St. Theodore the Studite

Theodore entered religious life in the community associated with his uncle Plato. He later became its abbot and, after a period of exile, brought his monks into the monastery of Studios at Constantinople. From this house he received the name by which he is commonly known. Its renewal made it an important centre of Byzantine monastic life.

His ministry repeatedly brought him into conflict with imperial power. He opposed the emperor Constantine VI’s dismissal of his lawful wife and later resisted the renewed campaign against sacred images under Leo V. Butler describes his punishment, imprisonment and continued correspondence from exile. His defence of the veneration of images belonged to the wider struggle over the confession of Christ and the Church’s worship.

Theodore also continued to instruct his monks. His final directions concerned prayer, common life, poverty and responsibility for souls. Butler ends by describing his last illness and death among his brethren, who prayed around him. The life’s position under November 22 in this edition differs from its own closing notice of the Latin commemoration on November 12, the date used here.