TITUS THE WONDERWORKER

On April 15 (2), the Church celebrates the memory of St. Titus the Wonderworker. It is known that the saint was the abbot of one of the monasteries in the vicinity of Constantinople. The time of his life is the 9th century. The popular veneration of Titus was accompanied by an abundance of miracles. Unfortunately, no specific information has been preserved in his life. If we compare the lives of saints with paintings, Titus the Wonderworker is a saint whom his contemporaries could not express.

Historians are in search of documents; theology is looking for interpretation of what has been preserved. The Church is a community of interpreters, it is also a treasury of what was transmitted by the Apostles and experienced by their disciples for centuries.

The life briefly states that the saint resisted the iconoclasts. Byzantine iconoclasm began in 730. In 787, the Council of Bishops in Nicaea, which became the Seventh Ecumenical Council in history, declared the veneration of icons mandatory. The rationale for the veneration of icons became a dogma.

This victory was followed by defeat. In 815, iconoclasm continued again, and was stopped only after about a quarter of a century, when in 843 the Local Council in Constantinople restored the veneration of icons.

Judging by his life, Titus was a witness to this second iconoclastic period. He was probably a confessor. According to ancient tradition, this is already an image of holiness. It is important to remember that the time of Byzantine iconoclasm was the longest continuous period of persecution and martyrdom in all Orthodox history.

Perhaps St Titus, like the great ancient saints, himself tried to remain in obscurity and hide all available information about himself. It is also possible that his contemporaries saw him as an example of virtue, but they saw it in such a way that in the unparalleled nature of his example they simply had nothing to cling to. Their perception of holiness was too superficial. Like the gospel blind man before his healing, “they saw people as trees” (Mark 8:22).

It is also likely that information about the saint’s biography was destroyed by the iconoclasts themselves. Historically, it is known that the main defenders of icon veneration were ordinary believers and monastics.

In response, the iconoclasts, both those in power and the hierarchs, persecuted the monastics, subjected them to physical violence, and destroyed the monasteries. It is tragically paradoxical that the iconoclastic emperors themselves were sincere believers. They relied on many hierarchs, and in 754 they even convened a pseudo-Ecumenical Council against icon veneration. Apparently, like many Christian rulers later, they destroyed the foundations of the Church for the benefit of the state and modernization.

Perhaps we will never be able to answer the question of why no information has been preserved about the biography of Titus the Wonderworker. In fact, the only detail of the life of Saint Titus was his very veneration by the people. The holy of holies of the biography of this ascetic was revealed in just one word. After all, he is one of the very few saints whose addition to their name says: “Wonder Worker.” This is a very rare name.

The example of his memory teaches us not only to remember the saints of Christian antiquity, but to remember every precious detail of the words and deeds of the righteous around us. After all, every person, and even great saints, is characterized by loss, earthly things await disappearance.