Venerable Confessor Theoctistus (Theostiriktos) of Pelekete

Venerable Confessor Theoctistus (Theostiriktos) was born in the early 8th century in the Bithynian city of Triglia and from his youth took monastic vows at the Pelekete Monastery, dedicated to the Apostle John the Theologian — not to be confused with the nearby but separate Medikion Monastery, with which this figure is often mistakenly identified in Russian-language sources (including azbyka.ru itself, whose article title contains the error "of Medikion," though the vita's own text correctly names the Pelekete community). In time he became abbot of the Pelekete Monastery. During the intensified persecution of icon venerators under Emperor Constantine V Copronymus, the general Michael Lachanodrakon, tradition holds, ravaged the monastery during the Divine Liturgy on Holy Thursday around 763; Theoctistus was tortured (accounts vary — his nose was cut off, or he was scalded with boiling tar) and imprisoned in Constantinople together with St. Stephen the New and about 350 other confessors. After the persecution ended he returned to the devastated monastery and restored it. He is also known as a hymnographer — author of the supplicatory canon to the Most Holy Theotokos "Beset by Many Afflictions," still read at Small Compline. He died in advanced old age. His memory is kept on February 28/29 (O.S.)/March 13 (N.S.), and in Greek tradition also March 17.