Theodorus (archbishop of Ravenna)

{{Infobox Christian leader

| predecessor = Reparatus

| successor = Damianus

| name = Theodorus

| honorific_suffix = Archbishop of Ravenna

| image = Paleochristian sarcophagus - Sant'Apollinare in Classe - Ravenna 2016 (2).jpg

| caption = Theodorus' sarcophagus in the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna{{Refn|The Latin epigraph on the sarcophagus' lid reads: "†HIC REQUIESCIT IN PACE THEOδORVƧ V.B. ARCIHEPIƧCOPUƧ†", roughly translatable as "Here rests in peace the archbishop Theodorus".|group=nb}}

| diocese = Archdiocese of Ravenna

| church = Catholic Church

| term = September 677 – 18 January 691{{cite web |url=https://www.diocesiravennacervia.it/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/10/CRONOTASSI-DEI-VESCOVI-DI-RAVENNA.pdf |title=Cronotassi dei vescovi di Ravenna |author= |language=Italian |publisher=Diocese of Ravenna–Cervia|trans-title=Chronological list of bishops of Ravenna |access-date=10 July 2024 |quote=}}

}}

Theodorus was the archbishop of Ravenna from 677 to 691.{{cite book|first=Deborah|last=Mauskopf Deliyannis|title=Ravenna in Late Antiquity|publisher= Cambridge University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-521-83672-2}}{{rp|304}}

Life

Consecrated in Ravenna by his suffragans,{{rp|283–4}}{{Citation| last = Benigni| first = Umberto| author-link = Umberto Benigni| contribution = Ravenna | editor-last = | editor-first = | title = The Catholic Encyclopedia| volume = | pages = | publisher = Robert Appleton Company| place = New York| date = 1911| contribution-url = http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12662b.htm}} under his tenure the church of Ravenna reconciled with the Roman papacy, thus ending a period of acrimony during which the Byzantine emperor Constans II, who was a monothelite, directly opposed the Pope by proclaiming the autocephaly of the church of Ravenna in 666.{{Citation| last = Brown| first = T.S.| contribution = Chapter 13: Byzantine Italy, c.680-c.876 | editor-last = | editor-first = | title = The New Cambridge Medieval History| volume =2 | pages = | publisher = Cambridge University Press| place = | date = 2008| contribution-url = }}{{rp|320}}{{rp|283–4}}

In fact, in 680 Theodorus adhered to the Sixth Ecumenical Council which condemned monothelitism in favour of the Chalcedonian orthodoxy, thus resubmitting his church to Pope Agatho,{{rp|321}} and in 682 he formally renounced to the typus of autocephaly, following the resumption of friendly relations between Constans II's successor Constantine IV and the new Pope Leo II.{{rp|283–4}}

Writing for the Catholic Encyclopedia, church historian Umberto Benigni claimed that he "was hated by his clergy for having suppressed many abuses among them".

According to the 9th-century historian Andreas Agnellus, during Theodorus' tenure his namesake Theodorus, exarch of Ravenna, ordered a chapel dedicated to Saint Theodore the Deacon, but of which there is no trace today.{{rp|146–7}}

Burial

Theodorus' stone sarcophagus is located in the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe,{{cite book|first=Giuseppe|last=Bovini|title=Ravenna: Arte e Storia|year=|publisher=Longo Editore|location=Ravenna|language=Italian}}{{rp|53}} along with others belonging to some of his distant successors such as Gratiosus (died circa 789). All these sarcophagi were sculpted imitating higher-quality models from previous centuries.{{rp|289}}