Today we celebrate the feast of the venerable father of monasticism in Rus'-Ukraine, Saint Theodosius, who together with Saint Anthony founded the Kievan Caves Monastery in late tenth century.
Saint Theodosius is known to us through the writings collectively known as the Paterikon of the Kievan Caves, as well as accounts that are recorded sometime later by Saint Nestor and other chroniclers. The sources are remarkable in that they all give us a clear and consistent picture of a man with tremendous natural gifts, but who really was known and loved for his humility, his compassion that he showed to others and his absolute trust in Christ our God.
What a wonderful thing it would be if future generations remembered us for being so Christlike, as we still remember Saint Theodosius to this very day. He wasn't rich, he didn't have power. He wasn't very well-born. He wasn't even very well educated. Yet, the passage of more than ten centuries has not effaced his memory. By contrast, many rulers, many well-born or well-educated people are not remembered at all, not even by their descendants.
The fact that Theodosius is remembered, as well as what he is remembered for, are signs that he was a true follower of Christ, because there is really no natural reason why world history should remember Jesus of Nazareth. It is no wonder that ancient history remembers Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great, the great conquerors, along with the great minds who formed them: Aristotle and Plato and the other figures of Greek wisdom. Yet, the Lord Jesus was an obscure religious teacher in a far off, peripheral province on the edge of the Roman Empire, and his disciples were not world leaders but poor fishermen from towns in Galilee few had heard of.
Great Humility
Theodosius was first of all known for his great humility. He knew that he was a sinner. He knew that he had many weaknesses, and he knew that he had to be completely dependent on God to overcome his weaknesses. It was this self-knowledge that led Theodosius to enter monastic life, and it was his shining example of this virtue that attracted many others to the monastic life too.
For Theodosius, monastic life was just the fullest expression of Christian life that was available to him. He knew that he needed certain things in his life to save his soul. He needed prayer, a living relationship with the God Who had created him, but he also needed the discipline of fasting to destroy his passions and reorder his energies toward the good. Further, he recognized that he needed obedience, so that he would not fall into the trap of constantly doing his own will, rather than the will of God.
In other words, humility in Theodosius was a remarkable ability to see the spiritual illnesses within himself, to know the cures for those illnesses and to embrace those cures, no matter how painful, for love of God.
Great Compassion
Knowing all that, it should not surprise us that Theodosius' humility was the source of a deep compassion towards others around him. Indeed, someone who recognizes his own illness is in an advantageous position to help those around him, who share the same infirmities. Theodosius recognized in himself the same illness all around him in every human being, even his enemies. Thus, Theodosius was extraordinarily kind, gentle and loving towards those who, if they had a chance, would harm him either mentally or physically. Theodosius just simply refused to see them as the real enemies. His self-knowledge told him that they would not behave in the way they did if they were not deceived.
Theodosius armed himself with the grace of God and strong resolutions to make war against his own passions each and every day. Those resolutions entailed a deeper and deeper compassion for those who he saw imprisoned in the very same passions. A great part of the saint's prayers were dedicated to the liberation of those diseased with that great spiritual illness.
Absolute Trust in God
Despite the manifest greatness of all of the qualities that are here mentioned, none of them are responsible for making Theodosius a friend of God and a saint. Only his absolute trust in God made Theodosius one who was destined for eternal life.
The founding of the monastic movement in the land of Rus'-Ukraine was, from the very beginning, fraught with many great difficulties, even some that seemed completely insurmountable. Nevertheless, Theodosius' great trust in God led again and again to miraculous results. Further, his trust, just like his compassion, was very attractive to those around him, and many embraced monastic life and many pagans became Christian because they observed the calm reserve of the saint in the face of difficulties.
Well, these three things have to reign supreme in our lives too: humility after the example of Christ Himself Who came to do the will of the Father rather than His own, compassion like Christ, Who gave up His own life in His suffering and death, so that us His enemies could inherit everlasting life, and complete trust in God, Who always in every circumstance wills our good, even though from moment to moment His kindness may be beyond our understanding.
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