The Seven Holy Maccabean Martyrs: Habim, Antonin, Guriah, Eleazar, Eusebon, Hadim (Halim) and Marcellus, their mother Solomonia and their teacher Eleazar suffered in the year 166 before the Birth of Christ under the impious Syrian emperor Antiochos Epiphanos. Adhering to an Hellenistic cult, Antiochos Epiphanos introduced pagan customs at Jerusalem and throughout all Judea. He desecrated the Temple of the Lord, putting there in a statue of the pagan god Zeus, and forcing the Jews to worship it. Many of them then fell away from the True God. But there were also those, who were deeply sorrowed by the downfall of the people of God and who continued to believe in the coming arrival of the Saviour. A ninety year old elder—the law-teacher Eleazar, was brought to trial for his adherence to the Mosaic Law, and he steadfastly underwent tortures and died at Jerusalem. Bravery was likewise shown by the disciples of Saint Eleazar—the Seven Maccabean Brothers and their mother Solomonia. They were brought to trial in Antioch by the emperor Antiochos Epiphanos. They fearlessly acknowledged themselves as followers of the True God, and refused to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods. The eldest of the lads, having been first to answer the emperor in the name of all seven brothers, was given over to fierce tortures in sight of his remaining brothers and their mother. The next five brothers one after the other underwent these tortures. There remained the seventh brother, the very youngest. Antiochos suggested to Saint Solomonia to urge the lad into renunciation, so that at least this final son would remain for her. But the brave mother encouraged him also in the confession of the True God. The lad resolutely ignored the entreaty of the emperor and likewise firmly underwent the tortures, just like his older brothers. After the death of all her seven children, Saint Solomonia, standing over their bodies, raised up her hands in prayer to God and died. The Martyrs Act of the holy Seven Maccabean Brothers inspired Judas Maccabee, and he led the revolt against Antiochos Epiphanos with the help of God gaining the victory, and then purifying the Jerusalem Temple of idols. All these events are related in the Book of Second Maccabees, which is included within the Bible. Sermons of laudation to the holy Maccabean Martyrs were offered by various fathers of the Church—Saint Cyprian of Carthage, Saint Ambrose of Mediolanum (Milan), Saint Gregory Nazianzus and Saint John Chrysostomos.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "By the pangs of the saints, * which they suffered for Thee, O Lord, * be Thou entreated, and heal Thou all our infirmities, ** we pray Thee, O Thou Who lovest mankind.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "O ye seven pillars of the wisdom of God, * seven-branched lamp of the divine Light, * O most wise Maccabees * who before the martyrs were martyrs most great: * with them entreat ye the God of all, ** that we who honor you may be saved!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "32": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyr Abraham the Bulgar, Wonderworker of Vladimir († 1229)", "short": "Holy Martyr" } }, "40": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Abraham, Archimandrite and Wonderworker of Smolensk (13th C)", "short": "Venerable Abraham" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Avraamii (Abraham) of Smolensk, a preacher of repentance and the impending Dread Last Judgement, was born in the mid-XII Century at Smolensk of rich parents, who before him had 12 daughters, and they besought God for a son. From childhood he grew up in the fear of God, he was often in church and had the opportunity to read books. The parents hoped that their only son would enter into marriage and continue their illustrious lineage, but he sought after a different life. After the death of his parents, having given away all his wealth to monasteries, to churches and to the destitute, the saint walked through the city in rags, beseeching God to show him the way to salvation.
He accepted tonsure in a monastery of the Most Holy Mother of God, five versts from Smolensk, at the locale of Selischa. Having passed through various obediences there, the monk fervently occupied himself with the copying of books, culling spiritual riches from them. The Smolensk prince Roman Rostislavich († 1170) started a school in the city, in which they taught not only in Slavonic, but also out of Greek and Latin books. The prince himself had a large collection of books, which the Monk Avraamii made use of. He had asceticised for more than 30 years at the monastery, when in the year 1198 the hegumen persuaded him to accept the dignity of presbyter. Every day he made Divine Liturgy and fulfilled the obedience of clergy not only for the brethren, but also for the laypeople.
Soon the monk became widely known. This aroused the envy of the brethren, and then of the hegumen also, and 5 years later the monk was compelled to transfer to the Cross-Exaltation monastery in Smolensk itself. From the offerings by the devout he embellished the cathedral church of the poor monastery with icons, and with curtains and candle-stands. He himself inscribed two icons on themes, which most of all concerned him: on the one he depicted the Dread Last Judgement, and on the other—the suffering of the trials of life. Lean and pale from extreme toil, the ascetic in priestly garb resembled in appearance Saint Basil the Great. The saint was strict both towards himself, and towards his spiritual children. He preached constantly in church and to those coming to him in his cell, conversing with rich and poor alike.
The city notables and the clergy demanded of Bishop Ignatii to bring the monk to trial, accusing him in the seduction of women and the tempting of his spiritual children. But even more terrible were the accusations against him, of heresy and the reading of forbidden books. For this they proposed to drown or burn the ascetic. At the trial by the prince and the bishop, the monk answered all the false accusations, but despite this, they forbade him to serve as a priest and returned him to his former monastery in honour of the Most Holy Mother of God. A terrible drought occurred in consequence of God’s wrath over the unjust sentence, and only when Saint Ignatii put forth a pardon of the Monk Avraamii permitting him to serve and preach, did the rain again fall on the Smolensk lands.
The bishop Saint Ignatii built a new monastery, in honour of the Placing of the Robe of the Most Holy Mother of God, and he entrusted the guidance of it to the Monk Avraamii, and he himself settled into it, having retired because of age from the diocese. Many were desirous to enter under the guidance of the Monk Avraamii, but he examined them very intensely and only after great investigation, so that at his monastery there were but 17 brethren. The Monk Avraamii, after the death of Saint Ignatii, having become his spiritual friend,—even moreso than before urged the brethren to reminisce about death and to pray day and night, that they be not condemned in the Judgement by God.
The Monk Avraamii died after the year 1224, having spent 50 years in monasticism. Already at the end of the XIII Century there had been compiled a service to him, conjointly with his student the Monk Ephraim. The terrible Mongol-Tatar invasion, seen as the wrath of God for sin, not only did not stifle the memory of the Monk Avraamii of Smolensk, but rather was a reminder to people of his calling to repentance and recollection of the dread Last Judgement.
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Needs English translation
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Needs English translation
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "53": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Agapitus the Unmercenary Physician of the Kiev Near Caves († c. 1095)", "short": "Venerable Agapitus" } }, "60": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Agatho, Wonderworker of the Kiev Caves (13th-14th C)", "short": "Venerable Agatho" } }, "73": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Adrian of Corinth († 251)", "short": "Martyr Adrian" } }, "74": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Adrian and Natalia and 23 Martyrs suffering with them in Nicomedia († c. 305-311)", "short": "Martyrs" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Martyrs Adrian and Natalia were married in their youth for one year prior to their martyrdom. They lived in Bithynian Nicomedia during the time of the emperor Maximian (305-311). Having started his persecution, the emperor promised a reward to whomever would inform on Christians to bring them to trial. There began the denunciations, and through one of these there were seized 23 Christians, hiding in a cave near Nicomedia. They were tortured, urged to worship idols, and then taken to the judgement palace, in order to record their names and responses. Adrian, the head of the judgement palace, looking on as they brought in the people suffering with such courage for their faith, and how firmly and fearlessly they confessed Christ, asked: “What rewards do ye expect from your God for suffering?” The martyrs replied: “Such rewards, as we are not able to describe, nor thy mind comprehend.” Inspired, Saint Adrian told the scribes: “Write me down also, that I be a Christian and with joy I do die for Christ God.” The scribes reported about this to the emperor, who summoned Saint Adrian and asked: “Really, hast thou gone mad, that thou dost want to die? Come, cross out thine name from the lists and offer sacrifice to the gods, asking their forgiveness.” Saint Adrian answered: “I am not mad, but the rather have been converted to health of mind.” Maximian then ordered Adrian to be thrown into prison. His wife, Saint Natalia, knowing that her husband was suffering for Christ, rejoiced, since she herself was secretly a Christian. She hastened to the prison and encouraged her husband saying: “Blest be thou, mine lord, in that thou hast believed on Christ, wherein thou hast obtained a great treasure. Regret not anything of earth, neither beauty, nor youth (Adrian was then 28 years of age), nor riches. Everything worldly—is dust and ashes. Only faith and good deeds be pleasing to God.” On the pledge of the other martyrs, they released Saint Adrian from prison to relate to his wife about the day of execution. Saint Natalia at first thought, that he had renounced Christ and thus had been set free, and she did not want to let him into the house. The saint persuaded his wife, that he had not fled martyrdom, but rather had come to give her the news of the day of his execution.
They tortured Saint Adrian cruelly. The emperor advised the saint to have pity on himself and call on the gods, but the martyr answered: “Let thine gods say, what blessings they promise me, and then I shalt worship them, but if they cannot speak thus, then why should I worship them?” Saint Natalia did not cease to encourage her husband. She asked him also to convey for her a foremost prayer to God, that they would not compel her into a marriage with a pagan after his death. The executioner ordered the hands and the legs of the saints to be broken on the anvil. Saint Natalia, fearing that her husband would hesitate in seeing the sufferings of the other martyrs, besought the executioner to begin the execution with him and let her herself put his hands and legs on the anvil. They wanted to burn the bodies of the saints, but a strong storm arose and the fire went out. Many of the executioners even were struck by lightning. Saint Natalia took the hand of her spouse and kept it at home. Soon an army commander asked the emperor’s approval to wed Saint Natalia, who was both young and rich. But she hid herself away in Byzantium. Here Saint Adrian appeared to her in a dream and said, that she would soon be at rest in the Lord. The anemic martyress, worn down by her former sufferings, in fact soon expired to God.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In their sufferings, O Lord, * Thy martyrs received imperishable crowns from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * they set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By their supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Having laid up in thy heart the divine words * of thy divinely wise wife, * O Adrian, martyr of Christ, * thou didst earnestly rush to sufferings, ** receiving a crown with thy spouse.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/2": { "text": "The divine commemoration of the martyrs hath shone forth * and radiantly illumined all the ends of the earth with the gladness of them that cry out: ** Thou art the joy of the martyrs, O Christ!
", "Type": "2", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "75": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Adrian, Abbot of Ondrusovsk († 1549)", "short": "Venerable Adrian" } }, "76": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Adrian of Poshekhonye, Yaroslavl († 1550)", "short": "Venerable Adrian" } }, "84": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Azades (Azat) the Eunuch and the 1000 Martyrs of Persia († c. 341)", "short": "Martyr Azades" } }, "85": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Aithalas the Deacon", "short": "Aithalus" } }, "96": { "name": { "nominative": "Apostle of the 70: Aquila (1st C)", "short": "Apostle Aquila" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Aquila, Disciple from the 70: It is possible, that he was a disciple of the Apostle Paul, a native of Pontus and a Jew, living in the city of Rome with his wife Priscilla (Comm. 13 February). During the reign of the emperor Claudius (41-54) all the Jews were banished from Rome. Saint Aquilla and his wife were compelled to leave. They settled in Corinth. A short while afterwards the holy Apostle Paul arrived there from Athens preaching the Gospel. Having made the acquaintance of Aquila, he began to live at his house and laboured together with him over the making of tents.
Having accepted Baptism from the Apostle Paul, Aquila and Priscilla bacame his devoted and zealous disciples. They accompanied the apostle to Ephesus. The Apostle Paul instructed them to continue the preaching of the Gospel at Ephesus, and he himself set off to Jerusalem, in order to be present there for the feast of Pentecost. At Ephesus Aquila and Priscilla heard the bold preaching of a new-comer from Alexandria, the Jew Apollos, who had been instructed in the fundamentals of the faith, but knew only the baptism of John the ForeRunner [i.e. John the Baptist]. They called him over to themselves and explained more precisely about the way of the Lord.
After the death of the emperor Claudius, Jews were permitted to return to Italy, and Aquila and Priscilla then returned to Rome. The Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans recollects about his faithful disciples: “Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus, who put forth their heads for my soul, whom I do not alone thank, but also all the Church of the Gentiles and the church of their household” (Rom. 16: 3-4). Saint Aquila did not long dwell in Rome: the Apostle Paul made him a bishop in Asia. Saint Aquila zealously laboured at preaching the Gospel in Asia, Achæia and Herakleia: he converted pagans to Christ, he confirmed in the faith newly-converted Christians, he established presbyters and destroyed idols. Saint Priscilla constantly assisted him in the apostolic work. Saint Aquila finished his life a martyr: pagans murdered him. According to the tradition of the Church, Saint Priscilla was killed together with him.
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O holy apostle Aquila * entreat the merciful God ** that He grant to our souls remission of transgressions.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Having acquired thee like a great sun, * O glorious Aquila, apostle of the Lord, ** the Church enlighteneth with the splendors of thy teaching those who honor thee.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "131": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow and Wonderworker of All Russia († 1378)", "short": "Saint Alexis" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Alexei, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia the Wonderworker, (in the world Elevtherii), was born in the year 1292 (or by another source 1304) at Moscow into the family of the boyar-noble Theodore (Feodor) Byakont, a descendant of the Chernigov princely line.
The Lord early on revealed to the future saint his lofty destiny. At twelve years of age Elevtherii ha set a snare for the netting of birds, and imperceptibly he dozed off and suddenly he heard quite distinctly a voice: “Alexei! Why toilest thou in vain? Thou art to be a netter of people.”From this day on the lad tended towards seclusion, he frequently visited church, and at age fifteen he decided to become a monk. In 1320 he entered the Moscow Theophany monastery, where he spent more than twelve years at strict monastic efforts. As guides for him and his companions there were the reknown ascetics of the monastery, the startsi-elders Gerontii and Stefan, brother of the Monk Sergei of Radonezh. Metropolitan Theognist then bade the future saint to leave the monastery and manage the juridical affairs of the Church. The saint fulfilled this office for 12 years as vicar of the metropolitan. Towards the end of 1350 Vladyka Theognist had Alexei ordained as bishop of Vladimir; upon the death of the metropolitan he became his successor in the year 1354. During this period the Russian Church was torn amidst great rifts and quarrels, in part because of the pretensions of the metropolitan of Lithuania and Volynia, Roman. In 1356, in order to put an end to the troubles and disturbances, the saint set off to Constantinople to the Œcumenical Patriarch. Patriarch Kallistos gave Saint Alexei the right to both be called and to consider himself Archbishop of Kiev and Great Russia with the title, “All-Venerable Metropolitan and Exarch.” On the return journey during the time of a storm at sea the ship was in danger of shipwreck. Saint Alexei prayed and gave a vow to build a temple to the saint of that day, when the ship should come to shore. The storm subsided, and the ship arrived on 16 August. Moscow delightedly came out to meet the saint.
In spite of problems on every side, Saint Alexei concerned himself everywhere over his flock: he sent forth bishops, he established life-in-common monasteries (on the model of the Trinity Lavra, founded by the Monk Sergei), and he brought order to relations with the khans of the Horde. The saint himself occasioned more than once to journey to the Golden Horde. In 1357 the khan demanded of the greatprince, that the saint should come to him and heal the blindness of Taidul, his spouse. “The request and the matter is beyond my powers,—said Saint Alexei,—but I do believe in Him That gaveth the blind man to see, and that He shalt not disdain my prayers of faith.” And actually, through his prayer, and being sprinkled with holy water, the wife of the khan was healed.
When Greatprince Ioann died, his young son Dimitrii (the future Donskoy), still in age a minor, was taken under the saint’s guardianship. The holy vladyka had much toil in reconciling and appeasing princes obstinate against accepting the authority of Moscow. Nor did the metropolitan neglect the work of organising new monasteries. In 1361 he founded the Saviour Image Not-Wrought-by-Hand monastery at the Yauza in Moscow (the disciple of the Monk Sergei—Andronikov by name—was the first hegumen of the monastery), from the vow he had given back on his return journey from Constantinople, when the ship had suffered wœ. There was also the Chudov monastery—in the Moscow Kremlin; likewise, ancient monasteries were restored: the Annunciation monastery at Nizhni-Novgorod, and the Konstantino-Eleninsk [Constantine and Helen] at Vladimir. And in 1361 there was built a women’s life-in-common monastery after his name (the Alekseev).
Saint Alexei reached the advanced age of 78, having spent 24 years upon the metropolitan cathedra-seat. He reposed on 12 February 1378 and was buried in accord with his last-wishes at the Chudov monastery. His relics were uncovered in a miraculous manner 50 years later, after which there began the veneration of the memory of the great Saint-Hierarch and Man of Prayer for the Russian Land.
" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Hastening to thy precious shrine, O holy hierarch Alexis, divinely wise wonder-worker, assembling with love, we celebrate with splendor the memory of thee who art equally enthroned with the apostles, the all-good physician, the right pleasing servant; and we rejoice with songs and hymns, glorifying Christ Who hath given thee such grace to heal and bestowed upon thy city so great a bulwark.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "TROPARION/2": { "text": "Celebrating the memory of the all-blessed and holy hierarch Alexis, the careful preserver of the dogmas of the apostles, the shepherd and teacher of the Church of Russia, let us glorify with right fitting hymnody Christ our God Who hath given us His favored one as an abundant well-spring pouring forth healings, the boast and confirmation of the city of Moscow.", "Type": "2", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "
O all ye people, hymning with faith the new wonder-worker Alexis, the godly and all-honorable hierarch of Christ, let us bless him with love, as a great pastor, an all-wise minister and teacher of the land of Russia. And hastening today to his memorial, let us joyfully give utterance to a hymn to the God-bearer: As thou hast boldness before God, deliver us from multifarious evil circumstances, that we may cry to thee: Rejoice, O confirmation of our city!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "133": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Alexius the Hermit of the Near Kiev Caves (13th C)", "short": "Venerable Alexius" } }, "134": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Alexis the Man of God († 411)", "short": "Venerable Alexis" }, "rank": 1 }, "136": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Alypy, the Iconographer of the Kiev Caves, near caves († c. 1114)", "short": "Venerable Alypy" } }, "137": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Alypios the Stylite of Adrianopolis († 640)", "short": "Venerable Alypios" }, "rank": 1 }, "142": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan († 397)", "short": "Saint Ambrose" }, "rank": 1 }, "143": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Prophet Malachi (400 BC)", "short": "Prophet" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Prophet Malachi lived 400 years before the Birth of Christ, during the time of the return of the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity. Malachi was the last of the Old Testament prophets, wherefore the holy fathers call him “the sealing-shut of the prophets.” Manifesting himself an image of spiritual goodness and piety, he astounded the nation and was called Malachiei, i.e. an angel or messenger. In the Canon of Scriptural Books is included also his prophetic book, in which he upbraids the Jews, foretelling the coming of Jesus Christ and His Forerunner, and also the Last Judgement (Mal. 3: 1-5; 4:1-6).
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Enriched by the gift of prophecy, O prophet, * thou didst manifestly proclaim salvation to the world and the advent of Christ, ** by Whose radiance the world hath been illumined.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "144": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Gordius at Cæsarea in Cappadocia (4th C)", "short": "Martyr Gordius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Martyr Gordias was born at the end of the III Century in the city of Cæsarea Cappadocia into a Christian family. Coming of age, he entered military service, and having displayed valour and military skill, he was made a centurion. During the time of persecution of Christians at the beginning of the IV Century, he left the world and settled in the wilderness, so as to prepare himself for the good deed of confessing the Name of Christ the Saviour. In the year 320 Gordias openly came forward before the prefect of the city in defense of Christians. They arrested him and after terrible torments they beheaded him.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In his suffering, O Lord, * Thy martyr Gordius received an imperishable crown from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * he set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By his supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "The drops of thy sweat have watered the whole earth, O all-glorious Gordius, * and thou hast gladdened the whole world with thy precious blood. * By thy supplications, O divinely wise one, save all who hymn and bless thee with faith, ** crying out a worthy hymn to thee, O most lauded one, as a great athlete.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "146": { "name": { "nominative": "Synaxis of the 70 Apostles: James, the Brother of the Lord, Cleopas, Crispus, Fortunatus, Achaicus, Symeon called Niger, and others", "short": "Apostles" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Sobor (Assemblage) of the Seventy Disciples (“Apostles”) was established by the Orthodox Church so as to indicate the equal honour of each of the Seventy, and to avert dissonance in their veneration. [Translator Note: Russian idiomatic useage refers both to the “12” and to the “70” as “Apostle”; whereas English idiomatic useage refers to the “12” as “Apostle” and to the “70” as “Disciple.”] They were chosen by the Lord Jesus Christ, in order to evangelise the Gospel to all the world.
Besides the celebration of the Sobor (Assemblage) of the Holy Disciples, the Church celebrates the memory of each of them during the course of the year: the Disciple James, Brother of the Lord (23 October); Mark the Evangelist (25 April); Luke the Evangelist (18 October); Cleopas, brother of Joseph the Betrothed, and Simeon his son (27 April); Barnabas (11 June); Josiah, or Joseph, named Barsaba or Justus (30 October); Thaddeus (21 August); Ananias (1 October); Stephen, Archdeacon (27 December); Philip from the 7 Deacons (11 October); Prochoros from the 7 Deacons (28 July); Nikanor from the 7 Deacons (28 July and 28 December); Timon from the 7 Deacons (28 July and 30December); Parmenas from the 7 Deacons (28 June); Timothy (22 January); Titus (25August); Philemon (22 November and 19 February); Onysimos (15 February); Epaphrasos and Archippos (22 November and 19 February); Silas, Sylvanus, Criscentus or Criscus (30 July); Crispus and Epenetos (30 July); Andronikos (17 May and 30 July); Stakhias, Amplias, Urban, Narcissos, Apellias (31 October); Aristoboulos (31 October and 16 March); Herodion or Rodion (8 April and 10 November); Ahab, Rufus, Asinkritos, Phlegontos (8 April); Hermas (5 November and 31 May); Patrobus (5November); Hermias (8 April); Linus, Caius, Philologos (5 November); Lucius (10September); Jason (28 April); Sosipater (28 April and 10 November); Olympos or Olympanus (10November); Tercias (30 October and 10 November); Herastos, Quartus (10November); Evodus (7 September); Onysiphoros (7 September and 8 December); Clement (25 November); Sosthenes (8 December); Apollos (10 September and 8December); Tykhikos, Epaphrodites (8 December); Carpus (26 May); Codratus (21September); Mark who is John, Zeno (27 September); Aristarchus (15 April and 27September); Pudas, Trophymos (15 April); Mark nephew of Barnabas, Artemis (30October); Aquila (14 July); Fortunatus, Achæcus (4 January).
With the Descent of the Holy Spirit the disciples preached in various lands. Some accompanied the Apostles from the 12, like the holy Evangelists Mark and Luke, or the companion of the holy Apostle Paul—Timothy, or the disciple of the holy Evangelist John the Theologian—Prochoros, and others. Many of them were thrown into prison for Christ, and many received the crown of a martyr’s death.
To the 70 Disciples are enumerated yet two—the holy Disciple Cephas, to whom the Lord appeared after the Resurrection (1 Cor. 15: 5-6), and Simeon, by nickname Niger (Acts 13:1), wherefore they also were glorified by apostolic preaching.
The Church in particular venerates and praises the 70 Disciples in that they taught to honour the Trinity One-in-Essence and Un-Divided.
In the IX Century the Orthodox Church received from Joseph the Melodist the Kanon for the Day of the Sobor (Assemblage) of the 70 Disciples of Christ.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O holy apostles * entreat the merciful God ** that He grant to our souls remission of transgressions.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "In hymns, O ye faithful, * let us in godly manner praise the choir of the seventy disciples of Christ; * for, through them have we all learned to honor the indivisible Trinity. ** And they remain beacons of the divine Faith.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "148": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Theoctistus, Abbot at Cucomo in Sicily († 800)", "short": "Venerable Theoctistus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Theoktistos founded a monastery in the city of Kucuma on the island of Sicily, where he became hegumen. At his monastery lived Greek monks, having fled persecution by the iconoclasts. The monk died in the year 800.
" }, "rank": 1 }, "149": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Prophet Amos (8th C BC)", "short": "Holy Prophet" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Prophet Amos, third of the 12 Lesser Prophets, lived during the VIIICentury before the Birth of Christ. At this time the Hebrew nation was divided into two kingdoms: the Judean and the Israelite. The Judean king Hosiah ruled in Jerusalem, but the 10 separated Israelite tribes were ruled by Jeroboam II, an idol-worshipper. At Bethel he set up an idol in the form of a golden calf, which they worshipped, having rejected the True God of the Israelites.
The Prophet Amos was a Judean, native to the city of Thekui. Simple and untaught, but strongly fervent of faith and zealous for the glory of the True God—the shepherd was chosen by the Lord for prophetic service and sent to the Israelite kingdom for the purpose of denouncing the impiety of King Jeroboam, and the Israelites for falling away from God. The prophet predicted for them a great misfortune, which would befall the Israelite kingdom, and the pagan nations surrounding it, for their impiety. Because of his denunciations, the Prophet Amos repeatedly suffered beatings and torture. But he again returned to Bethel, and threatening inevitable misfortunes, he continued to call the Israelites to repentance. The pagan-priest Amasiah of the idolatrous temple in particular hated the prophet. The prophet predicted for him and all his household a speedy destruction and for this he was subjected to a beating. The son of Amasiah, Hosiah, struck the saint on the head with a club and seriously wounded him. The Prophet Amos, still alive, reached his native village and there he died in about the year 787 before the Birth of Christ.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Having cleansed thy radiant heart by the Spirit, * O glorious Prophet Amos, * and received the gift of prophecy from on high, * thou didst cry aloud throughout the land: ** Behold our God! There is none other like unto Him!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "150": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Zosimas the Hermit and Athanasius the Superintendent of Prisoners, Anchorites in Cilicia (3rd-4th C)", "short": "Martyrs Zosimas and Athanasius" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The MonkMartyr Zosimas came from Cilicia and was an inhabitant of the wilderness. During a time of persecution against christians under the emperor Diocletian (284-305) Saint Zosimas was seized and subjected to fierce torture for the faith, but by the power of God he was preserved unharmed. Having beheld such a miracle of God, the prison head by the name of Athanasias believed in Christ and was baptised. The Monk Zosima together with Athanasias was released and went off into the wilderness where, pursuing asceticism, they lived in a crevice in a mountain until their death.
" } }, "152": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Amphilochius, Macarius, Tarasius, and Theosius of Glushitsa", "short": "Venerables" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "The Venerable Amphilocius already a monk came to the Glushetsk monastery to assist its rector the Venerable Dionysius (June 1). And he became the most reliable helper for Dionysius during the building of the monastery, strictly supervising and observing the monastery Typikon (Ustav) for twenty years. His meekness and humility was immeasurable; he cared only for the soul, which is why he wore the most modest clothing. After the death of his guide he became the hegumen of the monastery and died in peace in 1452. His relics are in a hidden place in the temple named for him. The Venerable Macarius succeeded him. He was born in Rostov, and spent twelve years in ascetic efforts in the Glushetsk Monastery and died in 1478. His relics are in a hidden place in the Glushetsk Monastery. The Venerable Tarasius was the hegumen of one of the monasteries built by Bishop Stephen (see April 26) and was one of his fervent co-workers in the propagation and the establishment of the Orthodox faith among the Zirians. Having entered into voluntary obedience to the Venerable Dionysius, he practiced asceticism in the Glushetsk Monastery for ten years, leading a most severe and strict life in fasting and vigils, destroying his body. Tears of affection constantly moistened his cheeks, testifying to his deep humility and afflicted heart, so that all marveled at his patience and looked upon him as on one of the ancient great ascetics. Reaching deep old age, he died in 1440. His relics are in a hidden place in the Glushetsk St. Dionysius Monastery (see the Vologda Diocese). The Venerable Theodosius was a disciple of the Venerable Dionysius. His relics repose in the same Glushetsk Monastery, near the relics of the Venerable Tarasius." } }, "155": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Theopemptus, Bishop of Nicomedia, and Martyr Theonas the Sorcerer († 303)", "short": "Hieromartyr Theopemptus" }, "rank": 1, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyrs Theopemptos and Theon suffered in Nicomedia in the year 303. Saint Theopemptos was bishop in Nicomedia during the time of Diocletian. Speaking out against idol-worship, he defended the faith in Christ. Summoned to the emperor, he refused to carry out his demand to worship an idol of Apollo. They threw Saint Theopemptos into a red-hot furnace, but by the power of God he remained alive. The emperor came by night with a detachment of soldiers to the furnace and there actually saw the saint alive and praying to God. Ascribing the miracle accomplished to be a work of magic, Diocletian gave orders to wear down Saint Theopemptos by hunger and thirst during the course of 22 days, but here also by the will of God the martyr was preserved.
The emperor then summoned the famous sorcerer Theon, brought in to overcome the magical power which, as they supposed, was possessed by the holy bishop Theopemptos. Theon prepared a poison for Saint Theopemptos—put into a little cake, and offered it to him to eat. The poison did no harm at all to Saint Theopemptos. A second time, Theon tried out the effect of a still stronger poison on the martyr; but seeing, that Saint Theopemptos remained unharmed, he himself came to believe in Christ. They threw him into prison together with the holy bishop, who taught and baptised him, giving him the name Synesios (which means “fulfillment of understanding”).
In the morning Diocletian summoned Saint Theopemptos and again contended with him to recant from Christ; but, seeing the unbending rigour of the holy man, he subjected him to many grievous tortures, after which the saint was beheaded. The holy martyr Theon, having refused to offer sacrifice to idols, was buried alive in a deep ditch. This occurred at Nicomedia in the year 303.
" } }, "156": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Syncleticea of Alexandria", "short": "Nun Syncleticea" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Nun Syncleticea was a native of Alexandria, the daughter of rich parents, pretty, and from her early years she thought only about things pleasing to God. Loving the purity of virginity, she declined to enter into marriage, and spent all her time in fasting and prayer. After the death of her parents she distributed her inheritance to the poor, and having accepted monasticism together with her blind sister, she withdrew into one of the crypts belonging to her kin. News about her ascetic deeds quickly spread throughout the vicinity, and many pious women and girls came to her to live under her guidance. During the course of her ascetic life the saint zealously instructed her sisters by word and by deed. In her 80th year of life she was struck by an intense and grievous illness. The nun bore the outcome of her ordeal with true christian endurance. The saint died in about the year 350, at age 83." } }, "158": { "name": { "nominative": "The Nun Apollinaria († c. 470)", "short": "Apollinaria" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Nun Apollinaria was a daughter of Anthemias, a former governor of the Greek empire during the minority of Theodosius the Younger (408-450). Having declined marriage, she requested of her pious parents permission to venerate at the holy places of the East. Having arrived in Alexandria from Jerusalem, she secretly away from her servants changed into the garb of a nun and hid in one of the marshy places, where she practised asceticism for several years in strict fasting and prayers. By a revelation from above, she was guided into a skete monastery to Saint Makarios of Egypt, and took for herself the monastic name Dorotheos. The Monk Makarios accepted her into the ranks of his brethren, and she there quickly distinguished herself by her ascetic life. The parents of Apollinaria had also another daughter, who was beset by demons. They sent her to the skete to the Monk Makarios, who took the sick girl to the monastic Dorotheos (Blessed Apollinaria), through whose prayers the maiden received healing. In returning homewards the maiden was again beset by a violent demon, which gave her the appearance of a pregnant woman. This produced great anger in her parents, who dispatched soldiers to the skete, and they demanded to see the perpetrator of their daughter’s outrage.Saint Apollinaria took on herself the blame and went with the envoys to the home of her parents. There she revealed her secret to her parents, healed her sister, and returned to the skete, where in a short while she died peacefully in the year 470. Only after the death of the monastic Dorotheos was it revealed that this was a woman. The body of the saint was buried in a cave in the monastery church of Saint Makarios of Egypt." } }, "159": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Phosterius the Hermit (6th C)", "short": "Venerable Phosterius" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "
The Monk Phosterios the Wanderer pursued asceticism on an high mountain. By his powerful working of miracles and saintly life, he restored many from heresy.
" } }, "160": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Menas of Sinai (6th C)", "short": "Venerable Menas" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Menas pursued asceticism for 50 years in a Sinai monastery, and died peacefully in the second half of the VI Century.
" } }, "161": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Gregory of Acritas († c. 820)", "short": "Venerable Gregory" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Gregory of Acritas was born on the island of Crete in the year 760. He received an upbringing by pious parents. This was a time when the iconoclast heretics persecuted the orthodox. The youth Gregory, wanting to preserve his Orthodox faith, went to Seleukos and lived there leading a life of piety.
At age 20 the Monk Gregory set off to Jerusalem and dwelt there for 12 years, enduring fierce persecution from the Arabs. From there Saint Gregory journeyed to Rome, where he took monastic vows. He became spiritually acquainted there with Saint Michael, bishop of Synadia (Comm. 23 May), who took him along and settled in a monastery on the Cape of Acritas (Sea of Marmora). The saint accomplished great ascetic deeds and died in about the year 820.
" } }, "163": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Theophany: the Baptism of Our Lord, God, and Saviour Jesus Christ", "short": "Holy Theophany" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Theophany * Bogoyavlenie denotes the feast whereby through the Baptism of the Lord the Most Holy Trinity has been revealed to the world (Mt. 3: 13-17; Mk. 1: 9-11; Lk. 3: 21-22). God the Father spoke from Heaven about the Son, the Son was baptised by the holy ForeRunner of the Lord John, and the Holy Spirit descended upon the Son in the form of a Dove. From ancient times this feast was called the Day of Illumination and the Feast of Lights, since that God is Light and has appeared to illumine “those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death” (Mt. 4: 16) and to save through grace the fallen race of mankind.
In the ancient Church it was the custom to baptise catechumens at the vespers of Theophany, such that Baptism also is revealed as a spiritual illumination of mankind.
The origin of the feast of Theophany came about in Apostolic times. Mention is made concerning it in the Apostolic Decretals. From the II Century there is preserved the testimony of Saint Clement of Alexandria concerning the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord and performing the night vigil before this feast.
In the III Century on the feast of Theophany there is known the dialogue concerning Divine-services between the holy martyr Hyppolitus and Saint Gregory the WonderWorker. In the following centuries—from the IV to IX Century—all the great fathers of the Church—Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostomos, Ambrose of Milan, John Damascene, had their own comments about the feast of Theophany. The monks Joseph the Studite, Theophanes and Byzantios composed much liturgical music for this feastday, which even now is sung for Divine-services. The Monk John Damascene said, that the Lord was baptised not because He Himself had need for cleansing, but so that “by water to bury human sin,” to fulfill the law, to reveal the mystery of the Holy Trinity, and finally, to sanctify “watery nature” and to proffer it to us in the form and example of Baptism.
On the feastday of the Baptism of Christ, Holy Church asserts our faith in the mystery—most sublime and incomprehensible to human intellect—of the Three Persons of the One God. It teaches us to confess and glorify as equally-honoured the Holy Trinity One-Essence and Undivided. It exposes and collapses the fallacies of the ancient pseudo-teachings, which attempted with reason and by human terms to explain the Creator of the world. The Church shews the necessity of Baptism for believers in Christ, and it inspires for us a sense of deep gratitude for the Illumination and Purification of our sinful nature. The Church teaches that our salvation and cleansing from sin is possible only by the power of the grace of the Holy Spirit, wherefore it is necessary to preserve worthily these gifts of the grace of holy Baptism—keeping clean this priceless garb, about which the feast of the Baptism tells us: “As many as have been baptised into Christ, have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27). [Translator Note: literally rendered from Greek “Theophany” means “Manifestation of God,” whereas “Epiphany” connotes “Manifest upon”; “Theophany” is the more accurate rendering of Slavonic “Bogoyavlenie.”]
" }, "rank": 8, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "When Thou, O Lord, wast baptized in the Jordan, * the worship of the Trinity was made manifest; * for, the voice of the Father bare witness unto Thee, * calling Thee His beloved Son; * and the Spirit in the form of a dove * confirmed the certainty of His word. * O Christ our God, Who hast appeared and enlightened the worlds, ** glory be to Thee!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thou hast appeared today to the whole world, * and Thy light, O Lord, hath been signed upon us * who hymn Thee with understanding. * Thou hast come, Thou hast appeared, * the Light unapproachable.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "165": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Martyr Anastasius the Persian (628)", "short": "Venerable Martyr Anastasius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Venerable Martyr Anastasias the Persian was the son of a Persian sorcerer named Babo. As a pagan, he had the name Magundates and served in the armies of the Persian emperor Chosrœs II, who in a victorious war against the Greeks in 614 ravaged the city of Jerusalem and carried away to Persia the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord. Great miracles occurred from the Cross of the Lord, and the Persians were astonished. The heart of young Magundates blazed up with the desire to learn in detail more about this sacred object. Asking everyone about the Holy Cross, the youth learned, that upon it the Lord Himself endured crucifixion for the salvation of mankind. He became acquainted with the truths of the Christian faith in the city of Chalcedon, where for a certain while the army of Chosrœs was situated. He was baptised with the name Anastasias, and then accepted monasticism and dwelt for seven years in monastic works and efforts in one of the Jerusalem monasteries.
Reading about the acts of the holy martyrs, Saint Anastasias was inspired with the desire to imitate them. A mysterious dream in particular urged him to do this, which he had on Great Saturday, the day before the feast of the Resurrection of Christ. Having fallen asleep after his daily tasks, he beheld a radiant man, giving him a golden chalice filled with wine, with the words \"take hold and drink.\" Drinking from the chalice given him, he sensed an inexplicable delight. Saint Anastasias then perceived that this vision was a portent of his own martyr\"s end. He went secretly from the monastery to Palestinian Cæsarea. There they arrested him for being a Christian and brought him to trial. The governor tried every which way to sway Saint Anastasias into a renunciation of Christ, threatening him with tortures and death and promising him honours and earthly blessings. But the saint remained unyielding. Then they subjected him to torture: they beat at him with canes, they lacerated his knees, they hung him up by the hands and tied a heavy stone to his feet, they exhausted him with confinement, and then wore him down with heavy work in the stone-quarry with other prisoners.
Finally, the governor summoned Saint Anastasias and demanded he say only the words: \"I am not a Christian,\" promising him freedom. The holy martyr answered: \"Let me be with this. Neither before thee, nor before others wilt I renounce my Lord, neither openly nor secretly even in sleep, and no one nowhere and in no way can compel me to do this while in my right mind.\" Then by order of the emperor Chosrœs, they strangled the holy Martyr Anastasias († 628). After the death of Chosrœs, the relics of the Venerable Martyr Anastasias were transferred to Palestine, to the Anastasias monastery.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In his suffering, O Lord, * Thy martyr Anastasius received an imperishable crown from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * he set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By his supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "166": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Martyr Anastasius the Deacon of the Kiev Caves, near caves (12th C)", "short": "Venerable Martyr Anastasius" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Venerable Martyr Anastasius, Deacon of Kiev Caves, pursued asceticism in the Nearer Caves. The priestmonk Athanasius the Sooty calls him brother of the Monk Tito the Presbyter († not before 1190; Comm. 27 February). In the manuscripts of the saints he is called a deacon. In the Service to the Sobor (Assemblage) of the Fathers of the NearerCaves, it says about the MonkMartyr Anastasii, that he possessed such steadfastness in God, that he received everything he asked for. His memory is celebrated also on 28 September and on the 2nd Sunday of Great Lent." } }, "167": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Anastasius, disciple of Venerable Maximus the Confessor († 662)", "short": "Martyr Anastasius" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "
The Holy Martyr Anastasias was a student of the Monk Maximos the Confessor, and together with him suffered persecution under the Monothelites. He penned the Vita of his teacher. He died in the year 662.
" } }, "169": { "name": { "nominative": "Monk George Chozebite, Abbot (7th C)", "short": "Monk George" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk George Khozebites was born on the island of Crete. At the death of his parents he set off to Palestine to venerate at the holy places. Here he entered into the Khuzebite monastic community, situated between the River Jordan and Jerusalem, and he later became head of this monastery. The Monk George presented the monks example in fasting, vigil and physical efforts. Having lived upon the earth as though incorporeal, he died peacefully (VII).
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thou hast been shown to be an all-radiant beacon * illumining with divine rays the faithful who cry out to thee: * Pray for us to Christ the Master, * Who appeared in the streams of the Jordan ** and hath enlightened mortals.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "170": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Domnica of Constantinople († c. 474)", "short": "Venerable Domnica" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Nun Domnica came from Carthage to Constantinople during the time of the holy Emperor Theodosius the Great. Here she accepted Baptism from Patriarch Nektarios and entered a women’s monastery. By means of strict and prolonged ascetic effort she attained to high spiritual perfection. The saint healed the sick, demonstrated power over the natural elements, and predicted the future. By her miracles the saint moved inhabitants of the capital towards concerns about life eternal and the soul. Adorned by virtues, the saint expired from life a spotless virgin in her old age († 474).
" }, "rank": 1 }, "171": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Gregory of the Kiev Caves, the Wonderworker", "short": "Venerable Gregory" } }, "174": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Julian and his wife, Basilissa, and with them Marcianilla, her son Celsus, Anthony, Anastasius, and 7 children and 20 Soldiers at Antinoe in Egypt († 313)", "short": "Martyr Julian and comp." } }, "175": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Elias the Hermit of Egypt (5th C)", "short": "Venerable Elias" } }, "176": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Abo the Perfumer, of Baghdad and Tbilisi, Georgia († 790)", "short": "Martyr Abo" } }, "177": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Prince Andrew of Bogoliubovo († 1174)", "short": "Venerable Prince" } }, "178": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Polyeuctus of Melitene in Armenia († 259)", "short": "Martyr Polyeuctus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Polyeuktos was the first martyr in the Armenian city of Meletina. He was a soldier under the emperor Decius (249-251) and he later suffered for Christ under the emperor Valerian (253-259). The saint was friend also of Nearchos, a fellow-soldier and firm Christian, but Polyeutos himself, while yet leading a virtuous life, remained a pagan.
When the persecution against Christians started up, Nearchos said to Polyeuktos: “Friend, we shalt soon be separated from thee, for they wilt take me to torture, and thou alas, wilt renounce friendship with me.” Polyeuktos answered him, that in a dream he had seen Christ, Who took from him his garb and clothed him in another and bright attire. “From that moment,—said he,—I am prepared to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Having become ardent in spirit, Saint Polyeuktos went out onto the city square, tore up the imperial edict hanging there about the duty to worship idols, and then he smashed idols from out of the hands of pagan priests carrying them.
His father-in-law, the governor Felox, to whom had been entrusted the carrying out of the imperial edict, was horrified at the deed of Saint Polyeuktos and declared, that for this he had to die. “Go, make farewell with thine wife and children,”—said Felox. The wife came and with tears began to beseech her husband to renounce Christ, and his fatherin-law Felox also wept. But Saint Polyeuktos remained steadfast in his resolve to suffer for Christ. With joy he bent his head beneath the sword of the executioner and was baptised in his own blood († 259). Soon, when the Church of Christ in the time of Equalto-the-Apostles Constantine had triumphed throughout all the Roman empire, at Meletina there was erected a church in the name of the holy Martyr Polyeuktos. Many a miracle was worked through the prayerful intercession of Saint Polyeuktos. In this very church prayed fervently for the granting of a son the parents of the holy Monk Euthymios the Great (Comm. 20 January). The birth of this great luminary of Orthodoxy in the year 376 thus occurred through the help of the holy Martyr Polyeuktos. His memory was also venerated by Saint Akakios, Bishop of Meletina, a participant of the Third Œcumenical Council and a great proponent of the Ecumenical Truth. As in the East, so also in the West, the holy Martyr Polyeuktosis venerated as a patron saint of vows and treaty agreements.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In his suffering, O Lord, * Thy martyr Polyeuctus received an imperishable crown from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * he set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By his supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "When the Savior bowed His head in the Jordan, the head of the serpent was crushed; and the decapitated head of Polyeuctus hath put the deceiver to shame.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "180": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia († 1570)", "short": "Hieromartyr" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow, in the world Feodor (Theodore), was descended from the illustrious boyar-noble lineage of the Kolychevi, occupying a prominent place in the Boyar duma at the court of the Moscow sovereigns. He was born in the year 1507. His father, Stepan Ivanovich, “a man enlightened and filled with military spirit,” attentively prepared his son for government service. Pious Varvara (Barbara), the mother of Feodor, who ended her days in monasticism with the name Varsonophia, implanted in the soul of her son a sincere faith and deep piety. Young Feodor Kolychev applied himself diligently to the Holy Scripture and to the books of the holy fathers, upon which the old Russian enlightenment rested, then transpiring within the Church and in the spirit of the Church. The Moscow Greatprince, Vasilii III Ioannovich, the father of Ivanthe Terrible, brought young Feodor into the court, but he was not however attracted to court life. Conscious of its vanity and sinfulness, Feodor all the more deeply immersed himself in the reading of books and visiting the churches of God. Life in Moscow repelled the young ascetic. The sincere devotion to him of the young prince Ivan, presaging a great future for him in government service, could not hold in check within the earthly city his searching out of the Heavenly City.
On Sunday, 5 June 1537, in church for Divine Liturgy, Feodor felt intensely in his soul the words of the Saviour: “No one is able to serve two masters” (Mt. 6: 24), which determined his ultimate destiny. Praying fervently to the Moscow wonderworkers, and without bidding farewell to kinsfolk, he secretly in the attire of a common person left Moscow, and for a certain while he hid himself away from the world in the village of Khizna, near Lake Onega, earning his livelihood as a shepherd. His thirst for ascetic deeds led him to the reknown Solovetsk monastery on the White Sea. There he fulfilled quite toilsome obediences: he chopped firewood, dug the ground, and worked in the mill. After a year and an half of testing, the hegumen Aleksei, at the wish of Feodor tonsured him, giving him the monastic name Philip and entrusting him in obedience to the starets-elder Jona Shamina, who conversed with the Monk Alexander Svirsk († 1533, Comm. 30August). Under the guidance of the experienced elders the Monk Philip grew spiritually, and strengthened in fasting and prayer. Hegumen Aleksei sent him in obedience to work at the monastery black-smith forge, where Saint Philip combined the activity of unceasing prayer amidst his working with an heavy hammer. At the beginning of the service in church he always appeared first and was the last to leave. He toiled also in the bakery, where the humble ascetic was comforted with an heavenly Sign. In the monastery afterwards they displayed the “Bakery” image of the Mother of God, through which the heavenly Mediatrix bestowed Her blessing upon the humble baker-monk Philip. With the blessing of the hegumen, Saint Philip spent a certain while in wilderness solitude, attending to himself and to God.
In 1546 at Novgorod the Great, archbishop Theodosii consecrated Philip as hegumen of the Solovetsk monastery. The new-made hegumen strove with all his might to exalt the spiritual significance of the monastery and its founders—the Monk Savvatii and Zosima of Solovetsk (Comm. 27 September, 17 April). He searched out the Hodegetria image of the Mother of God brought to the island by the original first head of Solovetsk, the Monk Savvatii; he located the stone cross which once stood before the cell of the monk. Found also was the Psalter, belonging to the Monk Zosima († 1478), the first hegumen of Solovetsk, and his robe, in which from that time hegumens would vest during service on the days of memory of the wonderworker. The monastery was revived spiritually. For regulating life at the monastery, a new ustav (monastic rule) was adopted. Saint Philip built on Solovetsk majestic temples—a refectory church of the Uspenie (Dormition) of the Mother of God, consecrated in the year 1557, and a church of the Transfiguration (Preobrazhenie) of the Lord. The hegumen himself worked as a simple labourer, helping to lay the walls of the Transfiguration church. Beneathe the north portico he dug himself a grave, alongside that of his guide, the starets Jona. Spiritual life in these years blossomed at the monastery: asceticising amidst the brethren amongst the students of Hegumen Philip were the Monks John and Longin of Yarengsk (Comm. 3 July) and Vassian and Jona of Pertominsk (Comm. 12 July).
For his efforts of secret prayer Saint Philip often withdrew for quiet to a desolate wilderness spot, two versts from the monastery, which received afterwards the name the Philippov wilderness.
But the Lord was preparing the saint for other service and other work. At Moscow Ivan the Terrible remembered fondly about the Solovetsk hermit from the time of his childhood years. The tsar hoped to find in Saint Philip a true companion, confessor and counsellor, who through his exalted monastic life would have nothing in common with the sedition of the boyar-nobles. The holiness of the metropolitan, in the opinion of Ivan the Terrible, ought to be of a certain spiritual meekness to quell the treachery and malice, nesting itself within the Boyar soul. The choice of such an arch-hierarch for the Russian Church seemed to him the best possible.
The saint for a long time refused to take upon himself the great burden of primate of the Russian Church. He did not sense any spiritual affinity with Ivan. He attempted to urge the tsar to abolish the Oprichniki [the tsar internal terror shock troops]. Ivan the Terrible attempted to argue its civil necessity. Finally, the dread tsar and the holy metropolitan came to an agreement, that Saint Philip would not meddle in the affairs of the Oprichniki and the running of the government, he would not resign as metropolitan in case, if the tsar be not able to fulfill his wishes, and that he would be a support and counsellor of the tsar, just as former metropolitans were supports for the Moscow sovereigns. On 25 July 1566 occurred the consecration of Saint Philip to the cathedraseat of the Moscow sainted-hierarchs, whose number he was soon to join.
Ivan the Terrible, one of the greatest and most contradictory figures in Russian history, lived an intensely busy life, he was a talented writer and bibliophile [i.e. lover of books], he involved himself in the compilation of the Chronicles (and himself suddenly sundered the thread of the Moscow chronicle-writing), he delved into the intricacies of the monastic ustav (rule), and more than once thought about monasticism and abdicating the throne. Every aspect of governmental service, all the abrupt measures undertaken by him for a setting to root restructuring of civil and social life, Ivan the Terrible tried to rationalise as a manifestation of Divine Providence, as the acting of God within history. His beloved spiritual herœs were Saint Michael of Chernigov (Comm. 20 September) and Saint Theodore (Feodor) the Black (Comm. 19 September), military men active with a complex contradictory destiny, moving on towards their sacred ends through whatever the hindrances rising up afront them, and fulfilling their duties to the Rodina (Native-land) and Holy Church. The more the darkness thickened around Ivan the Terrible, the more resolutely he demanded of his soul cleansing and redemption. Journeying on pilgrimage to the Kirillo-Belozersk monastery, he declared his wish to the hegumen and the gathered elders to be made a monk. The haughty autocrat fell on his knees to the hegumen, and that one blessed his intent. All his life from that time, wrote Ivan the Terrible, “it seems to me, an accursed sinner, that halfways I am already black-robed.” The Oprichnina was itself conceived of by Ivan the Terrible in the form of a monastic brotherhood: serving God with weapon and military deeds, the Oprichniki were required to dress in monastic garb and go to church service, long and tiring, lasting from 4 to 10 o′clock in the morning. Upon “brethren,” not appearing at 4 o′clock in the morning, the tsar imposed a penance. Ivan himself with his sons sought fervently to pray and sing in the church choir. From church they went on to refectory (meal), and while the Oprichniki ate, the tsar stood alongside them. The remaining food the Oprichniki gathered from the table and distributed to the poor at the doorway of their refectory (dining hall). Ivan the Terrible, with tears of repentance and wanting to be an esteemer of the holy ascetics—the teachers of repentance, he wanted to wash and burn away his own sins and those of his companions, cherishing the assurance, that even the terrible cruel actions would rebound for him to the welfare of Russia and the triumph of Orthodoxy. The most clearly spiritual action and monastic sobriety of Ivan the Terrible is revealed in his “Synodikon”: shortly before his death by his orders there were compiled full lists of the people murdered by him and his Oprichniki, which were then distributed throughout all the Russian monasteries. All his sins against the nation Ivan took upon himself and besought the holy monks to pray to God for the forgiveness of his tormented soul.
The self-styled monasticism of Ivan the Terrible, a dark most grievous oppression over Russia, tormented Saint Philip, who considered it impossible to mix together the earthly and the heavenly, serving the cross and serving the sword. Even moreso was it, that Saint Philip saw, how much unrepentant malice and envy was concealed beneath the black hoods of the Oprichniki. There were among them outright murderers, hardened in lawless bloodletting, and profiteers in it for the rewards, rooted in sin and transgression. By the sufferance of God history often is worked with the hands of the impious, and Ivan the Terrible as it were wanted to whiten before God his black brotherhood,—the blood, spilled in the name of its thugs and fanatics, cried out to heaven.
Saint Philip decided to oppose Ivan the Terrible. This was connected with a new wave of executions in the years 1567-1568. In the Autumn of 1567, just as the tsar was setting out on a campaign against Livonia, he learned about a boyar conspiracy. The plotters intended to seize the tsar and deliver him over to the Polish king, who already was on the move with an army towards Russian territory. Ivan the Terrible dealt severely with the conspirators and again he shed much blood. It was bitter for Saint Philip, and the conscience of the saint at length compelled him boldly to enter into defense of the executed. The final rift occurred in the Spring of 1568. On the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross, 2 March 1568, when the tsar with his Oprichniki entered the Uspenie (Dormition) cathedral, as was their custom in monastic garb, Saint Philip refused to bless him, and began openly to denounce the lawless acts committed by the Oprichniki: “Metropolitan Philip did instruct the sovereign of the enmity in Moscow concerning the Oprichnina.”The accusations of the Vladyka shattered the harmony of the church service. Ivan the Terrible in a rage said: “Thou wouldst oppose us? We shall see thine firmness! Ihave been too soft on you,”—retorted the tsar, according to eye-witnesses.
The tsar began to show ever greater cruelty in persecuting all those that opposed him. Executions followed one after the other. The fate of the saintly confessor was sealed. But Ivan the Terrible wanted to observe a canonical semblance of propriety. The Boyar duma obediently carried out the decision to have a trial over the Primate of the RussianChurch. A cathedral trial-court was set up over Metropolitan Philip in the presence of a thinned-out Boyar duma. False witnesses were found: and to the deep sorrow of the saint, these were monks of the Solovetsk monastery beloved by him, his former students and novices. They accused Saint Philip of a multitude of transgressions, even including sorcery. “I am come upon the earth, just like all my ancestors,—humbly answered the saint,—prepared to suffer for truth.” Having refuted all the accusations, the holy sufferer attempted to halt the trial by declaring voluntarily to resign the metropolitan dignity. But his abdication was not accepted. New abuse awaited the martyr. Even after bringing forth a sentence of life imprisonment, they compelled Saint Philip to serve Liturgy in the Uspensk cathedral. This was on 8 November 1568. In the midst of the service the Oprichniki burst into the temple, they publicly read the council sentence of condemnation, and then abused the saint, tearing from him the hierarchical vestments, they dressed him in rags, dragged him out of the church and drove him off on a simple peasant’s sledge to the Theophany monastery. For a long while they oppressed the martyr in the cellars of the Moscow monasteries, the feet of the elder they shoved into stocks, they held him in chains, and put an heavy chain upon his neck. Finally, they drove him off to the Tver Otroch monastery. And there a year afterwards, on 23 December 1569, the saint accepted a martyr’s death at the hands of Maliuta Skuratov. Only three days before this the holy elder foresaw the finish of his earthly efforts and communed the Holy Mysteries. His relics were committed to earth initially there at the monastery, beyond the church altar. Later on they were transferred to the Solovetsk monastery (11 August 1591) and from there—to Moscow (3 July 1652).
The memory of Saint Philip was celebrated by the Russian Church from the year 1591, on the day of his martyr’s end—23 December. From 1660 the celebration was transferred to 9 January.
" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "181": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Andrew, Archbishop of Crete († 712-726)", "short": "Saint Andrew" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Andrew, Archbishop of Crete, was born in the city of Damascus into a pious Christian family. Up until seven years of age the boy was mute and did not talk. However, after communing the Holy Mysteries of Christ he found the gift of speech and began to speak. And from that time the lad began earnestly to study Holy Scripture and the discipline of theology.
At fourteen years of age he went off to Jerusalem and there he accepted monastic tonsure at the monastery of Saint Sava the Sanctified. Saint Andrew led a strict and chaste life, he was meek and abstinent, such that all were amazed at his virtue and reasoning of mind. As a man of talent and known for his virtuous life, over the passage of time he came to be numbered amongst the Jerusalem clergy and was appointed a secretary for the Patriarchate—a writing clerk. In the year 680 the locum tenens of the Jerusalem Patriarchate, Theodore, included Archdeacon Andrew amongst the representatives of the Holy City sent to the Sixth Œcumenical Council, and here the saint contended against heretical teachings, relying upon his profound knowledge of Orthodox doctrine. Shortly after the Council he was summoned back to Constantinople from Jerusalem and he was appointed archdeacon at the church of Saint Sophia, the Wisdom of God. During the reign of the emperor Justinian II (685-695), Saint Andrew was ordained bishop of the city of Gortineia on the island of Crete. In his new position he shone forth as a true luminary of the Church, a great hierarch—a theologian, teacher and hymnographer.
Saint Andrew wrote many a Divine-service song. He was the originator of a new liturgical form—the canon. Of the canons composed by him the best known is the Great Penitential Canon, including within its 9 odes and the 250 troparia recited during the Great Lent. In the First Week of Lent, at the service of Compline it is read in portions (thus called “methymony” [translator’s note: from the usage in the service of Compline of “God is with us”, in Slavonic the “с̾нами бг҃ъ/s′nami Bog”, or in Greek “μεθ” ἡμῶν ὁ Θεός /meth′ hemon ho Theos”, from which derives “methymony”], and again on Thursday of the Fifth Week at the All-night Vigil during Matins.
Saint Andrew of Crete gained renown with his many praises of the All-Pure Virgin Mary. To him are likewise ascribed: the Canon for the feast of the Nativity of Christ, three odes for the Compline-service of Palm Sunday and also in the first four days of Holy Passion Week, as well as verses for the feast of the Meeting of the Lord, and many another church-songs. His hymnographic tradition was continued by the churchly great melodists of following ages: Saints John of Damascus, Cosma of Maium, Joseph the Melodist, Theophan the Written-upon. There have also been preserved edifying Sermons of Saint Andrew for certain of the Church feasts.
Church historians are not of the same opinion as to the date of death of the saint. One suggests the year 712, while others—the year 726. He died on the island of Mytilene, while returning to Crete from Constantinople, where he had been on churchly business. His relics were transferred to Constantinople. In the year 1350 the pious Russian pilgrim Stefan Novgorodets saw the relics at the Constantinople monastery named for Saint Andrew of Crete.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "The truth of things revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, a model of meekness and a teacher of abstinence wherefore thou hast attained the heights through humility and riches through poverty. O hierarch Andrew our father, entreat Christ God that our souls be saved.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Manifestly trumpeting forth hymns of divine sweetness, thou wast shown to be a most radiant beacon for the world, shining with the light of the Trinity, O venerable Andrew. Wherefore, we all cry out to thee: Cease thou never to pray for us all.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "182": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Eustratius the Wonderworker († 9th C)", "short": "Venerable Eustratius" } }, "184": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa († 395)", "short": "Saint Gregory" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, was a younger brother of Saint Basil the Great (Comm. 1 January). His birth and time of upbringing coincided with the very heights of the Arian disputes. Having received an excellent education, he was at one time a teacher of rhetorical eloquence. In the year 372 he was ordained by Saint Basil the Great as bishop of the city of Nyssa in Cappadocia.
Saint Gregory was an ardent advocate for Orthodoxy, and together with his brother Saint Basil the great he fought against the Arian heresy. He suffered persecution by the Arians, by whom he was falsely accused in the year 376 of improper useage of church property, and thereby deprived of his cathedra-seat and sent off to Ancyra. In the following year Saint Gregory was again in absentia deposed by a church-council of Arian bishops, but he continued to encourage his flock in Orthodoxy, wandering about from place to place. After the death of the emperor Valens (378), Saint Gregory was restored to his cathedra-seat and joyously received by his flock. In the year 379 his brother Saint Basil the Great died. Only with difficulty did Saint Gregory survive the loss of his brother and guide. He crafted a funeral oration to him and completed compilation of Saint Basil’s study of the Six Days of Creation, the so-called “Hexæmeron.” This same year Saint Gregory participated in the Council of Antioch, against heretics that disdained to honour the immaculate virginity of the Mother of God, and others at the opposite extreme that worshipped the Mother of God as Herself being God. He was chosen by the Council for an examination of churches in Arabia and Palestine to assert the Orthodox teaching about the Most Holy Mother of God. On his return journey Saint Gregory visited Jerusalem and the Holy Places.
In the year 381 Saint Gregory was one of the chief figures of the Second Œcumenical Council, convened at Constantinople against the heresy of Macedonias, who incorrectly taught concerning the Holy Spirit. At this Council, on the initiative of Saint Gregory, was completed the Nicæan Symbol of Faith (i.e. the Creed).
Together with the other bishops Saint Gregory affirmed Saint Gregory the Theologian in the dignity of Archpastor of Constantinople.
In the year 383 Saint Gregory of Nyssa was a participant in a Council at Constantinople, where he spoke a sermon about the Divinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the year 386 he was again at Constantinople, and to him was entrusted to speak the funeral oration in memory of the empress Placilla. And again in 394 Saint Gregory was present in Constantinople at a Local Council, convened for resolving church matters in Arabia.
Saint Gregory of Nyssa was a fiery defender of Orthodox dogmas and a zealous teacher to his flock, a kind and compassionate father to his spiritual children, and their intercessor before the courts. He was distinguished by his magnanimity, patience and love for peace.
Having reached old age, Saint Gregory of Nyssa died peacefully, soon after the Constantinople Council. Together with his great contemporaries—Saints Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian, Saint Gregory of Nyssa had a significant influence on the Church life of his time. His sister, Saint Macrina, wrote to him: “Thou art reknown both in the cities, and gatherings of people, and throughout entire districts; Churches do send off and summon thee for help.” Saint Gregory has come down in history as one of the most obvious and active Christian thinkers of the IV Century. Endowed with a profound philosophical talent, he perceived philosophy but as a means for a deeper penetration into the authentic meaning of Divine revelation.
Saint Gregory left behind him many works of dogmatic character, as well as sermons and discourses.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O God of our fathers, * deal with us ever according to Thy meekness. * Deprive us not of Thy mercy, * but through their supplications ** direct our life in peace.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Keeping watch with the eye of thy soul, O holy hierarch, * thou didst show thyself to be a vigilant pastor for the world, * and with the staff of thy wisdom and thy fervent intercession * thou didst drive away all the heretics like wolves, * preserving the flock unharmed, ** O most wise Gregory.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" } } } }, "186": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Dometian, Bishop of Melitene († 601)", "short": "Saint Dometian" }, "rank": 1 }, "187": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Marcian the Presbyter of Constantinople (5th C)", "short": "Saint Marcian" }, "rank": 1 }, "189": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the relics of Saint Andrew, Prince of Smolensk at Pereslavl (1539)", "short": "Finding of" } }, "190": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Theosebia the Deaconess, Sister of Saint Gregory of Nyssa († 385)", "short": "Blessed Theosebia" } }, "194": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Andronicus, Apostle of the Seventy, and Saint Junia (1st C)", "short": "Saint Andronicus" }, "rank": 1 }, "195": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Theodosius of Antioch († c. 412)", "short": "Saint Theodosius" } }, "200": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Martinian and Galaction of Belozersk († 1483)", "short": "Venerable Martinian and Galaction" } }, "202": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Peter Apselamus of Palestine († 309-310)", "short": "Martyr Peter" } }, "203": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Eupraxia of Tabenna, in Egypt († 393)", "short": "Venerable Eupraxia" } }, "205": { "name": { "nominative": "The “Milkgiver” Icon of the Mother of God", "short": "The “Milkgiver”" } }, "209": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable and Godbearing Father Anthony the Great († 356)", "short": "St Anthony" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Anthony, a very great ascetic, the founder of wilderness-monastery life and as such the father of monasticism, is entitled “the Great” by Holy Church. He was born in Egypt in the village of Coma, near the Thebaid wilderness, in the year 251. His parents were pious Christians of illustrious lineage. From his youth Anthony was always serious and given over to concentration. He loved to visit church services and he hearkened to the Holy Scripture with such deep attention, that he remembered what he heard all his entire life. The commandments of the Lord guided him from the time of his very youth. When Saint Anthony was about twenty years old, he lost his parents, but in his care remained his sister, a minor in age. Visiting the church services, the youth was pierced through by a reverent feeling towards those Christians who, as it relates in the Acts of the Apostles, sold off their possessions and the proceeds thereof they applied in following after the Apostles. He heard in church the Gospel passage of Christ, spoken to the rich young man: “If thou wouldst be perfect, sell what thou hast and give it to the poor; and thou wilt have treasure in heaven; and come follow after Me” (Mt. 19: 21). Anthony understood this as spoken to him personally. He sold off his property that remained to him after the death of his parents, he distributed the money to the poor, he left his sister in the care of pious virgins in a monastic setting, he left his parental home, and having settled not far from his village in a wretched hut, he began his ascetic life. He earned his livelihood by working with his hands, and alms also for the poor. Sometimes the holy youth also visited other ascetics living in the surrounding areas, and from each he sought to receive direction and benefit. And to a particular one of these ascetics he turned for guidance in the spiritual life.
In this period of his life the Monk Anthony was subjected to terrible temptations by the devil. The enemy of the race of man troubled the young ascetic with thoughts, and with doubts about his chosen path, with anguish over his sister, and he attempted to incline Anthony towards fleshly sin. But the monk preserved his firm faith, he incessantly made prayer and intensified his efforts. Anthony prayed that the Lord would point out to him the path of salvation. And he was granted a vision. The ascetic beheld a man, who by turns alternately finished a prayer, and then began to work—this was an Angel, which the Lord had sent to instruct His chosen one. The monk thereupon set up a strict schedule for his life. He partook of food only once in the entire day, and sometimes only once every second or third day; he spent all night at prayer, giving himself over to a short sleep only on the third or fourth night after unbroken vigil. But the devil would not desist with his tricks, and trying to scare the monk, he appeared under the guise of monstrous phantoms. The saint however with steadfast faith protected himself with the Life-Creating Cross. Finally the enemy appeared to him in the guise of a frightful looking black lad, and hypocritically declaring himself beaten, he reckoned to sway the saint into vanity and pride. But the monk expelled the enemy with prayer.
For yet greater solitude, the saint re-settled farther away from the village, in a graveyard. On designated days his friend brought him a scant bit of food. And here the devils, pouncing upon the saint with the intent to kill him, inflicted upon him terrible beatings. But the Lord would not allow the death of Anthony. The friend of the saint, on schedule taking him his food, saw him as though dead laying upon the ground, and he took him away back to the village. They thought the saint was dead and began to prepare for his burial. But the monk in the deep of night regained consciousness and besought his friend to take him back to the graveyard. The staunchness of Saint Anthony was greater than the wile of the enemy. Taking the form of ferocious beasts, the devils again tried to force the saint to forsake the place chosen by him, but he again expelled them by the power of the Life-Creating Cross. The Lord strengthened the power of His saint: in the heat of the struggle with the dark powers the monk saw coming down to him from the sky a luminous ray of light, and he cried out: “Where hast Thou been, O Merciful Jesus?.. Why hast Thou not healed my wounds at the very start?” The Lord replied: “Anthony! I was here, but did wait, wanting to see thine valour; and now after this, since thou hast firmly withstood the struggle, I shalt always aid thee and glorify thee throughout all the world.” After this vision the Monk Anthony was healed of his wounds and ready for renewed efforts. He was then 35 years of age.
Having gained spiritual experience in the struggle with the devil, the Monk Anthony pondered going into the deeps of the Thebaid wilderness, and in full solitude there to serve the Lord by deed and by prayer. He besought the ascetic elder (to whom he had turned at the beginning of his monastic journey) to go off together with him into the wilderness, but the elder, while blessing him in the then as yet unheard of exploit of being suchlike an hermit, decided against accompanying him because of the infirmity of age. The Monk Anthony went off into the wilderness alone. The devil tried to stop him, throwing in front of the monk precious gems and stones, but the saint paid them no attention and passed them on by. Having reached a certain hilly spot, the monk caught sight of an abandoned enclosed structure and he settled within it, securing the entrance with stones. His faithful friend brought him bread twice a year, and water he had inside the enclosure. In complete silence the monk partook of the food brought him. The Monk Anthony dwelt for 20 years in complete isolation and incessant struggle with the devils, and he finally found tranquillity of spirit and peace in his mind. When it became appropriate, the Lord revealed to people about His great ascetic. The saint had to instruct many layfolk and monastics. The people gathering at the enclosure of the monk removed the stones sealing his entrance way, and they went to Saint Anthony and besought him to take them under his guidance. Soon the heights on which Saint Anthony asceticised was encircled by a whole belt of monastic communities, and the monk fondly directed their inhabitants, teaching about the spiritual life to everyone who came into the wilderness to be saved. He taught first of all the need to take up spiritual efforts, to unremittingly strive to please the Lord, to have a willing and unselfish attitude towards types of work shunned earlier. He urged them not to be afraid of demonic assaults and to repel the enemy by the power of the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord.
In the year 311 the Church was beset by a trial—a fierce persecution against Christians, set in motion by the emperor Maximian. Wanting to suffer together with the holy martyrs, the Monk Anthony left the wilderness and arrived in Alexandria. He openly rendered aid to the imprisoned martyrs, he was present at the trial and interrogations, but the torturers would not even bother with him! It pleased the Lord to preserve him for the benefit of Christians. With the close of the persecution, the monk returned to the wilderness and continued his exploits. The Lord bestowed upon His saint a gift of wonderworking: the monk cast out devils and healed the sick by the power of his prayer. The multitude of people coming to him disrupted his solitude, and the monk went off still farther, into the so-called “interiour of the wilderness,” and he settled atop an high elevation. But the brethren of the wilderness monasteries searched out the monk and besought him at least often to pay visits to their communities.
Another time the Monk Anthony left the wilderness and arrived amidst the Christians in Alexandria, to defend the Orthodox faith against the Manichæan and Arian heresies. Knowing that the name of the Monk Anthony was venerated by all the Church, the Arians circulated a lie about him—that he allegedly adhered to their heretical teaching. But actually being present in Alexandria, the Monk Anthony in front of everyone and in the presence of the bishop openly denounced Arianism. During the time of his brief stay at Alexandria he converted to Christ a great multitude of pagans. Pagan philosophers came to the monk, wanting by their speculations to test his firm faith, but by his simple and convincing words he reduced them to silence. The Equal-to-the-Apostles emperor Constantine the Great († 337, Comm. 21 May) and his sons deeply esteemed the Monk Anthony and besought him to visit them at the capital, but the monk did not want to forsake his wilderness brethren. In reply to the letter, he urged the emperor not to be overcome with pride by his lofty position, but rather to remember, that even over him was the Impartial Judge—the Lord God.
The Monk Anthony spent 85 years of his life in the solitary wilderness. Shortly before his death, the monk told the brethren, that soon he would be taken from them. Time and again he instructed them to preserve the Orthodox faith in its purity, to shun any association with heretics, and not to weaken in their monastic efforts. “Strive the yet more to dwell ever in unity amongst ye, and most of all with the Lord, and then with the saints, so that upon death they should bring ye into eternity by their blood, as friends and acquaintances,”—thus were the death-bed words of the monk passed on in his Vita (Life). The monk bid two of his disciples, who had been together with him the final 15 years of his life, to bury him in the wilderness and not arrange any solemn burial of his remains in Alexandria. Of his two monastic mantles, the monk left one to Saint Athanasias of Alexandria (Comm. 18 January), the other to Saint Serapion of Tmunta. The Monk Anthony died peacefully in the year 356, at age 105, and he was buried by his disciples at a treasured spot glorified by him in the wilderness.
The Vita (Life) of the famed ascetic the Monk Anthony the Great was written in detail by a father of the Church, Saint Athanasias of Alexandria. This work of Saint Athanasias is the first memorial of Orthodox hagiography, and is considered one of the finest of his writings; Saint John Chrysostom says, that this Vita should be read by every Christian. “These narratives be significantly small in comparison with the virtues of Anthony,—writes Saint Athanasias,—but from them ye can conclude, what the man of God Anthony was like. From his youth into his mature years observing an equal zeal for asceticism, not being seduced by the avenues of filth, and not as regards infirmity of body altering his garb, nor the any worse for it in suffering harm. His eyes were healthy and unfailing and he saw well. Not one tooth fell out for him, and they only weakened at the gums from the advanced years of age. He was healthy of hand and of foot (…). And what they said about him everywhere, all being amazed at him, whereof even those that did not see him loved him—this serves as evidence of his virtue and love for God in soul.”
Of the works of the Monk Anthony himself, there have come down to us: 1) his Discourses, 20 in number, treating of the virtues, primarily monastic, 2) Seven Letters to monasteries—about striving for moral perfection and regarding the spiritual struggle, and 3) a Rule of life and consolation for monastics.
In the year 544 the relics of the Monk Anthony the great were transferred from the wilderness to Alexandria, and later on with the conquest of Egypt by the Saracens in the VII Century, they were transferred to Constantinople. The holy relics were transferred from Constantinople in the X-XI Centuries to a diocese outside Vienna, and in the XV Century—to Arles (in France), into the church of Saint Julian.
" }, "rank": 5, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Emulating the demeanor of the zealous Elijah, and following the Baptist with forthright steps, O father Anthony, thou wast a dweller in the desert, and hast made the whole world steadfast by thy supplications. Wherefore, entreat Christ God, that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Having cast off the tumults of life, thou didst live a life of stillness to the end, emulating the Baptist in every way, O all-venerable one. Wherefore, we honor thee with him, O Anthony, first among the fathers.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "210": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Irenarchus, Recluse of Rostov († 1616)", "short": "Venerable Irenarchus" } }, "211": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Eleazar of Anzersk Island in Solovki († 1656)", "short": "Venerable Eleazar" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Eleazar of Anzersk was born in the city of Kozel’sk into the merchant family Sevriukin. With the blessing of his parents he went off to the Solovetsk monastery, where he took monastic vows from the hegumen Saint Irinarch († 1628, Comm. 17 July). At the monastery he displayed an astonishing artistic gift: he learned carving imagery on wood and he took part of the embellishing of the Transfiguration cathedral. With the blessing of the hegumen, he went off in 1612 to the island of Anzersk, where he became an hermit and dwelt constantly in prayer and meditation on God. In order to obtain subsistence for himself on the island wilderness, the Monk Eleazar carved wooden goblets, which he left at the landing place. In the year 1616 the Monk Eleazar was elevated to schema-monk. Monastics, having gathered round the monk, organised a skete with a strict rule of monastic life along the ancient form. Monastic cells were built far away from one another. The hermits gathered together only for Saturday and Sunday Divine-services. Among the disciples of the Monk Eleazar was the priest-monk Nikita—the future Patriarch Nikon. Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich (1613-1645), learning about the ascetic life of the saint, summoned him to Moscow. The Monk Eleazar there predicted for him the birth of a son, and in return the tsar generously gave him help to build on the island a stone church in the Name of the Holy Trinity and a monastery. The Monk Eleazar was interested in the writing of books. He composed and copied out three books—”Flower-beds,” in which he relates ancient accounts. There belongs to him also a commentary on the order of the rule on monastic cell life. The Monk Eleazar died in extreme old age.
" } }, "212": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint James, Bishop of Nisibus († 350)", "short": "Saint James" } }, "214": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Anatoly of Leokhnovo", "short": "Venerable Anatoly" } }, "215": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Theodoulus, son of the Venerable Nilus of Sinai (5th C)", "short": "Venerable Theodoulus" } }, "217": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Joseph Analytinus of Raithu (4th C)", "short": "Venerable Joseph" } }, "218": { "name": { "nominative": "Monk Antonii (Anthony) of Kiev Caves" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Antonii (Anthony) of Kiev Caves was born in the year 983 not far from Chernigov, at the locale of Liubech. Possessing the fear of God from his youthful years, he desired to be clothed in the monastic form. Attaining maturity of age, he set off wandering, and having reached Athos, he burned with the desire to emulate the deeds of its holy inhabitants. Here he received monastic tonsure and in everything the young monk pleased God in his asceticising upon the path of virtue; he throve especially in humility and obedience, such that all the monks did rejoice to look upon his holy life.The hegumen foresaw within Saint Antonii the great future ascetic, and on an inspiration from God, he sent him off back to his native land, saying: “Antonii! It is time for thee to guide others also into an holy life. Return to thine own Russian Land, and be thou upon thee the blessing of Holy Mount Athos, so that from thee shalt come a multitude of monks.”
Having returned to Rus,’ Antonii began to make the rounds of the monasteries about Kiev, but nowhere did he find that strict life, which had drawn him to Athos.
Through the Providence of God, on one of the hills of Kiev at a steep bank of the River Dneipr, reminiscent for him of the beloved Athos, in a forested area near the village of Berestovo, he espied a cave, dug out by the Priest Ilarion (who afterwards became Metropolitan of Kiev, Comm. 21 October). He began to asceticise there in prayer, fasting, vigil and work, eating over the course of a day but a bit of food, and sometimes he did not eat throughout the week. People began to come to the ascetic for blessing and counsel, and some decided to remain thereafter with the saint. Among the first disciples of the Monk Antonii was Saint Nikon, who in the year 1032 tonsured at the monastery the similarly arrived Monk Theodosii (Feodosii) of Kiev Caves († 1074, Comm. 3 May).
The holy life of the Monk Antonii brightened all the Russian Land with the beauty of monastic striving. Saint Antonii received with love those yearning for monasticism. After instructions on how one ought to follow Christ, he bid Blessed Nikon to tonsure those willing. When 12 men had gathered about the Monk Antonii, the brethren together dug out a large cave and within it was built a church and cells for the monks. Saint Antonii, having appointed Blessed Varlaam as hegumen over the brethren, himself withdrew from the monastery, and having dug out for himself a new cave, he secluded himself within it. But there also, around the place of his seclusion, monks soon began to settle. Thus were formed the Nearer and Farther Cave monasteries. Afterwards over the Farther Caves was built by the monk a small wooden church in honour of the Uspenie-Dormition of the Mother of God.
At the insistence of prince Izyaslav, the hegumen Varlaam withdrew to the Dimitriev monastery. With the blessing of the Monk Antonii and with the general agreement of the brethren , there was chosen as hegumen the meek and humble Theodosii. During this time the number of brethren had already reached an hundred men. The Kiev Great-prince Izyaslav († 1078) gifted to the monks the hill, on which was built the large church and cells, and around it was built a palisade wall. Thus was established the reknown monastery, which was called the Kiev Caves, foundationed over the caves. Giving the account of this, the chronicler remarks, that many a monastery exists built by rich emperors and nobility, they however cannot compare with those, which are built up by the prayers of saints, and by their tears, fasting and vigil. And thus though the Monk Antonii possessed not gold, he raised up by his efforts a monastery, incomparable with others, which became the first spiritual centre of Rus′.
For his holiness of life, God glorified the Monk Antonii with the gift of foresight and wonderworking. In an especial instance this occurred during their construction of the Great Kiev Caves church. The Most Holy Mother of God Herself stood before him and the Monk Theodosii in the Blachernæ church (in Byzantium), whither they had been miraculously transported and enraptured, without having left their Kiev Caves monastery (Vide account of this under 3 May, regarding the Kievo-Kiev Caves Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God). Having received gold from the Mother of God, the saints commissioned master-architects, who on the command of the Queen of Heaven set off (from Byzantium) to the Russian Land for building the church at the Kiev Caves monastery. During this appearance the Mother of God foretold the impending death of the Monk Antonii, which occurred at age 90 on 7 May 1073. The relics of the Monk Antonii, through Divine Providence, remain concealed.
The Monk Siluan, Kievo-Kiev Caves SchemaMonk, was a zealous preserver of purity both of soul and body, he beset his flesh with fasting and vigil, and he cleansed his soul with prayer and meditation on God. He was granted by the Lord an abundance of spiritual gifts: an especial prayerful boldness towards God, constant joy in the Lord, perspicacity and wonderworking. The monk lived at the end-XIII to beginning-XIV Centuries. His relics rest in the Theodosiev Caves." } }, "219": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Stephen, Abbot of the Chenolakkos Monastery near Chalcedon (8th C)", "short": "Venerable Stephen" } }, "221": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Paul of Thebes († 341)", "short": "Venerable Paul" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "
The Monk Paul of Thebes was born in Egypt, in the Thebaid city. Left orphaned, he suffered many things from a greedy kinsman over a parental inheritance. During the time of the persecution against Christians under the emperor Decius (249-251), Saint Paul learned of the insidious plan to deliver him into the hands of the persecutors, and so he fled the city and set out into the wilderness.
Settling into a cave at the bottom of an hill, and known there to no one, the Monk Paul dwelt in it for 91 years, praying incessantly to God both day and night. He sustained himself on dates and bread, which a raven brought him, and he sheltered himself from cold and frost with a garb made of palm leaves. Through the foresight of God, shortly before the end of the Monk Paul, the Lord revealed about him to the Monk Anthony the Great (Comm. 17 January), who also asceticised in the Thebaid wilderness. One time a thought came to Saint Anthony, that scarcely was there another so great a wilderness dweller as he, and then he heard a voice: “Anthony, there is a servant of God more accomplished than thee, and he hath settled here in this wilderness before thee. Go further into the remote area and there find him.” Anthony went and came to the cave of Saint Paul. A lesson in humility having been taught Anthony, the Monk Paul came out towards him. The elders greeted each other by name, and having hugged they entered into lengthy discussion. During the time of the conversation the raven flew by and brought them both bread. The Monk Paul disclosed to Saint Anthony that his end time was approaching and gave him instruction to bury him. The Monk Paul then expired during the time of prayer, upright on his knees. The Monk Anthony then beheld, how his soul, amidst Angels and prophets and apostles, ascended up to God. Two lions ran out from the wilderness and with their claws dug out the grave. The Monk Anthony buried the holy elder, and having taken his garb of palm leaves, he set out to his own monastery. The Monk Anthony kept this garb as a great holy reminder and put it out only twice a year—on Pascha and Pentecost. The Monk Paul of Thebes died in the year 341, when he was 113 years old. He did not establish a single monastery, but soon after his end there appeared many imitators of his life and they filled the wilderness with monasteries. The Monk Paul is considered a father of Orthodox monasticism.
In the XII Century the body of Saint Paul, on orders of the emperor Manuel (1143-1180), was transferred to Constantinople and placed in the Peribleptoi monastery of the Mother of God. Afterwards it was taken to Venice, and finally to Hungary, at Ofa. Part of his head is situated in Rome.
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O God of our fathers, * deal with us ever according to Thy meekness. * Deprive us not of Thy mercy, * but through their supplications ** direct our life in peace.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Assembling today let us praise in hymns the never-failing lamp of the nœtic Sun; * for thou didst shine forth upon those in the darkness of ignorance, * leading all to the divine heights, * O venerable Paul, adornment of the Thebans, ** steadfast foundation of the fathers and the venerable.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "222": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Anthony of Cherny Lake (16th C)", "short": "Venerable Anthony" } }, "224": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Martyr Pansophius of Alexandria († c. 249-251)", "short": "Venerable Martyr Pansophius" } }, "225": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Prochorus, hermit near the Pchinja River (Vranje, Serbia) (10th C)", "short": "Venerable Prochorus" } }, "226": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Gabriel, founder of the Lesnovo Monastery in Bulgaria (11th C)", "short": "Venerable Gabriel" } }, "229": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Speusippus, Eleusippus, Meleusippus and their Grandmother Leonilla, together with Neon, Turbo, and the woman Jonilla (Jovilla) in Cappadocia (161-180)", "short": "Martyr Speusippus and companions" } }, "231": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Danax the Reader in Macedonia (2nd C)", "short": "Martyr Danax" } }, "253": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-martyr Euphrasia of Nicomedia († 303)", "short": "Virgin-martyr Euphrasia" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyress Euphrasia the Virgin was born at Nikomedia into an illustrious family. She was a christian and noted for her beauty. During the time of the Maximian persecution against christians, the governor of the city tried to compel Euphrasia to offer sacrifice to idols; when she refused, he gave orders for her to be beaten, and then given over to a soldier for desecration. The saint prayed tearfully to the Lord that He would preserve her virginity, and God heard her prayer. Saint Euphrasia suggested to the soldier that he help her find an herb, which would protect him from enemy weapons and death. But this herb, she explained, held its power only when received from a virgin and not from a woman. The soldier believed Saint Euphrasia and went with her into the garden. The holy virgin gathered the herb, which lay underfoot, and suggested to the soldier that he try its power on her. She placed the herb to her neck and ordered the soldier to strike forcefully with his sword. Thus her prayer was answered, and the wise virgin offered her soul to God, having preserved her pure virginity († 303).
" } }, "255": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Arsenius, Archbishop of Kerkyra (8th C)", "short": "Saint Arsenius" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Arsenios, Archbishop of Kerkira, (Island of Korfu), was a native of Palestine and lived in the VIII Century. He led a strict ascetic life, and was an highly educated man and reknown spiritual writer. He was glorified by wisdom and by the constant defending of his flock from the unrighteous wrath of the emperor Constantine Porphyrigenitos (780-797). He composed: the Kanon on Anointing with Oil, a Panegyric on the Apostle Andrew, and a Discourse on the Suffering of the Great Martyress Barbara.
" } }, "256": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Mark, Archbishop of Ephesus († c. 1444)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Mark Eugenikes, Archbishop of Ephesus, was a reknown defender of Orthodoxy at the Council of Florence. Nothing was able to sway him towards Uniatism. Secretly slipping away from Florence, Saint Mark zealously urged the inhabitants of Constantinople to repudiate the dishonourable concordat. He died in the year 1457.
" } }, "257": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Arkady of Noviy Torg", "short": "Venerable Arkady" } }, "260": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Euthymius the Great († 473)", "short": "Venerable Euthymius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Euthymios the Great came from the city of Meletina in Armenia, near the River Euphrates. His parents, Paul and Dionysia, were illustrious people and pious christians. For a long time they did not have children, and finally through fervent prayer a son was born to them, whose appearance into the light of day was preceded by a Divine apparition foretelling a great future for the child.
The father of the Monk Euthymios soon died, and his mother—fulfilling a vow to dedicate her son to God—gave him over for educating to her brother, the Monk Eudoxios. He presented the lad to the bishop of the Meletina Church, Otreos, who with love took upon himself caring for him. Seeing his good conduct, the bishop soon made him a reader. Saint Euthymios later accepted monasticism and was ordained to the dignity of presbyter. At the same time, he was entrusted with the stewardship of all the city monasteries. The Monk Euthymios often visited the monastery of saint Polieuktos, and during the days of Great Lent he withdrew into the wilderness. The position of steward of the monasteries weighed heavily upon the ascetic seeking quietude, and in his 30th year of life he secretly left the city and headed to Jerusalem where, having prostrated himself before the holy places, he withdrew into the Tharan Lavra. Having found outside the monastery a solitary empty abode, he settled into it, securing his subsistence by weaving baskets. Nearby, the Monk Theoktistos pursued asceticism. They had both one striving for God, one will, one purpose. Usually after the feast of Theophany, they withdrew into the Kutilleia wilderness (not far from Jericho). One day though they left there, having chosen a place in the mountains difficult of access, and settled into a cave. The Lord however soon revealed their solitary place for the benefit of many people: shepherds driving their flocks came upon the cave and told about it in the village. People seeking spiritual benefit began to throng to the hermits. Gradually a monastic community grew up—several monks came from the Tharan monastery, among them Marin and Luke. The Monk Euthymios entrusted the running of the growing monastery to his friend Theoktistos, and himself became a spiritual brother. He exhorted the brethren: “Know, that one desiring to lead a monastic life ought not to have his own will, he is always to be found in obedience and humility and to be mindful of the thought of death, to fear the Judgement and the eternal fire and to desire the Heavenly Kingdom.”
The monk commanded young monastics to tackle bodily labour with an inner thought of God. “If laymen,—he said,—work much, in order to feed themselves and their families, and besides this, they give alms and offer sacrifice to God, then all the moreso ought we as monks to work, so as to avoid idleness and not be nourished by the work of strangers.” The abba demanded, that the monks keep silence in church during Divine-services and at meals. He did not allow young monks, wishing to fast more than others of the brethren, to follow their own will, but urged them to partake of all the food at meals with temperance, not having over-eaten.
In these years the Monk Euthymios converted and baptised many Arabs, among whom was the military-head Aspevet and his son Terevon, whom the Monk Euthymios healed from sickness. Aspevet received the name Peter in Baptism and afterwards he was a bishop amongst the Arabs.
The fame of the miracles accomplished by the Monk Euthymios spread quickly. People began to throng from everywhere; brought with sickness, they received healing. Unable to bear human fame and glory, the monk secretly left the monastery,—taking with him only his closest student Dometian. He withdrew into the Ruv wilderness and settled on the high mountain of Mardes, around about the Dead Sea. In the quests for solitude the monk explored the Zeph wilderness and settled in the cave, where formerly holy king David hid from the pursuit of king Saul. The Monk Euthymios founded there a monastery, and at the cave of David he established a church. During this time the Monk Euthymios converted many monks in the wilderness from the Manichæan heresy, he worked miracles, healed the sick and cast out devils.
Visitors to the saint disturbed the tranquillity of the wilderness; loving silence, he decided to return to the monastery of Saint Theoktistos that he had forsaken. Along the way the monk took a fancy to a solitary place on a mountain and he remained on it. There afterwards his holy body was buried.
Blessed Theoktistos went out with his brethren to the Monk Euthymios and requested him to return to the monastery, but the monk did not comply. However, he promised to come to the monastery on Sundays for community Divine-services.
The Monk Euthymios did not wish to have anyone nearby, nor to organise a general monastery or lavra, but in a vision the Lord commanded him not to drive away those who were come to him for the salvation of their souls. After some time brethren again gathered around him, and he organised a Lavra, on the pattern of the Tharan Lavra. In the year 429, when the monk Euthymios was 52 years old, the Jerusalem Patriarch Juvenalios consecrated the lavra church and supplied it with presbyters and deacons.
The lavra was at first poor, but the monk steadfastly trusted on God to send down all the necessities for people. Once there came to the lavra about 400 male pilgrims—Armenians from Jerusalem who were starving. Viewing this, the Monk Euthymios summoned the steward and ordered him to feed the wanderers. The steward answered that there was no such quantity of food in the monastery. The monk, however, persisted. Going to the room where the bread was kept, the steward found there a large quantity of bread. With this came forth wine and oil. The wanderers ate to the glory of God: they ate their fill and after this there remained a three-month supply of food for the brethren. Thus the Lord wrought a miracle through the faith of Saint Euthymios.
Once one of the monastics refused to carry out an obedience assigned to him. Despite the fact that the monk having summoned him urged him to comply, the monastic remained obstinate. The monk then shouted loudly: “Thou wilt see what the reward for disobedience is.” The monastic fell to the ground in a fit of raving. The brethren began to make entreaty to the abba for him, and then the Monk Euthymios healed the insubordinate one who, having come to himself, asked forgiveness and promised to improve himself. “Obedience,—said Saint Euthymios,—is a great virtue. The Lord loves obedience more than sacrifice, but disobedience leads to death.”
Two of the brethren in the monastery of Saint Euthymios became overwhelmed by the austere form of life and they resolved to flee. Foreseeing in spirit their intent, the monk summoned them and for a long time he urged them to give up their destructive intention. He said: “Heed not that state of mind, of having sorrow and hatred for the place in which we live, and being prompted to go off to another place. Let a monk not imagine that, having gone to another place he arrives at something better, since good deeds are realised not by a place, but by a firm will and by faith. Whence the tree, which often they transplant to another place, does not bear fruit.”
In the year 431 was convened in Ephesus the Third Œcumenical Council, directed against the Nestorian heresy. The Monk Euthymios rejoiced over the affirmation of Orthodoxy but was grieved about the archbishop of Antioch John who, being orthodox, defended Nestorios.
In the year 451 was convened at Chalcedon the Fourth Œcumenical Council against the heresy of Dioskoros who, in contrast to Nestorios, asserted that in the Lord Jesus Christ there is only one nature—the Divine, having in the Incarnation swallowed up the human nature (thus the heresy was called Monophysite).
The Monk Euthymios accepted the confession of the Chalcedon and he acknowledged it as Orthodox. News about this spread quickly among the monks and hermits and many of them, having previously believed wrongly, through the example of Saint Euthymios accepted the confession of the Chalcedon Council.
For his ascetic life and firm confession of the Orthodox faith Saint Euthymios received the title “the Great.” Having become wearied by intercourse with the world, the holy abba settled for a time into an inner wilderness. After his return to the lavra some of the brethren saw that, when he celebrated the Divine Liturgy, fire descended from Heaven and encircled the saint. The monk himself revealed to several of the monastics, that often he saw an Angel celebrating the Holy Liturgy together with him. The monk had a gift of perspicacity—he saw the innder workings of the spirit and he discerned human inclinations. When monastics received the Holy Mysteries, it was revealed to the monk—who approached worthily, and who unto condemnation of self.
When the Monk Euthymios was 82 years old, there came to him blessed Sava (the future Sava the Sanctified, Comm. 5 December), who was then still a youth. The elder received him with love and sent him off to the monastery of the Monk Theoktistos. He foretold, that the Monk Sava would shine in the monastic life.
When the saint had become 90 years of age, his companion and fellow Monk Theoktistos became grievously ill. The Monk Euthymios came to visit his friend and remained at the monastery; he took his leave of him and was present at the end. Having consigned the body to the grave, he returned to the lavra.
The time of his death was revealed to the Monk Euthymios through a particular mercy of God. On the day of memory of the Monk Anthony the Great, 17 January, the Monk Euthymios gave blessing to make the all-night vigil and, summoning the presbyters to the Altar, he told them that he would no more celebrate with them another vigil, because the Lord was summoning him from earthly life. All were filled with great sadness, but the monk commanded the brethren to gather together with him in the morning. He began to instruct the brethren: “If ye love me, observe my precepts, acquire love, which is an uniting of perfection. No virtuousness is possible without love and humility. The Lord Himself on account of His Love for us humbled Himself and became Man, as are we. We need therefore unceasingly to offer up praise to Him, particularly we, who have renounced the passions of the world. Never leave from church services, observe tradition and monastic rules carefully. If anyone of the brethren struggleth with unclean thoughts,—unceasingly guide and instruct him, so that the devil does not carry off the brother into the pit.”
”I add likewise another command: let the gates of the monastery never be bolted to wanderers and everything that you have, offer to the needy, for the poor in their misfortune do what you can to help.” Afterwards, having given instruction for the guidance of the brethren, the monk promised to remain in spirit with all who desired to bear asceticism in his monastery until the end of the ages.
Having dismissed all, the Monk Euthymios kept about him only his one disciple Dometian and, remaining with him inside the Altar for three days, he died on 20 January in the year 473 at the age of 97 years.
At the burial of the holy abba there immediately thronged a multitude of monks from the monasteries and from the wilderness, among whom was Saint Gerasimos. The Patriarch Anastasios came also with clergy, the Nitreian monks Martyrios and Elias, who later became Jerusalem Patriarchs—about which the Monk Euthymios had foretold them.
Blessed Dometian did not leave the grave of his preceptor for 6 days. On the 7th day, he saw the holy abba, joyously having returned with love for his student: “I am come, my child, in preparation for thee in peace, wherefore I prayed the Lord Jesus Christ, that thou be with me.” Having told the brethren about the vision, Saint Dometian went to church and in joy offered his spirit to God. He was buried alongside Saint Euthymios. The relics of the Monk Euthymios were situated at his monastery in Palestine: the Russian pilgrim hegumen Daniel saw them in the XII Century.
" }, "rank": 5, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Rejoice, O desert who hast not given birth! * Be of good cheer, thou who hast not felt the pangs of travail! * For the man of spiritual desires hath multiplied children for thee, planting them with piety * and nurturing them with abstinence unto the perfection of the virtues. ** By his prayers, O Christ God, bring peace to our life.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Creation found joy in thine honored nativity and in thy divine memory, O venerable one, * receiving the good cheer of thy many miracles. * Give richly of them to our souls, and wash away the defilement of our sins, ** that we may chant: Alleluia!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "262": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Bassus, Eusebius, Eutychius and Basilides at Nicomedia († 303)", "short": "Martyrs Bassus" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyrs Bassos, Eusebios, Eutykhios and Basilides were courtiers of the emperor Diocletian. He sent them as witnesses of the suffering of the Nicomedia bishop Theopemptos (Comm. 5 January) for his faith in Christ. They themselves came to believe and accepted holy Baptism. For this they were subjected to tortures and condemned to death. Saint Bassos they buried in the ground and hacked at him; Saint Eusebios they hung head downwards and cut him in two; Saint Eutykhios they tied hands and legs to a pillar and broke him apart; Saint Basilides they cut in the stomach with a knife. The martyrs suffered in the year 303.
" } }, "264": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Arsenius of Komel", "short": "Venerable Arsenius" } }, "265": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Arsenius the Abbot of Konevits († 1447)", "short": "Venerable Arsenius" } }, "267": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Maximus the Confessor († 662)", "short": "Venerable Maximus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Maximos the Confessor was born in Constantinople in about the year 580 and raised in a pious Christian family. In his youth he received a very diverse education: he studied philosophy, grammatics, rhetoric, he was well-read in the authors of antiquity and he mastered to perfection theological dialectics. When Saint Maximos entered into government service, the scope of his learning and his conscientiousness enabled him to become first secretary to the emperor Heraclius (611-641). But court life vexed him, and he withdrew to the Chrysopoleia monastery (on the opposite shore of the Bosphorus—now Skutari), where he accepted monastic tonsure. By the humility of his wisdom he soon won the love of the brethren and was chosen hegumen of the monastery, but even in this dignity, in his own words, he “remained a simple monk.” But in 633 at the request of a theologian, the future Jerusalem Patriarch Saint Sophronios (Comm. 11 March), the Monk Maximos left the monastery and set off to Alexandria.
Saint Sophronios was known in these times as an implacable antagonist against the Monothelite heresy. The Fourth Œcumenical Council (year 451) had condemned the Monophysite heresy, which confessed in the Lord Jesus Christ only one nature (the Divine, but not the Human nature, of Christ). Influenced by this erroneous tendency of thought, the Monothelite heretics introduced the concept that in Christ there was only “one Divine will” (“thelema”) and only “one Divine effectuation or energy” (“energia”),—which sought to lead back by another path to the repudiated Monophysite heresy. Monotheletism found numerous adherents in Armenia, Syria, Egypt. The heresy, fanned also by nationalist animosities, became a serious threat to church unity in the East. The struggle of Orthodoxy with the heresies was particularly complicated by the fact, that in the year 630 three of the Patriarchal thrones in the Orthodox East were occupied by Monothelites: at Constantinople—by Sergios, at Antioch—by Athanasias, and at Alexandria—by Cyrus.
The path of the Monk Maximos from Constantinople to Alexandria led through Crete, where indeed he began his preaching activity. He clashed there with a bishop, who adhered to the heretical opinions of Severus and Nestorius. At Alexandria and its surroundings the monk spent about 6 years. In 638 the emperor Heraclius, together with the patriarch Sergios, attempted to downplay the discrepancies in the confession of faith, and the issued an edict: the so-called “Ecthesis” (“Ekthesis tes pisteos”—”Exposition of Faith),—which ultimately decreed that there be confessed the teaching about “one will” (“mono-thelema”) operative under the two natures of the Saviour. In defending Orthodoxy against this “Ecthesis,” the Monk Maximos recoursed to people of various vocations and positions, and these conversations had success. “Not only the clergy and all the bishops, but also the people, and all the secular officials felt within themselves some sort of invisible attraction to him,—testifies his Vita.
Towards the end of 638 the patriarch Sergios died, and in 641—the emperor Heraclius also died. The imperial throne came to be occupied by the cruel and coarse Constans II (642-668), an open adherent of the Monothelites. The assaults of the heretics against Orthodoxy intensified. The Monk Maximos went off to Carthage and he preached there and in its surroundings for about 5 years. When the successor of patriarch Sergios, patriarch Pyrrhos, arrived there in forsaking Constantinople because of court intrigues, and being by persuasion a Monothelite,—there occurred between him and the Monk Maximos an open disputation in June 645. The result of this was that Pyrrhos publicly acknowledged his error and even wanted to put into writing to Pope Theodore the repudiation of his error. The Monk Maximos together with Pyrrhos set off to Rome, where Pope Theodore accepted the repentance of the former patriarch and restored him to his dignity.
In the year 647 the Monk Maximos returned to Africa. And there, at a council of bishops Monotheletism was condemned as an heresy. In the year 648, in place of the “Ecthesis,” there was issued a new edict, commissioned by Constans and compiled by the Constantinople patriarch Paul, the “Typus” (“Tupos tes pisteos”—”Pattern of the Faith”), which overall forbade any further deliberations, whether if be about “one will” or about “two wills,” as regarding the acknowledged “two natures” of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Monk Maximos thereupon turned to the successor of the Roman Pope Theodore, PopeMartin I (649-654), with a request to examine the question of Monotheletism at a conciliar consideration by all the Church. In October of 649 there was convened the Lateran Council, at which were present 150 Western bishops and 37 representatives of the Orthodox East, amongst which was also the Monk Maximos the Confessor. The Council condemned Monotheletism, and its defenders—the Constantinople patriarchs Sergios, Paul and Pyrrhos, were consigned to anathema.
When Constans II received the determinations of the Council, he gave orders to arrest both Pope Martin and the Monk Maximos. This summons took 5 years to fulfill, in the year 654. They accused the Monk Maximos of treason to the realm and locked him up in prison. In 656 he was sent off to Thrace, and again later brought back to a Constantinople prison. The monk, together with two of his students, was subjected to the cruellest torments: for each they cut out the tongue and cut off the right hand. Then they were sent off to Colchis. But here the Lord worked an inexplicable miracle: all three of them found the ability to speak and to write. The Monk Maximos indeed foretold his own end († 13 August 662). On the Greek Saints-Prologue (Calendar), 13 August indicates the Transfer of the Relics of Saint Maximos to Constantinople, but possibly it might apply to the death of the saint. Or otherwise, the establishing of his memory under 21 January may be connected with this—that 13 August celebrates the Leavetaking of the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. Over the grave of the Monk Maximos shone three miraculously-appearing lights, and there occurred many an healing.
The Monk Maximos has left to the Church a large theological legacy. His exegetical works contain explanations of difficult places within the Holy Scripture, also Commentary on the Prayer of the Lord and on the 59th Psalm, various “scholia” (“marginalia” or text-margin commentaries) on treatises of the Hieromartyr Dionysios the Areopagite († 96, Comm. 3 October) and Saint Gregory the Theologian († 389, Comm. 25 January). To the exegetical works of Saint Maximos belongs likewise his explication of Divine-services, entitled “Mystagogia” (“Introduction concerning the Mystery”).
To the dogmatic works of the Monk Maximos belong: the Exposition on his dispute with Pyrrhos, and several tracts and letters to various people. In them are contained expositions of the Orthodox teaching of the Divine Essence and about Hypostatic-Persons of the Holy Trinity, about the Incarnation of God, and about the “theosis” (“deification,” “obozhenie”) of human nature.
”Nothing in theosis is the product of human nature,—the Monk Maximos writes in a letter to his friend Thalassios,—since nature cannot comprehend God. It is only but the mercy of God that has the capacity to endow theosis unto the existing… In theosis man (the image of God) becomes likened to God, he rejoices in all the plenitude that does belong to him by nature, since the grace of the Spirit doth triumph within him and because God doth act within him” (Letter 22).
To the Monk Maximos belong also works concerning the anthropologic (i.e. concerning man). He deliberates on the nature of the soul and its consciously-personal existence after the death of a man. Among his moral compositions, especially important is his “Chapters on Love.” The Monk Maximos the Confessor wrote likewise three hymns in the finest traditions of church hymnography, following the lead of Saint Gregory the Theologian.
The theology of the Monk Maximos the Confessor, based on the spiritual experience of the knowledge of the great Desert-Fathers, and utilising the skilled art of dialectics worked out by pre-Christian philosophy, was continued and developed upon in the works of the Monk Simeon the New Theologian († 1021, Comm. 12 March), and Saint Gregory Palamas († c. 1360, Comm. 14 November).
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O instructor of Orthodoxy, teacher of piety and purity, * beacon for the whole world, divinely inspired adornment of monastics. * O most wise Maximus by thy doctrines thou hast illumined all. ** O harp of the Spirit, entreat Christ God that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "With fitting hymns, O ye faithful, let us honor the great Maximus, * the lover of the Trinity, who manifestly teacheth us the divine Faith, * to worship Christ in two natures, volitions and activities; ** and let us cry aloud: Rejoice, O preacher of the faith!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/2": { "text": "The thrice-radiant light which abode in thy soul showed thee forth as a chosen vessel, O most blessed one, * revealing things divine to the ends of the earth. * O blessed Maximus, recount understandings of things hard to comprehend ** and manifestly preach to all the transcendent and unoriginate Trinity!
", "Type": "2", "Tone": "6" } } } }, "269": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Neophytus of Nicæa († 303-305)", "short": "Martyr Neophytus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyr Neophytus, a native of the city of Nicæa, was raised by his parents in strict Christian piety. For his virtue, temperance and unceasing prayer, it pleased God to glorify Saint Neophytus with the gift of wonderworking, while the saint was yet but a lad! Like unto Moses, the holy lad brought forth water from a stone of the city wall and gave this water to those suffering thirst. In answer to the prayer of the mother of Saint Neophytus, seeking that the Will of God concerning her son might be revealed to her, a white dove miraculously appeared, and announced about the salvific path awaiting him. The saint was led forth from his parental home by this dove and brought to a mountain cave, which served as a sheltering den for a lion. The lad dwelt there until his fifteenth year, leaving it but once to bury his parents and distribute their substance to the poor.
During the time of the persecution by Diocletian (284-305), he voluntarily appeared in Nicæa and boldly began to denounce the impiety of the pagan faith. The enraged persecutors suspended the saint on a tree, they whipped him with ox thongs and cut at his body with iron. Then they threw him into a red-hot oven, but the holy martyr remained unharmed, spending 3 days and 3 nights in it. The torturers, not knowing what more to do with him, decided to kill him. One of the pagans thrust a spear into his chest, and the saint expired to the Lord in his 16th year of life, somewhere in the years 303-305, at Nicæa.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In his suffering, O Lord, * Thy martyr Neophytus received an imperishable crown from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * he set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By his supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "270": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Eugene, Candidus, Valerian and Aquila (3rd C)", "short": "Martyrs Eugene" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyrs Eugene, Candidus, Valerian and Aquila suffered for their faith in Christ during the reign of Diocletian and Maximian (284-305), under the regimental commander Licius. Valerian, Candidus and Aquila had hidden themselves away during the time of the persecution in the Granezond hills, preferring life among the wild beasts over living with the pagans. But there also there were soon found and brought to Granezond. For their bold and steadfast confession of faith in Christ the holy martyrs were whipped with ox thongs, cut at with iron, and then had salt poured on their wounds which then were scorched with fire. Several days later Saint Eugene was also arrested, and subjected to the same tortures. After the tortures they threw the four martyrs into a redhot oven; when they emerged from it unharmed, they were beheaded. The saints accepted a martyr’s death towards the end of the III Century.
" } }, "274": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Maximus the Greek († 1556)", "short": "Venerable Maximus" } }, "275": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God “Joy and Consolation”", "short": "Theotokos" } }, "279": { "name": { "nominative": "Apostle Timothy of the Seventy († 96)", "short": "Apostle Timothy" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Disciple Timothy was from the Lycaonian city of Lystra in Asia Minor. Saint Timothy was converted to Christ in the year 52 by the holy Apostle Paul († c. 67, Comm. 29 June). When the Apostle Paul and Barnabas first visited the Lycaonian cities, the Apostle Paul at Lystra healed one crippled from birth; many of the inhabitants there then believed in Christ, and among them was the future youthful disciple Timothy, his mother Eunice and grandmother Loida (Lois) (Acts 14: 6-12; 2 Tim. 1: 5). The seed of faith, planted in the soul of Saint Timothy by the Apostle Paul, brought forth abundant fruit. He became a zealous student of the Apostle Paul, and later his constant companion and co-worker in the preaching of the Gospel. The Apostle Paul loved Saint Timothy and in his Epistles called him his beloved son, with gratitude remembering his devotion and fidelity. He wrote to Timothy: “Thou hast followed me in teaching, in life, in disposition, faith, magnanimity, love, and patience in afflictions and sufferings…” (2 Tim. 3: 10-11). The Apostle Paul in the year 65 ordained Saint Timothy as bishop of the Ephesus Church, which the saint administered for 15 years. And finally the holy Apostle Paul, situated in prison and knowing, that the act of martyrdom was before him, summoned his faithful student and friend, the Disciple Timothy, for a last farewell (2 Tim. 4: 9).
Saint Timothy ended his life as a martyr. At Ephesus the pagans made a feastday in honour of their idols and they carried them through the city, accompanied by impious ceremonies and songs. The holy Bishop Timothy, zealous for the glory of God, attempted to halt the procession and reason with the spiritually blind idol-worshipping people, by preaching the true faith in Christ. The pagans dashed angrily upon the holy disciple, they beat him, dragged him along the ground, and finally, they stoned him. The holy Disciple Timothy’s death by martyrdom occurred in the year 80. In the IV Century the holy relics of the Disciple Timothy were transferred to Constantinople and placed in the church of the Holy Apostles. Holy Church venerates Saint Timothy as amongst the number of the Seventy Disciples.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Having learned goodness and been watchful in all things, arrayed as befitteth a priest, in a good conscience, thou didst draw forth ineffable things from the chosen vessel; and, having kept the Faith, thou didst complete a course like unto his. O Apostle Timothy, entreat Christ God, that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "O ye faithful, let us all hymn Timothy, the divine disciple and companion of Paul, honoring with him the wise Anastasius, who shone forth from Persia like a star and dispelleth the passions of our souls and our bodily infirmities.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" } } } }, "284": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Clement, Bishop of Ancyra, and Martyr Agathangelus († c. 312)", "short": "Hieromartyrs Clement and Agathangelus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Hieromartyr Clement was born in the Galatian city of Ancyra in the year 258, from a pagan father and a Christian mother. In infancy he lost his father, and at twelve years of age also his mother, who predicted for him a martyr’s death for belief in Christ. A woman adopting him named Sophia raised him in the fear of God. During the time of a terrible famine in Galatia several pagans cast out their own children, not having the wherewithal to feed them, and Sophia gathered up also these hapless ones, she fed and clothed them, and Saint Clement assisted her in this. He taught the children and prepared them for Holy Baptism. Many of them died as martyrs for the faith in Christ.
For his virtuous life Saint Clement was made a reader, and later a deacon, and at age eighteen he received the dignity of presbyter, and at age twenty he was ordained bishop of Ancyra. Soon afterwards there flared up the persecution against Christians under Diocletian (284-305). Bishop Clement was arrested under denunciation and had also to answer for himself. The governor of Galatia, Dometian, tried to sway the saint to the worship of the pagan gods, but Saint Clement firmly confessed his faith and valiantly endured all the tortures, which the cruel official subjected him to. They suspended him on a tree, and tore at his body such that the bare bones could be seen, they struck him fiercely with clubs and stones, and they turned him about on a wheel and burned at him with a low fire. The Lord preserved His sufferer and healed his lacerated body. Then Dometian dispatched the saint to Rome to the emperor Diocletian himself, with a report that Bishop Clement had been fiercely tortured, but had proven unyielding. Diocletian, seeing the martyr completely healthy, did not believe the report and subjected him to still yet crueler tortures, and then had him locked up in prison.
Many of the pagans, seeing the bravery of the saint and the miraculous healing of his wounds, believed in Christ. People flocked to Saint Clement in prison for guidance, healing and Baptism, such that the prison was literally transformed into a church.Many of these people, when reported about, were executed by the emperor. Diocletian, struck by the amazing endurance of Saint Clement, sent him off to Nicomedia to his co-emperor Maximian.
On the ship along the way, the saint was joined by his disciple Agathangelos, who had avoided being executed with the other confessors, and who now wanted to suffer and die for Christ together with Bishop Clement.
The emperor Maximian in turn sent off Saint Clement and Agathangelos to the governor Agrippina, who subjected them to such inhuman torments, that even among the pagan on-lookers there was felt a sense of pity for the martyrs and they began to pelt the torturers with stones.
Having been set free, the saints healed an inhabitant of the city with a laying on of hands and they baptised and instructed people, thronging to them in multitudes. Arrested again on orders of Maximian, they were sent off home to the city of Ancyra, where the Ancyra prince Cyrenius had them put to torture, and then dispatched them off to the city of Amasia to the official Dometius, known for his especial cruelty.
In Amasia the martyrs were thrown into molten lime, they spent a whole day in it and remained unharmed. They flayed their skin, beat them with iron rods, they set them on red-hot beds and poured sulfur. All this failed to harm the saints, and they were sent off to Tarsis for new tortures. In the wilderness along the way Saint Clement in prayer had a revelation, that he would suffer another 28 years for the Name of Christ. And then having endured a multitude of tortures, the saints were locked up in prison.
After the death of Maximian, Saint Agathangelos was beheaded with the sword. Ancyra Christians set free Saint Clement from prison and they took him to a cave church. There, after celebrating Liturgy, the saint announced to the faithful the soon impending end of the persecution and his own approaching demise. The holy martyr soon actually was killed by soldiers from the city, who stormed the church. They beheaded the saint during the time of his offering the Bloodless Sacrifice († c. 312).
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Thou hast been given to the faithful, O most sacred one, as a branch of holiness and a stem of struggle, a most sacred flower and divinely bestowed and everblossoming fruit. As a fellow sufferer of the martyrs and a fellow-prelate of hierarchs, entreat Christ God, that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thou wast a precious scion of Christ the branch, O much-suffering and most lauded Clement, and thou didst cry out with those who suffered: \"Thou art the radiant joy of the martyrs, O Christ!\"
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "287": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Mausimas the Syrian (4th C)", "short": "Venerable Mausimas" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Mausimas the Syrian lived in Syria, near the city of Cyr or Cyrtha. For the salvation of soul he took upon himself voluntary poverty and devoted his life to the service of neighbour. The doors of his hut were always open to anyone who had need of him. In his hut there constantly stood two vessels: one with bread, and the other with oil. Anyone needing it came to him and received the food from his hand. These vessels never became empty. The monk died at the end of the IV Century.
" } }, "288": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Salamanes the Silent of the Euphrates († c. 400)", "short": "Venerable Salamanes" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Salaman the Silent was a native of the city of Kapersan, near the River Euphrates. Having found at the bank of the river a solitary cave, he became an hermit within it and spent there a life of silence and prayerful deeds.
And in learning of his lofty life, the bishop of Kapersan wanted to ordain him presbyter, but the man of silence did not answer him even a single word. The ascetic also in other instances of life did not cease his effort of silence, conversing only with the Lord alone. The Orthodox Church venerates him as the first saint to have taken upon himself the deed of silence, which he continued to his very end († c. 400).
" } }, "289": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Paulinus the Merciful, Bishop of Nola († 431)", "short": "Saint Paulinus" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Paulinus the Merciful, Bishop of Nolanum, was descended from an aristocratic and rich family of the city of Bordeaux (France). By virtue of his extensive education and upbringing, the twenty year old youth was selected to become a Roman senator, later he became consul and finally, governor of the region of Campagna in Italy. At twenty-five years of age he together with his spouse was converted to Christ and was baptised. After this he completely changed his manner of life: he disposed of all his property and distributed the money at hand to the needy, for which he had to endure the scorn of his friends and servants.
Not having children of their own, the pious couple adopted poor orphans and raised them in the fear of God. In his searchings for a secluded life, Saint Paulinus went off to the Spanish city of Barcelona.
News about his ascetic life spread about, and in the year 393 they besought him to accept the dignity of presbyter. Soon he left Spain and went on to the city of Nola (in Latin “Nolanum”) in Italy, where he was chosen bishop.
When Vandal barbarians invaded Italy and carried off many people to Africa in captivity, holy Bishop Paulinus then made use of church funds to ransom the captives. However, not having sufficient means to ransom the son of a certain poor widow, he himself went voluntarily into slavery in place of him. In the attire of a slave, Saint Paulinus began to serve the Vandal prince.
Soon his secret was revealed, and he not only himself received his freedom, but he obtained it for all the captives, and together with them returned home. His love for mankind and compassion for all the poor and needy comprises a distinctive feature of his character. Saint Paulinus is known both as a builder of churches and as a Christian poet. He died at 78 years of age on 22 June 431. There remains from him several hymns and writings, containing various moral discourses imbued with deep piety. His relics are situated in Rome, in the church of the holy Apostle Bartholomew.
" } }, "291": { "name": { "nominative": "Commemoration of Sixth Ecumenical Council (680-681)", "short": "Commemoration of" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Sixth Œcumenical Council was convened by the emperor Constantine Pogonatos (668-685) at Constantinople in the year 681 concerning the Monothelite heresy. At it were present 171 holy fathers, who affirmed the confession of faith concerning the two wills in Jesus Christ—the Divine and the human. Continuing the work, this Council was followed by another Council in the year 691 in the imperial palaces, called the Council of Trullo. At this Council was made an examination of practical matters as to their canonical propriety, and 102 rule-canons were established.
" } }, "293": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Athanasius, Founder of the Great Lavra on Mt Athos, and his 6 disciples († 1000)", "short": "Venerable Athanasius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Athanasias of Athos, in holy Baptism named Abraham, was born in the city of Trapezund. He was early left orphaned, and being raised by a certain good and pious nun, he copied his adoptive mother in the habits of monastic life, in fasting and in prayer. Doing his lessons came easily and he soon outpaced his peers in study.
After the death of his adoptive mother, Abraham was taken to Constantinople, to the court of the then Byzantine emperor Romanos the Elder, and was enrolled as a student under the reknown rhetorician Athanasias. In a short while the student attained the mastery of skill of his teacher and he himself became an instructor of youths. Reckoning as the true life that of fasting and vigilance, Abraham led a life strict and abstinent, he slept little and then only sitting upon a stool, and barley bread and water were his nourishment. When his teacher Athanasias through human weakness became jealous of his student, blessed Abraham quit his teaching and went away.
During these days there had arrived at Constantinople the Monk Michael Maleinos (Comm. 12 July), hegumen of the Kimineia monastery. Abraham told the hegumen about his life, and revealed to him his secret desire to become a monk. The holy elder, discerning in Abraham a chosen vessel of the Holy Spirit, became fond of him and taught him much in questions of salvation. One time during their spiritual talks Saint Michael was visited by his nephew, Nicephoros Phokas, a reknown military officer and future emperor. The lofty spirit and profound mind of Abraham impressed Nicephoros, and all his life he regarded the saint with reverent respect and with love. Abraham was consumed by his zeal for the monastic life. Having forsaken everything, he went to the Kimineia monastery and, falling down at the feet of the holy hegumen, he besought to be received into the monastic form. The hegumen fulfilled his request with joy and gave him monastic vows with the name Athanasias.
With long fasts, vigils, bending of the knees, with works night and day Athanasias soon attained such perfection, that the holy hegumen blessed him for the exploit of silence in a solitary place not far from the monastery. Later on, having left Kimineia, he made the rounds of many a desolate and solitary place, and guided by God, he came to a place called Melanos, at the very extremity of Athos, settling far off from the other monastic dwellings. Here the monk made himself a cell and began to asceticise in works and in prayer, proceeding from exploit to exploit towards higher monastic attainment.
The enemy of mankind tried to arouse in Saint Athanasias hatred for the place chosen by him, and assaulted him with constant suggestions in thought. The ascetic decided to suffer it out for a year, and then wherever the Lord should direct him, he would go. On the last day of this year’s length of time, when Saint Athanasias set about to prayer, an Heavenly Light suddenly shone upon him, filling him with an indescribable joy, all the thoughts dissipated, and from his eyes welled up graced tears. From that moment Saint Athanasias received the gift of tenderness (“umilenie”), and the place of his solitude he became as strongly fond of as before he had loathed it. During this time Nicephoros Phokas, having had enough of military exploits, remembered his vow to become a monk and from his means he besought the Monk Athanasias to build a monastery, i.e. to build cells for him and the brethren, and a church where the brethren could commune the Divine Mysteries of Christ on Sundays.
Tending to shun cares and worries, Blessed Athanasias at first would not agree to accept the hateful gold, but seeing the fervent desire and good intent of Nicephoros, and discerning in this the will of God, he set about the building of the monastery. He erected a large church in honour of the holy Prophet and Forerunner of Christ John the Baptist, and another church at the foot of an hill, in the name of the Most Holy Virgin Mother of God. Around the church were the cells, and a wondrous monastery arose on the Holy Mount. In it were arrayed a refectory, an hospice for the sick and for taking in wanderers, and other necessary structures.
Brethren flocked to the monastery from everywhere, not only from Greece, but also from other lands—simple people and illustrious dignitaries, wilderness-dwellers having asceticised long years in the wilderness, hegumens from many a monastery and hierarchs wanting to become simple monks in the Athos Laura of Saint Athanasias.
The saint established at the monastery a life-in-common (“cœnobitic”) monastic-rule on the model of the old Palestinian monasteries. Divine-services were made with all strictness, and no one made bold to chatter during the time of service, nor to come late or leave without need from the church.
The Heavenly Patroness of Athos, the All-Pure Mother of God Herself, was graciously disposed towards the saint. Many a time he was granted to behold Her wondrous eyes. By the sufferance of God there once occurred such an hunger, that the monks one after the other quit the Laura. The saint remained all alone and in a moment of weakness he also considered leaving. Suddenly he beheld a Woman beneath an æthereal veil, coming to meet him. “Who art thou and whither gœst?”—She asked quietly. Saint Athanasias from an innate deference halted. “I am a monk from here,”—answered Saint Athanasias and told about himself and his worries. “And on account of a morsel of dry bread thou would forsake the monastery, which was intended for glory from generation unto generation? Where is thy faith? Turn round, and I shalt help thee.” “Who art Thou?,”—asked Athanasias. “I am the Mother of thy Lord,”—She answered and bid Athanasias to strike his staff upon a stone, such that from the fissure there shot forth a spring of water, which exists even now, in remembrance of this miraculous visitation.
The brethren grew in number, and the construction work at the Laura continued. The Monk Athanasias, foreseeing the time of his departure to the Lord, prophesied about his impending end and besought the brethren not to be troubled over what he foresaw. “For Wisdom disposeth otherwise than people do judge.” The brethren were perplexed and pondered over the words of the saint. Having bestown on the brethren his final guidance and comforted all, Saint Athanasias entered his cell, put on his mantle and holy kukol′-headpiece, which he wore only on great feasts, and after prolonged prayer he emerged. Alert and joyful, the holy hegumen went up with six of the brethren to the top of the church to look over the construction. Suddenly, through the imperceptible will of God, the top of the church collapsed. Five of the brethren immediately gave up their spirit to God. The Monk Athanasias and the architect Daniel, thrown upon the stones, remained alive. All heard, as the monk called out to the Lord: “Glory to Thee, O God! Lord, Jesus Christ, help me!” The brethren with great weeping began to dig out their father from amidst the rubble, but they found him already dead.
" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "The ranks of the angels marvelled at thy life in the flesh: * how in the body thou didst go forth to wrestle with invisible fœs, O ever-glorious one, * and didst wound hordes of the demons. * Hence, O Athanasius, Christ hath bestowed rich gifts upon thee. ** Wherefore, pray that our souls be saved, O father.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thy flock, O divinely eloquent one, calleth upon thee as an excellent seer of immaterial beings * and a most true and active interpreter. * Fail not to pray for thy servants, that thou mayest deliver from dangers and assaults ** those who cry out to thee: Rejoice, O father Athanasius!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "294": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Xenia of Rome and her two female slaves (5th C)", "short": "Venerable Xenia" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Nun Xenia (V), in the world Eusebia, was the only daughter of an eminent Roman senator. From her youth she yearned for God. In order to evade the marriage set up for her, she secretly left from her parental home together with two servants devoted to her and they set sail upon a ship. Through the Providence of God meeting up with the head of the monastery of the holy Apostle Andrew, which was situated in the city of Milassa, in Cæsarea, she besought him to take her with her companions to Milassa. Having changed her name, she called herself Xenia [which in Greek means “stranger” or foreigner”]. At Milassa she bought land, built a church in the name of Saint Stephen and founded a woman’s monastery. Soon after this the bishop of Milassa, Paul, consecrated Xenia a deaconess, as fully worthy of that calling through virtuous life. The saint rendered aid to all: for the destitute she was a benefactress, for the grief-stricken—a comforter, for sinners—a guide. She possessed deep humility, accounting herself worst and most sinful of all. In her ascetic deeds she was guided by the counsels of the Palestinian ascetic, the Monk Euthymios. By her lofty life Saint Xenia attracted many a soul to salvation. The death of the holy virgin, during a time of prayer, was marked by the Lord with the appearance over the monastery in the heavens of an apparition in the form of a luminous crown with a radiant cross amidst it, which accompanied the body of the saint when it was carried into the city to the people, and it stayed until the moment of burial. Many of the sick, having touched to the remains of the saint, received healing.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In thee, O mother, that which was created according to the image of God was manifestly saved. * For accepting thy cross thou didst follow after Christ, * and praying thou didst learn to disdain the flesh, * for thou didst transcend it to take care of thine immortal soul. ** Wherefore, with the angels doth thy soul rejoice, O venerable Xenia.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Celebrating thy strange memorial, O Xenia, * we who honor thee with love hymn Christ, * Who giveth thee the power of healing in all things. * To Him do thou ever pray in our behalf.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "295": { "name": { "nominative": "Saints Athanasius the Great († 373) and Cyril († 444), Archbishops of Alexandria", "short": "Hierarchs" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Athanasias and Cyril, Archbishops of Alexandria, have a conjoined feast established to them in acknowledgement of the profound gratitude of Holy Church for their incessant lengthy labour in affirmation of the dogmas of the Orthodox faith and their zealous defense of such against heretical teachings.
The account about Saint Athanasias is located under 2 May, and about Saint Cyril—under 9 June.
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O God of our fathers, * deal with us ever according to Thy meekness. * Deprive us not of Thy mercy, * but through their supplications ** direct our life in peace.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "TROPARION/2": { "text": "Shining forth with works of Orthodoxy and reducing all heresy to ashes, * ye were victors and conquerors, enriching all with piety; * and, having greatly adorned the Church, * ye have acquired Christ God, as is meet, ** Who granteth us great mercy.", "Type": "2", "Tone": "3" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "
O sacred primates most great, champions of the Church of Christ, * preserve all who chant: ** Save those who honor Thee with faith, O Compassionate One!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/2": { "text": "Planting Orthodox doctrine, thou didst cut down the tares of heresy, * causing the seed of faith to increase * through the rain of the Spirit, O venerable one. ** Wherefore, we hymn thee, O Athanasius.
", "Type": "2", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "297": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Babylas (Vavila) of Sicily and his two disciples: Timothy and Agapius (3rd C)", "short": "Martyrs Babylas" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyrs Babyla of Sicily and his two Disciples Timothy and Agapius lived during the III Century on the outskirts of Rome. Saint Babyla was born in the city of Reupolium into a rich family, and he was raised by his parents in the Christian faith. While still in his youth he abandoned the world, secretly going from the house of his parents to a mountain, where he spent all his time in fasting, prayer and silence. Together with him asceticised his two disciples: Timothy and Agapius. Fleeing a persecution by the pagans, he set off with his disciples to the island of Sicily, where they converted many of the unbelieving to Christ. The governor of the island, angered by the enlightening activity of Saint Babyla, gave orders to arrest him together with his disciples, and he then gave them over to fierce tortures. The saints patiently endured the sufferings, and all three died from the sword. Their bodies were thrown into a fire, but the flames did not harm the warriors of Christ. They were buried on the island of Sicily by local Christians.
" } }, "298": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Macedonius, the Hermit, of Syria († c. 420)", "short": "Saint Macedonius" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Macedonias, a Syrian Hermit, lived during the end-IV early-V Centuries. At the start of his ascetic path he led the life of a wanderer, roving through the cities of Phœnicia, Cilicia and Syria for 25 years, and then he found a shelter in a deep ditch and lived under the open sky in the Syrian wilderness, shunning human glory. A multitude of people came out to him, seeking spiritual help and guidance. Only in his old age did he accede to the requests of people to live in a narrow cell built for him. Throughout his continuous life Saint Macedonias ate only barley, ground up and mixed with water, for which he was called “Kritophagos” (“Barley-Eater”) (Grk. ‘—”barley” and ‘—to eat). Only when he sensed the decline of his powers did he begin to use soft bread. For his ascetic life he was granted of God the gift to cast out demons and to heal the sick. The monk died in about the year 420, having reached his 70th year of age.
" } }, "301": { "name": { "nominative": "Righteous Athanasius Navolotsky (16th-17th C)", "short": "Righteous Athanasius" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Righteous Athanasius Navolotsky went at the end of the XVI Century from the Kargopol’ region to the Olonets land, where he founded a monastery 78 versts from what later emerged as the city of Petrozavodsk. The saint died near the Verkholedsk suburb not far from Shenkursk.
