Saint Theodora the Empress (9th century)

Saint Theodora was empress of the Byzantine Empire  in the 9th century, as wife of the Emperor Theophilos. (Note that there is another "Saint Theodora the Empress"- the Emperor Justinian's wife, who lived in the 6th century). She is acclaimed for defeating the iconoclast heresy, which was very influential in her time. In fact, her husband, the Emperor Theophilos was an iconoclast.  Theophilos died at only 29, so Saint Theodora ruled the Byzantine empire as regent for their 2-year-old son until her came of age. The Byzantine empire flourished under her regency.

Every year on the first Sunday of Lent, Orthodox Christians  celebrate the "Sunday of Orthodoxy" to commemorate Saint Theodora's victory over the iconoclasts.

In this episode we discuss the iconoclast controversy, and read writings by the 7th ecumenical council, by Saint John Damascene, and by Saint Methodius I of Constantinople  about the vital role of icon veneration in Christianity. We also go through Saint Theodora's life (drawing heavily on the book,Byzantine Empresses: Women and Power in Byzantium AD 527-1204 by Lynda Garland) and reflect on her struggle against this iconoclast heresy. 

The Christian Saints Podcast is a joint production of Generative sounds & Paradosis Pavilion with oversight from Fr Symeon Kees

Paradosis Pavilion - https://youtube.com/@paradosispavilion9555

https://www.instagram.com/christiansaintspodcast
https://twitter.com/podcast_saints
https://www.facebook.com/christiansaintspodcast
https://www.threads.net/@christiansaintspodcast

Iconographic images used by kind permission of Nicholas Papas, who controls distribution rights of these images

Prints of all of Nick’s work can be found at Saint Demetrius Press - http://www.saintdemetriuspress.com

All music in these episodes is a production of Generative Sounds
https://generativesoundsjjm.bandcamp.com
Distribution rights of this episode & all music contained in it are controlled by Generative Sounds
Copyright 2021 - 2023

Transcript

God is glorious in his saints!
 
 Welcome to the Christian Saints Podcast. My name is Darren Ong, recording from Sepang in Malaysia. In this podcast, we explore the lives of the Christian saints, from the Anglican, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions. Today, we will celebrate Saint Theodora the empress, also known as Saint Theodora the Iconodule. To clear up some confusion, there are two saints called Saint Theodora the Empress. One lived in the 6th century, and was the wife of the Emperor Justinian. The other lived in the 9th century, and was the wife of the Emperor Theophilos. We will be talking about the second one, who is also know as Saint Theodora the Iconodule. “Iconodule” is a Greek word meaning “venerator of icons”. Sometimes the word “Iconophile” lover of icons is used instead,.
 
 Icons refer to images of Jesus Christ and various saints that Christians venerate, a practice that has its roots in the oldest Christian traditions. Icon veneration reflects the reality of Christian incarnation, that Jesus Christ came to earth fully human and human divine. So whereas in the old testament God could not be depicted, with the incarnation of Christ, God had a human face that could be made into an image. Of course, Christians do not worship these icons. We say that we venerate them instead, and Christian theologians are always careful to distinguish between the worship of God and the veneration of icons.
 
 Saint Theodora was Empress of the Byzantine empire, at a time when the Iconoclast heresy was very powerful. The Iconoclasts believed that Christians should not venerate icons. The leaders of the Christian church gathered in the 7th Ecunemical Council in 787 in the city of Nicaea, affirming that icon veneration was proper, and thus declaring iconoclasm a heresy. Here is a statement from that council:
 
 ***
 
 "As the sacred and life-giving cross is everywhere set up as a symbol, so also should the images of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, the holy angels, as well as those of the saints and other pious and holy men be embodied in the manufacture of sacred vessels, tapestries, vestments, etc., and exhibited on the walls of churches, in the homes, and in all conspicuous places, by the roadside and everywhere, to be revered by all who might see them. For the more they are contemplated, the more they move to fervent memory of their prototypes. Therefore, it is proper to accord to them a fervent and reverent veneration, not, however, the veritable adoration which, according to our faith, belongs to the Divine Being alone – for the honor accorded to the image passes over to its prototype, and whoever venerate the image venerate in it the reality of what is there represented.
 
