On Saturday of the First week of Great Lent, March 7, 2020, the Patriarchate of Jerusalem celebrated the commemoration of the Holy Hieromartyr Polykarp Bishop of Smyrna according to the immobile feasts of the Minaion, and the commemoration of the boiled wheat miracle of the Holy Great Martyr Theodore the Tyro, according to the mobile feasts of the Triodion.
On this feast, the Church stresses especially due to the Great Lent, the miracle of the Holy Great Martyr Theodore the Tyro. He was a newly recruited soldier when he martyred for Christ during the reign of Maximianus and Maximinus in 297, and he appeared to Archbishop Eudoxius of Constantinople in a vision and urged him to inform the faithful Christians, not to eat the available food in the market, because Julian the Offender was going to contaminate it with idolatrous food which was a sin for the Christians. Instead, they should eat boiled wheat, explaining what kind of food that was in his hometown, Euhaita. When the Christians were informed, they ate the boiled wheat and did not contaminate themselves with the idolatrous sinful food.
The Patriarchate celebrated this miracle at the Holy Monastery of Saints Theodoroi, on the west side of the Patriarchate, with Vespers in the afternoon and the Divine Liturgy in the morning, led by Archbishop Theophanes of Gerassa, with the co-celebration of Hagiotaphite Hieromonks with first in rank Dragouman Archimandrite Mattheos, and the participation of monks, nuns and faithful Christians from Jerusalem as well as pilgrims.
During the Divine Liturgy, Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem visited the Monastery for veneration.
The Patriarchal and Episcopal entourages were offered a reception at the hegoumeneion and the congregation at the courtyard of the Church by the good keeper of the Monastery and Typikon Keeper of the Church of Saints Constantine and Helen, Archimandrite Alexios.
Source: Patriarchate of Jerusalem
