THE LIFE OF ST. THEODORE OF SYKEON

[An asterisk * indicates a note, keyed by chapter, at the end of the life.]

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When Theodosius, the holy Bishop of Anastasioupolis, heard how Theodore had been carried halfdead out of his cave, he immediately went to him in the chapel. And when he saw him, he shuddered at the sores on his head, kissed him and ordained him 'lector' . . . And on the following day he ordained him subdeacon and then priest, saying 'Behold, God deems you worthy to be granted, one after the other, the orders in the hierarchy of the Church, so that you can celebrate the sacred liturgy to the edification of those coming to the oratory; and may the Lord our God, the generous bestower of gifts in which He has made you to share, deem you worthy hereafter to be clothed with the office of bishop and entrusted with the care of a flock. For as you have now received the gift of these four talents* and are soon to receive the habit of a monk, you are only short of one. May God give you that one, too, after you have doubled the number of your saintly deeds. Therefore advance in faith and in the flower of virtue and pray for me' And after blessing Theodore and embracing him, he returned to his city.

Theodore, the servant of God, was only eighteen years old at that time and consequently many people found fault with the bishop saying that the ordination was invalid, since Theodore had not reached the proper age. Whereupon the holy Bishop Theodosius replied to them, 'I, too, am well aware that it appears uncanonical to some to ordain a man contrary to the rules of age and without any witnesses. For the apostle Paul says in his injunctions to Timothy: 'Not a novice lest being puffed up he fall into the condemnation and snare of the devil.' l

'But just as that same Paul judged Timothy, young as he was, worthy of a bishopric, so I too ordained this youth in the name of the Lord, and I shall never be brought to shame by his manner of life. For God assured me that he was worthy of the priesthood, and most certainly this boy is from God. Therefore do not regard his youthfulness, but regard rather the nobleness of his soul, just as Samuel was told concerning David. [! Tim 3:6] For "It is not the longlived that are wise, nor the aged that understand judgment' [Cf. 1 Sam 16.6 sqq] 'and, again, as Elihu declared in the book of Job "But there is a spirit of God in man and it is the breath of the Almighty which teaches" [See Job 32:8-9 in LXX] and works with the young, and renders their manner of life pious and virtuous.' After the bishop had spoken thus, all were fully satisfied with his words; and Theodore, the young athlete of Christ, made progress in wisdom and spiritual understanding, and the grace of God was upon him.

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Now these doings of his childhood and youth have been written by me George,* his unworthy servant and disciple; some of them I learnt from his contemporaries and school fellows, who lived and associated with him at that time and actually saw these things with their own eyes, but the majority of them I gathered from the lips of the holy and saintly man himself, when he lived alone and would narrate these things with pleasure in order to arouse in us a longing and desire for them. And I have written them after his death so that the young, through hearing of his virtuous manner of life as a child, may strive to emulate his angelic and blameless life, and be accounted worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven, through the grace of Christ our God to Whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory both now and for ever, world without end [lit: to the ages of ages]. Amen.

The Lord Jesus Christ, our true God, the sun of righteousness, the ineffable light, the everflowing fount of immortality the life undefiled, the salvation of our souls, the giver of wisdom, inspired even me George, your sinful servant, with the passionate desire to tell, and you, my Godloving readers, with a burning longing to hear the manner of life of our great and holy father, Theodore, now among the saints, for that life until its close was supremely virtuous and crowned with miracles.

For I have been deemed worthy to narrate to you the story of his early years. And in reliance on the prayers of you all, I now venture to take up the tale afresh, and I look to God to be my guide and to bring my task to its completion.

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So then Theodore, the most holy servant of God, was deemed worthy of the priesthood by our Saviour God at the age of eighteen, and with godly wisdom he strove to show himself like unto a prudent man in accordance with the Lord's appointment, praised be His name.* Thus he left his parental home which was built upon sand and all the earthly things therein, resolving within himself never to set foot in it again and in full assurance of faith he devoted himself body and so and with a sincere heart to God.

He founded his dwelling on the hallowed spot which was literally and figuratively made of rock [Matt 7:24-25], where there stood the revered oratory of the holy and glorious martyr George, in order easily to repel the attacks of alien winds* and to ward off the uprising of the flood, that came like waters in their wake. And thus with his faith firmly based on the rock of Christ and with the help of the holy martyr commemorated in the oratory he spent his time on all the Godinspired Scriptures deeming them to be the sources of eternal life.3 Most often did he ponder over the holy Gospel and he was continually pricked in heart, especially when he considered the descent from heaven of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, His incarnation and life on earth, and how He deigned to suffer and be crucified in Jerusalem, and to be buried and to rise again. Through marvelling and wondering that these things should have taken place on earth, he was seized with the desire to travel and to worship at the holy places of the Christ which His immaculate feet had trodden, and also because of the words of the prophet Zecharias, 'Every race and every tribe shall be accursed which goeth not up to worship them'. [Zech. 14:17]

