From the Prologue of Ochrid
From his earliest youth he shunned laughter and merriment and gave himself over to meditation on God and to prayer. Because of this he was often beaten by his mother, and especially when his mother one day noticed an iron belt around his bare body, from which his shirt was bloody. Having once read in the Gospel the words of the Savior: "He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me," he left his parents' home and fled to the Kiev cave to the Venerable Anthony. Anthony received him and soon tonsured him a monk. When his mother found him and began calling him home, he counseled his mother, and she too was tonsured in a women's monastery. By his ascetical struggle, meekness, and goodness, Theodosius soon surpassed all the monks and became very dear to Anthony, who appointed him Abbot of the monastery. During his time, the monastery's wealth greatly increased, churches and cells were built, and the Studite Rule was introduced in its fullness. God endowed Theodosius with great grace on account of his virginal purity, his exceedingly great labor in prayer, and his love for his neighbor, so that this man of God had great power over unclean spirits, healed diseases, and saw into the destinies of men. Together with Saint Anthony, Theodosius is considered the founder and organizer of monasticism in Russia. He reposed peacefully in the year 1074. His healing relics rest beside the relics of Anthony.
“Truly I am as a beast before Thee, O Lord!”
