Brief life of St. Isidora

Reverend Isidore Pelusiot, father and teacher of the Church, lived in the 4th-5th centuries. He was born in Alexandria, the son of noble parents and a relative of the Alexandrian Archbishop Theophilus and his successor Saint Cyril. Gifted with brilliant abilities and receiving an excellent secular education, the Monk Isidore could easily achieve a high position in society. But from his youth his soul strove for Divine wisdom, revealed through a virtuous life and fulfillment of Christ’s commandments. Like the gospel merchant looking for good pearls (Matthew 13:45), in his youth he left his parental home and went to a monastery located on Mount Pelusiot in Lower Egypt, near the Nile River, and there he took monastic vows. The Monk Isidore “struggled well in the kingdom of Theodosius the Young” (Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II the Small, 408–450). He accomplished his deeds with such fiery ardor of spirit that he soon gained the deep respect of the brethren, was elected by them as abbot and, at their earnest request, accepted holy orders. By his example and instructions, he encouraged the brethren to strive in piety, maintain silence and poverty in food, and do good to the poor. Having heard about the great Saint John Chrysostom, the Monk Isidore left the monastery for a while and came to Constantinople, where he listened to the sermons of Saint John and took them into his soul so deeply that in the future he constantly followed them in his letters and teachings. Upon returning to his monastery, the Monk Isidore continued his exploits, showing the brethren a living example of a holy life. When Saint John Chrysostom was illegally deposed from the pulpit and sent into distant exile for denouncing the Empress Eudoxia, Saint Isidore fearlessly stood up in his defense. He repeatedly wrote about the saint to Emperor Arcadius and Archbishop Theophilos, exhorting them to stop persecuting the great lamp of the Church. After the death of St. John Chrysostom, the monk wrote to Archbishop Cyril of Alexandria, successor of Archbishop Theophilos, so that the name of St. John Chrysostom, as a confessor for the Orthodox faith, would be included in church diptychs. A variety of people turned to St. Isidore, asking for his advice; laymen and monks, bishops, Patriarchs, and Emperor Theodosius wrote to him. The historian Nicephorus Callistus (11th century) reports that the number of letters with the monk’s answers reached ten thousand. Currently, 2090 of them have been preserved. In his letters, the Monk Isidore fearlessly exposed untruths, glorified virtues and holiness, impartially pointed out shortcomings, wisely explained Orthodox dogmas and the Holy Scriptures, exposed heresies and impiety, taught piety and asceticism. The monk called virginity the queen of virtues and called on pastors, who are obliged by their rank to teach their wives, to vigilantly keep their souls pure from sensual thoughts, for priests should be holier and purer than those living in the deserts. Setting an example of humility with his life, the monk taught: when doing good deeds, no one should think that he has fulfilled any virtue, but should regret that he has done so little that is pleasing to the Lord. Of the letters of the Monk Isidore that have survived to our time, only a few concern dogmatic issues: he taught more “practical philosophy,” considering it “the foundation of the building and the building itself, while logic is its decoration, and contemplation is the crown of the building.” As an ardent zealot for the purity of Orthodoxy, the monk wrote to Emperor Theodosius asking him to convene an Ecumenical Council to condemn the heresy of Nestorius. In 431, the Third Ecumenical Council was held in the city of Ephesus, at which heresy was condemned and the dogma of two natures in the God-Man Lord Jesus Christ and the veneration of the Ever-Virgin Mary as the true Mother of God was confirmed. The Monk Isidore died at a ripe old age in his monastery around 436, deeply revered by the entire Church.