De sancto Theodoro
The Witness of Theodore
Theodore confesses his faith in Christ and defies the governor by destroying a pagan temple, leading to his imprisonment.
Theodore was martyred in the city of Marmanita under Diocletian and Maximian. When the governor told him to offer sacrifice and return to his former military service, Theodore replied, "I serve my God and His Son, Jesus Christ." The governor asked, "So, your God has a son?" Theodore answered, "He does." The governor asked, "Could we get to know him?" Theodore replied, "You certainly can know him and come to him." The saint was granted a reprieve to offer sacrifice, but that night he entered the temple of the Mother of the Gods, set it on fire, and burned it to the ground. After someone who had seen this accused him, he was locked in prison to starve to death.
Consolation in the Flame
While imprisoned and tortured, Theodore receives divine comfort and remains steadfast in his commitment to Christ until his death by fire.
The Lord appeared to him and said, "Take heart, my servant Theodore, for I am with you." Then a crowd of men in white robes came to him, the door being shut, and began to sing psalms with him. Seeing this, the guards were terrified and ran away. When he was brought out and invited to offer sacrifice, he said, "If you burn my flesh with fire and consume me with various tortures, as long as there is breath in my nostrils, I will not deny my God." Then, by the governor's order, he was hung on a wooden frame and his sides were scraped with iron claws so cruelly that even his ribs were laid bare. The governor asked him, "Theodore, do you want to be with us, or with your Christ?" He replied, "With my Christ I have been, I am, and I will be." Then he was ordered to be burned; in that fire he gave up his spirit, but his body remained unharmed by the flames, around the year of our Lord 287.1
The Heavenly Welcome
Upon his death, Theodore is greeted by a heavenly voice and witnesses the opening of the heavens.
Everyone was filled with a most sweet fragrance, and a voice was heard saying: "Come, my beloved, enter into the joy of your Lord."✦ Many also saw heaven opened.✦
Read the original Latin
Theodorus in urbe Marmanitanorum sub Dyocletiano et Maximiano martirium passus est. Cui cum praeses diceret, quod sacrificaret et pristinam militiam reciperet, respondit Theodorus: ego milito Deo meo et filio ejus Jesu Christo. Cui praeses: ergo Deus tuus filium habet? Cui Theodorus: etiam. Ad quem praeses: possemus eum cognoscere? Et Theodorus: eum utique potestis cognoscere et ad eum accedere. Datis igitur induciis sancto Theodoro, ut sacrificaret, templummatris Deorum noctu sanctus introivit et igne supposito totum illud succendit. Qui a quodam, qui hoc viderat, accusatus in carcerem, ut fame ibi moreretur, reclusus est.
Cui dominus apparens dixit: confide, serve mi Theodore, quia ego tecum sum. Tunc turba dealbatorum virorum clauso ostio al eum veniens cum eo psallere coepit. Quod videntes custodes territi fugerunt. Cum antem inde eductus fuisset et ad sacrificia invitaretur, ait: si carnes meas igne cremaveris et variis consumas suppliciis, donec fuerit spiritus in naribus meis, non denegabo Deum meum. Tunc ad praeceptum praesidis in ligno suspenditur et ungulis ferreis tam crudeliter latera ejus raduntur, ut etlam costae mudarentur. Ad quem praeses: vis, Theodore, nobiseum esse aut eum Christo tuo? Cui ille: cum Christo meo et fui et sum et ero. Tunc jussus est igne cremari, in quo quidem igne spiritum emisit, Sed tamen corpns ejus ab igne illaesum permansit cirea annos domini CCLXXXVIT.
Odore vero suavissimo omnes repleti sunt et audita est vox dicens: veni, dilecte mi, intra in gaudium domini tui. Coelum quoque apertum multi viderunt.
Scripture echoes
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin text contains a likely typo in the date 'CCLXXXVIT', which is rendered here as 287 based on standard hagiographical dating for St. Theodore.
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