Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/269

ST. THEODOTA MERETRIX 257 St. Theodosia (4). (See. Athanasia (1)0 St. Theodosia (5). (See Pelagia (8).) ^ St. Theodosia (6V Theodora (10). St. Theodosia (7). (<Scc Alexandra (•^)0 St. Theodosia (8), May 29, M. 720. When she was seven years old her father died and she went into one of the con- yen ts of Constantinople with her mother, who died there leaving all her subetanoe to Theodosia. She bonght three images of gold and silver, namely Christ, the Virgin Mary, and St. Anastasia ; all the rest of her money she gave to the poor. When the Emperor Leo the Isaorian sncceeded, he decreed the de- struction of holy images; he deposed Grermanns, the patriarch ; and ordered the image of the Lord which stood over the gate called ^nea, to be thrown down and burnt. When the soldier was going up the ladder with his axe for this impious purpose, Theodosia and several other holy women threw down the ladder, thereby causing his death. The others were beheaded, but Theodosia being the ringleader was more cruelly treated: after being scourged, she was dragged to the meat market, and there the execu- tioner seizing a ram's horn which hap- pened to be lying on the ground, threw her down and struck it with all his force into her neck, breaking some of the ver- tebrsB, and thus causing death. AA,SS. Rev. 8. Baring Gk)uld describes it as a riot : the women were pushed and driven by the soldiers into the shambles directly they had thrown down the ladder and killed the man, and there Theodosia was killed. St Theodota Cl), July 3, M. early 2nd century, with Theodotus. They reviled the Emperor Trajan and his gods, and were tortured and killed with a sword. AA.SS. Menology of Basil, St. Theodota (2). (See Anna (5).) St. Theodota (A Oct. 23, M. e. 230. A matron, of a noole Roman family in Cappadocia. The Menology of Basil says of Pontus. She was put to many tortures for the faith, and miraculously cured of her wounds, in prison, by an angel ; then cast into a furnace from which she VOL. II. escaped unhurt while the flames killed seventy soldiers. Simplicius, the pre- fect, took her with him in fetters to Byzantium, and thence to Ancyra. On the journey her bonds were miraculously loosed every day at the ninth hour, that she might perform her devotions ; when she had finished praying they were replaced. At Ancyra, Simplicius be- headed St. Socrates, a Christian priest, who had overthrown an altar of Apollo. Theodota was again put in a furnace. She requested that some heathen priests might come with her into the fire. Dorotheus, a priest of Apollo, said ho would follow her if she would go first. She did, and he, seeing her stand unhurt in the flames, followed and was burnt to death. Simplicius next took Theodota to Nice in Bithynia, where the people inclined to take her part and to believe her defended by the gods, when they saw how all attempts to hurt her were in vain. So Simplicius ordered her to be beheaded ; and she was buried by So- phronius, the bishop. She is commemo- rated with St. Socrates, and was wor- shipped at Constantinople in early times. AA.SS. St. Theodota (4), Dec. 22, Aug. 2. Time of Diocletian. Bom at Nice in Bithynia. Hearing of the fame of St. Anastasia (5), Theodota went with her sons and stayed with her some time. Leucadius, the prefect, proposed to marry her. She asked him to wait a little that she might attend to the saints. Meantime, she gave all her property to the poor. Diocletian hearing tiiat the prisons and racks would not contain all the Christians, ordered that the whole sect should be wiped out in one night : some by fire, some by water, the rest by the sword. Leucadius gave up Theodota and her sons to Nicetius, prefect of Bithynia, who had them all burnt. B,M, AA,SS. Baillet. St. Theodote (5), Theodora (10). St. Theodote (6). {See St. An- DBONA.) St. Theodota (7) Meretrix, Sept. 29, M. 318. The last great general persecution of the Christians was over, but local persecutions were raised at different times and places, and on various s