ON SAINT THEODORE THE FOOL.
CommentaryTheodore the Fool (Saint)
By G. H.
[1] We all recognize God as wondrous in His works; the sacred Scriptures likewise proclaim Him wondrous in His Saints, whom He leads to the perfection of life in a manner that is altogether admirable, and at last to eternal salvation. Among these Saints, those stand out who, in order to abolish the renown of a holier life and the fame of miraculous deeds that had spread about them, and lest they become insolent from it and suffer the loss of salvation, feigned foolishness and permitted certain paradoxical actions remote from the custom of common life. How pleasing this was to God has been confirmed many times by miracles — such as those read in the Acts of Saint Symeon the Fool, to be illustrated on July 1, whose funeral the Angels also honored with heavenly music. The Greeks celebrate a similar Saint on this day in the Menaia and in Maximus of Cythera, in these words: "On the same day, Saint Theodore, the Fool for Christ's sake, ends his life in peace." The Greeks in the Menaia compare him with King David, who in 1 Kings, chapter 21, feigned madness before Achish, King of the Philistines, when, as verse 13 reads, "he changed his behavior before the servants of the king, and fell about in their hands, and stumbled against the doors of the gate, and his spittle ran down upon his beard" — when Achish judged him a man insane and raving, who could not enter his house. Imitating David, Saint Theodore also, with his prudence dissembled, completed his life and attained eternal blessedness. The remaining Acts have not yet come to light.