Theodosius of Tarnovo

Saint Theodosius of Tarnovo was a high-⁠ranking Bulgarian cleric and hermit of the fourteenth century, a disciple of Saint Gregory of Sinai, credited with establishing hesychasm in the Second Bulgarian Empire. He founded the Kilifarevo monastery and school near Tarnovo, the capital of the time, and took an important part in condemning heresies in the reign of Tsar Ivan Alexander. He fell asleep in 1363 at the monastery of Saint Mamas in Constantinople, where he had gone on a visit to Patriarch Callistus I, who wrote his Life. Among his disciples was Patriarch Evtimiy, the last head of the medieval Bulgarian Church, a writer and hesychast. He is commemorated on 27 November and 17 February.

His Life was written soon after his death by his fellow disciple and friend Patriarch Callistus, but the Greek text is lost, and only a Bulgarian translation of 1479 by Vladislav the Grammarian survives, whose fidelity some scholars question. He seems to have been born in the region of Vidin in Bulgaria. Nothing is known for certain of his family, but shortly before his death he received chrismation from the patriarch of Constantinople, not knowing whether he had been anointed at baptism, which suggests humble birth. As a young man he was tonsured at the monastery of Saint Nicholas Archar near Vidin, under Abbot Jonah. After the abbot's death he went to the monastery of the Mother of God Hodegetria in Tarnovo, then to Mariino, Chervena and Epikerianes. After many monasteries he came to the famous hesychast Gregory of Sinai at Paroria, on the border between Bulgaria and Byzantium, where he advanced so far in the spiritual life that, according to Callistus, of all the disciples the master allowed only him to keep silence in his cell. After Gregory's repose the brethren unanimously chose him abbot, but he refused the great responsibility and set out to seek another haven. He visited Athos, Thessalonica, Beroea and Constantinople, then with his disciple Romylos founded his own monastery in the Kilifarevo wilderness. The monastery became a centre of hesychasm and of a school of writers. In 1360 he distinguished himself at the council in Bulgaria against the Bogomils, where, defending the Orthodox faith, he shamed them with his arguments. Romylos continued his labours in his monastery until his death. Three Bulgarian churches bear his name, among them the Theodosius fasting-⁠chapel at the Rila monastery, and the Bulgarian church in Cologne is dedicated to him.