Saint Theodora the Empress (815–867)

The woman who ended iconoclasm

For more than a century the Byzantine Empire had been torn by the quarrel of the images: two waves of imperial persecution (730–787, then 815–843) saw icons broken, burned and whitewashed, and their defenders martyred. The council of Nicaea II (787) had defined the Catholic doctrine of the veneration of images, but Emperor Leo V had relaunched the persecution in 815. It was Theodora who in 843 closed this wound for good: since then, iconoclasm has never returned to power at Byzantium. Where saints such as John of Damascus, Theodore the Studite and Nikephoros of Constantinople had defended the images by their teaching and their blood, it was a woman, an empress, who gave them back to the Church in peace.

A holiness of the palace

Theodora did not flee the world to sanctify herself: she lived her faith at the summit of power, married to the man who persecuted her dearest belief. Her holiness is that of a wife, a mother of a large family, a stateswoman. She shows that one can be a saint without leaving court, marriage or political responsibility — provided one never betrays one's conscience, even before an all-powerful husband.

The saint of conjugal mercy

The detail that made the whole Christian East love Theodora is her fidelity to her husband beyond the grave. Theophilos had died an iconoclast, therefore — in the eyes of the canon law of the time — under condemnation. Theodora refused to restore the icons until the Church had prayed for him and obtained his pardon. She loved God without disowning the man who had made her suffer. This obstinate intercession for the salvation of a persecutor makes her a figure of mercy and of hope for salvation.

A family faithful to the images

Theodora was born about 815 at Ebissa, in the theme of Paphlagonia, on the northern coast of Asia Minor^[2]. Her father, Marinos, was a droungarios — a senior officer of the imperial army; her mother was named Theoktiste. She had two brothers who would play a great part in the history of the empire, Bardas and Petronas, and several sisters^[3]. Above all, it was an iconophile family: the holy images were venerated there, and help was given to Christians persecuted for their fidelity to the icons^[4]. Theodora thus grew up in a house where people prayed before images of Christ and the Virgin at a time when the State forbade this worship. This faith received in childhood would be the matrix of her whole life.

The bride-show of 830 and the marriage to Theophilos

In 830 the young emperor Theophilos, unmarried, son of Michael II, was seeking a wife. According to a Byzantine custom, his stepmother Euphrosyne organised a bride-show: the most beautiful maidens of the empire were gathered, and the sovereign chose his bride by handing her a golden apple^[5][6]. A famous scene, handed down by the chroniclers, pits Theophilos against the noble and brilliant Kassia, the future hymnographer. Struck by her beauty but wanting to test her wit, Theophilos threw at her, thinking of Eve: “Through a woman came the worst things”; Kassia instantly retorted, thinking of the Virgin Mary: “And through a woman came the better things”^[7]. Disconcerted by such boldness, the emperor walked on and handed the golden apple to Theodora, the more discreet one. The marriage was celebrated on 5 June 830, and Theodora was crowned empress (Augusta)^[8].

The couple would have several children: an elder son, Constantine, associated with the throne but dead in infancy; the future emperor Michael III, born in 840; and several daughters — Thekla, Anna, Anastasia, Pulcheria and Maria^[9][10]. But this union also sealed a drama of conscience: Theophilos was the most zealous of the iconoclast emperors, and Theodora the wife faithful to the images.

The hidden faith: the “pretty dolls” and Denderis the fool

Theophilos made the war against images a matter of State. He forbade the veneration of icons at the palace and kept his own children away from their grandmother, who showed them icons^[11]. But Theodora kept and venerated icons in secret, hidden in her apartments. The synaxarial tradition reports an anecdote that has remained famous: one day the court fool, a dwarf named Denderis, surprised the empress kissing her icons. Questioned, she wittily answered that they were her “pretty dolls”. When Denderis reported the scene to the emperor — “mummy has pretty dolls” — Theodora skilfully deflected suspicion, claiming the fool had seen her reflection in a mirror^[12]. Beneath the pleasantry, the episode tells a grave truth: for years Theodora lived her faith in conjugal clandestinity, faithful to Christ without ceasing to be a loyal wife.

