Venerable St. Isidore of Pelusium

February 4: St. Isidore of Pelusium.

Father Isidore of Pelusium was a monastic in the deserts of Egypt, making Mount Pelusium his home. He died about the year 436.

Isidore was Egyptian by birth and from a prominent Alexandrian family, which included Alexandrian Patriarchs Theophilus and Cyril.

He studied all the secular disciplines, but as a youth withdrew from the world, renouncing his riches and earthly glory, so that he might devote himself entirely to the spiritual life. For a short time he taught rhetoric in Pelusium in Egypt.

After a year of ascetical life, he returned to Pelusium, where he was ordained to the priesthood. After a few years he retired to a monastery where he spent the rest of his life, eventually becoming abbot. From the monastery he wrote thousands of epistles full of divine grace and wisdom; of these more than 2,000 still survive.

He wrote more than 10,000 letters to numerous individuals, giving reproach, counsel, encouragement, comfort, and instruction.

At the time of the persecution of St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, the populace was split into two factions, one for Chrysostom and the other against. Abba Isidore sided with the golden-tongued saint.

Quotes from his letters

"It is more important to teach by a life of doing good than to preach in eloquent terms."

"If one desires that his virtues appear great, let him consider them small, and they will surely manifest themselves as great."

"To live without speaking is better than to speak without living. For the former who lives rightly does good even by his silence, but the latter does no good even when he speaks. When words and life correspond to one another they are together the whole of divine philosophy."

References:
Isidore of Pelusium. OrthodoxWiki.