" } }, "302": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Athanasius the Confessor of Constantinople († 821)", "short": "Venerable Athanasius" } }, "303": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Athanasius, the Hermit of the Kiev Caves († c. 1176)", "short": "Venerable Athanasius" } }, "307": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Felicitas and her seven sons: Januarius, Felix, Philip, Silouanus, Alexander, Vitalis and Martial († c. 164)", "short": "Martyr Felicitas and his sons" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyress Felicita with her Seven Sons: Jannuarius, Felix, Philip, Silouanus, Alexander, Vitalis and Martial. Saint Felicita was born of a rich Roman family. Pagan priests made reports of denunciation against her for insulting the gods through spreading the Christian faith. Saint Felicita gave off all her possessions, and together with her sons openly confessed faith in Christ. They were all handed over to torture. Saint Felicita, seeing the suffering of her sons, besought God, that they would stand firm and enter the Heavenly Kingdom before her. All the sons died as martyrs before the eyes of their mother. After them, Saint Felicita herself underwent a martyr’s death. The holy family suffered at Rome in about the year 164. Saint Gregory Dialogus gave a laudatory sermon for the Martyress Felicita in a third talk, preached in a church named for her.
" } }, "308": { "name": { "nominative": "Monk Athanasius of Syandem and Vologda († c. 1550)", "short": "Monk Athanasius" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Athanasius (Afanasii) of Syadem and Vologda was a disciple of the Monk Alexander of Svir († 1533, Comm. 30 August). After the death of his mentor, he established in the forests of Karelia the Dormition (Uspenie) hermitage, not far from the city of Olonets, amidst the islands of Syadem and Roschinsk. The slander and pettiness of the local inhabitants compelled the Monk Athanasius to move back to the Svir monastery, where they chose him as hegumen. Later returning to the Uspenie hermitage, the monk died in about the year 1550 in extreme old age and was buried on one of the promontories of Roschinsk island. Afterwards there was built over his grave a church in the name of Saints Athanasias and Cyril of Alexandria, into which in 1720 were placed the unperished relics of the saint.
" } }, "309": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Mares the Singer, of Syria († c. 430)", "short": "Venerable Mares" } }, "310": { "name": { "nominative": "Icons of the Mother of God “Assuage my Griefs” and “Comfort in Distress and Sorrow”", "short": "Theotokos" } }, "312": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Xenophon with his wife Mary, and their sons Arcadius and John of Constantinople (5th-6th C)", "short": "Venerable Xenophon and family" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Xenophon, his spouse Mary and their sons Arcadius and John, were noted citizens of Constantinople and lived in the V Century. Despite riches and position, they distinguished themselves by their simplicity of soul and goodness of heart. Wishing to give their sons John and Arkadios a more complete education, they sent them off to the Phœnician city of Beirut. Through Divine Providence the ship on which both brothers sailed became ship-wrecked. The brothers were pitched by the waves onto shore at different places. Aggrieved at being separated, the brothers dedicated themselves to God and accepted monasticism. For a long time the parents received no news about their children and presumed them to have perished. Xenophontes, however, now already quite old, maintained firm hope in the Lord and consoled his wife Maria, telling her not to sorrow but to believe that their children were watched over by the Lord. After several years the spouses made pilgrimage to the Holy places and at Jerusalem they met their sons, pursuing asceticsm at different monasteries. The joyful parents gave thanks to the Lord for providently re-uniting the whole family. For the remainder of their lives, the monastics Xenophontes and Maria dedicated themselves to God and accepted monasticism. The Monks Arkadios and John, having taken leave of their parents, went out into the wilderness, where after long ascetic toil they were glorified by gifts of wonderworking and perspicacity. The monastic elders Xenophontes and Maria, having pursued asceticism in silence and strict fasting, also received of God the gift of wonderworking.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O God of our fathers, * deal with us ever according to Thy meekness. * Deprive us not of Thy mercy, * but through their supplications ** direct our life in peace.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Having gladly distributed thy riches to the poor, O blessed one, * with thy spouse and children thou wast vigilant in the commandments of the Lord. ** Wherefore, ye have inherited divine delight.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/2": { "text": "Having fled the sea of life, * the righteous Xenophon, with his honored spouse and children. ** rejoice together in the heavens, magnifying Christ.
", "Type": "2", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "314": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Ananias the Presbyter, Peter the Prison Guard and 7 soldiers († 295)", "short": "Martyr Ananias and companions" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyrs Ananias the Presbyter, Peter the Prison Guard, and with them 7 Soldiers, suffered in Phœnicia in the year 295. During the time of persecution against christians under the emperor Diocletian (284-305), Saint Ananias was brought before Maximus the governor of Phœnicia, for confessing faith in Christ and refusal to worship idols. They beat him with hammers, burnt at him with fire, and on his scorched body they sprinkled salt. After his terrible sufferings, an idolatrous temple and the idols standing in it were destroyed through the prayers of the holy martyr. They locked up the holy martyr in prison. Stationed as witnesses to the tortures of holy presbyter Ananias and guarding him, were Peter and 7 other soldiers who came to believe in Christ. For this they were drowned in the sea after lengthy torture. For their act of martyrdom they, together with the holy martyr Ananias, received from Christ crowns of glory.
" } }, "317": { "name": { "nominative": "St Aquila, Deacon of the Kiev Caves, far caves (14th C)", "short": "St Aquila" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Aquila (Akhila), Deacon of Kiev Caves (XIV), became famous as a great faster, having spent a long while as an hermit. Legend says that he ate neither vareny (pirogi) nor sweet food, he partook vegetables seldom and in small quantity, and during periods of fast he tasted of only one prosphora.To the intercession of Saint Akhila flee those thirsting of soul to be delivered from “the enslavement of stomach passions” and those wishing to learn temperance (3rd song of the Kanon to the Monks, venerated in the Farther Caves).
The commemoration of the Monk Akhila is also 28 August and on the 2nd Sunday of Great Lent." } }, "318": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed David III the Restorer, King of Iberia (Georgia) († 1125)", "short": "Blessed David" } }, "323": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Boris (in Holy Baptism Michael), Equal to the Apostles, Prince and Baptizer of Bulgaria († 907)", "short": "St. Boris" } }, "324": { "name": { "nominative": "Transfer of the Relics of the Holy Passion-Bearers Boris (1072) and Gleb (1115), in Holy Baptism Roman and David", "short": "Passion-Bearers" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "
The Holy Martyrs Nobleborn Princes Boris and Gleb, in Holy Baptism—Roman and David († 1015): The account about them is located under 2 May.
" } }, "326": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Palladius the Hermit of Antioch (4th C)", "short": "Venerable Palladius" } }, "333": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Romanus, James, Philotheus, Hyperechius, Abibus, Julian and Paregorius, at Samosata († 297)", "short": "Martyr Romanus and companions" } }, "334": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Silvanus the Bishop, Luke the Deacon and Mocius the Reader († 312)", "short": "Martyrs Silvanus" } }, "336": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Valentine, Bishop of Interamna (terni) in Italy († c. 273) and those with him: Proculus, Eutheus, Appolonius, and Aundius", "short": "Hieromartyr Valentine" } }, "339": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Hippolytus, Pope of Rome, along with the Martyrs Censorinus and Sabinus, the Virgin Martyr Chryse and 20 other Martyrs at Ostia (3rd C)" } }, "341": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Zeno, the Faster of the Kiev Caves (14th C)" } }, "342": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Theophilus the New in Cyprus († 784)" } }, "343": { "name": { "nominative": "Right-believing Peter, King of Bulgaria († 967)" } }, "346": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Wonderworkers and Unmercenary Martyrs Cyrus and John, and together with them the Martyr Athanasia and her daughters: Theodota, Theoctista and Eudoxia at Canopus in Egypt († 311)", "short": "Unmercenaries" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy UnMercenary Cyrus was a noted physician in the city of Alexandria, where he was born and grew up. He was a Christian and he doctored all the sick for free, not only offering help for bodily ills, but healing also infirmities of soul, such as were causes of bodily sickness. Preaching the Gospel teaching, the holy physician converted many pagans to Christ. During the time of the persecution by Diocletian (284-305), Saint Cyrus withdrew into the Arabian wilderness, where he took on the monastic life, and continued there also to doctor people by his prayer, having received from God the gift to heal every sickness.
In the city of Edessa at this time lived the soldier John, a pious Christian. When the persecution started, he went to Jerusalem and there, hearing about Saint Cyrus, he began to search for him, and he went first to Alexandria and then to Arabia. Having finally found Saint Cyrus, John with all his heart became attached to him and became his faithful follower. They learned that in Egypt in the city of Canopis had been arrested the Christian Athanasia and her three young daughters: Theoktista—age 15, Theodota—age 13, and Eudoxia—age 11. Saints Cyrus and John hastened to go to them in help, worrying that fear in the face of torture might impel them to renounce Christ. They visited them in prison and gave them courage to stand what was before them. Learning of this, the governor of the city arrested Saints Cyrus and John, and convincing himself of their steadfast and fearless confession of faith in Christ, he gave them over to terrible tortures before the very eyes of Athanasia and her daughters, who in turn bravely endured all the tortures and were beheaded. After them at the same place they executed the holy UnMercenaries Cyrus and John († 311). Christians buried their bodies in a church of the holy Disciple and Evangelist Mark. In the V Century the relics of Saints Cyrus and John were transferred from Canopis to Manuphin. Later on their relics were transferred to Rome, and from there to Munchen (Munich) (an account further is located under 28June).
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O Christ God, Thou hast given us an impregnable rampart in the miracles of Thy holy martyrs. * Through their supplications destroy Thou the councils of the heather * and strengthen the scepters of kingdoms, ** in that Thou alone art good and lovest mankind.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "5" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Receiving the gift of miracles from”grace divine, * O saints, ye work wonders unceasingly * cutting down all our passions with invisible skill, * O divinely wise Cyrus and glorious John; ** for ye are divine physicians.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "347": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Nicetas of the Kiev Caves, Bishop of Novgorod († 1108)", "short": "Venerable Nicetas" }, "rank": 3, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Nicetas, Bishop of Novgorod, in his youth entered the Kievo-Kiev Caves monastery and soon wished to become an hermit. The hegumen cautioned him that such an exploit for a young monk was premature, but he trusting in his own strength would not take heed. In the hermitage Saint Nicetas fell into temptation. The devil appeared to him in the guise of an angel, and the inexperienced ascetic bowed down to him. The devil gave him advice, as it were to one having attained to perfection: “Bother not to pray, but only read and study other things, and I shall pray in place of thee,”—and he stood about the hermit, giving the appearance of seeming to pray for him. The seduced monk Nicetas came to surpass everyone in knowledge of the Books of the Old Testament, but about the Gospel he would not speak, nor wanted to hear it. The Kievo-Kiev Caves elders went to the seduced monk, and having prayed, they drove out the devil from him. After this the Monk Nicetas, remaining an hermit with the blessing of the elders, lived in strict fasting and prayer, more than anyone else practising obedience and humility. Through the prayer of the holy elders, the Merciful Lord brought him up from the depths of his fall to an high degree of spiritual perfection. Afterwards he was made bishop in Novgorod and for his holy life he was rewarded of God with a gift of wonderworking. Once during a time of drought by his prayer he brought down rain from the heavens, and another time by his prayer he stopped a conflagration in the city. Saint Nicetas guided the Novgorod flock for 13 years and he died peacefully in 1109. In 1558 during the time of tsar Ioann Vasilievich, the glorification of the saint was made. His relics now rest in the church of the holy Apostle Philip in Novgorod.
" } }, "349": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Tryphæna", "short": "Martyr Tryphæna" } }, "355": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Varlaam, the first Abbot of the Kiev Caves († 1065)", "short": "Venerable Varlaam" } }, "357": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Varlaam, Abbot of Khutinsk († 1192)", "short": "Venerable Varlaam" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "The Ven. Barlaam, in the world Alexis, was born in 1156 of pious and rich parents living in Novgorod. Having found an inclination for the monastic life in his youth, he distributed his estate to the poor after the death of his parents, and, with the name Barlaam, accepted tonsure in the Lisitsi Monastery. Wishing to practice asceticism in strict solitude, he left for Khutin, about 10 versts (6.6 miles) from Novgorod. Having built a small cell there for himself he was entirely given to prayer, fasting and labor. The glory of the asceticism of St. Barlaam soon spread in the vicinity. Both princes and boyars, monks and laymen began to come to him for conversation, and he gave each one long instruction. And many lovers of the monastic way of life wished to conduct their life under his leadership and settled around him. Ven. Barlaam built for them the Transfiguration of the Lord Monastery and cells (see the Novgorod Diocese). St. Gregory, Archbishop of Novgorod, ordained the Ven. Barlaam to the priesthood and appointed him the hegumen of the monastery. Being the hegumen of the monastery, the Ven. Barlaam \"standing all night in continual prayer\" set the high example of virtue through his life. Being taught \"in the commandments of the Lord day and night\" his \"exhaustion\" of the flesh through fasting \"and vigil\", suppressing in himself \"all carnal subtleties\" and being glorified by the Lord with the gift of wonders and insight, the Ven. Barlaam was very much respected by princes and hierarchs. He died in 1192. His relics, discovered to be incorrupt in 1452, repose in a hidden place in his monastery.
" }, "rank": 3, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Thou who, by reclining on earth, fasting and vigils didst put to death every fleshly subtlety, O Righteous one, and didst appear an inexhaustible stream of healings unto those that with faith hasten to thy relics, O Barlaam, our father; pray thou to Christ God that our souls may be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "As a second Elias, O Father, thou didst bring down rain from the heavens. For he brought down fire and awed the king, but thou didst gladden thy people and didst cause them to keep festival. Great Novgorod is thus greatly praised in thee, having thy relics in it. Do thou keep it unshaken from enemies that we may cry unto thee: Rejoice, O Righteous Barlaam, our father.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" } } } }, "362": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Barsanuphius, Bishop of Tver († 1576)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" } }, "364": { "name": { "nominative": "Prophet Baruch (6th C BC)", "short": "Prophet Baruch" } }, "365": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Apostles Bartholomew and Barnabas (1st C)", "short": "Holy Apostles" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Apostle Bartholomew was born at Cana of Galilee and was one of the Twelve Apostles of Christ. After the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, it fell by lot to the holy Apostles Bartholomew and Philip (Comm. 14 November) to preach the Gospel in Syria and Asia Minor. In their preaching they dispersed through various cities, and then met up together again. Accompanying the holy Apostle Philip was his sister, the holy virgin Saint Mariam. Traversing the cities of Syria and Myzia, they underwent much hardship and tribulations, they were stoned and they were locked up in prison. In one of the villages they met up with the Apostle John the Theologian, and together they set off to Phrygia. In the city of Hieropolis by the power of their prayers they destroyed an enormous viper, which the pagans worshipped as a god. The holy Apostles Bartholomew and Philip with his sister proved their preaching with many a miraculous sign.
At Hieropolis there lived a man by the name of Stakhios, who had been blind for 40 years. When he received healing, he then believed in Christ and was baptised. News of this spread throughout the city, and a multitude of the people thronged to the house where the apostles were staying. The sick and those beset by demons were released from their infirmities, and many were baptised. The city governor gave orders to arrest the preachers and throw them in prison, and to burn down the house of Stakhios. At the trial pagan priests came forth with the complaint, that the strangers were turning people away from the worship of the ancestral gods. Thinking that perhaps some sort of magic power was hidden away in the clothes of the apostles, the governor gave orders to strip them. But Saint Mariam began to seem like a fiery torch before their eyes, and none dared touch her. They sentenced the saints to crucifixion. The Apostle Philip was raised up on the cross upside down. But there then began an earthquake, and a fissure in the earth swallowed up the governor of the city, together with the pagan priests and many of the people. Others took fright and rushed to take down the apostles from the crosses. Since the Apostle Bartholomew had not been put up high, they managed to take him down quickly. The Apostle Philip however had died. Making Stakhios the bishop of Hieropolis, the Apostle Bartholomew and Blessed Mariam left the city and moved on.
Preaching the Word of God, Mariam arrived in Likaoneia, where she peacefully died (Comm. 17 February). The Apostle Bartholomew set off to India, and there he translated from Hebrew the Gospel of Matthew, and he converted many pagans to Christ. He visited likewise Great Armenia (the country between the River Kura and the upper stretches of the Tigrus and Euphrates Rivers), where he worked many a miracle and healed the daughter of the emperor Polimios from the demons afflicting her. The emperor in gratitude sent gifts to the apostle, who however refused to accept them, saying that he sought only for the salvation of the souls of mankind. Then Polimios together with the empress, their healed daughter and many of those close to them accepted Baptism. And people from the ten cities of Great Armenia followed their example. But through the intrigues of the pagan priests, the Apostle Bartholomew was seized by the emperor brother Astiag in the city of Al′ban (now the city of Baku), and crucified upside down. But even from the cross he did not cease to proclaim the good news about Christ the Saviour. Finally, on orders from Astiag, they flayed the skin from the Apostle Bartholomew and cut off his head. Believers placed his remains in a pewter coffin and buried him.
In about the year 508 the holy relics of the Apostle Bartholomew were transferred to Mesopotamia, to the city of Dara. When the Persians seized the city in 574, Christians took the relics of the Apostle Bartholomew with them when they fled to the shores of the Black Sea. But since the enemy overtook them there, they were compelled to leave the coffin at the sea. By the power of God the coffin miraculously arrived on the island of Lipara. In the IX Century, after the taking of the island by the Arabs, the holy relics were transferred to the Neapolitan city of Beneventum in Italy, and in the X Century part of the relics were transferred to Rome.
There is mention about the holy Apostle Bartholomew in the Vita of Joseph the Melodist († 883, Comm. 4 April). Having received from a certain man part of the relics of the Apostle Bartholomew, the Monk Joseph conveyed them to his own monastery near Constantinople, and he built a church in the name of the Apostle Bartholomew, placing therein part of the relics. The Monk Joseph ardently desired to compile a laudation in song in honour of the saint, and he fervently besought God to grant him the ability to do so. On the feastday in memory of the Apostle Bartholomew, the Monk Joseph caught sight of him at the altar. He beckoned to Joseph and took the holy Gospel from the altar-table and pressed it to his bosom with the words: “Bless thou the Lord, and let thine song delight the world.” And from that time the Monk Joseph began to write hymns and canons and with them adorn not only the feastday of the Apostle Bartholomew, but also the feastdays of many other saints,—compiling altogether about 300 canons. Saints John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, Epiphanios of Cyprus and certain other teachers of the Church regard the Apostle Bartholomew as being one and the same person as Nathanæl (Jn. 1: 45-51, 21: 2).
The Holy Disciple Barnabas was born on the island of Cyprus into the family of rich Hebrews, and he was named Joseph. He received his education at Jerusalem, being raised with his friend and co-student Saul (the future Apostle Paul) under the then reknown teacher of the law, Gamaliel. Joseph was pious, he frequented the Temple, he strictly observed the fasts and avoided youthful distractions. And during this time period our Lord Jesus Christ began His public ministry. Seeing the Lord and hearing His Divine Words, Joseph believed on Him as the Messiah, he was ardent with love for Him and followed Him. The Lord chose him to be among His Seventy Disciples. And it was amongst the followers of the Lord that Joseph received a second name—Barnabas, which in Hebrew means “son of consolation.” After the Ascension of the Lord to Heaven, Barnabas sold land belonging to him near Jerusalem and he brought the money to the feet of the Apostles, leaving nothing for himself (Acts 4: 36-37).
When Saul after his conversion arrived in Jerusalem and sought to join with the followers of Christ, everyone there was afraid of him as having been a persecutor but a short while before. Barnabas however came with him to the Apostles and reported, how the Lord had appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9: 26-28).
As entrusted him by the Apostles, Saint Barnabas went to Antioch to encourage the believers: “Having come and having seen the grace of God, he rejoiced and he urged all to cleave to the Lord with sincerity of heart” (Acts 11: 23). Then the Disciple Barnabas went to Tarsis, and thereafter he brought the Apostle Paul to Antioch, where for about a year they taught the people in the Church. It was here that the disciples first began to be called Christians (Acts 11: 26). With the onset of famine, and taking along generous alms, Paul and Barnabas returned to Jerusalem. When king Herod killed the Apostle James Zebedæus, and to please the Jews had the Apostle Peter put under guard in prison, Saints Barnabas and Paul and Peter were led out of the prison by an Angel of the Lord, and they hid out at the house of Barnabas’ aunt Maria. Later, when the persecution had quieted down, they returned to Antioch, taking with them Maria’s son John, surnamed Mark. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the prophets and teachers there imposed hands upon Barnabas and Paul, and sent them off on matters to which the Lord had summoned them (Acts 13: 2-3). Arriving in Seleucia, they sailed off to Cyprus and in the city of Salamis they preached the Word of God in the Jewish synagogues. On Paphos they came across a sorcerer and false-prophet named Barjesus, who was close with the proconsul Sergios. Wanting to hear the Word of God, the proconsul invited the saints to come to him. The sorcerer attempted to sway the proconsul from the faith, but the Apostle Paul denounced the sorcerer, who through his words suddenly fell blind. The proconsul believed in Christ (Acts 13: 6-12). From Paphos Barnabas and Paul set sail for Pergamum Pamphylia, and then they preached to the Jews and the Gentiles at Pisidian Antioch and throughout all that region. The Jews made a riot and expelled Paul and Barnabas. The saints arrived in Iconium, but learning that the Jews wanted to stone them, they withdrew to Lystra and Derben. There the Apostle Paul healed a man, crippled in the legs from birth. The people assumed them to be the gods Zeus and Hermes and wanted to offer them sacrifice. The saints just barely persuaded them not to do this (Acts 14: 8-18).
When the question arose, whether those converted from the Gentiles should accept circumcision, Barnabas and Paul set off to Jerusalem. There they were warmly received by the Apostles and elders. The preachers related, “what God had wrought with them and how He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles “Acts 14: 27). After long deliberations the Apostles collectively resolved not to impose upon Gentile-Christians any sort of burden beyond that necessary—to refrain from idol-sacrifice and its blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication, and not to do to others that which they themselves not do (Acts 15: 19-20). Letters were dispatched with Barnabas and Paul, and they again evangelised at Antioch, and after a certain while they decided to visit the other cities, where earlier they had preached. The Disciple Barnabas wanted to take Mark along with him, but the Apostle Paul did not want to, since earlier he had gone off from them. A quarrel arose, and they separated. Paul took with him Silas and set off to Syria and Cilicia, and Barnabas took with him Mark—to Cyprus (Acts 15: 36-41).
Having multiplied the number of believers, the Disciple Barnabas set off to Rome, where he was perhaps the first to preach Christ.
The Disciple Barnabas founded the episcopal seat at Mediolanum (now Milan in Italy), and upon his return to Cyprus he continued to preach about Christ the Saviour. Thereupon the enraged Jews incited the pagans against Saint Barnabas, and they led him out beyond the city and stoned him, and then built a bon-fire so as to burn the body. Later on, having come upon this spot, Mark took up the unharmed body of the Disciple Barnabas and buried it in a cave, placing upon the bosom of Saint Barnabas, in accord with his final wishes, the Gospel of Matthew copied out in his own hand.
The Disciple Barnabas died in about the year 62, at age 76. Over the course of time the place of burial of the Disciple Barnabas was forgotten. But numerous signs appeared at this place. In the year 448, during the time of the emperor Zeno, the Disciple Barnabas thrice appeared in a dram-vision to the Cyprus archbishop Anthymos and indicated the place of burial of his relics. Starting to dig at the indicated spot, Christians found the incorrupt body of the saint, and upon his chest was the Holy Gospel. It was from these times that the Cyprus Church began to be termed Apostolic in origin and received the right of autonomously choosing its head. And thus the Disciple Barnabas defended Cyprus against the pretensions of the opponent of the Fourth Œcumenical Council, the heretic surnamed Knapheios, who had usurped the patriarchal throne at Antioch and sought to gain dominion over the Cyprus Church.
" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O holy apostles * entreat the merciful God ** that He grant to our souls remission of transgressions.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thou wast a most true servant of the Lord, * and, as the foremost of the seventy apostles, * didst shine forth in thy preaching with Paul, * proclaiming Christ the Savior unto all; ** wherefore, with songs we hymn thy divine memory, O Barnabas.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" }, "KONTAKION/2": { "text": "Thou hast been shown to be a great sun for the whole world, * shining with the radiance of doctrines and awesome miracles, ** and illuminating those who honor thee, O Bartholemew, apostle of the Lord.
", "Type": "2", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "368": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Perpetua, a woman of Carthage, and the Catechumens: Saturus, Revocatus, Saturninus, Secundulus, Felicitas († c. 202-203)", "short": "Martyr Perpetua and companions" } }, "369": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Tryphon of Campsada near Apamea in Syria († 250)", "short": "Martyr Tryphon" } }, "370": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Bendimianus, Hermit of Bithynia († c. 512)", "short": "Venerable Bendimianus" } }, "373": { "name": { "short": "Meeting", "nominative": "The Meeting of our Lord, God, and Saviour Jesus Christ in the Temple", "cmd": "doy != 31" }, "rank": 7 }, "378": { "name": { "nominative": "Righteous Basil of Mangazea († 1600)", "short": "Righteous Basil" } }, "379": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Basil of Moscow, the Fool-for-Christ († 1557)", "short": "Blessed Basil" }, "rank": 3 }, "380": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Blaise of Cæsarea (3rd C)", "short": "Martyr Blaise" } }, "381": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Basil, Bishop of Zakholmsk and Ostrog in Montenegro († 1671) (Serb.)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" } }, "382": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Isidore of Pelusium († 436-440)", "short": "Venerable Isidore" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Isidor Pelusiotes lived during the IV-V Centuries. He was a native of Alexandria, and was raised amidst pious Christians. He was a kinsman of Theophilos, Archbishop of Alexandria, and of his successor, Saint Cyril. While still a youth he quit the world and withdrew within Egypt to Mount Pelusiotes, which became the site of his monastic efforts. The spiritual wisdom and strict asceticism of the Monk Isidor, in combination with his broad erudition and innate knowledge of the human soul, allowed him in a short while to win the respect and love of his fellow monks. They chose him as their head and had him elevated to the dignity of presbyter. Following the example of Saint John Chrysostom, whom he had managed to see and hear during the time of a journey to Constantinople, the Monk Isidor devoted himself primarily to Christian preaching,—that “practical wisdom” which, in his own words, is both “the foundation of the edifice and the edifice itself,” while at the same time logic is “its embellishment” and contemplation—its crown.” He was a teacher and a willing giver of counsel for anyone recoursing to him for spiritual encouragement: whether it be a simple man, a dignitary, a bishop, the Patriarch of Alexandria or even the emperor himself. He left after him about 10,000 writings, of which 2,090 have survived. A large portion of these writings are profound in theological thought and contain morally edifying interpretations of Holy Scripture. It is here that the Monk Isidor stands out as the finest disciple of Saint John Chrysostom. The love and devotion of the Monk Isidor for Saint John Chrysostom resulted in decisive acts in defense of Saint John during the time of his persecution by the empress Eudoxia and archbishop Theophilos. After the death of Saint John, the Monk Isidor persuaded Theophilos’ successor Saint Cyril to inscribe the name of Saint John Chrysostom into the Church diptyches as a confessor. And through the initiative of the Monk Isidor was convened the Third Œcumenical Council at Ephesus (431), at which was condemned the false-teachings of Nestorius concerning the Person of Jesus Christ.
The Monk Isidor lived into old age and died in about the year 436. The Church historian Euagrios (Evagrius, VI Century) writes about the Monk Isidor, that “his life seemed to everyone the life of an angel upon the earth.” Another historian, Nicholas Kallistos (IX Century), praises the Monk Isidor thus: “He was a vital and inspired pillar of monastic rules and Divine vision and as such he presented a very lofty image of most fervent example and spiritual teaching.”
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In thee, O father, that which was created according to the image of God was manifestly saved. * For accepting thy cross thou didst follow after Christ, * and praying thou didst learn to disdain the flesh, * for thou didst transcend it to take care of thine immortal soul. ** Wherefore, with the angels doth thy soul rejoice, O venerable Isidore.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "The Church, finding thee to be another morning-star, O all-glorious one, * crieth out to thee, illumined by the lightning-flashes of thy words: ** Rejoice, O most blessed and divinely wise Isidore!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "386": { "name": { "nominative": "Right-believing Prince Basil (Vasilko) of Rostov († 1238)", "short": "Right-believing Prince" } }, "387": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Abraham and Coprius of Pechenga (15th C)", "short": "Venerable Abraham" } }, "388": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Abraham Bishop of Arbela in Assyria († c. a 344-347)", "short": "Hieromartyr Abraham" } }, "389": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Nicholas the Confessor, Abbot of the Studion Monastery († 868)", "short": "Venerable Nicholas" } }, "390": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Symeon the Ancient of Syria († c. 390)", "short": "Venerable Symeon" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Simeon the Ancient was called this in distinction from the Monk Simeon the Stylite (Comm. 1 September). He practised asceticism in Syria in the V Century, and in his childhood years went out into the Syrian wilderness and settled in a cave in complete solitude. Constant prayer, inner meditation and thought about God were his constant occupation. The ascetic ate only the grass which grew about his cave. When people began to come to him to receive guidance, he in wishing to preserve his silence left his cave and settled on one of the mountains of the Aman range. But here also his ascetic solitude was disturbed by a throng of visitors. The Monk Simeon then withdrew onto Mount Sinai, where formerly the Prophet Moses (Comm. 4 September) received revelation from God. By Divine Providence, after a short stay on Sinai the holy ascetic returned to Aman and founded two monasteries: one at the top of the mountain, the other at its base. Being head of these monasteries, the Monk Simeon spiritually guided the monks, warning them about the wiles of the enemy of humankind, and he taught them to struggle against temptations. He inspired and encouraged them in ascetic deeds, rousing them to meditate about salvation. Because of the holiness of his life the Monk Simeon received of God the gift of grace-abundant wonderworking. After the many toils of his ascetic life the Monk Simeon expired to God in about the year 390.
" } }, "391": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Basiliscus the Bishop of Comana († c. 308)", "short": "Martyr Basiliscus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyr Basiliskos was a nephew of the holy Martyr Theodore of Tyre (Comm. 17 February), and he suffered together with his brothers Eutropios and Kleonikos during the time of persecution against Christians under the emperor Maximian Galerius (305-311). The holy Martyrs Kleonikos and Eutropios were crucified on crosses (Comm. 3 March), but the Martyr Basiliskos was dispatched to Comana where he was detained in prison. The governor Agrippa, having arrived in the city of Amasia, started up there also the persecution against Christians. And Saint Basiliskos in prison readied himself for the impending martyr’s deed. The Lord appeared to him in a dream, promising the martyr His help, and foretold him his martyr’s end at Comana. Saint Basiliskos asked the prison guards to release him to his native village to take farewell of his kinsfolk. They sent him off, since they respected him for his holy life and working of miracles. Arriving home, Saint Basiliskos gathered together with his kinsfolk, and was seen by them one last time, and he urged them to stand firmly in the faith.
When Agrippa learned, that Saint Basiliskos had set off to his kinsfolk, he went into a rage. He viciously chastised the prison guards, and he sent a detachment of soldiers after the martyr, headed by a cruel magistrianum (adjutant of the governor). Meeting up with Saint Basiliskos who at this time was actually heading on his way back, the magistrianum slapped heavy chains on him, and shod on his feet metal sandals with nails driven into the soles, and set off to Comana.
Having come to a certain village, over the hot noon-day the travellers stayed at the house of a woman named Troana. The soldiers went into the house to relax and refresh with food, and the holy Martyr Basiliskos they tied to a dry tree. Standing in the heavy chains beneath the scorching sun, the saint prayed to God. Suddenly was heard the Voice from above: “Fear not, for I am with thee.” The earth shook, and from the fissure issued forth a spring of water. The magistrianum, together with the soldiers and Troana, frightened by the earthquake, rushed out of the house. And shaken by the miracle which had taken place, they set free the martyr. Sick people from the village came up to the holy martyr and received healing through his prayer.
When the martyr finally stood before Agrippa, he was commanded to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods. The martyr replied: “I offer up to God a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving every hour.” They led him into a pagan-temple, where in a instant upon Saint Basiliskos there came down from Heaven a flash of fire, which burned the temple, and reduced the idols standing in it to dust. Then in a blind rage Agrippa gave orders to behead Saint Basiliskos, and throw his body into the river. The death of the martyr occurred in the year 308. Christians quickly gathered the remains of the holy martyr and by night they secretly buried them in a ploughed-up field. After a certain while upon this spot was built a church in the name of the holy Martyr Basiliskos, into which they transferred his relics. Through the prayers of the holy martyr healings began to occur. The holy martyr appeared in a dream to Saint John Chrysostomos (Comm. 13 November) before his death at Comana and said to him: “Tomorrow we shalt be together.” Saint Eusignios (Comm. 5 August) was an eye-witness to his sufferings and told the world about the exploit of the holy Martyr Basiliskos.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thou wast shown to be mighty and manly in suffering and all-wondrous in miracles, * and, manifestly bearing forth the name of Christ, thou didst put the tyrant to shame, * Wherefore, we honor thee, O most-honored Basiliscus, ever crying: ** Rejoice, O splendid adornment of martyrs!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "393": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Theodoula of Anazarbus in Cilicia, and with her Martyrs Helladius, Macarius, Boethus, and Evagrius († c. 304)", "short": "Martyr Theodoula" } }, "394": { "name": { "nominative": "Spruce (Eletsky) Icon found in Chernigov (1060) and the “In Search of the Perishing” Icon of the Mother of God", "short": "Icons of the Mother of God" } }, "398": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Bucolus, Bishop of Smyrna († c. 100)", "short": "Saint Bucolus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Bucolus, Bishop of Smyrna, was a disciple of the holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, and was established by him as the first bishop of the Smyrna Church (Asia Minor).
By the grace of God, Saint Bucolus converted to Christ and baptised many of the pagans, and as an experienced and wise guide he defended his flock from the darkness of heresy. He died at peace in about the years 100-105. He passed his flock on to SaintPolycarp (Comm. 23 February), one of the apostolic fathers, who likewise was a disciple of the holy Apostle John the Theologian. At the grave of Saint Bucolus grew a myrtle tree, which healed the sick.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "The truth of things revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, * a model of meekness and a teacher of abstinence * wherefore thou hast attained the heights through humility * and riches through poverty. ** O hierarch Bucolus our father, entreat Christ God that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "399": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Barsanuphius the Great and Venerable John the Prophet (6th C)", "short": "Venerable Barsanuphius and John" } }, "401": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-martyrs Dorothy and two sisters - Christina and Callista - and the Martyr Theophilus at Cæsarea in Cappadocia († c. 288-300)", "short": "Virgin-martyr Dorothy and companions" } }, "402": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Julian of Emesa († 312)", "short": "Martyr Julian" } }, "403": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-martyr Fausta and with her, Evilasius and Maximus, at Cyzicus († c. 305-311)", "short": "Virgin-martyr Fausta" } }, "404": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Martha, Mary, and their brother Lycarion", "short": "Martyrs Martha" } }, "405": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople (9th C)", "short": "Saint Photius" } }, "406": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Benjamin the Deacon of Persia († 421-424)", "short": "Martyr Benjamin" } }, "407": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Benjamin, Metropolitan of Petrograd and Gdovsk († 1922) and those with him: Archimandrite Sergius and the laymen: Yuri and John", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "408": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Benjamin of the Kiev Caves (14th C)", "short": "Venerable Benjamin" } }, "409": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Parthenius, Bishop of Lampsacus on the Hellespont (4th C)", "short": "Saint Parthenius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Parthenias, Bishop of Lampsaka, was a native of the city of Melitopolis (Asia Minor), where his father Christopher served as deacon. The youth was not learned at grammar, but he well assimilated the Holy Scripture by being present in church for Divine-services. He possessed a good heart, and the money he earned working as a fisherman he distributed to the poor. Filled with the grace of God, Saint Parthenias from age 18 in the Name of Christ healed the sick, cast out demons and worked other miracles. Learning about the virtuous life of the youth, the Melitopolis bishop Philip gave him an education and ordained him presbyter. In the year 325 during the reign of Constantine the Great, the Kysikhos archbishop Achilles made him bishop of the city of Lampsaka (Asia Minor). In the city were many pagans, and the saint fervently began to spread the faith in Christ, affirming it by the will of God through many miracles and healings of the sick. The people began to forsake their pagan manners of belief, and the saint then went to the emperor Constantine the Great with a petition to tear down the idolous pagan-temple and build in its place a Christian church. The emperor received the saint with honour, gave him the edict for the destruction of the pagan-temple, and furnished him means for the building of a church. Returning to Lampsaka, Saint Parthenias gave orders to tear down the idolous pagan-temple and to erect amidst the city a beautiful church of God.
Having found in one of the torn-down temples a large stone suitable to be made the holy altar-table in the church, the saint gave orders to set to work about it and move it for the construction of the church. Through the malice of the devil, which became enraged at the removal of the stone from the pagan-temple, the cart overturned and killed the driver Eutykhion. Saint Parthenias restored him to life by his prayer and shamed the devil, who wanted to frustrate the work of God.
The kindly saint was so great, that he refused healing to no one of the multitude coming to him or who chanced to meet him by the wayside, whether suffering bodily illnesses or afflicted with unclean spirits. People even stopped going to physicians, since Saint Parthenias healed all the sick for free, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. With the great power of the Name of Christ the saint banished an host of demons from people, from their homes, and from the waters of the sea. When the saint cast out a devil from a certain man, who had been afflicted by it since childhood, the unclean spirit began to implore the saint to give him another place of habitation. The saint promised to indicate such a place and, having opened his mouth, said to the demon: “Come and dwell in me.” The demon, as though stung by fire, cried out: “How canst I go into the house of God?,” and vanished off into places desolate and untrodden. An unclean spirit, cast out from the house where the imperial porphyry-dye was prepared, cried out for everyone to hear, that a Divine fire was pursuing him with the fire of Gehenna.
Thus, have shown people the great power of faith in Christ, the saint converted a multitude of idol-worshippers to the true God.
Saint Parthenias died peacefully and was solemnly buried alongside the cathedral church of Lampsaka, in a chapel built by him.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O God of our fathers, * deal with us ever according to Thy meekness. * Deprive us not of Thy mercy, * but through their supplications ** direct our life in peace.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thou didst receive the divine grace of miracles, * O sacred Parthenius of godly wisdom, God-bearing wonder, * cleansing the faithful of all the passions and dispelling spirits of wickedness, O father. * Wherefore, we hymn thee as a great initiate ** of the mysteries of the grace of God.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "410": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Luke of Hellas († c. 946)", "short": "Venerable Luke" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Luke of Hellas was a native of the Greek village of Kastoria. The son of poor farmers, the saint from childhood had toiled much, working in the fields and shepherding the sheep. He was very obedient to his parents and very temperate in eating. He often gave the poor his own food and clothing, for which he suffered reproach from his parents. Once he gave to the poor almost all the seed which was needed for planting in the fields, but the Lord rewarded him for his charity: the harvest gathered was greater than formerly.
While still a youth he prayed both often and fervently. His mother more than once saw him during the time of prayer standing, not on the ground but in the air.
After the death of his father, he went off secretly from his mother to Athens, where he entered a monastery. But through the prayers of his mother, who was very anxiously concerned about him, the Lord in miraculous manner returned him to his parental home. He spent a whole four months there and having comforted his mother, with her blessing he went off to a solitary place on Mount Joannikes. Here there was a church in the name of the holy Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian, at which he pursued asceticism in constant prayer and fasting. He accepted monastic tonsure there from elders on pilgrimage. After this Saint Luke redoubled his ascetic efforts, for which the Lord granted him the gift of foresight.
After a seven year sojourn on Mount Joannikes, the monk resettled at Corinth because of an invasion of Bulgarian armies. Hearing about the exploits of a certain pillar-dweller at Patras, he journeyed off to him and for 10 years he served the ascetic with humility and obedience. Afterwards, the saint returned again to his native land and again began to pursue asceticism on Mount Joannikes.
The throngs of people flocking there disturbed his quietude, and with the blessing of his elder Theophylaktos, the Monk Luke set off with his disciple to a still more remote place at Kalabios, and from there after three years because of an invasion of Arabs he settled on the desolate and arid island of Ampilos. A later place of his ascetic efforts was Stirea (Soterieia). Here brethren gathered to the monk, and there emerged a small monastery, the church of which was dedicated to the Great Martyress Barbara. Dwelling in the monastery, the monk worked many miracles, healing sicknesses both of soul and of body. Foreseeing his end, the saint confined himself in a cell and for three months prepared himself for his departure. To the question of where to bury him, the monk answered: “Throw my body for the devouring by beasts.” When the brethren besought him to change his final instructions, he commanded them to bury his body on the spot where he lay. With the words: “Into Thine hands, O Lord, I give up my spirit!”—the Monk Luke reposed in the Lord on 7 February 946. Afterwards on the place of his burial was erected a church, and from his holy relics flowed myrh and many healings occurred.
" }, "rank": 1 }, "411": { "name": { "nominative": "1,003 Martyrs of Nicomedia († 303)", "short": "1,003 Martyrs" } }, "414": { "name": { "nominative": "Prophet Zechariah, from among the 12 Minor Prophets († c. 520 BC)", "short": "Prophet Zechariah" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Prophet Zechariah (Zakhariah) the Sickle-Seer from amongst the 12Minor Prophets was descended from the Levite tribe, called in the Book of Nehemiah-Ezra the chief priestly lineage. He was called to prophetic service at a young age and became, in the wondrous expression of churchly song, “a spectator of supra-worldly visions.” In particular within the Book of the Prophet Zechariah there is contained inspired details about the coming of the Messiah (6: 12); about the last days of the earthly life of the Saviour, and about the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem on a young donkey (9:9); about the betrayal of the Lord for 30 pieces of silver and the purchase with them of the potter’s field (11: 12-13); about the piercing of the side of the Saviour (12: 10); about the scattering of the apostles from the Garden of Gethsemane (13: 7); about the sun’s eclipse at the time of the sufferings on the Cross of the Saviour (14: 6-7). “Enlightened by dawnings all above,” the Prophet Zechariah “saw the future as the presently existing.” According to tradition, this “most true God-proclaimer” lived to old age and was buried not far from Jerusalem, alongside his illustrious contemporary and companion the Prophet Haggai. The title “Sickle-Seer” given Zechariah is connected to one of the revelations to him, in which he saw a scroll flying in the air, curved to the likeness of a menacing sickle (5: 1-2).
" }, "rank": 1 }, "419": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyrs Marcellus, Bishop of Syracuse in Sicily; Philagrius, Bishop of Cyprus; and Pancratius Bishop of Tauromenium (1st C)", "short": "Hieromartyr Marcellus and companions" } }, "421": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Charalampus, Bishop of Magnesia in Thessaly, and the Martyrs Porphyrius, Baptus and 3 Women Martyrs († 202)", "short": "Hieromartyr Charalampus and companions" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Hieromartyr Charalampus, Bishop of Magnezia, the Martyrs Porphyrius and Baptus and the Three Martyresses suffered in the year 202.
Saint Charalampus, bishop of the Thessalonian city of Magnezia (northwest region of Greece), successfully spread faith in Christ the Saviour. News about his preaching reached the governor of the district Lucian and the military-commander Lucius. The saint was arrested and brought to trial, where he firmly confessed his faith in Christ and refused to offer sacrifice to idols. Despite the decrepit age of the bishop (he was already 113 years of age), they subjected him to monstrous tortures: they lacerated his body with iron hooks, while they scourged all his skin from head to foot. During this the saint turned to his tormentors: “I bless you, brethren, ye have restored my spirit!”
Having seen the endurance of the elder and his complete lack of malice, two soldiers—Porphyrius and Baptus openly confessed Christ, for which they were immediately beheaded with a sword. Being present at the sufferings of bishop Charalampus were likewise three women who began to glorify Christ and were quickly martyred.
The enraged Lucius himself seized hold of the instruments of torture and began to tear at the priest-martyr, but suddenly his hand was cut off as though by a sword. Also arriving at the place of execution the governor spat in the face of the saint, and immediately he bent backwards. Then Lucius began to beseech the saint for forgiveness, and through his prayer both torturers at once received healing. During this a multitude of witnesses came to believe in Christ. Among them also was Lucius, who fell at the feet of the holy elder, begging forgiveness.
Lucian reported about the occurrence to the emperor Septimus Severus (193-211), situated at this time at Pisidian Antioch (western part of Asia Minor). The emperor gave orders to bring Saint Charlampios to him, and this was done with a stupid ferocity: they dragged the priest-martyr, having tied a rope to his beard. The emperor then gave orders to torture the bishop more intensely, and they began to burn at him with fire. But the Power of God aided to the saint, and he remained unharmed. Besides this, miracles were done through his prayer: he raised up a dead youth, and healed a demoniac tormented by devils for 35 years, so that the people in a multitude began to believe in Christ the Saviour. Even Galina the daughter of the emperor began to believe in Christ, and twice smashed idols in a pagan temple. By order of the emperor they beat the saint with stones about the mouth, and they wanted to set afire his beard, from which the flames went forth burning the torturer. Full of wickedness, Septimus Severus and his dignitary Crispus hurled blasphemy at the Lord, mockingly summoning Him to come down to the earth, and bragging of their own power and might. In wrath the Lord quaked the earth, great fear fell upon all, both the impious ones were suspended in mid-air held by invisible bounds, and only by the prayer of the saint were they put down. The dazed emperor was shaken in his former impiety, but again quickly fell into error and gave orders to torture the saint. And finally, he sentenced him to beheading with a sword. During the time of his final prayer, the saint was vouchsafed to behold the Saviour Himself and besought Him to grant that place where his remains would repose, in peace, would be fruitful for people, bringing forgiveness of sins and salvation. The Lord promised to fulfill the request and ascended to heaven, bearing with Him the soul of the priestmartyr Charalampus—who through the mercy of God accepted a peaceful death before execution. The daughter of the emperor, blessed Galina, buried the body of the martyr with great honour.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In his suffering, O Lord, * Thy martyr Charalampus received an imperishable crown from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * he set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By his supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Perfected by the grace of the priesthood, O glorious one, * thou didst splendidly adorn the Church with thy divine suffering, * which, rejoicing, thou didst manfully accept for Chris”s sake, * O Charalampus, thou honored beacon of the whole world, ** illumining the ends of the earth, in that thou art invincible.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "424": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Longinus of Koryazhemka († 1540)", "short": "Venerable Longin" } }, "430": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Vladimir, Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia († 1918)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "431": { "name": { "nominative": "Righteous Empress Theodora, Restorer of the Veneration of Holy Icons († ca 867)", "short": "Righteous Empress" } }, "432": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Prince Vladimir Yaroslavich of Novgorod, the Wonderworker († 1052), and his mother Princess Anna", "short": "Blessed Prince" } }, "435": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Blaise, Bishop of Sebaste († c. 316)", "short": "Hieromartyr Blaise" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Hieromartyr Blaise (Blasios), Bishop of Sebasteia, was known for his righteous and pious life. He was unanimously chosen by the people and ordained bishop of Sebasteia. This occurred during the reign of the Roman emperors Diocletian (284-305) and Licinius (307-324)—fierce persecutors of Christians. Saint Blaise had to encourage his flock, visit the imprisoned, and give support to the martyrs.
Many hid themselves away from the persecutors by going off into desolate and solitary places. Saint Blaise likewise took the opportunity to hide himself away on Mount Argeos, where he asceticised in a cave. Wild beasts came up to him and meekly waited until the saint finished his prayer and gave them blessing; the saint likewise healed sick animals by laying his hands upon them. The refuge of the saint was discovered by servants of the governor Agricolaus, being in the area to snare wild beasts to use to tear apart the Christian martyrs. The servants reported to their master that Christians were hidden away on the mountain, and he gave orders to arrest them. But those sent out found there only the Sebasteia bishop. Glorifying God Who had summoned him to this exploit, Saint Blaise followed the soldiers.
Along the way the saint healed the sick and worked other miracles. Thus, a destitute widow complained to him of her misfortune: a wolf had carried off her only possession—a small pig. The bishop smiled and said to her: “Weep not, thine piglet wilt be returned to thee….” And actually to the astonishment of everyone, the wolf came running back and returned his booty unharmed.
Agricolaus, greeting the bishop with words of deceit, called him a companion of the gods. The saint answered the greeting, but the gods he called devils. Then they gave him a fierce beating and led him off to prison.
On the next day they again subjected the saint to tortures. When they led him back to the prison, seven women went along behind and gathered up the drops of blood. These they arrested and tried to compel them to worship the idols. The women in pretending to consent to this said, that they needed cleansing beforehand in the waters of a lake. They took along the idols and submerged them in a very deep portion of the lake, and after this the Christians were fiercely tortured. The saints stoically endured the torments, strengthened by the grace of God, their bodies were transformed and became white like snow, and together with the blood there flowed what seemed like milk. One of the women had two young sons, who implored their mother that she help them attain the Kingdom of Heaven and she entrusted them into the care of Saint Blaise. The seven holy women were then beheaded.
Saint Blaise was again brought before Agricolaus, and again he unflinchingly confessed his faith in Christ. The governor gave orders to throw the martyr into a lake. The saint, going down to the water, signed himself with the Sign of the Cross, and he went about on it as though on dry land. Addressing the pagans standing about on shore, he challenged them to come to him whilst calling on the help of their gods. To this, 68 men of the governor’s retinue made bold and entered the water, and all immediately drowned. The saint, however, heeding the Angel that had appeared to him, returned to shore.
Agricolaus was in a rage over having lost his finest servants, and he gave orders to behead Saint Blaise, and together with him the two boys entrusted to him, the sons of the martyress. Before death, the priestmartyr prayed for all the whole world, and especially for those honouring his memory. This occurred in about the year 316. The relics of the Hieromartyr Blaise were carried off to the West during the time of the Crusades, and portions of the relics are preserved in many of the lands of Europe [and his memory traditionally honoured there on 3 February].
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "As thou didst share in the ways of the apostles * and didst occupy their throne, * thou didst find thine activity to be a passage to divine vision, * O divinely inspired one. * Wherefore, ordering the word of truth, * thou didst suffer for the Faith even to the shedding of thy blood. ** O hieromartyr Blaise, entreat Christ God, that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "O God-bearing Blaise, * divine offshoot, unfading blossom, * much-suffering branch of the vine of Christ: * with thy gladness fill those who honor thy memory, ** praying unceasingly in behalf of us all.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" }, "KONTAKION/2": { "text": "With the anointing of the priesthood and the blood of martyrdom * wast thou adorned, O glorious Blaise; * and, joining chorus, thou shinest in the highest, * watching over those who come to thy temple ** and therein unceasingly cry out to thee: Preserve us all!
", "Type": "2", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "436": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Anthony, Patriarch of Constantinople († 895)", "short": "Saint Anthony" } }, "437": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Boniface at Tarsus in Cilicia and the Righteous Aglae (Aglaida) of Rome († 290)", "short": "Martyr Boniface" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "He was a servant of a wealthy Roman woman, Aglae by name, with whom he lived a dissolute life. Previously suffering from an affliction of infatuation to a fault, he subsequently “was revealed a confessor and glorious sufferer in the name of the Lord.” When his mistress sent him to the East for martyr’s relics, Boniface there witnessed the suffering of Christians, accepted the Christian faith and for this he was tortured and beheaded in Tarsus. His companions brought his body to Rome in 290. They enshrined the relics of the holy martyr in the temple they raised up for the purpose.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Of thine own will thou didst bring thyself as an unblemished sacred offering * to Him Who was born of the Virgin for thy sak, ** O all-wise Boniface, holy crown-bearer.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "438": { "name": { "short": "Holy Right-believing", "nominative": "Holy Right-believing Prince Vsevolod (in Baptism Gabriel), Wonderworker of Pskov († 1138)" }, "rank": 2, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Holy Nobleborn Prince Vsevolod of Pskov, in Baptism Gabriel (Gavriil), a grandson of Vladimir Monomakh, was born at and spent almost all his life in Novgorod, where in the years 1088-1093 and 1095-1117 his father ruled as prince. His father was the holy prince Saint Mstislav-Theodore (Feodor) the Great († April 15, 1132). In the year 1117, when Great-prince Vladimir Monomakh gave Mstislav Kievan Belgorod as his “udel” (land-holding), practically making him coruler, young Vsevolod remained as vicar of his father in the Novgorod principality.
Holy Prince Vsevolod did much good for Novgorod. Together with the Archbishop of Novgorod, Saint Nyphontii (Comm. April 8), he raised up many a church, among which were—the cathedral of the Great Martyr George at the St. George’s (Yur′ev) monastery, and the church of Saint John the Forerunner at Opokakh, built in honour of the “Angel” (i.e. “patron saint”) of his first-born son John, who had died in infancy († 1128). In his Law-code (Ustav) the prince bestowed a deed of privileges (grammota) to the cathedral of Saint Sophia and other churches. During the time of a terrible famine, to save people from perishing, he exhausted his entire treasury. Prince Vsevolod was a valiant warrior, he marched victoriously against the Yam (in 1123) and Chud peoples, but never did he brandish the sword for profit or power.
In 1132, upon the death of holy Great-prince Mstislav, Vsevolod’s uncle, the Kiev prince Yaropolk Vladimirovich followed up the last-wishes of his brother and transferred Vsevolod Pereyaslavl′-South, then reckoned the eldest city after Kiev itself. But the younger sons of Monomakh—Yurii Dolgoruky and Andrei Dobry—were apprehensive lest Yaropolk make Vsevolod his successor, and so they marched out against their nephew. Not wanting internecine strife, Saint Vsevolod returned to Novgorod, but was received there with disaffection. The Novgorodians reckoned, that the prince had been “raised” by them and should not earlier have left them. “Vsevolod did go to Rus′, to Pereslavl′,—noted the Novgorod chronicler—and did kiss the cross against the Novgorodians, saying, ‘Ye I would kill.’”
Striving to restore good relations with the Novgorodians, the prince in 1133 undertook a new victorious campaign against the Chud people, and he annexed Yur′ev to the Novgorod domain. But a harsh Winter campaign in 1135-1136 against Suzdal′ ended unsuccessfully. The stubborn minded Novgorodians would not heed their chastisement by God, and they could not forgive the prince their defeat. The municipal assembly (veche) decided to summon a prince from the hostile Monomakh line of the Ol′govichei, and Saint Vsevolod they condemned to banishment: “Thou didst suffer banishment from thine own,”—is sung in the tropar to the saint. For a month and an half they held the prince with his family under guard at the archbishop’s palace, and when prince Svyatoslav Ol′govich arrived, he was expelled from the city.
Vsevolod went again to Kiev, and his uncle Yaropolk gave him as holding the Vyshgorod district near Kiev, the place where in the tenth Century during the rule of Svyatoslav had lived holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Great-princess Olga (Comm. 11 July). Saint Olga, “well preferring the cities of Kiev and Pskov,” came to the defence of her unrighteously wronged descendant: in the following year of 1137 the people of Pskov, mindful of the campaigns of the Novgorod-Pskov army under the lead of the prince, invited him to the Pskov principality, the native region of Saint Olga. This was the first Pskov prince, chosen through the will of the Pskov people itself.
Among the glorious works of holy prince Saint Vsevolod-Gabriel at Pskov was the construction of the first stone church in the Name of the Life-Originating Trinity, replacing a wooden one from the times of Saint Olga. On the icons of the saint they often depict him holding a temple “of That Above—the Holy Trinity.”
Saint Vsevolod ruled as prince at Pskov for only a year—on February 11, 1138 he died, at the age of 46. All Pskov gathered at the funeral of the beloved prince, and the church singing could barely be heard over the people’s wailing. The Novgorodians, in retrospect, sent off an archpriest from the Sophia cathedral to take his holy body back to Novgorod, but the prince had become loatheful of Novgorod, and the coffin would not move from the spot. Bitterly then did the Novgorod people bewail and repent in their misfortune, and they then besought to be given but a small bit of the holy dust “for upholding their city.” Through their prayers fell out, a fingernail from the hand of the saint was given. The Pskov people put Saint Vsevolod into the temple of the holy Great Martyr Demetrius. Alongside the grave they placed the military armament of the prince, shield and sword, in cruciform shape, with a Latin inscription to wit,—“I give away mine honour to no one.”
On November 27, 1192, the relics of holy Prince Vsevolod were uncovered and transferred into the Trinity cathedral, in which a chapel was consecrated in his honour.
On April 22, 1834, on the first day of Pascha, the holy relics were solemnly transferred into the main church-area of the cathedral.
The deep spiritual bond of the city of holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Olga with holy Prince Vsevolod was never broken: he always remained a Pskov wonderworker. At the siege of Pskov by Stefan Bathory in 1581, when the fortress walls were already breached and the Poles were ready to rush into the city, from the Trinity cathedral with a church procession they brought to the place of battle the holy relics of Prince Vsevolod, and the enemy withdrew. And with the appearance of the wonderworking Pskovo-Kiev Caves Icon (Comm. 1 October), holy Nobleborn Prince Vsevolod-Gabriel has stood amidst the Heavenly defenders of Pskov.
" } }, "439": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Martinian of Cæsarea in Palestine (c.422)", "short": "Venerable Martinian" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Martinian at age 18 settled into the wilderness, somewhat off from the city of Palestinian Cæsarea, where he dwelt in ascetic deeds and silence for 25 years, and he was granted a graced gift of healing illness. But the enemy of the race of man would not stop bothering the hermit with various temptations. One time a profligate woman got into a wager with some dissolute people, as to whether she could seduce Saint Martinian, the fame of whose virtuous life had spread throughout all the city. She came to him at night-time under the guise of a wandering suppliant asking night lodging. The saint let her enter, since the weather outside was inclement. But here the wicked guest changed over into her good clothes and began to tempt the ascetic. The saint thereupon rushed out of the cell, set alight a fire and put his bare feet upon the burning coals. He said such as this to himself: “It is hard enough for thee, Martinian, to suffer this temporal fire, now then wilt thou instead suffer the eternal fire, prepared for thee by the devil?” The woman, shaken by the spectacle, became repentant and besought the saint to guide her onto the way of repentance. At his directing she set off to Bethlehem, to a monastery of SaintPaula, where she dwelt for 12 years in strict ascetic deeds until her blessed end. The name of this woman was Zoa.
Having recovered from his scorching, Saint Martinian set off to an uninhabited rocky island, and lived on it under the open sky for several years, nourished by the victuals brought by a certain sailor from time to time, and in return the monk weaved baskets for him.
One time a powerful storm wrecked a ship, and to the island of Saint Martinian the waves carried on the ship debris a maiden named Photinia. Saint Martinian helped her to survive the island. “Remain here,—said he to her,—for here is bread and water, and in two months a boat will come,”—and he jumped into the sea and swam off. Two dolphins carried him to dry land. Thereafter Blessed Martinian began to lead the life of a wanderer. And so passed two years. One time, having come to Athens, the saint fell ill, and sensing the nearness of his end, he went into church and lay upon the floor, and calling out to the bishop he besought him to give his body over to burial. This occurred in about the year 422.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "With the streams of thy tears thou didst quench the flames of temptations, O blessed one, * and taming the billows of the sea and the raging of wild beasts, thou didst cry out: ** Most glorious art Thou, O Almighty, Who savest me from fire and tempest!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "As a skilled ascetic of piety, * an honored athlete by volition, * and an inhabitant and citizen of the desert, * we praise the ever-honorable Martinian in hymns, as is mee; ** for he trampled the serpent underfoot.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "440": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Eulogius, Archbishop of Alexandria († 607-608)", "short": "Saint Eulogius" } }, "441": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation of the relics of Blessed Prince Wenceslaus of the Czech Lands (929-935)", "short": "Translation of" } }, "444": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Auxentius of Bithynia († 470)", "short": "Venerable Auxentius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Auxentios, by origin a Syrian, served at the court of the emperor Theodosius the Younger (418-450). He was known as a virtuous, learned and wise man, and he was moreover a friend of many of the pious men of his era.
Distressed by worldly vanity, Saint Auxentios accepted the dignity of presbyter, and then received monastic tonsure. Setting off after this to Bithynia, he found a solitary place on Mount Oxus, not far from Chalcedon, and there he began the life of an hermit. (This mountain was afterwards called Auxentian). The place of the saint’s efforts was stumbled upon by shepherds, seeking after lost sheep. They spread the news about him, and people began to come to him for healing. With the Name of God, Saint Auxentios healed many of the sick and the infirm.
In the year 451 Saint Auxentios was invited to the Fourth Œcumenical Council at Chalcedon, where he became known as a denouncer of the Eutykhian and Nestorian heresies. He was greatly familiar with Holy Scripture, and Saint Auxentios easily bested those opponents who entered into dispute with him. After the finish of the Council, Saint Auxentios returned again to his solitary cell on the mountain. By means of spiritual sight he saw the end of Saint Simeon the Pillar-Dweller (459), from over a great distance.
The Monk Auxentios himself died in about the year 470, leaving behind him disciples and many monasteries constructed in the Bithynian region.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "A dweller in the desert, an angel in the flesh * and a wonder-worker wast thou shown to be, * O our God-bearing father Auxentius. * Receiving heavenly gifts through fasting, vigils and prayers, * thou healest the infirm * and the souls of those who with faith have recourse unto thee * Glory to Him Who hath given thee strength! * Glory to Him Who hath crowned thee! ** Glory to Him Who worketh healings for all through thee!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Delighting in abstinence and restraining the desires of thy flesh, * O divinely wise and sacred father Auxentius, * thou wast shown forth, shining with faith, ** and didst blossom like a plant in the midst of paradise.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "446": { "name": { "nominative": "Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel", "short": "Archangel" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": " The synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel is celebrated on the day following the Annunciation, that is, March 26th. This feast is celebrated a second time on July 13
An account of the Holy Archangel is located under 26 March and 8 November.
" }, "rank": 3, "services": { "0": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "1": {}, "2": {} } }, "448": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Abraham, Bishop of Carrhae in Upper Mesopotamia (5th C)", "short": "Holy Hierarch Abraham" } }, "450": { "name": { "nominative": "Apostle Onesimus of the Seventy († c. 109)", "short": "Apostle Onesimus" }, "rank": 1 }, "451": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Eusebius, Hermit of Syria (5th C)", "short": "Venerable Eusebius" } }, "453": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Pamphilus the Presbyter, Valens the Deacon, Paul, Porphyrius, Seleucus, Theodoulus, Julian, Samuel, Elias, Daniel, Jeremiah and Isaiah at Cæsarea in Palestine († c307-309)", "short": "Martyr Pamphilus and companions" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The 12 Martyred Saints—Pamphilos the Presbyter, Valens (Ualentos) the Deacon, Paul, Porphyrios, Seleucios, Theodoulos, Julian, Samuel, Ilias, Daniel, Jeremiah and Isaiah suffered during the time of a persecution against christians, initiated by the emperor Diocletian in the years 308-309 at Cæsarea in Palestine. The holy martyr Pamphilos, a native of the city of Berit (Beirut), received his education at Alexandria, after which he was made presbyter at Cæsarea. He laboured much over the collation and correction of copyist errors in texts of the New Testament. The corrected texts of Saint Pamphilos were copied out and distributed to those wanting them. In such form many pagans were converted to Christ through them. His works and concerned matters at Cæsarea were gathered up into the extensive library of spiritual books available for the enlightening of christians. Blessed Jerome (IV—beginning V Century) deeply respected Saint Pamphilos and considered himself fortuneate to have located and come into possession of several of his manuscripts. Actively assisting Saint Pamphilos in proclaiming the faith in Christ were Saint Valentus, deacon of the church at Eleia—a man bent over with age and well-versed in the Holy Scriptures, and Saint Paul, ardent in faith and love for Christ the Saviour. All three were imprisoned for 2 years by the governor of Palestinian Cæsarea, Urban. During the rule of his successor Firmilian, 130 christians were sentenced in Egypt and sent off to Cilicia (Asia Minor) to work in the gold mines. Five young brothers accompanied them there to the place of exile. On the return journey to Egypt they were detained at Cæsarea and thrown into prison for confessing Christ. They brought the youths for judgement to Firmilian, together with those imprisoned earlier—Saints Pamphilos, Valentus and Paul. Having been named with names of Old Testament prophets—Ilias, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Samuel and Daniel—the youths answered the question of their fatherland by saying, that they were citizens of Jerusalem, meaning by this the heavenly Jerusalem. Firmilian knew nothing about a such-named city, since on the site of Jerusalem—razed to the ground by the emperor Titus in the year 70—had been constructed a new city by the emperor Adrian (117-138), which at the time was named Eleia-Adrian. Firmilian tortured the youths for a long time. He sought to learn the location of the unknown city, and he sought to persuade the youths to apostacise. But nothing was accomplished, and the governor gave them over for beheading by the sword together with Pamphilos, Valentus and Paul.
Before this occurred, a servant of presbyter Pamphilos was given to suffer—this was the 18 year old youth Porphyrios, meek and humble. He had heard the sentence of death for the condemned martyrs, and asked the governor’s permission to bury the bodies after execution. For this he was sentenced to death and given over to burning on a bon-fire.
A witness of this execution—the pious christian Seleucios, a former soldier—in saluting the deeds of the sufferers, went up to Pamphilos before execution and told him about the martyr’s end of Saint Porphyrios. He was seized upon by soldiers and, on orders from Firmilian, was beheaded by the sword together with the condemned.
One of the governor’s servants, Thœdoulos, a man of venerable age and secretly a christian, greeted the martyrs being led to execution, gave them a kiss and asked them to pray for him. He was taken by soldiers for questioning to Firmilian, on whose orders he was crucified on a cross.
The youth Julian, a native of Cappadocia who had come to Cæsarea, caught view of the bodies of the saints which had been thrown to wild beasts without burial. Julian went down on his knees and venerated the bodies of the sufferers. Soldiers standing by at the wall seized hold of him and took him to the governor, who condemned him to burning. The bodies of all 12 martyrs stayed without burial for 4 days. Neither beasts nor birds would touch them. Embarrassed by this situation, the pagans permitted christians to take the bodies of the martyrs and bury them.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In their sufferings, O Lord, Thy martyrs received imperishable crowns from Thee, our God; for, possessed of Thy might, they set at nought the tyrants and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. By their supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Rejoicing in wisdom made manifest by heaven, * when dreadful torments lay before them, * the valiant athletes conversed amongst themselves, sparing not their flesh. * Wherefore, they have inherited everlasting glory, ** ever praying for us who praise their contest.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "454": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Maruthas, Bishop of Martyropolis in Mesopotamia († 422)", "short": "Venerable Maruthas" } }, "458": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Theodore the Silent of the Kiev Caves (13th C)", "short": "Venerable Theodore" } }, "459": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Mariamne, sister of the Apostle Philip (1st C)", "short": "Saint Mariamne" } }, "460": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Galaction of Vologda († 1612)", "short": "Venerable Galaction" } }, "466": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Cosmas of Yakhroma († 1492)", "short": "Venerable Cosmas" } }, "467": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Agapitus the Confessor, Bishop of Synaus in Phrygia with the Martyrs Victor, Dorotheus, Theodoulus and Agrippa (4th C)", "short": "Holy Hierarch Agapitus and companions" } }, "468": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Gennadius († c. 1516) of Vazha Lake", "short": "Venerable Gennadius" } }, "470": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Gennadius of Kostroma († 1565)", "short": "Venerable Gennadius" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Gennadii of Kostroma and Liubimograd, in the world Grigorii, was born in the city of Mogilev into a rich family. He early displayed love for the church, and his frequent visits to monasteries evoked the dismay of his parents. Grigorii himself was himself however firmly resolved to devote himself to God, and having changed over into tattered clothing, he secretly left his parental home and journeyed to Moscow. Having visited the Moscow holy places, he did not however here find it suitable in spirit and so set out to the Novgorod region. The destiny of the future ascetic was decided by an encounter with the Monk Alexander Svirsky (Comm. 30 August). With his blessing, Grigorii set off to the Vologda forest to the Monk Kornilii of Komel’sk (Comm. 19 May), and was monasticised by him with the name Gennadii. Together with Saint Kornilii, Gennadii moved on to the Kostroma forest. Here, on the shores of Lake Sura, in about the year 1529, there emerged the monastery of the Transfiguration of the Lord, afterwards called “the Gennadiev monastery.” Having become hegumen, the Monk Gennadii did not slacken his monastic efforts, and together with the brethren he went out to the monastery tasks: he chopped wood, carried firewood, made candles and baked prosphora. A beloved concern of the monk was the writing of icons, with he adorned his new monastery. He wore heavy chains constantly.
For his holy life the Monk Gennadii received from the Lord the gift of perspicacity and wonderworking. Journeying on monastic affairs to Moscow, at the house of the boyar-noble Roman Yur′evich Zakhar′in, the saint predicted to his daughter Anastasia, that she would become tsaritsa. And actually, tsar Ivan the Terrible chose her for himself as spouse.
The Life of the Monk Gennadii was written by his disciple, the heguman Aleksei, between the years 1584-1587. In it was inserted the spiritual last-testament, dictated by the Monk Gennadii himself. In it he commands to observe the monastery ustav (rule) and to toil constantly, to be at peace with everyone, and to preserve the books collected at the monastery, while striving to understand their meaning. The monk appealed: “Strive towards the light, and shun the darkness.”
The Monk Gennadii died on 23 January 1565; on 19 August 1646 occurred his churchly glorification.
" } }, "471": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Maximus, Theodotus, Hesychius and Asclepiodota of Adrianopolis († 305-311)", "short": "Martyrs" } }, "472": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Confessors Eugene and Macarius, Presbyters at Antioch († 363)", "short": "Holy Confessors" } }, "473": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Dositheus of Palestine, a Disciple of Venerable Abba Dorotheus (7th C)", "short": "Venerable Dositheus" } }, "474": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Rabulas of Samosata († c. 530)", "short": "Venerable Rabulas" } }, "478": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Leo, Bishop of Catania in Sicily († c. 780)", "short": "Venerable Leo" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Leo was bishop of the city of Catania, in Sicily. He was famed for his benevolence and charity, and his Christian love for the poor and the vagrant. The Lord granted him the gifts of healing of various illnesses, and also wonderworking. During the time when Saint Leo was bishop in Catania, there lived a certain sorcerer magician named Heliodorus, who impressed people with his fake miracles. This fellow was originally a Christian, but then he secretly rejected Christ and became a servant of the devil. Saint Leo often urged Heliodorus to be done with his wicked deeds and return to God, but in vain. One time Heliodorus got so impudent that, having entered into the church where the bishop was celebrating Divine-services, he by his sorcery sowed confusion and temptation there, trying to create a disturbance. Seeing the people beset by devils under the sorcerous spell, Saint Leo realised, that the time of gentle persuasions had passed. He calmly emerged from the altar and, grabbing the magician by the neck with his omophorion, he led him out of the church into the city-square. There he forced Heliodorus to own up to all his wicked deeds; he commanded a bon-fire be built, and without flinching he jumped together with the sorcerer into the fire, while having on his omophorion. Thus they stood in the fire, until Heliodorus got burnt, while by the power of God Saint Leo remained unharmed. This miracle while still during his lifetime brought Saint Leo reknown. When he died, at his grave a woman with issue of blood received healing. The body of the saint was placed in a church of the holy Martyress Lucy, which he himself had built, and later on his relics were transferred into a church of Saint Martin the Merciful, Bishop of Tours (Comm. 12 October).
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "The truth of things revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, * a model of meekness and a teacher of abstinence * wherefore thou hast attained the heights through humility * and riches through poverty. ** O hierarch Leo our father, entreat Christ God that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "The Church hath thee, O most blessed one, as a great beacon shining more brightly than the sun. * By thy supplications preserve it invincible, unshaken and unharmed by any heresy, ** in that thou art ever-memorable.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "482": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Agatho, Pope of Rome († 682)", "short": "Venerable Agatho" } }, "484": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Timothy of Symbola in Bithynia († 795)", "short": "Venerable Timothy" }, "rank": 1 }, "485": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Eustathius, Archbishop of Antioch († 337)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" }, "rank": 1 }, "486": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch George, Bishop of Amastris on the Black Sea († 802-811)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" } }, "487": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Right-Believing Prince George of Vladimir († 1238)", "short": "Holy Right-Believing" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Holy Nobleborn Prince George (Georgii, diminutive Yurii) was a son of Great prince Vsevolod, nicknamed “BigNest” (“Bol’shœ Gnesdo”). He was born in the year 1189, and he entered upon the Vladimir greatprincely throne in 1212. He was distinguished for his military valour and his piety. In the year 1237 the Tatar (Mongol) Horde of Batu descended upon the Russian land. Saint George was compelled to leave the capital city in charge of his sons, and set off north to unite up with the other princes. On the day of 4 March 1238 there occurred the Battle at the River Sita, in which the Tatars destroyed the not overly large but nonetheless valiant company of the greatprince. The saint himself fell in this fight. Bishop Kirill buried his body at the Rostov cathedral; two years later, it was with great solemnity transferred to the Vladimir Uspenie (Dormition) cathedral. And in 1645 occurred the Church glorification of the saint.
" }, "rank": 1 }, "489": { "name": { "nominative": "“Kozel’shchina” Icon of the Mother of God (1881)", "short": "“Kozel’shchina” Icon" } }, "491": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the relics of the Holy Martyrs at the Gate of Eugenius at Constantinople (395-423)", "short": "Finding of" }, "rank": 1 }, "492": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Maurice and the 70 warriors, including Photinus, Theodore, Philip, and others at Apamea in Syria († c. 305)", "short": "Martyrs Maurice" } }, "493": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Thalassius, Limnæus, and Baradatus, Hermits of Syria (5th C)", "short": "Venerable Thalassius" } }, "496": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna († 167)", "short": "Hieromartyr Polycarp" }, "rank": 1 }, "497": { "name": { "nominative": "Dedication of the Church of the Great Martyr George in Lydda (4th C)", "short": "Dedication of" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "This temple is in Lydda, where his pure body reposes. This temple was built during the reign of Constantine the Great." } }, "498": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable John, Antiochus, Antoninus, Moses, Zebinas, Polychronius, another Moses, and Damian, Ascetics of the Syrian Deserts (5th C)", "short": "Venerable John" } }, "501": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Gerasim of Boldinsk († 1554)", "short": "Venerable Gerasim" } }, "502": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Gerasimus, Bishop of Perm († 1441)", "short": "Saint Gerasimus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Gerasimus, Bishop of Great Perm and Ust′vymsk, was the third bishop of the newly-enlightened Zyryani people, and he was a worthy successor to Saint Stephen, the Enlightener of Perm. Having been elevated onto the Perm cathedra-seat sometime after the year 1416, he was a participant in Church Sobor-Councils: in that of the year 1438 condemning the Unia and metropolitan Isidor, and in that of the year 1441, which defined the selection of the metropolitan of All Rus’ by means of a Sobor of Russian pastors. The saint unrelentingly concerned himself about his newly-established flock, which suffered raids from Novgorodians, and in particular from the pagan Vogulians—where he fearlessly showed up in their camps urging them to cease the pillaging of villages of the defenseless Perm Christians. During the time of one of his journeys through the Perm land in 1441, he was murdered (according to tradition, strangled with his omophor) by a Vogul servant. He was buried in the cathedral church of the first bishops of Perm,—later becoming the Annunciation church in the village of Ust′Vyma, situated northeast of the city of Yarensk, at the River Vychegda. The celebration of his memory was established in 1607. On 29 January is made a general commemoration to the three Perm Saint-Hierarchs: Gerasimus, Pitirim and Jona.
" } }, "503": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Gerasimus of Vologda († 1178)", "short": "Venerable Gerasimus" } }, "504": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Gerasimus of the Jordan († 451)", "short": "Venerable Gerasimus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Gerasimos was a native of Lycia (Asia Minor). From his early years he was distinguished for his piety. Having then accepted monasticism, the monk withdrew into the depths of the Thebaid wilderness (in Egypt). Thereafter, in about the year 450, the monk arrived in Palestine and settled at the Jordan, where he founded a monastery.
For a certain while Saint Gerasimos was tempted by the heresy of Eutykhios and Dioskoros, which acknowledged in Jesus Christ only the Divine nature, but not His human nature (i.e. the Monophysite heresy). The Monk Euthymios the Great (Comm. 20 January) helped him to return to the true faith.
At the monastery the Monk Gerasimos established a strict monastic rule. He spent five days of the week in solitude, occupying himself with handicrafts and prayer. On these days the wilderness dwellers did not eat cooked food, nor even kindle a fire, but rather ate only dry bread, roots and water. On Saturday and Sunday all gathered at the monastery for Divine Liturgy and to commune the Holy Mysteries of Christ. In the afternoon, taking with them a supply of bread, tubers, water and an armload of date-palm branches for weaving into baskets, the wilderness dwellers returned to their own cells. Each had only old clothes and a mat, upon which he slept. In exiting their cells, the door was never secured, so that anyone coming by could enter, and rest, or take along necessities.
The Monk Gerasimos himself attained an high level of asceticism. During Great Lent he ate nothing until the very day of the All-Radiant Resurrection of Christ, when he communed the Holy Mysteries. Going out into the wilderness for the whole of Great Lent, the Monk Gerasimos took along with him his beloved disciple Blessed Kyriakos (Comm. 29 September), whom the Monk Euthymios had sent off to him.
At the time of the death of Saint Euthymios the Great, the Monk Gerasimos saw how Angels carried up the soul of the departed off to Heaven. Taking Kyriakos with him, the monk immediately set off to the monastery of Saint Euthymios and consigned his body to earth.
The Monk Gerasimos himself died peacefully, wept over by brethren and disciples. Before his death, a lion had aided the Monk Gerasimos in his tasks, and upon the death of the elder it too died at his grave and was buried nearby. And therefore the lion is depicted on icons of the saint, at his feet.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Burning with heavenly love, thou didst prefer the harshness of the desert of Jordan * more than all the delights of the world; * hence, a wild beast submitted unto thee even unto thy death, O father, * dying in obedience and grief on thy grave. * Thus did God glorify thee. * And when thou dost pray to Him, O father Gerasimus, ** be thou mindful of us.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "506": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Erasmus of the Kiev Caves († c. 1160)", "short": "Venerable Erasmus" } }, "508": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Tarasius, Archbishop of Constantinople († 806)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Tarasias, Patriarch of Constantinople, came of illustrious lineage. He was born and raised in Constantinople, where he received a fine education. He was rapidly promoted at the court of the emperor Constantine VI Porphyrigenitos (780-797) and Constantine’s mother, the holy Empress Irene (797-802; Comm. 7 August), and the saint reached the rank of senator. During these times the Church was agitated by the turmoil of the Iconoclast disturbances. The holy Patriarch Paul (780-784, Comm. 30August) although not sympathetic in soul with Iconoclasm, through his weakness of character was not able to decisively contend with the heresy and he therefore withdrew to a monastery, where he took the schema. When the holy Empress Irene together with her son the emperor came to him, Saint Paul declared to them, that the most worthy successor to him would be Saint Tarasias (who at this time was still a layman). Tarasias for a long time refused, not considering himself worthy of so very high a dignity, but he then gave in to the common accord, on the condition, that an Œcumenical Council be convened for rendering judgement on the Iconoclast heresy. Proceeding in a short while through all the degrees of clergy dignity, Saint Tarasias was elevated to the Patriarchal throne in the year 784. In the year 787 in the city of Nicæa, with holy Patriarch Tarasias presiding,—the Seventh Œcumenical Council was convened, at which were present 367 bishops. The affirmation of holy icons was confirmed at the Council. Those of the bishops, who repented of Iconoclasm, were again received by the Church.
Saint Tarasias wisely governed the Church for 22 years. He led a strict ascetic life. He used up all his money on God-pleasing ends, feeding and giving comfort to the old, to the impoverished, to widows and orphans, and on Holy Pascha he set out for them the meal at which he himself served. The holy Patriarch fearlessly denounced the emperor Constantine Porphyrigenitos when that one slandered his spouse, the empress Maria—the grand-daughter of Righteous Philaretos the Merciful († 792, Comm. 1 December), so that he could be rid of Maria to a monastery thus freeing him to marry his own kins-woman. Saint Tarasias resolutely refused to dissolve the marriage of the emperor, for which the saint fell into disgrace. Soon, however, Constantine was deposed by his own mother, the Empress Irene. Saint Tarasias died in the year 806. Before his death, devils reminded him of his life from the time of his youth, and they tried to get the saint to admit to sins that he had not even committed. “I am innocent in that of which ye speak,—replied the saint,—and ye do falsely slander me, yet mustneeds it be ye have no power over me.” Mourned by the Church, the saint was buried in a monastery built by him on the Bosphorus. From his grave was worked many a miracle.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "The truth of things revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, * a model of meekness and a teacher of abstinence * wherefore thou hast attained the heights through humility * and riches through poverty. ** O hierarch Tarasius our father, entreat Christ God that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Having illumined the Church with Orthodox dogmas * and taught all to honor and bow down before the precious icon of Christ, O blessed one, * thou didst denounce the godless decree of the iconoclasts. * Wherefore, we cry out to thee: ** Rejoice, O wise rather Tarasius!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "509": { "name": { "nominative": "Second translation of the relics of Saint Herman, Archbishop of Kazan (1714)", "short": "Second translation" } }, "510": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Porphyrius, Archbishop of Gaza († 420)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Porphyrios, Archbishop of Gaza, was born in about the year 346 at Thessalonika in Macedonia. His parents were people of substance, and this allowed Saint Porphyrios to receive a fine education. Having the inclination for monastic life, at twelve years of age he left his native region and set off to Egypt, where he asceticised in the Nitreian desert under the guidance of the Monk Makarios the Great (Comm. 19 January). There also he met Blessed Jerome (Comm. 15 June), who was then visiting the Egyptian monasteries; he set off with him to Jerusalem on pilgrimage to the holy places and to reverence the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord (Comm. 14 September), after which he resettled into the Jordanian wilderness for prayer and ascetic deeds. There Saint Porphyrios fell under a serious malady. For healing he decided to go to the holy places of Jerusalem. One time, when fully paralysed he lay half-conscious at the foot of Golgotha, the Lord sent His servant into a salvific sleep-vision. Saint Porphyrios beheld Jesus Christ, descending with the Cross and turning to him with the words: “Take this Wood and preserve it.” Awakening, he sensed himself healthy. The words of the Saviour were soon fulfilled: the Patriarch of Jerusalem ordained Saint Porphyrios to the priestly dignity and appointed him curator of the Venerable Wood of the Cross of the Lord. And it was during this time that Saint Porphyrios received his portion of an inheritance from his parents—4thousand gold coins. All this he gave away to the needy and for the embellishing of the churches of God.
In 395 the bishop of the city of Gaza (in Palestine) died. The local Christians set out to Cæsarea to the Metropolitan John with a request to provide them a new bishop, who would be able to contend against the pagans, which were predominant in their city and were harassing the Christians there. The Lord inspired the Metropolitan to summon the Jerusalem presbyter Porphyrios. With fear and trembling the ascetic accepted the dignity of bishop, and with tears he prostrated himself before the Life-Creating Wood and then set off to fulfill his new obedience.
In Gaza he found all of only three Christian churches, but of the pagan temples and idols—there were a great many. During this time there had occurred a long spell without rain, causing a severe drought. The pagan-priests brought offerings to their idols, but the wœs did not cease. Saint Porphyrios imposed a fast for all the Christians; he then made the all-night vigil, followed by going round all the city in a church procession. Immediately the sky covered over with storm clouds, thunder boomed, and abundant rains poured down. Seeing this miracle, many a pagan cried out: “Christ is indeed the One True God!” As a result of this, there came to be united to the Church through Holy Baptism 127 men, 35 women and 14 children, and soon after this, another 110 men.
But the pagans just like before still harassed the Christians, passed them over for public office, and burdened them down with taxes. Saint Porphyrios and the Metropolitan of Cæsarea John set off to Constantinople, to seek redress from the emperor. Saint John Chrysostom (Comm. 14 September, 27 and 30 January) received them and rendered them active assistance.
Saints John and Porphyrios were presented to the empress Eudoxia who at that time was expecting a child. “Intercede for us,—said the bishops to the empress,—and the Lord will send thee a son, who shalt reign during thine lifetime.” Eudoxia very much wanted a son, since she had given birth only to daughters. And actually through the prayer of the saints an heir was born to the imperial family… In consequence of this, the emperor in the year 401 issued an edict directing the destruction of the pagan temples in Gaza and the restoration of privileges to Christians. Moreover, the emperor bestowed on the saints the means for the construction of a new church, which was to be built in Gaza on the locale of the chief pagan-temple there.
Saint Porphyrios to the very end of his life upheld Christianity in Gaza and guarded well his flock from the vexatious pagans. Through the prayers of the saint there occurred numerous miracles and healings. Over the course of 25 years the archpastor guided veritable flock and reposed at an advanced age, in the year 420.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "The truth of things revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, * a model of meekness and a teacher of abstinence * wherefore thou hast attained the heights through humility * and riches through poverty. ** O hierarch Porphyrius our father, entreat Christ God that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Adorned with thy most sacred ways, * thou wast resplendent in the robe of the priesthood, * O all-blessed, divinely wise Porphyrius; * and thou dost spread beauty by thine exaltations of healings, ** praying unceasingly in behalf of us all.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "512": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Sebastian and Christodulus († c 66)", "short": "Martyrs Sebastian" } }, "518": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Thalelæus the Hermit of Syria († 460)", "short": "Venerable Thalelæus" } }, "523": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Basil the Confessor, companion of the Venerable Procopius of Decapolis († c. 750)", "short": "Venerable Basil" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Basil the Confessor was a monastic and suffered during the reign of the iconoclast emperor Leo the Isaurian (717-741). When a persecution started against those that venerated holy icons, Saint Basil together with his companion the Monk Prokopios (Comm. 27 February) was subjected to much torture and locked up in prison. here both martyrs languished for a long while, until the death of the impious emperor. When the holy Confessors Basil and Prokopios were set free together with other venerators of holy icons, they continued with their monastic efforts, instructing many in the Orthodox faith and the virtuous life. The Monk Basil died peacefully in the year 750.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "A dweller in the desert, an angel in the flesh, * and a wonderworker wast thou, * O our God-bearing father Basil. * Receiving heavenly gifts through fasting, vigil and prayer, * thou healest the sicknesses and souls * of those who with faith have recourse unto thee. * Glory to Him Who gaveth thee strength! * Glory to Him Who hath crowned thee! ** Glory to Him Who worketh healings for all through thee!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Receiving divine revelation from on high, * thou didst withdraw from the midst of the tumult, O wise one; * and having lived the monastic life venerably, thou didst receive the power to work miracles and to heal diseases by grace, ** O most blessed and sacred Basil.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "526": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Proterius the Patriarch of Alexandria († 457)", "short": "Hieromartyr Proterius" } }, "527": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Nestor, Bishop of Magydos in Pamphylia († 250)", "short": "Hieromartyr Nestor" } }, "528": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable women: Marina, Cyra, and Domnina of Syria († c. 450)", "short": "Venerable women" } }, "530": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable John Cassian of Rome († 435)", "short": "Venerable John" }, "rank": 1 }, "532": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable John, called Barsanuphius, Bishop of Damascus (5th C)", "short": "Venerable John" } }, "533": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Theosterictus the Confessor, abbot of Pelecete Monastery near Triglia (8th C)", "short": "Saint Theosterictus" } }, "535": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople († 389)", "short": "Saint Gregory" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Gregory (Nazianzus) the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople, an ecumenical father and teacher of the Church, was born into a Christian family of eminent lineage in the year 329, at Arianzos (not far from the city of Cappadocian Nazianzos). His father, likewise a Saint Gregory, was Bishop of Nazianzos (Comm. 1January); but of these two father and son, the son is the Saint Gregory Nazianzus encountered in Patristic theology. His mother, Saint Nonna († 374, Comm. 5 August), prayed God for a son, having given a vow to dedicate him to the Lord. As was revealed to her in a dream, she accordingly named her first-born Gregory. When the son learned to read, his mother presented him with the Holy Scripture. Saint Gregory received a quite complete and extensive education: after working at home with his uncle Saint Amphylokhios, an experienced teacher of rhetoric, he then studied in the schools of Nazianzos, Cæsarea Cappadocia and Alexandria. Then for the finishing touches to his education, the saint set off to Athens. On the way from Alexandria to Hellas [Greek name for Greece] (352), during the time of a terrible storm of many days, he was apprehensive only that “the murderous waters would deprive him of the waters of cleansing.” “For twenty days and nights,—relates Saint Gregory,—I lay at the ship’s stern, beseeching the merciful God for salvation, and at this perilous time I gave a vow to dedicate myself to God, being saved through this vow.”
The saint spent six years at Athens, and there studied rhetorics, poetics, geometry and astronomy. His teachers were the reknown pagan rhetoricians Gymorias and Prœresias. Together with Saint Gregory, there also studied there Saint Basil, the future Archbishop of Cæsarea Cappadocia († 379, Comm. 1 January). Their friendship, formed while still back in school in Cæsarea, flourished in a deep spiritual closeness. But their acquaintance with Julian, the future emperor (361-363)—and apostate from the Christian faith, soon turned into implacable enmity.
Upon completing his education, Saint Gregory remained for a certain while at Athens and taught the rhetoric eloquence of speech. He knew well the pre-Christian pagan philosophy and literature.
In the year 358 Saint Gregory quietly quit Athens and returned to his parents at Nazianzos. And here he at almost 30 years of age received Baptism from his father. Since now it was for him “become more significant to be a follower of God, than foremost with the emperor,” he vacillated only on which way was to be “the preference: contemplative or practical.”
At the suggestion of Saint Basil he withdrew into the wilderness, so as to asceticise alongside him.
But at the demand of his father, Saint Gregory returned to Nazianzos in 361 and received the dignity of presbyter. Sensing however, that solitude and silent prayer were immeasurably closer to his liking than pastoral activity, Saint Gregory again hastened into the wilderness to Saint Basil. There in the wilderness he strengthened in spirit, found the wherewithal to return to his flock and properly do his duty. And there soon befell Saint Gregory the hard task of reconciling the bishop with his flock, which condemned their pastor for signing an ambiguous interpretation of the dogmas of the faith. Saint Gregory gave the flock time for expression of feelings first, and then he convinced his father to openly acknowledge his mistake. After this, and uttering a sermon on the need for reconciliation, Saint Gregory accomplished his intent. Saint Basil the Great made Saint Gregory bishop of the city of Sasima, but in order to assist his dying father, Saint Gregory remained at Nazianzos, and for a certain while after the death of his father he guided the flock of this city.
Upon the death of the Constantinople patriarch Valentus in the year 378, the Antioch Council invited Saint Gregory to help the Constantinople Church, which at this time moreso than at others was ravaged by heretics. Having received the consent of Saint Basil the Great, Saint Gregory came to Constantinople upon the Patriarchal throne. In the year 379 he began to serve and preach in a not-large house church of his kinsmen. He named this church “Anastasis” (“Voskresenie” or “Resurrection”), believing that in this small church he would begin to resurrect Orthodoxy. Heretics ruled everywhere—whether they be Arians or Appolinarians. And the more loudly resounded his preaching, the more fully increased the gathering in church, and by this more bitterly grew the opposition of the heretics. On the night of Pascha 21 April 379, when Saint Gregory was making Baptism of the newly-illumined, a mob of armed heretics burst into the church and showered an hail of rocks upon the Orthodox, killing one bishop and wounding Saint Gregory. But the fortitude and mildness of the saint were his best armour, and his words regathered the Orthodox.
The compiled works of Saint Gregory—discourses, letters, verses—all show, that he strove to be a worthy preacher of the truth of Christ. A gift of words was bestown him, and the saint sought to offer it in gift to God—the Word: “”This gift offer I up to my God, this gift I do dedicate to Him:—this alone, is what I have remaining as my riches; I gave up all else at the command of the Spirit; everything that I had, I gave in exchange for the pearl of great price. Only in words do I master it, as a servant of the Word; never intentionally would I wish to disdain this wealth, I esteem it, I set value by it, I am comforted by it more, than others are comforted by all the treasures of the world. It—is the companion of all my life, a good counselor and converser; a guide on the way to Heaven and a fervent co-ascetic.” In order to worthily preach the Word of God, the saint assiduously prepared and revised his works.
In five Sermons—”Discourses on Theology,” dealing with those inclined towards the verbose reasonings of Eunomios, Saint Gregory first of all gives a precise definition, who it is from whom and when that they can theologise. Only those who are experienced can properly reason about God, those successful at contemplation and, foremost of all, pure in soul and body, or in utmost measure cleansed of self. To reason about God properly is possible only for one who enters into it with fervour and reverence. Explaining, that God has concealed His Essence from mankind, Saint Gregory demonstrates, that “by means of flesh it is impossible to view mental objects without admixture of the corporeal.” To theologise talking about God in a positive sense is possible only when we become free from the external impressions of things and from their affects, when our guide—the mind, does not adhere to impure transitory images. Answering the Eunomians, who would presuppose by means of logical speculation to grasp at the Essence of God, the saint declared that man perceives God, when he is commensurate in form with the Divine Principle, i.e. when the mind co-unites with the commensurate Essence. Furthermore, the example of the Old Testament patriarchs and prophets and also the Apostles has demonstrated, that for earthly man the Essence of God is incomprehensible. Saint Gregory cited by way of example the futile sophistry of Eunomios: “God begat the Son either through His will, or contrary to will. If He begat contrary to will, then He underwent constraint. If by His will, then the Son is the Son of His intent.”
Confuting suchlike reasoning, Saint Gregory points out the harm done by it to man: “Thou thyself, who speaketh so thoughtlessly, hast thou issued forth by intent or not by the intent of thy father? If not by intent, then also thy father underwent compulsion in it. From whom? To demonstrate this in nature thou cannot: it would favour chasteness. And if by intent, then on account of a few syllables thou dost deprive thyself of thy father; wherein thou dost make thyself a son by self intent, rather than of thy father.” Saint Gregory then turns himself to Holy Scripture, with particular attention examining a place, where it points out the Divine Nature of the Son of God. The repetitive interpretations of Saint Gregory on Holy Scripture are devoted to revealing the thought, that the Divine power of the Saviour was actualised even when on account of the Salvation of mankind He took upon Himself an impaired human nature. But another place in these Sermons of Saint Gregory is occupied by polemics against the Eunomians for their blaspheming of the Holy Spirit.
Closely examining everything that is said in the Gospel about the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the saint refutes the heresy of Eunomios, which rejected the Divinity of the Holy Spirit. He comes to two fundamentally posited results. First, in reading Holy Scripture, it is necessary to reject blind literalism and to study so as to perceive its spiritual sense. Second, in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit operated hiddenly. In the New Testament “the Holy Spirit doth reside with us and in most evident form doth disclose Itself before us. As long as they did not acknowledge God the Father, they could not properly preach about the Son, and as long as they did not accept the Son, they could not, expressing it somewhat boldly, additionally burden us with the Holy Spirit. The Divinity of the Holy Spirit—is a sublime subject. Here before us is a mass of testimony. Christ is born—the Holy Spirit precedes this; Christ is baptised—the Spirit witnesses to this; Christ works miracles—the Spirit collaborates; Christ ascends—the Spirit comes in place of Him. And what indeed is great and Divine, that He is not capable of? What Name, appertaining to Divinity, does not apply to Him, except for UnBegotten and Begotten?…I am amazed, when I see such a richness of titles,—I tremble when I consider, which Name it is they do blaspheme, they who do so revolt against the Spirit!”
The content of the Sermons of Saint Gregory does not consist in this alone. He wrote also: five laudatory tracts, ten interpretations of feastdays, two discourses of reproach against Julian the Apostate—”two pillars, on which is indelibly written the impiety of Julian for posterity,” and preachings on other themes. In all, 45 sermons of Saint Gregory have been preserved. The letters of the saint compare with his best theological works. All of them are masterfully elaborated while yet brief, for the most part. In his hymns as in everything, Saint Gregory lived for Christ. “If the lengthy tracts of the heretics,—be indeed new psalters, at variance with David, and—the pretty verses they honour be as a third testament: then we also shalt sing psalms, and begin to write much and compose poetic metres,”—said the saint. About his poetic gift the saint wrote thus: “I—am an organ of the Lord and sweetly by intricacy of song of the MostHigh I do glorify the King: all atremble before Him.”
The fame of the Orthodox preacher spread through East and West. But the saint lived in the very capital just as though he lived still in the wilderness—”his food was food of the wilderness; his clothing—whatever necessary; his making of rounds was without pretense, and being in proximity of the court—he sought nothing from the court.” During a time of sickness the saint was given a shock. One whom he reckoned as his friend, the philosopher Maximos, was consecrated in place of Saint Gregory at Constantinople. Struck by the ingratitude of Maximos, the saint decided to resign the cathedra, but his faithful flock restrained him from it. The people threw the usurper out of the city. On 24 November 380 the holy emperor Theodosius arrived in the capital and, in enforcing his decree against the heretics, the chief church was returned to the Orthodox, with Saint Gregory solemnly making entrance. Soon an attempt on the life of Saint Gregory was in the offing, but the one who was to be the assassin instead appeared before the saint with tears of repentance.
In the year 381 at the Second Œcumenical Council, Saint Gregory was confirmed in the dignity of Constantinople Patriarch. Upon the death of the Antioch Patriarch Meletios, Saint Gregory presided at the Council. Hoping to reconcile the West with the East, he offered to recognise Paulinos as Antioch Patriarch. But with the arrival of those who earlier had acted against Saint Gregory on the side of Maximos—particularly Egyptian and Macedonian bishops, they did not want to acknowledge the saint as Patriarch of Constantinople. Saint Gregory decided to sacrifice himself for the peace of the Church: “Let me be as the Prophet Jonah! I was guilty for the storm, but I would sacrifice myself for the salvation of the ship. Grab hold and throw me… I was not happy when I ascended the throne, and gladly would I descend it.” Having explained to the emperor about his wish to quit the capital, Saint Gregory appeared again at the Council, in a farewell address asking it to let him depart in peace.
Upon his return to his native region, Saint Gregory concerned himself about the incursion of Appolinarian heretics into the Nazianzos flock, and he established there as bishop the pious Eulalios, while he himself withdrew into the solitude of Arianzos so dear to his heart. Not forsaking the wilderness, the saint with zeal for the truth of Christ continued to affirm Orthodoxy through his letters and verses. In the year 389 he died, on 25 January, being honoured by the Church with the title “Theologian” bestown also on that beloved disciple of Christ—the holy Evangelist and Apostle John.
”I want to speak boldly and forcefully, so that ye may be made the best, so that ye may turn from flesh to spirit, so that in right manner ye progress in spirit,”—said Saint Gregory the Theologian.
In his works Saint Gregory, just like that other Theologian Saint John, directs everything towards the Præternal Word. The Monk John Damascene (Comm. 4December), in the first part of his book “Exposition on the Faith,” followed the lead of Saint Gregory the Theologian.
The body of Saint Gregory was buried at Nazianzos. In the year 950 the holy relics were transferred to Constantinople into the church of the Holy Apostles. Later on part of the relics were transferred to Rome. Tradition has preserved the features of the saint as: “a face humble, pale, eyebrows standing up thick, a meek glance, beard not long, but thick and broad.” His contemporaries already called the archpastor a saint. The Orthodox Church, terming Saint Gregory a second Theologian and mystery-insightful luminous writer of the Holy Trinity, recourses thus to him in the songs of Divine-services: “By the theology of thy tongue rhetoric wrangling is undone, O glorious one, thou hast adorned the Church with the fabric of Orthodoxy woven from on high: rejoice, O father, thou utmost mind Theological.” [from Kondak].
" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "The shepherd”s pipe of thy theology * vanquished the clarions of the rhetors; * for beauties of discourse were added to thee * who delved into the depths of the Spirit. ** O father Gregory, entreat Christ God, that out souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "O glorious one who destroyed the rhetors” webs * with the tongue of thy theology, * thou hast adorned the Church with the vesture of theology woven from on high; * and, wearing it, it crieth out with us, thy children: ** Rejoice, O father, thou uttermost mind of theology!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "536": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Gregory Dialogus, the Pope of Rome († 604)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" } }, "539": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Nestor and Tribimius (3rd C)", "short": "Martyrs Nestor and Tribimius" } }, "541": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Domnina of Syria († c. 450-460)", "short": "Venerable Domnina" } }, "543": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica († c. 1360)", "short": "Saint Gregory" } }, "544": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Theodotus, Bishop of Cyrenia († c. 326)", "short": "Hieromartyr Theodotus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Hieromartyr Theodotos, a native of Galatia in Asia Minor, was bishop of the city of Kyreneia in Cyprus. During a time of persecution against christians under the impious emperor Licinius (307-324), Saint Theodotos openly preached Christ, calling on the pagans to abandon idol-worship and turn to the True God. The governor of Cyprus Sabinus gave orders to arrest and bring bishop Theodotos to trial. Having found out about this order, the saint did not wait for the soldiers sent after him, but instead immediately went to the governor with the words: “I am here, whom thou seekest; I have shown myself, so as to preach Christ my God.” The governor gave orders for the saint to be beaten without mercy, hung up upon a tree and be dealt with by sharp implements, and then be taken to prison. After five days Saint Theodotos was again brought to the governor, who presumed that the bishop would prefer after his tortures to renounce Christ, rather than endure new sufferings. But Saint Theodotos did not cease to preach about Christ. At first they put the saint on an iron grate, under which they set a bon-fire, and then hammered nails into his feet and let him go. Many witnessed the sufferings of the martyr: astonished at the endurance of the saint and his Divinely-inspired speaking, they came to believe in Christ. Learning of this, Sabinus gave orders to stop the torture and lock up the saint in prison.
During the time of Saint Constantine the Great (Comm. 21 May), the freedom to confess their faith was given to all christians, and among the sufferers set free from prison was also Saint Theodotos. The saint returned to Kyreneia and after two years serving as bishop he peacefully expired to the Lord in about the year 326.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thou didst denounce the sea of false belief, * and with the faith of correct belief wound the falsehood of the godlessness of idolatry; * and as a divine immolation * thou bedewest the ends of the earth with thy wonderworking. ** O holy hierarch Theodotus our father, entreat Christ God to grant us great mercy!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "545": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Gregory, Recluse of the Kiev Caves", "short": "Venerable Gregory" } }, "546": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Arsenius the Bishop of Tver († 1409)", "short": "St. Arsenius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Arsenii, Bishop of Tver,’ was born at Tver,’ and in his early years took monastic vows in the Kievo-Kiev Caves monastery. Even among the monks of this ancient monastery, distinguished for their piety, Arsenii was noted for his saintly life—a strict keeping of the monastic vows, a knowledge of the Church ustav, the study of Holy Scripture, and a love for work. Under the Kiev metropolitan Kyprian (1380-1382) he served as archdeacon, and during times of the metropolitan’s absence he governed the working of the Kiev metropolitanate. On 3 July 1390 he went together with Metropolitan Kyprian to Tver,’ where at the request of the Tver’ prince Mikhail Aleksandrovich there had been convened a Sobor of Russian and Greek hierarchs for judgement upon the Tver’ bishop Evphymii. The prince and the bishop were in a lengthy quarrel, and many of the Tver’ people had serious accusations against the Tver’ bishop. After unsuccessful attempts to restore peace to the Tver’ church, Metropolitan Kyprian “removed from the episcopacy” Evphymii and sent him off to Moscow to the Chudov monastery. Saint Arsenii was appointed to the Tver’ cathedra. But he, “fearful to accept the authority at Tver,’ in view of the much enmity and spite there, was both troubled and terrified.” Upon the return of Metropolitan Kyprian and archdeacon Arsenii to Moscow, the Tver’ prince sent his boyars with a petition to the metropolitan concerning ordination of Arsenii to the Tver’ cathedra. This time also Arsenii was not agreeable. In the words of the chronicle for the year 1390 “hardly even by the metropolitan’s entreaty would archdeacon Arsenii be at Tver′.” Under the threat of cathedral suspension metropolitan and prince finally received his assent to the ordination, which was done 15 August 1390. Among the bishops taking part in the laying on of hands was Saint Stephen, Bishop of Perm (Comm. 26 April).
Having come upon the cathedra, Bishop Arsenii, as a man of great prayer and peace-maker, was able to stop much of the discord in the Tver’ principality. During his episcopacy, from 1390 to 1409, there were built and consecrated cathedrals in honour of the Archangel Michael at Staritsa and Mikulina, and the Saviour-Transfiguration cathedral was restored with the putting up of a cathedral bell-tower. The saint founded on the river T′maka near Tver’ the Zheltikov monastery, where in similitude to the Kievo-Kiev Caves monastery was built a church in the names of the Monks Antonii and Theodosii of Kiev Caves (1394), and a stone Uspenie cathedral.
Desiring that the monks of this new monastery would always take edification from the asceticism of the Kiev Caves Fathers, Saint Arsenii gave orders to compile a list from the Kievo-Kiev Caves Paterikon, offering the most ancient of redactions surviving into the present of this precious memorial of Russian literature, and receiving the name of the Arsen′ev Redaction.
The saint died on 2 March 1409, and was buried in the Zheltikov monastery of the Uspenie * Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, which he founded. In 1483 his relics were found undecayed and placed in the monastery cathedral. In the same year priest-monk Feodosii wrote the Life and a Kanon of the Saint-bishop. At a Sobor of 1547 was established the celebration of Saint Arsenii throughout all the Church.
" }, "rank": 3 }, "547": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Agathon of Egypt (5th C)", "short": "Venerable Agathon" } }, "548": { "name": { "nominative": "440 Martyrs slain by the Lombards in Sicily († 579)", "short": "440 Martyrs" } }, "551": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Gregory the Wonderworker, Bishop of Neo-Cæsarea († c. 266-270)", "short": "Saint Gregory" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Born in the city of Neo-Cæsarea, he received an excellent education under the direction of the famous Origen. Upon the completion of his education, St. Gregory left for the desert in which he \"subdued demonic assaults and carnal deception\", and entirely turned himself over to prayer and the study of Holy Scripture. Soon because of his virtuous life, the inhabitants of Neo-Cæsarea elected him bishop. In this rank he so zealously worked at converting the pagans to Christ, that when he died there were only 17 pagans in Neo-Cæsarea. When he became bishop there were only 17 Christians. St. Gregory was called wonderworker and another Moses because of the many miracles performed by him. He died about the year 270. The Holy Church blesses him as \"the strong conqueror of atheistic evil\", \"giver of the laws of piety and wise teacher\", \"an imitator of the apostles as a worker of miracles\", \"guide of those who had gone astray and physician of the infirm\", \"giver of abundant requests to those entreating you, the mightiest oppressor of demons\".
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "By vigilance in prayer and continuance in the working of miracles, * thou didst acquire the name of thy worthy deeds. ** Yet pray thou to Christ God, O father Gregory, that He enlighten our souls, lest we sleep unto death.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Receiving the power to work many miracles, * thou didst terrify the demons with awesome signs, * and didst dispel the diseases of men, O most wise Gregory. * And thou wast called the wonderworker, ** receiving this title from thy works.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "552": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs and Confessors Gurias, Samonas († 299-306) and Habib († 322) of Edessa", "short": "Martyrs" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Saints Gurius and Samonas were born in Emesa. Tonsured in the desert, they converted pagans to Christ, and for this they were subjected to torture during the Diocletian persecution, locked up in prison, and finally beheaded (in the year 306). St. Abibus, the deacon from the village of Thella, near Ruscia, suffered for Christ in Edessa during the reign of the Emperor Licinius (in 322). These martyrs are called confessors, \"for they are chastisers for the nonperformance of mutual agreements\". One maiden, when she married, received from her husband an oath of faithfulness and love at the grave of the martyrs, was wonderfully protected by them from afflictions and offences and who frustrated her husband and saved her from death.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O Christ God, Thou hast given us an impregnable rampart * in the miracles of Thy holy martyrs. * Through their supplications destroy Thou the councils of the heathen * and strengthen the scepters of kingdoms, ** in that Thou art good and lovest mankind.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "5" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Having received grace from on high, O most lauded martyrs, * ye intercede for those amid temptations; * wherefore, ye delivered the maiden from a bitter death, O holy ones; ** for ye are truly the glory of Edessa and the joy of the world.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "553": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God ‘She who Reigns’ (1917)", "short": "Icon" }, "rank": 4 }, "555": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Eutropius, Cleonicus and Basiliscus of Amasea († c. 308)", "short": "Martyrs Eutropius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyrs Eutropios, Kleonikos and Basiliskos suffered in the city of Pontine Amasia (Asia Minor) in about the year 308.
The brothers Eutropios and Kleonikos, and Basiliskos the nephew of the Great Martyr Theodore of Tyre (Comm. 17 February), were comrades. After the martyr’s death of Saint Theodore, they wound up in prison and by their preaching brought to the Christian faith many of the pagans located in prison with them.
When he tortured Saint Theodore, Publius perished shamefully, struck down by Divine wrath. Asclepiodotos was chosen governor of Pontine Amasia, and did not bend from the fierceness of his predecessor. Knowing the comrades of the martyr Theodore of Tyre were still all in prison, the governor commanded that they be brought to him. Saints Eutropios, Kleonikos and Basiliskos thus firmly confessed their faith in Christ in front of this new governor. They were mercilessly beaten, such that their bodies became entirely bruised. At the time of torture Saint Eutropios prayed loudly to the Saviour: “Grant us, O Lord, to endure the making of these wounds for the sake of the crown of martyrdom, and come in help to us, like as Thou camest to Thy servant Theodore.” In answer to this prayer of the saint, there appeared to the martyrs the Lord Himself with Angels and together with them the holy Great Martyr Theodore of Tyre, saying to them: “Behold, the Saviour is come in help to you, that ye may know about life eternal.”
Soldiers and many of the people standing nearby were also granted to behold the Saviour. They began to urge Asclepiodotos to halt the tortures. Seeing, that the people were distraught and ready to believe in the True God, the governor commanded the martyrs to be taken away. The governor then invited Saint Eutropios to him at supper and urged him to publicly offer sacrifice to the pagan gods, yet remain a Christian in soul.
But Eutropios refused this offer.
On the following day they brought the martyrs to a pagan temple, so as to compel them by force to offer sacrifice. Eutropios thereupon began to entreat the Saviour: “Lord, be with us, and destroy the raging of the pagans. Grant, that on this place be offered a Christian Bloodless Sacrifice unto Thee, the True God.” These last words of prayer had only just been spoken, when there began an earthquake, the walls of the temple began to collapse, and with them was smashed also the statue of the goddess Artemis. Everyone fled from the temple so as not to be crushed amidst the rubble. Amidst the noise of the earthquake was heard a voice from on high: “Your prayer is heard, and on this place shalt be built an house for Christian prayer.”
When the earthquake ended, the governor Asclepiodotos, barely just recovered from fright, gave orders to drive high wooden stakes into the ground, tie the martyrs to them and pour boiling tar over them. The saints began to pray to God, and Eutropios cried out turning to the torturers: “May the Lord turn your deed against you!” And the tar began to flow aside the bodies of the martyrs, like water with marble, scorching the torturers. Those seeing this fled in terror, but the governor in his bitterness gave orders to rend their bodies with iron hooks and to sting their wounds with mustard, mixed with salt and vinegar. The saints endured these torments with remarkable firmness.
The following night before execution the saints spent their time at prayer, and again the Lord appeared to them and strengthened them.
On the morning of 3 March, Saints Eutropios and Kleonikos were crucified, but Basiliskos was left in prison.
They executed Saint Basiliskos on 22 May in the city of Komana. They beheaded him, and threw his body into a river. But christians found his remains and buried them in a ploughed field. Later at Komana was built a church in the name of Saint Basiliskos.
An account about the life of the holy martyr is located under 22 May.
" }, "rank": 1 }, "556": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Virgin Piama († 337)", "short": "Venerable Virgin" } }, "557": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God of Volokolamsk (1572)", "short": "Icon of" } }, "561": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Joasaph of Snetogorsk, Pskov († 1299)", "short": "Venerable Joasaph" } }, "564": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Paul and his sister Juliana († c.273) and with them: Quadratus, Akakius and Stratonicus", "short": "Martyrs" } }, "565": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable James the Faster of Phœnicia (6th C)", "short": "Venerable James" } }, "567": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Conon of Isauria (1st C)", "short": "Martyr Conon" }, "rank": 1 }, "569": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Onesimus of Isauria (1st C)", "short": "Martyr Onesimus" } }, "570": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Conon the Gardener of Pamphylia (3rd C)", "short": "Martyr Conon" } }, "572": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Eulampius", "short": "Martyr Eulampius" } }, "575": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Hesychius the Faster of Bithynia († c. 790)", "short": "St. Hesychius" } }, "579": { "name": { "nominative": "Right-believing Prince Daniel of Moscow († 1303)", "short": "Right-believing Prince" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Holy Nobleborn Prince Daniel (Daniil) of Moscow was born at Vladimir in the year 1261. He was the fourth son of Saint Alexander Nevsky (Comm. 30 August and 23November) and Righteous Vassa. Two years after birth he lost his father. The date of his mother’s repose is not indicated in the chronicles; it is known only, that she was buried in the church in honour of the Nativity of Christ at the Vladimir Uspenie monastery (the Princess monastery), and the people in the surroundings venerated her as “Righteous” (“Pravedna”).
In 1272 holy Prince Daniel received as his allotted portion the city of Moscow with its adjacent lands. The holy prince built on the banks of the River Moskva (Moscow) a church (and alongside it a monastery) in honour of his same-name patron saint, the Monk Daniel the Pillar-Dweller (Comm. 11 December). The Moscow principality was during this period small and unobtrusive. While growing up, holy Prince Daniel strengthened and expanded it, not in manners unjust or cœrcive, but instead benevolent and peace-loving. In Rus’ it was a time of unrest. Fratricidal strife amongst the appanage princes was rife. And often, thanks to holy Prince Daniel, and his incessant striving for unity and peace in the Russian Land, bloodshed was averted. In 1293 his brother, the Great-prince Alexander Alexandrovich, together with Tatars summoned from the Horde and headed by Diuden (“the Diudenev Host”), laid waste to Russian cities: Murom, Suzdal,’ Kolomna, Dmitrov, Mozhaisk, Tver′. Prince Daniel decided to adjoin them to Moscow, to save their people from perishing. There was not the strength for resistance. Together with his people, the prince braced himself for terrible destruction and pillaging. Standing up for his rights, Saint Daniel was compelled to come out against his brother near a place, called Yur′evo Tolchische (“Yur′evo Threshing-Mill”), but here also the yearning for peace won out in him, and bloodshed was averted.
In 1300, when the Ryazan prince Konstantin Romanovich, having summoned Tatars to his aid, was occupied in secret preparations for a sudden assault on the lands of the Moscow principality, Prince Daniel went with an army to Ryazan, and beating the enemy, he took captive Konstantin and destroyed a multitude of Tatars. This was a first victory over the Tatars, though not a tremendous victory, but it was noteworthy nonetheless—as a first push towards freedom. Having beaten the Ryazan prince and scattered his confederates the Tatars, holy Prince Daniel did not take advantage of his victory to seize foreign lands or take booty, as was the accepted custom during these times, but rather he displayed an example of true non-covetousness, love and fraternity. The holy prince never resorted to arms to seize the lands of others, nor did he ever snatch away the property of other princes either by force or by treachery. And for this the Lord saw fit to expand the boundaries of his princely realm. Ioann Dimitrievich, prince of Pereslavl′-Zalessk, a nephew of Daniel, was gentle and pious and benevolent towards the poor, and he esteemed and loved his uncle; dying childless in 1302, he bequeathed his principality to Saint Daniel. The Pereslavlsk lands together with Dmitrov were, after Rostov, foremost in number of inhabitants, with corresponding fortification befitting a major city. Pereslavl′-Zalessk was well protected on all sides. But the holy prince remained faithful to Moscow and did not transfer the capital of his princedom to the stronger and more significant seat of the Pereslavl’ of this period. This annexation moved Moscow up to be numbered as the most significant principality. And here was set in place the principle of the unification of the Russian Land into a single powerful realm.
How wondrous over the expanse of ages was clearly manifest the Providential Will of God concerning the Russian Land and its destiny!
Grateful in remembrance of the constant Blessing of the Hodegetria (“Way-Guide Mother of God) both in his personal life, and also in the life of the Russian realm, Saint Daniel’s father—Saint Alexander Nevsky, had expressed it in the words: “God is not in might, but in right!.”
In 1303 Saint Daniel fell seriously ill. He assumed the monastic great-schema and commanded that he be buried at the Danilov monastery. Through deep humility he wanted to be buried not within the church, but in the common monastery cemetery. The holy prince died on 4 March.
Within the passage of less than 30 years after the repose of holy Prince Daniel, the Danilov monastery founded by him was transformed into the Moscow Kremlin, the church was transformed into a parish church, and the cemetery became non-monastic. During the time of Great-prince Ivan III (1462-1505), the Monk-prince Daniel gave reminders of himself to his forgetful descendents. As a stranger he appeared to a youth attendant on the great-prince and said: “Be not afraid of me—I was a Christian and the master of this place, my name is Daniel Prince of Moscow, and by the will of God I am here. Tell about me to Great-prince Ioann (Ivan) saying: thou delightest thyself while yet having forgotten me, but God hath not forgotten me.” And after this it was that the great-prince established the singing of cathedral panikhidas for his ancestral princes. During the time tsar Ivan the Terrible, at the grave of Saint Daniel was healed the dying son of a barge merchant. The tsar, struck by the miracle, renovated the ancient Danilov monastery and established a yearly church procession, made by the metropolitan to the place of burial of the holy prince, serving there a panikhida.
In 1652 holy Monk-prince Daniel was glorified with the uncovering of his incorrupt relics, which on 30 August were transferred to the church in honour of the Holy Fathers of the Seventh Œcumenical Council.
The holy relics were placed in a reliquary “to the glorifying of the Holy Trinity and for the healing of the infirm.” The Moscow metropolitan Platon († 1812), in the Vita of the holy prince compiled by him, writes: “This original founder laid the foundation of present-day majestic Moscow, going about this with quiet steps upon a small foot-path. And thus as with any edifice, built not with extreme haste but the rather instead with great artifice and skill, doth receive a particular solidity and doth stand indestructible for a long time; and just as a tall tree growing for many a century, and having started first of all with a small sprout, and thickeneth little by little, with its branches spreading about far around, so also was it needful for this city to grow from the small, but solid root, in order that its first glimmer not beshadow the eyes of the envious, and that initially it not be disturbed or felled early on, but rather grow up to its true height. Thus did this founder prepare the great city given him; though small, but shining uninterrupted by any wafting of the wind, he did bequeathe the great glory of its rise to his son Great-prince Ioann (Ivan) Danilovich, called Kalita.”
" } }, "582": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Conon and his son Conon of Iconium († 270-275)", "short": "Hieromartyr Conon" } }, "583": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Arcadius of Cyprus (4th C)", "short": "Venerable Arcadius" } }, "584": { "name": { "nominative": "Icons of the Mother of God: “Chenstokhov” (1st C), “Blessed Heaven” (14th C) and “Shestokovskoy” (18th C)", "short": "Icons" } }, "585": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Daniel the “Stylite” [Pillar-Dweller] of Constantinople († 489-490)", "short": "Venerable Daniel" }, "rank": 1 }, "586": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Daniel the Abbot of Shuzhgorsk (16th C)", "short": "Venerable Daniel" } }, "588": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyrs Basil, Ephraim, Eugene, Elpidius, Agathodorus, Aetherius, and Kapiton of Cherson (4th C)", "short": "Hieromartyrs Basil" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Hieromartyrs Basil, Ephraim, Eugene, Elpidias, Agathodoros, Etherias and Kapiton carried the evangelium (Good News) of Christ into the North Black Sea region from the Danube (Dunaj) to the Dniepr, including the Crimea, and they sealed their apostolic activity with a martyr’s death during the IV Century in the city of Tauridian Chersonessus. Long before the Baptism of Rus’ under Saint Vladimir, the Christian faith had already spread into the Crimea, which in antiquity was called Tauridia and was ruled by the Roman emperor. The beginning of the enlightenment of Tauridia is attributed to the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called († 62, Comm. 30 November). Its very enemies even contributed to the further spread of Christianity, and contrary to their intent: the Roman emperors banished to this area transgressors against the state,—which Christianity and the confessors of Christ were considered to be during the first three centuries. Thus, during the reign of Trajan (98-117) Saint Clement, Bishop of Rome († 101, Comm. 25 November), was exiled for imprisonment to the Inkermann stone-quarry. There he continued with his preaching, and there also he accepted a martyr’s end.
The pagans inhabiting the Crimean land stubbornly resisted the spread of Christianity. But the faith of Christ, through its self-denying preachers, grew strong and was affirmed. Many an evangeliser gave his life for this struggle.
At the beginning of the IV Century a bishop’s cathedra (presiding-chair) was established at Chersonnesus. This was a critical period, when Chersonnesus served as a base for the Roman armies, which constantly passed through in their dependence upon Byzantium. During the reign of Diocletian (284-305), in the year 300 (that is, still before the persecution which the emperor started in the year 303),—the Jerusalem Patriarch Hermonos (303-313) dispatched many bishops for preaching the Gospel in various lands. Two of them, Ephraim and Basil, arrived in Chersonnesus and planted there the Word of God. Later on, Saint Ephraim went to the peoples living along the Danube, where he underwent many tribulations and sorrows. At the time of the start of the persecution he was beheaded (exactly known is only the day of his death—7 March). The preaching at Chersonnesus was continued by Saint Basil, the companion of Saint Ephraim. He set many idol-worshippers onto the pathway of truth. Other wayward inhabitants of the city, enraged at his activity, showed wrathful resistance: the saint was arrested, mercilessly beaten and thrown out of the city. Having withdrawn to a mountain and settling in a cave, he incessantly prayed God for those that expelled him, that He might illumine them with the light of true Divine-knowledge. And the Lord sent the unbelieving a miracle. The only son of an important citizen of Chersonnesus died. The dead one appeared to his parents in a dream and said, that a certain man named Basil by his prayers to the True God could resurrect him from the dead. When the parents had searched out the saint and besought him to work the miracle, Saint Basil answered, that he himself—was a sinful man and had not the power to resuscitate the dead, but the Lord Almighty could fulfill their request if they were to believe in Him. For a long time the saint prayed, invoking the Name of the Holy Trinity. Then, having blessed water, he sprinkled it on the dead one, who then came alive. The saint returned to the city with honour, and many believed and were baptised.
Soon, by order of the emperor Maximian Galerius (305-311), the persecution against Christians spread with renewed force. The Christ-haters rose up also against Saint Basil: on 7 March 309 he was dragged at night from his house; they tied him up, dragged him along the streets and beat him to death with stones and canes. The body of the saint was thrown out of the city for devouring by dogs and birds, and for many days it was left unburied, but remained untouched. Then Christians secretly buried the body of the holy martyr in a cave.
A year later, having learned of the martyr’s death of Saint Basil, three of his companions—Bishops Eugene (Eugenios), Elpidias and Agathodoros—left off their preaching in the Hellespontine region, and arrived at Chersonnesus to continue his holy work. They underwent many hardships for the salvation of human souls. All three bishops shared the fate of their predecessor—demon-driven pagans likewise stoned them on 7March 311.
After the passing of several years, a time already during the reign of holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine the Great (306-337, Comm. 21 May), Bishop Etherias arrived in Chersonnesus from Jerusalem. At first he also encountered hostility on the part of the pagans, but the holy emperor in declaring freedom for the Christian faith would not tolerate acts of violence against the preacher: he issued a decree, by which it was declared that at Chersonnesus the Christians should be able to make Divine-services without hindrance. Through the efforts of Saint Etherias a church was built in the city, where the saint peacefully governed his flock.
To thank the emperor for protecting the Christians, Saint Etherias journeyed to Constantinople. On the return trip he fell ill and died on the island of Amos (in Greece) on 7 March.
In place of Saint Etherias, the holy emperor Constantine sent to Chersonnesus Bishop Kapiton. The Christians met him with joy, but the pagans demanded from the new bishop a sign, so as to believe in the God Whom he preached. Placing all his hope on the Lord, Saint Kapiton in clergy garb went into a red-hot bonfire, and for a long while he prayed in the fire and emerged from it unharmed, gathering up in his phelonion the red-hot coals. Many of the unbelievers were then persuaded in the power of the Christian God.
About this miracle and the great faith of Saint Kapiton, reports were made to Saint Constantine and the holy fathers of the First Œcumenical Council (325).
After several years Saint Kapiton journeyed on business to Constantinople, but the ship hit a storm at the mouth of the Dniepr River. The local people (pagans) seized hold of the ship and drowned all those on board, including Saint Kapiton. This however occurred on 21 December. The memory of the holy bishop of the Church was set in conjunction with the other Chersonnesus Hieromartyrs—7 March.
The preaching of the priestmartyrs strengthened the faith in Christ in the Chersonnesus. From the beginning of the V Century this city became a spiritual centre, from which Christianity spread northwards towards Rus′. And all the more during the IXCentury Chersonnesus exerted influence on the Russians, who had begun to settle in the city. Present-day archeological excavations have shown, that in the city were more than fifty churches, dating to the V-XIV Centuries. In the year 987 it was at Chersonnesus that holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir accepted Baptism. This ancient city was a cradle of Christianity for Rus′.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "The radiant day of the pastors who were bishops in Cherson * hath dawned with splendor. * We hymn the feast of those who suffered for the sheep of Christ. * O hieromartyrs, entreat Christ, the chief Shepherd, * that He honor us with a place with the sheep on His right hand, * that we may cry aloud to you: ** Rejoice, O sacred fathers who shed your blood for Christ!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "589": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Paul the Confessor the Bishop of Plusias (9th C)", "short": "St. Paul" } }, "590": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Emilian, in the world Victorinus, of Italy", "short": "Venerable Emilian" } }, "592": { "name": { "nominative": "Icons of the Mother of God: “the Unsleeping Eye”, “Matelikiskaya”, and “Surety of Sinners”", "short": "Icons of" } }, "594": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Theophylactus the Bishop of Nicomedia († 842-845)", "short": "St. Theophylactus" }, "rank": 1 }, "597": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Priest Theodoritus of Antioch (4th C)", "short": "Hieromartyr Priest" } }, "600": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Demetrius, Wonderworker of Priluki and Vologda († 1392)", "short": "Venerable Demetrius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Demetrius of Prilutsk, Wonderworker, was born into a rich merchant’s family in Pereyaslavl′-Zalessk. From the time of his youth the monk was uncommonly handsome. Having accepted monastic tonsure at one of the Pereyaslavl’ monasteries, the saint later founded the Nikol’sk (Saint Nicholas) life-in-common monastery on the Borisoglebsk Hill at the shore of Lake Plescheevo near the city, and became its hegumen.
In 1534 Saint Demetrius first met with the Monk Sergei Radonezh, who had come to Pereyaslavl’ to bishop Athanasius. From that time he repeatedly conversed with the Monk Sergei and became close with him. The fame of the Pereyaslavl’ hegumen so spread about, that he became godfather to the children of Greatprince Demetrius Ioannovich. Under the influence of the Radonezh wonderworker, the Monk Demetrius decided to withdraw off to a desolate place, and together with his disciple Pakhomii he set off North. In the Vologda forests, at the River Velika, in the Avnezhsk surroundings, they built a church of the Resurrection of Christ and they made ready to lay the foundations for a monastery. But the local inhabitants were fearful of losing out, and the wilderness-dwellers in their wish to be a burden to no one, set off further.
Not far from Vologda, at the bend of a river in an isolated spot, the Monk Demetrius decided to form the first of the life-in-common monasteries of the Russian North. The people of Vologda and the surrounding gladly consented to help the saint. The owners of the land intended for the monastery, Il′ya and Isidor, even trampled down a grain field, so that a temple might be built immediately. In 1371 the wooden Saviour cathedral was erected, and brethren began to gather. Many a disciple of the monk came thither from Pereyaslavl′. The deep prayer and quite strict asceticism was combined in the Prilutsk hegumen with kindliness: he fed the poor and hungry, he took in strangers, he conversed with those in need of consolation, and he gave counsel. The monk loved to pray in private. His Lenten food was but prosphora with warm water, and even on feastdays he would not partake of the wine and fish permitted by the ustav-rule. Both Winter and Summer he wore only his old sheepskin coat, and into old age he went off with the brethren on common tasks. Contributions to the monastery the saint accepted cautiously, so that the welfare of the monastery be not to the impairment of those living nearby. The Lord vouchsafed His servant the gift of perspicacity. The Monk Demetrius died at an advanced age on 11 February 1392. The brethren approaching found him as though asleep, and his cell was filled with a wondrous fragrance. Miracles from the relics of Saint Demetrius began in the year 1409, and during the XV Century his veneration spread throughout all Rus′. And not later than the year 1440, based on the narratives of Saint Demetrius’s disciple the hegumen Pakhomii, the Prilutsk monk Makarii recorded his life (Great Reading-Menaion, 11 February).
