TEODORO STUDITA, saint. — Byzantine ascetic and ardent defender of the veneration of images. Born in Constantinople ca. 759 and died in exile at Acrita, an island of Bithynia, on 11 November 826.
He laid the foundations of his outstanding sanctity, at the age of 22, in the monastery of Saccudio, under the spiritual direction of his uncle, St. Platone. After 13 years he was appointed hegumen of the celebrated cenobium of Studion (v. STUDITI), an office he retained until his death, for a full 32 years, since all the Studite monks regarded him as their founder, given the distinctive imprint he left on the constitutions of the Order. Under the iconoclast emperors he had to endure imprisonment and exile on several occasions.
A characteristic feature of T.’s spirituality, which was influenced to no small degree by his most devout mother Teoctista, is the absence of charismatic gifts in prayer; one would search in vain in him for special rules, since he is concerned above all with the practice of solid virtues, among which hypatagē (submission of the will) stands out. External penance is applied by him chiefly to self-mastery through abstinence from food. Characteristic is the love of Christ, which must inform all the actions of life, whence the desire for Communion, even daily, and universal and apostolic prayer, which leads one to pray for the whole world, like Christ, thereby changing the ancient ordinances of the Basilian Rule. The feast of St. T. is on 12 November.