The superb food he produced attracted so many customers that Theodore’s mother, grandmother and aunt were able to stop working as prostitutes; and the newcomer’s devout Christianity soon converted the young boy.

Theodore was ordained priest at the early age of 18 and became a monk on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. On his return, he installed himself as a hermit near Sykeon, where he endured spectacular, self-imposed penances, such as being tied up and shut in a cage suspended above his cave in a cliff face for many weeks at a time. Such was his fame as a healer and miracle worker that many followers congregated, for whom he built a monastery.

Credits: PA; Author: PA;

He was elected as bishop of Anastasiopolis in Galatia in about 590, but resigned in about 600 and again became a hermit, this time at Acrena near Heliopolis (now Baalbek, Lebanon). There he stayed, apart from a brief visit to Constantinople until his death in c 613, His miracles were numerous, and included curing the emperor’s son of elephantiasis, warding off plagues of locusts, beetles and mice, and reconciling unhappily married couples - the reason for his patronage. He is also known to have fostered the cult of St. George.