New Martyr Theodore of Dardanelles

[Rick of Wessex]

Dear friends,

This week we'll celebrate the memory of the Holy New Martyr Theodore of Dardanelles. I heard about him from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese site.

Unfortunately, the site does not bring any information about him besides his feast day being on August 2nd. I couldn't find anything in English on the internet about him either.

Perhaps some of our Greek-speaking friends could help me? I just would like to find out some basic facts: when he died, how, etc.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Rick

 

[Rick of Wessex]

Bump

 

[Unified in Christ]

Dear friends,

This week we'll celebrate the memory of the Holy New Martyr Theodore of Dardanelles. I heard about him from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese site.

Unfortunately, the site does not bring any information about him besides his feast day being on August 2nd. I couldn't find anything in English on the internet about him either.

Perhaps some of our Greek-speaking friends could help me? I just would like to find out some basic facts: when he died, how, etc.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Rick

You probably have in mind St. neomartyr Theodore the Byzantine don't you?
http://www.aegean.gr/culturaltec/mhtropoli/images/agioi/neomartyr1.jpg
Theodore was born (Neochorion-1774) & bred Constantinopolitan. In his adolescent age he studied the art of painting & later he worked for three years in the Sultan's palace (Top-Kapi). In his 20s, he left the Holy Orthodox Church & became a muslim. Some time later he repented bitterly & left Constantinople for the island of Chios where he met with St. Nektarios Notaras the former Archbishop of Corinth, one of the Kollyvades fathers of mount Athos (NOTE: Kollyvades were called the hagiorite fathers who practiced hesychasm & regarded science as God's work and as an offering for the improvement of life). Theodore followed St. Nektarios & bacame a monk at the Holy Monastery of St.Peter. During the years of his repentance he decided that the best way to erase the mark of sin, was to declare publicly he was an Orthodox Christian & to accept the consequent martyrdom. He departed for the island of Lesvos, he appeared before the Ottoman Court & he declared his faith in Jesus Christ. He was arrested by the Ottomans & he was hung (February 17th 1795) immediately after he was put to inhumane torture. His body remained hung to the gallows for three days. Then, fifty or so Greeks took him & buried him in the entrance or the narthex of Panagia Chrysomallousa (gold-hair) Church. Three years later, when the people of Lesvos opened his grave, his remains were intact. They decided then to move & re-bury his holy relics in a crypt inside the Cathedral of Lesvos, untill 1832. The Ottomans were troubled of the rumors that St.Theodore worked miracles & anxiously tried to find his relics. A tradition says that the Christians on the island, carried in secrecy his holy relics from house to house, constantly, to save him from the Ottoman wrath. In 1832, the Black Death spread on the island & its islanders, both Christians & Muslims were forced to leave their homes & inhabit the surounding hills. The St. appeared then before the Protosyngelos Kallinikos (the later Metropolitan of Mytilene & Ecumenical Patriarch) & told him that the epidemic will stop after a vigil & a procession of his relics. The vigil & the procession took place the following night. All the islanders were present. The plague epidemic ended miraculously. Afterwards, St. Theodore the Byzantine procclaimed the patron saint of Mytilene & even the Ottomans expressed their reverence, allowing his holy relics to be exposed freely inside the cathedral where they rest today.
Source: Holy Diocese of Mytilene

 

[Vasya Davidovich]

Cool.

 

[Rick of Wessex]

Thank you so much!

Rick