Two University Professors on the Ever-Memorable Fr. Theodoretos (Mavros)

Hieromonk Theodoretos — Eternal be his memory!

By Dimitris Hatzinikolaou,

Associate Professor of the University of Ioannina

 

On October 4, 2007 (N.S.), the Church of Christ, militant and under persecution, lost a true Christian, a confessor and fighter on the front line against the greatest enemy of Orthodoxy, the heresy of Ecumenism. The reference is to the well-known anti-ecumenist Fr. Theodoretos, Hieromonk. Fr. Theodoretos passed through this temporary world as a noble, guileless man, humble in heart like a child, kindly, gentle, disinterested, an untiring worker for the salvation of his fellow men and for the purity of the Evangelical and Patristic word, consistent in his words and deeds, and an uncompromising opponent of every distortion and every plot against Orthodoxy and Greece. Sorrow grips our hearts.

The writer came to know Fr. Theodoretos in the year 1999, when he felt that he had a duty to confess Orthodoxy in practice, which is of course the duty of every believer. Having perceived the betrayal and blasphemy against Orthodoxy of unprecedented magnitude, I began to ask theologians and others who were involved in ecclesiastical matters what ought to be done; and more specifically, whether I should perhaps join the Old Calendar Church. The theologians whom I asked emphatically said no, yet without establishing their opinion with substantial arguments. Instead, they referred me to the book of Archimandrite Epiphanios Theodoropoulos entitled The Two Extremes: Ecumenism and Zealotry. After reading this book I was persuaded that I should not join the Old Calendar Church, but should wait “until the proper time.” Even worse, despite the gross ignorance that I had concerning ecclesiastical history and the Patristic teaching on the matter, I attempted to persuade other troubled persons to do the same, repeating the unsound arguments of Fr. Epiphanios. The end to this downward course was given by a certain brother who, when I proposed that he read The Two Extremes, replied as follows: “You should read The Antidote by Fr. Theodoretos!” This indeed I did. Other related books and articles followed. From among all these, the one that holds the first place in my soul is the book of Fr. Theodoretos entitled Dialogues of the Desert on Ecumenism (Second Edition, 2002). From that time, my communication with Fr. Theodoretos, the love with which he surrounded my entire family, the patience with which he guided me in theological matters, his reproof for my errors, his corrections of incorrect formulations in my articles—which I always sent to him for comments and corrections before submitting them for publication—were not merely precious, but decisive for me. The void left by his repose is impossible to fill.

Fr. Theodoretos, being an important theologian, cut off his own will and was perfected in obedience to his Elder, Fr. Kallinikos. In order to do this, he sacrificed a brilliant career at the University. (He was an assistant to Professor Markos Siotis when he resigned in order to become a monk.) For the sake of Christ, he despised all corruptible and transient things and devoted himself to obedience, prayer, fasting, the confession of the Orthodox Faith, the study and dissemination of the word of God (indeed at his own expense). As a knower of Patristic Theology, he left as a legacy an important body of writings, which summarizes the Orthodox teaching and Tradition regarding the confrontation of heresies and their adherents. This work can today easily be used even by non-theologians for confronting the heretical ecumenists and their defenders, who unfortunately multiply day by day. From the depths of our heart, we feel the need to exclaim: Hieromonk Theodoretos — eternal be his memory!

 

Hieromonk Theodoretos

By Petros Koutsoukos,

Professor of the University of Patras

 

 

At the end of the day of the leave-taking of the feast of the Exaltation of the Precious Cross and, after the celebration of the Vespers of the feast and commemoration of Saint Kosmas and the twenty-six Venerable Martyrs with him who were martyred on Mount Athos for the Faith once delivered to the Saints (Sept. 21-22, O.S.), the Lord chose to call to rest His chosen and tireless laborer in His vineyard, the Athonite Hieromonk Fr. Theodoretos.

The timing of the departure of Fr. Theodoretos was anything but accidental. It coincided with feasts and commemorations of sacrifice and confession of the Truth.

In this way, the Lord of life and death perhaps wished to convey a message to us who remain behind: to underline the fact that the life of Fr. Theodoretos was a life of sacrifice and confession.

Such a life not only befits, but is also the duty of every pious and Orthodox Christian.