“They are not dolls, but the holy images I venerate.” — from the tradition reported by the Synaxarion, on Empress Theodora's hidden faith^[13]

A saint's gentleness against a persecutor's harshness

The hagiographical sources stress Theodora's temperament: gentle, patient, devout, she softened her husband's rigour as much as she could. The French martyrology notice sums it up: “She was a good wife and a good sovereign, tempering by her gentleness and patience the cruelty of Theophilos, her imperial husband”^[14]. Without ever opposing the emperor head-on — which would have been useless and dangerous — she interceded, protected, mitigated. It is a holiness of the inside, made of daily fidelity rather than brilliance, in the manner of Saint Monica praying for years for the conversion of her own.

The death of Theophilos and the regency

Theophilos died of dysentery on 20 January 842^[15]. His heir, Michael III, was only two years old. Theodora became regent of the empire, surrounded by a council including her brothers Bardas and Petronas and above all the powerful eunuch minister Theoktistos, logothete of the course^[16]. Here she was at the head of the greatest Christian State in the world — and free, at last, to act according to her faith.

“The first task Theodora set herself was the restoration of the worship of the images.” — Synaxarion of Saint Theodora^[17]

The synod of 843: Methodios patriarch, Nicaea II confirmed

Theodora acted with prudence and firmness. She had the iconoclast patriarch, John VII the Grammarian, deposed, replacing him with a confessor of the faith, the monk Methodios (Methodios I of Constantinople), who had suffered for the images^[18]. (This Patriarch Methodios I must not be confused with Saint Methodius, the apostle of the Slavs, his contemporary.) Convened at the beginning of 843, a synod at Constantinople solemnly confirmed the decisions of the council of Nicaea II (787): the veneration of the holy images was restored as the Church's doctrine, and iconoclasm was condemned anew^[19]. The century of the quarrel of the images was coming to an end.

The Triumph of Orthodoxy (11 March 843)

The restoration was sealed by a great celebration. On Saturday 10 March 843 an all-night vigil gathered the clergy of Constantinople at the palace of Blachernae. The next day, Sunday 11 March 843 — the first Sunday of Great Lent — Empress Theodora and the young emperor Michael III, accompanied by Patriarch Methodios, monks, priests and confessors come from all over the empire (some still bearing the scars of the persecution), processed through the city and celebrated the divine liturgy at Hagia Sophia^[20][21]. That day the “Triumph of Orthodoxy” was proclaimed: the victory of the true faith over the iconoclast heresy.

Theodora did not stop at an event: she instituted a perpetual feast. The first Sunday of Lent became the Sunday of Orthodoxy, still celebrated today throughout the Byzantine world, with the reading of the Synodikon of Orthodoxy and the procession of the icons^[22]. The following table sums up the saint's liturgical memory:

The condition laid down by Theodora

Here Theodora's figure goes beyond politics and reaches sanctity. Her husband Theophilos had died an iconoclast, therefore — under the Church law of the time — liable to anathema like the other persecutors. Yet Theodora refused to restore the icons until the Church had prayed for her husband and obtained God's pardon for him. She obtained from Patriarch Methodios and the clergy that Theophilos' name should not appear among the anathematised heretics, and that the whole Church should supplicate for the rest of his soul^[26]. Where others would have triumphed by condemning the dead persecutor, Theodora first demanded mercy for him.

The story of the pardon (the synaxarial tradition)

Orthodox tradition has surrounded this pardon with a famous story. According to the synaxarion, the whole Church fasted and prayed for a week for Theophilos. A parchment bearing the names of the iconoclast emperors, including Theophilos', was laid on the altar of Hagia Sophia; at the end of the supplication, Patriarch Methodios is said to have found that Theophilos' name had miraculously disappeared from it, a sign of his pardon. The same tradition reports that, on his deathbed, terrified by the fear of judgement, Theophilos seized and kissed an icon (the enkolpion of one of his kin), confessing the true faith before breathing his last, and that a great peace came over him^[27][28].

“Coming to himself for a moment after a terrifying vision, Theophilos embraced the holy icon and confessed the true faith before giving up his soul to God.” — Synaxarion of Saint Theodora, story of Theophilos' pardon^[29]

Historians note that this story of Theophilos' repentance is debated: some sources regard it as a pious tradition meant to legitimise the reversal of 843, while other contemporary sources hold that he died in heresy^[30]. The Eastern Church has nevertheless received it as the expression of a deeper spiritual truth: pardon is possible until the last breath, and the prayer of the saints can reach the most hardened soul.

