The Holy Martyr Theodotus of Ancyra and the Seven Maiden Martyrs: Tecusa, Alexandra, Claudia, Falina (Phaine), Euphrasia, Matrona and Julia (303)
Theodotus was an innkeeper in Ancyra during the reign of Diocle- tian. Although married, he lived according to the word of the Apostle:
They that have wives be as though they had none
(I Corinthians 7:29). He main- tained the inn in order to help Christians without attracting suspicion. His inn was a shelter for the persecuted faithful. Theodotus secretly sent help to those Christians who fled to the mountains and he secretly gathered the bodies of those who died, and buried them. At that time, seven maidens were brought to trial, tortured for Christ, ridiculed and finally drowned in a lake. One of them, St. Thecusa, appeared in a dream to Theodotus and told him to remove their bodies from the lake and bury them. In the dark of night Theodotus went out with a companion to fulfill the wish of the martyr. Led by an angel of God, he succeeded in locating all seven bodies and burying them. But this companion betrayed Theodotus to the judge, and the judge subjected him to cruel tortures. Theodotus endured all the sufferings as though he were in someone else’s body, keeping his whole mind immersed in the Lord. After the torturer had transformed Theodotus’s body into wounds and knocked out his teeth with a stone, he ordered that the martyr be beheaded. When he was led to the scaffold, many Chris- tians wept for him, but St. Theodotus said to them: “Brethren, do not weep for me, but glorify our Lord Jesus Christ, Who helped me to finish my course and overcome my enemy.” Having said this, he placed his head on the block under the sword and was beheaded in the year 303. A priest honorably buried this martyr’s body on a hill outside the town. Later a church dedicated to St. Theodotus was built on this spot.
