Skip to main content
There's a Saint for That! Search

St. Theodore the Studite

Feast 11-11

Patron of

About

Saint Theodore the Studite was a Byzantine Greek monk and the great abbot of the Stoudios Monastery in Constantinople. He played a major role in the revival both of Byzantine monasticism and of classical literary genres, restoring discipline to ancient foundations and shaping the liturgical life of the Eastern Church for centuries.

He is remembered as a zealous opponent of iconoclasm, a conflict that set him at odds with emperor and patriarch. For his defense of the holy images he suffered exile, prison, and flogging, yet never ceased to write and to encourage his monks. He corresponded with many figures of the Byzantine Empire, including the composer and nun Kassia. He died in 826, leaving letters, catecheses, and hymns that remain a treasure of Byzantine spirituality.

monks, monk, monastic, monasticism, monastic life, monasteries, religious brothers, cloistered monks, monastic orders, monks life, brothers, persecution, persecuted, oppressed, religious persecution, martyrdom, suffering for faith, harassment, scholars, scholar, scholarship, academics, academic research, learned, intellectuals, researchers, professors, academic study, learned persons, poets, poetry, poem, verse, poems, poets and writers, bards, lyricists, rhyme, verse makers

Suggested prayer

O God, who gave Saint Theodore the Studite the courage to defend Your holy images in the face of imperial power, grant through his intercession that monks and all the faithful may preserve the traditions of Your Church with steadfast love. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Sources

Other saints to pray to

For monks

For persecution