THE VENERABLE ISIDORE OF PELUSIUM

February 4

From the Prologue

Isidore was an Egyptian by birth and the son of a prominent family and kinsman of the Alexandrian Patriarchs Theophilus and Cyril. Having studied all the secular disciplines, he renounced worldly riches and glories and devoted himself completely to the spiritual life for the love of Christ. He was a great and ardent defender and interpreter of the Orthodox Faith. According to the statements of Nicephorus the historian, St. Isidore wrote more than ten-thousand letters to various individuals in which he reproached some, counseled some, and comforted and instructed others. In one letter St. Isidore writes: "It is more important to teach by a life of doing good than to preach in eloquent terms." In another, he says: "If one desires that his virtues appear great, let him consider them small and they will surely manifest themselves as great." The first and basic rule for St. Isidore was this: "First do, then teach according to the example of our Lord Jesus." At the time of the persecution of St. John Chrysostom when the entire population was divided into two camps; one for and one against, St. Isidore, this great pillar of Orthodoxy, sided with St. John Chrysostom. He wrote to Patriarch Theophilus saying what a great light of the Church Chrysostom is and begged him to avoid hatefulness toward him. Isidore lived long and accomplished much, glorifying Christ the God with his life and his writings. Isidore took up habitation in the kingdom of Christ about the year 436 A.D.