Theodoritus of Ryazan

Holy Hierarch Theodoritus, Archbishop of Ryazan, was born in 1551, in the time of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. No certain information has survived about his childhood and parents. There is only a tradition that he came of the noble Sheremetev family and had estates at Ryazan.

Bishop in the Time of Troubles

In the 1590s he received monastic tonsure, in honour of the Holy Hieromartyr Theodoritus of Antioch, and then the priesthood, with the blessing of Patriarch Job. Unceasingly he laboured, prayed and practised other monastic struggles. Reaching mature age, he was chosen for the episcopal ministry and in 1605 Metropolitan Hermogenes (the future patriarch and holy hieromartyr) ordained the hieromonk Theodoritus bishop of Ryazan and Murom. At that time the diocese was vast and included, besides the lands of Murom and Ryazan, parts of the present dioceses of Lipetsk, Voronezh, Tula and Tambov. His pastoral ministry began in an hour when the Russian people had great trials to bear: the country was in the hands of the pretender False Dmitry, who betrayed it to its enemies, and Poles and Cossacks burned towns and villages and robbed the people. Among the men strong in spirit whom God raised up then, many were from the clergy, and one of these intercessors and mourners for the Russian land was Saint Theodoritus.

Care for the diocese

In those same days, with the tsar and great clerical and lay dignitaries, the hierarch of Ryazan received the holy relics of the innocently slain Tsarevich Dimitri, brought by the tsar's order from Uglich to Moscow in 1606. Later he took part in the celebrations for the elevation of Metropolitan Hermogenes to the patriarchal throne, in the Dormition Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. These events brought him close to the tsar. The Ryazan pastor cared diligently for the needs of the clergy, who endured want together with the people, and the tsar, at his petition, granted a charter of mercy giving the Ryazan clergy wider rights to material support. Saint Theodoritus also cared for the beauty of the churches and for the spiritual welfare of his flock. He understood the need to move the tomb of Saint Basil of Ryazan to a more protected place, in the Dormition Cathedral of the Ryazan Kremlin, surrounded by strong walls. For this the rebuilding of the cathedral, begun eight years before, had to be finished. But the people suffered great want, so the pastor appealed to Tsar Vasily Shuisky, who sent masons. In the hours of sorrow in the Time of Troubles, Archbishop Theodoritus prayed many times with the people of Ryazan at the relics of Saint Basil and received comfort.

Against the pretenders

For building faith and piety in the people, Hierarch Theodoritus had a wise and authoritative word. When popular unrest reached the borders of the diocese, he uprooted it firmly and wisely, and only thanks to this did Pereyaslavl Ryazansky remain one of the towns that stayed loyal to Tsar Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky. When False Dmitry II appeared, the people of Ryazan did not recognize him as tsar, and their force, led by Prokopy Lyapunov, with the blessing of Hierarch Theodoritus, drove the pretender's troops from their city, and then cleared the towns of Pronsk, Mikhailov and Zaraisk of the enemy. In December 1610, after the murder of False Dmitry II, the Poles occupied Moscow. Then, at the call of Patriarch Hermogenes, the movement to liberate the capital began, and the hierarch of Ryazan was among the first to respond. He blessed Prokopy Lyapunov to send letters to various towns calling them to Moscow. "Hasten to the royal city, against the destroyers of the Christian faith... Let us not delay a single hour: each moment is dear when the Fatherland must be saved," Saint Theodoritus and Lyapunov appealed to the hearts of Orthodox people. But the militia scattered: Prokopy Lyapunov was cut down by rebellious Cossacks, and Pozharsky, entering Moscow, was gravely wounded.

The liberation of Moscow

Patriarch Hermogenes, from prison, sent a letter to Nizhny Novgorod, asking that they write to Metropolitan Ephraim of Kazan, to Vologda and to the hierarch of Ryazan, that they send in a teaching letter to the boyars in the regiments. From the letter it is clear that the patriarch hoped that Archbishop Theodoritus of Ryazan, by his episcopal authority and prayers, using the authority he enjoyed among the boyars and the people, would be the inspirer of the liberation movement in his diocese. In this time the zemstvo elder of Nizhny Novgorod, Kozma Minin, announced that Saint Sergius had appeared to him three times, commanding him to gather the treasury for the soldiers and go to cleanse the state of Moscow of its enemies. The militia was entrusted to Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, who was recovering from wounds received in the battle for Moscow.

The election of the tsar

At the Assembly of the Land that chose the tsar, a Ryazan delegation led by Hierarch Theodoritus was also present. Before the Assembly there were three days of strict fasting and prayer throughout Russia. On 21 February 1613, on the Sunday of Orthodoxy, the Lord put into the hearts of the Russian people the unanimous thought of electing Michael Fyodorovich Romanov as tsar. The Assembly entrusted Saint Theodoritus to speak to the people from the Place of Execution. All those gathered in Red Square supported the decision. Pereyaslavl Ryazansky, led by his counsel and prayers, was among the first to swear loyalty to the God-⁠chosen tsar. The Assembly also charged Archbishop Theodoritus of Ryazan and Murom to head the embassy to Tsar Michael Romanov. The envoys carried a letter in which the people begged: "The Russian state is without covering, its crown is orphaned, the fatherland weeps that it has no father. Come to us, sweet hope of the whole Russian land, a tsar chosen from the heart of all the people." Only after long persuasion by Saint Theodoritus did the young tsar agree to accept the throne of Moscow, and the saint blessed him with the Feodorovskaya icon of the Mother of God, on 14 March 1613. Since then all members of the House of Romanov of foreign birth, married to grand princes, have received the patronymic Feodorovna.

Last years

Saint Theodoritus remained in Moscow until the tsar's coronation, and at the end of July 1613 he left for his diocese. His chief concern was the restoration of the ruined churches and monasteries, supplying them with the needed holy furnishings, and easing the lot of the simple people of the Ryazan diocese, impoverished in the Time of Troubles. To the end of his life he did not give up the concerns of the state, taking part in the sessions of the Assembly of the Land. On 10 (23) September the hierarch departed peacefully to the Lord and was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Ryazan Kremlin, the necropolis of the bishops of Ryazan. His memory was always revered not only in the Ryazan region but in the whole Russian state. When the emperor and members of the House of Romanov came to Ryazan, they always visited the Archangel Cathedral to pray at the memorial service at the hierarch's burial place.

Veneration

With the blessing of Patriarch Pimen, on 12 January 1987 Archbishop Theodoritus of Ryazan and Murom was glorified among the saints of Ryazan. Now his relics lie open in the Boris and Gleb Cathedral in Ryazan for the veneration of the people. He is commemorated on 10 (23) September, the day of his repose, on 23 June in the Synaxis of the Saints of Ryazan, on 23 September in the Synaxis of the Saints of Lipetsk, and on 5 February in the Synaxis of the Saints of Kostroma.