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The Monastery of Saint Theodosius, also known as Deir Dosi or Deir Ibn Ubeid, is an ancient monastery in the village of al-Ubeidiya, Palestine.
Brief History of the Monastery of Saint Theodosius
The Monastery of Saint Theodosius was founded in 476 by St. Theodosius the Cenobiarch (423-529). According to tradition, the Three Magi sheltered in a cave on the monastery grounds on their first night after delivering gifts to the newborn baby Jesus. The monastery is administered by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
The Monastery of Saint Theodosius was destroyed by the Sassanids in 614 and many of the monks were slaughtered. It was rebuilt and later abandoned in the 15th century. In 1881, the director of the School of Theology at the Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem purchased the former monastery grounds and reconstructed ruined buildings. Gerasimos I (1839-1897), the Patriarch of Jerusalem, re-founded the monastery in 1896.
Visiting the Monastery of Saint Theodosius
The Monastery of Saint Theodosius is open mornings except Wednesdays and Fridays. It’s on the road to the Holy Lavra of Saint Sabbas (Mar Saba), and visits to the two monasteries can be combined in one morning.
Church
We started our visit with the beautiful church, which was consecrated in 1955. It has a marble iconostasis.
The walls of the church are covered in Byzantine-style frescoes representing different saints and scenes from the Bible. Christ Pantocrator is depicted on the underside of the dome.
The reliquaries display the bones of several different saints from the Orthodox world. One box contains the relics of 35 saints from Ukraine.
Skulls of the monks massacred by the Sassanids in 614 are also on display. A fresco on the wall commemorates this event.
Cave of the Magi
A small structure marks the entrance to the Cave of the Magi, which was refurbished in 1990. It’s a tight space that has been used as a chapel over the years and contains the tombs of some saints.
Among the saints buried in the cave are St. Theodosius; St. Sophia, the mother of St. Sabbas; St. Theodoti, the mother of SS Cosmas and Damian; St. Evlogia, the mother of St. Theodosius; St. Maria, the mother of St. Arcadius; and St. John Moschus.
