Martyr
Theodore Krateros
One of the 42 Martyrs of Amorium
Martyr of Amorium, taken captive and put to death by the Saracens in 845 with his forty-one companions.
- Reposed
- 8459th century
- Order
- Martyrs
Life
Saint Theodore Krateros (the Strong), martyr, was a Byzantine eunuch, protospatharios and strategos in the ninth century, and one of the forty-two Martyrs of Amorium. The Orthodox Church commemorates him on 6 March. He died, according to tradition, in 845.
Theodore was strategos of the theme of the Bucellarians and lived and suffered in the time of the emperor Theophilus. At that time the Arabs, under the caliph al-Mutasim, had invaded the Byzantine Empire and were advancing on Amorium. The emperor sent him with an army to defend the city.
After the fall of Amorium, Theodore was taken prisoner, imprisoned and then executed, because he refused to change his faith. He is named as the leader of the forty-two who were put to death.