***
 
St John of Damascus was one of the many theologians who wrote against the iconoclast heresy, and he explained that to venerate icon is to affirm that the material world was good. Thus to oppose icon venerations invites the false teaching of dualism, the idea that the material world is evil and the spiritual world is good. Here is a sample of his writings defending the use of icons:
 
I honor all matter, and venerate it. Through it, filled, as it were, with a divine power and grace, my salvation has come to me. Was the three-times happy and blessed wood of the Cross not matter? Was the sacred and holy mountain of Calvary not matter? What of the life-giving rock, the Holy Tomb, the source of our resurrection — was it not matter? Is the holy book of the Gospels not matter? Is the blessed table which gives us the Bread of Life not matter? Are the gold and silver, out of which crosses and altar-plate and chalices are made not matter? And before all these things, is not the body and blood of our Lord matter? Either stop venerating all these things, or submit to the tradition of the Church in the venerating of images, honoring God and his friends, and following in this the grace of the Holy Spirit. Do not despise matter, for it is not despicable. Nothing that God has made is. Only that which does not come from God is despicable — our own invention, the spontaneous decision to disregard the law of human nature, i.e., sin.
 
Nevertheless, the iconoclasts became very powerful in the Byzantine empire in the 8th and 9th centuries. Several of the Emperors were iconoclasts. One of the reason this heresy gained traction was the growing influence of Islam. The Arabs were ascendant in this time period, often winning battles against the Byzantines. Islam strictly prohibits the use of images, which makes sense for their theology. They don’t believe that God came in the form of a man, and so it would be impossible to depict him. But this theology started to influence Christians in the Byzantine empire as well. The Muslims also exerted economic influence. They would refuse to use Byzantine coinage because they had images of Christ on them. And thus there were strong worldly reasons for the Byzantine Christians to abandon the Orthodox practice of icon veneration, and embrace the iconoclast heresy.
 
Curiously, while several Roman emperors fell for the iconoclast heresy, the women around them often did not, and firmly defended the veneration of icons. Saint Theodora was of course a foremost example, but we should also mention Saint Irene of Athens. Both her husband, Emperor Leo IV and her son, Emperor Constantine VI were iconoclasts, but she was a fervent defender of icons, and in fact the 7th ecunemical council affirming icon veneration was called when she was in charge of the empire, during a period of regency for her son. 
 
Lynda Garland’s book, Byzantine Empresses: Women and Power in Byzantium AD 527-1204 explores the vital role of women in defeating this iconoclast heresy. Here is an excerpt.
 
Women seem to have been particularly attached to the veneration of

icons, not merely because they were less likely to be able to read the

Scriptures, but because of the nature of their employments at home. 3 The

veneration of the Theotokos intensified in the empire in the late sixth and

early seventh century, and she was adopted as the especial protectress of

Constantinople. 4 This expansion of the cult of the Virgin was at least in part

the result of women’s devotion to the Mother of God, to whom Irene was to

dedicate her convent on the island of Prinkipo. The letters of Theodore the

Stoudite document a number of iconophile women during the second

iconoclast phase which commenced in 815, who remained loyal to the

veneration of icons, when their husbands or fellow monks apostatised; one

of his correspondents was Mary of Amnia. 5 Iconophilism is especially evident

among royal women: Theodosia, widow of Leo V, converted to orthodoxy,

and for this was exiled by Michael II, 6 and Irene, Mary of Amnia, Euphrosyne,

Theodora and (surprisingly) Irene, the first wife of Constantine V, are just

some examples of imperial women who were said to have been devoted to

icon worship. The first half of the ninth century is also a period when

female hymnographers briefly flourished—Kassia, Theodosia and Thekla. 7

Theodora, like Irene, was so highly regarded by later generations that

she was canonised by the church for restoring orthodoxy.
 
