Theodosius the New of the Peloponnese
Our Venerable Father Theodosius the New, the Healer, who struggled at Argos in the Peloponnese
Venerable · Wonderworker · Priest · b. 862, at Athens — d. first half of the 10th century, at Panariti near Argos
Commemorated 7 August — Repose at his hermitage near Argos; his tomb a fountain of healings
Theodosius, called the New to distinguish him from the great Palestinian cenobiarch, and the Healer (ἰαματικός) from the miracles at his tomb, was born at Athens in 862 of Christian parents. Having given his property to the poor he withdrew to a place outside the city; and when even there the crowds of enquirers denied him quiet, he crossed into the Peloponnese and settled near Argos, where he built a church of the Honourable Forerunner at Panariti. Envious clergy denounced him to Peter, bishop of Argos, as a sorcerer; the matter was settled by a vision and by a sign — Theodosius came to meet the bishop censing him with live coals carried in his monastic cap, which neither burned the cap nor his hand — and Peter, convinced, ordained him deacon and priest. He lived to great old age, foreknew his death by three days, and reposed with the words Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. His tomb in the church of the Forerunner became an inexhaustible fountain of healings.
Athens
He was born at Athens in the year 862, of pious Christian parents, and the tradition says that his warmth of faith and his love for his neighbour showed from a young age. When he determined on the monastic life he distributed his property to those in need and withdrew to a place a little outside the city.
The withdrawal failed of its purpose. So many came to see him and to seek his counsel that he could get no stillness for the inner work; and it was to recover hesychia, not for any other reason, that he left Attica altogether.
Argos and the church of the Forerunner
He crossed to the Peloponnese and settled in the country near Argos, at the village of Panariti, where he built a church in the name of the Honourable Forerunner — and where, in due course, the same thing happened again: people came in numbers for his counsel.
The accusation and the sign
His reputation drew envy. Certain priests of the district denounced him to the archbishop of Argos, Saint Peter (†c. 922, kept May 3), as a magician and a charlatan. Peter was at that moment at Constantinople, on a visit to the Patriarch. There Theodosius appeared to him in a dream, made himself known, and asked him to give over his unjust judgement; and — the tradition sets the two things side by side deliberately — at the same time the Patriarch asked Peter whether he had a certain monk named Theodosius in his province. Peter said that he had, and told the dream; and the Patriarch charged him to carry his own blessing and esteem to the man.
Returned to Argos, Peter went to visit the hermitage at Panariti. Theodosius, informed of his coming, hurried out to meet him. The bishop had sat down a little way off to rest when he saw the ascetic approaching, carrying his monastic cap in his hands with live coals in it and incense burning on them, in place of a censer, and censing him as he came; and neither the cap nor the hand that held it was burned. At that Peter was assured of the man's holiness. He embraced him, and ordained him deacon and priest.
Repose and the healing tomb
Theodosius reached deep old age and became famous through all that country for virtue and for miracles. He was granted to know his death three days beforehand; he gathered his disciples and gave them his last counsels and commands; and while they wept for the parting he went out to the eternal blessedness, murmuring the word of the Lord upon the Cross: "Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:46). His burial was attended by the whole countryside, with Saint Peter of Argos himself and a multitude of priests and monks.
His body was laid in the church of the Honourable Forerunner, and his tomb, the tradition says, was shown to be a fountain of healings that has never run dry: paralytics rose, the blind saw, the childless were given children, and many sick found their cure — from which he has his epithet the Healer.
Feast and commemoration
August 7 (church date; New Calendar civil August 7, Old Calendar civil August 20), within the afterfeast of the Transfiguration and within the Dormition fast (August 1–14). His veneration is Greek and local to the Argolid in origin — he is one of the saints of the church of Argos, kept with its bishop Peter — and has spread through the Greek synaxaria to the wider calendar; the OCA lists him without a life. He has a proper apolytikion and kontakion, which is more than most of the day's minor commemorations can claim, and which reflects a genuine local office.
Hymns
Apolytikion — Tone 4 (*"Ταχὺ προκατάλαβε"*)
As a gift acceptable to God thou didst consecrate thy pure life to Him who showed thy tomb to be a well-spring of healings; for having been cleansed of things material through self-restraint, thou didst shine forth in the world by the labours of asceticism. Wherefore, O Theodosius, with hymns we honour thee.
Kontakion — Tone 8 (*"Τῇ ὑπερμάχῳ"*)
As a treasury of heavenly sanctification, thou dost bear to us an ungrudging largesse of the gifts God gave thee; and from thy tomb thou pourest healing upon all who run to thee with faith. Wherefore we cry to thee: rejoice, O father Theodosius, physician freely given.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
Theodosius is painted as a venerable priest-monk: an elder in the monastic schema with the epitrachelion showing beneath, long white beard, holding a scroll or blessing. The attribute that belongs to him alone is the monastic cap (skoufos) full of live coals, held out in both hands with the smoke of the incense rising from it — the sign by which Saint Peter of Argos was convinced — and he is often shown with the bishop Peter facing him, seated or standing, in the moment of the meeting on the road to Panariti. Behind him the small church of the Forerunner may be indicated. No pre-1900 image has been located for this collection; the surviving depictions known are modern Greek work from the Argolid and are in copyright.
Disputed questions
- 862: birth or death? The Greek life gives 862 as the year of his birth at Athens, and the whole shape of his story — the friendship with Peter of Argos, who was bishop from about 912 to about 922 — requires it, since a man who died in 862 could not have been ordained by him. Several English lists nevertheless print "†862," reading the single date as the year of repose. That reading is an error, and it is the reason this entry sets the century of repose at the tenth, not the ninth.
- Not to be confused with Theodosius the Cenobiarch of Palestine (†529, January 11) — from whom he takes the epithet "the New" — nor with Theodosius of Antioch, Theodosius of the Kiev Caves, Theodosius of Trebizond, or Theodosius the Younger, the emperor.
- Not the same as Theodosius of the Caucasus. The modern Russian saint Theodosius (Kashin) of the Caucasus (†1948), whose cult is centred on Mineralnye Vody, is sometimes drawn onto this day by the shared name and the shared epithet "healer." His commemoration is August 8, the day of his repose, and he does not belong to August 7.