" }, "rank": 3, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Need English translation
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Need English translation
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "601": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Cæsarius, brother of St Gregory the Theologian († c. 369)", "short": "Venerable Cæsarius" } }, "602": { "name": { "nominative": "Albazinian Icon of the Mother of God called “The Word Was Made Flesh” (1666)", "short": "Albazinian Icon" } }, "604": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Quadratus and those with him at Corinth († 250-258): Cyprian, Dionysius, Anectus, Paul, Criscentus, another Dionysius, Victorinus, Victor, Niciphorus, Claudius, Diodorus, Serapion, Papius, Leonidus, and the holy women Chariessa, Nunechia, Basilissa, Nica, Calisa, Gala, Galina, Theodora, and many others", "short": "Martyr Quadratus" }, "rank": 1 }, "605": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Quadratus of Nicomedia, Satorinus, Rufinus and others (3rd C)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" } }, "607": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Anastasia the Patrician, of Alexandria († 567-568)", "short": "Venerable Anastasia" } }, "614": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Sophronius the Patriarch of Jerusalem (638-644)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Sophronios, Patriarch of Jerusalem, was born in Damascus. From his youthful years he distinguished himself by his piety and his love for the classical sciences. He advanced especially in philosophy, for which they were wont to call him the Wise. But the future hierarch sought out an higher wisdom in the monasteries, and in conversations with the wilderness-dwellers. He arrived in Jerusalem at the monastery of Saint Theodosios, and there he became close with the PriestMonk John Moskhos, becoming his spiritual son and devoting himself to him in obedience. They journeyed together through the monasteries, and they wrote down descriptions of the lives and precepts of the ascetics found there. From these jottings was afterwards compiled their reknown book, the “Leimonarion” or “Spiritual Meadow,” which was highly esteemed at the Seventh Œcumenical Council.
To save themselves from the devastating incursions of the Persians, Saints John and Sophronios quit Palestine and withdrew to Antioch, and from there they went to Egypt. In Egypt Saint Sophronios became seriously ill. During this time he also decided to become a monk and so he accepted tonsure from the Monk John Moskhos. After the return to health of Saint Sophronios, they both decided to remain in Alexandria. There they were fondly received by the holy Patriarch John the Merciful (Comm. 12 November), to whom they rendered great aid in the struggle against the Monophysite heresy. At Alexandria Saint Sophronios’ eyesight was afflicted, and he recoursed with prayer and faith to the holy UnMercenaries Cyrus and John (Comm. 31 January), and he received healing in a church named for them. In gratitude, Saint Sophronios then wrote the Vita of these holy unmercenaries.
When the barbarians began to threaten Alexandria, the holy Patriarch John, accompanied by Saints Sophronios and John Moskhos, set out for Constantinople, but along the way he died. Saints John Moskhos and Sophronios with eighteen other monks then set out for Rome. At Rome the Monk John Moskhos also died († 622). His body was conveyed by Saint Sophronios to Jerusalem and buried at the monastery of Saint Theodosios.
In the year 628 the Jerusalem patriarch Zacharias (609-633) returned from the Persian Captivity. After his death, the patriarchal throne was occupied for a space of two years by Saint Modestos (633-634, Comm. 18 December). After the death of Saint Modestos, Saint Sophronios was chosen patriarch. Saint Sophronios toiled much for the welfare of the Jerusalem Church as its primate (634-644).
Towards the end of his life, Saint Sophronios with his flock lived through a two year siege of Jerusalem by the Mahometans. Worn down by hunger, the Christians finally consented to open the city gates, on the condition that the enemy spare the holy places. But this condition was not fulfilled, and holy Patriarch Sophronios died in deep grief over the desecration of the Christian holy places.
Written works by Patriarch Sophronios have come down to us in the area of dogmatics, and likewise his “Excursus on the Liturgy,” the Vita of the Nun Mary of Egypt (Comm. 1 April), and also about 950 tropars and stikhi-verses from Pascha to the Ascension. While still a priestmonk, Saint Sophronios made review and corrections to the “ustav-rule” of the monastery of the Monk Sava the Sanctified (Comm. 5 December). And the “tri-odic song” of the saint for the Holy Forty Day Great Lent is included in the composition of the contemporary Lenten Triodion.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "O Sophronius of Jerusalem, most wise among patriarchs, who struggled with divine zeal, * spread the commandments of truth with thy lips, set the foundations of the Church in good order, * and there transmitted them to those in the monastic ranks: * thou didst bring most wise discourses to light; and, instructed thereby, we cry out to thee: ** Rejoice, O splendid boast of the Orthodox!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "619": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Pionius of Smyrna and those with him: Asclepiades, Macedonia, Linus, and Sabina († 250)", "short": "Hieromartyr Pionius" } }, "621": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Theophanes the Confessor of Sigriane († 818)", "short": "Venerable Theophanes" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Theophanes the Confessor was born at Constantinople into a pious and reknown family. the father of Theophanes was a kinsman of the Byzantine emperor Leo the Isaurian (717-741). Three years after Theophanes was born, his father died, leaving his family under the care of the emperor himself. Theophanes grew up at the court and became a dignitary under the emperor Leo the Khozar (775-780). His position obliged him to enter into marriage. With the consent of his bride, Theophanes preserved his chastity, since in his soul matured the desire to assume the monastic form. Visiting upon a time with his spouse at monasteries in the Sygreian district (Asia Minor), Theophanes met the perspicacious elder Gregory Stratitios, who predicted to Theophanes’ wife, that her husband would merit the crown of martyrdom. Awhile later the spouse of Theophanes was tonsured a nun in one of the monasteries in Bithynia, and Theophanes accepted monastic tonsure under the monastic elder Gregory. With the blessing of the elder, Theophanes built a monastery on the Island of Kalon in the Sea of Marmara and secluded himself in his cell, being occupied with the transcription of books. And in this occupation Theophanes attained an high degree of mastery. Later on the Monk Theophanes founded yet another monastery in the Sygreian district, at a place called the “Big Settlement,” and became its hegumen. The monk himself took part in all the monastic tasks and for everyone he gave example by his love for work and effort. He was granted by the Lord the gift of wonderworking: he healed the sick and cast out devils. In the year 787 at Nicæa was convened the Seventh Œcumenical Council, which condemned the heresy of the Iconoclasts. The Monk Theophanes was also invited to the Council. He arrived dressed in his patch-tattered attire, but he shone forth by his God-inspired wisdom in affirming the dogmas of the true Orthodoxy.
At age 50 the Monk Theophanes fell grievously ill and right up to his very end he suffered terribly. Situated on his sick-bed, the monk toiled incessantly: he wrote his work, “The Chronographia,”—an history of the Christian Church covering the years 285-813. This work even up into the present has remained an invaluable source in the history of the Church.
During the reign of the emperor Leo the Armenian (813-820), when the saint was already well up into age, the Iconoclast heresy made a comeback. They demanded of Saint Theophanes that he accept the heresy, but he firmly refused and was locked up in prison. His “Big Settlement” monastery was put to the torch. In prison for 23 days, the holy confessor died († 818). After the death of the impious emperor Leo the Armenian, the “Big Settlement” monastery was restored and the relics of the holy confessor were transferred there.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Receiving divine revelation from on high, * with diligence thou didst depart from the midst of the tumult of life; * and, having become a solitary, O venerable one, * thou didst receive the power to work wonders and the dignity of prophecy, ** having deprived thyself of wealth and wife.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "623": { "name": { "nominative": "Righteous Phineas the grandson of Aaron (C 1500 BC)", "short": "Righteous Phineas" } }, "626": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Simeon the New Theologian († 1021)", "short": "Venerable Simeon" } }, "629": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon “Not Made by Hands” of the Mother of God from Lydda (1st C) and “of Rome”", "short": "Icon “Not" } }, "630": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Dionysius the Archimandrite of St Sergius Monastery († 1633)", "short": "Venerable Dionysius" } }, "631": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Dionysius the Archbishop of Suzdal († 1385)", "short": "St. Dionysius" } }, "633": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Africanus, Publius and Terence at Carthage (3rd C)", "short": "Martyrs Africanus" } }, "634": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Alexander of Macedonia (305-311)", "short": "Martyr Alexander" } }, "635": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Christina of Persia (4th C)", "short": "Martyr Christina" } }, "638": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Benedict of Nursia († 543)", "short": "Venerable Benedict" }, "rank": 1 }, "640": { "name": { "nominative": "Right-believing Great Prince Rostislav-Michael of Kiev († 1167)", "short": "Right-believing Great" } }, "642": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Euschemon the Confessor and Bishop of Lampsacus (9th C)", "short": "St. Euschemon" } }, "643": { "name": { "nominative": "Theodore - Kostroma Icon of the Mother of God (1613)", "short": "Theodore -" } }, "646": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Agapius, Publius, Timolaus, Romulus, Alexander, Alexander, Dionysius and Dionysius of Palestine († 303)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" }, "rank": 1 }, "647": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Alexander of Side, in Pamphylia († 270-275)", "short": "Hieromartyr Alexander" } }, "648": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Nicander of Egypt († c. 302)", "short": "Martyr Nicander" } }, "651": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Nicander, Abbot of Gorodensk (16th C)", "short": "Venerable Nicander" } }, "653": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Sabinus (Abibus) of Egypt († 287)", "short": "Martyr Sabinus" } }, "654": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Papas of Lyconia († 305-311)", "short": "Martyr Papas" }, "rank": 1 }, "655": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Alexander, Pope of Rome († 119)", "short": "Hieromartyr Alexander" } }, "656": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Julian of Anazarbus (4th C)", "short": "Martyr Julian" } }, "657": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyrs Trophimus and Thallus, Priests of Laodicea († c. 300)", "short": "Hieromartyrs Trophimus" } }, "663": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Marinus", "short": "Martyr Marinus" } }, "665": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Cyrill, Archbishop of Jerusalem († 386)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" }, "rank": 1 }, "667": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Trophimus and Eucarpion of Nicomedia († c. 300)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" } }, "668": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Aninas of the Euphrates", "short": "Venerable Aninas" } }, "673": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria and with them Martyrs Claudius the Tribune with his wife Hilaria and their sons Jason and Maurus, and Diodorus the Priest and Marianus the Deacon at Rome († 283)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" }, "rank": 1 }, "675": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Pancharius at Nicomedia († c. 302)", "short": "Martyr Pancharius" } }, "676": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God called “Tenderness,” Smolensk (1103)", "short": "Icon of" } }, "678": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Fathers slain at the Monastery of Saint Sabbas: John, Sergius, Patrick and others († 796)", "short": "Venerable Fathers" }, "rank": 1 }, "680": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Photina (Svetlana), the Samaritan Woman, her sons, and those with her († c. 66)", "short": "Martyr Photina" } }, "681": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Virgin Martyrs Alexandra, Claudia, Euphrasia, Matrona, Juliania, Euthymia and Theodosia († 310)", "short": "Holy Virgin" } }, "682": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Nicetas the Confessor the Archbishop of Apollonias in Bithynia (9th C)", "short": "St. Nicetas" } }, "685": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable James the Confessor and Bishop of Catania (8th-9th C)", "short": "Venerable James" }, "rank": 1 }, "686": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Cyrill, Bishop of Catania (1st-2nd C)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" } }, "687": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Thomas, Patriarch of Constantinople († 610)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" } }, "689": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Basil of Ancyra († 363)", "short": "Hieromartyr Basil" }, "rank": 1 }, "690": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Drosis the Daughter of the Emperor Trajan (104-117)", "short": "Martyr Drosis" } }, "694": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Nikon in Sicily and his 199 Disciples († 251)", "short": "Martyr Nikon" }, "rank": 1 }, "696": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Philetus, Lydia, Macedonus, Theoprepius, Cronidus, and Amphilochius (117-138)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" } }, "700": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Zachariah the Recluse of Egypt", "short": "Venerable Zachariah" }, "rank": 1 }, "703": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Stephen and Peter of Kazan († 1552)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" } }, "706": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God called “the Beclouded Mount” (17th C)", "short": "Icon of" } }, "707": { "name": { "nominative": "The Annunciation of our Most Holy Lady, Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary", "short": "The Annunciation" }, "rank": 7 }, "712": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Presbyters Bathusius and Vercus with two sons and two daughters, the Monk Arpilus, and the Laymen: Abibus, Agnus, Reas, Igathrax, Iscous, Silus, Sigizus, Sonirilus, Suimblus, Thermus, Phillus and the women Anna, Alla, Larisa, Moico, Mamica, Uirco, Animaisa, Gaatha, and Ducleda († c. 375)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" } }, "713": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Malchus of Chalcis in Syria (4th C)", "short": "St. Malchus" } }, "714": { "name": { "nominative": "Repose of St Eustathius I, Archbishop of Serbia († c. 1285)", "short": "Repose of" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Eustathii, Archbishop of Serbia, lived in the second half of the XIII Century, during the reign of the Serbian king Stefan Urosh (1262-1320).
He was born in the Budimil’sk district into a pious Christian family, where he received a spiritual upbringing. Distinguished by remarkable talents, the youth Evstathii was given over by his parents for training in “book wisdom.” With particular diligence he studied Holy Scripture, perfecting himself in piety and good deeds. Having finished his education, the youth took vows at the monastery of the Archangel Michael in the Zetsk district (Chernogore) and led a strict monastic life, such that he soon became noted as a great ascetic. From thence he undertook a journey to Jerusalem, for veneration to the Holy Sepulchre of the Lord. On the return journey he visited Holy Mount Athos and settled there in the Serbian Khilendaria monastery.
The monk Evstathii gained general reknown and love as a strict ascetic and good teacher, and he was advanced to the dignity of hegumen of the monastery.
After several years they ordained him bishop of the Zetsk diocese, and the saint returned to his native land. Rich spiritual experience and monastic life won him the love of his fellow countrymen, and Saint Evstathii was chosen to the throne of the archbishops of Serbia, successors of Saint Sava. For seven years Saint Evstathii guided the Serbian Church and peacefully died about the year 1285. His body was buried in the Zhidocha monastery, and later it was transferred to Pesh (Pech) and placed in the cathedral church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.
" } }, "716": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Matrona of Thessalonica (3rd-4th C)", "short": "Martyr Matrona" }, "rank": 1 }, "717": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Manuel and Theodosius († 304)", "short": "Martyrs Manuel" } }, "718": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable John the Clairvoyant, Anchorite, of Egypt († 394-395)", "short": "Venerable John" } }, "722": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Hilarion the New the Abbot of Pelecete († c. 754)", "short": "Venerable Hilarion" }, "rank": 1 }, "723": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Stephen the Wonderworker the Abbot of Tryglia (9th C)", "short": "Venerable Stephen" }, "rank": 1 }, "724": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Eustratius of the Kiev Caves († 1097)", "short": "Hieromartyr Eustratius" } }, "726": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Jonah and Barachisius and those with them: Xanithanus, Lazarus, Maruthanus, Narsinus, Elias, Marinus, Abibus, Siusithinus, and Sabbas (4th C)", "short": "Martyrs Jonah" } }, "727": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Enravota-Boyan, Prince of Bulgaria († c. 830)", "short": "Martyr Enravota-Boyan" } }, "729": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Mark the Bishop of Arethusa, Martyr Cyril the Deacon of Heliopolis, and others who suffered under Julian the Apostate († c. 363)", "short": "Hieromartyr Mark" }, "rank": 1 }, "730": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable John the Anchorite of Egypt (4th C)", "short": "Venerable John" } }, "731": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Eustathius (Eustace) the Confessor the Bishop of Bithynia (9th C)", "short": "St. Eustathius" } }, "732": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Mark and Jonah of the Pskov Caves († 15th C)", "short": "Venerable Mark" } }, "737": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Euthymius, Archbishop of Novgorod († 1458)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Evthymii, in Baptism Ioann (John), was born at the fervent prayers of the presbyter Mikhei and his spouse Anna. For long years they had been childless, and they gave a vow: if a son were born, they would dedicate him to God. The reading of priestly books and frequent visits to Divine-services, which the boy served at with his father—a priest at a not-large temple named for Saint Theodore,—all this gave sanctity to the soul of young Ioann. And at the age of fifteen, in the year 1411, he departed his parental home for a monastery.
Twelve versts from Novgorod, in a wilderness spot named Vyazhisch, amidst the forests and the swamps there had settled three monks—Evphrosyn, Ignatii and Galaktion. There soon joined them the priest Pimen, who accepted tonsure with the name Pakhomii. Here they asceticised in complete solitude at a wooden chapel built by them in the name of Christ’s Saint Nicholas, living in unceasing prayer and in the harsh struggle with the severe conditions of nature in the Northern regions.
The young Ioann in seeking salvation came also to these ascetics. The hegumen Pakhomii accepted him fondly and tonsured him into monasticism with the name Evthymii. Tonsure at so early an age reflects the outstanding spiritual traits of the young ascetic, which were evident to the perspicacious Pakhomii. During this period in time the Novgorod archbishop’s cathedra-seat was occupied by archbishop Simeon, a simple monk elevated to archbishop. The virtuous life of the Monk Evthymii became known to the archbishop. Saint Evthymii was summoned to Novgorod and after a long talk with the vladyka he was appointed the archbishop’s steward. During these times Novgorod archbishops occupied quite unique a position: independent of princely authority, they were elected directly by the veche-assembly and they assumed a large role in secular matters; moreover, it imposed upon them the administration of vast land-holdings. And an archbishop’s steward under these conditions had to combine administrative talent with the utmost non-covetousness and deep Christian humility. Saint Evthymii fervently entreated the archpastor to send him away back again to Vyazhisch, but then he yielded.
In his new duty, Saint Evthymii evoked general astonishment and esteem, in that while occupying so important a position, and being at the centre of business life in a large crowded city, he as a monk asceticised as fervently as he would have in the deep forest. In 1421 archbishop Simeon died. Under the new hierarch, Evthymii I, Saint Evthymii again withdrew to his monastery. Soon however the monks of a monastery on Lisich Hill chose the saint as their hegumen. With the death of the Novgorod archbishop Evthymii I in 1429, the hegumen Saint Evthymii was then chosen archbishop of his native city, and on 29 November he entered into the temple of Saint Sophia. For four years the saint administered the Novgorod diocese, whilst putting off being acclaimed archbishop, and it was only on 24 May 1434 that he was consecrated at Smolensk. The archepiscopal laying on of hands was headed by metropolitan Gerasim.
Saint Evthymii wisely governed his diocese over the course of 29 years, zealous in the fulfilling of his archpastoral duty. Saint Evthymii toiled much at the construction and restoration of churches, especially after the devastating conflagrations of the years 1431 and 1442. The Sophia cathedral was richly embellished by the saint, and in the Novgorod Kremlin there was built several new churches. “If thou dost wish to see,—writes Pakhomii the Logothete,—some few from the number of his great works, go to the temple of Saint Sophia. There thou wilt catch glimpse the temples of saints built by him, standing like hillocks. Not by the voice, but in the deed do they bespeak their varied charm. This was bestowed me by archbishop Evthymii,—proclaims the one church; while another sayeth—so magnificently hath he adorned me; and yet a third one doth relate—he did build me up from the very foundations. The temple of great John Chrysostom, tall and beautiful, with the hand of a Chrysostomos he blesses and from its face is proclaimed: “In as thou hast erected me a temple-habitation, I in turn shalt beseech the Creator to prepare thee habitation in Heaven.” The cathedral temple of the Wisdom of God, Saint Sophia, answering from over the years in its restoration by him, proclaimeth: “He hath returned me to mine original grandeur, he hath adorned me with holy icons, he—is my praise and beauty.” Saint Evthymii built also a church in honour of his Guardian Angel [i.e. Russian idiom for “patron saint”], and in 1438 he built at Vyazhitsk monastery a stone church in honour of Saint Nicholas; and in the following year—a stone church in honour of Saint John the Theologian with a refectory and consistory. Zealous for the Glory of God, Saint Evthymii concerned himself over the increase of spiritual books. From this period is found quite many a Divine-service book, transcribed “under authority of archbishop Vladyka Evthymii.” Despite his abundant works, the saint always promptly fulfilled the monastic rule: whatever he did not succeed doing by day he accomplished by night. An hour before Matins the saint rose up for cell prayer. Often the whole night he spent without sleep; he wore chains, but no one knew about them until his end. The first week of Great Lent the saint spent at Vyazhitsk monastery in silent prayer, eating nothing.
In 1446 the great-princely throne was usurped by Shemyaka, who entered into relations with Novgorod. The political situation in Novgorod was often quite strained. Saint Jona (Comm. 31 March) in a special missive in 1451 urged the Novgorod people to cease their rowdiness and to heed their archpastor—”be ye in everything heedful to our son and brother, your father and teacher, the God-beloved archbishop Evthymii.” Saint Evthymii, quite up in age, was troubled in soul that the actions of Shemyaka might cast a pall over his relations with the church primate he so deeply revered, and he dispatched a letter to Saint Jona. Sensing the nearness of his death, Saint Evthymii besought for himself prayers and pardon. Saint Jona in the reply letter—a grammota of pardon, wrote: “We call to mind for thee, my son, that thou didst comport thyself too simply: one, who was excommunicated for transgressions by our humility, ye did accept unto yourself and find worthy of your blessing. And do thou, my son, offer repentance in this before God.” And with this Saint Jona gave orders: if the grammota of pardon should arrive after the blessed end of the Novgorod archpastor, then it should be read over his grave. Saint Evthymii reposed on 10 March 1458. The priest Evmenii, dispatched by Saint Jona with the grammota of pardon, arrived in Novgorod 16 days after the death of Saint Evthymii, whose grave at his bequest stood at the church of the Vyazhitsk monastery. When they opened the grave so as to read the grammota of pardon, they then saw that no decay had touched the body of the saint. Saint Evthymii lay there as though asleep, and his fingers were positioned in blessing. “God preserve yet Novgorod, for which Saint Evthymii doth pray,”—loudly exclaimed Evmenii, and reading the grammota of Saint Jona, he placed it into the hand of the deceased hierarch.
Soon after the death of the saint, the Lord glorified him in blessing with grace those, who recoursed to his prayerful intercession. Highly revering the saint, the monks of the Vyazhitsk monastery in gratitude erected a church in honour of Saint Evthymii, which was noted in the census of 1500. The celebration of the memory of Saint Evthymii was established at the Moscow Sobor of 1549. The Vita (Life) of Saint Evthymii was written by Pakhomii the Logothete, having been commissioned by Saint Jona, Archbishop of Novgorod († 1470, Comm. 5 November).
" }, "rank": 3, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Needs translation
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Needs translation
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "739": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Eubula, mother of Great Martyr Panteleimon († .305)", "short": "St. Eubula" } }, "741": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Zosimus the Bishop of Syracuse († c. 662)", "short": "St. Zosimus" } }, "743": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Euthymius Archimandrite of Suzdal, the Wonderworker († 1404)", "short": "Venerable Euthymius" }, "rank": 3 }, "744": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Euthymius of Syanzhema and Vologda († c. 1465)", "short": "Venerable Euthymius" } }, "745": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Hypatius the Wonderworker and Bishop of Gangra († c. 326)", "short": "St. Hypatius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Hieromartyr Ipatios, Bishop of Gangra, was bishop of the city of Gangra in Paphlagonia (Asia Minor). In the year 325 he participated in the I Œcumenical Council at Nicæa, at which the heresy of Arius was given anathema.
When Saint Ipatios was returning in 326 from Constantinople to Gangra, followers of the schismatics Novatus and Felicissimus fell upon him in a desolate place. The heretics ran him through with swords and spears, and threw him from an high bank into a swamp. Like the First-martyr Arch-deacon Stephen, Saint Ipatios prayed for his murderers. A certain Arian woman struck the saint on the head with a stone, and he died. The murderers hid his body in a cave, where a christian who kept straw there found his body. Recognising the body of the bishop, he hastened to report about this in the city, and the inhabitants of Gangra piously buried the remains of their beloved arch-pastor.
After death the relics of Saint Ipatios won reknown for numerous miracles, in particular the casting out of demons and for healing the sick.
From of old the Priestmartyr Ipatios was particularly venerated in the Russian land. Thus in the year 1330 was built at Kostroma the Ipatiev monastery, on the place of an appearance of the Mother of God with the Pre-eternal Christ-Child and saints that were present—the Apostle Philip and the Priestmartyr Ipatios, bishop of Gangra. This monastery afterwards occupied a significant place in the spiritual and social life of the nation, particularly during the years of the Time of Troubles. The old-time copies of the Vita of the Priestmartyr Ipatios were widely distributed in Russian literature, and one of these entered into the compiling of the Chet′i Minei [Reading Menaion] of Metropolitan Makarii (1542-1564). In this Vita was preserved an account about the appearance of the Saviour to Saint Ipatios on the eve of the martyr’s death. The veneration to the saint consists of prayers, words of praise and teaching on the day of his memory. The pious veneration of Saint Ipatios was also expressed in the liturgical works of Russian authors. During the XIX Century was written a new service to the Priestmartyr Ipatios, distinct from the services written by the Monk Joseph the Studite, contained in the March Menaion.
" }, "rank": 1 }, "746": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Apollonius, Ascetic, of Egypt (4th C)", "short": "Venerable Apollonius" } }, "747": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyrs Auda, Bishop of Persia and the Deacon Benjamin (418-424)", "short": "Hieromartyrs Auda" } }, "748": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Euphrosynus of Blue Jay Lake, Novgorod († 1612)", "short": "Hieromartyr Euphrosynus" } }, "754": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Zosimas of Palestine, who found Venerable Mary of Egypt († c. 560)", "short": "Venerable Zosimas" } }, "757": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Gerontius the Canonarch of the Kiev Far Caves (14th C)", "short": "Venerable Gerontius" } }, "758": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Gerontius and Basilides (3rd C)", "short": "Martyrs" } }, "759": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Macarius the Abbot of Pelecete († c. 830)", "short": "Venerable Macarius" } }, "762": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Titus the Wonderworker (9th C)", "short": "Venerable Titus" }, "rank": 1 }, "763": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Amphianus and Edesius of Lycia († 306)", "short": "Martyrs Amphianus" } }, "764": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Polycarp of Alexandria (4th C)", "short": "Martyr Polycarp" } }, "765": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Elisha of Sumsk (15th-16th C)", "short": "Venerable Elisha" } }, "767": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Nicetas the Confessor, Abbot of Medikion († 824)", "short": "Venerable Nicetas" }, "rank": 1 }, "768": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Illyricus the Monk of Mt. Myrsinon in the Peloponnesus", "short": "Venerable Illyricus" } }, "771": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Elpidephorus, Dius, Bithonius, and Galycus", "short": "Martyrs Elpidephorus" } }, "772": { "name": { "nominative": "600 Venerable Fathers martyred in the hermitage of David-Gareji, Georgia (17th C)", "short": "600 Venerable" } }, "773": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God “the Unfading Bloom”", "short": "Icon of" } }, "775": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Joseph the Hymnographer († 883)", "short": "Venerable Joseph" }, "rank": 1 }, "776": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable George of Mt. Maleon in the Peloponnesus (9th C)", "short": "Venerable George" }, "rank": 1 }, "780": { "name": { "nominative": "Virginmartyr Pherbutha (Phermoutha) of Persia, with her sister and servant († 341-343)", "short": "Virginmartyr Pherbutha" } }, "787": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Agathopous the Deacon and Theodulus the Reader and those with them († c. 303)", "short": "Martyrs Agathopous" }, "rank": 1 }, "789": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Publius of Egypt (4th C)", "short": "Venerable Publius" } }, "790": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Mark the Anchorite of Athens († 400)", "short": "Venerable Mark" } }, "791": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Plato the Confessor, Abbot of the Studion Monastery († 814)", "short": "Venerable Plato" } }, "792": { "name": { "nominative": "Apostle Hermas of the Seventy (1st C)", "short": "Apostle Hermas" } }, "795": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Eutychius, Patriarch of Constantinople († 582)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" }, "rank": 1 }, "798": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Platonida (Platonis) of Nisibis, Syria († 308)", "short": "Venerable Platonida" } }, "799": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Hermylus and Stratonicus of Belgrade († c. 315)", "short": "Martyrs Hermylus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyrs Ermil and Stratonik, by origin Slavs, lived at the beginning of the IV Century during the time of persecution against Christians by the emperor Licinius (307-324). They were friends. Saint Ermil served as deacon in the city of Singedonum (Belgrade). Condemned by Licinius to imprisonment, he was long and cruelly tortured for the Name of Christ, but he remained unyielding. Saint Stratonik was a superintendent of the prison and a secret christian. Seeing the agonising torments of his friend, he was not able to keep from weeping, and he revealed that he was a christian. They subjected him also to torture. After the torturing, they put the martyrs into a net and threw them into the Danube/Dunai. On the third day, the bodies of the saints were discovered on the bank of the river by christians and buried near Singedonum. Their venerable heads are located in the Church of Saint Sophia, where the Russian pilgrim Antonii saw them in the year 1200.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In their sufferings, O Lord, * Thy martyrs received imperishable crowns from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * they set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By their supplications save Thou our souls.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "804": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Hermogenes, Patriarch of Moscow and Wonderworker of All Russia († 1612)", "short": "Hieromartyr Hermogenes" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Hieromartyr Hermogenes Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus,’ was descended from the Don Cossacks. In the testimony of the Patriarch himself, he was priest in the city of Kazan at a church, near the Kazan bazaar, in the name of Saint Nicholas (Comm. 6 December and 9 May). Soon he became a monk and from 1582 was archimandrite of the Saviour-Transfiguration monastery at Kazan. On 13 May 1589 he was ordained bishop and became the first Kazan metropolitan.
During the service of His Holiness the Patriarch at Kazan there occurred the appearance and discovery of the Wonder-Working Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in the year 1579. Being then still only a priest, but with the blessing of the then Kazan archbishop Jeremii, he carried the newly-appeared icon from the place of its discovery to the Church of Saint Nicholas. Having remarkable literary talent, the saint himself in 1594 compiled an account about the appearance of the wonderworking icon and the miracles accomplished through it. In 1591 the saint gathered newly-baptised Tatars into the cathedral church and during the course of several days instructed them in the faith.
In 1592 there was the transfer of relics of Saint German, the second archbishop of Kazan (Comm. 25 September, 6 November, and 23 June), who had died at Moscow on 6 November 1567 during the time of a pestilential plague, and buried in Saint Nicholas Church. With the blessing of Patriarch Job (1589-1605), Saint Ermogen made the re-burial at the Sviyazhsk Uspenie monastery. On 9 January 1592 Saint Ermogen directed a letter to Patriarch Job, in which he stated that at Kazan there was celebrated no particular remembrance of the Orthodox soldiers, who gave their life for the Faith and Fatherland beneath Kazan, and he petitioned to establish an assigned day of memory. At the same time he reported about three martyrs who had suffered at Kazan for their faith in Christ,—one of which was a Russian by the name of John (Comm. 24 January) born at Nizhny Novgorod and captured by the Tatars, while the other two,—Stephen and Peter (Comm. 24 March) were newly-converted Tatars. The saint expressed regret that these martyrs were not inserted into the synodikon read on the Sunday of Orthodoxy, and that memory eternal was not sung for them. In answer to Saint Ermogen, the Patriarch issued an ukaz (decree) of 25 February, which decreed:—”for all the Orthodox soldiers, killed at Kazan and the Kazan surroundings, to celebrate at Kazan and throughout all the Kazan metropolitanate a panikhida on the Saturday following the (1 October) feastday of Pokrov * Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God, and to inscribe them in the great synodikon read on the Sunday of Orthodoxy,” and ordered to inscribe in the synodikon also the three Kazan martyrs, entrusting to Saint Ermogen to set the day of their memory. Saint Ermogen circulated the Patriarchal ukaz throughout his diocese, adding, that in all the churches and monasteries they should celebrate liturgy and panikhida for the three Kazan martyrs and should remember them also at litya and liturgy on 24 January. Saint Ermogen displayed zeal in the faith and firmness in the observance of church traditions, and he concerned himself with the enlightening of Kazan Tatars by the faith of Christ.
In 1595, with the active participation of the saint there occurred the discovery and opening of the relics of the Kazan Wonderworkers: Saint Gurii, the first archbishop of Kazan (Comm. 4 October, 5 December, 20 June), and Saint Varsonophii bishop of Tver’ (Comm. 4 October, 11 April). Tsar Feodor Ioannovich (1584-1598) had given orders to erect at the Kazan Saviour-Transfiguration monastery a new stone church on the place of the first one, wherein the saints were buried. When the graves of the saints were discovered, Saint Ermogen came with a gathering of clergy, he commanded the graves to be opened and, having beheld the undecayed relics and garb of the saints, he notified the Patriarch and the tsar. With the blessing of Patriarch Job and by order of the tsar, the relics of the newly-appeared wonderworkers were placed in the new church. Saint Ermogen himself compiled the lives of Saint-hierarchs Gurii and Varsonophii.
Having been deigned the arch-pastoral position—metropolitan Ermogen was chosen to the arch-hierarchical cathedra (chair), and on 3 July 1606 he was elevated to the assemblage * sobor of sainted-hierarchs upon the Patriarchal throne at Moscow Uspensky (Dormition) cathedral. Metropolitan Isidor handed the Patriarch the staff of Saint-hierarch Peter, Moscow WonderWorker (Comm. 5 October, 21 December, 24 August), and the tsar gave as a gift to the new Patriarch a panagia, embellished with precious stones, a white klobuk and staff. In the ancient manner Patriarch Ermogen made his entrance upon a donkey.
The activity of Patriarch Ermogen co-incided with a difficult period for the Russian state—the incursion of the imposter the False-Dimitrii and the Polish king Sigismund III. The arch-hierarch devoted all his powers to the service of the Church and the Fatherland. Patriarch Ermogen was not alone in this exploit: his self-sacrificing fellow-countrymen copied his example and assisted him. With an especial inspiration His Holiness the Patriarch stood up against the traitors and enemies of the Fatherland, who wanted to install Uniatism and Western Catholicism in Russia and to wipe out Orthodoxy, while enslaving the Russian nation. When the imposter arrived at Moscow and settled himself at Tushino, Patriarch Ermogen dispatched two missives to the Russian traitors. In one of them he wrote: “…You have forgotten the vows of our Orthodox faith, in which we are born, baptised, nourished and raised, ye have violated the oath and the kissing of the cross to stand to the death for the house of the Most Holy Mother of God and for the Moscow realm, but have fallen for your false would-be tsarlet… My soul aches, my heart is sickened, all within me agonises, and all my frame doth shudder; I weep and with sobbing I lament: have mercy, have mercy, brethren and children, on your own souls and your parents departed and living… Consider, how our Fatherland is devastated and plundered by foreigners, who offer insult to the holy icons and churches, and how innocent blood is spilled, crying out to God. Think, against whom do ye take up arms: is it not against God, Who hath created you? Is it not against your own brothers? Do ye not devastate your own Fatherland?… I adjure you in the Name of God, give up your undertaking, there is yet time, that ye perish not at the end.” In the second gramota * document the Arch-hierarch appeals: “For the sake of God, come to your senses and turn round, gladden your parents, your wifes and children; and we stand to pray God for you…”
Soon the righteous judgement of God was realised upon the Tushino thief: a sad and inglorious fate befell him just as it did his predecessor [another false-Dimitrii];—he was killed by his own close associates on 11 December 1610. But Moscow continued to remain in peril, since in it were situated the Poles and traitor-boyars, having made betrayal to Sigismund III. The gramoti * documents, dispatched by Patriarch Ermogen throughout the cities and villages, exhorted the Russian nation to liberate Moscow from the enemies and to choose a lawful Russian tsar. The Muscovites raised up a rebellion, in answer to which the Poles burned the city, and shut themselves up within the Kremlin. Together with Russian traitors they forcefully seized hold of Patriarch Ermogen from the patriarchal throne and imprisoned him in the Chudov monastery under guard. On Bright Monday in 1611 the Russian militia approached Moscow and began the seige of the Kremlin, which continued for several months. Besieged within the Kremlin, the Poles many a time sent messengers to the Patriarch with the demand that he order the Russian militia to leave the city, threatening for refusal a death by execution. The saint firmly replied: “What are your threats to me? Only God do I fear. If all of you, Lithuanian people, go from the Moscow realm , I shall bless the Russian militia to go from Moscow, but if ye remain here, I shall bless all to stand against you and to die for the Orthodox faith.” While still in prison, the Priest-martyr Ermogen turned with a final missive to the Russian nation, blessing the liberating army against the invaders. The Russian commanders could not come to an agreement over a way to take the Kremlin and free their Arch-hierarch. He languished more than nine months in dreadful confinement, and on 17 February 1612 he died a martyr’s death from starvation.
The liberation of Russia, for which Saint Ermogen stood with such indestructible valour, was successfully concluded by the Russian nation. The body of the Priest-martyr Ermogen was buried in the Chudov monastery, but in 1654 was transferred to the Moscow Uspenie cathedral. The glorification of Patriarch Ermogen into the rank of Saint-hierarchs occurred on 12 May 1913.
" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O foremost hierarch of the Russian land and tireless advocate for it before God, laying down thy life for the Faith of Christ and thy flock, thou didst deliver thy land from ungodliness. Wherefore, we cry aloud unto thee: Save us by thy supplications, O hieromartyr Hermogenes our father!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Wasting away in imprisonment and starvation, thou didst remain faithful even unto death, O blessed Hermogenes, driving faintheartedness from the hearts of thy people and calling all to the common struggle. Wherefore, thou didst set at nought the rebellion of the ungodly and make our land steadfast, that all might cry out to thee: Rejoice, O helper of the Russian land!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "6" } } } }, "805": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable George the Confessor, Metropolitan of Mitylene († after 820)", "short": "Venerable George" }, "rank": 1 }, "807": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Calliopius at Pompeiopolis in Cilicia († 304)", "short": "Martyr Calliopius" } }, "808": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Rufinus the Deacon, the Martyr Aquilina and 200 Soldiers with them († c. 310)", "short": "Martyr Rufinus" } }, "811": { "name": { "nominative": "Apostles of the Seventy Herodion (Rodion), Agabus, Asyncritus, Rufus, Phlegon and Hermes (1st C)", "short": "Apostles of" }, "rank": 1 }, "812": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Celestine, Pope of Rome († 432)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" } }, "813": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Ephraim, Abbot and Wonderworker of Torzhok (Novy Torg) († 1053)", "short": "Venerable Ephraim" } }, "814": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation of the relics of the Venerable Ephraim, Abbot of Perekop, Novgorod (1545)", "short": "Translation of" }, "rank": 3 }, "815": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Ephraim of the Kiev Caves, Bishop of Pereyaslavl († c. 1098)", "short": "Venerable Ephraim" } }, "817": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Ephraim the Syrian († c. 373-379)", "short": "Venerable Ephraim" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Ephraim the Syrian, a teacher of repentance, was born at the beginning of the IV Century (his precise year of birth is unknown) in the city of Ninevah (Mesopotamia) into the family of impoverished toilers of the soil. His parents raised their son in piety. But from the time of his childhood he was known for his quick temper and irascible character, and in his youth he often had fights, he acted thoughtlessly, and even doubted of God’s Providence, until he finally recovered his senses from the Lord’s doing, guiding him on the path of repentance and salvation. One time he was unjustly accused of the theft of a sheep and was thrown into prison. And there in a dream he heard a voice, calling him to repentance and rectifying his life. After this, he was acquitted of the charges and set free.
Within Ephraim there took place a deep repentance. The youth withdrew outside the city and became an hermit. This form of Christian asceticism had been introduced at Ninevah by a disciple of the Monk Anthony the Great,—the Egyptian Wilderness-Dweller Eugenios (Eugene).
Among the hermits especially prominent was the noted ascetic, a preacher of Christianity and denouncer of the Arians, the bishop of the Ninevah Church, Saint James (Comm. 13 January). The Monk Ephraim became one of his disciples. Under the graced guidance of the holy hierarch, the Monk Ephraim attained to Christian meekness, humility, submission to the Will of God, and the strength without murmur to undergo various temptations. Saint James knew the high qualities of his student and he used them for the good of the Ninevah Church—he entrusted him to read sermons, to instruct children in the school, and he took Ephraim along with him to the First Œcumenical Council at Nicæa (in the year 325). The Monk Ephraim was in obedience to Saint James for 14 years, until the bishop’s death.
After the capture of Ninevah by the Persians in the year 363, the Monk Ephraim abandoned the wilderness and settled in a monastery near the city of Edessa. Here he saw many a great ascetic, passing their lives in prayer and psalmody. Their caves were solitary shelters, and they fed themselves off a certain plant. He became especially close with the ascetic Julian (Comm. 18 October), who was one with him in a spirit of repentance. The Monk Ephraim combined with his ascetic works an incessant study of the Word of God, gathering within it for his soul both solace and wisdom. The Lord gave him a gift of teaching, and people began to come to him, wanting to hear his guidances, which produced a particular effect upon the soul, since he began with self-accusation. The monk both verbally and in writing instructed everyone in repentance, faith and piety, and he denounced the Arian heresy, which during those times was disrupting Christian society. And pagans likewise, listening to the preaching of the monk, were converted to Christianity.
He also toiled no little at the interpretation of Holy Scripture—with an explication of the Pentateuch (i.e. “Five Books”) of Moses. He wrote many a prayer and church-song, thereby enriching the Church’s Divine-services. Famed prayers of Saint Ephraim are to the Most Holy Trinity, to the Son of God, and to the Most Holy Mother of God. He wrote for his Church song for the Twelve Great Feastdays of the Lord (the Nativity of Christ, the Baptism, the Resurrection), and funereal song. Saint Emphrem’s Prayer of Repentance, “O Lord and Master of my life…,” is said during Great Lent, and it summons Christians to spiritual renewal. The Church since times ancient valued highly the works of the Monk Ephraim: his works were read in certain churches, at gatherings of the faithful, after the Holy Scripture. And now at present in accord with the Church Ustav (Rule), certain of his instructions are prescribed to be read on the days of Lent. Amidst the prophets, Saint David is pre-eminently the psalmodist; amidst the holy fathers of the Church the Monk Ephraim the Syrian—is pre-eminently a man of prayer. His spiritual experience made him a guide to monks and an help to the pastors of Edessa. The Monk Ephraim wrote in Syrian, but his works were very early translated into the Greek and Armenian languages, and from the Greek—into the Latin and Slavonic languages.
In numerous of the works of the Monk Ephraim are encountered glimpses of the life of the Syrian ascetics, the centre of which involved prayer and with it thereupon the toiling for the common good of the brethren, in the obediences. The outlook of the meaning of life among all the Syrian ascetics was the same. The end purpose of their efforts was considered by the monks to be communality with God and the diffusion of Divine grace within the soul of the ascetic; the present life for them was a time of tears, fasting and toil.
”If the Son of God be within thee, then also His Kingdom is within thee. Here then is the Kingdom of God—within thee, a sinner. Go inwards into thine self, search diligently and without toil thou shalt find it. Outside of thee—is death, and the door to it—is sin. Go inwards into thine self, dwell within thine heart, for since there—is God.” Constant spiritual sobriety, the developing of good within the soul of man gives unto him the possibility to take upon himself a task like blessedness, and a self-constraint like sanctity. The requital is presupposed in the earthly life of man, it is an undertaking by degrees of its spiritual perfection. Whoso grows himself wings upon the earth, says the Monk Ephraim, is one who soars up into the heights; whoso down here purifies his mind—there glimpses the Glory of God; in what measure each one loveth God—is that measure wherein is satiated to fullness by the love of God. Man, cleansing himself and attaining the grace of the Holy Spirit while still here, down upon the earth, has a foretaste therein of the Kingdom of Heaven. To attain to life eternal, in the teachings of the Monk Ephraim, does not mean to pass over from one sphere of being into another, but means rather to discover “the Heavenly” spiritual condition of being. Eternal life is not bestown man as a one-sided working by God, but rather like a seed, it constantly grows within him through effort, toil and struggle.
The pledge within us of “theosis” (“obozhenie” or “deification”)—is the Baptism of Christ, and the primal propulsion for the Christian life—is repentance. The Monk Ephraim was a great teacher of repentance. The forgiveness of sins in the sacramental-mystery of Repentance, according to his teaching, is not an external exoneration, not a forgetting of the sins, but rather their complete undoing, their annihilation. The tears of repentance wash away and burn away the sin. And moreover—they (i.e. the tears) vivify, they transfigure sinful nature, they give the strength “to walk in the way of the commandments of the Lord,” encouraging the hope on God. In the fiery font of Repentance, wrote the Monk, “thou dost sail thyself across, O sinner, thou dost resuscitate thyself from the dead.”
The Monk Ephraim, in his humility reckoning himself the least and worst of all, at the end of his life set out to Egypt, to see the efforts of the great ascetics. He was accepted there as a welcome guest and received for himself great solace in his associating with them. On the return journey he visited at Cæsarea Cappadocia with Saint Basil the Great (Comm. 1 January), who wanted to ordain him a priest, but the monk considered himself unworthy of priesthood, and at the insistence of Saint Basil, he accepted only the dignity of deacon, in which he remained until death. Even later on, Saint Basil the Great invited the Monk Ephraim to accept the cathedra-chair of a bishop, but the saint feigned folly to avoid for himself this honour, in humility reckoning himself unworthy of it.
Upon his return to his own Edessa wilderness, the Monk Ephraim intended to spend the rest of his life in solitude. But Divine Providence again summoned him to service of neighbour. The inhabitants of Edessa were suffering from a devastating famine. By the influence of his word, the monk induced the wealthy to render aid to those that lacked. From the offerings of believers he built a poor-house for the destitute and sick. The Monk Ephraim then withdrew to a cave nigh to Edessa, where he remained to the end of his days.
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "With the streams of thy tears thou didst irrigate the barren desert, * and with sighs from the depths of thy soul thou didst render thy labors fruitful an hundredfold. * Thou wast a beacon for the whole world, radiating miracles. ** O our father Ephraim, entreat Christ God that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Ever looking forth toward the hour of judgement, * thou didst bitterly lament, O Ephraim; * and though a lover of stillness * thou wast also a teacher of activity, O venerable one, * Wherefore, O universal father, ** thou movest the slothful to repentance.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "818": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Eupsychius of Cæsarea in Cappadocia († 362)", "short": "Martyr Eupsychius" }, "rank": 1 }, "819": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Bishop Desan, Presbyter Mariabus, Abdiesus, and 270 Others († 362-364)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" } }, "820": { "name": { "nominative": "Monk Martyr Archimandrite Bademus (Vadim) and 7 of his disciples of Persia († 376)", "short": "Monk Martyr" } }, "822": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Zachariah the Ascetic of the Kiev Caves (13th-14th C)", "short": "Venerable Zachariah" } }, "823": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs James the Presbyter and the deacons Azadanes and Abdikius of Persia († c. 380)", "short": "Martyrs James" } }, "826": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Gregory V, Patriarch of Constantinople († 1821)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "829": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Antipas, Bishop of Pergamum and Disciple of St John the Theologian († c. 68)", "short": "Hieromartyr Antipas" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Hieromartyr Antipas—a disciple of the holy Apostle John the Theologian (Comm. 26 September), was bishop of the Church of Pergamum during the reign of the emperor Nero (54-68).
During these times by order of the emperor, everyone who would not offer sacrifice to the idols lived under threat of either exile or execution. And then too on the island of Patmos (in the Aegean Sea) was imprisoned the holy Apostle John the Theologian—he to whom the Lord revealed the future judgements of the world and of Holy Church.
-- “And to the Angel of the Pergamum Church write: thus sayeth He having the sword sharp of both edges: I do know thine deeds, and that thou dost live there, where doth be the throne of Satan, and that thou dost cleave unto My Name nor didst renounce My faith even in those days, in which My slain faithful witness Antipas was amongst ye, where Satan dwelleth” (Rev. 2: 12-13).
By his personal example, firm faith and constant preaching about Christ, Saint Antipas began to sway the people of Pergamum from offering sacrifice to idols. The pagan priests reproached the bishop for turning the people away from their ancestral gods, and they demanded that he stop preaching about Christ and instead offer sacrifice to the idols.
Saint Antipas calmly answered, that he was not about to serve the demon-gods, which flee before him who was but a mortal man; rather, it is the Lord Almighty that he worships and would continue to worship—the Creator of all, together with His OnlyBegotten and One-in-Essence Son and Holy Spirit. The pagan priests retorted, that their gods existed from of old, whereas Christ was not from of old and was crucified under Pontius Pilate as a criminal. The saint answered, that the pagan gods were the work of human hands and that everything said about them was filled with iniquities and vices. He steadfastly confessed his faith in the Son of God, incarnated of the Most Holy Virgin.
The enraged pagan priests dragged the Hieromartyr Antipas to the temple of Artemis and threw him into a red-hot copper bullock, wherein usually they cast the sacrifices to the idols. In the red-hot furnace the priest-martyr prayed loudly to God, imploring to accept his soul and to fortify Christians in the faith. He expired to the Lord peacefully, as though asleep († c. 68).
Christians by night took the body of the Hieromartyr Antipas, untouched by the fire, and with reverence they buried him at Pergamum. The tomb of the priest-martyr became a font of miracles and of healings from manifold sicknesses. Particular recourse to the Hieromartyr Antipas is made during times of tooth-ache.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "As thou didst share in the ways of the apostles * and didst occupy their throne, * thou didst find thine activity to be a passage to division vision, * O divinely inspired one. * Wherefore, ordering the word of truth, thou didst suffer for the Faith even to the shedding of thy blood. ** O hieromartyr Antypas, entreat Christ God, that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "TROPARION/2": { "text": "Thou didst demolish the false idols, O Antypas, * and, trampling the power of the devil underfoot, * didst boldly confess Christ * in the face of those who fought against God. * Wherefore, dwelling in the highest * with the ranks of the angels, * sending up glorification to the Master of all, * thou offerest supplication of thanksgiving for us, * granting us the grace of healing: * wherefore, we honor thee. * O hieromartyr Antypas, ** entreat Christ god, that He save our souls.", "Type": "2", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "
Thou didst occupy the throne of the apostles and wast the adornment of holy hierarchs, O blessed and sacred Antypas, and having been glorified in martyrdom thou hast shone forth like the sun, illumining all; and thou didst destroy the deep night of ungodliness. Wherefore, we honor as a godly hieromartyr and giver of healings.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "831": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable James the Abbot of Zheleznoborov and James, his disciple († 1442)", "short": "Venerable James" } }, "833": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Processus and Martinian († c. 67)", "short": "Martyrs Processus" } }, "834": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Pharmuthius the Anchorite of Egypt (4th C)", "short": "Venerable Pharmuthius" } }, "837": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Basil the Confessor, Bishop of Parium († after 754)", "short": "Venerable Basil" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Basil the Confessor, Bishop of Para, lived during the VIII Century. He was chosen to the bishop’s chair by the inhabitants of Para, who venerated the saint as a true pastor of the flock of Christ.
When the Iconoclast heresy broke out, Saint Basil resolutely came out on the side of icon veneration and refused to sign the directives for their abolition (the “IniquitousScroll” of the Council of 754 which had convened under the emperor Constantine V Copronymos (741-775). The saint shunned any contact with the heretics and did not permit them into his diocese. For his zeal he suffered much persecution, hunger and deprivation.
To the very end of his life Saint Basil was faithful to the Orthodox confession.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Illumined by the light of the Most High, O blessed father, thou dost enlighten all who with love venerate thine honored suffering. O sacred athlete Basil, entreat Christ God unceasingly in behalf of us all!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "838": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Athanasia the Abbess of Aegina († 860)", "short": "Venerable Athanasia" } }, "839": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Xeno, Bishop of Verona († c. 260)", "short": "Hieromartyr Xeno" } }, "841": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Martyrs Menas, David and John of Palestine († after 636)", "short": "Venerable Martyrs" } }, "842": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Anthusa the Virgin of Constantinople († 801)", "short": "Venerable Anthusa" } }, "845": { "name": { "nominative": "Icons of the Mother of God of Murom (12th C) and Belinich (13th C)", "short": "Icons of" } }, "848": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Zosimas the Abbot of Vorbozomsk († c. 1550)", "short": "Venerable Zosimas" } }, "849": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Artemon the Presbyter of Laodicea in Syria († 303)", "short": "Hieromartyr Artemon" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Hieromartyr Artemon was born of Christian parents in Syrian Laodiceia in the first half of the III Century. From the time of his youthful years he dedicated himself to the service of the Church. At 16 years of age the saint was made a reader and in this position he laboured during the course of 12 years. For his zealousness in Divine Services, Saint-bishop Sisinios ordained him to the dignity of deacon. Saint Artemon did also this service with fervour and diligence for 28 years, after which he was ordained to the priesthood. And in this dignity Saint Artemon served the Church of God for 33 years, preaching the Christian faith amongst pagans. When the emperor Diocletian (284-305) began a fierce persecution against christians, Saint Artemon was already old. The emperor issued an edict, that all christians were to offer sacrifice to idols.
Saint Sisinios, knowing about the impending arrival in the Laodiceian district of the military-commander Patricius, went together with the priest Artemon into the pagan-temple of the goddess Artemis. There they smashed and burnt the idols.
Afterwards, Saint Sisinios and Saint Artemon gathered the flock into the church and heatedly exhorted the christians to remain firm in the faith and not fear the threats of torturers.
Having arrived in Laodiceia, Patricius made a five-day celebration in honour of the pagan gods, and then went off to the temple of Artemis to offer sacrifice. He learnt who it was that had destroyed the temple, and set off with a detachment of soldiers to the church where the christians were praying. Not yet having gotten in front of the church, Patricius suddenly felt a chill, and afterwards heat, such that it left him hardly alive, and they entered into the first house they found along the way. “The Christians have put a curse on me, and this their God tormenteth me,”—he said to those about him. The prayers of Patricius to the idols did not relieve his sufferings. He dispatched a messenger to Saint Sisinios and asked for his help, promising by way of thanks to make a gold statue of the bishop. The Saint answered: “Thy gold keep to thyself, but if thou wishest to be healed, believe in Christ.”
Patricius was afraid of dying and he declared that he believed in Christ. Through the prayer of Saint Sisinios the affliction left him. But even a miracle having been worked did not alter the obdurate soul of the pagan. Although he did not touch Saint Sisinios, he however set off to enforce the imperial edict against other christians in the city of Cæsarea. Along the way he encountered an old man, for whom there went in pairs six wild donkeys and two deer. This man was the priest Artemon.
To Patricius’ query, how he was able to lead after him these wild beasts, Saint Artemon answered, that everything in the world confesses the Name of Christ and with true faith in Christ nothing is impossible.
Patricius learned from the pagans that the old man he met along the way—was the same Artemon, who had destroyed the pagan temple of Artemis. He gave orders to seize him and take him to the city of Cæsarea.
Saint Artemon went along with the soldiers without fear, but he ordered the animals to go to Saint Sisinios.
One of the donkeys received the gift of speech from God and told the sainted-bishop that he had come from Saint Artemon. The sainted-bishop sent him in Cæsarea a blessing and prosphora by deacon.
In Cæsarea Patricius summoned Saint Artemon to trial and began to try to force him to offer sacrifice in the pagan temple of Asclepios. In this pagan temple there lived many poisonous vipers. The pagan priest never opened up the doors, nor previously carried in the sacrifice to the idol. But Saint Artemon, calling on the Name of Jesus Christ, went into the temple and let out from there the plethora of snakes. The pagans turned in flight, but the saint stopped them and by his breath killed the snakes. One of the pagan priests, Bitalios, believed in Christ and asked Saint Artemon to baptise him.
Patricius thought that Saint Artemon killed the snakes by means of sorcery, and he again started to interrogate and torture him. At this point in time there arrived in Cæsarea the donkey which had spoken with Saint Sisinios. The donkey lay down at the feet of the martyr, and afterwards again having received from God the gift of speech, it denounced Patricius, predicting for him an impending death in a boiling cauldron. Patricius was scared, that the miracles done by Saint Artemon would draw still more people to him, and he gave orders to execute him.
The filled an enormous cauldron with boiling tar. Soldiers were needed to throw Saint Artemon therein. But when Patricius rode up on horseback to the kettle, wanting to be sure that the tar was indeed boiling, two Angels in the guise of eagles seized and threw him into the cauldron, but Saint Artemon remained alive. Through the prayer of the saint there issued from the ground a spring of water, in which he baptised the pagan priest Bitalios and many pagans, who had come to believe in Christ. On the following morning Saint Artemon communed the newly-baptised with the Holy Mysteries.
The bishop of Cæsarea went to visit with Saint Artemon. He cleared off the place where the martyr suffered, and afterwards was built a church there. Many of the baptised were ordained to the deaconate and priesthood, and Bitalios was made bishop of Palestine. The Priestmartyr Artemon, through a calling by the Divine Voice, went preaching the Gospel into Asia, to the settlement of Bulos. Along the way an Angel appeared to him and transported him openly in view of the villagers. He converted many there to faith in Christ. Pagans seized the saint and beheaded him († 303).
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" } } } }, "850": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Crescens of Myra in Lycia", "short": "Martyr Crescens" } }, "851": { "name": { "nominative": "Womanmartyr Thomais of Alexandria (5th C)", "short": "Womanmartyr Thomais" } }, "853": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Martin the Confessor, Pope of Rome († 655)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Martin the Confessor, Pope of Rome, was a native of the Tuscany region of Italy. He received a fine education and entered into the clergy of the Roman Church. After the death of Pope Theodore I (642-649), presbyter Martin was chosen to the throne.
At this time the peace of the Church was disturbed by the Monothelite heresy, which had become widespread.
The endless disputes of the Monothelites with the Orthodox took place in all levels of the population. Even the emperor Constans (641-668) and the Constantinople Patriarch PaulII (641-654) were adherents of the Monothelite heresy. The emperor Constans published the heretical “Pattern of Faith” (Tupos), obligatory for all the population. In it was forbidden all further disputes.
The heretical “Pattern of Faith” was received at Rome in the year 649. Holy Pope Martin, a firm supporter of Orthodoxy, convened at Rome the local (Lateran) Council, which condemned the Monothelite heresy. At the same time Saint Martin sent a letter to the Constantinople Patriarch Paul with an exhortation to return to the Orthodox confession. The enraged emperor ordered the military commander Olympios to bring Saint Martin to trial. But Olympios, being at Rome, feared the clergy and the people who had descended upon the Council, and he dispatched a soldier to secretly murder the holy Pope. When the assassin approached Saint Martin, he was unexpectedly blinded. The terrified Olympios hastily journeyed to Sicily and was soon killed in battle.
In 654 the emperor with his former aim sent to Rome another military commander, Theodore, who accused Saint Martin of the serious charges of being in secret correspondence with the enemies of the empire—the Saracens, and of blaspheming the Most Holy Mother of God, and of uncanonically entering upon the papal throne. Despite the presenting by Roman clergy and laity of proof of full innocence of the holy Pope, the military commander Theodore with a detachment of soldiers seized hold of Saint Martin by night and took him to one of the Cycladian islands,—Naxos, in the Aegean Sea. Saint Martin spent an entire year on this almost unpopulated island, suffering deprivation and abuse from the guards. Then they sent the exhausted confessor for trial to Constantinople.
They brought the sick elder on a stretcher, but the judges callously ordered him to raise himself up and give answer standing. Again there came an interrogation, and soldiers propped up the saint weakened by illness. At the trial false-witnesses came forward, slandering the saint and imputing treasonous relations with the Saracens. The biased judges did not even bother to hear the defence of the saint. In profound grief he said: “To the Lord is known, what great kindliness ye would show me, if quickly ye would deliver me over to death.”
After suchlike trial they brought forth the saint in tattered garb to the jeering of a crowd, which they forced to shout: “Anathema to Pope Martin!” But those who knew the holy Pope was suffering innocently, withdrew in tears. Finally the sakellarios (shieldbearer), sent by the emperor, approached the military commander and declared the sentence—to deprive the Pope of his dignity and deliver him to death by execution. They put the half-naked saint into chains and dragged him to prison, where they locked him up with thieves. These were more merciful to the saint than the heretics.
Amidst this the emperor went to the dying Patriarch of Constantinople Paul and told him about the trial over Saint Martin. That one turned away from the emperor and said: “Wœ is me! Yet another deed towards my judgement,”—and he besought that the tortures of Saint Martin be stopped. The emperor again sent a notary and other persons to the saint in prison for continued interrogation. The saint answered them: “If even they smash me up, I wilt not have relations with the Constantinople Church while it dwelleth in bad-faith.” The torturers were astonished at the boldness of the confessor and they commuted his death by execution with exile in the faraway Tauridian Chersonesus.
There also the saint died, exhausted by sickness, want, hunger and deprivations († 16 September 655). He was buried outside the city in the Blachernæ church in the name of the Most Holy Mother of God.
The Monothelite heresy was condemned at the VI Œcumenical Council in the year 680. The relics of the holy confessor Pope Martin were transferred to Constantinople, and thence to Rome.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" } } } }, "854": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Zosimas the Abbot of Solovki († 1478)", "short": "Venerable Zosimas" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Zosima, Hegumen of Solovetsk,—a great luminary of the RussianNorth, was the founder of monastic common-life on Solovetsk Island. He was born in Novgorod diocese, in the village of Tolvui near Lake Onega. From his early years he was raised in piety, and after the death of his parents Gavriil and Varvara he gave away his possessions and accepted monastic tonsure.In search of a solitary place the monk set off to the shores of the White Sea and at the mouth of the Suma he met the Monk German (Comm. 30 July), who told him about a desolate sea island, where formerly he had spent six years with the Monk Savvatii (Comm. 27 September).
In about the year 1436 the hermits, felicitously having made the sea voyage, landed at the Solovetsk islands. God blessed the place of their settlement with a vision to the Monk Zosima of a beautiful church in the sky. The monks with their own hands built cells and an enclosure, and they began to cultivate and sow the land. One time in late Autumn the Monk German set off to the mainland for necessary provisions. Because of the Autumn weather he was not able to return. The Monk Zosima remained all Winter alone on the island. He suffered many a temptation in struggle with the devils. Death by starvation threatened him, but miraculously two strangers having appeared left him a supply of bread, flour and oil. In Spring the Monk German returned to Solovetsk together with the fisherman Mark, and he brought supplies of food and rigging-tackle for fish nets.
When several hermits had gathered on the island, the Monk Zosima constructed for them a small wooden church in honour of the Transfiguration (Preobrazhenie) of the Lord, together with a refectory. At the request of the Monk Zosima, an hegumen was sent from Novgorod to the newly formed monastery with antimins for the church. Thus occurred the start of the reknown Solovetsk monastery. In the severe conditions of the remote island the monks knew how to arrange their economy. But the hegumens, sent from Novgorod to Solovetsk, could not withstand life in the unwontedly harsh conditions, and so the brethren chose as hegumen the Monk Zosima.
The Monk Zosima concerned himself with the building up of the inner life of the monastery, and he introduced a strict life-in-common. In 1465 he transferred to Solovetsk from the River Vyg the relics of the Monk Savvatii. The monastery suffered vexation from the Novgorod boyars (nobles), who confiscated catches of fish from the monks. The monk was obliged to set off for Novgorod and seek the protection of the archbishop. On the advice of the archbishop, he made the rounds of homes of the boyars and requested them not to allow the ruin of the monastery. The influential and rich boyarina Martha Boretskaya impiously gave orders to throw out the Monk Zosima, but then repented her action and invited him to a meal, during the time of which he suddenly beheld, that six of the illustrious boyars sat without their heads. The Monk Zosima told about this vision to his disciple Daniel and predicted for the boyars an immanent death. The prediction was fulfilled in the year 1478, when during the taking of Novgorod by Ivan III (1462-1505) the boyars were executed.
Shortly before death the monk prepared himself a grave, in which he was buried beyond the altar of the Transfiguration church († 17 April 1478). Later on, over his relics was built a chapel. His relics together with the relics of the Monk Savvatii were transferred on 8 August 1566 into a chapel consecrated in their memory at the Transfiguration cathedral.
Many a miracle was witnessed to, when the Monk Zosima with the Monk Savvatii appeared to fishermen perishing in the depths of the sea. The Monk Zosima is likewise a patron of bee-keeping and preserver of bee-hives, and to him is even bestown the title “Bee-keeper” (“Pchel′nik”). To the Monk Zosima often hasten those in sickness. The many hospital churches dedicated to him testify to the great curative power of his prayer before God." }, "rank": 3, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "
No english translation
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "No English translation
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "855": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Ardalion the Actor († 305-311)", "short": "Martyr Ardalion" } }, "857": { "name": { "nominative": "Dalmatovo Icon of the Mother of God (1646)", "short": "Dalmatovo Icon" } }, "861": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyr Suchias and his 16 Georgian Companions: Andrew, Anastasius, Talale, Theodoret, Euchirion, Jordan, Quadratus, Lucian, Mimnenosus, Nerangiosus, Polyeuctus, James, Phocas, Domentian, Victor, and Zosimus († 100-130)", "short": "Holy Martyr" } }, "862": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Sava the Goth of Wallachia († 372)", "short": "Martyr Sava" } }, "867": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Leonidas and the Holy Martyrs Charissa, Nike, Galina, Kalisa (Kalida), Nunekhia, Basilissa, and Theodora, and others at Corinth († 258)", "short": "Martyr Leonidas" } }, "868": { "name": { "nominative": "Righteous James of Borovichi, Novgorod miracle worker († c. 1540)", "short": "Righteous James" } }, "869": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Apostle James, the Brother of the Lord († ca.63)", "short": "Holy Apostle" }, "rank": 3 }, "870": { "name": { "nominative": "Icons of the Mother of God of Tambov (1692), of Ilyinsk-Chernigov (1658)", "short": "Icons of" } }, "871": { "name": { "nominative": "Uncovering the relics of Venerable James the Abbot of Zhelezny Bor († 1442)", "short": "Uncovering the" } }, "872": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Apostle James Zebedee, brother of John the Theologian († 44)", "short": "Apostle" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Apostle James, Son of Zebedee, one of the 12 Apostles, was called by our Lord Jesus Christ for apostolic service together with his brother, the Apostle John the Theologian. It was to them and to the holy Apostle Peter pre-eminently over the other Apostles that Jesus Christ revealed His Divine Mysteries: at the Resuscitation of the Daughter of Jairus, on Mount Tabor (at the Transfiguration), and in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Saint James, after the Descent of the Holy Spirit, preached in Spain and in other lands, and then he returned to Jerusalem. He openly and boldly taught about Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world, and with the words of Holy Scripture he denounced the Pharisees and the Scribes [scholars], reproaching them with malice of heart and unbelief. The Jews had not the ability to refute the apostolic discourse and for money they hired the pseudo-philosopher and sorcerer Hermogenes, so that he would enter into a disputation with the apostle and confute his arguments about Christ as the Promised Messiah having come into the world. The sorcerer sent to the apostle his student Philip, who was converted to belief in Christ. Then Hermogenes himself became persuaded of the power of God, he burnt his books on magic, accepted holy Baptism and became a true follower of Christ.
The unbelieving among the Jews persuaded Herod Agrippa (40-44) to arrest the Apostle James and sentence him to death. Saint James calmly heard out the death sentence and continued to bear witness about Christ. One of the false-witnesses against the apostle by the name of Josiah was struck by the courage of Saint James. He came to believe in the truth of the words about the coming of Christ the Messiah. When they led forth the apostle for execution, Josiah fell at his feet, repenting his sin and asking forgiveness. The apostle hugged him, gave him a kiss and said: “Peace and forgiveness be unto thee.” Then Josiah confessed before everyone his faith in Christ, and he was beheaded together with Saint James in the year 44 at Jerusalem.
" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O holy apostle James * entreat the merciful God ** that He grant to our souls remission of transgressions.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" }, "TROPARION/2": { "text": "Thou wast a chosen apostle of Christ * and the only brother of the beloved Theologian, * O most lauded James. * Ask thou remission of sins for those who hymn thee, ** and great mercy for our souls.", "Type": "2", "Tone": "3" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "
Hearing the voice of God calling thee, * thou didst disdain the love of thy father, * and with thy kinsman thou didst hasten after Christ, O glorious James. * And with him thou wast counted worthy to behold ** the divine transfiguration of the Lord.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "873": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Simeon, Bishop in Persia, Priests Abdechalas and Ananias, and Martyrs Usthazanes, Phusicus, Askitrea, Azades, and others († 344)", "short": "Hieromartyr Simeon" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Hieromartyr Simeon, Bishop of Persia, suffered during the time of a persecution against Christians under the Persian emperor Sapor II (310-381). He was the bishop of Seleucia—Xeziphon. They accused the saint of being in collaboration with the Greek realm and of subversive activities against the Persian emperor.
In the year 344 the emperor issued an edict, which imposed a grievous tax upon Christians. When certain of them refused to pay it (this was fancied to be a rebellion), the emperor started a fierce persecution against Christians. They brought Saint Simeon to trial in iron fetters as a supposed enemy of the Persian realm, together with the two Presbyter-Martyrs Habdelai and Ananios. The holy bishop would not even bow to the emperor, who asked, why he would not show him the obligatory respect. The saint answered: “Earlier I did bow to thy dignity, but now, when I am led forth for this, to renounce my God and quit my faith, it doth not become me to bow to thee.”
The emperor urged him to worship the sun, and in case of refusal he threatened to wipe out Christianity in the land. But neither urgings nor threats could shake the bravely steadfast saint, and they led him off to prison. Along the way the eunuch Usphazanes, a counsellor of the emperor, caught sight of the saint. He rose up and bowed to the bishop, but the saint turned away from him in reproach that he, a former Christian, out of fear of the emperor, now worshipped the sun. The eunuch repented with all his heart, he replaced his fine attire for coarse garb, and sitting at the doors of the court, he cried out bitterly: “Wœ to me, when I stand before my God, from Whom I am cut off. Here—was Simeon, and he hath turned his back on me!” The emperor Sapor learned about the grief of his beloved tutor and asked him what had happened. That one said openly to the emperor, that he bitterly regretted his apostasy and would no more worship the sun, but only the One True God. The emperor was surprised at such sudden decisiveness in the old man and he flatteringly urged him not to abjure the gods, whom their fathers had reverenced. But Usphazanes was unyielding, and they condemned him to death by execution. The only request of the Martyr Usphazanes was that the city heralds report, that he died not for crimes against the emperor, but for being a Christian. The emperor granted his request.
Saint Simeon also learned about the end of the Martyr Usphazanes and with tears he offered up thanks to the Lord. When they brought him a second time before the emperor, Saint Simeon again refused to worship the pagan gods and he confessed his faith in Christ. The enraged emperor gave orders, in front of the eyes of the saint, to behead all the Christians in the prison. Without fear the Christians went to execution, blessed by the sainted-hierarch, and they themselves put their heads beneath the sword. Thus also was beheaded the companion of Saint Simeon, the Priest Habdelai. When the line reached down to the Priest Ananios, he suddenly trembled. Then one of the dignitaries, SaintPhusikos, a secret Christian, became frightened that Ananios would renounce Christ, and he cried out loudly: “Fear not, elder, the sight of the cutting, and thou immediately wilt see the Divine Light of our Lord Jesus Christ.” By this outburst he betrayed himself. The emperor gave orders to pluck out the tongue of Saint Phusikos and to flay the skin from him. Together with Saint Phusikos was martyred his daughter, the Martyress Askitrea. Saint Simeon went last to the executioner and with a prayer he placed his head on the chopping-block († 13 April 344). The whole of the Paschal Week until 23 April executions continued. Also to accept a martyr’s death was Saint Azates the Eunuch, a close official to the emperor. The sources indicate, that 1,000 Martyrs accepted suffering, and then still another 100 or 150 more.
" }, "rank": 1 }, "874": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Acacius the Bishop of Melitene († c. 435)", "short": "St. Acacius" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Akakios, Bishop of Melitinea, was born into a pious family in the Armenian city of Melitinea. His parents for a long time were childless, and in praying for a son, they vowed to dedicate him to God. Therefore the lad Akakios was given over to the Melitinea bishop Ostrios for the service of the Church. Saint Ostrios was a firm supporter of Orthodoxy. When the heresy of Macedonias arose, it was Saint Ostrios at the Second Œcumenical Council (381) that set forth the Orthodox teaching about the HolySpirit as the Third Person of the Holy Trinity One-in-Essence and Undivided.
The sainted-hierarch with love raised Akakios, made him a reader, and then ordained him to the dignity of deacon and then to priest. Saint Akakios devoutly served the Church. He instructed both adults and children in the Holy Scripture, and in the Orthodox Confession of faith.
Among his students was such a luminary of the Church as the Monk Euthymios the Great (Comm. 20 January).
After the death of Saint Ostrios, by general acclamation Saint Akakios was elevated to the bishop’s throne of Melitinea. He wisely governed his diocese. By his firm faith, humility and deeds, the saint acquired the gift of wonderworking. One time, when during a dry Summer the saint made Liturgy in an open field, the wine in the Holy Chalice was mixed suddenly by the falling rain, which fell throughout all the land. Through his prayer during a time of flooding an advancing river flowed off and did not come higher than the stone which he had placed at the riverbank. On one of the islands of the River Azar, despite the opposition of the pagans, the saint built a temple in honour of the Most Holy Mother of God. The builders of the church either through carelessness or through malice defectively built the dome. During the time of Liturgy the dome gave way and was ready to collapse. The people in terror rushed out of the church. But the saint halted the fleeing with the exclamation: “The Lord is Defender of my life, of what shalt I be afraid?” (Ps. 26 [27]: 1). The dome remained as though suspended in the air. Only when the Divine-services were ended, and the saint was the last one to emerge from the church, did the dome collapse, causing harm to no one. After this the church was rebuilt again.
Saint Akakios was a participant in the Third Œcumenical Council (431) and he defended the Orthodox Confession of the Two Natures (Divine and Human) of the Saviour, and of His Birth without seed from the Most Holy Virgin Mother of God. Saint Akakios peacefully expired to the Lord in about the year 435.
" } }, "878": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Agapitus, Pope of Rome († 536)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" } }, "880": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable John the Disciple of the Venerable Gregory of Decapolis (9th C)", "short": "Venerable John" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk John was born at the end of the VIII Century. At a young age he became a disciple of the Monk Gregory Dekapolites († c. 820, Comm. November 20) and accepted monastic tonsure from him at the Thessalonica (Soluneia) monastery. Under the guidance of this experienced teacher, the Monk John attained to high spiritual accomplishment.
When the emperor Leo the Armenian (813-820) renewed the persecution against Orthodox Christians because of their veneration of holy icons, the Monk Gregory Decapolites together with the Monk Joseph the Writer of Church-Song († c. 863, Comm. April 4) and his student the Monk John set off from Thessalonica to Constantinople, to muster opposition to the Iconoclast heresy. In spite of persecution, for several years Saints Gregory and John fearlessly defended Orthodoxy, and preached veneration of holy icons. After many hardships the Monk Gregory died (in about the year 820), and soon after him his faithful student John also expired to the Lord. The Monk Joseph the Song-Writer transferred the relics of Saints Gregory and John and placed them in a church of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "0": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "1": {}, "2": {} } }, "881": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Victor, Zoticus, Acindynus, Xeno, Severian and Cæsarius († 303)", "short": "Martyrs Victor" } }, "882": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Cosmas, Bishop of Chalcedon, and his companion St. Auxentius († 815-820)", "short": "Saint Cosmas" } }, "883": { "name": { "nominative": "New Martyr John Culicus the New of Epirus († 1526)", "short": "New Martyr" } }, "885": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God of Maximov (1299)", "short": "Icon of" } }, "887": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable John of the Ancient Caves in Palestine (8th C)", "short": "Venerable John" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk John of the Old-Cave is called such because he asceticised during the VIII Century in the Laura of the Monk Chariton († 450, Comm. 28 September). This was called the “Old,” or ancient one, as among the oldest of Palestinian monasteries. The Laura was situated not far from Bethlehem, near the Dead Sea. Saint John in his early years left the world, went to venerate at the holy places of Jerusalem and settled at the Laura, where he attained high spiritual accomplishment. He was ordained to the dignity of presbyter and glorified by his ascetic life.
" }, "rank": 1 }, "888": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Christopher, Theonas, and Anthony († 303)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" } }, "889": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Nicephorus the Abbot of Catabad", "short": "Venerable Nicephorus" } }, "891": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Paphnutius, Bishop of Jerusalem (3rd C)", "short": "Hieromartyr Paphnutius" } }, "892": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch George the Confessor, Bishop of Antioch in Pisidia († 813-820)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" } }, "893": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Tryphon, Patriarch of Constantinople († 933)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" } }, "896": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Theodore Trichinas “the Hair-Shirt Wearer”, hermit near Constantinople", "short": "Venerable Theodore" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Theodore the Trikhinian was born into a rich Constantinople family. In his youth he withdrew into a wilderness monastery in Thrace and accepted monasticism. The monk was strict in fasting, and he wore only a coarse prickly hairshirt, which was called a “trikhinia” (“vlasyanitsa”). This name also was given to the monastery in which he pursued asceticism. During his life the monk worked many miracles and healings. After his death there flowed from his holy relics a salubrious myrh, which healed many of the sick and cast out impure spirits.
The years during which the monk Theodore lived is unknown.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thou hast been shown to be all-wondrous in life, O wise father Theodore, and changing thy rags of haircloth, which are more precious than royal treasure on earth, in their place thou didst receive heavenly vesture. Pray thou ever in our behalf, O venerable one.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "897": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Ignatius the God-Bearer, Bishop of Antioch († 107)", "short": "Hieromartyr Ignatius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "As the “brightly shining lamp of the church,” “the pillar of patience and the rule of courage and the confirmation of faith,” he was the disciple of the Holy Apostle John the Theologian and the second (after St. Evodius) Bishop of Antioch. He ruled his own flock for 40 years, showing himself an example of a highly virtuous life. He was the first to establish antiphonal singing in the church. During the Dometian persecution, the holy shepherd “with the rudder of prayer and fasting, with indefatigableness in doctrine and zealousness of spirit, counteracted the turmoil in order that none would sink from lack of courage or inexperience,” and from his side he expressed full readiness to accept the crown of martyrdom. This was his desire, and to his sincere joy it was soon fulfilled. During the reign of Trajan, St. Ignatius for his confession and propagation of the Christian faith was sent to Rome in fetters where for the entertainment of the people he was given to be torn apart by wild beasts in the Coliseum in the year 107. On the way to Rome, St. Ignatius wrote seven epistles. He was called God-bearer because in his childhood, according to tradition, he was taken into the hands of Jesus Christ Himself. But also because he became so used to feeding his heart with the memory of the sweet name of Jesus Christ, that this deep spiritual seal with sensitive images was stamped on this bodily organ and when, after his martyr’s death, when his heart was cut asunder, the name of Jesus Christ was seen alphabetically represented in it. See Jan. 29.
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "As thou didst share in the ways of the apostles * and didst occupy their throne, * thou didst find thine activity to be a passage to divine vision, * O divinely inspired one. * Wherefore, ordering the word of truth, * thou didst suffer for the Faith even to the shedding of thy blood. ** O hieromartyr Ignatius, entreat Christ God, that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "The luminous day of thy radiant struggles * proclaimeth beforehand to all Him Who hath been Born in the cave; * for thirsting to delight in His love, * thou didst hasten to be devoured by the wild beasts. ** Wherefore, thou hast been called the God-bearer, O most wise Ignatius.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "898": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Ignatius (Brianchaninov), Bishop of the Caucasus and the Black Sea († 1867)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" }, "rank": 4 }, "899": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Gregory, Patriarch of Antioch († 593)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" } }, "900": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Anastasius I, Patriarch of Antioch († 599)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" } }, "902": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Anastasius II, Patriarch of Antioch († 609)", "short": "Hieromartyr Anastasius" } }, "903": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Anastasius, Abbot of Sinai († 685)", "short": "Venerable Anastasius" } }, "906": { "name": { "nominative": "Icons of the Mother of God “Kipiazhskaya” and “Cypriot” (392)", "short": "Icons of" } }, "907": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation of the relics (1150) of the Right-believing Prince Igor of Chernigov and Kiev", "short": "Translation of" } }, "908": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Januarius Bishop of Beneventum, and the deacons Proculus, Sossius and Faustus, Desiderius the Reader, Eutychius and Acution, laymen († c. 305)", "short": "Hieromartyr Januarius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Hieromartyr Jannuarius the Bishop, and with him the Holy Martyrs—Deacons Proculus, Sossius and Faustus, Desiderius the Reader, Eutychius and Acution accepted a martyr’s death for Christ about the year 305 during the time of the persecution by the emperor Diocletian (284-305).
They arrested Saint Jannuarius and led him to trial to Timothy, the governor of Campagna (central Italy). For his firm confession of Christian faith, they threw the saint into a red-hot furnace. But like the Babylonian youths, he came out from there unharmed. Then by order of Timothy they stretched him out on a bench and beat at him with iron rods so much, that they lay bare the bone.
Among the gathered crowd were the holy deacon Faustus and the reader Desiderius, who wept at the sight of the suffering of their bishop. The pagans surmised that they were Christians, and threw them together into prison with the Priestmartyr Jannuarius, in the city of Puteolum. At this prison were situated two deacons locked up earlier for confessing Christ—Saints Sossius and Proculus, and two laymen—Saints Eutychius and Acution.
On the following morning they led out all the martyrs into the circus to be torn to pieces by wild beasts, but the beasts would not touch them. Timothy declared, that all the miracle occurred from sorcery by the Christians, but with this however he became blinded and cried out for help. The gentle Priestmartyr Jannuarius made prayer for his healing, and Timothy recovered his sight. The blindness of soul however did not depart the torturer and he, with a still greater rage accusing the Christians of sorcery, gave orders to cut off the heads of the martyrs at the walls of the city († 305).
Christians from surrounding cities took up the bodies of the holy martyrs for burial, and those of each city took along one, so as to have an intercessor before God. The inhabitants of Neopolis (Naples) took for themselves the body of the Priestmartyr Jannuarius. Together with the body they gathered up from the earth his dried blood. When they set the vessel with this blood upon the relics of the holy martyr, having been put on the church of the city of Neopolis, the blood liquified and became warm, as though only just shed. Many miracles proceeded from the relics of the Priestmartyr Jannuarius. During the time of the eruption of Vesuvius, when the inhabitants of the city prayed to the Priestmartyr Jannuarius, the lava stopped, not reaching the city. A pious woman placed an icon with the image of the priestmartyr to her dead son, and he arose.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Ye were adorned with the anointing of the priesthood * and the blood of martyrdom, * O glorious Januarius and Theodore, * and ye shine forth everywhere, * dancing in the highest, * and look down upon us, * who have come to your temple and unceasingly cry out therein: ** Preserve us all, entreating God Who loveth mankind!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "909": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Theodore, his mother Philippa, Dioscorus, Socrates and Dionysius of Perge in Pamphylia (2nd C)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyrs Theodore, his mother Philippia, Dioskoros, Sokrates and Dionysios suffered during the reign of the emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161) in Pamphylian Pergium. When they were conscripting for military service robust and healthy young men, then together with the others they led the youth Theodore to the military commander Theodotos.
The military commander obliged the youth to offer sacrifice to idols. The martyr submitted neither to persuasion nor threats, and the military commander commanded to place him on a red-hot plate and to pour out liquid tar. Immediately there occurred a miracle: an earth-trembling began, and from a fissure in the ground gushed forth a torrent of water and extinguished the fire.
Having remained unharmed, the martyr Theodore gave praise to God and suggested to the military commander to try with the help of the idols to repeat such a miracle.
The military commander suggested to the pagan priest Dioskoros to lay upon the red-hot plate, calling on the help of Zeus. But Saint Dioskoros answered, that he believed in Christ and was prepared to throw the idol of Zeus into the fire. Then the military commander commanded him to get on the frying-pan. The martyr Dioskoros fell at the knees of Saint Theodore and pleaded that he pray for him. Then he got onto the frying-pan, loudly crying out to the Lord: “I give Thee thanks, Lord Jesus Christ, that Thou hast included me in the number of Thine servants. Accept Thou my soul with peace,”—and he died, having been delivered from terrible torment.
They continued to torture Saint Theodore. They tied him to wild horses, which began to run. But at the city walls the horses fell down and collapsed, and the martyr Theodore remained unharmed. Two soldiers, Sokrates and Dionysios, saw how there came down from the heavens a fiery chariot to Saint Theodore, on which was carried the dragged martyr. The soldiers with astonishment shouted out: “Great God of the Christians!” For this they seized hold of them and on the next day threw them together with the martyr Theodore into a red-hot furnace. But an Heavenly dew cooled the furnace, and the saints remained alive. In the morning the military commander commanded soldiers to go march to look upon the burnt bodies of the martyrs. The soldiers returned and with wonder reported that the three youths were unharmed, and to the martyr Theodore was come his mother, Philippia, who now encouraged the martyrs in their act.
The military commander suggested to Saint Philippia to save her son, urging her to offer sacrifice to the idols. But Saint Philippia answered, that yet while at the time of the birth of her son it was revealed to her, that her son would be crucified for Christ. Hearing this, the military commander commanded to crucify Saint Theodore on a cross, and to cut off the heads of the remaining martyrs. During the course of 3 days the martyr Theodore hung on the cross, offering up prayer to God until he expired.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "No English translation
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "No English translation
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "910": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Isaac, Apollos and Quadratus († 303)", "short": "Martyrs Isaac" } }, "911": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Maximian, Patriarch of Constantinople († 434)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" } }, "916": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Vitalius the Monk of Gaza († 609-620)", "short": "Venerable Vitalius" } }, "918": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Anatolius the Soldier and Martyr Protoleon († 303)", "short": "Martyr Anatolius" } }, "922": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Sabbas Stratelates “the General” of Rome and 70 soldiers with him († 272)", "short": "Martyr Sabbas" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Martyr Sava came from a Gothic tribe. For his bravery he attained the high rank of military-commander or “stratilates,” and he served under the Roman emperor Aurelian (270-275).
From the time of his youth Sava was a Christian and he fervently followed the commands of Christ,—he helped the needy and visited Christians locked up in prison. For his pure and virtuous life the saint received from the Lord the gift of wonderworking and in the Name of Christ he healed the sick and cast out demons.
When the emperor learned that Saint Sava was a Christian, he demanded that he apostacise. The martyr threw down his military sash and declared, that he would not forsake his faith. They beat him, burnt at him with torches, threw him in a cauldron with tar, but the martyr remained unharmed.
Looking on at his torments, 70 Soldiers came to believe in Christ, who then were beheaded by the sword. Saint Sava they threw in prison. At midnight during the time of prayer, Christ appeared to the martyr and shone on him the Light of His Glory. The Saviour bid him not to fear, but rather stand firm. Encouraged, the Martyr Sava underwent new torture in the morning and was drownded in a river († 272).
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In their sufferings, O Lord, * Thy martyrs received imperishable crowns from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * they set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By their supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "TROPARION/2": { "text": "Abandoning earthly rank and honor, O athlete, * thou didst confess Christ God * before the false and tyrannical emperors, * and for His sake thou didst undergo many sufferings, O glorious one. * Wherefore, splendidly adorned with the armies of heaven, * thou hast been crowned with a most beautiful wreath of victory by the King Who reigneth over all. * Standing before Him, O Sabbas, ** pray thou that He save our souls.", "Type": "2", "Tone": "5" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "
Shown to be an invincible athlete, * thou didst overcome the wiles of the barbarians, O glorious one, * and having contended most steadfastly, * thou didst vanquish a multitude of the invisible fœ. * Wherefore, thou hast woven a wreath of victory. * Entreat Christ, O most blessed Sabbas, ** in behalf of us who honor thee with faith.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "923": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Thomas the Fool-for-Christ of Syria († c. 546-560)", "short": "Venerable Thomas" } }, "924": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Elizabeth the Wonderworker of Constantinople (6th-8th C)", "short": "Venerable Elizabeth" } }, "925": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Sava the Recluse of the Near Kiev Caves (13th C)", "short": "Venerable Sava" } }, "927": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Pasikrates and Valention in Mœsia, Bulgaria († 228)", "short": "Martyrs Pasikrates" } }, "928": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Eusebius, Neon, Leontius, Longinus, and 40 Others († 303)", "short": "Martyrs Eusebius" } }, "929": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God of Molchen (1405)", "short": "Icon of" } }, "932": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Sylvester, Abbot of Obnora († 1379)", "short": "Venerable Sylvester" } }, "933": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Hilarion of Pskov Lake and Gdov († 1476)", "short": "Venerable Hilarion" } }, "934": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God of Constantinople (1071)", "short": "Icon of" } }, "936": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Basil, Bishop of Amaseia († c. 322)", "short": "Hieromartyr Basil" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Having spurned the imperial edict, O Basil, * thou didst receive the kingdom of heaven; * and joining the chorus therein, * be thou mindful of us ** who honor thy memory, O Hieromartyr.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Hieromartyr Basil, Bishop of Amasea, lived at the beginning of the IV Century in the Pontine city of Amasea. He encouraged and comforted the Christians, suffering persecution by the pagans. During this time the Eastern part of the Roman empire was ruled by Licinius (312-324), a relative by marriage to the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles emperor Constantine the Great (306-337, Comm. 21 May). Licinius deceitfully undersigned Constantine’s “Edict of Religious Toleration” (313), which permitted the freely open confession of Christianity, but at heart he hated Christians and continued to persecute them to return to paganism.
Licinius burned with passion for a maid-servant of his wife Constancia,—the Righteous Virgin Galphyra. The holy maid reported about this to the empress and sought her intercession. Having dressed her in men’s attire and provided her with money, the empress Constancia sent her away from the city in the company of a devoted servant. They told the emperor, that the maid-servant had gone mad and lay near death. Righteous Glaphyra on the road to Armenia remained in the city of Amasea, where the local bishop, Saint Basil, gave her shelter.
At this time the saint was building a church in the city. Righteous Glaphyra for its construction gave over all the money that she had received from Constancia, and in a letter to the empress she besought her to send additional funds to complete the church. The empress fulfilled her request. But the letter of Righteous Galphyra fell into the hands of the emperor. The enraged Licinius demanded the governor of Amasea to send him the sainted-hierarch and the maid-servant. Righteous Galphyra died († 322) before the edict arrived in Amasea. They dispatched Saint Basil to the emperor. Two deacons, Parthenias and Thestimos, followed after him and lodged near the prison where they locked up the saint.
The pious Christian Elpidyphoros bribed the jailer and each night together with Parthenias and Thestimos he visited the saint. On the eve of the trial day of the saint he sang psalms and the words “if I be at the very depths of the sea, even there wilt Thy hand guide me and Thine right hand hold me” (Ps. 138 [139]: 9-10)—and thrice he broke down into tears. The deacons were apprehensive that the saint would be in distress over the coming torments, but he calmed them.
At the trial Saint Basil resolutely refused the suggestion of the emperor to become a pagan high-priest, and therefore he was sentenced to death. Elpidyphoros got to the soldiers with money, and they allowed the saint to pray and to speak with his friends before the execution. After this, the saint said to the executioner: “Friend, do what thou art ordered to,”—and calmly he bent beneath the blow of the sword.
When the martyr had been beheaded, Elpidyphoros tried to ransom his remains from the soldiers. But the soldiers were afraid of the emperor and they threw the body and head of the saint into the sea. After this, three times in a dream an Angel of God appeared before Elpidyphoros with the words: “Bishop Basil is in Sinope and doth await you.” Heeding this call, Elpidyphoros and the deacons sailed to Sinope and there they hired fishermen to lower their nets. When they lowered the net “on the suggestion” of the deacons Thestimos and Parthenias, they came up with nothing. Thereupon Elpidyphoros declared, that he would ask them to lower the net in the Name of the God, Whom he did worship. This time the net brought up the body of Saint Basil. The head had come back together with it, and only the gash on the neck indicated the strike of the sword. The relics of Saint Basil were conveyed to Amasea and buried in the church built by him.
" } }, "937": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Stephen, Bishop of Great Perm († 1396)", "short": "Hierarch" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Stephen the Enlightener of Perm,’ and Apostle to the Zyryani People, was born in about the year 1340 into the family of the Ustiug church-assistant Simeon. Under the influence of his pious mother Maria, endowed with great abilities, he displayed already in his young years an unusual zeal for the service of the Church: in a single year he learned to read the Holy Books and he assisted his father in church during Divine-services, fulfilling the duty of kanonarch, arranging church music, and also that of reader.
In youth the saint took monastic vows at a monastery in honour of Saint Gregory the Theologian at Rostov. The monastery was famed for its fine collection of books. Saint Stephen wanted to read the holy fathers in the original and for this he studied the Greek language. In his youth when he had assisted his father in church, he frequently spoke with the Zyryani people. And now, having been immersed in the rich culture of the Church, Saint Stephen burned with a desire to convert the Zyryani to Christ.
For the enlightening of the Zyryani, he compiled an alphabet of their language and translated into it some of the Church books. For his pious deed the Rostov bishop, Arsenii (1374-1380), ordained him to the dignity of monk-deacon. Having prepared himself for missionary activity, Saint Stephen journeyed to Moscow (1379) to the Kolomensk bishop, Gerasim, who then oversaw the affairs of the metropolitanate, and the saint petitioned him: “Bless me, Vladyka, to go into a pagan land—Perm′. I want to teach the holy faith to the unbelieving people. I am resolved either to lead them to Christ, or for Christ to lay down my head for them.” The bishop with joy blessed him and ordained him to the dignity of priest-monk. He provided him with an antimins (“antimension” or “corporal” for the altar-table), holy chrism and Divine-service books, and GreatPrince Dimitrii Ioannovich gave him a grammota (document) of safe-passage.
From Ustiug Saint Stephen made his way along the North Dvina River up to the confluence of the Vychegda into it, where settlements of the Zyryani began. The proponent of faith in Christ suffered many a toil, and struggle, deprivation and sorrow, living amidst the pagans who worshipped idols “with fire, water, trees, a stone and golden woman-figure, and shaman, and wizard, and wood.”
The Zyryani were wont to make their devotions particularly in front of a so-called “magic-mischief birch tree.” Immense in its thickness and height, the birch tree grew on an elevated spot. The Zyryani gathered at it and brought wild animals they caught as sacrifice. Saint Stephen made his cell not far from the birch tree and made use of the gathering of the superstitious pagans at the tree, to teach the holy truth. Then Saint Stephen cut down and burnt the birch tree for the dispelling of the superstition. The Zyryani gathered to kill him. The saint turned to them preaching: “Judge for yourselves, whether or not your gods have any power, when they are not able to defend themselves from the fire? Are they gods, when they are so powerless, and indeed possess not only not a mind, but neither also ears nor sight? And your divinity could not defend itself against me, a weak man. Are all your other gods such as this? Not so is the Christian God. He sees everything, knows everything and is Almighty, since He created the whole world and fore-thinks everything. And how blessedly good He is, particularly for those knowing Him! I desire what is good for you, bringing the True God to you. He wilt love you and bless you, when ye begin to honour Him genuinely.” On the place of “the magic-mischief birch tree,” Saint Stephen built a church in honour of the Archangel Michael, the dispeller of the spirits of darkness.
The baptised Zyryani themselves began to do away with that, which earlier they had worshipped: they cut down sacred trees, they destroyed idols; the rich gifts, set aside for the pagan sacrifices, they brought to Saint Stephen. He bid his Zyryan helper Matthew to throw it all into the fire and permitted only the use of the linen cloth for foot wrappings.
But things came to a final culmination among the Zyryani after Saint Stephen got the better of their chief-priest Pam, who rose up against the dissemination of the holy faith. The pagan priest entered into a debate with Saint Stephen. “Christian, you have only but the one God,—said Pam,—but we have many an helper on the dry land, and in the water, granting us a lucky hunt in the forests and with its abundance providing Moscow, the Horde and faraway lands; they impart to us the magic mysteries, inaccessible to you.” Saint Stephen answered, that the True God—is one; the Almighty—is one, but that the idol-gods evidently through the test of experience are powerless. After lengthy dispute the pagan-priest Pam in a proof of his faith made a challenge to go through fire and water, and demanded that Saint Stephen do this. “I have no command of poetic verse,—humbly answered Saint Stephen,—but great is the Christian God: thus I shall go it with thee.” Pam however lost his nerve and besought the saint to save him from certain death. “Ye art witnesses,—said Saint Stephen to the gathered people,—how he demanded to resolve the dispute about faith by means of fire and water, but now doth not wish to be baptised. Who now hath regard for Pam? What is to be done with him?” “Let the deceiver be put to death,—answered the people,—for if Pam be set free, he wilt make mischief for thee.” “No,—answered the saint,—Christ hath sent me not to hand someone over to death, but to teach. Pam desireth not to accept the saving faith, , wherefore let his stubbornness punish him, but not I.” Pam was banished. In thanksgiving to the Lord for victory over the chief pagans, Saint Stephen built at Vishero a church in honour of Saint Nicholas. After this, the preaching of the saint about Christ began to go all the more successfully.
In 1383 Saint Stephen was ordained bishop of Malaya Perm’ (Lesser Perm′). Like a doting father he incessantly concerned himself about his flock. For the encouraging in the faith of the newly-converted, Saint Stephen opened schools alongside the churches, where they studied the Holy Books in the Permian language. The saint supervised the instructions, and taught them the necessities for them to become priests and deacons. Saint Stephen taught several of his students how to write in the Permian language. The saint constructed churches, in which he put priests from among the Zyryani, and led Divine-services in the Zyryani tongue.
Saint Stephen transposed into the Zyryani language the Chasoslov (Book of Hours), the Psalter, selected readings from the Gospel and the Epistles, the Parœmnik (Church-service Old testament readings), the Stikhirar (Church-service “stikhi” verses), Oktoikhon (Eight Tones), several feastday services and the Divine liturgy.
During a time of crop failure the saint provided the Zyryani with bread, many a time he delivered them from being taken advantage of and from the trickery of corrupt officials, he bestowed alms upon them, and defended them from the incursion of other tribes, interceding for them at Moscow. The fruition of his efforts and good deeds came in the conversion of all the extent of the Perm’ land to Christianity. This great deed was accomplished by his strength of faith and Christian love. The life of the saint—was a victory of faith over unbelief, of love and meekness—over malice and impiety.
There was a touching “meeting in absence” of Saint Stephen of Perm’ with the Monk Sergei of Radonezh, occurring in the year 1390 during the time of a journey of the saint to Moscow on church business. Saint Stephen fervently loved the Radonezh ascetic and very much wanted to pay him a visit on the way from the Perm’ land, but was not able to do so because of insufficient time. Being 10 versts from the monastery of the MonkSergei, Saint Stephen in praying turned towards the direction of the monastery and with a bow he uttered: “Peace unto thee, spiritual brother!” The Monk Sergei, who sat together with the brethren at the refectory meal, stood up, made a prayer and, bowing towards the direction where the saint rode, answered: “Hail also to thee, thou pastor of the flock of Christ, and the peace of God dwell with thee!”
The deep spiritual connection of Saint Stephen of Perm’ and the Monk Sergei of Radonezh is testified to even at present by a particular daily prayer to them at the refectory-dining of the brethren.
Besides building churches, Saint Stephen founded for the Zyryani also several monasteries: the Saviour Ul′yanovsk wilderness-monastery 165 versts from Ust′-Sysol’sk, the Stephanovsk—60 versts from Ust′-Sysol’sk, the Ust′-Vymsk Arkhangel’sk, and the Yarengsk Arkhangel’sk.
In the year 1395 Saint Stephen again set out to Moscow on affairs of his flock, and here died. His body was placed in the monastery “Saviour at the Wall” (in a church to the north in honour of the Saviour) in the Moscow Kremlin. The Zyryani bitterly bewailed the death of their apostle. They earnestly entreated the Moscow prince and the Metropolitan to send back to Perm’ the body of their patron, but Moscow did not wish to part with the remains of the great saint.
The glorification of Saint Stephen began already at the beginning of the XVCentury. The Life of the saint was written soon after his death. The service to him was compiled by the priestmonk Pakhomii the Serb, together with the priestmonk Epiphanii the Wise, who was a student of the Monk Sergei of Radonezh and also well knew Saint Stephen and loved to converse with him.
" }, "rank": 3, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Afire with divine desire from the years of thy youth, O all-wise Stephen, thou didst take up the burden of Christ, and, sowing the divine seed in the hearts of the people, which had from of old been hardened by unbelief, thou didst spiritual beget them evangelically; wherefore, honoring thine all-glorious memory, we beseech thee: Entreat Him Whom thou didst preach, that He save our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thou wast found to be called not for those who sought thee, O holy hierarch, but, freeing men from the falsehood of idolatry, thou didst lead them to the Christian Faith and didst put to shame the sorcerer Pamoi; wherefore, thou becamest the first bishop and teacher of Perm. For this cause, we, thy spiritual children, as ones delivered by thee from idols, cry out to thee in hymns of thanksgiving: Rejoice, O Stephen, all-wise teacher!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "942": { "name": { "nominative": "Righteous Eulogius the Hospitable of Constantinople (6th C)", "short": "Righteous Eulogius" } }, "946": { "name": { "nominative": "Apostles Jason and Sosipater of the Seventy, Virgin Cercyra, and those with them (1st C)", "short": "Apostles Jason" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Disciple Jason hailed from Tarsus (Asia Minor). He was the first Christian in the city. The Disciple Sosipater was a native of Achæia. They both became disciples of the Apostle Paul, who even called them his “kinsmen” (Rom. 16: 21). Saint Jason was made bishop in his native city of Tarsus, and Saint Sosipater—in Iconium. They set out to the West preaching the Gospel, and in the year 63 they reached the island of Kerkyra (Korfu) in the Ionian Sea near Greece.
There they built a church in the name of the First-Martyr Stephen and they baptised many. The governor of the island learned about this and locked them up in prison, where they saw seven thieves: Satornius, Iakyscholus, Faustian, Jannuarius, Marsalius, Euphrasius and Mammius. The disciples converted them to Christ. For their confession of Christ the seven prisoners died as martyrs in a cauldron of molten tar, wax and sulfur.
The prison guard, having beheld their act of martyrdom, declared himself a Christian. For this they cut off his left hand, then both feet and finally his head. The governor ordered the disciples Jason and Sosipater to be whipped and again locked up in prison.
When the daughter of the governor, the maiden Kerkyra, learned how the martyrs would suffer for Christ, she declared herself a Christian and gave away all her finery to the poor. The infuriated governor attempted to persuade his daughter into a renunciation of Christ, but Saint Kerkyra stood firm against both persuasions and against threats. Then the enraged father devised a terrible punishment for his daughter: he gave orders to situate her in a separate prison-cell and bring in to her the robber and murderer Murinus, so that he would defile the betrothed of Christ.
But when the robber approached the door of the prison-cell, a bear pounced upon him. Saint Kerkyra heard the noise and in the Name of Christ she drove off the beast, and then by her prayer she healed the wounds of Murinus. After this Saint Kerkyra enlightened him with the faith of Christ, and Saint Murinus declared himself a Christian and thereupon was executed.
The governor gave orders to burn down the prison, but the holy virgin remained alive. Then by order of her enraged father, she was suspended upon a tree, choked with bitter smoke and executed with arrows. After her death, the governor decided to execute all the Christians on the island of Kerkyra. The Martyrs Zinon, Eusebios, Neonos and Vitalius, having been enlightened by the Disciples Jason and Sosipater, were burnt.
The inhabitants of Kerkyra, escaping from the persecution, crossed over to an adjoining island. The governor set sail with a detachment of soldiers, but was swallowed up by the waves. The governor succeeding him gave orders to throw the Disciples Jason and Sosipater into a cauldron of boiling tar, but when he beheld them unharmed, with tears he cried out: “O God of Jason and Sosipater, have mercy on me!”
Having been set free, the disciples baptised the governor and gave him the name Sebastian. With his help the Disciples Jason and Sosipater built several churches on the island and, living there until old age, by their fervent preaching increased the flock of Christ.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O holy apostles * entreat the merciful God ** that He grant to our souls remission of transgressions.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Ye were shown to be like all-radiant stars, illumining the whole world * with the light of your preaching, O divine Apostles Jason and Sosipater. ** Save those who honor you with faith.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "947": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Dada, Maximus and Quinctilian († 286)", "short": "Martyrs Dada" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Martyrs Dadus, Maximus and Quintilian suffered under the emperor Diocletian (284-305), when there came out a decree to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods on the solemn feastdays, and to put Christians to death.
The representatives of the emperor in the city of Dorostolum,—Tarquinius and Gabinius, made a sumptuous festivity, to which came not only the inhabitants of the city, but also from the surrounding villages.
When the festivity finished, someone reported to the emperor, that three brothers Dadus, Maximus and Quintilian, did not obey the decree of the emperor and withdrew themselves into the Ozovia forest. Soldiers were sent after them, who caught the holy brothers at prayer and led them forth for trial.
The governors interrogated the brothers, who confessed themselves Christians. But Tarquinius offered to Saint Maximus to become a pagan-priest of the god Zeus. But that one called Zeus a foul adulterer and again confessed the True God.
Tarquinius attempted to reason with Saints Dadus and Quintilian. They said, that their brother well knew the Holy Scripture and they would follow him in everything. They dispatched the martyrs to prison, but there also they pondered only about the salvation of their souls. At midnight when the saints were asleep, the devil appeared to them, up in arms against them. But when the martyrs woke, they beheld an Angel, which said: “Fear not, for God your hope bringeth you to Himself. He is not far from you and wilt sustain you.” In the morning Tarquinius said to the brothers that the gods had declared their will to him in a dream: give them death if they would not offer sacrifice. The martyrs answered, that the Lord had commanded them to endure torments for His Holy Name.
The tortures and interrogations continued constantly from morning to evening for several days. Finally, they brought out a death sentence against the martyrs, led them out under guard to their forest and there beheaded them with a sword († 286).
" }, "rank": 1 }, "949": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Innas, Pinnas and Rimmas the Scythians (1st-2nd C)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyrs Innas, Pinnas and Rimmas,—Slavs by birth from northern Skythia,—they were disciples of the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called. They taught about the Name of Christ and they baptised many barbarians converted to the true faith. For this there were seized by the local prince, but they would not recant from Christ nor would they offer sacrifice to idols. A fierce winter then prevailed; the rivers were so solid with frost, that on the ice there travelled not only people, but also horses with carts. The prince gave orders to put large timbers on the ice and bind the saints to them, gradually lowering them into the freezing water. When the ice reached the necks of the saints they, worn out by the terrible cold, offered to the Lord their blessed souls.
" } }, "951": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the relics of Holy Hierarch Innocent, Bishop of Irkutsk (1805)", "short": "Finding of the relics" } }, "952": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Innocent of Komel and Vologda (1511-1522)", "short": "Venerable Innocent" } }, "953": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Innocent, Metropolitan of Moscow, the Enlightener of the Aleuts († 1879)", "short": "Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles" } }, "954": { "name": { "nominative": "Prophet Johad (10th C, B.C.)", "short": "Prophet Johad" } }, "955": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Righteous Ancestors of God, Saints Joachim and Anna (1st C)", "short": "Ancestors of God" }, "rank": 2 }, "959": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Maximus of Ephesus", "short": "Martyr Maximus" } }, "960": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable John the Silent of St Sabbas Monastery, Bishop of Colonia († 558)", "short": "Venerable John" } }, "962": { "name": { "short": "Holy Apostle", "nominative": "Repose of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian († 98-117)" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian occupies a unique place in the ranks of the chosen disciples of Christ the Saviour. Often in iconography the Apostle John is depicted as a gentle, majestic and spiritual elder, with features of innocent tenderness, with the imprint of complete calm upon his forehead and the deep look of a contemplator of unuttered revelations. Another main trait of the spiritual countenance of the Apostle John is revealed through his teaching about love, for which the title “Apostle of Love” is pre-eminently designated to him. Actually, all his writings are permeated by love, the basic concept of which leads to the comprehension, that God in His Being is Love (1 Jn. 4: 8). In his writings, Saint John dwells especially upon the manifestations of the inexpressible love of God for the world and for mankind, the love of his Divine Teacher. He constantly exhorts his disciples to mutual love one for another.
The service of Love—was the entire pathway of life of the Apostle John the Theologian.
The qualities of calmness and profound contemplation were in him combined with an ardent fidelity, tender and boundless love with intensity and even a certain abruptness. From the brief indications of the Evangelists it is apparent, that he was endowed in the highest degree with an ardent nature, and his hearty passionateness sometimes reached such a stormy zealousness, that Jesus Christ was compelled to give the admonishment, that it was discordant with the spirit of the new teaching (Mk. 9: 38-40; Lk. 9: 49-50, 54,56) and He called the Apostle John and his brother by birth the Apostle James “Sons of Thunder” (“Boanerges”). During this while Saint John shows scant modesty, and besides his particular position among the Apostles as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, he did not stand out among the other disciples of the Saviour. The distinguishing features of his character were the observance and sensitivity to events, permeated by a keen sense of obedience to the Will of God. Impressions received from without rarely showed up in his word or actions, but they penetrated deeply and powerfully into the inner life of the holy Apostle John. Always sensitive to others, his heart ached for the perishing. The Apostle John with pious tremulation was attentive to the Divinely-inspired teaching of his Master, to the fullness of grace and truth, in pure and sublime comprehending the Glory of the Son of God. No feature of the earthly life of Christ the Saviour slipped past the penetrating gaze of the Apostle John, nor did any event occur, that did not leave a deep impression on his memory, since in him was concentrated all the fullness and wholeness of the human person. The thoughts also of the Apostle John the Theologian are imbued with suchlike an integral wholeness. The dichotomy of person did not exist for him. In accord with his precepts, where there is not full devotion, there is nothing. Having chosen the path to service to Christ, to the end of his life he fulfilled it with complete and undivided devotion. The Apostle John speaks about wholistic a devotion to Christ, about the fullness of life in Him, wherefore also sin is considered by him not as a weakness and injury of human nature, but as evil, as a negative principle, which is completely set in opposition to the good (Jn. 8: 34; 1 Jn. 3: 4, 8-9). In his perspective, it is necessary to belong either to Christ or to the devil, it is not possible to be of a mediocre lukewarm, undecided condition (1 Jn. 2: 22, 4: 3; Rev. 3: 15-16). Therefore he served the Lord with undivided love and self-denial, having repudiated everything that appertains to the ancient enemy of mankind, the enemy of truth and the father of lies (1 Jn. 2: 21-22). Just as strongly as he loves Christ, just as strongly he contemns the Anti-Christ; just as intensely he loves truth, with an equal intensity does he contemn falsehood,—for light doth expel darkness (Jn. 8: 12; 12: 35-36). By the manifestation of the inner fire of love he witnesses with the unique power of spirit about the Divinity of Jesus Christ (Jn. 1: 1-18; 1 Jn. 5: 1-12).
To the Apostle John was given to express the last word of the Divine Revelation (that is, the final book of the Holy Scripture), ushering in the most treasured mysteries of the Divine inner life, known only to the eternal Word of God, the Only-Begotten Son.
Truth is reflected in his mind and in his words, wherein he senses and grasps it in his heart. He has comprehension of eternal Truth, and as he sees it, he transmits it to his beloved spiritual children. The Apostle John with simplicity affirms or denies and speaks always with absolute precision (1 Jn. 1: 1). He hears the voice of the Lord, revealing to him what He Himself hears from the Father.
The theology of the Apostle John abolishes the borderline between the present and the future. Looking at the present time, he does not halt at it, but transports his gaze to the eternal in the past time and to the eternal in the future time. And therefore he, exhorting for holiness in life, solemnly proclaims, that “all, born of God, sin not” (1 Jn. 5: 18; 3: 9). In communion with God the true Christian partakes of life Divine, whereby the future of mankind is accomplished already on earth. In his explanation and disclosing of the teaching about the Œconomia of salvation, the Apostle John crosses over into the area of the eternal present, in which Heaven would coincide with earth and the earth would be enlightened with the Light of Heavenly Glory.
Thus did the Galilean fisherman, this son of Zebedee, become Theologian proclaiming through Revelation the mystery of world-existence and the fate of mankind.
The celebration on May 8th of the holy Apostle John the Theologian was established by the Church in remembrance of the annual drawing forth on this day at the place of his burial of fine rose ashes, which believers gathered for healing from various maladies. The account about the life of the holy Evangelist John the Theologian is situated under September 26th, the day of his repose.
" }, "rank": 5, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O beloved apostle of Christ God, haste thou to deliver a defenseless people. He Who permitted thee to recline against His breast receiveth thee, prostrate in supplication. Him do thou beseech, O theologian, that He dispel the gloom of the nations which doth beset us, asking for us peace and great mercy.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Who can recount thy mighty works, O virgin apostle * For thou pourest out miracles and dost cause healings to flow forth; and thou prayest for our souls, in that thou art a theologian and the friend of Christ.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "963": { "name": { "nominative": "Prophet Jeremiah (6th C BC)", "short": "Prophet Jeremiah" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Prophet Jeremiah, one of the four great Old Testament prophets, was son of the priest Helkiah from the city of Anathoth near Jerusalem, and he lived 600 years before the Birth of Christ, under the Israelite king Josiah and four of his successors. He was called to prophetic service in his 15th year of life, when the Lord revealed to him, that even before his birth the Lord had assigned him to be a prophet. Jeremiah refused, pointing to his own youthfulness and lack of skill at speaking, but the Lord promised to be always with him and to watch over him. He touched the mouth of the chosen one and said: “Lo I do put Mine words into thy mouth, I do entrust unto thee from this day the fate of nations and kingdoms. By thine prophetic word wilt they fall and rise up” (Jer. 1: 9-10). And from that time Jeremiah prophesied for twenty-three years, denouncing the Jews for abandoning the True God and worshipping idols, predicting for them wœs and devastating wars. He stood by the gates of the city, and at the entrance to the Temple, everywhere where the people gathered, and he exhorted them with imprecations and often with tears. But the people answered him with mockery and abuse, and they even tried to kill him.
Depicting the slavery to the king of Babylon impending for the Jews, Jeremiah at the command of God put on his own neck at first a wooden, and then an iron yoke, and thus he went about among the people. Enraged at the dire predictions of the prophet, the Jewish elders threw the Prophet Jeremiah into an imprisoning pit, filled with horrid slimy creatures, where he all but died. Through the intercession of the God-fearing royal-official Habdemelek, the prophet was pulled out of the pit but he did not cease with the prophecies, and for this he was carted off to prison. Under the Jewish king Zedekiah his prophesy was fulfilled: Nebuchadnezzar came, made slaughter of the nation, carried off a remnant into captivity, and Jerusalem was pillaged and destroyed. Nebuchadnezzar released the prophet from prison and permitted him to live where he wanted. The prophet remained at the ruins of Jerusalem and bewailed the misfortune of his fatherland. According to tradition, the Prophet Jeremiah took the Ark of the Covenant with the LawTablets and hid it in one of the caves of Mount Nabath (Nebo), such that the Jews were no more able to find it (2 Mac. 2). Afterwards a new Ark of the Covenant was fashioned, but it lacked in the glory of the first.
Among the Jews remaining in their fatherland there soon arose internecine clashes: the viceroy of Nebuchadnezzar, Hodoliah, was murdered, and the Jews, fearing the wrath of Babylon, decided to flee into Egypt. The Prophet Jeremiah disagreed with their intention, predicting that the punishment which they feared, would befall them in Egypt. But the Jews would not hearken to the prophet, and taking him by force with them, they went into Egypt and settled in the city of Tathnis. And there the prophet lived for four years and was respected by the Egyptians, since with his prayer he killed crocodiles and other nasty creatures infesting these parts. But when he began to prophesy, that the king of Babylon would invade the land of Egypt and annihilate the Jews settled in it, the Jews then murdered the Prophet Jeremiah. In that very same year the prophesy of the saint was fulfilled. There exists a tradition, that 250 years later Alexander the Great of Macedonia transported the relics of the holy Prophet Jeremiah to Alexandria.
The Prophet Jeremiah wrote his Book of “Prophesies” (“Jeremiah”), and also the Book of “Lamentations,”—about the Desolation of Jerusalem and the Exile. The times in which he lived and prophesied are spoken of in the 4th (2nd) Book of Kings (Ch. 23-25) and in the 2nd Book of Chronicles (36: 12) and in 2 Maccabbees (Ch. 2).
In the Gospel of Matthew it points out, that the betrayal of Judas was foretold by the Prophet Jeremiah: “And they took thirty pieces of silver, the price of Him on Whom the sons of Israel had set a price, and they gave them over for the potter’s field, as did say the Lord unto me” (Mt. 27: 9-10).
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Celebrating the memory * of Thy prophet Jeremiah O Lord, ** through him do we entreat Thee, save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Having cleansed thy radiant heart with the Spirit, * O glorious Jeremiah, great prophet and martyr, * thou didst receive from on high the gift of prophecy * and didst cry aloud among the lands: \"Behold our God! ** There is none other to compare with Him, Who hath appeared, incarnate, on the earth!\"
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "964": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Paphnutius the Abbot of Borovsk († 1477)", "short": "Venerable Paphnutius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Paphnutius of Borovsk was born in 1394 in the village of Kudinovo, not far from Borovsk, and at Baptism he was named Parphenii. His father Ioann was the son of a baptised Tatar, a “baskak” (“tax-collector”) named Martin, and his mother was named Photinia. At 20 years of age Parphenii left his parental home and in the year 1414 accepted monastic tonsure with the name Paphnutii at the Pokrov-Protection Monastery on the Heights, under its head, Markell (i.e. Marcellus). The Monk Paphnutii asceticised for many years at the monastery. When the head of the monastery died, the brethren chose him as hegumen. Saint Photii, Metropolitan of Kiev, ordained him to the priestly dignity (in about the year 1426). The monk spent thirty years at the Pokrov monastery, wherein he was both the head and the clergy-starets (elder). At 51 years of age he fell grievously ill, gave up being the hegumen and took on the great-schema. After a restoration to health on the day of the holy Great Martyr George the Victory-Bearer, 23 April 1444, he withdrew from the monastery and settled with one monk on the left bank of the River Protva, at the confluence into it of the River Ister′ma. Soon brethren began to gather to him at this new place. The number of the monks grew quickly. A new stone church was built in place of the former wooden one, in honour of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God. In the icon-frescœs there took part the finest iconographer of those times,—Dionysii and his assistants. The Monk Paphnutii gave example to the brethren, leading a strict life: his cell was the poorest of all, and from food he took the worst. On Mondays and Fridays he did not eat at all, and on Wednesdays he partook only of dry foods. From the overall tasks the monk chose the most difficult: he chopped and carried fire-wood, dug up and cultivated the garden, and at the same time arrived first for church services.
The Monk Paphnutii earned the deep respect and love not only of the brethren of his own monastery, but also of other monasteries. Through the Providence of God there was guided to the monastery to the monk a twenty year old youth,—Ioann Sanin. Having put him to the test, the monk tonsured him into monasticism with the name Joseph. Later on the Monk Joseph of Volotsk firmly defended the purity of the Orthodox faith and entered into struggle against the heresy of the Judaisers, condemned at a Council of 1504. The Monk Paphnutii blessed the young man in his exploits.
A week before his death the monk foretold his end. Having made a final prayer and blessing of the brethren, he expired to God on 1 May 1477. The Monk Paphnutii was a follower of the Monk Sergei, Hegumen of Radonezh.
" }, "rank": 3, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "need English translation
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Needs English translation
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "967": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Martyr Bata the Persian (4th C)", "short": "Venerable Martyr" } }, "969": { "name": { "nominative": "Icons of the Theotokos: “Byzantine”, “the Unexpected Joy”, “Myrrh-bearing” (1647), and “Andronikite” (14th C)", "short": "Icons of" } }, "971": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Hesperus, his Wife Zoe, and their Children Cyriacus and Theodulus (2nd C)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" } }, "978": { "name": { "nominative": "Icons of the Mother of God of “Putivilsk” and “Butivalsl” (1635)", "short": "Icons" } }, "979": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr John of Kazan († 1529)", "short": "Martyr John" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Martyr John of Kazan suffered for Christ in the city of Kazan on 24 January 1529. During the reign of greatprince Vasilii Ivanovich the Tatars swooped down upon Nizhni Novgorod. Many of the inhabitants were taken into captivity and led off to Kazan. Among their number was also the fearless John. At the dividing up of the captives he was given over to the khan’s kinsman Alei-Shnura. By day John honestly served his master, but at nights he prayed, going without sleep, patiently enduring insults and abuse. The master resolved to force his involuntary captive to worship Mahomet, but John firmly declared, that he confessed Jesus Christ as the Lord God. In winter the Tatars led him to a Russian graveyard, mortally wounded him with swords and threw him still tied up into the snow. Stumbling in the night, Saint John reached the door of some Russians living in Kazan, where he asked them to summon a priest, and having communed the Holy Mysteries and praying the night, in the morning he died.
" } }, "980": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Timothy and Maura of Antinoe in Egypt († c. 286)", "short": "Martyrs Timothy" }, "rank": 1 }, "982": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Peter the Wonderworker and Bishop of Argolis (10th C)", "short": "St. Peter" } }, "983": { "name": { "nominative": "Icons of the Mother of God: The Dormition of the Kiev Caves, transferred from Constantinople (1073), of Kiev Caves (with Sts. Anthony and Theodosius) (1085), and of Sven (1288)", "short": "Icons of" } }, "985": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable John the Calybite (Hut-Dweller) (5th C)", "short": "Venerable John" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Venerable John the Hut-Dweller was the son of rich and illustrious parents living in Constantinople during the V Century, and he received a fine education. He loved to read spiritual books, and having perceived the vanity of secular life, he preferred “rather than the broad path one that was narrow and infirm and extremely rigorous.” Having persuaded his parents to give him a Gospel, he set out secretly to Bithynia. At the monastery “Unceasing Vigilance” he received monastic tonsure. The young monk began to asceticise with zeal, astonishing his brethren with unceasing prayer, humble obedience, strict abstinence and perseverance at work.
After six years he began to undergo temptations: thoughts about his parents, about their love and fondness, about their sorrow—all this began to overtake the young ascetic.
Saint John disclosed his situation to the hegumen and he asked to be released from the monastery, and he besought the brethren not to forget him in their prayers, hoping that by their prayers he would with the help of God, both see his parents and overcome the snares of the devil. The hegumen gave him his blessing.
Saint John returned to Constantinople in the clothes of a beggar, and known to no one. He settled at the gates of his parental home. The parents sent him food from their table, for the sake of Christ. For three years, oppressed and insulted, he lived in a tent (hut), enduring cold and frost, unceasingly conversing with the Lord and the holy Angels. Always with him was the Gospel, given him by his parents, and from which he unceasingly gathered out sayings of life eternal. Before his death the Lord appeared in a vision to the monk, revealing that the end of his sorrows was approaching and that after three days he would be taken up into the Heavenly Kingdom.
Only then did the saint show his parents the Gospel, which they had given him shortly before he had left his parental home. The parents recognised their son. With tears of joy they hugged him simultaneously with tears of sorrow, in that he had endured privation for so long at the very gates of his parental home. Saint John gave final instructions to his parents to bury him on the spot where stood his tent, and to put in the grave the beggar’s rags that he wore during life.
The saint died in the mid V Century, when he was not yet 25 years of age. On the place of his burial the parents built a church to God and alongside it an house of hospitality for strangers. In the XII Century the head of the saint was taken by Crusaders to Besacon (in France), and the other relics of the saint were taken to Rome.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Loving the riches which cannot be stolen, O all-wise John, * thou didst hate the riches of thy parents/and, holding the Gospel in thy hands, ** thou didst follow after Christ God, praying unceasingly for us all.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "986": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable John Climacus of Sinai, Author of “the Ladder” († 649)", "short": "Venerable John" }, "rank": 1 }, "989": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed John of Moscow, Fool-for-Christ († 1589)", "short": "Blessed John" } }, "990": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable brothers Alfanov: Nikita, Cyril, Nicephorus, Clement, and Isaac, of Novgorod (14th-15th C)", "short": "Venerable brothers" } }, "991": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Erasmus the Bishop of Formia in Campania († 303)", "short": "Hieromartyr Erasmus" } }, "992": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Albian the Bishop of Anæa in Asia Minor († 304)", "short": "Hieromartyr Albian" } }, "995": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God of Staraya Rusa (1570)", "short": "Icon of" } }, "1301": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Methodius, Patriarch of Constantinople († 846)", "short": "Saint Methodius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Methodios, Patriarch of Constantinople, was born in Sicily into a rich family. Having a vocation to God, he went while still in his youth off to a monastery on the island of Chios and renovated it with his means. During the reign of the iconoclast Leo the Armenian (813-820), Saint Methodios held the high position of “apokrisiaros” (“advocate for Church matters”) under the holy Patriarch Nicephoros (Comm. 2 June). He was dispatched by the patriarch to Rome on a mission to the papacy and he remained there. During this period Leo the Armenian removed Nicephoros from the patriarchal throne and put on it the iconoclast Theodotos of Melissinea, given the nickname “Kassiter” (“Tinman”) (815-822). After the death of Leo the Armenian, Saint Methodios returned, and in the dignity of presbyter he struggled incessantly against the Iconoclast heresy. The emperor Michael the Stammerer (820-829) at first was noted for his benevolence and he set free many imprisoned by his predecessor for their veneration of icons, but after a while he renewed the persecution against Orthodoxy. Saint Methodios was locked up in prison in Akrita. After the death of Michael the Stammerer, the ruler was Theophilos (829-842), who also was an iconoclast. More refined a man than his father, he set free Saint Methodios, who likewise was a man of learning, superbly skilled in matters not only ecclesial, but also civil. Having received his freedom, Saint Methodios renewed the struggle with the heretics, and for a while the emperor tolerated this.
But after defeat in a war with the Arabs, Theophilos vented his anger against Saint Methodios, saying, that God had punished him because he had let come close to him an “icon-worshipper” (such was what the iconoclasts called those who venerate holy icons). Saint Methodios objected, saying that the Lord was angry with him for the insults upon His holy icons. They gave the saint over to tortures, and struck him much about the face, from which his jaw was broken. On his face remained ugly scars. Saint Methodios was sent off to the island of Antigonos and he was locked up there with two robbers in a deep cave. In this dark prison where the light of day penetrated not, Saint Methodios languished for 7 years until the death of the emperor Theophilos.
During this time, the holy Icon-Confessors Theodore and Theophanes the LetteredUpon (Comm. 27 December), likewise banished to prison, sent Saint Methodios greetings in verse, and the prisoner likewise answered with greetings in verse.
After the death of Theophilos, his son Michael III (842-867) began to rule, but not being of mature age, the Byzantine empire was actually ruled by his mother, the empress Blessed Theodora, a venerator of icons.
The empress tired to extirpate the Iconoclast heresy, and gave orders to free the confessors imprisoned for icon veneration. The heretic Annios occupying the patriarchal throne was banished, and Saint Methodios chosen in his place. At Constantinople was convened a Local Council with Saint Methodios presiding (842). The Council restored icon veneration and established an annual celebration of the triumph of Orthodoxy. The “Rite of Orthodoxy” compiled by Saint Methodios is done on the First Sunday of the Great Lent.
Attempting to undermine the authority of Saint Methodios, and also the love and esteem of his flock for him, the heretics slandered him as having transgressed chastity. The slandering was exposed as such, and the enemies of the saint put to shame. The final years of the saint passed peacefully, he toiled much, wisely guided the Church and his flock, renovated temples ruined by the heretics, gathered up the relics of saints scattered about by the heretics, and transferred the relics of Patriarch Nicephoros from the place of his imprisonment back to Constantinople. Saint Methodios died in the year 846. He was spiritually close to the Monk Ioannikos (Comm. 4 November), who had foretold him his becoming patriarch and also the time of his end. Besides the “Rite of Orthodoxy,” the holy hierarch also compiled a rule for those converted to the faith, three rites of marriage and several pastoral sermons and church songs.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "The truth of things revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, * a model of meekness and a teacher of abstinence * wherefore thou hast attained the heights through humility * and riches through poverty. ** O hierarch Methodius our father, entreat Christ God that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thou didst struggle on earth like an incorporeal being, O Methodius, * and hast inherited the heavens, * as one who explained the veneration of icons to the ends of the earth; * for subjected all the more to labors and pangs, ** thou didst not cease boldly to denounce those who cast aside the icons of Christ.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "1303": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Methodius the Abbot of Pashnoshsk († 1392)", "short": "Venerable Methodius" } }, "1310": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Doulas of Cilicia († c. 313)", "short": "Martyr Doulas" } }, "1311": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Vitus, Modestus and Crescentia at Lucania († c.303)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" } }, "1313": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Doulas the Passion-bearer", "short": "Venerable Doulas" } }, "1314": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Jerome (Hieronymus) of Stridonium († c. 420)", "short": "Venerable Jerome" } }, "1316": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Augustine, Bishop of Hippo († 430)", "short": "Blessed Augustine" } }, "1319": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Lawrence, the Fool-for-Christ, at Kaluga († 1515)", "short": "Blessed Lawrence" } }, "1320": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Ephraim the Bulgarian, Patriarch of Serbia (after 1399)", "short": "St. Ephraim" } }, "1321": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Laurence of the Kiev Caves, Bishop of Turov († 1194)", "short": "Venerable Laurence" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Lavrentii (Laurence), Hermit of Kiev Caves and Bishop of Turov, in the Nearer Caves—at first asceticised as an hermit at the monastery of the Great Martyr Demetrios, built by Greatprince Izyaslav at Kiev near the Kiev Caves monastery. Later he transferred to the Kiev Caves monastery, and was glorified by a gift of healing. From the Kiev Caves monastery he was elevated in 1182 to the cathedra-seat of Turov (Turov is a city in the Minsk region) and was successor to Saint Kirill (Cyril) of Turov. He died in 1194, and was buried in the Nearer Caves. His memory is celebrated also on 28 September and on the 2nd Sunday of Great Lent.
