MARTYR THEODORET OF ANTIOCH

The great teacher of the Early Church and church historian Theodoret of Cyrrhus (393–457) was his parents’ only child. For a long time, they had suffered from childlessness. Therefore, they named their only son—who was born through the prayers of Syrian desert fathers—“Gift of God,” or Theodoret in Greek. One of the heavenly patrons of this blessed bishop of one of the important sees of the Syrian Church was the holy martyr Theodoret of Antioch, the apostolic capital of all Syrian Christians.

Very little biographical information about the holy martyr has survived. The highly authoritative ancient Church historian Sozomen (400–450) refers to him by the name Theodore, whereas one of the ancient martyrologies—that is, calendars listing the names of martyrs—calls him Theodulus. This should come as no surprise, since all three names—Theodore and Theodoret, meaning “Gift of God,” and Theodulus, meaning “Servant of God”—are similar in meaning or even synonymous.

Theodoret was a priest at the great church of Antioch, built through the efforts of Emperor Constantine the Great and his son Constantius II, and known as the “Golden Church.” When their successor, Julian the Apostate (361–363), was in Antioch and decided to seize the church’s treasures, Theodoret, whose duties included caring for the temple vessels, prevented him from doing so. For this, he was subjected to numerous tortures; his ribs were burned with flaming lamps.

“All the clergy fled. The only one who did not leave the city was the presbyter Theodore. He was the custodian of the sacred vessels. Since he could have revealed information about them, Julian ordered him to be seized and had him flogged mercilessly. When he finally saw that, despite all the torture, Theodore was standing firm and beginning to shine with the glory of a confessor of the faith, he ordered him to be put to death by the sword,” writes the historian Hermias Sozomen. Incidentally, the feast day of Saint Herms—the counterpart of Hermias, after whom he is named—is, by a remarkable coincidence, celebrated by the Church on the same day as the feast of the martyr Theodoret, that is, March 21, the eve of the Feast of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste.

The saint suffered a martyr’s death on March 3, 362. It is believed that it was Saint Theodoret, under the name of the martyr Theodore, who became the heavenly patron of the French city of Nîmes, an ancient Roman stronghold, where the city’s cathedral is dedicated to the martyr.

“Of Thy Mystical Supper, O Son of God, accept me today as a communicant. For I will not speak of Thy Mystery to Thine enemies", as stated in the main prayer before Holy Communion, in which the faithful boldly identify themselves with the Apostles at the Last Supper. The holy martyr Theodoret refused to hand over the sacred vessels used for the Eucharist to the apostate ruler. Julian was fascinated by magic, and it seems the Church’s treasures were needed by him not only for personal enrichment. Named after the “Gift of God,” the martyr did not betray to the pagans that which had once been consecrated to the One True God.