The Monk Theodosius of Caves

In 1091 the relics of St. Theodosius were moved to the Pechersk Church of the Assumption of the Virgin. Even before this event, 10 years after the death of the monk, his disciple Nestor had written his detailed life, and thus memory was left for imitation of believers in future centuries. The Monk Theodosius of Pechersky is the founder of Russian asceticism. All Russian monks somehow or other oriented their spiritual life according to the direction assigned to them.

Childhood of Theodosius

The presbyter at the birth of the boy prophetically gave him the name of Theodosius, which means "Given to God." The holy Palestinian land, by which Jesus walked, when incarnated on earth, from the earliest childhood attracted the boy Theodosius. In the end, the boy fled, tempted by stories of pilgrims. The attempt was unsuccessful, as well as those following it. In general, in the life of the saint we see a large volume describing his childhood more than other saints.

The basis of the history of youth Theodosius consists in a gentle struggle with his mother for spiritual calling, torture, carried out by him, triple attempts to escape. About his childhood write that the boy spent a lot of time in the church, with children in street games did not play, eschewed children's companies. Feodosy Pechersky aspired to the sciences and quickly learned grammar, causing surprise with reason and wisdom. The bookish love of the boy was preserved throughout his life and manifested itself when he was writing in the monastery books day and night.

"The Art of Riz"

Another interesting feature from the childhood of Theodosius, which, taking into account his religiousness, acquires a new meaning, was the wearing of bad, darned clothes. Parents gave him clean new clothes and asked to wear it, but this is the only thing the young man did not obey. Further, when on duty he had to wear light and clean clothes, he wore them with a heavy heart, after a few days giving to the poor. Himself changed into old and patched. "Thin Robe" in general occupy not the last place in the life of the Reverend, showing his extraordinary humility from the very childhood. Feodosy Kiev-Pechersky from childhood fell in love with the art of rhiz, made it part of his life's behavior and passed it on to all Russian asceticism.

When his father died, Feodosy chose for himself a new feat of humiliation and forgiveness: he went out with slaves on the field and humbly worked with them, thus showing his ascetic ingenuity.

Image of the mother Theodosius

When Feodosy made his third escape, he went to Kiev, to the cave of St. Anthony. The elder did not want to accept him as a student by his youth, and Theodosius returned home. After that there was a dramatic meeting with the mother, full of life's truth. The domineering despotism of maternal love causes Feodosy not to be harsh, but insecurity and shyness. From the defeated in this struggle, he becomes a winner. As a result, he does not return to his mother, and she takes tonsure in one of the Kiev monasteries.

Monastic works

Nestor, when he wrote the life of Theodosius of the Caves, loved to tell more than describe, so little is written about Feodosy's personal exploits and his spiritual appearance in different places of the narrative. Combining these scattered facts, one can formulate the concept of the ascetic life of the Monk Theodosius. The most severe exploits of self-mortification of one's body are written in the annals of the first years of his cave life. At night, struggling with carnal temptations, naked, the monk gives his body to mosquitoes and gadflies, singing psalms at the same time. In the later life of Theodosius, one can see the desire for the exhaustion of the body. Hiding his penance, he wore a hair shirt, slept sitting on a chair, and prayed intensely at nights. Relatively small ascetic exercises Feodosy Pechersky made up for the continuity of his work. Since childhood, strong and strong, he works for himself and for others. Being in the monastery under Hegumen Varlaam, he at night grinds grain for the entire monastic brotherhood. And even later, Theodosius, hegumen of Kiev-Pechersky, often took up an ax to cut wood or draw water from a well instead of sleep or rest.

The spiritual life of Theodosius of Pechersky

Many pages of the rather extensive life of the saint are devoted to his labor and active life, balancing the feats of spiritual life. He gives all the nights to the prayer. Prayer is given exclusively to the time of the Great Lent, which the monk spent alone in a cave. Nestor does not show any wonderful qualities of prayers or high contemplation. Prayer helped Theodosius to achieve perfect fearlessness before the dark forces and allowed to help his disciples in deliverance from the night demonic visions.

Theodosius, hegumen of Kiev-Pechersky

In the spiritual life of Theodosius there was one very important milestone for him - he put an end to the monastery in the caves founded by Antony. After the abbot Varlaam founded the first wooden church on the surface of the earth, Theodosius placed the cells above the cave that remained for Antony and the few recluses. Silence and contemplation of a cramped cave, he belittles for the sake of labor and brotherly life to build a kind of harmony. In this harmony, personal notes of humility, meekness, and obedience also sound. The Monk Theodosius of Kiev-Pechersky, as Nestor notes, with all his spiritual wisdom was simple mind. "Thin Robe", which accompanies him and during the hegumen, attracts a lot of ridicule.

