September: Day 9: Teaching 4: Saint Theodosius, Archbishop of Chernigov

September: Day 9: Teaching 4: 
Saint Theodosius, Archbishop of Chernigov
 
(The Example of a True Shepherd, as Presented By the Life of the Saint)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Among other instructions which the Holy Apostle Paul commanded his disciple, Bishop Timothy of Ephesus, there is also this instruction: "Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity" (1 Tim. 4:12). The apostolic bishops, as heads of the Churches, tried to implement this covenant in their lives. And the great saint, Archbishop Theodosius of Chernigov, who is celebrated today, embodied in himself the example of a true shepherd.

II. a) His word was wise, mixed with grace. He edified his flock with his speeches during his life; he edifies us all now. In his visions, he often instructed believers on the path of saving life: he taught them to go to the temples of God, to fast, to fulfill the statutes of the Holy Church, to listen to prayers and akathist chants in churches, to pray before miraculous icons, to honor Church feasts, to confess their sins and to partake of the Holy Body and Blood of the Lord. Saint Theodosius was truthful and spoke only words of truth.

b) Saint Theodosius was an example "in faith and in life." The Saint's faith in the living Lord God and His holy Providence was strong and unshakable. With all his soul and heart Saint Theodosius was devoted to the Lord and His commandments. He lived as the Christian law dictates. From his youth the Saint was distinguished by humility, patience, abstinence and diligence. From an early age he began an ascetic, holy life - he was a monk in the true sense of the word. Loving monasticism, the Saint of God tried to lead a monastic life among other things: as abbot first of the Korsun Monastery, then of the Vydubychi Monastery, and after moving to Chernigov of the Yelets Monastery. Saint Theodosius took great care to organize life in them on strict monastic principles. 

The holy, ascetic life of Theodosius of Uglich earned him great respect, first from the people of Kiev, and then from the residents of the Chernigov region. He was given important assignments, for example, he was sent to Moscow to the tsars Ivan and Peter Alekseevich with a petition to confirm Bishop Gideon of Lutsk as the Metropolitan of Kiev. The Chernigov Archbishop Lazar Baranovich, the guardian of the Kiev Metropolitanate, prophetically conveyed to Theodosius in a letter in 1674 his desire that "his name be written in heaven." When the same Archbishop Lazar Baranovich became close to Thedosius and learned of his high moral qualities, he wished to have him as his permanent assistant. The kindest opinion of Archimandrite Theodosius was given to Patriarch Adrian by Archbishop Lazar when, together with the Hetman of Little Russia, he asked the Patriarch to appoint Theodosius as Lazar's assistant in the management of the Chernigov Diocese. Together with the Hetman, His Grace Lazar Baranovich testified that "the most honorable Archimandrite Theodosius is a good man, adorned with the virtues of the monastic life, which he has led since his youth, experienced in the management of monasteries, filled with the fear of God and spiritual experience, enlightened, very zealous for church splendor, capable of managing the house of the cathedra and the Chernigov Diocese." 

For his high moral qualities, Theodosius was elevated to the rank of Archbishop by Patriarch Adrian in Moscow on September 13, 1692; until the death of His Grace Lazar († September 3, 1693), he was his zealous assistant, and after the death of Lazar Baranovich, “with joy and consolation” for the flock (as it is said in one report from the hetman of Little Russia from Baturin), “His Grace Theodosius of Uglich accepted the Chernigov bishop’s throne, who (it is said in the same document) can adorn the church with his goodness and arrange the governance of affairs with good judgment.” The high degree of moral perfection to which Saint Theodosius reached in his episcopal calling is evident from the fact that it pleased the Lord God to preserve his relics incorrupt after the burial of his body in the Borisoglebsky Cathedral. So it must be said in truth about the saint Theodosius: he perfectly fulfilled the testament of the Holy Apostle Paul, was “a model for the faithful in faith and in life,” and to this day remains the same “model” for the faithful children of the Orthodox Church.

c) Based on the words of the Holy Apostle Paul cited in his First Epistle to Timothy, it is necessary to enrich the image of Saint Theodosius of Uglich with additional high moral qualities. According to the Apostle, bishops must not only serve as "examples in word, in faith, and in life" for the faithful, but also provide "an example in love, in spirit, and in purity" in themselves. Saint Theodosius was fervently filled with love for the Lord and for his neighbors. His love for God permeated his entire being from an early age: he uplifted his mind to the Creator when he was in the temples of God and listened to the divine services in obedience to his monastic vows. His spirit, or disposition, increasingly detached itself from worldly vanity and cares through frequent communion with the Creator. His thoughts became purer and purer; his feelings drew closer to the heavenly, and his will was directed toward matters of a celestial nature. Thus, gradually his entire being was transformed: carnal thoughts were eradicated, while spiritual ones took precedence; purity, akin to angelic purity, was established in his heart; a heavenly peace resided in his soul. Thus, he became a person who was in constant communion with Christ the Savior. The grace of the Holy Spirit acted within him and transformed his entire being through him. Following the Apostle, he became a "spiritual" man who possessed the highest Christian virtues: "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, mercy, faith, gentleness, self-control" (Gal. 5:22–23). 

