Life
Saint Theodosius the Great, called the Father of Cenobites because he organized and founded the communal (cenobitic) form of monasticism in Palestine, was born around 423 in the place of Mogarisos in Cappadocia (present-day Turkey), in a devout Christian family. From his earliest youth he felt a strong divine call to the ascetic life and monasticism. Reading the lives and works of the desert fathers, he was especially struck by the example of Abraham, the father of faith, who at God’s call abandoned all earthly things.
Young Theodosius set out on pilgrimage to the Holy Land and on arriving in Palestine went to Symeon Stylites on the Wondrous Mountain to receive his blessing for the ascetic path. Symeon received him with love, instructed him in the secrets of the spiritual life, and then blessed him to go to Palestine and continue the path God had marked for him.
In Palestine Theodosius lived for a time as a hermit and hesychast at a desolate place near Bethlehem. The report of his holiness and wisdom spread quickly, and many monks and seekers of spiritual salvation began to flock to him from all sides. Understanding that God had also entrusted him with the obligation of leadership over his neighbors, Theodosius did not refuse but wisely and lovingly accepted the duty of abbot and spiritual father to the great brotherhood that had gathered around him.
He built a great monastery in the desert near Bethlehem, at a place called Kathismon, which soon grew into an enormous monastic community. The monastery had several churches adapted to different peoples — for Greeks, for Georgians, and for Armenians — because monks from the entire Christian world of the time sheltered under the protection of Theodosius’s guidance. At the height of its glory the monastery cared for and led in spiritual discipline as many as several thousand monks, making it one of the largest monastic communities in the history of the Church.
Saint Theodosius introduced a strict yet balanced rule of communal life: communal worship, communal work, communal table, and brotherly love as the foundation of all. This cenobitic way, which in the East had been earlier given form by Saint Pachomios the Great, Theodosius raised to a new level of organization and spiritual seriousness. At the same time he was a celebrated benefactor and almsgiver: he founded hospitals, shelters for the aged and infirm, and hospices for travelers and pilgrims.
At the time of the heresy of Akakios of Constantinople and after the Council of Chalcedon (451), Saint Theodosius firmly took the side of Orthodoxy and supported the Chalcedonian definition of the two natures in Christ. When Emperor Anastasius, who was sympathetic to Monophysitism, attempted to compel the Palestinian monks to renounce Chalcedon, Saint Theodosius publicly and courageously defended the orthodox teaching, for which he was temporarily expelled from the monastery. But after the emperor’s repentance and the demand of the people, he returned to his community with even greater esteem.
He reposed in the Lord around 529, having reached the deep old age of about one hundred and six years. He was buried in the monastery he himself had built, which still exists in Palestine today. The Church glorifies him as one of the great fathers of cenobitic monasticism, together with Saint Sava the Sanctified, who was his contemporary and spiritual companion in establishing Palestinian monasticism.
Tropar (Tone 1)
O dweller of the desert, and angel in the flesh, and wonderworker, such as thou hast appeared, O our father Theodosius: by fasting, vigil, and prayer thou wast enriched with heavenly gifts, and healest all who flee to thee with faith. Glory to Him Who gave thee strength, glory to Him Who hath crowned thee, glory to Him Who through thee worketh healings for all.
Kontakion (Tone 1)
Having received the fruits of ascetic labor from God, thou shinest forth in the multitude of miracles, O most blessed father. For through thy prayers the machinations of demons are destroyed and diseases are healed for the faithful. Therefore we beseech thee: pray for us to Christ God, to save our souls.