Enciclopedia Cattolica Vol. XI, 1953 Saints & hagiography Saints

Theodore the Studite, Saint

TEODORO STUDITA, SANTO

Feast day: 12 November

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THEODORE THE STUDITE, Saint. - Byzantine ascetic and staunch defender of the veneration of images. B. at Constantinople ca. 759 and d. in exile at Acrita, an island of Bithynia, on 11 Nov. 826.

He laid the foundations of his pronounced holiness as a young man of 22, in the monastery of Saccudio, under the spiritual direction of the 210, St. Plato. After 13 years he was appointed hegumen of the famous cenobium of Studion (v. STUDITI), an office he held until his death, for fully 32 years, being regarded by all the Studite monks as their founder, given the wholly distinctive stamp he left on the constitutions of the Order. From the iconoclast emperors he had to suffer imprisonment and exile several times.

Illustration

His principal works, besides his copious epistolary correspondence and the various polemical treatises against the iconoclasts, belong to ascetics, namely the two Catecheses, the Greater and the Lesser, the Sacred Discourses and other minor writings concerning the liturgy and the canonical customs of the monastery of Studion.

A characteristic note of T.'s spirituality, which was not a little influenced by his most devout mother Theoctista, is the absence of charismatic gifts in prayer, for which one would search in vain for special rules in him, intent as he is above all on the exercise of solid virtues, among which stands out hypotaghè (submission of the will); external penance is applied by him principally to self-mastery in abstinence from food. Characteristic is the love of Christ that must inform all the actions of life, whence the desire for Communion, even daily, and the universal and apostolic prayer that has one pray for the whole world, like Christ, thereby changing the ancient ordinances of the Basilian Rule. The feast of St. T. is 12 Nov.

Bibliography5 works
BIBL.: works, only partly edited, in PG 99: E. Auvray, S. Th. Parva Catechesis, Paris 1891; A. Papadopulos-Kerameus, Μεγάλη κατηχητική, I. II. St. Petersburg 1904 (vol. I. in A. Mai, Nova Patrum Bibl. IX, Rome 1888, pp. 1-217). Studies: Krumbacher, pp. 147-51, 712-15; E. Amann, s. v. in DThC, XV, coll. 287-98; I. Hausherr, S. Th. S., l'homme et l'ascète, in Orient. christ., 6 (1926), pp. 1-87; Martyr. Romanum, p. 518, with bibl.

Emmanuele Candal

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By Emanuele Candal

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Translated from the Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XI (1953), coll. 1938–1939.

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vol. 11, coll. 1939–1940

More by Emanuele Candal: Theophanes of Nicaea · Studites · Capital Vices · Rallis, Georgio Alessandro · Planudes, Maximos

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Chicago

Candal, Emanuele. “Teodoro Studita, santo.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XI, coll. 1938–1939. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1953. https://azioneromana.com/article/teodoro-studita-santo.

MLA

Candal, Emanuele. “Teodoro Studita, santo.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XI, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1953, coll. 1938–1939. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/teodoro-studita-santo.

BibTeX

@incollection{ec11_teodoro_studita_santo,
  author    = {Candal, Emanuele},
  title     = {Teodoro Studita, santo},
  booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
  volume    = {XI},
  pages     = {1938--1939},
  note      = {Cited by column},
  publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
  address   = {Città del Vaticano},
  year      = {1953},
  url       = {https://azioneromana.com/article/teodoro-studita-santo}
}

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