Saint Dios of Antioch
القديس ديوس الأنطاكي
In the Orthodox Church today we celebrate the memory of another great Antiochian monastic father, Saint Dios the Abbot. This early fifth-century ascetic was a particular favourite of Emperor Theodosios II, who furnished him with a monastery.
Saint Dios [L. Dius, Gk. Δῖος, Ar. Diyyûs ديوس] was born toward the end of the fourth century in Antioch. His parents were observant Christians. From his early youth, Dios was drawn to the church by love of Christ; from a very young age he kept the fasts, ate little food on alternate days, kept vigils and prayed unceasingly, turning in his prayers ‘most often… to the Holy Trinity’. His flesh was therefore humbled and frail even as a child. For his long battle against the passions the Lord granted Saint Dios the gift of wonderworking.
God ordered young Dios to walk to the Imperial City, and there to seek to serve both Him and the people. Dios went there, and took up an abode in a remote and desert place outside the walls, where ordinary people feared to go. There Dios fought both a physical battle to make that place habitable, and a spiritual one against the dæmons that lived in that place. When Dios struck his walking-stick into the ground, it rooted, and at the Lord’s blessing it began to branch and leaf and blossom; in time it became a towering oak tree that survived in that place for many years after Dios’s repose. In this way he was able to attend to his daily bodily needs, and for his spirit he took solace in his endless prayer and vigils.
The people of Constantinople and the countryside soon heard of this hermit, and they began to seek Saint Dios out for counsel, for comfort and for healing – all of which he provided as he was able, working wonders of God by the power of his prayers. He asked nothing from those who came to him, and whatever gifts the people of Constantinople left to him, he at once distributed among the poor, the homeless and the sick.
Word reached Emperor Theodosios II of this wonderworking hermit, and together with the Patriarch Saint Attikos of Constantinople, he went to Dios to receive his blessing. Saint Dios blessed the two men, but they were not yet through with him. The Emperor sought to build a monastery on the site of his hermitage, and the Patriarch sought to ordain him a priest and make him the monastery’s abbot. The Prologue of Ohrid tells us laconically that the poor hermit had to be ‘persuaded’ to accept holy orders.
In time, he drew many novices and monastic disciples to him. The most immediate need of the brethren was for water. And so the monks of Saint Dios’s monastery dug and delved, and eventually found a dry well in that place – but no water came up despite all their efforts. Saint Dios himself caused it to fill again with the purest fresh water by his prayers. On one occasion the monks discovered a man who had drowned, whom Saint Dios revived. On another occasion, a proud and intemperate unbeliever came to his monastery threatening violence; Dios struck him and he fell down dead. Saint Dios then prayed over the man’s body, and he was raised to life again. Numerous other wonders attended Saint Dios’s life in the monastery.
As the monk grew to old age, his health began to fail. Feeling his end was approaching, he exhorted his brethren to uphold the ascetic rules they had learned and to love each other, said his farewells to them, took the Holy Eucharist and lay down on his cot as though dead. At the news of Saint Dios’s death many people came from Constantinople and beyond, including both Patriarch Saint Attikos of Constantinople and Patriarch Alexandros of Antioch, the mild and humble bishop and successor of Saint Meletios who finally ended the schism with the ‘Eustathian’ zealots in 415, who was then visiting in Constantinople. As the people gathered around him, the saint arose from his cot and opened his mouth to speak: ‘God has given me fifteen more years of this life.’ Great was the joy of the people and the monastic brethren gathered there!
It so happened that Saint Dios did live, in which time he continued to pray without cease, helped all with words of wisdom and comfort, healed the sick, aided the homeless and the poor, and led many people on the path to salvation. Shortly before his repose, Saint Dios was visited by a radiant man in priestly garb. This man told him of his impending death. Taking what time remained to him to give thanks to the Lord and to rightly guide his brethren, he died peacefully and was buried in the monastery. This happened on the nineteenth of June, probably in the year 430. Holy abbot Dios, servant of truth, worker of wonders and friend to the poor, pray unto Christ our God for our salvation!
Apolytikion to Saint Dios of Antioch, Tone 1:
Thou didst prove to be a citizen of the desert,
An angel in the flesh, and a wonderworker,
O Dios, our God-bearing Father.
By fasting, vigil, and prayer thou didst obtain heavenly gifts,
And thou healest the sick and the souls of them
That have recourse to thee with faith.
Glory to Him that hath given thee strength.
Glory to Him that hath crowned thee.
Glory to Him that worketh healings for all through thee.
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