Hieromartyr Theodotus the Bishop of Ancyra, June 7

Life, from the OCA website:

The Holy Martyr Theodotus lived in Ancyra of Galatia in the third century. He was distinguished by his kindliness and concern. At the height of the persecution under Diocletian (284-305) he provided Christians with everything they needed, and gave them shelter in his home. There they secretly celebrated church services.

St. Theodotus visited the Christian captives in prison, paid their bail, and reverently buried the bodies of martyrs who had been thrown to the wild beasts. Once he buried the bodies of seven holy women martyrs, who were drowned in the sea (May 18). They reported this to the governor.

After refusing to offer sacrifice to idols, and denouncing the folly of paganism, St. Theodotus confessed Christ as God, for which they subjected him to terrible tortures and beheaded him with a sword. They wanted to burn the holy martyr's body, but could not do so because of a storm which had arisen, so they gave his holy relics to a certain Christian for burial.

Kolokotronis probably knows more about the canons than most of us on this forum, and anything he says that contradicts what I am going to say should take precedence.

There is no fixed body of canon law in the Orthodox Church comparable to that in Roman Catholicism. To use a secular analogy, it is more like English common law in the sense that there isn't one current set of codified canons that is binding throughout the Orthodox Church. The history of how the particular canon came about and how it has been applied in practice is very important.

Each local Orthodox Church will have its canons and rules, but these are not viewed as superceding older canons. Quite the contrary -- the older canons tend to take precedence.

The "standard" compilation of canons from the various councils, etc... is "The Rudder." I don't own a copy, and most laymen (and even priests) are told to stay far away from it -- interpreting and applying the canons are the exclusive domain of bishops, since they aren't viewed as laws, but rather as guidelines for pastoral decisions on how to reconcile a sinner to the Church.

As I recall, most canons have one of three things appointed to it:

1. If the person repents, there is a prescribed period of time without receiving the Mysteries (or, if clergy, of functioning as a priest.) The purpose to this is to protect the individual from bringing death and sickness on himself, and to make for a sincere changing of life.

2. If the layman doesn't repent, he is excommunicated indefinitely until he does repent.

3. If a clergyman doesn't repent, he is deposed. (He can, according to the canons, function normally as a layman at that point so long as he behaves.)

So, the answer that he would be excommunicated. The question is what the period of time of being deprived of the Mysteries would be, once he does repent. This would have to be found in The Rudder. I would imagine that there would be a canon addressing this issue, if anyone on the list has a copy (and is brave enough to open it!)

I will say this: whatever The Rudder says, the periods of time prescribed are generally drastically reduced, if they are applied at all. The penalties are just too stiff for modern man to bear, and since the purpose of the canons are to benefit the soul of the sinner, clergy in the modern era generally won't alienate people from the Church by applying them in this way.

Deacon, I suspect that somewhere in the vast collection of the Rudder, or in various local collections of canon law, there is such a prohibition. I suspect the penalty would be excommunication for at least some long period of time.

Our canon law really isn't like Roman Canon Law at all; in fact its more like Common Law than continental or Roman Code law.

Here's a link to a discussion of Orthodox canon law which may be of interest: http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article7071.asp

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