THEODOSIUS THE GREAT

On February 24 (11), the Church celebrates the memory of St. Theodosius the Great (423-529), the founder of communal monasticism in Palestine. It is believed that before him, monasticism in the Holy Land was hermitic, idiorrhythmic or literally „following one“s own rules’, often serving charity or pilgrimage. Thus, St. Jerome translated the Bible, and Mary of Egypt labored in solitude, avoiding people. Theodosius laid the foundation for communal monastic life.

For us, the children of the Russian Church, the memory of St. Theodosius has special significance. The fact is that it was in honor of Theodosius that one of the two founders of Kiev-Pechersk monasticism was named at the turn of the first and second millennia, after Rus was baptized in 988.

Anthony of the Caves (983-1073), the founder of the Lavra, was named after Anthony the Great (251-356), and Theodosius (1009-1074), who continued his work and gave the Kiev Monastery of the Caves communal form known to us, was named after the Palestinian saint.

It is interesting that the fellow countryman, contemporary and, in a spiritual sense, brother in the founding of the original monastic life in Egypt was not Theodosius, but Pachomius (292-348). Also called “the Great”, he, unlike Anthony, the founder of “simple monasticism” as a way of life and institution, was a pioneer of the communal monastic life. Thousands of monks lived in the monasteries of Pachomius, they were distinguished by extreme strictness. According to one legend, the monks there were called simply by the letters of the alphabet, and with a certain periodicity the names of the monks, again, in alphabetical order, moved around the groups of names. Pachomius’ monasticism was truly unique in many of its characteristics and it failed to survive in the practice of the Church.

Anthony of the Caves took monastic vows on Mount Athos, and Theodosius was tonsured by Anthony himself. The special mystery of God’s providence regarding the names of the holy pioneers of monasticism in Rus’ is that Anthony the Great and Theodosius of Palestine, whose names they bore, were not contemporaries, lived in different contexts, moreover, on different continents.

But thanks to the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery and the names of its founders, one gets the impression that they acted together. This is such a special “retrospection through the eyes of God”, the mysterious purpose of which is to indicate that the true „one-timeness“, community and communion of saints resides in God. “Life is Elsewhere” - as our contemporary writer Milan Kundera called his famous essay. The saints are related to each other not only and not so much by chronology or community of biographies, but by the plan of God’s holiness. After all, holiness is His uncreated creation, the work of His hands. The hands of God, as the Church Father Irenaeus of Lyons (130-202) wrote, are Jesus the Son of God and the Holy Spirit.

In the communion of completely different geographical, ecclesiastical and monastic traditions, Anthony of Egypt and Theodosius of Palestine, between whom there was almost nothing in common, except the very absence of such a community, suddenly united in the names of Anthony and Theodosius of the Caves, believers see a special vocation of the Church of Ancient Rus’, which was then destined to grow and enlighten with the Light of Christ (Matt. 28:19) new lands and peoples, the very existence of which the already baptized and seemingly enlightened world had no idea. Holiness is the world through the eyes of God. With the eyes of God one could see to what extent this special election to the missionary vocation was fulfilled.