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And further as his mother and sister, his aunt and grandmother had come up to visit him, he bade them farewell, and finding by God's providence another willing and anxious to make the same journey, he took him as his companion and started out, forgetting all difficulties in his longing for the desired goal. When he reached Jerusalem, the ardently desired city of the holy places of Christ, he adored the Holy Cross, the place of the lifegiving Resurrection, the sacred manger and the glorious place of the Ascension and all the other holy spots commemorative of the saving Passion of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. He further visited all the monasteries and the various fathers confined in cells round about the city, and the hermits in the inner desert. After receiving a blessing from them he would inquire into the manner of life of each of the more earnest ones, and recorded their answers that he might imitate their example. In his wanderings he came down to the Jordan where our Saviour and God was baptized, and arrived at the neighbouring monastery of our Lady, the Mother of God, called Chouziba.* After praying and saluting the archimandrite there and the holy fathers who were with him he begged them to grant him the angelic habit of a monk. As the archimandrite had been fully instructed by God about him he invested him with the robe of a monk without hesitation or delay. Then they all joined in the prayer that Theodore might prove wellpleasing unto God and wellreputed among men. When their spiritual joy and feasting on his account had had free course, he embraced them and after receiving their approval he left the monastery and returned to his own country, Galatia, and entered the oratory of the holy martyr George. There he dwelt with great joy, his face like Moses' shining with glory and grace, and he further built himself up by fasting and sleeping Oil the ground, by vigils, and by psalmsinging; in consequence he received from God an inflow of still greater gifts of grace to strengthen him in his fight against unclean spirits and all kinds of diseases.

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Now his mother minded not the things of the Lord but the things of the flesh,1 and did not feel for her son that intense longing and affection for their children which like a fire consumes some mothers. She left her most holy son, took the portion of the inheritance due to her, and was joined in marriage to a notable man, David by name, a leading citizen (protiktor) in the metropolis of Ancyra. t

But her sister, Despoinia, and her mother, Elpidia, and the Saint's sister, Blatta, could not bear to be separated from him, but rather through observing his virtuous life they strove as far as possible to imitate him, purifying and ennobling themselves by sobriety and chastity, by almsgiving and prayers. When Despoinia died she left him all her worldly goods and was buried by him in the church of the holy martyr, St. Gemellus. And his sister, Blatta, a virgin of twelve years old the most holy man took to the metropolis of Ancyra and placed her in the charge of the dedicated virgins in the convent called Petris; and after she had received the habit of a nun he dedicated her to the Lord, for she was winning many victories in her spiritual life, and then he returned to his own place. His blessed sister lived three years and then passed to her rest having borne testimony by her good works; when her most holy brother, who had also been her guide into the Kingdom, heard of her death, he sent her forth as a bride to the heavenly bridalchamber and rejoiced in Christ. His grandmother, the blessed Elpidia, loved him exceedingly and sympathized with him, and would often come up and view his ascetic contest and glorify God who had made a rosebearing, fruitful bough of piety to grow out of the thistles of harlotry and had raised up a child of Abraham out of useless stones. [Cf Matt 3:9] And stretching forth her hands to heaven she prayed for him that his mind should remain undisturbed and raised above material things ever giving glory to God, and that he should keep his faith 'stedfast and unmoveable' [1 Cor 15:58] unto the end.

She also left her rooms in the inn and gathering all her belongings together wanted to remain with him always in order to enjoy still greater gladness and at the same time to minister to him. However, he would not allow this, but asked her to come to the convent of St. Christopher lying to the East and there he persuaded her to remain. And the children who came to him plagued by unclean spirits he used to send to her (especially if they were girls) to receive treatment and to be taught their duties by living with her and that those who wished to remain after they were cured might be enrolled among the nuns.

And for such services as he himself required he hired a man from the neighbouring village of Kastina.

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(Summary) A man, inspired by a passionate love of God, came to Theodore from the village of Spaninae and asked to be allowed to stay with him. This was granted and he became so zealous a disciple after receiving the habit of a monk that he healed a man tormented by a demon.

On another occasion a woman came from the village of Konkatis, suffering from a serious malady of the womb. She was cured by the Saint's prayers, and then left for the village of Mossyna, also called Enistratos, where her son, Philoumenus, was teacher in the children's school. Him she brought to the Saint asking that he might live with him. (There is a lacuna in the MS. towards the end of this chapter and the close of this incident is lost.)

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There lived in this village (presumably Mossyna) a very excellent smith-him the holy man ordered to make a very narrow iron cage that he might enter therein and standing in it pass his days of fasting. So the men of the village impelled by faith one and all brought their agricultural tools in order that his bidding might be executed, and in this way the cage was fittingly finished for his holiness.

He wanted to take it away at once and return to his own monastery, but the men of the village begged him to leave it there until they made a second one of wood on the same pattern, and to do them the favour of passing his accustomed period of seclusion in it the following winter, so that they might have it as a protection in memory of his holiness and afterwards they would give him the iron one.

