7. Life of St. Theodora of Thessalonike - Dumbarton Oaks

St. Theodora of Thessalonike 171
sole remaining child, and present her as a voluntary sacrifice and spiritual
whole-offering to the Lord our God, after clothing her in the life-bearing and
holy monastic habit.” And that holy woman took the girl and lifting up her
eyes and her hands to the One Who dwells in heaven, she said: “O Lord, Who
out of compassionate mercy deigned to be born of a holy virgin as an infant
in the flesh, Thou Who didst accept the sacrifice of Abraham when [p. 84] he
was willing to sacrifice his only son in deference to Thy bidding, accept also
the offering brought to you by this couple and make her increase in the divine
virtues like Samuel who was promised to Thee, our God, before his birth,
because Thou art blessed unto the generations.” 50
At dawn then, after the conclusion of the entire kanon,
that marvelous woman had the girl tonsured 51 by a pious man, and named her
Theopiste. 52 And her parents returned to their own home, magnifying and
praising God, because their daughter was entered into the register of nuns.
10. At this point in my narrative I would have liked to describe the lives
of many of Theodora’s relatives, who were of a very high-placed family, not
in order to add to her praise, but so that you might see in what sort of godly
manner her relatives lived. But since I will seem to exceed if I
go beyond my assigned theme, I will mention only our archbishop Antony, 53
and then return my narrative again to Theodora. This chief shepherd of ours,
Antony, after learning the sacred letters as a child 54 and donning the life-
50 Cf. Ps. 88 (89):52.
51 It would have been highly irregular for a six-year-old girl to be tonsured. Normally
a girl did not take monastic vows until the age of sixteen, although convents did admit
some girls as novices at an earlier age, and educated them in preparation for monastic
life.
52 Literally, “faithful to God.” A nun normally took a new name at the time of her
monastic vows; the monastic name frequently, but not always, began with the same
letter as her baptismal name.
53 Here Gregory begins a lengthy nine-chapter digression about the career of Antony,
which forms a “mini-vita” ora“Life within a Life.” He presents most of the necessary
elements to demonstrate the sanctity of this relative of Theodora: disputation with an
iconoclast emperor (Chaps. 13–15), suffering torture and exile for his iconodule beliefs
(Chap. 16), posthumous healing miracles (Chap. 18) and the miraculous preservation of
his body from decomposition (Chap. 18). S. A. Paschalides’ article on Antony (“ ” Ena"
oJmologhth ´ " th'" Deutéra" Eijkonomacía" oJ ajrciepískopo" Qessaloníkh" jAntw ´ nio"
[844],” Byzantina 17 [1994], 189–216) appeared when this book was already in press.
54 Cf. 2 Tim. 3:15, and note 32, above.