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Quote from the Monk Martyr Michael of St Savvas

September 18, 2014 | Saints & Martyrs, Uncategorized

The king then, full of wrath, said: “Do either of two things: deny thy faith or choose a bitter death.” The athlete of Christ answered: “Do thou one of three things: leave me to go to my elder, for I have done no wrong; or send me to Christ with martyrdom; or become a Christian and reign for eternity in the heavens.”

The Lives of the Saints of the Holy Land and the Sanai Desert

Monk-Martyr Michael of St. Savvas Lavra

The Holy Great-Martyress Irene

May 19, 2014 | Saints & Martyrs, Uncategorized

The Holy Great-Martyress Irene lived during the I Century and until baptism had the name Penelope. She was daughter of the pagan Licinius, governor of the city of Migdonia (in Macedonia, or Thrace). Licinius built for his daughter a separate splendid palace, where she lived with her governess Karia, surrounded by her peers and her servants. Daily there came to Penelope a tutor by the name of Apelian, who taught her the sciences. Apelian was a Christian, and during the time of study he told the maiden about Christ the Saviour and taught her the Christian teaching and the Christian virtues.
When Penelope became an adolescent, her parents began to think about her marriage. During this period of her life the Lord instructed her in a miraculous manner: to her at the window there flew one after the other of three birds – a dove with an olive twig, an eagle with a garland, and a raven with a snake. Penelope’s teacher Apelian explained to her the meaning of these signs: the Dove, symbolising the virtues of the maiden, – humility, meekness and chasteness, – bearing an olive twig, – the grace of God received in Baptism; the Eagle, – symbol of sublimity of spirit, attained through meditation upon God, – bearing a garland for victory over the invisible enemy as a reward from the Lord. The Raven, however, bearing the snake was a sign that the devil would rise up against her and would cause her grief, sorrow and persecution. At the end of the conversation Apelian said, that the Lord wished to betroth her to Himself and that Penelope would undergo much suffering for her Heavenly Bridegroom. After this Penelope refused marriage, accepted Baptism from the hands of the Disciple Timothy, – who was a disciple of the holy Apostle Paul, and she was named Irene. She began even to urge her own parents to accept the Christian faith. The mother was pleased with the conversion of her daughter to Christ; the father at first did not hinder his daughter, but then he began to demand of her the worship to the pagan gods. When however Saint Irene firmly and decisively refused, the enraged Licinius then gave orders to tie up his daughter and throw her beneathe the hooves of frenzied horses. The horses remained motionless. But one of them got loose from its harness, threw itself at Licinius, seized him by the right hand and tore it from his arm, then knocked Licinius down and began to trample him. They then untied the holy maiden, and through her prayer Licinius in the presence of eye‑witnesses rose up unharmed, with his hand intact. Seeing such a miracle, Licinius with his wife and many of the people, in number about 3000 men, believed in Christ and refrained from the pagan gods. Resigning the governance of the city, Licinius settled into the palace of his daughter, intending to devote himself to the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. Saint Irene however began to preach the teaching of Christ among the pagans and she converted them to the path of salvation. She lived in the house of her teacher Apelian.

