Saint Theodore the Branded

Theodore and his younger brother Theophanes were monks of the monastery of Saint Sabbas near Jerusalem. Sent to Constantinople, they defended the veneration of holy icons against the iconoclast emperors and were repeatedly imprisoned, beaten and exiled. In 836 Emperor Theophilus ordered twelve lines of insulting verse to be cut into their faces, which is why they are called the Graptoi, "the inscribed." Theodore died in exile in Bithynia around 841, shortly before the veneration of icons was restored.

His brother Theophanes later became bishop of Nicaea and wrote many hymns still sung in the Byzantine liturgy. The Roman Martyrology remembers Theodore on December 27.