Euchaita
Coordinates: 40 ° 34 ' N , 35 ° 16' E
Euchaita was a small town ( polisma ) in northern Asia Minor ( Pontos ). Nikephoros Uranos calls it proasteion . Today the Turkish village, which is partly on the ruins, is called Beyözü. It is in the province of Çorum .
According to the legend, St. Theodore of Euchaita killed a dragon and met the pious Eusebia, who after his martyrdom in 303 kept his bones there. As early as 400 there was a church above his grave. In the Vita of Chrysippos , however, the corresponding city is called Amaseia ( Amasya ). It was raised to the status of a city and a bishopric by Anastasios I. Thereafter, nothing has come down from the history of the city until between 880 and 890 Emperor Photios elevated his favorite Theodoros Santabarenos to Metropolitan of Euchaita. Towards the end of the 10th century, the square gained some importance when Emperor Johannes I Tzimiskes had a church dedicated to St. Theodore built here. The name of the city was then changed to Theodoropolis .
Churchmen, saints and writers like the Patriarch Petrus Fullo of Antioch (469-470, 475-477 and 484-488), Patriarch Petros III. Mongos (477–489), Euphemios (489–495), Makedonios (495–511) and Eutychios (552–565) of Constantinople , Alypios Stylitos and Johannes Moschos attended Euchaita or were exiled to there.
At the beginning of the 7th century the church of St. Theodore was devastated by the Sassanids . According to legend, they scattered his remains, which is why they were plagued by earthquakes, diseases and demons until they asked a priest to collect the relics. During the reconquest by the Byzantines in 622, Euchaita was burned down, but was finally rebuilt by Bishop Eleutherios .
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- Raymond Janin: La géographie ecclésiastique de l'Empire Byzantin 1.3: Le siège de Constantinople et le patriarcat oecuménique: les églises et les monastères , Paris 1969², pp. 148–155.
- Frank Trombley: The Decline of the seventh-century town: the exception of Euchaita , In: Byzantine Studies in Honor of Milton V. Anastos, ed. Spyros Vryonis, Jr., Malibu 1985, pp. 65-90.