One cannot rely on official pastors (bishops and priests), nor can one formally apply the canons to solve the issues presented in church life, nor in general can one limit themselves to a legalistic approach to the matter, but instead it is necessary to have a spiritual feeling that will show Christ’s path among the many available paths that have been trampled by wild animals in sheep’s clothing.
Life has posited questions that can only be resolved correctly, ecclesiastically correctly, by stepping beyond custom, form, rule, and being guided by senses trained in discerning good and evil (Hebrews 5:14). Otherwise, it is easy to defile the sanctity of one’s soul and begin burning one’s conscience (1 Timothy 4:2) through accommodation, according to the rules, with the falsehoods and filth that the bishops themselves have brought into the Church’s enclosure. On a 'legal' basis, one can even accept the Antichrist…"
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A most profitable extract from the Life of St. Theodore, Archbishop of Volokolamsk:
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| St. Sergius Sidorov |
The Holy New Martyr Fr. Sergius Sidorov, †1937, relates concerning St. Theodore the Archbishop of Volokolamsk: "Once I was accompanying Vladyka to the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. He had to take a tram. It was spring and the weather was hot. The rays of the sun burned on the cupolas of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, and they seemed to be incandescent globes passing the burning heat onto the noisy bustle of Moscow. On the fiery pavements lines of people were waiting for bread - a famine was raging.
A shaven old man with pitiful tufts of grey hair and staring, protruding eyes was greedily looking on as the bread was being handed out. Vladyka had a loaf, and he gave it to him. The old man pounced to kiss the hand of his Eminence Theodore, but Vladyka forcefully pulled it away, while the old man bowed almost to the ground in front of him before merging into the queue. I asked Vladyka whether he knew him.
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| St. Theodore |
'Of course, that's the mad official Peter Fyodorovich Spitsyn, I know him well. He has long been playing the fool in Moscow. You know, in order to understand the essence of Orthodoxy, it is necessary to study it, not in books and learned works, but in close contact with people who are forgotten and despised by the world, with fools and wanderers and madmen, even with criminals. This contact is especially useful for pastors.
When he has come to know those who have been rejected by the world better, the pastor will understand that in fact these people are closer to Christ than he is, because sinners who are conscious of their fall love the Lord Who forgives and has mercy on them. Orthodoxy is the religion of compassion and humility, one must pity sinners and recognize one's own sins. And this feeling is given to one when one comes into contact with the world of the poor and outcast.'"
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Additional information concerning Vladyka Theodore: St. Theodore, besides being an Archbishop, had been Rector of the Moscow Theological Academy, and head of the Danilov Monastery. It is written concerning him: the general image of Vladyka was of a strict, unsmiling rigorist, [but] he was in fact a man of great compassion and humility.
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| Archbishop Leonty |
Archbishop Leonty of Chile (ROCOR, †1971), who had stayed in this monastery recalls: "The whole Orthodox episcopate and people venerated Vladyka Theodore for his principled, uncompromising and straight position in relation to Soviet power. He considered that until the Orthodox Church received the right to a truly free existence, there could be no negotiations with the Bolsheviks. The authorities were only deceiving them, they would fulfil none of their promises, but would, on the contrary, turn everything to the harm of the Church...
Only firm bishops were received in the Danilov monastery, and lived there often. Sometimes there were as many as ten or more. All those who had been released from prison or were returning from exile found refuge there. The brotherhood consisted of principled and highly cultured people. Not a few of them became confessor-bishops. The strict spiritual school of Vladyka Theodore left a special imprint on the monastery..."
Additionally Vladyka Theodore, being firmly Orthodox, was, of course, a fierce opponent of Sergianism, and a Bishop of the Russian Orthodox Catacomb Church.
He wrote: "The recent past confirms our conviction and indicates that even now the time draws nigh when, for the good of the Church, we will have to renounce the legalization even of ecclesiastical communal organizations and return to the pre-Nicaean forms of Church life, when Christian societies were organized and united, not by administrative institutions, but by the Holy Spirit... [In the iconoclast period] the Orthodox Church was found in deserts, caves, tombs (St. Methodius), prisons, exile and grievous labors. And such tribulations for the Orthodox continued not for ten years, as now, but for one hundred and twenty years, with brief intervals of respite for Orthodoxy. And side by side with the impoverished Orthodox Church, legality and prosperity were enjoyed by the harlot-church which, through lawless obedience to the legal authority, obtained for herself a tranquil and undisturbed life."
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| Bishop Barnabas of blessed memory |
Bishop Barnabas Belyaev (†1963) later recalled: "The deceased Bishop Theodore, rector of the Moscow Theological Academy, excommunicated the [future] Patriarch himself [Sergius] and considered them [his adherents] to be shoemakers in disguise. Therefore, he did not accept their communion and constantly sent his own to his spiritual children."
Vladyka Theodore was shot in 1937 for his Orthodox Confession! May we sinners have his holy prayers! St. Theodore pray unto God for us!