At the same time, Theodosius wisely and skillfully managed the life of the monastery.

In particular, Dmitry Dontsov in the late 30’s developed a new ideological concept of nationalism – “national traditionalism”. In it, the traditional Christian religion and the Church occupy the place of the main spiritual sources of the national movement and the life of the Ukrainian people. Dontsov’s renewed ideology of nationalism was based on the ideological and ethical principles of the Christian Church of the princely and Cossack times, when the Church and peoples defended God’s and their national truth not only by word but also by sword.

The manifestation of the OUN’s desire for ideological harmonization with the Christian tradition and the GCC was a significant update of the content of the “10 Commandments of the Ukrainian Nationalist” of the official worldview and code of ethics of the OUN member, which took place in the second half of the 1930s. , in the “Seventh Commandment” – “Do not hesitate to add to the greatest crime, if required by the good deeds” the words “the greatest crime” were replaced by the words “the most dangerous act”.

The fact that Colonel Andriy Melnyk, who headed the OUN in 1939, had previously been the leader of the KAUM Orly organization, which operated under the general leadership of Metropolitan Sheptytsky, seems to be significant for assessing the atmosphere of relations between the GCC and the OUN in the second half of the 1930s. on the basis of “Christian nationalism”.

Tensions in the relations between the Greek Catholic Church and the Ukrainian national movement in the 1920s and 1930s were a manifestation of a complex process of correlation and coordination of positions of both parties, their ideological principles, goals, interests and their place in the socio- political life of Galician Ukrainians. Characteristically, the difficulties of this process are illustrated by the difficult relationship between polar and radical currents and groups that existed in the period under study within each of the parties: both the Church and the national movement.

It is important to note that the Ukrainian experience in this matter is not unique. In the history of most European nations during the XIX-XX centuries. there were moments marked by growing contradictions and confrontation between the Catholic Church and nationalist movements. In the 1920’s and 1930’s, in particular, relations between the Catholic Church and fascism in Italy and the Catholic Church and National Socialism in Germany developed in the spirit of sharp confrontation. These conflicts, by the way, had a certain echo in Galicia and could partly affect the then development of relations between the GCC and the OUN.

literature

Bondarenko K. Fascism in Ukraine. To the history of the problem // Ukrainian variants. – 1997. – Part 2. – P. 74-83. Golubenko I. The Greek Catholic Church and the national liberation movement in the western Ukrainian lands (30-40 years of the twentieth century) // Church and social problems. – Lviv. – 1993. – P. 288-98. Ideological guidelines of the Catholic action of Ukrainian youth // Ready. – 1935. – Part 8. Stepaniuk G. Participation of Greek Catholic priests in military units of the UGA // History of Religions in Ukraine. – Lviv: Logos, 1998. – P. 249-51. Sukhy M. Review of Dmytro Shtykal “The cross of the sword shines over the world”. / Bibliography // Bulletin. – 1937. – Part 1. – P. 76-77.Khimka I. -P. Greek Catholic Church and the Ukrainian National Revival in Galicia 1772-1918 // Ark. – Lviv, 1993. – P. 73-108.

07/14/2011

Theodosius, the Reverend Pechersk Church Writer of Ukraine. Abstract

After St. Anthony of Pechersk, the great lamp of the Orthodox faith and a valiant ascetic of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra was St. Theodosius, glorified by God with numerous feats and miracles.

He was born about the thirties of the XI century in Vasyliv (now the city of Vasylkiv), not far from Kyiv, in the family of a prince’s servant.

From an early age, he amazed those around him with his intelligence and age-inappropriate wisdom. Theodosius was brought up in piety, early and quickly began to comprehend the Divine Scriptures. He was especially zealous in prayer, gladly visited the temple, and carefully and lovingly endured the services, reaching the depths of the liturgy.

The righteous life so attracted and captivated his soul that from that time on he began to shun his peers, avoiding children’s games and entertainment.

Soon his parents had to move to Kursk, where the young years of Theodosius passed. Shortly after moving to a new place of residence, Theodosius’ father died. With his piety, he made an extremely great and strong impression on the ideological formation of his son. The example of the pious life of his father was worthy of imitation and reflected on the success of Theodosius in both school literacy and religious science.

The mother dreamed of her son’s worldly career, not understanding or accepting his interests and preferences. The fourteen-year-old continued to strengthen himself in the faith on his own with the sole purpose of achieving salvation.

One day he had to meet a pilgrim from Jerusalem. Fascinated by the inspired stories, the young man begged to take him with him to the Holy Land. He desperately wanted to look out of the corner of his eye at the places where the Savior lived and shed His precious blood for us. Secretly from his mother, at night, Theodosius goes on a long journey.

