Hierarch Theotimus I of Tomis

St. Theotimus I of Tomis (Theotimos of Tomi) was bishop of the city of Tomi (present-day Constanța, Romania) in Scythia Minor at the turn of the fourth and fifth centuries. Little is known of his early life; he is thought to have been formed within the circle of Scythian desert monasticism centered near Tomi, the same milieu that later produced St. John Cassian. Blessed Jerome, who knew him personally, praised Theotimus as a learned theologian and gifted writer, crediting him with treatises "On the Teaching of the Savior," "Against the Idolaters," and commentaries on Genesis and the Gospels, most of which have not survived. He became renowned above all as a missionary bishop: he traveled repeatedly into the territory of the neighboring Huns, and through gentleness, prayer, and fearless charity softened the temper of that fierce people, winning many converts. The historian Sozomen records that a Hunnic chieftain, astonished by his holiness, called him "the god of the Romans." He reposed around 410.