SAINT THEODORE, OF CYTHERA, GREECE, FULL BODY 9077Home » Shop » Icons » SAINT THEODORE, OF CYTHERA, GREECE, FULL BODY 9077

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The Monastery of Ayios  Theodoros lies within a verdant area between the villages of Logothetianika, Aroniadika and Pitsinades.  It is the place where Ayios Theodoros, the island’s patron saint, lived as a monk in the10th century AD.  Ayios Theodoros was from Koroni and came from Monemvasia to the island to live ascetically. He was raised and educated in Nafplion, where he got married and had two children.  His great desire to become a monk led him first to Rome and then to Monemvasia. From there he came to Kythera around 921 AD and lived in the ancient church of Agioi Sergios and Bakchos.  He died in 922 AD, his relic was found by Monemvasian sailors a few years later.

According to Caracher: “St Theodore was one of a number of Byzantine Saints who were privileged to know the day of his death. In fact, when soldiers found him, he was lying next to a potsherd, a quintessentially mundane object, inscribed with the text, “I. Theodore, humble deacon, laid down in sickness on April 7th, and I died on the 12th of May, on the day of the Holy Epiphany. Here time has truly collapsed, as an ordinary object made manifest that an ordinary man at the very hour of his death gained a glimpse of the divine mind, in which time does not exist.”

The Monastery was built in his honour at the place of his burial during the period Georgios Pachis from Monemvasia was the governor of Kythera.  The Bishop of Kythera, Athanasios Valerianos, renovated the temple around 1630. He added a bell tower over the main entrance and built in a shield with an inscription indicating his name.

Feast Day: 12th May