January 11 | Saint Theodosius

Welcome, young history buffs and curious minds, to My Daily Saint, the podcast that digs deep into the incredible lives of the saints, those remarkable people who shaped history and continue to inspire us today. Forget dusty old portraits and boring stories. Today, we are heading back about 1,600 years to meet a man who lived to be, wait for it, 105 years old. But before he was an ancient wise man, he was a young guy looking for adventure and holiness in the desert.

This is the story of Saint Theodosius the Abbot. Imagine you are walking through the scorching heat of the Holy Land. You are on a pilgrimage. You look up toward the horizon and see something completely bizarre. There is a giant pillar, a tall column of stone, sticking out of the ground. And on top of it, there's a guy living there. That guy? Saint Simon Stylites, a saint famous for living on top of a pillar as a form of extreme penance. Now, imagine being a young man named Theodosius, born way back in the year 423 in Cappadocia, modern-day Turkey.

Theodosius makes a trip to the Holy Land and actually meets this pillar saint. Seeing someone willing to live on a pole just to be closer to God shook Theodosius to his core. The meeting inspired him. He decided right then and there that he didn't want a normal life. He wanted a life of holiness and self-denial. He wanted to go all in. So, Theodosius entered a monastery so that he could have a community and a superior who could guide him toward holiness, and he did.

Eventually, he was even in charge of a church in the Holy Land. Most people would like such responsibility, but Theodosius? He was terrified. He was scared of what the power would do to his ego. He guided and guarded the church carefully, but he was wary of the pride that leadership brought him. So what does he do? Retire to a cave in Judah. Picture this. He's living in a rock cave. His dinner menu? Herbs, various beans, and grains. That's it. No pizza, no steak.

Just beans and focus. But here's the irony of holiness. The more you run away from fame to focus on God, the more people want to find you. Word got out about this holy man in the cave. Soon, followers started showing up at his doorstep, er, well, his cave step. So many people came that Theodosius had to build a monastery just to house them all. This wasn't just a regular monastery, though. It was like an international headquarters. He began to organize the monks based on the languages they spoke.

And because he cared about people, not just rules, he built a hospital right next to the monastery so his growing community could live there. could take care of the sick and the dying. Then, yet again, Theodosius was given another promotion, the Patriarch of Jerusalem. And this is where the story turns into a political thriller. At this time, there was a nasty heresy going around, called Eutychianism, the false belief that Jesus wasn't really God and wasn't really man, but some weird in-between.

The Adocious knew this was wrong. He knew Jesus is true God and true man. But there was a problem. The emperor, Anastasius, supported this false belief. Emperor Anastasius Emperor Anastasius He didn't want a monk causing trouble for him, so the emperor tried to silence Theodosius with a bribe, a pile of money. And Theodosius took the money. He took the bribe and promptly gave it to the poor. The emperor was furious. He removed Theodosius from his position as patriarch, but Theodosius didn't care.

He stood his ground for the truth, and eventually, a new emperor named Justinian came along and returned Theodosius to his role. Theodosius went back to working for his monks and his people until the very end. And when I say the end, I mean it. He finally went to claim his eternal reward at the ripe old age of 105.

Now, for a weird fun fact, St. Theodosius is the patron saint of file makers. Yes, like the metal tools used to smooth down rough edges. Maybe it's because he spent his whole life smoothing out the rough edges of his own soul, and the souls of the people he led. So, what can we take away from the life of St. Theodosius for our lives today?

Think about that bribe. When the emperor tried to buy his silence, Theodosius didn't just say no. He took the negative thing, the bribe, and turned it into a positive thing, charity for the poor. This week, you might face a situation where someone tries to get you to do something wrong, like gossiping about a friend. Instead, flip the script. If someone tries to pull you into gossip, say something nice about that person instead. If someone tries to get you to be lazy, work extra hard.

Like Theodosius, don't just reject the bad. Transform the situation into something good. Thank you for joining us on My Daily Saint. We look forward to sharing another incredible story of faith and courage with you tomorrow.