1774–1795
Having lapsed from the faith, he returned to Christ and was hanged by the Turkish authorities in 1795 for confessing Christianity.
The Holy New Martyr Theodore the Byzantine
Theodore the Byzantine was an Orthodox new martyr of the Ottoman period, born near Constantinople in 1774 and put to death on Mytilene (Lesvos) in 1795. He is commemorated on February 17.
His life follows the characteristic pattern of the new martyrs: a Christian who lapsed to Islam under the pressures of life in the Ottoman capital, repented, and then publicly reclaimed his confession of Christ before the authorities, accepting death as the price of that confession.
According to the synaxarion, Theodore was born in 1774 of pious parents in Neochorion, a village near Constantinople. He was trained as a painter and came to work in the palace of the Sultan, where, according to the tradition, he adopted Islam and lived for a time in a worldly manner.
An outbreak of plague in Constantinople is recorded as the occasion of his repentance. Recognizing the gravity of his apostasy, he resolved to return to the Church.
The accounts relate that Theodore fled the palace in disguise and was reconciled to the Church through anointing with Holy Myron. He then traveled to the island of Chios, where, by tradition, he placed himself under the spiritual direction of St. Makarios of Corinth, a noted guide of the new martyrs of the period. Through confession, communion, and the study of the lives of earlier martyrs, he prepared to confess Christ openly.
By the traditional account, on the first Thursday of Great Lent he presented himself before a judge on Mytilene dressed as a Muslim, declared his return to Christianity, and removed his turban as a sign of his renunciation of Islam.
Theodore was imprisoned and tortured. The traditional account describes his being beaten many times on the soles of his feet and subjected to further torments. Condemned to death, he was hanged in 1795. The tradition relates that the rope broke and he fell to the ground, after which he was hanged a second time and so died, receiving the crown of martyrdom.
Theodore's relics, including his skull, are kept in the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mytilene; a translation of his relics is recorded for 1798. He is venerated as a protector of Mytilene and the island of Lesvos.
Local tradition associates him with the deliverance of Mytilene from a plague in 1832, after which the city named him its patron. Since 1936 a commemoration has been observed in Mytilene on the Fourth Sunday of Pascha (the Sunday of the Paralytic), on which his relics are carried in procession.