ON ST. THEODORE OR THEODOSIUS, HEGUMEN AND CONF.
His cult among the Greeks.
Theodore the hegumen, confessor, among the Greeks (S.)
J. P.
The name of this Saint is formed in the two ways in which I have expressed it in the title. His cult, eulogy, Concerning his public cult among the Greeks it is established from the Sirletian Menologium, the Menaeum of Chifflet, the great printed Menaea of the Greeks, and the Synaxarion from the Menologium under the name of the emperor Basil, so often cited by us; from whose Greek text, printed at the end of volume 1 of this month of August, I bring forward the following eulogy: The memory of our holy Father Theodosius. Our holy father Theodosius, from his tenderest years obeying the precept of Christ, which says: He who has not left father and mother, and brothers and sisters, and fields and house, and has not taken up his cross, and follows after me, cannot be my disciple; left all things, and, his cross being taken upon his shoulders, followed Him with eager mind, and, being made a monk, went far away, fleeing into the solitude. Now indeed he lived on the mountains, now he ordered his life in caves, and was nourished from the fruits of trees and from the herbs which grew upon the rocks, by night and by day beseeching God for his own salvation and the world's. Ordering his life thus, he also received the grace of miracles; and, many sick being restored to health, rejoicing he departed to the Lord.
[2] the office of hegumen. In the Sirletian Menologium he is announced under the title of Provost of Oroba; but in the great Menaea under that of hegumen of Oroba. For Theodosius both copies write Theodore; to which add our transcript of the Chiffletian Menaeum. Further, the place or monastery of Oroba, in Greek Ὀρόβων, is hitherto unknown to me. But there is the common noun ὄροβος, in Latin "ervum," which signifies a certain herb; concerning which see the Lexicons. In the Passed Over at the day XXVI of June, on the occasion of the St. Theodore of the dedication of the temple at Rhesium, it was said that we knew of no Theodore distinct from the Martyrs and the Studite, except him who is venerated as hegumen τῶν Ὀρόβων, that is, of the Pearls, on this VIII day of August. Of this word Du Cange makes mention in the Græco-barbarous Glossary. But whether the derivation of the aforesaid name comes from that herb, or rather from the etymology of pearls, let the judgment be free to the reader.