I consider myself particularly blessed, because I had many times the opportunity to meet, to converse, and to pray together with this venerable father.

However, I first came to know Fr. Theodoretos through his pen, and afterward I met him in person.

His writings—confessional in character, absolutely well-documented, written with scientific integrity and methodology—had made a particular impression on me, and I must confess that when I first met him, I was surprised by the childlike sweetness of his manner and the gentleness of his character.

One thing, however, was immediately evident—that which inflamed him, set him on fire, and could not be hidden: the Truth!

The Truth without conditions and without limits!

Such souls are a rare thing in our times.

This holy zeal of his was his wealth and the driving force of his life.

He loved Theology from his youth and soon perceived that this sacred science cannot be confined to academic lecture halls, where worldly turmoil is often disorienting.

He therefore abandoned every academic prospect and withdrew into the monastic schools of the Holy Mountain, choosing rather as his mentors in the science of sciences the professors of the Desert, and especially the Holy Kollyvades Fathers.

His progress did not delay in becoming evident through his struggles on behalf of the Truth. With the blessing of his Elder always, his cell became a pulpit against the pan-heresy of Ecumenism.

A powerful pulpit, because it was not only words, but above all action.

For this reason, the guilty and those in power were greatly disturbed (as the poet also says) and in the end punished him with exile.

The Athonite, the small, combative, confessional periodical—with all the difficulties involved in its publication—was for years a sleepless bastion, a shining beacon, a support for the struggling anti-ecumenists.

It was a particular joy for me when, during a pilgrimage of mine to the Holy Monastery of the Transfiguration in Boston in 1986, I learned that three days earlier he had been ordained a hieromonk by the Synod of the Russian Church Abroad, which at that time was struggling against Ecumenism.

A new battlement, new struggles, greater responsibilities.

With special emotion I recall mystical services and Divine Liturgies in his little cell in Kapsala, where with sacred feeling he told me that there: “was the katholikon where the great Kollyvades Father, Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite, chanted services and participated in sacred rites.”

With a view toward the summit of Athos, on the small balcony of his humble cell, I had the special blessing to listen to his sorrow over the indifference toward the Truth—an indifference that is becoming widespread.

He saw the readiness—though not always—for words, and the unwillingness for deeds—for action.

Fr. Theodoretos grieved deeply when he saw the decline of moral character—both among the clergy and the laity—when he saw the dulling of the Orthodox conscience, when he saw the godless letters that flood the schools and the minds of unformed children, to whom there is an attempt to convey the message that our ancestor is an animal and not the ancient Adam, as the Mother Church teaches with her infallible mouth.

For this reason, his last work, before the Lord called him to rest from his labor and sacrificial course, was addressed to the students—the Greek students, the future of our homeland.

A work—a cry of anguish—so that the lie may not pass into the tender hearts of our children.

His monastic life was not cloudless, nor did he live with the approval of his contemporaries, for he was concerned first with how to please the Lord.

He walked this path with consistency—the path which the Lord Himself first walked and afterward all the Saints, without any exception.

Looking at his radiant example, I would like to say to him very simply and humbly:

—You leave behind, Fr. Theodoretos, both for us who knew you and for those who will come to know you in the future through your unique writings, a legacy and an example to follow the Truth at whatever cost.

Your example reminds us that the first virtue for a Christian is the courage to confess the Truth.

For this reason, the Spirit of God, in the Apocalypse, emphasizes to us that “the lake burning with fire and brimstone shall be the portion of the cowardly and the unbelieving...” (Rev. 21:8), placing first the “cowardly.”

Courage indeed has a cost, and you, Fr. Theodoretos, paid that cost!

Yet by this you purchased an enviable place of rest, toward which you now proceed with rejoicing steps.

And we who remain behind become poorer by one martyr of the Truth; a battlement is emptied. Yet—mystery!—together with our sorrow we also have joy, because we sense the certainty that we acquire another battlement, this time in Heaven!

Another battlement of intercession before the Giver of the contest, so that we too may pass through the valley of weeping in piety and in the confession of the Truth, both in word and in deed.

Eternal be your memory, Confessor and Professor of the Desert, Fr. Theodoretos! Intercede for us!

 

Greek source: https://krufo-sxoleio.blogspot.com/2014/10/blog-post_4.html