Theodota of Nicaea

Holy Martyr Theodota of Nicaea (called in the sources also Theodotia) died as a martyr around the year 304. She was a young widow from Thessalonica, who helped the Holy Great Martyr Anastasia the Deliverer from Bonds in her pious works. Accused before the Emperor Diocletian, she was begged from the emperor by the dignitary Leucadius, but she refused marriage and renunciation of Christ. Sent to Nicaea, she was tortured by the proconsul Nicetius together with her children and burned in a furnace for faith in Christ.

The story of Anastasia, in whose circle Theodota is commemorated, says that Anastasia, born in Rome in the family of the senator Praetextatus, served the Christians in the prisons after she had been left without a husband, and that in Macedonia she met the young Christian widow Theodotia, who helped her in her works. It also says that Theodotia and her three sons were put to death for Christ in their native city of Nicaea by the anthypatos Nicetius. Anastasia was arrested, condemned to be drowned on a ship that nevertheless reached the shore, steered by Theodotia, and finally died stretched over a fire.

Theodota is commemorated on 4 January and 11 August (new style).