" } }, "1322": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Tikhon, Bishop of Amathus († 425)", "short": "Saint Tikhon" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Tykhon, Bishop of Amaphuntum, was born in the city Amaphuntum on the island of Cyprus. His parents raised their son in Christian piety, and taught him the reading of Sacred books. There is an account extant, that the gift of wonderworking appeared in Saint Tykhon at a still quite youthful age.
His father was the owner of a bread bakery and he sent his son to distribute bread. The holy lad gave bread free to the needy. Learning about this, his father became angry, but the son answered, that he had read in the holy books, that “in giving to God one receiveth back an hundredfold.” “I too,—said the youth,—gave to God the bread which was taken” and he persuaded his father to go to where the grain was stored. With astonishment the father saw that the granary which formerly was empty, was now filled to overflowing with wheat. From that time the father did not hinder his son from distributing bread to the needy.
A certain gardener brought from the vineyard the dried prunings of vines. Saint Tykhon gathered them, planted them in his garden and besought the Lord, that these branches might take root and yield salubrious fruit for the health of people. The Lord did so through the faith of the holy youth. The branches took root, and their fruit had a particular and very pleasant taste and was used during the lifetime of the saint and after his death for the wine in making the mystery of the Holy Eucharist.
They accepted the pious youth into the church clergy, made him a reader, and afterwards the bishop of Amaphuntum Memnon ordained him to the dignity of deacon. After the death of Bishop Memnon, Saint Tykhon by universal agreement was chosen as bishop of Amaphuntum. The ordination was headed by Saint Epiphanios, Bishop of Cyprus († 403, Comm. 12 May).
Saint Tykhon laboured zealously for the eradication of the remnants of paganism on Cyprus—he destroyed an idolatrous temple and spread the Christian faith. The sainted-bishop was generous, his doors were open to all, and with love he listened to and fulfilled the request of each person who came to him. Fearing neither threats nor tortures, he firmly and fearlessly confessed his faith before pagans.
In the service to Saint Tykhon it is pointed out, that he foresaw the time of his death, which occurred in the year 425.
The name of Saint Tykhon of Amaphuntum was accorded great honour in Russia. In honour of the saint, temples were constructed at Moscow, at Nizhni Novgorod, at Kazan and other cities. But the saint was particularly venerated in Voronezh diocese, where there were three archpastors in succession sharing the name with the Saint-bishop of Amaphuntum: Saint Tikhon I (Sokolov) († 1783, Comm. 13 August), Tikhon II (Yakubovsky, until 1785) and Tikhon III (Malinin, until 1788).
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "A desert dweller, an angel in the flesh, * and a wonderworker wast thou shown to be, * O our God-bearing father Tychon, * for having acquired heavenly gifts through fasting, vigilance, and prayer, * thou dost heal the infirm, * and the souls of those who have recourse to thee with faith. * Glory to Him Who hath given thee strength! * Glory to Him Who hath crowned thee! ** Glory to Him Who worketh healings for all through thee!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Persevering in the struggle of the love of God, O holy one, * from on high thou didst receive the power of the Comforter * to cast down the idols of falsehood, * to save men, to cast out demons and to heal sickness. ** Wherefore, we honor thee as a friend of God, O blessed Tychon.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "1324": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Tigrius the Presbyter and Martyr Eutropius the Reader († 404)", "short": "Hieromartyr Tigrius" } }, "1326": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Lazarus († 1391) and Athanasius (14th C) of Murom", "short": "Venerable Lazarus" } }, "1327": { "name": { "nominative": "Right-believing Prince Lazar, the Great Martyr of Serbia († 1389)", "short": "Right-believing Prince" } }, "1331": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Manuel, Sabel and Ismael of Persia († 362)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyrs Manuel, Sabel and Ismael, brothers by birth, were descended from an illustrious Persian lineage. Their father was a pagan, but their mother was a Christian, who baptised the children and raised them with firm faith in Christ the Saviour. Having grown into adults, the brothers entered military service. Speaking on behalf of the Persian emperor Alamundar, they were his emissaries in the concluding of a peace treaty with the emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363). Julian received them with due honour and showed them his favour. But when the brothers refused to take part in a pagan sacrificial offering, Julian became angry, and annulling the treaty, he locked up the peace emissaries of a foreign country in prison, like common criminals. At the interrogation he told them, that if they scorned the gods worshipped by him, it would be impossible to reach any peace or accord between the two sides. The holy brothers answered that they were sent as emissaries of their emperor on matters of state, and not arguments about gods. Seeing the firmness of faith of the holy brothers, the emperor gave orders to subject them to fierce tortures. They suspended the holy martyrs, having nailed their hands and feet to wood, at their heads they thrust nails, and under their finger-nails and tœ-nails they wedged sharp needles. During this time of torment the saints, as though not feeling the tortures, glorified God and prayed. Finally, they beheaded they holy martyrs. Julian ordered their bodies to be burned. But suddenly there occurred an earthquake, and the ground opened up and took the bodies of the holy martyrs into its bosom. After two days, following upon the fervent prayers of Christians, the earth returned the bodies of the holy brothers, from which issued forth a fragrance. Many pagans, having witnessed the miracle, came to believe in Christ and were baptised. Christian reverently buried the bodies of the holy Martyrs Manuel, Sabel and Ismael. This occurred in the year 362. And since that time the relics of the holy passion-bearers have been glorified with wonderworking.
Having learned about the murder of his emissaries, and that the law-transgressor Julian was marching against him with a numerous army, the Persian emperor Alamundar gathered up his army and started off towards the border of his domain. In a large battle the Persians vanquished the Greeks. Julian the Apostate was killed by the holy Great Martyr Mercurius (Mercury, Comm. 24 November).
Thirty years later the pious emperor Theodosius the Great († 397) built at Constantinople a church in honour of the holy martyrs, and Saint Germanos, Patriarch of Constantinople (Comm. 12 May), then still a priestmonk, wrote a canon in memory and in praise of the holy brothers.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In their sufferings, O Lord, * Thy martyrs received imperishable crowns from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * they set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By their supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Wounded by the faith of Christ, O most blessed ones, * and having faithfully drained the cup thereof, * ye cast the worship and audacity of the Persians down to the ground, * making supplications in behalf of us all, ** O ye who are equal in number to the Trinity.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "1333": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Leo the Great, Pope of Rome († 461)", "short": "Saint Leo" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Leo I the Great, Pope of Rome (440-461), received an exceedingly fine and diverse education, which opened for him the possibility of an excellent worldly career. But his yearning was in the spiritual life, and so he chose the different path of becoming an archdeacon under holy Pope Sixtus III (432-440)—after whose death Saint Leo in turn was chosen as Pope of the Roman Church, in September 440. These were difficult times for the Church, when heretics besieged the bulwarks of Orthodoxy with their tempting false-teachings. Saint Leo combined within himself a pastoral solicitude and goodness, together with an unshakable firmness in questions of the confession of the faith. He was in particular one of the basic defenders of Orthodoxy against the heresies of Eutykhios and Dioskoros—who taught that there was only one nature in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he was a defender also against the heresy of Nestorius. He exerted all his influence to put an end to the unrest by the heretics in the Church, and by his missives to the holy Constantinople emperors Theodosius II (408-450) and Marcian (450-457) he actively promoted the convening of the Fourth Œcumenical Council, at Chalcedon in 451, for condemning the heresy of the Monophysites. At this Œcumenical Council at Chalcedon, at which 630 bishops were present, there was proclaimed a missive of Saint Leo to the then already deceased Saint Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople (447-449). Saint Flavian had suffered for Orthodoxy under the Ephesus “Robber Council” in the year 449. In the letter of Saint Leo was posited the Orthodox teaching about the two natures [the Divine and the human] in the Lord Jesus Christ. And with this teaching all the bishops present at the Council were in agreement. The heretics Eutykhios and Dioskoros were excommunicated from the Church.
Saint Leo was likewise a defender of his fatherland against the incursions of barbarians. In the year 452, by the persuasive power of his word, he stopped a pillaging of Italy by the dreadsome leader of the Huns, Attila. And again in the year 455, when the leader of the Vandals [a Germanic tribe], Henzerich, turned towards Rome, he boldly persuaded him not to pillage the city, burn buildings, nor spill blood. He knew about his death beforehand and he prepared himself by ardent prayer and good deeds, for the passing over from this world into eternity.
He died in the year 461 and was buried at Rome, in the Vatican cathedral. His literary and theological legacy is comprised of 96 sermons and 143 letters—of which the best known is his missive to Saint Flavian.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O instructor of Orthodoxy, teacher of piety and purity, * beacon for the whole world, divinely inspired adornment of hierarchs. * O most wise Leo by thy doctrines thou hast illumined all. ** O harp of the Spirit, entreat Christ God that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Seated upon the throne of the priesthood, * O glorious one, and having shut the mouths of the nœtic lions, * with the divinely inspired dogmas of the worshipful Trinity * thou didst shed upon thy flock the light of the knowledge of God. ** Wherefore, thou hast been glorified as a divine initiate of the mysteries of the grace of God.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "1335": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Leontius, Hypatius, and Theodulus in Syria (70-79)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The holy Martyrs Leontius, Ipatius and Theodolus were Roman soldiers. The holy Martyr Leontius, a Greek by origin, during the reign of Vespasian (70-79) served as a military-chief in the imperial army in the Phœnician city of Tripoli. The Christian Leontius was distinguished for his bravery and good sense, and the people of Tripoli held him in deep regard for his virtue.
The emperor appointed the Roman senator Adrian as governor of the Phœnician district, with full powers to hunt out Christians, and in case of their refusal to offer sacrifice to the Roman gods, to give them over to torture and death. And on his way to Phœnicia Adrian received a report, that Saint Leontius had turned many away from worshipping the pagan gods. The governor sent the tribune Ipatius with a detachment of soldiers to Tripoli, so as to find and arrest the Christian Leontius. Along the way the tribune Ipatius fell seriously ill, and being near death, he saw in a dream an Angel, which said: “If thou wishest to be healed, invoke thrice with thine soldiers: “God of Leontius, help me.” Opening his eyes Ipatius beheld the Angel and said: “I was sent to arrest Leontius, how is it that I should appeal to his God?” At this moment the Angel became invisible. Ipatius told about his dream to the soldiers, among whose number was also his friend Theodolus, and all of them together thrice called on the help of the God, Whose Name it was that Saint Leontius confessed. Ipatius was immediately healed to the great joy of his soldiers, but only Theodolus sat aside, pondering the miracle. His soul was filled with love for God, and he told Ipatius to proceed twice as quickly to the city in search of Saint Leontius.
Upon their arrival in the city, a stranger met them and invited them to his house, where he lavishly hosted the travellers. Learning that their hospitable host was Saint Leontius, they fell on their knees and asked him to enlighten them with faith in the True God. They were baptised here, and when Saint Leontius pronounced over them the prayer calling on the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, a luminous cloud overshadowed the newly-baptised and shed a graced rain. The remaining soldiers in search of their commander arrived in Tripoli, where also had arrived the governor Adrian. Learning about what had happened, he gave orders to bring him Saints Leontius, Ipatius and Theodolus, and having threatened them with torture and death, he demanded that they renounce Christ and offer sacrifice to the Roman gods. All the martyrs firmly confessed their faith in Christ. Saint Ipatius was put under a column and struck at with iron claws, and Saint Theodolus was mercilessly beaten with rods. Seeing the steadfastness of the saints, they beheaded these two. And after torture, they sent Saint Leontius off to prison. In the morning he came before the governor. Adrian tried to entice the holy martyr with honours and rewards, and accomplishing nothing, he gave him over to new tortures: the holy martyr was suspended head downwards from a pillar with an heavy stone about his neck, but nothing was able to make him renounce Christ. The governor gave orders to beat at the sufferer with rods until such time as he died. They then threw the body of the holy Martyr Leontius out beyond the city, but Christians reverently gave it burial near Tripoli. The death of the holy martyrs occurred in about the years 70-79.
The accusation against Saint Leontios, and his sufferings and death are recorded on tin tablets prepared by the court scribe (commentarisius). These tablets were placed at the grave of the holy martyr.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In his suffering, O Lord, * Thy martyr Leontius received an imperishable crown from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * he set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By his supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thou didst confound the wicked plots of the tyrants, * didst denounce the ungodly religion of the Greeks, * and didst shine forth the knowledge of God upon all men * in thy doctrines of piety, O divinely wise martyr. ** Wherefore, with love we honor thy memory, O all-wise Leontius.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "1337": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Leontius, Canonarch of the Kiev Caves (14th C)", "short": "Venerable Leontius" } }, "1343": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Leonid of Ust-nedumsk († 1654)", "short": "Venerable Leonid" } }, "1346": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Apostle Jude, the Brother of the Lord († c. 80)", "short": "Apostle Jude" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Apostle Jude, among the rank of the 12 disciples of Christ, is descended from the lineage of King David and Solomon, and was the son of Righteous Joseph the Affianced from his first wife.
The Holy Apostle John the Theologian writes in his Gospel: “For none of his brethren believe on Him” (Jn. 7, 5). Saint Theophilact, Archbishop of Bulgaria, explains these words thus: at the beginning of the worldly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ—the sons of Joseph, among whose number was Jude, did not believe in His Divine essence. The tradition relates that when Righteous Joseph the Affianced, having returned from Egypt, began to divide among his sons the worldly things belonging to him, he wanted to alot part also to Christ the Saviour, born miraculously and incorruptibly from the All-Pure Virgin Mary. The brothers were opposed to this and only the eldest of them, James, accepted Christ Jesus in a joint ownership of his allotment, and for this he was termed Brother of the Lord. Later on Jude believed in Christ the Saviour as the awaited Messiah, and with all his heart he turned to Him and was chosen by Him into the number of the closest 12 disciples. But mindful of his sin, the Apostle Jude considered himself unworthy to be termed a brother with God and in his own soborno-catholic Epistle he calls himself merely the brother of James.
The Holy Apostle Jude also had other names: the Evangelist Matthew terms him “Levi, nicknamed Thaddeus” (Mt. 10, 3). The Holy Evangelist Mark also calls him Thaddeus (Mk. 3, 18), and in the Acts of the Holy Apostles he is mentioned under the name Barsaba (Acts 15, 22). This was customary at that time.
After the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostle Jude set off preaching the Gospel. He propagated the faith in Christ at first in Judea, Galilee, Samaria and Idumeia, and later—in the lands of Arabia, Syria and Mesopotamia, and finally he went to the city of Edessa. Here he finished that which was not completed by his predecessor, the disciple from the 70—Thaddeus. There is preserved an account, that the Holy Apostle Jude went preaching to Persia and from there wrote in the Greek language his soborno-catholic Epistle, in the brief wording of which consisted much profound truth. It contained dogmatic teaching about the Holy Trinity, about the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, about the separation of Angels good and bad, and about the Dread Last-Judgement. In its moral content the Apostle urges believers to guard themselves against fleshly impurity, to be diligent in their obligations in prayer, faith and love, to convert the lost to the way of salvation, and to guard themselves from the teachings of heretics. The Apostle Jude taught that faith alone in Christ is not sufficient, good works also are necessary, the evidence to Christian teaching.
The Holy Apostle Jude died a martyr about the year 80 in Armenia in the city of Arata, where he was crucified on a cross and pierced by arrows.
" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Knowing thee to be the kinsman of the Christ * and a steadfast martyr, O Jude, * with sanctity we praise thee * who trampled falsehood underfoot and preserved the Faith. * Wherefore, celebrating thy most holy memory today, ** through thy supplications we receive remission of sins.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "As one who conversed with Paul, * with him thou didst announce the proclamation of divine grace, * O blessed apostle Jude, * who hast uttered divine mysteries. ** Wherefore, we cry out to thee: Cease thou never to pray for us all.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" }, "KONTAKION/2": { "text": "Thou wast shown, for thine adamantine mind, to be the chosen disciple * and a steadfast pillar of the Church of Christ, * and thou didst preach the word of Christ to the nations, * telling them to believe in the one Godhead; * and, glorified by Him, thou hast received the gift of healings, ** to cure the infirmities of those who have recourse unto thee, O most lauded apostle Jude.
", "Type": "2", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "1347": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Zosimus the Soldier at Antioch, in Pisidia († c. 100)", "short": "Martyr Zosimus" } }, "1349": { "name": { "nominative": "St. John the Solitary of Jerusalem (6th C)", "short": "St. John" } }, "1352": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Aristocles the Presbyter, Demetrian, and Athanasius the Reader († c. 306)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" } }, "1353": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Methodius the Bishop of Patara († 312)", "short": "Hieromartyr Methodius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Hieromartyr Methodios, Bishop of Patara (Lycian region in Asia Minor), was distinguished for his genuine monastic humility. Calmly and with mildness he instructed his flock, but together with this he firmly defended the purity of Orthodoxy and he energetically contended against heresies, especially the widespread heresy of the Origenists. He left behind him a rich literary legacy: works in defense of Christianity against paganism, explications of Orthodox dogmas against the heresy of Origen, moral discourses, and explanations of Holy Scripture.
Saint Methodios was arrested by the pagans, steadfastly confessed before them his faith in Christ, and in the year 312 he was sentenced to death by beheading.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Thy blood mystically crieth out from the earth, like that of Abel, * O divinely wise and holy hierarch Methodius, * who manifestly preached that God became man. * Wherefore, thou hast put the deception of Origen to shame * and hast passed over to the heavenly bridal chamber. ** Entreat Christ God, that He save our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thou wast a priest of the mysteries of the Holy Trinity, * a proclaimer of the commandments of God which pass all understanding, * and the confirmation of the Orthodox, * O Methodius; * thou didst denounce the thoughts of the heretics for the sake of Orthodoxy, * shown by thy blood to be a hieromartyr. ** Standing before Christ with the angels, entreat Him that we be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "1355": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Leucius the Bishop of Brindisi (5th C)", "short": "St. Leucius" } }, "1358": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Prince Gleb of Vladimir, named George in holy Baptism († 1175)", "short": "Holy Prince" } }, "1366": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Julian of Tarsus, in Cilicia († c. 300)", "short": "Martyr Julian" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyr Julian of Tarsus was born in the Asia Minor province of Cilicia. He was the son of a pagan senator, but his mother confessed Christianity. After the death of her husband the mother of Saint Julian resettled to Tarsis, where the son was baptised and raised in Christian piety. When Julian reached age 18, a persecution against Christians started under the emperor Diocletian (284-305). Among others arrested was also Saint Julian. They brought him before the governor Marcian for trial, where for a long time they urged him to renounce Christ. Neither tortures nor threats, nor promises of gifts and honours could convince the pious youth to offer pagan sacrifice and a denial of Christ. The holy confessor remained steadfast in his firm faith. For a whole year they led the martyr through the cities of Cilicia, in each of them subjecting him to interrogation and tortures, after which they threw him in prison. The mother of Saint Julian followed after her son and prayed, that the Lord would strengthen him yet more in faith and act. In the city of Aegea under the pretext of urging her son to offer sacrifice to idols, she besought the governor to permit her to visit the prison. She spent three days in prison with Saint Julian, beseeching him to be strong to the end.
Saint Julian was again brought to stand before the governor. Thinking, that the mother had persuaded her son to submit to the imperial decree, the governor began to praise her prudence. But suddenly the saint boldly confessed himself a Christian. And the holy Martyr Julian all the more fearlessly and boldly denounced the pagan polytheism. The governor then gave orders to cut off the feet of the mother of Saint Julian, since she had accompanied her son from Tarsis. They tied the Martyr Julian into a sack, filled with sand and poisonous vipers, and threw it into the sea. The body of the sufferer was carried by the waves to the shores of Alexandria, and with reverence was buried by a certain pious Alexandrian Christian. The martyr’s death occurred in about the year 305. Afterwards the relics of the holy martyr were transferred to Antioch. Saint John Chrysostom honoured the memory of the holy Martyr Julian with a sermon of laudation.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In his suffering, O Lord, * Thy martyr Julian received an imperishable crown from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * he set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By his supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "As is meet, let us all praise Julian today, * the invincible warrior of piety, * the true counselor and soldier of the Truth, * and let us cry aloud unto him: * Entreat Christ God in behalf of us all!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "1368": { "name": { "nominative": "Monks Julius the presbyter and Julian the Deacon (5th C)", "short": "Monks Julius" } }, "1369": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyr Archil II, King of Georgia († 744)", "short": "Holy Martyr" } }, "1375": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Eusebius, Bishop of Samosata († 380)", "short": "Hieromartyr Eusebius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Priestmartyr Eusebios, Bishop of Samosata, stood firmly for the Orthodox confession of faith confirmed at the Ist Œcumenical Council at Nicæa in the year 325. For this he underwent persecution by the Arians, being repeatedly deprived of his cathedra and banished into exile. The emperor Constantius (337-361), patron of the Arians, having learned that Saint Eusebios kept a conciliar decree about the election to the Antioch cathedra of the Orthodox Archbishop Meletios, sent him a command to give up the decree. The saint boldly refused to do as ordered. The enraged emperor sent a message, that if he did not give up the decree, then his right hand would be cut off. Saint Eusebios stretched out both hands to the emissary with the words: “Cut them off, but the Decree of the Council, which doth denounce the wickedness and iniquity of the Arians, I will not give up.” The emperor Constantius marveled at the audacity of the bishop, but did him no harm.
After Constantius, there reigned Justin the Apostate (361-363). Even more difficult times ensued—there began an open persecution against Christians. Saint Eusebios, having concealed his dignity, went about in the garb of a soldier across the whole of Syria, Phœnicia and Palestine, urging Christians to the Orthodox faith. He established priests and deacons in desolated churches, he put hands upon bishops renouncing the Arian heresy. After Julian the Apostate perished, there ruled the pious emperor Jovian (363-364), during which time the persecutions stopped. Having returned from exile, Archbishop Meletios upon the advice of Saint Eusebios convened a Local Council at Antioch in the year 379. In it participated 27 bishops, and it re-affirmed the Orthodox teaching of faith accepted at the Ist Œcumenical Council. The Arians, fearing the steadfast defenders of Orthodoxy—Saint-hierarchs Meletios, Eusebios and Pelagios, who had great influence with the emperor, put their signatures under the conciliar definition. After the death of the emperor Jovian began the rule of the Arian Vanlentus (364-378). The Orthodox were again subjected to persecution. Saint Meletios was banished to Armenia, Saint Pelagios—to Arabia, and Saint Eusebios was condemned to exile in Thrace. Having received the imperial decree, Saint Eusebios left Samosata by night so as to prevent tumult among the people that esteemed him. Having learned about the departure of the bishop, believers followed after him and with tears entreated him to return. The saint refused to fulfill the entreaty of those who had come, saying that it was necessary to obey the existing authorities. The saint urged his flock to hold firm to Orthodoxy, blessed them and set off to the place of exile. The Arian Eunomios was put upon the Samosata cathedra, but the people did not accept the heretic. The Orthodox would not go to the church and avoided meeting with him. The heretic Arian perceived, that it was impossible to entice the independent flock to him.
The emperor Gracian (375-383) came upon the throne, and there were brought back from exile all the Orthodox hierarchs banished under the Arians. Saint Eusebios also returned to Samosata and continued with the task of building up the church. Together with Saint Meletios he supplied Orthodox hierarchs and clergy to Arian places. In about the year 380, he arrived in the Arian city of Dolikhina to establish there the Orthodox bishop Marinos. An Arian woman flung a roof tile which struck the head of the sainted-bishop. In dying, he on the example of the Saviour asked her for wine and requested those around not to do her any harm. The body of Saint Eusebios was taken to Samosata and with lamantation he was buried by his flock. In place of the saint was raised up his nephew, Blessed Antiokhos, and the Samosata Church continued to steadfastly confess the Orthodox faith, firmly spread through the efforts of the holy Priestmartyr Eusebios.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Having lived piously in the rank of hierarch * and traversed the path of martyrdom, * thou didst extinguish the burnt offerings of the idolaters, * O holy hierarch Eusebius. * * But as thou hast boldness before Christ God, entreat Him, that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "1376": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Zeno and Zenas of Philadelphia († 304)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" } }, "1377": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Galacteon and Juliania", "short": "Holy Martyrs" } }, "1380": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Agrippina of Rome († c. 255)", "short": "Martyr Agrippina" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyress Agrippina, was by birth a Roman. She did not wish to enter into marriage, and totally dedicated her life to God. During the time of persecution against Christians under the emperor Valerian (253-259) the saint went before the court and bravely confessed her faith in Christ, for which she was given over to torture. They beat the holy virgin with sticks so much, that her bones broke. Afterwards they put Saint Agrippina in chains, but an Angel freed her from her bonds. The holy confessor died from the tortures she endured. The Christians Vassa, Paula and Agathonica secretly took the body of the holy martyress and transported it to Cilicia, where at her grave were worked many miracles. In about the XI Century the relics of the holy Martyress Agrippina were transferred to Constantinople.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Thy ewe-lamb Agrippina crieth out to Thee with a loud voice, O Jesus: * \"I love Thee, O my Bridegroom, * and, seeking Thee, I pass through many struggles: * I am crucified and buried with Thee in Thy baptism, * and suffer for Thy sake, that I may reign with Thee; * I die for Thee that I might live with Thee. * As an unblemished sacrifice accept me, * who sacrifice myself with love for Thee ** By her supplications save Thou our souls, in that Thou art merciful.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "The radiant day of thy splendid struggles hath dawned, * whereon the divine Church, honoring them, doth call all together to cry out to thee with gladness: ** Rejoice, O virgin and martyr, most blessed Agrippina.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "1381": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Eustochius, Gaius, Probius, Lollius and Urban of Ancyra (4th C)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" } }, "1384": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God “Zaonikievskaya”", "short": "Icon of" } }, "1387": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Pharnacius, Orentius, Eros, Firmus, Firminus, Cyriacus, and Longinus (3rd-4th C)", "short": "Martyrs Pharnacius" } }, "1390": { "name": { "nominative": "Righteous Youths James and John of Meniugi (17th C)", "short": "Righteous Youths" } }, "1395": { "name": { "nominative": "Appearance of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God (1383)", "short": "Tikhvin Icon" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God, according to tradition, is one of the icons written by the holy Disciple and Evangelist Luke. In the V Century it was transferred from Jerusalem to Constantinople, where the Blachernæ church was built for it. In the year 1383, 70 years before the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, the icon disappeared from the church, and re-appeared amidst a radiant light over the waters of Lake Ladoga. Miraculously taken from place to place, it then remained near the city of Tikhvin. At the place of the appearance of the icon was built a wooden church in honour of the Uspenie-Dormition of the Mother of God. Through the zeal of GreatPrince Vasilii Ivanovich (1505-1533), in place of the wooden church was built a stone church. In 1560 by order of tsar Ivan the Terrible a men’s monastery was established nearby the church, and enclosed by a stone wall. During the years 1613-1614 the Swedish army, having seized Novgorod, more than once tried to destroy the monastery, but by the intercession of the Mother of God the monastery was saved. Thus, one time, in sight of the nearby Swedish army, the monks decided to flee from the monastery taking with them the wonderworking icon, but they were not able to remove it from its place. This miracle halted the dispirited, and they remained at the monastery, hoping on the intercession of the Mother of God. The insignificant number of defenders of the monastery successfully repulsed the numerically greater enemy. The invading Swedes them encountered a numerous Russian army, coming from Moscow, like some heavenly host, and they turned to flight. Imperial emissaries arrived at the monastery after the miraculous victory over the Swedes. Taking along a copy of the wonderworking icon, they set off to the village of Stolbovo, 50 versts from Tikhvin, where on 10 February 1617 peace was concluded with the Swedes. The primary pledge of peace from the Russian side was on the transferred copy of the wonderworking icon. Afterwards this copy was taken to Moscow and placed in the Uspensk cathedral, and then at the request of the people of Novgorod, involved then in war with the Swedes, it was sent off to Novgorod and placed in the Sophia cathedral. The All-Russian feast of the Tikhvinsk Icon of the Mother of God, glorified by innumerable miracles, was established by the Church in memory of its miraculous appearance and the vanquishing of enemies through the intercession of the Mother of God.
" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Today thy most precious icon hath shone forth upon us in the air like the all-radiant sun, O Mistress, illumining the world with rays of mercy; and great Russia, reverently receiving it from on high as a gift of God, glorifieth thee as the Mistress of all, O Mother of God, and joyously magnifieth Christ our God Who was born of thee. Him do thou entreat, O Lady, Queen and Theotokos, that He preserve all the cities and lands where Christians live, unharmed by all the assaults of the enemy, and save those who with, faith worship before the all-honored image of Him and thee, O Virgin who knewest not wedlock.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "O ye people, let us make haste to the Virgin Theotokos and Queen, giving thanks to Christ our God; and gazing with compunction at her miraculous icon, let us fall down and cry out to her: O Mary our Mistress, visiting this land in the miraculous appearance of thy precious icon, save our faithful Emperor and all Christians in peace and prosperity, showing us to be inheritors of the life of heaven. For to thee do we cry with faith: Rejoice, O Virgin, salvation of the world!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "1396": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable David of Thessalonica (6th C)", "short": "Venerable David" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk David of Soluneia (Thessalonika) pursued asceticism at the monastery of the holy Martyrs Theodore and Mercurios. Afterwards, having settled near the city of Soluneia, he built himself an hut under an almond tree and lived in it for 70 years, being in constant prayer, keeping strict fast, and enduring heat and cold. The Monk David received from God the gift of wonderworking, and he healed many from sickness. The holy ascetic gave spiritual counsel to all who came to him. Having attained to passionlessness, he was like an angel in the flesh, and without harm he was able to take into his hands the hot coals for the incensing. The monk died in about the year 540.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In thee, O father, that which was created according to the image of God was manifestly saved. * For accepting thy cross thou didst follow after Christ, * and praying thou didst learn to disdain the flesh, * for thou didst transcend it to take care of thine immortal soul. ** Wherefore, with the angels doth thy soul rejoice, O venerable David.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "An ever-blossoming garden, bearing the fruits of the virtues, * thou didst appear in the tree of a grove, like a right melodious bird; * and receiving the Lord, the tree of life, in thy heart all the more, * and cultivating it like a garden, O divinely wise one, * thou hast thereby nurtured us with grace. ** Pray thou ever in our behalf, O most blessed David.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" } } } }, "1398": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Macarius of Alexandria († 394-395)", "short": "Venerable Macarius" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Makarios of Alexandria was a contemporary and friend of the Monk Makarios of Egypt (Comm. 19 January). He was born in the year 295, and until the age of 40 he was occupied in trade; afterwards, he accepted holy Baptism and withdrew into the wilderness. After several years of ascetic life he was elevated to the dignity of presbyter and made head of a monastery—called “the Cells”—in the Egyptian wilderness between the city of Nitra and the Skete, at which monk-hermits pursued asceticism in silence, each separately in his own cell.
Saint Makarios of Alexandria, like Makarios of Egypt, was a great ascetic and monastic head, and he accomplished many miracles. Learning about some particular ascetic feat of this or that monk, he attempted to imitate him in that ascetic deed. Thus, having heard that a certain monk used only one pound of bread in a day, he started to eat only so much and even less. Wishing to shorten his sleep, he stayed for 20 whole days under the open sky, enduring heat by day and cold by night. One time Saint Makarios picked a bunch of grapes. He very much wanted to eat them, but he conquered this desire in himself and gave the grapes to a still weaker monk. That one, wanting to preserve his abstinence, gave the grapes to another, and that one—to a third and so forth. At the very end the bunch of grapes returned to the Monk Makarios. The ascetic was astonished at the abstention of his disciples and gave thanks to God. One time a proud thought came over the saint—to go to Rome to heal the sick. Struggling with the temptation, the saint filled up a sack of sand, loaded it on himself and went for a long walk into the wilderness, and until he exhausted his body the proud thought did not leave him.
By his ascetic life, fasting, and renunciation of things earthly, the Monk Makarios acquired the gifts of wonderworking and of seeing the inner thoughts of people, and he was granted many miraculous visions. Thus, it was granted the monk to see how one of the ascetics of the holy monastery—the Monk Mark—was communicated the Holy Mysteries from the hands of Angels, and how careless brethren received during the time of partaking in place of the Body of Christ burning coals from those of the nether regions. Saint Makarios was glorified by many miracles of healing the sick and casting out devils. Saint Makarios of Alexandria died in about 394-395 at age 100. He wrote “Discourse about the Origin of the Soul” included in the text of the sequenced Psalter.
" } }, "1399": { "name": { "nominative": "Icons of the Mother of God of Lidda (1st C), Niamets (1399), and the Seven Lakes (17th C)", "short": "Icons of" } }, "1401": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Macarius the Great, of Egypt († c. 390-391)", "short": "Venerable Macarius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Makarios the Great of Egypt was born in the village of Ptinapor in Lower Egypt. At the wish of his parents he entered into marriage, but was soon a widower. Having buried his wife, Makarios told himself: “Take heed, Makarios, and have care for thy soul, wherefore it becometh thee to forsake earthly life.” The Lord rewarded the saint with a long life, but from that time the mindfulness of death was constantly with him, impelling him to ascetic deeds of prayer and penitence. He began to visit the church of God more frequently and to be more deeply absorbed in Holy scripture, but he did not depart from his aged parents—thus fulfilling the commandment about the honouring of parents. Until his parents end the Monk Makarios (“Makarios”—from the Greek means “blessed”) used his remaining substance to help his parents and he began to pray fervently, that the Lord might shew him a preceptor on the way to salvation. The Lord sent him such a guide in the person of an experienced monk-elder, living in the wilderness not far from the village. The elder took to the youth with love, guided him in the spiritual science of watchfulness, fasting and prayer, and taught him the handicraft of weaving baskets. Having built a separate cell not far from his own, the elder settled his student in it.
The local bishop arrived one day at Ptinapor and, knowing about the virtuous life of the monk, made him into the clergy against his will. But Blessed Makarios was overwhelmed by this disturbance of his silence, and therefore went secretly to another place. The enemy of salvation began a tenacious struggle with the ascetic, trying to terrify him, shaking his cell and suggesting sinful thoughts. Blessed Makarios shook off the attacks of the devil, defending himself with prayer and the sign of the cross. Evil people made up a slander against the saint, accusing him in the seduction of a maiden from a nearby village. They dragged him out of his cell, and jeered at him. The Monk Makarios endured the temptation with great humility. The money that he got for his baskets he sent off without a murmur for the welfare of the maiden. The innocence of Blessed Makarios was revealed when the maiden, being worried for many days, was not able to give birth. She then confessed in her sufferings that she had slandered the hermit, and she pointed out the real author of the sin. When her parents found out the truth, they were astonished and intended to go to the monk with remorse. But the Monk Makarios, shunning the vexation of people, fled that place by night and settled on a Nitrian mountain in the Pharan wilderness. Thus human wickedness contributed to the prospering of the righteous. Having dwelt in the wilderness for three years, he went to Saint Anthony the Great, the father of Egyptian monasticism, about whom he had heard that he was still alive in the world, and he longed with a desire to see him. The Monk Abba Anthony received him with love, and Makarios became his devoted student and follower. The Monk Makarios lived with him for a long time and then, on the advice of the saintly abba, he went off to the Skete wilderness-monastery (in the northwest part of Egypt). He so shone forth there by his ascetic deeds that he came to be called “a young-elder,” insofar as having scarcely reached thirty years of age, he distinguished himself as an experienced and mature monk.
The Monk Makarios survived many demonic attacks against him: once he was carrying palm branches from the wilderness for weaving baskets, and a devil met him on the way and wanted to strike him with a sickle, but he was not able to do this and said: “Makarios, I suffer from thee great anguish because I am not able to vanquish thee; thine armour, by which thou art defended from me, is this—thy humility.” When the saint reached age 40, he was ordained to the dignity of priest and made the head (abba) of the monks living at the Skete wilderness. During these years the Monk Makarios often visited with Anthony the Great, receiving guidance from him in spiritual conversations. Blessed Makarios was deemed worthy to be present at the death of the holy abba and he received his staff in succession, together with which he received twice the spiritual power of Anthony the Great—in the same way, as did once the prophet Elisha receive from the prophet Elias twice the grace with the mantle coming down from heaven.
The Monk Makarios accomplished many healings: people thronged to him from various places for help and for advice, asking his holy prayers. All this unsettled the quietude of the saint. He therefore dug out under his cell a deep cave and betook himself there for prayer and Divine meditation. The Monk Makarios attained to such daring in walking before God, that through his prayer the Lord resuscitated the dead. In spite of such lofty attainment of God-likeness, he continued to preserve his unusual humility. One time the holy abba caught a thief, putting his things on a donkey standing nearby the cell. Not giving the appearance that he was the owner of these things, the monk began quietly to help tie up the load. Having removed himself from the world, the monk told himself: “We bring nothing at all into this world; clearly, it is not possible to take anything out from hence. Bless the Lord in all things!.”
One time the Monk Makarios was walking along the way and, seeing a skull lying upon the ground, he asked it: “Who art thou?” The skull answered: “I was a chief-priest of the pagans. When thou, Abba, dost pray for those situated in hell, we do receive some mitigation.” The monk asked: “What are these torments?” “We are sitting in a great fire,—answered the skull,—and we do not see one another. When thou prayest, we begin to see each other somewhat, and this affords us some comfort.” Having heard such words, the monk began weeping and asked: “Are there yet more fiercesome torments?” The skull answered: “Down below us are located those, which did know the Name of God, but spurned Him and kept not His commandments. They endure yet more grievous torments.”
Once during prayer Blessed Makarios heard a voice: “Makarios, thou hast reached such attainment as have two women living in the city.” The humble ascetic, taking up his staff, went to the city, found the house where the women lived, and knocked. The women received him with joy, and the monk said: “Because of you I have come from a far wilderness, and I want to know about your good deeds; tell about them, keeping nothing secret.” The women answered with surprise: “We live with our own husbands, and we have not such virtues.” But the saint continued to insist, and the women then told him: “We entered into marriage with two brothers by birth. After all this time of life in common we have told each other not one evil thing nor insulting word, and never do we quarrel between ourselves. We asked our husbands to release us into a women’s monastery, but they were not agreeable, and we gave a vow not to utter one worldly word until death.” The holy ascetic glorified God and said: “In truth the Lord does not seek virgins nor married women, and neither monks nor worldly persons, but doth value the free intent of the person within the arbitrariness of his free will to offer thanks to the Holy Spirit, which acts and which rules the life of each person, yearning to be saved.”
During the years of the reign of the emperor Valens—an Arian heretic (364-378), the Monk Makarios the Great together with the Monk Makarios of Alexandria was subjected to persecution by the adherents of the Arian bishop Luke. They seized both elders and, imprisoning them on a ship, transported them onto a wild island where there lived pagans. By the prayers of the saints there, the daughter of a pagan priest received healing, at which the pagan priest and all the inhabitants of the island accepted holy Baptism. Learning about what had happened, the Arian bishop became ashamed and permitted the elders to return to their own monasteries.
The meekness and humility of the monk transformed human souls. “An harmful word,—said Abba Makarios,—and it makes good things bad, but a good word makes bad things good.” On the questioning of the monks, how to pray properly, the monk answered: “For prayer it does not require many words, it is needful only to say: “Lord, as Thou desirest and as Thou knowest, have mercy on me.” If an enemy should fall upon thee, it is needful but to utter: “Lord, have mercy!” The Lord knoweth that which is useful for us, and doth grant us mercy.” When the brethren asked: “In what manner ought a monk to comport himself?,” the monk answered: “Forgive me, I am a poor monk, but I beheld monks being saved in the remote wilderness. I asked them, how might I make myself a monk. They answered: “If a man doth not withdraw himself from everything which is situated in the world, it is not possible to be a monk.” At this point I answered: “I am weak and not able to be such as ye.” The monks therewith answered: “If thou art not able to be such as we, then sit in thy cell and dwell in contrition about thy sins.””
The Monk Makarios gave advice to a certain monk: “Flee from people and thou shalt be saved.” That one asked: “What does it mean to flee from people?” The monk answered: “Sit in thy cell and dwell in contrition about thy sins.” The Monk Makarios said also: “If thou wishest to be saved, be as one who is dead, who is not given over to anger when insulted, and not puffed up when praised.” And further: “If for thyself, slander—is like praise, poverty—like riches, deficiency—like abundance, thou shalt not perish. Since it is not possible, that in piety believers and ascetic seekers should fall into unclean passions and demonic seductions.”
The prayer of the Monk Makarios saved many in perilous circumstances of life, and preserved them from harm and temptation. His benevolence was so great, that they said about him: “Just as God covereth the world, so also doth Abba Makarios cover offenses which he, having seen, is as though he had not seen, and having heard, as though he had not heard.”
The monk lived until age 97. Shortly before his end there appeared to him the Monks Anthony and Pakhomios, bringing the joyful message about his transition into a blessed Heavenly monastery. Having given admonition to his disciples and having given them blessing, the Monk Makarios asked forgiveness from all and bid farewell with the words: “Into Thy hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.”
Holy abba Makarios spent sixty years in the wilderness, being dead to the world. The monk spent most of the time in conversation with God, being often in a state of spiritual rapture. But he never ceased to weep, to repent and to work. The abba rendered his rich ascetic experience into profound theological works. Fifty discourses and seven ascetic tracts form the precious legacy of spiritual wisdom of the Monk Makarios the Great.
His idea, that the highest blessedness and purpose of man—the unity of the soul with God—is a primary principle in the works of the Monk Makarios. Recounting the means by which to attain to mystical union, the monk relies upon the experience of both the great teachers of Egyptian monasticism and upon his own experience. The way to God and the experience of the holy ascetics of Communality with God is revealed to each believer’s heart. Therefore Holy Church also includes within the general use of vespers and matins the ascetic prayers of the Monk Makarios the Great.
Earthly life, according to the teachings of the Monk Makarios, possesses with all its works only a relative significance: to prepare the soul, to make it capable for the perception of the Heavenly Kingdom, to establish in the soul an affinity with the Heavenly fatherland. “The soul—for those truly believing in Christ—it is necessary to transpose and to transform from out of the present degraded condition into another condition, a good condition: and from out of the present perishing nature into another, Divine nature, and to be remade anew—by means of the power of the Holy Spirit.” To attain this is possible, if “we truly believe and we truly love God and have penetrated into all His holy commands.” If the soul, betrothed to Christ on holy Baptism, does not itself co-operate in its gifts of the grace of the Holy Spirit, then it is subjected to “an excommunication from life,” as is shewn by a lack of attaining blessedness and incapacity to union with Christ. In the teaching of the Monk Makarios, the question about the unity of Divine Love and Divine Truth is experientially decided. The inner action of the Christian determines the extent of the perception by him of this unity. Each of us acquires salvation through grace and the Divine gift of the Holy Spirit, but to attain a perfect measure of virtue—which is necessary for the soul’s assimilation of this Divine gift, is possible only “by faith and by love with the strengthening of free will.” Thus, “as much by grace, as much also by truth” does the Christian inherit eternal life. Salvation is a Divine-human action: we attain complete spiritual success “not by Divine power and grace alone, but also by the accomplishing of the proper labours”; from the other side—it is not alone within “the measure of freedom and purity” that we arrive at the proper solicitude, it is not without “the co-operation of the hand of God above.” The participation of man determines the actual condition of his soul, thus self-determining him to good or evil. “If a soul still in the world does not possess in itself the sanctity of the Spirit for great faith and for prayer, and does not strive for the oneness of Divine communion, then it is unfit for the heavenly kingdom.”
The miracles and visions of Blessed Makarios are recorded in a book by the Presbyter Ruphinos, and his Life was compiled by the Monk Serapion, bishop of Tmuntis (Lower Egypt), one of the reknown workers of the Church in the IV Century.
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "A desert dweller, an angel in the flesh, * and a wonderworker wast thou shown to be, * O our God-bearing father Macarius, * for having acquired heavenly gifts through fasting, vigilance, and prayer, * thou dost heal the infirm, * and the souls of those who have recourse to thee with faith. * Glory to Him Who hath given thee strength! * Glory to Him Who hath crowned thee! ** Glory to Him Who worketh healings for all through thee!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "The Lord truly set thee in the house of abstinence * like a star which wandereth not, * guiding the ends of the earth with light, * O venerable Macarius, ** father of fathers.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/2": { "text": "Having in life reached the end of a blessed life * with the choirs of the martyrs, * thou dwellest in the land of the meek, * as is meet, O God-bearing Macarius; * and having populated the desert as it were a city, * thou hast received from God the grace of miracles. ** Wherefore, we honor thee.
", "Type": "2", "Tone": "1" } } } }, "1402": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Macarius of Zhabyn and Belyov, the Wonderworker († 1623)", "short": "Venerable Macarius" } }, "1403": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Macarius, Abbot Zheltovodsk and Unzha († 1444)", "short": "Venerable Macarius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Makarii of Zheltovodsk and Unzhensk was born in the year 1349 at Nizhni-Novgorod into a pious family. At twelve years of age he secretly left his parents and accepted monastic tonsure at the Nizhegorodsk Kiev Caves monastery under Saint Dionysii (afterwards Archbishop of Suzdal′; † 1385, Comm. 26 June). With all the intensity of his youthful soul he gave himself over to the work of salvation: extremely strict fasting and exact fulfilling of the monastic rule distinguished him amongst the brethren.
The parents of the Monk Makarii only learned three years later where he had taken himself off to. His father went to him and tearfully besought his son merely that he would come forth and show himself. The Monk Makarii conversed with his father through a wall and said, that he would see him in the future life. “Extend me at least thine hand,”—implored the father. The son fulfilled this small request and the father, having kissed the extended hand of his son, returned home. Burdened by fame, the humble Makarii set out to the shores of the River Volga and here he pursued asceticism near the waters of Lake Zhelta. Here by firm determination and patience he overcame the abuse of the enemy of salvation. Lovers of solitude gathered to the Monk Makarii, and in 1435 he organised for them a monastery in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity. Here also he began to preach Christianity to the surrounding Cheremis and Chuvash peoples, and he baptised both Mahometans and pagans in the lake, which received its name from the saint. When the Kazan Tatars destroyed the monastery in 1439, they took captive the Monk Makarii. Out of respect for his piety and charitable love, the khan released the saint from captivity and set free together with him nearly 400 Christians. But in return they accepted the word of the Monk Makarii not to settle by Lake Zhelta. The Monk Makarii reverently buried those killed at his monastery, and he set out 200 versts to the Galich border. During the time of this resettlement all those on the way were fed in miraculous manner through the prayers of the monk. Having arrived at the city of Unzha, the Monk Makarii 15 versts from the city set up a cross and built a cell on the shores of Lake Unzha. And here he founded a new monastery. During the fifth year of his life at Lake Unzha the Monk Makarii took sick and reposed at age 95.
While yet alive, the Monk Makarii was granted a graced gift: he healed a blind and demon-afflicted girl. After the death of the monk, many received healing from his relics. The monks erected over his grave a temple and established a life-in-common rule at the monastery. In 1522 Tatars fell upon Unzha and wanted to tear apart the silver reliquary in the Makariev monastery, but they fell blind, and in a panic they took to flight. Many of them drowned in the Unzha. In 1532, through the prayers of the Monk Makarii, the city of Soligalich was saved from the Tatars, and in gratitude the inhabitants built a chapel in the cathedral church in honour of the saint. More than 50 people received healing from grievous infirmities through the prayers of the Monk Makarii,—this was certified to by a commission, dispatched by Patriarch Philaret in 1619.
" }, "rank": 3 }, "1404": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Macarius, Abbot of Kaliazin, wonderworker († 1483)", "short": "Venerable Macarius" }, "rank": 3 }, "1405": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation of the Relics (1688) of Hieromartyr Macarius, Archimandrite of Kanev, Abbot of Pinsk († 1678)", "short": "Translation of" } }, "1406": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Macarius, Metropolitan of Kiev († 1497)", "short": "Hieromartyr Macarius" } }, "1411": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Macarius the Deacon of the Kiev Caves (13th-14th C)", "short": "Venerable Macarius" } }, "1412": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Macarius the Abbot of Pisma (14th C)", "short": "Venerable Macarius" } }, "1419": { "name": { "nominative": "Synaxis of the Twelve Glorious and All-Praised Apostles: Peter and Andrew, James and John, Phillip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James the son of Alpheus, Jude [Thaddeus], Simon Zealotes, and Matthias", "short": "Synaxis" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Sobor (Assemblage) of the Glorious and All-Praiseworthy 12 Apostles of Christ appears an ancient feast. Holy Church,—honouring each of the 12 Apostles at a separate time of the year, from ancient times established a general commemoration of them on the day following after the commemoration of the Glorious and First-Ranked among the Apostles Peter and Paul († c. 67). An account about each of the Apostles is on the day of his individual commemoration: the Apostle Peter († c. 67; Comm. 29 June); the Apostle Andrew the First-Called († 62, Comm. 30 November); the Apostle James son of Zebedee († 44, Comm. 30 April); the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian († early II Century, Comm. 26 September); Apostle Philip (Comm. 14 November); Apostle Bartholomew (Comm. 11 June); Apostle Thomas (Comm. 6 October); Apostle and Evangelist Matthew († 60, Comm. 16 November); Apostle James Alphæus (Comm. 9October); Apostle Jude, brother of the Lord († c. 80, Comm. 19 June); Apostle Simon Zelotes (Comm. 10 May); Apostle Matthias († c. 63, Comm. 9 August).
The holy nobleborn emperor Constantine the Great (306-337) built at Tsar′grad a temple in the name of the holy Twelve Apostles. Directions for the celebrating of this feast are encountered from the IV Century.
" }, "rank": 3, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O first enthroned among the apostles * and teachers of the whole world; * entreat the Master of all, * that He grant peace to the world ** and great mercy to our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Christ the Rock doth radiantly glorify the rock of Faith, * the most excellent of His disciples, * as He doth Paul and the assembly of the twelve today; * and, faithfully celebrating their memory, ** we glorify Him Who glorified them.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "1426": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Symeon the Stylite", "short": "Symeon", "shortF": "for St. Symeon" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "" }, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "1428": { "name": { "nominative": "40 Virgin-Martyrs and Martyr\nDeacon Ammun, their instructor", "short": "Virgin-Martyrs" } }, "1429": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Callista and her half-brothers Evodus and Hermogenes", "short": "Holy Martyrs" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "© 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyrs Callista and her brothers Evodos and Hermogenes, Christians of Nicomedia, were brought to trial before the pagan governor for confessing their faith in Christ. Having refused to offer sacrifice to idols, they were cut down by the sword (+ 309)." } }, "1430": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the relics of the Venerable Maxim of Moscow, Fool-for-Christ (c. 1547)", "short": "Finding" } }, "1434": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Mamas of Cæsarea in Cappadocia (3rd C) and his parents Theodotus and Rufina", "short": "Martyr Mamas" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyr Mamant was born in Paphlagonia of pious and illustrious parents, the Christians Theodotos and Ruphina. For their open confession of their faith, the parents of the saint were arrested by the pagans and locked up in prison in Cæsarea Cappadocia. Knowing his own bodily weaknesses, Theodotos prayed, that the Lord would take him before being martyred. The Lord heard his prayer and he died in prison. Saint Ruphina died also after him, having given birth to a premature son, whom she prayerfully entrusted to God, beseeching that He be the Protector and Defender of the orphaned infant. God hearkened to the death-bed prayer of Saint Ruphina: a rich Christian widow named Ammea reverently buried the bodies of Saints Theodotos and Ruphina, and she took the boy into her own home and surrounded him with motherly care. Saint Mamant grew up in the Christian faith. His foster mother concerned herself with the developing of his natural abilities and early on she sent him off to study his grammar. The boy learned easily and willingly. He was not of an age of mature judgement but distinguished himself by maturity of mind and of heart. By means of prudent conversations and personal example young Mamant converted many of his own peers to Christianity. There was a denunciation about this to the governor, named Democritus, and the youth was arrested and brought to trial. In deference to his illustrious parentage Democritus decided not to subject him to torture, but instead sent him off to the emperor Aurelian (270-275). The emperor tried at first kindly, but then with threats to turn Saint Mamant back to the pagan faith, but all in vain: the saint bravely confessed himself a Christian and pointed out the madness of the pagans in their worship of mindless idols. Infuriated, the emperor subjected the youth to cruel tortures. They eventually wanted to drown the saint, but an Angel of the Lord saved Saint Mamant and bid him live on an high mountain in the wilderness, located not far from Cæsarea. Bowing to the will of God, the saint built there a small church and began to lead a life of strict temperance, in exploits of fasting and prayer.
Soon he received a remarkable power over the forces of nature: wild beasts inhabiting the surrounding wilderness gathered at his abode and listened to the reading of the Holy Gospel. Saint Mamant nourished himself on the milk of wild goats and deer.
The saint did not ignore the needs of his neighbours: preparing cheese from this milk, he gave it away freely to the poor. Soon the fame of Saint Mamant’s life spread throughout all of Cæsarea. The governor in concern sent a detachment of soldiers to arrest him. Coming across Saint Mamant on the mountain, the soldiers did not recognise him, and mistook him for a simple shepherd. The saint then invited them to his dwelling, gave them a drink of milk and then told them his name, knowing that a suffering death for Christ awaited him. In surrendering himself over into the hands of the torturers, Saint Mamant was brought to trial under a deputy governor named Alexander, who subjected him to intensive and prolonged tortures. But they did not break the Christian will of the saint. He was strengthened by the words addressed to him from above: “Be strong and take courage, Mamant.” When they gave Saint Mamant over for devouring by wild beasts, these creatures would not touch him. Finally, one of the pagan-priests struck at him with a trident-spear. Mortally wounded, Saint Mamant went out beyond the city limits. There, in a small stone cave, he offered up his spirit to God, Who in the hearing of all summoned the holy Martyr Mamant into the habitation on high († 275). He was buried by believers at the place of his death.
Christians soon began to receive from him blessings of help in their afflictions and sorrows. Saint Basil the Great speaks thus about the holy Martyr Mamant in a sermon to the people: “Commemorate ye the holy martyr: those, who saw him in a vision, who from amongst the living here have him as an helper, those whom in calling on his name he hath helped in some matter, those whom he hath guided out of a prodigal life, those whom he hath healed of infirmity, those whose children already dead he hath restored to life, those whose life he hath prolonged—all of ye, gathered as one, praise ye the martyr.”
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In his suffering, O Lord, * Thy martyr Mamas received an imperishable crown from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * he set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By his supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "With the staff given thee by God, O holy one, * thou didst shepherd thy people in life-bearing pastures; * and thou didst crush the invisible and untamed wild beasts * beneath the feet of those who hymn thee. ** For all who find themselves amid misfortunes have thee as their fervent intercessor, O Mamas.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "1436": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Maximus of Totma, the Fool-for-Christ († 1650)", "short": "Blessed Maximus" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Blessed Maximus, Priest of Totma, was for a certain time priest in the city of Tot′ma in Vologda diocese. Over the course of forty years he made the harsh exploit of fool-for-Christ, constantly in fasting and in prayer. Blessed Maxim died in extreme old age on 16 January 1650 and was buried at the Resurrection church, in which he served. The local veneration of the saint began in 1715, in connection with numerous miracles occurring at his grave.
" } }, "1439": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Anthimus, Bishop of Nicomedia, and those with him: Theophilus the Deacon, Dorotheus, Mardonius, Migdonius, Peter, Indis, Gorgonius, Xeno, Domna the Virgin and Euthimius († 302)", "short": "Hieromartyr Anthimus" }, "rank": 1 }, "1440": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Basilissa of Nicomedia († 309)", "short": "Martyr Basilissa" } }, "1442": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Phœbe the Deaconess at Cenchreæ (1st C)", "short": "St. Phœbe" } }, "1443": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Joannicius, Archbishop of Serbia († 1349)", "short": "Saint Joannicius" } }, "1446": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Babylas, Bishop of Antioch and those with him: the youths Urban, Prilidianus, and Eppolonius, and their mother Christodula († 251)", "short": "Hieromartyr Babylas" }, "rank": 1 }, "1449": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Hermione the Daughter of St Philip the Deacon († c. 117)", "short": "Martyr Hermione" } }, "1450": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Babylas of Nicomedia and 84 youths with him", "short": "Martyr Babylas" } }, "1451": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Theodore, Mianus, Julian, and Chion", "short": "Martyrs Theodore" } }, "1453": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Prophet Zechariah and Righteous Elizabeth, parents of St John the Baptist (1st C)", "short": "Holy Prophet" }, "rank": 2 }, "1456": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Thiphael and his sister Thebaia (1st-2nd C)", "short": "Martyrs Thiphael" } }, "1458": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Urban, Theodore, Medimnus and with them 77 Men at Nicomedia († 370)", "short": "Martyrs Urban" } }, "1459": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark († 63)", "short": "Holy Apostle" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Disciple and Evangelist Mark, named also John-Mark (Acts 12: 12), was a Disciple from among the Seventy, and was also a nephew of the Disciple Barnabas (Comm. 11 June). He was born at Jerusalem. The house of his mother Mary adjoined the Garden of Gethsemane. As Church Tradition relates, on the night of the Sufferings of Christ on the Cross he followed after Him, wrapped in a linen winding-cloth, and he fled from the soldiers catching hold of him (Mk. 14: 51-52). After the Ascension of the Lord, the house of his mother Saint Mary became a place of prayerful gatherings of Christians and a lodging for certain of the Apostles (Acts 12: 12).
Saint Mark was a very close companion of the Apostles Peter and Paul (Comm. 29June) and of the Disciple Barnabas. Saint Mark was at Seleucia together with Paul and Barnabas, and from there he set off to the island of Cyprus, and he crossed over the whole of it from East to West. In the city of Paphos Saint Mark was an eye-witness, of how the Apostle Paul had struck blind the sorcerer Elymas (Acts 13: 6-12).
After working with the Apostle Paul, Saint Mark returned to Jerusalem, and then with the Apostle Peter he arrived in Rome, from whence at the latter’s bidding he set out for Egypt, where he became founder of the Church.
During the time of the second evangelic journey of the Apostle Paul, Saint Mark met up with him at Antioch. From there he set out preaching with the Disciple Barnabas to Cyprus, and then he went off again to Egypt, where together with the Apostle Peter he founded many churches, and then also at Babylon. From this city the Apostle Peter directed an Epistle to the Christians of Asia Minor, in which he points to Saint Mark as his spiritual son (1 Pet. 5: 13).
When the Apostle Paul came in chains to Rome, the Disciple Mark was at Ephesus, where the cathedra-seat was occupied by Saint Timothy (Comm. 4 January). The Disciple Mark arrived together with him in Rome. There also he wrote his holy Gospel (c.62-63).
From Rome Saint Mark again set off to Egypt. At Alexandria he made the beginnings of a Christian school, from which later on emerged such famous fathers and teachers of the Church, as Clement of Alexandria, Saint Dionysios (5 October), Saint Gregory Thaumatourgos (“Wonderworker,” Comm. 5 November), and others. Zealous with the arranging of Church Divine-services, the holy Disciple Mark compiled the order of Liturgy for the Alexandrian Christians.
Later on in preaching the Gospel, Saint Mark also visited the inner regions of Africa, and he was in Libya at Nektopolis.
During the time of these journeys, Saint Mark received inspiration of the Holy Spirit to go again to Alexandria and confront the pagans. There he visited at the home of the dignitary Ananias, for whom he healed a crippled hand. The dignitary happily took him in, hearkened with faith to his narratives, and received Baptism. And following the example of Ananias, many of the inhabitants of that part of the city where he lived were baptised after him. This roused the enmity of the pagans, and they gathered to kill Saint Mark. Having learned of this, the holy Disciple Mark made Ananias bishop, and the three Christians: Malchos, Sabinos and Kerdinos—presbyters.
The pagans pounced upon Saint Mark when he was making Divine-services. They beat him, dragged him through the streets and threw him in prison. There Saint Mark was granted a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who strengthened him before his sufferings. On the following day the angry crowd again dragged the holy disciple through the streets towards the court-room, but along the way Saint Mark died with the words: “Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.”
The pagans wanted to burn the body of the holy disciple. But when they lit up the bon-fire, everything grew dim, thunder crashed and an earthquake occurred. The pagans fled in terror, and Christians took up the body of the holy disciple and buried it in a stone crypt. This was on 4 April in the year 63. The Church celebrates his memory on 25 April.
In the year 310, a church was built over the relics of the holy Disciple Mark. In the year 820, when the Mahometan Arabs had established their rule in Egypt and those of this different faith oppressed the Christian Church, the relics of Saint Mark were transferred to Venice and placed in the church of his name.
In the ancient iconographic tradition, which adopted symbols for the holy Evangelists borrowed from the vision of Saint John the Theologian (Rev. 4: 7), the holy Evangelist Mark is depicted by a lion—symbolising the might and royal dignity of Christ (Rev. 5: 5). Saint Mark wrote his Gospel for Christians from among the gentile-pagans, since he emphasises predominantly the words and deeds of the Saviour, in which particularly is manifest His Divine Almightiness. The many particularities of his account can be explained by his proximity to the holy Apostle Peter. All the ancient writers testify, that the Gospel of Mark represents a concise writing-down of the preaching and narratives of the first-ranked Apostle Peter. One of the central theological themes in the Gospel of Saint Mark is the theme of the power of God, doing the humanly impossible, wherein the Lord makes possible that which of man is impossible. By the efficacy of Christ (Mk.16:20) and the Holy Spirit (Mk. 13: 11), His disciples are to go forth into the world and preach the Gospel to all creatures (Mk. 13: 10, 16: 15).
" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O holy apostle and evangelist Mark * entreat the merciful God ** that He grant to our souls remission of transgressions.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" }, "TROPARION/2": { "text": "Thou wast an apostle of Christ who learned from the pre-eminent Peter, * and didst shine like the sun upon the lands of the Alexandrians, being their adornment. * Through thee was Egypt freed from deception, O blessed one, * who as the Church”s pillar of fire dost illumine all with thy teaching of the Gospel. * Wherefore, honoring thy memory, we keep splendid festival, O divinely eloquent Mark. * Entreat God Who was announced by thee, ** that He grant our souls remission of offenses.", "Type": "2", "Tone": "3" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "
Receiving from on high the grace of the Spirit, * thou didst destroy the snares of the orators, O apostle, * and, hunting all the nations, * thou didst lead them to thy Master, * O most glorious Mark, ** preaching the divine Gospel.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "1462": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Eudoxius, Zeno, Macarius and 1104 soldiers with them (311-312)", "short": "Martyrs Eudoxius" }, "rank": 1 }, "1463": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Archippus of Herapolis (4th C)", "short": "St. Archippus" } }, "1464": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Cyriacus, Faustus the Presbyter, Abibas the Deacon, and 11 others at Alexandria († c. 250)", "short": "Martyr Cyriacus" } }, "1467": { "name": { "nominative": "St. David of Hermopolis in Egypt (6th C)", "short": "St. David" } }, "1468": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God of Kiev-Bratsk (1654)", "short": "Icon" } }, "1470": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Sozon of Cilicia († 304)", "short": "Martyr Sozon" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Martyr Sozontes, a native of Likaonea, was a shepherd. He read the Holy Scriptures attentively, and he loved to share his knowledge about the One God with the shepherds who gathered together with him. He brought many to the faith in Christ and to Baptism. By night-time once, when he sat under an oak tree, he had a vision foretelling his deed of martyrdom for Christ. He set off to the city of Cilician Pompeiopolis, where a festal pagan celebration was being prepared for a golden idol, standing in a pagan temple. Unseen by anyone, saint Sozontes went into the pagan temple and broke off the hand of the idol, and having smashed it he gave the gold to the poor. The missing hands of the idol caused an uproar and commotion in the city: many were under suspicion, given over to interrogation and torture. Not wanting to be the cause ofd suffering for other people, Saint Sozontes went to the emperor Maximian (284-305) and declared, that it was he that broke the hand from the idol. “I did this,—he said,—so that ye might see the lack of power of your god, which offered me no resistance. It is not a god, but rather a deaf and dumb idol. I wanted to smash it all into pieces, so that people would no longer worship its wrought hands.” The emperor in a fitful rage commanded that Saint Sozontes be tortured mercilessly. They hung him up and struck at him with iron claws, and then they put on his legs iron shackles with nails inside and took him through the city. After this they again suspended him and beat him with iron rods until his bones broke. In these terrible torments Saint Sozontes gave up his spirit to God († c. 304). By decree of the emperor, slaves set a strong fire so as to burn the body of the martyr, but suddenly lightning flashed, it thundered loudly and a strong rain poured down over the flames of the fire. Christians took the body of the martyr by night and gave it over to burial. By his grave and at the place where he had the vision, there occurred healing of many of the sick. A church later was built in memory of the sufferings of the holy martyr.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In his suffering, O Lord, * Thy martyr Sozon received an imperishable crown from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * he set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By his supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Assembling today, with a loud voice let us praise Sozon, * the true and divinely wise martyr, * the skilled athlete of piety, * the initiate of the mysteries of grace, * the most generous bestower of healings: ** for he entreateth Christ God in behalf of us all.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "1474": { "name": { "nominative": "Apostles of the 70: Euodius and Onisiphorus († 66)", "short": "Apostles of" } }, "1476": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Eupsychius", "short": "Martyr Eupsychius" } }, "1477": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Luke", "short": "Venerable Luke" } }, "1479": { "name": { "nominative": "Nativity of Our Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary", "short": "Theotokos" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Nativity of Our Most Holy Lady Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary: The Most Holy Virgin Mary was born at a time, when people had reached such limits of decay of moral values, that it seemed altogether impossible to restore them. The best minds of this era were aware and often said openly, that God mustneeds come down into the world, so as to restore faith and not tolerate the ruination of the race of mankind.
The Son of God chose for the salvation of mankind to take on human nature, and the All-Pure Virgin Mary,—alone worthy to contain in Herself and to incarnate the Source of purity and holiness,—He chose as His Mother.
The Birth of Our Most Holy Lady Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary is celebrated by the Church as a day of universal joy. Within the context of the Old and the New Testaments, on this radiant day was born the Most Blessed Virgin Mary,—having been forechosen through the ages by Divine Providence to bring about the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Word of God, and She is revealed as the Mother of the Saviour of the World, Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Most Holy Virgin Mary was born in the small city of Galilee, Nazareth. Her parents were Righteous Joakim from the tribe of the King and Prophet David, and Anna from the tribe of the First-Priest Aaron. The couple was without child, since Saint Anna was barren. Having reached old age, Joakim and Anna did not lose hope on the mercy of God. They had strong faith that for God everything is possible, and that He would be able to solve the barrenness of Anna—even in her old age, as He had once solved the barrenness of Sarah, spouse of the Patriarch Abraham. Saints Joakim and Anna made a vow to dedicate the child which the Lord might bestow on them, into the service of God in the Temple. Childlessness was considered among the Hebrew nation as a Divine punishment for sin, and therefore the righteous Saints Joakim and Anna had to endure abuse from their own countrymen. On one of the feastdays at the Temple in Jerusalem the elderly Joakim brought his sacrifice in offering to God, but the High Priest would not accept it,—considering him to be unworthy since he was childless. Saint Joakim in deep grief went into the wilderness and there he prayed with tears to the Lord for the granting of a child. Saint Anna, having learned about what had happened at the Jerusalem Temple, wept bitterly; never once did she complain against the Lord, but rather she prayed, asking God’s mercy on her family. The Lord fulfilled her petitions when the pious spouses had attained to extreme old age and prepared themselves by virtuous life for a sublime calling—to be the parents of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, the future Mother of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Archangel Gabriel brought Joakim and Anna the joyous message: their prayers were heard by God, and of them would be born a Most Blessed Daughter Mary, through Whom would come the Salvation of all the World. The Most Holy Virgin Mary of Herself in purity and virtue surpassed not only all mankind but also the Angels;—She was manifest as the Living Temple of God, such that the Church sings in its festal verses of song: “the Heavenly Gate, bringing Christ into the world for the salvation of our souls” (2nd Stikhera on “Lord, I have cried,” Tone 6).
The Birth of the Mother of God marks the change of the times, wherein the great and comforting promises of God begin to be fulfilled about the salvation of the human race from slavery to the devil. This event has brought nigh to earth the grace of the Kingdom of God,—a Kingdom of Truth, piety, virtue and life immortal. Our Mother First-born of All Creation is revealed to all of us by grace as a merciful Intercessor and Mother, to Whom we steadfastly recourse with filial devotion.
" }, "rank": 7, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Thy nativity, O Virgin Theotokos, * hath proclaimed joy to all the world; * for from thee hath shone forth Christ our God, * the Sun of righteousness, * Who having annulled the curse, * hath given His blessing, ** and having abolished death, hath granted us life everlasting.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "In thy holy nativity, O all-pure one, * Joachim and Anna are freed from the reproach of childlessness, * and Adam and Eve from mortal corruption. * And, delivered from sin, thy people celebrate it, crying out to thee: ** A barren woman giveth birth to the Theotokos, the nourisher of our Life!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "1480": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Marcian of Cyprus († 388)", "short": "Venerable Marcian" } }, "1481": { "name": { "nominative": "Icons of the Mother of God: “Kursk-Root”, “Pochaev”, “Kholm”, and “Sophia - the Wisdom of God”", "short": "Icons of" } }, "1484": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Marcian, Bishop of Syracuse (2nd C)", "short": "Hieromartyr Marcian" } }, "1485": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Maron, Hermit of Syria (4th C)", "short": "Venerable Maron" } }, "1489": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Martin of Turov († after 1146)", "short": "Blessed Martin" } }, "1492": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Severian of Sebaste († 320)", "short": "Martyr Severian" }, "rank": 1 }, "1493": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Theophanes the Confessor and Faster of Mt. Diabenos († c. 300)", "short": "Venerable Theophanes" } }, "1494": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Martyrius of Zelents († 1603)", "short": "Venerable Martyrius" } }, "1495": { "name": { "nominative": "Commemoration of the 3rd Œcumenical Council (431)", "short": "Commemoration of" } }, "1497": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Virgins Menodora, Metrodora and Nymphodora at Nicomedia († c. 310)", "short": "Holy Virgins" }, "rank": 1 }, "1500": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Apostle and Evangelist Matthew († 60)", "short": "Apostle Matthew" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "The Holy Apostle Matthew, also named Levi, was born in Nazareth, and up to his calling was a publican and in Capernaum had his duty house, i.e. a special place for collecting duties, probably, from the courts coming by sea to Capernaum. As Jesus Christ was passing, He saw Matthew, sitting at the duty office. Jesus said to him: \"Follow Me. And he arose and followed\" Him (Mt. 9:9). After he was called by the Lord to the rank of the 12 apostles, he preached the Gospel in Palestine, Syria, Media, Persia, India and Ethiopia, announcing peace, life and salvation\", and \"to the pagans falling into fiery temptation\". He died, according to tradition, by fire in about the year 60. He wrote his Gospel for the Palestinian Christians in which he mainly announces the incarnation of the Son of God, about His origin in the flesh from David and Abraham and consequently more than the others pointed out the fulfillment of the ancient prophecies about Jesus Christ.
" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O holy apostle and evangelist Matthew, * entreat the merciful God, ** that He grant unto our souls remission of transgressions.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Casting off the yoke of thy publican”s office, * thou didst shoulder the yoke of righteousness * and wast shown to be a most excellent merchant, * bringing in the wisdom from on high as riches. * Wherefore, thou didst preach the Word of truth * and hast uplifted the souls of the despondent ** describing the hour of judgment.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "1501": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Apostles of the Seventy: Apelles, Lucius, and Clement (1st C)", "short": "Holy Apostles" } }, "1503": { "name": { "nominative": "Apostle Matthias († c. 63)", "short": "Apostle Matthias" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Apostle Matthias was born at Bethlehem, and was a descendent of the Tribe of Judah. From his early childhood he studied the Law of God in accord with the Books of Scripture under the guidance of Saint Simeon the God-Receiver. When the Lord Jesus Christ revealed Himself to the world, Saint Matthias believed in Him as the Messiah, followed constantly after Him and was numbered amongst the Seventy Disciples, whom the Lord “did send by twos before His face” (Lk. 10: 1). After the Ascension of the Saviour, Saint Matthias was chosen by lot to replace amongst the 12 Apostles the fallen-away Judas Iscariot (Acts 1: 15-26). After the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Matthias preached the Gospel at Jerusalem and in Judea together with the other Apostles (Acts 6: 2, 8: 14). From Jerusalem he went with the Apostles Peter and Andrew to Syrian Antioch, and was in the Cappadocian city of Tianum and Sinope. Here the Apostle Matthias was locked into prison, from which he was miraculously freed by the Apostle Andrew the First-Called. The Apostle Matthias journeyed after this to Amasia, a city on the shore of the sea. During a 3 year journey of the Apostle Andrew, Saint Matthias was with him at Edessa and Sebasteia. According to Church tradition, he was preaching at Pontine Æthiopia (presently Western Gruzia * Georgia) and Macedonia. He was frequently subjected to deadly peril, but the Lord preserved him alive to further preach the Gospel. One time pagans forced the apostle to drink a poison potion. The apostle drank it and not only did he himself remain unharmed, but he also healed other prisoners which had been blinded by the potion. When Saint Matthias left the prison, the pagans searched for him in vain—since he had become invisible to them. Another time, when the pagans had become enraged intending to kill the apostle, the earth opened up and engulfed them. The Apostle Matthias returned to Judea and did not cease with the enlightening of his countrymen with the light of Christ’s teachings. He worked great miracles in the Name of the Lord Jesus and he converted a great many to faith in Christ. The Jewish High-Priest Ananias hated Christ and earlier had commanded the Apostle James, Brother of the Lord, to be flung down from the heights of the Temple, and now he ordered that the Apostle Matthias be arrested and brought for judgement before the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem. The impious Ananias uttered a speech in which he blasphemously slandered the Lord. By way of answer, the Apostle Matthias pointed out in the prophesies of the New Testament, that Jesus Christ—is the True God, the Messiah promised Israel by God, the Son of God, Consubstantial and Co-Eternal with God the Father. After these words the Apostle Matthias was sentenced to death by the Sanhedrin and stoned. When Saint Matthias was already dead, the Jews, to hide their malefaction, cut off his head as being an enemy of Cæsar. (According to several historians, the Apostle Matthias was crucified on a cross, and indicate that he instead died at Colchis). The Apostle Matthias received the martyr’s crown of death for Christ in about the year 63.
" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O holy Apostle Matthias, * entreat the merciful God, ** that He grant to our souls remission of transgressions.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thy luminous sound which hath gone forth like the sun into all the earth * doth enlighten the Church of the nations with grace, ** O wondrous Apostle Matthias.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "1504": { "name": { "nominative": "Saints Peter and Paul, bishops at Nicæa (9th C)", "short": "Saints Peter" } }, "1506": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Theodora of Alexandria († c. 480)", "short": "Venerable Theodora" }, "rank": 1 }, "1507": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Demetrius, his wife Euanthea, and their son Demetrian (1st C)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" } }, "1509": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Euphrosynus the Cook of Alexandria (9th C)", "short": "St. Euphrosynus" } }, "1510": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Meletius, Archbishop of Kharkov († 1840)", "short": "Holy Hierarch Meletius" } }, "1512": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Autonomus the Bishop in Italy († 313) [his service is sung on the 11th]", "short": "Hieromartyr Autonomus" }, "rank": 1 }, "1513": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Bassian of Tikhsnen, Vologda († 1624)", "short": "Venerable Bassian" } }, "1515": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Julian of Galatia and 40 others (4th C)", "short": "Martyr Julian" } }, "1516": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Theodore of Alexandria", "short": "Martyr Theodore" } }, "1517": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Coronatus, Bishop of Nicomedia (3rd C)", "short": "Hieromartyr Coronatus" } }, "1518": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Athansius of Serpukhov and his disciple Athanasius", "short": "Venerable Athansius" } }, "1520": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Mercurius, the Faster of the Kievan Far Caves, Bishop of Smolensk (14th C)", "short": "Venerable Mercurius" } }, "1521": { "name": { "nominative": "Commemoration of the Founding of the Church of the Resurrection (Holy Sepulchre) at Jerusalem (335)", "short": "Holy Sepulchre" }, "rank": 3 }, "1523": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Chariton and Stratorus", "short": "Martyrs" } }, "1524": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Gordian, Macrobius, Elias, Zoticus, Lucian and Valerian (4th C)", "short": "Martyrs Gordian" } }, "1525": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Methodius, Archbishop of Moravia, Enlightener of the Slavs († 885)", "short": "Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles" }, "rank": 4 }, "1526": { "name": { "nominative": "Great Martyr Ketevan, Queen of Georgia († 1624)", "short": "Great Martyr Ketevan" } }, "1529": { "name": { "nominative": "The Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross", "short": "Exaltation" } }, "1531": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God of Lesna (1683)", "short": "Icon of" } }, "1533": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the relics of Martyr Menas Callicelados (\"the beautiful-sounding\") of Alexandria († 867-889)", "short": "Finding" } }, "1534": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Philotheus the Presbyter in Asia Minor (10th C)", "short": "St. Philotheus" } }, "1535": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Joseph the Abbot of Alaverdi in Georgia († 570)", "short": "Venerable Joseph" } }, "1536": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Porphyrius the Actor († 361)", "short": "Martyr Porphyrius" } }, "1537": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Maximus, Asklepiodote, and Theodotus († c. 310)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" } }, "1543": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Victor and Sosthenes at Chalcedon († c. 304)", "short": "Martyrs Victor" } }, "1545": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of Relics of Saint Mitrophan, Bishop of Voronezh (1832)", "short": "Finding" }, "rank": 1 }, "1547": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Dorotheus the Hermit of Egypt (4th C)", "short": "Venerable Dorotheus" } }, "1548": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Liudmila, Princess of the Czechs († 927)", "short": "Martyr Liudmila" } }, "1549": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Isaac and Joseph of Georgia († 808)", "short": "Martyrs Isaac" } }, "1550": { "name": { "nominative": "Transfer of the relics of the Martyred Prince Michael of Chernigov and his councilor Theodore (1578)", "short": "Transfer of" } }, "1553": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Michael, First Metropolitan of Kiev († 992)", "short": "Saint Michael" }, "rank": 4 }, "1554": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Michael the Fool-for Christ, of the Klops Monastery in Novgorod († c. 1453-1456)", "short": "Venerable Michael" }, "rank": 2, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Michael of Klopsk was descended of boyar (noble) lineage, and he was a kinsman of GreatPrince Dimitrii Donskoi (1363-1389). He took upon himself the exploit of Fool-for-Christ: he left Moscow and in rags he arrived at the Klopsk monastery, near Novgorod. No one knew, how he got into the locked cell of the priest-monk Makarii, who then was making a censing at the 9th Ode of the Canon and was going round the cell censing. But there sat a man in monastic garb and beneath a candle he wrote copying from the Acts of the holy Apostles. After the finish of matins the hegumen with brethren came and started to ask the stranger: who is he and of what name? But he answered only by a repeating of the questions and did not reveal his origin. In church the saint sang in the choir and read the Epistle, and at meals he read the Saint-Lives. All who listened were moved by the beauty and spirituality of his reading. On the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, the Klopsk monastery was visited by prince Konstantin Dimitrievich (son of GreatPrince Dimitrii Donskoi). After Communion he together with the princess was at the refectory, during the time of which the unknown stranger read from the Book of Job. Hearing the reading, the prince approached the reader and, having looked him over, he bowed down to him, calling him by name his kinsman Mikhail Maksimovich. The fool remarked: “The One Only Creator knoweth of me, who I be,” but confirmed that his name was Michael. The Monk Michael soon set example for the brethren in all the monastic efforts. He lived at the Klopsk monastery for 44 years, exhausting his body in work, vigils and various deprivations, and he received from the Lord the gift of perspicacity. He denounced the vices of people, not fearing the powerful of this world. He predicted the birth on 22 January 1440 of GreatPrince Ivan III (1462-1505), and the taking of Novgorod by him. He denounced prince Dimitrii Shemyaka for blinding his brother the GreatPrince Vasilii the Dark (1425-1462).On a sandy spot the Monk Michael summoned forth a spring of water, having written upon the earth: “I shalt take up the cup of salvation (Ps. 115 [116]: 13), let shew forth on this spot the well-spring.” And during a time of famine, the supplies of bread at the monastery granary did not diminish, though they distributed grain abundantly to the hungry.
Having directed beforehand the place of his burial, the monk died on 11 January († c. 1453-1456)." } }, "1555": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Michael of Maleinus († 962)", "short": "Venerable Michael" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "
The Monk Michael Maleinos was born about the year 894 in the Charsian region (Cappadocia) and at Baptism he received the name Manuel. He was of the same lineage with the Byzantine emperor Leo VI the Wise (886-911). At age 18 Manuel went off to Bithynia, to the Kimineia monastery under the guidance of the elder, John Heladites, who vowed him into monasticism with the name Michael. Fulfilling a very difficult obedience in spite of his illustrious lineage, he demonstrated an example of great humility.
After the passage of a certain while he was vouchsafed the grace of the priesthood. Constantly studying the Holy Scripture, the Monk Michael showed how the priesthood ought to be properly conjoined with monasticism,—he attained to an high degree of dispassion and acquired the gift of perspicacity. He was very compassionate and kindly towards people, he could not let remain without help and consolation those who were in need and in sorrow, and by his ardent prayer he accomplished many miracles.
After much monastic effort under the guidance of the elder John, the Monk Michael besought of him blessing for a solitary life in a cave, Five days of the week he spent at prayerful concentration and only on Saturday and Sunday did he come to the monastery for participation in Divine-services and communion of the Holy Mysteries.
By his example of sublime spiritual life the holy hermit attracted many seeking after salvation. In a desolate place called Dry Lake, the Monk Michael founded a monastery for the brethren gathering to him, and gave it a strict ustav (monastic-rule). When the monastery was secure, the Monk Michael went to a still more remote place and built there a new monastery. By the efforts of the holy abba, all the Kumineia mountain was covered over by monastic communities, where constantly prayers were raised up for all the world to the Throne of the Most-High.
About the year 953 amongst the brethren entered the youth Abraham, flourishing under the guidance of Saint Michael, who gave him the name Athanasias. Later on the Monk Athanasias (Comm. 5 July) himself founded the reknown Athos Laura, the first life-in-common monastery on the Holy Mountain. In the building of the Laura great help was rendered to the Monk Athanasias by the nephew of the Monk Michael—the later Byzantine emperor Nicephoros Phokas (963-969), who in visiting his uncle met also Athanasias. After fifty years of incessant monastic effort the monk Michael Maleinos peacefully expired to the Lord in the year 962.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thou didst lighten the heaviness of the flesh by thy works * and didst give speedy wings to thy soul by enlightenment, O Michael; * and thou hast shown thyself to be a dwelling-place for the Trinity, ** beholding Whom, O blessed one, pray thou unceasingly for us all.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "1556": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Peleus and Nilus, Bishops of Egypt, Presbyter Zeno, Patermuthius, Elias and another 156 Martyrs († c. 310)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" } }, "1557": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyrs Hypatius, Bishop of Ephesus, and Priest Andrew († c. 735)", "short": "Hieromartyrs Hypatius" } }, "1558": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Martyr Michael “the Black-Robed” of St Sava’s Monastery († 9th C)", "short": "Venerable Martyr" } }, "1559": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Eumenius, Bishop of Gortyna (7th C)", "short": "St. Eumenius" }, "rank": 1 }, "1560": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Ariadne of Phrygia (2nd C)", "short": "Martyr Ariadne" } }, "1561": { "name": { "nominative": "Great Martyr Prince Bidzini (Cholokashvili), and the martyred princes Shalva, and Elizbar of Xana, Georgia († 1660)", "short": "Great Martyr Prince" } }, "1562": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Right-believing Prince Michael of Tver († 1318)", "short": "Prince Michael" } }, "1564": { "name": { "nominative": "Prophet Micah (9th C BC)", "short": "Prophet Micah" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Prophet Micah was a companion of the holy prophet Elias. He prophesied the ruin of King Ahab in a war with the Assyrians, for which he was put into prison. Set free after the downfall of Ahab (3 Kings 22: 8-22), the holy prophet Micah died a martyr in the IX Century BC." } }, "1565": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Micah of Radonezh († 1385)", "short": "Venerable Micah" } }, "1568": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Prophet and God-seer Moses († 1531 BC)", "short": "Holy Prophet" }, "rank": 1 }, "1569": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Moses the Black of Scete († c. 400)", "short": "Venerable Moses" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Moses Murin the Black lived during the IV Century in Egypt. He was an Ethiopian, and he was black of skin and therefore called “Murin” (meaning “like an Ethiopian”). In his youth he was the slave of an important man, but after he committed a murder, his master banished him, and he joined in with a band of robbers. Because of his mean streak and great physical strength they chose him as their leader. Moses with his band of brigands did many an evil deed—both murders and robberies, so much so that people were afraid even at the mere mention of his name. Moses the brigand spent several years leading suchlike a sinful life, but through the great mercy of God he repented, leaving his band of robbers and going off to one of the wilderness monasteries. And here for a long time he wept, beseeching that they admit him amidst the number of the brethren. The monks were not convinced of the sincerity of his repentance; but the former robber was not to be driven away nor silenced, in demanding that they should accept him. In the monastery the Monk Moses was completely obedient to the hegumen and the brethren, and he poured forth many a tear, bewailing his sinful life. After a certain while the Monk Moses withdrew to a solitary cell, where he spent the time in prayer and the strictest of fasting in a very austere lifestyle. One time 4 of the robbers of his former band descended upon the cell of the Monk Moses and he, not having lost his great physical strength, he tied them all up and taking them over his shoulder, he brought them to the monastery, where he asked of the elders what to do with them. The elders ordered that they be set free. The robbers, learning that they had chanced upon their former ringleader, and that he had dealt kindly with them,—they themselves followed his example: they repented and became monks. And later, when the rest of the band of robbers heard about the repentance of the Monk Moses, then they too gave up their brigandage and became fervent monks.The Monk Moses did not quickly become free from the passions. He went often to the monastery hegumen, Abba Isidor, seeking advice on how to be delivered from the passions of profligacy. Being experienced in the spiritual struggle, the elder taught him never to overeat of food, to be partly hungry whilst observing the strictest moderation. But the passions would not cease for the Monk Moses in his dreams. Then Abba Isidor taught him the all-night vigil. The monk stood the whole night at prayer, not being on bended knees so as not to drop off to sleep. From his prolonged struggles the Monk Moses fell into despondency, and when there arose thoughts about leaving his solitary cell, Abba Isidor instead strengthened the resolve of his student. In a vision he showed him many a demon in the west, prepared for battle, and in the East a still greater quantity of holy Angels, likewise readied for fighting. Abba Isidor explained to the Monk Moses, that the power of the Angels would prevail over the power of the demons, and in the long struggle with the passions it was necessary for him to become completely cleansed of his former sins.
The Monk Moses undertook a new effort. Making the rounds by night of the wilderness cells, he carried water from the well to each brother. He did this especially for the elders, who lived far off from the well and who were not easily able to carry their own water. One time, kneeling over the well, the Monk Moses felt a powerful blow upon his back and he fell down at the well like one dead, laying there in that position until dawn. Thus did the devils take revenge upon the monk for his victory over them. In the morning the brethren carried him to his cell, and he lay there a whole year crippled up. Having recovered, the monk with firm resolve confessed to the hegumen, that he would continue to asceticise. But the Lord Himself put limits to this struggle of many years: Abba Isidor blessed his student and said to him, that the profligate passions had already gone from him. The elder commanded him to commune the Holy Mysteries and in peace to go to his own cell. And from that time the Monk Moses received from the Lord the power over demons.
Accounts about his exploits spread amongst the monks and even beyond the bounds of the wilderness. The governor of the land wanted to see the saint. Having learned about this, the Monk Moses decided to hide away from any visitors and he departed his own cell. Along the way he met up with servants of the governor, who asked him, how to get to the cell of the wilderness-dweller Moses. The monk answered them: “Go on no further to this false and unworthy monk.” The servants returned to the monastery, where the governor was waiting, and they conveyed to him the words of the elder they had chanced upon. The brethren, hearing a description of the elder’s appearance, all as one acknowledged that they had come upon the Monk Moses himself.
Having spent many a year at monastic exploits, the Monk Moses was ordained deacon. The bishop attired him in white vesture and said: “Abba Moses is now entirely white.” The saint answered: “Vladyka, what makes it purely white—the outer or the inner?” Through humility the saint reckoned himself unworthy to accept the dignity of deacon. One time the bishop decided to test him and he bid the clergy to drive him out of the altar, whilst reviling him for being an unworthy black-Ethiopian. With full humility the monk accepted the abuse. Having put him to the test, the bishop then ordained the monk to be presbyter. And in this dignity the Monk Moses asceticised for 15 years and gathered round himself 75 disciples.
When the monk reached age 75, he forewarned his monks, that soon brigands would descend upon the skete and murder all that were there. The saint blessed his monks to leave in good time, so as to avoid the violent death, His disciples began to beseech the monk to leave together with them, but he replied: “I many a year already have awaited the time, when upon me there should be fulfilled the words which my Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, did speak: “All, who take up the sword, shalt perish by the sword” (Mt. 26: 52). After this seven of the brethren remained with the monk, and one of these hid not far off during the coming of the robbers, The robbers killed the Monk Moses and the six monks that remained with him. Their death occurred in about the year 400." }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "A desert-dweller, an angel in the flesh * and a wonderworker wast thou shown to be, * O our God-bearing father Moses. * For, having acquired heavenly gifts through fasting, vigilance and prayer, * thou dost heal the infirm * and the souls of those who have recourse to thee with faith. * Glory to Him Who gaveth thee ( strength! * Glory to Him Who crowned thee! ** Glory to Him Who worketh healings for all through thee!", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Having beaten the Moors and spat in the faces of the demons, * thou didst shine forth nœtically like the radiant sun, ** directing our lives by the light of thy life and thy teaching.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "1570": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Moses, Archbishop of Novgorod († 1362)", "short": "Saint Moses" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "
Saint Moses (Moisei), Archbishop of Novgorod (1325-1330, 1352-1359), in the world Mitrophan, was born at Novgorod. In his youth he secretly left his parental home and entered the Tver Christ-Child monastery, where he took monastic vows. His parents found him, and at their insistence he transferred to the Kolmov monastery near Novgorod. At this monastery he was ordained to the dignity of priestmonk, and later at Yur′ev monastery he was elevated to archimandrite. After the death of the Archbishop David, Saint Peter († 1326, Comm. 21 December) consecrated him in 1325 to the dignity of Archbishop of Novgorod. But Saint Moses did not guide the Novgorod flock for long. The quarrels and contentious factions, the conflagrations and other misfortunes weighed heavily on his soul, which sought for monastic solitude. In 1330 the saint withdrew to the Kolmov monastery for tranquillity. But here also he did not long remain. Having searched out a desolate spot at Derevyanitsa, he built there a stone church of the Resurrection of Christ. At this place the monk spent more than twenty years at monastic deeds. Having yielded to the requests of the Novgorod people to be their spiritual head, he returned anew to his flock. The ancient chronicler describes Saint Moses thus: “He shepherded his flock like a good pastor; he defended the downtrodden, and protected destitute widows; having gathered a company of copyists, on his account many a book was written, and he confirmed many things in piety by his guidances.”
In the year 1354 the Constantinople Patriarch Philotheos (1354-1355, 1362-1376) in token of deep respect for Saint Moses gave permission for him to make use of an ancient prerogative of Novgorod hierarchs—to wear the Polystaurion garb (“Krestchataya Riza,” meaning “of many crosses”), which also he sent him. He likewise permitted Saint Moses to deal directly without intermediaries with the Constantinople Patriarch. Archbishop Moses continued for seven years the second time around as hierarch, a period marked by the building of many churches in Novgorod and its surroundings. In 1352 a stone church in honour of the Dormition (Uspenie) of the Most Holy Mother of God was built by the saint at Volotova; in 1355 a monastery was built in a locality named Skovorodka, with a stone church in honour of the holy Archistrategos of God Michael; in 1357 also churches were built at three monasteries: at Radogovitsa near the Volotovsk Dormition church, and at the Spirit (Dukhov) monastery and at a women’s monastery—churches in the name of Saint John the Theologian (the first and third of these monasteries were founded by Saint Moses).
In 1359, feeling weak and sick, the saint withdrew into the Skovorodsk monastery founded by him in the name of the holy Archistrategos of God Michael. Saint Moses asceticised here until his death on 25 January 1362. He was buried at the cathedral church.
The archbishop of Novgorod Sergei, in 1484, having come to this cathedra from Moscow, gave orders to a priest to open up the grave of Saint Moses. “I dare not, Vladyka, to be so bold as to open up the relics of the sainted hierarch. It is thy task as hierarch to open the grave of an hierarch,”—answered the priest. “Look what is on this corpse!”—said the infuriated archbishop, but he was soon punished. Having gone insane, he was not able to govern the cathedra and did not become well, until he took the schema at the Khutynsk monastery († 1504 at Trinity Sergeev monastery).
The establishing of a feastday to Saint Moses on 19 April is connected with a proper opening of his undecayed relics in 1686.
" } }, "1571": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Moses the Wonderworker of the Kiev Caves, far caves (13th-14th C)", "short": "Venerable Moses" } }, "1576": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Moses the Hungarian, of the Kiev Caves, near caves († c. 1043)", "short": "Venerable Moses" } }, "1581": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Jonah the Presbyter (9th C), father of St Theophan the Canonarch and Theodore", "short": "Saint Jonah" }, "rank": 1 }, "1582": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Phocas the Gardener of Sinope († 320)", "short": "Martyr Phocas" } }, "1583": { "name": { "nominative": "Righteous Peter the Tax-Collector (6th C)", "short": "Righteous Peter" } }, "1584": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Jonah the Abbot of Yash Lake († c. 1590)", "short": "Venerable Jonah" } }, "1588": { "name": { "nominative": "Monastic Women Xanthippe and Polyxene († 109)", "short": "Monastic Women" } }, "1590": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Andrew, John, Peter and Antoninus (9th C)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" } }, "1592": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God “Slovenskaya” (1635)", "short": "Icon of the Theotokos" } }, "1594": { "name": { "nominative": "Protomartyr and Equal-to-the-Apostles Thekla (1st C)", "short": "Protomartyr" } }, "1595": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Nicander, Hermit of Pskov († 1581)", "short": "Venerable Nicander" } }, "1598": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Stephen, King of Serbia, and his sone King Vladislav", "short": "Saint Stephen" } }, "1600": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God “Mirozhskaya”", "short": "Icon" } }, "1605": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Martyr Paphnutius and his 546 Martyred Companions in Egypt (3rd C)", "short": "Venerable Martyr" } }, "1606": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Paphnutius and his Daughter Euphrosyne (5th C)", "short": "Venerable Paphnutius" } }, "1611": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Callistratus and 49 Martyrs in his company († 304)", "short": "Martyr Callistratus" }, "rank": 1 }, "1615": { "name": { "nominative": "Apostles of the 70: Mark, Aristarchus, and Zeno (1st C)", "short": "Apostles of" } }, "1616": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Epicharis of Rome (3rd C)", "short": "Martyr Epicharis" } }, "1619": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Chariton the Confessor, Abbot of Palestine († c. 350)", "short": "Venerable Chariton" }, "rank": 4 }, "1621": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Nicephorus of Antioch in Syria († c. 257)", "short": "Martyr Nicephorus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyr Nicephorus lived in the city of Syrian Antioch. In this city lived also the presbyter Sapricios, with whom Nicephorus was very friendly, such that they were considered like kindred brothers. Through the onset of a disagreement they quarreled, and their former love changed into enmity and hate. After a certain while Nicephorus came to his senses, repented of his sin and more than once through mutual friends asked forgiveness of Sapricios, who did not wish to forgive him. Nicephorus then went himself to his former friend and fervently asked forgiveness, but Sapricios was adamant. At this time the emperors Valerian (253-259) and Gallius (260-268) started up persecutions against christians, and one of the first taken before the judgement court was presbyter Sapricios. He firmly confessed himself a Christian, underwent tortures for his faith and was condemned to death by beheading with a sword. When they took him to execution, Nicephorus tearfully entreated his forgiveness, calling on him as an holy martyr who would soon stand before the Lord and receive of Him a crown.
But presbyter Sapricios remained hardened of heart and even before death he refused to forgive his brother-christian. Because of this the Lord withheld His blessing from Sapricios, having formerly strengthened him during the time of enduring torture; but now, having nearly reached the blessed end of his ordeal, he suddenly became afraid of death and consented to offer sacrifice to idols. In vain did Saint Nicephorus tearfully urge on Sapricios, that he not destroy himself by apostasy, since already he was standing at the threshold of the Heavenly Kingdom. Saint Nicephorus then said to the executioner: “I am a Christian and I believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom Sapricios hath recanted. Execute me in place of Sapricios.” The executioners reported about this to the governor. He issued an edict: to free Sapricios, and in place of him to behead Nicephorus with a sword. Thus did Saint Nicephorus receive his martyr’s crown.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In his suffering, O Lord, * Thy martyr Nicephorus received an imperishable crown from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * he set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By his supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Bound by the bond of love, O Nicephorus, thou didst manifestly destroy the malice of hatred, and wast beheaded by the sword, as a divine martyr of the incarnate Savior. Him do thou entreat, in behalf of us who hymn thy glorious memory.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/2": { "text": "Soaring aloft in the love of the Lord, O glorious one, * and taking His glorious Cross upon thy shoulder, * thou didst put to shame the wiles of the devil, * didst suffer even unto death, * and hast been shown to be a bearer of the trophy of truth, ** a warrior and initiate of the mysteries of the grace of God.
", "Type": "2", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "1623": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Alexander, Altheos, Zosimas, Mark the Shepherd, Nikon, Neonos, Helioldoros, Stephen, another Mark and 24 others in Pisidia and Phrygia (4th C)", "short": "Martyrs Alexander" } }, "1625": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation of the relics of St Nicephorus the Patriarch of Constantinople (846)", "short": "Translation" }, "rank": 1, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "In the year 846 the holy relics of Patriarch Nicephoros were opened, undecayed and fragrant. They transferred them from Prokonnis to Constantinople and placed them for one day in the church of Saint Sophia, and then they transferred them to the church of the Holy Apostles. The hands of the saint are preserved in the Khilendaria monastery on Mount Athos.
The memory of Saint Nicephoros is celebrated also on 2 June.
" } }, "1626": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Kyriakos the Hermit of Palestine († 556)", "short": "Venerable Kyriakos" } }, "1627": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Nicodim, Abbot of Kozheyezersk († 1640)", "short": "Venerable Nicodim" } }, "1628": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Theophanes the Merciful of Gaza", "short": "Venerable Theophanes" } }, "1632": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Gregory, Bishop and Enlightener of Great Armenia († c. 335)", "short": "Hieromartyr Gregory" } }, "1634": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Nicholas Konchanov the Fool-for-Christ of Novgorod († 1392)", "short": "Blessed Nicholas" } }, "1635": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia († c. 345)", "short": "Saint Nicholas" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Sainted Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, and Wonderworker is famed as a great saint pleasing unto God. He was born in the city of Patara in the Lycian region (on the south coast of the Asia Minor peninsula), and was the only son of pious parents Theophanes and Nonna, who had given a vow to dedicate him to God. As the fruition of longtime prayer of his childless parents, the infant Nicholas from the very day of his birth revealed to people the light of his future glory as a wonderworker. His mother, Nonna, after giving birth was immediately healed from illness. The newborn infant while still in the baptismal font stood on his feet three times, without support from anyone, indicating by this to honour the Most Holy Trinity. Saint Nicholas from his infancy began a life of fasting, and on Wednesdays and Fridays he accepted milk from his mother only but once, after the evening prayers of his parents.
From the time of his childhood Nicholas thrived on the study of Divine Scripture; by day he would not leave church, and by night he prayed and read books – fashioning in himself a worthy dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit. His uncle, Bishop Nicholas of Patara, rejoiced at the spiritual success and deep piety of his kinsman. He ordained him a reader, and then elevated Nicholas to the dignity of presbyter, making him his assistant and entrusting him to speak instructing the flock. In serving the Lord the youth was fervent of spirit, and in his proficiency with questions of faith he was like an elder / starets, which aroused the wonder and deep respect of believers. Constantly at work and vivacious, being in unceasing prayer, presbyter Nicholas displayed great kind-heartedness towards the flock, and towards those afflicted coming to him for help, and he distributed all his inheritance to the poor. Having learned about the bitter need and poverty of a certain formerly rich inhabitant of his city, Saint Nicholas saved him from great sin. Having three grown daughters, the despairing father considered to give them over to profligacy so as to save them from hunger. The saint, grieving lest the man perish a sinner, by night secretly brought him through the window three sacks with gold and by this saved the family from falling into spiritual destruction. In bestowing charity, Saint Nicholas always strove to do this secretly and conceal his good deeds.
In setting off on pilgrimage to the holy places at Jerusalem, the bishop of Patara entrusted the guidance of the flock to Saint Nicholas, who fulfilled this obedience carefully and with love. When the bishop returned, he in turn asked blessing for a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Along the way the saint predicted the onset of a storm threatening the ship with inundation, since he saw the devil itself having got on ship. At the entreaty of the despairing pilgrims, he calmed by his prayers the waves of the sea. Through his prayer also was restored to health a certain sailor of the ship, who had fallen from the mast and was mortally injured.
Having reached the ancient city of Jerusalem and having come to Golgotha, Saint Nicholas offered up thanksgiving to the Saviour of the race of mankind and he made the rounds of all the holy places, doing poklons and making prayers. By night on Mount Sion the closed doors of the church opened by themselves in front of the arriving great pilgrim. Going round the holy places connected with the earthly service of the Son of God, Saint Nicholas decided to withdraw into the wilderness, but he was stopped by a Divine voice, urging him to return to his native country. Having returned to Lycia and yearning for a life of quietude, the saint entered into the brotherhood of a monastery, named Holy Sion. But the Lord again announced another pathway, awaiting him: \"Nicholas, this is not the field, on which thou ought to await Mine harvest, but rather turn round and go into the world, and there My Name shalt be glorified in thee\". In the vision the Lord gave him a Gospel of exquisite workmanship, and the Most Holy Mother of God – an omophor.
And actually, upon the death of archbishop John, he was chosen bishop of Lycian Myra – after one of the bishops of the Council gave a decisive reply on the question of choice of a new archbishop – the choice of God as directed him in a vision – Saint Nicholas. Summoned to the flock of the Church in the dignity of archbishop, Sainted Nicholas remained a great ascetic, appearing to his flock as an image of gentleness, kindness and love towards people. This was particularly precious for the Lycian Church during the time of persecution of Christians under the emperor Diocletian (284-305). Bishop Nicholas, locked up in prison together with other Christians, sustained them and exhorted them to bravely endure the fetters, punishment and torture. He himself the lord preserved unharmed. Upon the accession to rule of the holy equal-to-the-apostles Constantine, Saint Nicholas was restored to his flock, which joyfully received back their guide and intercessor.
Despite his great gentleness of spirit and purity of heart, Saint Nicholas was a zealous and ardent warrior of the Church of Christ. Fighting evil spirits, the saint made the rounds of the pagan temples and shrines in the city of Myra and its surroundings, shattering the idols and turning the temples to dust.
In the year 325 Saint Nicholas was a participant in the First Œcumenical Council. This Council proclaimed the Nicean Symbol of faith, and he stood up with the likes of saints Sylvester the pope of Rome, Alexander of Alexandria, Spyridon of Trimiphuntum and others of the 318 fathers of the Council against the heretic Arius.
Saint Nicholas, in the heat of denunciation and fired up with zeal for the Lord, even gave the false-teacher a good drubbing on the ears, for which he was deprived of his bishop's omophor and put under guard. But several of the holy fathers shared a vision revealing that the Lord Himself and the Mother of God had made the saint to be bishop, bestowing upon him the Gospel and omophorion. The fathers of the Council, having concurred, that the audacity of the saint was pleasing to god, gave glory to the Lord and restored His holy saint to the dignity of bishop.
Having returned to his own diocese, the saint brought it peace and blessings, sowing the word of Truth, nipping in the bud defective and spurious claims of wisdom, uprooting heresy and healing the fallen and those led astray through ignorance. He was indeed a light in the world and the salt of the earth, wherein his life did shine and his word was mixed with the salt of wisdom.
Even during his life the saint worked many miracles. Of them the one accorded the greatest fame was the deliverance from death by the saint of three men, unjustly condemned by a greedy city-commander. The saint boldly went up to the executioner and took hold of his sword, already suspended over the heads of the condemned. The city-commander, denounced by Saint Nicholas in wrong-doing, repented himself and begged for forgiveness. During this time there were present three military officers, dispatched by the emperor Constantine to Phrygia. They did not suspect that they soon likewise would be compelled to seek the intercession of Saint Nicholas: it so happened that they had been vilely slandered before the emperor and were come under a sentence of death. Appearing in sleep to the holy equal-to-the-apostles Constantine, Saint Nicholas called on him to dismiss the wrongful death-sentence of the military officers who, now in prison, prayerfully called out for help to the saint. He worked many other miracles, and asceticised many long years at his labour. Through the prayers of the saint, the city of Myra was rescued from a terrible famine. Having appeared in sleep to a certain Italian merchant and having left him as a pledge of payment three gold money-pieces, which the merchant found in his hand upon wakening in the morning, he requested him to sail to Myra and furnish grain there. More than once did the saint save those drowning in the sea, and provide release from captivity and imprisonment.
Having reached old age, Saint Nicholas expired peacefully to the Lord († 345-351). His venerable relics were preserved undecayed in the local cathedral church and flowed with curative myrh, from which many received healing. In the year 1087 his relics were transferred to the Italian city of Bari, where they rest even now (see May 9th).
The name of the great saint of God, the hierarch and wonderworker Nicholas, a speedy helper and suppliant for all hastening to him, is famed in all the ends of the earth, in many lands and among many peoples. In Russia there are a multitude of cathedrals, monasteries and churches consecrated in his name. There is not, probably, a single city without a temple in honour of St. Nicholas.
In the name of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker – the first Russian Christian prince Askol′d († 882) was baptised in 866 by Patriarch Photios. Over the grave of Askol′d, the holy equal-to-the-apostles Ol′ga (see July 11th) erected the first temple of Saint Nicholas in the Russian Church at Kiev. Primary cathedrals were dedicated to Saint Nicholas at Izborsk, Ostrov, Mozhaisk, and Zaraisk. At Novgorod the Great one of the main churches of the city – the Nikolo-Dvorischensk church, later became a cathedral. Famed and venerable churches and monasteries in honour of St. Nicholas are in Kiev, Smolensk, Pskov, Toropetsa, Galich, Archangelsk, Great Ustiug, Tobol′sk. Moscow was famed by several tens of churches consecrated to the saint, and three monasteries in honour of St. Nicholas were situated in the Moscow diocese: the Greek St. Nicholas monastery (Old—Staryj) – in the Chinese-quarter, the Nikolo-Perervinsk and the Nikolo-Ugreshsk. One of the chief towers of the Kremlin was named after St. Nicholas. Part of all the churches devoted to the saint were those established at market-squares by Russian merchants, sea-farers and land-goers, venerating the wonderworker Nicholas as a protector of all those journeying on dry land and sea. They sometimes received the name among the people of \"Nicholas soaked\". Many village churches in Russia were dedicated to the wonderworker Nicholas, reverently venerated by peasants as a merciful intercessor before the Lord for all the people in their work. And in the Russian land Saint Nicholas did not leave off with his intercession. Ancient Kiev preserves the memory about the miraculous rescue of a drowning infant by the saint. The great wonderworker, hearing the grief-filled prayers of the parents in the loss of their only child, by night snatched up the infant from the waters, revived him and placed him in the choir-loft of Saint Sophia church in front of his wonderworking image. And here in the morning the infant was found safe by his thrilled parents, praising with a multitude of the people Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker.
Many wonderworking icons of Saint Nicholas appeared in Russia and came also from other lands. There is the ancient Byzantine embordered image of the saint (XII), brought to Moscow from Novgorod, and the large icon written in the thirteenth century by a Novgorod master. Two depictions of the wonderworker are especially distributed in the Russian Church: Sainted Nicholas of Zaraisk – in full-length, with blessing right hand and with Gospel (this image was brought to Ryazan in 1225 by the Byzantine princess Eupraxia, future spouse of Ryazanian prince Theodore, and perishing in 1237 with her husband and infant-son during the incursion of Batu); and Sainted Nicholas of Mozhaisk – also in full stature, with a sword in his right hand and a city in his left – in memory of the miraculous rescue, through the prayers of the saint, of the city of Mozhaisk from an invasion of enemies. It is impossible to list all the graced icons of Saint Nicholas. Every Russian city and every church was blessed by suchlike icons through the prayers of the saint.
" }, "rank": 5, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "The truth of things revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, * a model of meekness and a teacher of abstinence * wherefore thou hast attained the heights through humility * and riches through poverty. ** O hierarch Nicholas our father, entreat Christ God that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "In Myra thou wast shown to be a performer of the sacred mysteries, O holy one, * for, fulfilling the Gospel of Christ, * thou didst lay down thy life for thy people, O venerable one,/ and didst save the innocent from death. ** Wherefore, thou hast been sanctified as a great initiate of the grace of God.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3", "Podoben": "1" } } } }, "1636": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Nicholas Salos of Pskov the Fool-For-Christ († 1576)", "short": "Blessed Nicholas" } }, "1638": { "name": { "nominative": "Protection of Our Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary", "short": "Protection" } }, "1639": { "name": { "nominative": "Apostle of the 70: Ananias (1st C)", "short": "Apostle of" }, "rank": 1 }, "1640": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Nicholas, Archbishop and Enlightener of Japan († 1912)", "short": "Hierarch" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Nikolai, Archbishop, Apostle to Japan,—in the world Ivan Dimitrievich Kasatkin, was born on 1 August 1836 in the village of Berezovsk, Bel’sk district, Smolensk diocese, where his father served as deacon. At the age of five he lost his mother. Having completed the Bel’sk religious school, and afterwards the Smolensk religious seminary, in 1857 Ivan Kasatkin entered the Saint-Peterburg spiritual academy. On 24 June 1860, in the academy temple of the Twelve Apostles, bishop Nektarii gave him monastic vows with the chosen name Nikolai. On the day of memory of the first-ranked Apostles Peter and Paul, 29 June, the monk Nikolai was ordained deacon, and on 30 June—the altar-feastday of the academy temple—to the dignity of priestmonk. Afterwards through his wish Father Nikolai was assigned to Japan, as head of the consular church in the city of Khakodate.
The preaching of the Gospel in Japan at first seemed completely impossible. In Father Nikolai’s own words: “the Japanese of that time looked upon foreigners as beasts, and on Christianity as a villainous church, to which it was possible only for total knaves and charlatans to belong.” Eight years passed in this way, in studying the country, the people, their language and manners and customs, amidst which he would have to preach. Up until 1868 the flock of Father Nikolai still numbered about twelve Japanese. At the end of 1869 priestmonk Nikolai made a report to the Synod in Peterburg about the result of his work. This resolution was adopted: “to form for the preaching of the Word of God among the pagan Japanese a special Russian Spiritual Mission.” Father Nikolai was elevated to the dignity of archimandrite and assigned as head of this Mission. Having returned to Japan, he transferred the Khakodate flock to priestmonk Anatolii, and himself shifted the centre of the Mission to Tokyo. In 1871 there began in the country a persecution of christians; many were subjected to being chased about (among this number was the first Japanese Orthodox person, the afterwards reknown missionary priest Paul Savabe). Only in the year 1873 did the persecution abate somewhat, and it became possible to freely preach Christianity.
In this year archimandrite Nikolai set about the construction in Tokyo of a church and school for fifty men, and later also a religious school, which in 1878 was transformed into a seminary.
In 1874 there arrived at Tokyo His Grace Paul, Bishop of Kamchatka, to ordain to the priestly dignity candidates from the local population recommended by archimandrite Nikolai. During this time at the Mission in Tokyo there operated four schools—catechetical, seminary, women’s, church readers. And in Khakodate there were two schools: boys and girls. In the second half of 1877 the Mission began regularly to publish the journal “Church Messenger.” By the year 1878 there already numbered in Japan 4115 Christians, and there existed a number of christian communities. Divine-services and teaching in the native language, the publication of books of religio-moral content—these were the means which permitted the Mission to attain in a short while such reknown results.
Archimandrite Nikolai was ordained bishop on 30 March 1880 in the Trinity Cathedral of Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Returning to Japan, he began with still greater fervour to continue his apostolic work: he completed construction on the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Tokyo, he set about the translation of the Divine-service books, and he composed into the Japanese language a special Orthodox theological dictionary.
Great hardship befell the lot of the saint and his flock at the time of the Russo-Japanese War. For his ascetic labour during these difficult years he was deemed worthy of elevation to the dignity of archbishop.
In the year 1911 half a century had passed from the time, when the young priestmonk Nikolai had first tread on Japanese soil. But by this time in 266 communities of the Japanese Orthodox Church there were 33017 Christians, 1 archbishop, 1 bishop, 35 priests, 6 deacons, 14 teachers of singing, and 116 preacher-catechists.
In his 76th year on 3 February 1912, the Enlightener of Japan Archbishop Nikolai expired peacefully to the Lord. The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church passed resolution on 10 April 1970 concerning the glorification of the Saint-Bishop into the ranks of the “RavnoApostoli” “Equal-to-the-Apostles,” since in Japan the saint was long honoured as a great righteous one and prayerful intercessor before the Lord.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O thou who didst share in the ways of the apostles and didst sit upon their throne, 0 faithful and divinely wise servant of Christ, chosen harp of the divine Spirit, vessel overflowing with the love of Christ, enlightener of the land of Japan, O holy hierarch Nicholas, equal of the apostles, pray thou to the life-bestowing Trinity in behalf of all thy flock and for the whole world.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "As God Thou hast rewarded the steadfast and divinely eloquent preacher of Thy Gospel, O Lord; for Thou hast preferred his labors and pangs to all the sacrifices and wholeburnt offerings of the law. Through his supplications preserve us from evil.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "1643": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Nikon the Abbot of the Kiev Caves († 1088)", "short": "Venerable Nikon" } }, "1644": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Nikon, Abbot of Radonezh, and disciple of Venerable Sergius († 1426)", "short": "Venerable Nikon" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Born in Yuriev Povolzhsky, in his youth he, \"having scorned earthly beauty and glory as being nothing\", came to the Venerable Sergius, but he reassigned him to his disciple the Venerable Athanasius Vysotsky (to Serpukhov, the eminent). When the Venerable Nikon under the direction of this great ascetic achieved the rank of priest, the Venerable Sergius accepted him in the monastery in 1375. The Venerable Sergius loved the Venerable Nikon so much because of his habits and his life that he lived with him in the same cell and finally shortly before his death assigned him to be the Hegumen. Because of his love for solitude the Venerable Nikon for a time gave up being Hegumen in the monastery and departed from it for the exercise of ascetical efforts of silence. In 1422 he was granted the privilege to open the uncorrupt relics of his director (see July 5). \"Pointing out the paradigm of your good deeds to all, having the grace of God Who loves mankind deeply within you\", \"serving the Lord with purity of conscience\", he lived \"on earth as an angel\" and died in peace on Nov. 17 in 1427 or 1428. The Council of 1547 numbered him among the saints. In 1548 a church was built over his grave, and in 1623 in place of this church the new St. Sergius Laura was built, existing to the present time. In the northwest corner of church, along the northern wall, there is a monument (gravestone) over the relics of the Venerable Nikon, which are found in the ground or in a hidden place.
" }, "rank": 3, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Having been a good zealot of obedience, O ever-memorable and venerable Nikon, in praise of thy father you erected a church to the Holy Trinity. Therefore we thy children lovingly cry out to thee: Glory to Him who has given thee strength. Glory to Him who has crowned thee. Glory to Him who through thee works healings for all.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Having cleaved to thy spiritual superior in all things, O Father Nikon, and being instructed by him, thou didst enslave thyself to Christ. Thou wast a superior of monks and co-dweller with the venerable ones. With them beseech Christ God incessantly for us all.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "1645": { "name": { "nominative": "Commemoration of the Apparition of the Pillar with the Robe of the Lord under it at the Cathedral in Mishkheta, Georgia", "short": "Commemoration of" } }, "1646": { "name": { "nominative": "Icons of the Mother of God: “Protection of Pskov”, “Kukuzelissa”, and “Kasperovskaya”", "short": "Icons of" } }, "1651": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Cyprian and Virginmartyr Justina of Nicomedia († 304)", "short": "Hieromartyrs" } }, "1652": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Nilus the Abbot of Sora († 1508)", "short": "Venerable Nilus" } }, "1653": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Nilus of Stolobnoye Lake († 1554)", "short": "Venerable Nilus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Nil of Stolobensk reposed on 7 December 1554 (the account about his life is located under this day).Many years afterwards, on the Island of Lake Seliger, where the holy ascetic had asceticised, there came the priest-monk German and immediately after him the hill-dweller and wanderer Boris. They settled together on the island and built a church in honour of the Theophany, with a chapel in the name of Saint Vasilii (Basil) the Moscow Wonderworker. At this site where the Monk Nil had asceticised there in time grew up a monastery, named after him. An icon of the Monk Nil was written by the monks of the Orshin monastery, and numerous miracles of healings of the sick began to occur at the gravesite of the saint. Later at the monastery lived Saint Nektarii, Archbishop of Sibirsk and Tobol’sk, and he decided to build a stone church to replace the former wooden one. During the time of the laying of the foundations, the earth crumbled away and revealed the incorrupt relics of the Monk Nil. The Uncovering of the Relics occurred on 27 May 1667, and simultaneously with this was established a feastday to the monk in honour of the event." }, "rank": 3 }, "1654": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Cassian the Greek of Uglich († 1504)", "short": "Venerable Cassian" } }, "1655": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs David and Constantine, Princes of Aragvet, Georgia († 740)", "short": "Martyrs David" } }, "1657": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Dionysius the Areopagite, Bishop of Athens († 96)", "short": "Hieromartyr Dionysius" }, "rank": 2 }, "1659": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Oleg, Prince of Briansk († c. 1285)", "short": "St. Oleg" } }, "1660": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable John the Chozebite, Bishop of Cæsarea in Palestine (6th C)", "short": "Venerable John" } }, "1661": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Hesychius Chorebite, of Mt. Athos", "short": "Blessed Hesychius" } }, "1664": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Hierotheos, Bishop of Athens (1st C)", "short": "Hieromartyr Hierotheos" }, "rank": 1 }, "1667": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Ammon and Venerable Paul the Simple, of Egypt", "short": "Venerable Ammon" } }, "1668": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Paul the Simple (4th C)", "short": "Venerable Paul" } }, "1673": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Charitina of Amisus († 304)", "short": "Martyr Charitina" }, "rank": 1 }, "1674": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Damian the Presbyter and Healer († 1071), Jeremiah († c. 1070) and Matthew († c. 1083) the Clairvoyants of the Kiev Caves", "short": "Venerable Damian" } }, "1676": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Dionysios, Bishop of Alexandria (264-265)", "short": "Hieromartyr Dionysios" } }, "1678": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Mamelta of Persia († c. 344)", "short": "Martyr Mamelta" } }, "1679": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Gregory of Chandzoe in Georgia († 861)", "short": "Venerable Gregory" } }, "1685": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Paul of Obnora, Vologda († 1429)", "short": "Venerable Paul" }, "rank": 2, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "
The Monk Paul of Komel’sk, a famed student of the Monk Sergei of Radonezh, was born at Moscow in the year 1317. From his youthful years he distinguished himself by his piety and kindliness towards the poor and suffering. His rich parents prepared him for a secular life, but at twenty-two years of age he secretly left his parental home and received tonsure at the Nativity monastery on the Volga (in Yaroslavsk diocese).
From there Paul transferred to the Holy Trinity monastery to the Monk Sergei of Radonezh, spending several years with him as a cell-obedient, in everything obeying the wise guidance of the holy starets (elder). With the blessing of the Monk Sergei, he settled a way off from the monastery in a separate cell, where he spent fifteen years as an hermit. Having asked the blessing of the Monk Sergei to go off into the wilderness for a quiet and solitary life, the Monk Paul wandered about for a long while, seeking for himself the place of solitude. He went much about the wilderness, he spent time with the Monk Avraamii of Chukhlomsk (Comm. 20 July) and finally, he remained in the Komel’sk forest. At the Gryazovitsa River, in the hollow of an old linden tree, the monk made himself a small cell and dwelt there for three years in complete silence, “not giving his body rest, for which to receive future rest.” Then he moved on to the River Nurma, where he built himself an hut and dug out a well. He spent his days in vigil and prayer. Five days out of the week he went without food, and only on Saturday and Sunday did he partake of some bread and water. The news spread widely about the hermit, and there begin coming to him those wishing spiritual guidance of him. Despite his love for the solitary life, the Monk Paul never refused anyone in spiritual consolation and guidance. He was visited here also by the Monk Sergei of Nuromsk, who likewise had sought solitude with the blessing of their teacher the Monk Sergei of Radonezh, and who likewise passed his ascetic life in these locales.
With the blessing of the Monk Sergei and the agreement of Metropolitan Photii, the Monk Paul in 1414 built the Holy Trinity Church, around which grew up a monastery, receiving the name of Pavlo-Obnorsk. Having written for the brethren a strict ustav (monastic rule), the Monk Paul entrusted the guidance of the new monastery to his disciple Aleksei, while he himself continued as before to live in a solitary cell on an hill, meanwhile remaining a responsive and good counsellor for anyone needing his healing help. The Monk Paul died at 112 years of age. His final words were: “Brethren, have love one for another and keep to the rule of the monastic community.”
The Life of the saint was written in about the year 1546, and his glorification occurred in 1547.
" } }, "1687": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Polychronios the Presbyter (4th C)", "short": "Martyr Polychronios" } }, "1688": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Julian the Presbyter and Cæsarius the Deacon, at Terracina (1st C)", "short": "Martyrs Julian" } }, "1692": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Dositheus, Abbot of Verkhneostrovsk and Pskov († 1482)", "short": "Venerable Dositheus" } }, "1695": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Paul the Obedient of the Kiev Caves (13th-14th C)", "short": "Venerable Paul" } }, "1696": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Andronicus and his wife Athanasia, of Egypt (5th C)", "short": "Venerable Andronicus" }, "rank": 1 }, "1697": { "name": { "nominative": "Righteous Forefather Abraham and his nephew Lot (2000 B.C.)", "short": "Righteous Forefather" } }, "1699": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Publia the Confessor, Deaconess of Antioch (4th C)", "short": "Martyr Publia" } }, "1700": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God “of Korsun”", "short": "Icon of" } }, "1702": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Eulampius and Eulampia, at Nicomedia, and 200 martyrs with them († 303-311)", "short": "Martyrs Eulampius" }, "rank": 1 }, "1704": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Andrew of Totemsk, the Fool-for-Christ († 1673)", "short": "Blessed Andrew" } }, "1705": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Theotecnus", "short": "Martyr Theotecnus" } }, "1706": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Bassian of Constantinople", "short": "Venerable Bassian" } }, "1707": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Paisius the Great (5th C)", "short": "Venerable Paisius" } }, "1710": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Paisius of the Kiev Caves (14th C)", "short": "Venerable Paisius" } }, "1715": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Probos, Tarachos and Andronicus, at Tarsus in Cilicia († 304)", "short": "Martyrs" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "St. Tarachus, a Roman citizen and warrior, was born in Claudiopolis, Isauria. St. Probus, a Thracian, from Perga, Pamphylia, and St. Andronicus was the son of a famous citizen of Ephesus. For confessing Christ all severely suffered first in the city of Tarsus (in Cilicia), then in Mopsuestia and finally in the city of Anazarbus. They were all beheaded after undergoing terrible tortures in the year 304.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "The heavenly powers were amazed at the struggles of the Holy Martyrs, for even in their mortal bodies, they fell upon the bodiless enemy by the power of the Cross, invisibly defeating them. Therefore they are praying to the Lord that He may have mercy on our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "5", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Soldiers and Martyrs of Christ, Probus, Tarachus, and Andronicus, Revealed to us the glory of the Trinity: For you cleansed all from the errors of atheism, Fighting valiantly for the faith, O honorable sufferers.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" } } } }, "1716": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Cosmas the Hymnographer, Bishop of Majuma († c. 787)", "short": "Venerable Cosmas" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "He was the closest friend and co-worker of the Venerable John of Damascus. For his piety he was installed as the Bishop of Maium, and worked very hard in this position for his flock and died in peace at the end of the Eighth Century (after 776). Glorifying the hierarch as \"nourisher of wisdom, \"nurse of purity\", \"enlightener of the faithful\" and \"renowned theologian\", the Holy Church witnesses that Bishop Cosmas was \"meek and humble of mind, calm and blameless in speech, kind and guileless, chaste and righteous, most simple and wholesome\". Brought up \"in piety and faith\" and \"with the mind and soul adorned in wisdom\", Bishop Cosmas adorned the Church \"with systematic and didactic hymns\", satisfying \"reason\", and \"which clearly open to all\" \"the truly strange and most wonderful mysteries of Christ\".
" } }, "1720": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Domnica", "short": "Martyr Domnica" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Martyr Domnica suffered for Christ in the city of Anazarbus during the reign of Diocletian. After severe tortures for Christ, she was thrown in prison, where she died in 286." } }, "1721": { "name": { "nominative": "St Martin the Merciful, Bishop of Tours", "short": "St Martin" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Born a Roman, he first served in the military service. Later he accepted monasticism and after seven years of good ascetical efforts, according to the revelation of God, he was installed as Bishop of Tours in France. Having become glorified for his unusual generosity, great miracles and ability to prophesy, he died in about the year 400." } }, "1722": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation from Malta to Gatchina of a part of the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord, together with the Philermia Icon of the Mother of God, and the right hand of Saint John the Baptist (1799)", "short": "Translation from" }, "rank": 4, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Celebrating St. John the Baptizer of the Lord in memory of the transfer from Malta to the city of Gatchina of a cross from part of the wood of the life- creating cross of the Lord, the wonderworking icon of the Mother of God (Philermia) written by the Holy Evangelist Luke, and the right hand from the relics of St. John the Baptist. The Maltese knights protected these holy relics since the time of the Crusades and brought them to Gatchina as a gift to the Emperor Paul 1 in 1799. In the same year all these relics were transferred to St. Petersburg, to a church of the Winter Palace. Since 1852 annually on October 11 these relics are brought to the church of the Gatchina Palace, from where on October 12 they in a cross procession are transferred to the Gatchina cathedral, where they remain for 10 days for veneration and prayer services by all the people. A special service was written for this feast, but since 1800 it was only marked on calendars and was not celebrated anywhere. In 1852, when the St. Paul’s Cathedral was constructed in Gatchina, the celebration of the feast was restored which was also performed annually in the Gatchina Palace church and in the St. Paul’s Cathedral." } }, "1725": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Pancratios, Bishop of Taoromina in Sicily (1st C)", "short": "Hieromartyr Pancratios" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Hieromartyr Pankratios, Bishop of Tauromeneia, was born at a time, when our Lord Jesus Christ yet lived upon the earth.
The parents of Pankratios were natives of Antioch. Hearing about the good-news of Jesus Christ, the father of Pankratios took his young son with him and set off to Jerusalem, in order to see for himself personally the great Teacher. The miracles astonished him, and when he heard the Divine teaching, he then believed in Christ as the Son of God. He became close with the disciples of the Lord, especially with the holy Apostle Peter. And it was during this period that young Pankratios got to know the holy Apostle Peter.
After the Ascension of the Saviour one of the Apostles came to Antioch and baptised the parents of Pankratios together with all their household. When the parents of Pankratios died, he left behind his inherited possessions and went to a Pontine mountain and began to live in a cave, passing his days in prayer and deep spiritual contemplation. The holy Apostle Peter, one time passing through these parts, made a visit to Pankratios at Pontus, and took him along to Antioch, and then to Cilicia, where the holy Apostle Paul then was. And there the holy Apostles Peter and Paul ordained Saint Pankratios as bishop of the Cilician city of Tauromeneia.
