19 March 2021

"Faith of Christ is like a shield in your heart": the Academy honored the memory of the Great Martyr Theodore the Tyro

On Friday March 19, at the end of the first week of the Great Lent the Church commemorates the miracle of the St. martyr Theodore the Tyro.

St. Theodore was tortured during the reign of the emperor Maximian in the IV century after he refused to offer sacrifice to Roman idols. By the emperor’s order he was burnt and through the martyrdom confessed his faith in Christ.

50 years after the martyrdom of Theodore the Tyro, the God-fighting emperor Julian the Apostate ordered to sprinkle the blood sacrificed unto idols over the food sold at the local markets during the first week of the Great Lent. He did it secretly from the Christians but his plan failed. At night Archbishop Eudoxius of Constantinople saw the Great Martyr Theodore in his dream. The saint revealed him Julian’s atrocities and ordered him to warn the Christians. The saint also said that instead of market products, they should eat boiled wheat with honey called “koliva”.

To remember this providential help, the Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of St. Theodore the Tyro on Friday of the first week of the Great Lent. At the end of Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, the canon to the saint is read and the clergy blesses the koliva, which is distributed to all believers.

On March 19, the Bishop of Zvenigorod Theodorite, Rector of the Moscow Theological Academy, celebrated the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts at the home church of the Academy.

Before the Holy Communion, Hieromonk Tavrion (Smykov) delivered a sermon, in which he spoke about the path of life and death:

«In any situation, the Lord gives us choice between two paths. They are a path of life and a path of death or a path of good and evil. If a person has temptations, he will have to make a choice between two ways. The first is the path of despondency and despair. The second is repentance and turning to God. The Lord providentially sets this path for sinners. After all, there is nothing on the earth that my separate us from the love of God. So, everything that happens to a believer and the one who loves God contributes to his good. Let us learn the wisdom of God and become worthy sons of our Heavenly Father».

At the end of the service, the Rector Bishop Theodorite together with the academic clergy read a canon to the great martyr Theodore. Then, Bishop Theodorite blessed the koliva.