THEODOTUS, Bishop of Laodicea. - A follower of Arius from the very first hour (Theodoret, Hist. eccl., I, 4), he took part at the beginning of 325 in the Synod of Antioch for the election of Eustathius, but was unwilling to subscribe to the formula of faith promulgated there.

At the Council of Nicaea he was among the few defenders of Arius, yet he nevertheless subscribed to the Creed (ibid., I, 6; 20). Shortly afterwards, however, he sought to retract his subscription, and Constantine wrote him a letter warning him that by doing so he exposed himself to grave risks (Gelasius, Hist. eccl., III, 3). In 330 he took part in the Synod of Antioch in which Eustathius was deposed. He forbade the two Apollinarii, father and son, to attend the lectures of the pagan philosopher Epiphanius, and, since they did not obey, he excommunicated them. Despite his open Arianism, Eusebius of Caesarea gives a splendid eulogy of him (Hist. eccl., VII, 32), and Theodoret attests (Hist. eccl., V, 7) that in his city he was venerated as a saint. Induced by these testimonies, Ado included him in his Martyrology, whence he passed into the Roman one (2 Nov.). The Bollandists raised doubts about his sanctity, and in 1883 the S. Congregation of Rites took the question to itself (Acta SS. Novembris, I, Paris 1887, p. 420).

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: Tillemont, VI, p. 740 ff.; VII, p. 609 ff.; Martyr. Romanum, p. 492; Fliche-Martin-Frutz, III, pp. 84-99, 249.

Agostino Amore

@incollection{ec11_teodoto_vescovo_di_laodicea, author = {Amore, Agostino}, title = {Teodoto, vescovo di laodicea}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XI}, pages = {1946}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/teodoto-vescovo-di-laodicea} }

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Theodotus, Bishop of Laodicea

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