If we were playing a “who is it” game, and I said to you, “Warrior saint, dragonslayer, saved princess,” you would probably answer “St. George.” There is, however, another saint in icons who fits that description. We would call him Theodore in English, though the Russians call him Feodor and the Greeks Theodoros.
In his “Lives of the Saints,” Dmitriy Rostovskiy (who was himself declared a saint) identified the dragonslayer Theodore as Theodore Stratelates (meaning “General”); but there is another warrior saint Theodore called Theodore Tiron (“Recruit”). Here is a fresco from the Rila Monastery in Bulgaria depicting both:
Let’s look a bit closer. Here is Theodore Tiron:
If you are a long time reader here, you should be easily able to read the title inscription as:
SVYATUIY FEODOR TYRON [TIRON] — “Holy Theodore Tiron.”
Tiron is just the transliterated Greek word Τήρων, meaning “Recruit.”
Here is the other one:
SVYATUIY FEODOR STRATILAT — “Holy Theodore [the] General.” Again, Stratilat is just a Slavicization of the Greek Στρατηλάτης, meaning “General.” So this Theodore has a higher rank than the first:
The consensus of scholars, however, is that the second and higher ranked Theodore — Theodore Stratelates — Theodore the General — never existed, but is another of those fictional saints created in error. He was mistakenly duplicated from Theodore Tiron, but given a higher rank.
The Bolshakov Podlinnik describes them like this:
Here is Theodore Stratelates, on February 9th:
“Of holy Martyr Feodor Stratilat, rus hair like George, beard of Nikita the Martyr, in armor, robe cinnabar with white, cloak white, in the left hand a shield, on the head a reddish-purple helmet highlighted with cinnabar, in the hand a cross.”
Then, on February 17th, we have Theodore Tiron:
“Of the Holy Great Martyr Feodor Tiron, rus (light brown/dark blond), hair on the head curly, beard the length of Florus, in armor, armor all checkered gold, outer [robe] cinnabar, under armor green, leggings purplish black, in the right hand a cross, and in the left a sword.”
Now we can easily see these descriptions do not fully match the Bulgarian depictions, but painters in different places often used other colors, so do not expect the Bolshakov Podlinnik to accurately describe all saints as they were depicted by different painters.
ICONS AND THEIR INTERPRETATION 