Today’s Feast: Via Kollyvo miracle of Agios Theodore of Tironos
Julian the transgressor, knowing that Christians are cleansed by fasting in the first week of holy Lent – that’s why we call it clean week – wanted to defile them. So he secretly ordered all the food in the market to be sprinkled with the blood of pagan sacrifices.
But with Divine energy, the martyr Theodoros appeared in the sleep of the then Archbishop of Constantinople Eudoxios and revealed the matter. He ordered that all the Christians be informed, not to buy any food from the market and to replace the food to boil wheat and eat the so-called kolyva, as they called them in Euchaita. Thus it happened and the purpose of the pagan emperor was thwarted. And on the Sabbath then, the pious people who had preserved themselves undefiled in the clean week, gave thanks to the martyr.
Since then, around the middle of the 4th century, the Church commemorates this event every year to the glory of God and the honor of the martyr Saint Theodore of Tyrone.
You can read more regarding Saint Theodore of Tiron on February 17.
Saint Theodore of Tirone came from the village of Amasia on the Black Sea, called Humiala, and lived during the times of the emperors Maximian (286 – 305 AD), Galerius (305 – 311 AD) and Maximinus (305 – 312 AD). It is called Tiron, because it was classified in the army of the Tirons, i.e. the recruits, commanded by the prefect Vrygas.
He was presented to the prefect as a Christian and summoned for examination. There he confessed his faith in Christ without hesitation. The commander Vrigas did not want to proceed with the arrest and punishment of Agios Theodoros, but left him to think and answer him a little later. He believed that Theodore would change and sacrifice to idols. The Great Martyr not only remained steadfast in his faith, but he also burned the temple of the mother of the gods Rhea following her idol. Immediately then he was arrested and thrown by the pagans into a red-hot furnace, where he was martyred.
The Synaxis of the Holy Great Martyr Theodore of Tiron was held at his most holy Martyrdom, which was located in the area of Foraki or Sforaki, on Saturday of the 1st week of Lent, i.e. the day on which the Saint performed the miracle of the collyves, saving the Orthodox people from the mingled idols, which he was ignorantly regarding to eat.
In the Hagiography, Saint Theodore of Tirone appears in four kinds of forms. Either alone in military uniform, or facing a serpent-dragon and together with Saint Theodore the Soldier standing or on horseback. He always wears a military uniform.
Source: ekklisiaonline.gr
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