Today we
remember the miracle of Saint Theodore and the boiled wheat. Fifty years after
the death of Saint Theodore, the emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363), wanting
to commit an outrage upon the Christians during the first week of Great Lent,
commanded the city-commander of Constantinople to sprinkle all the food
provisions in the marketplaces with the blood offered to idols. Saint Theodore
appeared in a dream to Archbishop Eudoxius, ordering him to inform all the
Christians that no one should buy anything at the marketplaces, but rather to
eat cooked wheat with honey (kolyva).
In memory
of this occurrence, the Orthodox Church annually celebrates the holy Great
Martyr Theodore the Recruit on the first Saturday of Great Lent. On Friday
evening, at the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts following the prayer
at the ambo, the Canon to the holy Great Martyr Theodore, composed by Saint
John of Damascus, is sung. After this, kolyva is blessed and distributed to the
faithful. The celebration of the Great Martyr Theodore on the first Saturday of
Great Lent was set by the Patriarch Nectarius of Constantinople (381-397).
The
Troparion to Saint Theodore is quite similar to the Troparion for the Prophet
Daniel and the Three Holy Youths (December 17, Sunday Before Nativity). The
Kontakion to Saint Theodore, who suffered martyrdom by fire, reminds us that he
also had faith as his breastplate (see I Thessalonians 5:8).
Saint
Theodore the Recruit is also commemorated on February 17.
Source: https://oca.org/saints/lives/2018/02/24/9-1st-saturday-of-great-lent-the-miracle-of-the-boiled-wheat
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