Their story
Adapted in modern English from Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints · Baring-Gould original below · little is known
Theodora, whom the Greeks rank among the saints, often softened the cruelty of her husband Theophilus and protected the defenders of holy images from his persecution.
As regent for her young son Michael III she ended the Iconoclast heresy, and the patriarch Methodius restored the images in the great church of Constantinople; the Greeks keep the event as the feast of Orthodoxy.
After governing twelve years she was banished by her son and his uncle Bardas, and spent her last eight years in a monastery. She died in 867. Butler and Baring-Gould agree on 867.
Early life
The book says little or nothing about early life. This is how the account begins.
Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 50 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.
Theodora , wife of Theophilus, the Byzantine Emperor, has the glory of having brought to an end the triumph of the Iconoclasts in the East. After the death of her savage husband she ruled during the minority of her son, Michael III. Her claim to sanctity is certainly very questionable.
