THE GIFT CHURCH
Church of St. Theodore Takes on New Life

By Elizabeth Lev

ROME, JULY 8, 2004 (Zenit.org).- The visit of Constantinople's Patriarch
Bartholomew I fueled Rome news reports all week. Yet amid all the
attention, one piece of information precious to art lovers shimmered in the
background.

The restoration of the Church of St. Theodore (San Teodoro) had been
completed and the church was to be given for use by the Greek Orthodox
community.

According to tradition, the Church of St. Theodore was built in the sixth
century on the ruined granaries of Agrippa at the foot of the Palatine
Hill. The Palatine had served as the imperial residence from the time of
Emperor Augustus in the first century B.C. As of A.D. 500, Christian
churches began to spring up around the hill: Sts. Cosmas and Damian, Santa
Maria Antiqua and St. Theodore.

All three of these churches were sponsored by the Byzantine emperor and two
were dedicated to saints from the eastern part of the empire as a way to
unify Roman Christians with the increasing number of Eastern Christians
arriving in the city.

St. Theodore of Euchaita was a soldier in the province of Pontus
(modern-day Turkey). Along with other Christians, he was ordered to
sacrifice to the emperor and his gods. Theodore refused, and was tortured
and imprisoned. He suffered martyrdom by burning in 305 and his relics were
eventually brought to Constantinople where a church was dedicated to him.
His head, however, is in Gaeta, Italy.

I went to visit the church this week and met the new rector, Father
Gregorius Stergiou, who was kind enough to take me around to visit the complex.

St. Theodore is one of the very few churches in Rome built on a circular
plan and some archaeologists think that it may have built on the site of a
pagan temple. For most of the first churches in the city, the Christians
favored the Latin cross shape. The use of the circle was generally reserved
for churches dedicated to martyrs, such as in the church of St. Stephen.

The circular design is "centralized," meaning that the focus is on the
center of the church, which was a feature of many Byzantine churches, such
as the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, but was not common in Rome.

Recent refurbishments restored the church's pale aqua interior chosen by
Carlo Fontana during the last major renovation in 1705. The color offers an
intense luminosity that is enhanced by the decoration of the Greek Orthodox
community. They used brilliant white and soft yellow mustard on the floors,
while the furniture is all of a light wood.

I asked Father Stergiou whether any major changes had been made to the
church. He said that only the iconostas (the partition which divides the
sanctuary from the congregation), necessary for the Eastern liturgy, had
been added. This, too, was constructed of gleaming white marble affixed
with brightly painted icons on the lower panels.

Father Stergiou also pointed out that the whole screen was on hinges so it
could swing open and reveal the altar constructed in 1700 by Fontana out of
Numidian yellow marble and Sicilian jasper.

Above the altar rises the majestic sixth-century mosaic showing Jesus robed
in purple -- the color of emperors --flanked by saints Peter and Paul. They
in turn are presenting St. Theodore on the right (slightly darker in
complexion and wearing traveling robes) and St. Crescentino on the left (a
fair skinned, blond saint from northern Italy). The message seems to be
that of universal welcome in Rome.

The rector expressed his delight at the Holy Father's gift of the church.
"From 1950 we were in a very, very small church in Via Sardegna that held
about 70 people," he said. "The new church holds 150."

"In antiquity, this area was known as Ripa Greca, the Greek Port, because
the ships from Greece docked right at the end of the street," observed
Father Stergiou. "From various inscriptions and findings archaeologists
have deduced that this must have been the Greek quarter of Rome."

"We are happy to be back," he said.