view, and all strife seemed hushed in a common
devotion to the memory of the saint. It was soon after this event that
Theodora restored the church and monastery of S. Andrew, and upon the
completion of the work she besought the emperor to allow the remains of
Arsenius to be transferred to that shrine. The request was granted, and
the body was carried to the church of St. Andrew with as great pomp and
ceremony as attended its arrival in the capital. There it was kept until
the patriarchate of Niphon (1311-1314), when it was again taken to S.
Sophia to appear in the final conclusion of peace between the friends
and foes of the deceased.[163] Standing beside the remains, Niphon
pronounced, in the name and by the authority of the dead man, a general
absolution for all offences committed in connection with the quarrels
which had raged around the name of Arsenius; and so long as S. Sophia
continued to be a Christian sanctuary the remains were counted among the
great treasures of the cathedral. 'There,' to quote the words of a
devout visitor shortly before the Turkish conquest, 'is found the body
of the holy patriarch Arsenius, whose body, still intact, performs many
miracles.'[164]

During the closing years of her life Theodora made the monastery or
convent of S. Andrew in Krisei her home.[165] To retire thus from the
troubled sea of secular life to the haven of a monastery, and there
prepare for the voyage beyond earthly scenes, was a common practice in
the fashionable world of the men and women of Byzantine days. And it was
natural for a wealthy traveller to leave at the port of call some
splendid token of devotion and gratitude. The protovestiarissa was still
an inmate of the monastery in 1289, when her friend the Patriarch
Gregory, to whom she was bound by many ties, was compelled to
resign.[166] He was one of the most learned men of his time and took an
active part in the efforts to reconcile the Arsenites. It was during his
tenure of office that the body of Arsenius was brought to the capital,
and subsequently transferred from S. Sophia to the church of S. Andrew;
he also opposed the union of the Churches, and in the controversy
regarding the 'Procession of the Holy Ghost' which divided Christendom,
he vigorously defended the doctrine of the Greek Communion against
Veccus, who championed the Latin Creed.

Strongly attached to her friends, and quick to resent any injustice to
them, Theodora came forward in the hour of t