Holy Empress Theodora was the wife of the Byzantine emperor Theophilus the Iconoclast (829-842), but she did not share in the heresy of her husband and secretly venerated the holy icons. After the death of her husband, Saint Theodora governed the realm because her son Michael was a minor.
She convened a Council, at which the Iconoclasts were anathematized, and the veneration of icons was reinstated. Saint Theodora established the annual celebration of this event, the Triumph of Orthodoxy, on the first Sunday of the Great Fast. Saint Theodora did much for Holy Church and fostered a firm devotion to Orthodoxy in her son Michael.
When Michael came of age, she was retired from governing and spent eight years in the monastery of Saint Euphrosynē, where she devoted herself to ascetic struggles, and reading books that nourished her soul.
A copy of the Gospels, copied in her own hand, is known to exist. She died peacefully around the year 867.
In 1460, her relics were given by the Turks to the people of Kerkyra (Corfu).
As for the renowned Empress Theodora, she was from Paphlagonia and was the daughter of a certain Marinus, the commander of a military regiment. While being the wife of the Emperor Theophilus, the last of the Iconoclasts, she adorned the royal diadem with her virtue and piety; as long as her husband Theophilus lived, she privately venerated icons, despite his displeasure. After his death, she restored the holy icons to public veneration; this is commemorated on the Sunday of Orthodoxy, the First Sunday of the Great Fast. She governed the Empire wisely for fifteen years, since her son Michael was not yet of age. But in 857 she forsook her royal power and entered a certain convent in Constantinople called Gastria, where she finished the course of her life in holiness and reposed in the Lord. Her sacred incorrupt remains are found in Corfu, in the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos of the Cave, in the capital city of the island (see also Dec. 12).
Theodora, a Greek empress, was the wife of the nefarious Emperor Theophilus the Iconoclast. After the death of Theophilus, Theodora became the ruling empress and reigned together with her son Michael III. At the Council in Constantinople in 842 A.D., she immediately restored the veneration of icons. On this occasion the Feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy was instituted, which is still celebrated today on the First Sunday of Great Lent. This holy and praiseworthy woman of the Church gave up her soul to God on February 11, 867 A.D. By the divine and wonderful providence of God, it was at the time of the solemn triumph of Orthodoxy over all heresies that Saints Cyril and Methodius were sent as Christian missionaries to the Slavs.
