Theodora (9th century)

Theodora
Theodora as a saint, in a 19th-century Greek icon
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodox Church
Feast	11 February

Theodora (Greek: Θεοδώρα, Medieval Greek: [θjo'ðora] c. 815 – after 867) was a Byzantine Empress as the spouse of the Byzantine emperor Theophilos, and regent of her son, Michael III, from Theophilos' death in 842 to 855. For her restoration of the veneration of icons, which ended the Byzantine Iconoclasm, she is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church; her Feast Day is February 11. Several churches hold her as their patron saint.

Originally from Paphlagonia, Theodora was of Armenian aristocratic descent. The names of her parents were preserved in Theophanes Continuatus, the continuation of the chronicle started by Theophanes the Confessor. They were Marinos, a drungarios, and Theoktiste Phlorina. Some modern genealogists, including Cyril Toumanoff and Nicholas Adontz, have suggested a link of Theodora's family with the Armenian noble clan of the Mamikonian. According to Nina Garsoïan in the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, however, "[a]ttractive though it is, this thesis cannot be proven for want of sources." Thus genealogists attribute Mamikonian ancestry to Marinos; he is an alleged son of Artavazd Mamikonian, who was head of the House in the 770s. Artavazd headed a large-scale Armenian rebellion against the Abbasid Caliphate that was crushed in the Battle of Bagrevand in 775, after which the family lost power, and many of its members found refuge in Byzantium. Manuel the Armenian, a leading general of Theophilos, was her uncle.