Theodore of Constantinople

Holy Martyr Theodore of Constantinople (of Nicomedia) suffered together with the Holy Martyrs Urban, Medimnus and seventy-⁠seven men of the clerical order, at Nicomedia, in the time of the Arian emperor Valens (364 to 378 or 379). In his time the Arians drove the Orthodox bishop Evagrius out of the Church of Constantinople, and Christians who would not join their heresy were shut in prisons and mocked.

In despair, the Orthodox Christians decided to ask the emperor for protection and sent him an embassy of eighty men chosen from the clergy, led by the holy Urban, Theodore and Medimnus. Hearing their just complaints, the emperor was enraged, but hid his anger, secretly summoned the eparch Modestus and ordered him to kill the envoys. Modestus put them on a ship, after spreading a false rumour that all were going into exile, and ordered the sailors to set the ship on fire in the open sea. The ship was set alight and, wrapped in flames, drifted on the sea for a time. At last, reaching a place called Dakizis, it burned to the ground together with the holy martyrs on board, in the year 370.

Theodore is commemorated on 18 September (new style). Their story was also written down by Saint Demetrius of Rostov.