11 January

We recite the 1st Section of [the 1st Kathisma] ‘Blessed is the man’. At Lord I have cried we insert 6 Stichera, and we sing Prosomia of the Saint.

Venerable Father, God-bearer Theodosios, valiantly you struggled in this temporary life, by hymns and fasts and vigils becoming a model for your disciples, while now you dance with the Bodiless Powers, as you ceaselessly glorify Christ, God from God, Word and Redeemer, who bowed down his to the Forerunner and sanctified the nature of the waters. Entreat him, implore him, Venerable Father, that the Church may be given harmony, peace and great mercy. [Twice]

Venerable Father, God-bearer Theodosios, the grace of the All-holy Spirit, finding your pure soul, as it desired, dwelt in you as an immaculate light. By its action you became radiantly bright and you ceaselessly glorify Christ, the one Son in two natures, who was baptized by the hand of the Forerunner and witnessed to by the Father’s voice. Entreat him, implore him, Venerable Father, that the inhabited world may be given harmony, peace and great mercy. [Twice]

Venerable Father, God-bearer Theodosios, rightly you were counted worthy of the blessed life, having found it by purity and ascetic practice; for while living you passed over to the life on high, bidding all things farewell, and with the Bodiless Powers ceaselessly glorifying Christ, who took flesh ineffably from a Virgin and sunk our sins by Baptism in Jordan’s streams. Entreat him, implore him, Venerable Father, that the inhabited world may be given harmony, peace and great mercy. [Twice]

Venerable Father, they rejoice your holy soul like a city of the living God, the torrents of the river, of the water of forgiveness, of the One who passed through Jordan and for all the ends of the earth became a source of the message of true religion, Christ our God. Implore him, most blessed Theodosios that our souls may be saved.[1]

You bowed your head to the Forerunner, you crushed the heads of the dragons,[2] you took your stand in the streams, you enlightened the universe to glorify you, O Saviour, the enlightenment of our souls.

Ι ‘See how I wear your image which I fashioned, humbling myself beyond understanding’, said the Lord, ‘What is strange then, my friend, if I bow low beneath your right hand, like one of your fellow servants, and stripped naked wrap myself in the waters? For I wish to clothe those who have been stripped naked with everlasting incorruption.’

Ω ‘You appeared in a body, but a womb received you and remained unconsumed by fire; for the furnace of old which did not burn the Youths was its image. While I who am grass to fire, how may I place my hands on you, Master, before whom tremble all things in heaven and on earth? Jesu, all-powerful, the Saviour of our souls’.

Verse: What troubled you, sea, that you fled? And you, Jordan, that you were turned back?[5]

Σ ‘Wash me, who am wholly without stain, in the waters of Jordan’, said the Lord, ‘and human nature, stained by Adam’s transgression, when washed will become new. For when I am baptised, there is the rebirth of every human being through water and the Spirit’.

We, the multitudes of monastics, honour you, our Father Theodosios, for through you we have learnt to walk the truly straight path. Blessed are you, for you became Christ’s slave and triumphed over the power of the foe, companion of Angels, colleague of the Venerable and the Righteous. With them intercede with the Lord to have mercy on our souls.

With the streams of your tears you cultivated the barren desert, and with deep sighings from the heart you made your toils bring forth fruit a hundredfold, and you became a beacon, shining in all the world by your wonders, our venerable Father Theodosios; intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

As you were baptized in the Jordan, Lord, the worship of the Trinity was made manifest; for the voice of the Father bore witness to you, naming you the Beloved Son; and the Spirit, in the form of a dove, confirmed the sureness of the word. Christ God, who appeared and enlightened the world, glory to you!

[1] This Doxastikon is based on the Psalm 45:5, ‘The torrents of the river rejoice the city of God; the Most High has sanctified his tabernacle’. The river is identified with Christ, or with the Holy Spirit, in a number of passages from the Fathers. Euthymios Zigavenos comments, ‘The river is Christ, because of the sweet streams of his teachings that water and rejoice the souls of Christians and bring to produce the fruits of virtue. For the Lord says, through Isaias, ‘See, I turn towards them as a river of peace’ [66:12]’. The torrents are also identified with the Apostles.

[2] Psalm 73:13.

[3] The three prosomia in Tone 4 look like part of an acrostic poem by Joseph the Hymnographer and are part of dialogue between Christ and St John the Baptist. I have included the Greek initial letters to indicate this. There is a similar problem in the Aposticha of Lauds on the 4th and 5th of January, where a poem of Joseph has been dismembered and rearranged.

[4] Psalm 113:3.

[5] Psalm 113:5.