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"Let my body become a church, my hair a forest of trees, and my blood a spring to water them."
The villagers, moved by her bravery and her untimely demise, built a [[church ]] at the site of her grave. A local river re-routed to pass directly under the church. Eventually, trees sprouted from the roof of the church, the roots of which are not visible under the roof and neither inside or outside the church.
Her story is often mistakenly combined with that of St Theodora of Alexandria, who cut her hair, dressed in men's clothing and entered the [[Monastery ]] of Octodecatos, under the male name of Theodore. A promiscuous young woman slandered her, saying that Theodore had made her pregnant.
==Chapel of St. Theodora in Vasta==
The Chapel of St. Theodora is located just outside the village Vasta of Megalopolis in the Peloponnese of Greece. It was built between the 10th and 12th centuries. According to tradition, the construction of the [[church]] is intimately linked with the martyrdom of Theodora. Just before being executed, she prayed to God::''Let my body be a church, my hair a forest of trees, and my blood a spring to water them.''
This small [[chapel]] supports 17 large trees that emerge from the roof and the walls of the chapel. Each tree weighs close to a tonne and stands over 20 metres high. For hundreds of years, the roots have not been visible. Locals could not find a scientific explanation for this phenomenon. Many researchers have spent years studying this structure, even X-raying the walls, but have no explanation for the roots of the trees. In 2003, a geophysical report was presented at the 4th Symposium of Archaeometry in Greece. The results of this investigation proved that the roots followed the gaps existing inside the stone wall of the chapel creating repulsion stresses between the stones and thus reaching the ground.
