August: Day 13: Teaching 2: Venerable Dositheos

August: Day 13: Teaching 2:
Venerable Dositheos*
 
(Humility and Obedience Are the Path to Spiritual Perfection)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Venerable Dositheos, commemorated today by the Church, in his youth, despite the fact that he was noble and rich, left the world and retired to a desert monastery, which was distinguished by the special strictness of the life of its monks.

The young Dositheos was taken under the guidance of Venerable Dorotheos and given the obedience to look after the sick. The experienced leader gradually led Dositheos along the path of ascetic life. First of all, he tried to cut off any attachment to sensual things in Dositheos, no matter how unimportant they were. Thus, one day a good knife was brought to the hospital, which Dositheos liked very much, and he, showing it to the mentor, said: “Really, father, the knife is very good.” But the latter sternly answered him: “Dositheos! Do you want to be a slave to this knife, and not to God, and to bind yourself with an attachment to this knife, so that the knife would possess you, and not God; go, put it down, and never touch it again.” And Dositheos obediently did this: all the others used this knife, but he never even touched it again. 

Homily on Abba Dorotheos of Gaza and Saint Maximus the Confessor (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

 

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

Today our Church celebrates the memory of two great ascetic Fathers, namely our holy and God-bearing Father Dorotheos and Saint Maximus the Confessor, the latter on the occasion of the transfer of his relics. Between these two Fathers there is a common characteristic and that is the ascetic life, which is the basis of Orthodox theology.

First of all, let me refer to Venerable Dorotheos, who lived in the 6th century though we don't know the particular circumstances in which he grew up. In general, he came from a rich family in Gaza, he acquired great philological and philosophical knowledge, but at a very young age he left everything and joined the Sacred Monastery of Seridos, a few kilometers south of Gaza. Two great ascetics lived in asceticism there who were shut up in their cells and had great spiritual experience, that is, Barsanuphios, who did not come into contact with people, but when they asked him written questions, he answered by dictating to his disciple Seridos; also shut up in his cell was John the Prophet.