Saint Theodore the Tyro, Great Martyr
Great Martyr, recruit of the Roman army
- Feast day
- February 17
- Lived
- d. c. 306
- Patronage
- Soldiers, recruits, those in need of food
Saint Theodore the Tyro — 'the Recruit' — is commemorated on the first Saturday of Great Lent for the miracle of the kolyva, which saved the Christians of Constantinople from defiled food.
Life and martyrdom
A young recruit in the Roman legions at Amasea in Pontus, Theodore refused to sacrifice to the idols and set fire to the temple of the Mother of the Gods. He was scourged, imprisoned and burned alive around the year 306.
The miracle of the kolyva
Fifty years later, the Emperor Julian the Apostate ordered that all the food in the markets of Constantinople during the first week of Lent be secretly sprinkled with the blood of idol sacrifices, so that the fasting Christians would be defiled. Saint Theodore appeared to the Archbishop Eudoxius, warned him, and instructed the faithful to eat boiled wheat — kolyva — instead.
The Church keeps the memory on the first Saturday of Great Lent, when kolyva is blessed in every parish, and the same dish is offered for the departed throughout the year.