[Officium]
St. Theodore, Martyr

[Oratio]
O God, Who surround and protect us with the glorious profession of blessed Theodore, Your Martyr, grant us to profit by imitating him and to rejoice in his intercession.
$Per Dominum

[Lectio93]
This Theodore was a Christian soldier, who was arrested in the reign of the Emperor Maximian for having set fire to a temple of idols. The Commander of the Legion offered him pardon if he would profess repentance and curse the Christian faith, but, as he refused to swerve as regarding the confession of his belief, he was cast into prison. There he was tormented with iron claws. As they were tearing the flesh off his ribs, he sang joyfully (the 33rd Psalm) I will bless the Lord at all times. Thereafter he was thrown upon an heap of burning wood, and there, still praying and praising God, he gave up his soul to Christ, upon the 9th day of November, (in the year of salvation 304.) The Lady Eusebia wrapped his body in a winding-sheet, and buried it on her own farm.
&teDeum