Iconoclast Persecution under Constantine V
Theocteristus's monastic career fell within the height of Byzantine Iconoclasm under Constantine V, an emperor remembered by later iconophile sources as obsessive in his hostility toward images and monks. Accounts describe the burning of monasteries and icons, the conversion of churches into stables, and the public humiliation of monks, who on one occasion were forced to parade in the Hippodrome in violation of their vows. In 765 Saint Stephen the Younger was killed and venerated as a martyr to the iconophile cause.
The Bithynian monasteries of Mount Olympus, including Symbola, lay on the geographical periphery of effective imperial control and became a spiritually resistant zone during and after the height of the persecution. Because most surviving accounts of this era were written by iconophile opponents of Constantine V, they may be biased in detail, but the broad pattern of monastic persecution is well attested.
The Monastery of Symbola and its Disciples
Under Theocteristus, the Symbola Monastery was a centre of icon-venerating monasticism in Bithynia. Two of his renowned disciples were Saint Timothy (d. 795), an Italian-born monk who led an ascetic life at Symbola, and Saint Plato (feast April 4), the uncle of Saint Theodore the Studite. Plato entered monastic life at Symbola in 759, eventually succeeded Theocteristus as abbot, and in 781 founded the Sakkoudion Monastery, where Theodore the Studite began his own monastic career.
Plato was noted for his iconodule stance during the iconoclast controversy and took part in the Second Council of Nicaea (787), which restored the veneration of icons. The continuity from Symbola through Sakkoudion to the Stoudios tradition links Theocteristus's community to one of the most influential currents of later Byzantine monasticism.
Some sources connect Theocteristus instead with the Peletiki (Pelekete) community at Triglia, which may reflect a discrepancy among the sources or the possibility that he was associated with more than one community at different points. The Pelekete Monastery, however, is more securely linked to the other Theosteriktos, who was tortured in the iconoclast attack of 763.
Ascetic Character and Sayings
The troparion sung in his honour (Tone 8) praises him as one whose "flood of tears made the desert fertile" and whose "longing for God brought forth fruits in abundance," language consistent with the ascetic and confessorial character attributed to him.
A spiritual saying handed down under his name expresses the same renunciatory ideal: "Longing for God wipes away longing for parents."
