St. Theodosios the Great passed away on this day in 395. I am writing this from the hospital in Cooperstown, NY. My mother Veronika was admitted here with pneumonia on Friday. Her heart rate was quite high yesterday morning. It is back to normal and I hope it stays this way. While St. Constantine the Great was born in born in Naissus (today Niš, Serbia), Emperor Theodosios was born in 347 in today’s Spain. His father was a top military commander serving under Valentinian I. At the time, the Roman empire was dealing with the same problem as throughout its history: policing the borders. The Nomadic people tried their luck. Sarmatians from the Don region penetrated the borders from the East, and the Goths, Germanic invaders, from the West. In this situation, it was an achievement by Theodosios that he secured peace with the Persians, a sworn enemy of the Romans. Emperor Theodosios finalized the transition of the empire from paganism to Christianity. The famous landmarks of antiquity like the Serapeum of Alexandria were demolished by mobsters. St. Theodosios continued along the lines of Imperial Orthodoxy, supporting the idea of a legislative act that would be binding for the empire. The Second Ecumenical Council, which affirmed the “faith of Nicaea”, took place under him in 381. Unfortunately, the Empire remained partitioned into East and West. A massacre of the residents of Thessaloniki, which took place to quell civil unrest, led to St. Ambrose of Milan (under whose jurisdiction the ecclesiastical court fell) declaring Theodosios a penitent – though some historians contest the veracity of this story. | 
