Theodore the Philosopher of Bolgar

Saint Theodore the Philosopher of Bolgar (called in the chronicle Theodore the Jerusalemite), martyr, was a Russian merchant killed in the city of Bolgar on 21 April 1323 because he argued publicly about the faith with Muslims. He is commemorated on 21 April (Old Style), in the Synaxis of the Saints of Kazan. The sources do not give the date of canonization.

Origin and trade

A short report of his martyrdom at Bolgar and of the building, as a result, of a church at Tver is found under the year 6831 (1323) in the Patriarchal or Nikon Chronicle. He is known to have been a rich merchant, who traded in the towns of the Volga. The nickname "the Jerusalemite" suggests that he came from the Holy Land or from Byzantium; "the Philosopher" shows a very learned man, a zealous Christian, a good knower of Scripture.

Martyrdom

On 21 April 1323 Theodore, in Bolgar, probably on business, entered into open debate about the faith with the Muslims there. Unable to convince him, they killed him. The chronicle says that in the same year, in the Bolgars on the Volga and Kama, a Christian from Jerusalem, a guest, a man of much wealth who had studied much philosophy, named Theodore, was tortured; he argued with them about the faith, and they, not bearing the insult, tortured him for the Orthodox faith, on 21 April. According to one view, the killing was a result of the persecution of Christians begun by the khan of the Golden Horde, Uzbek, who had accepted Islam and was establishing it as the state religion. The historian N. S. Borisov supposed that Theodore did this knowingly.

Veneration

In the same year 1323, at Tver, the abbot John of Constantinople (by all signs also from Byzantium) commemorated the martyrdom by building a stone church dedicated to Saint Theodore. According to one view, Theodore himself lived at Tver and began the building of the church in honour of his saint, finished by John. The Theodorovsky monastery, of which John was abbot, was on an island at the mouth of the river Tmaka into the Volga, under the walls of the Tver kremlin. Two Greek manuscripts made at this monastery survive, one of 1317 to 1318 in the Vatican Library.

The grave

In 2010, in excavations at the Bolgar site, a burial unique in the region was found: the man had been placed in the grave seated, with the head at the feet, with a massive bronze cross in his hands. The skeleton was judged to be of a man of 35 to 45, 158 to 163 cm tall, of European type with Mediterranean features, close to southern European populations (Armenians, inhabitants of medieval Chersonesos). According to one supposition these remains may belong to the martyr Theodore, since there is no report that his body was taken and buried at Tver. The forensic expert Nail Rakhmatullin made a sculptural reconstruction of the head of the presumed martyr, kept in the Bolgar museum-⁠reserve. This is only a hypothesis.