 ***

Saint Theodora was born in born in Ebissa in Paphlagonia, a region that is in Modern-day Turkey by the Black Sea. She was probably of Armenian origin and the daughter of an

army officer. In the Year 830, she was chosen to be the bride of the Emperor Theophilos.
 
 Theophilos was tutored under the Iconoclast priest John the Grammarian, and so became a fervent iconoclast. Nevertheless, it is believed that Theophilos’ mother Euphrosyne was an iconodule, and so made sure that he ended up marrying Theodora. 
 
 The marriage ended up producing two sons and many daughters. However, Theophilos’ persecution of the iconodules persisted, and increased in ferocity. Some accounts state that Saint Euthymius of Sardis, one of the prominent Christian leaders of the 7th Ecunemical council that condemned Iconoclasm, was imprisoned and tortured to death under Theophilos’ rule. In 833 Theophilos issued an edict ordering the arrest oficonophile clergy who would not bend to his will, and that anyone who sheltered them to have their property confiscated. In 838 Theophilos appointed his mentor, the iconoclast fanatic John the Grammarian as Patriarch of Constantinople. The empire fell further into the clutches of the heretics, and Theophilos ordered icons to be desecrated, destroyed and plastered over. Theophilos imprisoned a famous iconographer Lazaros, and on discovering that he was painting icons in prison, had his hands branded with red-hot plates.
 
 Nevertheless, throughout all this, his wife, Saint Theodora remained in the true Christian faith, and continued to venerate icons and teach her children to do the same. This naturally resulted in strains in their marriage. One account states that Theophilos fell into a rage when his youngest daughter, too innocent to recognize the danger, told him she kissed icons when visiting her grandma’s monastery. According to another account, Theodora herself was subject to her husband’s wrath. This quote is from Lynda Garland’s book:
 
 The story is also told that Theodora kept icons in her bedroom in

Theophilos’s lifetime: the emperor’s jester named Denderis was said to have

burst into Theodora’s bedchamber one day where he found her reverently

lifting icons to her eyes. Theodora explained that they were dolls whom she

loved dearly, but going to the emperor, who was at dinner, Denderis told him
 of the ‘pretty dolls’ he had seen ‘nurse’ (i.e. Theodora) taking out from a

cushion. Theophilos understood the allusion and sought out Theodora to

shout at her. Theodora, however, explained that she and her maids were

looking in a mirror and Denderis had mistaken their reflections. Denderis

when later asked by Theophilos if he had seen ‘nurse’ kissing any more dolls,

put one hand to his lips and the other to his behind and asked him not to

mention them again. 

Theophilos was also unfaithful, at one point conducting an affair with one of his wife’s attendants.
 
 However, Theophilos died in 842 at the age of only 29, having contracted dysentry. His successor was the two-year-old Michael, and so his mother Saint Theodora assumed control of the Empire as regent. She would be in power until 856, when her son turned 16. Aided by her trusted eunuch Theoktistos, Saint Theodora was a wise and capable ruler, and the Byzantine empire prospered when she was in charge. Theodora in 856 is said to have been able to show the senate 190,000 lb of gold and 300,000 lb of silver. Her regency was also successful militarily. Commanded by her eunuch Theoktistos, the Byzantine army won several battles against the Arabs, recapturing Christian lands lost to the Muslim invaders. 
 
 In 843, she called a council that deposed Patriarch John the Grammarian, replacing him with the iconodule St Methodius, who was a close spiritual advisor to Theodora. John the grammarian was exiled to monastery. When he told a servant to poke out the eyes in an icon there, St Theodora ordered that he be whipped with 200 lashes. Pious iconodule monks, priests and bishops exiled by her husband were returned to their posts, and icons and other religious images were restored in churches, monasteries, and other buildings throughout the empire. 
 