Saint Pankratios toiled zealously for the Christian enlightenment of the people. Over the course of a single month he built a church, where he celebrated Divine-services. The number of believers quickly grew, and soon almost all the people of Tauromeneia and the surrounding cities accepted the Christian faith.
Saint Pankratios governed his flock peacefully for many years. But one time pagans connived against the saint, and seizing an appropriate moment, they fell upon him and stoned him. Thus did Saint Pankratios end his life as a martyr (I). The relics of the saint rest in the church named for him, at Rome.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "As thou didst share in the ways of the apostles * and didst occupy their throne, * thou didst find thine activity to be a passage to divine vision, * O divinely inspired one. * Wherefore, ordering the word of truth, * thou didst suffer for the Faith even to the shedding of thy blood. ** O hieromartyr Pancratius, entreat Christ God, that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thou wast shown to be a brilliant star for the people of Taormina, O Pancratius, * and wast shown also to be a sufferer for Christ. ** Standing now before Him pray thou for them that honor thee, O blessed one.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "1727": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon († 305)", "short": "Great Martyr" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon was born in the city of Nikomedia into the family of the illustrious pagan Eustorgias, and he was named Pantoleon. His mother Ebbula was a christian. She wanted to raise her son in the Christian faith, but she died when the future greatmartyr was still a young lad. His father sent Pantoleon to a fine pagan school, at the completion of which the youth began to study the medical art at Nikomedia under the reknown physician Euphrosynos, and he came to the attention of the emperor Maximian (284-305), who wished to see him at court.
During this time there dwelt secretly at Nikomedia the Priest-Martyr presbyters Hermolaos, Hermippos and Hermocrates—survivors in the Nikomedia Church after the burning of 20,000 Christians in the year 303. Saint Hermolaos saw Pantoleon time and again, when he came to their hideout. One time the presbyter summoned the youth to the hideout and spoke about the Christian faith. After this Pantoleon visited every day with the priestmartyr Hermolaos.
One time the youth saw upon a street a dead child, bitten by a viper, which was still alongside. Pantoleon began to pray to the Lord Jesus Christ for the resuscitation of the dead child and for the death of the venomous reptile. He firmly resolved, that if his prayer were fulfilled, he would become a follower of Christ and accept Baptism. The child revived, and the viper shattered into pieces before the eyes of Pantoleon.
After this miracle Pantoleon was baptised by Saint Hermolaos with the name Panteleimon (meaning “all-merciful”). Conversing with Eustorgias, Saint Panteleimon prepared him for the acceptance of Christianity, and when the father beheld, how his son healed a blind man by invoking the Name of Jesus Christ, he then believed in Christ and was baptised together with the blind man restored to sight.
After the death of his father, Saint Panteleimon dedicated his life to the suffering, the sick, the misfortunate and the needy. He treated without charge all those who turned to him, healing them in the Name of Jesus Christ. He visited those held captive in prison—being usually christians, who filled all the prisons, and he healed them of their wounds. In a short while accounts about the charitable physician spread throughout all the city. And forsaking the other doctors, the inhabitants began to turn only to Saint Panteleimon.
The envious doctors made a denunciation to the emperor, that Saint Panteleimon was healing Christian prisoners. Maximian urged the saint to disprove the denunciation and offer sacrifice to idols, but Saint Panteleimon confessed himself a Christian and right in front of the eyes of the emperor he healed a paralytic in the Name of Jesus Christ. The ferocious Maximian executed the healed man who was glorifying Jesus Christ, and gave Saint Panteleimon over to fierce torture.
The Lord appeared to the saint and strengthened him before his sufferings. They suspended the Great Martyr Panteleimon from a tree and tore at him with iron hooks, burned him with fire and then stretched him on the rack, threw him in boiling oil, and cast him into the sea with a stone about his neck. Throughout all these tortures the greatmartyr remained unhurt and with conviction he denounced the emperor.
During this time there was brought before the court of the pagans the Presbyters Hermolaos, Hermippos and Hermocrates. All three firmly confessed their faith in the Saviour and were beheaded (the account about them is located under 26 July).
By order of the emperor they threw the Great Martyr Panteleimon to wild beasts for devouring at the circus. But the beasts lay at his feet and shoved at each other in trying to be touched by his hand. The spectators gathered together and began to shout: “Great God of the Christians!” The enraged Maximian ordered the soldiers to stab with the sword anyone who glorified the Name of Christ, and to cut off the head of the Great Martyr Panteleimon.
They led the saint to the place of execution and tied him to an olive tree. When the greatmartyr prayed, one of the soldiers struck him with a sword, but the sword became soft like wax, and inflicted no wound. The saint ended the prayer, and a Voice was heard, calling the passion-bearer by name and summoning him to the Heavenly Kingdom. Hearing the Voice from Heaven, the soldiers fell down on their knees before the holy martyr and begged forgiveness. The executioners refused to continue with the execution, but the Great Martyr Panteleimon bid them to fulfill the command of the emperor, saying that otherwise they would have no share with him in the future life. The soldiers tearfully took their leave of the saint with a kiss.
When the saint was beheaded, the olive tree—to which the saint was tied, at the moment of his death was covered with fruit. Many that were present at the execution believed in Christ. The body of the saint—thrown into a bonfire—remained in the fire unharmed and was buried by christians († 305). The Great Martyr Panteleimon’s servants Lawrence, Bassos and Probios saw his execution and heard the Voice from Heaven. They recorded the account about the life, the sufferings and death of the holy greatmartyr.
The holy relics of the Great Martyr Panteleimon were distributed in parts throughout all the Christian world: his venerable head is now located at the Russian Athonite monastery of the Great Martyr Panteleimon.
The veneration of the holy martyr in the Russian Orthodox Church was already known in the XII Century. Prince Izyaslav—in Baptism Panteleimon—son of Saint Mstislav the Great, had an image of Saint Panteleimon on his helmet. Through the intercession of the saint he remained alive during a battle in the year 1151. On the day of memory of the Great Martyr Panteleimon, Russian forces won two naval victories over the Swedes (in 1714 near Hanhauze and in 1720 near Grenham).
The Great Martyr Panteleimon is venerated in the Orthodox Church as a mighty saint, the protector of soldiers. This aspect of his veneration is derived from his first name Pantoleon, which means “a lion in everything.” His second name, Panteleimon—given him at Baptism, which means “all-merciful,” reveals it self in the veneration of the greatmartyr as healer. The connection between these two patronages of the saint is readily apparent in that soldiers, receiving wounds more frequently than others, are more in need of a physician-healer. Wherefore Christians in waging spiritual warfare also have recourse to this saint with a petition to heal the wounds of the soul.
The name of the holy Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon is invoked in the Sacrament of Anointing the Sick, at the Blessing of Water and in the Prayer for the Sick.
The day of commemoration of the holy Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon at the Russian monastery on Athos is its temple-feast. The forefeast starts 8 days before the feast, on which days after vespers are sung moliebens with kanons in 8 tones, whereby each day has its own particular canon. The second day of the feast is the monastery feastday. On this day of the feast after vespers is made a collective panikhida in memory of the founders and benefactours of the monastery, and there is blessed and distributed koliva (kutia—wheat or rice boiled with honey). The verses of the 9th Ode of the Kanon of the Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon from the manuscript of the Athonite service are reprinted in the “Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate” (1975, No.3, pp. 45-47).
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O holy passion-bearer and healer Panteleimon, * entreat the merciful God, ** that He grant to our souls remission of transgressions.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Emulating the Merciful One, * and receiving from Him the grace of healing, * O passion-bearer and martyr of Christ God, * by thy supplications heal thou our spiritual infirmities, * ever driving away the temptations of the fœ ** from them that faithfully cry out: Save us, O Lord!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "5" } } } }, "1729": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Carpos, Papilus, Agathodoros and Agathonica, at Pergamun († 251)", "short": "Martyrs Carpos" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "The Holy Martyrs Carpus and Papylus (also those with them: Agathadorus and Agathonica) suffered for Christ in the city of Pergamon, during the persecution under Emperor Decius, about 251. St. Carpus was the bishop of Thyatira, and St. Papylus was his deacon. After being tortured in Thyatira, Sts. Carpus and Papylus were sent, tied to horses, to the city of Sardis. St. Agathadorus voluntarily was sent with them. Here \"the dedicated one\" Agathadorus, courageously endured \"wounds and cuts\", and died during severe torture. Sts. Carpus and Papylus were again returned to Pergamon and there, after a miraculous deliverance from a fiery furnace, were beheaded by the sword. St. Agathonica, the sister of St. Papylus, also was beheaded. In the service for this day, we hymn the Holy Martyrs Carpus and Papylus, and we also commemorate Sts. Agathadorus and Agathonica.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their suffering received crowns of incorruption from Thee, our God; for having Thy might they deposed the tormentors and destroyed the powerless audacity of the dæmons. Through their prayers do Thou save our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "As a valuable treasury of the Master And a fountain pouring out streams of healings You gave your relics to those on the earth. Thus they are removing the infirmities of various passions Ceaselessly granting grace to our souls. Therefore, O Divine Martyrs, with one voice we celebrate your festival with love.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" } } } }, "1731": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Florentius of Thessaloniki", "short": "Martyr Florentius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Born in Thessalonica, he was a disciple of the apostles, and for preaching Christ he was subjected to awful tortures and was burned to death." } }, "1733": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Nikita the Confessor of Paphlagonia († c. 838)", "short": "Venerable Nikita" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Born in Paphlagonia, during the reign of Emperor Nicephorus, governor of Sicily, he, seeing the vanity of the world, accepted monasticism and was tonsured in Constantinople. During the reign of Emperor Leo the Armenian and Theophilus the venerable Nicetas suffered for venerating the holy icons. He died around the year 838." } }, "1734": { "name": { "nominative": "New Martyr Chrisa (Zlata) of Bulgaria", "short": "New Martyr" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Born in the village of Slatina, Bulgaria, for reasons of chastity and unwillingness to accept Islam the Turks chopped her up into small pieces in 1795." } }, "1737": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Nazarius, Gervasius, Protasius and Celsius of Milan (1st C)", "short": "Martyrs Nazarius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "The holy martyrs Nazarius, Gervase, Protase, and Celsius suffered during the reign of the Emperor Nero in the city of Milan. The martyrs Nazarius and Celsius, who worked hard for the enlightenment of the pagans in the faith in Christ, were subjected to various tortures, were fed to beasts, thrown into the sea and, at last, when both survived, were beheaded. The martyrs Gervase and Protase were twins. St. Gervase for confessing Christ was whipped to death by tin rods, and St. Protase was truncated by the sword. Their relics were discovered in 357 and are now in Milan.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their suffering received crowns of incorruption from Thee, our God; for having Thy might they deposed the tormentors and destroyed the powerless audacity of the dæmons. Through their prayers do Thou save our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Having appeared as bright lamps, O divine martyrs, you enlightened all creation with the light of your wonders, releasing from infirmities, ever driving away the deep night, continually pray to Christ the One God for us all.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" } } } }, "1739": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Nicholas “Sviatosha”, Prince of Chernigov († 1143)", "short": "Venerable Nicholas" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Son of the Chernigov prince David Sviatoslavich, at first he reigned as prince in Lutsk, and then in Chernigov. Being married and having children, he left family, princedom and all earthly pleasures and in 1107 accepted monasticism in the Kievan Monastery of the Caves. Here he practiced asceticism as a simple monk fulfilling all monastic obedience, and conducted a life, full of any deprivation. Vainly the brothers of the prince tried to make him regret leaving his former rich and magnificent life. Blessed Nicholas spent his time in labor and prayer, fasting and vigil, for more than thirty years. Tradition informs us, that he built a church in honor of the Most Holy Trinity above the monastery gates, and also a hospital with a Temple of Saint Nicholas (near the Laura Gates). Eating only monastic food, venerable Nicholas distributed to the poor and strangers all that he received from his brothers, princes and boyars. Н died in 1143. e Almost all Kievans were in the monastery to render their last duty to the blessed prince. Having been glorified with healing, his relics repose in the St. Anthony”s Cave. Even after death the clothes of Ven. Nicholas was a source of healing. So, when Prince Isiaslav became gravely ill, they placed on him the hair shirt of Venerable Nicholas and the ill person immediately recovered. The name \"Sviatosha\" stuck to Venerable Nicholas as a nickname for Sviatoslav, which was given him at birth. The service to him is with the polyeleos." } }, "1740": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Siluan, Presbyter of Gaza (4th C)", "short": "Hieromartyr Siluan" } }, "1743": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Euthymios the New, of Thessalonica and Monk of Mt Athos († 889)", "short": "Venerable Euthymios" }, "rank": 1 }, "1745": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Lucian, Presbyter of Antioch († 312)", "short": "Hieromartyr Lucian" }, "rank": 1 }, "1746": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable John, Bishop of Suzdal († 1373)", "short": "Venerable John" } }, "1748": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Sarbilos and Bebea of Edessa (2nd C)", "short": "Martyrs Sarbilos" } }, "1749": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Sabina, Bishop of Katana", "short": "Venerable Sabina" } }, "1750": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God “Sporitelnitsa Khlebov”", "short": "Icon of" } }, "1756": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Prophet Hosea († 820 BC)", "short": "Holy Prophet" }, "rank": 1 }, "1760": { "name": { "nominative": "Transfer of the relics of the Righteous Lazarus of the Four-Days to Constantinople (898)", "short": "Transfer of" } }, "1764": { "name": { "nominative": "Apostles Nathaniel, Luke and Clement of the Seventy (1st C)", "short": "Apostles Nathaniel" } }, "1767": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Marinus the Elder at Anazarbus (4th C)", "short": "Martyr Marinus" } }, "1768": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Julian the Hermit, of Mesopotamia (4th C)", "short": "Venerable Julian" } }, "1773": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Uaros and with him 7 Hieromartyr Teachers († c. 307)", "short": "Martyr Uaros" }, "rank": 1 }, "1774": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Cleopatra and her son John († 327)", "short": "Blessed Cleopatra" } }, "1777": { "name": { "nominative": "Great Martyr Artemius of Antioch († 362)", "short": "Great Martyr Artemius" }, "rank": 2 }, "1779": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarchs Peter, Alexis, Jonah, Macarius, Philip, Job, Hermogenes, Tikhon, Peter, Philaret, Innocent and Macarius, Wonderworkers of Moscow", "short": "Holy Hierarchs" }, "rank": 3 }, "1784": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Peter, Crown Prince of the Horde", "short": "Venerable Peter" } }, "1785": { "name": { "nominative": "Veneration of the precious Chains of the Holy and All-Glorious Apostle Peter", "short": "St Peter" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Veneration of the Venerable Shackles of the Holy and All-Praiseworthy Apostle Peter: On the orders of Herod Agrippa, in about the year 42 the Apostle Peter was thrown into prison for preaching about Christ the Saviour. In prison he was held secure by two iron chains. By night, on the eve of his trial, an Angel of the Lord removed these chains from the Apostle Peter and miraculously led him out from the prison (Acts12: 1-11). Christians who learned of the miracle took the chains and kept them as precious keepsakes. Those afflicted with illness and approaching them with faith received healing. The Chains of the holy Apostle Peter were kept at Jerusalem until the time of Patriarch Juvenalios, who presented them to Eudocia, spouse of the emperor Theodosius the Younger, and she in turn transferred them from Jerusalem to Constantinople in either the year 437 or 439. Eudocia sent one Chain to Rome to her daughter Eudoxia, who built a church in the name of the Apostle Peter and put within it the Chain. At Rome were also other Chains, in which the Apostle Peter found himself before his death under the emperor Nero.
On 16 January the Chains of the Apostle Peter are brought out for veneration by the people.
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Without leaving Rome thou art come to us in the precious chains which thou didst bear, O first-enthroned of the apostles; and, bowing down before them with faith we pray: through thy supplications unto God grant us great mercy!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Christ the Rock most splendidly glorifieth the rock of faith, the first-enthroned of His disciples; for He summoneth all to celebrate the wonders of thy precious chains, O Peter, and granteth forgiveness of offenses.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" }, "KONTAKION/2": { "text": "Let us praise the great Peter, the chief and first among the apostles, the divine disciple of the Truth, and with faith let us kiss his chains, receiving release from our transgressions.
", "Type": "2", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "1790": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Pœmen the Great († c. 450)", "short": "Venerable Pœmen" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Pimen the Great was born in about the year 340 in Egypt. With his two brothers, Anubias and Paisias, he went into one of the Egyptian monasteries, and all three accepted monastic tonsure. The brothers were such strict ascetics, that when their mother came to the monastery to see her children, they did not come out to her from their cells. The mother stood there for a long time and wept. Then the Monk Pimen said to her through the closed door of the cell: “If thou bearest with the temporal parting from us now, then in the future life wilt thou see us, since we do hope upon God the Lover-of-Mankind!.” The mother was humbled and returned home.
Fame about the deeds and virtues of the Monk Pimen spread throughout all the land. One time the governor of the district wanted to see him. The Monk Pimen, shunning fame, reasoned thus: “If dignitaries begin coming to me with respect, then also many of the people will start coming to me and disturb my quiet, and I shalt be deprived of the grace of humility, which I have found only with the help of God.” And so he relayed a refusal to the messenger. For many of the monks, the Monk Pimen was a spiritual guide and instructor. And they wrote down his answers to serve to the edification of others besides themselves. A certain monk asked: “Ought one to veil over with silence the sin of a transgressing brother, if perchance one see him?” The elder answered: “If we reproach the sins of brothers, then God will reproach our sins, and if thou seest a brother sinning, believe not thine eyes and know, that thine own sin is like a wood-beam, but the sin of thy brother is like a wood-splinter, and then thou wilt not come into distress and temptation.” Another monk turned to the saint, saying: “I have grievously sinned and I want to spend three years at repentance. Is such a length of time sufficient?” The elder answered: “That is a long time.” The monk continued to ask, how long a period of repentance did the saint reckon necessary for him—a year or forty days? The elder answered: “I think, that if a man repenteth from the depths of his heart and posits a firm intent to return no more to the sin, then God would accept also a three-day repentance.” To the question, as to how to be rid of persistent evil thoughts, the saint answered: “If a man has on one side of him fire, and on the other side a vessel with water, then if he starts burning from the fire, he takes water from the vessel and extinguishes the fire. Like to this are the evil thoughts, suggested by the enemy of our salvation, which like a spark can enkindle sinful desires within man. It is necessary to put out these sparks with the water, which is prayer and the yearning of the soul for God.”
The Monk Pimen was strict at fasting and did not partake of food for the space of a week or more. But others he advised to eat every day, only but without eating one’s fill. For a certain monk, permitting himself to partake of food only on the seventh day but being angry with a brother, the saint said: “Thou wouldst learn to fast over six days, yet cannot abstain from anger for even a single day.” To the question, which is better—to speak or be silent, the elder said: “Whoso doth speak on account of God, dœth well, and whoso is silent on account of God—that one doth act well.” And moreover: “It may be, that a man seems to be silent, but if his heart doth judge others, then always is he speaking. But there are also those, who all the day long speak with their tongue, but within themself they do keep silence, since they judge no one.”
The saint said: “For a man it is necessary to observe three primary rules: to fear God, to pray often and to do good for people.” “Malice in turn never wipes out malice. If someone dœth thee bad, do them good, and thine good will conquer their bad.” One time, when the monk with his students arrived at an Egyptian wilderness-monastery (since he had the habit to go about from place to place, so as to shun glory from men), it became known to him, that the elder living there was annoyed at his arrival and also was jealous of him. In order to overcome the malice of the hermit, the saint set off to him with his brethren, taking along with them food as a present. The elder refused to come out to them. Thereupon the Monk Pimen said: “We shall not depart from here, until we are granted to see and pay respect to the holy elder,”—and he remained standing in the bright heat at the door of the cell. Seeing such perseverance and lack of malice on the part of the Monk Pimen, the elder received him graciously and said: “It is right what I have heard about you, but I see in you the good deeds and an hundred times even moreso.” Thus did the Monk Pimen know how to extinguish malice and provide good example to others. He possessed such great humility, that often with a sigh he said: “I shalt be cast down to that place, whither was cast down Satan!”
One time there came to the saint a monk from afar, to get his guidance. He began to speak about sublime matters difficult to grasp. The saint turned away from him and was silent. To the bewildered monk they explained, that the saint did not like to speak about lofty matters. Then the monk began to ask him about the struggle with passions of soul. The saint turned to him with a joyful face: “Here now thou well hath spoken, and I mustneeds answer,”—and for a long while he provided instruction, as to how one ought to struggle with the passions and conquer them.
The Monk Pimen died at age 110, in about the year 450. Soon after his death he was acknowledged as a saint pleasing to God and received the title “the Great”—as a sign of his great humility, modesty, uprightness and self-denying service to God.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "With the streams of thy tears thou didst irrigate the barren desert, * and with sighs from the depths of thy soul thou didst render thy labors fruitful an hundredfold, * and becamest a beacon for the whole world, resplendent with miracles. ** O Pœmen our father, entreat Christ God, that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Today the holy memory of thy splendid struggles hath dawned, O father, * gladdening the souls of the pious, ** O divinely wise Pœmen, our venerable father.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "1792": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Pimen the much-suffering, of the Kiev Caves", "short": "Venerable Pimen" } }, "1800": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Pitirim, Bishop of Perm († 1456)", "short": "Saint Pitirim" } }, "1801": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Pitirim, Bishop of Tambov († 1698)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" } }, "1811": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Polycarp of Briansk († 1620-1621)", "short": "Venerable Polycarp" } }, "1843": { "name": { "short": "Venerable Procopius", "nominative": "Venerable Procopius, Confessor of Decapolis († c. 750)", "cmd": "doy == 57" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Prokopios Dekapolites lived during the VIII Century in the region of Dekapolis (Mk. 7: 31), to the east of Lake Galilee. And there also he devoted himself to salvation, occupied with monastic deeds.
Saint Prokopios, together with his co-ascetic Saint Basil (Comm. 28 February) and others zealous for holy Orthodoxy, rose up against the Iconoclast heresy that had arisen in those times. By order of the emperor Leo the Isaurian (716-741), the Monk Prokopios was arrested, subjected to a fierce scourging and thrown into prison. Here he languished together with the Monk Basil until the very death of the oppressive emperor, after which the holy confessors were set free. The Monk Prokopios spent the rest of his life peacefully at monastic deeds, guiding many on the way of virtue and salvation. He died in old age, in about the year 750.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "With the streams of thy tears thou didst irrigate the barren desert, * and with sighs from the depths of thy soul thou didst render thy labors fruitful an hundredfold. * Thou wast a beacon for the whole world, radiating miracles. ** O our father Procopius, entreat Christ God that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "The Church, possessing thee today as a morning star, dispelleth all the darkness of heresy, * honoring thee, O all-glorious Procopius, ** initiate of the heavenly mysteries.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "1846": { "name": { "nominative": "Righteous Prokopius of Usya (17th C)", "short": "Righteous Prokopius" } }, "1856": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Prochorus of the Kiev Caves († 1107)", "short": "Venerable Prochorus" } }, "1875": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Roman (Olegovich), Prince of Ryazan († 1270)", "short": "Blessed Roman" } }, "1878": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Romanos the Melodist - “Sweet Singer” (5th C)", "short": "Venerable Romanos" }, "rank": 1 }, "1880": { "name": { "nominative": "Right-Believing Prince Romanus of Uglich († 1285)", "short": "Right-Believing Prince Romanus" } }, "1888": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Rufus the Obedient of the Kiev Caves (14th C)", "short": "Venerable Rufus" } }, "1893": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Sabbas, Abbot of Vishersk († 1461)", "short": "Venerable Sabbas" }, "rank": 3 }, "1895": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Savva of Pskov († 1495)", "short": "Venerable Savva" } }, "1898": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Sabbas the Sanctified († 532)", "short": "Venerable Sabbas" }, "rank": 5 }, "1901": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Sava I, Archbishop of Serbia († 1237)", "short": "Saint Sava" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Sava, first Archbishop of Serbia,—in the world Rostislav (Rastko), was a son of the Serbian autocrat Stefan Nemani and Anna, daughter of the Greek emperor Romanos. From his early years he fervently attended church services and fostered an especial love for icons. At seventeen years of age, having met a Russian monk from Holy Mount Athos, Rostislav secretly left his father’s house and set off to the Russian Panteleimonov monastery. (By Divine Providence in the year of the saint’s birth—1169—the ancient monastery of the great-martyr and healer Panteleimon was restored for eternal keeping to Russian monks.) Knowing that his son was on Athos, his father mobilised his retainers headed by a faithful vœvoda and wrote to the governor of the district which included Athos, that if his son were not returned to him, he would go to war against the Greeks. Having arrived at the monastery, the vœvoda * military-chief was ordered not to take his eyes off Rostislav. During the time of evening Divine-services, when the soldiers were fallen asleep under the influence of wine, Rostislav took monastic vows (the year 1186) and sent to his parents his worldly clothes, his hair and a letter. The monk Sava sought to persuade his powerful parents to accept monasticism. The monk’s father (the commemoration of the Monk Stefan, in monasticism Simeon, Tsar of Serbia, is situated under 13 February) together with his son pursued asceticism at the Batopedeia monastery. On Athos they established the Serbian Khilendaria monastery, and this monastery received its name by imperial stauropegia * grant. At Khilendaria monastery, the monk Save was ordained to the deaconate and then presbyter. For his monastic deeds on Mount Athos, the monk was deemed worthy of the dignity of archimandrite at Soluneia * Thessalonika. At Niciea in the year 1219 on the feast of the Dormition * Uspenie of the Most Holy Mother of God, the Œcumenical Pattriarch Germanos ordained archimandrite Sava to the dignity of Archbishop of All Serbia. For this the monk petitioned the Greek emperor for permission that the Archbishop be consecrated by a Sobor of bishops in Serbia—a very important consideration in this time of frequent wars between eastern and western powers. Having returned to the Holy Mountain from Nicæa, the saint made the rounds of all the monasteries for the last time; he made prostration in all the churches and, calling to mind the blessed lives of the wilderness fathers, he made his farewells with the ascetics in deep remorse, “leaving from the Holy Mountain, as though from some Divine paradise.” Dejected by his grievous separation from the Holy Mountain, the saint went along the path from Athos just barely moving. Only the words of the Most Holy Mother of God that had come to the saint in a dream—”having My Patronage to the King of all, My Son and God, about what dost thou still sorrow?”—these words roused him from despondency, changing sorrow into joy. In memory of this appearance, the saint commissioned at Soluneia large icons of the Saviour and of the Mother of God, and put them in the Church of the Philokalia.
In Serbia, the activity of the Hierarch in organising the work of his native Church was accompanied by numerous signs and miracles. During the time of Liturgy and the all-night vigil, when the saint came to cense over the grave of his father the monk Simeon, the holy relics exuded fragrant myrh.
Being in charge of negotiations with the Hungarian king Vladislav, who had declared war on Serbia, the glorious sainted bishop with heavenly signs not only brought about the desired peace for his country, he also brought the Hungarian monarch to Orthodoxy. Having secured a beginning for the historical existence of the autonomous Serbian Church, Saint Sava contributed also to the strengthening of the Serbian state. In order to insure the independence of the Serbian state, the holy archbishop Sava crowned his powerful brother Stefan as tsar. Upon the death of Stefan—his eldest son Radislav having been crowned tsar, Saint Sava set off to the Holy Land “with tears to worship at the holy grave of Christ and fearsome Golgotha.” Having returned to his native land, the saint gave his blessing and crowned Vladislav as tsar; to further strengthen the Serbian throne, he betrothed him with the daughter of the Bulgarian prince Asan. The holy hierarch made the rounds of all the Serbian land, he reformed monastic rules on the model of the athonites and palestinians, and he established and consecrated many churches, strengthening the Orthodox in their faith. Having finished his work in his native land, the saint appointed as his successor the priestmonk Arsenii, ordaining him bishop and giving his blessing to all. He then set off on a journey of no return, wanting “to end his days as a wanderer in a foreign land.” He passed through all of Palestine, through Syria and Persia, Babylon, Egypt and Anatolia, everywhere visiting the holy places, conversing with great ascetics, and gathering up the priestly remains of saints. The saint finished his wanderings at Trnovo in Bulgaria at the home of his kinsman Tsar Asan, where with spiritual joy he offered up his soul to the Lord († 1237). At the time of transfer of the holy relics of Saint Sava to Serbia in 1237 the healings were so numerous, that the Bulgarians began to complain about Asan, “that he had given up such a treasure.” In the saint’s own native country, his venerable relics were placed in the Church of Mileshevo, bestowing healing on all who approach with faith. The inhabitants of Trnovo continued to receive healing from the remnants of the grave of the saint, which pious Asan ordered to be gathered together and placed in a newly built sarcophagus.
The legacy of Saint Sava lives on in the orthodox Church traditions of the Slavic nations. With his legacy is linked the first introduction of the Jerusalem Ustav to Slavic Monastic Rules: the Serbian Khilendaria monastery on Athos lives by the Typikon of Saint Sava to the present time. The redactions of the book “The Rudder” belonging to the Saint Bishop—with the commentaries of Alexis Aristines, are the most widely disseminated in the Russian Church. In the year 1270 the first copy of “The Rudder” of Saint Sava was sent from Bulgaria to the metropolitan of Kiev Kirill. From this was copied one of the most ancient of the Russian “Rudders”—the Ryazansk “Rudder” of 1284. It in its turn was the source for a printed “Rudder”—published in the year 1653 and invariably since that time republished in the Russian Church. Such was the legacy of Saint Sava to the canonical treasury of Orthodoxy.
" }, "rank": 3 }, "1904": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the Relics of Venerable Sabbas of Storozhi Hill near Zvenigorod (1652)", "short": "Finding" } }, "1907": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Sabbatius of Solovki († 1435)", "short": "Venerable Sabbatius" } }, "1914": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Sadoc, Bishop of Persia, and the 128 Martyrs with him († 342-344)", "short": "Martyrs" } }, "1919": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Sampson the Hospitable of Constantinople († c. 530)", "short": "St. Sampson" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Sampson the Hospitable-to-Strangers was the son of rich and illustrious Roman parents. In his youth he received an excellent education, he studied the medical arts, and for free he doctored the sick. After the death of his parents Saint Sampson generously distributed alms and set free his slaves, preparing himself to go into the wilderness.
With this intent un mind he soon journeyed from Rome to the East. But the Lord directed him onto a different path, that of service to neighbour, and so Saint Sampson came to Constantinople. Settling into a small house, the saint began to take in the wandering homeless, the poor and the sick, and he attended to them zealously. The Lord blessed the efforts of Saint Sampson and endowed him with the power of wonderworking. He healed the sick not only through being a skilled physician, but also as a bearer of the grace of God. The news about Saint Sampson spread widely. The patriarch, having summoned him, ordained him as presbyter.
One time it was revealed to the grievously sick emperor Justinian (527-565), that he could receive healing only through Saint Sampson. In praying, the saint extended his hand in the direction of the sick emperor, who then received relief, and soon recovered altogether. In gratitude the emperor wanted to reward his healer with silver and gold, but the saint refused and instead asked Justinian to build a domicile for wanderers and the sick. The emperor readily fulfilled his request.
All the rest of his life Saint Sampson devoted to serving his neighbour. He survived into old age and after a short illness he with joy expired to the Lord († c. 530). The saint was buried at the church of the holy Martyr Mokias. Many an healing was effected at the grave of Saint Sampson. His home for wanderers and the hospice remained open, and the saint did not cease to care for the suffering. He twice appeared to a neglectful worker of the hospice and upbraided him for his laziness. At the request of an admirer of Saint Sampson the vagrants-home was transformed into a church, and alongside it was built a new edifice for taking in the homeless. During the time of a powerful conflagration at Constantinople the flames did not touch the vagrants-home of Saint Sampson: through his prayers a strong rain poured down, which quenched the fire.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In thy patience, O venerable father, thou didst acquire thy reward, * having endured in prayer without ceasing, and loved the poor and provided for them. ** Beseech Christ God O merciful and blessed Sampson, that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Rejoicing with psalms and hymns, O divinely wise and venerable Sampson, * and hastening to thy divine shrine, as to that of an excellent physician and a right acceptable intercessor, ** we glorify Christ Who bestoweth upon thee such grace of healing.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "1921": { "name": { "nominative": "Prophet Samuel (11th C BC)", "short": "Prophet Samuel" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Prophet Samuel was the 15th and last of the Judges of Israel, living more than 1146 years before the Birth of Christ. He was descended from the Tribe of Levi, and was the son of Elkanah from Ramathaim-Zophima of Mount Ephraim. He was born, having been besought of the Lord through the prayers of his mother Anna (wherefore he received the name Samuel, which means “besought”), and even before birth he was dedicated to God. When the boy reached age 3, his mother went with him to Shiloh and in accord with her vow gave him over to the tabernacle in care of the high-priest Eli, who at this time was a judge over the Israelite nation. The prophet grew in the fear of God, and already at 12 years of age he had the revelation, that God would punish all the house of the high-priest Eli, because he did not restrain the impiety of his sons.
The prophecy was fulfilled when the Philistines, having slain in battle 30,000 Israelites (among them were also the sons of the high-priest, Hophni and Phinees), gaining victory and capturing the Ark of the Covenant with God. Hearing of this, the high-priest Eli fell from his seat backwards at the gate, and breaking his back, he died. The wife of Phinees, upon hearing what had happened in this very hour, gave birth to a son (Ichabod) and died with the words: “The glory is gone out from Israel, for the Ark of God is taken away” (1 Sam. [1 Kings] 4: 22).
Upon the death of Eli, Samuel became the judge of the nation of Israel. The Ark of God was returned by the Philistines on their own initiative, and after their returning to God, the Israelites returned to all the cities, which the Philistines had taken. Having gotten up in years, the Prophet Samuel made his sons—Joel and Abiah—judges over Israel, but they followed not in the integrity and righteous judgement of their father, since they were motivated by greed. Then the elders of Israel, wanting that the nation of God should be “like other nations” (1 Sam. [1 Kings] 8: 20), demanded of the Prophet Samuel that a king be established for them. The Prophet Samuel saw in this a deep downfall of the people, which until this time God Himself had governed, announcing His will through His chosen saints. Resigning the position of judge, the Prophet Samuel asked the people, whether they consent in his continued governance, but no one stepped forward for him. After denunciation of the first king, Saul, for his disobedience to God, the Prophet Samuel anointed as king Saint David, to whom he had offered asylum, saving him from the pursuit of king Saul. The Prophet Samuel died in extreme old age. His life is recorded in the Bible (1 Sam. [1 Kings]; Sirach 46: 13-20). In the year 406 A.D. the relics of the Prophet Samuel were transferred from Judea to Constantinople.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Celebrating the memory * of Thy prophet Samuel O Lord, ** through him do we entreat Thee, save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "As a gift of great worth given to God before thy conception, * from thine infancy thou didst serve Him, O most blessed one; * and thou wast vouchsafed to declare beforehand the things of the future. ** Wherefore, we cry out to thee: Rejoice, O Samuel, prophet of God, thou great high priest!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "1961": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Serapion of Kozhe Lake († 1611)", "short": "Venerable Serapion" } }, "1965": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Serapion of the Spaso-Eleazar Monastery", "short": "Venerable Serapion" } }, "1971": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Sergius of Nurom", "short": "Venerable Sergius" } }, "1974": { "name": { "nominative": "Uncovering of the relics of the Venerable Sergius of Radonezh (1422)", "short": "St Sergius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The relics of the Monk Sergei († 1392, Commemorated September 25th) were uncovered on July 5th, 1422 during a time when the Monk Nikon († 1426, Commemorated November 17th) was hegumen. In the year 1408, when Moscow and its surroundings suffered invasion by the Tatar horde of Edigei, the Trinity monastery was devastated and burnt, and the monks headed by the hegumen Nikon hid themselves in the forests, saving the icons, sacred vessels, books and other holy things connected with the memory of the Monk Sergei. In a vision by night on the eve of the Tatar incursion the Monk Sergei informed his disciple and successor about the coming tribulations and foretold in consolation, that the vexation would not be prolonged but rather that the monastery, arising from the ashes, would flourish and grow even more. Metropolitan Philaret wrote about this in the “Life of the Monk Sergei”: “In semblance to this, that it suited Christ to suffer, and through the cross and death to enter into the glory of the Resurrection, so also doth it become everyone, that wouldst be blest by Christ in the length of days in glory, to be tested by one’s own cross and death”. Going through its own fiery cleansing, the monastery of the Life-Originating Trinity was resurrected in the length of days, and the Monk Sergei himself rose up, so that forevermore his holy relics should dwell within it.
Before the beginning of construction of the new temple in the Name of the Life-Originating Trinity upon the spot of the former wooden one (which was consecrated on September 25th, 1412), the Monk Sergei appeared to a certain pious layman and bid him inform the hegumen and the brethren: “Why do ye leave me such a while in the grave, covered over by ground and in the water, constraining my body?” And herewith during the construction of the cathedral, when they dug the ditches for the foundations, the undecayed relics of the Monk Sergei were uncovered and brought up, and all were astonished, that not only the body, but also the clothing upon him was undecayed, although round about the grave there actually stood water. Amidst a large throng of the devout and the clergy, in the presence of the son of Dmitri of the Don—the prince of Zvenigorod Yuri Dimitrievich († 1425), the holy relics were brought up from the ground and placed temporarily in the wooden Trinity church (at this spot is located now the church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit). With the consecration in 1426 of the stone Trinity cathedral the relics were transferred into it, where at present they remain.
All the threads of the spiritual life of the Russian Church converge towards the great Radonezh saint and wonderworker, and through all of Orthodox Rus′ the graced life-creating currents extend outwards from the Trinity monastery founded by him.
Naming a church for the Holy Trinity within the Russian land began with holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Ol′ga († 969, the account about her is under July 11th), who erected the first Trinity temple at Pskov. Afterwards there were erected similar churches in Great Novgorod and other cities.
The spiritual contribution of the Monk Sergei in the teaching of theology about the Holy Trinity is quite significant. The monk had profound insight into the secret mysteries of theology with the “mental eyes” of the ascetic—in prayerful ascent to the Trihypostatic (that is, Three-Person) God, and in the spiritual experience of communion with God and God-likeness.
“Co-heirs of the perfect light and contemplation of the Most Holy and All Sovereign Trinity,—explained Saint Gregory the Theologian,—are those which become perfectly co-united in the perfection of the Spirit”. The Monk Sergei knew experientially the mystery of the Life-Originating Trinity, since in his life he became co-united with God, he became a communicant to the very life of the Divine Trinity, that is, he attained as much as is possible on earth to the measure of “theosis” (“divinisation”, “obozhenie”), becoming a “partaker of the Divine nature” (2 Pet. 1: 4). “Whoso loveth Me,—saith the Lord,—that one wilt keep to My word; and My Father wilt love him, and We shalt come unto him and make abode with him” (Jn. 14: 23). Father Sergius, in everything observing the commands of Christ, belongs to the rank of holy saints in the souls of whom the Holy Trinity “hath made abode”; he fashioned himself into “an abode of the Holy Trinity”, and everyone with whom the Monk Sergei associated, he elevated and brought into communion unto the Holy Trinity.
The Radonezh ascetic, with his disciples and conversants, enriched the Russian and the Œcumenical Church with a new knowledge and vision of the Life-Originating Trinity, the Beginning and Source of life, manifesting Itself unto the world and to mankind in the “Sobornost′” (“Communality”) of the Church, with brotherly unity and the sacrificial redemptive love of its pastors and children.
In the spiritually symbolic gathering together of Rus′ in unity and love, the historical effort of the nation became a temple of the Life-Originating Trinity, erected by the Monk Sergei, “so that by constant attention to It would be conquered the fright of the hateful discord of this world”.
The worship of the Holy Trinity, in forms created and bequeathed by the holy Hegumen of Radonezh Sergei, became one of the most profound and original of features of Russian ecclesiality. With the Monk Sergei, in the Life-Originating Trinity there was posited not only the holy perfection of life eternal, but also an image-model for human life, a spiritual ideal towards which mankind ought to strive, since that in the Trinity as “Indivisible” (“Nerazdel′nyi”, Grk. “Adiairetos”) discord is condemned and “Sobornost′” (“Communality”) is blest, and in the Trinity as “Inseparable” (“Neslyannyi”, “Akhoristos”,—per the Fourth Œcumenical Council at Chalcedon in year 451) cœrcion is condemned and freedom blest. In the teaching of the Monk Sergei about the Most Holy Trinity the Russian nation sensed profoundly its own catholic and ecumenical vocation, and comprehending the universal significance of the feast day, the people embellished it with all the variety and richness of the ancient national custom and people’s verse. All the spiritual experience and spiritual striving of the Russian Church was embodied in the liturgical creativity of the feast of the Holy Trinity, of trinitarian church rituals, icons of the Holy Trinity, and churches and monasteries of this nomen.
The theological insight of the Monk Sergei in transformation was rendered as the wonderworking icon of the Life-Originating Trinity written by the Monk Andrew (Andrei) of Radonezh, surnamed Rublev († 1430, Commemorated July 4th), a monk-iconographer, monasticised in the Trinity-Sergiev monastery, and written at the blessing of the Monk Nikon in praised memory to holy Father Sergei. (At the Stoglav Council of 1551 this icon was affirmed as proper model for all successive church iconographic depiction of the Most Holy Trinity).
“The hateful discord”, quarrels and commotions of worldly life were surmounted by the monastic life-in-common, planted by the Monk Sergei throughout all Rus′. People would not have divisions, quarrels and war, if human nature, created by the Trinity in the image of the Divine Triunity, were not distorted and impaired by Originial sin. Overcoming by his own co-crucifixion with the Saviour the sin of particularity and separation, repudiating the “my own” and the “myself”, and in accord with the teachings of Saint Basil the Great, the life-in-common monks restore the First-created unity and sanctity of human nature. The monastery of the monk Sergei became for the Russian Church the model for suchlike renewal and rebirth, in it were formed holy monks, bearing forth thereof features of the true path of Christ to remote regions. In all their works and actions the Monk Sergei and his disciples churchified life, giving the people a living example of its possibility. Not for renouncing the earth, but rather for transfiguring it, they proclaimed ascent and they themselves ascended unto the Heavenly.
The school of the Monk Sergei, through the monasteries founded by him, his disciples and the disciples of his disciples, embraces all the vastness of the Russian land and threads its way through all the remotest history of the Russian Church. One fourth a portion of all Russian monasteries, the strongholds of faith, piety and enlightenment, was founded by Abba Sergei or his disciples. The “Hegumen of the Russian land” was what people called the founder of the Domicile of the Life-Originating Trinity. The Monks Nikon and Mikhei of Radonezh, Sylvester of Obnorsk, Stefan of Makhrisch and Abraham of Chukhlomsk, Athanasius of Serpukhov and Nikita of Borovsk, Theodore of Simonovsk and Pherapont of Mozhaisk, Andronik of Moscow and Sabbas of Storozhevsk, Dmitri of Prilutsk and Cyril of Belozersk—they were all disciples and conversants of “the wondrous elder”, Sergei. Saint-hierarchs Alexei and Kiprian—Metropolitans of Moscow, Dionysii Archbishop of Suzdal′, and Stephen Bishop of Perm, were associated with him in spiritual closeness. The Patriarchs of Constantinople Kallistos and Philotheos dispatched missives to him and sent their blessings. Through the Monks Nikita and Paphnutii of Borovsk threads a spiritual legacy to the Monk Joseph of Volotsk and others of his disciples, and through Kirill of Belozersk—to Nil Sorsky, to German, Savvatii and Zosima of Solovetsk.
The Church venerates also disciples and co-ascetics of the Monk Sergei, whose memories are not specifically noted within the Menalogion (“Mesyatseslov”) lists of saints under their separate day. We remember, that the first to arrive for the Monk Sergei at Makovets was the elder Basil the Gaunt (“Sukhoi”), called such because of his incomparable fasting. Second was the Monk James (Yakuta), of simple peasant stock, who without a murmur spent long years at the monastery on errands of drudgery and difficult obedience. Among his other disciples, there came to the Monk Sergei his fellow countrymen from Radonezh the Deacon Onisim and son Elisei. When 12 monks had gathered and the constructed cells were fenced in by an high enclosure, the abba appointed Deacon Onisim the gate-keeper, since his cell was outermost from the entrance to the monastery. Under the protective shadow of the Holy Trinity monastery the Hegumen Mitrophan spent his final years,—he it was who formerly had vowed the Monk Sergei into the angelic form and guided him in monastic efforts. The grave of dead and soon blest Starets Mitrophan became the first in the monastery cemetery. In the year 1357 there arrived at the monastery from Smolensk the Archimandrite Simon, who resigned his venerable position as head of one of the Smolensk monasteries, to become a simple obedient of the God-bearing Radonezh hegumen. In recompense for his great humility, the Lord granted him to share in the miraculous vision of the Monk Sergei about the future increase of his monastic flock. With the blessing of the abba, the Blessed elder Isaakii the Silent took upon himself the deed of prayerful silence; his silence was more instructive than any words for the monks and those outside. Only one time after a year of silence did the Monk Isaakii open his mouth—to testify, how he had seen an Angel of God serve together at the altar of the Monk Sergei, in making the Divine Liturgy. An eyewitness of the grace of the Holy Spirit, co-effectualised for the Monk Sergei, was also the ecclesiarch Simon, who once saw, how an heavenly fire came down upon the Holy Mysteries and that the saint of God “did commune the fire unburningly”. The Elder Epiphanii († 1420) was somewhat later, during the time of hegumen Nikon, a priest of the Sergiev flock. The Church names him Epiphanii the Wise for his deep learning and great spiritual talents. He is known as the compiler of the Life of the Monk Sergei and of his conversant Saint Stephen of Perm in eulogy to them; he wrote also the “Account of the Life and Repose of Great Prince Dimitrii Donskoi”. The vita of the Monk Sergei, compiled by Epiphanii 26 years after the death of the monk, i.e. in 1418, was later reworked by the Monk-hagiographer Pakhomii the Serb, called the Logothete, who had come from Athos.
To the monk Sergei, as to an inexhaustible font of spiritual prayer and grace of the Lord, at all times came in veneration thousands of the people—for edification and for prayers, for help and for healing. And each of those having recourse with faith to his wonderworking relics he heals and renews, fills with power and with faith, transforms and guides upwards with his light-bearing spirituality.
But it was not only spiritual gifts and graced healings bestown to all, approaching with faith the relics of the Monk Sergei; to him likewise was given by God the grace to defend against enemies of the Russian land. The monk by his prayers was with the army of Dimitrii Donskoi at the Battle of Kulikovo Pole (“Field”),—he even blessed to go to the military effort his own monks, Aleksandr Peresvet and Andrei Oslyab. He directed Ivan the Terrible the place for erection of the fortress of Sviyazhsk and helped in the victory over Kazan. During the time of the Polish incursion the Monk Sergei appeared in a dream to the Nizhni Novgorod citizen Kozma Minin, ordering him to gather funds and equip an army for the liberation of Moscow and the Russian realm. And when in 1612 after a molieben to the Holy Trinity the militia of Minin and Pozharsky moved on towards Moscow, a propitious breeze fluttered the Orthodox standards, “as though from the grave of the Wonderworker Sergei himself”.
To the period of the Time of Troubles and the Polish incursion belongs the heroic “Trinity sitting-tight”, when many a monk with the blessing of the hegumen Saint Dionysii repeated the military holy deed of the Sergiev disciples Peresvyet and Oslyab. For one and an half years—from 23 September 1608 to 12 January 1610—the Polish laid siege to the monastery of the Life-Originating Trinity, hoping to plunder and destroy this sacred bulwark of Orthodoxy. But by the intercession of the Most Holy Mother of God and through the prayers of the Monk Sergei, “with much disgrace” they fled finally from the walls of the monastery, pursued by Divine wrath, and soon even their leader Lisovsky perished a cruel death on precisely the Monk Sergei’s day of memory, 25 September 1617. In 1618 the son of the Polish king, Vladislav, came right up to the walls of the Holy Trinity monastery. But being powerless against the grace of the Lord guarding the monastery, he was compelled to conclude a peace-treaty with Russia at the monastery village of Deulino. After this a church was erected in the name of the Monk Sergei.
In the year 1619 the Jerusalem patriarch, Theophanes, visited the Lavra amidst his journey to Russia. He especially wanted to see those monks who in time of military danger made bold to put over their monastic garb the chain-mail coat and with weapon in hand to go up onto the walls of the holy monastery, warding off the enemy. The Monk Dionysii the hegumen († 1633, the account about him is under 12 May), in speaking about the defense, presented to the patriarch more than twenty monks.
The first of them was Athanasius (Oscherin), very up in years and with the yellowed greyness of an elder. The patriarch asked him: “Didst thou go to war and lead soldiers?”. The elder answered: “Yes, holy Vladyko, it was made necessary by bloody tears”.—“What is most proper for a monk—prayerful solitude or military exploits before the people?” Blessed Athanasius, making poklon, answered: “Every thing and every deed has its own time. Here on my head is a Latin signature, from a weapon. There are six more memorials of lead in my body. Sitting in the cell at prayer, could I indeed have found suchlike inducements towards moaning and groaning? I did all this not at my own pleasure, but for the blessing of the service of God sent us”. Touched by the wise answer of the humble monk, the patriarch blessed and hugged him. He blessed also the other soldier-monks and expressed his admiration to all the brethren of the Lavra of the Monk Sergei.
The deed of the monastery, during this grievous Time of Troubles for all the nation, was recorded by the steward Avraam (Palitsyn) in “An Account about the Happenings of the Time of Troubles”, and also by the steward Simon Azar′in in two hagiographic collections: “Book about the Miracles of the Monk Sergei” and the “Life of the Monk Dionysii of Radonezh”. In the year 1650 Simeon Shakhovsky compiled an akathist to the Monk Sergei, as “valiant vœvoda (military-leader)” of the Russian land, in memory of the deliverance of the Trinity monastery from the enemy siege. Another akathist in existence to the Monk Sergei was compiled in the XVIII Century, and its author is considered to be the Moscow metropolitan, Platon (Levshin, † 1812).
In the times following, the monastery continued to be an inextinguishable torch of spiritual life and church enlightenment. From its brethren one after the other were chosen for service many famed hierarchs of the Russian Church. In the year 1744, for its service to the country and the faith, the monastery was entitled a Lavra. In 1742 within its enclosure was established the religious seminary, and in the year 1814 the Moscow Spiritual Academy was transferred there.
And at present the Domicile of the Life-Originating Trinity serves as one of the primary centres of grace of the Russian Orthodox Church. Here at the promptings of the Holy Spirit are done the acts of the Local Councils of the Russian Church. At the monastery is a place of residence of His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus,’ which carries upon it the special blessing of the Monk Sergei, in the established form, “Archimandrite of the Holy Trinity Sergiev Lavra”.
The fifth of July, the day of the Uncovering of the relics of holy Abba Sergei, hegumen of the Russian Land—is a crowded and solemn church feastday at the monastery.
" }, "rank": 3 }, "1978": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Serge of Shukhtov († 1609)", "short": "Venerable Serge" } }, "1988": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Schemamonk Siluan of the Kiev Caves (13th-14th C)", "short": "Holy Schemamonk" } }, "1990": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Silvanus the Bishop of Gaza, and with him 40 Martyrs († 311)", "short": "Hieromartyr Silvanus" } }, "1997": { "name": { "nominative": "Apostle and Hieromartyr Simeon, Bishop of Jerusalem, a Kinsman of the Lord († 107)", "short": "Apostle" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Disciple and Hieromartyr Simeon, Kinsman of the Lord, was the son of Cleopas, younger brother of Saint Joseph the Betrothed. In his adolescent years he beheld the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ, believed in Him and became one of the 70 Disciples. Saint Simeon preached the teachings of Christ, exhorted the truths of holy faith and denounced idol-worship. After the killing of the holy Apostle James, the first bishop of Jerusalem († 63, Comm. 23 October)—in his place the Christians chose the holy Disciple Simeon. During the reign of emperor Trajan (98-117) it was reported to the Roman governor Atticus that Saint Simeon was descended from the lineage of King David (the Romans exterminated all the descendants of King David) and was confessing the Christian faith. The pagans seized hold of Saint Simeon, who at that time was already an hundred year old man, and after lengthy torture they crucified him on a cross.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In sacred manner do we praise thee, O sacred hierarch Symeon, * as the kinsman of Christ and a steadfast martyr * who destroyed deception and kept the Faith. * Wherefore, celebrating today thy most holy memory, ** we receive remission of sins through thy supplications.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Today, the Church, possessing the divinely eloquent Symeon * as a exceeding great star, shineth, crying aloud: ** Rejoice, O honored crown of martyrs!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "1998": { "name": { "short": "saints", "nominative": "Holy and Righteous Symeon the God-Receiver and Anna the Prophetess (1st C)", "cmd": "!(doy ==32 && nday == -48)" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Righteous Symeon the God-Receiver (Slavonic: Богоприимецъ/Bogopriimets) was, according to the testimony of the holy Evangelist Luke, one of the chosen of God in expectation of the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit dwelt upon him (Lk 2:25). It was announced to him from God, that he would not die until that time, when the Promised Messiah–Christ the Lord–would be come into the world.
Ancient historians relate that the Egyptian emperor Ptolemy II Philadelphos (285-247 BC) wished to add to the famous Library at Alexandria with texts of Holy Scripture. He invited scholars from Jerusalem, and the Sanhedrin sent their wise men. Righteous Symeon was also among the 72 scholars in Alexandria for the translation of the Sacred Scriptures into the Greek language. (The work was accomplished and received the title “Translation of the 72 Interpreters.” With this also further on in the future, the New Testament was translated into the Slavonic language for the Bulgarian, Serbian, and Russian Orthodox Churches.) Righteous Symeon translated a book of the Prophet Isaiah, having read in the original the words: “Behold, a Virgin shalt conceive and give birth to a Son” (Is 7: 14). He decided, that the word “Virgin” was incorrectly used here in place of the word “Woman,” and he wanted to correct the text. At that moment an Angel appeared to him and held back his hand saying: “Have faith in the words written down; thou thyself shalt be persuaded that they will be fulfilled, whereof thou shalt not taste of death until thou behold Christ the Lord, Who shall be born of a Pure and Immaculate Virgin.”
From this day righteous Symeon began to await the coming of the Promised Messiah.
And here one day righteous Symeon, knowing of it by the Holy Spirit, was come to the Jerusalem Temple. It was on that very same day (the fortieth after the Birth of Christ), when the All-Pure Virgin Mary and Her Betrothed Joseph had come there in order to perform the ritual set down by Jewish Law–to present before the Lord His Own Divine First-Born and to offer the established sacrifice.
When righteous Symeon beheld their arrival, the Holy Spirit revealed to him that the God-Infant Whom the All-Pure Virgin Mary held,–was the Promised Messiah, the Saviour of the world. The elder took into his arms the Infant Christ and pronounced his prophetic words: “Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart, O Lord, with peace according to Thy word, wherefore hath mine eyes beheld Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to the enlightening of gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel.” He blessed the All-Pure Virgin and Righteous Joseph and, having turned to the Mother of God he said: “Behold, This One is set for the fall and rising up of many in Israel and for the sign spoken against, and for Thee thyself a sword shalt pierce the soul, so that the thoughts of many hearts might be revealed” (Lk 2: 22-35).
The holy Evangelist relates further: “Here also was Anna the Prophetess, daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Aser, having reached extreme old age, having lived with her husband for seven years, she was a widow for eighty-four years, who went not out from the temple, serving God both day and night by fasting and prayer. And she having approached at this time, glorified the Lord and prophesied about Him to all awaiting deliverance at Jerusalem” (Lk 2: 36-38).
About the righteous and holy Symeon the God-Receiver is known that he died in extreme old age. In the VI Century his holy relics were transferred to Constantinople. In the year 1200 his grave was seen by the Russian pilgrim Saint Anthony, future archbishop of Novgorod (1212-1220. † 1232, Comm. 8 October).
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Today the elder asked to be loosed * from the bonds of this life of corruption, ** receiving in his arms Christ, the Creator and Lord.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "1999": { "name": { "nominative": "The second finding (1992) of relics of Righteous Simeon of Verkhoturye († 1642)", "short": "The second" } }, "2003": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Stephen Nemanja (in monasticism Symeon), Prince of Serbia, the Myrrh-Gusher († 1200)", "short": "Saint Stephen Nemanja" } }, "2009": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Symeon, Bishop of Tver († 1289)", "short": "Saint Symeon" } }, "2012": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Simeon Stylites (the Younger) of Wonderful Mountain († 596)", "short": "Venerable Simeon" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Simeon the Pillar-Dweller was born in the year 521 in Syrian Antioch from the pious parents John and Martha. Saint Martha (Comm. 4 July)from her youthful years prepared herself for an unmarried life and yearned for monasticism, but her parents insisted on her entering into marriage with the youth John. After ardent prayer in a church in the name of Saint John the Forerunner, the future nun was directed in a vision to submit to the will of her parents and enter into marriage. In married life, Saint Martha strove to please God and her husband in everything. She often prayed about granting her a baby and promised to devote him to the service of God. In his appearance to the saint, Saint John the Forerunner revealed to the pious Martha that of her would be born a son, who indeed would serve God. When the infant was born, he was named Simeon and baptised at two years of age.
When Simeon was six years old, an earthquake occurred in the city of Antioch, during the time of which his father perished. Simeon during the time of the earthquake was in church. Leaving it, he became lost and spent seven days sheltered by a pious woman. Having again appeared to Blessed Martha, John the Baptist indicated where to find the lost boy. The mother of the saint, having found her lost son, settled after the earthquake on the outskirts of Antioch. Already during his childhood the Lord Jesus Christ appeared several times to Saint Simeon, foretelling him his future exploits and the recompense for them.
The six year old lad Simeon went off into the wilderness, where for a certain time he was situated in complete isolation. During this time a light-bearing Angel guarded and fed him and finally, he arrived at a solitary monastery, the head of which was the hegumen Abba John, pursuing asceticism upon a pillar, and with love he accepted the lad.
After a certain while Saint Simeon turned with a request to the Elder John to permit him also asceticise upon a pillar. A new pillar was erected by the brethren of the monastery with the blessing of the hegumen, not far from his pillar. Having completed the obedience of the seven year old boy into monasticism, Abba John himself raised him up upon this pillar. The young ascetic, strengthened by the Lord, quickly grew spiritually, in his efforts surpassing even his experienced preceptor. For his stringent efforts, Saint Simeon received from God the gift of healing. The fame about the deeds of the young monk began to spread about beyond the bounds of the monastery, and monks and laypeople began to come to him from various places, wanting to hear his counsel and receive healings from infirmities. The humble ascetic continued to pursue asceticism with instructions from his spiritual mentor Abba John.
At 11 years of age the lad decided to pursue asceticism upon still higher a pillar, to the top of which was 40 feet. The bishops of Antioch and Seleukos came to the place of the monk’s exploits, and ordained the holy ascetic to the dignity of deacon, and then they permitted him to go up upon the new pillar, on which the Monk Simeon asceticised over the course of 8 years.
The Monk Simeon prayed ardently for the sending down upon him of the Holy Spirit, and the holy prayer of the ascetic was heard. The Holy Spirit came down upon him in the form of a blazing light, filling the ascetic with Divine Wisdom. Alongside with spoken precepts, Saint Simeon dispatched written precepts about repentance, monasticism, about the Incarnation of Christ and about the future Judgement.
After the death of his elder, Saint Simeon structured his life thus: from the rising of the sun until mid-afternoon he read books and copied Holy Scripture, after which he again rose to prayer and prayed all night. When the new day began, having rested somewhat, he began his usual rule of prayer with the rising of the sun.
The Monk Simeon concluded his efforts on the second column and by the decree of God settled upon the Wondrous Mount, having become in his monastery an experienced elder for guidance to monks. The ascent onto the Wondrous Mount was marked by a vision of the Lord, standing atop a column. Saint Simeon continued his exploits at this place where he saw the Lord, at first upon a stone, and then upon a pillar again raised up. Future events were revealed to the Monk Simeon, and thus he foretold the death of the archbishop of Antioch, Ephraim, and the illness of the bishop, Domnos, which overtook him in punishment for his lack of pity. And finally, the Monk Simeon predicted an earthquake for the city of Antioch and urged all the inhabitants to repent themselves of their sins. On the Wondrous Mount Saint Simeon established a monastery, the church of which sick people healed by him built, in gratitude for the mercy shown them. For the needs of the monastery the monk petitioned by prayer a spring of water, and once during the time of a shortage of grain, by his prayer to the Lord wheat was multiplied in the granaries of the monastery. In the year 560 by the command of the Lord the holy ascetic at age 39 received the priestly dignity from the bishop of Seleukos, Dionysios. At age 75 the Monk Simeon was forewarned by the Lord about his impending end. He summoned the brethren of the monastery, instructed them in a farewell blessing talk and peacefully expired to God in the year 596, having toiled in the feat of pillar-dwelling for 68 years.
Just as during life, so also after death the monk worked miracles, healing the blind and lame and leprous, saving many from wild beasts, casting out devils and resuscitating the dead.
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "A desert dweller, an angel in the flesh, * and a wonderworker wast thou shown to be, * O our God-bearing father Symeon, * for having acquired heavenly gifts through fasting, vigilance, and prayer, * thou dost heal the infirm, * and the souls of those who have recourse to thee with faith. * Glory to Him Who hath given thee strength! * Glory to Him Who hath crowned thee! ** Glory to Him Who worketh healings for all through thee!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Desiring the highest and putting away things here below, * thou didst fashion a pillar like unto heaven. * Thereby thou didst shine forth with the radiance of miracles, O venerable one, ** and prayest unceasingly to Christ, the God of all, in behalf of us all.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "2013": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Simon, Abbot of Volomsk († 1641)", "short": "Venerable Simon" } }, "2016": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Simon the Bishop of Vladimir and Suzdal († 1226), Wonderworker of the Caves", "short": "St. Simon" } }, "2017": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Simon of Solvychegodsk", "short": "Venerable Simon" } }, "2029": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Sisoes, Schemamonk of the Kiev Caves (13th C)", "short": "Venerable Sisoes" } }, "2038": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Apostles Sosthenes, Apollos, Cephas, Cæsar and Epaphroditus of the Seventy (1st C)", "short": "Holy Apostles" } }, "2043": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Sophronius, Archbishop of Irkutsk († 1771)", "short": "St. Sophronius" }, "rank": 1 }, "2045": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Sophronius, Recluse of the Kiev Caves († 13th century)", "short": "Venerable Sophronius" } }, "2049": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Spyridon the Wonderworker, Bishop of Tremithus († c. 348)", "short": "Saint Spyridon" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "He was born on the island of Cyprus of simple peasants and in childhoodwas a shepherd. At a mature age he entered matrimony and had children. In his family life he imitated the high example of the Old Testament Patriarchs. After a short time his wife died and he with a lot of eagerness still turned to acts of piety. For his wise humility and Christian simplicity he was elected Bishop of Tremithus. The Lord awarded St. Spiridon the gifts of insight and wonderworking for his virtuous life. Once, during a famine, a poor farmer asked one unmerciful rich man grain for his livelihood, promised to return it with interest after the harvest. The rich man demanded some gold as security for the grain. The poor man told his sorrow to St. Spiridon. The hierarch calmed the poor man and let him go home. But, not having gold, he took a snake, and through prayer turned it into gold, brought it to the poor man who gave it as security so that after the harvest he could redeem the security of this pledge and have it returned to him. When, after the harvest, the farmer redeemed the gold from the rich man and brought it to his hierarch, then the hierarch while in the presence of the farmer through prayer turned this gold back into a snake. St. Spiridon participated in the First Ecumenical Council in which in a simple speech and with wonderworking power countered the insincere words of the lying defenders of Arianism and converted one master of pagan philosophy to the Christian faith. While the hierarch was at the Council, his virgin daughter Irene died. When the hierarch returned home one woman informed him in tears that she gave Irene one valuable thing for protection. The hierarch, not finding this thing anywhere in the house, went to the grave of the dead one and asked her as if she were alive where she hid the protected thing. Irene, as if waking up from a deep sleep told him where she put the protected thing. Then the hierarch “again spoke to her: sleep more, O Daughter, ultimately the Lord will be with you all in the general resurrection. And fear will be on all the former, for you wondered and were awed about the glorious wonder of this. The Saint discovered the secret place for the hidden thing, and returned it to that woman.” Another time under a tearful request to the hierarch from “a barbarian woman,” he raised up her dead son. But “that woman died from joy.” Then the hierarch, after a prayer, cried out to the dead one: “arise!” “She rose up as if from sleep.” St. Spiridon died in about the year 348. The relics of St. Spiridon repose on the island of Corfu. His right hand is in Rome.
" }, "rank": 3, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "He Who is the truth of things revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, a model of meekness and teacher of abstinence. Wherefore, thou didst attain the heights through humility, and riches through poverty. O father Spyridon, entreat Christ God that our souls be saved!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "TROPARION/2": { "text": "Thou wast shown forth as a champion of the first Council * and a wonderworkerr, O Spiridon, our God-bearing father. * Wherefore, thou didst speak to one dead in the grave, * and didst change a serpent into gold. * And, whilst chanting thy holy prayers, thou didst have angels serving with thee, O most sacred one. * 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!
", "Type": "2", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Wounded with love for Christ, * and giving wings to thy mind through the radiance of the Spirit, O most sacred one, * thou didst find thy work in thine active divine vision, * O thou that art pleasing unto God, * being a divine oblation, ** and asking divine illumination for all.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "2051": { "name": { "nominative": "Transfer from Jerusalem to Constantinople of the relics of the Protomartyr and Archdeacon Stephen (c. 428)", "short": "St Stephen" }, "rank": 2 }, "2058": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Stephen, Abbot of Makhrisch († 1406)", "short": "Venerable Stephen" } }, "2065": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Stephen, Abbot of the Kiev Caves and Bishop of Vladimir in Volynia († 1094)", "short": "Venerable Stephen" } }, "2076": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Stephen Stiljianovich of Serbia († 1515)", "short": "Saint Stephen" } }, "2095": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Terence the Bishop of Iconium (1st C)", "short": "Hieromartyr Terence" } }, "2100": { "name": { "nominative": "Apostle of the 70, Timon the Deacon (1st C)", "short": "Apostle of" } }, "2110": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Apostle Titus of the 70, Bishop of Crete (1st C)", "short": "Apostle Titus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Disciple from the 70 Titus was a native of the island of Crete, the son of an illustrious pagan. In his youthful years he studied attentively at Hellenistic philosophy and the ancient poets. Preoccupied by the sciences, Titus led a virtuous life, not devoting himself to the vices and passions characteristic of the majority of pagans. He preserved his virginity, as the Priest-martyr Ignatios the God-bearer (comm. 20 December) testified about him. For such a manner of life the Lord did not leave him without His help. At age twenty in a dream Saint Titus heard a voice, suggesting to him to abandon the Hellenistic wisdom, not providing salvation for his soul, but rather to seek out that which would save him. After this dream Saint Titus waited still another year, since it was not actually like a command, but it guided him to familiarise himself with the teachings of the prophets of God. The first that he happened to read was the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. Having opened it to the 47th Chapter, he was struck by the words, speaking as it were about his own spiritual condition.
When news reached Crete about the appearance in Palestine of a Great Prophet, and about the great miracles worked by Him, the governor of the island of Crete, an uncle of Titus by birth, sent him there. This Prophet was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, incarnated of the Most Holy Virgin Mary and having come into the world for the redemption of the race of mankind from its oppression of the original sin. At Jerusalem Saint Titus beheld the Lord; he heard His preaching and believed in Him. He was a witness of the suffering on the Cross and death of the Saviour, His glorious Resurrection and Ascent to Heaven. On the day of Pentecost the future disciple heard, standing in the crowd, how the 12 Apostles,—after the descent upon them of the Holy Spirit, spoke in various languages among which was the Cretan language (Acts 2: 11). Saint Titus accepted Baptism from the Apostle Paul and became his closest disciple. He accompanied the Apostle Paul on his missionary journeys, time and again he fulfilled entrusted tasks, was involved in the establishing of new churches, and was with him in Jerusalem. Saint Titus was numbered among the 70 Disciples and was ordained by the Apostle Paul as bishop of Crete. Around the year 65, not long before the second imprisonment, the Apostle Paul dispatched a pastoral epistle to his selected one (Tit. 1-3). When the Apostle Paul was taken like a criminal to Rome to stand trial before Cæsar, Saint Titus for a time left his flock in Crete and went to Rome to be of service to his spiritual father. After the death by martyrdom of the Apostle Paul, the Disciple Titus returned to the chief city of Crete—Gortyn.
The Disciple Titus peacefully guided his flock and toiled at enlightening the pagans with the light of faith in Christ. He was granted by the Lord the gift of wonderworking. During a time of one of the pagan feasts in honour of the goddess Diana, Titus preached to a gathered crowd of pagans. When he saw, that they would not listen to him, he prayed to the Lord, so that the Lord Himself would show to the mistaken people the non-entity of idols. By the prayer of the Disciple Titus, the idol of Diana fell down and shattered before the eyes of all. Another time the Disciple Titus prayed, that the Lord would not permit the completion of a temple under construction raised up to Zeus, and it collapsed. By such miracles the Disciple Titus brought many to faith in Christ. Having enlightened with the light of faith the surrounding regions, the Disciple Titus died peacefully in the extreme old age of 97. At death his face shone like the sun.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O holy apostles * entreat the merciful God ** that He grant to our souls remission of transgressions.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Revealed as a companion of Paul, * O ever-memorable Apostle Titus, * thou recounter of sacred mysteries, * with him thou didst preach to us the words of divine grace. * Wherefore, we cry out to thee. ** Cease thou never to pray for us all!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "2113": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Titus the Presbyter of the Kiev Caves († after 1196)", "short": "Venerable Titus" } }, "2117": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Tikhon of Lukh and Kostroma († 1503)", "short": "Venerable Tikhon" } }, "2118": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Tikhon of Medin and Kaluga († 1492)", "short": "Venerable Tikhon" } }, "2124": { "name": { "nominative": "Forefeast of the Meeting of the Lord", "short": "Forefeast" } }, "2125": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Tryphon, Archimandrite of Vyatka († 1612)", "short": "Venerable Tryphon" } }, "2127": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Tryphon of Pechenga and Kolsk († 1583)", "short": "Venerable Tryphon" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "In the world called Metrophanes, the son of a priest, who lived near the city of Torzhok within the Novgorod Province, was born in about 1485. Trained by literate parents, he loved to visit God’s temple, and sang and read in it, and, from youth he was brought up in piety, and from time to time liked to leave the vain world to a deserted place to pray alone and to talk with the Lord. Fervently desiring to remain in this deserted place forever, he once while praying heard a wonderful voice: “this is not your place, an uninhabited and thirsting world is waiting for you.” Having accepted this voice as instruction from above, Trypho decided to devote himself to homiletic works for those not knowing the One God. Having decided this, he went to an unknown country for him and after wandering for a long time in the wilderness, and taught by God, he reached the western part of Lapland occupied by nomadic tribes of pagans, the Lopars. The heaviest work of apostleship among the rough idolaters without human help or protection against rage of pagans stood ahead of the preacher of Christ. But the heart of the preacher burned with love for Christ for their conversion to the faith in Christ, and he for 20 years wandered alone among the dwellings of the Lopars, scattered on various sides of the vast expanse of the tundra, the bogs and the mountains, without means, and sometimes without hope for kind acceptance of him in one dwelling so that he gœs to another to meet the same situation. Quite often the kebuns, pagan priests, subjected the Venerable Trypho to severe tortures and beatings because of his sacred work. The kebuns more than once rose up against the holy preacher to challenge him with pride and hope, “spinning with the preacher of God and raging like beasts and playing dirty tricks on him behind his back, pulling his hair and throwing him to the ground and beating him, and pushing him, calling him an unknown wanderer and fool, shouting at him without limit, and for him to continue to live with them there will bring bitter torments and hating him until his very death.” But the holy adherent of heavenly truth with meekness endured the abuse and beatings, and for a while went to the mountains and caves, and when the rage and the anger of pagans quieted down, he again went there to preach, and the Lord protected His servant. After 20-years of hard work the Venerable Trypho converted the rough idolaters, and a significant number of them accepted the Lord and were ready to receive baptism. But, being a layman with humility, the preacher would not do holy baptism by himself, and meanwhile in all Lapland there was no priest who could baptize the Lopars, and no temple to receive the newly illumined children into the bosom of Church. This forced Trypho to go to Novgorod to Archbishop Macarius to request a sacred charter to build a church and to assign a priest to it. Having received the charter, he led carpenters to the Pechenga River, and carrying wood on his shoulders built a church in 1532, which, however, remained 3 years unconsecrated, and without a priest. Such new difficulty forced Trypho to go to the Kola village, in which he by chance met Hieromonk Elias going there, and whom he invited to go with him to the Pechenga River. The Hieromonk Elias baptized the Lopars, consecrated his church and tonsured Trypho into monasticism. Having taken advantage of the services of the Hieromonk Elias, the Venerable Trypho started the foundation of his church of the holy monastery in the name of the Holy Life-originating Trinity. The Lord obviously blessed the work of the Venerable One: a considerable number of brothers soon gathered near the lonely church, and within 20 years a large monastery with many brothers was founded and services were performed. During this time all the Lopar tribes of western Lapland accepted sacred baptism. In 1556 St. Trypho went to Moscow to the Tsar Ivan the Terrible with a petition for the protection and the security of the monastery in the future. Being graciously accepted by the tsar, he received from him rich gifts for the church and the imperial charter for the possession of the land areas, the necessary streams and the sea bay for eternity. In memory of the imperial generosity, in carrying this out in 1565 he built a temple in the name of the Saints Princes Boris and Gleb for the Lopars on the Pazreke River, which and until now stands as guards on our border with Norway. On a primitive, lonely place of his residence on the Manna Rivulet, which runs into the Pechenga River, the Venerable One constructed a small temple in the name of Dormition of the Mother of God. The extensive, favorable river and sea industry delivered sufficient means for external accomplishment and protection of the monastery, for the special growth in the number of the brothers with postulants. And the holy monastery under the skilled management of the Venerable Trypho blossomed as a garden of belief and piety, as a brightly burning lamp illuminating and recovering all desert areas. The newly illumined children of the Venerable One are the nomadic Lopars who so loved the holy monastery that some began to give it money, some arable land, and others entered the monastery to work for it, and became so strong in the Orthodox faith, that during 300 years there was no instance of anyone converting to another faith or schism among them. Having built his monastery, the Venerable Trypho spent most of his last years in solitude at his favorite place near the Dormition Church. Having lived in Lapland for 70 years and having reached a very old age, the Venerable Trypho became seriously ill. Before his end he taught his brothers consolation and received the Holy Sacraments. He turned over his soul to the Lord on December 15, 1583, being 98 years old, and was buried in a place ordered by him, and his relics rest even up to now in a little hermitage. (See the Archangel Diocese).
" } }, "2156": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Thaddeus the Confessor of the Studion Monastery († 818)", "short": "Venerable Thaddeus" } }, "2180": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Theodore the Varangian, and his son John, of Kiev († 983)", "short": "Martyrs Theodore" } }, "2181": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Theodore, Prince of Ostrog († c. 1483)", "short": "Saint Theodore" } }, "2191": { "name": { "nominative": "Righteous Theodore, Fool-for-Christ, of Novgorod († 1392)", "short": "Righteous Theodore" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Blessed Feodor of Novgorod was the son of pious parents, rich and noted citizens of Novgorod. Having been raised in strict christian piety, and having reached the age of maturity, he took on himself the ascetic deed of Fool-for-Christ’s-sake: all his possessions he gave away to the poor, and he himself to the end of his life dwelt in extreme poverty, not even having shelter over his head, nor warm clothes freezing days. Having discovered a mutual enmity of the Novgorod citizens of the Torgov quarter with the inhabitants of the Sophia quarter, blessed Feodor pretended to be feuding with Blessed Nikolai Kochanov († 1392; Comm. 27 July) who was pursuing asceticism on the opposite Sophia side. When blessed Feodor happened to cross over the Volkhov Bridge to the Sophia side, then blessed Nikolai pushed him over to the Torgov side; thus also did Feodor, when Nikolai was chanced upon on the Torgov side. The blessed ones, spiritually in agreement with each other, by their factitious appearance reminded the Novgorod people of their own internecine strife, which often ended in bloody skirmishes.
The blessed one possessed the gift of perspicacity and, having warned: “Take care of bread,” he predicted an impending famine. At another time with the words: “This will be bare—it will be fine for sowing turnips” he predicted a fire devastating the streets of the Torgov quarter. Blessed Feofor foresaw his own end and said to the Novgorod people: “Farewell, I go afar.”
The Novgorod citizenry saw in him while still alive a saint pleasing to God and regarded him highly. After his death in the year 1392 the blessed one was buried at his request in the Torgov quarter, at Lubyanitsa in the church of the holy Great Martyr George, at the porch where the saint usually loved to pass the time in unceasing prayer. Over his relics was built a chapel.
" } }, "2192": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Theodore the Sanctified († 368)", "short": "Venerable Theodore" }, "rank": 1 }, "2196": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Martyrs Theodore and Basil of the Kiev Caves", "short": "Venerable Martyrs" } }, "2197": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation of the relics of St Theodore, Prince of Smolensk and His Children, Prices David and Constantine, Wonderworkers of Yaroslavl (1463)", "short": "Translation of" } }, "2198": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Theodore, Archbishop of Rostov (1394)", "short": "Blessed Theodore" } }, "2200": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Theodore the Sykeote, Bishop of Anastasiopolis († 613)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Theodore Sikeotes was born in the mid VI Century in the village of Sikea, not far from the city of Anastasiupolis (Asia Minor), in a pious family. When his mother Maria conceived the saint, she had in a dream a vision, that a bright star had overshadowed her womb. A perspicacious elder, to whom she turned, then explained that this was the grace of God overshadowing the infant conceived in her.
When the boy reached six years of age, his mother presented him a golden sash, since she intended that her son should become a soldier. But in a dream vision by night there appeared to her the Great Martyr George (Comm. 23 April), and he bid her not think about military service for her son, since the boy was destined to serve God. The saint’s father, Kosma, had served as a messenger of the emperor Justinian the Great (527-565), and he died early. The boy remained in the care of his mother, with whom lived also his grandmother Epidia, his aunt Dispenia and his little sister Vlatta.
In school, Saint Theodore displayed great talents for his study, chief of which was an unchildlike ability for reasoning and wisdom: he was quiet, mild, he always knew how to calm his comrades, and he did not permit fights or quarrels amongst them. At his mother’s house lived also the pious elder, Stephen. Imitating him, Saint Theodore at age 8 began during Great Lent to eat only a small morsel of bread in the evenings. In order that his mother should not force him to take supper with everyone, the boy returned home from school only towards evening-time, after he had communed the Holy Mysteries together with the elder Stephen. At the request of his mother, the teacher began to send him off to supper at the end of lessons. But Saint Theodore nonetheless skipped off to the church of the Great Martyr George, where the patron saint of the temple appeared to him in the form of a youth and ushered him into the church.
When Saint Theodore reached age 10, he fell deathly ill. They brought him to the church of Saint John the Baptist and placed him in front of the altar. The boy was healed by two drops of dew, fallen from the face of the Saviour on the dome of the temple. At this time by night the Great Martyr George began appearing to the boy, and also leading him off to his own temple to pray until morning. His mother, fearing the night-time dangers of the forest path, spoke with her son about not going at night. One time, when the boy had already gone, she angrily went after him to the church, and she dragged him out by the hair and tied him to his bed. But that very night in a dream vision the Great Martyr George appeared to her, and threateningly she commanded her not to hinder the lad from going to church. And both Elpidia and Dispenia had the same vision. The women then became persuaded of the special vocation of Saint Theodore and they no more hindered him from his efforts, and even his little sister Vlatta began to imitate him.
At twelve years of age the saint was granted in a vivid dream to behold Christ on the Throne of the Kingdom of Glory, and Who said to him: “Asceticise, Theodore, so as to obtain perfected reward in the Heavenly Kingdom.”
From that time Saint Theodore began to toil all the more fervently. Both the First Week and the Cross-Veneration Week of Great Lent he spent in complete silence.
The devil thought upon how to destroy him. He appeared to the saintly lad in the form of his class-mate Gerontios, and urged him to jump off a precipice, and even showed him in what manner how to. But his protector the Great Martyr George saved the boy.
One time the boy set off for a blessing to the wilderness elder Glykerios. During this time there was a terrible drought throughout all the land, and the elder said: “Child, on bended knee let us pray to the Lord, that He send rain. And in such manner shalt we learn, whether our prayers be pleasing to the Lord.” The old man and the boy, on bended knee, began to pray—and immediately it began to rain. Then the elder said to Saint Theodore, that upon him was the grace of God, and he blessed him to become a monk, when the time should come.
At fourteen years of age Saint Theodore left home and lived nearby the church of the Great Martyr George. His mother brought him food, but Saint Theodore left everything on the stones by the church, and he ate over the course of a day only a single prosphora loaf of bread. And even at so young an age, the Monk Theodore was granted the gift of healing: through his prayer a demon-possessed youth was restored to health.
The Monk Theodore then fled human glory and he withdrew into complete solitude. Under a large boulder not far from the church of the Great Martyr George, he dug out a cave and persuaded a certain deacon to cover over the entrance with ground, leaving only a small opening for air. The deacon brought him bread and water and he told no one, where the monk had hidden himself.
For two years the Monk Theodore lived in this seclusion and complete quiet. His kinsfolk bewept the saint and they thought, that he had been devoured by wild beasts.
But the deacon finally revealed the secret, since he was afraid that the Monk Theodore would perish in the narrow cave, and moreover he pitied the weeping mother. They plucked the Monk Theodore out of the cave half-alive.
The mother wanted to take her son home and restore him back to health, but the saint remained nearby the church of the Great Martyr George, and after several days he was completely well.
News about the exploits of the youth reached the local bishop Theodosios. And thus in the church of the Great Martyr George he was ordained to the dignity of deacon, and later—to priest, although the monk was only 17 years of age.
After a certain while the Monk Theodore set off for veneration to the holy places in Jerusalem, and there at the Khozebite Laura near Jordan, he accepted monasticism.
When he returned to his native land, he again continued to live nearby the church of the Great Martyr George. His grandmother Elpidia, his sister Vlatta and his mother on the advice of the monk withdrew to a monastery, and his aunt died in a good confession.
The ascetic life of the young priestmonk attracted to him people seeking salvation. The monk tonsured into monasticism the youth Epiphanios, and later on a pious woman, healed of sickness by the saint, brought him her son Philumenos. Then came also the virtuous youth John. Brethren thus gradually gathered around the monk.
The Monk Theodore continued to bear his burdensome exploits. At his request a blacksmith made for him an iron cage without a roof, and so tight that in it, it was possible only to stand. In this cage in heavy chains the monk stood from Holy Pascha until the Nativity of Christ. From the Baptism of the Lord until Holy Pascha he secluded himself in his cave, from which he emerged only for the making of Divine-services on Saturdays and Sundays. Throughout the whole of the Forty-Day Great Lent the saint ate only greens, and on Saturdays and Sundays spring-grain bread.
Asceticising in such manner, he received from the Lord the power over wild animals. Bears and wolves came up to him and took food from his hand. Through the prayer of the monk, those afflicted with leprosy were healed, and from whole districts devils were cast out. In the nearby village of Magatia, when locusts threatening the crops appeared, its people turned with a request for help to the Monk Theodore. He sent them off to church. After Divine Liturgy, which he served, the villagers returned home and learned that during this while all the locusts had died.
When the military-commander Maurice was returning to Constantinople by way of Galatia after a Persian war, the monk predicted to him, that he would become emperor. The prediction came true, and the emperor Maurice (582-602) fulfilled the request of the monk—he sent the monastery bread each year for the multitude of people being fed there.
The small temple of the Great Martyr George could not accommodate all those that wanted to pray in it. Then through the efforts of the saint a beautiful new church was built. During this while the Anastasiupolis bishop happened to die. The people of the city besought the Ancyra metropolitan Paul to install the Monk Theodore as their bishop.
So that the saint should not resist, the messengers of the metropolitan and the Anastasiupolis people dragged him out of his cell by force and carried him off to the city.
Having become bishop, Saint Theodore toiled much for the welfare of the Church. But his soul yearned for the solitary communion with God. After several years he set off to venerate at the holy places in Jerusalem. And there, concealing his identity, he settled at the Laura monastery of the Monk Sava, where he lived in solitude from the Nativity of Christ until Pascha. Then the Great Martyr George led him to return to Anastasiupolis.
Secret enemies tried to poison the saint, but the Mother of God gave him three small pieces of grain. The saint them and remained unharmed. Saint Theodore felt weighed down with the burden of being a bishop and he besought the Constantinople patriarch Kyriakos (595-606) for a release to return to his own monastery and celebrate Divine-services there.
The sanctity of the monk was so evident, that during the time of his celebrating the Eucharist, the grace of the Holy Spirit, in a visage of radiant porphyry, overshadowed the Holy Gifts. One time, when the monk lifted the discus with the Divine Lamb and proclaimed “Holy Things unto the Holy,”—the Divine Lamb raised itself up into the air, and then resettled itself again upon the discus.
All the Orthodox Church venerated the Monk Theodore as a saint, even while he was yet alive.
In one of the cities of Galatia, a terrible event occurred: during the time of a church procession the wooden crosses being carried began of themselves to strike and chip at one another, with the result that the Constantinople Patriarch Thomas (607-610, Comm. 21 March) summoned to him the Monk Theodore, asking of him the secret of this terrible portent. Having the gift of foresight, the Monk Theodore explained, that this was a sign of coming misfortunes for the Church of God (he was thus prophetically indicating the future heresy of the Iconoclasts). In grief the holy Patriarch Thomas besought the monk to pray for him for a quick death, so that he should not see the coming wœ.
In the year 610 the holy Patriarch Thomas reposed, having besought blessing of the Monk Theodore. And in the year 613 the Monk Theodore Sikeotes also expired to the Lord.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Known to be sanctified from thine earliest infancy, * and shown to be full of grace, * thou didst illumine the world with miracles, * and didst drive away a multitude of the demons, * O sacred minister Theodore: ** wherefore, pray thou to the Lord in our behalf.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Mounting upon the virtues as upon a fiery chariot, * O God-bearer, * thou didst ascend to the heavenly abodes. * Thou didst dwell like an angel with men, * and as a man thou joinest chorus with the angels. * Wherefore, thou hast been shown to be a divine receptacle of miracles, ** O venerable Theodore.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "2201": { "name": { "nominative": "Great Martyr Theodore Stratelates “the General” († 319)", "short": "Great Martyr Theodore" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Great Martyr Theodore Stratelates came from the city of Euchantum. He was endowed with many talents and a 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 beneath the sword. This occurred on February 8th, 319, on a Saturday, at the third hour of the day.lt;/p>" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Through true recruitment didst thou become a most worthy general of the heavenly King, O passion-bearer Theodore; for thou didst wisely put on the whole armor of God and, vanquishing legions of demons, thou didst show thyself to be a victorious athlete. Wherefore, with faith do we ever bless thee.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Having put on the whole armor of faith with valor of soul, and taking in hand the word of god as a spear, thou didst conquer the enemy, O theodore, great among the martyrs. With them cease thou never to entreat Christ God in behalf of us all.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "2202": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation of the relics of Venerable Theodore, Abbot of the Studion Monastery (845)", "short": "Translation of" } }, "2203": { "name": { "nominative": "Great Martyr Theodore the Recruit († c. 306)", "short": "Great Martyr Theodore" }, "rank": 2 }, "2206": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyr Theodotus of Ancyra and the Holy Seven Virgin-martyrs Alexandra, Tecusa, Claudia, Phaine, Euphrasia, Matrona, and Julia († 303)", "short": "Holy Martyr" }, "rank": 1 }, "2210": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Theodosius the Great, Founder of Cœnobitic Monasticism († 529)", "short": "Venerable Theodosius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "
The Monk Theodosios the Great lived during the V-VI Centuries, and was the initiator of common-life (cœnobitic) monasteries. He was born in Cappadocia of pious parents. Endowed with a splendid voice, he zealously toiled at church reading and singing. And the Monk Theodosios prayed fervently, that the Lord would guide him on the way to salvation. In his early years he visited the Holy Land and met with the Monk Simeon the Stylite (“Pillar-Dweller,” † 459, Comm. 1 September), who blessed him and predicted future pastoral service for him. Yearning for the solitary life, Saint Theodosios settled in Palestine into a desolate cave,—in which by tradition, the three Magi had spent the night, having come to worship at the Nativity of the Saviour of the world. In it he dwelt for 30 years in great abstinence and unceasing prayer. Steadily there began to throng to the ascetic those wanting to live under his guidance. When the cave could no more hold all the gathered monks, the Monk Theodosios began to pray, that the Lord Himself would point out the place for the monks. Taking with him a censer with cold unlit coals, the monk went into the wilderness. At a certain spot the coals fired up and set the incense smoke to rising. Here also the monk founded the first common-life monastery, or Lavra [Greek “Laura” meaning “broad” or populous”; in Russia were four such: Trinity-Sergeev, Kievo-Kiev Caves, Alexander-Nevsk and Pochaev], under the ustav-rule of Saint Basil the Great († 379, Comm. 1 January). Soon the Lavra of the Monk Theodosios became reknown, and up to 700 monks gathered at it. According to the final testament of the Monk Theodosios, the Lavra rendered service to neighbour, giving aid to all the poor and providing shelter for wanderers.
The Monk Theodosios was extremely compassionate. One time when there was a famine in Palestine and a multitude of people gathered at the monastery, the monk gave orders to allow everyone into the monastery enclosure. His disciples were annoyed, knowing, that the monastery did not have the means to feed all those who had come. But when they went into the bakery, they saw that then through the prayers of the abba, that it was filled with bread. And suchlike a miracle was repeated every time, when the Monk Theodosios wanted to give help to the destitute.
At the monastery the Monk Theodosios built an home for taking in strangers, separate infirmaries for monks and laymen, and also a shelter for the dying. Seeing that at the Lavra were gathered people from various lands, the monk arranged for Divine-services in the various languages—Greek, Gruzian (Georgian) and Armenian. For communing the Holy Mysteries all gathered in the large church, where Divine-services were done in Greek.
During the reign of the Constantinople emperor Anastasias (491-518) there arose the heresy of Eutykhios and Severus, which recognised neither the sacraments nor the clergy. The emperor joined in with the false-teaching, and the Orthodox began to suffer persecution. The Monk Theodosios stood firmly in defense of Orthodoxy and on behalf of the wilderness monks wrote a missive to the emperor, in which they denounced him and refuted the condemned heresy with the teachings of the Œcumenical Councils. He affirmed moreover, that the wilderness-dwellers and monks would firmly support the Orthodox confession. The emperor showed restraint for a short while, but then he renewed persecution of the Orthodox. The holy elder then manifest great zeal for the truth. Leaving the monastery, he came to Jerusalem and in the “Great” church, stood at the high place and cried out for all to hear: “Whœver honoureth not the four Œcumenical Councils, let them be anathema!.” For this bold deed the monk was sent to prison, but soon returned after the death of the emperor.
The Monk Theodosios during his life accomplished many healings and other miracles, coming to the aid of the needy. One time by prayer he destroyed locusts that were devastating the fields in Palestine; also by his intercession, soldiers were kept from perishing, and he saved both those perishing in shipwreck and those lost in the desert.
One time the monk gave orders to strike the signal, so that the brethren would gather at prayer, and said: “The wrath of God draweth near the Eastern land.” After several days it became known, that a strong earthquake had destroyed the city of Antioch at that very hour, when the monk had summoned the brethren to prayer. Before his death, the Monk Theodosios summoned to him three beloved bishops and revealed to them, that he would soon expire to the Lord. After three days he died at the age of 105, in the year 529. The body of the saint was buried with reverence in the cave, in which he lived at the beginning of his ascetic deeds.
" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "With the streams of thy tears thou didst irrigate the barren desert, * and with sighs from the depths of thy soul thou didst render thy labors fruitful an hundredfold. * Thou wast a beacon for the whole world, radiating miracles. ** O our father Theodosius, entreat Christ God that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Planted in the courts of thy Lord, thou didst flourish most beauteously in thy venerable virtues, * and didst increase in number thy children in the desert, * watering them with the torrents of thy tears, O godly chief shepherd of the flocks divine. ** Wherefore, we cry out: Rejoice, O father Theodosius!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "2211": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Theodosius the Abbot of the Kiev Far Caves († 1074)", "short": "Venerable Theodosius" }, "rank": 4 }, "2213": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Theodosius, Abbot of Totma († 1568)", "short": "Venerable Theodosius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Theodosii (Feodosii) Sumorin of Totemsk was born at Vologda in about the year 1530. In his youth he was raised in a spirit of Christian piety and the fear of God. At the insistence of his parents he married, but family life did not sway him away from God. He went fervently to church and prayed much at home, particularly at night. After the death of both his parents and his spouse, he withdrew to the Prilutsk monastery not far from Vologda. At the monastery Theodosii passed through the various obediences: he carried water, chopped fire-wood, milled flour and baked bread. Having set out on business entrusted him by the hegumen to go to Tot′ma to search out a salt-works for the monastery, he sought the permission of tsar Ivan Vasilevich and the blessing of archbishop Nikandr to found at Tot′ma a monastery. Theodosii was appointed head of this newly-formed Totemsk monastery, which in the grammota-grant of 1554 was declared free of taxation. The monk therefore founded the Totemsk Ephraimov wilderness monastery and brought brethren into it. And eventually the head of two monasteries, Theodosii continued to lead an ascetic life: he wore down his body with chains and hairshirt, and beneath the schemamonk cowl he wore an iron cap. Fond of spiritual reading, he located for the monastery many a book. The monk reposed in the year 1568 and was buried in the monastery founded by him. At his grave miracles occurred. On 2 September 1796 at the time of a reconstruction of the Ascension church his relics were found undecayed, and their glorification was made on 28 January 1798, on the day of his repose.
" }, "rank": 1 }, "2214": { "name": { "nominative": "Repose of Saint Theodosius, Archbishop of Chernigov († 1696)", "short": "Saint Theodosius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Theodosii (Feodosii), Archbishop of Chernigov, was born at the beginning of the decade of the thirties of the XVII Century in Podol’sk governance. He was descended from an old court-nobility lineage, the Polonitsky-Uglitsky’s. His parents were the priest Nikita and Maria. The piety prevailing within the family of the future saint contributed greatly to the spiritual growth of the boy. From childhood he distinguished himself with his gentleness and disposition towards prayer. The innate abilities of the youth came to light in the Kievo-Bratsk college at the Kiev Theophany monastery. This was a time of an extensive flourishing of the college (the end of the 1640’s), when its rectors were the archimandrite Innokentii (Gizel′), and later the hegumen and afterwards archbishop of Chernigov, Lazar (Baranovich). Among its instructors were: the priestmonk Epiphanii (Slavinetsky), the priestmonk Arsenii (Satanovsky), the Belorus bishop Theodosii (Bævsky), the hegumen Theodosii (Saphonovich) and Meletii Dzik—all these were indeed men of enlightenment for those times. The comrades of Saint Theodosii at the college were themselves to become future outstanding pastors: Simeon Polotsky, Ioannikii Golyatovsky, Antonii Radivillovsky, Varlaam Yasninsky. The Kievo-Bratsk Theophany school was at this time the chief centre in the struggle of Orthodoxy against the assaults of Catholic clergy, and Jesuits and Uniates.
The vocation of Saint Theodosii to the monastic life ultimately formed during his years of study: he devoted all his free time to prayer, meditation on God and the reading of Sacred Scripture.
It might be surmised, that the saint did not finish the full course of the college studies, since the school ceased its activity for several years following the devastating of Podolia by the Poles. The saint all his life had deep regard for the Kievo-Bratsk monastery that had educated him. In the Synodikon of the Kievo-Vydubitsk monastery is the following remark about Saint Theodosii: “He was a man of fine intellect and generous to the Kiev Bratsk monastery.”
Upon receiving his education, the future hierarch accepted monastic tonsure at the Kievo-Kiev Caves Lavra with the name Theodosii, in honour of the Monk Theodosii (Feodosii) of Kiev Caves (Comm. 3 May) (worldly name unknown).
The Kiev metropolitan Dionysii (Balaban) made him archdeacon of the Kiev Sophia cathedral, and then appointed him administrator of the metropolitan cathedral house. But soon he left Kiev and resettled at the distant Krutitsk monastery (in Chernigov diocese), near the locale Baturino, which was famed for its strict monastic life. He was consecrated there to the dignity of priestmonk. In the year 1662 Saint Theodosii was appointed hegumen of the Korsunsk monastery in Kiev diocese, and in the year 1664—was made head of the ancient Kievo-Vydubitsk monastery. This monastery shortly before had fallen into the hands of the Uniates and was in complete ruin. But thanks to the energy and initiative of Saint Theodosii, the Vydubitsk Mikhailovsk monastery was quickly restored. He concerned himself in particular about the order of churchly property. He formed an excellent choir, which was famed not only in Little Russia, but also in Moscow, where Saint Theodosii in 1685 sent his singers. And concerning himself over the spiritual growth of the monastery inhabitants, being himself a strict ascetic, in 1680 the holy hegumen made on the island of Mikhailovschina, not far from the monastery, a small skete-monastery for brethren wishing solitude. He appointed there to organise and administrate it one of the most zealous monks of his monastery—the priestmonk Job (Opalinsky).
In his role as hegumen of the Kievo-Vydubitsk monastery, Saint Theodosii had to live through some quite difficult days. He was accused together with other hegumens by Methodii, bishop of Mstislavsk and Orshansk, of betraying the Russian governance in a supposed correspondence with those treasonous to Russia. On 20 September 1668 Saint Theodosii had occasion to give an explanation in the matter. And on 17 November 1668 the slander unraveled, and Saint Theodosii together with the other hegumens received a pardon. His Grace Lazar (Baranovich) esteemed the high spiritual qualities of Saint Theodosii and befriended him. He called him “a sheep of the flock of Christ, teaching by humility,” and he prophetically expressed the wish, that the name of Saint Theodosii might be inscribed in Heaven. When His Grace Lazar in 1689 became locum tenens of the Kiev metropolitan see, he appointed Saint Theodosii as his vicar in Kiev, while he himself remained at Chernigov. In his capacity as vicar of the locum tenens of the Kiev metropolitan see, Saint Theodosii had an active role in many a churchly event. In 1685 he participated with the right of a decisive vote in the selection of bishop Gedeon (Chetverinsky) as metropolitan of Kiev, and he was sent to Moscow with news of this event together with the Pereyaslavl’ hegumen Ieronim (Jerome) (Dubin). In Moscow both representatives were received with honour and esteem. And indeed, the result of this delegation was the re-uniting of the Kiev metropolitan see with the Russian Orthodox Church.
In 1688 Saint Theodosii was appointed archimandrite of the Chernigov Eletsk monastery, replacing the deceased archimandrite Ioannikii (Golyatovsky). And from the time all the activity of the saint transferred over from Kiev to Chernigov. This appointment comprised primarily, in accord with the wishes of His Grace Lazar, that Saint Theodosii should spare no little toil over putting back the Eletsk monastery in good order, since this monastery had not yet been set aright after the expulsion of the Jesuits and Dominicans, and it was very much in bad shape and disorder. Through the efforts of Saint Theodosii, good results were achieved over the course of two or three years, which then fully guaranteed its existence. The saint in his new position also rendered all kinds of assistance to His Grace Lazar in all kinds of important matters. He participated in composing a conciliar reply to the Moscow Patriarch Ioakim in response to his letters questioning the attitude of the Kiev metropolitan see to the Council of Florence, and its judgement on the question of the transformation of the Holy Gifts as accepted by this Florentine Council. When the Patriarch proved to be unsatisfied by these answers, there was dispatched to him at the beginning of 1689 the Baturinsk hegumen Saint Dimitrii (Tuptalo) (the future metropolitan of Rostov). Saint Theodosii journeyed with him in the capacity of representative of His Grace Lazar. He was entrusted to present the Patriarch a letter of reply and to clear up the misunderstandings. On 11 September 1692 Saint Theodosii was solemnly ordained an archbishop in the Uspenie (Dormition) cathdral of the Moscow Kremlin.
Little in the way of an account of the governance by Saint Theodosii of the Chernigov diocese has been preserved. The saint directed special attention to the rousing and increase in the flock of a true Christian piety. With this end in mind he concerned himself with the upkeep of the old and the building of new monasteries and churches. At the very beginning of his episcopate, with his blessing, there was established the Pecheniksk women’s monastery, and he himself consecrated the monastery church in honour of the Uspenie (Dormition) of the Most Holy Mother of God. In 1694, with his blessing, there was founded the Liubetsk skete-monastery, 2 versts from Liubech. In 1694 also the saint consecrated at the Domnitsk men’s monastery a temple in honour of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God. And in the Summer of 1695 he consecrated a majestic temple in honour of the Most Holy Mother of God, built on the summit of Boldinsk Hill, near the ancient Il′insk monastery. Under Saint Theodosii may be noted an especial enthusiasm and strengthening of monasticism in the Chernigov diocese. The saint also devoted great attention to the clergy, and he was a strict questioner in the selection of candidates for priesthood. He gave especial patronage to the Chernigov clergy school, he invited learned monks from Kiev, among whom was Saint John (Maksimovich), the future metropolitan of Tobol’sk, but likewise an helper and successor of Saint Theodosii in organising the Chernigov clergy school. Strict uprightness in regard to clergy and flock, deep compassion, concern and Christian love of peace were distinguishing features in the activity of Saint Theodosii. To him often turned not only the Orthodox for aid and advice, but even persons of other confessions.
But Saint Theodosii could not long sustain the Chernigov flock. Sensing the approach of death, he summoned to him the administrator of the Bryansk Svensk monastery, Saint John (Maksimovich), and elevated him from priestmonk to archimandrite of the Chernigov Eletsk monastery. In this new archimandrite he prepared beforehand his successor. On 6 February 1696 Saint Theodosii died and was buried in the Chernigov Borisoglebsk cathedral church, beyond the right kleros-choir, in a special crypt made for this. His successor Saint John (Maksimovich) later built over his grave a brick arch with an eulogistic inscription in verse, in gratitude for a miraculous healing from a grievous illness. The special granting of grace to which Saint Theodosii attained, is testified to by his ascetic life and his hidden help to all, who recourse to him in prayer.
The glorification of Saint Theodosii occurred on 9 September 1896.
" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O holy hierarch Theodosius, most honored among hierarchs, thou wast a beacon to thy flock; then thou didst pass on to the mansions of heaven. Pray thou at the throne of the King of glory, that He deliver us from the evils which assail us and save our souls, O holy one, by thine intercessions.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "O holy hierarch Theodosius, for Christ the Chief Shepherd didst thou labor, nurturing thy rational sheep in the spiritual pasture; and from Christ God didst thou receive the gift of healing to cure the spiritual and bodily infirmities of all that with faith have recourse to thy healing relics. Wherefore, pray thou now, O holy one, that all that call upon thy name be saved from the assaults of the enemy, and that our souls find mercy.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "2216": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Theodotus of Ancyra", "short": "Martyr Theodotus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "See May 18.
" } }, "2256": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Theophanes, the Confessor and Hymnographer, Bishop of Nicæa († c. 850)", "short": "Venerable Theophanes" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Born in Arabia, together with his brother St. Theodore (see December 27), he was a zealous advocate of iconolatry during the reigns of the Emperors Leo the Armenian, Michael the Stammerer and Theophilus. His suffering for the holy icons continued for 25 years. During the reign of the Emperor Theophilus they after cruel torture cut an inscription into his skin with needles. He died about the year 847. He composed about 145 church Canons. According to the words of the Church, \"with ascetic labors\" and \"with the fervor of abstention \" he withered \"the sweet passions\", and by his speech \"of systematic words\" washed away \"the heretical darkness\" and lightened up \"the heretical haze\".
" } }, "2268": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Theophilus of the Kiev Caves, Archbishop of Novgorod († 1482)", "short": "Venerable Theophilus" } }, "2275": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Therapontes the Abbot of White Lake († 1426)", "short": "Venerable Therapontes" } }, "2277": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Therapont, Abbot of Monza († 1597)", "short": "Venerable Therapont" } }, "2284": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna († 1867)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" }, "rank": 4 }, "2288": { "name": { "nominative": "Apostles of the 70: Philemon and Archippos, Martyr Apphia, wife of Philemon and Equal-to the-Apostles, and Onesimus, disciple of St Paul (1st C)", "short": "Apostles" } }, "2292": { "name": { "nominative": "Apostle Philip, of the 70, one of the 7 Deacons (1st C)", "short": "Apostle Philip" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "One of the 70 Apostles, he was one of the seven deacons chosen by the Apostles and worked together with Archdeacon Stephen. He was born in Cæsarea, Palestine. When persecution was raised against the Church in Jerusalem, Philip was not frightened by the \"lawless fury\", departed to Samaria and preached Christ to them and here converted many to Christ. Among others he baptized Simon Magus and the nobleman eunuch of Candace the Queen of Ethiopia (Acts 8:5-13, 26-39). As a bishop Saint Philip preached Christ in Tralles, Lydia where he destroyed many \"temples of idols\". He died at a very old age. His four virgin daughters were granted the gift of prophecy (Acts 21:8-9). One of them, Hermione (see September 4), accepted the martyr”s death and is numbered among the saints. This holy apostle should be distinguished from the Apostle Philip, who is commemorated on November 14.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O holy Apostle Philip, pray to unto the merciful God, that He may grant remission of transgressions unto our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Today Philip, forechosen from among the apostles, grantest a wealth of healing to the world. He is the most wondrous fisherman of the nations, a converser with the disciples of Christ. He protectest those who praise Him from all evil. Therefore we cry out unto him: O, Apostle, save us all by thy prayers.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" } } } }, "2294": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation of the relics of Hieromartyr Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow (1652)", "short": "Hieromartyr" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "After the martyr’s death of Saint Philip († 23 December 1570; the account about him is under 9 January), his body was buried at the Otrocha monastery, in Tver. The monks of the Solovetsk monastery, where formerly he was hegumen, in 1591 requested permission for the transfer of his relics to their monastery. The much-suffered and undecayed body was placed in a grave, prepared by Saint Philip for himself while still alive, beneath the portico of a temple of the Monks Zosima and Savvatii of Solovetsk, nearby the grave of the starets-elder Jona (Shamin), his beloved guide in monastic deeds.
On 29 April 1649 a grammota by Patriarch Joseph was sent to the hegumen of the Solovetsk monastery, Ilia, concerning the solemn uncovering of the relics of the Saint Wonderworker Philip. On 31 May the relics were transferred into a new reliquary and placed in the Preobrazhenie-Transfiguration cathedral.
In 1652 Nikon, then still the metropolitan of Novgorod, proposed that there be transferred to Moscow the relics of the three Martyr Saint-hierarchs: Metropolitan Philip, and Patriarchs Job and Ermogen. With the blessing of Patriarch Joseph, Metropolitan Nikon set off in 1652 to Solovetsk for the relics of Saint Philip and solemnly conveyed them to Moscow. Into the hand of the saint was put a document (grammota) of repentance by tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich, in which he besought the forgiveness of sins of his great-grandfather Ivan the Terrible, “transgressing” his own power afront the power of the Church. On 3 July the holy relics were met in Moscow: “a pastor, innocent and cast out, was returned to his own throne.” In the Uspensky Sobor-cathedral “in his own centre-place he stood for 10 days” and all day from morning til night there were bells, just like on Pascha Sunday. Afterwards the holy relics were placed in the Uspensky Sobor at the south door of the altar.
At the place where the relics of Saint Philip were met in Moscow by clergy and people, a cross was set up, which gave its name to the Krestov-Cross Tollgate in Moscow
" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Needs English translation
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Needs English translation
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "2315": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Florus and Laurus of Illyria (2nd C)", "short": "Martyrs" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Martyrs Florus and Laurus were brothers by birth not only in flesh but in spirit. They lived in the II Century at Byzantium, and afterwards they settled in Illyria (now Yugoslavia). By occupation they were stone-masons (their teachers in this craft were the christians Proclus and Maximus, from whom also the brothers learned about life pleasing to God). The governor of Illyria Likaion dispatched the brothers to a nearby district for work on the construction of a pagan temple. The saints toiled at the structure, distributing to the poor the money they earned, while themselves keeping strict fast and praying unceasingly. One time the son of the local pagan-priest Mamertin carelessly approached the structure, and a chip of stone hit him in the eye, severely injuring him. Saints Florus and Laurus assured the upset father, that his son would be healed. They brought the youth to consciousness and told him to have faith in Christ. After this, as the youth confessed Jesus Christ as the True God, the brothers prayed for him, and the eye was healed. In view of such a miracle even the father of the youth believed in Christ. When the construction of the temple was completed, the brothers gathered together the Christians, and having gone through the temple, they smashed the idols and in the eastern part of the temple they set up the holy cross. They spent all night in prayer, illumined with heavenly light. Having learned of this, the head of the district condemned to burning the former pagan-priest Mamertin and his son and 300 Christians. The martyrs Florus and Laurus, having been sent back to the governor Likaion, were thrown down an empty well and covered over with ground. After many years the relics of the holy martyrs were uncovered undecayed, and transferred to Constantinople. In the year 1200 the Novgorod pilgrim Antonii saw them; in about the year 1350, Stefan of Novgorod saw the heads of the martyrs in the Almighty monastery.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O ye faithful, let us praise as is meet the all-blessed Florus and the most honored Laurus, * the all-comely and divinely wise and most radiant twain, * who earnestly and manifestly proclaimed the uncreated Trinity to all. * Wherefore, having suffered even unto the shedding of your blooo * and been crowned with most splendid crowns, ** entreat Christ God, that He save our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "The whole world doth ail-gloriously honor Florus and Laurus today, * as martyrs of piety and divinely wise athletes of Christ, * that we may receive grace and mercy through their prayers, * and may be delivered from tribulations and dangers, ** and from wrath and sorrow on the day of judgment.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "2321": { "name": { "nominative": "Transfer of the relics of Hieromartyr Phocas, Bishop of Sinope (403-404)", "short": "Transfer of" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Transfer of the Relics of the Priest-Martyr Phokas from Sinope to Constantinople occurred on 22 July in either the year 403 or 404. The account about him is located under 22 September.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "As thou didst share in the ways of the apostles * and didst occupy their throne, * thou didst find thine activity to be a passage to divine vision, * O divinely inspired one. * Wherefore, ordering the word of truth, * thou didst suffer for the Faith even to the shedding of thy blood. ** O hieromartyr Phocas, entreat Christ God, that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Offering up sacrifices as a high priest, O father, * in the end thou didst offer thyself as a living sacrifice, * bearing witness lawfully to Christ God, * accepting death and strengthened by angels, * who cried out to thee: ** Come with us, O Phocas, and no-one will be against us!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "6" } } } }, "2323": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy and Glorious Apostle Thomas (1st C)", "short": "Apostle Thomas" } }, "2325": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Thomas of Mt Maleon (10th C)", "short": "Venerable Thomas" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Thomas the Maleian was a military commander before accepting monasticism. Powerful and brave, he had participated in many a battle, and he brought victory to his countrymen, for which he gained glory and esteem. But, striving with all his heart towards God, Thomas left the world with its honours and he took monastic vows.
With great humility he visited monastic-elders, asking of them guidance in the spiritual life. After several years Thomas received the blessing for solitary wilderness life and, strengthened in particular by a revelation through the holy prophet of God Elias, he settled on Mount Maleia (eastern part of Athos). Dwelling in complete seclusion, Saint Thomas fought with invisible enemies with suchlike a courage, as before he had against the visible enemies of his country.
The life and deeds of Saint Thomas were not able to be concealed from the surrounding area. People began to flock to him seeking spiritual guidance, and even those suffering from sickness, since he received from God the blessing to heal infirmities.
Many believers received help through the prayers of the monk and upon his departure to God (X).
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O God of our fathers, * deal with us ever according to Thy meekness. * Deprive us not of Thy mercy, * but through their supplications ** direct our life in peace.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Truly thou didst show forth a great victory! * Wherefore, aflame with divine life, thou didst vanquish the corrupt king and all beautiful things, * making thine abode on Mount Maleum, * from whence thou didst ascend to the King of kings in the heavens. ** O Thomas, pray thou unceasingly for us all.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "2331": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Photius, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Russia († 1431)", "short": "Saint Photius" } }, "2359": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Shio of Mgvimo, Georgia (6th C)", "short": "Venerable Shio" } }, "2367": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Agape, Irene, and Chione († 304)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyresses Agapia, Irene and Chionia were sisters by birth and they lived at the end-III Century to beginning-IV Century, near the Italian city of Aquilea. They were left orphaned at an early age. The young women led a pious Christian life and they turned down many an offer of marriage. Their spiritual guide was the priest Xeno. It was revealed to him in a dream-vision, that at a very soon time he would die, and the holy virgins would suffer martyrdom. Situated also at Aquilea and having a similar vision was the Great Martyress Anastasia († c. 304, Comm. 22 December), who is entitled “Alleviatrix-of-Captives” (“Uzoreshitel′nitsa”) because that she fearlessly made visit to Christians locked up in prison, encouraging them and helping them. The Great Martyress Anastasia made visit to the sisters and urged them to bravely endure for Christ. Soon what was predicted in the vision came to pass. The priest Xeno died, and the three virgins were arrested and brought to trial before the emperor Diocletian (284-305).
Seeing the youthful beauty of the sisters, the emperor urged them to recant from Christ and he promised to find them illustrious bridegrooms from his entourage. But the holy sisters answered, that they have only the Heavenly Bridegroom—Christ, for the faith in Whom they were ready to suffer. The emperor demanded they renounce Christ, but neither the elder sisters, nor the youngest of them, would consent. They called the pagan gods mere idols, wrought by human hands, and they preached faith in the True God.
By order of Diocletian, who was setting off for Macedonia, the holy sisters were also to be conveyed there. And they brought them to the court of the governor Dulcetius.
When he saw the beauty of the holy martyresses, he was aroused with impure passion. He put the sisters under guard and he informed them, that they would receive their freedom, if they agreed to fulfill his desires. But the holy martyresses replied, that they were prepared to die for their Heavenly Bridegroom—Christ. Then Dulcetius decided secretly by night to have his way by force. When the holy sisters arose at night and were glorifying the Lord in prayer, Dulcetius edged up to the door and wanted to enter. But an invisible force struck him, he lost his senses and staggered away. Unable to find his way out, the torturer on his way fell down in the kitchen amidst the cooking utensils, the pots and pans, and he was covered all over with soot. The servants and the soldiers recognised him only with difficulty. When he saw himself in a mirror, he then realised, that the holy martyresses had made a fool of him, and he decided to take his revenge on them.
At his court Dulcetius gave orders to strip bare the holy martyresses before him. But the soldiers, no matter how much they tried, were not able to do this: the clothing as it were clung to the bodies of the holy virgins. And during the time of trial Dulcetius suddenly fell asleep, and no one was able to rouse him. But just as they carried him into his house, he immediately awoke.
When they reported to the emperor Diocletian about everything that had happened, he became angry with Dulcetius and he gave the holy virgins over for trial to Sisinius. This one began his interrogation with the youngest sister, Irene. Having convinced himself of her unyielding, he despatched her to prison and then attempted to sway into renunciation Saints Chionia and Agapia. But these also it was impossible to sway into a renunciation of Christ, and Sisinius gave orders that Saints Agapia and Chionia be burned. The sisters upon hearing the sentence gave up thanks to the Lord for the crowns of martyrdom. And in the fire Agapia and Chionia prayerfully expired to the Lord.
When the fire went out, everyone saw, that the bodies of the holy martyresses and their clothing had not been scorched by the fire, and their faces were beautiful and peaceful, like people quietly asleep. On the day following Sisinius gave orders to bring Saint Irene to court. He threatened her with the fate of her older sisters and he urged her to renounce Christ, and then he began to threaten to hand her over for defilement in an house of ill repute. But the holy martyress answered: “Let my body be given over for forceful defilement, but my soul will never be defiled by renunciation of Christ.”
When the soldiers of Sisinius led Saint Irene to the house of ill repute, two luminous soldiers overtook them and said: “Your master Sisinius commands you to take this virgin to an high mountain and leave her there, and then return to him and report to him about fulfilling the command.” And the soldiers did so. When they reported back to Sisinius about this, he flew into a rage, since he had given no such orders. The luminous soldiers were Angels of God, saving the holy martyress from defilement. Sisinius with a detachment of soldiers set off to the mountain and saw Saint Irene on its summit. For a long while they searched for the way to the top, but they could not find it. Then one of the soldiers wounded Saint Irene with an arrow from his bow. The martyress cried out to Sisinius: “I do mock thine impotent malice, and pure and undefiled I do expire to my Lord Jesus Christ.” Having given up thanks to the Lord, she lay down upon the ground and gave up her spirit to God, on the very day of Holy Pascha († 304).
The Great Martyress Anastasia learned about the end of the holy sisters and reverently she buried their bodies.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thou didst mightily arm thy soul with faith, O Irene, * manifestly putting the evil one to shame, and didst lead to Christ myriad multitudes of men, O blessed ones; * and, wearing a robe empurpled by thy blood, ** thou now rejoicest with the angels.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "2369": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Agatha of Palermo in Sicily († 251)", "short": "Martyr Agatha" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyress Agatha was the daughter of rich and respected Christian parents from the city of Palermo (formerly called Panorum) in Sicily. During the time of the persecution under the emperor Decius (249-251), the city governor of Catana, Centianus,—having heard about the wealth and beauty of Agatha, sent his soldiers after her to bring her to trial as a Christian. At Catana they housed the saint with a certain rich woman, who had five daughters. They all attempted to provide temptations for Saint Agatha by means of fine clothes, amusements and entertainment, urging her to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods, but the saint would not give in to their tricks, and disdaining all the delights, she prayed the Lord to grant her the strength for the act of martyrdom. At the interrogation under Centianus, the holy martyress was swayed neither by the flattery, nor by the threats, and she was subjected to cruel jeering: they tore at her bosom with iron hooks, and finally, they cut off her breasts. In prison the holy Apostle Peter appeared to her and healed her of her wounds. Led again to torture, Saint Agatha astonished Centianus, in that her bosom was unharmed. They thereupon began to torture her anew. At this moment in the city there began an earthquake, and the earth opened up and swallowed the closest companions of Centianus. The terrified inhabitants rushed to Centianus, demanding that he stop the tortures. Fearing a revolt by the people, Centianus sent Saint Agatha back to prison, where the martyress, in offering up thanks to God, peacefully gave up her soul to the Lord.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Thy ewe-lamb Agatha crieth out to Thee with a loud voice, O Jesus: * \"I love Thee, O my Bridegroom, * and, seeking Thee, I pass through many struggles: * I am crucified and buried with Thee in Thy baptism, * and suffer for Thy sake, that I may reign with Thee; * I die for Thee that I might live with Thee. * As an unblemished sacrifice accept me, * who sacrifice myself with love for Thee ** By her supplications save Thou our souls, in that Thou art merciful.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Let the Church be adorned today with a glorious robe of purple * dyed in the pure blood of the martyr Agatha, ** crying out: Rejoice, O boast of Catania!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "2372": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-martyr Agnes of Rome († c. 304)", "short": "Virgin-martyr Agnes" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "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." } }, "2379": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Alexandra the Empress, wife of Diocletian († 303)", "short": "Martyr Alexandra" } }, "2382": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Anastasia the Roman (3rd C)", "short": "Martyr Anastasia" }, "rank": 1 }, "2384": { "name": { "nominative": "Great Martyr Anastasia, “Deliverer from Bonds” and her teacher, Martyr Chyrsogonus, and with them Martyrs Theodota, Evodias, Eutychianus, and others, who suffered under Diocletian († c. 304)", "short": "Great Martyr Anastasia" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "
St. Anastasia was born a Roman and was the spouse of a rich pagan Publius. Instructed in the Christian faith by St. Chrysogonus, she devoted herself to ministering to prisoners and confessors of Christ. Traveling from country to country, she comforted the imprisoned Christians, treated their wounds and with the help from her estate released them from prison. For all this she was called Pharmakolytrias, i.e. Medicine woman. She suffered in Illyria, having been attached to 4 pillars and burned by fire. St. Chrysogonus was for a long time kept in a Roman prison and, finally, was beheaded by the sword in Aquileia. St. Theodota, a rich widow from Nicæa, receiving into her home St. Anastasia, together with her three children, one of whom was Evodias, suffered for Christ in Nicæa (see Jul. 29). After torture they were burned. St. Eutychianus and the rest (120 others), who accepted Christ during the torture of St. Anastasia, were beheaded by the sword. In the church hymns of this day only the Great Martyr Anastasia is glorified, and of the other holy martyrs only Martyr Chrysogonus is mentioned.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Thy ewe-lamb Anastasia crieth out to Thee with a loud voice, O Jesus: * \"I love Thee, O my Bridegroom, * and, seeking Thee, I pass through many struggles: * I am crucified and buried with Thee in Thy baptism, * and suffer for Thy sake, that I may reign with Thee; * I die for Thee that I might live with Thee. * As an unblemished sacrifice accept me, * who sacrifice myself with love for Thee ** By her supplications save Thou our souls, in that Thou art merciful.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "When they have recourse to thy temple, * those who find themselves in temptations and sorrows * receive precious gifts through the divine grace * which dwelleth within thee, O Anastasia. ** For thou ever pourest forth healings upon the world.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "2386": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Angelina, Princess of Serbia (16th C)", "short": "Blessed Angelina" } }, "2389": { "name": { "nominative": "Virginmartyr Anysia at Thessalonica († c. 285-305)", "short": "Virginmartyr Anysia" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "Born in the city of Thessalonica, the daughter of rich and God-fearing parents, she, having devoted her life to the Lord, abided unceasingly in fasting and prayer and used her estate to help the poor, the sick and captives in prisons. Once, walking in the temple, St. Anysia met a pagan warrior, who stopped her and demanded that she should have brought an offering for the solar feast. St. Anysia refused and for this was killed by the warrior (at the end of the third century).
" }, "rank": 1 }, "2391": { "name": { "nominative": "Righteous Anna of Constantinople († 826)", "short": "Righteous Anna" } }, "2393": { "name": { "nominative": "Uncovering of the relics (1650) and second glorification (1909) of Righteous Princess Anna of Kashin", "short": "Uncovering of" } }, "2394": { "name": { "nominative": "Dormition of the Righteous Anna, Mother of the Most Holy Theotokos", "short": "Righteous Anna" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The God-wise, God-blest and Blessed Anna was the daughter of the priest Nathan and his wife Mary, from the tribe of Levi by descent of Aaron. According to tradition, she died peacefully in Jerusalem at age 79, before the Annunciation of the Most Holy Virgin Mary. During the reign of the holy Saint Justinian the Emperor (527-565), a church was built in her honour at Deutera. And emperor Justinian II (685695; 705-711) restored her church, since Righteous Anna had appeared to his pregnant wife. And it was at this time that her body and omaphorion (veil) were transferred to Constantinople. (The account about Righteous Joakim and Anna is located under 9September)." }, "rank": 3, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O divinely wise Anna, * in thy womb thou didst bear the pure Mother of God, who gave birth unto Life. * Wherefore, rejoicing in glory, * thou hast now been translated to the mansions of heaven, where is the abode of those who rejoice. * * O ever-blessed one, beseech thou cleansing of transgressions for those who honor thee with love.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "We celebrate the memory of the forebears of Christ, * entreating them with \"faith for help, * that from every tribulation all may be delivered who cry: ** Our God is with us, Who hath glorified them, as was His good pleasure!", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "2395": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Right-Believing Great Princess Anna of Novgorod († 1056)", "short": "Holy Right-Believing" } }, "2396": { "name": { "nominative": "Righteous Anna the Prophetess, daughter of Phanuel, at the Temple in Jerusalem (1st C)", "short": "Righteous Anna" } }, "2397": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Prophetess Anna, mother of the Prophet Samuel (1100 BC)", "short": "Holy Prophetess" } }, "2401": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Antonina of Nicæa, in Bithynia († c.284-305)", "short": "Martyr Antonina" } }, "2404": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Anthusa at Rome (5th C)", "short": "Martyr Anthusa" } }, "2405": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Matrona, Abbess of Constantinople († c. 492)", "short": "Venerable Matrona" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Born in Perga, Pamphilia, and exhausted by the sufferings at the hand of her husband, she hid herself from him and in the clothes of a eunuch was tonsured with the name of Babylus in the men”s monastery of the Blessed Bassian (October 10). Then from here she left for the women”s monastery in Emesa, and was in Jerusalem and on Mount Sinai and, finally, came back to Constantinople where she founded a women”s monastery. After a long and God-pleasing ascetical effort she died in peace in 492.
" } }, "2431": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Women Martyrs Basilissa and Anastasia in Rome († c. 68)", "short": "Holy Women" } }, "2434": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Saint Sophia and her Daughters Faith, Hope and Love († c. 137)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" }, "rank": 1 }, "2445": { "name": { "nominative": "Virginmartyr Glyceria at Heraclea with her Martyr Laodicius the prison guard († c. 177)", "short": "Virginmartyr Glyceria" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Glyceria suffered as a martyr for her faith in Christ in the II Century, during the time of a persecution against Christians under the emperor Antoninus (138-161). She was descended from illustrious lineage: her father Macarius was the city-governor of Rome, and afterwards he resettled to the Thracian city of Trojanopolis. But Saint Glyceria early on lost both her father and mother. Falling in with Christians, she converted to the true faith, and daily she visited the church of God. The Trojanopolis governor, Sabinus, having received the imperial edict about compelling Christians to offer sacrifice to the idols, and so he set the inhabitants of the city a day of general worship of the idol Zeus. Saint Glyceria firmly resolved to suffer for Christ, she told the Christians about her intention, and she besought them to pray that the Lord would send her the strength to undergo the sufferings. On the festal day of Zeus Saint Glyceria, having traced on her forehead the Sign of the Cross, went into the pagan temple; the saint stood on a raised spot in the rays of the sun, and snatched from her head the veil, showing all the holy Cross, traced on her forehead. She prayed heatedly to God, that He should bring the pagans to their senses and destroy the stone idol of Zeus. Suddenly thunder was heard, the statue of Zeus crashed to the floor and smashed into little pieces. In a rage, the governor Sabinus and the pagan priests commanded the people to pelt Saint Glyceria with stones, but the stones that were thrown did not touch the saint. They locked up Saint Glyceria in prison, where the Christian priest Philokrates came to her and encouraged the martyress in the deed before her. In the morning, when the tortures had started, suddenly amidst the torturers there appeared an Angel, and they all fell to the ground, overcome with terror. When the vision vanished, then by order of Sabinus, himself hardly able to speak, they again led off the saint to prison. They securely shut the door and sealed it with the personal ring of the governor, so that no one could get in to her. During all her time of being thus locked in, Angels of God brought Saint Glyceria food and drink. Some many days afterwards Sabinus came to the prison and he himself removed the seal. Going in to the saint, he was shaken, seeing her alive and well. Setting off for the city of Heraclium, Sabinus gave orders to bring along there also Saint Glyceria. From this city there came out to meet her the Christians of Heraclium with the bishop Dometius at the head, and in front of everyone he uttered a prayer to the Lord for strengthening the saint in the act of martyrdom. At Heraclium they cast Saint Glyceria into a red-hot furnace, but the fire in it at once extinguished. Then the governor, in a mindless fury, gave orders to strip the skin from the head of Saint Glyceria. Then they threw the bared martyress into prison onto sharp stones, where she prayed incessantly, and at midnight in the prison there appeared an Angel which healed her of her wounds. The prison guard Laodicius, having come in the morning for the saint, at first did not recognise her, and thinking that the martyress had been hidden away he wanted to kill himself in fear of punishment, but Saint Glyceria stopped him. Shaken by the miracle, Laodicius believed in the True God and he besought prayers of the saint, that he also might suffer and die for Christ together with her. “Follow Christ and thou wilt be saved,”—the holy martyress answered him. Laodicius placed upon himself the chains, with which the saint was bound, and at the trial he declared to the governor and everyone present about the miraculous healing of Saint Glyceria by an Angel and he confessed himself a Christian. The newly chosen one of God was immediately beheaded by the sword. Christians, having secretly taken up his remains, reverently gave them burial, but Saint Glyceria was given over for devouring by wild beasts. She went to execution with great joy, but the lioness set loose upon the saint meekly crawled up to her and, curling up, lay at her feet. Finally, the saint turned with a prayer to the Lord, imploring that He take her unto Himself. In answer she heard a Voice from Heaven, summoning her to the Heavenly bliss. At this moment there was set loose upon the saint another lioness, which pounced upon the martyress and killed her, but did not rend her apart. Bishop Dometius and the Heraclium Christians reverently buried the holy Martyress Glyceria. She suffered for Christ in about the year 177. Her holy relics were glorified with a flow of curative myrh.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Thy ewe-lamb Glyceria crieth out to Thee with a loud voice, O Jesus: * \"I love Thee, O my Bridegroom, * and, seeking Thee, I pass through many struggles: * I am crucified and buried with Thee in Thy baptism, * and suffer for Thy sake, that I may reign with Thee; * I die for Thee that I might live with Thee. * As an unblemished sacrifice accept me, * who sacrifice myself with love for Thee ** By her supplications save Thou our souls, in that Thou art merciful.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Loving Mary, the Virgin Theotokos, * thou didst preserve thy virginity uncorrupted; and burning with love for the Lord, * thou didst suffer with manly mind even unto death, ** Wherefore, O virgin martyr, Christ God hath crowned thee with a twofold crown.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "2446": { "name": { "nominative": "Virginmartyr Glyceria of Novgorod († 1522)", "short": "Virginmartyr Glyceria" } }, "2466": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Martyr Eudokia of Heliopolis († 160-170)", "short": "Venerable Martyr" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Monastic Martyress Eudocia was a Samaritan, a native of the city of Iliopolis in Phœnician Lebanon. Her pagan impiety took her off the good path, and for a long time she led a sinful life. Her soul was deadened and her heart hardened.
