Our Venerable Father Theodore, Hermit and Wonderworker of the Jordan
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Theodore the Hermit of the Jordan was a sixth-century monk of the Holy Land, remembered as an ascetic and wonderworker. According to the synaxarion, he forsook the world in his youth to take up the monastic life, withdrawing into the wilderness of the Jordan, where the desert tradition of Palestine had long drawn solitaries. Through his ascetic labors he is said to have received from God the gift of wonderworking.
He is commemorated in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and also among the Byzantine Catholic Churches, on June 5. He reposed in the year 583. The historical record of his life is slight; the sources note that little documentation survives beyond the tradition of his desert asceticism and the single miracle for which he is best known.
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Miracles and Traditions
Traditional Accounts: The synaxarion relates that, while Theodore was traveling by ship to Constantinople, the vessel lost its course and the travelers ran out of drinking water, coming near death from thirst. Theodore prayed to God and made the Sign of the Cross over the sea, then told the sailors to draw water from the sea and drink it; by tradition the salt water had become fresh, and all aboard were saved. When the passengers began to praise him, he turned their gratitude toward God, saying that the deliverance came not from his unworthy prayers but from God's compassion for mankind.
