Fr Ben Garren

Dear Siblings in Christ,

Theodore Stratelates is one of the forgotten warrior saints. Celebration of his feast day had lapsed long before our modern reservations about using military images in church. Our current hesitancy is for good reason… I want to suggest, however, it is because over the centuries we lost the charism of early Christian Warrior saints.

Theodore lived right as Christianity was gaining official status in the Roman Empire, during the last of the major persecutions. He lived in Asia Minor, the place we know as Turkey, and the one account of his prowess as a warrior is the slaying of a great serpent that was terrorizing the area. This deed awarded him a military command in the area. Unlike other serpent killing saints, such as Saint George, this is not a detail of why he was saintly but is present in the story to tell us how he came to a position of power in the area.

This is, actually, typical and part of what we have forgotten. The warrior saints of early Christianity were not made saints because they were warriors… They were warriors with power who then did something saintly with their position of authority. Theodore’s moment of saintliness came, like many early Christians, when he was asked to provide an offering to the local gods by those in authority over them. His request was that all of the idols be gathered in his interior courtyard so that he may pray and spend a day providing offerings to them. Ceremoniously each was brought to him and gathered, gold, silver, covered with jewels. 

Theodore spent the day not in prayer, but in destruction. And as each layer of gold was lifted from the surface of wood underneath, each bit of silver peeled off, each little gemstone pulled out… he would go to his back door and handed out this wealth to the poorest members of the city that they may have food, afford shelter, and for a while, at least, know basic comfort. 

Theodore dismantled idols to undermine the powers of oppression and provide wealth to those who had none. Later Christians dismantled idols to gain the power of oppression and provide more wealth to those who had much. We reversed the saintly virtue presented by the Christian Warriors of the early church.

Importantly, at this point, Theodore had no illusion about what he had done and what the consequences would be. He waited for the authorities to come and see he had made the proper offerings, knowing exactly what they would find, and knowing exactly that he would be put to death. There was no seeking of glory, no going down with a fight, for Theodore. This was not the final climactic scene of a movie about a warrior… it was a man prepared to die for dismantling a system of oppression.

As a church we have become wary of the phrase Christian Warrior, because for so long we had forgotten what those words were supposed to mean. Taking the time on this feast day, to remember the forgotten Theodore Stratelates should remind us that whatever power we have is in service of dismantling empires, systems of oppression, the idols that distract us from providing for those in need. Regardless of the consequences.

Pax,

—Ben