St. Theodosios, the Emperor

January 11: St. Theodosios, the Emperor

Flavius Theodosius (11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also called Theodosius I and Theodosius the Great, was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. He was a strong defender of the Orthodox Christian faith and is a saint.

Reuniting the eastern and western portions of the empire, Theodosius was the last emperor of both the Eastern and Western Roman Empire. After his death, the two parts split permanently. He is also known for making Nicene Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire.

Theodosius was born in Spain to a senior military officer, Theodosius the Elder. He accompanied his father to Britannia to help quell the Great Conspiracy in 368. He was military commander of Moesia, a Roman province on the lower Danube, in 374.

Theodosius promoted Nicene Trinitarianism within Christianity and Christianity within the Empire.

With the division of the empire between his sons, his death was a milestone in history: The Roman world was never again to be united.

Nicene Christianity becomes the state religion

In the 4th century, the Christian Church was troubled with controversy over the divinity of Jesus Christ, his relationship to God the Father, and the nature of the Trinity.

In 325, Constantine I convened the Council of Nicea, which asserted that Jesus, the Son, was equal to the Father, one with the Father, and of the same substance. The council condemned the false teachings of the theologian Arius: that the Son was a created being and inferior to God the Father, and that the Father and Son were of a similar substance but not identical.

While born into a Christian family, Theodosius was not baptized until 380, when a serious sickness in Thessalonica brought him to make the decision. He was baptized by the Orthodox bishop of Thessalonica, Ascholios. From the start of his reign, a considerable part of Theodosius’ activities were spent defending the Orthodox faith and suppressing Arianism.

References:
Theodosius I. Wikipedia.
Theodosius the Great (emperor). OrthodoxWiki.

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