TEODOTO, bishop of LAODICEA. — A follower of Arius from the very beginning (Theodoret, Hist. eccl., I, 4), he took part at the beginning of 325 in the Synod of Antioch for the election of Eustathius, but refused to subscribe to the creed promulgated there.
At the Council of Nicaea he was among the few defenders of Arius, yet he subscribed to the Symbol (ibid., I, 6; 20). Soon afterward, however, he sought to retract his subscription, and Constantine wrote him a letter warning him that by so doing he exposed himself to grave risks (Gelasius, Hist. eccl., III, 3). In 330 he took part in the Synod of Antioch at which Eustathius was deposed. He forbade the two Apollinares, father and son, to attend the lectures of the pagan philosopher Epiphanius, and when they disobeyed, he excommunicated them. Despite his open Arianism, Eusebius of Caesarea lavished praise upon 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 Martyrology (2 Nov.). The Bollandists raised doubts about his sanctity, and in 1883 the Sacred Congregation of Rites took up the matter (Acta SS. Novembris, I, Paris 1887, p. 420).