Theodore Synkellos (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: Θεόδωρος Σύγκελλος) was a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

clergyman, diplomat and writer who flourished in the first half of the 7th century. He wrote in

. Theodore was a high-ranking clergyman in

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

in the 620s. He held the post of '' synkellos'' and so acted as a liaison between the

emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

and the

patriarch The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Roman Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and ...

. Theodore delivered a sermon on the

Virgin's veil The Virgin's veil was a Christian relic believed to have once belonged to Mary, mother of Jesus. It was kept in Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire, between the 5th and 12th centuries. There are several accounts of the appearance of th ...

on the occasion of its temporary transfer from the church of Blachernae to the

Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia (; ; ; ; ), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque (; ), is a mosque and former Church (building), church serving as a major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The last of three church buildings to be successively ...

when the Avars attacked the suburbs of Constantinople in 619 or 623. Theodore's authorship has sometimes been questioned, because many manuscripts leave the text anonymous, but it is generally accepted. The text was certainly written by an eyewitness. Theodore refers to the veil generically as a "garment" (ἐσθής). According to the legend he knew, it was stolen from a Jewish widow by the patricians Galbios and Kandidos and was the same garment in which

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a female given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religion * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also called the Blesse ...

had nursed the infant

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

. According to the ''

Chronicon Paschale ''Chronicon Paschale'' (the ''Paschal'' or ''Easter Chronicle''), also called ''Chronicum Alexandrinum'', ''Constantinopolitanum'' or ''Fasti Siculi'', is the conventional name of a 7th-century Greek Christian chronicle of the world. Its name com ...

'', Theodore was a member of the embassy sent to the khagan of the Avars on 2 August 626, at the start of the Avar siege of Constantinople. Following the withdrawal of the Avars, he was commissioned by Patriarch Sergius to write a sermon on the siege. The sermon is anonymous in the manuscripts, but its attribution to Theodore is generally accepted., surmises that the sermon was delivered at a thanksgiving service on 8 September 626, the

Nativity of Mary The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Nativity of Mary, Marymas or the Birth of the Virgin Mary, refers to a Christian feast day celebrating the birth of Mary, mother of Jesus. The modern Biblical canon does not record Mary's birth. The ...

. gives the date of delivery as 7 August 627. It makes full use of biblical language, especially ''Isaiah'' 7:1–9 and its account of the siege of Jerusalem during the reign of

Ahaz Ahaz (; ''Akhaz''; ) an abbreviation of Jehoahaz II (of Judah), "Yahweh has held" (; ''Ya'úḫazi'' 'ia-ú-ḫa-zi'' Hayim Tadmor and Shigeo Yamada, ''The Royal Inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III (744-727 BC) and Shalmaneser V (726-722 BC), ...

. The sermon had a major influence on George of Pisidia's ''Bellum Avaricum''.

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * {{refend

External links

English translation of the ''Homily on the Siege of Constantinople''
by Roger Pearse 7th-century Byzantine writers Byzantine diplomats Avar–Byzantine wars