Having learned of this, Sedecius, – the new governor of the city, summoned Apelian and questioned him about the manner of life of Irene. Apelian answered that Irene, just like other Christians, lived in strict temperance, in constant prayer and reading of holy books. Sedecius summoned the saint to him and began to urge her to cease preaching about Christ and to offer sacrifice to the gods. Saint Irene staunchly confessed her faith before the governor, not fearing his wrath, and prepared to undergo suffering for Christ. By order of Sedecius she was thrown into a pit, filled with vipers and serpents. The saint spent 10 days in the pit and remained unharmed, since an Angel of the Lord protected her and brought her food. Sedecius ascribed this miracle to sorcery and he subjected the saint to a cruel torture: he gave orders to saw her with an iron saw. But the saws broke one after the other and caused no harm to the body of the holy virgin. Finally, a fourth saw reddened the body of the holy martyress with blood. Sedecius with derision said to the martyress: “Where then is thy God? If He be powerful, let Him help thee!” Suddenly a whirlwind shot up, gave forth a blinding lightning-flash, striking down many of the torturers, thunder crashed, and a strong rain poured down. Beholding such a sign from Heaven, many believed in Christ the Saviour. Sedecius did not understand the obvious display of the power of God and he subjected the saint to new torments, but the Lord preserved her unharmed. Finally the people rebelled having to look upon the sufferings of the innocent virgin, and they rose up against Sedecius and expelled him from the city.
      Having replaced Sedecius as governor, they still subjected Saint Irene to various cruel torments, during which while by the power of God she continued to remain unharmed, and the people under the influence of her preaching and accomplishing of miracles all the more in number were converted to Christ, having turned away from the worship of soul-less idols. Over 10,000 pagans were converted by Saint Irene.
      The saint went from her native city Migdonia to Kallipolis, and there she continued to preach about Christ. The governor of the city by the name of Babadonos subjected the martyress to new punishments, but seeing that the saint remained unharmed, he came to his senses and believed in Christ. A large number of pagans believed together with him, all whom received holy Baptism from the Disciple Timothy.
      After this Saint Irene settled in other cities of Thrace – Konstantinos and then Mesembros, preaching about Christ and working miracles, healing the sick and undergoing suffering for Christ.
      In the city of Ephesus the Lord revealed to her, that the time of her end was approaching. Then Saint Irene in the company of her teacher the elder Apelian and other Christians went out from the city to an hilly cave and, having signed herself with the sign of the cross, she went into it, having directed her companions to close the entrance to the cave with a large stone, which they did. Four days after this, when Christians visited the cave, they did not find the body of the saint in it. Thus reposed the holy Great-Martyress Irene.

The GreatMartyr Theodore Stratelates

February 21, 2014 | Saints & Martyrs, Uncategorized

ememCommemorated on February 8/em/em

The GreatMartyr Theodore Stratelates came from the city of Euchantum. He was endowed with many talents and an handsome appearance. For his charity God enlightened him with the perfective knowledge of Christian truth. The bravery of the saintly soldier became known to many after he, with the help of God, killed a giant serpent living on a precipice in the surroundings of the city of Euchantum. The serpent had devoured many people and animals, holding in terror all the surrounding countryside. Saint Theodore, having armed himself with a sword and a prayer to the Lord, vanquished it, glorifying amongst the people the Name of Christ. For his bravery Saint Theodore was appointed military-commander (stratelatos)in the city of Heracleium, where he as it were carried out a dual obedience, combining his official military service with an apostolic preaching of the Gospel among the pagans subject to him. His ardent persuasion, reinforced by his personal example of Christian life, turned away many from the pernicious “false-gods”. Soon nearly all of Heracleium had accepted Christianity.

During this time the emperor Licinius (307-324) began a fierce persecution against Christians. Wanting to decapitate the new faith, he resorted to making persecution against the enlightened adherents of Christianity, in which not without foundation he saw as the fundamental threat to the dying paganism. Among such was also Saint Theodore. The saint himself invited Licinius to Heracleium, having promised him to offer a sacrifice to the pagan gods. To make this splendid ceremony, the saint requested to be gathered up at his house all the gold and silver statues of the gods which they had in Heracleium.

Blinded by his hatred for Christianity, Licinius trusted the words of the saint. But his expectations were cheated: having seized hold of the statues, Saint Theodore smashed them into pieces which he then distributed to the poor. Thus he shamed the vain faith in soulless idols and literally on the shards of paganism he affirmed the laws of Christian charity. Saint Theodore was arrested and subjected to fierce and refined torture. The witness was the servant of Saint Theodore – Saint Varos, who barely found in himself the strength to write down the incredible torments of his master. Sensing the nearness of death, Saint Theodore yet turned to God with a last prayer, saying: “Lord, Thou hast told me formerly, I am with thee, wherefore dost Thou now abandon me? Behold, O Lord, how the wild beasts do tear at me on account of Thee, my eyes are gored out, my flesh lacerated with wounds, the face is smashed and teeth broken, and they have my bared bones on a cross: remember me, O Lord, having suffered a cross on account of Thee, the iron and fire, and being raised up on nails for Thee: wherefore accept my spirit, since my life doth expire”. God however, by His great mercy, willed that the end of Saint Theodore should be as fruitful for those near him as was his life: He healed the bruised body of the saint and brought him down from the cross, on which he had been left all night. In the morning the imperial soldiers found him alive and unharmed; persuaded in their own eyes of the infinite might of the Christian God, they right there, not far from the place of the unsuccessful execution, accepted holy Baptism. Thus Saint Theodore became “like a day of splendour” for those pagans dwelling in the darkness of idol-worship and he enlightened their souls “with the bright rays of his suffering”. Not wanting to flee a martyr’s death for Christ, Saint Theodore voluntarily gave himself over into the hands of Licinius, preventing the people believing in Christ from rising up against the torturer, with the words: “Beloved, halt! My Lord Jesus Christ, hanging upon the Cross, held back the Angels and did not permit them to take revenge on the race of man”. Going to execution, the holy martyr with but a word opened up the prison doors and liberated those locked up from their bonds. The people also who touched at his robe were restored of body, healed instantly from sicknesses and freed from demons. By order of the emperor, Saint Theodore was beheaded by the sword. Before the death by execution he told Varos: “Neglect not to write down the day of my death, and put my body in Euchantum”. Together with these words he asked for an annual remembrance. Then, having said “amen”, he bent his neck beneathe the sword. This occurred on 8 February 319, on a Saturday, at the third hour of the day.

