By Fr. George Dorbarakis
This blessed and holy Father of ours, Titus, from a young age loved Christ, went to a cenobitic monastery, and withdrew from the world and from his relatives. There he devoted himself so greatly to humility and obedience that he surpassed not only the brotherhood but every person. He also became a shepherd of the rational sheep of Christ and had such meekness and love and compassion as no one else among men. He was preserved pure in soul and body from a young age like an angel of God. Therefore the Lord also granted him exceptional grace of wonderworking, and thus he departed to Him, leaving to his disciples and fellow ascetics his ascetic struggles as a living pillar and an indelible image.
Saint Theophanes, the hymnographer of Venerable Titus the Wonderworker, wishing to characterize the great holiness of the Venerable one, uses as an example what happens with holy myrrh: it is composed of dozens of aromatic ingredients and substances in order to reach the height of its exquisite fragrance. In the same way also was Venerable Titus: “A myrrh of sanctification, O venerable one, you were wholly compounded from the fragrances of your ascetic life, into a fragrance of our God” (Ode 3). In other words, Venerable Titus is a fragrance of Christ, who is also considered by Saint Theophanes, in a spiritual sense, to be a disciple of the Apostle Paul, like that former disciple and co-worker of Paul, the Apostle Titus: “we praise you as a new Titus, a disciple of Paul” (Ode 1).
And the Hymnographer becomes more specific. The Venerable one became a fragrance of Christ because “You gathered in your soul the divine wealth of grace: blameless prayer, purity, modesty, intense watchfulness, through which you were revealed to be truly a house of our God” (Ode 6).
From all the fragrances of the Venerable one’s ascetic life, Theophanes focuses especially on his self-control. Most of the hymns he dedicates to him are precisely about this virtue, which he presents as the most beautiful flower of his most fragrant garden, by which he also nourishes us who honor him: ““As a most fragrant meadow and a living paradise of the virtues, you caused self-control to blossom, by which you nourish all who honor you” (Ode 4).
Self-control alone, however, says Saint Theophanes, does not accomplish much if it is not joined with prayer. There are self-controlled people, even in other religions, without this meaning that the grace of God is present. Self-control becomes an invincible weapon, which shatters all the strongholds of the enemy devil, when it strengthens the sword of prayer. Thus, “Having self-control as a weapon and prayer as a shield, O venerable one, you triumphed over the rulers of darkness and put them to shame” (Ode 3).
And when the Hymnographer speaks of the prayer of Venerable Titus, he means that which is directed to Jesus Christ, as a complete turning of the mind toward Him: “Fixing all your desire and your mind, O venerable one, upon the longing for Christ, you disregarded earthly things” (Ode 3).
The truth of his Orthodox faith, which he had already acquired from his mother’s swaddling clothes, was also revealed by what constitutes its most important criterion: his stance toward the Most Holy Theotokos. Thus the Hymnographer says: “By the divine choice of the Spirit, you were brought to God from your mother’s swaddling clothes, and you became an initiate and adorer of the ever-virgin Theotokos” (Ode 1).
For this reason, Saint Theophanes considers the memory of Venerable Titus to be a festal day for the Church, since he himself, as a host, sets a common table for the faithful — especially the monks — so that they may partake of eternal life: “Today is a festal day; for Titus gathers the flocks of monks into a choir and a common banquet and participation in the food of incorruptible life” (Ode 9).
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.