By Bishop Grigorios of Mesaoria
The Church celebrates the memory of the Holy Martyr Theodosia, who was born to Christian and wealthy parents in Constantinople, during the years of the emperor Theodosius III, from Adramyttium (716 AD).
After the death of her father, her mother prepared her through education and the life of the Church to complete her personality. Saint Theodosia zealously engaged herself to the absolute devotion to the will of God, with humility and daily exercise.
This path, of exercise and restraint, led her to a monastery, where she was tested and later was tonsured a nun.
When her mother also died, she distributed her large fortune to the poor, widows and orphans, and devoted herself with greater zeal to exercise and fasting at her monastery, which was located near the “Dark Well” and the so-called “Asparon Cistern”.
Ten years after her tonsure at the monastery, the relentless persecution of the supporters of the holy icons erupted. When the emperor’s envoys tried to cover the icon of Christ on the Bronze Gates in Constantinople, Theodosia, along with other women, demolished the aspiring iconoclasts from the ladder.
Immediately, all the other women were arrested and killed on the spot, whereas Theodosia was slaughtered by one of the executioners, giving her the heavenly kingdom.
Source: Church of Cyprus
