Bretanion

Holy Hierarch Bretanion (Vetranion) was bishop of Tomis in Lesser Scythia in the second half of the fourth century, and he openly opposed the Arian emperor Valens.

Lesser Scythia stretched from the mouths of the Danube toward Thrace, and its episcopal see was at Tomis (today Constanța). Its bishops were Scythians. The church historian Sozomen tells of Bretanion. When Emperor Valens (364-378) came to Tomis, he urged him in church to enter into communion with the Arians. Bretanion boldly answered that he held the teaching of the holy Fathers of Nicaea and, to avoid further dispute, went into another church of the city. All the people followed him, and in the emptied church only the emperor and his retinue remained. For this boldness Valens sent him into exile, but, frightened by the murmuring of the people, he soon brought him back. The Scythians loved their shepherd and spoke of him as a good and holy man. The historian Theodoret writes that he shone with every virtue and that, full of zeal, he rebuked the heretics for corrupting the dogmas.

Bretanion probably died soon after his rebuke of Valens. Of his successor Gerontius it is known that he was at the Second Ecumenical Council in 381, and after him Saint Theotimus took the see. Theotimus was already known in 392 to Blessed Jerome as a writer and bishop, wrote treatises on the teaching of the Savior, against idols and on fasting, preached also to the Huns, and the power of his miracles led the pagans to call him the "Roman god". He reposed about the year 412.

Saint Bretanion is commemorated on 3 May, in the new style, together with Theotimus.