Theodorite Kola

The Monk Theodorite was born in Rostov in 1481 ^[3] . It is impossible to say with certainty where the saint received his good education (he knew theology and Greek well). O. Mitrofan suggests that it could be a Rostov monastery in the name of St. Gregory the Theologian ^[1] , where his fellow countryman, the educator Zyryan Stefan of Perm , had previously studied ^[4] . However, in a book about Varlaam of Keretsky, he mentions the Shuerechensky monastery as "the center of Russian book writing": "It was here that he (Theodoret) and other young monks and novices formed as scribes and theologians ..." ^[5] .

From 12 years old he worked in the Solovetsky monastery as a scribe of books. Around 1494, Theodorite entered into obedience to Elder Zosima in a desert on the Shuya River , where for 15 years he comprehended the foundations of monastic life. In 1509, Theodoret was appointed hierodeacon by the Archbishop of Novgorod Serapion . After living after this for some time in the monastery of Zosima, he goes on a pilgrimage to the monasteries. He visits the Monk Alexander Svirsky and the Trans-Volga elders . Shortly before his death, Zosima called his disciple, and Theodorite hastened to Shuya. After the death of his spiritual father, Theodorite retired to a solitary residence to the then uninhabited mouth of Kola . Here he met a hermit named Mitrofan, who lived in these forests for about five years (apparently, we are talking about Tryphon Pechenga ), built a cell and began his monastic exploits.

Soon, the hermit Theodorite began missionary work among the Lopars : in the summer - in the camps of the Vaenga and Tuloma rivers, in the winter - among those Lopars who came to the Kole River for seasonal hunting. After seven years of unceasing labors, the Lopari of the churchyard on the Niva River and part of the northeastern Lapari were baptized. In 1526, at the mouth of the Niva River, a church was erected and consecrated in the name of John the Baptist , which became the beginning of the graveyard , and now - the city of Kandalaksha . By 1531, in the area of ​​the original cell of the enlightener, a graveyard of Orthodox Lapps appeared and two churches were built - the Annunciation and Nikolskaya, which became the beginning of the future city of Kola .

Despite the fierce opposition of the local Noida sorcerers, the missionaries' preaching led to the conversion of part of the local population to Christianity. The success of the sermon necessitated the church building, priests to feed the newly converted lop ^[6] . In 1530, Theodorite and Mitrofan went to Novgorod to Archbishop Makarii . Missionaries return to the North with builders to build churches. Together with them from the Novgorod archbishop comes Hieromonk Elijah, who is to consecrate the newly built temples. In 1532, Theodorite and Hieromonk Elijah consecrated churches in the Niva, Ponoy , Kolya and Pechenga .

In 1533, Theodorite went to Veliky Novgorod to be ordained a priest . In 1534, he was ordained a hieromonk and became confessor of the Novgorod Archbishop Makarios , the future Metropolitan of Moscow.

After the ordination, Theodorite went not to the North, but to Belozersky Krai. He spent some time in the Kirilo-Belozersky monastery . At the end of the 1530s he lived for four years in the Belozersky Porphyry desert. Apparently, it was here that he was engaged in the compilation of written language for the Sami and the translation of church texts from Church Slavonic into the Sami language ^[1] . The written language created by him was probably based on the written language created in 1372 for the Permian (Ancient Zyryan) language by St. Stephen of Perm (circa 1340/1345-1396) based on the Cyrillic alphabet and the so-called " passages " (patrimonial badges) ^[1] . Here, in the Porphyry desert, he became close to the old man Artemy and other prominent representatives of non-possessors of the “second wave”.

Around 1540, Theodorite with rich gifts and accompanied by other monks returned to Kola, where he founded the communal Trinity Ust-Kola Monastery . The monastery’s brotherhood was also replenished by Lapps. During this period he baptized more than two thousand lopars. However, in 1548 the brethren of the monastery expelled the abbot because of the “too rigid” charter ^[7] . Soon the ascetic was founded Kandalaksha monastery , in which he abbotted from 1548 to 1551.

In 1551, at the request of Artemy, who had by that time become hegumen of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery , Theodorite was made hegumen of the Savior-Euthymius Monastery in Suzdal . Here he proved himself to be a zealot of piety and strict monastic rules . However, his activities aroused discontent among the monastic fraternity of this rich and influential monastery, as well as the Suzdal bishop Athanasius (Paletsky) ^[8] , whom he directly denounced in loving love and drunkenness. At the cathedral in 1554 , where he was a witness in the Artemy case, his opponents were “convicted” of friendship with Artemy and accused of heresy . However, neither Artemy, nor, especially, Theodorite, could prove the hereticity. Artemy was nevertheless condemned by the cathedral for other faults and exiled to the Solovetsky monastery under the strict supervision of the abbot. Theodorite is mentioned in the monastery documents as hegumen even after the cathedral until October 1554 ^[9] . After the cathedral, through the efforts of the Suzdal bishop, Theodorite was exiled to the Cyril-Belozersky monastery, where Athanasius had been abbot previously. Only by the intercession of Metropolitan Macarius was the monk released from captivity. After that, Theodorite spent some time in the Yaroslavl Transfiguration Monastery .

