ON SAINT THEOTIMUS, BISHOP OF TOMI IN SCYTHIA.
UNDER THE BEGINNING OF THE 5TH CENTURY.
CommentaryTheotimus, Bishop of Tomi, in Scythia (St.)
By G. H.
[1] Tomi is an ancient city of Lower Moesia, on that shore of the Euxine Sea which was called Pontic Scythia, once celebrated by the exile and poems of the poet Ovid; but after receiving the faith of Christ, an autocephalous Metropolitan see of Scythia, Various saints at Tomi in Scythia and ennobled further by several distinguished Bishops and Martyrs. Among the Martyrs we gave on January 2 Saints Argeus, Narcissus, and Marcellinus, and on April 3 of this month Saints Euagrius, Benignus, and six fellow-soldiers there named, about to give others elsewhere. Among the Bishops we celebrated on January 25 Saint Bretannion, and on this April 20 we venerate Saint Theotimus, whom the records of the Roman Martyrology report in these words: Theotimus on April 20 "At Tomi in Scythia, of Saint Theotimus the Bishop, whom, because of his remarkable sanctity and miracles, even the infidel barbarians venerated." To which place Baronius annotates various things. "Of him," he says, "likewise the Greeks, among whom Sozomen and Socrates; and the former has this in book 7, chapter 25."
[2] Called by the Huns God of the Romans "At the same time Theotimus, a Scythian, governed the Church of Tomi and the rest of Scythia, a man nourished in philosophy, whom the barbarian Huns, dwellers of the Ister, pursuing with admiration and praise on account of his virtue, called the God of the Romans: for indeed they had experienced divine virtues in him. For it is reported that some time when they were making a journey through this land of the barbarians, on the same road they met those who were riding for plunder. While his companions were lamenting, he softens their barbarity as though they were about to perish at once, he, dismounting from his horse, was praying; which being done, the barbarians harmed neither him, nor his companions, nor the horses on which they sat, but passed by looking on them. And when with frequent incursions the Huns infested the Scythians, although they were fierce by their nature, yet he converted them to mildness, receiving them liberally both with feasts and gifts. From which circumstance a certain barbarian man, suspecting him to be wealthy, had determined to take him by guile. A noose therefore having been prepared for this, bound to his shield, as he had been accustomed against enemies, while he was conversing with him, with raised right hand was about to cast the cord, as if about to draw him to himself and to his tribesmen. and he emends him by the miracle of the immobile right hand But indeed his hand, raised in the very attempt, remained in the air; nor was the barbarian freed from these invisible bonds until, others interceding for him, Theotimus had besought God. They say moreover that this man persevered in nourishing his hair, and continued the study of philosophy as he had begun, and used a thin diet, and determined the time for taking nourishment, not always the same, but with hunger and thirst; abstemious in diet for it was the mark of a philosopher, as I think, to give place to these things also according to necessity, and not for leisure."
[3] This from Sozomen. When Baronius had reported this in the Annals for the year 402, numbers 10 and 11, Whether he converted the Huns to the faith he adds these things: "We indeed think it was done by the same most holy man as author, that those Huns, whom Saint Jerome reports to have then believed in Christ, were converted to the faith: for indeed, to gain them Theotimus took pains to win them over with every kind of service, as we have seen from Sozomen. Moreover, his memory from the Ecclesiastical records the Catholic Church celebrates on the 12th day before the Kalends of May as an anniversary day. These things we insert, that when you hear such a man to have stood for John Chrysostom, you may understand that if not the just cause, at least the just"
pretexts of the cause favored Chrysostom. he adhered to Saint Chrysostom The rest may be read in Baronius, who in the Notes to April 20 still writes this of Saint Theotimus: "He flourished in the times of the Emperor Arcadius, and attended the Synod of Constantinople, and stood for John Chrysostom, in which action was taken about abolishing the works of Origen; and his opinion on this matter was that the writings of Origen should not be done away with, which were proved to be of sincere faith; to the same opinion Saint Jerome wrote in Epistle 75 to Tranquillinus, and Saint Augustine in Epistle 9, and finally Gelasius, Roman Pontiff, in the Canon on authentic Scriptures, in Gratian distinction 15, chapter 'Sancta Romana.'"
[4] with Pope Gelasius Now Gelasius writes these things: "Likewise certain little works of Origen, which the most blessed man Jerome does not repudiate, we undertake to read; but we say all the rest with their author are to be rejected." And Saint Augustine in the said epistle to Saint Jerome has these: St. Augustine "Concerning Origen, that you deigned to write back, I already knew, not only in ecclesiastical books and writings, but in all things to approve and praise what is right and true which we shall find, and to disapprove and rebuke what is false and wicked." and St. Jerome In like manner Saint Jerome enjoins, that we love the good and avoid the contrary. "For neither, on account of his teaching, are his wicked dogmas to be accepted; nor on account of the wickedness of his dogmas, if he published any useful commentaries on the holy Scriptures, are they utterly to be rejected." Having indicated these things in passing, we refer what has been related by Sozomen and Socrates, but favorers of Origen, in this matter concerning Saint Theotimus. And Sozomen, book 8 chapter 14, when he had narrated the dissension between Saint Chrysostom and Saint Epiphanius and what had then been done at Constantinople, thus subjoins: "And because Epiphanius shunned to have fellowship with John, having privately called together those Bishops who were staying at Constantinople, he showed them those things he judges some of Origen's books to be useful which had been decreed against the books of Origen; and he induced some that with these themselves they should also add their suffrage, which however very many refused to do. Indeed, Theotimus, Bishop of Scythia, rebuked Epiphanius to his face. For he said that by no means was it lawful for him to afflict with contumely one who had long since been dead; nor was it outside blasphemy to calumniate the censure of the ancients, and to reprove what had been decreed by them. When he had said this, he produced a certain book of Origen and recited from it, and showed that what had been recited was useful to the Churches. 'Something foolish,' he said, 'happens to those who vituperate these things: for there is danger lest they condemn the very things about which these books were written.'"
[5] Socrates has almost the same things in book 6 chapter 11. "The Bishops having been convoked," he says, "Epiphanius read the decree which condemned the books of Origen. Of these I indeed have nothing to say, but this I say, that it seemed good to Epiphanius and Theophilus to condemn them. Of the Bishops some, who reverenced Epiphanius, subscribed to that decree; but many refused to do so, of whose number was Theotimus, Bishop of Scythia, who thus replied to Epiphanius: 'I, Epiphanius, neither wish to afflict with contumely a man long since dead, nor do I dare to undertake a deed so nefarious as to condemn those books which our ancestors never condemned, and agreeing with the faith of the Church especially since I understand no evil doctrine contained in them.' And so producing a certain book of Origen, he read it, and showed the interpretations of Scripture agreeing with the faith of the Church, which were contained in it. Then he added these words: 'Those who afflict these things with contumelies, unwittingly afflict those things with contumelies about which the books themselves were written.' These things did Theotimus, a man celebrated for his piety and upright way of life by the conversation of many, respond to Epiphanius." Thus there. Saint Epiphanius is venerated on May 12. Palladius in his Dialogue on the Life of Saint John Chrysostom asserts that by reason of the necessities of the Churches the Bishops of Asia came to Constantinople, all the Metropolitans and Elders, among whom is said to have come from Scythia Theotimus, and that in the thirteenth distribution or Indiction. Consult Baronius under the year 400 number 73. From which it seems that it can be gathered that Theotimus was then an old man and did not live as a survivor very long.