He gave the promise on these conditions; then they assembled and accompanied him with a religious procession and reestablished him in his sanctified place during the Great Week of our Saviour's Passion and afterwards returned to their own homes.

Then they made the wooden cage and in the following winter they returned with a religious procession and fetched him and escorted him to their village. And he entered into the wooden cage, which was standing in the church of St. John the Baptist, and in it he observed his fast from Christmas to Palm Sunday. On that day he came out and the inhabitants of the village formed a religious procession and carrying the iron cage accompanied him and restored him before the feast to his own place. After receiving his blessing they returned to their homes. He had the cage suspended above the cave on the face of the rock in midair, and ordered iron rings to be made for his feet, fifteen pounds in weight, and similar ones for his hands, and a cross with a collar of eighteen pounds weight and a belt for his loins of thirty-three pounds and an iron staff with a cross on it.

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He further wished to have a very heavy corselet, and by God's foresight a man came and brought him a coat of triple mail* called a 'lorica'; weighing fifty pounds, which the saint accepted and gave thanks to God who speedily fulfils the desire of them that ask in faith. But he feared for himself because his body continued to grow more lusty, and because he was assailed by the passions of the flesh; so he invented for himself a perpetual bond of remembrance by immediately hanging the two rings round his feet and determining never to take them off but carry them with him even to the grave. When the day of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ came round on which He was born of Mary the allHoly Virgin and Mother of God, he put on the corselet over his hairtunic, girt on the iron belt, placed the cross round his neck, the circlets round his hands and in this guise entered into the cave practising abstinence till the 'Paralepsis';* then coming out of the cave again he went into the cage, keeping under* his body and bringing it into subjection by the confined space and by fasting, by frost and by the weight of the irons hanging round his body. By these means he humiliated and put to shame the power and the varied attacks of the enemy. He did not touch any bread at all nor even any pulse from Christmas day to Palm Sunday, his sole food was an apple or a salad of vegetables, and this only on a Saturday and Sunday.

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The prescribed amount of his psalmsinging was great, so that he would rest for a while and then repeat the same Psalms over again, and the fatigue from this under wintry conditions was beyond all description. For when a snowstorm came and the wind was blowing he was shot at by the violence of the wind as with an arrow while the snow fell and often the water coming in at his neck would run down under his tunic to his feet, and his hairgarments were drenched with water. When a frost came the ice caused him no little anguish and his feet would freeze to the boards on which he stood. For from cockcrow on he forced himself not to move his feet at all from the platform on which he stood and not even to lean forward, even for a minute, against the iron railings of his cage until the evening.

So that in the earlier periods for two years when the frosts were so severe that even trees and large jars were split asunder, his feet became glued to the boards and in the evening when he pulled them up his feet were, so to say, 'stripped', as the soles of his feet remained on the boards, like sandals.

He endured this for two years, but from that time on, when his feet were held fast by the frost, his attendant would take warm water and pour it on his feet and thus the frost which held them was gradually thawed and he could move from his narrow platform.

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Another time when the feast of Easter fell towards the end of the month of April, and the sun had been shining very fiercely during Lent as in summer, it happened that owing to his abstinence and the brilliant sunshine he fainted and fell down inside his cage as if dead. So Philoumenus, beloved of God, covered the cage with his cloak to make some shade for him. But when the athlete of God came to his senses and saw the garment shading the cage he was very indignant and upbraided Philoumenus severely and bade him tear it away and never do so again. Now God 'who glorifieth them who glorify Him' [1 Sam 2:30] wished to prove that it was through faith* - not from the desire to please men, but from a singlehearted devotion to God-that Theodore had been led to choose this manner of life, and of this He gave manifest witness and assurance enough to al1 since wild beasts in the presence of the Saint became quite tame and mannerly, while from him there came a stream of mighty miracles wrought amongst men.

At the beginning of his period of seclusion in the cage a most formidable bear used to come to him for three successive years and on receiving some food (eulogia) from his hand would go away quietly without doing an injury to any of the bystanders-Again, a wolf came to the entrance of his cave when he was shut up there and stood waiting. His servant, Marinus by name, went out and suddenly catching sight of the beast was terrified and ran in and told the Saint about it - but he, smiling a little, said, 'Do not be afraid, you coward, where is your manhood? for the wolf has not appeared to do you any harm but driven by a belly like yours it has come in search of food. So take this, brother, and carry it out to him so that not only in the case of men but also in that of wild beasts the commandment of God may be fulfilled which says, "Give to everyone that asketh thee' [Matt 5:42] So the servant took a piece of bread and a slice of apple from the store of food from which the Saint was wont to give presents (eulogiae) to his visitors, and going out threw only the slice of apple to the beast and tried to drive it away. The wolf seized and ate it, and then stood still again and would not budge, just as if something were still owing to it; then the servant threw the piece of bread, too, and it at once galloped off, and he went in and told his master of the impudent conduct of the animal.