One time at midnight Eudocia awoke and heard from beyond the wall in the other half of the house, where there lived a Christian, the singing of a molieben and reading of Holy Scripture, in which it spoke about the eternal bliss prepared for the righteous, and about the punishment awaiting sinners. The grace of God touched the heart of Eudocia, and she realised, that these results of her sin lay grievously upon her soul.
In the morning Eudocia hastened to call on the man, whose rule of prayer she heard by night. This was the elder named Germanos, returning from pilgrimage along the holy places to his own monastery. Eudocia listened for a long time to the guidance of the elder, and her soul as it were came alive and she was filled with joy and love for Christ. She besought the elder Germanos to come to her after several days, during which she secluded herself within the house and gave herself over in repentance to fasting and prayer.
The elder Germanos summoned a presbyter, and after the testing of being a catechumen Eudocia received holy Baptism from the bishop of Iliopolis, Theodotos. Having given away all her wealth to the poor, she withdrew into a monastery and took upon herself very strict acts of penitence. The Lord granted forgiveness to the penitent sinner and endowed her with graced spiritual gifts.
One time, when she was already head of the monastery, the young pagan Philostrates appeared at the monastery. Aflame with impious passion, he under the guise of a monk came into the monastery and began to urge the Nun Eudocia to return to Iliopolis, and begin anew her former life. “May God in revenge stop thee,”—angrily answered Eudocia, and the impostor-monk fell down dead. Fearing that in this she had served as an accomplice to murder, the sisters intensified their prayer and besought the Lord to reveal to them His will.
The Lord Himself appeared to Saint Eudocia in a dream vision and said: “Rise up, Eudocia, and get down on the knees and pray, and thy tempter wilt arise.” And through the prayer of Eudocia, Philostrates revived. Having been restored to life, the pagan besought the nun to forgive him. And having accepted holy Baptism, he withdrew into Iliopolis. And from that time he never forgot the mercy of God shown him, and he started onto the way of repentance.
A certain while passed, when another situation occurred. Inhabitants of Iliopolis reported to the governor named Aurelian, that in accepting Christianity Eudocia allegedly had concealed her wealth at the monastery. Aurelian sent a detachment of soldiers to confiscate these supposed treasures. But over the course of three days the soldiers tired in vain to get close to the walls of the monastery: an invisible power of God guarded it. Aurelian again sent soldiers to the monastery, this time under the lead of his own son. But on the very first day of the journey the son of Aurelian badly injured his leg and soon died. Then Philostrates counseled Aurelian to write to the Nun Eudocia, imploring her to revive the youth. And the Lord, by His infinite mercy, and through the prayers of Saint Eudocia, restored the youth to life. Having witnessed this great miracle, Aurelian and his close associates believed in Christ and were baptised.
When persecutions against Christians intensified, they arrested the Nun Eudocia and brought her for torture to the governor Diogenes. The military-commander Diodoros torturing her received news about the sudden death of his wife Firminia. In despair he rushed to Saint Eudocia with a plea to pray for his departed wife. The monastic-martyress, filled with great faith, turned to God with prayer and besought of Him the return of Firminia to life. Becoming convinced as eye-witnesses to the power and grace of the Lord, Diodoros and Diogenes believed in Christ and after a certain while were baptised together with their families. The Nun Eudocia lived for awhile at the house of Diodoros and enlightened the newly-illumined Christians.
One time the only son of a certain widow, working in the garden, was bitten by a snake and died. The mother bitterly bewailed her dead son. Having learned of her grief, Saint Eudocia said to Diodoros: “The time is at hand for thee to show faith in the Almighty God, Who heareth the prayers of penitent sinners and by His mercy doth grant them forgiveness.”
Diodoros was distressed, not considering himself worthy of such boldness before the Lord, but he obeyed Saint Eudocia. He prayed and by the Name of Christ he commanded the dead one to rise, and before the eyes of everyone present the youth revived.
The Nun Eudocia returned to her monastery, in which she pursued asceticism for 56 years.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Having bound thy soul to the love of Christ with uprightness of mind, * as a disciple of the Word thou didst avoid corrupt, transitory and beautiful things by ignoring them; * and having first mortified the passions by fasting, * thou didst put the enemy to shame by thy suffering. * Wherefore, Christ hath vouchsafed unto thee a twofold crown. ** O glorious Eudocia, venerable sufferer, entreat Christ God that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Having contended well in thy suffering, O most lauded one, * even after thy death thou dost sanctify with outpourings of wonders * us who with faith have recourse to thy divine church; * and, holding festival, we entreat thee, O venerable martyr Eudocia: ** May we be delivered from spiritual afflictions and draw forth the grace of miracles.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "2467": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Euphrosyne, in the world Eudokia, Great Princess of Moscow († 1407)", "short": "Saint Euphrosyne" }, "rank": 1 }, "2468": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Eudokia of Persia († c. 362-364)", "short": "Martyr Eudokia" } }, "2470": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Cyrenia and Juliana of Clicia (4th C)", "short": "Martyrs Cyrenia" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Martyrs Cyriena and Juliana, suffered for Christ during the reign of Maximian in the city of Rosa in Cilicia. After undergoing various abuses these holy Martyrs were burned to death." } }, "2471": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Hermenegild, Prince of the Goths in Spain († 586)", "short": "Martyr Hermenegild" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "He was the son of the Goth King Leovigild. His father, being an Arian, tried in every possible way to convert St. Hermenegild to Arianism and, not successful in this, imprisoned him. When, on the feast of Pascha, the Arian bishop was sent to the imprisoned son of the king in order to give him communion, St. Hermenegild refused to receive communion from the heretic and for this he was beheaded in the year 586." } }, "2474": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Acyndinos, Pegasias, Aphthonios, Elpidiphoros, Anempodistus and 7,000 suffering with them in Persia (c.341-345)", "short": "Martyrs" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "They suffered for Christ in Persia during the reign of Shapur II in about the year 345. Sts. Acindynus, Pegasius and Anempodistus served at the imperial court. After various and horrible torments they were burnt. St. Afton, a warrior, and Elpidephorus, the imperial grandee, who criticized the Shah for the innocent persecution of Christians, were beheaded. Together with these Holy Martyrs up to 7000 Christians were beheaded.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Blessed is the earth that was filled with your blood, O Passion-bearers of the Lord, and holy are the dwelling places that received your bodies. For you triumphed over the enemy in the stadium, and preached Christ with courage. We pray that you beseech Him, since He is Good, that our souls may be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thou hast received into the enjoyment of Thy goodness and repose, O only Blessed One, the pious and God-bearing martyrs, Who have abandoned all earthly goods, Acindynus, Pegasius, Anempodistus, together with them, Afton and Elpidephorus, O Only Most Blessed.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" } } } }, "2478": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Akepsimos the Bishop, Joseph the Presbyter and Haiphal the Deacon of Persia (4th C)", "short": "Martyrs" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "They suffered for Christ in Persia during the reign of Shapur II in the Fourth Century. St. Acepsimas was Bishop of Naasson where he zealously worked for the spread of the Christian faith. During the persecution, he was seized together with Presbyter Joseph and Deacon Aithalas. He underwent cruel beatings and for three years languished in prison. After this they beheaded him. Sts. Joseph and Aithalas were stoned to death. St. Aithalas is also commemorated on September 1.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "O wise one, thou didst celebrate the mysteries blamelessly, and becamest an acceptable sacrifice, O Divinely Blessed One; For thou didst gloriously drink the cup of Christ, Holy Acepsimas, together with thy co-sufferers praying unceasingly for us all.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" } } } }, "2479": { "name": { "nominative": "Great Martyr Euphemia the All-Praised († 304)", "short": "Great Martyr" } }, "2482": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Joannicius the Great († 846)", "short": "Venerable Joannicius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "He was born in the village of Marikata (Bithynia), and in his youth was a shepherd. Later he served his country on the battlefield and then left the vanity of the world for Mount Olympus and there practiced asceticism as a hermit for many years in the wildest and most deserted places. Through an unremitting battle with his passions, indefatigable works, vigil and prayer \"having cleansed the passions of darkness\" \"and having destroyed the flesh\", he trampled down \"the nets of the enemy\", achieved sanctity, having become \"a co-participant with angels\". God awarded St. Joannicius the Great wisdom, insight and the gift of wonderworking. He died in 846. Many came to the holy ascetic for edification and intercession of the saints by his prayers and petitions before God and much spiritual compassion flowed from the venerable one.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "With a flood of tears thou madest the desert fertile, and thy longing for God brought forth fruits in abundance. By the radiance of miracles thou didst illumine the whole universe! O our holy father Joannicius, pray to Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thou wast revealed as a glistening star, enlightening the world, and shining on those who are in the darkness of passions: thou wast revealed a mightiest physician, but as thou received the grace of healing, to those that ask thee grant healing, that we may cry out: Rejoice O Father Joannicius.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" } } } }, "2483": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyrs Nicander, Bishop of Myra, and Hermes the Presbyter (1st C)", "short": "Hieromartyrs Nicander" }, "rank": 1, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Both were disciples of the Holy Apostle Titus from whom they received ordination. During the persecution torturers dragged them over the rocks, pierced them with nails, thrust them into fire and, finally, threw them into the pit and buried them alive." } }, "2488": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Euphrosyne the Abbess of Polotsk († 1173)", "short": "Venerable Euphrosyne" } }, "2491": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Paul the Confessor, Bishop of Constantinople († 350)", "short": "Saint Paul" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "He was born in Thessalonica, and was the successor of St. Alexander. He was a “champion of Orthodoxy, like the Apostle Paul adorned with piety, with courage of soul and endurance in tribulation”. For his zealous refutation of “the evil opinions of the Arians” he “endured persecution and tribulation” and four times was removed from the patriarchal throne by Emperor Constantius, who was an Arian. Finally, St. Paul was banished to a prison in Cucusa, Armenia where he died as a martyr “for the Trinity without beginning and one in essence”. The Arians killed him, strangling him during the service with his omophorion in the year 350. In the year 381 his uncorrupted relics were transferred to Constantinople and in 1236 to Venice where they remain until today.
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Through thy confession of the divine Faith the Church hath shown thee to be another Paul, * a zealot among her priests; * and Abel crieth out to the Lord with thee, * as doth the righteous blood of Zachariah. ** O venerable father, entreat Christ God, that we be given great mercy.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "O Paul, who shone forth upon the earth like a star of heavenly splendor, * thou dost now enlighten the universal Church * for which thou didst suffer, laying down thy life. * And like that of Zachariah and Abel, ** thy blood crieth out to the Lord.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" } } } }, "2492": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Luke of Sicily († c. 800-820)", "short": "Venerable Luke" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "He was born in Taormina, Sicily. At the age of 18 he accepted monasticism and practiced asceticism on Mount Etna. He died while on travel in a monastery near Corinth, about 820." } }, "2494": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the Precious Cross and the Precious Nails by the Holy Empress Helen in Jerusalem (326)", "short": "Finding of" } }, "2496": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Hieron and the other 32 Martyrs of Melitene: Hieron, Hysichius, Nicander, Athanasius, Mamantus, Barachius, Callinicus, Theogenes, Nikon, Longinus, Theodore, Valerius, Xantheius, Theodulus, Callimachus, Eugene, Theodochus, Ostrichius, Epiphanius, Maximian, Duceitius, Claudian, Theophilus, Gigantius, Dorotheus, Theodotus, Castrichius, Anikita, Themelius, Eutichius, Hilarion, Diodotus, and Amonitus (3rd C)", "short": "Martyr Hieron" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Hieron, Hesychius, Nicander, Athanasius, Mamas, Barachias, Callinicus, Theogenes, Nikon, Longinus, Theodore, Galerius, Xanthius, Theodulus, Callimachus, Eugene, Theodochus, Ostrychius, Epiphanius, Maximian, Ducitius, Claudian, Theophilus, Gigantius, Dorotheus, Theodotus, Castrychius, Anicletus, Theomelius, Eutychius, Hilarion, Diodotus and Amonitus suffered for Christ during the reign of Emperor Diocletian in Melitene. St. Hieron was born in Tyana, Cappadocia and was glorified for his courage and strength. Not wishing to enter into the ranks of the warriors as in an army it was impossible to hide his faith. He was seized by force and, for his confession of Christ, they cut off his hands and imprisoned him together with other Christians. After being tortured all the Holy Martyrs were beheaded. All these holy martyrs are mentioned in the services by name.
" } }, "2497": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Melasippos and Karina and their son Antoninus, and 40 children converted by their martyrdom at Ancyra († 363)", "short": "Martyrs Melasippos" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "They suffered for Christ in Ancyra during the reign of Emperor Julian the Apostate. Sts. Melasippus and Casinia died during torture, and St. Antoninus protected by God during torture was beheaded. Seeing the sufferings of St. Antoninus forty children believed in Christ and who were all beheaded." } }, "2498": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Auctus, Tabrion, and Thessalonicia", "short": "Martyrs Auctus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "They suffered for Christ in Amphipolis, Macedonia. St. Thessalonica, the daughter of a pagan priest, was sent by her father to prison after many tortures and there died from torment. Sts. Auctus and Taurion, reproached her father for this, were beheaded after many tortures." } }, "2499": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation of the Relics of Venerable Lazarus, who fasted at Mt Galasia", "short": "Translation of" } }, "2500": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Martyrs Grand Duchess Elizabeth, Nun Barbara, and with them the Princes: John, Igor, Constantine, Sergius, and Vladimir, at Alapayevsk († 1918)", "short": "Venerable Martyrs" }, "rank": 3 }, "2502": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-martyrs Ennatha and Valentina and Martyr Paul of Palestine († 308)", "short": "Virgin-martyr Ennatha and companions" } }, "2503": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Onisiphorus and Porphyrius of Ephesus (3rd-4th C)", "short": "Martyrs Onisiphorus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "The Holy Martyrs Onesiphorus and Porphyrius suffered for Christ during the reign of the Emperor Diocletian. After tortures and burning on an iron pad, they were attached to wild horses and dragged by them until they died.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In their sufferings, O Lord, * Thy martyrs received imperishable crowns from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * they set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By their supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Having suffered mightily, * the two martyrs cast the arrogance of the enemy down to the ground, * being illumined by the grace of the uncreated Tfinity, * O glorious Onesiphorus and Porphyrius. ** Pray ye unceasingly in behalf of us all.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "2505": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Theoctista of the Isle of Lesbos († 881)", "short": "Venerable Theoctista" }, "rank": 1, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Born in Methymna (on the island of Lesbos), she in her youth was tonsured into monasticism in the women”s monastery. Captured by pirates who raided the monastery, they took her to the island of Paros. But there she fled from them, saving her virginity. Finding on the island a dilapidated temple, she began to submit to ascetical efforts in it, constantly abiding in prayer and eating only vegetables. In this way the Venerable Theoctiste led her life for 35 years and died in peace in the year 881. The service for the Venerable Theoctiste is sung at Compline." } }, "2506": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Onisiphor the Confessor, of the Kiev Caves († 1148)", "short": "Venerable Onisiphor" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Venerable Onesiphorus of the Caves, an ascetic in the Kiev Monastery of the Caves in the Twelfth Century. He died in 1148. His relics repose in the St. Anthony Caves." } }, "2508": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Anthony", "short": "Martyr Anthony" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Born in Apamea, Syria, by trade a diamond cutter, being zealous for the glory of God, he destroyed idols in a pagan temple and began to build a temple to the Most Holy Trinity near Apamea, and for this the pagans killed him." } }, "2509": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable John Kolov", "short": "Venerable John Kolov" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Venerable John the Short was tonsured in the Skete desert in Egypt. The name of Venerable John \"the Short\" (in translation into Russian means undersized) means that he \"short in stature\". The Venerable John distinguished himself with unusual obedience, meekness and humility. His spiritual director, St. Pœmen (see Aug. 27), ordered him to water a dry tree and it yielded fruit, which was why it was called \"the tree of obedience\". After he became the trainer of others (refer to May 8 and 9), the Venerable John cared much for their salvation. He died in first half of the Fifth Century. He left many wise sayings." } }, "2510": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Eustolia and Sosipatra the Queen", "short": "Venerable Eustolia" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "The Venerable Eustolia from her youth devoted herself to the service of God in the reign of the Emperor Maurice coming from Rome to Constantinople. Here wishing to become a monastic she met Sosipatra, the daughter of the Emperor Maurice. Both were ascetics, with the assistance of the Emperor, who arranged for a women”s monastery in Constantinople in which they served the Lord up to the end. The Venerable Eustolia died in 610. The Venerable Sosipatra died in 625." } }, "2512": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God “Skoroposlushnitsa”", "short": "Icon of" }, "rank": 4 }, "2514": { "name": { "nominative": "Apostles of the 70: Herastos, Olympos, Rodion, Sosipater, Quartus and Tercias (1st C)", "short": "Apostles of" }, "rank": 1 }, "2515": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Orestes the Physician of Cappadocia († 304)", "short": "Martyr Orestes" } }, "2516": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Milios, Bishop of Persia, and two of his disciples, Euores the Presbyter and Seboes the Deacon († 341)", "short": "Hieromartyr Milios" } }, "2517": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Constantine, Prince of Georgia († 842)", "short": "Martyr Constantine" } }, "2520": { "name": { "nominative": "Great Martyr Menas of Egypt († 304)", "short": "Great Martyr Menas" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Born in Egypt, a warrior, he during the persecution of the Emperor Diocletian left military service and, having gone to the desert, in fasting and prayer he was tonsured there. During one pagan feast he was revealed in the city of Cotiæum (in Phrygia) and began fearlessly to accuse the pagans of their errors. St. Menas was immediately seized and turned over to the cruelest tortures, after which with a sword they beheaded him (in the year 304). In a service for this day together with Menas the martyrs Sts. Victor, Vincent and Stephanida are glorified; but the majority of the church hymns are devoted in honor of the holy Martyr Menas.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In their sufferings, O Lord, * Thy martyrs received imperishable crowns from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * they set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By their supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Christ our God, the imperishable Crown of martyrs, * took thee, O passionbearer Minas, from a transient army, ** and showed thee forth as a partaker of the incorruptible and heavenly.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "2521": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Victor at Damascus (2nd C) along with the Martyr Stephanida of Spain", "short": "Martyr Victor" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "The Holy Martyr Victor suffered for Christ in the city of Damascus, during the reign of the Emperor Antoninus. St. Victor was born in Italy. For confessing Christ he was thrown into a flaming furnace and boiling oil and, when by the power of God he remained unharmed, they beheaded him with a sword." }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In their sufferings, O Lord, * Thy martyrs received imperishable crowns from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * they set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By their supplications save Thou our souls.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "2522": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Vincent of Spain († 304)", "short": "Martyr Vincent" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Born in Spain, he was a deacon in the city of Augustopolis. During the persecution of Christian under Diocletian he was given over for crucifixion in the city of Valencia. Miraculously saved from death on the cross, St. Vincent then was burnt on an iron grid. His relics today repose in Rome." } }, "2523": { "name": { "nominative": "Great Martyr Irene of Thessalonica (1st-2nd C)", "short": "Great Martyr Irene" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "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 beneath 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 eyewitnesses 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.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Thy ewe-lamb Irene crieth out to Thee with a loud voice, O Jesus: * \"I love Thee, O my Bridegroom, * and, seeking Thee, I pass through many struggles: * I am crucified and buried with Thee in Thy baptism, * and suffer for Thy sake, that I may reign with Thee; * I die for Thee that I might live with Thee. * As an unblemished sacrifice accept me, * who sacrifice myself with love for Thee ** By her supplications save Thou our souls, in that Thou art merciful.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Adorned with the beauties of virginity, O virgin Irene, through thy suffering thou becamest most beautiful, dyed in thine own flowing blood; and thou didst cast down the falsehood of ungodliness. Wherefore, thou hast received the honors of victory from the hand of thy Creator.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "2526": { "name": { "nominative": "Uncovering of the relics (1819) of Righteous Juliana, princess of Vyazemsk, Novotorzhskoy", "short": "Uncovering of" } }, "2527": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Nilus the Faster, of Sinai (5th C)", "short": "Venerable Nilus" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "At first he was an eparch (leader) of Constantinople, but later, caring for his salvation, he left for Mount Sinai and there in a cave he spent his life in strict fasting and prayer. In this way the Venerable Nilus pursued his ascetical efforts for 60 years and died about the year 450." } }, "2528": { "name": { "nominative": "Prophet Ahijah (c † 960 BC)", "short": "Prophet Ahijah" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Born in Shiloh, he prophesied during the reigns of Solomon, Rehoboam and Abijam. He predicted that Jeroboam I would reign over 10 tribes of Israel. He died 1000 years before Christ." } }, "2529": { "name": { "nominative": "Uncovering of the relics (1815) of Venerable Nilus the Myrrh-gusher of Mt. Athos", "short": "Uncovering" } }, "2530": { "name": { "nominative": "Icons of the Mother of God “Kikkskaya” and “Helper in labor”", "short": "Icons of" } }, "2531": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the relics of the Holy Princess Juliana of Olshansk (16th C)", "short": "Finding of" } }, "2535": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy and All-praised Apostle Philip (1st C)", "short": "Apostle Philip" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "From among the 12, he was born in Bethsaida. After the Descent of the Holy Spirit, he preached the Gospel in Galilee, and then in Greece, Arabia, Ethiopia, Syria and Asia Minor, enlightening \"with the light of wisdom\" and \"with the lightning of preaching to those sitting in the darkness of ignorance\". His preaching was accompanied by many miracles: in Galilee he raised a child from the dead; in Greece one leader together with the people wanted to kill St. Philip for his sermon, but was then struck with blindness and only through the prayer of the apostle received his sight. With the spread of Christianity during the reign of the Emperor Domitian the Holy Apostle Philip together with the Holy Apostle Barnabas (see June 11), on an order of the town mayor, were arrested, dragged through the streets suffering beatings and curses, were then thrown into prison and sentenced to crucifixion. The Holy Apostle Philip, with pierced feet and crucified on the cross with his head down, was hanged high up on a tree in the city of Hierapolis.
" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O holy apostle Philip * entreat the merciful God ** that He grant to our souls remission of transgressions.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thy disciple and friend, the emulator of Thy suffering, * the divinely eloquent Philip, proclaimed Thee to the world as God; ** by his prayers and through the Theotokos, keep Thy Church and every city from most iniquitous enemies, O most Merciful One.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "2536": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Philip, Abbot of Irap near Novgorod († 1527)", "short": "Saint Philip" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "The Venerable Philip at 12 years of age was tonsured in the Monastery of the Venerable Cornelius of Komel. After living 15 years in the Cornelius Monastery the Venerable Philip, seeking silence, left it and founded a Monastery about 52 versts (34 miles) from Cherepovets, between the Great and Small Irap Rivers (see the Novgorod Diocese). He died in 1527. His relics repose in his Monastery in a hidden place. The Nativity Lent begins after November 14. It anticipates the Feast of the Nativity itself for 40 days and is why it is referred to also as the forty days (see the Typicon (Ustav) Nov. 14). It is also called the St. Philip Lent, or in popular speech, St. Philip”s (Filipovkami) because it begins after November 14, which is the day in memory of the Apostle Phillip. This fast is established by the Church for the worthy preparation of believers for the meeting of the very feast. According to the rules of abstinence it comes closer to Apostle”s Lent (see May 17). Its severity is especially increased from December 20, the days of the Forefeast before the Nativity, and reaches its maximum degree in the so-called \"eve (socheljnik)\". This fast undoubtedly has an ancient origin, although clear mention of it is met only in the IV century. In the V century Leo the Great, mentioning this fast, indicates its ancient establishment and attributes to it the meaning of the offering of gathered fruit. The amount of days of this Lent in antiquity in different churches was not uniform. The uniform order in this respect was established in 1166 in the Constantinople Council that, on the basis of ancient typicons, defined the Nativity Lent of 40 days from November 14." } }, "2537": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Justinian the Emperor († 565) and his wife Saint Theodora († 548)", "short": "Saint Justinian" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "St. Justinian was born a Slav. The famous Greek emperor, fortunate in wars with the enemies of the empire, was also zealous in rooting out paganism as a real adherent of Orthodoxy, as a fervent law-giver (under him the code of church - civil laws was made), and as the mediator of church disputes he was both voluntarily and truly a pious person. He built the St. Sophia temple in Constantinople and many other temples and hospitals. He called the Fifth Ecumenical Council and wrote the church hymn \"Only-begotten Son\" in refutation of the Nestorian heresy. He died in 565 and for his service to the Church and devout life he was added to the choir of saints. St. Theodora became a faithful wife of the Emperor from being a sinner and became the defender of Orthodoxy from being the patroness of the Monophysite heresy. She died in 548." } }, "2539": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Mary of Egypt († 522)", "short": "Venerable Mary" }, "rank": 1 }, "2542": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Elpidias, Marcellus and Eustochius, who suffered under Julian the Apostate (4th C)", "short": "Martyrs Elpidias" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Martyrs Elpidius, Marcellus and Eustochius, were burned to death for Christ during the reign of the Emperor Julian the Apostate.
" } }, "2544": { "name": { "nominative": "Icons of the Mother of God: “Kupyatitskaya”, “Ipatmenskaya”, and “Blagoukhannyi Tsvet”", "short": "Icons of" } }, "2546": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Fulvianus, Prince of Ethiopia, in Holy Baptism Matthew (1st C)", "short": "Saint Fulvianus" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "He handed over the Holy Apostle Matthew to fire, but seeing the miracles leading to the death of the Holy Apostle, believed in Christ and zealously preached the Christian faith. Later for his saintly life he became worthy of the rank of bishop. He died in peace.
" } }, "2552": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Lazarus the Iconographer, of Constantinople († c. 857)", "short": "Venerable Lazarus" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "From his youth he struggled ascetically as a monk and for his efforts he was worthy of the rank of priest. He was engaged in the writing of Holy Icons and for this he suffered during the reign of the Emperor Theophilus who ordered that the fingers of the Saint be burned. He died about the year 857.
" } }, "2553": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Gobrones, in Holy Baptism Michael, and 133 Soldiers in Georgia († 914)", "short": "Martyr Gobrones" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Martyr Gobron (Michael) and the 133 warriors with him who suffered for Christ in Kakheti by the Arab Emir Abdul-Kasim in the year 920. For their refusal to accept Islam all the Holy Martyrs were executed by the sword.
" } }, "2555": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Platon of Ancyra († 302 or 306)", "short": "Martyr Platon" }, "rank": 1 }, "2556": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Romanos the Deacon, of Cæsarea and the youth Barulas († 303)", "short": "Martyr Romanos" }, "rank": 1 }, "2557": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Zaccheaus the Deacon and Alphæus the Reader, of Cæsarea († 303)", "short": "Martyrs Zaccheaus" } }, "2559": { "name": { "nominative": "Prophet Obadiah (9th C BC)", "short": "Prophet Obadiah" }, "rank": 1 }, "2560": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Varlaam of Cæsarea in Cappadocia († c. 304)", "short": "Martyr Varlaam" }, "rank": 1 }, "2561": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Varlaam and Joasaph, Prince of India, and King Abennar, his father (4th C)", "short": "Saints of India" } }, "2564": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Aza of Isauria and with him 150 Soldiers and others († 284-305)", "short": "Martyr Aza" } }, "2565": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Iliodorus of Pomphilia", "short": "Martyr Iliodorus" } }, "2566": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Hilarion of Georgia, the Wonderworker", "short": "Venerable Hilarion" } }, "2568": { "name": { "short": "Blessed Xenia", "nominative": "Blessed Xenia of Saint Petersburg (19th C)", "cmd": "nday != -57 && dow != 0" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "She was born about 1730, and as a young woman married an army colonel named Andrei, a handsome and dashing man fond of worldly living. When she was twenty-six years old, her husband died suddenly after drinking with his friends, leaving Xenia a childless widow. Soon afterward, she gave away all her possessions and disappeared from St Petersburg for eight years; it is believed that she spent the time in a hermitage, or even a monastery, learning the ways of the spiritual life. When she returned to St Petersburg, she appeared to have lost her reason: she dressed in her husband’s army overcoat, and would only answer to his name. She lived without a home, wandering the streets of the city, mocked and abused by many. She accepted alms from charitable people, but immediately gave them away to the poor: her only food came from meals that she sometimes accepted from those she knew. At night she withdrew to a field outside the city where she knelt in prayer until morning. Slowly, the people of the city noticed signs of a holiness that underlay her seemingly deranged life: she showed a gift of prophecy, and her very presence almost always proved to be a blessing. The Synaxarion says “The blessing of God seemed to accompany her wherever she went: when she entered a shop the day’s takings would be noticeably greater; when a cabman gave her a lift he would get plenty of custom; when she embraced a sick child it would soon get better. So compassion, before long, gave way to veneration, and people generally came to regard her as the true guardian angel of the city.” Forty-five years after her husband’s death, St Xenia reposed in peace at the age of seventy-one, sometime around 1800. Her tomb immediately became a place of pilgrimage: so many people took soil from the gravesite as a blessing that new soil had to be supplied regularly; finally a stone slab was placed over the grave, but this too was gradually chipped away by the faithful. Miracles, healings and appearances of St Xenia occur to this day, to those who visit her tomb or who simply ask her intercessions. Her prayers are invoked especially for help in finding employment, a home, or a spouse (all of which she renounced in her own life). A pious custom is to offer a Panachida * Trisagion Service for the repose of her husband Andrei, for whom she prayed fervently throughout her life. Saint Xenia was first officially glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia in 1978; then by the Moscow Patriarchate in 1988." }, "rank": 1 }, "2569": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Proclos, Archbishop of Constantinople († 446-447)", "short": "Saint Proclos" }, "rank": 1 }, "2572": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Dasius of Dorostorum († 284-305)", "short": "Martyr Dasius" } }, "2573": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Eustathius, Thespisius, and Anatolius", "short": "Martyrs Eustathius" } }, "2574": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyrs John the Bishop and James the Presbyter, of Persia († c. 345)", "short": "Hieromartyrs John" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Hieromartyr John, bishop and James, presbyter, for their zealous preaching of Christ, were beheaded in Persia during the reign of Shapur II in the Fourth Century." } }, "2575": { "name": { "nominative": "Entry into the Temple of our Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary", "short": "Entry of the Theotokos" } }, "2581": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Cecelia and the Martyrs Valerian, Tiburtius and Maximus at Rome († c. 230)", "short": "Martyr Cecelia" } }, "2582": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Procopius the Reader", "short": "Martyrs Procopius" } }, "2583": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Meningus", "short": "Martyr Meningus" } }, "2584": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Agabbas of Syria (5th C)", "short": "Venerable Agabbas" } }, "2585": { "name": { "nominative": "Righteous Michael the Soldier, of Bulgaria († 866)", "short": "Righteous Michael" } }, "2587": { "name": { "nominative": "Great Martyr Marina (Margaret) of Antioch in Pisidia (4th C)", "short": "Great Martyr Marina" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Great Martyress Marina was born in Asia Minor, in the city of Antioch, into the family of a pagan priest. In infancy she lost her mother, and her father gave her over into the care of a nursemaid, who raised Marina in the Orthodox faith. Upon learning that his daughter had become a Christian, the father angrily disowned her. During the time of the persecution against Christians under the emperor Diocletian (284-305), Saint Marina at fifteen years of age was arrested and locked up in prison. With firm trust in the will of God and His help, the young prisoner prepared for her impending fate. The governor Olymbrios, charmed with the beautiful girl, tried to persuade her to renounce the Christian faith and become his wife. But the saint, unswayed, refused his false offers. The vexed governor gave the holy martyress over to torture. Having beaten her fiercely, they fastened the saint with nails to a board and tore at her body with tridents. The governor himself, unable to bear the horror of these tortures, hid his face in his hands. But the holy martyress remained unyielding. Thrown for the night into prison, she was granted Heavenly aid and healed of her wounds. Tied to a tree, they scorched the martyress with fire. Barely alive, the martyress prayed: “Lord, Thou hast granted me to go through fire for Thine Name, grant me also to go through the water of holy Baptism.”
Hearing the word “water,” the governor gave orders to drown the saint in a large barrel. The martyress besought the Lord, that this manner of execution should become for her holy Baptism. When they plunged her into the water, there suddenly shone a light, and a snow-white dove came down from Heaven, bearing in its beak a golden crown. The fetters put upon Saint Marina of themselves came apart. The martyress stood up in the fount of Baptism glorifying the Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Saint Marina emerged from the fount completely healed, without any trace of burns. Amazed at this miracle, the people glorified the True God, and many came to believe. This brought the governor into a rage, and he gave orders to kill anyone, who might confess the Name of Christ. There then perished 15,000 Christians, and the holy Martyress Marina was beheaded. The sufferings of the Great Martyress Marina were described by an eye-witness of the event, named Theotimos.
Up until the taking of Constantinople by Western crusaders in the year 1204, the relics of the Great Martyress Marina were situated in the Panteponteia monastery. According to other sources, they were located in Antioch until the year 908 and from there transferred to Italy. Her venerable hand was transferred to Athos, to the Batopedeia monastery.
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Thy ewe-lamb Marina crieth out to Thee with a loud voice, O Jesus: * \"I love Thee, O my Bridegroom, * and, seeking Thee, I pass through many struggles: * I am crucified and buried with Thee in Thy baptism, * and suffer for Thy sake, that I may reign with Thee; * I die for Thee that I might live with Thee. * As an unblemished sacrifice accept me, * who sacrifice myself with love for Thee ** By her supplications save Thou our souls, in that Thou art merciful.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Arrayed in the beauties of virginity, O Virgin Marina, * thou wast crowned with imperishable crowns; * and stained with the blood of thy martyrdom, O martyr, * thou hast received the trophy of victory for thy suffering, ** piously shining forth miracles of healing.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "2593": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Mary of Egypt", "short": "Venerable Mary of Egypt" } }, "2598": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Myrrhbearer and Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene (1st C)", "short": "Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "On the banks of Lake Genesareth (Galilee), between the cities of Capharnum and Tiberias, was situated the small city of Magdala, the remains of which have survived to our day. Now at this place stands only the small village of Mejhdel.
In Magdala sometime formerly the woman was born and grew up, whose name has entered forever into the Gospel account. The Gospel tells us nothing about the youthful years of Mary, but tradition informs us, that Mary from Magdala was young and pretty, and led a sinful life. It says in the Gospels, that the Lord expelled seven devils from Mary. From the moment of healing Mary led a new life. She became a true disciple of the Saviour.
The Gospel relates that Mary followed after the Lord, when He went with the Apostles through the cities and villages of Judea and Galilee preaching about the Kingdom of God. Together with the pious women—Joanna, wife of Khuza (steward of Herod), Susanna and others, she served Him from her own possessions (Lk 8, 1-3) and undoubtedly, shared with the Apostles the evangelic tasks, in common with the other women. The Evangelist Luke, evidently, has her in view together with the other women, stating that at the moment of the Procession of Christ onto Golgotha, when after the Scourging He took on Himself the heavy Cross, collapsing under its weight, the women followed after Him weeping and wailing, but He consoled them. The Gospel relates that Mary Magdalene was present on Golgotha at the moment of the Lord’s Crucifixion. While all the disciples of the Saviour ran away, she remained fearlessly at the Cross together with the Mother of God and the Apostle John.
The evangelists enumerate among those standing at the Cross moreover also the mother of the Apostle James the Less, and Salome, and other women followers of the Lord from Galilee itself, but all mention first Mary Magdalene; but the Apostle John aside the Mother of God, names only her and Mary Cleopas. This indicates how much she stood out from amidst all the women gathered round the Lord.
She was faithful to Him not only in the days of His Glory, but also at the moment of His Extreme Humiliation and Insult. As the Evangelist Matthew relates, she was present at the Burial of the Lord. Before her eyes Joseph and Nikodemos went out to the tomb with His lifeless Body; before her eyes they covered over the entrance to the cave with a large stone, behind which went the Sun of Life…
Faithful to the Law in which she was trained, Mary together with the other women stayed all the following day at rest, because it was the great day of the Sabbath, coinciding in that year with the Feast of Passover. But all the rest of the peaceful day the women succeeded in storing up aromatics, to go at dawn Sunday to the Grave of the Lord and Teacher and according to the custom of the Jews to anoint His Body with funereal aromatics.
It is necessary to suggest that, having agreed to go on the first day of the week to the Tomb early in the morning, the holy women, having gone separately on Friday evening to their own homes, did not have the possibility to meet together with one another on Saturday, and how only at the break of dawn the following day did they go to the Sepulchre, not all together, but each from their own house.
The Evangelist Matthew writes, that the women came to the grave at dawn, or as the Evangelist Mark expresses, extremely early before the rising of the sun; the Evangelist John, as it were elaborating upon these, says that Mary came to the grave so early that it was still dark. Obviously, she waited impatiently for the end of night, but it was not daybreak when round about darkness still ruled—she ran there where lay the Body of the Lord.
Now then, Mary went to the Tomb alone. Seeing the stone pushed away from the cave, she rushed away in fear thither where dwelt the close Apostles of Christ—Peter and John. Hearing the strange message that the Lord was gone from the tomb, both Apostles ran to the tomb and, seeing the shroud and winding cloths, they were amazed. The Apostles went and told no one nothing, but Mary stood about the entrance to the gloomy tomb and wept. Here in this dark tomb still so recently lay her lifeless Lord. Wanting proof that the tomb really was empty, she went down to it—and here a strange light suddenly prevailed upon her. She saw two angels in white garments, the one sitting at the head, the other at the foot, where the Body of Jesus had been placed. She heard the question: “Woman, why weepest thou?”—she answered them with the words which she had said to the Apostles: “They have taken my Lord, and I do not know, where they have put Him.” Having said this, she turned around, and at this moment saw the Risen Jesus standing about the grave, but she did not recognise Him.
He asked Mary: “Woman, why weepest thou? Whom dost thou seek?” She answered thinking that she was seeing the gardener: “Sir, if thou hast taken him, tell where thou hast put Him, and I will reclaim Him.”
But at this moment she recognised the Lord’s voice, a voice which was known from the day He healed her. This was the voice in those days and years, when together with the other pious women she followed the Lord through all the cities and places where His preaching was heard. She gave a joyful shout “Rabbi” that means Teacher.
Respect and love, fondness and deep veneration, a feeling of thankfulness and recognition at His Splendour as great Teacher—all came together in this single outcry. She was able to say nothing more and she threw herself down at the feet of her Teacher, to wash them with tears of joy. But the Lord said to her: “Touch me not, for I am still not ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and tell them: “I ascend to My Father and your Father and to My God and to your God.”
She came to herself and again ran to the Apostles, so as to do the will of Him sending her to preach. Again she ran into the house, where the Apostles stayed still in dismay, and announced to them the joyous message “I have seen the Lord!” This was the first preaching in the world about the Resurrection.
The Apostles were obliged to proclaim the Glad Tidings to the world, but she proclaimed it to the Apostles themselves…
Holy Scripture does not tell us about the life of Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection of Christ, but it is impossible to doubt, that if in the terrifying minutes of Christ’s Crucifixion she was the foot of His Cross with His All-Pure Mother and John, undoubtedly, she stayed with them during all the happier time after the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ. Thus in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles Saint Luke writes: that all the Apostles with one mind stayed in prayer and supplication, with certain women and Mary the Mother of Jesus and His brethren.
Holy Tradition testifies, that when the Apostles departed from Jerusalem for preaching to all the ends of the earth, then together with them also went Mary Magdalene to preach. A daring woman, whose heart was full of reminiscence of the Resurrection, she went beyond her native borders and set off to preach in pagan Rome. And everywhere she proclaimed to people about Christ and His Teaching, and when many did not believe that Christ is risen, she repeated to them what she had said to the Apostles on the radiant morning of the Resurrection: “I have seen the Lord!” With this preaching she made the rounds of all Italy.
Tradition relates, that in Italy Mary Magdalene visited the Emperor Tiberias (14-37 AD) and proclaimed to him about Christ’s Resurrection. According to tradition, she took him a red egg as a symbol of the Resurrection, a symbol of new life with the words: “Christ is Risen!” Then she told the emperor about this, that in his Province of Judea was the innocently condemned Jesus the Galilean, an holy man, a maker or miracles, powerful before God and all mankind, executed on the instigation of the Jewish High-Priests and the sentence affirmed by the procurator named by Tiberias, Pontius Pilate.
Mary repeated the words of the Apostles, that believing in the Redemption of Christ from the vanity of life is not as with perishable silver or gold, but rather the precious Blood of Christ is like a spotless and pure Lamb.
Thanks to Mary Magdalene the custom to give each other paschal eggs on the day of the Luminous Resurrection of Christ spread among Christians over all the world. On one ancient hand-written Greek ustav, written on parchment, kept in the monastery library of Saint Athanasias near Thessalonika (Solunea), is an established prayer read on the day of Holy Pascha for the blessing of eggs and cheese, in which it is indicated, that the Hegumen (Abbot) in passing out the blessed eggs says to the brethren: “Thus have we received from the holy fathers, who preserved this custom from the very time of the holy apostles, wherefore the holy equal-unto-the-apostles Mary Magdalene first showed believers the example of this joyful offering.”
Mary Magdalene continued her preaching in Italy and in the city of Rome itself. Evidently, the Apostle Paul has precisely her in view in his Epistle to the Romans (16, 6), where together with other ascetics of evangelic preaching he mentions Mary (Mariam), who as he expresses “has done much for us.” Evidently, she extensively served the Church in its means of subsistence and its difficulties, being exposed to dangers, and sharing with the Apostles the labours of preaching.
According to Church tradition, she remained in Rome until the arrival of the Apostle Paul, and for two more years still, following his departure from Rome after the first court judgment upon him. From Rome Saint Mary Magdalene, already bent with age, moved to Ephesus where unceasingly laboured the holy Apostle John, who with her wrote the first 20 Chapters of his Gospel. There the saint finished her earthly life and was buried.
Her holy relics were transferred in the IX Century to the capital of the Byzantine Empire—Constantinople, and placed in the monastery Church of Saint Lazarus. In the era of the Crusader campaigns they were transferred to Italy and placed at Rome under the altar of the Lateran Cathedral. Part of the relics of Mary Magdalene are located in France near Marseilles, where over them at the foot of a steep mountain is erected in her honour a splendid church.
The Orthodox Church honours the holy memory of Saint Mary Magdalene—the woman, called by the Lord Himself from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God.
Formerly immersed in sin and having received healing, she sincerely and irrevocably began a new life and never wavered from the path. Mary loved the Lord Who called her to a new life. She was faithful to Him not only then—when He having expelled from her the seven demons and surrounded by enthusiastic crowds passed through the cities and villages of Palestine, winning for Himself the glory of a miracle-worker—but also then when all the disciples in fear deserted Him and He, humiliated and crucified, hung in torment upon the Cross. This is why the Lord, knowing her faithfulness, appeared to her first, and esteemed her worthy to be first proclaiming His Resurrection.
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "The honorable Mary Magdalene followed after Christ, * Who for our sake was born of the Virgin, * keeping His precepts and laws. * Wherefore, celebrating thy most holy memory today, ** through thy supplications we receive remission of sins.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Standing before the Cross of the Savior with many others, * suffering with the Mother of the Lord and pouring forth tears, * the all-glorious one made this offering as praise, saying: * \"What is this strange wonder? Is it Thy will to suffer, O Thou Who sustainest all creation? ** Glory to Thy dominion!\"
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "2630": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Nina, Equal-to-the-Apostles and Enlightener of Georgia († 335)", "short": "Saint Nina" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Nina, Enlightener of Gruzia (Georgia), was born in about the year 280 in the city of Kolastra in Cappadocia, where many of the Gruzian people had gathered. Her father Zabulon happened to be a kinsman to the holy Great Martyr George (Comm. 23 April). He was descended of illustrious lineage and of pious parentage, and he stood in good favour with the emperor, Maximian (284-305). Zabulon, a Christian, served in the military under the emperor, and he took part in the setting free of Christian captives from Gaul (modern France). Saint Nina’s mother, Susanna, was a sister of the Jerusalem Patriarch (some suggest named Juvenalios).
[trans. addendum: in 1996 the parents of Saint Nina were enumerated to the ranks of the Saints; the commemoration of Saints Zabulon and Susanna is 20 May].
At twelve years of age Saint Nina went to Jerusalem together with her parents, who had but only this one daughter. By their mutual consent and with the blessing of the Jerusalem Patriarch, Zabulon devoted his life to the service of God at the Jordan, and Susanna was made deaconness in the church of the Sepulchre of the Lord. The upbringing of Saint Nina was entrusted to the pious woman-elder, Nianphora. Saint Nina displayed diligence and obedience over the space of two years: with the help of the grace of God, she got into the firm habit of fulfilling the rule of faith and she read the Holy Scripture zealously.
One time, while in tears reliving the experience of the Gospel passages describing the Crucifixion of Christ the Saviour, the thought would not leave her mind over the fate of the Chiton (Tunic) of the Lord (Jn. 19: 23-24). To the questioning of Saint Nina as to where the Chiton (Tunic) of the Lord had gone (the account about it may be found under 1 October), the woman-elder Nianphora declared that the undecayed Chiton (Tunic) of the Lord, by tradition, had been carried off by the Mtskheta rabbi Eleazar and taken with him back to a place named Iveria (Gruzia or Georgia), and called the Appanage (i.e. the “allotted portion”) of the Mother of God. The All-Pure Virgin Herself during Her earthly lifetime had received the Apostolic allotment for the enlightening of Gruzia, but an Angel of the Lord in appearing to Her foretold, that Gruzia would become Her earthly appanage only afterwards upon Her Repose, and that the Providence of God had prepared for Her Apostolic service too at Athos (likewise called the Appanage of the Mother of God).
And learning further from the woman-elder Nianphora, that Gruzia had not then yet been enlightened by the light of Christianity, Saint Nina both day and night in prayer besought the Most Holy Mother of God, that She might grant her to see Gruzia converted to Christ, and indeed too might enable her to find the Chiton (Tunic) of the Lord.
The Queen of Heaven heard the prayer of the young righteous one. One time, when Saint Nina was taking rest after long prayer, the All-Pure Virgin appeared to her in a dream, and entrusting her a cross plaited together of vineyard sprigs, She said: “Take thou this cross, for it wilt be for thee a shield and protection against all enemies both visible and invisible. Go thou to the land of Iveria, proclaim there the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and spread forth His grace: and I wilt be thine Protectress.”
Awakening, Saint Nina saw in her hand the cross (now preserved in a special reliquary in the Tbilisi Zion cathedral church). Rejoicing in spirit, she went to her uncle, the Jerusalem Patriarch, and told him about her vision. The Jerusalem Patriarch thereupon blessed the young virgin in her deed of Apostolic service.
On the way to Gruzia, Saint Nina in miraculous manner escaped a martyr’s death under the Armenian emperor Tiridates, which however befell her companions—the emperor’s daughter Ripsimia, her guide Gaiania and 35 virgins (Comm. 30 September), who had fled to Armenia from Rome to escape persecution under the emperor Diocletian (284-305). Bolstered in spirit by visions of an Angel of the Lord, appearing the first time holding a incenser, and the second time a scroll in hand, Saint Nina continued on her way and appeared in Gruzia in the year 319. News about her soon spread through the surroundings of Mtskheta, where she asceticised, with numerous signs accompanying her preaching. Thus on the day of the MostGlorious Transfiguration of the Lord, during the time of a pagan sacrificial offering made by pagan priests in the presence of the emperor Mirian and a multitude of the people, through the prayers of Saint Nina were toppled down from an high mountain the idols—Armaz, Gatsi and Gaim. This apparition was accompanied by a strong storm.
Having entered Mtskheta, the ancient capital of Gruzia, Saint Nina found shelter in the household of a childless imperial official, the wife of whom—Anastasia, was delivered from her infertility through the prayers of Saint Nina, and she came to believe in Christ.
Saint Nina healed from grievous infirmity the Gruzinian empress Nana, who upon accepting holy Baptism, ceased with her idol-worship and became instead a zealous Christian (Comm. 1 October). In spite of the miraculous healing of his wife, the emperor Mirian (265-342), in heeding the complaints of the pagans, made ready to subject Saint Nina to fierce tortures. “At that very moment, when they did contrive execution for the holy righteous one, the sun darkened and an impenetrable mist covered the place where the emperor was.” The emperor suddenly fell blind, and seized by terror his retainers began to beseech their pagan idols for a return of the light of day. “But Armaz, Gaim and Gatsi were deaf, and the darkness did intensify. Then with one voice the terrified cried out to God, Whom Nina did preach. Instantly the darkness dissipated, and the sun shone in all its radiance.” This event occurred on 6 May in the year 319.
Emperor Mirian, healed from his blindness by Saint Nina, accepted holy Baptism together with all his retainers. Over the course of several years, by 324 Christianity had ultimately consolidated itself in Gruzia.
The chronicles relate, that through her prayers it was revealed to Saint Nina, where the Chiton (Tunic) of the Lord was hid. And at this place was built the first Christian temple in Gruzia (at first a wooden church, but now the stone cathedral, in honour of the Twelve Holy Apostles, the “Svetitskhoveli”).
During this period at the request of the emperor Mirian, with the assist of the Byzantine emperor Saint Constantine (306-337), there was dispatched to Gruzia the Antioch bishop Eustathios, with two priests and three deacons. Christianity took an definite hold upon the land. The mountain regions of Gruzia however remained without enlightenment. In the company of the presbyter James and one of the deacons, Saint Nina set off to the upper regions of the Aragva and Iori Rivers, where she preached the Gospel to the pagan hill-people. Many of them came to believe in Christ and accepted holy Baptism. From thence Saint Nina proceeded to Kakhetia (Eastern Gruzia) and settled in the village of Bodbe, in a small tent aside a mountain. Here she led an ascetic life, dwelling in constant prayer, and converting to Christ the surrounding inhabitants. Amidst all these was the empress of Kakhetia, named Sodzha (Sophia), who accepted Baptism with all her court and a multitude of the people.
Having completed her Apostolic service in Gruzia, Saint Nina perceived from above about her impending end. In a letter to the emperor Mirian, she requested him to send bishop John, so that he might prepare her for her final journey. But it was not only bishop John that came, but also the emperor together with all the clergy set off to Bodbe, where at the deathbed of Saint Nina were occurrences of many an healing. For the edification of the people that had come, and at the request of her students, Saint Nina told about her origin and life. This narration, written down by Solomia of Udzharm, has served as the basis of the Vita of Saint Nina.
Reverently having communed the Holy Mysteries, Saint Nina gave final instructions that her body be buried at Bodbe, and then she peacefully expired to the Lord in the year 335 (according to other sources, it was in the year 347, at 67 years of age, after 35 years of Apostolic works).
The emperor, together with the clergy and the people—grieving over the death of Saint Nina, wanted to transfer her remains to the Mtskheta cathedral church, but they were not able to remove the coffin of the ascetic from her chosen place of rest. And on this place in the year 342 emperor Mirian started with the foundations, and his son the emperor Bakur (342-364) completed and dedicated the church in the name of Saint Nina’s kinsman, the holy Great Martyr George. Later on at this place was founded a women’s monastery in the name of Saint Nina. The relics of the saint, at her command concealed beneath a crypt, were glorified by many miracles and healings. The Gruzian (Georgian) Orthodox Church, with the assent of the Antioch Patriarchate, designated Saint Nina the Enlightener of Gruzia as in rank Equal-to-the-Apostles, and having enumerated her to the rank of the Saints, established her memory under 14 January, on the day of her blessed end.
" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O Holy Nina, equal of the apostles, minister of the word of God, who emulated the first called Andrew and the other apostles in apostolic preaching, enlightener of Iberia and harp of the Holy Spirit: entreat Christ God, that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Come ye all, and let us hymn today the all-praised Nina, the preacher of the Word of God, the equal of the apostles, who was chosen by Christ, the wise evangelist who has led the people of Kartalinia to the path of life and truth, the disciple of the Mother of God, our fervent helper and tireless guardian.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "2634": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Olga, Princess of Russia and Equal-to-the-Apostles, in Baptism Helen († 969)", "short": "Blessed Olga" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Olga was the spouse of the Kiev GreatPrince Igor. The struggle of Christianity with paganism under Igor and Olga, who reigned after Oleg († 912), entered into a new phase. The Church of Christ in the years following the reign of Igor († 945) became a remarkable spiritual and political force in the Russian realm. The preserved text of a treaty of Igor with the Greeks in the year 944 gives indication of this: it was included by the chronicler in the “Tale of Bygone Years,” under the entry recording the events of the Biblical year 6453 (945).
The peace treaty had to be sworn to by both the religious communities of Kiev: “Baptised Rus′,” i.e. the Christian, took place in the cathedral church of the holy Prophet of God Elias (Comm. 20 July); “Unbaptised Rus′,” i.e. the pagans, in turn swore their oath on their weapons in the sanctuary of Perun the Thunderer. The fact, that Christians are included in the document in the first place, indicates their significant spiritual influence in the life of Kievan Rus′.
Evidently at the moment when the treaty of 944 was being drawn up at Tsar′grad (Constantinople), there were people in power in Kiev sympathetic to Christianity, who recognised the historical inevitability of conjoining Rus’ into the life-creating Christian culture. To this trend possibly belonged even prince Igor himself, whose official position did not permit him personally to go over to the new faith, nor at that time of deciding the issue concerning the Baptism of the whole country with the consequent dispersal throughout it of Orthodox Church hierarchs. The treaty therefore was drawn up in the circumspect manner of expression, which would not hinder the prince to ratify it in either the form of a pagan oath, or in the form of a Christian oath.
But when the Byzantine emissaries arrived in Kiev, conditions along the River Dneipr had essentially changed. A pagan opposition had clearly emerged, at the head of which stood the Varangian vœvoda (military-leader) Svenel′d (or Sveinald) and his son Mstislav (Mtsisha) to whom Igor had given holdings in the Drevlyani lands.
Strong also at Kiev was the influence of the Khazar Jews, who could not but be displeased with the thought of the triumph of Orthodoxy in the Russian Land.
Unable to overcome the customary inertia, Igor remained a pagan and he concluded the treaty in the pagan manner—with an oath on his sword. He refused the grace of Baptism and was punished for his unbelief. A year later, in 945, rebellious pagans murdered him in the Drevlyanian land, cut down betwixt two trees. But the days of paganism and the lifestyle of the Slavic tribes basic to it were already numbered. The burden of government fell upon the widow of Igor—the Kiev Great-princess Olga, and her three year old son Svyatoslav.
The name of the future enlightener of the Russian Land and of her native region is first to be met with in the “Tale of Bygone Years,”—in the phrase where it speaks about the marriage of Igor: “and they brought him a wife from Pskov, by the name of Ol′ga.” She belonged, so specifies the Joakimov Chronicle, to the lineage of the Izborsk princes,—one of the obscure ancient-Russian princely dynasties, of which in Rus’ during the X-XI Centuries there numbered no less than twenty, but who were all displaced by the Rurikovichi or merged otherwise with them through marriage. Some of them were of local Slavic descent, others—Varangian new-comers. It is known, that the Scandinavian Viking “kœnigs” (kinglets) called to become princes in the Russian cities—invariably assimilated to the Russian language, and often, they soon became genuinely Russian with Russian names and lifestyle, world-outlook and even physical appearance of attire.
The spouse of Igor thus also had the Varangian name “Helga,” which in the Russian “rendering” of pronunciation, is Ol′ga, Vol′ga. The feminine name Ol′ga corresponds to the masculine name “Oleg” (Helgi), which means “holy” [from Germanic “heilig” for “holy”]. Although the pagan understanding of holiness was quite different from the Christian, it also presupposed within man a particular frame of reference, of chasteness and sobriety, of mind and of insight. It reveals the spiritual significance of names, that people termed Oleg the Wise-Seer (“Veschi”) and Ol′ga—the Wise (“Mudra”).
Rather later traditions regard her a native of a village named Vybuta, several kilometers from Pskov up along the River Velika. They still not so long ago used to point out at the river the Ol′ga Bridge, the ancient fording place, Where Olga was met by Igor. The Pskov geographic features have preserved not a few names, connected with the memory of this great descendent of Pskov: the village of Ol′zhinets and Ol′gino Pole (Ol′gaField); the Ol′ga Gateway—one of the branches of the River Velika; Ol′ga Hill and the Ol′ga Cross—near Lake Pskov; and the Ol′ga Stone—at the village of Vybuta.
The beginning of the independent rule of Princess Olga is connected in the chronicles with the narrative about her terrible revenge on the Drevlyani, who murdered Igor. Having sworn their oaths on their swords and believing “only in their swords,” the pagans were doomed by the judgement of God to also perish by the sword (Mt. 26: 52). Worshipping fire amongst the other primal elements, they found their own doom in the fire. And the Lord chose Olga to fulfill the fiery chastisement.
The struggle for the unity of Rus,’ for the subordination to the Kievan centre of mutually divisive and hostile tribes and principalities paved the way towards the ultimate victory of Christianity in the Russian Land. For Olga, though still a pagan, the Kiev Christian Church and its Heavenly patron saint the holy Prophet of God Elias [in icons depicted upon a fiery chariot] stood as a flaming faith and prayer of a fire come down from the heavens, and her victory over the Drevlyani—despite the severe harshness of her victory, was a victory of Christian constructive powers in the Russian realm over the powers of a paganism, dark and destructive.
The God-wise Olga entered into history as a great builder of the civil life and culture of Kievan Rus′. The chronicles are filled with accounts of her incessant “goings” throughout the Russian land with the aim of the well-being and improvement of the civil and domestic manner of life of her subjects. Having consolidated the inner strengthening of the might of the Kiev great-princely throne—with the consequent weakening of the influence of the jumbled hodge-podge of petty local princes in Rus,’ Olga centralised the whole of state rule with the help of the system of “pogosti” (administrative trade centres). In the year 946 she went with her son and retinue through the Drevlyani land, “imposing tribute and taxes,” noting the villages, inns and hunting places, liable for inclusion in the Kiev great-princely holdings. The next year she went to Novgorod, establishing administrative centres along the Rivers Msta and Luga, everywhere leaving visible traces of her activity. “Her lovischa (hunting preserves) were throughout all the land, the boundary signs, her places and administrative centres,—wrote the chronicler,—and her sleighs stand at Pskov to this very day, as are her directed places for snaring of birds along the Dneipr and the Desna Rivers; and her village of Ol′zhicha stands to the present day.”
The “pogosti” established by Olga, as financial-administrative and law-court centres, represented sturdy props of great-princely power in these places.
Being first of all, and in the actual sense of the word, centres of trade and exchange (the merchant as “guest”) gathered together and became organised around the settlements (and in place of the “humanly arbitrary” gathering of tribute and taxes, there now existed uniformity and order with the “pogosti” system). Olga’s “pogosti” became an important network of the ethnic and cultural unification of the Russian nation.
Later on, when Olga had become a Christian, they began to erect the first churches at the “pogosti”; from the time of the Baptism of Rus’ the “pogost” and church (parish) became inseparably associated. (It was only afterwards with the existence of cemeteries alongside churches that there developed the current meaning of the Russian word “pogost” to nowadays signify “parish graveyard.”)
Princess Olga exerted much effort to fortify the defensive might of the land. The cities were built up and strengthened, Vyshgorod (or Detintsa, Kroma) they enclosed with stone and oak walls (battlements), and they bristled them with ramparts and pallisades. Knowing how hostile many were to the idea of strengthening the princely power and the unification of Rus,’ the princess herself lived constantly “on the hill” over the Dneipr, behind the trusty battlements of Kievan Vyshgorod (“Verkhna-gorod” or “Upper-city”), surrounded by her faithful retainers. Two thirds of the gathered tribute, as the chroniclers testify, she gave over for the use of the Kiev “veche” (city-council), and the remaining one third went “to Olga, for Vyshgorod”—for the needs of building fortifications. And to the time period of Olga, historians note the establishment of the first state frontiers of Russia—to the west, with Poland. Heroic outposts to the south guarded the peaceful fields of the Kievans from the peoples of the Wild Plains. Foreigners hastened to Gardarika (“the land of cities”), as they called Rus,’ with merchandise and craftwares. Swedes, Danes, Germans all eagerly entered as mercenaries into the Russian army. The foreign connections of Kiev spread. This furthered the developement of construction with stone in the city, the beginnings of which was initiated under Olga. The first stone edifices of Kiev—the city palace and Olga’s upper enclosure—were discovered by archæologists only but in this century. (The palace, or more properly its foundations and remains of the walls were found in excavations during the years 1971-1972).
But it was not only the strengthening of the civil realm and the improvement of domestic norms of the manner of life for people that attracted the attention of the wise princess. Even more urgent for her was the fundamental transformation of the religious life of Rus,’ the spiritual transfiguration of the Russian nation. Rus’ had become a great power. Only two European realms could compare with it during these years in significance and might: in Eastern Europe—the ancient Byzantine empire, and in the West—the kingdom of Saxony.
The experience of both empires, connected with the exaltation in spirit of Christian teaching, with the religious basis of life, showed clearly, that the way to the future greatness of Rus’ lay not through military means, but first of all and primarily through spiritual conquering and attainment. Having entrusted Kiev to her teenage son Svyatoslav, and seeking grace and truth, Great-princess Olga in the Summer of 954 set off with a great fleet to Tsar′grad. This was a peaceful “expedition,” combining the tasks of religious pilgrimage and diplomatic mission, but the political considerations demanded that it become simultaneously a display of the military might of Rus’ on the Black Sea, which would remind the haughty “romanoi” [Byzantine Greeks] of the victorious campaigns of Askol′d and Oleg, who in the year 907 advanced in their shields “to the very gates of Tsar′grad.”
The result was attained. The appearance of the Russian fleet in the Bosphorus created the necessary effect for the developing of Russo-Byzantine dialogue. In turn, the southern capital struck the stern daughter of the North with its variety of beauty and grandeur of architecture, and its jumbled mixture of pagans and peoples from all over the world. But an especial impression was produced by the wealth of Christian churches and the holy things preserved in them. Tsar′grad-Constantinople, “the city of the imperial Cæsar-tsar,” the Byzantine Greek empire, strove in everything to be worthy for its Heavenly Mediatrix. At its very foundation (or more precisely, restoration), the city had been consecrated in the year 330 by the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine the Great (Comm. 21 May) to the Most Holy Mother of God (this event occurred in the Greek Church on the date of 11 May and from there passed over into Russian commemoration). The Russian princess was present at Divine-services in the finest churches of Constantinople—Saint Sophia, the Mother of God Blachernæ, and others.
In her heart the wise Olga found the desire for holy Orthodoxy, and she made the decision to become a Christian. The sacrament of Baptism was made over her by the Constantinople Patriarch Theophylaktos (933-956), and her godfather was the emperor Constantine Porphyrigenitos (912-959). At Baptism there was entrusted to her the name Elena (Helen) in honour of the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Helen (Comm. 21 May), the mother of Saint Constantine, and she also had been the discoverer of the Venerable Wood of the Cross of the Lord. In an edifying word spoken at the conclusion of the sacramental rite, the patriarch said: “Blessed art thou amongst Russian women, in that thou hast forsaken the darkness and hast loved the Light. The Russian people shalt bless thee in all the future generations, from thy grandson and great-grandson to thine furthermost descendants.” He instructed her in the truths of the faith, the churchly rules and the rule of prayer, he explained the commands about fasting, chastity and charity. “She however,—says the Monk Nestor,—bowed her head and stood, literally like a sponge absorbing water she hearkened to the teaching, and bowing down to the Patriarch, she did say: By thine prayers, Vladyka, let me be preserved from the wiles of enemies.”
It is precisely thus, with a slightly bowed head, that Saint Olga is depicted on one of the frescœs of the Kiev Sophia cathedral, and likewise on a Byzantine miniature contemporary to her, in a manuscript portrait of the Chronicles of John Scilitius in the Madrid National Library. The Greek inscription, accompanying the miniature, terms Olga “Archontessa (i.e. ruler) of the Russes,” “a woman, Helga by name, who came to the emperor Constantine and was baptised.” The princess is depicted in special head attire, “as a newly-baptised Christian and venerable deaconess of the Russian Church.” Alongside her in the same attire of the newly-baptised—is Malusha († 1001), the mother later on of the Equal-to-the-Apostles Saint Vladimir (Comm. 15 July).
For one who had originally so disliked the Russians as did the emperor Constantine Porphyrigenitos, it was no trivial matter for him to become the godfather to the “Archontessa of Rus′.” In the Russian chronicles are preserved narratives about this, how resolutely and on an equal footing Olga conversed with the emperor, amazing the Greeks by her spiritual depth and wisdom of governance, and displaying that the Russian nation was quite capable of accepting and assimilating the highest attainments of the Greek religious genius, the finest fruition of Byzantine spirituality and culture. And thus by a peaceful path Saint Olga succeeded in “taking Tsar′grad,” something which no other military leader before her had ever been able to do. According to the witness of the chronicles, the emperor himself had to admit, that Olga “had given him the slip” (had outwitted him), and the popular mind, jumbling together into one the traditions about Oleg the Wise and Olga the Wise, sealed in its memory this spiritual victory in the bylina or folk-legend entitled “Concerning the Taking of Tsar′grad by Princess Olga.”
In his work “About the Ceremonies of the Byzantine Court”—which has survived to the present-day in but one copy, Constantine Porphyrigenitos has left us a detailed description of the ceremony surrounding the stay of Saint Olga at Constantinople. He describes a triumphant reception in the famed Magnaura palace, beneath the singing of bronze birds and the roars of copper lions, where Olga appeared with an impressive retinue of 108 men (not counting the men of Svyatoslav’s company). And there took place negotiations in the narrower confines of the chambers of the empress, and then a state dinner in the hall of Justinian. And here during the course of events, there providentially met together at one table the four “majestic ladies”: the grandmother and the mother of holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Saint Vladimir (Saint Olga and her companion Malusha), and the grandmother and the mother of Saint Vladimir’s future spouse Anna (the empress Helen and her daughter-in-law Theophano). Slightly more than half a century would pass, and at the Desyatin church of the Most Holy Mother of God at Kiev would stand aside each other the marble tombs of Saint Olga, Saint Vladimir and “Blessed Anna.”
During the time of one of these receptions,—relates Constantine Porphyrigenitos,—the Russian princess was presented a golden plate inset with jewels. Saint Olga made an offering of it at the vestry of the Sophia cathedral, where at the beginning of the XIII Century it was seen and described by the Russian diplomat Dobrynya Yadeikovich (who afterwards was to become the Novgorod archbishop Antonii): “The large golden official plate of Ol′ga of Russia, when she took it as tribute, having come to Tsar′grad; upon the plate be precious stones, and upon it is written in these stones the name Xpictoc-Christ.”
Moreover, the wily emperor, having reported such details as would underscore how “Olga had given him the slip,” likewise presents a difficult riddle for historians of the Russian Church. The matter involves this,—that the Monk Nestor the Chronicler relates in the “Tale of Bygone Years” that the Baptism of Olga took place in the Biblical year 6463 (955 or 954), and this corresponds to the account of the Byzantine chronicles of Kedrinos. Another Russian Church writer of the XI Century, Yakov Mnikh,—in his work “Eulogy and Laudation to Vladimir… and how Vladimir’s Grandmother Ol′ga was Baptised,” speaks about the death of the holy princess († 969) and he notes, that she lived as a Christian for fifteen years, and he places the actual date of Baptism as the year 954, which likewise corresponds within several months to that indicated by Nestor. In contrast to this, describing for us the stay of Olga at Constantinople and providing the precise dates of the receptions given in her honour, Constantine Porphyrigenitos has us to understand in no uncertain terms that all this occurred in the year 957.
To reconcile the cited chronicles, on the one hand, with the testimony of Constantine on the other hand, Russian Church historians are led to suppose either one of two things: either Saint Olga journeyed a second time to Constantinople in the year 957 to continue negotiations with the emperor, or that either—she was in no wise baptised at Constantinople, having previously been baptised at Kiev in 954, and that she was merely making pilgrimage to Byzantium, being already a Christian. The first supposition is the more credible.
As for the immediate diplomatic outcome of the negotiations, there were basic matters for Saint Olga that had been left unsettled. She had gained success on questions concerning Russian trade within the territories of the Byzantine empire, and also the reconfirmation of the peace accord with Byzantium, concluded by Igor in the year 944. But she had not been able to sway the emperor on two issues of importance to Rus′: the dynastic marriage of Svyatoslav with a Byzantine princess, and the conditions for restoring an Orthodox metropolitan to Kiev as had existed at the time of Askol′d. The evidently inadequate outcome of her mission is detected in her answer, when she had already returned home, which was given to emissaries sent out by the emperor. To the emperor’s inquiry about promised military aid, Saint Olga through the emissaries curtly replied: “If thou hadst spend a time with me similarly at Pochaina, as I did at the Court, then would I give the soldiery in aid.”
Amidst all this, in spite of her failed attempts at establishing the Church hierarchy within Rus,’ Saint Olga in having become a Christian zealously devoted herself to efforts of Christian evangelisation amongst the pagans, and also church construction: “demanding the distressing of demons and the beginning of life for Christ Jesus.” She erected churches: of Saint Nicholas and Saint Sophia at Kiev, of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Mother of God at Vytebsk, and of the Holy Life-Originating Trinity—at Pskov. Pskov from that period has been called in the chronicles the Domicile of the Holy Trinity. The church, built by Olga at the River Velika at a spot pointed out to her from on high,—according to the chronicler,—by a “light-beam of the Thrice-Radiant Divinity,” stood for more than one and an half centuries. In the year 1137 holy Prince Vsevolod-Gabriel († 1138, Comm. 11February) replaced this wooden temple with one made of stone, which in turn in 1363 was rebuilt and replaced finally with the presently existing Trinity cathedral.
Another verymost important monument of Russian “Monument Theology,”—a Church architecture frequently is termed,—connected with the name of Saint Olga, is the temple of Sophia Wisdom of God at Kiev, which was started soon after her return from Tsar′grad, and consecrated on 11 May 960. This day was afterwards observed in the Russian Church as a special Church feastday.
In the Mesyatseslov (calendar supplement)of a parchment Epistle-book from 1307, under 11 May is written: “On this day was consecration of Saint Sophia at Kiev in the year 6460.” The year-date of memory is indicated in the so-called “Antioch” rather than generally-accepted Constantinople manner of chronology, and it corresponds to the year 960 from the Birth of Christ.
It was no mere co-incidence that Saint Olga received in Baptism the name of the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Helen (Elena), who was the one to find the Venerable Wood of the Cross at Jerusalem. The foremost sacred item in the newly built Kiev Sophia temple was a piece of the Holy Cross, brought by this new Helen from Tsar′grad, and received by her in blessing from the Constantinople Patriarch. The Cross, by tradition, was hewn out from an entire piece of the Life-Creating Wood of the Lord. Upon the Cross-Wood was inscribed: “The Holy Cross for the Regeneration of the Russian Land, Received by Noble Princess Ol′ga.”
Saint Olga did much to eternalise the memories of the first Russian confessors of the Name of Christ: over the grave of Askol′d was erected the Nikol’sk (Nicholas) church, where according to certain accounts, she herself was afterwards interred. Over the grave of Dir—was built the afore-mentioned Sophia cathedral, which stood for half a century and burned in the year 1017. On this spot Yaroslav the Wise later on built a church of Saint Irene in 1050, but the sacred items of Olga’s Sophia temple were transferred into a stone church of the same name—standing at present as the Kiev Sophia, started in 1017 and consecrated in about the year 1030. In the Prologue account of the XIII Century, it said about the Olga Cross: “for It be now at Kiev in Saint Sophia in the altar on the right side.” The plundering of Kiev’s holy things, which after the Mongols was continued by the Lithuanians who captured the city in 1341, did not spare even this. Under Jagiello in the period of the Liublin Unia, which in 1384 united Poland and Lithuania into one state, the Olga Cross was snatched from the Sophia cathedral and carried off by the Catholics to Liublin. Its further fate is unknown.
But even in Olga’s time there were at Kiev amongst the boyar-nobles and retinue-retainers no few people who, in the words of Solomon, “hated Wisdom,” and also Saint Olga, for having built Wisdom’s temple. Zealots of the old paganism became all the more emboldened, viewing with hope the coming of age of Svyatoslav, who decidedly spurned the urgings of his mother to accept Christianity, and even becoming angry with her over this. It was necessary to hurry with the intended matter of the Baptism of Rus′. The deceit of Byzantium, at the time not wanting to promote Christianity in Rus,’ played into the hands of the pagans. In search of a solution, Saint Olga turned her gaze to the west. No contradiction here yet existed. Saint Olga († 969) belonged still to the undivided Church (i.e. before the Great Schism of 1054), and she had scant possibility to study the theological points involved between the Greek and Latin faith-confessions. The opposition of West and East presented itself to her first of all as a political rivalry—of secondary importance in comparison with her pertinent task—the establishing of the Russian Church and the Christian enlightenment of Rus′.
Under the year 959, the German chronicler named “the Continuant of Reginon,” records: “to the king came emissaries of Helen, queen of the Russes, who was baptised in Constantinople, and which did seek for their nation to have bishop and priests.” King Otto, the future founder of the German empire, willingly acceded to the request of Olga, but he bid the matter not be in haste, in quite German the ponderence. It was only on Nativity of the following year 960, that there was established a Russian bishop Libutius, from the monastery brethren of Saint Alban am Mainz. But he soon died (15 March 961). In his place was ordained Adalbert of Trier, whom Otto “generously furnishing all needs” dispatched, finally, to Russia. It is difficult to say, what would have happened, had the king not delayed for so long a while, but when in 962 when Adalbert showed up at Kiev, he “did not succeed in the matter for which he had been sent, and did consider his efforts to be in vain.” Furthermore, on the return journey “certain of his companions were murdered, and the bishop himself escaped not mortal danger.”
It turned out that after the passage of years, as Olga indeed had foreseen, matters at Kiev had twisted ultimately in favour of paganism, and Rus′—having become neither Orthodox nor Catholic, had second thoughts altogether about accepting Christianity. The pagan reaction thus produced was so strong, that not only did the German missionaries suffer, but also some of the Kiev Christians who had been baptised with Olga at Tsar′grad. By order of Svyatoslav, Saint Olga’s nephew Gleb was killed and some of the churches built by her were destroyed. It seems reasonable, that this transpired not without Byzantium’s secret diplomacy: given the possibility of a strengthened Rus’ in alliance with Otto, the Greeks would have preferred to support the pagans, with the consequent intrigues against Olga and various disorders.
The collapse of the mission of Adalbert had providential significance for the future Russian Orthodox Church, escaping papal dominion. Saint Olga was obliged to accede to the humiliation and to withdraw fully into matters of personal piety, handing over the reigns of governance to her pagan-son Svyatoslav. Because of her former role, all the difficult matters were referred over to her in her wisdom of governance. When Svyatoslav absented himself from Kiev on military campaigns and wars, the governance of the realm was again entrusted to his mother. But the question about the Baptism of Rus’ was for the while taken off the agenda, and this was ultimately bitter for Saint Olga, who regards the good-news of the Gospel of Christ the chief matter in her life.
She meekly endured the sorrow and grief, attempting to help her son in civil and military affairs, and to guide matters with heroic intent. The victories of the Russian army were a consolation for her, particularly the destruction of an old enemy of the Russian state—the Khazar kaganate. Twice, in the years 965 and 969, the armies of Svyatoslav went through the lands of “the foolish Khazars,” forever shattering the might of the Jewish rulers of Priazovia and lower Povolzhia. A subsequent powerful blow was struck at the Mahometan Volga Bulgars, and then in turn came the Danube Bulgars. Eighteen years were spent on the Danube with the Kiev military forces. Olga was alone and in worry: it was as though, absorbed by military matters in the Balkans, Svyatoslav had forgotten about Kiev.
In the Spring of 969 the Pechenegs besieged Kiev: “and it was impossible to lead out the horses to water, for the Pechenegs stood at the Lybeda.” The Russian army was far away, at the Danube. Having sent off messengers to her son, Saint Olga herself headed the defense of the capital. When he received the news, Svyatoslav rode quickly to Kiev, and “he hugged his mother and his children and was distressed, with what had happened with them from the Pechenegs.” But after routing the nomads, the warrior prince began anew to say to his mother: “It doth not please me to sit at Kiev, for I do wish to live at Pereslavl’ on the Dunaj (Danube)—since there be the centre of my lands.” Svyatoslav dreamed of creating a vast Russian holding from the Danube to the Volga, which would unite all Rus,’ Bulgaria, Serbia, the Near Black Sea region and Priazovia (Azov region), and extend his borders to those of Tsar′grad itself. Olga the Wise understood however, that all the bravery and daring of the Russian companies could not compare against the ancient empire of the Byzantine Romanoi, and that the venture of Svyatoslav would fail. But the son would not heed the admonitions of his mother. Saint Olga thereupon said: “Thou dost behold, that I am ill. Why wishest thou to forsake me? When thou buriest me, then set out whitherso thou dost will.”
Her days were numbered, and her burdens and sorrows sapped her strength. On 11July 969 Saint Olga died: “and with great lament they bewept her, her son and grandsons and all the people.” The final years, amidst the triumph of paganism, for her as once haughty ruler transpired with having a priest secretly by her, so as to not evoke new outbursts of pagan fanaticism. But before death, having found anew her former firmness and resolve, she forbade them to make over her the pagan celebration of the dead, and she gave final instructions to bury her openly in accord with Orthodox ritual. Presbyter Gregory, who was with her at Constantinople in 957, fulfilled her request exactly.
Saint Olga lived, died, and was buried as a Christian. “And thus having lived and well having glorified God in Trinity, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, having worshipped in the blessed faith, she did end her life in the peace of Christ Jesus, our Lord.” As her prophetic testament to succeeding generations, with deep Christian humility she confessed her faith concerning her nation: “God’s will be done! If God be pleased to have mercy upon my native Russian Land, then shalt they be turned in heart towards God, as for me also wast this gift.”
God glorified the holy toiler of Orthodoxy, the “initiator of faith” in the Russian Land, by means of miracles and incorrupt relics. Yakov Mnikh († 1072), an hundred years after her death, wrote in his work “Memory and Laudation to Vladimir”: “God hath glorified the body of His servant Olena, and her venerable body be in the grave, incorrupt to this day.”
Saint Olga glorified God with good deeds in all things, and God glorified her. Under holy Prince Vladimir, ascribed by some as occurring in the year 1007, the relics of Saint Olga were transferred into the Desyatin church of the Uspenie (Dormition) of the Most Holy Mother of God and placed within a special sarcophagus, into suchlike as was customary to enclose the relics of saints in the Orthodox East. “And hear ye concerning a certain miracle about her: the grave of stone is small in the church of the Holy Mother of God, this church built by blessed Prince Vladimir, and in the grave is Blessed Ol′ga. And atop the grave was an opening wrought—for to behold the body of Blessed Ol′ga lying there whole.” But not everyone was given to see this miracle of the incorrupt relics of the saint: “For whosœver with faith did come, the aperture opened up, and there was beheld the venerable body lying intact, and one would marvel at such a miracle—the body lying there for so many years without decay. Worthy of all praise be this venerable body: in the grave whole, as though sleeping at rest. But for another, who not in faith shouldst approach, the grave aperture would not open up, and they would not catch sight of this venerable body, but only the grave.”
Thus even after death Saint Olga espoused life eternal and resurrection, filling believers with joy and confounding non-believers. She was, in the words of the Monk Nestor the Chronicler, “a precursor in the Christian land, like the dawn before sunrise or light the twilight before the light.”
The holy Equal-to-the-Apostles GreatPrince Vladimir, himself giving thanks to God on the day of the Baptism of Rus,’ witnessed before his countrymen concerning Saint Olga with the remarkable words: “The sons of Rus’ do bless thee, and also the generations of thine ultimate lineage.”
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Having furnished thy mind with wings of divine knowledge, * thou didst soar far above visible creation; * and seeking God, the Creator of all, and finding Him, * thou didst receive rebirth through baptism; ** and delighting in the Tree of life, O ever-glorious Olga, thou remainest incorrupt forever.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Let us hymn today God the Benefactor of all, * Who glorified the divinely wise Olga in Russia, ** that through her supplications He might give remission of sins to our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "2637": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Paraskeva of Serbia (11th C)", "short": "Venerable Paraskeva" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Born in the Serbian village of Epibata (between Silinaurius and Constantinople) she was brought up in a pious family. After the death of her parents and hating “the vain seductive way of life” she, “as a faithful faster” and “an adornment of virgins”, entered monasticism and left for the Jordan valley, where she practiced asceticism up to old age. Here “by works of fasting”, “by true affection and perfect humility” she overcame the “demon’s hosts” and “bodily passions” and lived a “bodiless life in a material body”. Within two years of her death obeying a call from heaven, she returned to her home country and settled in the temple of the Holy Apostles, where she died peacefully (in first half of the 11th century). In the year 1238 by the order of Tsar John Asen, the relics of Venerable Parasceva were transferred to Trnovo, the capital of Bulgaria; upon the capture of this city by the Sultan Bayazid the relics were transferred to Jassy, the capital of Wallachia. After Wallachia fell to the Turks in 1396 the pious Serbian Prince Militsa begged for the relics of the Venerable Parasceva and they were transferred to Belgrade. In 1521 they were bought by the Turks, who took them from Belgrade and transferred them to Constantinople, and in 1641 to Jassy, where they repose to this day in the cathedral.
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Having loved the hermetic and silent life, and having longingly run in the footsteps of thy bridegroom Christ, thou didst accept His good yoke in thy tender years. By the sign of the Cross thou courageously fought against the nœtic enemies; through asceticism, fasting, prayer and the shedding of tears, thou didst quench the burning coals of the passions. O Parasceva, worthy of glory: standing now before Christ in the heavenly bridal chamber, together with the wise virgins, pray for us, who honour thy memory.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Holy intercessor of all who are in trouble, let us piously hymn the All-honorable Parasceva: for she rejected the corruptible and accepted the incorruptible way of life forever: therefore she obtained glory, the grace of wonders, by the command of God.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" } } } }, "2640": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Paraskeva of Rome († c. 138-161)", "short": "Martyr Paraskeva" }, "rank": 1 }, "2641": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Pelagia the Penitent († 457)", "short": "Venerable Pelagia" }, "rank": 1 }, "2643": { "name": { "nominative": "Virginmartyr Pelagia of Tarsus, in Asia Minor († c. 290)", "short": "Virginmartyr Pelagia" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Virgin Pelagia lived during the third century in the city of Tarsus in the Cilician district of Asia Minor. She was the daughter of illustrious pagans and when she heard preaching from her Christian acquaintances about Jesus Christ the Son of God, she believed in Him and desired to preserve her chastity, dedicating her whole life to the Lord. The heir of Emperor Diocletian (a youth adopted by him), having seen the maiden Pelagia, was captivated by her beauty and wanted to take her to be his wife. But the holy virgin told the youth, that she was betrothed to the Immortal Bridegroom,—the Son of God, and therefore she had renounced earthly marriage. This answer of Pelagia caused great anger in the imperial youth, but he decided to leave her in peace for awhile, hoping, that she would change her frame of mind. This same while Pelagia convinced her mother to send her off to her nurse who had raised her in childhood—secretly hoping to locate the bishop of Tarsus Klinon, who had fled to a mountain during a time of persecution against Christians, and to accept Holy Baptism from him. In a dream vision there appeared the form of the bishop—Klinon, profoundly impressing itself upon her memory. Saint Pelagia set off to her nurse in a chariot, in rich clothes and accompanied by a whole retinue of servants, as her mother had desired her to. Along the way Saint Pelagia, through some particular ordering of events by God, met bishop Klinon. Pelagia immediately recognised the bishop, whose image had appeared to her in the dream. She fell at his feet, requesting baptism. At the prayer of the bishop there flowed from the ground a spring of water. Bishop Klinon made the sign of the cross over Saint Pelagia, and during the time of the mystery (sacrament) Angels appeared and covered the chosen one of God with a bright mantle. Having communed the pious virgin with the Holy Mysteries, bishop Klinon raised himself up in prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord together with her, and then sent her off to continue her journey. Having returned to the servants awaiting her, Saint Pelagia preached to them about Christ, and many of them were converted and believed. She tried to convert her own mother to faith in Christ, but the obdurate woman sent a message to the imperial youth,—that Pelagia was a Christian and did not wish to be his spouse. The youth comprehended that Pelagia was lost for him, and not wishing to give her over to torture, he fell upon his sword. Pelagia’s mother thereupon became fearful of the wrath of the emperor, tied her daughter and led her to the court of Diocletian as being a Christian and also the probable cause of the death of the heir to the throne. The emperor was captivated by the unusual beauty of the maiden and tried to sway her from her faith in Christ, promising her every earthly blessing and to make her his own wife. But the holy maiden refused the offer of the emperor with contempt and said: “Thou art insane, emperor, telling me such a speech. Know, that I wilt not do thine bidding, and I loathe thy vile marriage, since I have a Bridegroom—Christ, the King of Heaven. I desire not thy imperial, worldly, short-durationed crowns, since my Lord in the Heavenly Kingdom has prepared for me three imperishable crowns. The first for faith—since I have believed with all my heart in the True God; the second for purity—because I have entrusted to Him my virginity; the third for martyrdom—since I want to accept for Him every suffering and to offer up my soul because of my love for Him”. Diocletian thereupon sentenced Pelagia to be burnt in a glowing red-hot copper oven. Not permitting the executioners to touch her body, the holy martyress herself—signing herself with the sign of the cross, went with a prayer into the red-hot oven—in which her flesh melted like myrh, filling all the city with fragrance; the bones of Saint Pelagia remained unharmed and were removed by the pagans to outside the city. Four lions then came from out of the wilderness and sat around the bones—letting get at them neither bird nor wild beast. The lions protected the remains of the saint until such time as Bishop Klinon came to that place. He gathered them up and buried them with honour. During the reign of emperor Constantine (306-337), when the persecutions against Christians had stopped, there was built a church at the place of burial of Saint Pelagia.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Thy ewe-lamb Pelagia crieth out to Thee with a loud voice, O Jesus: \"I love Thee, O my Bridegroom, and, seeking Thee, I pass through many struggles: I am crucified and buried with Thee in Thy baptism, * and suffer for Thy sake, that I may reign with Thee; I die for Thee that I might live with Thee. As an unblemished sacrifice accept me, who sacrifice myself with love for Thee. By her supplications save Thou our souls, in that Thou art merciful.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Disdaining transitory things, having become a partaker of the good things of heaven and received a crown for thy suffering, O most honored Pelagia, thou didst bring the torrents of thy blood as a gift to Christ the Master. Pray thou, that He deliver from misfortunes us who honor thy memory.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "2656": { "name": { "nominative": "Virginmartyr Rhais (Irais) of Alexandria († c. 308)", "short": "Virginmartyr Rhais" } }, "2685": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Thais of Egypt (5th C)", "short": "Blessed Thais" } }, "2686": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Taisia of Egypt (4th C)", "short": "Venerable Taisia" } }, "2687": { "name": { "nominative": "Right-believing Tamara, Queen of Georgia († 1213)", "short": "Right-believing Tamara" } }, "2688": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Tatiana of Rome and those who suffered with her († 226-235)", "short": "Martyr Tatiana" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyress Tatiana was born into an illustrious Roman family—her father was thrice elected consul. He was secretly a christian and raised his daughter devoted to God and the Church. Having reached the age of maturity, Tatiana did not enter into marriage but with all her strength devoted herself to the Church. She was made deaconess in one of the Roman churches and served God, in fasting and prayer tending the sick and helping the needy. By her righteousness Tatiana gained in future to be crowned with the crown of martyrdom.
When Rome came to be ruled by the sixteen year old Alexander Severus (222235), all power was concentrated in the hands of the evil enemy and persecutor of christians Ulpian. Christian blood flowed like streams. Deaconess Tatiana was also arrested. When they brought her into the temple of Apollo so as to force her to offer sacrifice to the idol, the saint began praying—and suddenly there occurred an earthquake—the idol was smashed into pieces, and part of the temple collapsed and fell down on the pagan priests and many pagans. The demon inhabiting the idol ran out with an howl from that place, in front of which all saw it flying through the air like a ghost. They then began to beat the holy virgin about the eyes, but she bravely endured everything, praying for her tormentors that the Lord would open for them their spiritual eyes. And the Lord heard the prayer of His servant. The executioners came to see, that four Angels encircled the saint and fended off from the blows; they heard a Voice from the heavens addressed to the holy martyress. All of them, eight men, believed in Christ and fell on their knees to Saint Tatiana, begging them to forgive them their wrongs against her. For confessing themselves christians they were subjected to tortures and execution, receiving Baptism by blood. Saint Tatiana was again given over to tortures on another day: they uncovered her and beat her, they cut at her body with razors, and from her wounds then there permeated a fragrance in the air. The torturers became exhausted and said, that someone invisible was beating at them with iron staffs, and nine of them fell dead. They then threw the saint in prison, where she prayed all night and with the Angels sang praise to the Lord. A new morning began, and they again took Saint Tatiana to the court. The torturers beheld with astonishment that after such terrible torments she appeared completely healthy and even more radiant and beautiful than before. They began to urge her to offer sacrifice to the goddess Diana. The saint seemed to appear agreeable, and they took her to the heathen temple. Saint Tatiana made the sign of the cross and began to pray—and suddenly there sounded a crash of deafening thunder, and lightning struck the idol, the sacrificial offerings and the pagan priests. They again fiercely tortured the martyress, and at night they again threw her in prison, and again there appeared Angels and healed her wounds. On the following day they took Saint Tatiana to the circus and let loose at her an hungry lion; the beast did not touch the saint but only lay meekly at her feet. They wanted to pen up the lion back in its cage, and here instead it clawed up one of the torturers. They threw Tatiana into a fire, but the fire did not harm the martyress. The pagans, thinking that she was a sorceress, cut her hair to deprive her of magical powers, and locked her up in the temple of Zeus. But it was impossible to take away the power of God. On the third day pagan priests came with an encircling throng, preparing to offer sacrifice. Opening the temple, they beheld the idol thrown down into the dust and the holy martyress Tatiana joyously invoking the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. All the instruments of torture were worn out, and they carried out a sentence of death: the valiant sufferer was beheaded with a sword. Also executed as a christian together with her was her father, for having shewn her the true faith of Christ.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thou didst shine forth radiantly in thy suffering, * O passion-bearer, adorned with thy blood, * and like a beautiful turtle-dove thou hast soared aloft * to the heavens, O Tatiana. ** Wherefore, pray thou ever for those who honor thee.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "2714": { "name": { "nominative": "Virginmartyr Theodosia of Tyre († 307-308) and Martyr Irene", "short": "Virginmartyr Theodosia" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyress Theodosia of Tyre suffered for Christ in the year 307 or 308, and the account of her life is under 3 April. On 29 May is celebrated the memory of the transfer of her relics to Constantinople and Venice.
" } }, "2718": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Theodotia and her 3 children", "short": "Martyr Theodotia" } }, "2748": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Charitina, Princess of Lithuania († 1281)", "short": "Venerable Charitina" } }, "2812": { "name": { "nominative": "Meeting of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God (established in memory of the deliverance of Moscow from the Tatar invasion led by Crimean Khan Makhmet-Girei in 1521)", "short": "Vladimir Icon" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Celebration of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was established in memory of the saving of Moscow in the year 1521 from an invasion of Tatars led by khan Makhmet-Girei. The Tatar hosts approached towards Moscow, burning and destroying Russian cities and villages, and exterminating their inhabitants. Greatprince Vasilii gathered an army against the Tatars, and the Moscow metropolitan Varlaam together with the people of Moscow prayed fervently for deliverance from destruction. During this grim time a certain pious blind nun had a vision: from the Saviour gates of the Kremlin the Moscow sainted-hierarchs were exiting, forsaking the city and bearing with them the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God—the chief holy thing of the city of Moscow,—in the chastisement of God for the sins of its inhabitants. At the Saviour-gates the sainted-hierarchs were met by the Monks Sergei of Radonezh and Varlaam of Khutynsk, tearfully imploring them not to quit Moscow. All of them together offered up intense prayer to the Lord about the forgiving of transgressions and the deliverance of Moscow from its enemies. After this prayer the sainted-hierarchs returned to the Kremlin and they carried back the holy Vladimir Icon. There was a similar vision also to a Moscow saint, Blessed Vasilii, to whom it was revealed, that through the intercession of the Mother of God and the prayers of the saints, Moscow would be saved. The Tatar khan likewise had a vision of the Mother of God amidst a fearsome host, contending against his forces. The Tatars fled in fear, and the capital of the Russian realm was saved.
The celebration of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God is made likewise on 23June and 26 August.
" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Today the most glorious city of Moscow is adorned, having received thy wonder-working icon like the radiance of the sun; and we, hastening to it and entreating thee, O Mistress, do thus cry out: O all-wondrous Mistress Theotokos, entreat Christ our God, Who became incarnate through thee, that He deliver this city, and all cities and lands where Christians dwell, unharmed by all the assaults of the enemy, and save thou our souls, in that thou art compassionate.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "As ones delivered from evils by the arrival of thy precious image, O Mistress Theotokos, do we splendidly chant hymns of victory to thee, the chosen leader, on the feast of thy meeting, and we cry to thee as is our wont: Rejoice, O Bride unwedded!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "2858": { "name": { "nominative": "Iveron Icon of the Mother of God (9th C)", "short": "Iveron Icon" } }, "2865": { "name": { "nominative": "Appearance of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God (1579)", "short": "Kazan Icon" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "On 1 October 1552, on the feastday of the Pokrov-Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God, at night, tsar Ivan IV in heading the Russian forces made ready for a decisive assault against the Tatar city of Kazan, and suddenly he heard the peeling of the Moscow bells. The tsar realised that this was a sign of the mercy of God: that through the prayers of the mighty commander-in-chief, the Lord deigned that the Kazan people should be converted to Him.The surrender of Kazan on the feast of the Pokrov-Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God completed a course of events, initiated way back centuries earlier in the year 1164 by holy Prince Andrei Bogoliubsky († 1174, Comm. 4 July), against the Moslem Volga Bulgars. With the taking of Kazan, the Volga—the chief waterway route of the land, became finally a Russian river. And from Tatar servitude were liberated 60,000 Russian people. The enlightenment of the Tatars with the light of the Gospel truth was started. There were the first martyrs—Saints Peter and Stephen (Comm. 24 March). The newly established Kazan diocese entered into the complexion of the Russian Church and was soon illustrious in its own archbishops: Saint Gurii († 1563, Comm. 5December) and Saint German († 1567, Comm. 6 November).
But the advance of Orthodoxy was especially enabled amongst the Volga Mahometans by the appearance, on 8 July 1579, of the wonderworking Icon of the Mother of God in the city of Kazan. Preaching the Gospel had been a difficult matter in this conquered kingdom amongst the incorrigible Moslems and pagans. The Most Holy Mother of God, Mediatrix of preachers of the Word of God, Who even during Her earthly life shared in the evangelic work of the holy Apostles,—in looking down upon the efforts of the Russian missionaries, She did not hesitate to send them Heavenly help, manifest through Her wonderworking Icon.
On 28 June 1579 there occurred a terrible conflagration which had started around the church of Saint Nikolai of Tula. This fire destroyed part of the city and turned to ashes half of the Kazan Kremlin. The adherents of Mahomet gloated, supposing, that God had become angered against the Christians. “The faith of Christ,—says the chronicler,—is rendered a fable and an outrage.” But the conflagration at Kazan was the foreboding of the ultimate fall of Islam and affirmation of Orthodoxy throughout all the land of the Golden Horde, the future East portion of the Russian realm.
The city began quickly to rise up from its ruins. Together with others who had been burned out, and not far from where the conflagration had started,—was built the house of the musketeer Daniil Onuchin. The Mother of God appeared in a dream to his nine year old daughter Matrona and commanded her to find Her icon, hidden in the ground by secret confessors of Orthodoxy way back still in the time of Moslem rule. But to the words of a mere girl they paid no attention. Thrice the Mother of God appeared and pointed out the spot, where the wonderworking icon had been concealed. Finally, Matrona with her mother began to dig in the indicated place and they found the sacred icon. To this place of the miraculous discovery there came archbishop Jeremii at the head of his clergy and transported the holy image into a church of Saint Nicholas situated nearby. From there, after a molieben, amidst a church procession they transferred it to the Annunciation cathedral—the first Orthodox temple in the city of Kazan, erected by tsar Ivan the Terrible. During the time of the procession there occurred the healing of two blind men—Iosif and Nikita.
A copy of the Icon, which had appeared at Kazan, together with an account of the circumstances of its discovery and descriptions of the miracles was dispatched in 1579 to Moscow. Tsar Ivan the Terrible gave orders to build at the place of its appearance a temple in honour of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, to install therein the holy icon, and to found there also a women’s monastery. Matrona and her mother, instrumental in finding the sacred icon, accepted monastic tonsure at this monastery.
At the Nikol’sk (Nicholas) church, where the first molieben had been made before the Kazan Icon, was serving at this time as priest the future Saint Ermogen, Patriarch of Moscow († 1612, Comm. 17 February). Fifteen years later, in 1594, now as Metropolitan of Kazan, he compiled a report of the holy events to which he had been an eyewitness and participant: “Account and Miracles of the MostPure Mother of God from Her Venerable and Gloriously Manifest Image at Kazan.” In this account are descriptions with great factual precision regarding many an instance of healing, from the wonderworking Icon through the prayers of believers. The “Account” manuscript—written by His Holiness Patriarch Ermogen—was in its entirety reproduced in facsimile edition: “Report about the Wonderworking Kazan Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God,” with an introduction by A. I. Sobolevsky, M(oscow) 1912.
The not-large Icon, discovered by the girl Matrona in the then recently annexed foreign frontier of the Russian realm, soon became a national sacred item, a sign of the Heavenly protection of the Mother of God, manifest for all the Russian Church, since the soul of the Orthodox nation sensed the special participation of the All-Pure Lady Mother of God in the historical destiny of its “Rodina” native-land. Not by mere chance was the Kazan Image a copy of the ancient Blachernæ Icon (Comm. 7 July) written by the holy Evangelist Luke, and considered in its iconographic type to be of icons named “Hodegetria” (“Putevoditel′nitsa,” “Way-Guide”). Many a time the “Kazan Mother” showed the way to victory for Russian Orthodox soldiers in the fulfilling of their sacred duty for God and Country.
In the year of its appearance at Kazan (in other sources two years afterwards) there began the remarkable onward march “Beyond Kazan” (beyond the Ural Mountains) envisioned by Blessed German († 1567, Comm. 6 November), and taken by the Cossack ataman Ermak Timofeevich Povol′sky († 1584), an effort crowned finally with the annexation of Siberia. With a graced energy and coursing about in miraculous manner it proved sufficient, that for some several decades Russian explorer-missionaries should proceed to the East, “ to meet the sun,” going many thousands of kilometers. On the feastday of the Pokrov (Protection, 1 October) in 1639 they sailed out on their first voyage along the Pacific Ocean, preaching salvation to the surrounding peoples.
Orthodox soldiers and missionaries went east, while apostates fled to the West. Jesuits seemingly attempted to drown Rus’ at the beginning XVII Century with tumultuous waves of sovereign-imposters and “rapacious people.” It was indeed through Divine Providence, during the period of the Polish Occupation (1605-1612), which the nation termed the “Time of Troubles,” that the Russian Church was headed by a great confessor of Orthodoxy—the Hieromartyr Ermogen, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus,’ who had been among those first to venerate the Kazan Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God, becoming the author of the “Account” about it and the Service to it.
During the difficult days when Moscow was occupied by the Polish, and discord and disorder having spread throughout all the land, this resolute sufferer for the Holy Faith and Fatherland was held under guard, and he managed secretly to send off to Nizhni Novgorod an appeal: “Write to Kazan to metropolitan Emphrem, and let there be sent a document of direction to the regiments for the boyars and to the Cossack forces, that they should rise up in force for the faith, put an end to the plundering and preserve brotherhood, and should vow to pledge their souls for the house of the All-Pure and the wonderworkers and for the faith, let there be done. And in every city… write thus in my name.” The Nizhni Novgorod people responded to the appeal of the archpastor. Prince Dimitrii Mikhailovich Pozharsky headed the gathered militia.
The Kazan forces, joining in with the militia, brought with them a copy of the wonderworking Kazan Icon, which they gave to prince Dimitrii at Yaroslavl′. The Most Holy Lady Mother of God took the militia under Her protection, and by Her intercession Russia was saved.
The Russian forces experienced tremendous difficulties: inward hostilities, and insufficient armament and supplies. In the bad weather of Autumn the Russian army moved on to storm Moscow, situated in the hands of the Polish.
A three day fast and fervent prayer before the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God inclined the Lord to mercy. Within the besieged Kremlin at this time was held captive the Hellas Archbishop Arsenios (Arsenii, afterwards Suzdal’ archbishop, † 1626, 13 April), who had arrived from Greece and was grievously ill from his journeying and being shaken about. By night the cell of Saint Arsenii was suddenly lit up by a Divine light, and he beheld the Monk Sergei of Radonezh (Comm. 5 July and 25 September), who said: “Arsenii, our prayers are heard; through the intercession of the Mother of God the Divine judgement of the Fatherland is changed to mercy; on the morrow Moscow wilt be in the hands of its besiegers and Russia saved.”
As though in proof of the veracity of this prophecy, the archbishop received healing from his sickness, and then this joyful occurrence became known to the Russian forces. On the following day, 22 October 1612, Russian forces, inspired by the vision, seized a sweeping victory and took the Chinese-quarter, and 2 days later—the Kremlin itself.
On Sunday, 25 October, Russian forces triumphantly in church procession made entry into the Kremlin, bearing the Kazan Icon. At the Skull-Place (“Lobnœ mesto,” i.e. the public execution spot), the church procession was met by Archbishop Arsenii emerging from the Kremlin, bearing the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, saved by him in his captivity. Moved by the effect of the meeting of the two wonderworkings icons of the Mother of God, the people with tears made prayer to the Heavenly Mediatrix.
With the expulsion of the Polish from Moscow,—according to the Nikonov chronicle, prince Dimitrii Pozharsky had the holy Kazan Icon placed in his own parish church of the Entry in the Temple of the Most Holy Mother of God, at Lubyanka in Moscow. Afterwards, at the expense of the prince-patriot, there was erected the Kazan cathedral on Red Square. The holy icon, which had been with the armies of Pozharsky during the liberation of Moscow, was transferred in 1636 into the newly constructed temple, the Kazan cathedral. At present, this holy image is situated in the Patriarch’s Theophany cathedral in Moscow.
In commemoration of the liberation of Moscow from the Polish, a special feastday in honour of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God was established under 22 October. At first this celebration was made only at Moscow, but from 1649 it became an all-Russian celebration.
In 1709, before the Poltava Battle, Peter the Great prayed with his soldiery in front an icon of the Kazan Mother of God (that from the village of Kaplunovka). In 1721 Peter transferred one of the copies of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God from Moscow to Peterburg, where at first the icon was placed in a chapel, then at the Alexandro-Nevsky Lavra monastery, and from 1737 it was in the church of the Nativity of the Mother of God on Nevsky Prospekt. In 1811, before the Fatherland War, the holy icon of the Heavenly Mediatrix was transferred into the newly constructed Kazan cathedral.
In 1812 the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God provided blessing for Russian soldiers in repulsing the French invasion. On the feast of the Kazan Icon, 22 October 1812, Russian detachments under the command of Miloradovich and Platov destroyed the Davu rearguard. This was the first outstanding blow against the French after their departure from Moscow, and in which the enemy lost seven thousand men. And on this day snow fell, bitter frosts began, and the army that had subdued Europe began to falter.
…The Kazan cathedral at Peterburg was built in the years 1801-1811—as though especially for this, to be a commemorative temple of Russian glory in the 1812 Fatherland War. The iconostas of the main altar was an elaborately wrought work, made of an hundred pud-weight [pud = 36 lbs] of silver: of this, forty puds were an offering to the temple by the Don Cossacks, having taken this silver in 1812 from the French. The walls of the cathedral were adorned with trophies, taken from the French in 1812. Buried at the cathedral and with enemy standards draped over his holy tomb was prince Mikhail Kutuzov-Smolensky, saviour of the Fatherland. Bronzen sculptures of Kutuzov and Barclay de Tolli stand before the temple at the end of the colonnades, in the hemisphere circling upon the cathedral square…
Numerous wonderworking copies of the Kazan Icon in Rus’ glorify the All-Pure Mother of God, Protectress of the Orthodox Russian people. Of the plethora of icons of the Mother of God venerated in the Russian Orthodox Church, none is more widespread in number than the Kazan Icon. For all Orthodox Rus’ it is esteemed as holy, and to it oftenest of all do they turn their gaze in misfortunes and illnesses, crying out: “O fervent Mediatrix, Mother of the Lord MostHigh, for all pray Thine Son Christ our God… with everything grant benefit and save all, O Virgin Birth-giver of God, and be Thou the Divine protection for Thine servant.”
With blessings of grace are dispersed icons of the All-Pure Mother of God throughout the extent of the Russian land, truly imaging the Heavenly protection, with Her constant intercession sent down by Her Divine Son, having offered Himself in sacrifice for the salvation of mankind. The ancient Vladimir holy Image of the Mother of God preserves and blesses the Northern bounds, the Smolensk and Pochaev Icons guard the West, and in the East, to the ends of the land shine the rays of the inexhaustible grace of the wonderworking Kazan Image of our All-Pure Mother." }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "
O earnest helper, Mother of the Lord Most High, * thou dpst entreat Christ, thy Son and our God, in behalf of all, * and causest all to be saved who have recourse to thy mighty protection, * O Lady, Queen and Mistress, * help us all who, amid temptations, sorrows and sickness, * are heavy laden with many sins, * who stand before thee and with tears pray to thee with compunctionate soul * and contrite heart before thine all-pure image, * and who have unfailing hope in thee: * grant deliverance from all evils, * and things profitable unto all, O Virgin Theotokos, * and gave us all, for thou art the divine protection ** of thy servants.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "O ye people, let us flee to that calm and good haven, the speedy helper * and ready and fervent salvation, the protection of the Virgin, * and let us make haste to prayer and speed to repentance. * For the all-pure Theotokos poureth forth upon us inexhaustible mercies; * she gœth before to help us and delivereth ,her good-hearted and God-fearing servants ** from great misfortunes and evils.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "2875": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God of Kaluga", "short": "Icon of" } }, "2935": { "name": { "nominative": "Shuyskoy icon of the Mother of God “Odigitriya”", "short": "Shuyskoy icon" } }, "2947": { "name": { "nominative": "Commemoration of the Miraculous Appearance of the Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God, which saved the Monastery from the assault of the Tatars and Turks (1675)", "short": "Pochaev Icon" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God is among the most venerable sacred items of the Russian Church. It is reknown throughout all the Slavic world: they venerate it in Russia, in Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria and other places. Christians also of other confessions come for veneration of the wonderworking image of the Most Holy Mother of God, alongside the Orthodox. At the Pochaev Lavra, an ancient rampart of Orthodoxy, the wonderworking icon has resided about 400 years. (The account about the transfer of the icon to the Pochaev monastery is located under 8 September). The miracles, which issued forth from the holy icon, are numerous and are testified to in the monastery books with the inscriptions of the faithful, who with prayer have met with deliverance from unclean spirits, liberation from captivity, and sinners brought to their senses.
The celebration in honour of the Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God on 23 July was established in memory of the deliverance Uspenie-Dormition Lavra monastery from a Turkish siege on 20-23 July 1675.
In the Summer of 1675 during the time of the Zbarazhsk War with the Turks, during the reign of the Polish king Jan Sobesski (1674-1696), regiments composed of Tatars under the command of khan Nurredin via Vishnevets fell upon the Pochaev monastery, surrounding it on three sides. The weak monastery walls, just like some of the stone buildings of the monastery, did not offer much defense against a siege. The hegumen Iosif Dobromirsky urged the brethren and laypeople to turn themselves to Heavenly intercessors: to the Most Holy Mother of God and the Monk Job of Pochaev (Comm. 28October). The monks and the laypeople prayed fervently, prostrating themselves before the wonderworking image of the Mother of God and the reliquary with the relics of the Monk Job. On the morning of 23 July with the rising of the sun, as the Tatars were holding a final meeting about an assault on the monastery, the hegumen ordered the singing of an akathist to the Mother of God. With the first words, “O Queen of the Heavenly Hosts,” suddenly there appeared over the church the Most Holy Mother of God Herself, in “an unfurled gleaming-white omophor,” with heavenly angels holding unsheathed swords. The Monk Job was beside the Mother of God, bowing to Her and beseeching the defense of the monastery. The Tatars took the heavenly army for an apparition, and in confusion they began to shoot arrows at the Most Holy Mother of God and the Monk Job, but the arrows fell backwards and wounded those who shot them. Terror seized the enemy. In a flight of panic and without looking, they trampled upon and killed each other. The defenders of the monastery attempted pursuit and took many prisoner. Some of the prisoners afterwards accepted the Christian faith and remained at the monastery thereafter.
In the year 1721 Pochaev was occupied by Uniates. But even in this difficult time for the Lavra, the monastery chronicle notes 539 miracles from the glorified Orthodox sacred image. During the time of the Uniate rule in the 2nd half of the XVIII Century, for example, the Uniate nobleman count Nicholas Pototski became a benefactor of the Pochaev Lavra through the following miraculous circumstance. Having accused his coachman for overturning the carriage with frenzied horses, the count took out a pistol to shoot him. The coachman, turning towards Pochaev Hill, reached his hands upwards and cried out: “Mother of God, manifest in the Pochaev Icon, save me!” Pototski several times tried to shoot the pistol, which had never let him down, but the weapon misfired. The coachman remained alive. Pototski then immediately set off to the wonderworking icon and decided to devote himself and all his property to the building-up of the monastery. From his wealth was built the Uspenie-Dormition cathedral and buildings for the brethren.
The return of Pochaev into the bosom of Orthodoxy in 1832 was marked by the miraculous healing of the blind maiden Anna Akimchukova, who had come on pilgrimage to the holy things together with her 70 year old grandmother, from Kremenets-Podol’sk 200 versts away. In memory of this event, the Volynia archbishop and Lavra archimandrite Innokentii (1832-1840) established weekly on Saturdays the reading of the cathedral akathist before the wonderworking icon. During the time of the rule of the Lavra by archimandrite Agathangel, archbishop of Volynia (1866-1876), there was constructed a separate chapel in the galleries of the Holy Trinity church in memory of the victory over the Tatars, which was dedicated on 23 July 1875.
" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Those who pray before your holy icon, O Lady, * Are vouchsafed healing and receive the knowledge of the true faith, * And they repel the attacks of the Hagarenes. * Therefore entreat remission of sins * For us who fall down before you. * Enlighten our hearts to thoughts of piety, ** And raise a prayer to your Son to save our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "5" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Your icon of Pochaev, O Theotokos, * Is become a source of healing and the confirmation of the Orthodox Faith. * Therefore deliver us who have recourse to you * From calamity and temptation. * Preserve your monastery unharmed. * Confirm Orthodoxy in the surrounding lands, * And forgive the sins of those who pray to you; ** For you can do as you will.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" } } } }, "2994": { "name": { "nominative": "The Three-handed Icon of the Mother of God", "short": "The Three-handed" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The wonderworking image, before which the Monk John Damascene (Comm. 4 December) received healing of a cut-off hand, was given over by him to the Laura of the Monk Sava the Sanctified. In the XIII Century the icon was situated in Serbia, and afterwards it was miraculously transported to Athos to the Khilendaria monastery. A more detailed account about the icon is located under 28 June.
" } }, "2997": { "name": { "nominative": "Revered lists of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God: the Pskov-Kiev Caves “Tenderness” (1524), Zaonikievskaya (1588), Krasnogorskaya or Montenegro (1603), Orange (1634)", "short": "Revered lists" } }, "3047": { "name": { "nominative": "Prophet Naum (7th C BC)", "short": "Prophet Naum" }, "rank": 1 }, "3048": { "name": { "nominative": "Righteous Philaret the Merciful of Amnia in Asia Minor († 792)", "short": "Righteous Philaret" } }, "3050": { "name": { "nominative": "Nativity of the Holy Glorious Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist of the Lord, John", "short": "Feast" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Nativity of the Holy Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord, John: The Gospel (Lk. 1: 57-80) relates that the righteous parents of Saint John the Baptist—the Priest Zachariah and Elizabeth, lived in the ancient city of Hebron, and reached old age being childless, since Elizabeth was barren. One time, Saint Zachariah was making Divine services at the Jerusalem Temple and saw the Archangel Gabriel, standing on the right side of the incense offertory. He predicted, that Saint Zachariah would father a son, who would announce the Saviour—the Messiah, awaited by the Old Testament Church. Zachariah was troubled, and fear fell upon him. He had doubts that in old age it was possible to have a son, and he asked for a sign. And it was given to him—it appeared at the same time as a chastisement for his unbelief: Zachariah was struck speechless until the time of the fulfillment of the archangel’s words.Saint Elizabeth came to be with child, and fearing derision over the lateness of her pregnancy, she kept it secret for five months, until there came visiting her distant relative the All-Blessed Virgin Mary, to share with her Her own joy. Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, was the first to greet the Virgin Mary as the Mother of God. And together with her Saint John also—in the womb of his mother Righteous Elizabeth—did greet “with leaps as in song” the Most Holy Virgin Mary and the Son of God incarnated within Her.
It became time, and Saint Elizabeth gave birth to a son, and all the relatives and acquaintances rejoiced together with her. On the eighth day, in accord with the law of Moses, was made the circumcision. His mother named him John. Everyone was amazed, since no one in their family had been named such. When they asked Saint Zachariah about this, he motioned for a tablet and wrote on it: “John is his name”—and immediately the binding of his tongue at the prediction of the archangel was unbound, and Saint Zachariah, at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, glorified God and pronounced the words of prophecy about the Advent-Coming into the world of the Messiah, and about his own son John—the Forerunner of the Lord.
After the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ and the worship of the shepherds and the Magi, wicked king Herod gave orders to kill all the infants. Hearing about this, Saint Elizabeth fled into the wilderness and hid in a cave. Saint Zachariah as a priest was at Jerusalem and was doing his priestly service in the Temple. Herod sent soldiers to him to find out the abode of the infant John and his mother. Zachariah answered, that their whereabouts were unknown to him, and he was killed right there in the Temple. Righteous Elizabeth continued to live in the wilderness with her son and she died there. The lad John, protected by an Angel, dwelt in the wilderness until such time, when he came preaching about repentance and was himself vouchsafed worthy to baptise the Lord Who was come into the world." }, "rank": 6, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "
O prophet and forerunner of the coming of Christ, * we who honor thee with love are at a loss how to praise thee worthily; * for by thy glorious and honored nativity * thou didst loose the barrenness of her who gave birth to thee * and the muteness of thy father, * and dost proclaim unto the world ** the incarnation of the Son of God.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Today she who before was barren * giveth birth unto the forerunner of Christ, * and he is the fulfillment of all prophecy; * for, laying his hand in the Jordan upon Him Whom the prophets foretold, ** he hath been shown to be the prophet, herald and forerunner of the Word of God.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "3053": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Myropia", "short": "Martyr Myropia" } }, "3054": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Jesse the Bishop of Tsilkansk in Georgia (6th C)", "short": "Saint Jesse" } }, "3055": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Stephen-Urosh, the King of Serbia († 1367)", "short": "Saint Stephen-Urosh" } }, "3057": { "name": { "nominative": "Prophet Sophonius († 635-605 BC)", "short": "Prophet Sophonius" }, "rank": 1 }, "3061": { "name": { "nominative": "Great Martyr Barbara and Martyr Juliana, at Heliopolis in Syria († c. 306)", "short": "Great Martyr Barbara" }, "rank": 2 }, "3062": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable John of Damascus († 776)", "short": "Venerable John" }, "rank": 1 }, "3078": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Anthony, Abbot of Siisk († 1556)", "short": "Venerable Anthony" }, "rank": 2 }, "3079": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Athenodoros of Mesopotamia († c. 304)", "short": "Martyr Athenodoros" } }, "3080": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Paul the Obedient", "short": "Venerable Paul" } }, "3083": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Patapios of Thebes (7th C)", "short": "Venerable Patapios" }, "rank": 1 }, "3085": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Apostles of the 70: Sosthenes, Apollos, Cephas, Tychicos, Epaphrodites, Cæsarius and Onysiphoros (1st C)", "short": "Holy Apostles" } }, "3091": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Sophronios, Archbishop of Cyprus (6th C)", "short": "Saint Sophronios" } }, "3092": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Stephen the New-Light of Constantinople († 912)", "short": "Venerable Stephen" } }, "3093": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God, named “Unexpected Joy”", "short": "Icon of" } }, "3095": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Minos, Hermogenes, and Eugraphos of Alexandria († c. 313)", "short": "Martyrs Minos" }, "rank": 1 }, "3096": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Gemellos of Paphlagonia († c. 361)", "short": "Martyr Gemellos" } }, "3097": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Thomas of Bithynia (10th C)", "short": "Venerable Thomas" } }, "3101": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Nikon the Lean of the Kiev Caves (12th C)", "short": "Venerable Nikon" } }, "3102": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Mirax of Egypt (7th C)", "short": "Martyr Mirax" } }, "3103": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Acepsius and Aiphalus", "short": "Martyrs Acepsius" } }, "3104": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Luke the “New Stylite” of Chalcedon [Pillar-Dweller] († c. 970-980)", "short": "Venerable Luke" } }, "3108": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Alexander, Bishop of Jerusalem († 251)", "short": "Hieromartyr Alexander" } }, "3109": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Razumnik (Cynecius) of Rome († 270-275)", "short": "Martyr Razumnik" } }, "3111": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Eustratios, Auxentios, Eugene, Mardarius and Orestes at Sebaste († c. 284-305)", "short": "Martyrs" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "These holy martyrs suffered deeply for Christ during the reign of theEmperor Diocletian in Sebaste, Armenia. St. Eustratius, “the accuser ofHellenic thinkers of fables and preacher of Christian divine wisdom,” wasthe magistrate of Satalios. For his belief in Christ, being “relentlesslybeaten, and burned in fire, and nailed in his boots with iron, and driven on the way,and enclosed in prison,” he was burned to death after these severe tortures. Auxentius,”who with wise words and patience became a martyr exposing godlessness,” waspresbyter of the Arabian church and, after being “tested by various torments,confessing Christ God,” died, being beheaded by the sword. Eugene, “needed by Godfor good and not needed for torture was saved by his confession,” and Mardarius, “themeek dove,” were voluntarily led into martyrdom for the sake of Christ and died whilebeing tortured. St. Orestes, “a true and wonderful warrior for every Cæsar,” whofound his faith in Christ by the cross on his chest, after being tortured “was burned onan iron griddle,” received “a blessed end to his life and an incorruptible crown.” Therelics of these holy martyrs repose in Rome.
" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In their sufferings, O Lord, * Thy martyrs received imperishable crowns from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * they set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By their supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thou hast been shown to be a most splendid luminary, * for those who sit in the darkness of ignorance, O passion-bearer; * for, armed with faith as with a spear, * thou wast undaunted by the arrogance of the enemy, O Eustratius, ** who art far more eloquent than any orator.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" }, "KONTAKION/2": { "text": "Speaking of divine things eloquently before the iniquitous, O all-wondrous one, * thou didst endure beatings with most courageous heart, * didst shine forth with godly signs, * and didst extinguish the towering flame of falsehood. ** Wherefore, we honor thee, O most blessed Eustratius, martyr of Christ.
", "Type": "2", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "3113": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Mardarius, Abbot of the Kiev Caves (13th C)", "short": "Venerable Mardarius" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "The legion captain from Constantinople, who was miraculously saved by theLord during a storm on the sea became a monk and led a strict ascetical life on MountLatros in Asia Minor near Miletus. For his extraordinary ascetical efforts he wasbestowed with the gift of wonderworking. He lived in the Eighth or Ninth century.
" } }, "3116": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Thyrsos, Leukios, Callinicos of Apollonia († 249-251)", "short": "Martyrs Thyrsos" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "“The wondrous Thyrsus, and the godly-minded Callinicus, and the glorious Leucius” suffered for Christ in the persecution during the reign of Decius (249-251) in Cæsarea, Bithynia. St. Leucius, who reproached the ruler Cumbricius for unfair persecution of Christians, was tortured and then beheaded. St. Thyrsus, being “strengthened by the power of the cross,” underwent “the planing of the body” and other tortures without injury and died in peace. St. Callinicus, who was a pagan priest, seeing the courage and miracles of St. Thyrsus, accepted Christ and was beheaded. During the reign of Diocletian “the great Philemon, and the most godly Arianus, and the wise Apolonius,” and together with them Theoctychus with three guards (imperial bodyguards) suffered in Antinoopolis, Egypt. Apolonius, the reader in Antinoopolis, frightened by the tortures, asked the pagan Philemon, a musician, to make an offering for him to the idol. But when disguised in the clothes of Apolonius, Philemon firmly confessed himself as a Christian before the torturer; Apolonius repented and also confessed Christ. After being tortured, both holy martyrs were beheaded. The torturer of Arianus, seeing the wonders of the holy martyrs, with his whole household also turned to Christ, and was sentenced to death for this. Four guards (of which Theoctychus was the eldest) voluntarily turned themselves over to be tortured for Christ. The church services do not mention the Martyr Theoctychus and the other guards.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In their sufferings, O Lord, * Thy martyrs received imperishable crowns from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * they set at nought the tormenters and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By their supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Reviling the impious tyrant, * O champions of faith and piety, * ye denounced his bestial thirst for blood, * and fortified by the help of Christ, O Thyrsus and Leucius, * ye vanquished his wrathful opposition. ** With those who suffered with you, pray ye in our behalf.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "3117": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Philemon, Apollonios, Arian and Theotychos († 286-287)", "short": "Martyrs Philemon" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "His mother, Anthia, brought up St. Eleutherius, the son of a famous Roman citizen, in Christian piety. “Having fixed his most pure mind to God from youth,” he “removed fleshly wisdom from his soul and bountifully enriched himself with the grace of wonders.” His good works were so great, that at 20 years of age he was already installed as the Bishop of Illyricum (Albania). During the reign of Hadrian St. Eleutherius after being tortured was beheaded in Rome together with St. Anthia for zealously preaching Christ. The Eparch Choribus, who tortured Eleutherius, himself believed in Christ and also was beheaded. The relics of St. Eleutherius repose in Rome. The Holy Martyr Anthia is not mentioned in the church services by name.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "As thou didst share in the ways of the apostles * and didst occupy their throne, * thou didst find thine activity to be a passage to divine vision, * O divinely inspired one. * Wherefore, ordering the word of truth, * thou didst suffer for the Faith even to the shedding of thy blood. ** O hieromartyr Eleutherius, entreat Christ God, that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "We all praise thee as the adornment of priests * and the proclamation of passion-bearers, * O venerable hieromartyr Eleutherius, * and we entreat thee: * From multifarious misfortunes free those who celebrate thy memory with love, ** praying unceasingly for us all.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "3122": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Paul of Latros († 955)", "short": "Venerable Paul" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "He in adolescence devoted himself to serving the Lord in a monastery on Mount Latros in Asia Minor, near Miletus. The Venerable Paul was known for constant prayer, strict fasting, and deep silence. Venerable Paul died in the year 955, knowing beforehand the hour of his death.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O most glorious Paul, we hymn thee * as one who dwelleth together with the incorporeal hosts * and as a companion of all the venerable, ** and we beseech thee: ** Pray thou ever for us, that we may find mercy.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "From thy youth, O wise one, thou didst manfully desire that which passeth understanding * and didst forsake the tumult of the world. * For thy divine way of life thou becamest a dwelling-place of the Trinity, * and hast illumined those who have recourse to thee with faith. ** Wherefore, we cry out: Rejoice, O Paul who art most rich!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "3123": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Stephen the Confessor, Archbishop of Surozh (8th C)", "short": "Saint Stephen" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "Born in Cappadocia, and when 15 years old he came to Constantinople for higher education that he completed so successfully that he surpassed “all the teachers, who were in the city.” At a mature age he was tonsured a monk and in order to practice supreme ascetical efforts he left for the desert where he lived for 30 years “as his undefiled way of life showed.” Due to a special revelation he was called from the desert by Patriarch German and ordained the Bishop of Surozh (today called Sudak, in Crimea). His pastorate was strongly infected with heresy and he had time to exterminate the heresy and restored Orthodoxy within 5 years. During the reign of the iconoclast Leo the Isaurian he, having gone to Constantinople, “plainly preached the Orthodox tradition” and endured torture and imprisonment for venerating holy icons. During the reign of Copronymus St. Stephan, exhausted from the imprisonment, mutilated from torture, already in old age, received his freedom, and again came back to his pastorate and soon died in about the middle of the VIII century.
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "As a hierarch thou didst dwell with the bodiless hosts, O Hierarch Stephen, for thou wielded the Cross as a sword, and firmly standing against the iconoclasts and those who warred against the Spirit, those who would not venerate the most pure image of Christ our God, thou didst cut down every heresy of the wicked. Therefore, receiving the crown of martyrdom, thou delivered thy city of Surozh from all enmity. And now we pray to thee, O Holy One, do thou deliver us from all evil temptation and troubles, and eternal torments.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Strengthened by the power of the Most High, O Dedicated One, thou cast down the pride of the iconoclast Emperor. and today thy relics are the glory and holy wealth of thy city of Surozh and all us faithful which the angelic hosts offer up, glorifying thee with hymns and songs, O greatly Dedicated Stephen.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "3126": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Pardus, the Hermit of Palestine", "short": "Venerable Pardus" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "Born a Roman citizen, he originally was a driver. Once when lodging for the night his cart crushed a child, the Venerable Pardus, with troubled conscience, left for Mount Arion in Palestine, and accepted monasticism and before his death he carried out the strict ascetical efforts of desert living, constantly being distressed about his involuntary sin of manslaughter. He died in the sixth century.
" } }, "3130": { "name": { "nominative": "Prophet Haggai (500 BC)", "short": "Prophet Haggai" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "Tenth of the Twelve Minor Prophets, he belonged to the root of Levi and prophesied during the reign of the Persian King Darius Hystaspes (about 500 years before the Nativity of Christ). After the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, he convinced them to build the second temple in Jerusalem and calmed them that in this temple lies “the Word without Beginning in the last times is manifest.”
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" } } } }, "3131": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Marinus of Rome (3rd C)", "short": "Martyr Marinus" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "He suffered in Rome about 283-284. Refusing to bring a sacrifice to idols and subverting the latter by the power of prayer, St. Marinus after severe torture was beheaded by the sword.
" } }, "3132": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Empress Theophania († c. 893-894)", "short": "Blessed Empress" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "By the slander of a bishop, she together with her husband (then still an heir to the throne) suffered a three-year prison sentence. After she was released, she spent her life in prayer and fasting. Meekness, mercy and fervent contrition for her sins were the distinctive good deeds of St. Theophania. She died in the year 892. Her relics are in Constantinople in the Patriarchate.