 Most prominently, on Chalke gate, the main entrance to the Great Palace of constantinople, Theodora built a full-length mosaic of Christ. Supposedly the artist she comissioned was Lazaros, the iconographer who was tortured by her husband. A twenty-nine-line epigram by the patriarch Methodios:

 Seeing Thy stainless image, O Christ, and Thy cross figured in

relief, I worship and reverence Thy true flesh. For, being the

Word of the Father, timeless by nature, Thou wast born, mortal

by nature and in time, to a mother. Hence in circumscribing and

portraying thee in images, I do not circumscribe Thy immaterial

nature—for that is above representation and vicissitude—but in

representing Thy vulnerable flesh, O Word, I pronounce Thee

uncircumscribable as God... Refuting their [the iconoclast

emperors’] lawless error, the empress Theodora, guardian of the

faith, with her scions arrayed in purple and gold, emulating the

pious among emperors, and shown to be the most pious of them

all, has re-erected it with righteous intent at this gate of the palace,

to her own glory, praise and fame, to the dignity of the entire

Church, to the full prosperity of the human race, to the fall of

malevolent enemies and barbarians. 
 ***
The iconoclast heresy would never again threaten the Byzantine Empire and the Eastern Orthodox church, although it would re-emerge in the West after the protestant reformation. To celebrate Theodora’s victory over the heretics, in the first Sunday of Lent Orthodox Christians commemorate the “Sunday of Orthodoxy”. Typically this celebration would include a procession where the faithful would march around the church, holding up their icons. Here are the troparion and kontakion for the Sunday of Orthodoxy: 
 
 
 Troparion — Tone 2

We venerate Your most pure image, O Good One, / and ask forgiveness of our transgressions, O Christ God. / Of Your own will You were pleased to ascend the Cross in the flesh / to deliver Your creatures from bondage to the enemy. / Therefore with thanksgiving we cry aloud to You: / You have filled all with joy, O our Savior, / by coming to save the world.

Kontakion — Tone 8

No one could describe the Word of the Father; / but when He took flesh from you, O Theotokos, He accepted to be described, / and restored the fallen image to its former state by uniting it to divine beauty. / We confess and proclaim our salvation in word and images.

***
 
While her spiritual legacy is forever assured, Theodora’s imperial legacy unfortunately ended with her son, Michael. Michael was a naive fool. He had an affair with Eudokia Ingerina, a woman at the imperial court. She was unacceptable to Theodora and Theoktistos, and so Michael was made to marry another woman instead. In revenge, Michael plotted to have the wise minister Theoktistos killed. The assassination of her closest advisor weakened Theodora’s power, and her son assumed full control of the empire as the Emperor Michael III
 
 Michael soon got outplayed in a tragic game of court intrigue. A peasant named Basil gained his favour, and quickly rose up the ranks of the Byzantine court, even marrying Michael’s mistress Eudokia Ingerina.. Saint Theodora warned her son of how dangerous the ambitious Basil was, but Michael ignored her. Basil’s influence grew to the point that Michael named him co-Emperor in 866. A year later, Basil betrayed him and had him killed, becoming sole Emperor of the Byzantine empire. Saint Theodora would pass away soon after. She was made a saint in the Orthodox church, commemorated on February the 11th
 
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Christian saints podcast. Look for the Christian Saints podcast page on Facebook or Instagram, or look for us on Twitter at podcast_saints. All music in this episode was composed by my good friend, James John Marks of Generative sounds. Please check out his music at https://generativesoundsjjm.bandcamp.com/

To end this episode, let us read the Troparion and Kontakion for Saint Theodora the Empress, which Orthodox Christians pray to commemorate her feast day on February 11.

 Apolytikion of Empress Theodora

As a right worthy namesake of gifts bestowed of God, and a divinely-wrought image of holy wisdom and faith, thou didst make the Church to shine with godly piety; for thou didst demonstrate to all that the Saints in every age have shown honor to the icons, O Theodora, thou righteous and fair adornment of the Orthodox.

Kontakion of Empress Theodora

We sing thy praises as the gem and fairness of the Church, and as a diadem and pattern of all Christian queens, O all-lauded and divinely-crowned Theodora; for in bringing back the icons to their rightful place, thou didst cast usurping heresy out of the Church. Hence, we cry to thee: Rejoice, O Sovereign most ven'rable.