A spirituality of intercession and mercy

Whatever the share of history and legend in these details, the spiritual heart of the episode is certain and constantly attested: Theodora wanted to save her persecutor's soul before celebrating her own victory. Her faith is not revenge but intercession. In this she joins the great Catholic tradition of prayer for the dead and of hope for salvation: no one is to be despaired of; we pray even for those who have done us harm. Her sanctity thus unites firmness in the truth (restoring the images at all costs) with the tenderness of mercy (not abandoning a sinner's soul to condemnation).

Removal by Bardas and Michael III

Theodora's government was otherwise firm and prosperous: she stabilised the finances, defended the frontiers and sought to bring dissident groups back to the Church. But as Michael III grew up, his uncle Bardas, Theodora's brother, detached him from his mother in order to govern in her place. On 20 November 855 the faithful minister Theoktistos, the regent's support, was murdered in the palace by the conspirators^[31]. On 15 March 856 a commission of the Senate proclaimed Michael III sole emperor, ending Theodora's regency^[32]. The saint who had given the images back to the Church was thus driven from power by her own son.

The nun of Gastria

After resistance, Theodora was forced to leave the palace and withdraw to the monastery of Ta Gastria at Constantinople, where she took the veil^[33]. The woman who had reigned over the greatest Christian empire ended her days as a nun, in prayer, asceticism and destitution. This last stage is not a failure but the completion of her sanctity: the empress restored to the humblest condition, having given everything and lost everything — except the faith.

Death and incorruption

Theodora died about 867, on 11 February according to the monastery registers, and was buried at Gastria alongside several of her daughters and her brother Petronas^[34]. Tradition reports that her body remained incorrupt^[35][36]. Venerated very early as a saint for having restored the veneration of the icons, she entered the calendar of the Eastern Church.

Veneration, feast and Synodikon

Saint Theodora is honoured by the Orthodox Church as the restorer of the holy images, on 11 February^[37][38]. But her most radiant memorial remains the Sunday of Orthodoxy, which she instituted: every first Sunday of Lent, the Byzantine world proclaims the victory of the faith over iconoclasm and reads the Synodikon of Orthodoxy, which acclaims the defenders of the images — including Theodora herself^[39]. Belonging to the undivided Church before the schism of 1054, she is part of the common heritage of Eastern and Western Christians.

The relics of Corfu

After the fall of Constantinople, her relics were sheltered in the West. In 1456 the monk Gregory (George) Kalochairétis transferred them — together with those of Saint Spyridon of Trimythous — to the island of Corfu, then a Venetian possession^[40]. They are kept today in the metropolitan cathedral of the Panagia Spiliotissa (the Virgin “of the cave”), where Saint Theodora is honoured as secondary patron of the island (the titular patron being Saint Spyridon). Every Sunday of Orthodoxy her relics are carried in procession through Corfu^[41].

Saint Theodora speaks to our time in several ways. She shows first that one can sanctify a life of power, marriage and family without yielding on what matters: she did not wait to be free to love God; she loved Him under constraint, under the gaze of a hostile husband. She teaches next that patient fidelity bears fruit in the end: for years she prayed in secret, and it was she, in the end, whom God chose to give the images back to His Church.

She is finally the saint of mercy: she would not have her victory without pardon for the one who had persecuted her. For all those who pray for the conversion or salvation of a hardened loved one — a husband, a child, a parent far from God — her intercession is a model and a support. Her life says that no one must be despaired of, and that true love always seeks, to the very end, the salvation of the other.

“No soul is to be despaired of: a wife's prayer can follow her husband to the threshold of eternity.” — in the spirit of Saint Theodora's testimony, interceding for Theophilos' salvation^[42]

• The Iconoclastic Controversy — the century-long Byzantine crisis which Theodora ended in 843.
• The Theology of the Icon — the Catholic doctrine of the veneration of images, restored by the synod of 843.
• The Second Council of Nicaea (787) — the ecumenical council whose decisions Theodora had confirmed.
• Saint Theodore the Studite (759–826) — the great resisting monk of the second iconoclasm, dead shortly before the triumph Theodora consecrated.
• Saint John of Damascus (675–749) — the Greek Father who had laid the doctrinal foundations for the defence of the icons.
• Saint Nikephoros of Constantinople (c. 758–828) — the confessor patriarch, deposed by the iconoclasts, whose cause Theodora vindicated.
• Saint Monica (332–387) — the other great holy wife and mother, model of persevering prayer for the salvation of her own.