Theologian · Medieval
St. Theodore the Studite
759–826 · Byzantine monastic theology
Confessor under the second iconoclasm; feast 11 November in both East and West.
Abbot of the Stoudios monastery in Constantinople, thrice exiled: for resisting the emperor's adulterous remarriage, and twice for defending the holy icons. He refined the theology of the image (the icon depicts the person, the hypostasis, of the incarnate Word, not his nature), reorganized cenobitic monasticism with the rule that shaped Mount Athos and Kiev, and appealed repeatedly to the Pope of Rome as the “first see” and rock of the Church.
Why he matters: The Byzantine monastic tradition, the final victory of the icons (843) and the East's own witness to the Roman primacy all pass through him; his Catecheses are still read in Eastern monasteries.
Where to be careful
His intransigence in the Moechian controversy led him to break communion with two patriarchs over a matter of “economy”; the Church honors his courage without canonizing every judgment.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.