THEODORE OF RHAITHU

Sixth-century monk and theological writer currently thought to be identical with Theodore, Bishop of Pharan, the Monergist proponent. Theodore, a monk and priest of a monastery at Rhaithu (at-Tûr ), a port in southern Arabia, is considered the last of the Neo-Chalcedonian authors. He is credited with a Proparaskeue, or Preparatio, that attempts to harmonize Chalcedonian doctrine with the terminology of St. cyril of alexandria. Writing during a peaceful era (c. 580–620), Theodore intended to provide a theological indoctrination by exposing the errors of Manes, paul of samosata, apollinaris of la odicea, theodore of mopsuestia, nestorius, and eutyches, and to demonstrate that the Church follows a secure path between heresies in its exposition of the doctrine of the Incarnation. He attacked more recent heretical movements particularly on the part of severus of antioch and julian of halicarnassus. In the MSS this treatise is connected with a philosophical tract that discusses the notions of essence, nature, hypostasis, and person and seems to be a compendium of the Isogogues of Porphyry and Aristotle's Categories. As the two parts are only loosely related, the authenticity of the second part has been challenged. A work on the Holy Trinity is also attributed to Theodore; but it is actually a section from the fifth book of the Fabulae hereticorum of Theodoret of Cyr.

J. Junglas considered Theodore the author of the De Sectis, which has been attributed also to leontius of by zantium. F. Diekamp believed the Preparatio to be a commentary on the Dogmatic Tract of anastasius i, Patriarch of Antioch, and his hypothesis that the Preparatio was written between 580 and 620 has been supported by W. Elerts, who contends that Theodore is identical with the Monenergist Theodore, Bishop of Pharan, whose works are preserved only in fragments but to whom Maximus Homologethes attributes a tract on Essence, Nature, Hypothesis, and Person (Patrologia Graeca 91: 136).

Bibliography: Patrologia Graeca 91:1483–1504, Preparatio, pt.1. Kirche und theologische Literatur im byzantinischen Reich 382–383. f. diekamp, Analecta patristica (Rome 1938) 173–222, Preparatio, pts. 1 and 2. w. elert, Theologische Literaturzeitung 76 (1951) 67–76, Theodor v. Pharan and Theodor v. Raithu. m. richard, Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique 35 (1939) 712, Leontius of Byzantium; Dictionnaire de théologie catholique 15.1:282–284. v. grumel, Échos d'Orient 27 (1928) 257–277, Monothelitism. É. amann, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique 15.1:279–282.

[f. chiovaro]