When it is said
St Dorotheos gave it for a hurt that has not fully healed. You have made peace with the person who wronged you. Yet when they hurt you again, even a little, the old hurt comes back too.
His cure is to pray for that person with your whole heart, in these words.
Where it comes from
Author known
Who was St Dorotheos?
St Dorotheos of Gaza was a monk of the 500s, born in Antioch in Syria. He had studied medicine. At a monastery near Gaza he kept the door, then ran the guesthouse, and then set up and ran a hospital for the sick. The Orthodox Church honours him as a saint.
A doctor’s picture of a grudge
St Dorotheos describes a grudge as a doctor would: as a wound. You make peace, and the wound closes over, but the place is still weak. If someone throws a stone at it, it bleeds at once. This prayer is his cure for the scar that is left, so that no trace of the wound remains.
St Dorotheos, Instructions, “On remembering wrongs”, in Greek (Patrologia Graeca 88, on archive.org); The same in Russian, on Azbyka.ru
In full English only since 1977
St Dorotheos wrote his Instructions in Greek. They were later put into Syriac, Arabic, Georgian, Latin and Slavonic. The first full English translation came only in 1977, by Eric Wheeler. This page’s plain English is our own, made from his Greek.
What the words mean
Why “through his prayers”?
St Dorotheos explains it himself. In this prayer you pray for the one who hurt you, and that is a sign of compassion and love. And you humble yourself, asking for help through his prayers. Where there is compassion, love and humility, he asks, what can anger do, or any other passion of the soul?
St Dorotheos, Instructions, “On remembering wrongs”, in Greek (Patrologia Graeca 88, on archive.org); The same in Russian, on Azbyka.ru
“My brother”
St Dorotheos was teaching monks, who called one another brother. So in this prayer, “my brother” is whoever has hurt you. Yet most of what he taught was meant for every Christian, not for monks alone. Only his teaching on giving up property and marriage was for monks.
Wikipedia, Dorotheus of Gaza; St Dorotheos, Instructions, “On remembering wrongs”, in Greek (Patrologia Graeca 88, on archive.org)
The Scripture in it
But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you …
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Greek
Ὁ Θεός, βοήθησον τῷ ἀδελφῷ μου κἀμοὶ διὰ τῶν εὐχῶν αὐτοῦ.