Monday, November 12, 2012

St. Theodore the Studite

Some of you know me by the name "Ted", but only a few of you know that this is a nickname.  My given name is Theodore, after a Grandfather.  And so this kicked over my giggle box as I was cruising through Wikipedia:
Theodore the Studite (also known as Theodorus Studita, St. Theodore of Stoudios, and St. Theodore of Studium; 759–826) was a Byzantine Greek monk and abbot of the Stoudios monastery in Constantinople.[1] Theodore's letter[2] containing suggested monastery reform rules is the first recorded stand against slavery.[3] He played a major role in the revivals both of Byzantine monasticism and of classical literary genres in Byzantium. He is known as a zealous opponent of iconoclasm, one of several conflicts that set him at odds with both emperor and patriarch.
I must confess that I'm a bit of an iconoclast myself.  Studly. 

5 comments:

Chas S. Clifton said...

If the saint is an opponent of iconoclasm, that makes him an iconodule (servant of icons).

And you?

Bob said...

Some of the early saints were peculiar. You had St. Simeon Stylites, who lived on top of a pole (there were a lot of stylites, actually); St. John the Dwarf, one of the Desert Fathers; St. Expeditus, the patron against procrastination.

Joel said...

That's a badass beard for a monk. But I guess a Studite would need one.

Borepatch said...

Chas, I seem to spend my life as an iconoclast.

Bob, yeah, but Studite is awesomeissimo.

Joel, I think I need a more bad-ass beard.

kishnevi said...

Actually, Studite and Stoudium are forms of the word that became our study/student/etc. And student of several things you certainly are.

If you want to link yourself to a studly saint, try St. Theodore of Amasea, who, although the Venetians dumped in favor of St. Mark, is one of the most photographed saints in the world, And he was a soldier too, and in legend killed a dragon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:St_Theodore_on_column_Piazzetta_Venice.jpg