Ukrainian Orthodoxy		Orthodoxie ukrainienne

The Beauty of the Saints

Very Reverend Ihor Kutash kutash@unicorne.org

St. Isidore Tverdyslov, the Fool for Christ, Wonderworker of Rostov:

"Even a withered tree the bees with honey fill."

On May 14/27 the Orthodox Church commemorates the one of its great multitude of monastic saints, a man with a unique title given to him because of the consistency and dependability of his words. It is St. Isidore Tverdyslov – “Constant of Word” - who reposed in the Lord in 1474.  The Handbook for Church Servers by Sergei Vasilievich Bulgakov (published in Kharkiv in 1900 in Russian) says that he was given this epithet “because his words always came true”.

Isidore was born in Germany of rich parents. From his youth, he led a pure life and had a compassionate view of the world.  He felt the call to leave his parental home to seek the Kingdom of God.  Before he departed he distributed his wealth to the poor. 

His wandering brought him to the city of Rostov in Russia.  St. Nicholas Velimirovic in his Prologue from Ochrid says that here Isidore fell in love with the Orthodox Faith (he had been raised Catholic) and not only became a communicant but also embraced the arduous ascetical endeavour of a “Fool for Christ”.  Such folks are actually quite sane and self-aware, but conceal their spiritual state and foster humility by doing foolish things and pretending to be mad in keeping with the words of St. Paul in I Corinthians 4:10-14.  At the same time, they manage to give wonderful counsel to people around them and even work miracles of healing.

St. Isidore lived in a hut he himself had made and endured filth, rain and snow, spending his nights in prayer.  St. Nicholas Velimirovic in his Prologue from Ochrid publishes a hymn of praise he dedicated to him.  It begins thus: “Blessed Isidore wrestled with himself/ Until passionless, as a withered tree, he became,/ But even a withered tree, the bees with honey fill”.

This mention of the withered tree calls to mind a strange miracle that Our Lord did – one of very few “destructive” miracles.  In Matthew 21:18-22 we read that on one occasion on His way from Bethany to Jerusalem Jesus was hungry and came upon a fig tree that had only green leaves upon it.  He said “May you never bear fruit again” and immediately the tree withered.  When the disciples marvelled at this the Lord said that with faith even a mountain could be cast into the sea.  Many have been troubled by what seems to be the destruction of a living thing to prove a point.  W. M. Christie who ministered in Palestine during the British rule wrote that actually the fact that the fig had only leaves at this time of year showed that it was in fact not going to bear fruit, since a fruit-bearing tree would already have had a crop of small knobs, precursors of the figs, which hungry folk could eat.  Thus it was not a fruit-bearing tree that was thus withered, but one which could not bear fruit, i.e. it was like a pruning of an orchard.

Nonetheless even a withered tree might attract a swarm of honey-bees who could deposit their sweet load in a hollow to refresh any who might come upon it.  The Serbian saint says that the apparently withered body of an ascetic, scorned as unworthy and foolish by folks held captive by the fading beauty of the visible world, oblivious to the fact that it is simply an icon of the unfading and truly precious invisible world, could yield a rich sweet harvest of grace to those who had eyes to see and ears to hear.

So it was with Isidore.  After a life filled with the sweetness of intimacy with the Lord, from which miracles and wise counsels flowed richly, the Saint reposed in his hut.  Some people passing by his earthly home were surprised by a strange fragrance wafting from it.  They entered and found him asleep in the Lord.  The Church of the Ascension of our Lord was later built upon the place of his burial and the crypt in which his relics lie remains a source of miracles to this day.

Through his prayers and intercessions may we find the sweetness of constant closeness with the Lord and live a fruitful life, working together with Him to make His Kingdom manifest among the people of this transitory world as we move along to the next eternal one. -

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