Description
St. Theodore was born in a most pious family in Constantinople in a.d. 759, and was well educated, especially in Orthodox Christian theology. By the influence of his uncle Platon, who had been a monk in Bythnia since the year of Theodore’s birth, the entire family decided to take monastic vows. Theodore’s mother, Theoktiste, who was the sister of Platon, made their family estate a monastery called Sakkudion, with Platon as its head.
In a.d. 794, St. Theodore became the acting head of this monastery. St. Theodore was steeped in the active theological experience of deep monastic fasting, prayers, and interior life, from which he learned practical theology as well as the theoretical theology of his earlier education. With this deep knowledge he was able to well discern the events and issues around him. He condemned innovations, irregularities, and the new wave of Iconoclastic persecutions by Emperors, Patriarchs, and clergy, and was persecuted for it. He refounded the Studion Monastery in a.d. 798 near Constantinople from where he wrote profusely, including monastic regulations, poems, and theology. He died in a.d. 826.