The grace of the Holy Spirit also transformed his very bodily composition. His body, according to the Apostle, became a "temple of the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor. 6:19); it was prepared so that, as the Holy Psalmist says, "not one of his bones was broken" (Psalm 33). The Holy Spirit animated the body of Theodosius of Uglich, and it has remained incorrupt. Now, 200 years have passed since the repose of the righteous servant of God, Theodosius of Uglich, and his bodily remains continue to be incorrupt, bestowing numerous healings upon those who come with faith to his tomb. As once during the time of the Apostle Peter, "the sick were carried out into the streets and laid on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of passing Peter might fall on some of them" (Acts 5:15); or, as the book of the Acts of the Apostles testifies, during the two-year stay in Ephesus of another Apostle, Saint Paul, "God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were brought to the sick, and their diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them" (Acts 19:11-12). As great miracles and signs were performed from the corporeal relics of the Apostles – Peter and Paul – so it has pleased the Lord God that in our times, from the incorruptible relics of Saint Theodosius of Uglich, many different healings and signs are also performed. 

How diverse are these manifestations of God's mercy through Saint Theodosius! Then you hear an amazing story from the healed woman herself (Anna Stefanovskaya) and from those closest to her: how she suffered for more than 3½ years from an incurable illness, how many doctors treated her in vain, how she was, poor thing, barely transported to the cathedral in a carriage on cushions, how she was carried on those same cushions into the church and then into the cave, how, after the funeral at the relics of the Saint of God, the sick woman suddenly took hold of the iron grate at the Saint's tomb, then rose on her own and approached the holy relics, and thereafter ascended the steep staircase from the cave, made her way to the Trinity Monastery, and listened, seated in chairs, to the service and akathist before the miraculous Ilyin-Chernigov icon of the Most Holy Theotokos - and became completely well.

You hear a no less astonishing account from the venerable old nun of the Kamensky Monastery, of how the Lord God healed her, who had already been condemned to death, through the prayers of Saint Theodosius – sending to her at night an unknown nun with a dish of Saint Theodosius, from which she drank a most indescribably pleasant water – and she, lying in complete paralysis of the body, immediately gained the full ability to rise from the deathbed, fall to her knees before the icons with fervent prayer, and then freely speak, walk, and act (the nun who had been attending to this eldress fell into a faint when she first saw her healthy in the cell after the occurrence of the extraordinary miracle of healing).

There have been instances of demons being cast out from the possessed, healing from muteness, deafness, blindness, and various incurable diseases, both external and internal, when doctors found themselves completely powerless. I had the opportunity to listen to accounts from ordinary people who with complete faith testified to the signs of God's mercy manifested through the servant of God, Theodosius, either in themselves or in their loved ones. One could engage in lengthy discussions about the various miraculous manifestations of love for others from Saint Theodosius of Uglich. However, there is not enough time for that.

III. In our times of unbelief and various doubts, when so many people are moving away from the holy Orthodox Church, the glorification by God of Saint Theodosius has special significance. The more honest and conscientious of the unbelieving and doubting people, looking with their physical eyes at the incorrupt relics of the Saint of God Theodosius of Uglich and hearing and reading about the various manifestations of God's mercy through the same Saint, moreover about such manifestations that living people, the most reliable eyewitnesses, tell about - I say, such people, although not in large numbers, will not come to their senses themselves, will they not understand that until now they have been deeply mistaken and have followed the wrong path? Oh, if only the Lord God with His grace would touch the hearts of these people too! Will they not also understand that the path to salvation can only be found in the holy Orthodox Church, where there are true shepherds of the flock of Christ, like Saint Theodosius of Uglich, who lived a holy life and were granted by the Lord the incorruptibility of their bodily structures, and from their relics flow streams of miracles and various mercies. May God grant that at least a few of the schismatics and sectarians, having thought about this, turn to the truth. All children of the Orthodox Church are also given a lesson: to hold firmly and unwaveringly to the holy Orthodox faith, to strengthen wavering brothers in it, to admonish the lost, to instruct the foolish, to imitate in life the Saint of God, Saint Theodosius of Uglich.

Saint Theodosius, Saint of God! With your prayers, intercede before the Lord God for all of us, your children! You are our shepherd, and we are the sheep of your rational flock! Preserve us with your prayers before God in the pure Orthodox faith and strengthen us in the Christian life! Amen.  

 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.