The Holy Martyress Agnes

February 3, 2014 | Saints & Martyrs, Uncategorized

Commemorated on January 21

The Holy Martyress Agnes was born at Rome during the III Century. Her parents were Christians and they raised her in the precepts of the Christian faith. From her youthful years she devoted herself to God, and decided to dedicate herself to a life of virginity. When she refused to enter into marriage with the son of the city official Symphronius, one of his associates revealed to him that Agnes was a Christian. The wicked governor decided to subject the holy virgin to shame and he gave orders to strip and send her off to an house of harlotry for her insult against the pagan gods. But the Lord would not permit the shaming of the saint – on her head there instantly grew out her long thick hair covering her body from people; later situated in the house of harlotry the saint shone with an Heavenly light, which blinded the sight of anyone approaching her. The son of the governor, himself having come to dishonour the virgin, fell down dead in merely having touched her hand. But through the fervent prayer of Saint Agnes he was restored to life and before the face of his father and many other people he proclaimed: “There is One God in the heavens and on earth – the Christian God, and the other gods be but dust and ashes!” In seeing this miracle, 160 men believed in God and were baptised, and then in short order accepted a martyr’s death from the pagans.

Saint Agnes, at the demand of the pagan priests, was given over to torture. They tried to burn her in a bon-fire as a witch, but the saint remained unharmed in the fire, praying to God, and after this they killed her with a strike of the sword to the throat. The holy virgin martyress was buried by her parents not far from the city of Rome (in about the year 304).

At the grave of Saint Agnes occurred many a miracle. The relics of Saint Agnes rest at Rome in a church on the outskirts, built in honour of her name, along the Via Nomentana