In January 1557, the monk was sent to Constantinople in order to obtain from the eastern patriarchs the recognition of the imperial title adopted by Ivan the Terrible in 1547 . In addition to this assignment, he was given secret instructions and instructions related to clarifying the general political situation in the Ottoman Empire . On his trip, which lasted almost a year, he visited Athos and Jerusalem . The commission was carried out brilliantly, and the king, wanting to show mercy to his skillful diplomat, offered him generous gifts and church authority, which the saint would want. Rejecting all temptations, the saint replied: "I ask one thing - yes, with peace and silence in my cell until I descend, may I remain." After this journey, Theodorite settled in the Vologda Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery , from where he repeatedly went to the baptized Lopars, to the Kolu River.

In 1562, in connection with the flight of Prince Kurbsky to Lithuania, Theodorite was interrogated. “In the inventory of the tsarist archive of the 16th century,“ the speeches of an old man from the Savior from Yaroslavl, a black priest, the spiritual father of Kurbs ”are indicated“ ” ^{[1] [10]} .

We find some information about the last years of the monk’s life in the “Message on the Land of Lopia” by the Dutch merchant Simon van Salingen, who reports on his conversation with the “Russian philosopher” in 1568. The Dutchman calls his interlocutor Feodor Zidenowa, but the text leaves little doubt that it is about the Rev. Theodorite: “He wrote the history of Karelia and Lapland , and also dared to compose a written language for the Karelian language, in which no one ever wrote. So, he showed me the alphabet and manuscript, “Symbol of Faith”, “Our Father”, as well as an exposition of what he himself had experienced ” ^[11] . According to this message, the Monk Theodorite wrote the history of Karelia and Lapland, as well as notes about his life, which, unfortunately, have not reached our days.

Shortly before his death, Theodorite retired to Solovki , where he died peacefully on August 17, 1571 and was buried near the southern wall of the Transfiguration Cathedral.

Already during his lifetime, Theodorite became famous for many miracles. In the manuscripts go the folk canon , akathist and prayers to the miracle worker, controversial both in content and in their literary merits.

However, over the past four centuries from the moment of his death, he was never glorified and was not mentioned in the Saints. The reason for such oblivion of the glorious deeds of the great ascetic was that Theodorite, together with other " Trans-Volga elders " after the Councils of 1553-1554, was in disgrace ^[12] . Therefore, in spite of the obvious height of the spiritual life of the old man and his missionary exploits, he did not attain the title of holiness, although by the end of the 19th century he was already referred to as “ blessed ” ^[13] .

On August 30, 2002, in the church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the city of Kola, a local diocesan glorification of St. Theodorite of Kola, enlightener of the Lapps, in the person of the saint took place ^[14] .

Memory is celebrated in the Kola Saints Cathedral on December 15 (28) and locally on the day of death on August 17 (30) . The service is performed according to the Common Mine in conjunction with the service of the Celebration of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (without the rank of burial of the Virgin).

There is a wooden church on the courtyard of the Trifonov-Pechenga monastery in Murmansk , a house church in Severomorsk and one chapel in the name of St. Theodorite. Through the efforts of Bishop Mitrofan (Badanin) , the life, troparion and kondak of the Monk Theodore Kola were compiled.

• Hieromonk Mitrofan (Badanin). Blessed Theodorite of Kola, enlightener of the Lapps. Historical materials for the glorification and writing of life . - Murmansk: Publishing house of the Murmansk and Monchegorsk diocese, 2002.
• The Life of St. Theodorite, the Enlightener of Kola / V exposition. hierom. Mitrofana (Badanina). SPb .: Incense; Murmansk: Murm Publishing House. Dioceses, 2006.
• Droblenkova N.F. Theodorite, archimandrite of the Spaso-Euthymius monastery // Dictionary of scribes and books of Ancient Russia . The second half of the XIV — XVI century. part 2.
• A.I. Smooth . To the question of the authenticity of the “Story of the Grand Duke of Moscow” by A. M. Kurbsky (Theodoret's life) // TODRL. T. 36. S. 241.
• Works of Prince Kurbsky. RIB t. 31 Art. 324—348.