St. Theodore the Studite was a Byzantine Greek monk (759-826) who embraced the monastic life at the age of 22. He was exiled three times for opposing wrongdoings of the emperors.
Both St. John Damascene (ca. 675-749) and St. Theodore defended the veneration of sacred images against the Iconoclast heresy. Both saints wrote apologias or refutations against the Iconoclasts. John Damascene was a monk near Jerusalem, where he was beyond the reach of the emperor of Constantinople. However, Theodore was the abbot of Studios, the leading monastery of Constantinople.
During the second and final Iconoclast persecution under the emperor Leo V, Abbot Theodore had his monks organized a solemn procession with sacred images on the streets around the monastery and chanting a hymn began with: “We reverence your holy image, O blessed one.”
Between 815 and 821, Theodore was scourged, imprisoned, and exiled to various places in Asia Minor. He and St. Nicephorus (ca. 758-829), Patriarch of Constantinople, were defenders of the veneration of sacred images.
St. Theodore was also a great reformer of monastic life. Pope Benedict XVI explained a basic conviction of the saint: “monks, differently from lay people, take on the commitment to observe the Christian duties with greater strictness and intensity. For this reason they make a special profession which belongs to the hagiasmata (consecrations), and it is, as it were, a “new Baptism,” symbolized by their taking the habit. Characteristic of monks in comparison with lay people, then, is the commitment to poverty, chastity, and obedience…. The renunciation of private property, this freedom from material things, as well as moderation and simplicity apply in a radical form only to monks, but the spirit of this renouncement is equal for all. Indeed, we must not depend on material possessions but instead must learn renunciation, simplicity, austerity, and moderation.”
God the Father told St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) there are people who follow both materially and in spirit the evangelical counsels (poverty, chastity, and obedience) and there are those who with possessions keep the commandments but observe the counsels in spirit only. He said, “However, since the counsels are bound up with the commandments, no one can keep the commandments without following the counsels at least in spirit if not materially. Though they may possess the riches of the world, they must own them humbly, not with pride, as things lent to them rather as their own – for in my generosity I give you these things for your use.”
Regarding the spirit of detachment for those living in the world, St. Gregory the Great said, “You see, my brothers, I dare not say to you, give up everything. Yet, if you will, you can give everything up even while keeping it, provided you handle temporal things in such a way that your whole mind is directed toward what is eternal. A man can use the world as if he were not using it, if he makes all external needs minister to the support of his life without allowing them to dominate his soul. They remain external to him and under his control, serving him without halting the soul’s drive to higher things. For such men, everything in this world is there for their use, not to be desired. Nothing should interfere with your soul’s longing; no created pleasure in the world should ensnare you.”
St. Theodore saw the most important renunciations are those required by obedience. After the original sin, everyone tends to do what they like. Obedience helps us to resist the temptation to set up our own will as the supreme rule of life and to serve the common good of the community.
Pope Benedict said, “For Theodore the Studite an important virtue on a par with obedience and humility is philergia, that is, the love of work, in which he sees a criterion by which to judge the quality of personal devotion: the person who is fervent and works hard in material concerns, he argues, will be the same in those of the spirit.”
St. Josemaria Escriva said, “Sanctity, for the vast majority of people, implies sanctifying their work, sanctifying themselves in it, and sanctifying others through it.”
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神聖院牧改革隱修生活
斯圖狄烏斯隱修院的聖狄奧多爾（759-826）在22歲時接受了修道院生活。他因反對君王的錯誤行為而被流放三次。
聖若望達瑪森（ca. 675-749）和聖狄奧多爾兩人都為敬禮聖像辯護，反對反聖像異端。兩位聖人都寫了三部分護教或反駁去駁斥反聖像者。達瑪森的聖若望是耶路撒冷附近的一名隱修士，在那裡他在君士坦丁堡君王的範圍之外。然而，聖狄奧多爾是君士坦丁堡主要修院的院長。
在良五世君王統治下的第二次也是最後一次反聖像迫害期間，修院院長狄奧多爾讓他的修士在修院周圍的街道上組織了一場莊嚴的遊行，舉著神聖的圖像，並吟唱讚美詩的開頭：『噢真福者 ，我們尊敬你的神聖圖象』。
在815年至821年間，狄奧多爾被鞭打，監禁並流放到小亞細亞的各個地方。他和君士坦丁堡的宗主教聖尼賽福祿（ca. 758-829）是聖像敬禮的捍衛者。
聖狄奧多爾也是隱修生活的偉大改革者。教宗本篤十六世解釋了這聖人的基本信念：『隱修士與普通人不同，他們承諾以更嚴格和更強烈的方式遵守基督徒的本份。出於這個原因，他們作了一種屬於奉獻的表白，可以說這是一種“新洗禮”，以他們的會衣為象徵。因此，與俗人相比，隱修士的特徵是對貧窮、貞潔和服從的承諾…放棄私有財產，不為物質所牽制，同樣節制和純樸基本上只適用於隱修士們，但這種棄絕 的精神對所有的人都是平等的。的確，我們不能依賴物質財富，而必須學會出。棄絕、簡樸、樸素和節制。』
天父告訴聖女加大肋納（1347-1380），有些人在物質和精神上都遵守福音勸諭（貧窮、貞潔和順服），有些人擁有財產，但只在精神上遵守勸諭。他說：『然而，既然勸諭與誡命是聯繫在一起的，沒有人能遵守誡命，若不至少要在精神上遵守勸諭。雖然他們可能擁有世界的財富，但他們必須謙卑地擁有它們，而不是驕傲地擁有它們，因為借給他們的東西而不是他們自己的東西——因為我慷慨地把這些東西給你供你使用。』
關於生活在世界上的人們的棄絕精神，聖額我略一世說：『你看，我的兄弟們，我不敢對你說，放棄一切。然而，如果你願意，即使你保持它，你也可以放棄一切，只要你以這樣一種方式處理暫世的事情，讓你的整個思想都指向永恆的東西。一個人可以使用世界，就好像他沒有使用它一樣，如果他讓所有外部需求都用於他生命的支援，而不是讓它們主宰他的靈魂。它們仍然在他之外，在他的控制之下，為他服務，而不會停止靈魂對更高事物的追求。對於這樣的人來說，這個世界上的一切都是為了他們的使用，而不是為他們所渴求的。沒有什麼可以干擾你靈魂的渴求; 沒有世上創造的快樂可以誘惑你。』
聖狄奧多爾認為最重要的棄絕是服從所要求的。原罪過後，每個人都傾向於做自己喜歡的事情。服從有助於我們對抗將自己的旨意作為生活最高規則的誘惑，併為團體的公共利益服務。
教宗本篤說：『對於斯圖狄烏斯隱修院的聖狄奧多爾來說，與服從和謙卑相提並論的重要美德是對工作的熱愛，他在其中看到了判斷個人熱心質秦的標準：他認為熱心並在物質上努力工作的人，在精神上也會一樣。』
聖若瑟瑪利亞、施禮華說：『對絕大多數人來說，成聖在於聖化他們的工作，在其中也使自己成聖，並通過它使他人成聖。』
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