The Life & Passion of St. Theodotus of Ancyra

By Nilus

On 18 May the Roman Martyrology says: "At Ancyra, in Galatia, the martyr Saint Theodotus and the saintly virgins Thecusa, his aunt, Alexandra, Claudia, Faina, Euphrasia, Matrona, and Julitta", etc. They are mentioned in all the menologies, and Theodotus has a special feast on 7 June (Nilles, "Kal. man.", I, 162, and II, 583). He is patron of innkeepers. Emblems: torches and the sword. According to the Acts (Acta SS., May, IV, 147) Theodotus was a married man who kept an inn at Ancyra, the capital of Galatia. He is described as a man very zealous in the performance of his Christian duties, endowed with many virtues, especially charity towards his neighbour. He brought sinners to repentance and strengthened many in their faith during the persecution which Theoctenus, the governor of the province, was carrying on, about 303, in accordance with the edict of Diocletian. The name of a certain Victor is mentioned as one who grew weak in his profession of Christianity and received much encouragement from Theodotus. The governor ordered that all provisions exposed for sale should first be offered to the idols. Theodotus laid in stores of goods and his house became a refuge for the Christians, a hospital for the sick, and a place for Divine worship. At Malos, about five miles from Ancyra, he sought out the body of the martyr, Valens, and gave it Christian burial. Returning to Ancyra he found the Christians in great trouble. The seven virgins mentioned above had been called before the judges and made a valiant profession of their faith; they were then sent to a house of debauchery, but preserved their purity. Then they were obliged to suffer cruel torments and were cast into the sea with stones attached to their bodies. Theodotus succeeded in rescuing the bodies and honourably burying them. In consequence he was arrested, and after many sufferings was killed by the sword; his body was miraculously brought to Malos and there entombed by the priest Fronto. A chapel was built over the grave, and the saint was held in great veneration. The legend is told by Nilus who claims to have been an eye-witness to a great part of what he describes. Ruinart (page 372) places it among his "Acta sincera et selecta". Pio Franchi produced a critical edition of the Acts in "Studi e Testi" (Rome, 1901). He considered them trustworthy, but later changed his opinion. Delehaye (Anal. Boll., XXII, 320, and XXIII, 478) says: "The kernel of the legend is a tale narrated by Herodotus, while the existence of the hero of the narrative is not vouched for by any historic document."

Francis Mershman

Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 14 (1913),

CrossReach Publications

• Language: English
• Publisher: CrossReach Publications
• Release date: Nov 21, 2019

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The Author Describes What Kind of Man Theodotus Was

"I that have proved the great lovingkindness of the holy Martyr Theodotus towards myself, am his debtor not only to praise in words his conflict, but by deeds also to requite his charity: albeit I can neither enough honour the Martyr with deeds, nor speak of him with such words as were meet. Yet after my ability and power, it beseems me to set forth the favours done me by him, according to my slender means, offering publicly my pair of mites with the Widow in the Gospel. For I feel it a sheer necessity to bring to the knowledge of the devout his life and conflict, and how, having from earliest youth he devoted himself to shop keeping, he came thence at last to martyrdom. Yet I confess I dread lest, being untutored in speech, slight in knowledge, small in learning, I should not do justice to the conflicts of the Martyr, and his constancy in the conflicts, by attempting a theme too big for my strength. For it will be a great detriment inflicted by contemptible genius on choice matters, if anyone should esteem them to be but such as my telling of the tale will make them out. Some will here cast it in my teeth, that the Martyr embraced the ordinary manner of life, nor severed himself from the enjoyment of pleasures, but lived with a wife united to him in lawful wedlock, and practised a shopkeeper’s trade for the sake of gain. But his final conflict of martyrdom made his earlier life also illustrious, decking the first things with the last. Therefore let each man say his say: I that lived with the Martyr from the beginning, shall say what I know and did prove with my eyes, to wit, the constancy of him whose company and conversation I was vouchsafed for my own edification.

"But before he stepped down to the uttermost conflict of martyrdom, on many and divers occasions he had made proof of his valour, like a wrestler that will strive with his adversary. And first he determined to wage war against his desires; and made so great progress toward virtue, that he might have been all men’s master. For never did he enthral himself to pleasures or to any impure affection, but from his earliest boyhood he brought forth noble fruit of beautiful self-discipline, which also the latter end of his life did prove. But above all he took to himself for shield in the battle temperance, as the ground or beginning of all other good things, supposing the chastisement of the body to be the sweets befitting a Christian man, whose riches and glory it is generously to suffer lack. I indeed have oftentimes seen an heroical man overpowered with covetousness (not indeed of wealth, but) of glory; philosophy beaten by fear, and a kindly quiet soul unmanned with delights: only the righteous man makes his passions minister to him as to their master. He had, therefore, for his service against pleasures the habit of fasting, against easiness of the body temperance, and against superfluity of wealth the custom of distributing his own goods to the poor. And these things we shall show by and by more particularly, and shall make it apparent, that he obtained glory by shame, opulence and affluence by noble poverty, and through temptations and snares earned Heaven for his own.

"This man converted many from iniquity, by seasonable instruction curing them as from a pestilent disease; many who in body appeared sound but were afflicted with a soul beset by evil thoughts he healed by his discourse, yea by his admirable doctrine and exhortation he brought into the Church a vast company of heathens and of Jews. For indeed his trade of shopkeeper, unlike the manner of most, was by him held in no great esteem in comparison of his office of a Bishop; while after his power he succoured those that had suffered wrong, was in pain with the sick, with the afflicted shared their sorrow, was himself partaker of others’ sufferings and replete with charity. The first thing that you may admire in him is that he would lay his hands on persons bound with diseases how incurable soever, and delivered them from their sickness, using his prayers in the place of medicine. Libertines he persuaded to continence, and those that were given to too much wine he recovered from their drunken habits. Some also, who seemed to be possessed irremediably with the plague of