" } }, "3133": { "name": { "nominative": "The Repose of the Venerable Princess Sofia, in the world Solomonia, wife of the Grand Prince Basil Ivanovich" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "Divorced from her spouse for barrenness, she against her will was tonsured in the Nativity of Christ Women’s Monastery and was then sent to the Suzdal Protection Monastery. Ascending from perfection to perfection through grief and struggle with herself, the Venerable Sofia lived a godly life in the monastery for 17 years and died in 1542. From the grave of the Venerable Sofia flowed many miracles and healings for those who came with faith. Her relics are in the Suzdal Monastery in a hidden place." } }, "3136": { "name": { "nominative": "Prophet Daniel and the Three Holy Youths, Ananias, Azarias, and Misael (c 600 BC)", "short": "Prophet Daniel" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "They were children of notable Jews. Taken in captivity by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar, they were brought up at the court of this king, but they were faithful to their God and “were not willing to be defiled by the most unlawful food.” For opening and interpreting the dream which was seen by and bothered Nebuchadnezzar, the prophet Daniel was made the ruler of Babylon. Soon after that Nebuchadnezzar put up a statue on the plain of Dura and commanded all to render it divine honor. Refusing to obey this command Ananias, Azarias and Misael were thrown into the blazing furnace, but the Lord kept them safe in the flame and Nebuchadnezzar glorified the true God. During the reign of Belteshazzar the Holy Prophet Daniel interpreted a mysterious inscription which was shown on the wall during a feast and announcing the downfall of the Babylonian kingdom. During the reign of the Persian King Darius, St. Daniel, on the slander of his enemies, was into a pit with lions, but the Lord shut up the mouth of the lions and the prophet remained unharmed. St. Daniel died in Persia. He wrote a book in which he precisely tells the specified time of the coming of the Messiah. The Holy Empress Helena translated the relics of St. Daniel to Constantinople. The Three Holy Youths, by tradition, were beheaded by the sword during the reign of the Persian King Cambyses.
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Great are the accomplishments of faith! * In the fountain of flame, as in refreshing water, the three holy children rejoiced; * and the Prophet Daniel * was shown to be a shepherd of lions, as of sheep. ** By their prayers, O Christ God; save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Enlightened by the Spirit, * thy pure heart became the receptacle of most splendid prophecy: * for thou beheldest far-off things as though they were present, * and, cast into the pit, didst tame the lions. ** Wherefore, we honor thee, O blessed and glorious Prophet Daniel.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "3137": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Daniel the Confessor, in Schema Stephen, of Spain and Egypt (10th C)", "short": "Venerable Daniel" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "He was the chief of the Niberta Island (in Spain, near Cadiz), but then, having disdained secular vanity, he accepted monasticism in Rome and went to travel to the holy places. He was in Constantinople and Jerusalem where he accepted the schema. He died as a martyr in Egypt in the tenth century, being killed for his faith in Christ by the Saracens.
" } }, "3139": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Sebastian at Rome with his companions: Martyrs Nicostratus, his wife Zoe, Castorius, Tranquillinus the Presbyter and his sons the Deacons Marcellinus and Mark, Claudius, his son Symphorian and brother Victorinus, Tiburtius and Castulus († c. 287)", "short": "Martyr Sebastian" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "Holy Martyr Sebastian (defender of the church) and his companions (Nicostratus, master of the rolls, his wife Zoe and his brother Castorius, the Presbyter Tranquillinus and his two sons, Deacons Marcellian and Mark, Claudius the interpreter, his son Symphorian and brothers Victorinus, Tiburtius and Castulus, suffered for Christ in Rome about 287. St. Sebastian was the chief of the court guards. Secretly confessing Christ, he used all means to ease the suffering of persecuted Christians and at the same time convinced them to courageously die for Christ. Accused of this, he was turned over to torture: attached to a tree, he was completely pierced with arrows and then hammered to death with canes. Nicostratus (prison chief), Castorius, Claudius, Victorinus and Symphorian, converted to Christ, were drowned in the sea. Tranquillinus was beaten with stones and thrown into the river. Marcellian and Mark taken first for torture were crucified headlong. Tiburtius was beheaded by the sword. Castulus was buried alive. After being tortured for Christ Zoe, formerly a deaf mute healed by Sebastian, was thrown into the Tiber River. The relics of St. Sebastian repose in Rome. The Church hymns for this day are devoted mainly to glorifying Martyr Sebastian. The other holy martyrs Zoe, Mark, Marcellian and Tiburtius are commemorated in these hymns.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In their sufferings, O Lord, * Thy martyrs received imperishable crowns from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * they set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By their supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" } } } }, "3140": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Sebastian of Poshekhonye († c. 1500)", "short": "Venerable Sebastian" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "He was the founder and rector of the Transfiguration Monastery on the Sokhoti River, about 16.5 miles (25 versts) from Poshekhonie, Jaroslavl′ Province. Venerable Sebastian lived in the 15th century, distinguished by a highly virtuous life and extraordinary diligence. He frequently loved to repeat this to his disciples: “brethren, suffer grief and misfortune that you may avoid eternal torment.” He died in 1542. His relics are in a hidden place in his monastery (see Jaroslavl Diocese).
" } }, "3141": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Modestus, Archbishop of Jerusalem († c. 633-634)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "He was born in Sebastea. Brought up in piety, St. Modestus at first practiced asceticism on Sinai, and then in his declining years was installed as the archbishop of Jerusalem. The hierarch labored hard at the restoration of Jerusalem and its churches destroyed by the Persians, and died in peace in 634. The Prologue narrates this about him: “A certain Jerusalem man’s cattle was dying, spewing out a stream of serpent’s venom, with diabolical slander, he found a saint for this, who raised up the cattle and destroyed the serpents”
" } }, "3142": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Florus, Bishop of Amis", "short": "Venerable Florus" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "A court guard and then a patrician in Constantinople, after the death of his wife and children, he left secular vanity and practiced asceticism as a monk in Annapolis. For his holy life he later was elected bishop of Amisus in Cappadocia. He died at the end of the sixth century.
" } }, "3143": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Michael Singelos, the Confessor", "short": "Venerable Michael" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "He was born in Jerusalem and accused of iconoclasm he underwent exile by Emperor Theophilus. During the reign of Emperor Michael, St. Michael was installed as Synkellos of the Constantinopolitan patriarchy. He died about 845.
" } }, "3147": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Elias, Probos and Ares in Cilicia († 308)", "short": "Martyrs Elias" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "Born in Egypt, they suffered for Christ during the reign of Maximin in 308. Having gone to minister to Christian prisoners in Cilicia, they were seized in Ascalon and subjected to cruel torture. After torture St. Ares was burned, and Sts. Elias and Probus were beheaded by the sword.
" } }, "3153": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Ignatius, Archimandrite of the Kiev Caves († 1435)", "short": "Venerable Ignatius" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Aleksandr Andreev.", "text": "His relics are in the Kiev Far Caves.
" } }, "3159": { "name": { "nominative": "Virginmartyr Juliana of Nicomedia, and with her 500 Men and 150 Women († 304)", "short": "Virginmartyr Juliana" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "St. Juliana, daughter of wealthy parents, while yet in childhood was betrothed to a certain nobleman. Having accepted Christ and not inclined to her Pagan groom, St. Juliana refused to be joined in marriage and for her faith in Christ was subjected to cruel torture after which she was beheaded in Nicomedia in 304. Seeing the firmness of the martyress in her suffering, 500 men and 130 women accepted Christ for which they all were cut down by the sword. The relics of St. Juliana are now in Naples.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Thy ewe-lamb Juliana crieth out to Thee with a loud voice, O Jesus: * \"I love Thee, O my Bridegroom, * and, seeking Thee, I pass through many struggles: * I am crucified and buried with Thee in Thy baptism, * and suffer for Thy sake, that I may reign with Thee; * I die for Thee that I might live with Thee. * As an unblemished sacrifice accept me, * who sacrifice myself with love for Thee ** By her supplications save Thou our souls, in that Thou art merciful.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Rendered wholly pure by the beauties of virginity, * and having now been crowned with wreaths of martyrdom, O virgin Juliana, * thou grantest healing and salvation * unto those in need and affliction who approach thy shrine, for Christ poureth forth divine grace and life everlasting.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "3162": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Procopius of Viatka, Fool-for-Christ († 1627)", "short": "Blessed Procopius" } }, "3163": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Themistocles of Myra in Lycia († 251)", "short": "Martyr Themistocles" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "He was born in Myra in Lycia and was a shepherd of his flock. During the Decius persecution he fearlessly confessed himself a Christian, was tortured for this and beheaded by the sword in the year 251.
" } }, "3167": { "name": { "nominative": "10 Holy Martyrs of Crete: Theodulus, Satorninus, Euporus, Gelasius, Eunician, Zoticus, Pompius, Agathopus, Basilides and Evarestus (3rd C)", "short": "Martyrs" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "Ten Holy Martyrs of Crete: Theodulus, Saturninus, Euporus, Gelasius, Eunician, Zoticus, Pompeius, Agathopus, Basilides, and Evaristus They suffered for Christ during the persecution of Decius. These Holy martyrs came from different cities on the island of Crete, but with a single determination they confessed themselves Christians and have endured terrible tortures for their faith, after which they were beheaded by the sword. In the church hymns all these holy martyrs are called out by name and are hymned as “the ten called by God, and the ten-rayed lamp” and “unshakeable pillars.” Their relics subsequently were transferred to Rome.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In their sufferings, O Lord, * Thy martyrs received imperishable crowns from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * they set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By their supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "A morning-star hath shone forth, * the honorable contest of the martyrs, * illumining for us beforehand Him Who is born in the cave, ** to Whom the Virgin gave birth without seed.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "3169": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Niphon, Bishop of Cyprus (4th C)", "short": "Venerable Niphon" } }, "3170": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Paul, Bishop of Neo-Cæsarea (4th C)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" } }, "3172": { "name": { "nominative": "Nun-Martyr Eugenia of Rome, and with her the Martyrs Philip, her father, Protus, Hyacinth, Basilla, and Claudia († c. 262)", "short": "Nun-Martyr Eugenia" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "The Roman maiden Eugenia was the daughter of the Alexandrian eparch Philip, protector of Christians “completed for the sake of their way of life and a philosophy.” She “was very sharp and diligent in learning, comfortably understanding everything, and whatever she heard or read once, that she remembers well, as if written on copper sheets, having it in her heart.” Possessing beauty, Eugenia at the same time was distinguished “by chaste thoughts and virginal purity.” One of the most famous and well-born young men strenuously sought her hand, but she answered the proposal of her parents concerning marriage with him: “It is better for a man to be moral than it is for him to be noble, for it is to live with him, but not born of him.” Other “bright young men born in glory and wealth” also sought the hand of Eugenia, but she, “loving chastity, fled from marriage,” refused all, having decided “to remain in chaste virginity” forever. Casually having read through the book of the Epistles of the Holy Apostle Paul once, the wise virgin learned from them the true teaching of Christ. Later she secretly left with two servants, Protus and Hyacinth, from her parent’s home to one of the monasteries, where she changed into men’s clothing, and asked the former Bishop Helenus of this monastery to enlighten them with Holy Baptism. In a wonderful vision it was revealed to the bishop, that the maiden Eugenia, and he “knowing that she willingly was to prevail in the likeness of a man, inasmuch as none knows this secret,” and baptized all three of them and tonsured them into monasticism. The parents of Eugenia, not looking with all diligence, could not open the residence of their daughter. They “with inconsolable grief” cried for her day and night, “often calling out her name and powdering their heads with ashes, falling to the ground from exhaustion and sickness of heart.” Meanwhile St. Eugenia living in a monastery succeeded in her monastic efforts. “For her words were humble, loving, meek and few, full of the awe of God and His advantage.” She arrived in church before everyone and left after everyone else left. Everything she did she did humbly “in building: she comforted the afflicted, rejoiced with the rejoicing, flying into a rage with anger she subdued one with a word, proud of the paradigm of her humble way of life.” For such a holy life the Lord granted her the gift of healing. Sts. Protus and Hyacinth, imitating their former lady, also succeeded in a virtuous life. After three years passed the abbot of the monastery died. Under the unanimous and persistent request of the brethren and obeying her “commitment to Christ,” St. Eugenia felt compelled to take upon herself the rule over the monastery. She was a high example for the monks, “continually laboring for all the brethren, carrying water, cutting fire wood, cleaning all the cells and serving all with much diligence,” unfailingly attending all church services and herself living in the gatekeeper cell. Subsequently St. Eugenia, being slandered for an infringement of chastity, resulted her being in court before her father and here she revealed the secret of her flight, after which both her father and her mother Claudia converted to Christ. Later her father became a bishop and died as a martyr. After the death of her father St. Eugenia together with her mother and servants moved to Rome and here again converted many notable maidens to Christ and convinced them to always remain virgins. During the persecution of Emperor Gallienus, St. Eugenia together with Protus and Hyacinth were beheaded by the sword for their faith in Christ. St. Claudia and the noble maiden Basilla, who believed in Christ, received the same crown of martyrdom. All their relics repose in Rome. In the church service dedicated to Martyr Eugenia, the Martyr Basilla is also mentioned, but the names of other martyrs are not.
" } }, "3173": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Nicholas the Monk, of Bulgaria (9th C)", "short": "Venerable Nicholas" } }, "3174": { "name": { "nominative": "The Nativity of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ", "short": "Nativity" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "The birth of our Lord Jesus Christ by the Ever Virgin Mary (Mt. 1:18-25, 2:1-12; Lk. 2:1-20) in Bethlehem is celebrated on the present day. The beginning of the establishment of this feast belongs to the earliest time of the Church. In the standard opinion, the feast of the Nativity of Christ is older in the Western Church than in the Eastern; but this should only be understood about the time of celebrating the feast on December 25. In the Eastern Churches it was celebrated on January 6 until the 4th century and was known by the name of Theophany. This feast had a special character and was dedicated not only strictly to the memory of the birth or baptism of Christ, but in general to the appearance of God in the flesh, to the revelation in Christ and through Christ of the divine grace. This is why the feast is called Theophany or, more precisely, the manifestation - e/pifa,neia. The initial basis to celebrate the Nativity of Christ on January 6 served not the historical connection with the birth of the Lord to this date, who even for antiquity remained an unknown person, but the mystical understanding of the relationship between the first and second Adam, between the originator of sin and death and the Author of life and salvation. The second Adam, according to the mystical understanding of the ancient Church, was born and died on the same day on which the first Adam was created and died, - on the sixth corresponding to January 6, the first month of year. Thus the unity between the Eastern and Western Churches concerning the time of celebrating the birth on December 25 is established only since the 4th century. From this view point the feast was entered into the Constantinopolitan Church for the first time about the year 377 under the decree of Emperor Arcadius according to the custom of the Roman Church and due to the energy and the power of the eloquence of St. John Chrysostom, and from here it spread to all the Orthodox East. Already the very subject of the feast also points out the purpose of its establishment: the commemoration and glorification of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh by the All Holy Virgin Mary. This is the first and basic purpose of the establishment of the feast. Very early another idea was connected to it: in this precise establishment of the feast by means of disclosing true doctrines about the incarnation and the birth of the Savior counters the errors of the heretics: the Ebionites, Docetists and Basilidians. Due to these false doctrines and that on the very feast on January 6 the ancient Church paid its main attention to the commemoration of the event of the birth of Christ as the very appearance of God in the flesh. In the 4th century with the occurrence and spread of Arianism, the new and strongest motive appeared to glorify the event of the birth of Christ for the Orthodox Church. Finally, with reference to feast on December 25 the Church meant to give a counterbalance to the pagan cult and to protect believers from participating in it. It is known, that among the Romans the feast of the so-called, dies natalis Solis invicti [day of the nativity of the unconquerable Sun] falls on December 25, serving the expression of the idea of the continual return of the year and as if the sun is renewed and of the former day of unbridled amusements of the people, with the day of entertainment for slaves and children and so forth. Thus in itself this day was more appropriate for the commemoration of the event of the birth of Jesus Christ, Who in the New Testament frequently is referred to as the sun of the truth, light of the world, salvation of the people and victor of life and death, but the reprehensible pagan commemoration was sufficient motive for the Church to improve it according to the meaning of its lofty Christian commemoration. Therefore the ancient Church, already denying the identity of the two similar feasts, the pagan and Christian, will adopt the feast of the Nativity of Christ of the observed meaning and the expressive denial also of pagan superstitions and customs3. Asserting our faith in the greatest mystery of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ and condemning all heretics, who deformed this teaching by sophism, the Holy Church, celebrating the Nativity of Christ, in its hymns describes this feast as a day of universal joy, “for today is born a Savior, Who is Christ the Lord” (Lk. 2:10-11). “Let heaven and earth,” exclaims the Holy Church, “today be gladdened in the prophecy”; “all creation leaps for joy for the Savior Lord was born for its sake in Bethlehem: for every idolatrous deception ceased, and Christ reigns forever”4. At the same time the Holy Church celebrating the Nativity of Christ morally teaches us the holy life of the One Who was worthy to be born the Lord. “For us today is born a Savior, Who is Christ the Lord,” “for the sake of humanity and for our salvation,” and we, now celebrating this birth of Christ the Lord, naturally, should ignite in ourselves the determination to be reborn from a sinful life to a life holy and pleasing to God. Our Lord Jesus Christ having come down to earth entered into a relationship of grace with us and “was not ashamed to call us brethren” (Heb. 2:11); but, in order for us to be worthy of this lofty dialogue and of union, in order not to turn ourselves away from the Lord Who came down from the heavens, it is necessary for us to leave the darkness of sin and to come nearer to light of faith, piety and good deeds. The Creator and Master of heaven and earth appeared in the world not in glory and magnificence, but in need, poverty and humiliation; the King Who reigns and the Lord Who dominates accepts not luxurious chambers, but a poor cave. By this the majesty of humility, poverty, meekness, simplicity and the perniciousness of pride, riches, vanity and luxury is shown to us. Worthy to be the first to hear the good news of the angels about the birth of the Savior of the world and the first to worship Him were simple Bethlehem shepherds (about them see below), and after them the wise Persian magi (about them see below), and thus at the manger of the Savior we see two sorts of people - shepherds and magi, i.e. the simplest people and the most educated people. By this we are inspired that the Lord accepts each and all: those pleasing to Him and the simple illiterate, when they are connected to the true fulfillment of their calling, with the purity of conscience and life; human wisdom is not rejected by Him when it is able to subordinate itself to the inspiration from above and uses its knowledge to the glory of God and for the use of neighbor. This teaches each one to be content with his participation and at the same time demonstrates that no calling and position interferes with their coming nearer to God, that pure and sincere labor, inspired by faith and hope in God is the conscientious fulfillment of the duties always pleasing to God and attracts His blessing that in the eyes of God the precious things are not external advantages in the light, but purity of heart and of conscience, meekness and humility of spirit, submissiveness and obedience to the law of God, patience and compliance, hope and fidelity to will of God, gentleness and goodwill to neighbor, going irreproachably before God in all the commandments and precepts, that these precious qualities do not belong exclusively to any estate, that in all callings and positions the person may be pleasing to God, if he will be well pleasing to Him in word, desire and thought. In general the event of the appearance of God in the flesh picturesquely described in the festal services with all the circumstances surrounding it represents by itself an inexhaustible source for our edification.
" }, "rank": 8, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Thy nativity, O Christ our God, * hath shone forth the light of knowledge upon the world; * for therein those who worship the stars * have been taught by a star to worship Thee, * the Sun of righteousness, * and to know Thee the Orient from on high. ** O Lord, glory be to Thee!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Today the Virgin giveth birth unto the Transcendent One, * and the earth offereth a cave to the unapproachable One. * Angels and shepherds give glory, * the magi journey with the star. ** For unto us a Child is born, the preeternal God.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "3177": { "name": { "nominative": "Second Day of the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord. Synaxis of the Most-Holy Theotokos", "short": "Second Day" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "On the second day of the Nativity of Christ the Holy Church invites its faithful children for the thanksgiving glorification of the All-holy Virgin, who has contributed to the great mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God. Because of this the day is called the “Synaxis of the All-holy Theotokos”
" }, "rank": 3, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Thy nativity, O Christ our God, * hath shone forth the light of knowledge upon the world; * for therein those who worship the stars * have been taught by a star to worship Thee, * the Sun of righteousness, * and to know Thee the Orient from on high. ** O Lord, glory be to Thee!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Today the Virgin giveth birth unto the Transcendent One, * and the earth offereth a cave to the unapproachable One. * Angels and shepherds give glory, * the magi journey with the star. ** For unto us a Child is born, the preeternal God.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" }, "KONTAKION/2": { "text": "He Who was born of the Father without mother before the morning star * hath today become incarnate of thee on earth without father; * wherefore, the star announceth glad tidings to the magi, ** and the angels and shepherds hymn thine ineffable birthgiving, O thou who art full of grace.
", "Type": "2", "Tone": "6" } } } }, "3181": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Euthymius, Bishop of Sardis († c. 840)", "short": "Hieromartyr Euthymius" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "Before he was a monk he was glorified by a strict life and zealousness for honoring holy icons. As the Bishop of Sardis he participated in the Seventh Ecumenical Council where he defended the holy icon with zealousness. For his Orthodox conviction St. Euthymius was honed three times and, finally, during the reign of Emperor Theophilus (840) was whipped to death with ox-hide straps. His relics, glorified by many wonders, repose in the city of Anchialus on the Black Sea.
" } }, "3182": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Constantine of Synada (8th C)", "short": "Venerable Constantine" } }, "3183": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Evaristus of the Studion Monastery (9th C)", "short": "Venerable Evaristus" } }, "3186": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Theodore Graptus “the Branded”, Confessor and brother of St Theophanes the Hymnographer († c. 840)", "short": "Venerable Theodore" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "Ven. Theodore practiced asceticism as a monk in the Palestinian Monastery of St. Sabbas. During the reign of Emperor Leo the Armenian he arrived in Constantinople to defend Orthodoxy against the iconoclasts, and for his zealousness for iconolatry he suffered wounds and imprisonment. During the reign of Emperor Theophilus, St. Theodore again underwent torture for the holy icons. By order of Theophilus, he and his brother St. Theophanes (Oct. 11) were branded on their foreheads with a heated iron with the inscription of the accusation of their iconolatry. And the saintly brothers were banished to imprisonment in Apamea, Syria, where St. Theodore died (about the year 840). His relics subsequently were transferred to Chalcedon.
" } }, "3187": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Theodore, Archbishop of Constantinople († 686)", "short": "Saint Theodore" } }, "3189": { "name": { "nominative": "20,000 Martyrs burned at Nicomedia including Glycerios the Presbyter, Zeno, Theophilus the Deacon, Dorotheus, Mardonius, Migdonius the Deacon, Indysos, Gorgonios, Peter, Euthymios, Secundos, Nicostrates, the Women martyrs Agatha, Domna, Theophila, Antonia Antonia and others († 302)", "short": "Martyrs" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "They were burnt and others outside the church suffered there. In 302 the Emperor Maximian Hercules offered solemn sacrifices to the gods in Nicomedia in celebration of his victories. Christians, who casually were in the area, began to leave afraid of being sprinkled with the blood of idol-sacrifice. Angry with them the Emperor ordered to burn the Christians of Nicomedia together with their temple when they gathered for celebrating the Nativity of Christ. According to the Synodal Menologion of 1862, soon after the burning of these holy martyrs the following holy martyrs died from various tortures: Indes, Gorgonius, Peter, Zeno, Dorotheus, Mardonius, Migdonius, Glycerias, Theophilus, Euthymius and the maidens: Domna, Agatha, and Theophila. The following names of martyrs are listed in the service of this day: Theophilus, Dorotheus, Migdonius, Gorgonius, Secondus, Peter, Indes and Anthimus. The names of the holy martyrs Secundus and Anthimus are not mentioned in the Synodal Menaion of 1863 and 1891 (Refer to Sep. 3).
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O athletes of the Lord, * blessed is the ground which drank in your blood, * and holy the habitations which have received your bodies, * for in your contest ye vanquished the enemy and preached Christ with boldness. ** Entreat Him, we pray, in that He is good, that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Made steadfast in soul by faith, * the twenty thousand holy athletes accepted suffering by fire, * crying out to Him Who was born of the Virgin: * \"O preeternal God, accept us as wholeburnt offerings to Thee, ** as thou didst accept the gold, myrrh and frankincense from the Persian kings!\"
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "3193": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyred 14,000 Holy Infants, slain by Herod in Bethlehem", "short": "Holy Infants" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "Having learned from the Magi about the birth of the King of the Jews, our Lord Jesus Christ, and being afraid that this King would deprive him of his throne, Herod commanded that all children of the male gender two years old and younger be killed in Bethlehem and its vicinity. This inhuman decree was fulfilled, but, on the command of God, the holy family fled to Egypt (see Dec. 26). Near the cave of the Nativity of Christ (see page 230) there is a cave where the Roman Catholics built an altar in the name of the Holy Children Martyrs and where their sacred remains are stored behind an iron grating.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "By the pangs of Thy saints, * wherewith they suffered for Thee, * be entreated O Lord, and heal all our pains, ** O Thou Who lovest mankind.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "The star sent the magi to Him Who was born, * and Herod cruelly sent an unjust army, ** seeking to slay Him Who lay as a babe in the manger.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "3194": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Marcellus, Abbot of the Monastery called the “Unsleeping Ones” († 485)", "short": "Venerable Marcellus" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "Born in Apamea, Syria, he first practiced asceticism in Ephesus, but then transferred to the Monastery of the Sleepless Ones in Constantinople (Refer to Feb. 23) where for his virtuous life he was also chosen to be the rector. He died about the year 486.
" } }, "3199": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Zoticus the Presbyter, Nourisher of Orphans (4th C)", "short": "Martyr Zoticus" }, "rank": 1 }, "3201": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Philaret of Nicomedia and those with him († 311)", "short": "Martyr Philaret" } }, "3202": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Theodora of Cæsarea in Cappadocia (8th C)", "short": "Venerable Theodora" } }, "3203": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Theodora of Constantinople (10th C)", "short": "Venerable Theodora" } }, "3207": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Carion and Zachariah of Egypt (4th C)", "short": "Venerable Carion" } }, "3209": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Amphylochios, Bishop of Iconiun († 394)", "short": "Saint Amphylochios" }, "rank": 1 }, "3211": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Gregory, Bishop of Agrigentum (6th-7th C)", "short": "Saint Gregory" }, "rank": 1 }, "3214": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Sisinias, Bishop of Cyzicus (3rd C)", "short": "Martyr Sisinias" } }, "3217": { "name": { "nominative": "Great Martyr Mercurius [Mercury] of Cæsarea in Cappadocia (3rd C)", "short": "Great Martyr Mercurius" }, "rank": 1 }, "3218": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Augusta the Empress of Alexandria and Porphyrius the General and 200 Soldiers, martyred with the Great Martyr Catherine († 305-313)", "short": "Martyrs Augusta" } }, "3221": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Mastridia the Virgin", "short": "Venerable Mastridia" } }, "3230": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable James the Hermit of Syria († 457)", "short": "Venerable James" } }, "3233": { "name": { "nominative": "Icons of the Mother of God: “Znamenie” of Novgorod and “Znamenie”, the Kursk-Root", "short": "Icons of" }, "rank": 4 }, "3234": { "name": { "nominative": "Great Martyr James the Persian († 421)", "short": "Great Martyr James" } }, "3235": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint James, Bishop and Wonderworker of Rostov († 1392)", "short": "Saint James" }, "rank": 2 }, "3236": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Roman of Seleucia, the Wonderworker", "short": "Venerable Roman" } }, "3241": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr and Confessor Stephen the New of the Mount of St Auxentius († 767)", "short": "Hieromartyr Stephen" } }, "3242": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Irenarchus and with him 7 Womenmartyrs at Sebaste († 303)", "short": "Martyr Irenarchus" }, "rank": 1 }, "3244": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs: Stephen, Basil, Gregory, another Gregory, John, Andrew, Peter, Anna and many others († 767)", "short": "Martyrs: Stephen" } }, "3246": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Paramon and 370 Martyrs in Bithynia († 250)", "short": "Martyr Paramon" }, "rank": 1 }, "3247": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Philumenos of Ancyra and with him Martyrs Valerian and Phædrus († c. 274)", "short": "Martyr Philumenos" }, "rank": 1 }, "3248": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Akakios of Sinai, mentioned in The Ladder (6th C)", "short": "Venerable Akakios" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Akakios of Sinai (VI Century): The account about him is located under 29 November." }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O God of our fathers, * deal with us ever according to Thy meekness. * Deprive us not of Thy mercy, * but through their supplications ** direct our life in peace.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Forsaking the world, thou didst follow Christ from childhood, * O all-wise and venerable Acacius, * and, emulating His voluntary humility, * thou didst cast down the prideful tyrant. ** Pray thou unceasingly in behalf of us all.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "4133": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Potitus at Naples (2nd C)", "short": "Martyr Potitus" } }, "4134": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Peter of Constantinople († 854)", "short": "Venerable Peter" } }, "4135": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Nicodemus the Hagiorite († 1809)", "short": "Venerable Nicodemus" } }, "4138": { "name": { "nominative": "Placing of the Honorable Robe of the Most Holy Mother of God at Blachernæ (5th C)", "short": "Theotokos" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "During the years of the reign of the Byzantine emperor Leo the Great the Macedonian (457-474), the brothers Galbius and Candidus, associates of the emperor, set out from Constantinople to Palestine to venerate at the holy places. In a small settlement near Nazareth they stopped for overnight lodging with a certain quite aged Hebrew woman. In her house the burning of candles and smoking incense caught the attention of the pilgrims. To their questions, as to what sort of sacred thing there was in her house, the pious woman for a long time did not want to give an answer, but after persistent requests she replied, that she had a very precious sacred item—the Robe of the Mother of God, from which had occurred many miracles and healings. The Most Holy Virgin before the time of Her Dormition (“Falling-Asleep” or “Repose”) bequeathed one of her garments to a pious Jewish maiden from the family-lineage of this house, having instructed her to hand it on after death to another virgin. Thus, from generation to generation, the Robe of the Mother of God was preserved in this family.
The jewelled chest, containing the sacred Robe, was transferred to Constantinople. Saint Gennadios, Patriarch of Tsar′grad-Constantinople († 471, Comm. 31 August), and the emperor Leo, having learned of the sacred find, convinced themselves of the incorruptness of the holy Robe and with trembling they certified its authenticity. At Blachernæ, near the seacoast, there was erected a new church in honour of the Mother of God. On 2 June 458 Saint Gennadios with appropriate solemnity transferred the sacred Robe into the Blachernæ church, placing it within a new reliquary.
Afterwards into the reliquary, together with the Robe of the Mother of God, was put also Her omophorion (i.e. the outer or over-robe) and part of Her belt-sash. This circumstance also set its seal upon the Orthodox iconography of the feast, in conjoining the two events: the Placing of the Robe, and the Placing of the Belt-Sash of the Mother of God in Blachernæ. The Russian pilgrim Stefan Novgorodets, visiting Tsar′grad in about the year 1350, testifies: “We arrived at Blachernæ, wherein lies the Robe upon an altarthrone in an imprinted reliquary.”
More than once during the invasion of enemies the Most Holy Mother of God saved the city, to which She had bestown Her holy Robe. Thus it happened during the time of a siege of Constantinople by the Avars in 626, by the Persians—in 677, and by the Arabs—in the year 717. Especially relevant for us are events of the year 860, intimately connected with the history of the Russian Church.
On 18 June 860 the Russian fleet of prince Askol′d, in a force comprising more than 200 boats, having laid waste the coastal regions of the Black Sea and the Bosphorus, entered into the Bay of the Golden Horn and threatened Constantinople. The Russian ships sailed into sight of the city, setting ashore troops who “proceeded before the city, stretching forth their swords.” The emperor Michael III (842-867), leaving off his heading of a campaign against the Arabs, returned to the capital; all night he prayed, prostrate down upon the stone tiles of the church of the Blachernæ Mother of God. Holy Patriarch Photios turned to his flock with preaching, calling for tears of repentance to wash away sins, and in fervent prayer to seek the intercession of the Most Holy Mother of God.
The danger grew with each passing hour. “The city was barely able to stand against a spear,”—says Patriarch Photios in another of his sermons. Under these conditions the decision was made to save the church holy-things, and foremost—the holy Robe of the Mother of God, which was kept in the Blachernæ church, not far from the shore of the bay. After making an all-night molieben, and taking it out from the Blachernæ church, they carried the sacred Robe of the Mother of God in religious procession around the city walls, with a prayer they dipped its edge into the waters of the Bosphorus, and then they transported it to the centre of Tsar′grad—into the church of Saint Sophia. The Mother of God by Her grace gave shelter and quelled the militance of the Russian warriors. An honourable truce was concluded. Askol′d lifted the siege of Constantinople. On 25 June the Russian army began to leave, taking with them a large tribute payment. A week afterwards, on 2 July, the wonderworking Robe of the Mother of God was solemnly returned to its place in the reliquary of the Blachernæ church. In remembrance of these events an annual feastday of the Placing of the Robe of the Mother of God was established under 2 July by holy Patriarch Photios.
Soon, in October-November of the year 860, a Russian delegation arrived in Constantinople for concluding a treaty “in love and peace.” In the conditions of the peace treaty they included articles about the Baptism of Kievan Rus,’ about the payment of an annual tribute by the Byzantines to the Russians, permission for them to serve with the Byzantine army, to carry on trade in the territory of the empire (primarily in Constantinople), and to send a diplomatic mission to Byzantium.
Most important was the point about the Baptism of Rus′. The continuator of the Byzantine “Theophanes Chronicles” relates, that “their delegation arrived in Tsar′grad with a request for them to be made participants in holy Baptism, which also was fulfilled.” An Orthodox mission was sent to Kiev to fulfill this mutual wish of the Russians and the Greeks. Not very long before this (in 855) holy Equal to the Apostles Cyril (Kirill) the Philosopher († 869, Comm. 14 February and 11 May) had crafted a Slavonic alphabet and translated the Gospel. With the mission to Kiev essentially in particular there was sent Saint Cyril with his brother, the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Methodios († 885, Comm. 6 April and 11 May), together with books translated into Slavonic. This was at the initiative of Saint Photios, whose student Saint Cyril was. The brothers spent the winter of 860/861 at Kherson (Chersonessus), and in the spring of 861 they were at the River Dneipr, with prince Askol′d.
There stood a difficult choice facing prince Askol′d, just as afterwards it faced holy prince Vladimir: both the Jews on the one hand and the Mahometans on the other wanted to bring him into their faith. But under the graced influence of Saint Cyril, the prince made his choice in favour of Orthodoxy. At the end of the year 861 Cyril and Methodios returned to Constantinople and carried with them from prince (or, as the Kievan princes called themselves during the IX-XI Centuries, “kagan”) Askol′d to emperor Michael III. Askol′d thanked the emperor for sending him “such men, who showed by both word and by example, that the Christian faith—is holy.” “Persuaded,—Askol′d further wrote,—that this is the true faith, we bid them to baptise at their intent in the hope for us also to attain sanctity. We are all—friends of the kingdom and prepared to be of service to thee, as requested.”
Askol′d accepted holy Baptism with the name Nikolai, and many also of his retinue were baptised. Right directly from Tsar′grad, the capital of Orthodoxy, through the efforts of the holy Apostles to the Slavs there arrived in Rus’ both the Slavonic Divine-services and the Slavonic written-language. At Kiev Saint Photios appointed the Metropolitan Michael, and the Russian metropolitan was entered into the notation-lists of dioceses of the Constantinople Patriarchate. Holy Patriarch Photios in a Circular missive of the year 867 called the Baptism of the Bulgarians and the Russians as among the chief accomplishments of his arch-hierarchical service. “The Russians, which lifted their hand against the Roman might,—he wrote, almost quoting literally from the missive of Askol′d,—at the present time replaced even the impious teaching, which they held to formerly, with the pure and genuine Christian faith, and with love having established themselves in the array of our friends and subjects.” (The Byzantines reckoned as “subjects” all accepting Baptism from Tsar′grad and entering into military alliance with the empire.) “And to such an extent has flared up within them the desire and zeal of faith, that they have accepted bishops and pastors, and they embrace Christian sanctity with great zeal and fervour.”
The feastday of the Placement of the Robe of the Most Holy Mother of God in Blachernæ reveals itself also as a feastday of the canonical establishing of the Russian Orthodox metropolitanate in Kiev. By the blessing of the Mother of God and by the miracle from Her holy Robe was accomplished not only the salvation of Tsar′grad from the most terrible siege in all its history, but also the salvation of the Russians from the darkness of pagan superstition, to life eternal. Together with this, the year 860 brought recognition to Kievan Rus’ from Byzantium, and it signified an equitably-justified emergence of the young Russian realm into the arena of history.
The attempt of prince Askol′d to renew the Christian evangelisation begun by the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, and intended by him as a religious and state reform, ended unsuccessfully. The time of affirmation of Christianity in the Russian Land had not yet come. The adherents of the old paganism were too strong, and the princely power was too weak. In the clash of Askol′d with the pagan Oleg in 882 the Kievans betrayed their prince—Askol′d accepted a martyr’s death at the hand of hired killers, tricked by deceit into the camp of his enemies for talks.
But the deed of Blessed Askol′d (the Ioakimov Chronicle calls him such) was not extinguished in the Russian Church. Oleg the Sage, having killed Askol′d, after him occupied the Kiev princedom, and called Kiev the “Mother of Russian Cities”—this is a literal translation of the Greek expression “Russian metropolia” (i.e. “mater-polis”). The most ancient chronicles of Kiev preserved the grateful memory of the first Kievan Christian-prince: the church of the Prophet of God Elias, built by Askol′d and afterwards mentioned in the Treaty of Igor with the Greeks (in year 944), is on the place where at present stands the church of this name, and there is also the church of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, erected in the decade of the 950’s over the grave of Askol′d by holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Ol′ga. The most important achievement of Askol′d, entering forever into the Church-inheritance not only of Rus,’ but of also all Orthodox Slavdom—is the Slavonic Gospel and Slavonic Divine-services, rendered such by the work of the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodios. In Kiev at the court of Askol′d in 861 was set the beginning of their apostolic activity among the Slavs, and continued afterwards in Moravia and Bulgaria. Following Blessed Askol′d, speaking the words of the ancient “Alphabetic Prayers,” “there soars in flight now the Slavonic tribe—to Baptism all striving.”
With the miracle of the Robe of the Most Holy Mother of God at Blachernæ are connected several outstanding works of Byzantine Church hymnology and homiletics. To Saint Photios belong two sermons, one of which was given by him immediately within days of the siege of Constantinople, and the other—soon after the departure of the Russian forces. And with the campaign of Askol′d against Tsar′grad is connected also the composition of a remarkable “Akathist to the Most Holy Mother of God,” the source of which certain Church histories ascribe also to holy Patriarch Photios. This Akathist comprises a basic part of the Divine-services of the day of Praise to the Most Holy Mother of God (i.e. the “Saturday of the Akathist”—Saturday in the 4th Week of Great Lent).
It is not only Byzantine sources that relate the events of the year 860, but also Russian historical chronicles. The Monk Nestor the Chronicler, stressing the significance of the Russian campaign against Tsar′grad, notes that from this time “it was begun to be called the Russian Land.” Certain of the chronicles, among them the Ioakimov and Nikonov, preserved accounts of the Baptism of Prince Askol′d and Kievan Rus’ after the campaign against Tsar′grad. The popular commemoration concerning this is firmly associated with the names of the Kievan princes Askol′d and Dir, although in the opinion of historians, Dir was prince of Kiev somewhat earlier than Askol′d.
The veneration of the feast of the Robe-placing was known of old in the Russian Church. Saint Andrei Bogoliubsky († 1174, Comm. 4 July) erected in the city of Vladimir at the Golden Gates a church in honour of this feastday. At the end of the XIV Century part of the Robe of the Mother of God was transferred from Constantinople to Rus’ by Saint Dionysii, Archbishop of Suzdal’ († 1385, Comm. 26 June).
The holy Robe of the Mother of God, earlier having saved the capital of Byzantium, later also saved the capital Moscow from hostilities. Tatars of the Horde of the princeling Mazovshi in the Summer of 1451 approached beneath the walls of Moscow. Saint Jona, Metropolitan of Moscow, by means of constant prayer and church services encouraged the defenders of the capital. On the night of 2 July, relates the chronicle, great confusion occurred within the Tatar camp. the enemy abandoned their plundered goods and in disarray speedily departed. In memory of the miraculous deliverance of Moscow, the metropolitan Saint Jona erected in the Kremlin the church in honour of the Robe-placing, making it his primary church. It burned, but in its place thirty years afterwards was built in the years 1484-1486 a new church, likewise dedicated to the feast of the Placing of the Robe of the Mother of God. This temple, standing at present, continued to serve as the primary church of Russian metropolitans and patriarchs until the cathedral of the Twelve Apostles was built under patriarch Nikon.
" }, "rank": 3, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O Ever-virgin Theotokos, protection of mankind: * thou hast given to thy city a mighty legacy, * the robe and cincture of thy most honored body, * which have remained incorrupt through thy seedless birthgiving. * For in thee are nature and time renewed. ** Wherefore, we beseech thee to grant peace to thy city and great mercy to our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "O pure one, full of divine grace, * thou hast given all the faithful a garment of incorruption, * thy sacred robe, wherewith thou didst cover thy sacred body, * O protection of all mankind. * With love do we celebrate its deposition, * and cry out to thee with fear, O pure one: ** Rejoice, O Virgin, thou boast of Christians!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "4140": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Juvenal, Patriarch of Jerusalem († c. a 458)", "short": "Saint Juvenal" } }, "4142": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Hyacinth of Cæsarea in Cappadocia († 108)", "short": "Martyr Hyacinth" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyr Jacinthus (Hyacinth), a native of Cæsarea Cappadocia, grew up in a Christian family. The Roman emperor Trajan made him his “cubicularius” (bed-chamberlain).
Once during the time of a pagan festival the emperor Trajan was feasting in a pagan-temple together with his companions, eating of the idol-offered food, but the youth Jacinthus, having remained at the palace, shut himself up in a small room and prayed fervently to the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the servants overheard the words of prayer. He made a denunciation to the emperor, that Jacinthus, entrusted with an imperial position, did not honour the Roman gods but was secretly praying to Christ.
They immediately arrested Saint Jacinthus and led him to Trajan. The emperor demanded that he eat of the idol-offered meat, but the saint bravely refused and declared himself a Christian. By order of Trajan, they locked up the holy martyr in prison after fierce tortures, and they exhausted him with hunger and thirst, so as to force him to eat of idolatrous food. On the 38th day, one of the guards, bringing the idol-offering meat, saw Angels alongside the martyr, dressing him in bright attire and placing on his head a crown.
The torturers decided to continue with the trial over the saint, but they found him in prison already dead. The twelve year old Jacinthus died in the year 108 in the city of Rome. They afterwards transferred the relics of the saint to Cæsarea.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In his suffering, O Lord, * Thy martyr Hyacinth received an imperishable crown from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * he set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By his supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thy martyr, O Christ, having acquired Thy Faith, * like a tree of life in the midst of his soul, * became more honorable than the Garden of Eden, * boldly destroying the tree of the serpent”s deception by his spirit, * and he was crowned with thy glory, ** O greatly Merciful One.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "6" } } } }, "4145": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable John and Longin of Yarena", "short": "Venerable John" } }, "4148": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Mocius and Mark", "short": "Martyrs Mocius" } }, "4150": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Anatolius, Patriarch of Constantinople († 458)", "short": "Saint Anatolius" } }, "4154": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Martha, Mother of Venerable Simeon of the Wonderous Mountain", "short": "Venerable Martha" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Nun Martha, mother of Saint Simeon of the Wondrous-Mount (Divnogorets;—his account is located under 24 May), lived during the VI Century and was a native of Antioch. From her early years she yearned for monasticism, but her parents persuaded her to marry. Her husband, John, soon died, and righteous Martha with all her strength devoted herself to the raising of her son. She was for her son an example of high Christian temperament: often she visited the temple of God, attentively and with piety she hearkened to the church services, and frequently she communed the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Righteous Martha each night rose up to pray, and her prayers she made with heartfelt warmth and tears. She particularly venerated the Baptist of the Lord Saint John the Precursor, who was for her a protector frequently appearing to her in visions. The Nun Martha was charitable towards the poor, she fed and clothed them, she visited the convalescent and she attended to the sick, she buried the dead, and for those preparing to receive holy Baptism she with her own hands reading the clothing.
The Nun Martha was reserved, and no one heard from her a frivolous, false or vain word, no one saw her angry, nor fighting with anyone nor bitter. She was a model of chaste and pious life and by her example she guided many on the pathway to salvation. When her son, Saint Simeon, had become a reknown ascetic, she in visiting him urged him not to exalt himself by his efforts, but in everything to add in an act of thankfulness to God.
It was made known beforehand to the Nun Martha about her approaching end: she beheld Angels with candles saying, that they would come for her in another year’s time. The saint was likewise granted visions of the abode of paradise, and the All-Pure Virgin Herself showed to her the Heavenly habitation, prepared for the righteous.
The end of Saint Martha was peaceful († 551), and her body was buried on the Wondrous-Mount, at the place of the ascetic deeds of her son, the Monk Simeon the Pillar-Dweller.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In thee, O mother, that which was created according to the image of God was manifestly saved. * For accepting thy cross thou didst follow after Christ, * and praying thou didst learn to disdain the flesh, * for thou didst transcend it to take care of thine immortal soul. ** Wherefore, with the angels doth thy soul rejoice, O venerable Martha.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Standing before the Lord and the all-pure Virgin Theotokos in prayer, * and offering up hymnody and praises, O honored Martha, * thou gavest birth to a sacred child, * the all-wondrous Symeon, the beacon of the whole world. ** With him do thou ever pray for us all.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "4157": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Theodore, Bishop of Cyrene in Libya († 310)", "short": "Hieromartyr Theodore" } }, "4163": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Sisoes the Great († 429)", "short": "Venerable Sisoes" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Monk Sisoes the Great († 429) was an hermit-monk, pursuing asceticism in the Egyptian wilderness in a cave sanctified by the prayerful labours of his predecessor—the Monk Anthony the Great (Comm. 17 January). For his sixty years of wilderness deeds the Monk Sisoes attained to sublime spiritual purity and he was vouchsafed a gift of wonderworking, such that by his prayer he even once returned a dead lad back to life.
Extremely strict with himself, the Monk Sisoes was very merciful and compassionate to those nearby and he received everyone with love. Those, who visited him, the monk first of all always taught humility. To the question of one of the monks as to how might he attain to a constant mindfulness of God, the monk remarked: “That is still not of much consequence, my son, but more important is this—to account oneself below everyone else, because such disparagement assists in the acquisition of humility.” Asked by the monks, whether one year is sufficient for repentance in having fallen into sin against a brother,—the Monk Sisoes said: “I believe in the mercy of God the Lover-of-Mankind, and if a man repent with all his soul, then God wilt accept his repentance in the course of three days.”
When the Monk Sisoes lay upon his death-bed, the disciples surrounding the elder saw that his face did shine. They asked the dying man what he saw. Abba Sisoes answered, that he looked upon the prophets and apostles. The disciples asked, with whom did the monk converse? He said that Angels had come for his soul, and he had entreated them to give him a short bit of time yet for repentance. “Thou, father, hast not need for repentance,”—replied the students. But the Monk Sisoes, with his great humility, answered: “I do not know for sure whether I have even begun to make my repentance.” After these words the face of the holy abba shone so, that the brethren were not able to look upon him. The monk had time to tell them that he saw the Lord Himself, and his holy soul expired to the Heavenly Kingdom.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "A desert dweller, an angel in the flesh, * and a wonderworker wast thou shown to be, * O our God-bearing father Sisoes, * for having acquired heavenly gifts through fasting, vigilance, and prayer, * thou dost heal the infirm, * and the souls of those who have recourse to thee with faith. * Glory to Him Who hath given thee strength! * Glory to Him Who hath crowned thee! ** Glory to Him Who worketh healings for all through thee!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Having struggled, thou wast seen to be an angel on the earth, O venerable one, * ever illumining the thoughts of the faithful with divine signs. ** Wherefore, we honor thee with faith, O Sisoes.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "4166": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Marinus, Martha, Audifax, Habbakuk, Valentine, Asterius, Isaurus, Innocent, Felix, Hermius, Basil, Peregrinus, and Ruthinus, at Rome († 269)", "short": "Martyrs Marinus" } }, "4168": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Quintus of Phrygia († c. 283)", "short": "Martyr Quintus" } }, "4169": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Lucia the Virgin and with her: Rixus, Anthony, Lucian, Isidor, Diodorus, Cutonius, Aronosus, Capicus, and Saturus", "short": "Martyr Lucia" } }, "4175": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Peregrinus, Lucian, Ompeius, Hesychius, Papius, Satorninus and Germanus of Dyrrachium in Macedonia (2nd C)", "short": "Martyrs Peregrinus" } }, "4176": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Epictetus the Presbyter and Astion the Monastic in Scythia († 290)", "short": "Martyrs Epictetus" } }, "4177": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Kyriaki, Bassa and others with them in Nicomedia (4th C)", "short": "Martyrs Kyriaki" } }, "4178": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God of Vlakherna", "short": "Icon of" } }, "4181": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Great Martyr Procopius of Cæsarea in Palestine and those with him († 303)", "short": "Great Martyr" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Great Martyr Procopius, in the world Neanius, a native of Jerusalem, lived and suffered during the reign of the emperor Diocletian (284-305). His father, an eminent Roman by the name of Christopher, was a Christian, but the mother of the saint, Theodosia, remained a pagan. He was early deprived of his father, and the young lad was raised by his mother. Having received an excellent secular education, he was introduced to Diocletian in the very first year of the emperor’s accession to the throne, and he quickly advanced in government service. Towards the year 303, when open persecution against Christians was enacted, Neanius was dispatched as a proconsul to Alexandria with orders to mercilessly persecute the Church of God. But on the way to Egypt, near the Syrian city of Apameia, Neanius had a vision of the Lord Jesus, just as once formerly had happened with Saul on the road to Damascus. A Divine voice exclaimed: “Neanius, why persecutest thou Me?” Neanius asked: “Who art Thou, Lord?”—”I am the crucified Jesus, the Son of God.” And at this moment in the air appeared a radiant cross. Neanius sensed in his heart an inexpressible joy and spiritual happiness and he was transformed from being a persecutor into instead a zealous follower of Christ. From this point in time Neanius became fondly disposed towards Christians and struggled victoriously only against the barbarian pagans.
But for the saint there transpired the words of the Saviour, that “the enemies for a man—are of his own household” (Mt. 10: 36). His mother, a pagan herself went to the emperor with a complaint against her son, of not reverencing the ancestral gods. Neanius was summoned to the procurator Judæus Justus, where he was solemnly handed the missive of Diocletian. Having read through the missive filled with its blasphemies, Neanius quietly before the eyes of everyone tore it up. This itself was already a crime, which the Romans regarded as an “insult to authority.” Neanius was held under guard and in chains sent off to Cæsarea Palestine, where the Apostle Paul once languished. After terrible torments they threw the saint into a dank prison. By night in the prison room there shone a light, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, having come with luminous Angels, made Baptism for the suffering confessor, and gave him the name Procopius.
Repeatedly they led Saint Procopius to the courtroom, demanding him to renounce Christ and anew they subjected him to tortures. The stolidity of the martyr and his fiery faith brought down God’s abundant grace viewing the execution. Inspired by the deed of Procopius, beneath the sword of the executioner went many of the holy prisoner’s former guards and Roman soldiers together with their tribunes Nicostrates and Antiochus. And with martyr’s crowns was sealed the faith of 12 Christian Women, having themselves come to the gates of the Cæsarea Prætorium. Struck by the great faith of the Christians and their courage, and having seen the firmness of her son in bearing terrible sufferings, Theodosia became repentant and stood amidst the line of confessors and was executed. Finally the new procurator, Flavian, convinced of the uselessness of the tortures, sentenced the holy Great Martyr Procopius to beheading by the sword. By night Christians took up the much-tortured body, and having wrapped it in grave-clothes, with tears and prayers they committed it to earth († 303).
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In his suffering, O Lord, * Thy martyr Procopius received an imperishable crown from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * he set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By his supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Set afire by divine zeal for Christ, * and protected by the might of the Cross, O Procopius, * thou didst cast down the audacity and boldness of the fœ, * and didst raise up an honorable church, ** excelling in faith and enlightening us.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "4201": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Patermuphios and Coprius, Ascetics in Egypt (4th C)", "short": "Venerable Patermuphios" } }, "4202": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Theodore, Bishop of Edessa, and those with him (9th C)", "short": "Saint Theodore" } }, "4206": { "name": { "nominative": "Placing of the Venerable Robe of Our Lord Jesus Christ at Moscow (1625)", "short": "Placing of the Robe" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Saviour’s venerable Robe [Slavic “Riza,” Greek “himatia,” Latin “vestimenta,” literally “over-garments”] is not identically the same thing with His seamless “Chiton” [Greek and Slavic “khiton,” Latin “tunica,” literally “under-garb tunic”]—they are clearly distinct within Holy Scripture: “The soldiers then, when they had crucified Jesus, took His garments (odezhdu, vestimenta, ta himatia) and divided them into four parts, to each soldier a part, and the chiton-shirt (et tunicam, kai ton khitona). The chiton indeed was without seam, woven whole from the top down, and so they did say one to another: let us not rend it asunder, but for it cast lots, whose it wilt become. Wherefore was fulfilled the saying in Scripture: they divided My raiment-garb (riza, vestimenta, ta imatia) amongst them, and upon My vesture-garb (imatisme, in vestem, epi ton himatismon) did they cast lots” (Jn. 19: 23-24; Ps. 21 [22]: 18-19).
According to the tradition of the Gruzinian (Georgian) Orthodox Church, the Chiton-tunic of the Lord was carried by the Hebrew rabbi Elioz from Jerusalem to Mtsketa and at present is beneath a crypt in the foundations of the Mtsketian Patriarchal cathedral of Svetitskhoveli (the feast in honour of the Chiton-tunic of the Lord is celebrated on 1 October). None of the Mohamedan invaders ever ventured to enroach upon this spot, glorified with a sign by the mercy of God—the Life-Creating Pillar.
The Robe of the Lord,—actually one of its four parts, the lower portion namely (other parts of the Robe of the Lord are likewise known of in Western Europe: in the city of Trier in Germany, and in Argenteuil near Paris in France), just like the Chiton-tunic of the Lord, came to be in Gruzia. In contrast to the Chiton-tunic, the Robe portion was not kept underground, but was in the treasury of the Svetitskhoveli cathedral right up to the XVII Century, when the Persian shah Abbas I, in devastating Gruzia, carried off with other treasures also the Robe of the Lord. In order to ingratiate himself with tsar Mikhail Feodorovich, the shah in 1625 dispatched the Robe of the Lord as a gift to Patriarch Philaret (1619-1633) and tsar Mikhail. The authenticity of the Robe was testified to by Nektarii, Archbishop of Vologda, also by the Jerusalem Patriarch Theophanes who had come from Byzantium, and by Ioannikes the Greek, but especially also by the miraculous signs, manifest by the Lord through the venerable relic.
Afterwards two parts of the Robe came to be in Peterburg: one in the cathedral at the Winter Palace, and the other in the Petropavlovsk (Peter and Paul) cathedral. A portion of the Robe was preserved likewise at the Uspenie-Dormition cathedral in Moscow, and small portions—at the Kiev Sophia cathedral, at the Ipat′ev monastery near Kostroma and at certain other old temples. At Moscow annually on 10 July the Robe of the Lord is solemnly brought out of a chapel named for the holy Apostles Peter and Paul at the Uspensky cathedral, and it is placed on an analoi-stand for veneration during the time of Divine-services. After Liturgy they carry the Robe to its former place.
On this day likewise is proper a service to the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord, since the Placing of the Robe in the Uspensky cathedral in 1625 was done on 29 March, on the day which then occurred to be the Lenten Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross.
" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Needs English translation
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Needs English translation
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "4207": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy 45 Martyrs at Nicopolis in Armenia († c. a 319): Leontius, Mauricius, Daniel, Anthony, Alexander, Meneus, Janicita, Sisinius, Biriladus, and others", "short": "Holy 45" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Forty-five Martyrs of the Armenian City of Nicopolis suffered during the reign of the emperor Licinius (307-324), then a co-regent with Constantine the Great. Licinius fiercely persecuted Christians and in his Eastern districts of the empire he issued an edict to put to death anyone who would not consent to return to paganism. When the persecutions began at Nicopolis, more than forty of the persecuted of Christ decided to voluntarily appear before their persecutors, to openly confess their faith in the Son of God and accept martyrdom. The holy confessors were headed by Leontios, Mauricios, Daniel, Anthony and Alexander, and were distinguished by their virtuous life. The hegemon-procurator of the Armenian district, Licius, before whom the holy confessors presented themselves, was amazed at the directness and bravery of those who voluntarily doomed themselves to torture and death. He tried to persuade them to renounce Christ and offer sacrifice to the pagan gods, but the saints remained steadfast. They refuted all the arguments of the governor, pointing out to him all the falseness of faith in the disgusting and vice-filled pagan gods, leading to ruin those that worship them. The hegemon-procurator gave orders to beat the confessors about the face with stones, and then shackle and imprison them.
In prison the saints rejoiced and sang psalms of David. Saint Leontios inspired and encouraged the brethren in the faith, readying them to accept new tortures for the true faith, and telling them of the bravery of all those formerly that had suffered for Christ. In the morning, after repeated refusal to offer sacrifice to the idols, the saints were again given over to torture. Saint Leontios, seeing the intense suffering of the martyrs and worrying, that certain of them might collapse in spirit and lose faith, prayed to God, that he might see a quick end of the matter for all.
When the holy martyrs sang psalms at midnight, an Angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to them, and the prison blazed with light. The Angel declared to the martyrs, that their deed was near its end, and their names already were inscribed in Heaven. Two of the prison guards, Meneas and Virilades, beheld what was happening and believed in Christ. On the following morning the governor decided to put to death the martyr-witnesses of Christ. After beastly tortures they burned them in a fire, and their bones they threw in a river († c. 318). Pious people found them, gathered them up and saved them. Later on, when freedom had been bestown to the Church of Christ, on this spot was built a church in the name of the holy 45 Martyrs.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In their sufferings, O Lord, * Thy martyrs received imperishable crowns from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * they set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By their supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "For the sake of Christ, O martyrs, ye endured many torments. * Ye set at nought all of idolatrous polytheism and destroyed all the ungodliness of every falsehood, * trampling them down by the power of Christ. ** And ye teach us all to chant openly, with faith: Alleluia!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "4210": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Apollonias of Sardis (3rd C)", "short": "Martyr Apollonias" } }, "4212": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God of Konevets", "short": "Icon of" } }, "4216": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Cindeios the Presbyter of Pamphylia (3rd-4th C)", "short": "Hieromartyr Cindeios" } }, "4220": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Proclus and Hilarion (2nd C)", "short": "Martyrs Proclus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyrs Proklos and Ilarion were natives of the village of Kalipta, near Ancyra, and they suffered during the time of a persecution under the emperor Trajan (98-117). Saint Proklos was put under arrest first. Brought before the governor Maximus, he fearlessly confessed his faith in Christ. The governor decided to compel the saint by force to submit himself to the emperor to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods. During the time of tortures, the martyr predicted to Maximus, that soon he himself would be compelled to confess Christ as the True God. They forced the martyr to run after the chariot of the governor, heading towards the village Kalipta. Exhausted along the way, Saint Proklos prayed, that the Lord would halt the chariot. By the power of God the chariot halted, and no sort of force could move it from the spot. The dignitary sitting in it was as it were petrified and remained unmoving until such time, at the demand of the martyr, that he would sign a statement with a confession of Christ; only after this was the chariot with the governor able to continue on its way.
The humiliated pagan took fierce revenge on Saint Proklos: after many tortures he commanded that he be led out beyond the city, tied to a pillar and executed with arrows. The soldiers, leading saint Proklos to execution, told him to give in and save his life, but the saint said that they should do what they had been ordered.
Along the way to the place of killing, there met them the nephew of Saint Proklos, Ilarion, who with tears hugged his martyr-uncle and also confessed himself a Christian. The soldiers seized him, and he was thrown into prison. The holy Martyr Proklos beneath the hail of arrows prayed for his tormentors and with prayer gave up his soul to God.
Saint Ilarion, having been brought to trial, with the same fearlessness as Saint Proklos confessed himself a Christian, and after tortures he was sentenced to death. They tied the martyr’s hands and dragged him by his feet through the city, wounded and bloody, and then they beheaded him 3 days after the death of his uncle, the holy Martyr Proklos. Christians buried them together in a single grave.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Needs English translation
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "The honorable suffering of Proclus and Hilarius * hath shone forth like the morning-star, * illumining us with the splendors of miracles. * Wherefore, we celebrate your memory, crying: ** Entreat Christ God, that He save our souls!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "4224": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Golinducha, in baptism Mary, of Persia († 591)", "short": "Martyr Golinducha" } }, "4229": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Stephen of St Sabbas Monastery († 794)", "short": "Venerable Stephen" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Stephanos Savvaites, nephew of Saint John of Damascus (Comm. on 4 December), was born in the year 725. The ten year old lad entered the Lavra of Saint Savva and spent his whole life at this monastery, sometimes going out into the wilderness for solitary ascetic deeds. The monk Stephanos was bestowed the gifts of wonder-working and perspicacity: he healed the sick, cast out devils, and discerned the thoughts of those coming to him for counsel. He died in the year 724, foretelling in advance the day of his death. The life of the monk was compiled by his student Leontios.
" }, "rank": 1 }, "4230": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Julian, Bishop of Cenomanis (Le Mans) in Gaul (1st C)", "short": "Saint Julian" } }, "4231": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Serapion (2nd-3rd C)", "short": "Martyr Serapion" } }, "4232": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Marcian of Iconium († 258)", "short": "Martyr Marcian" } }, "4237": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Justus at Rome (1st C)", "short": "Martyrs Justus" } }, "4238": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Hellios, of Egypt (4th C)", "short": "Venerable Hellios" } }, "4243": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Athenogoras, Bishop of Heracleopolis, and his 10 Disciples († c. 311)", "short": "Hieromartyr Athenogoras" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Hieromartyr Athenogoras and his Ten Disciples suffered for Christ during the time of persecution against Christians in the city of Sebasteia. The governor Philomarkhos made a large festival in honour of the pagan gods and summoned the Sebasteia citizenry to offer sacrifice to the idols. But the inhabitants of Sebasteia, Christian in the majority, refused to participate in the impious celebration with its offering of sacrifice to idols. Soldiers were ordered to kill people, and many Christians then accepted a martyr’s crown.
It came to the governor’s attention, that Christianity was being widely spread about by the graced preaching of Bishop Athenogoras. Orders were issued to seek out the elder and arrest him. Saint Athenogoras and ten of his disciples lived not far from the city in a small monastery. But not finding the bishop there, the soldiers arrested his disciples. The governor gave orders to slap them into chains and throw them in prison.
Saint Athenogoras came then to Sebasteia and began reproaching the judge that those thrown into prison were guiltless. He was arrested. In prison, Saint Athenogoras encouraged his spiritual children for their impending deed. Led forth to trial, all the holy martyrs confessed themselves Christians and refused to offer sacrifice to idols. After undergoing fierce tortures, the disciples of the holy bishop were beheaded. And after the execution of the disciples, the executioners were ordered to put the elder to the test of torture. Strengthened by the Lord, Saint Athenogoras underwent the tortures with dignity. His only request was—that he be executed in the monastery.
Taken to his own monastery, the saint in prayer gave thanks to God, and he rejoiced in the sufferings that he had undergone for Him. Saint Athenogoras besought of the Lord the forgiveness of sins of all those people, who should remember both him and his disciples.
The Lord granted the saint to hear His Voice before death, announcing the promise given to the penitent thief: “Today with Me thou shalt be in paradise.” The priestmartyr himself bent his neck beneath the sword.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Following the love of the Master, * as an excellent pastor thou didst lay down thy life for the sheep of Christ, * O hieromartyr Athenogenes; * for this cause we praise thee, and with thee the ten disciples who suffered with thee, * instructed by the fear of God and thy teaching. * Wherefore, with His life-creating right hand the Master hath crowned you who pleased Him. ** Him do ye entreat in behalf of us all.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "4244": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Paul and two sisters Alevtina (Valentina) and Chionea (Thea), at Cæsarea in Palestine († 308)", "short": "Martyrs Paul" } }, "4245": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Antiochos the Physician and Faustus (4th C)", "short": "Martyrs Antiochos" } }, "4246": { "name": { "nominative": "Virginmartyr Julia of Carthage († c. 440 or 613)", "short": "Virginmartyr Julia" } }, "4251": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Ienarchus, Abbot of Solovki († 1628)", "short": "Venerable Ienarchus" } }, "4253": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God of the Holy Mountain", "short": "Icon of" } }, "4255": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Emilian and Hyacinth of Amastris", "short": "Martyrs Emilian" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyr Emelian, a Slav, suffered for Christ during the reign of the emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363). Julian wanted to restore in the Roman empire the cult of the pagan gods, and he circulated an edict throughout all the regions, according to which all Christians would be subject to death.
The city of Dorostolum, situated on the banks of the River Dunaj (Danube), where Saint Emelian lived, was governed by an official named Capitolinus. The imperial edict was read in the city square. The people of Dorostolum said that there were no Christians in the city.
Saint Emelian was a slave of the local city-head, and he was secretly a Christian. Emboldened by the harsh edict, Saint Emelian snuck into the pagan temple, he destroyed statues of the idols with an hammer, he overturned the altars and the candle-stands, and then emerged without notice. But soon the pagans discovered, that the pagan-temple was in ruins. An angry crowd began to beat up a certain Christian, who by chance happened by. Saint Emelian then shouted out loudly, that they should not lay hold of that innocent man, and then he said that he himself had wrecked the pagan-temple. They seized hold of him and led him for judgement to Capitolinus. By order of the official, Saint Emelian was for a long time beaten mercilessly, and then he was condemned to burning. Thrown into a bon-fire, he did not perish, but rather the flames burnt many of the pagans standing about. And when the bon-fire had gone out, Saint Emelian lay down upon the dying embers and with a prayer gave up his spirit to the Lord († 363). At Constantinople afterwards there was built a church in honour of the holy Martyr Emelian, wherein also they transferred his relics. The Holy Martyr Iacynthos (Hyacinthe) (IV) was born into a pious Christian family in the city of Amastridea (now Amastra in Anatolia). An Angel which appeared gave him his name. As a three year old boy Saint Iacynthos besought of God that a dead infant might be resurrected, and the Lord hearkened to his childish prayer: the dead one arose. Both lads afterwards grew up together, and together they asceticised in virtuous life. Saint Iacynthos once noticed, how the pagans were worshipping a tree, and so he chopped it down. For this they subjected him to harsh tortures. They smashed out all his teeth, and having bound him with rope, they dragged him along the ground and threw him in prison. And it was there that the holy sufferer expired to God.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In his suffering, O Lord, * Thy martyr Emilian received an imperishable crown from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * he set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By his supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Aflame with zeal divine, thou wast not afraid of the ministering fire, * but, fearlessly ascending of thine own will, * thou wast consumed by the kindled fire, * and didst offer thyself to the Master as a sacrifice. ** O glorious martyr Emilian, entreat Christ God, that He grant us great mercy.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "4258": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Pambos, Recluse of the Kiev Caves (13th C)", "short": "Venerable Pambos" } }, "4259": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Pambos the Hermit of Egypt (4th C)", "short": "Venerable Pambos" } }, "4264": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Macrina, sister of Saint Basil the Great († 380)", "short": "Venerable Macrina" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monastic Macrina, Sister of Saint-Hierarchs Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, was born in Cappadocia at the beginning of the IV Century. Her mother, Emilia, saw in a dream an Angel, naming her yet unborn one Thekla, in honour of the holy First-Martyress Thekla. Saint Emilia (Emily, Comm. 1 January) fulfilled the will of God and named her daughter Thekla. Another daughter that was born they named Macrina, in honour of a grandmother, who suffered during the time of persecution against Christians under the emperor Maximian Galerius.
Besides Macrina, in her family were nine other children. Saint Emila herself guided the upbringing and education of her elder daughter. She taught her reading and writing in the Scriptural books and Psalms of David, selecting those examples from the Sacred books, which instructed of a pious and God-pleasing life. Saint Emilia trained her daughter to attend church services and make private prayers. Macrina was likewise taught the proper knowledge of domestic governance and various handicrafts. She was never left idle and did not participate in childish games or amusements.
When Macrina grew up, her parents betrothed her to a certain pious youth, but the bridegroom soon died. Many young men sought marriage with her, but Macrina refused them all, having chosen the life of a virgin and not wanting to be unfaithful to the memory of her dead fiancee. The Monastic Macrina lived in the home of her parents, helping them fulfill the household tasks as an overseer together with the servants, and she carefully followed after the upbringing of her younger brothers and sisters. After the death of her father she became the chief support for the family.
When all the children grew up and left the parental home, Saint Macrina convinced her mother, Saint Emilia, to leave the world, to set their slaves free, and to settle in a women’s monastery. Several of their servants followed their example. Having taken monastic vows, they lived together as one family, they prayed together, they worked together, they possessed everything in common, and in this manner of life nothing distinguished one from another.
After the death of her mother, Saint Macrina guided the sisters of the monastery. She enjoyed the deep respect of all who knew her. Strictness towards herself and temperance in everything were characteristic of the saint over the course of all her life. She slept on boards and had no possessions. Saint Macrina was granted a gift of wonderworking. There was an instance (told by the sisters of the monastery to Saint Gregory of Nyssa after the death of Saint Macrina), when she healed a girl of an eye-affliction. Through the prayers of the saint, at her monastery in times of famine there was no shortage of wheat, necessary for the use of the sisters.
Saint Macrina died in the year 380, after a final sigh of exalting prayers of thanks to the Lord for having received of Him blessings over all the course of her life. She was buried in the same grave with her parents.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In thee, O mother, that which was created according to the image of God was manifestly saved. * For accepting thy cross thou didst follow after Christ, * and praying thou didst learn to disdain the flesh, * for thou didst transcend it to take care of thine immortal soul. ** Wherefore, with the angels doth thy soul rejoice, O venerable Macrina.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thou didst love the good God with all thy heart, * O venerable Macrina, * and, taking His precious Cross upon thy shoulder, * thou didst zealously follow after Him. ** Wherefore, thou hast found forgiveness of offenses.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "4265": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Dios, Abbot of Antioch († c. 430)", "short": "Venerable Dios" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Dios was born in the city of Syrian Antioch towards the end of the IVCentury into a pious Christian family. From the years of his youth he was noted for his temperance, he took food in small quantity and not each day, his flesh was humbled by vigil and incessant prayer. For these deeds the Lord granted Saint Dios dispassion and the gift of wonderworking.
The Lord in a vision ordered Saint Dios to go to Constantinople and there to serve both Him and the people. Saint Dios settled beyond the city in a solitary place, where people feared to live. The Monk Dios bravely contended with the evil spirits which tried to expel him from this place. The Lord heard the prayer of His saint: his staff took root, began to grow and with time was transformed into an immense oak, which stood for a long time even after the death of Saint Dios.
The surrounding inhabitants began to come to the saint for advice and guidance, and they besought healing from ills of body and soul. Saint Dios by prayer doctored the infirm, and whatever was offered him he distributed to the poor, the homeless and the sick.
Accounts about Saint Dios reached even the emperor Theodosius the Younger. He came to Saint Dios for a blessing together with the Constantinople Patriarch Atticus (406425). The emperor wanted that on the place of Saint Dios’ efforts there be built a monastery, and he provided the means for its construction. The patriarch ordained the monk into the priestly dignity and made him the hegumen. Soon numerous monastic brethren gathered to Saint Dios. The monastery was in need of a well. They dug at it for a long time without success. Through the prayer of the monk the Lord brought forth a spring of pure water, which soon filled up the entire well. One time through his prayer the monk raised up a drowned man. And many another miracle the Lord worked through His saint.
In extreme old age the Monk Dios became grievously ill. He took his leave from the brethren, communed the Holy Mysteries and lay upon his cot, like one dead. At the monastery for making the funeral service His Holiness Patriarch Atticus (Comm. on Cheesefare Saturday) and also the Alexandria Patriarch Alexander, who was then at Constantinople. The holy elder unexpectedly rose up from his death bed and said: “The Lord hath given me yet fifteen years of life.” Great was the joy of the brethren.
Saint Dios actually did live another 15 years, helping all with guidance and counsel, healing the sick, and being concerned for the poor and homeless. Shortly before death a radiant man in priestly garb appeared to him in the altar of the church and forespoke to him about the impending day of death. Having given thanks to the Lord for this news, Saint Dios quietly died and was buried in his monastery (about the year 430).
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "A desert dweller, an angel in the flesh, * and a wonderworker wast thou shown to be, * O our God-bearing father Dius, * for having acquired heavenly gifts through fasting, vigilance, and prayer, * thou dost heal the infirm, * and the souls of those who have recourse to thee with faith. * Glory to Him Who hath given thee strength! * Glory to Him Who hath crowned thee! ** Glory to Him Who worketh healings for all through thee!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Divinely armed with purity of soul, * and mightily wielding unceasing prayer as a spear, * thou didst cut down hordes of the demons. * O Dius, our wonderworking father, ** pray thou unceasingly for us all.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "4269": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Stephen, King of Serbia († 1427) and his mother Saint Militsa († 1405)", "short": "Blessed Stephen" } }, "4274": { "name": { "nominative": "Repose of Venerable Abraham of Galich, disciple of Venerable Sergius of Radonezh († 1375)", "short": "Repose of" } }, "4278": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God “Abalatskaya”", "short": "Icon" } }, "4281": { "name": { "nominative": "Prophet Ezekiel (6th C BC)", "short": "Prophet Ezekiel" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Prophet Ezekiel lived in the VI Century before the Birth of Christ. He was born in the city of Sarir, and descended from the Levite tribe; he was a priest and the son of the priest Buzi. In the second invasion against Jerusalem by the Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnessar, at age 25 Ezekiel was led off to Babylon together with the king Jechoniah II and many other Jews.
In captivity the Prophet Ezekiel lived by the River Chobar. There, in his 30th year of life, in a vision there was revealed to him the future of the Hebrew nation and of all mankind. The prophet beheld a shining cloud, in the midst of which was a flame, and in it - a mysterious likeness of a chariot moving by the spirit and four-winged beasts, each having four faces: of a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle. Under their faces was situated a wheel, bestrewn with eyes. Over the chariot towered as it were a crystalline firmament, and over the firmament—the likeness of a throne as though of glittering sapphire. And upon this throne a radiant “likeness of Man,” and about Him a rainbow (Ez. 1: 4-28).
According to the explanation of the fathers of the Church, the most-bright “likeness of Man” radiant upon the sapphire throne, was a prefigurament of the Incarnation of the Son of God from the Most Holy Virgin Mary, manifest as the Throne of God. The four creatures prefigured the four evangelists, the wheel with a multitude of eyes—the sharing of light with all the nations of the earth. During this vision the holy prophet out of fear fell down upon the ground, but the voice of God commanded him to get up and then explained, that the Lord was sending him to preach to the nation of Israel. From this time began the prophetic service of Ezekiel. The Prophet Ezekiel announces to the nation of Israel, situated in Baylonian Captivity, about its coming tribulations for straying in the faith and forsaking the True God. The prophet proclaimed also a better time for his captive fellow-countrymen, and he predicted their return from Babylon and the restoration of the Jerusalem Temple.
Particularly important are two significant elements in the vision of the prophet—the one about the vision of the temple of the Lord, full of glory,—the second about the bones upon the field, to which the Spirit of God gave new life. The vision about the temple was a mysterious prefigurament of the freeing of the race of man from the working of the enemy and the building up of the Church of Christ through the redemptive deed of the Son of God, incarnated of the Most Holy Virgin Mary,—called by the prophet “the shut gates,” through which would be entered the One only Lord God (Ez. 44: 2). The vision about the dry bones upon the field—prefigured the universal resurrection of the dead and the new eternal life of the redeemed by the death on the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ (Ez. 37: 1-14).
The holy Prophet Ezekiel had from the Lord a gift of wonderworking. He, like the Prophet Moses, by prayer to God divided the waters of the river Chobar, and the Hebrews crossed to the opposite shore, escaping the pursuing Chaldeans. During a time of famine the prophet besought of God an increase of food for the hungry.
For his denunciation of the idol-worship of a certain Hebrew prince, Saint Ezekiel was given over to execution: bound to wild horses, he was torn to pieces. Pious Hebrews gathered up the torn body of the prophet and buried it upon Maur Field, in the tomb of Sim and Arthaxad, fore-fathers of Abraham, not far from Baghdad. The prophecy of Ezekiel was written down in a book, mentioning him by name, and is included in the Bible.
Saint Dimitrii of Rostov drew attention for believers to the following concept in the book of the Prophet Ezekiel: if a righteous man, hoping on his own righteousness, were to venture to sin and in sin would die—he would answer for the sin and be subject to judgement; but a sinner, if he repenteth, and in repentance would die—his former sin would not be remembered before God (Ez. 3: 20; 18: 21-24).
" }, "rank": 1 }, "4282": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Simeon of Emessa, Fool-for-Christ, and his fellow-ascetic, Venerable John († c. 590)", "short": "Venerable Simeon" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monks Simeon, Fool-for-Christ, and his Fellow-Ascetic John were Syrians, and they lived in the VI Century at the city of Edessa. From childhood a close friendship held them together. The older of them, Simeon, was unmarried and lived with his aged mother. John, however, although he entered into marriage, lived with his father (his mother was dead) and with his young spouse. Both friends belonged to wealthy families. When Simeon became 30 years old, and John 24, they made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem on the feast of the Exaltation of the Venerable and Life-Creating Cross of the Lord. On the return journey home the friends conversed about the ways of salvation for the soul. Journeying with horses, they sent the servants with the horses on ahead, and they themselves went on foot. Going through Jordan, they saw monasteries, situated at the edge of the wilderness. Both of them were filled with an irrepressible desire to leave the world and spend their remaining life in monastic deeds. They turned off from the road, along which their servants went into Syria, and they prayed zealously to God, to guide them towards the monasteries on the opposite side. They besought the Lord to indicate which monastery for them to choose and they resolved to enter whichever monastery the gates of which would be open. At this time in a dream the Lord informed the hegumen Nikon of a monastery to open the monastery gates, and that the sheep of Christ would enter in. In great joy the comrades came through the open gates of the monastery, where they were warmly welcomed by the hegumen, and they remained at the monastery. In a short while they took monastic vows. Having dwelt for a certain while at the monastery, Simeon became keen with the desire to intensify his effort, to go into the deep wilderness and there to pursue asceticism in complete solitude. John did not wish to be left behind by his companion and he decided to share with him the work of wilderness-dweller. The Lord revealed to the hegumen Nikon the intentions of the companions, and on that night when the Monks Simeon and John intended to depart the monastery, he himself opened for them the gates, he prayed with them, gave them his blessing and sent them into the wilderness. Having begun wilderness life, the spiritual brothers at first underwent the strong assault of the devil, suggesting to them grief over abandoning their families, frightening the ascetics, directing upon them weakness, despondency and idleness. The brothers Simeon and John, firmly mindful of the monastic vows given by them, and trusting on the prayers of their starets the hegumen Nikon, continued straight upon their chosen path, and they passed the time in unceasing prayer and strict fasting, encouraging each the other in their struggle against temptation. After a certain while, with the help of God, the temptations stopped. The monks received from God the report, that the mother of Simeon and the spouse of John had died and that the Lord had vouchsafed them the blessing of paradise. After this Simeon and John dwelt in the wilderness for 29 years, and they attained complete dispassion (apatheia) and an high degree of spirituality. The Monk Simeon, through the inspiration of God, pondered about that it now was proper that he should serve people, and for this it was necessary to leave the wilderness solitude and go into the world. But Saint John, reckoning that he had not attained to such a degree of dispassion as his companion, decided not to quit the wilderness. The brethren parted with tears. Simeon journeyed to Jerusalem, and there he worshipped at the Tomb of the Lord and all the holy places. By his great humility the holy ascetic zealously besought the Lord to permit him to serve his neighbour in suchlike manner, that they should not acknowledge him. Saint Simeon chose for himself the difficult task of fool-for-Christ. Having come to the city of Emessus, he stayed in it and passed himself off as a simpleton, doing strange acts, for which he was subjected to insults, abuse and beatings, and amidst which he accomplished many good deeds. He cast out devils, healed the sick, delivered from immanent death, brought the unbelieving to faith, and sinners—to repentance. All these good deeds he did under the guise of foolishness, and in no wise did he receive praise or thanks from people. But the Monk John highly esteemed his spiritual brother: when someone of the inhabitants of the city of Emessus visited him in the wilderness, asking advice and prayer, he would invariably direct them to “the fool Simeon,” who could better offer them spiritual counsel. For three days before his death Saint Simeon ceased to appear on the streets, and he enclosed himself in his hut, in which, except for bundles of fire-wood, there was nothing. Having remained at unceasing prayer for three days, Saint Simeon reposed to the Lord. Some of the city poor, companions with him, and not coming across the fool, went to his hut and there found him dead. Taking up the dead body, they carried him without church singing to a place, where the homeless and strangers were buried. While they carried the body of Saint Simeon, several of the inhabitants heard a wondrous church singing, but could not comprehend from whence it came. After Saint Simeon, the Monk John peacefully expired to the Lord in the wilderness. Shortly before death, Saint Simeon was given to behold the crown upon the head of his spiritual brother with the inscription: “For endurance in the wilderness.”" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "
O God of our fathers, * deal with us ever according to Thy meekness. * Deprive us not of Thy mercy, * but through their supplications ** direct our life in peace.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Let us praise the God-bearing Symeon, * the peer of the angels, * who appeared in the flesh as one incorporeal, * and with him the ever-memorable John: ** for with faith and love they entreat the Lord unceasingly in behalf of us all.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "4283": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Onuphry the Silent of the Kiev Caves, near caves (12th-13th C)", "short": "Venerable Onuphry" } }, "4284": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Elladius, Onisimus, and Ammon, hermits of the Kiev Caves", "short": "Venerable Elladius" } }, "4288": { "name": { "nominative": "Repose of Venerable Cornilius of Pereyaslavl († 1693)", "short": "Repose of" } }, "4292": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Trophymos, Theophilos and 13 others in Lycia (4th C)", "short": "Martyrs Trophymos" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyrs Trophymos, Theophilos, and Thirteen Holy Martyrs with them, suffered during the time of the persecution against Christians under the emperor Diocletian (284-305). Brought to trial, they bravely confessed themselves Christians and refused to offer sacrifice to idols. After fierce tortures, they threw the holy martyrs with broken legs into a fire. Strengthened by the Lord, they came out of the fire completely unharmed, and still all the moreso did they glorify Christ. Then in despair of breaking the will of the holy confessors, the torturers beheaded them.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In their sufferings, O Lord, * Thy martyrs received imperishable crowns from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * they set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By their supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" } } } }, "4293": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Apollonarius, Bishop of Ravenna († c. 75)", "short": "Hieromartyr Apollonarius" } }, "4294": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow” at the glass factory in Saint Petersburg", "short": "Icon of" } }, "4296": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Christina of Tyre († c. 300)", "short": "Martyr Christina" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Martyress Christina lived during the III Century. She was born into a rich family, and her father was governor of Tyre. By the age of 11 the girl was exceptionally beautiful, and many wanted to be married to her. Christina’s father, however, envisioned that his daughter should become a pagan-priestess. To this end he situated her in a special dwelling, where he had set up many gold and silver idols, and he commanded his daughter to burn incense before them. Two servants attended to Christina.
In her solitude Christina began to ponder over the thought,—who had created this beautiful world? From her room she was delighted by the stars of the heavens and she constantly came back to the thought about the One Maker of all the world. She was convinced, that the voiceless and soul-less idols standing in her room could not create anything, since they themselves were created by human hands. She began to pray to the One God with tears, beseeching Him to reveal Himself. Her soul blazed with love for the Unknown God, and she intensified her prayer all the more, and combining with it fasting.
One time Christina had the visitation of an Angel, which instructed her in the true faith in Christ, the Saviour of the world. The Angel called her a bride of Christ and announced to her about her future act of suffering. The holy virgin smashed all the idols standing in her room and cast them out the window. In visiting his daughter Christina’s father, Urban, asked her where all the idols had disappeared. Christina was silent. Then, having summoned the servants, Urban learned the truth from them. In a rage the father began to slap his daughter on the face. The holy virgin at first remained quiet, but then she revealed to her father about her faith in the One True God, and that by her own hands she had destroyed the idols. Urban then gave orders to kill all the servants in attendance upon his daughter, and he gave Christina a fierce beating and threw her in prison. Having learned about what had happened, the mother of Saint Christina came in tears, imploring her to renounce Christ and to return to her ancestral beliefs. But Christina remained unyielding. On another day Urban brought his daughter to trial and urged her to offer worship to the gods, to ask forgiveness for her misdeeds, but he saw instead her firm and steadfast confession of faith in Christ.
The torturers tied her to an iron wheel, beneath which they set a fire. The body of the martyress, turning round on the wheel, was scorched from all sides. They then threw her in prison.
An Angel of God appeared at night, healing her from her wounds and strengthening her with food. Her father, in the morning seeing her unharmed, gave orders to drown her in the sea. But an Angel sustained the saint while the stone sank down, and Christina miraculously came out from the water and re-appeared before her father. In terror, the torturer imputed this to the doings of sorcery and he decided to execute her in the morning. But by night he himself suddenly died. Another governor, Dion, was sent in his place. He summoned the holy martyress and likewise tried to persuade her to renounce Christ, but seeing her unyielding firmness, he again subjected her to cruel tortures. The holy martyress was for a long while in prison. People began to throng to her, and she converted them to the true faith in Christ. Thus about 300 were converted.
In place of Dion, a new governor Julian arrived and anew set about the torture of the saint. After various tortures, Julian gave orders to throw her into a red-hot furnace and lock her in it. After five days they opened the furnace and found the martyress alive and unharmed. Seeing this miracle take place, many believed in Christ the Saviour, and the torturers executed Saint Christina with a sword.
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Thy ewe-lamb Christina crieth out to Thee with a loud voice, O Jesus: * \"I love Thee, O my Bridegroom, * and, seeking Thee, I pass through many struggles: * I am crucified and buried with Thee in Thy baptism, * and suffer for Thy sake, that I may reign with Thee; * I die for Thee that I might live with Thee. * As an unblemished sacrifice accept me, * who sacrifice myself with love for Thee ** By her supplications save Thou our souls, in that Thou art merciful.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thou wast known to be a radiant dove with wings of gold, * and didst soar aloft to the heights of heaven, O honored Christina. * Wherefore, we celebrate thy glorious festival, * bowing down before the shrine of thy relics with faith, ** from whence divine healing for souls and bodies poureth forth upon all in abundance.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "4301": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Women Olympias the Deaconess († 408-410) of Constantinople and Eupraxia, the Virgin of Tabenna († 413)", "short": "Holy Women" }, "rank": 1 }, "4308": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyrs Hermolaus, Hermippos, Hermocrates of Nicomedia († c. 305)", "short": "Hieromartyrs Hermolaus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Hieromartyrs Hermolaus, Hermippos and Hermocrates, Clergy of Nicomedia, were among the small number of those remaining alive after the burning of 20,000 Christians of the Nicomedia Church in the year 303 (Comm. 28 December),—done upon the orders of the emperor Maximian (284-305). They hid themselves in remote places and did not cease to teach pagans the Christian faith. Often there passed by the house, in which Saint Hermolaus had concealed himself, the young pagan named Pantoleon (Holy Great Martyr Panteleimon, Comm. 27 July). One time Saint Hermolaus chanced upon the youth and asked him to stop by for him at the house. In their conversation Saint Hermolaus began to explain to his guest the falseness, impiety and vanity of worshipping the pagan gods. From that day on Pantoleon began daily to visit Saint Hermolaus and received of him holy Baptism. When the trial of the holy Great Martyr Panteleimon was being held, Saints Hermolaus, Hermippos and Hermokrates, were also arrested. The Lord Jesus Christ appeared to Saint Hermolaus on an evening and revealed to him, that on the following day he would suffer for Him and receive a martyr’s crown. Saints Hermippos and Hermokrates were arrested and brought to trial after Saint Hermolaus. All three were given the chance to abjure from Christ and offer sacrifice to idols. But they resolutely refused, confessed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and were prepared gladly to die for Him. The pagans began to threaten the holy priests with torture and death. Suddenly a strong earthquake occurred, and the idols and pagan temple collapsed and shattered. A report was made about this to the emperor. The enraged Maximian gave the holy martyrs over to torture and pronounced upon them a sentence of death. Bravely enduring all the torments, the holy Hieromartyrs Hermolaus, Hermippos and Hermokrates were beheaded in about the year 305.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In their sufferings, O Lord, * Thy martyrs received imperishable crowns from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * they set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By their supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Having lived piously as a hieraich, * thou hast received the crown of a martyred bishop; * and extinguishing the sacrifices of the idols, * thou wast a good shepherd of the flock of Christ * and a true teacher for Panteleimon, O all-wise one. * Wherefore, we honor thee with hymns, crying out: ** Ever deliver us from misfortunes by thy supplications, O Hermolaus our father!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "4316": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Anthusa, Abbess of Mantinea in Asia Minor, and her 90 Monastics (8th C)", "short": "Venerable Anthusa" } }, "4317": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Clement of Ochrid († 916), Bishop of Greater Macedonia, with Saints Naum, Sabbas, Gorazd and Angelar, desciples of Sts Cyrill and Methodius", "short": "Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles" } }, "4319": { "name": { "nominative": "Appearance of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God, named “Hodigitria” (1046)", "short": "Smolensk Icon" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God, named “Hodegetria,” which in Russian means “Putevoditel′nitsa” or “Way-Guide,” was according to Church tradition written by the holy Evangelist Luke within the earthly lifetime of the Most Holy Mother of God. Saint-hierarch Dimitrii of Rostov suggests that this image was written at the request of Theophilos, the governor of Antioch. From Antioch the holy image was transferred to Jerusalem. From there the empress Eudokia, the spouse of Arcadius, gave it at Constantinople to Pulcheria the sister of the emperor, who put the holy icon in the Blakhernai church.
The Greek emperor Constantine IX Monomachos (1042-1054),—in 1046 having given his daughter Anna in marriage to prince Vsevolod Yaroslavich, the son of Yaroslav the Wise,—blessed her on her way with this icon. After the death of prince Vsevolod the icon went to his son Vladimir Monomakh, who transferred it at the beginning of the XII Century into the Smolensk cathedral church in honour of the Dormition (Uspenie) of the Most Holy Mother of God. From that time the icon received the title of Smolensk Hodegetria.
In the year 1238 at the bespeaking of the icon, the self-sacrificing Orthodox warrior Merkurii by night penetrated into the camp of Batu and killed many of the enemy, in which number was also their most powerful warrior. Having accepted in the fight a martyr’s end, he was enumerated by the Church to the ranks of the Saints (Comm. 24November).
In the XIV Century Smolensk came into the possession of the Lithuanian princes. The daughter of prince Vitovt, Sophia, was given for marriage to the Moscow GreatPrince Vasilii Dimitrievich (1398-1425). In 1398 she brought with herself to Moscow the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God. They set the holy image in the Annunciation cathedral of the Kremlin, on the right side of the royal-doors. In 1456, at the request of the inhabitants of Smolensk with Bishop Misail at the head, the icon was solemnly in church procession returned to Smolensk, and at Moscow there remained two copies of it. One was put in the Annunciation cathedral, and the other—”a measure for measure”—was put in the Novodevichei monastery, founded in memory of the return of Smolensk to Russia. The monastery was built on Devichei Pole (Virgin’s Field), where “with many tears” the Muscovites handed over the holy icon to Smolensk. In 1602 an exact copy was written from the wonderworking icon (in 1666 together with the ancient icon they conveyed a new copy to Moscow for restoration), which they situated in the tower of the Smolensk fortress wall over the Dneprovsk Gates, under a specially constructed mantle-cover. Afterwards, in 1727, was built there a wooden church, and in 1802—a stone church.
The new copy took on the power of grave of the old image, and when the Russian armies left Smolensk on 5 August 1812, they took the icon with them for defense from the enemy forces. On the eve of the Battle of Borodino they carried this image through the camp, to encourage and inspire the soldiers to the great deed. The ancient image of the Smolensk Hodegetria, taken for the while to the Uspensk cathedral, on the day of the Borodino battle was in procession around with the Iversk and Vladimir Icons of the Mother of God through the Belo and Kitai quarters and the Kremlin walls, and then they sent it to the sick and wounded at the Lefortovo palace. After the leaving of Moscow the icon was taken to Yaroslavl′.
Thus of old were these sister-icons preserved, and the Mother of God through Her images defended the Native-land. After the victory over the enemy forces the Hodegetria Icon together with its glorified copy was returned to Smolensk.
The celebration in honour of this wonderworking image on 28 July was establsihed in the year 1525 in memory of the return of Smolensk to Russia.
There exist many venerated copies of the Smolensk Hodegetria, for which the celebration is set on this day. There is also a day of celebration for the Smolensk Icon, glorified in the XIX Century,—5 November, when this image on the orders of the commander-in-chief of the Russian army M. I. Kutuzov was returned to Smolensk. In memory of the expelling of the enemy from the Fatherland, at Smolensk it was established to celebrate this day annually.
The holy icon of the Hodegetria Mother of God—is one of the chief holy things of the Russian Church. Believers have received and do receive from it an abundant help of grace. The Mother of God through Her holy image intercedes for and strengthens us, guiding on the way to salvation, and we call out to Her: “Thou for faithful peoples—art the All-Blessed Hodegetria, Thou art the affirmation—the Praiseworthy of Smolensk and all the Russian land. Rejoice, Hodegetrix, salvation to Christians!”
" }, "rank": 4 }, "4320": { "name": { "nominative": "Apostles of the 70 and Deacons: Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon and Parmenas (1st C)", "short": "Apostles" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Disciples from the 70: Prochorus, Nikanor, Timon and Parmenas were of the first deacons in the Church of Christ.In the book of the Acts of the Apostles (6: 1-6) it relates, that at Jerusalem the twelve apostles chose seven men: Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nikanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicholas, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, and established them to serve as deacons.
Holy Church makes their memory in common on 28 July, although they died at various times and in various places.
Saint Prochorus at first accompanied the first-ranked Apostle Peter and was made by him bishop in the city of Nikomedia. After the Falling-Asleep (Dormition or Uspenie) of the Most Holy Mother of God, Prochorus was a companion and co-worker of the holy Apostle John the Theologian and together with him was banished to the island of Patmos. There he wrote down the Revelation of God,—revealed to the holy Apostle John, about the final fate of the world (Apocalypse). Upon returning to Nikomedia, Saint Prochorus converted pagans to Christ in the city of Antioch and there accepted a martyr’s end.
Saint Nikanor suffered on that day when the holy First-Martyr Stephen and many other Christians were killed by stoning.
Saint Timon was established by the Apostles as bishop of the city of Bastoria in Arabia and suffered from the Jews and pagans for preaching the Gospel. He was thrown into a furnace, but by the power of God he came out of it unharmed. The tradition of the Roman Church says, that Saint Timon died by crucifixion on a cross.
Saint Parmenas zealously preached Christ in Macedonia. He died from sickness befalling him. There exists also the opinion, that Saint Parmenas suffered under Trajan (98-117) in the final year of his reign, having accepted a martyr’s end." }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "
O holy apostles * entreat the merciful God ** that He grant to our souls remission of transgressions.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "The glorious Nicanor, Prochorus, Parmenus and Timon, * the honored deacons and eye-witnesses to the Word, * have been shown to be chosen vessels of the Faith. * Wherefore, we celebrate your sacred memory today, ** blessing you in gladness of heart.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" } } } }, "4323": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Julian of Dalmatia", "short": "Martyr Julian" } }, "4324": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Eustathius the Soldier", "short": "Martyr Eustathius" } }, "4325": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Akakius", "short": "Martyr Akakius" } }, "4327": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God “Umilenie” of Diveevo", "short": "Icon of" } }, "4346": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Eustathios of Mtskheta, Georgia († 589)", "short": "Martyr Eustathios" } }, "4349": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Apostles of the 70: Silas and Sylvanus, and those with them: Criscentus, Epenetus and Andronicus (1st C)", "short": "Holy Apostles" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Disciples from the Seventy: Silas, Sylvanus (Siluanos), Crescentius, Epenetos and Andronikos—were disciples of the Saviour.
The Disciple from the Seventy, Saint Silas, was a respected figure in the original Church at Jerusalem, “of the chief men amongst the brethren” (Acts 15: 22). The Council of the Apostles was convened at Jerusalem in the year 51 to deal with the question, whether it be necessary for Christians converted from among the Gentile-pagans to observe the (Old Testament) Mosaic Law [the Law-code contained in the Pentateuch, or Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament]. The Apostles afterwards sent a message with Paul and Barnabas to the Antioch Christians, in which they reported by resolve of the Council, Christians of Gentile-pagan origin were free from having to observe the prescripts of the Mosaic Law. But it was prescribed for them, nonetheless, that they refrain of partaking of foods offered to idols, from things strangled and from blood, to refrain from fornication, and to do naught else than that which be seemly (Acts 15: 20-29). Together with Saints Paul and Barnabas, the Council of the Apostles sent along members of the Jerusalem Church, Saints Silas and Jude, to explain the message in greater detail, since they both were filled with the indwelling grace of the Holy Spirit. Saint Jude thereafter was sent back to Jerusalem, but Saint Silas remained at Antioch and zealously assisted Saint Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, on his missionary journeys preaching the Gospel. They visited Syria, Cilicia, Macedonia.
In the city of Philippi they were accused of inciting unrest among the people, and for this they were arrested, thrashed with canes, and then thrown into prison. At midnight, when the holy saints were at prayer, suddenly there occurred a strong earthquake, their chains fell off from them and the doors of the prison opened. The prison guard, supposing that the prisoners had fled, wanted to kill himself, but was stopped by the Apostle Paul. Then, all atremble he fell down at the feet of the saints, and with faith accepted their “euangelos” (“good-news”) about Christ. He then led them out of the prison and took them to his own home, where he washed their wounds, and was baptised together with all his household.
From Philippi Saints Paul and Silas proceeded on to the cities of Amphypolis, Apollonia and Soluneia (Thessalonika). In each city they made new converts to Christ and built up the Church.
At Corinth the holy Disciple Silas was ordained bishop, and he there worked many a miracle and sign, and there too he finished his life. The Holy Disciple Sylvanus (Siluanos) preached the Word of God together with the chief Apostles Peter and Paul. In his First Œcumenical Epistle, the holy Apostle Peter makes mention of him: “This in brief have I written to ye through Sylvanus, your true brother, I do think…” (1 Pet. 5: 12). Saint Sylvanus was made bishop at Soluneia (Thessalonika) and died there a martyr, having undergone many a sorrow and misfortune for the Lord’s sake.
About the Holy Disciple Crescentius the holy Apostle Paul makes mention in his Second Epistle to Timothy (2 Tim. 4: 10), saying that Crescentius had gone preaching to Galatia. He was made bishop there, and afterwards he preached the Word of God in Gaul (modern-day France). In the city of Vienna (modern-day Austria) the holy Disciple Crescentius established his student Zacharius as bishop. Having returned to Galatia, he died a martyr under the emperor Trajan (98-117).
The Holy Disciple Epenetus was made bishop at Carthage. In his Epistle to the Romans, the holy Apostle Paul writes: “Greet my dear Epenetus, who is from the beginnings in Achaia [alt. Asia] for Christ” (Rom. 16: 5).
The Disciple Andronicus is mentioned also in this same Epistle by the Apostle Paul: “Greet Andronicus and Junia [June], my kinsfolk, famed amongst the Apostles and even before me believing in Christ” (Rom. 16: 7). The holy Disciple Andronicus was bishop in Pannonia (modern-day Hungary) (Comm. of Saints Andronicus and Junia is 17May).
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O holy apostles * entreat the merciful God ** that He grant to our souls remission of transgressions.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Ye were shown to be branches of the vine of Christ, bearing clusters of the virtues, * pouring forth upon us the wine of salvation, O wise ones, * which receiving, we are filled with gladness, * celebrating your most honored memory, ** whereon pray ye, O apostles of the Lord, for the remission of our sins.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "4352": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyrs Polychronios, Bishop of Babylon, and those with him: Parmenius, Elminus, and Christotelus the Presbyters, Luke and Muko the Deacons, Audon, Senes, Olympius, and Maxim († c 251)", "short": "Hieromartyrs Polychronios" } }, "4356": { "name": { "nominative": "Righteous Eudocimus of Cappadocia (9th C)", "short": "Righteous Eudocimus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Righteous Eudokimos, a native of Cappadocia (Asia Minor), lived during the IX Century during the reign of emperor Theophilos (829-842). He was the son of the pious Christians Basil and Eudokia, an illustrious family and known to the emperor. The righteous life of Saint Eudokimos was totally guided towards pleasing God and service to neighbour. Having given a vow to remain unmarried and chaste, he avoided conversation with women and did not look at them; only with his own mother whom he extremely respected did he carry on edifying conversation. For his virtuous life the emperor appointed Saint Eudokimos as governor of the Kharsian district. Fulfilling his duty as a servant of God, Righteous Eudokimos governed the people justly and with kindness, he concerned himself over the misfortunate, and about orphans and widows, and he was a defender of the common people. His personal Christian exploits which he did in secret, were known only to God.
Eudokimos pleased God by his blameless life, and the Lord called him at age 33. Laying on his death-bed, Saint Eudokimos gave final instructions to place him in the grave in those clothes in which he would meet death. Then he sent everyone out of the room and besought the Lord in prayer, that no one would see his end, just as no one saw his secret efforts during life. His attendants buried him as he had instructed them. Right after the death of Righteous Eudokimos miracles happened at his grave, many sick people were healed, and the news about the miracles of healing spread about.
After 18 months the mother of Saint Eudokimos came to venerate the relics, from Constantinople, whither his parents had settled after the death of the saint. She gave orders to remove the stone, dig up the ground, open the grave, and everyone beheld the face of the saint, bright as though alive, altogether untouched by decay. Great fragrance came from him. They took up the coffin with the relics from the earth, and they changed the saint into new clothes. His mother wanted to take the relics of her son to Constantinople, but the Kharsian people would not clear a path for their holy one. But after a certain while the priest-monk Joseph, having lived and served at the grave of the saint, transported all the relics of Saint Eudokimos to Constantinople. There they were placed in a silver reliquary in the church of the Most Holy Mother of God, built by the parents of the saint.
Righteous Eudokimos is considered in the Russian Church to be one of the special protectors and intercessors before God of the family hearth.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "He Who hath summoned thee from earth to the mansions of heaven * also pre-serveth thy body incorrupt after death, O holy Eudocimus, * for thou didst live in chastity and a pure life, * without defiling thy flesh, O blessed one. ** Wherefore, entreat Christ God with boldness, that we may be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Desiring Higher things, * and uniting thyself with those on high, * thou didst make thy soul a fiery chariot by the divine ascents of the virtues, * O all-blessed Eudocimus; * and living on the earth like one of the incorporeal ones, ** thou wast well pleasing to the Creator of all.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "4360": { "name": { "nominative": "Procession of the Honorable Wood of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord", "short": "Procession" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "In the Greek Chasoslov (Orologion) of 1897 is explained thus the derivation of this feast: “By reason of the sicknesses, often everywhere occurring in August, from of old customarily it was done at Constantinople to carry out the Venerable Wood of the Cross along the roads and streets for the sanctifying of places and for the driving away of sicknesses. On the eve (31 July), carrying it out from the imperial treasury, they placed it upon the holy table of the Great Church (in honour of Saint Sophia—the Wisdom of God). From this feastday up to the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, making litia throughout all the city, they then placed it forth for all the people to venerate. This also is the Issuing-forth of the Venerable Cross.”
In the Russian Church this feast is combined also with a remembrance of the Baptism of Rus,’ on 1 August 988. In the “Account about the making of services in the holy catholic and apostolic great church of the Uspenie-Dormition,” compiled in 1627 by order of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’ Philaret, there is provided suchlike an explanation of the feast: “And on the day of the procession of the Venerable Cross there occurs a church-procession for the sanctification of water and for the enlightenment of the people, throughout all the towns and places.”
Knowledge of the day of the actual Baptism of Rus’ was preserved in the Chronicles of the XVI Century: “The Baptism of Great-prince Vladimir of Kiev and all Rus’ was on August 1.”
In the practice now of the Russian Church, the service of the Lesser Sanctification of Water on 1 August is done either before or after Liturgy. Together with the Blessing of Waters, there is made a Blessing of Honey (i.e. first-honey for the Saviour: “Saviour of the Water,” “Saviour Moisture” [apparently in place of the vinegar and gall offered Him on the Cross?]). And from this day the newly harvested honey is blessed and tasted.
" }, "rank": 3, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O Lord, save Thy people, * and bless Thine inheritance. * Grant victory unto Orthodox Christians * over their adversaries, ** preserving Thy community by Thy Cross.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "O Thou Who wast lifted up willingly upon the Cross, * bestow Thy compassions upon the new community called after Thee, O Christ God: * gladden by Thy power Orthodox Christians, * granting them victory over all adversaries. ** May they have as an ally the invincible trophy, the weapon of peace.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "4361": { "name": { "nominative": "Feast of the All-Merciful Saviour and the Holy Theotokos", "short": "Feast of" }, "rank": 1 }, "4363": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Leontius, Attius, Alexander, Cyndeus, Minsitheus, Cyriakus, Mineonus, Catunus, and Eucleus", "short": "Martyrs Leontius" } }, "4368": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Stephen, Pope of Rome and those with him (257)", "short": "Hieromartyr Stephen" } }, "4370": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Isaac, Dalmatius and Faustus, Ascetics of the Dalmatian Monastery in Constantinople (4th-5th C)", "short": "Venerable Isaac" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monks Isaac, Dalmatius and Faustus were hegumens of a Dalmatian monastery. The Monk Dalmatius had served in the army of the holy nobleborn emperor Theodosius the Great (379-395) and gained his notice. Having left the world somewhere between the years 381-383, the Monk Dalmatius together with his son Faustus went to the monastery of the Monk Isaac near Constantinople. The Monk Isaac vowed father and son into monasticism, and they both began to lead a strict ascetic life. Once during Great Lent the Monk Dalmatius did not partake of food during the course of 40 days, and later having regained his strength, he was vouchsafed worthy of a Divine vision. Having drawn near the end of his earthly life, the Monk Isaac put in his place as monastery head the Monk Dalmatius, through whose name the monastery became known as the Dalmatian.
The Monk Dalmatius showed himself a zealous proponent of the Orthodox faith at the III Œcumenical Council at Ephesus (431), which censured the heresy of Nestorius.
After the Council the holy fathers elevated the Monk Dalmatius to the dignity of archimandrite of the Dalmatian monastery, at which he died at age ninety (after year 446).
About the Monk Faustus is known that he, like his father, was a great ascetic and in monastic deeds he particularly excelled at fasting. After the death of his father, Faustus became hegumen of the monastery.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O God of our fathers, * deal with us ever according to Thy meekness. * Take not Thy mercy from us, * but through their supplications ** direct our life in peace.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "With hymns let us praise Isaacius, Dalmatus and Faustus, * who shone forth like beacons through fasting * and turned away heresies with faith; ** for they are saints of God who entreat Him in our behalf.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "4372": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Razhden the Persian of Georgia († 457)", "short": "Martyr Razhden" } }, "4373": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Cosmas, the Eunuch and Hermit of Palestine (6th C)", "short": "Venerable Cosmas" } }, "4375": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Seven Youths of Ephesus (Seven Sleepers): Maximilian, Jamblichus, Martinian, John, Dionysius, Exacustodianus (Constantine) and Antoninus († c. 250 and 408-450)", "short": "Seven Youths" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Seven Youths of Ephesus: Maximilian, Iamblichus, Martinian, John, Dionysius, Eksacustodianus (Constantine) and Antoninus, lived in the third century. Saint Maximilian was the son of the Ephesus city administrator, and the other six youths—were sons of other illustrious Ephesus citizens. The youths were friends from childhood, and all were together in military service. When the emperor Decius (249-251) arrived in Ephesus, he commanded all the citizenry to appear for offering sacrifice to the pagan gods; torture and death by execution awaited the recalcitrant. By denunciation from those currying the emperor’s favour, the seven youths of Ephesus were summoned to reply to the charges. Standing before the emperor, the seven youths confessed their faith in Christ. Their illustrious military decorations—the military sashes—were quickly taken from them. Decius however set them at liberty, hoping, that they would change their minds while he was away on military campaign. The youths fled from the city and hid in a cave on Mount Ochlonus, where they passed the time at prayer, preparing for the deed of martyrdom. The very youngest of them—Saint Iamblichus, having clothed himself in beggar’s attire, went into the city and bought bread. In one of these journeys into the city he heard, that the emperor had returned and sought them, so as to bring them to trial. Saint Maximilian exhorted his companions to come out of the cave and bravely appear at trial. Having learned where the lads were hidden, the emperor gave orders to seal the entrance of the cave with stones, so that the lads would perish in it from hunger and thirst. Two of the dignitaries, coming before the walled-up entrance to the cave, were secret Christians. Wanting to preserve the memory of the saints, they set in among the stones a sealed container, in which were located two tin sheaves. On them were inscribed the names of the seven youths and the details of their suffering and death.
But the Lord brought upon the youths a miraculous sleep, continuing almost two centuries. During this while the persecutions against Christians had ceased, although during the reign of the holy noble-born emperor Theodosius the Younger (408-450) there had appeared heretics who rejected the belief in the Resurrection of the Dead at the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Some of them said: “How can there be a resurrection of the dead, when there would be neither soul, nor body, since they are disintegrated?” Others affirmed: “Only the souls alone would have a restoration, since it would be impossible for bodies to arise and live after a thousand years, when even the dust from them would not remain”. The Lord therefore revealed the mystery of the awaited Resurrection of the Dead and of the Future Life also through His seven youths.
The master of that region of land, on which Mount Ochlonus was situated, discovered the stone construction, and his workers opened up the entrance to the cave. The Lord had kept alive the youths, and they as it were awoke from their habitual sleep, not suspecting, that almost 200 years had elapsed. Their bodies and clothing were completely undecayed. Preparing to accept torture, the youths entrusted to Saint Iamblichus yet once again to buy bread for them in the city to keep up their strength. Going towards the city, the youth was astonished, seeing the holy cross on the gates. And hearing the freely uttered Name of Jesus Christ, he began to doubt that he was approaching his own city. Praying for the bread, the youth gave the merchant money with the image of the emperor Decius on it, and he was detained, as one possibly concealing a horde of old money. They took Saint Iamblichus to the city administrator, who at this time happened to be the bishop of Ephesus. Hearing the bewildering answers of the youth, the bishop perceived, that God was revealing through him some sort of mystery, and set out himself with other people to the cave. At the entrance to the cave the bishop took out the sealed container and opened it. He read upon the tin sheaves the names of the seven youths and the details of the sealing-up of the cave on the orders of the Emperor Decius. Going into the cave and seeing the youths alive, everyone rejoiced and perceived that the Lord, through their awakening from long sleep, was disclosing to the Church the mystery of the Resurrection of the Dead. Soon the emperor himself arrived in Ephesus and conversed with the youths in the cave. Then the holy youths in view of everyone lay down their heads upon the ground and again fell asleep, this time until the General Resurrection. The emperor wanted to place each of the youths into a jewelled coffin, but appearing to him in a dream, the holy youths said, that their bodies were to be left in the cave upon the ground. In the twelfth century the Russian pilgrim the hegumen Daniel saw in the cave these holy remains of the seven youths.
A second commemoration of the seven youths is celebrated on October 22nd. (By one tradition, which entered into the Russian Prologue [of the Saints’ Lives], the youths a second time fell asleep on this day; according to the notes of the Greek Menaion of 1870, they fell asleep first on 4 August, and woke up on 22 October. The holy youths are mentioned also in the service of the Church New Year—1 September).
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In their sufferings, O Lord, * Thy martyrs received imperishable crowns from Thee, our God; for, possessed of Thy might, they set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. Through their supplications save Thou our souls.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "TROPARION/2": { "text": "Great is the wonder of faith! The seven holy youths abode in the cave as in a royal chamber, and died without falling into corruption; and after much time they arose as from sleep, as an assurance of the resurrection of all men. Through their supplications, O Christ God, have mercy on us.", "Type": "2", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Spurning the corrupt things of this world and accepting gifts of incorruption, * though they died yet did they remain untouched by corruption. * Wherefore, they arose after many years, * burying all the unbelief of the wicked. ** O ye faithful, praising them today in laudation, let us hymn Christ!", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "4380": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Eusignios of Antioch († 362)", "short": "Martyr Eusignios" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Martyr Eusignios was born at Antioch in the mid III Century. Over the course of sixty years he served in the Roman armies of the emperors Diocletian, Maximian Hercules, Constantius Chlorus, Constantine the Great and his sons. Saint Eusignios was a companion of Saint Basiliskos (Comm. 3 March and 22 May), and he provided an account of his deed of martyrdom († c. 308). At the beginning of the reign of Saint Constantine the Great, Saint Eusignios was a witness to the appearance in the sky of the starry Cross, a prediction of victory. Saint Eusignios retired in his old age from military service and returned to his own country. There he spent his time in prayer, fasting, and attending the temple of God. And thus he lived until the reign of Julian the Apostate (361-363), who yearned for a return to paganism. Through the denunciation of one of the Antioch citizens, Saint Eusignios stood trial as a Christian before the emperor Julian in the year 362. He fearlessly accused the emperor of apostacy from Christ, and reproached him with the example of his relative, Constantine the Great, and he described in detail how he himself had been an eyewitness to the appearance in the sky of the sign of the Cross. Julian did not spare the quite old Saint Eusignios, then 110 years old, but rather ordered him beheaded.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Let us go forth to meet the transfiguration of Christ, * splendidly celebrating the forefeast thereof, O ye faithful; * and let us cry aloud: * The day of divine gladness hath arrived! ** The Master ascendeth Mount Tabor to shine forth the beauty of His divinity!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" } } } }, "4382": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Pontius the Roman at Cimella in France († c 257)", "short": "Martyrs Pontius" } }, "4383": { "name": { "nominative": "Righteous Nonna, mother of St Gregory the Theologion", "short": "Righteous Nonna" } }, "4386": { "name": { "nominative": "The Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ", "short": "Transfiguration" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Discourse of Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonika For an explanation of the present feastday and discernment of its truth, it is necessary for us to turn to the very start of the present-day reading from the Gospel: “And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James and John his brother, and leadeth them up onto an high mountain apart” (Mt. 17: 1). First of all we mustneeds ask, from whence doth the Evangelist Matthew begin to reckon with six days? From what sort of day be it? What does the preceding turn of speech indicate, wherein the Saviour, in teaching His disciples, didst say to them: “for the Son of Man shalt come to be in the glory of His Father,” and added further: “amen I tell ye, there indeed be some standing here, which shalt not taste of death, until they see the Son of Man come into His Kingdom” (Mt. 16: 27-28);—that is to say, it is the Light of His forthcoming Transfiguration which He terms as the Glory of His Father and as His Kingdom. [trans. note: the Synoptic Gospel Mt. 16: 27-28 parallel in the Gospel of Mark is Mk. 9: 1, familiar as the concluding verse in Gospel readings for feastdays of the Holy Cross; the Synoptic parallel in Luke is Lk. 9: 26-27]. The Evangelist Luke points this out and more clearly reveals this, saying: “And it came to pass however after these words, about eight days thereafter, He taketh Peter and John and James, and ascendeth onto a mountain to pray. And it came to pass, that as He did pray, His Countenance was altered, and His garb gleamed whitely resplendid” (Lk. 9: 28-29). But how can the two be reconciled, when one of them speaks definitively about the interval of time as being eight days between the sayings and the manifestation, whereas the other (says): “after six days?” Listen and think it out.
On the Mount there were eight, but only six were visible: the three—Peter, James and John, had come up together with Jesus, and they beheld Moses and Elias (Elijah) standing there and conversing with Him, such that in number altogether they comprised six; but together with the Lord, certainly, were both the Father and the Holy Spirit: the Father—with His Voice testifying that This be His Beloved Son, and the Holy Spirit—shining forth with Him in the radiant cloud. In such manner, these six consist actually of eight and as regards the eight it presents no sort of contradiction; in similar manner there is no contradiction with the Evangelists, when one says: “after six days,” and the other: “and it came to pass after these words eight days thereafter.” But these twofold sayings as it were present us a certain format set in mystery, and together with it that of those actually present upon the Mount. It stands to reason, and everyone rationally studying in concordance with Scripture knows, that the Evangelists are in agreement one with another: Luke spoke about the eight days without contradicting Matthew, who declared “after six days.” There is not another day added on representing the day on which these sayings were uttered, nor likewise was there added on the day upon which the Lord was transfigured (which the rational person might reasonably imagine to tack on to the days of Matthew). The Evangelist Luke does not say “after eight days” (like the Evangelist Matthew in saying “after six days”), but rather “it came to pass eight days thereafter.” But in what the Evangelists seem to contradict, they actually one and the other point out to us something great and mysteried. In actual fact, why did the one say “after six days,” but the other in ignoring the seventh day have in mind the eighth day? It is because the great vision of the Light of the Transfiguration of the Lord is a mystery of the Eighth Day, i.e. of a future age, coming about to be revealed after the passing-away of the world created over the course of the six days. About the power of the Divine Spirit, through the dignity of Which is to be revealed the Kingdom of God, the Lord forespake: “”There indeed be some standing here, which shalt not taste of death, until they see the Kingdom of God come in power” (Mk. 9: 1). Everywhere and in every way the King wilt be present, and everywhere wilt be His Kingdom, since the advent of His Kingdom does not signify the passing over from one place to another, but rather the revelation of its power of the Divine Spirit, wherein is said: “come in power.” And this power is not manifest to simply ordinary people, but to those standing with the Lord, that is to say, those affirmed in their faith in Him and like to Peter, James and John, and those foremost of all free of our natural abasement. Therefore, and precisely because of this, God manifests Himself upon the Mount, on the one hand coming down from His heights, and on the other—raising us up from the depths of abasement, since that the Transcendent One takes on mortal nature. And certainly, such a manifest appearance by far transcends the utmost limits of the mind’s grasp, as effectualised by the power of the Divine Spirit.
And thus, the Light of the Transfiguration of the Lord is not something that is born and vanishes nor is it subject to the faculties of sensation, although it was contemplated by corporeal eyes over the course of a short while and upon an inconsequential mountaintop. But the mystery-initiates (the disciples) of the Lord at this time passed beyond mere flesh into spirit by means of a transformation of their sense-faculties, effectualised within them by Spirit, and in such manner they beheld what, and to which extent the Divine spirit had wrought blessedness in them to behold—the Ineffable Light. Those not grasping this point have conjectured, that the chosen from among the Apostles beheld the Light of the Transfiguration of the Lord by a sensual and creaturely power (faculty),—and through this they attempt to reduce to a creaturely-level [i.e. as something “created”] not only this Light, the Kingdom and the Glory of God, but also the Power of the Divine Spirit, through which it be mete for Divine mysteries to be revealed. In all likelihood, suchlike persons have not attended to the words of the Apostle Paul: “of which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor ascended in the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for those that love Him. To us however God hath revealed through His Spirit: for all things be scrutinised of Spirit, even at the very depths of God” (1 Cor. 2: 9-10).
And thus, with the onset of the Eighth Day, the Lord, taking Peter, James and John, went up on the Mount to pray: He always either prayed alone, withdrawing from everyone, even from the Apostles themselves, as for example when with five loaves and two fish He fed the five thousand men, besides women and children (Mt. 14: 19-23). Or, taking with Him the several that excelled others, as at the approach of His Saving Passion, when He said to the other disciples: “Sit ye here whilst I go and pray thither” (Mt. 26: 36),—He then took with Him Peter, James and John. But in our instance right here and now, having taken only these same three, the Lord led them up onto an high mountain apart and wast transfigured before them, that is to say, before their very eyes.
”What does it mean to say: He was transfigured?”—asks the Gold-Worded Theologian (Chrysostomos), and he answers this by saying: “it revealed, that is, something of His Divinity to them—as much and insofar as they were able to apprehend it, and it showed the indwelling of God within Him.” The Evangelist Luke says: “And it came to pass, that as He prayed, the appearance of His Face was altered” (Lk. 9: 29); and from the Evangelist Matthew we read: “And His Face did shine, like the sun” (Mt. 17: 2). But the Evangelist said this, not in the context that this Light be thought of as subsistent for the senses (let us put aside the blindness of mind of those, who can conceive of nothing higher than that, known through the senses). Rather, it is to show that Christ God—for those living and contemplating by spirit—is the same as how the sun is for those living in the flesh and contemplating by the senses: therefore some other Light for the knowing of Divinity be not necessary for those who be enriched by Divine gifts. That selfsame Inscrutable Light did shine and mysteriously become manifest to the Apostles and foremost of the Prophets at that moment, when (the Lord) was praying. This shows, that what begat this blessed sight was prayer, and that the radiance happened and was manifest by an uniting of the mind with God, and that it be granted to all who, amidst constant exercise in efforts of virtue and prayer, strive with their mind towards God. True beauty essentially can be contemplated only with a purified mind; diligently to gaze upon its luminance assumes a sort of participation with it, as though some bright ray doth etch itself upon the face. Whereof even the face of Moses was illumined by his association with God. Do you not know, that Moses was transfigured, when he went up the mountain, and there beheld the Glory of God? But he (Moses) did not effect this, but rather he underwent a transfiguration; however, our Lord Jesus Christ of Himself possessed that Light. In this regard, actually, He did not have need for prayer for His flesh to radiate with the Divine Light; it is but to show, from whence that Light doth descend upon the Saints of God, and how to contemplate it—since it be written, that even the Saints “will shine forth, like the sun” (Mt. 13: 43), which is to say, entirely permeated by Divine Light as they gaze upon Christ, Divinely and inexpressibly shining forth of His Radiance, issuing forth of His Divine Nature, and on Mount Tabor manifest also in His Flesh, by reason of the Hypostatic Union [i.e. the union of the two perfect natures, Divine and Human, within the Divine Person (Hypostasis) of Christ, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity. The Fourth Œcumenical Council at Chalcedon defined this Hypostatic union of Christ’s two natures, Divine and Human, as “without mingling, without change, without division, without separation” (“asugkhutos, atreptos, adiairetos, akhoristos”)].
We believe, that He manifest within the Transfiguration not some other manner of light, but only that which was concealed beneath his exterior of flesh. This Light was the Light of the Divine Nature, and as such it was Uncreated and Divine. So also, in the teachings of the theologian-fathers, Jesus Christ was transfigured on the Mount, not taking upon Himself something new nor being changed into something new, nor something which formerly He did not possess. Rather, it was to show His disciples that which He already was, opening their eyes and rendering them from blindness into sight. For do ye not see, that eyes with sight in accord with natural things, would be blind as regards this Light?
And thus, this Light is not a light of the senses, and those contemplating it do not simply see with sensual eyes, but rather they are changed by the power of the Divine Spirit. They were transformed and only in such manner did they see the transformation, transpiring amidst the very assumption of our perishability, with in place of this the deification through union with the Word of God. And thus also She that miraculously conceived and gave birth did recognise, that He born of Her is the Incarnated God. Thus too it was for Simeon, who but only received hold of this Infant into his arms, and the Aged Anna, coming out [from the Jerusalem Temple] for the Meeting—since it was that the Divine Power did illumine, as through a glass windowpane, giving light for all those having pure eyes of heart.
And why indeed did the Lord, before the beginning of the Transfiguration, choose the foremost of the Apostles and lead them up onto the Mount with Him? Certainly, it was to show them something great and mysteried. What in particular great or mysteried would there be in showing a sensory light, which not merely the chosen-foremost but all the other Apostles already abundantly possessed? Why would they need a transforming of their eyes by the power of the Holy Spirit for a contemplation of this Light, if it [the Light] were merely sensory and created? How could the Glory and the Kingdom of the Father and the Holy Spirit project forth in some sort of sensory light? Indeed, in what sort of like Glory and Kingdom would Christ the Lord come at the end of the ages, when there wouldst not be necessary anything in the air, nor in expanse, nor anything similar, but when, in the words of the Apostle, “so that God will be all in all” (1 Cor. 15: 28), that is to say, will He alter everything for all? If indeed so, then it follows therefore to include—light. And hence it is clear, that the Light of Tabor was a Divine Light. And the Evangelist John, inspired by Divine Revelation, says clearly, that the future eternal and enduring city will not “require sun or moon to provide it light: for the Glory of God wilt light it, and its luminary will be—the Lamb” (Apoc. [Rev.] 21: 23). Is it not clear, that he points out here that This [Lamb] is Jesus,—Who now upon Tabor is Divinely transfigured, and the flesh of Whom doth shine,—is the luminary manifesting the Glory of Godhood for those ascending the mountain with Him? The Theologian John says likewise about the inhabitants of this city: “they will require light neither from lamps, nor from the light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light, and there wilt not be night henceforth” (Apoc.[Rev.] 22: 5). But how, we might ask, is there this other light, of which “it be without change and without threat of darkness” (James 1: 17)? What light is there that is constant and unsetting, unless it be the Light of God? Moreover, could Moses and Elias (and particularly the former, who clearly was present only in spirit, and not in flesh [Elias having ascended bodily to Heaven on the fiery chariot]) be shining amidst any sort of sensory light, and be seen and known? Especially since it was written about them: “they appeared in Glory, and they spoke about His demise, which would come about at Jerusalem” Lk. 9: 30-31). And how otherwise could the Apostles recognise those whom they had never seen before, unless through the mysteried power of the Divine Light, opening their mental eyes?
But let us not fatigue out our attention with the furthermost interpretations of the words of the Gospel. We shall believe thus, as those same ones have taught us, who themselves were enlightened by the Lord Himself, insofar as they alone know this well: the mysteries of God, in the words of a prophet, are known to God alone and His perpetual proximity. Let us, considering the mystery of the Transfiguration of the Lord in accord with their teaching, ourselves strive to be illumined by this Light and encourage in ourselves love and striving towards the Unfading Glory and Beauty, purifying the spiritual eyes of worldly thoughts and refraining from perishable and quickly-passing delights and beauty, which darken the garb of the soul and lead to the fire of Gehenna and everlasting darkness, of which let us be freed by the illumination and knowledge of the Incorporeal and Perpetually-Extant Light of our Saviour transfigured on Tabor, in His Glory, and of His Father from all-eternity, and Life-Creating Spirit, of Whom be One Radiance, One Godhead, and Glory, and Kingdom, and Power now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
[Trans. Note Concerning the word “Transfiguration”: In the opinion of this translator, the Slavonic word for Transfiguration, “Preobrazhenie,” is theologically more accurate and profound a term than the original Greek word “Metamorphosis” (or Latin “Transfiguratio”), which in English useage has assumed a religiously neutral and scientific connotation; culturally even the lurid short story “Metamorphosis” of F. Kafka stifflingly depicts God-bereft worldly efforts at metamorphosis, i.e. a negative metamorphosis. Our English word derives obviously from the Latin. A further theological irony is a point strongly made above in the tract by Saint Gregory Palamas: it is not the Lord that was metamorphosised into something other or new, but rather the Apostles. Words in Latin and Greek tend to shift in their appropriated meaning over the course of millennia, and probably here too. The Slavonic term “Pre-Obrazhenie” would linguistically seem to suggest rendering as the “Primordial-Eternal-Image” of Christ as expressed in His Prayer to the Father: “And now, Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine Own Self with the Glory which I had with Thee before the world ever existed” (Jn. 17: 5). Thus at the Transfiguration the Lord was manifest in the fulness of His Divine Glory, which He had together with the Father in eternity, before the very creation of the world, (sic) His Eternal Image and Glory.
Saint Gregory Palamas in his tract repetitively, again and again, returns to the point of stressing the uncreatedness of the Transfiguration’s Divine Light, to the exclusion of much else. Why? It seems likely to be from his well-honed defense of the Hesychiast Fathers against the theology of the Calabrian Scholastic monk Barlaam, for whom the Light of Tabor would seem to have been a “created energy” rather than of the Divine Essence of God].
" }, "rank": 8, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Thou wast transfigured on the mountain, O Christ God, * Who didst show Thy glory unto Thy disciples as far as they could bear it, * May Thine ever-existing light shine forth also upon us sinners * through the prayers of the Theotokos. ** O Bestower of light, glory be to Thee!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "7" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "On the mountain wast Thou transfigured, * and Thy disciples beheld Thy glory as far as they could bear it, O Christ God; * that when they would see Thee crucified, * they would comprehend that Thy suffering was voluntary, ** and proclaim to the world that Thou art of a truth the Effulgence of the Father.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "7" } } } }, "4387": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Dometios of Persia and his two Disciples († 363)", "short": "Martyr Dometios" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Dometios lived during the IV Century, and he was by birth a Persian. In his youthful years he was converted to the faith by a Christian named Uaros. Forsaking Persia, he withdrew to the frontier-city of Niziba (in Mesopotamia), where he accepted Baptism in one of the monasteries and was tonsured into monasticism. But then fleeing the ill-will of the monastery inhabitants, the Monk Dometios moved on to the monastery of Saints Sergios and Bacchus in the city of Theodosiopolis. The monastery was under the guidance of an archimandrite named Nurbelos—a strict ascetic, about whom it was reported, that over the course of 60 years he did not taste of cooked food, nor did he lay down for sleep, but rather took his rest standing up, supporting himself upon his staff. In this monastery the Monk Dometios was ordained to the dignity of deacon, but when the archimandrite decided to have him made a presbyter, the saint in reckoning himself unworthy hid himself away on a desolate mountain in Syria, in the region of Cyr. Reports about him constantly spread about among the surrounding inhabitants. They began to come to him for healing and for help. Many a pagan was brought to the faith in Christ by Dometios. And one time, in the locality where Saint Dometios asceticised with his disciples, the emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363) arrived, journeying along on his campaign against the Persians. By order of the emperor, soldiers searched out Saint Dometios praying with his disciples in a cave, and stoned them to death († 363).
