The Life of St. Theodore of Sykeon (7th Century)
In all the debate over John Boswell's book Same Sex Unions - which studied the Byzantine adelphopoiia rite, it is not usually
realized that adelphopoiia ("the making of brothers")
had a distinct history within Byzantine culture. It did not always
have the same meaning. Commentaries by classicists or western
medievalists neglect to notice this central point. Some of our
earliest evidence of such rituals, much earlier than liturgical
manuscripts, comes from hagiography. [See for instance the Life
of Symeon, The Fool of Emesa recently translated into English
by Derek Krueger]. In the Life of St. Theodore of Sykeon,
just such a relationship is made between Theodore and the patriarch
Thomas is narrated in Chaps 134-135.
In this example, as in the Life of Symeon of Emesa,
we are at the stage in the history of adelphopoiia in which it
ritualized intense male-male relationships, perhaps always between
monks or other consecrated persons. Later on it was to enter a
more secular practice, and become the basis of kinship claims.
Here the personal still prevails.
Is the institution portrayed here "homoerotic" as
Boswell claims? Although such claims may make sense in later periods
of Byzantine history, in the seventh century this is the wrong
question. The relationship between Thomas and Theodore is "homophiliac"
- that is it relates to the tradition of intense male "friendship"
or philia. This philia is not, however, fully conveyed
by the modern western practice of friendship. There are themes
of eternal soul-union (cf. Aristotle's definition of friends -
"two souls in one body") which have a long tradition
in both Greek and Latin civilizations. In modern Western culture
such themes are nowadays invoked most frequently in the context
of marriage [and not only among Mormons]. In other words, a claim
of homoeroticism about these male-male relationships is going
much to far, but floating the idea that they relate to modern ideas about marriage is not.
[The full text of this life is available at the Medieval Sourcebook]
Ch. 134
When he had left the palace the most blessed Patriarch, Thomas,
would give Theodore no peace, for he held him in great respect
and had such full confidence in him that after many entreaties
he persuaded him to adopt him as a brother, and Theodore promised
to ask of God that in the future life, too, they might not be
separated from each other.
Next he asked him whether the tale about the extraordinary jumping
of the little crosses during processional litanies was really
true; and on learning from the Saint that the story told him about
them was true, he began privately to beg him to explain to him
what such a sign meant. However, Theodore, pleading his own insignificance
and calling himself an abject sinner, asserted that he did not
know how to answer the question. Then Thomas fell at his feet
and held them and protested that he would not get up from the
ground unless he consented to satisfy him on this point, saying,
'I know and am convinced that you understand not only this sign,
but many others as well; for you cannot have been content up till
now to consider this as of no account and not to seek an explanation
of it; if, however, it has been concealed from you till this moment
and you have not been anxious to learn about it, yet now if you
ask God, He will certainly reveal it to you'. Then the servant
of Christ, having consented to satisfy him, made him get up and
weeping bitterly said to him, 'I did not wish you to be troubled,
for it is not to your profit to learn these, things. But since
you insist, the shaking of the crosses portends many painful and
dangerous things for us-it means instability in our faith and
apostasy, and the inroads of many barbarous peoples, and the shedding
of much blood, and destruction and captivity throughout the world,
the desolation of the holy churches, the cessation of the divine
service of praise, the fall and perturbation of the Empire and
perplexity and critical times for the State; and further it foreshadows
that the coming of the Adversary is at hand. Therefore do you,
as governor of the Church and shepherd of the people, implore
God continuously, as far as in you lies, to spare His people and
to order these things with pity and with mercy'. At these words
the most blessed Patriarch was seized with an agony of fear and
began with tears to beg Theodore to pray God to take away his
life and not let him be overtaken by any of the disasters he had
foretold.
And from that time forth the Patriarch continually lived in retirement
in his palace and poured out confessions to Theodore and besought
him with tears saying, 'Since you have with your whole heart deigned
to accept me as your brother and are thus so closely bound to
me and to my welfare. pray to God on my behalf that he may take
my spirit and that 1 may not see the dangers which are to come
upon us. My courage fails me and I have not the strength to see
these things come - and live
135
(Summary) The Patriarch Thomas earnestly prays Theodore
to spend his yearly period of seclusion in the capital, as the
city will soon need his presence. There was a fear that Constantinople
might fall. He agrees thereto and after Christmas he shuts himself
up in the diakonikon of the winter church of the monastery of
St. Stephen or monastery of the Romans near the Petrion.* The
Patriarch implores Theodore to pray to a God to grant him a speedy
release from the troubles threatening the Empire. After some resistance
Theodore complies and God grants the prayer: the death of the
Patriarch soon follows.
Source.
From Three Byzantine Saints: Contemporary Biographies
of St. Daniel the Stylite, St. Theodore of Sykeon and St. John
the Almsgiver, trans. Elizabeth Dawes, and introductions and
notes by Norman H. Baynes, (London: 1948)
This text is part of the Internet
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© Paul Halsall, 1998, 2023
