Venerable Martyr
Righteous Theodora of Vasta (Arcadia)
IX век (датировка спорна — источники называют период от III до XII века)
Venerable Martyr Theodora of Vasta — a locally venerated Greek saint who lived disguised as a monk in a men's monastery and was unjustly executed on a false accusation.
According to Greek tradition, St. Theodora of Vasta (of Arcadia) lived in the borderlands of Arcadia and Messenia in the Peloponnese, though sources disagree widely on her dating, ranging from the 3rd to the 12th century (9th century is most commonly cited). Concealing her sex, she entered a men's monastery near the village of Vasta as the monk Theodore, serving with such patience and humility that she earned the brotherhood's respect. During a famine she was entrusted with the monastery's external affairs. A woman falsely accused the monk Theodore of fathering her child; rather than reveal her identity and shame the monastery, the saint silently accepted an unjust death sentence and was beheaded. Only afterward did her executioners discover she was a woman. Before dying, tradition says she prayed: "Let my body become a church, my hair a forest, my blood a river." A chapel built on the site miraculously grew seventeen rootless oak trees on its roof and walls — a wonder still venerated today. Her feast is kept in the Greek Church on September 11; she is not part of the general Russian menologion.