Theodore of Alexandria

Saint Theodore of Alexandria, hieromartyr, is commemorated on 12 September. The Greek and Slavonic synaxaria call him bishop of Alexandria and say that he received the crown of martyrdom in his own city for preaching Christ. The time in which he lived is not known.

According to the synaxarion, Theodore proclaimed the Gospel with great boldness, and this roused the hatred of the pagans of Alexandria. They seized him while he was preaching, set a crown of thorns on his head, struck him in the face and led him in chains through the streets of the city, mocking him. The Slavonic Prologues add that they threw him from a rock into the sea, but the waves carried him back unharmed to the shore.

Brought then before the governor of the city, he was severely tortured, yet he did not deny his faith and spoke nothing but prayers to the Lord. By the governor's order he was beheaded with the sword, and his body was buried in Alexandria.

Some scholars doubt that he was a bishop. The Greek hagiographer Sophronios Eustratiades held that he was called bishop by mistake and was simply a devout Christian, and in the list of the patriarchs of Alexandria the first Theodore appears only at the beginning of the seventh century. The Orthodox Church in America likewise describes him as a simple Christian. He should not be confused with Saint Theodore, the seventh-⁠century bishop of Alexandria, who is commemorated on 3 December.