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Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “The saint that we find today, St. Theodore the Studite, brings us to a period that from the religious and political point of view was rather turbulent,” said the Holy Father Benedict XVI at the beginning of his catechesis during the General Audience on May 27. Offering an overview of the fundamental stages of his life, the Pope mentioned that Saint Theodore was born in 759 to a noble and pious family. He embraced the monastic life at the age of 22. He was ordained a priest by the patriarch Tarasios, but afterward he broke communion with him and was later exiled to Thessalonica in the year 796. Reconciliation with the imperial authority came about the next year under Empress Irene, whose benevolence brought Theodore and Plato to be transferred to the urban monastery of Studios, together with the majority of the community of the monks of Sakkudion, to avoid the invasions of the Saracens. Theodore became the leader of the resistance to the iconoclasm of Leo V the Armenian, and thus, between 815 and 821, Theodore was flogged, jailed and exiled in various parts of Asia Minor. In the end, he was able to return to Constantinople. Thus, he established himself with his monks on the other side of the Bosphorus. He died, it seems, on Pringipos on Nov. 11, 826.
“Theodore is distinguished in Church history for being one of the great reformers of monastic life and also as a defender of sacred images during the second iconoclast phase,” Benedict XVI highlighted, revealing that “Theodore had understood that the issue of the veneration of icons implicated the very truth of the Incarnation...To abolish the veneration of the icons of Christ would mean cancelling his very redemptive work, since in assuming human nature, the invisible Word has appeared in visible human flesh, and in this way has sanctified the entire visible cosmos.”
Theodore gave a new spirit to cenobitic life: “In his writing, he insists on the urgency of a conscious return to the teaching of the fathers...The characteristic contribution of Theodore consists in his insistence on the necessity of order and submission on the part of the monks. During the persecutions, the monks had dispersed, accustoming themselves to living according to each one's personal judgment. When it was possible to reconstruct common life, it was necessary to deeply commit himself to again make of the monastery an authentic living community, an authentic family, or as he said, an authentic 'Body of Christ.' In a community like this, the reality of the Church as a whole is concretely fulfilled,” the Holy Father said.
Theodore teaches that “with respect to laypeople, monks take on the commitment of observing Christian duties with greater rigor and intensity.” There characteristic is “the commitment of poverty, chastity and obedience,” Benedict XVI continued. “Addressing the monks, Theodore speaks in a concrete way, occasionally almost picturesque, of poverty, but in the following of Christ this is from the beginning an essential element of monasticism and indicates as well a path for us. Renunciation of private poverty, freedom from material things, as well as sobriety and simplicity, are only valid in their radical form for monks, but the spirit of this renunciation is the same for everyone...When he illustrates the temptations against chastity, Theodore does not hide his personal experiences and shows the path of interior fight to find self-control and in this way, respect for one's own body and the body of others as a temple of God.”
But the principal renunciations are, for Theodore, those demanded by obedience: “after original sin, the tendency for man is to do one's own will, the first principle is the life of the world, and everything else remains submitted to the personal will. But in this way, if each one only follows himself, the social fabric cannot work,” the Holy Father explained. For Theodore the Studite, an important virtue, together with obedience and humility, is love for work: “One who is fervent in material commitments, who works assiduously, he maintains, is the same in the spiritual realm. In this regard, he does not allow that with the pretext of prayer and contemplation, the monk dispenses with work, including manual work, which in reality is, according to him and to the monastic tradition, the means to encounter God.”
If indeed he carried out an enormous exterior activity, Theodore “did not allow himself to be distracted from what he considered intimately linked to his function as superior: to be the spiritual father of his monks,” said Benedict XVI, recalling the importance he gave to spiritual direction, even with those outside the monastery. His Rule, codified after Theodore's death, “becomes something exceedingly relevant.”
At the close of the audience, the Holy Father addressed some of the main elements of spiritual doctrine of Theodore, showing their relevance: “Love for the incarnated Lord and for his visibility in the liturgy and in icons. Fidelity to baptism and commitment to live in the communion of the Body of Christ, understood also as communion of Christians among themselves. Spirit of poverty, of sobriety, of renunciation; chastity, self-control, humility and obedience against the primacy of one's own will, which destroys the social fabric and the peace of souls. Love for material and spiritual work. Spiritual friendship born in the purification of one's conscience, of one's soul, of one's life. Let us try to follow these teachings that truly show us the path of the true life.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 28/5/2009)