The Holy Great Martyress Barbara

December 17, 2013 | Saints & Martyrs, Uncategorized

Commemorated on December 4

      The Holy GreatMartyress Barbara lived and suffered during the reign of the emperor Maximian (305-311). Her father, the pagan Dioskoros, was a rich and illustrious man in the city of Phoenician Heliopolis; early left a widower, he concentrated all his attention in tender devotion to his only daughter. Seeing the extraordinary beauty of Barbara, Dioskoros decided to raise her concealed from the eyes of strangers. For this he built a tower, where besides Barbara, there were present only her pagan teachers. From the tower heights there opened up a view of God’s world of hills stretching into the distance. By day she was able to gaze upon the wooded hills, the swiftly flowing rivers, and on the meadows covered with a gayly mottled blanket of flowers; by night the harmonious and majestic vault of the heavens twinkled and provided a spectacle of inexpressible beauty. Soon the maiden began to ask herself questions about the Primal Cause and Creator of so harmonious and splendid a world. Gradually she became convinced of the idea, that the soul-less idols – were but only the work of human hands, and though her father and teachers offered them worship, the idols were not sufficiently clever and august enough to have made the surrounding world. The desire to know the True God so consumed the soul of Barbara, that she decided to devote all her life to this and to spend her life in virginity.
      But the fame of her beauty spread throughout the city, and many sought for her hand in marriage. But despite the endearing entreaties of her father, she refused. Barbara cautioned her father, that his persistence might end tragically and separate them forever. Dioskoros decided, that the temperament of his daughter had been affected by her life of seclusion. He therefore permitted her to leave the tower and gave her full freedom in her choice of friends and acquaintances. The maiden thus encountered in the city youthful confessors of faith in Christ, and they revealed to her teachings about the Creator of the world, about the Trinity, and about the Divine Logos. Through the Providence of God, after a certain while there arrived in Heliopolis from Alexandria a priest in the guide of a merchant. He performed the sacrament of Baptism over Barbara.
      During this while at the house of Dioskoros a luxuriant bath was being built. By his orders the workers prepared to put into it two windows on the south side. But Barbara, availing herself of her father’s absence, asked them to make a third window, in the form of a Trinity of Light. Over the entrance of the bath-house Barbara patterned a cross, which was durably set into stone. On the stone steps of the bath-house there later remained the imprint of her feet, while within the water-spring had dried up, appearing later on with great healing power, – all which Simeon Metaphrastes in writing about the sufferings of the holy martyress, compares with the life-creating power of the stream of Jordan and the Pool of Siloam. When Dioskoros returned and expressed dissatisfaction about the change of his plan of construction, his daughter told him about her knowledge of the Triune God, about the saving power of the Son of God, and about the futility of worshipping idols. Dioskoros went into a rage, grabbed a sword and was on the point of striking her. The maiden fled from her father, and he rushed after her in pursuit. His way became blocked by an hill, which opened and concealed the saint in a crevice. On the other side of the crevice was an entrance upwards. Saint Barbara managed then to conceal herself in a cave on the opposite slope of the hill. After a long and fruitless search for his daughter, Dioskoros saw two shepherds on the hill. One of them pointed out the cave to him, where the saint had hidden. Dioskoros beat his daughter terribly, and then locked her under watch and tried to wear her down with hunger. Finally he handed her over to the governor of the city, named Martianus. They beat Saint Barbara fiercely: they struck at her with ox thongs, and ground into her wounds with an hair-shirt. By night the holy maiden prayed fervently to her Heavenly Bridegroom, and the Saviour Himself appeared and healed her wounds. Then they subjected the saint to new, and even more cruel torments.
      Amidst the crowd standing near the place of torture of the martyress was the Christian Juliania, an inhabitant of Heliopolis. Her heart was filled with sympathy for the voluntary martyrdom of the beautiful and illustrious maiden. Juliania likewise wanted to suffer for Christ. She began loudly to denounce the torturers, and they seized hold of her. For a long while they tortured both holy martyresses: they lacerated and tore at their bodies with hooks and then led them stripped through the city amidst derision and jeers. Through the prayers of Saint Barbara the Lord sent an Angel, which covered the bareness of the holy martyresses with splendid garb. The steadfast confessors of faith in Christ, Saints Barbara and Juliania, were then beheaded. Dioskoros himself executed Saint Barbara. The wrath of God was not slow to punish both torturers, Martianus and Dioskoros: they were struck down by bolts of lightning.
      In the VI Century the relics of the holy GreatMartyress Barbara were transferred to Constantinople. In the XII Century the daughter of the Byzantine emperor Alexis Comnenes, the princess Barbara, having entered into marriage with the Russian prince Mikhail Izyaslavich, transferred them to Kiev. They rest even now at the Kiev Vladimir cathedral.

The Nun Mastridia

December 7, 2013 | Saints & Martyrs, Uncategorized

Commemorated on November 24

The Nun Mastridia lived in Egyptian Alexandria. She gave a vow of virginity and, keeping the fasts and silence, she dwelt in unceasing prayer. The pure life of the holy virgin was beset by trials. A certain young man, attracted to her with impure desire, began to pursue her such that she could not go from her home even for church. Grieving over the fact that she had unwillingly led the youth into temptation, and being zealous for his salvation, the saint invited him into her home. Knowing that it was her pretty eyes especially that attracted him, the nun with complete selflessness put them out with a linen weaving instrument. Having saved herself and the youth from temptation, Saint Mastridia brought him to repentance. He accepted monasticism and lived as a strict ascetic, and Saint Mastridia finished her life in works for the Lord.

