Theodotus and Theodota of Caesarea
The Holy Martyrs Theodotus and Theodota, who suffered at Caesarea in Cappadocia
Martyr · d. c. 108, at Caesarea in Cappadocia
Commemorated 4 July — Martyrdom under Trajan for refusing to sacrifice
Theodotus and Theodota are two martyrs of Caesarea in Cappadocia who suffered under the emperor Trajan — the calendars give the year as 108 — for refusing to offer sacrifice to the idols. Nothing beyond this is transmitted: no passion survives, no relationship between the two is stated, and no manner of death is recorded. They stand in the synaxarion for July 4, immediately after the Cappadocian chamberlain-martyr Hyacinth, whose commemoration falls on July 3 and with whom the Greek lists associate them.
What is transmitted
The notice is of the shortest kind the synaxarion contains: two names, a city, an emperor, and a refusal. Theodotus (Θεόδοτος) and Theodota (Θεοδότη) — the masculine and feminine of one name, "God-given" — were Christians of Caesarea of Cappadocia, the metropolis of the province, and were brought before the authorities in the persecution under Trajan (98–117). Commanded to sacrifice to the idols, they refused, confessed Christ, and were put to death. The year 108 is the figure carried by the Slavonic and Greek calendars.
Their connection with the martyr Hyacinth the chamberlain — a Cappadocian of Caesarea and a servant of Trajan's own household, who was starved to death in prison at Rome about the same year and is commemorated on July 3 — is asserted by the calendars rather than by any narrative: the Greek lists that name Theodotus and Theodota describe them as suffering "with Saint Hyacinth at Caesarea in Cappadocia." Whether that means they were arrested in the same round-up, or only that the synaxarion has gathered the Cappadocian martyrs of Trajan's reign onto adjacent days, cannot now be determined.
Feast and commemoration
July 4 (church date; New Calendar civil July 4, Old Calendar civil July 17). They are named in the synaxarion of the day, which is dominated by Andrew of Crete; no proper office is appointed, and the common of martyrs is used. The Orthodox Church in America keeps them as "Martyr Theodotus and Theodotia."
Hymns
Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of martyrs)
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from thee our God; for possessed of thy might, they cast down the tyrants and broke in pieces the feeble insolence of the demons. By their prayers, O Christ God, save our souls.
Iconography
They are painted in the plain martyrs' type — Theodotus as a young or middle-aged man in tunic and cloak, Theodota as a woman in maphorion — each holding the cross of martyrdom in the right hand, the emblem that in Byzantine painting says "martyr" and nothing more particular. No instrument of death is transmitted, so none is shown. They appear only in the menologion rows for July, where they are identified by inscription alone.
No pre-1900 image inscribed for this pair has been located for this collection; the abundance of saints of both names makes any uninscribed candidate unusable, and the Menologion of Basil II covers only September to February and offers nothing for July.
Disputed questions
- Nothing is known of their relationship. The pairing of a masculine and feminine form of the same name has led some retellings to make them brother and sister, or husband and wife; no source says so, and the inference is not made here.
- The spelling Theodotia. English calendars print Theodotia as often as Theodota; the Greek is Θεοδότη, and both are the same name.
- Not to be confused with the many other martyrs of these names, in particular Theodota of Nicaea (July 29) and her children, Theodotus of Ancyra (May 18 and June 7), and Theodota the mother of the Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian of Asia (January 2). The Cappadocian pair have no cultus outside this day.
- Century. A death about 108 places them in the second century, and the entry indexes accordingly; the year is a calendar tradition rather than a documented date.