Theodore, Surnamed Graptus

Theodore, surnamed Graptus a monk of St. Saba who is somewhat prominent among the monkish martyrs of iconolatry. He was born at Jerusalem, attained to the rank of presbyter, and was sent by the patriarch Thomas of Jerusalem to Constantinople about 818 to labor in defense of the images. In the execution of this purpose he remonstrated so vehemently to the emperor's face that Leo the Armenian caused him to be scourged and transported to the coast of Pontus. Three years later he was pardoned but again imprisoned and banished, this time by Michael the Stammerer. The next emperor, Theophilus, caused him to be scourged and carried to the island of Aphusia. Having returned after several years and renewed his passionate advocacy of image-worship, he was threatened and tortured, and finally banished as incorrigible to Apamea. But few writings are ascribed to him; among them are a disputation of the patriarch Nicephorus, given in Combefis, Orig. Constantinople p. 159: —a letter by John of Cyzicum narrating the sufferings endured under Theophills, also in Combefis: —a manuscript, De Fide Orthodoxa contsra Iconomachos, from which a fragment is given in Combefis, p. 221. See Vita Theod. Gr. in Combefis, p. 191, Latin by Surius, Dec. 26; and comp. the notices in Cave, and Walch, Gesch. d. Ketzereien, 10:677, 717. —Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s.v.