasures of the Christian churches and shut their doors, the priest Theodoret refused to abandon his flock, gathering and strengthening the faithful in secret. Arrested and brought before the Count, he confessed Christ boldly, denounced the emperor's apostasy, and endured the rack, the tearing of his flesh, and burning torches without flinching, foretelling the wretched deaths that soon overtook both the Count and the emperor. He was beheaded about the year 362. An Antiochian martyr of the last pagan persecution, he is commemorated on March 3.

A presbyter of Antioch

Theodoret was a presbyter of the great church of Antioch — the "Golden Church," the octagonal cathedral built by Constantine, mother-church of the see that Peter, Ignatius the God-bearer and Eustathius had governed before him. To his care were entrusted, the tradition says, the sacred vessels and treasures of the church: he was its sacristan and steward, and a pastor much loved by the people of Antioch. His martyrdom fell in the brief but bitter reaction against the Church under the emperor Julian (361–363), the nephew of Constantine who forsook his baptism and strove to restore the worship of the old gods — the emperor the Church remembers as the Apostate. Antioch, where Julian took up residence in 362 for his Persian campaign, felt the weight of his hostility keenly, and it is there that Theodoret's passion is set.

The plundering of the churches

The instrument of the persecution at Antioch was the emperor's uncle, also called Julian — Julian, Count of the East (comes Orientis), a renegade from the faith who outdid his nephew in zeal against the Christians. Commissioned to lay hands on the wealth of the churches, he had the great church of Antioch closed and its treasures seized, and set about the sacred vessels with open contempt. In this desolation Theodoret, refusing to flee or fall silent, went on gathering the faithful, baptising, and confirming them in the faith, that the flock might not be scattered while its shepherds were struck. Such defiance could not long escape the Count's notice, and Theodoret was arrested and brought before him.

Interrogation and martyrdom

Count Julian tried the priest first with reasoning and threats, urging him to turn to the gods and share in the emperor's favour, and demanding an account of the church's treasures. Theodoret answered with a fearless confession of Christ, rebuked the apostasy of the emperor and his uncle as a betrayal of the God who had raised their house, and declared that the true treasure of the Church — the faith and the souls of the faithful — was beyond the reach of their plundering. Enraged, the Count gave him over to torture: he was stretched upon the rack, his sides torn with iron hooks, and his body seared with burning torches. Through it all Theodoret prayed and gave thanks, and — the passion relates — even some of the soldiers set to torment him were moved to believe. He prophesied the swift and shameful deaths that would fall upon his persecutors: and indeed the Count Julian died soon after, the accounts say, of a loathsome and rotting disease, and the emperor himself fell in Persia in the summer of 363. Theodoret was condemned and beheaded, giving up his soul to God about the year 362, a martyr of Antioch in the last flaring of the old paganism.

Feast and commemoration

Theodoretus is commemorated on March 3 (church date; New Calendar civil March 3, Old Calendar civil March 16) in the Greek synaxaria, which name him Θεοδώρητος ὁ Ἱερομάρτυς, πρεσβύτερος Ἀντιοχείας — Theodoretus the Hieromartyr, presbyter of Antioch. His is a commemoration of particular weight in the Antiochian tradition, as one of the martyrs of that see, standing in the succession of its confessor-bishops and priests. Where March 3 falls within Great Lent, his office is kept with the Triodion.

Hymns

Troparion — Tone 4

Your martyr Theodoretus, O Lord, in his contest received from you, our God, the crown of incorruption; for, armed with your strength, he cast down the persecutors and shattered the powerless insolence of the demons. By his supplications, O Christ God, save our souls.

Original translation from the Greek

Kontakion — Tone 2

Guarding the treasure of the true faith, O wise Theodoretus, you counted the wealth of the world as nothing; and when the apostate stretched out his hand against the Church, you were revealed a fearless priest and martyr, laying down your head for Christ. Wherefore we honour your holy memory.

Original translation from the Greek

Iconography

Theodoretus is depicted as a priest-martyr: vested as a presbyter in the phelonion and epitrachelion, of middle age with a dark or greying beard, holding the Gospel or a cross, and often the martyr's cross of confession. Narrative scenes of his passion show him before the Count amid the seized vessels of the church, and his beheading. No storable pre-modern image of him has been identified — the Menologion of Basil II, first resort for minor saints, covers only September to February and so has no March miniature — and the entry is noted as wanting an icon.

Disputed questions

Presbyter, not bishop. The primary Greek tradition and the synaxaria style Theodoretus a presbyter (πρεσβύτερος) of Antioch — a priest and keeper of the church's treasures — and this entry follows that witness. Some later and secondary notices (including certain English calendars and OrthodoxWiki) call him "Bishop of Antioch," but no such Theodoret appears in the episcopal lists of the see for the reign of Julian, when Antioch was governed by Meletius (in exile) and the rival claimants of the Antiochene schism; the office of martyrdom knows him as a priest.

Not to be confused with Theodoret of Cyrrhus. This martyr-priest of Antioch (†c. 362) is an entirely different person from Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrrhus (Theodoretos of Cyrus, c. 393 – c. 458), the great theologian, exegete and Church historian of the following century, a leading figure of the Antiochene school and of the Christological controversies around the Council of Chalcedon. The bishop-historian of Cyrrhus was not martyred and is a distinct figure; the shared name and the common Antiochene setting make the confusion easy, and it should be guarded against.

Sources

  1. Synaxarion of Constantinople and the Greek Menaion, March 3 — the notice of Theodoretus the Hieromartyr, presbyter of Antioch, keeper of the sacred vessels, martyred under Julian the Apostate (the day's list and title verified live against the Greek synaxaristis at saint.gr; the Slavonic reckoning of March 16 at azbyka.ru).
  2. The account of Julian the Apostate at Antioch and the plundering of the churches by his uncle Julian, Count of the East — the historians Sozomen (Ecclesiastical History v.8) and Theodoret of Cyrrhus (Ecclesiastical History iii.11–12), who record the seizure of the Antioch church treasures and the punishment of those who profaned the sacred vessels; the framework within which the martyrdom is set.
  3. Butler and the Western martyrologies, which enter "Theodoretus, priest of Antioch, martyr" under this day (Roman Martyrology, October 23; the Byzantine calendar keeps him March 3) — cross-checking of the date and office.