Venerable Theodore of Sykeon

Venerable Theodore of Sykeon was born in the middle of the 6th century in the village of Sykeon near the city of Anastasioupolis in Galatia (Asia Minor). His mother kept a wayside inn; from childhood he displayed extraordinary strictness of life, fasting from an early age, and as a boy was healed of a grave illness after praying at the tomb of the Great Martyr George. At fourteen he withdrew into a narrow cave, spending several years there in fasting and prayer. After ordination to the priesthood, he founded a monastery near his native village and became its abbot, becoming renowned for his gifts of clairvoyance, healing, and casting out demons; he foretold the future iconoclast heresy. Against his own will, at the insistence of clergy and people, he was made Bishop of Anastasioupolis, but, finding the episcopal ministry a distraction from stillness, after several years he obtained release from the see and returned to his monastery, where he labored until his death. His Life, composed by his disciple George, is one of the most celebrated works of Byzantine hagiography. He reposed on April 22, 613. Since his brief episcopate was an episode rather than the substance of his sanctity, the Church venerates him above all as an ascetic and wonderworker.