For three days, Theodosius searched for her grief-stricken mother. It was only by chance that she learned of her son’s intentions that she was able to catch up and bring him back from the road. Angry, she severely punished the boy, but he patiently and humbly endured the punishment and prayed even more fervently.

When he learned that some churches in the city lacked proskurok, Theodosius decided to bake his own bread, which was sacrificed to God. He bought wheat, ground it himself on a millstone and baked proskurki, which he then brought as a gift to the church. If someone gave money for those who applied for proscomedy, Theodosius gave it to the poor and infirm.

So he worked for about two years. The mother, who did not want to put up with her son’s life, hindered him. Sometimes by kindness, sometimes by force, she persuaded the boy to abandon the business and do the work that most of his peers did.

Then he leaves Kursk and settles in another city with a priest, whom he helps during services, sings and reads in the temple, bakes proskurki. But his mother finds him there and returns home again.

The pious life of the boy did not go unnoticed by others. The mayor of Kursk was moved by respect for the boy, bought him expensive light clothes, but he gave it to the poor. And so it was several times.

As a twenty-three-year-old boy, Theodosius left Kursk forever and went to Kyiv with the firm intention of becoming a monk and dedicating his life to serving God.

In the capital city, he learns about St. Anthony and directs his feet to the cave of the elder. Tearfully and fervently he begged the Holy Father to receive him. Rev. Anthony could not help but feel the fiery state of true piety and faith. He granted the young man’s wish and soon blessed St. Nikon to be tonsured a monk.

Having accepted the holy rank of a monk, Theodosius began to carry out the will of his mentors with special zeal.

He took hard monastic work for good and offered prayers of gratitude to God for the very possibility of such asceticism. At night, Theodosius worked spiritually, and during the day, tempering the flesh with fasting and abstinence in everything, he conducted numerous household chores that required considerable physical strength and endurance.

Hard work, humility, kindness, cordiality, and especially a passionate desire for a godly life of a young monk surprised even St. Anthony.

Meanwhile, his mother continued to search for Theodosius, gradually losing hope of seeing him alive. It was only after a long time that she finally learned of his whereabouts and went to Kyiv.

After meeting her son, she persuaded him long and tearfully to return home, promising Theodosius complete freedom in everything, if only he would be with her, take care of her in old age and bury her after death.

Theodosius patiently persuaded her to move away from worldly vanity, to embark on the path of salvation of the soul, to accept his blessing on monasticism.

The mother at first angrily rejected her son’s advice, but a few days later agreed with his instructions and was tonsured a nun at the monastery of St. Nicholas in Kiev, where he soon rested in God.

Having embarked on the path of monasticism, St. Theodosius was soon ordained a hierodeacon, and later – a hieromonk. When the first abbot of the Pechersk monastery, St. Barlaam, fulfilling the will of Prince Izyaslav, became the head of the monastery of St. Demetrius (later St. Michael’s Golden-Domed), the brothers unanimously elected him their abbot.

This decision was by no means accidental, because in a short time Theodosius gained deep respect and esteem for his exploits on the path of salvation.

To harden his spirit and will even more, Theodosius often undressed at the waist at night and gave his body for painful mosquito and insect bites, and at the same time worked hard: grinding grain, spinning wool, carrying water. He always sang the Psalms of David. Theodosius wore a hard, coarse hair on his body, which he hid on top with old clothes so that no one would find out. The monk slept sitting. He ate very little dry bread or boiled vegetables.

Already being abbot, the Reverend Theodosius not only did not reduce his ascetic deeds, but also multiplied them. He found inspiration and strength in prayer.

He considered the night time especially gracious, when nothing interfered with the fiery praise of God, nothing cooled hot tears, nothing distracted from kneeling.

At the same time, Theodosius wisely and skillfully managed the life of the monastery. The number of monks was constantly and steadily increasing. The fact that the cave life of the fraternity did not correspond to the dormitory ideal of the monk, but had a hermit character, forced him to make narrative story ideas a major change in the monastery.

Even in the time of Abbot Barlaam, a small church was built over the caves. Under Theodosius, cells were built on the surface of the earth for monks who moved there from caves, where they later began to bury the dead. Now only schismatics remained in the gates in the caves.

The monastery grew incessantly. Time demanded the introduction of a single and general rule of orderly monastic coexistence. Sensing this need subtly, the Reverend Theodosius decided to introduce the Studio Charter. He instructed the monk of the Pechersk Monastery Ephraim to visit Constantinople and study in detail the features of the Studio Monastery, its charter, in order to borrow the best from there.