Saint Theodore

Theodore was a soldier, or rather a recruit: that’s why he is also called Theodore Tyro, from the Latin *tiro*, a newly enlisted soldier. He served in the Roman army at Amasea, in Pontus, in the north of present-day Turkey, at the beginning of the fourth century, in the years of the last great persecutions. When they asked him to sacrifice to the gods, he said no. They gave him a few days to think it over. Tradition says he used those days in a different way: he set fire to the temple of Cybele, the Mother of the Gods. They arrested him, tortured him and finally burned him alive, around 306. The oldest account of his story is a sermon that Gregory of Nyssa preached in his honor at the end of the fourth century. From there his cult spread across the whole Christian East, and then to the West. Venice had him as its first patron, before Saint Mark: he is San Todaro, the statue on top of one of the two columns in the Piazzetta. Brindisi, which keeps his relics, celebrates him on the first Sunday of September together with Saint Lawrence of Brindisi. Soldiers consider him their patron saint. In the West he is remembered on November 9, in the East on February 17. If your name is Theodore, today is your name day.