The Martyr Aretha and with him 4299 Martyrs

November 7, 2013 | Saints & Martyrs, Uncategorized

Commemorated on October 24

The Martyr Aretha and with him 4299 Martyrs suffered for the Lord Jesus Christ in the VI Century. Aretha was governor of the city of Negran in Arabia, the inhabitants of which were Christian. The Arabian (or Omirite) king, Dunaan, who was Jewish, decided to extirpate Christianity from the land, and he issued an edict that all followers of Christ were to be put to death. The inhabitants of Negran remained faithful to the Lord, and Dunaan came with a large army to destroy the city. At the city-walls of Negran the king’s heralds announced, that Dunaan would let live only those who renounced the Crucified Galileian and His Cross, as a “sign of malediction”. Not daring to assault the Christian city by force, Dunaan resorted to a ruse, swearing an oath that he would not force the Christians into Judaism, but would merely impose a tribute-tax on Negran. The inhabitants of the city would not heed the advice of Saint Aretha [his name in Greek means “virtue”, as if here literally to suggest that the people “would not heed the voice of virtue”], and putting their trust in Dunaan, they opened wide the city-gates.

The very next day Dunaan gave orders to start up an immense bon-fire and throw in it all the clergy of the Church of the city, so as to frighten all the rest of the Christians. Thus were burnt 427 men. The governor Aretha and the other chief men were thrown into prison. Then the oppressor sent out through the city his messengers, to convert the Christians to Judaism. And Dunaan himself conversed with those inhabitants brought forth from the prisons, saying: “I do not demand of you that ye should renounce the God of heaven and earth, nor do I want that ye should worship idols, but I want merely that ye do not believe in Jesus Christ, since the Crucified One was a man, and not God”. The holy martyrs replied to this, that Jesus – is God the Word, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, Who for the salvation of mankind had become flesh from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. “We shalt not abjure Christ, since that He is for us – Life, and death for Him – is the finding of Life”, – declared the sufferers to Dunaan. And more than four thousand Christians – men, women, both the aged and children – from the city of Negran and surrounding villages accepted a martyr’s death for Christ.

The Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian

October 10, 2013 | Saints & Martyrs, Uncategorized

Commemorated on September 26 and May 8

The Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian was the son of Zebedee and Salomia – a daughter of Saint Joseph the Betrothed. Together at the same time with his elder brother James, he was called by our Lord Jesus Christ to be numbered amongst His Apostles, which took place at Lake Gennesareth (i.e. the Sea of Galilee). Leaving behind their father, both brothers followed the Lord.

The Apostle John was especially beloved by the Saviour for his sacrificial love and his virginal purity. After his calling, the Apostle John did not part from the Lord, and he was one of the three apostles, who were particularly close to Him. Saint John the Theologian was present when the Lord resuscitated to life the daughter of Jairus, and he was a witness to the Transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor. During the time of the Last Supper, he reclined next to the Lord, and at a gesture from the Apostle Peter, he pressed nigh to the bosom of the Saviour and asked the name of the betrayer. The Apostle John followed after the Lord, when they led Him bound from the Garden of Gethsemane to the court of the iniquitous high-priests Annas and Caiphas. He was there in the courtyard of the high-priest during the interrogations of his Divine Teacher and he resolutely followed after him on the way of the Cross, grieving with all his heart. At the foot of the Cross he went together with the Mother of God and heard addressed to Her from atop the Cross the words of the Crucified Lord: “Woman, behold Thy son” and to him “Behold thy Mother” (Jn. 19: 26-27). And from that moment the Apostle John, like a loving son, concerned himself over the MostHoly Virgin Mary, and he served Her until Her Dormition (“Falling-Asleep” or “Uspenie”), never leaving Jerusalem. After the Dormition of the Mother of God the Apostle John, in accord with the lot that had befallen him, set off to Ephesus and other cities of Asia Minor to preach the Gospel, taking with him his own disciple Prokhoros. They set off upon their on a ship, which floundered during the time of a terrible tempest. All the travellers were cast up upon dry ground, and only the Apostle John remained in the depths of the sea. Prokhoros wept bitterly, bereft of his spiritual father and guide, and he went on towards Ephesus alone. On the fourteenth day of his journey he stood at the shore of the sea and beheld, that the waves had cast ashore a man. Going up to him, he recognised the Apostle John, whom the Lord had preserved alive for fourteen days in the deeps of the sea. Teacher and student set off to Ephesus, where the Apostle John preached incessantly to the pagans about Christ. His preaching was accompanied by numerous and great miracles, such that the number of believers increased with each day. During this time there had begun a persecution against Christians under the emperor Nero (56-68). They took away the Apostle John for trial at Rome. The Apostle John was sentenced to death for his confession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but the Lord preserved His chosen one. The apostle drank out of a cup prepared for him with deadly poison but he remained alive, and later he emerged unharmed from a cauldron of boiling oil, into which he had been thrown on orders from the torturer. After this, they sent the Apostle John off to imprisonment to the island of Patmos, where he spent many years. Proceeding along on his way to the place of exile, the Apostle John worked many miracles. On the island of Patmos, his preaching accompanied by miracles attracted to him all the inhabitants of the island, and he enlightened them with the light of the Gospel. He cast out many a devil from the pagan-idol temples, and he healed a great multitude of the sick. Sorcerer-magicians with diverse demonic powers showed great hostility to the preaching of the holy apostle. He gave especial fright to the chief sorcerer of them all, named Kinops, who boasted that they would destroy the apostle. But the great John – the Son of Thunder, as the Lord Himself had named him, and by the grace of God acting through him – destroyed all the demonic artifices to which Kinops resorted, and the haughty sorcerer perished exhausted in the depths of the sea.

