By Fr. George Dorbarakis
1. This sacred and holy maiden was from Tyre. At the age of eighteen she was arrested by the pagans and thrown into prison to be tried, because she openly confessed her faith in God. When the judges had already taken their seats, she was brought before the governor Urbanus, who ordered her to offer sacrifice to the idols. When she refused and would not be persuaded, he commanded that she be tortured with severe blows to her sides and breasts, and that they continue even to the bones and inner organs, for he saw that despite the relentless tortures she endured everything in silence. Realizing that she still had life within her, he addressed her again, urging her to sacrifice. Then the Saint looked him straight in the eyes and, opening her mouth as much as she could, said to him with a smiling face: "Why are you deceived, man? Do you not know that now I have been counted worthy to have communion with the martyrs of God?" The governor, realizing that he had become the laughingstock of the young woman, grew angry and ordered that she be tortured even more severely than before. Afterwards he had her cast into the sea currents, within which she received her blessed end.
2. According to the customary practice of many hymnographers, the name of a saint becomes the occasion for theological reflection. The Saint commemorated today bears the name Theodosia, and therefore, as the Holy Hymnographer notes, “You have become a gift of God, wise martyr Theodosia, shining through your contest and through the radiant beams of virginity, setting ablaze the minds of all who ever honor you in faith” (Kathisma).
Elsewhere he writes: “You became an offering to God, gladdening us” (Ode 4).
And again: “You were clearly shown to be true to your name, august Theodosia; for you have been given to us as an excellent gift of God, all-wise one, sending forth rivers of gifts beyond understanding to those who sing with faith: Bless the Lord, all works of the Lord” (Ode 8).
The observation of the Holy hymnographer is especially significant. A person offers himself to God, whether through an ascetical spiritual life or through the martyrdom of his blood, and that offering becomes a gift and donation of God to the entire world. It is as though God receives the sacrifice of love that a saint offers to Him and transforms it into a blessing and joy for everyone.
In a certain sense, the saint becomes the prosphoron of the Divine Eucharist, which is offered by us to God as our own material gift (though in reality it is His, since all things belong to Him), so that He may, through the Holy Spirit, make it His Body and Blood for the nourishment of the world.
“Your own of Your own we offer unto You, on behalf of all and for all.”
This means that nothing in the Church exists merely on an individual level. Whatever we do out of faith in God expresses the whole human person. Or, to put it another way, the believer, enclosing all humanity within his own existence, offers himself in love to God, and through him the entire world is offered.
And what does God do? He receives this offering and returns it, transformed in Christ, to all the faithful and indeed to all people as a blessing.
From this perspective one can understand once again the saying of the Fathers: “If the world still exists, it is because there are certain saints — whether few or many, God alone knows — on whose account God preserves the rest of the world.” This is because such saints live with the mind of Christ. That is to say, they pray unceasingly for the whole world as they pray for themselves. Saints such as Saint Theodosia, who provides the occasion for this reflection, constitute the greatest blessing for the world.
Does this truth not remind us of the dialogue between God and Abraham, when God was on His way to bring judgment upon the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah?
“If there were even ten of My own people in that populous city, for their sake I would spare all the rest.”
The crucial point emphasized by the Hymnographer when speaking about man's offering to God, which then becomes God's “gift” to the world, is divine eros. What is meant is that if the motive behind a person's movement toward God is not longing and fervent love for Him, then that turning toward Him cannot truly be accepted; there remains a deficiency, a void. Saint Theodosia was possessed by this longing. Repeatedly the Holy Hymnographer tells us:
“Theodosia, having wholly desired Christ, you bore the wounds of torments most steadfastly, being tortured for the sake of your Beloved” (Vespers Sticheron).
And again:
“Divine longing, Theodosia, showed you to be a faithful bride of Christ, having loved His Cross” (Ode 3).
In reality, as the Church poet explains, this love of the Martyr was participation in the Passion of the Lord. Every martyrdom endured for Christ's sake is never independent of Him, but is regarded as an extension of His Passion, because each believer, as a member of Christ, perpetuates His life.
The Hymnographer expresses this in another way:
“God became for you, Theodosia, the way of martyrdom, having come voluntarily to the Cross” (Ode 1).
Thus the Christian, by living his daily life according to the manner of Christ, in obedience to the divine will, and even reaching by grace the summit of obedience through the offering of his very life, lives as another Christ in the world.
For is this not what a Christian is? The follower of Christ who, by His grace, “denies himself” (that fallen self enslaved to sin) and “takes up his cross,” following in the footsteps of his Master.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
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