The Pelekete Monastery and the Iconoclast Persecution
The Pelekete monastery lay in Bithynia, in the region of Asia Minor near medieval Trigleia (modern Tirilye in Turkey). Its name derives from the Greek for "hewn with an axe," a reference to its setting on a steep rock. The community, also known as the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian, became a center of iconodule opposition to Byzantine iconoclasm during the 8th century.
Under the emperor Constantine V Copronymus, the imperial campaign against the holy icons fell with particular severity on monastics, who were among the most determined defenders of icon veneration. External accounts record that in 763/764 the iconoclast governor Michael Lachanodrakon attacked and burned the monastery, torturing its abbot and monks. The OCA synaxarion places Theoctistus's suffering within this same persecution, naming Saint Stephen the New (commemorated November 28) among those who suffered in the period.
Martyrdom
The record followed here, drawn from the OCA synaxarion, holds that Theoctistus was burned with boiling tar and so received the crown of martyrdom, and he is venerated as a hieromartyr.
A divergent tradition, preserved in Greek sources, presents the same figure as Theosteriktos the Confessor: by this account he survived severe mutilation - his nose, ears, and fingers cut off - and a long imprisonment, reposing in peace on March 17 in the year 807, and is kept on that day in the Greek churches. The two accounts agree on his abbacy at Pelekete, his confession of the icons under Constantine V, and his authorship of a canon to the Theotokos, differing on whether he died under torment or survived to a peaceful repose.
Writings
Theoctistus is remembered as a spiritual writer. The OCA synaxarion credits him with a canon to the Mother of God, "Sustainer in Many Misfortunes." Greek tradition associates the same saint with the composition of the Small Paraklesis (Supplication) Canon to the Theotokos, said to have been written during his time among the ruins of his monastery.
