Theodora: Name Day and Patron Saint

St Theodora came from a family of Paphlagonia long settled in Constantinople, and her mother Theoktista raised her in Orthodox piety. Around 830 she was chosen as the wife of the emperor Theophilos, who persecuted those who honored the holy icons. Theodora did not share his error. She kept icons hidden in her room and venerated them in secret, quietly helped the confessors who were exiled and persecuted, and used patience and gentleness to soften her husband’s harshness. When Theophilos died in 842, their son Michael was still a small child, and Theodora governed in his name. She restored the veneration of icons and called the exiled confessors home. In 843 a council made Methodios the Confessor patriarch, upheld the Seventh Ecumenical Council and condemned the iconoclasts. On the first Sunday of Great Lent the people walked through the city with the icons and the confessors, and the Church still keeps that day every year as the Triumph of Orthodoxy, the Sunday of Orthodoxy. Theodora also raised her son in the faith and governed with skill. Later Michael, turned against her by her brother Bardas, removed her from power and sent her and her daughters to a convent. There she gave herself to fasting, prayer and the reading of Scripture, and a Gospel book copied by her own hand is said to survive. She died in peace in 867. Her relics were later taken to Corfu, where they are venerated in the cathedral. The Church remembers her on 11 February (24 February on the Old Calendar).

What the faithful pray for

• faithfulness to Christ in a hostile household
• wives whose husbands do not share their faith
• mothers raising children in the faith
• those who govern and carry heavy responsibility
• love for the holy icons and the Orthodox faith
• patience and gentleness in trials