The Apostle John withdrew with his disciple Prokhoros to a desolate height, where he imposed upon himself a three-day fast. During the time of the Apostle John’s prayer the earth quaked and thunder boomed. Prokhoros in fright fell to the ground. The Apostle John lifted him up and bid him to write down, that which he was to speak. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord, Which is and Which was and Which is to come, the Almighty” (Rev. 1: 8), – proclaimed the Spirit of God through the Apostle John. Thus in about the year 67 was written the Book of Revelation (“Otkrovenie”, known also as the “Apocalypse”) of the holy Apostle John the Theologian. In this Book was a revealing of the tribulations of the Church and of the end of the world.

After his prolonged exile, the Apostle John received his freedom and returned to Ephesus, where he continued with his activity, instructing Christians to guard against false-teachers and their false-teachings. In about the year 95, the Apostle John wrote his Gospel at Ephesus. He called for all Christians to love the Lord and one another, and by this to fulfill the commands of Christ. The Church entitles Saint John the “Apostle of Love”, since he constantly taught, that without love man cannot come nigh to God. In his three Epistles, written by the Apostle John, he speaks about the significance of love for God and for neighbour. Already in his old age, and having learned of a youth who had strayed from the true path to begin following the leader of a band of robbers, the Apostle John went out into the wilderness to seek him. Catching sight of the holy elder, the culprit tried to hide himself, but the Apostle John ran after him and besought him to stop, and promising to take the sins of the youth upon himself, if only he should but repent and not bring ruination upon his soul. Shaken by the intense love of the holy elder, the youth actually did repent and turn his life around.

The holy Apostle John died at more than an hundred years old. he far out-lived the other remaining eye-witnesses of the Lord, and for a long time he remained the sole remaining eye-witness of the earthly paths of the Saviour.

When it became time for the departure of the Apostle John, he withdrew out beyond the city-limits of Ephesus, being together with the families of his disciples. He bid them prepare for him a cross-shaped grave, in which he lay, telling his disciples that they should cover him over with the soil. The students with tears kissed their beloved teacher, but not wanting to be disobedient, they fulfilled his bidding. They covered the face of the saint with a cloth and filled in the grave. Learning of this, other students of the Apostle John came to the place of his burial, but opening the grave they found it empty.

Each year from the grave of the holy Apostle John on 8 May there came forth a fine ash-dust, which believers gathered up and were healed of sicknesses by it. Therefore the Church celebrates the memory of the holy Apostle John the Theologian still even also on 8 May.

The Lord bestowed on His beloved disciple John and John’s brother James the name “Sons of Thunder” – as an awesome messenger in its cleansing power of the heavenly fire. And precisely by this the Saviour pointed out the flaming, fiery, sacrificial character of Christian love, – the preacher of which was the Apostle John the Theologian. The eagle – symbol of the lofty soaring of his theological thought – is the iconographic symbol of the Evangelist John the Theologian. The appellation “Theologian” is bestown by Holy Church only to Saint John among the immediate Disciples and Apostles of Christ, as being the seer of the mysteried Judgements of God.

