TEODORO GRAPTO, saint. - B. in the second half of the 8th century, d. c. 841–44.
A native of Syria, he became a monk in the monastery of St. Saba near Jerusalem; under Emperor Leo V (813–20) he was exiled for his fidelity to the cult of sacred images. The emperors Michael II (820–29) and Theophilus (829–42) also treated him harshly for iconoclastic reasons. Under Theophilus, about the year 833, defamatory iambic verses were branded upon his forehead, whence he received from posterity the surname Graphus. After this cruel act he was sent into exile and died at Apamea in Syria.
One of his letters to Giovanni, bishop of Cyzicus, has been preserved. There are also Greek biographies of him and of his brother Teofane (PG 116, 653–84). T. is venerated as a saint, and his feast is celebrated on 28 Dec.