On the 11th of the same month, we commemorate our Venerable Mother Theodora of Alexandria.
Verses
Theodora, in form and in mind, makes herself manlike,
And brings the great mind to shame before the end.
On the eleventh, Theodora sleeps the final sleep
(that is, she sleeps the final sleep of death).
Just as the Kingdom of Heaven was likened to ten Virgins, as the mouth of Christ says in the New Testament of the Gospel, so likewise ten women, taking upon themselves the appearance of men, crushed the goads of the man-slaying Devil. One of these ten was the Theodora whom we celebrate today, whose name means “gift of God.” She came from the city of Alexandria in the time of the Emperor Zeno, in the year 472. Having been joined in marriage to a lawful husband, she lived an orderly and blameless life. But when, through the envy of the devil, the hater of good, she secretly fell into adultery, she resolved to seek and find her salvation. Therefore, having heard the evangelical words in which the Lord teaches that there is nothing hidden that will not eventually be revealed — “For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest” (Luke 8:17) — when she considered the weight of the sin she had committed, she was ashamed of that sin as of a disgrace and an uncleanness. And so, casting aside her feminine clothing, she assumed the angelic habit of the Monks and, instead of Theodora, changed her name to Theodore. Going to a monastery for men, she repented and wept over her sin.
After the blessed woman had spent two full years laboring at difficult tasks and striving to carry the things needed by the monastery, she was slandered, through the envy of the soul-destroying Devil, by certain ill-disposed men, who claimed that she had committed fornication with a woman. Therefore, they brought an infant and threw it outside the monastery door, falsely alleging that it was hers. For this reason, the all-blessed Theodora, accepting this slander as true, took the infant and raised it faithfully as though it were her own. For the thrice-blessed woman was striving to conceal herself, so that it would not be known that by nature she was a woman. After she had endured outside the monastery for seven full years, for the love of God and as a penance for her sin, struggling against the cold of winter, the heat of summer, and sleeping upon the ground, she finally, with great difficulty, entered the monastery again.
From that time onward, drying up her body through frequent prayers, labors, all-night standing, and vigils, and contemplating her inheritance in the Kingdom of Heaven, she reached that goal and end which she loved. Truly, a fearful wonder occurred in this holy woman — who would not marvel at it? — for although by nature she was a woman, she lived together with men without being recognized as such. And while she was in the midst of the arena of ascetic struggle, she contended as one of the men, shining forth ascetically like a great luminary. Therefore, laden with the worthy rewards of her labors, she joyfully ascended to her desired Bridegroom, Christ. And the Monks, seeing such a paradoxical wonder, were amazed and glorified God.¹
Note
1. It should be noted that this Synaxarion of the Saint is composed in iambic verse, both in the manuscript and in the printed Synaxaristes, from which it was translated. Concerning this Venerable Theodora, it is written in the Paradise of the Fathers that she uttered the following noteworthy saying: namely, that neither asceticism, nor vigils, nor any other labor saves a person, but only genuine humility:
There was a hermit who drove out demons. He asked them by what virtue they departed from people in this way.
“Do you depart because of fasting?”
And the demons answered, “We never eat or drink.”
“Do you depart because of vigils?”
And they answered, “We never sleep.”
“Do you depart because of withdrawal and solitude?”
And they answered, “We are in withdrawal and solitude.”
“By what virtue, then,” he said to them, “do you depart?”
And they answered, “No virtue defeats us except humility. For this is the victor over the demons.”
The same Saint also said that there was a Monk sitting in his cell in the desert. Because of the multitude of temptations that the Devil was causing him, he became exhausted and said, “Let me leave this place, so that I may escape.” As he was preparing his sandals to depart, he saw another man also putting on his sandals (and it was the Devil), and he said to the Monk:
“Are you leaving this place because of me? But behold, here I am as well, preparing myself to go ahead to wherever you are going.”
It should also be noted that her Life was written in Greek by the Metaphrastes, beginning: “Zeno was already emperor....” It is preserved in the Lavra, in the Holy Monastery of Iviron, and elsewhere. In the Lavra there is also preserved another Life of hers, beginning: “In the days of the Emperor Zeno and Gregory the governor....”
Offering your sanctified life as a divinely inspired gift to God, Venerable Theodora all-praised, having displayed fervent repentance, and amid men you shined as a philosopher, wherefore intercede without ceasing for those who glorify you, granting us the great mercy.
Kontakion in the Second Tone
With fasting, vigils and prayers you languished your body, entreating the Creator to receive complete forgiveness for your sin, and having truly received it, you show us the path of repentance.
