bring some consistency into the stories, it seems to have been assumed that there must have been two different saints, St Theodore Tiron of Amasea and St Theodore Stratelates of Heraclea. There is much confusion between these two saints, and each of them is sometimes said to have had a shrine at Euchaita in Pontus. In fact the shrine existed before any distinction was made between these two saints. The separate shrine of Stratelates was at Euchaneia, a different place. They were distinguished at least by the 9th century. However it is now generally accepted, at least in the west, that there was in fact only one St Theodore. Hippolyte Delehaye wrote in 1909 that the existence of the second Theodore had not been historically established, and Walter in 2003 wrote that "the Stratelates is surely a fiction". There were several churches dedicated to both saints, Theodore Tiron and Theodore Stratelates. For instance at Dobarsko and at Serres, at the monastery of Kuprianou at Constantinople and at Pergamon. Veneration Veneration of the saint is established for the late 4th century. His cult spread rapidly and he became highly popular. There was a church dedicated to him in Constantinople in the 5th century, and one in Rome by the 6th century. The center of veneration was in the province of Amasea. From the 9th or 10th century (and possibly earlier), the city of Euchaita, about 30 miles from Amasea housed the relics of the saint and became an important place of pilgrimage. In a tradition recorded in the 10th or 11th century, a woman from Euchaita named Eusebia had transferred the saint's relic according to his wishes. The same tradition also associates Theodore with the dragon slayer motif. In the late 11th century, the Amasea province was gradually overwhelmed by the Turkish invasion and Euchaita became depopulated. Gregory of Nyssa said nothing about St Theodore's life beyond the basic legend as given above, but he told how he could influence the lives of his hearers and specifically mentioned that he could intervene in battles. This became a particularly important attribute of St Theodore. Theodore was one of the important military saints of Byzantium. After the period of iconoclasm, from the 9th century, he was depicted as a soldier in military dress. A tradition origating in Cappadocia from the 9th or 10th century depicted him as dragon-slayer alongside Saints Demetrius and George.