Theodore the Ascetic

Venerable Theodore the Ascetic lived in the tenth century and struggled in the island of Kythira, hence his name Theodore of Kythira. The Orthodox Church commemorates him on 12 May.

The sources say he was from Koroni, and according to others from Constantinople. He was raised at Nafplion, where he was ordained deacon by the bishop of Argos, Theodore. In the time of the emperor Romanos I Lekapenos he went to the island of Kythira, where he received the monastic tonsure and practiced asceticism in the church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus. There he spent the rest of his life.

Today in that region there is a church in his honor, and on the day of his death a yearly festival is held. The Chronicle of Chilas, of 1457, speaks of the monastery of Venerable Theodore of Kythira.