TEODOTO DI ANCIRA, SANTO, MARTIRE

TEODOTO of ANCIRA, St, martyr. — He is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology and in the Synaxarion on 18 May.

The *Passio*, written by a contemporary but some time after the saint’s martyrdom, collects personal recollections of the author and traditions already in circulation; it therefore contains both reliable elements and others that are legendary. T. was an innkeeper of Ancira who lived a holy life devoted to works of charity, especially toward prisoners, confessors, and martyrs, whose burial he attended to. While performing this very office for seven virgins during the persecution of Diocletian, he was denounced to the governor of the city. With holy resolve he faced his fate by presenting himself voluntarily to the judge; he was horribly tortured; confined in prison, he was taken out after five days to be beheaded. His body was buried near Malos, and a memorial was erected in his honor.

BIBL.: Acta SS. Maii, IV, Paris 1866, pp. 147-64; P. Franchi de’ Cavalieri, I martiri di S. T. e di S. Ariadne (Studi e testi), Rome 1901, pp. 9-87; H. Delehaye, La passion de St Théodore d’Ancyre, in Anal. Bolland., 22 (1903), pp. 320-28; P. Franchi, Osservaz. sopra alcuni atti dei martiri, in Nuovo bull. arch. crist., 10 (1904), pp. 27-37; id., Reliquie di un grande menologio prima statua e una nuova recens. del martyrium s. Theodoti Ancyrami, in Note agiogr. (Studi e testi, 33), VI, Rome 1922, pp. 110-142; H. Delehaye, Les orig. du culte des martyrs, Brussels 1933, pp. 157; Martyr. Romanum, p. 196.