Maia Regman Ms. Hart Global History I Honors 8 March 2014 Empress Theodora: Prostitute, Empress and Saint ????? One often hears rags to riches stories, but that of Empress Theodora?s is an especially unique one. She was born into poverty but died one of the wealthiest women in the Byzantine Empire. Theodora was a woman was at the bottom of the empire?s social ladder, but eventually saved Byzantium from its own destruction. Empress Theodora was a courtesan turned empress who was finally ordained as a saint by a Greek Orthodox Church after having a great hand in reforms in the Byzantine Empire.