By Fr. George Dorbarakis
This blessed man came from the regions of the East, and living from childhood in a virtuous manner, he departed from there by divine Providence and arrived in Constantinople. He met the first personal secretary of the emperor and entered into his service. This was Tarasios, the great glory of Orthodoxy. When, therefore, he by divine vote was chosen for the throne of Constantinople, because Paul the Cypriot had resigned from the throne, the lamp was placed on the lampstand. And immediately the divine High Priest built a monastery at the entrance of the Euxine Pontus (Black Sea) and placed there, instead of living any longer among the worldly, the most-holy Theophylaktos and Michael, who were living dedicated to God in deeds and words in the city of Synada. Then the High Priest, having learned of the radiant virtue of the men and their Christian progress, sent and immediately summoned them and established them in his own house of prayer. Not much time passed and he ordained them as bishops: Michael indeed in Synada, and the honorable Theophylaktos in Nicomedia.
The achievements of Theophylaktos are very many, and the things themselves reveal them: namely the divine churches that were built by him, and the hospitals, and the protection of widows and orphans, and the immeasurable philanthropy. So active was the love of this great imitator of God, that filling a vessel with lukewarm water, he washed and cleansed the crippled and the lame and those wounded in their limbs with his own hands.
When therefore the great Tarasios departed from life, having distinguished himself in the high priesthood for nineteen years, and the all-wise Nikephoros succeeded him, a certain pitiable event occurred. For Leo the hater of Christ became emperor, and immediately the coward proceeded to the deposition of the holy icons. As soon as this became very evident, the great Nikephoros, having summoned the learned among the high priests — Aimilianos of Kyzikos, Euthymios of Sardis, Joseph of Thessaloniki, Eudoxios of Amorion, Michael of Synada — and together with many others also the blessed Theophylaktos, went to the impious and apostate emperor and brought him many proofs from the Divine Scriptures, like medicines. But he, like one with a shield, stopped up his ears and did not perceive what they were saying to him. He therefore continued to hold the same opinions, taking nothing into account. The others then afterward became silent, but the blessed Theophylaktos alone said to him:
“I know that you show contempt for the forbearance and long-suffering of God, but a fearful destruction will suddenly come upon you, and the destruction will be like a storm, and there will be no one who will save you.”
For these words the emperor became angry and condemned them all to exile. The divine Nikephoros indeed to the island of Thasos, the ever-memorable Michael of Synada to Eudokiada, and each to another place. The thrice-blessed Theophylaktos was sent to Strobilos (this is a fortress under the theme of the Kibyrrhaiotai, which was coastal). There this blessed confessor Theophylaktos remained for thirty years, enduring the hardship of a foreign land, and afterward he departed to the Lord. After some years, when the heresy ceased and Orthodoxy shone forth again, under the most pious Augusta Theodora and the most holy Patriarch Methodios, the honorable body of our Holy Father Theophylaktos was translated from exile and was placed in Nicomedia, in the church that had been built by him.
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With the Holy Theophylaktos we have the confirmation of what the sacred Chrysostom notes concerning priests: “God works through all, but He does not ordain all.”
That is, someone may have become a cleric and may celebrate the mysteries; these indeed are valid, effectively offering the grace of God; yet he himself, when the necessary conditions for his ordination have not been present, is not considered to have been ordained by God. In other words, God acts through him, but he himself, if he does not repent, is not saved.
Saint Theophanes, the Hymnographer of the Saint today, among the first things he raises — and not only once — is precisely this truth. He emphasizes that the Holy Theophylaktos was anointed as High Priest by the grace of God “worthily,” because he lived the truth of the faith. And this grace also blessed the manner of his life, because he had much love within him.
“The grace of the Spirit anointed you worthily, O all-blessed one, for the sake of truth, and your way for the sake of kindness” (Ode 1).
And elsewhere:
“You practiced the ascetic life in holiness, O wise Father; therefore you were anointed a Hierarch to perform the divine mysteries” (Kathisma of Matins).
And this means: if God acts and works through priests and bishops who may be considered unworthy, how much more does He act and work through those who are worthy of Him. Then their very life itself — not only the celebration of the mysteries — radiates the presence of God.
Theophanes insists with great delight on describing the holiness of the Holy Theophylaktos. And this is revealed especially in the greatest proof of the existence of love for God: prayer. The power of his prayer is, according to the Hymnographer, “heavy artillery.” When the Saint especially raised his hands in prayer, he set Heaven itself in motion and routed the enemies of the faith.
For the Hymnographer, therefore, the Holy Theophylaktos was the living proof of what the Apostle Paul says: to raise holy hands in prayer to God.
“Your hands, O God-inspired one, raised toward God in holiness, put the impious to flight” (Ode 5).
The image of the Saint’s raised hands in prayer captivates Saint Theophanes. He sees that these hands are finally held by Christ Himself, just as a father holds the little hand of his child in order to guide it safely where it must go. And Christ, holding the hand of the Saint, guides him safely to the "breadth of Paradise," to the Kingdom of Heaven.
“The Lord, having taken hold of your hand, O God-bearing Father, guided you to heavenly delight” (Ode 5).
The holiness of the Holy Theophylaktos was the result both of his ascetic conduct, by which he subdued his passions, and of his immense love toward his fellow men, but also of his struggles on behalf of piety. In his time these struggles were for the holy icons: of Christ, of the Panagia, and of the other saints, since from the acceptance or rejection of them the Orthodox faith or the heresy of each person was manifested. For iconoclasm, the rejection of icons, was and is a Christological heresy, a denial of the reality of the incarnation of our God.
Therefore the Holy Theophylaktos struggled greatly on this matter. He was a confessor, because he not only preached the true faith but also suffered for it. He spent thirty years in exile, which means that “daily he was dying.” And there he also breathed his last.
The Holy Hymnographer focuses also on this dimension of the life of the Holy Theophylaktos:
“You revered the divine and immaculate image of Christ, rejecting the impieties of the impious” (Ode 3).
“Honoring the image of Christ, you bore exiles, afflictions, and long confinement” (Kathisma of Matins).
The Holy Hymnographer concludes by commenting on the name of the saint: the divine Theophylaktos ultimately had as guardian in his life God Himself.
“Divine Theophylaktos, whose guardian is God”) (Verses of the Synaxarion).
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
