ect when
Gyllius[258] and Gerlach[259] visited the city in the sixteenth century.
The Turkish epithet of the gate 'Aya,' Holy, is thus explained. Du
Cange,[260] contrary to all evidence, places the church of S. Theodosia
on the northern side of the harbour, or at its head, _ultra sinum_.

The saint is celebrated in ecclesiastical history for her opposition to
the iconoclastic policy of Leo the Isaurian. For when that emperor
commanded the eikon of Christ over the Bronze Gate of the Great Palace
to be removed, Theodosia, at the head of a band of women, rushed to the
spot and overthrew the ladder up which the officer, charged with the
execution of the imperial order, was climbing to reach the image. In the
fall the officer was killed. Whereupon a rough soldier seized Theodosia,
and dragging her to the forum of the Bous (Ak Serai), struck her dead by
driving a ram's horn through her neck. Naturally, when the cause for
which she sacrificed her life triumphed, she was honoured as a martyr,
and men said, 'The ram's horn, in killing thee, O Theodosia, appeared to
thee a new Horn of Amalthea.'[261]

[Illustration: PLATE XLIII.
(1) S. THEODOSIA. THE EAST END.
(_E. M. Antoniadi._)
(2) S. THEODOSIA, FROM THE SOUTH-EAST.
_To face page 164._]

The remains of the martyred heroine were taken for burial to the
monastery of Dexiocrates ([Greek: to monasterion to onomazomenon
Dexiokratous]), so named either after its founder or after the district
in which it was situated.[262] This explains why the Gate of S.
Theodosia was also designated the Gate of Dexiocrates ([Greek: Porta
Dexiokratous]).[263] The earliest reference to the church of S.
Theodosia occurs in the account of the pilgrimage made by Anthony,
Archbishop of Novgorod,[264] to Constantinople in 1200. Alluding to that
shrine he says: 'Dans un couvent,' to quote the French translation of
his narrative, 'de femmes se trouvent les reliques de sainte Theodosie,
dans une chasse ouverte en argent.' Another Russian pilgrim from
Novgorod,[265] Stephen, who was in Constantinople in 1350, refers to the
convent expressly as the convent of S. Theodosia: 'Nous allames venerer
la sainte vierge Theodosie, que (pecheurs) nous baisames; il y a la un
couvent en son nom au bord de la mer.' The convent is again mentioned in
the description of Constantinople by the Russian pilgrim[266] who
visited the city shortly before the Turkish conquest (1424-53). 'De la
(Blachernae) nous nous di