The Nun Euphrosynia

October 9, 2013 | Saints & Martyrs, Uncategorized

Commemorated on September 25

The Nun Euphrosynia was born at the beginning of the V Century in the city of Alexandria. She was the only child in her family of illustrious and rich parents. Her mother died early. She was raised by her father, Paphnutios, a deeply believing and pious Christian. He frequented a monastery, the hegumen of which was his spiritual guide. When Euphrosynia turned age 18, her father wanted her to marry. He set off to the monastery to his spiritual guide to receive blessing for the planned wedding of his daughter. The hegumen conversed with the daughter and gave her his blessing, but Saint Euphrosynia yearned for the monastic life. Secretly having accepted tonsure from a wandering monk, she left her father’s house and decided to enter a monastery in order to lead her life in solitude and prayer. She feared, however, that in a women’s monastery her father would find her. Calling herself the eunuch Izmaragdos, she went to that very selfsame men’s monastery, which since childhood she had visited with her father. The monks did not recognise Euphrosynia dressed in men’s garb, and so they accepted her into the monastery. Here in a solitary cell, in works, fasting and prayer, Saint Euphrosynia spent 38 years and attained to high spiritual accomplishment. Her father grieved over the loss of his beloved daughter and more than once, on the advice of the hegumen, he conversed with the monk Izmaragdos, revealing his grief and receiving spiritual comfort. Before her death, the Nun Euphrosynia revealed her secret to her grieving father and asked, that no one except him should prepare her body for burial. Having buried his daughter, Paphnutios distributed all his wealth to both the poor and to the monastery, and then he accepted monasticism. For ten years right up to his own death, he asceticised in the cell of his daughter.

The Holy Martyress Hermionia

September 17, 2013 | Saints & Martyrs, Uncategorized

Commemorated on September 4

The Holy Martyress Hermionia was a daughter of the holy Apostle Philip (Comm. 14 November). Wanting to see the holy Apostle John the Theologian, Hermionia with her sister Euthykhia set off to Asia (Asia Minor) in search of the saint, but during the time of their journey they learned the saint had died. Continuing on, the sisters met up with a disciple of Saint Paul named Petronias, and copying him in everything, they became his disciples. Saint Hermionia, having mastered the healing arts, rendered help to many a Christian and by the power of Christ she healed the sick.

During this period, the emperor Trajan (98-117) waged war against the Persians and he came with his army through the village where the saint lived. When they reported that Hermionia was a Christian, he gave orders to bring her to him. At first the emperor with casual admonitions sought to persuade the saint to renounce Christ. When this did not succeed, he commanded that she should be struck on the face at length, but she joyfully endured this suffering. Moreover, she was comforted by a vision of the Lord, sitting upon the throne of judgement, in semblance of Petronias. Convincing himself that she was adamant in her faith, Trajan sent her away. Hermionia later built an hospice in which she took in the sick, doctoring their infirmities both of body and soul.

Trajan’s successor as emperor, Adrian, again commanded that the saint be brought to trial for confessing the Christian faith. At first, the emperor commanded that she be beaten mercilessly, then they pierced the soles of her feet with nails, and finally they threw her into a cauldron with boiling tar, tin and sulphurous brimstone. But the saint bore everything giving thanks to God. And the Lord rendered her His mercy: the fire went out, the tin flowed off, and the saint remained unharmed. Adrian in surprise went up to the place of torture and touched at the cauldron, to ascertain whether it had cooled. But just as he touched at the cauldron, he burned the skin on his hand. But even this did not dissuade the torturer. He gave orders to heat red-hot a sort of frying-pan and put upon it the holy martyress. And here again happened another miracle. An Angel of the Lord scattered about the hot coals and burnt many that stood about the fire. The saint stood on the frying-pan, as though on green grass, hymning forth praise to the Lord. Descending the frying-pan, the holy martyress seemed to appear willing to offer sacrifice to the pagan god Hercules. The delighted emperor gave orders to take her off to the idolous temple. When however the saint prayed there to God, a loud thunder-clap was heard, and all the idols in the pagan temple fell and shattered. In a rage the emperor ordered that Hermionia be led out beyond the city and beheaded. Two servants – Theodoulos and Timothy – were entrusted to carry out the execution. Going along the way, they wanted to commit iniquity against the saint, but just as they were considering this, their hands withered. Then they believed in Jesus Christ and with repentance they fell at the feet of Saint Hermionia. They besought her to pray to the Lord, that He should summon them to Himself before her, which through this prayer transpired. After this, having prayed, she also expired to the Lord (+ c. 117).