There is a story about the prince's servant who took the monk for one of the poor and ordered him to change from the cart to the horse. Social humiliation and forgiveness have been one of the features of his holiness since childhood. Delivered at the head of the monastery, Theodosius did not change his temper. With his quietness and self-abasement, he teaches a great deal in sermons, which differ in the simplicity of form and content. Also, Theodosius tries to keep the monastic charter to the smallest detail in all its details and wants everything to be done according to order and with reverence. However, for all his exactingness, Theodosius did not like to resort to punishments. He was gentle even to those who, having fled, came back with remorse. The only certain image of severity was in relation to the economic affairs of the monastery.

Saint Theodosius of Caves

Nestor describes the stories of the clerk Fedor about how the holy hegumen saved the monastery from different needs. These miracles along with the gift of insight are the only ones that St. Theodosius of Caves perform. Through all the hegumen miracles the prohibition of the saint takes care of the day of tomorrow, his profligate charity. For example, the miraculous filling of the coffers takes place in the order of the natural pattern: while the monastery economy despairs of thoughts, from which to prepare a dinner or where to find wine for the liturgy, an unknown benefactor brings wines and bread to the monastery. From the life of the saint there is the impression that the monastery exists only at the expense of the impenetrable flow of alms.

Saint Theodosius very much worries about the statutory poverty - he takes all the extra food and clothes from the cells and burns it all in the oven. He does the same with everything that was done without a blessing. The forgiving and kind hegumen becomes harsh with disobedience, which results from economic calculation. It is noteworthy that he does not punish the guilty here, but only destroys the material wealth, which, he believed, absorbed the demonic beginnings of greed and self-will.

The Mercy of Saint Theodosius

Remaining gentle and merciful always and in everything, equally referring to the robbers who came to rob his monastery, or to sinful and weak monks, St. Theodosius of Pechersky not only did not isolate his monastery from the world, but also created the closest ties with worldly society. This is one of his behests to Russian monasticism.

Near the monastery was built a house for the blind, lame and sick with a church in the name of St. Stefan. On the maintenance of this almshouse there was a tenth part of all income of the monastery. On Saturdays, Theodosius sent a whole load of bread to the city for prisoners in prisons.

The Monk Theodosius was the spiritual father of numerous laymen, including princes and boyars who came to confess their sins. He initiated the tradition of choosing spiritual fathers among monks. Since that time, the clergy began to exert an even greater influence on the moral condition of the people.

A quiet and gentle mentor could be firm and persistent in those cases when it was a question of shameful truth. One of the last stories of Nestor tells of his intercession for an offended widow who came to him for help and, not recognizing him in poor clothes, told about her misfortune.

The love of Saint Theodosius

Irreconcilability to untruth leads the hegumen to clashes not only with the judges, but also with the princes. His spiritual confrontation with Prince Svyatoslav, depicted in the life, completes the spiritual portrait of Theodosius and is a symbol of the attitude of the Church to the state of Ancient Rus. When two brothers expel the elder from the throne of Kiev, seize the city and call Feofan's feast, he refuses and convicts his brothers of the sins of killing and illegal possession of power, compares Prince Svyatoslav with Cain, and his brother with Abel. As a result, Prince Svyatoslav comes to anger. There are rumors about the exile of Theodosius.

Svyatoslav could not raise his hand to the righteous and, after all, comes with humility to the monastery to Feodosiya with an attempt to make peace. Many times the righteous Theodosius unsuccessfully tried to plead Svyatoslav to reconcile with his brother, trying to reach the heart of the Kiev prince. In the monastery, he orders everyone to pray for the legitimate expelled prince, and only after long requests of the brotherhood he agrees to commemorate Svyatoslav in second place.

The life of St. Theodosius shows that the saint was ready for the right to go into exile and to death, obeyed the law of love and vital expediency. He considered it his duty to teach the princes, and their duty is to obey his teachings. But Theodosius speaks to the princes not as having power, but as the embodiment of the meek power of Christ. The prayer of Theodosius of Pechersky calls for the unshakable piety of souls and bodies, for help and intercession, for the piety of the principal persons of the country.

Such was Theodosius, who lives a whole spiritual life, pouring out the Light of Christ from the depths of his soul, measuring feats and virtue with the gospel measure. So he remained in the memory of Russian asceticism, such is the life of Theodosius of Pechersky.