Venerable Theodore of Pherme

Theodore of Pherme was an Egyptian monk of the 4th century who took up the ascetic life at Scetis and is remembered chiefly through the Sayings of the Desert Fathers (the Apophthegmata Patrum), in which he is one of the named fathers of the Alphabetical Collection. He is associated with the monastic settlement of Pherme, from which he takes his name, and is commemorated on December 27.

According to the tradition preserved in the Sayings, Theodore was formed by some of the foremost monastic teachers of his day, among them Abba Macarius and Abba Pambo. He held three things to be fundamental to the monastic life: poverty, asceticism, and flight from men. The tradition pairs him with Abba Arsenius as one who abhorred the glory of men more than anything else: where Arsenius would not readily meet anyone, Theodore did not avoid meeting others, but when he did, his speech was reported to be as sharp as a sword.

Theodore's teaching, as recorded, is terse and demanding, prizing humility, repentance, and the renunciation of possessions over reputation or office. The Sayings relate that he was reluctant to accept ordination, preferring solitude and discipleship to any position of authority, and that he taught more by example than by instruction. He survives in Orthodox memory not through a continuous biography but through these brief, attributed maxims and anecdotes.