THEODORE OF ALEXANDRIA

The Church is a community of interpreters. The life of Saint Theodore, a martyr of pagan persecution in Alexandria, contains no indication of the possible date of his death. This opens up an excellent opportunity for a thoughtful interpretation of the surviving details of his suffering.

1 On September 25, the day of the Leavetaking of the Nativity of the Theotokos, the Church celebrates the memory of the holy martyr Theodore of Alexandria. The saint preached the word of God during the period of pagan persecution, when Egypt was part of the Roman Empire. His preaching provoked the wrath of the pagan crowd. Saint Theodore was seized. Apparently, sensing by the power of grace that the time for his martyrdom had come, he did not resist.

2 The Alexandrian pagans were often educated. Some of them were familiar with the Gospel accounts. It predetermined the nature of the saint’s suffering. The crowd attempted to re-enact upon him what befell Christ in the final days of His earthly life. Saint Theodore was beaten, then a crown of thorns was placed on his head, and they mocked and ridiculed him. Then, as if recalling that, according to the Gospel, the Jews tried to throw Jesus off a cliff (Luke 4:29), Theodore was taken to the precipice and pushed into the sea. But somehow, miraculously, he didn’t die, and the waves washed him ashore. Thus, the pagans had a pretext to hand the sufferer over to the authorities, since, in their view, this supernatural rescue was clearly a manifestation of magic, punishable by law. By order of the governor, Saint Theodore was beheaded for refusing to renounce Christ.

3 The Menologion calls the saint “Bishop of Alexandria.” However, lists of all the bishops of Alexandria, called diptychs according to church tradition, beginning with the Apostle Mark, have survived, and they do not list a bishop by that name. Apparently, the martyr’s preaching possessed such persuasive power and converted so many people to Christ that it not only provoked an outburst of intense anger among the pagans, but also suddenly convinced them that before them stood not just any Christian, but a true bishop. One cannot help but recall the words of the great teacher of asceticism and spiritual life, Ignatius Brianchaninov (1807–1867), that the true episcopacy of an Orthodox Christian is not a matter of hierarchical rank, but of moral dignity and impeccability of life.

4 The Church of Alexandria was the primate Church throughout the Orthodox East until the Fourth Ecumenical Council in Chalcedon (451), which, contrary to the rules and tradition of the Ancient Church, “transferred” this primacy to Constantinople. The Lord miraculously protected the Alexandrian bishops from pagan murderers during the first three centuries of Church history. The first and last bishop of Alexandria to suffer for Christ was Bishop Peter, killed during the Great Persecution in 311 and therefore called the “seal of the martyrs.” “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for another” (John 15:13), says the Lord in the Gospel. It is quite possible that Saint Theodore, whom the pagans mistook for the bishop of Alexandria and killed, thus saved one of the “real” Alexandrian bishops from certain death.