AMONG those holy martyrs whom the Greeks honor with the title of
Megalomartyrs, (_i.e._ great martyrs,) as St. George, St. Pantaleon,
&c., four are {378} distinguished by them above the rest as principal
patrons, namely, St. Theodorus of Heraclea, surnamed Stratilates,
(_i.e._ general of the army,) St. Theodorus of Amasea, surnamed Tyro,
St. Procopius, and St. Demetrius. The first was general of the forces of
Licinius, and governor of the country of the Mariandyni, who occupied
part of Bithynia, Pontus, and Paphlagonia, whose capital at that time
was Heraclea of Pontus, though originally a city of Greeks, being
founded by a colony from Megara. This was the place of our saint's
residence, and here he glorified God by martyrdom, being beheaded for
his faith by an order of the emperor Licinius, the 7th of February, on a
Saturday, in 319, as the Greek Menaea and Menologies all agree: for the
Greek Acts of his martyrdom, under the name of Augarus, are of no
authority. It appears from a Novella of the emperor Manuel Comnenus, and
from Balsamon's Scholia on the Nomocanon of Photius,[1] that the Greeks
kept as semi-festivals, that is, as holydays till noon, both the 7th of
February, which was the day of his martyrdom, and that of the
translation of his relics, the 8th of June, when they were conveyed soon
after his death, according to his own appointment, to Euchaia, or
Euchaitae, where was the burial-place of his ancestors, a day's journey
from Amasea, the capital of all Pontus. This town became so famous for
his shrine, that the name of Theodoropolis was given it; and out of
devotion to this saint, pilgrims resorted thither from all parts of the
east, as appears from the Spiritual Meadow,[2] Zonaras,[3] and
Cedrenus.[4] The two latter historians relate, that the emperor John I.,
surnamed Zemisces, about the year 970, ascribed a great victory which he
gained over the Saracens, to the patronage of this martyr: and in
thanksgiving rebuilt in a stately manner the church where his relics
were deposited at Euchaitae.[5] The republic of Venice has a singular
veneration for the memory of St. Theodorus of Heraclea, who, as Bernard
Justiniani proves,[6] was titular patron of the church of St. Mark in
that city, before the body of that evangelist was translated into it
from another part of the city. A famous statue of this St. Theodorus is
placed upon one of the two fine pillars which stand in the square of St.
Mark. The relics of this glorious martyr are honored in the magnificent
church of St. Saviour at Venice, whither they were brought by Mark
Dandolo in 1260, from Constantinople; James Dandolo having sent them to
that capital from Mesembria, an archiepiscopal maritime town in Romania,
or the coast of Thrace, when in 1256 he scoured the Euxine sea with a
fleet of galleys of the republic, as the Venetian historians inform
us.[7] See archbishop Falconius, Not. in Tabulis Cappon. and Jos.
Assemani in Calend. Univ. on the 8th and 17th of February, and the 8th
of June;[8] also Lubin. Not. in Martyr. Rom. p. 283, and the Greek
Synaxary.
Footnotes:
1. Tit. 7, c. 1, Thomassin, l. 1, c. 7, n. 3.
2. Prat. Spir. c. 180.
3. Zonar. 3, parte Annal.
4. Ced. in Joanne Zemisce Imp.
5. See Baronius in his notes on the Martyrology, (ad 9 Nov.,) who
justly censures those who confound this saint with St. Theodoras
Tyro, as Fabricius has since done. (t. 9, Bibl. Graecae, p. 147.) Yet
himself falsely places Tyro's shrine at Euchaitae, and ascribes to
him these pilgrimages and miracles which certainly belong to St.
Theodorus Stratilates, or of Heraclea.
6. De Rebus Venetis, l. 6.
7. Sansovin, l. 13, Hist. &c.
8. The modern Greeks have transferred his feast from the 7th to the
8th of February.