Theodore

Saint Theodore, martyr, was a boyar of Chernigov and close comrade of Prince Michael Vsevolodovich, with whom he died a martyr in the Golden Horde, in the city of Sarai, in 1244 (according to a Ukrainian source, 1246), because he refused to bow to pagan gods. He is venerated in the Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox Churches. He is commemorated on 20 September and 14 February.

Life

Theodore was a boyar of Chernigov. At the invasion of Batu, after the devastation of Kiev and Chernigov, the khan's officials took a census of the people and imposed tribute. Arriving at Chernigov, they proposed to Prince Michael Vsevolodovich that he go to the Horde to submit to Batu and receive permission from him to rule his land. Seeing help nowhere, Michael had to accept the proposal and set out for the Horde with his close comrade, the boyar Theodore.

In the Golden Horde they had long sought an opportunity to kill Prince Michael, since they knew he had tried to persuade the king of Hungary and other princes to rise against the Tatars. When he arrived he was told to pass through a fire of pyres before the khan's tent, to cleanse himself of all evil thoughts against Batu, and to bow to pagan gods, with the promise of peaceful rule of the land for this. The holy Prince Michael and the boyar Theodore refused: a Christian bows only to God, Creator of the world, not to a creature; we are ready to bow to the sovereign, since God has entrusted to him the fate of earthly kingdoms.

Prince Michael Vsevolodovich was killed in Sarai on 20 September 1244, and the Tatars began to persuade the boyar Theodore to renounce Christ, offering him various honours and even the principality. Theodore answered that he wanted no principality and would not bow to their gods, but wished to suffer for Christ, like his prince. Then he was tortured and beheaded.

Relics and veneration

The bodies of the martyrs were thrown to the dogs, but God preserved them until the Christians took them to Chernigov. On 14 February 1572 the bodies of Saints Michael and Theodore were taken to Moscow, where they were placed in the church of Saints Michael and Theodore of Chernigov, then in the Presentation Cathedral and finally, on 21 November 1774, in the Archangel Cathedral, where they are kept. According to the Ukrainian source, they were canonized soon after the relics were brought to Chernigov. Theodore is a character in Vasily Narezhny's story Michael.