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Commemorated on April 20
Sainted Betranes
and Theotimos were bishops of Lesser Skythia, where the mouth of the Dunaj
(Danube) flows into Thrace. Their diocesan cathedral was situated in the city
of Toma (Kiustendji). They were Skythians.
The Church historian
Sozomenes gives an account about Sainted Betranes. When the emperor Valens
(364-378) stayed in Toma, he began in church to urge the saint to enter into
communion with Arian heretics. Saint Betranes boldly answered, that he adhered
to the teaching of the holy Nicean fathers and, in order to avoid bantering, he
went off to another of the city churches. And all the people followed after
him. There remained in the deserted church only the emperor with his retinue.
For such audacity the emperor condemned the saint to exile, but he feared the
grumbling of the crowd and let him go free. The Skyths loved their archpastor
and they cared about him as a good and saintly man.
Another historian,
Theodorit, writes about the sainted-bishop: "And Betranes, radiant with
every virtue and archpastoral power, governing the cities of all the Skythians,
was enflamed with zeal of spirit and denounced the heretics for their dogmatic
deficiency and their iniquitous attitude towards the saints. He said with the
Divine-inspiration of David: "I shall speak Thy testimonies before the
king and not be shy" (Ps. 18:46).
Sainted Betranes
died, probably soon after the denunciation of emperor Valens. His commemoration
in the "Acts of the Saints" indicates 25 January. At the II
OEcumenical Council in 381 it mentions already the successor to Sainted
Betranes, – the Toma bishop Gerontios, and after him the cathedra was occupied
by Sainted Theotimos.
In the year 392
Sainted Theotimos was already known to Blessed Jerome (Comm. 15 June) as a
writer and bishop. Sainted Theotimos participated in the Council of 399, where
Sainted John Chrysostom (Comm. 13 November) examined the acts of the bishop of
Ephesus. In the year 403, when Sainted Epiphanios of Cyprus (+ 403, Comm. 12
May) insistently demanded of Saint John Chrysostom and the other bishops to
carry out a condemnation of Origen, Sainted Theotimos wrote: "It is
impious to further offend the dead and to rise up in judgement against the
ancients and re-question their sanction". He took out one of the works of
Origen, read from it and, pointing out that which was read was of good purpose
to the Church, added: "Those who condemn this book, slander also that
which it says here".
Sainted Theotimos
journeyed much throughout his diocese. His Christian love flowed even upon the
Huns, – then as yet unenlightened by the light of the Gospel. By means of
beneficence and gentleness the sainted-bishop strove to win them over to the
true faith. The impressive miracles, worked by the saint in the Name of Jesus
Christ, so astonished the pagans, that they called him a Roman god.
Once, when during the
time of a journey the saint and his companions were under the threat of deadly
peril from the Huns, the sainted-bishop began to pray intensely, and all were
left invisible to them. Another time, when a certain Hun tried to catch the
saint with a rope, his hand froze in the air and only then was it released from
its invisible hold, when Sainted Theotimos at the request of other Huns prayed
to God for him.
Sainted Theotimos
kept to a simple form of life: he partook of nourishment not at this or that
time, but only when he experienced hunger or thirst. Blessed Jerome wrote about
him: "Theotimos, Skythian bishop of Tomum, produced in dialogues in the
form of ancient rhetoric powerfully fine tracts and, as I have heard, he wrote
other works". It is known, that Sainted Theotimos wrote: "About the
Teachings of the Saviour", "Against Idols", a "Commentary
on Genesis", a "Commentary on the Text – `I shall bear the Gift unto
the Altar", "About Fasting" (from the last 4 works the Monk John
Damascene makes comparison in several places in his own parallels).
Sainted Theotimos
died peacefully in about the year 412. His commemoration in the "Acts of
the Saints" is indicated as 20 April.
© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.
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