Theodotus of Cyrenia
The Holy Hieromartyr Theodotus, Bishop of Cyrenia
Hieromartyr · Bishop · b. Galatia, in Asia Minor — d. c. 320/326, at Cyrenia in Cyprus
Commemorated 2 March — Principal commemoration of the confessor-bishop
Theodotus (†c. 320/326) was Bishop of Cyrenia (Kyrenia) in Cyprus and a confessor of the faith under the emperor Licinius. A native of Galatia in Asia Minor, he governed the church of Cyrenia and preached Christ openly, summoning the pagans to abandon their idols. Arrested and brought before the provincial governor, he endured prolonged and savage tortures without yielding, confessing Christ throughout. When Constantine's victory brought peace to the Church and the prisoners of the faith were released, Theodotus returned to his see and shepherded his flock a while longer before reposing in peace. Though he died of natural causes, the Church numbers him among the hieromartyrs for the sufferings he bore in confession. He is commemorated on March 2.
Origins and episcopate
Theodotus was, the tradition holds, a native of Galatia in Asia Minor who came to the island of Cyprus and was made bishop of Cyrenia — the ancient city on the northern coast (modern Kyrenia / Girne). He proved a zealous pastor and an open preacher of the Gospel, not content to guard his own flock but labouring to turn the pagans of the island from the worship of idols to the true God. His boldness in a time of danger marked him out.
Confession under Licinius
The persecution that overtook him was that of Licinius (reigned 308–324), who, after his breach with Constantine, renewed the harrying of Christians in the Eastern provinces he governed. Theodotus did not wait to be sought out: he preached Christ openly, reproaching the idols and calling the people to conversion, and so drew upon himself the attention of the authorities. He was seized and brought before the governor of Cyprus, who first sought to move him by persuasion and then, when the bishop stood firm, by torment.
The passion records a succession of cruelties borne without yielding: he was scourged, his body torn, and — the account has it — his feet pierced with iron nails and his flesh raked, the governor pressing him at each stage to sacrifice and Theodotus answering each with a fresh confession of Christ. Through it all he neither denied the faith nor ceased to exhort those who looked on, so that his constancy under torture became itself a preaching. He was then cast into prison, his martyrdom, to all appearance, only deferred.
Release and repose
Deliverance came not by death but by the turn of the Empire. When Constantine overcame Licinius (324) and the persecution ceased — the peace of the Church now secured — the confessors held in the prisons of the East were set free. Theodotus, released from his bonds, returned to Cyrenia and to the government of his church, which he shepherded for a further span of years. He reposed in peace about the year 320/326 (the sources vary on the exact year), worn by the sufferings he had borne. Because he had confessed Christ under torture and lived out his days as one marked for martyrdom, the Church honours him with the hieromartyrs, though his repose was not itself a violent death — a confessor-bishop reckoned among the martyred hierarchs for the witness of his wounds.
Feast and commemoration
Theodotus is kept on March 2 (church date; Old Calendar civil March 15), where the Slavic calendars and the Orthodox Church in America lead the day with him, styling him hieromartyr and bishop of Cyrenia; the Greek Menaion keeps him on the same day alongside Hesychius the Senator. March 2 falls within Great Lent; the commemoration is therefore observed with the Lenten office and the hymns of the Triodion, without a proper Liturgy on the weekdays of the Fast, so that no fixed Epistle and Gospel are appointed for the day.
Cyprus keeps the memory of Theodotus among its own hierarch-confessors of the age of Constantine, alongside the other Cypriot fathers of the early fourth century — Spyridon of Trimythous foremost among them — who witnessed to the faith in the last persecutions and lived to see its triumph.
Not to be confused with the several other saints named Theodotus of the calendar — in particular Theodotus, Bishop of Ancyra, the martyr of the Diocletianic persecution kept in May/June, and Theodotus the Innkeeper of Ancyra (May 18): a different Theodotus of a different city. This Theodotus is the bishop of Cyrenia in Cyprus, the confessor under Licinius.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 4
A sharer in the way of life of the Apostles and a successor to their thrones, O God-inspired one, thou didst find in the practice of virtue thine ascent to divine contemplation; therefore, rightly dividing the word of truth, thou didst do battle for the faith even to the shedding of thy blood, O Hieromartyr Theodotus. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
No early identity-verified image of Theodotus of Cyrenia is known to this repository. He is depicted in the settled type of a hierarch-martyr: an episcopal figure vested in phelonion and omophorion, bearing the Gospel-book, and marked as a martyr by the cross in his hand; the narrative scenes proper to him are those of his interrogation and torture before the governor. The absence of a stored image is noted; the entry is written without an icon: block.