Saint Theodore of Mopsuestia

Theodore of Mopsuestia (Greek: Θεοδώρος, c. 350 – 428) was a Christian theologian, and Bishop of Mopsuestia (as Theodore II) from 392 to 428 AD. He is also known as Theodore of Antioch, from the place of his birth and presbyterate. He is the best known representative of the middle Antioch School of hermeneutics. Theodore was born at Antioch, where his father held an official position and the family was wealthy (Chrysostom, ad Th. Laps. ii). Theodore's cousin, Paeanius, to whom several of John Chrysostom's letters are addressed, held an important post of civil government. Theordore's brother Polychronius became bishop of the metropolitan see of Apamea. Theodore was born in Antioch about 350. He planned to have a career in law and studied philosophy and rhetoric under Libanius; however, after meeting Chrysostom, he decided to change his career. He was ordained a presbyter in the Church of Antioch in 383. He taught for a time and was elected bishop of Mopsuestia in 392. For most of his career, the church held him in high regard; however, this began to change during the Nestorian controversy. When he died, he still held a solid reputation in the church. He was a prolific writer and he wrote commentaries on Genesis, the Psalms, the Prophets, Job, the four Gospels and Acts, as well as his work entitled, Against those who say that man falls by nature, and not by sentence. Theodore first appears as the early companion and friend of Chrysostom, his fellow-townsman, his equal in rank, and but two or three years his senior in age. Together with their common friend Maximus, who was later bishop of Isaurian Seleucia, Chrysostom and Theodore attended the lectures of the Greek-speaking teacher of rhetoric Libanius (Socr. vi.3; Soz. viii.1), then at Antioch in the zenith of his fame. We have the assurance of Sozomen that he enjoyed a philosophical education.