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Having struggled in fasting upon the mountain, * thou didst destroy the nœtic hordes of the enemy * with the weaponry of the Cross, O most blessed one. * And thou didst likewise manfully array thyself for battle, * slaying Copronymus with the sword of faith. ** And for both thou hast been crowned by God, ** O ever-memorable venerable martyr Dometius.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Having utterly spurned corruptible things and thoughts * which draw one down to the depths, O venerable martyr Dometius, * thou didst show thyself to be a great leader of monks, * turning to fear the wrath of the king who did not wish to worship Christ as the true God. * Wherefore, thou didst repose, chanting the hymn; ** God is with me, and no one is against me!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "6" } } } }, "4390": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Arsenius the Lover-of-Labor(14th C) and Pimen the Ascetic (12th C) of the Kiev Far Caves", "short": "Venerable Arsenius" } }, "4393": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Orus, hermit of Thibaida", "short": "Venerable Orus" } }, "4397": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Emilian the Confessor, Bishop of Cyzicus († c. 815-820)", "short": "Saint Emilian" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Emelian, Bishop of Kyzika, lived during the reign of the Iconoclast emperor Leo the Armenian (813-820). He was summoned together with other bishops to the court of the emperor, who insistently urged the bishops to refrain from the veneration of holy icons. Saint Emelian was the first firmly to answer the emperor, that the question about the veneration of holy icons ought to be discussed and decided only within the Church by spiritual personages, and not at the imperial court. In the year 815 he was sent to prison for the Orthodox faith, where he died as a confessor.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Chanting, the Church, for which thou didst suffer, O Emilian, doth glorify thee who didst show thyself to be a mighty champion of the Trinity. Wherefore, we honor thy memory. Deliver thy servants from the invasion of the heathen.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "4398": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Gregory, the Iconographer of the Kiev Caves (12th C)", "short": "Venerable Gregory" } }, "4400": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Myron the Wonderworker, Bishop of Crete († c. 350)", "short": "Saint Myron" } }, "4401": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Eleutherius and Leonidus", "short": "Martyrs Eleutherius" } }, "4402": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Gregory of Mt Sinai", "short": "Venerable Gregory" } }, "4404": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God “Tolgskaya”", "short": "Icon of" } }, "4409": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Psoe of Egypt (4th C)", "short": "Venerable Psoe" } }, "4410": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Anthony, Julian, John, James, Alexis, Demetreus, Photius, Peter, Leontius, and Mary", "short": "Martyrs Anthony" } }, "4414": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyr and Archdeacon Lawrence of Rome along with the Hieromartyr Sixtus, Pope of Rome and the Martyred Deacons Felicissimus, Agapitus, and Romanus († 258)", "short": "Holy Martyr" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Martyrs ArchDeacon Lawrence, Pope Sixtus, Deacons Felicissimus and Agapitus, the Soldier Romanus,—Romans, suffered in the year 258 under the emperor Valerian. Holy Pope Sixtus, born at Athens, received a fine education, preached in Spain and was made bishop in Rome following the martyr’s death of Holy Pope Stephen (253257, Comm. 2 August). these were times when a pope occupying the Roman throne, was known to choose death for the faith. In a short while Saint Sixtus also was arrested and put in prison together with his deacons Felicissimus and Agapitus. When the holy archdeacon Lawrence visited Pope Sixtus, whom they held in prison, he cried out with tears: “Whither art thou gone, father? Why hast thou forsaken thine archdeacon, with whom always thou hast offered the Bloodless Sacrifice? Take thy son with thee, that I may be thy companion in having blood shed for Christ!” Saint Sixtus answered him: “I have not forsaken thee, my son. I am old and go to an easy death, but yet greater sufferings await thee. Know, that after three days upon our death thou shalt follow after me. And now go, take the church treasury and distribute it to the poor and needy Christians.” Saint Lawrence zealously did the bidding of the sainted-hierarch.
Having heard, that Pope Sixtus had been taken to trial with the deacons, Saint Lawrence went there so as to witness their deed, and he said to the sainted-bishop: “Father, I have already fulfilled thy command, and distributed by hand thine treasury; forsake me not!” Hearing something about treasure, soldiers put him under guard, and the other martyrs were beheaded († 6 August 258). The emperor locked up Saint Lawrence in prison and ordered the chief jailer Hyppolitus to keep watch over him. In prison Saint Lawrence with prayer healed the sick gathered together with him and he baptised many. Astonished by this, Hyppolitus himself believed and accepted Baptism from Saint Lawrence together with all his household. Soon the archdeacon Lawrence was again brought to the emperor and commanded to produce the hidden treasure. Saint Lawrence answered: “Give me a period of three days, and I shalt show thee this treasure.” During this time the saint gathered up a crowd of the poor and the sick, who ate only because of the charity of the Church, and bringing them he explained: “Here are the vessels in which is contained the treasure. And everyone, who puts their treasure in these vessels, will receive them in abundance in the Heavenly Kingdom.”
After this they gave Saint Lawrence over to fierce tortures, urging him to worship idols. The martyr was scourged (with a fine iron flail with sharp needles), they burned his wounds with fire, and struck at him with metal switches. At the time of the martyr’s suffering, the soldier Romanus suddenly cried out: “Saint Lawrence, I behold a bright youth, who standeth about thee healing thy wounds. Beseech thy Lord Christ not to forsake me!” After this they stretched Saint Lawrence on a rack and returned him to prison to Hyppolitus. Romanus brought there a waterpot with water and besought the martyr to baptise him. And immediately after the Baptism of the soldier, he was beheaded († 9 August). When they took Saint Lawrence to his final torture, Saint Hyppolitus wanted to declare himself a Christian and die together with him, but the confessor said: “Conceal for now thy confession in thy heart. After some length of time I shall summon thee, and thou shalt hear and come unto me. Weep not for me, but rather rejoice, for I go to receive a glorious crown of martyrdom.” They placed him in an iron cage, under which they set an intense fire, and the flames of the bon-fire flicked towards the body of the martyr. Saint Lawrence, glancing at the governor, said: “Here now, ye do burn only but one side of my body, turn over the other and do my whole body.” Dying, he uttered: “I thank Thee, Lord Jesus Christ, that Thou hast accounted me worthy to enter into Thy gates,”—and with these words he gave up the spirit.
Saint Hyppolitus took the body of the martyr by night, he wrapped it in a shroud with ointments and gave it over to the priest Justin. Over the relics of the martyr in the home of the widow Kyriakia they made an all-night vigil and Divine Liturgy. All the Christians present partook of the Holy Mysteries and with honour they buried the body of the holy martyr Archdeacon Lawrence in a cave on 10 August 258. Saint Hyppolitus and other Christians suffered three days after the death of Saint Lawrence (13 August), as he had foretold them of this.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In his suffering, O Lord, * Thy martyr Laurence received an imperishable crown from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * he set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By his supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Kindling thy heart with divine fire, * thou didst utterly reduce the fire of the passions to ashes, * O God-bearing martyr Laurence, * thou confirmation of athletes; * and in the midst of thy sufferings thou didst cry out with faith: ** Nothing can separate me from the love of Christ!
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "4417": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyr Archdeacon Euplus of Catania († 304)", "short": "Holy Martyr" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Martyr Archdeacon Euplus suffered in the year 304 under the emperors Diocletian (284-305) and Maximian (284-305). He served in the Sicilian city of Catania. Always carrying the Gospel with him, Saint Euplus preached constantly to the pagans about Christ. One time, while he read and explained the Gospel to the gathered crowd, they arrested him and took him to the governor of the city, Calvisianus. Saint Euplus confessed himself a Christian and denounced the impiety of idol-worship. For this they sentenced him to torture. They threw the injured saint into prison, where he dwelt at prayer for 7 days. The Lord issued forth a spring of water into the prison to the martyr for the quenching of his thirst. Brought to trial a second time, strengthened and rejoicing, he again confessed his faith in Christ and denounced the torturer for spilling the blood of innocent Christians. The judge commanded to tear off the ears and chop off the head of the saint. When they led the saint to execution, they hung the Gospel on his neck. Having implored time for prayer, the archdeacon began again to read and explain the Gospel to the people. Many of the pagans believed in Christ. The soldiers took hold of the archdeacon and beheaded him with a sword.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In his suffering, O Lord, * Thy martyr Euplus received an imperishable crown from Thee, our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * he set at nought his tormenters, and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** Through his supplications, save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Holding the laws of Christ in thy hand, * thou didst stand before the enemy in the arena, crying out: * \"I have called myself to suffer steadfastly!\" * Wherefore, joyfully bowing thy neck, ** thou didst undergo beheading by the sword, finishing thy course.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" } } } }, "4420": { "name": { "nominative": "Virginmartyr Susanna and those with her: Gaius the Pope of Rome, Gavinius the Presbyter, his brother and the father of Susanna, Maximus, Claudius, and his wife Prepedigna, and their sons Alexander and Cythius († 295-296)", "short": "Virginmartyr Susanna" } }, "4425": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Photios and Anicletas of Nicomedia and many with them († 305-306)", "short": "Martyrs Photios" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Martyrs Anicetas and Photios (his nephew) were natives of Nicomedia. Anicetas, a military official, denounced the emperor Diocletian (284-305) for having set up in the city square an implement of execution for frightening Christians. The enraged emperor ordered Saint Anicetas to be tortured, and later condemned him to be devoured by wild beasts. But the lions they set loose became gentle and fondled up to him. Suddenly there began a strong earthquake, resulting in the collapse of the pagan temple of Hercules, and many pagans perished beneath the crumbled city walls. The executioner took up a sword to cut off the saint’s head, but he himself fell down insensible. They tried to break Saint Anicetas on the wheel and burn him with fire, but the wheel stopped and the fire went out. They threw the martyr into a furnace with boiling tin, but the tin got cold. Thus the Lord preserved His servant for the edification of many. The martyr’s nephew, Saint Photios, saluted the sufferer and turn to the emperor, remarking: “O idol-worshipper, thine gods—be nothing!” The sword, held over the new confessor, instead struck the executioner himself. Then the martyrs were thrown into prison. After three days Diocletian began to urge them: “Worship our gods, and I shalt give ye glory and riches.” The martyrs answered: “Perish thou with thine honour and riches!” Then they tied them by the legs to wild horses, but the saints, dragged along the ground, remained unharmed. They did not suffer either in the heated up bath-house, which tumbled apart. Finally Diocletian ordered a great furnace to be fired up, and many Christians, inspired by the deeds of Saints Anicetas and Photios, went in themselves with the words: “We are Christians!” They all died with prayer on their lips. The bodies of Saints Anicetas and Photios were not harmed by the fire, and even their hair remained whole. seeing this, many of the pagans came to believe in Christ. This event happened in the year 305.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In their sufferings, O Lord, * Thy martyrs received imperishable crowns from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * they set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By their supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" } } } }, "4426": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Alexander, Bishop of Comana (3rd C)", "short": "Hieromartyr Alexander" } }, "4427": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Pamphilius and Captonus", "short": "Martyrs Pamphilius" } }, "4432": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Hyppolytus, Concordius, Irenæus, and Abundius of Rome († 258)", "short": "Martyrs Hyppolytus" } }, "4433": { "name": { "nominative": "Icons of the Mother of God: “Seven Arrows” and “Strastnaya”", "short": "Icons of" } }, "4437": { "name": { "nominative": "Prophet Micah (8th C BC)", "short": "Prophet Micah" }, "rank": 1 }, "4440": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Marcellus, Bishop of Apameia († c. 389)", "short": "Hieromartyr Marcellus" } }, "4444": { "name": { "nominative": "The Dormition (Repose) of our Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary", "short": "The Dormition" }, "rank": 7 }, "4447": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation of the Holy Icon of Christ “Not-Made-By-Hands” from Edessa to Constantinople (944)", "short": "Holy Napkin" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Transfer from Edessa to Constantinople of the Not-Made-by-Hand Image of our Lord Jesus Christ occurred in the year 944. Tradition relates, that during the time of the preaching of the Saviour, Abgar rules in Edessa. He was stricken all over his body with leprosy. Reports about the great miracles, worked by the Lord, spread throughout Syria (Mt. 4: 24)and reached even Abgar. Without having seen the Saviour, Abgar believed in Him as the Son of God and wrote a letter with a request to come and heal him. He sent with this letter to Palestine his own portrait-painter Ananias, having commissioned him to make a depiction of the Divine Teacher. Ananias arrived in Jerusalem and caught glimpse of the Lord, surrounded by people. He was not able to get close to Him because of the large throng of people, listening to the preaching of the Saviour. Then he stood on an high-up rock and attempted from afar to render the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, but this for him turned out in no wise successful. The Saviour Himself caught sight of him, called to him by name and gave over to him for Abgar a short letter in which, having praised the faith of this ruler, He promised to send His disciple for both healing from leprosy and guidance for salvation. Then the Lord asked that there be brought Him water and a cloth (linen, or washcloth). He washed His Face, drying it with the cloth, and upon it was imprinted His Divine Countenance. Ananias took the cloth and the letter of the Saviour to Edessa. With reverence Abgar took the holy thing and he received healing; only a small part of traces of the terrible affliction remained upon his face until the arrival of the disciple promised by the Lord. He was the Disciple from the Seventy Saint Thaddeus (Comm. 21 August), who preached the Gospel and baptised the believer Abgar and all the people of Edessa. Having inscribed upon the Image Not-Made-by-Hand the words “OChrist God, let no one hoping on Thee be ashamed thereof,” Abgar adorned it and placed it in a niche over the city gates.
For many years the inhabitants kept a pious custom to bow down before the Image Not-Made-by-Hand, when they went forth from the gates. But one of the great-grandsons of Abgar, later ruling Edessa, fell into idolatry. He decided to take down the Image from the city wall. In a vision the Lord ordered the Edessa bishop to hide His image. The bishop, coming by night with his clergy, lit a lampada before it and walled it over with a pottery-board and bricks. Many years passed, and the people forgot about it. But in the year 545, when the Persian emperor Chosrœs I besieged Edessa and the position of the city seemed hopeless, the Most Holy Mother of God appeared to Eulabios and ordered him to secure the Image from the walled-in niche, and it would save the city from the enemy. Having opened the niche, the bishop found the Not-Made-by-Hand Image: in front of it was burning the lampada, and upon the pottery-board, closing in the niche, was the imaged likeness. After the making of church procession with the Image Not-Made-by-Hand along the city walls, the Persian army withdrew.
In the year 630 Arabs seized hold of Edessa, but they did not hinder the reverencing of the Image Not-Made-by-Hand, the fame of which had spread throughout all the East. In the year 944 the emperor Constantine Porphyrigenitos (912-959) wanted to transfer the Image to the then capital of Orthodoxy and he paid a ransom for it to the emir-ruler of the city. With great reverence the Not-Made-by-Hand Image of the Saviour and that letter, which He had written to Abgar, were transported by clergy to Constantinople. On 16 August the Image of the Saviour was placed in the Tharossa church of the Most Holy Mother of God. About what happened later with the Not-Made-by-Hand Image there exist several traditions. According to one,—crusaders ran off with it during the time of their rule at Constantinople (1204-1261), but the ship, on which the sacred thing was taken, perished in the waters of the Sea of Marmora. According to another tradition, the Image Not-Made-by-Hand was transported around 1362 to Genoa, where it is preserved in a monastery in honour of the Apostle Bartholomew. It is known, that the Image Not-Made-by-Hand repeatedly gave from itself exact imprints. One of these, named “On Ceramic,” was imprinted when Ananias hid the image in a wall on his way to Edessa; another, imprinted on a cloak, wound up in Gruzia (Georgia). Possibly, the variance of traditions about the original Image Not-Made-by-Hand derives from the existence of several exact imprints.
During the time of the Iconoclast heresy the defenders of Icon-Veneration (Ikonodoules), having their blood spilt for holy icons, sang the tropar to the Not-Made-by-Hand Image. In proof of the veracity of Icon-Veneration, Pope Gregory II (715-731) dispatched a letter to the Eastern emperor, in which he pointed out the healing of king Abgar and the sojourn of the Not-Made-by-Hand Image at Edessa as a commonly known fact. The Image Not-Made-by-Hand was put on the standards of the Russian army, defending them from the enemy. In the Russian Orthodox Church it is a pious custom for a believer, before entering the temple, to read together with other prayers the tropar of the Not-Made-by-Hand Image of the Saviour.
According to the Prologue there are known 4 Not-Made-by-Hand Images of the Saviour: 1) at Edessa, of king Abgar—16 August; 2) the Kamulian,—Saint Gregory of Nyssa (Comm. 10 January) wrote about its discovery, while according to the Monk Nikodemos of the Holy Mount († 1809, Comm. 1 July), the Kamulian image appeared in the year 392, but it had in appearance an image of the Mother of God—9 August; 3) in the time of emperor Tiberius (578-582), Saint Mary Syncletika (Comm. 11 August) received healing from this; 4) on ceramic tiles—16 August.
The feast in honour of the Transfer of the Image Not-Made-by-Hand, made together with the After-Feast of the Dormition, they call the third-above Saviour Image, the “Saviour on Linen Cloth.” The particular reverence of this feast in the Russian Orthodox Church is also expressed in iconography—the icon of the Not-Made-by-Hand Image was one of the most widely distributed.
" }, "rank": 3, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "We bow down before Thine all-pure image, O Good One, * asking forgiveness of our transgressions, O Christ God; * for Thou wast well pleased to ascend the Cross in the flesh of Thine own will, * that Thou mightest save what Thou hadst created from slavery to the enemy. * Wherefore, we cry out to Thee in thanksgiving: ** Thou hast filled all things with joy, O our Savior, Who hast come to gave the world.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "O uncircumscribable Word of the Father, * knowing the victorious imag, * uninscibed and divinely wrought, * of Thine ineffable and divine dispensation towards man, * of Thy true incarnations, ** we honor it with veneration.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "4448": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Diomedes the Physician of Tarsus in Cilicia († 298)", "short": "Martyr Diomedes" }, "rank": 1 }, "4449": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Cherimon of Egypt", "short": "Venerable Cherimon" } }, "4455": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Myron the Presbyter of Cyzicus († 250)", "short": "Martyr Myron" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyr Myron was a presbyter in Achæia (Greece), and lived during the III Century. He suffered in the year 250 under the emperor Decius (249-251). The presbyter was gentle and kind to people, but he was also courageous in the defense of his spiritual children. One time, on the feast of the Nativity of Christ, he was celebrating Divine-services. The local governor Antipater came into the church with soldiers so as to arrest those praying there and to subject them to torture. Seeing this, Saint Myron began heatedly to plead for his flock, denouncing the governor for his cruelty. The saint was delivered over to torture,—they took him and struck at his body with iron rods. They then threw the presbyter into a red-hot oven, but the Lord preserved the martyr—at the very moment when about 150 men at a nearby pagan temple were scorched by the oven fire. The governor then began to demand the martyr to worship idols. Having received from Saint Myron a firm refusal, Antipater ordered the leather thongs to be cut from his skin. Saint Myron took one of the leather thongs and threw it in the face of his tormentor. Falling into a rage, Antipater gave orders to strike Saint Myron all over his stripped body, and then to deliver the martyr over to wild beasts for devouring. But the beasts would not touch him. Perceiving himself defeated, Antipater in his blind rage committed suicide. They then took Saint Myron to the city of Kizika, where he was beheaded by the sword († 250).
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Having loved Christ from childhood * and observed His divine commandments, O all-glorious one, * thou didst make haste to Him wholly, O most honorable Myron, * and dost pray earnestly with the angels. ** Entreat forgiveness of sins for all who honor thy memory.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "4458": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Thyrsus, Leucius, Coronatus and their companions at Cæsarea in Bithynia († c. 249-251)", "short": "Martyrs Thyrsus" } }, "4459": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Patrocles of Troyes († c. 270-275)", "short": "Martyr Patrocles" } }, "4460": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Straton, Philip, Eutychian and Cyprian, of Nicomedia († c. 303)", "short": "Martyrs Straton" } }, "4467": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Hermes, Serapion, and Polienus of Rome (2nd c.)", "short": "Martyrs Hermes" } }, "4468": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Emilian the Bishop and with him Hilarion, Dionysius, and Hermippus († c. 300)", "short": "Hieromartyr Emilian" } }, "4469": { "name": { "nominative": "Saints John († 674) and George († 683), Patriarchs of Constantinople", "short": "Saints John" } }, "4470": { "name": { "nominative": "New Martyrs of Belgorod: Barlaam, Sergius, Elija, Vyacheslav, Ioasaph, John, Anthony, Micah, Vissarion, Matthew, Euthemius, Barnabus, Dimitry, Savva, Hermogenes, Arcadius, Euthemius, Marcellus, John, James, Peter, James, Alexander, Theodore, Peter, Sergius, and Alexey († 1918)", "short": "New Martyrs" } }, "4479": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Timothy, Agapios and Thekla († c. 304)", "short": "Martyrs Timothy" } }, "4481": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God “of the Don”", "short": "Icon of" } }, "4484": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Philip, Bishop of Heraclius and with him the Martyrs Sevirus, Memnon, and the 37 Martyrs burned at Thrace († 304)", "short": "Hieromartyr Philip" } }, "4488": { "name": { "nominative": "Apostle of the Seventy Thaddeus († c. 44)", "short": "Apostle of" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Disciple from the Seventy, Thaddeus, was by descent an Hebrew, and he was born in the Syrian city of Edessa. (The holy Disciple from the Seventy Thaddeus mustneeds be distinguished from the Apostle from the Twelve, Jude, also called Thaddeus or Levi, Comm. 19 June). Having come to Jerusalem for a feastday, he heard the preaching of John the Forerunner and, having received from him baptism in Jordan, he remained in Palestine. In beholding the Saviour, he became His follower, and was chosen by the Lord amidst the number of the Seventy Disciples, which He sent by twos for preaching to the cities and locales, which He intended to visit (Lk. 10: 1). After the Ascension of the Saviour to Heaven, the Disciple Thaddeus preached the good-news in Syria and Mesopotamia. He came preaching the Gospel to Edessa and he converted to Christ king Abgar, the people and the pagan-priests. He backed up his preaching with many miracles (about which Abgar wrote to the Assyrian emperor Nerses); he established there priests and built up the Edessa Church. Prince Abgar wanted to reward the Disciple Thaddeus with rich gifts, but he refused and went preaching to other cities, converting many pagans to the Christian faith. Having arrived preaching in the city of Berit (Beirut), he founded there the Church, and it was in this city that he peacefully died in the year 44. (This place for his death is indicated in the Slavonic Meneion, but according to other sources he died in Edessa. According to an ancient Armenian tradition, the Disciple Thaddeus after various tortures was beheaded by the sword on 21 December in the Artaz region in the year 50).
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O holy apostle Thaddeus * entreat the merciful God ** that He grant to our souls remission of transgressions.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Church, ever enlightened by thy miracles, * hath acquired thee as an all-radiant star, O Apostle Thaddeus. ** Save those who with faith honor thy memory.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "4489": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Bassa of Edessa and her sons: Theognios, Agapios and Pistos († c. 305-311)", "short": "Martyr Bassa" }, "rank": 1 }, "4493": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Agathonicus of Nicomedia and his companions: Zotikos, Theoprepios, Acyndinos, Severian, Zeno and others who suffered under Maximian († c. 305-311)", "short": "Martyrs Agathonicus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Martyrs Agathonikes, Zotikos, Theoprepios (in Slavonic: Bogolep), Akyndinos, Severian, Zinon and others accepted death for Christ during the reign of the emperor Maximian (284-305). The Martyr Agathonikes was descended from the illustrious lineage of the Hypasians, and he lived at Nicomedia. Having become well versed in Holy Scripture, he converted many pagans to Christ, in which number was also the most eminent member of the Senate (its “princeps” or leader). Comitus Evtolmius was sent to the Pontine (lower Black Sea) region, where he crucified the followers of the Christian Zotikos, all who had refused to offer sacrifice to idols, but Zotikos himself he took with him. In Nicomedia Evtolmius arrested the Martyr Agathonikes (together with the princeps), and also Theoprepios, Akyndinos and Severian. After tortures, Evtolmius ordered that the martyrs be taken to Thrace for trial by the emperor. But along the way, in the vicinity of Potama, he put to death the Martyrs Zotikos, Theoprepios and Akyndinos - who were unable to proceed further behind the chariot of the governor because of wounds received during the time of torture. The Martyr Severian was put to death at Chalcedon, and the Martyr Agathonikes together with others was beheaded with the sword by order of the emperor, in Selymbria.
The relics of the Martyr Agathonikes within a church named for him was seen at Constantinople in the year 1200 by the Russian pilgrim Antonii. And in the XIV Century Philotheos, the archbishop of Selymbria, devoted a discourse of laudation to the Martyr Agathonikes.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In their sufferings, O Lord, * Thy martyrs received imperishable crowns from Thee our God; * for, possessed of Thy might, * they set at nought the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. ** By their supplications save Thou our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Having acquired a good name, O divinely wise one, * thou didst convert wicked men to the Faith, * not fearing tortures, O glorious Agathonicus. * Wherefore, thou hast become an heir to good things, ** and with those who suffered
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" } } } }, "4494": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Anthusa and Hieromartyr Bishop Athanasius, who baptised her two servants: Charasim and Neophite", "short": "Venerable Anthusa" } }, "4496": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Eulapia the Virgin of Barcelona", "short": "Venerable Eulapia" } }, "4498": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God “Georgian”", "short": "Icon of" } }, "4500": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Lupus, the slave of St Demetrius of Thessalonica († c. 306)", "short": "Martyr Lupus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Martyr Luppos lived at the end of the III Century - beginning II Century, and was a faithful servant of the holy Great Martyr Demetrios of Soluneia (Thessalonika, Comm. 26 October). Being present at the death of his master, he soaked his own clothing with his blood and took a ring from his hand. With this clothing, and likewise with the ring and the name of the Great Martyr Demetrios, Saint Luppos worked at Soluneia many miracles. He destroyed pagan idols, for which he was subjected to persecution by the pagans, but by the power of God he was preserved unharmed. Saint Luppos voluntarily delivered himself over into the hands of the torturers and by order of the emperor Maximian Galerius he was beheaded by the sword († post 306).
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" } } } }, "4501": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Ireneaus, Bishop of Lyon († 202)", "short": "Hieromartyr Ireneaus" } }, "4502": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Eutychius († c. 540) and Florentius († 547) of Nursia", "short": "Venerable Eutychius" } }, "4503": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Callinicus, Patriarch of Constantinople († 705)", "short": "Saint Callinicus" } }, "4505": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Eutychius, disciple of the Apostle John the Theologian (1st C)", "short": "Hieromartyr Eutychius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Hieromartyr Eutykhios, a disciple of the holy Apostles John the Theologian and Paul, lived from the I Century into the beginning II Century, and was from the city of Palestinian Sebasteia. Although Saint Eutykhios is not reckoned among the number of the 70 Disciples, he received the title Disciple for his labours together with the older Apostles, by whom he was made bishop. Having heard the preaching about Christ the Saviour, Saint Eutykhios at first became a student of the Apostle John the Theologian, and then having met the Apostle Paul, he preached together with him on the early journeys. Saint Eutykhios underwent many sufferings: they starved him with hunger, struck at his body with iron, they flung him in the fire and then for devouring by wild beasts. One time there was let loose upon the saint a lion, which brought fright to everyone in that it rendered praise to the Creator—having been given human voice. The Priestmartyr Eutykhios finished with his works in his native city, where he was beheaded with a sword at the beginning of the II Century.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "As thou didst share in the ways of the apostles * and didst occupy their throne, * thou didst find thine activity to be a passage to divine vision, * O divinely inspired one. * Wherefore, ordering the word of truth, * thou didst suffer for the Faith even to the shedding of thy blood. ** O hieromartyr Eutychius, entreat Christ God, that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "As one who shared the throne of the apostles and the adornment of holy hierarchs, * O Eutyches, thou wast glorified in martyrdom, * didst shine forth like the sun, illumining all, * and didst dispel the profound night of ungodliness, ** Wherefore, we honor thee as a truly divine initiate of the mysteries of Christ.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "4509": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Tation of Claudiopolis († 305)", "short": "Martyr Tation" } }, "4510": { "name": { "nominative": "Virginmartyr Sira of Persia († 588)", "short": "Virginmartyr Sira" } }, "4511": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable George Limniotes the Confessor of Mt Olympus (3rd C)", "short": "Venerable George" } }, "4512": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God “Petrovskaya”", "short": "Icon of" } }, "4517": { "name": { "nominative": "Saints Barsis († 378) and Eulogios, Bishops of Edessa, and Saint Protogenos, Bishop of Carrhae, Confessors (4th C)", "short": "Saints Barsis" } }, "4530": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Kuksha and Pimen the Faster, of the Kiev Caves, near caves († c. 1114)", "short": "Hieromartyr Kuksha" } }, "4531": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Hosia the Confessor, Bishop of Cordova († 359)", "short": "Saint Hosia" } }, "4532": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Liberius the Confessor and Pope of Rome († 366)", "short": "Saint Liberius" } }, "4533": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Pimen of Palestine († c. 602)", "short": "Venerable Pimen" } }, "4539": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Susanna, Princess of Rana, Georgia (5th C)", "short": "Martyr Susanna" } }, "4546": { "name": { "nominative": "Saints Alexander († 340), John († 595), and Paul the New († 784), Patriarchs of Constantinople", "short": "Saints Alexander" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saints Alexander, John and Paul, Constantinople Patriarchs, lived at different times, but each of them happened to clash with the activities of heretics who sought to distort the teachings of the Church. Saint Alexander (325-340) was a “chor-bishop” (vicarbishop) during the period of the first patriarch of Constantinople, Saint Mitrophanes (315-325), and because of the patriarch’s extreme age substituted for him at the First Œcumenical Council at Nicæa against the Arians (325). Upon his death, Saint Mitrophanes had instructed in his will to elect his vicar to the Constantinople throne. During these times His Holiness Patriarch Alexander had to contend with the Arians and with pagans. Once in a dispute with a pagan philosopher the saint said to him: “In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ I command thee to be quiet!,” and the pagan suddenly became voiceless. When he gestured with signs of acknowledgement of his errors and affirmation of the correctness of the Christian teaching, then his speech returned to him and he believed in Christ together with many other pagan-philosophers.
The heretic Arius was punished through the prayer of Saint Alexander. The heretic deceitfully agreed to enter into communion with the Orthodox, and the emperor Saint Constantine set a day for receiving Arius. All night long Saint Alexander prayed, imploring the Lord not to permit the heretic to be received into communion with the Church. In the morning, when Arius triumphantly went to the church, surrounded by imperial counselors and soldiers, he was stricken with illness on the Constantine Square,—his belly exploded and the innards fell out.
His Holiness Patriarch Alexander, having toiled much, died in the year 340 at the age of 98. Saint Gregory the Theologian (or Nazianzen, Comm. 25 January) made mention about him afterwards in words of praise to the people of Constantinople.
Saint John the Faster (582-595) is in particular remembered by the Church on 2 September (the account about him is located under this heading).
Saint Paul, by birth a Cypriot, became Patriarch of Constantinople (780-784) during the reign of the Iconoclast-emperor Leo IV the Khazar (775-780), and was a virtuous and pious but timid man. Viewing the martyrdom, which the Orthodox endured for holy icons, the saint concealed his Orthodoxy and associated with the iconoclasts. After the death of the emperor Leo, he wanted to restore icon-veneration but was not able to accomplish since, since the iconoclasts were still quite powerful. The saint realised, that it was not in his powers to guide the flock, and so he left the patriarchal throne and went secretly to the monastery of Saint Florus, where he took the schema. He repented his silence and association with the iconoclasts and talked of the necessity for convening the Eighth Œcumenical Council to condemn the Iconoclast heresy. Upon his advice, there was chosen to the patriarchal throne Saint Tarasios (784-806), at that time a prominent imperial counselor. The saint died a schema-monk in the year 804.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O God of our fathers, * deal with us ever according to Thy meekness. * Deprive us not of Thy mercy, * but through their supplications ** direct our life in peace.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Crucified by the love of Christ and having taken His yoke upon you as a yoke, * ye showed yourselves to be emulators of His life * and became partakers of His divine glory, * O divinely wise Alexander, wondrous John and glorious Paul. ** Wherefore, standing before His throne, ye earnestly make supplication for our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "4550": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Christopher the Roman of Palestine (6th C)", "short": "Venerable Christopher" } }, "4551": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Wonderworker Phantine", "short": "Venerable Wonderworker Phantine" } }, "4552": { "name": { "nominative": "Synaxis of the Serbian Hierarchs: Savva I, Savva II, Nicodemus, Joannicius, Arsenius, Eustathius, James, Daniel, Ephraim, Spiridon, Macarius, Gabriel, and Gregory", "short": "Synaxis of" } }, "4557": { "name": { "nominative": "Placing of the Venerable Sash of the Most Holy Mother of God in Constantinople (c 395-408)", "short": "Theotokos" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Placing of the Venerable Belt of the Most Holy Mother of God in the Constantinople Blachernæ Church was during the reign of the emperor Arcadius (395408). Before this the holy relict, entrusted to the Apostle Thomas by the Mother of God Herself, was after Her Dormition thereafter kept at Jerusalem by pious Christians. After many years, during the reign of emperor Leo the Wise (886-911), from the Belt of the Mother of God was accomplished a miraculous healing of his spouse Zoa, suffering from an unclean spirit.
The empress had a vision, that she would be healed of her infirmity when the Belt of the Mother of God would be placed upon her. The emperor turned with his petition to the Patriarch. The Patriarch removed the seal and opened the vessel in which the relict was kept: the Belt of the Mother of God appeared completely whole and undamaged by time. The Patriarch placed the Belt on the sick empress, and she immediately was freed from her infirmity. They served a solemn thanksgiving molieben to the Most Holy Mother of God, and the venerable Belt they placed back into the vessel and resealed the seal.
In commemoration of the miraculous occurrence and the twofold Placing of the venerable Belt, the feast of the Placing of the Venerable Belt of the Most Holy Mother of God was established. Parts of the holy Belt are in the Athos Batopedia monastery, in Trier monastery and in Gruzia (Georgia).
" }, "rank": 3, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O Ever-virgin Theotokos, protection of mankind: * thou hast given to thy city a mighty legacy, * the robe and cincture of thy most honored body, * which have remained incorrupt through thy seedless birthgiving. * For in thee are nature and time renewed. ** Wherefore, we beseech thee to grant peace to thy city and great mercy to our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thy precious cincture, which encircled thy womb * which was pleasing to God, O Theotokos, * is the invincible might of thy city and an inexhaustible treasury of good things, ** O only Ever-virgin who gavest birth.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" }, "KONTAKION/2": { "text": "Today thy temple doth celebrate the deposition * of thy precious cincture, O all-hymned one, * and it earnestly crieth out to thee: * Rejoice, O Virgin, ** thou boast of Christians!
", "Type": "2", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "4558": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage († 258)", "short": "Hieromartyr Cyprian" } }, "4559": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Gennadius, Patriarch of Constantinople († 471)", "short": "Saint Gennadius" } }, "4561": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Hilarion the Great († 371-372)", "short": "Venerable Hilarion" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "The Monk Ilarion the Great was born in the year 291 in the Palestinian village of Tabath. He was sent for study to Alexandria, where he became acquainted with Christianity and accepted holy Baptism. Hearing an account of the angelic life of the Monk Anthony the Great (Comm. 17 January), Ilarion set out to him, in order to study that which is pleasing to God. Ilarion soon returned to his native-land. His parents had already died. Having distributed his familial inheritance to the poor, Ilarion set out into the wilderness surrounding he city of Maium. The monk struggled intensely with impure thoughts, vexations of the mind and the burning of the flesh, defeating them with heavy toil, fasting and fervent prayer. The devil sought to terrorise the saint with phantoms and apparitions. During times of prayer Saint Ilarion heard children crying, women wailing, and the growling of lions and other wild beasts. The monk perceived that it was the demons causing these terrors, in order to drive him away from the wilderness, and therefore he overcame his fear with the help of fervent prayer. \n\nOne time robbers fell upon the Monk Ilarion, and he by the power of his words persuaded them to forsake the life of crime.\n\nSoon all Palestine learned about the holy ascetic. The Lord vouchsafed to the Monk Ilarion the power to cast out unclean spirits. With this graced gift he loosed the bounds of many of the afflicted. The sick came for healing, and the monk cured them free of charge, saying, that the grace of God is not for sale. By means of smell the saint learned with which passion this or that man was afflicted. And they came to the Monk Ilarion wanting to save their soul under his guidance. With the blessing of the Monk Ilarion, monasteries began to spring up throughout all of Palestine. Going from one monastery to another, he set in them a strict ascetic manner of life. About seven years before his death (+ 371-372) the Monk Ilarion resettled to Cyprus, where he asceticised in a solitary place, until the Lord summoned him to Himself." }, "rank": 2 }, "4566": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Theophilus and James, Abbots of Omucha in Pskov (c. 1412)", "short": "Venerable Theophilus" } }, "4567": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Dasius, Gaius, and Zoticus", "short": "Martyrs Dasius" } }, "4571": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Abercius, Bishop and Wonderworker of Hieropolis († c. 167)", "short": "Hierarch" } }, "4574": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Bishop Alexander", "short": "Hieromartyr Bishop Alexander" } }, "4579": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Ignatius, Patriarch of Constantinople († 877-878)", "short": "Saint Ignatius" } }, "4581": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow” (1688)", "short": "Icon of" }, "rank": 4 }, "4582": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Arethas and with him 4299 Martyrs († 523)", "short": "Martyr Arethas" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Reference Book for Clergy-Servers. Translator: Fr. Stephen Janos.", "text": "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.
" }, "rank": 1 }, "4583": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Arethas (12th C), Sisoes (13th C) and Theophilus (12th-13th C), Hermits of the Kiev Caves", "short": "Venerable Arethas" } }, "4584": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Elezboi, King of Ethiopia († c. 553-555)", "short": "Blessed Elezboi" } }, "4585": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Syncletia and her 2 daughters (6th C)", "short": "Martyr Syncletia" } }, "4586": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Athanasius, Patriarch of Constantinople", "short": "Venerable Athanasius" } }, "4589": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Marcian and Martyrios, Notaries of Constantinople († c. 355)", "short": "Martyrs" } }, "4591": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Anastasius the Fuller, at Salona in Dalmatia (3rd C)", "short": "Martyr Anastasius" } }, "4592": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Tabitha, the widow raised from the dead by the Apostle Peter (1st C)", "short": "Saint Tabitha" } }, "4596": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Athanasius of Medicia", "short": "Venerable Athanasius" } }, "4597": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Dimitri of Basarbov of Bulgaria († 1685)", "short": "Saint Dimitri" } }, "4606": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Stephen the Hymnographer of St Sabbas Monastery (4th C)", "short": "Venerable Stephen" }, "rank": 1 }, "4607": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Neophite, Bishop of Urbnia", "short": "Hieromartyr Neophite" } }, "4610": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Abramios, Wonderworker of Rostov (1073-1077)", "short": "Venerable Abramios" }, "rank": 3 }, "4612": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Abraham the Recluse and his niece, Blessed Maria of Mesopotamia († c. 360)", "short": "Venerable Abraham" }, "rank": 1 }, "4614": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Zenobios, Bishop of Aegea, and his sister Zenobia in Cilicia († 285)", "short": "Hieromartyr Zenobios" }, "rank": 1 }, "4615": { "name": { "nominative": "Apostles of the 70: Tertius, Mark, Justus and Artemis (1st C)", "short": "Apostles of" } }, "4617": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Eutropia of Alexandria († c. 250)", "short": "Martyr Eutropia" } }, "4618": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Stephen Miliutin the King of Serbia, his brother Dragutin and their mother Helen", "short": "Saint Stephen" } }, "4619": { "name": { "nominative": "Apostles of the 70: Stachias, Amplias, Urban, Narcissos, Apellias and Aristoboulos (1st C)", "short": "Apostles of" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Fr. Eugene Tarris", "text": "The Holy Apostle Andrew consecrated St. Stachys as Bishop of Byzantium, over which he was hierarch for 16 years and died in peace. St. Amplias was Bishop in Diospolis (Lydda), and St. Urban in Macedonia. The Apostle Andrew consecrated both of them as bishops, and they zealously preached Christ to the pagans and for this they died as martyrs from both Jews and Hellenes. St. Narcissus was bishop in Athens. St. Apelles was hierarch in Heraclea. See March 16 concerning the Holy Apostle Aristobulus. In the church services all these are called Holy Apostles.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O Holy Apostles, pray to the merciful God that He may grant our souls remission of offenses.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "As sacred treasuries of the All Holy Spirit, and radiances of the Glorious Sun, let us dutifully hymn the wise Apostles: Apelles, Urban and Aristobulus, Amplius, Narcissus and Stachys, whom the grace of our God hath gathered together.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" } } } }, "4620": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation of the relics of the Martyr Epimachus of Pelusium", "short": "Translation" } }, "4621": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Spiridon and Nicodimus, the Prosphora-bakers of the Kiev Caves (12th C)", "short": "Venerable Spiridon" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "They were ascetics in the Kievan Monastery of the Caves in the 12th Century. They were both of simple folk and were occupied in the monastery baking prosphora accompanied with the works of continual prayer and fasting. Their relics are in the St. Anthony Cave. The relics of St. Spiridon repose in such a way that the first three fingers on the right hand are combined for making the sign of the cross.
" } }, "4622": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Maura of Constantinople (5th C)", "short": "Saint Maura" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "She was an ascetic in Constantinople, where she founded a monastery in which she died in the 5th Century.
" } }, "4627": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Meletius, Archbishop of Antioch († 381)", "short": "Saint Meletius" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Meletius, Archbishop of Antioch, was at first a bishop of Sebasteia in Armenia (c.357), and afterwards he was summoned by the emperor Constantius to Antioch to help defend against the Arian heresy, and received there the cathedra-seat.
Saint Meletius struggled quite zealously against the Arian error, but through the intrigues of the heretics he was thrice deposed from his cathedra-seat; Constantius had become surrounded by the Arians and had been swayed over to their position. In all this Saint Meletius was distinguished by an extraordinary gentleness, and he constantly led along his flock by the example of his own virtue and kindly disposition, presupposing that upon suchlike a soil sprouts more readily the seeds of the true teaching of the faith.
Saint Meletius was the one who ordained as deacon the future hierarch Saint Basil the Great. And Saint Meletius also baptised and encouraged the growth under him of another of the greatest luminaries of Orthodoxy—Saint John Chrysostom, who afterwards wrote an eulogy to his former archpastor.
After Constantius, the throne was occupied by Julian the Apostate, and the saint again was expelled, having to hide himself away in secret places for his safety. But again returning under the emperor Jovian in the year 363, Saint Meletius wrote his theological tract, “Exposition of the Faith,” which facilitated the conversion to Orthodoxy of many of the Arians.
In the year 381, under the emperor Theodosius the Great (379-395), the Second Œcumenical Council was convened. Already in the year 380 the saint had set off on his way to the Second Œcumenical Council at Constantinople, and came to preside over it. Before the start of the Council, Saint Meletius raised up his hand displaying three fingers, and then conjoining together two fingers and bending the one he blessed the people, proclaiming: “We apprehend three hypostatic-persons, and we speak about one self-same nature,”—and with this declaration of the saint there flashed the fire of a lightning-bolt. During the time of the Council Saint Meletius expired to the Lord. Saint Gregory of Nyssa honoured the memory of the deceased with an eulogistic word.
There are preserved discourses of Saint Meletius concerning the One-in-Essence nature of the Son of God with God the Father, and also his letter to the emperor Jovian about the confessing of the Holy Trinity. The relics of Saint Meletius were transferred from Constantinople to Antioch.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "The truth of things revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, * a model of meekness and a teacher of abstinence * wherefore thou hast attained the heights through humility * and riches through poverty. ** O hierarch Meletius our father, entreat Christ God that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Fearing the boldness of thy spirit, * the apostate Macedonius fleeth; * but we, thy servants, celebrating a service of prayer to thee, * have recourse to thee with love, O Meletius, conversor with the angels, * fiery sword of Christ our God who cuttest down all the ungodly; ** and we hymn thee as a beacon enlightening all.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "6" } } } }, "4629": { "name": { "nominative": "St Matrona the Blind of Moscow († 1952)", "short": "St Matrona" }, "rank": 4 }, "4630": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Anatolius of Optina, the Younger († 1922)", "short": "Venerable Anatolius" } }, "4631": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Anatolius of Optina, the elder († 1894)", "short": "Venerable Anatolius" } }, "4632": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Anthony of Optina († 1865)", "short": "Venerable Anthony" } }, "4634": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Barsonophius of Optina († 1913)", "short": "Venerable Barsonophius" } }, "4635": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Hillarion of Optina", "short": "Venerable Hillarion" } }, "4636": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Joseph of Optina († 1911)", "short": "Venerable Joseph" } }, "4637": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Martyr Isaaki II of Optina († 1938)", "short": "Venerable Martyr" } }, "4638": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Isaac (the First) of Optina († 1894)", "short": "Venerable Isaac" } }, "4639": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Leo of Optina", "short": "Venerable Leo" } }, "4640": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Macarius of Optina († 1860)", "short": "Venerable Macarius" } }, "4641": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Moses of Optina († 1862)", "short": "Venerable Moses" } }, "4643": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Nikon, the Confessor of Optina († 1931)", "short": "Venerable Nikon" } }, "4644": { "name": { "nominative": "St Tikhon the Confessor, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia and Enlightener of North America († 1925)", "short": "St Tikhon" } }, "4645": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the Relics of Venerable Ambrose of Optina (1998)", "short": "Finding" } }, "4724": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Augustine, Archbishop of Kaluga and those with him († 1937)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4725": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hieromartyr and Confessor Agathangel, Metropolitan of Yaroslavl († 1928)", "short": "Holy Hieromartyr" } }, "4734": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Alexander, Archbishop of Semipalatinsk († 1937)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4739": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable New Confessor George († 1932)", "short": "Venerable New" } }, "4746": { "name": { "nominative": "Righteous Alexius, archpriest of Moscow († 1923)", "short": "Righteous Alexius" } }, "4747": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Heraclius the New Confessor († 1936)", "short": "Venerable Heraclius" } }, "4749": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Ambrose the Confessor, bishop of Kamenets-Podolskiy († 1932)", "short": "Saint Ambrose" } }, "4750": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Amphilochiy, Bishop of Krasnoyarsk and those with him († 1937)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4755": { "name": { "nominative": "New Martyr Andrew (1941)", "short": "New Martyr" } }, "4756": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyrs Archbishop Andronicus of Perm, Priests Alexander, Alexis, Alexander, Valentine, Benjamin, Victor, Alexander, Paul, Vladimir, Ignatius, Michael, Nicholas, Paul, Alexander, Nicholas, Deacon Gregory and Martyrs Athanasius and Alexander († 1918)", "short": "New Hieromartyrs" } }, "4761": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Arkadiy, Bishop of Bezhetsk († 1937)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "He was murdered by the NKVD in Butovo near Moscow on 29 (16) December 1937. (full life needs translation)
" } }, "4762": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Arsenius, Metropolitan of Rostov († 1772)", "short": "Hieromartyr Arsenius" } }, "4769": { "name": { "nominative": "34 Venerable Martyrs of Valaam, who suffered at the hands of the Swedes († 1578): Titus, Tychon, Gelasius, Sergius, Barlaam, Sabbas, Conon, Silvester, Cyprian, Pœmen, John, Samonas, Jonah, David, Cornelius, Nephon, Athanasius, Serapion, Barlaam, Athanasius, Anthony, Luke, Leontius, Thomas, Dionysius, Philip, Ignatius, Basil, Pakhomius, Basil, Theophilus, John, Theodore, and John", "short": "Venerable Martyrs of Valaam" } }, "4771": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Barsonuphius, bishop of Kirillovo and those with him († 1918)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4772": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy New Martyr Basil, bishop of Chernigov († 1918)", "short": "Holy New" } }, "4776": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Priest Basil († 1930)", "short": "New Hieromartyr Basil" } }, "4777": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Vasily the Confessor, bishop of Kineshemsk (1945)", "short": "Saint Vasily" } }, "4778": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyrs Priests Basil, Alexander, and Christopher, Martyrs Macarius and Sergius († 1922)", "short": "New Hieromartyrs" } }, "4781": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieroconfessor Victor, bishop of Glazov († 1934)", "short": "New Hieroconfessor" } }, "4785": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Makariy, bishop of Ekaterinoslav and those with him († 1937)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4791": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Priest Vladimir († 1938)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4794": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyrs Hermogenes, bishop of Tobolsk, Priests Ephraim, Michael, and Peter, and Martyr Constantine († 1918)", "short": "New Hieromartyrs" } }, "4795": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Priest Gregory († 1937)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4797": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Damascene, bishop of Starodub and those with him († 1937)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4798": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Dmitry, archbishop of Mozhaisk and those with him († 1937)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4802": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Eugene, Metropolitan of Nizhniy Novgorod († 1937)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4805": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyrs Priests Zosimas, Nicholas, Basil, John, Leontius, Vladimir, Parthenius, John, John, Michael; Deacon Eugene; Venerable Martyrs Anna, Faith and Irene; Martyr Paul († 1938)", "short": "New Hieromartyr Zosimas and companions" } }, "4807": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Priest James († 1943)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4817": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Innocent, Archbishop of Cherson († 1857)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" } }, "4819": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Priest John († 1934)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4823": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Seraphim, Archbishop of Smolensk and those with him († 1937)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4836": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Jonah, bishop of Velizh, and those with him († 1937)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4839": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Cyril, Metropolitan of Kazan († 1937)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4842": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Nicholas, Archbishop of Vladimir, and those with him († 1937)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4843": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Laurentius, Bishop of Balakhninsk († 1918)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4845": { "name": { "nominative": "New Martyr Macarius, bishop of Orel († 1918)", "short": "New Martyr" } }, "4852": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Priest Michael († 1937)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4856": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyrs Priests Michael and John († 1930)", "short": "New Hieromartyrs" } }, "4857": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Nikita, bishop of Orekhovo-Zuevo, and those with him († 1937)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4859": { "name": { "nominative": "New Martyr Nicodimus, archbishop of Kostroma († 1938)", "short": "New Martyr" } }, "4864": { "name": { "nominative": "New Martyr Nicholas the Presbyter († 1937)", "short": "New Martyr" } }, "4867": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Priest Nicholas and those with him († 1918)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4872": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Royal Passion-bearers Tsar Nicholas, Tsaritsa Alexandra, Crown Prince Aleksy, Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia and those killed with them († 1918)", "short": "Royal Passion-bearers" }, "rank": 4 }, "4874": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyrs Priests Alexis, Nicholas, Michael and Martyr Sergius († 1938)", "short": "New Hieromartyrs" } }, "4876": { "name": { "nominative": "New Martyr Nina († 1938)", "short": "New Martyr" } }, "4879": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Onuphry, Archbishop of Kursk († 1938)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4882": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyrs Pavlin, Bishop of Mogilev, Artemiy, Archbishop of Ekaterinburg, and those with them († 1937)", "short": "New Hieromartyrs" } }, "4884": { "name": { "nominative": "New Martyrs Peter and Prochorus († 1918)", "short": "New Martyrs" } }, "4886": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyrs Priests Nicholas, Alexis and Alexis; Deacon Symeon; Venerable Martyr Peter; and Venerable Martyr Sophia († 1938)", "short": "New Hieromartyr Nicholas and companions" } }, "4888": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Peter, Archbishop of Voronezh († 1929)", "short": "New Hieromartyr Peter" } }, "4890": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Pimen, bishop of Vernyi († 1918)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4892": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Archimandrite Sergius and 11 monks of Zilantiev Monastery († 1918)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4894": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Prokopi, Archbishop of Odessa and those with him († 1937)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4896": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Sebastian the New Confessor, of Karaganda († 1966)", "short": "Venerable Sebastian" } }, "4897": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Seraphim Vyritsky († 1949)", "short": "Venerable Seraphim" } }, "4898": { "name": { "nominative": "New Martyr Seraphim, bishop of Dmitrov († 1918)", "short": "New Martyr" } }, "4904": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyrs Priests Basil, Alexander, Basil, and Serge († 1938);", "short": "New Hieromartyrs" } }, "4905": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Priest Sergius († 1938)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4910": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Sergius the New Confessor († 1948)", "short": "Venerable Sergius" } }, "4911": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Sylvester, Archbishop of Omsk († 1920)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4913": { "name": { "nominative": "New Martyrs Michael, Simieon, and Dimitrius († 1937)", "short": "New Martyrs" } }, "4914": { "name": { "nominative": "New Martyr Simeon, bishop of Ufa († 1921)", "short": "New Martyr" } }, "4918": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Tikhon, Archbishop of Voronezh and 160 priests killed with him († 1919)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "4926": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy New Martyr Theophan, Bishop of Solikamsk († 1918)", "short": "Holy New" } }, "4927": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Priest Philosoph and his children Martyrs Boris and Nicholas († 1918)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "6385": { "name": { "nominative": "Prophet Azarias (10th C. BC)", "short": "Prophet Azarias" } }, "6416": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Anatoly (another) of the Kiev Caves", "short": "Venerable Anatoly" } }, "6422": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Andrew Rublev, the Iconographer (15th C)", "short": "Venerable Andrew" }, "rank": 1 }, "6449": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Arsenius of Novgorod", "short": "Venerable Arsenius" } }, "6479": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Barlaam of Shenkursk († 1462)", "short": "Venerable Barlaam" } }, "6492": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the relics of Sts. Basil and Constantine, princes of Yaroslavl (13th C)", "short": "Finding of" } }, "6503": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Domnina and her daughters Birinea (Veronica) and Proskudia (Prosdoki)", "short": "Martyr Domnina" } }, "6516": { "name": { "nominative": "Childmartyr Gabriel of Bialystok († 1690)", "short": "Childmartyr Gabriel" } }, "6552": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Right-believing Great Prince Demetrius Donskoy of Moscow († 1389)", "short": "Great Prince" }, "rank": 4 }, "6557": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Dionysius the Abbot of Glushetsk, Vologda († 1437)", "short": "Venerable Dionysius" }, "rank": 2 }, "6564": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Euthymius the New, Founder of the Iveron Monastery († 1028) (Georgian)", "short": "Venerable Euthymius" } }, "6605": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Hypatius the Abbot of Rufinus in Chalcedon († c. 446)", "short": "Venerable Hypatius" } }, "6607": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Peter (Polyansky), Metropolitan of Krutitsa († 1937)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" }, "rank": 3 }, "6608": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Metropolitan Seraphim († 1937)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" }, "rank": 3 }, "6609": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Thaddeus, Archbishop of Tver († 1937)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Thaddeus (Uspensky), murdered by the Bolsheviks December 31, 1937. (Full life needs to be translated).
" } }, "6611": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed John the Prince of Uglich, Tonsured As Ignatius († 1523)", "short": "Blessed John" } }, "6613": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia", "short": "the New Martyrs" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Today we commemorate the uncounted millions of faithful who suffered and died at the hands of the Soviet atheists. These include the Tsar-martyr Nicholas II and the rest of the Russian Royal Family (July 4), Patriarch Tikhon (March 24), Grand Duchess Elizabeth (July 5), thousands of martyrs, both clergy and laity, whose names are known, but also millions upon millions of simple believers whose names have been lost to history. The number of the New Martyrs of Russia far exceeds all those from the “Age of the Martyrs,” the first three centuries of Christianity. May their memory be eternal. The date of this commemoration was first set by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in 1981, then adopted by the Moscow Patriarchate in 1992. About 1050 new martyrs were glorified by the Patriarchate in 2000, and many more are expected to be recognized in coming years.
" } }, "6616": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Righteous John, Wonderworker of Kronstadt and All Russia (ROCOR)", "short": "St John" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "VESPERS": { "SCRIPTURE/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Reading": "Joel_2:12-26" }, "SCRIPTURE/2": { "text": "", "Type": "2", "Reading": "Joel_2:27-32" }, "SCRIPTURE/3": { "text": "", "Type": "3", "Reading": "I Jn_4:20-5:5" } }, "MATINS": { "SCRIPTURE/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Reading": "Lk_6:17-23", "Pericope": "24", "Cmd": "dow != 0" } }, "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "With the apostles thy sound hath gone forth into all the earth; * with the confessors thou didst endure sufferings for Christ; * thou didst resemble the holy hierarchs in thy preaching of the Word; * and with the venerable hast thou shone forth in the grace of God. * Therefore, the Lord hath exalted the depths of thy humility above the heavens, * and hath given us thy name as a source of most wondrous miracles. * Wherefore, O wonderworker, who livest in Christ forever, * take pity in thy love upon people in misfortunes; * and hearken unto thy children, * who with faith call upon thee, ** O righteous John, our beloved pastor.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "TROPARION/2": { "text": "O wonderworker, who livest in Christ forever, * take pity in thy love upon people in misfortunes; * hearken unto thy children who with faith call upon thee, * expecting compassionate aid from thee, ** O John of Kronstadt, our beloved pastor.", "Type": "2", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "O father John, namesake of grace, who wast chosen by God from childhood, who in thy youth miraculously received from Him the gift of learning, and in a dream wast most gloriously called to be a priest: Entreat Christ God, that we may all be with thee in the kingdom of heaven.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } }, "scripture": [ { "Type": "1", "Reading": "Joel_2:12-26" }, { "Type": "2", "Reading": "Joel_2:27-32" }, { "Type": "3", "Reading": "I Jn_4:20-5:5" }, { "Type": "1", "Reading": "Lk_6:17-23", "Pericope": "24", "Cmd": "dow != 0" } ] }, "6624": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable John, the Faster of the Kiev Caves", "short": "Venerable John" } }, "6627": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable John and Gabriel the Hageorites (Georgian Church)", "short": "Venerable John" } }, "6630": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint John, Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco, the Wonderworker († 1966)", "short": "Saint John" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "http://www.holytrinityorthodox.com/", "text": "Archbishop John was born on June 4th, 1896 in Kharkov province, to the pious aristocrats Boris and Glafira Maximovitch; at baptism he was given the name Michael. Even in childhood Michael displayed a certain striving toward holiness, similar to that displayed by his distant relative, the renowned Siberian missionary Holy Hierarch John of Tobolsk, who was glorified by God through his working of miracles and the witness of his incorrupt relics. Michael was a sickly child with a poor appetite. He would take his toy soldiers and make them into monks, and the fortresses into monasteries. The Sviatogorsk Monastery, not far from the Maximovitch estate, provided the impetus for young Michael to take a seriously contemplative attitude toward life. Under the influence of the youth Michael, his governess converted to Orthodoxy.
In 1914, Michael completed the Poltava Military Academy, and entered the Kharkov Imperial University school of law. He was an excellent student, although he devoted part of his time to studying saints lives and other religious literature.
In the religious life of Kharkov, the young Michael was provided with the first step along the path of piety. In the crypt under the Kharkov cathedral church lay the relics of the Miracle-Worker Archbishop Melety Leontovitch, who spent his nights standing, with arms uplifted in prayer. Michael came to love this saint, and began to emulate his spiritual struggle [podvig] by staying awake all night. Thus, gradually, young Michael began to develop the desire to dedicate himself fully to God, and as a concomitant, began to manifest exalted spiritual qualities: abstinence and strictness toward himself, profound humility, and compassion for the suffering.
Even before his departure from Russia, young Michael made the acquaintance of the Most-blessed Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovistky), founder of the Russian Church Abroad. At the close of the civil war, Michael and his entire family emigrated to Yugoslavia, where he enrolled in the Department of Theology of Belgrade University, from which he graduated in 1925. Metropolitan Anthony came to greatly love Michael, and kept the youth near him. In 1926, Metropolitan Anthony tonsured Michael to the monastic rank with the name John (after St. John, Metropolitan of Tobolsk), and soon thereafter ordained him a hierodeacon. On the Feast of the Entry of the Most-holy Theotokos into the Temple, monk John became a hieromonk. In 1929, he began to teach at the Serbian high school, and soon, with his capacity for inspiring lofty Christian ideals in his students, won their love.
As a hieromonk, John continued to practice the podvig of strict asceticism, to which he joined a podvig of all-night prayer, a podvig beyond the capacity of most people. It was during this time that, at the request of local Greeks and Macedonians, he began to serve in Greek for them. Like Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt, Vladyka served the Liturgy daily, acquiring thereby great spiritual strength, and having fanned within him the flame of love for God and for men. Hieromonk John began to visit hospitals and to search out the sick, those in need of prayer, consolation, and Communion. Inasmuch as Hieromonk John’s renown was constantly growing, the bishops abroad resolved to elevate him to the episcopate. Wishing to decline such a lofty calling, Hieromonk John emphasized the fact that he had a speech impediment; the bishops remained unmoved, pointing out to him that the Prophet Moses had also had a speech impediment.
Hieromonk John’s consecration, and his assignment to the Diocese of Shanghai (China) took place in May 1934. The newly-consecrated Vladyka arrived in Shanghai at the end of November, and immediately made efforts to restore church unity. He established ties with the local Orthodox Serbs, Greeks, and Ukrainians. At the same time, he began the work of erecting a huge cathedral church dedicated to the “Surety of Sinners” Icon of the Mother of God, as well as a three-storey parish house and bell tower. Gifted with boundless energy, Vladyka John served as the inspiration for the building of churches, hospitals, and orphanages, and played an active part in many benevolent undertakings in Russian Shanghai.
But despite such frenetic activities, Vladyka John continued to live as if in another world. In order to avoid secular glory and human praise, he from time to time pretended to act the fool. He remained in constant prayer, and if he did not serve in the church, then he would read the daily cycle of services himself. Often Vladyka would walk barefoot, even on the coldest of days. He would eat once a day, and during the fasts of the church would eat nothing but prosphora. Each morning, to quicken his spirit, he would pour cold water over himself. He did not make social visits, but those in need of help he would visit, at unpredictable times and in bad weather. He would visit those he knew to be sick on a daily basis, taking with him the Holy Gifts. He possessed the gift of clairvoyance, and the gift of powerful prayer. There is documented a multitude of instances in which miraculous help came through the prayers of Vladyka John.
In 1939, a certain parishioner, beset by a number of tribulations, began to lose her faith. Once, upon entering the Church while Vladyka was serving, she witnessed a flame, shaped like a large tulip, descend into the Chalice during the consecration of the Holy Gifts. After seeing this miracle, her faith returned to her, and she repented of her faint-heartedness.
It once happened that as the result of constantly being on his feet, Vladykas leg became very swollen, and the physicians, fearing the possibility of gangrene, prescribed that he be hospitalized. After much pleading with him, they succeeded in talking Vladyka into entering the Russian Hospital. But he did not remain there long. The same evening, he secretly left and went to the cathedral, where he served the All-night vigil. By the next day, the swelling had completely gone.
Often, upon seeing Vladyka, the spiritually ill would become calm, and would piously receive Communion. Once, Vladyka John was asked to commune a dying patient at the Russian Hospital in Shanghai. On that occasion, Vladyka took a priest along with him. Upon their arrival, he noticed a gregarious young man of about 20, playing a harmonica. The lad was to be discharged the following day. Vladyka John called to him and said: I want to give you Communion right now. The young man immediately confessed his sins and received Communion. The astonished priest asked Vladyka why he had tarried with an apparently healthy young man instead of going to the one who was dying. Vladyka answered: He will die tonight, and the other one, who is seriously ill, will live for many years. And so it came to pass.
An enormous feat of charity was Vladyka’s building in Shanghai of an orphanage to serve orphans and needy children. At first, there were only 8 orphans living there, but over the years, the orphanage gave shelter to hundreds of children, with an overall total of 1,500. Vladyka himself gathered up ailing and starving children from the streets of the Shanghai slums.
It once happened that during the war, there was not enough food in the orphanage to feed the children. Vladyka prayed all night, and in the morning, the doorbell rang. The representative of some charitable organization had brought a substantial donation to the orphanage. During the Japanese occupation, Vladyka declared himself to be the temporary head of the Russian colony, and showed great courage in defending Russians before the occupying Japanese powers.
In Shanghai, there was a voice teacher named Anna Petrovna Lushnikova who taught Vladyka proper breathing and enunciation, thereby improving his diction. At the end of each lesson, Vladyka paid her $20.00. During the war, in 1945, she was gravely wounded, and happened to be in a French hospital. Sensing that she might die during the night, Anna Petrovna begged the nurses to call Vladyka John, so that he might give her Communion. Because, as the result of war-time conditions the hospital was locked up at night, the nurses refused. On that stormy night, Anna Petrovna was beside herself, and kept calling upon Vladyka. Suddenly, about 11:00 PM, Vladyka appeared in the ward. Unable to believe her eyes, Anna Petrovna asked Vladyka whether she was dreaming or whether he had actually come to her. Vladyka smiled, prayed, and administered Holy Communion. Afterwards, she calmed down and slept. The next morning she felt healed. As the hospital had been tightly secured, no one believed Anna Petrovnas report that Vladyka had visited her during the night. However, a patient in a neighboring bed confirmed that she had also seen Vladyka. The greatest surprise was the discovery of a $20 bill under Anna Petrovnas pillow. In this way, Vladyka left material evidence of his visit.
Archpriest George Larin, who had been an altar boy of Vladyka’s in Shanghai, relates: “Despite Vladyka’s strictness, all of the altar boys loved him very much. To me, Vladyka was an ideal, one which I wanted to emulate in every way. Thus, during Great Lent, I would not sleep in bed, and instead lay on the floor. I would not eat my usual meals with the family, but instead would partake of bread and water in solitude. My parents became worried and took me to Vladyka. Hearing them out, the prelate asked the guard to go to the store and bring a sausage. In response to my tearful cries that I did not wish to violate Lent, the wise prelate admonished me to eat the sausage and to always remember that obedience to parents is more important than personal accomplishment. How then should I proceed, Vladyka? I asked, hoping nonetheless to especially apply myself. Go to church as you always did, and at home, do what your mother and father ask. I remember how grieved I was that Vladyka did not assign to me some special deeds to accomplish.”
With the coming of the Communists to power, the Russians in China were once again forced to flee, most through the Philippine Islands. In 1949, approximately 15,000 refugees from the Chinese mainland were living in a camp on the island of Tubabao. Every night, he made a circuit of the island, and by his prayers and the sign of the Cross, protected the island from the seasonal typhoons , something acknowledged by the Filipinos themselves. By the lobbying efforts of Vladyka in Washington, a law regarding Russian refugees was amended, with the result that many Russians were permitted to enter the United States. It was during this trip to Washington in 1949, that on September 11th, the Feast day of the Beheading of St. John the Forerunner, Vladyka founded our parish.
In 1951, Vladyka was appointed to head the Diocese of Western Europe, with his seat in Paris. Vladyka expended great efforts to unite to the Church Abroad parishes of the French Orthodox Church, and he helped establish the Orthodox Church of Holland. Vladyka turned his attention to the existence of local saints who had lived in antiquity but who were heretofore unknown to the Orthodox Church. At his initiative, the Synod passed a resolution with respect to veneration of a host of saints who had lived in the West prior to the schism of 1054. Vladyka was constantly travelling across Europe, and he sometimes would celebrate the Divine Liturgy in Dutch, in French; later he also served in English. Many revered him as an unmercenary healer.
E.G. Tchertkoff reminisces about the time during which Vladyka was in Western Europe: On several occasions, I visited Vladyka while he was living in the Cadet Corps building near Parish. He occupied a small cell on the top floor. In the cell, there was a table, an armchair and several chairs, and in the corner, icons and a lectern with books upon it. There was no bed in the cell, as Vladyka did not lie down to sleep, but rather prayed while leaning on a staff topped with a cross-bar. Sometimes he prayed on his knees. It was likely that when he prostrated himself, he would fall asleep for a little while in that position on the floor. That is how he brought himself to exhaustion! Sometimes during our conversation, he appeared to doze. But whenever I stopped talking, he would immediately say, “Continue, I hear you!”
Whenever he did not serve, but remained home, he usually walked barefoot (to mortify the flesh) even on during the hardest frosts. He would be walking barefoot in the cold, along the rocky road from the military school, which was on a hill inside a park, to the church at the gate. Once he happened to injure his foot. The doctors were unable to heal it, and they feared the possibility of sepsis. They were forced to hospitalize Vladyka, but he refused to lie down in the bed. However, at the urging of the administration, Vladyka finally acceded, and lay down in the bed, but only after placing a boot under himself to make himself uncomfortable. The French hospital nurses said “You have brought us a saint!” Each morning, a priest would come to serve the Liturgy, and Vladyka would receive Communion.
”Since for a long time our church did not have a permanent priest, once a priest from another parish came to us to celebrate Vespers. The whole service lasted only 45 minutes (usually it takes 2 and a half hours)! We were horrified! So many parts of Vespers were skipped that we decided to tell about this to Vladyka. We hoped that he would influence the priest to follow the established order of Orthodox services. But Vladyka pleasantly smiling said to us: ‘How difficult is to please you people. I celebrate too long and he too short!’ With such kindness and meekness he taught us not to judge.”
Vladyka’s reputation for holiness, too, spread among the non-Orthodox as well as the Orthodox population. In one of the Catholic churches of Paris, a priest strove to inspire his young people with these words: “You demand proofs, you say that now there are neither miracles nor saints. Why should I give you theoretical proofs, when today there walks in the streets of Paris a Saint—Saint Jean Nus Pieds (Saint John the Barefoot).” Many people testify to the miracles worked by the prayers of Archbishop John in Western Europe.
V. D. recounts: “Many were aware that it was not necessary to ask Vladyka to visit someone. The Lord Himself inspired him where and to whom to go. Vladyka John was known to many in the French hospitals and was admitted therein at any time. Besides, Vladyka unerringly directed himself where he was needed. My brother, when wounded in the head, was taken to the hospital. The x-ray revealed a large fracture of the skull. His eyes swelled and became sanguineous; he was in critical condition. Vladyka, who did not know my brother, somehow found him in the hospital, prayed over him and gave him communion. When my brother underwent a follow up of head x-rays, there was no fracture to be found. My brother recuperated very fast. The doctor was dumbfounded!”
Vladyka arrived in San Francisco, that eternally foggy city of the far West, in the Fall of 1962. Under Vladyka’s direction, peace was restored, the majestic cathedral in honor of the “Joy to all Who Sorrow” Icon of the Mother of God was erected and decorated with gold cupolas.
But things were not easy for Vladyka. He was forced to meekly and silently endure a great deal. He even had to appear in public court to answer absurd charges of financial irregularities by the Parish Council. All the truth triumphed, Vladyka’s last years were filled with the bitterness of slander and persecution. Accounts of several instances of Vladyka’s miraculous assistance during this final period have come down to us. We will cite just a few stories.
Anna Hodyriva recounts: “My sister Xenia Yarovoy, who lived in Los Angeles, suffered for a long time with a painful hand. She sought physicians, tried home remedies, yet nothing helped. She finally decided to turn to Vladyka John and wrote to him in San Francisco. Some time went by and the hand was healed. Xenia began to forget about the previous pain in her hand. On one occasion, when she visited San Francisco, she went to the Cathedral for services. At the end of the service Vladyka John held the cross to be kissed. On seeing my sister he asked: ‘How is your hand?’ Vladyka saw my sister for the first time! How then did he recognize her and know that it was she who had a painful hand?”
Anna S. recollects: “My sister Musia and I got into an accident. A drunken young man was traveling towards us. He struck with great force the door on the side where my sister was sitting. The ambulance was called and she was taken to the hospital. Her condition was very serious—a lung was punctured and a rib broken, which caused her great pain. Her eyes were invisible in her swollen face. When Vladyka visited her, she lifted her eyelid with her finger and upon seeing him took his hand and kissed it. She could not speak since she had a tracheotomy, but tears of joy flowed from her eyes. After that Vladyka visited her several times and she began to get better. Once Vladyka entered the ward and announced: ‘Musia is feeling very poorly now.’ He then went to her and, closing the drape around her bed, he prayed for a long time. During his prayer, we were approached by two physicians and I asked them how serious was my sister’s condition and if I should summon her daughter from Canada? (We kept from the daughter the fact that her mother was in an accident). The physicians answered: ‘To call or not to call the family is your problem. We cannot guarantee that she will survive until the morning.’ Thank God that she not only survived that night, but was completely cured and returned to Canada My family and I believe that Musia was saved by the prayers of Vladyka John.”
Vladyka’s life was governed by the standards of the spiritual life, and if this upset the routine order of things it was in order to jolt people out of their spiritual inertia and remind them that there is a higher judgment than the world’s. A remarkable incident from Vladyka’s years in San Francisco (1963) illustrates several aspects of his holiness: his spiritual boldness based on absolute faith; his ability to see the future and to overcome by his spiritual sight the bounds of space; and the power of his prayer, which beyond all doubt worked miracles.
Our parishioner, Mr. L.A. Liu recalls, “In San Francisco, my husband, who had been in an automobile accident, was extremely ill. He had lost his equilibrium, and suffered greatly. At that time Vladyka was enduring a multitude of troubles. Knowing the power of Vladyka’s prayers, I thought to myself: ‘If I ask Vladyka to visit my husband, he will recover.’ However, knowing that Vladyka was so busy, I was hesitant to invite him. Two days passed, and suddenly in came Vladyka, accompanied by his driver, Mr. B.M. Troyan. Vladyka was with us for only 5 minutes, but I began to believe that my husband would recover. After Vladyka’s visit, he endured a crisis, then began to improve. I later saw Mr. Troyan at a Church gathering. He told me that as he was driving Vladyka to the airport, suddenly Vladyka said to him: ‘Lets go now to the Liu’s.’ He had protested that they would be late for the plane. Vladyka said, ‘Can you take a man’s life upon yourself?’ He had no choice, and drove Vladyka to our home. As it turned out, Vladyka did not miss his flight, for it was delayed.”
Several people have asserted that Vladyka John know of the time and place of his death. On June 19th, 1966 (on the Julian calendar), Vladyka accompanied the Miraculous Kursk-Root Icon to Seattle, there celebrated the Divine Liturgy, and then spent 3 hours alone in the altar with the Icon. With the Icon, he visited his spiritual children who lived near the cathedral, and, then, proceeded to the room in the parish house where he was staying. Acolytes sat Vladyka down in the chair, and saw that he was already dying. Thus did Vladyka give up his soul to God before the Miraculous Icon of the Mother of God of the Sign.
Metropolitan Philaret was the principal celebrant of Vladyka’s funeral service. For six days, Vladyka lay in his coffin, and despite the heat, no smell of corruption was evident, and his hand remained soft. Vladyka rests in a crypt chapel of the San Francisco Cathedral. In 1994, a special commission for the glorification of Vladyka John discovered that his relics were incorrupt. On July 2nd (new style calendar) of that same year, the blessed founder of our parish was glorified as one of the Holy Worthy Ones of God.
Soon after his repose, a new chapter began in the story of this holy man. Just as St. Seraphim of Sarov told his spiritual children to regard him as living after his death, and to come to his grave and tell him what was in their hearts, so our Vladyka also has proved to be hearing those who revere his memory. Soon after his death a one-time student of his, Fr. Amvrosy P., saw one night a dream or a vision: Vladyka, clad in Easter vestments, full of light and shining, was censing the cathedral and joyfully uttered to him just one word while blessing him: “happy.”
As during his life time, Vladyka continues to be very active in helping those who need him. Here are just two of the thousands of cases of Vladyka’s miracles. Victor Boyton, who witnessed the healing of his friend by Vladyka John, recounts: “The miracle occurred after I had received the copyright to the English publication of Orthodox Life from Jordanville, N.Y., which included photos of Vladyka John. I had a friend, a Moslem from Russia, who was suffering from cancer of the blood and was losing his sight. The doctors concurred that in three months time he would be blind. Placing the picture of Vladyka John by my vigil light, I began to pray daily for my friend. After a short period of time my friend was healed from the blood cancer and began to see normally. The eye doctors were amazed at this occurrence. From then on, my friend has led a normal life and reads without impediment.”
The archpriest Stephan Pavlenko recollects: “My brother Paul, although not in the military, lived for some years in Vietnam. There he sought children who were wounded or orphaned due to the then continuing war. He placed them either in orphanages or hospitals. Thus he became close with his future wife, a certain Vietnamese Kim En who was also involved with helping the unfortunate children. My brother introduced Kim to the Christian faith and to the lives of many of God’s Saints. She told my brother that during her very difficult times there appeared to her in her dreams a certain monk who consoled her and told her what to do. Once, towards Easter time, I sent my brother some cassettes of monastic songs as well as some books and journals of a spiritual context. Having received my parcel and having shown the spiritual literature to Kim he was surprised, when upon seeing the cover of a certain journal she exclaimed: `This is the monk who appears to me in my sleep!’ She pointed to a well known picture of Vladyka John, taken among the graves of the Novo Diveevo monastery in Spring Valley. Eventually, Kim was baptized in the Orthodox Church with the name Kyra.”
By prayers before his incorrupt relics, people are strengthened in faith, receive healing, consolation, and spiritual powers. After the many struggles, cares, sorrows which he endured for the sake of Christ and His Truth, Holy Hierarch John has arrived at the peaceful heavenly harbor, where rejoicing together with the angels, he glorifies the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, God One in Trinity, to Whom from us as well may there be glory, honor and worship, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
" }, "rank": 5, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Lo, thy care for thy flock in its sojourn prefigured the supplications which thou dost ever offer up for the whole world. Thus do we believe, having come to know thy love, O holy hierarch and wonderworker John. Wholly sanctified by God through the ministry of the all-pure Mysteries and thyself ever strengthened thereby, thou didst hasten to the suffering, O most gladsome Healer. Hasten now also to the aid of us who honor thee with all our heart.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "5" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thy heart hath gone out to all who entreat thee with love, O holy hierarch John, and who remember the struggle of thy whole industrious life, and thy painless and easy repose, O faithful servant of the all-pure Directress.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" } } } }, "6632": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation of the relics of the Holy Hierarch Job, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia (1652)", "short": "Translation of" } }, "6649": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Job, in Schema Joshua, of Anzer († 1720)", "short": "Venerable Job" } }, "6661": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Capitolina and Eroteida", "short": "Martyrs Capitolina" } }, "6670": { "rank": 4, "services": { "0": {}, "1": {}, "2": {} }, "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Schema-monk Cyrill and Schema-nun Mary, parents of St Sergius of Radonezh († c. 1337)", "short": "Venerable Schema-monks" } }, "6673": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Artemon (Menignus) the Bishop of Seleucia (1st-2nd C)", "short": "St. Artemon" }, "rank": 1 }, "6692": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Laurence the Recluse and Euthymius the Silent of the Kiev Caves (13th-14th C)", "short": "Venerable Laurence and Euthymius" } }, "6701": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy New Hieroconfessor Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol († 1961)", "short": "Holy New" } }, "6702": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Luke, Economos of the Kiev Caves (13th C)", "short": "Venerable Luke" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "The time of his asceticism is not known with precision. His incorrupt relics repose in the St. Anthony Cave." } }, "6711": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia († 1563)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" }, "rank": 1 }, "6732": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Martyrius the Deacon and Martyrius the Hermit, of the Kiev Caves (13th-15th C)", "short": "Venerable Martyrius" } }, "6740": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Mercurius of the Kiev Caves, bishop of Smolensk", "short": "Venerable Mercurius" } }, "6759": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Nikita the Stylite, Wonderworker of Pereyaslavl” Zalesskiy († 1186)", "short": "Venerable Nikita" }, "rank": 3 }, "6782": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Paisius Velichkovsky", "short": "Venerable Paisius Velichkovsky" }, "rank": 1 }, "6783": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Paisius the Abbot of Galich († 1460)", "short": "Venerable Paisius" } }, "6785": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Paisius the Abbot of Uglich († 1504)", "short": "Venerable Paisius" } }, "6797": { "name": { "nominative": "Right-Believing Prince Peter, Tonsured David, and Princess Febronia, tonsured Evfrosinia, the Wonderworkers of Murom († 1228)", "short": "Right-Believing Princes" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Holy Prince Peter, in monasticism David, and Holy Princess Febronia, in monasticsm Evphrosynia, Murom Wonderworkers: Holy Prince Peter was the second son of the Murom prince Yurii Vladimirovich. He entered upon the throne of Murom in the year 1203. Several years before this Saint Peter had fallen ill with leprosy, from which no one was able to heal him. In a dream vision it was revealed to the prince, that the daughter of a bee-keeper would be able to heal him—the pious maiden Febronia, a peasant of Laskova village in Ryazan gubernia. Saint Peter sent his emissaries to this village.
When the prince saw Saint Febronia, he so fell in love with her for her piety, wisdom and virtue, that he made a vow to marry her after being healed. Saint Febronia healed the prince and became his wife. The holy couple loved each other through all their ordeals. The haughty boyars did not wish to have a princess of commoner’s origin and they urged, that the prince leave her. But Saint Peter refused, and so they banished the couple. They sailed off on a boat from their native city along the River Oka. Saint Febronia continued to console Saint Peter. But soon the wrath of God fell upon the city of Murom, and the people urged, that the prince return together with Saint Febronia.
The holy couple was famous for its piety and charity. They died on the same day and hour—25 June 1228, having before this taken monastic tonsure with the names David and Evphrosynia. The bodies of the saints were put in the same grave.
Saints Peter and Febronia showed themselves exemplary models of Christian marriage.
By their prayers they bring down Heavenly blessing upon those entering into marriage.
" }, "rank": 3, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Needs English translation
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Needs English translation
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "6800": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Barnabas the Abbot of Vetluga (1445)", "short": "Venerable Barnabas" } }, "6803": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Polycarp, the Archimandrite of the Kiev Caves († 1182)", "short": "Venerable Polycarp" } }, "6812": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Rostislav, prince of Greater Moravia († 870)", "short": "Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles" }, "rank": 1 }, "6815": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Andronicus († 1395) and Sava (15th C) of Moscow", "short": "Venerable Andronicus" } }, "6825": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Serapion the Archbishop of Novgorod († 1516)", "short": "St. Serapion" } }, "6832": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Sergius the Obedient of the Kiev Caves (13th C)", "short": "Venerable Sergius" } }, "6865": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Titus the Soldier, of the Kiev Caves (14th C)", "short": "Venerable Titus" } }, "6879": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Simon of Yuriev († 1584)", "short": "Venerable Simon" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "The son of a villager, living in the village of Odelev, Nerekhta District, Kostroma Province (not far from the unattached city of Ples), since his early years he distinguished himself with unusual diligence (an artesian well dug by him serves as a memorial of this, and by the way, is found near a chapel by the village of Odelev). Wishing to carry out a virgin life, Simon secretly left the house of his parents and practiced asceticism first near the village of Elnat (Yuriev District), and then in Yurievets Volga region. Here, being homeless, he went to the streets, pretending a deprived mind. His favorite places were church porches, and especially the church porch of the Holy Theophany Monastery where at night he fervently prayed to God. From this severe life and strong winter frosts his body turned black and his skin stuck to his bones. For these God-pleasing efforts he received the gift of insight from God. He died as a martyr, being beaten by the governor who threw him into a cellar in 1584. In 1619 a new church into which his coffin was finally brought inside was built in the Yuriev Theophany Monastery where the Blessed Simon was buried. In 1635 Patriarch Joasaph blessed, “for the sake of the patient the life and miracles of the Blessed Simon, which existed during his lifetime and after his repose,” to write his icon “with light around his head, together with his namesake the Apostle Simon the Zealot and to honor him among the saints.” This local celebration of the Blessed Simon stopped since 1722 and has not been subsequently restored. At the present time an easy approach to the tomb is open. The shrine of the Blessed Simon is remodeled, and in it is placed a cypress icon in a covering, representing the blessed one with the fingers of his hands intertwined. The memory of the Blessed Simon is considered holy in Yuriev and its vicinity.
" } }, "6892": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Theophan the Recluse, Bishop of Tambov († 1894)", "short": "Saint Theophan" }, "rank": 4 }, "6916": { "name": { "nominative": "Transfer of the Relics (1991) of St Nicholas (Velimirović) of Žiča († 1956) (Serb.)", "short": "Transfer of" }, "rank": 1 }, "6920": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Joannicius of Devich in Serbia (13th C)", "short": "Venerable Joannicius" } }, "6922": { "name": { "nominative": "New Venerable Martyrs Euthymius († 1814), Ignatius († 1814), and Acacius († 1816) of Mt. Athos", "short": "New Venerable" } }, "6934": { "name": { "nominative": "Repose of Saint Stefan Dechani of Serbia († c. 1336)", "short": "Repose of" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "He became famous by his piety, love for building temples to God (he constructed the Dechani monastery) and compassion for the poor. Having led most of his life under the oppression of various disasters, Saint Stephen died a martyr. He was strangled by agents of his own son in Zvelane __ 1336. His relics are in the Dechani Monastery." } }, "6946": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Jonah, Bishop of Hankow and Wonderworker of Manzhouli († 1925)", "short": "Saint Jonah" }, "rank": 4 }, "6947": { "name": { "nominative": "The Montreal Iveron Icon of the Mother of God", "short": "The Montreal" } }, "6969": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Clement, Pope of Rome († 101)", "short": "Hieromartyr Clement" }, "rank": 1 }, "7009": { "name": { "nominative": "Synaxis of the Optina Elders: Leo, Macarius, Ambrose, Moses, Anthony, Hillarion, Isaac (the first), Anatoly (the elder), Joseph, Barsonophius, Anatoly (the younger), Nectarius, Isaac (the second), and Nikon", "short": "Elders of Optina" } }, "9001": { "name": { "nominative": "PASCHA. The Bright and Glorious Resurrection of our Lord, God, and Saviour Jesus Christ", "short": "Pascha" } }, "9002": { "name": { "nominative": "Bright Monday", "short": "Monday" } }, "9003": { "name": { "nominative": "Bright Tuesday", "short": "Tuesday" } }, "9004": { "name": { "nominative": "Bright Wednesday", "short": "Bright Wednesday" } }, "9005": { "name": { "nominative": "Bright Thursday", "short": "Bright Thursday" } }, "9006": { "name": { "nominative": "Bright Friday", "short": "Friday" } }, "9007": { "name": { "nominative": "Bright Saturday", "short": "Bright Saturday" } }, "9008": { "name": { "nominative": "2nd Sunday after Pascha. Thomas Sunday, or Antipascha", "short": "Sunday" } }, "9009": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 2nd week after Pascha", "short": "Monday" } }, "9010": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 2nd week after Pascha. Radonitsa (Day of Rejoycing)", "short": "Tuesday" } }, "9011": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 2nd week after Pascha", "short": "Wednesday of the 2nd week after Pascha" } }, "9012": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 2nd week after Pascha", "short": "Thursday of the 2nd week after Pascha" } }, "9013": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 2nd week after Pascha", "short": "Friday of the 2nd week after Pascha" } }, "9014": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 2nd week after Pascha", "short": "Saturday of the 2nd week after Pascha" } }, "9015": { "name": { "nominative": "3rd Sunday after Pascha. Sunday of the Myrrhbearing Women, St Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus", "short": "Sunday" } }, "9016": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 3rd week after Pascha", "short": "Monday of the 3rd week after Pascha" } }, "9017": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 3rd week after Pascha", "short": "Tuesday of the 3rd week after Pascha" } }, "9018": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 3rd week after Pascha", "short": "Wednesday of the 3rd week after Pascha" } }, "9019": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 3rd week after Pascha", "short": "Thursday of the 3rd week after Pascha" } }, "9020": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 3rd week after Pascha", "short": "Friday of the 3rd week after Pascha" } }, "9021": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 3rd week after Pascha", "short": "Saturday of the 3rd week after Pascha" } }, "9022": { "name": { "nominative": "4th Sunday after Pascha. Sunday of the Paralytic", "short": "4th Sunday after Pascha. Sunday of the Paralytic" } }, "9023": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 4th week after Pascha", "short": "Monday of the 4th week after Pascha" } }, "9024": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 4th week after Pascha", "short": "Tuesday of the 4th week after Pascha" } }, "9025": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 4th week after Pascha. Mid-Pentecost", "short": "Mid-Pentecost" } }, "9026": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 4th week after Pascha", "short": "Thursday of the 4th week after Pascha" } }, "9027": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 4th week after Pascha", "short": "Friday of the 4th week after Pascha" } }, "9028": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 4th week after Pascha", "short": "Saturday of the 4th week after Pascha" } }, "9029": { "name": { "nominative": "5th Sunday after Pascha. Sunday of the Samaritan Woman", "short": "5th Sunday after Pascha. Sunday of the Samaritan Woman" } }, "9030": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 5th week after Pascha", "short": "Monday of the 5th week after Pascha" } }, "9031": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 5th week after Pascha", "short": "Tuesday of the 5th week after Pascha" } }, "9032": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 5th week after Pascha. Apodosis of Mid-Pentecost", "short": "Apodosis of Mid-Pentecost" } }, "9033": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 5th week after Pascha", "short": "Thursday of the 5th week after Pascha" } }, "9034": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 5th week after Pascha", "short": "Friday of the 5th week after Pascha" } }, "9035": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 5th week after Pascha", "short": "Saturday of the 5th week after Pascha" } }, "9036": { "name": { "nominative": "6th Sunday after Pascha. Sunday of the Blind Man", "short": "6th Sunday after Pascha. Sunday of the Blind Man" } }, "9037": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 6th week after Pascha", "short": "Monday of the 6th week after Pascha" } }, "9038": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 6th week after Pascha", "short": "Tuesday of the 6th week after Pascha" } }, "9039": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 6th week after Pascha. Apodosis of Pascha", "short": "Apodosis of Pascha" } }, "9040": { "name": { "nominative": "Ascension of our Lord, God, and Saviour Jesus Christ", "short": "Ascension of our Lord, God, and Saviour Jesus Christ" } }, "9041": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 6th week after Pascha. Afterfeast of the Ascension", "short": "Friday of the 6th week after Pascha. Afterfeast of the Ascension" } }, "9042": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 6th week after Pascha. Afterfeast of the Ascension", "short": "Saturday of the 6th week after Pascha. Afterfeast of the Ascension" } }, "9043": { "name": { "nominative": "7th Sunday after Pascha. Commemoration of the 318 Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council (325)", "short": "7th Sunday after Pascha. Commemoration of the 318 Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council (325)" } }, "9044": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 7th week after Pascha. Afterfeast of the Ascension", "short": "Monday of the 7th week after Pascha. Afterfeast of the Ascension" } }, "9045": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 7th week after Pascha. Afterfeast of the Ascension", "short": "Tuesday of the 7th week after Pascha. Afterfeast of the Ascension" } }, "9046": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 7th week after Pascha. Afterfeast of the Ascension", "short": "Wednesday of the 7th week after Pascha. Afterfeast of the Ascension" } }, "9047": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 7th week after Pascha. Afterfeast of the Ascension", "short": "Thursday of the 7th week after Pascha. Afterfeast of the Ascension" } }, "9048": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 7th week after Pascha. Apodosis of the Ascension", "short": "Apodosis of the Ascension" } }, "9049": { "name": { "nominative": "Trinity Saturday", "short": "Trinity Saturday" } }, "9050": { "name": { "nominative": "Pentecost. Sunday of the Holy Trinity. Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles", "short": "Pentecost" } }, "9051": { "name": { "nominative": "Day of the Holy Spirit", "short": "Day of the Holy Spirit" } }, "9052": { "name": { "nominative": "Pentecost Tuesday", "short": "Pentecost Tuesday" } }, "9053": { "name": { "nominative": "Pentecost Wednesday", "short": "Pentecost Wednesday" } }, "9054": { "name": { "nominative": "Pentecost Thursday", "short": "Pentecost Thursday" } }, "9055": { "name": { "nominative": "Pentecost Friday", "short": "Pentecost Friday" } }, "9056": { "name": { "nominative": "Pentecost Saturday. Apodosis of Pentecost", "short": "Pentecost Saturday. Apodosis of Pentecost" } }, "9057": { "name": { "nominative": "1st Sunday after Pentecost. Feast of All Saints", "short": "1st Sunday after Pentecost. Feast of All Saints" } }, "9058": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 2nd week after Pentecost. Beginning of the Apostles” Fast", "short": "Monday of the 2nd week after Pentecost. Beginning of the Apostles” Fast" } }, "9059": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 2nd week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 2nd week after Pentecost" } }, "9060": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 2nd week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 2nd week after Pentecost" } }, "9061": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 2nd week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 2nd week after Pentecost" } }, "9062": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 2nd week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 2nd week after Pentecost" } }, "9063": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 2nd week after Pentecost. Venerable and God-bearing fathers, who have shown forth on the Holy Mountain of Athos (from the 2nd Sunday)", "short": "Saturday of the 2nd week after Pentecost." } }, "9064": { "name": { "nominative": "2nd Sunday after Pentecost. All Saints who have shown forth in the land of Russia", "short": "2nd Sunday after Pentecost. All Saints who have shown forth in the land of Russia" } }, "9065": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 3rd week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 3rd week after Pentecost" } }, "9066": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 3rd week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 3rd week after Pentecost" } }, "9067": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 3rd week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 3rd week after Pentecost" } }, "9068": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 3rd week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 3rd week after Pentecost" } }, "9069": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 3rd week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 3rd week after Pentecost" } }, "9070": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 3rd week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 3rd week after Pentecost" } }, "9071": { "name": { "nominative": "3rd Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "3rd Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9072": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 4th week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday" } }, "9073": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 4th week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday" } }, "9074": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 4th week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 4th week after Pentecost" } }, "9075": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 4th week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 4th week after Pentecost" } }, "9076": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 4th week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 4th week after Pentecost" } }, "9077": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 4th week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 4th week after Pentecost" } }, "9078": { "name": { "nominative": "4th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "4th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9079": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 5th week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 5th week after Pentecost" } }, "9080": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 5th week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 5th week after Pentecost" } }, "9081": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 5th week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 5th week after Pentecost" } }, "9082": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 5th week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 5th week after Pentecost" } }, "9083": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 5th week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 5th week after Pentecost" } }, "9084": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 5th week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 5th week after Pentecost" } }, "9085": { "name": { "nominative": "5th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "5th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9086": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 6th week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 6th week after Pentecost" } }, "9087": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 6th week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 6th week after Pentecost" } }, "9088": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 6th week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 6th week after Pentecost" } }, "9089": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 6th week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 6th week after Pentecost" } }, "9090": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 6th week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 6th week after Pentecost" } }, "9091": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 6th week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 6th week after Pentecost" } }, "9092": { "name": { "nominative": "6th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "6th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9093": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 7th week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 7th week after Pentecost" } }, "9094": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 7th week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 7th week after Pentecost" } }, "9095": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 7th week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 7th week after Pentecost" } }, "9096": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 7th week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 7th week after Pentecost" } }, "9097": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 7th week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 7th week after Pentecost" } }, "9098": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 7th week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 7th week after Pentecost" } }, "9099": { "name": { "nominative": "7th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "7th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9100": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 8th week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 8th week after Pentecost" } }, "9101": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 8th week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 8th week after Pentecost" } }, "9102": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 8th week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 8th week after Pentecost" } }, "9103": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 8th week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 8th week after Pentecost" } }, "9104": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 8th week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 8th week after Pentecost" } }, "9105": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 8th week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 8th week after Pentecost" } }, "9106": { "name": { "nominative": "8th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "8th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9107": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 9th week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 9th week after Pentecost" } }, "9108": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 9th week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 9th week after Pentecost" } }, "9109": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 9th week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 9th week after Pentecost" } }, "9110": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 9th week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 9th week after Pentecost" } }, "9111": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 9th week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 9th week after Pentecost" } }, "9112": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 9th week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 9th week after Pentecost" } }, "9113": { "name": { "nominative": "9th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "9th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9114": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 10th week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 10th week after Pentecost" } }, "9115": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 10th week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 10th week after Pentecost" } }, "9116": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 10th week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 10th week after Pentecost" } }, "9117": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 10th week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 10th week after Pentecost" } }, "9118": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 10th week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 10th week after Pentecost" } }, "9119": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 10th week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 10th week after Pentecost" } }, "9120": { "name": { "nominative": "10th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "10th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9121": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 11th week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 11th week after Pentecost" } }, "9122": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 11th week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 11th week after Pentecost" } }, "9123": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 11th week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 11th week after Pentecost" } }, "9124": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 11th week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 11th week after Pentecost" } }, "9125": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 11th week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 11th week after Pentecost" } }, "9126": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 11th week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 11th week after Pentecost" } }, "9127": { "name": { "nominative": "11th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "11th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9128": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 12th week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 12th week after Pentecost" } }, "9129": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 12th week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 12th week after Pentecost" } }, "9130": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 12th week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 12th week after Pentecost" } }, "9131": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 12th week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 12th week after Pentecost" } }, "9132": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 12th week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 12th week after Pentecost" } }, "9133": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 12th week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 12th week after Pentecost" } }, "9134": { "name": { "nominative": "12th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "12th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9135": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 13th week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 13th week after Pentecost" } }, "9136": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 13th week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 13th week after Pentecost" } }, "9137": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 13th week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 13th week after Pentecost" } }, "9138": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 13th week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 13th week after Pentecost" } }, "9139": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 13th week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 13th week after Pentecost" } }, "9140": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 13th week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 13th week after Pentecost" } }, "9141": { "name": { "nominative": "13th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "13th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9142": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 14th week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 14th week after Pentecost" } }, "9143": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 14th week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 14th week after Pentecost" } }, "9144": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 14th week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 14th week after Pentecost" } }, "9145": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 14th week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 14th week after Pentecost" } }, "9146": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 14th week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 14th week after Pentecost" } }, "9147": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 14th week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 14th week after Pentecost" } }, "9148": { "name": { "nominative": "14th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "14th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9149": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 15th week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 15th week after Pentecost" } }, "9150": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 15th week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 15th week after Pentecost" } }, "9151": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 15th week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 15th week after Pentecost" } }, "9152": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 15th week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 15th week after Pentecost" } }, "9153": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 15th week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 15th week after Pentecost" } }, "9154": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 15th week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 15th week after Pentecost" } }, "9155": { "name": { "nominative": "15th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "15th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9156": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 16th week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 16th week after Pentecost" } }, "9157": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 16th week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 16th week after Pentecost" } }, "9158": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 16th week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 16th week after Pentecost" } }, "9159": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 16th week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 16th week after Pentecost" } }, "9160": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 16th week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 16th week after Pentecost" } }, "9161": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 16th week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 16th week after Pentecost" } }, "9162": { "name": { "nominative": "16th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "16th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9163": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 17th week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 17th week after Pentecost" } }, "9164": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 17th week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 17th week after Pentecost" } }, "9165": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 17th week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 17th week after Pentecost" } }, "9166": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 17th week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 17th week after Pentecost" } }, "9167": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 17th week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 17th week after Pentecost" } }, "9168": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 17th week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 17th week after Pentecost" } }, "9169": { "name": { "nominative": "17th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "17th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9170": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 18th week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 18th week after Pentecost" } }, "9171": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 18th week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 18th week after Pentecost" } }, "9172": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 18th week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 18th week after Pentecost" } }, "9173": { "name": { "nominative": "Thurday of the 18th week after Pentecost", "short": "Thurday of the 18th week after Pentecost" } }, "9174": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 18th week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 18th week after Pentecost" } }, "9175": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 18th week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 18th week after Pentecost" } }, "9176": { "name": { "nominative": "18th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "18th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9177": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 19th week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 19th week after Pentecost" } }, "9178": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 19th week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 19th week after Pentecost" } }, "9179": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 19th week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 19th week after Pentecost" } }, "9180": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 19th week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 19th week after Pentecost" } }, "9181": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 19th week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 19th week after Pentecost" } }, "9182": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 19th week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 19th week after Pentecost" } }, "9183": { "name": { "nominative": "19th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "19th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9184": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 20th week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 20th week after Pentecost" } }, "9185": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 20th week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 20th week after Pentecost" } }, "9186": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 20th week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 20th week after Pentecost" } }, "9187": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 20th week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 20th week after Pentecost" } }, "9188": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 20th week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 20th week after Pentecost" } }, "9189": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 20th week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 20th week after Pentecost" } }, "9190": { "name": { "nominative": "20th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "20th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9191": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 21st week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 21st week after Pentecost" } }, "9192": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 21st week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 21st week after Pentecost" } }, "9193": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 21st week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 21st week after Pentecost" } }, "9194": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 21st week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 21st week after Pentecost" } }, "9195": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 21st week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 21st week after Pentecost" } }, "9196": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 21st week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 21st week after Pentecost" } }, "9197": { "name": { "nominative": "21st Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "21st Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9198": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 22nd week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 22nd week after Pentecost" } }, "9199": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 22nd week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 22nd week after Pentecost" } }, "9200": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 22nd week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 22nd week after Pentecost" } }, "9201": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 22nd week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 22nd week after Pentecost" } }, "9202": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 22nd week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 22nd week after Pentecost" } }, "9203": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 22nd week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 22nd week after Pentecost" } }, "9204": { "name": { "nominative": "22nd Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "22nd Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9205": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 23rd week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 23rd week after Pentecost" } }, "9206": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 23rd week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 23rd week after Pentecost" } }, "9207": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 23rd week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 23rd week after Pentecost" } }, "9208": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 23rd week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 23rd week after Pentecost" } }, "9209": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 23rd week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 23rd week after Pentecost" } }, "9210": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 23rd week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 23rd week after Pentecost" } }, "9211": { "name": { "nominative": "23rd Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "23rd Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9212": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 24th week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 24th week after Pentecost" } }, "9213": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 24th week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 24th week after Pentecost" } }, "9214": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 24th week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 24th week after Pentecost" } }, "9215": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 24th week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 24th week after Pentecost" } }, "9216": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 24th week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 24th week after Pentecost" } }, "9217": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 24th week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 24th week after Pentecost" } }, "9218": { "name": { "nominative": "24th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "24th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9219": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 25th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 25th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9220": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 25th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 25th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9221": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 25th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 25th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9222": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 25th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 25th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9223": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 25th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 25th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9224": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 25th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 25th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9225": { "name": { "nominative": "25th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "25th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9226": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 26th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 26th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9227": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 26th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 26th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9228": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 26th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 26th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9229": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 26th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 26th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9230": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 26th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 26th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9231": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 26th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 26th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9232": { "name": { "nominative": "26th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "26th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9233": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 27th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 27th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9234": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 27th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 27th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9235": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 27th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 27th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9236": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 27th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 27th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9237": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 27th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 27th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9238": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 27th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 27th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9239": { "name": { "nominative": "27th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "27th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9240": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 28th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 28th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9241": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 28th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 28th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9242": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 28th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 28th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9243": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 28th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 28th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9244": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 28th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 28th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9245": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 28th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 28th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9246": { "name": { "nominative": "28th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "28th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9247": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 29th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 29th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9248": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 29th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 29th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9249": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 29th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 29th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9250": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 29th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 29th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9251": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 29th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 29th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9252": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 29th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 29th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9253": { "name": { "nominative": "29th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "29th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9254": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 30th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 30th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9255": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 30th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 30th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9256": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 30th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 30th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9257": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 30th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 30th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9258": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 30th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 30th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9259": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 30th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 30th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9260": { "name": { "nominative": "30th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "30th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9261": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 31st Week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 31st Week after Pentecost" } }, "9262": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 31st Week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 31st Week after Pentecost" } }, "9263": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 31st Week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 31st Week after Pentecost" } }, "9264": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 31st Week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 31st Week after Pentecost" } }, "9265": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 31st Week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 31st Week after Pentecost" } }, "9266": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 31st Week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 31st Week after Pentecost" } }, "9267": { "name": { "nominative": "31st Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "31st Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9268": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 32nd Week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 32nd Week after Pentecost" } }, "9269": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 32nd Week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 32nd Week after Pentecost" } }, "9270": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 32nd Week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 32nd Week after Pentecost" } }, "9271": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 32nd Week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 32nd Week after Pentecost" } }, "9272": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 32nd Week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 32nd Week after Pentecost" } }, "9273": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 32nd Week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 32nd Week after Pentecost" } }, "9274": { "name": { "nominative": "Zacchæus’s Sunday, 32nd Sunday after\nPentecost", "short": "Zacchæus", "cmd": "nday == -77" } }, "9275": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 33rd Week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 33rd Week after Pentecost" } }, "9276": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 33rd Week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 33rd Week after Pentecost" } }, "9277": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 33rd Week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 33rd Week after Pentecost" } }, "9278": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 33rd Week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 33rd Week after Pentecost" } }, "9279": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 33rd Week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 33rd Week after Pentecost" } }, "9280": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 33rd Week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 33rd Week after Pentecost" } }, "9281": { "name": { "nominative": "33rd Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "33rd Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9282": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 34th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 34th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9283": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 34th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 34th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9284": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 34th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday" } }, "9285": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 34th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9286": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 34th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday" } }, "9287": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 34th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday" } }, "9288": { "name": { "nominative": "34th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "34th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9289": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 35th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 35th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9290": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 35th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 35th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9291": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 35th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 35th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9292": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 35th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 35th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9293": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 35th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 35th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9294": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 35th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 35th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9295": { "name": { "nominative": "35th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "35th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9296": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 36th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 36th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9297": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 36th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 36th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9298": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 36th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 36th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9299": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 36th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 36th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9300": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 36th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 36th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9301": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 36th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 36th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9302": { "name": { "nominative": "36th Sunday after Pentecost", "short": "36th Sunday after Pentecost" } }, "9303": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 37th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 37th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9304": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 37th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 37th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9305": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 37th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 37th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9306": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 37th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 37th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9307": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 37th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 37th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9308": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 37th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 37th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9309": { "name": { "nominative": "37th Sunday after Pentecost (Zacchæus Sunday)", "short": "37th Sunday after Pentecost (Zacchæus Sunday)" } }, "9310": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the 38th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Monday of the 38th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9311": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the 38th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Tuesday of the 38th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9312": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the 38th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Wednesday of the 38th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9313": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the 38th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Thursday of the 38th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9314": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the 38th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Friday of the 38th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9315": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the 38th Week after Pentecost", "short": "Saturday of the 38th Week after Pentecost" } }, "9479": { "name": { "nominative": "Remembrance of the Miracle of Saint Euphemia the All-Praiseworthy" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The holy Great Martyress Euphemia (the account about her is located under 16 September) suffered martyrdom in the city of Chalcedon in the year 304, during the time of the persecution against Christians by the emperor Diocletian (284-305). One and an half centuries later,—at a time when the Christian Church had become victorious within the Roman empire, God deigned that Euphemia the All-Praiseworthy should again be an especial witness and confessor of the purity of the Orthodox teaching.
In the year 451 in the city of Chalcedon, in the very church wherein rested the glorified relics of the holy Great Martyress Euphemia—there took place the sessions of the Fourth Œcumenical Council (the account about it is under 16 July). The Council was convened for determining the precise dogmatic formulæ of the Orthodox Church concerning the nature-composition of the God-Man Jesus Christ. This had been necessitated because of the widely-dispersed heresy of the Monophysites [“mono-phusis” meaning “one nature”], who opposed the Orthodox teaching about the two natures in Jesus Christ—the Divine and the Human natures [but in one Divine Person as Son of God within the Holy Trinity of three Divine Persons]. The Monophysites falsely affirmed that within Christ was only one nature—the Divine [i.e. that Jesus is God but not man, bynature], causing discord and unrest within the Church. At the Council were present 630 representatives from all the Local Christian Churches. On the side of the Orthodox in the conciliar deliberations there participated Saint Anatolios, Patriarch of Constantinople (Comm. 3 July), Saint Juvenalios, Patriarch of Jerusalem (Comm. 2 July), and representatives of Saint Leo, Pope of Rome (Comm. 18 February). The Monophysites were present in large numbers, headed by Dioscoros, the Alexandrian patriarch, and the Constantinople archimandrite Eutykhios.
After prolonged discussions the two sides could not come to a decisive agreement.
The holy Patriarch of Constantinople Anatolios thereupon proposed that the Council submit the decision of the Church dispute to the Holy Spirit, through His undoubted bearer Saint Euphemia the All-Praiseworthy, whose wonderworking relics had been discovered during the Council’s discussions. The Orthodox hierarchs and their opponents wrote down their confessions of faith on separate scrolls and sealed them with their seals. They opened the tomb of the holy Great Martyress Euphemia and placed both scrolls upon her bosom. Then, in the presence of the emperor Marcian (450-457), the participants of the Council sealed the tomb, putting on it the imperial seal and setting a guard to watch over it for three days. During these days both sides imposed upon themselves strict fast and made intense prayer. After three days the patriarch and the emperor in the presence of the Council opened the tomb with its relics: the scroll with the Orthodox confession was held by Saint Euphemia in her right hand, and the scroll of the heretics lay at her feet. Saint Euphemia, as though alive, raised her hand and gave the scroll to the patriarch. After this miracle many of the hesitant accepted the Orthodox confession, while those remaining obstinant in the heresy were consigned to the Council’s condemnation and excommunication.
After an invasion by the Persians during the VII Century, the relics of Saint Euphemia were transferred from Chalcedon to Constantinople, into a newly built church dedicated in her name. Many years later, during the period of the Iconoclast heresy, the reliquary with the relics of the saint was cast into the sea—by order of the Iconoclast emperor Leo the Isaurian (716-741). The reliquary was rescued from the sea by the ship-owning brothers Sergios and Sergonos, who gave it over to the local bishop. The holy bishop ordered that the relics be preserved in secret, beneath a crypt, since the Iconoclast heresy was continuing to rage. A small church was built over the relics, and over the reliquary was put a board with an inscription stating whose relics rested therein. When the Iconoclast heresy was finally condemned at the holy Seventh Œcumenical Council (in the year 787),—during the time of Saint Tarasios, Patriarch of Constantinople (784-806) and the emperor Constantine VI (780-797) and his mother Saint Irene (797-802),—the relics of the holy Great Martyress Euphemia were once again solemnly transferred to Constantinople." }, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Thy ewe-lamb Euphemia crieth out to Thee with a loud voice, O Jesus: * \"I love Thee, O my Bridegroom, * and, seeking Thee, I pass through many struggles: * I am crucified and buried with Thee in Thy baptism, * and suffer for Thy sake, that I may reign with Thee; * I die for Thee that I might live with Thee. * As an unblemished sacrifice accept me, * who sacrifice myself with love for Thee ** By her supplications save Thou our souls, in that Thou art merciful.", "Tone": "4", "Type": "1" }, "TROPARION/2": { "text": "
Needs English translation\n
", "Tone": "4", "Type": "2" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Feats in thy contest and struggles in the Faith * didst thou fervently set for thyself for thy Bridegroom; * and now through the Theotokos * pray that the audacity of the fœ and heresies * be subdued beneath the feet of Orthodox hierarchs, ** O all-praised one who accepted and preserved the definition of the six hundred and thirty God-bearing fathers.", "Tone": "6", "Podoben": "1", "Type": "1" } } } }, "9801": { "name": { "nominative": "Great Saturday", "short": "Great Saturday" } }, "9802": { "name": { "nominative": "Great Friday. Remembrance of the Holy and Salvific Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ", "short": "Great Friday. Remembrance of the Holy and Salvific Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ" }, "services": { "TROPARION": { "0/1": { "text": "When you were crucified, O Christ, the tyranny of the enemy was destroyed, his power trampled underfoot; for it was not an Angel, not a human, but you, the Lord himself, who saved us. Glory to you!", "Header": "Tropar, Tone 1", "Tone": "1", "Type": "1" }, "1/2": { "text": "Lord, the Jews condemned you, the life of all, to death; those who by a staff crossed the Red Sea on foot nailed you to a cross, and those who sucked honey from a rock offered you gall. But you endured willingly, that you might free us from the slavery of the fœ. Christ God, glory to you!", "Header": "Tropar, Tone 6", "Tone": "6", "Type": "2" }, "2/3": { "text": "You have worked salvation in the midst of the earth, Christ our God. You stretched out your most pure hands on the Cross, gathering together all the nations, as they cry: Lord, glory to you!", "Header": "Tropar, Tone 2", "Tone": "2", "Type": "3" }, "3/4": { "text": "The Thief, seeing the Prince of life hanging on the Cross, said: If he who is crucified with us was not God incarnate, the sun would not have hidden its rays, nor would the shaken earth be quaking. But you who bear all things, remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.", "Header": "Tropar, Tone 8", "Tone": "0", "Type": "4" } }, "KONTAKION": {}, "ROYALHOURS": { "IDIOMEL/11": { "text": "Today the veil of the Temple is rent, as a reproof against the transgressors; and the sun hides its own rays, as it sees the Master crucified.", "Type": "11", "Tone": "0", "Header": "Tropar, Tone 8, The Work of Sophronios, the Patriarch of Jerusalem", "Author": "Sophronios, the Patriarch of Jerusalem" }, "IDIOMEL/12": { "text": "You were led like a sheep to the slaughter, Christ King, and as an innocent lamb you were nailed to the Cross by lawless men for our sins, O Lover of mankind.", "Type": "12", "Tone": "3", "Header": "Tropar, Tone 3" }, "IDIOMEL/13": { "text": "Allowing the lawless to arrest you, Lord, you cried out, ‘Though you strike the shepherd and scatter the twelve sheep, my disciples, I could call to my side more than twelve legions of Angels; but I forbear, that the hidden and secret things, which I revealed to you through my Prophets, may be fulfilled.’ Lord, glory to you!", "Type": "13", "Tone": "0", "Header": "Tropar, Tone 8", "Author": "" }, "IDIOMEL/31": { "text": "Through fear of the Jews Peter, your friend and neighbour, denied you, Lord; and in bitter grief he cried out: Do not pass by my tears in silence, compassionate Master; for I said I would keep faith, but have not kept it. Accept our repentance too, and have mercy on us.", "Type": "31", "Tone": "0", "Header": "Тropar, Tone 8", "Author": "" }, "IDIOMEL/32": { "text": "Before your precious Cross as the soldiers mocked you, Lord, the spiritual hosts were struck with amazement. For you were wreathed with a crown of outrage, you who painted the earth with flowers; and you wore a cloak of mockery, you who wrap the firmament in clouds; by such a dispensation was your compassion made known, O Christ, and your great mercy. Glory to you!", "Type": "32", "Tone": "0", "Header": "Troparion, Tone 8" }, "IDIOMEL/33": { "text": "As you were dragged to the Cross, Lord, you cried out thus: For what work do you wish to crucify me, O Jews? Because I braced the paralytic? Because I raised the dead from sleep? I healed the woman with an issue of blood, I took pity on the woman of Canaan. For what work do you wish to slay me, O Jews? But, transgressors, you will see Christ whom now you pierce.", "Type": "33", "Tone": "3", "Header": "Tropar, Tone 3", "Author": "" }, "IDIOMEL/61": { "text": "Thus says the Lord to the Jews, ‘My people, what have I done to you? Or in what have I wearied you? I gave light to your blind, I cleansed your lepers, I set upright a man lying on a bed. My people, what have I done to you, and how have you repaid me? Instead of the manna gall; instead of the water vinegar; instead of loving me, you have nailed me to a cross. I can endure no longer; I will call my nations, and they will glorify me, with the Father and the Spirit; and I shall grant them eternal life", "Type": "61", "Tone": "0", "Header": "Tropar, Tone 8", "Author": "" }, "IDIOMEL/62": { "text": "Lawgivers of Israel, Jews and Pharisees, the choir of the Apostles cries out to you, ‘See a Temple, which you have destroyed! See a Lamb, whom you have crucified! You handed him over to a tomb, but by his own authority he has risen. Do not be deceived, O Jews, for it is he who saved you in the sea, and fed you in the desert; he is the life and the light and the peace of the world.", "Type": "62", "Tone": "6", "Header": "Tropar, Tone 6" }, "IDIOMEL/63": { "text": "Come, Christ-bearing peoples, let us see what Judas the betrayer has plotted with the lawless priests against our Saviour. Today they have found the immortal Word guilty of death, and having betrayed him to Pilate, crucified him on the place of the Skull. And as he suffered all this our Saviour cried out and said, \"Forgive them this sin, Father, that the nations may know my Resurrection from the dead.\"", "Type": "63", "Tone": "5", "Header": "Tropar, Tone 5", "Author": "" }, "IDIOMEL/91": { "text": "A strange wonder it was to see the Maker of heaven and earth hanging on a cross; the sun darkened, the day changed again into night and the earth giving back the bodies of the dead from their tombs; with them we worship you. Save us.", "Type": "91", "Tone": "7", "Header": "Tropar, Tone 7", "Author": "" }, "IDIOMEL/92": { "text": "When the transgressors saw you, the Lord of glory, nailed to the Cross, you cried out to them, \"How have I grieved you? In what have I angered you? Before me, who delivered you from affliction? And now how do your repay me? With evils for blessings: instead of a pillar of fire, you have nailed me to a cross; instead of a cloud, you have dug me a tomb; instead of the manna, you have offered me gall; instead of water, you have given me vinegar to drink. From now on I shall call the nations, and they will glorify me with the Father and the holy Spirit.\"", "Type": "92", "Tone": "2", "Header": "Tropar, Tone 2" }, "IDIOMEL/93.1": { "text": "To-day he is hung upon a tree, he who hung the earth upon the waters", "Type": "93.1", "Tone": "5", "Header": "Tropar, Tone 5", "Author": "" }, "IDIOMEL/93.2": { "text": "He is arrayed in a crown of thorns, he who is the King of the Angels. He is wrapped in mocking purple, he who wraps the heaven in clouds. He receives a blow on the face, he who freed Adam in Jordan. He is transfixed with nails, the Bridegroom of the Church. He is pierced by a lance, the Son of the Virgin.", "Type": "93.2", "Tone": "6", "Header": "Tropar, Tone 6", "Author": "" }, "IDIOMEL/93.3": { "text": "We worship your Sufferings, O Christ", "Type": "93.3", "Tone": "6", "Header": "Tropar, Tone 6", "Author": "" }, "IDIOMEL/93.4": { "text": "Show us also your glorious Resurrection.", "Type": "93.4", "Tone": "6", "Header": "Tropar, Tone 6", "Author": "" }, "VERSE/1": { "text": "Why were the nations insolent and why did the peoples meditate vain things?", "Type": "1" }, "VERSE/2": { "text": "The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were assembled together against the Lord and against his Christ.", "Type": "2" }, "VERSE/1P": { "text": "Blessed is one who considers the poor and needy; the Lord will deliver in an evil day.", "Type": "1P" }, "VERSE/31": { "text": "Give ear to my words, O Lord; understand my cry.", "Type": "31" }, "VERSE/32": { "text": "Attend to the voice of my prayer, my King and my God.", "Type": "32" }, "VERSE/3P": { "text": "
O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger; nor chasten me in your wrath.
", "Type": "3P" }, "VERSE/61": { "text": "They gave me gall for food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.", "Type": "61" }, "VERSE/62": { "text": "Save me, O God; for the waters have come in, even as far as my soul.", "Type": "62" }, "VERSE/6P": { "text": "For your majesty is raised high above the heavens.", "Type": "6P" }, "VERSE/91": { "text": "They parted my garments among them, and cast lots for my clothing.", "Type": "91" }, "VERSE/9P": { "text": "There is none who does good; no, not one.", "Type": "9P" }, "PROKEIMENON/1P": { "text": "He gathered iniquity to himself; he went out and spoke in the same manner.", "Type": "1P", "Tone": "4", "Header": "Prokeimenon of the Prophecy, Tone 4" }, "PROKEIMENON/3P": { "text": "For I am ready for scourges; * and my pain is with me continually.", "Type": "3P", "Tone": "4", "Header": "The Prokeimenon of the Prophecy, Tone 4" }, "PROKEIMENON/6P": { "text": "Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is your name in all the earth!", "Type": "6P", "Tone": "4", "Header": "The Prokeimenon of the Prophecy, Tone 4" }, "PROKEIMENON/9P": { "text": "The fool has said in his heart: \"There is no God.\"", "Type": "9P", "Tone": "4", "Header": "The Prokeimenon of the Prophecy, Tone 4" } } } }, "9803": { "name": { "nominative": "Great Thursday. Remembrance of the Mystical Supper", "short": "Great Thursday. Remembrance of the Mystical Supper" } }, "9804": { "name": { "nominative": "Great Wednesday", "short": "Great Wednesday" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Today the evil council hath assembled, and against Thee hath meditated empty things. Today by a covenant doth Judas pledge himself to hanging, and Caiaphas unwillingly confesseth that one shall willingly receive death for all. O Christ God our Redeemer, glory to Thee.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 8th Tone", "Tone": "0" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "The Lord bless thee out of Sion,", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 4th Tone", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "He that made heaven and the earth.", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "Ye that fear the Lord, bless ye the Lord.", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "from henceforth and for evermore.", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "Behold now, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "Praise ye the name of the Lord; O ye servants, praise the Lord.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9805": { "name": { "nominative": "Great Tuesday", "short": "Great Tuesday" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Those that have sinned beyond measure, do Thou abundantly forgive, O Savior, and vouchsafe us without condemnation to worship Thy holy Resurrection, through the intercessions of Thy most pure Mother, O Thou Who alone art plenteous in mercy.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 1st Tone", "Tone": "1" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "For with the Lord there is mercy,", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "and with Him is plenteous redemption.", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "Let Israel hope in the Lord,", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 4th Tone", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "from henceforth and for evermore.", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord; O Lord, hear my voice.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "O Lord, my heart is not exalted, nor are mine eyes become lofty.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9806": { "name": { "nominative": "Great Monday", "short": "Great Monday" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "With a contrite soul we fall down before Thee, and we pray unto Thee, O Savior of the world: for Thou art the God of them that repent.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "When the Lord turned again the captivity of Sion.", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 4th Tone", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "When the Lord turned again the captivity of Sion.", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "Except the Lord build the house,", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 4th Tone", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "in vain do thy labour that build it.", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "Then was our mouth filled with joy.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "Except the Lord guard the city, in vain doth he watch that guardeth her", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9807": { "name": { "nominative": "Palm Sunday. Entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem", "short": "Palm Sunday. Entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem" } }, "9808": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of Palms (Lazarus Saturday)", "short": "Saturday of Palms (Lazarus Saturday)" } }, "9809": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the Sixth Week of Lent", "short": "Friday of the Sixth Week of Lent" } }, "9810": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the Sixth Week of Lent", "short": "Thursday of the Sixth Week of Lent" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Forget not the voice of Thy servants, O Lord; remember that at all times we have placed our hope in Thee, O Allpowerful One, and help us, we pray.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 1st Tone", "Tone": "1" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "This is the gate of the Lord,", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 4th Tone", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "the righteous shall enter in thereat.", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "The way of Thy commandments have I run,", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 4th Tone", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "when Thou didst enlarge my heart.", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth for ever.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "Set before me for a law, O Lord, the way of Thy statutes.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9811": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Lent", "short": "Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Lent" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Deal with us according to Thy mercy, O Lord, and deliver us not up with our sins, O holy Master Almighty, we pray Thee.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 5th Tone", "Tone": "5" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "O Lord, save your people, and bless Your inheritance", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 4th Tone", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "Praise the Lord, O ye servants, praise ye the name of the Lord.
", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "Ye are blessed of the Lord,", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "Who made heaven and the earth.", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "Blessed be the name of the Lord from henceforth and for evermore.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "The heaven of heaven belongeth to the Lord, but the earth He gave unto the sons of men.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9812": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Lent", "short": "Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Lent" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "An invincible wall hast Thou given to our city, the Virgin who bore Thee; through her, O Savior, do Thou rescue our souls from the evils that surround us, we pray.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 5th Tone", "Tone": "5" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "Help me, O Lord my God", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 4th Tone", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "and save me according to Thy mercy.
", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "Thou art a priest for ever,", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 4th Tone", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "after the order of Melchisedek.", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "O God, my praise do not pass over in silence.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "The Lord said unto my Lord: Set Thou at my right hand.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9813": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the Sixth Week of Lent", "short": "Monday of the Sixth Week of Lent" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "This is the terrible day, O God, the evening of which we did not hope to attain; but in Thy love for mankind Thou hast vouchsafed us to behold it, O rice-Holy One, glory to Thee.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "Let the heart of them be glad that seek the Lord.", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "Let the heart of them be glad that seek the Lord.", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "Blessed is the Lord God of Israel,", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "from everlasting to everlasting.", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "O give thanks unto the Lord and call upon His name.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth for ever.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9814": { "name": { "nominative": "Fifth Sunday of Lent", "short": "Fifth Sunday of Lent" } }, "9815": { "name": { "nominative": "Fifth Saturday of Lent, of the Akathist", "short": "Fifth Saturday of Lent" } }, "9816": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent", "short": "Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Supremely praised art Thou, O Christ our God, Who shakest the earth, to convert and to save them that dwell therein, and yet establishest it in Thy goodness and ineffable compassion; through the intercessions of the Theotokos, have mercy on us.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 8th Tone", "Tone": "0" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "Of mercy and judgement will I sing unto Thee, O Lord.", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 4th Tone", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "Of mercy and judgement will I sing unto Thee, O Lord.", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "O Lord, hear my prayer", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 4th Tone", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "and let my cry come unto Thee.
", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "I will chant and have understanding in a blameless path.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "Turn not Thy face from me.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9817": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the Great Canon of St Andrew", "short": "Thursday of the Great Canon of St Andrew" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O compassionate, long-suffering, almighty Lord, send down Thy mercy on Thy people.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "The Lord is King,", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "let the earth rejoice.", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "O sing unto the Lord a new song, for the Lord hath wrought wondrous things", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "His right hand His salvation.
", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "Let the many islands be glad.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9818": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent", "short": "Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "The pains of the saints, which they suffered for Thee, O Lord, be as supplications, and all our pains do Thou heal, O Lover of mankind, we pray.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 1st Tone", "Tone": "1" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "It is good to give praise unto the Lord", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 4th Tone", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "and to chant unto Thy name, O Most High
", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "The Lord is King,", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "He is clothed with majesty.", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "To proclaim in the morning Thy mercy, and Thy truth by night.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "The Lord is clothed with strength and He hath girt Himself.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9819": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent", "short": "Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Our helper is the God of Jacob, and He is our defender in the day of affliction.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 3rd Tone", "Tone": "3" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "A poor man am I,", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "and in troubles from my youth.", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "Blessed is the people that knoweth jubilation.", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "and Thy salvation do Thou give unto us.
", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "O Lord God of my salvation, by day have I cried and by night before Thee.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "O Lord, in the light of Thy face shall they walk.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9820": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent", "short": "Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "For our iniquities are risen against us, arise, O Lord, help us: for Thou art our Father, for we know none other beside Thee.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 3rd Tone", "Tone": "3" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "Even Thine altars, O Lord of hosts", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 4th Tone", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "my King and my God.
", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "Show us, O Lord, Thy mercy", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 8th Tone", "Tone": "0" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "and Thy salvation do Thou give unto us.
", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "How beloved are Thy dwellings, O Lord of hosts.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "Thou hast been gracious, O Lord, unto Thy land; Thou hast turned back the captivity of Jacob.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9821": { "name": { "nominative": "Fourth Sunday of Lent", "short": "Fourth Sunday of Lent" } }, "9822": { "name": { "nominative": "Fourth Saturday of Lent", "short": "Saturday" } }, "9823": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent", "short": "Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O Lord, save Your people and bless Your inheritance; grant victory to the faithful over their adversary, and by the power of your Cross guard your habitation.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 1st Tonehave I hoped, let me not be put to shame in the age to come.
", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "Let them be turned back and brought to shame that desire evils against Thee.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "In thy righteousness deliver me.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9826": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent", "short": "Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O Lord, save Your people and bless Your inheritance; grant victory to the faithful over their adversary, and by the power of your Cross guard your habitation.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 1st Toneand Thy mercy shall go before me.
", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "Shall not my soul be subjected to God? For from Him is my salvation.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "O God, my God, unto Thee I rise early at dawn, my soul hath thirsted for Thee.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9828": { "name": { "nominative": "Third Sunday of Lent, Veneration of the Precious Cross", "short": "Third Sunday of Lent, Veneration of the Precious Cross" } }, "9829": { "name": { "nominative": "Third Saturday of Lent", "short": "Saturday" } }, "9830": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the Third Week of Lent", "short": "Friday of the Third Week of Lent" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Through the power of Thy word Thou hast perfected all things, O God, and from nonbeing Thou hast brought us into being. Deliver us not up utterly because of our iniquities, O Sinless Lord, we pray.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 8th Tone", "Tone": "0" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "the righteous man shall be glad,", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "when he seeth the avengement.", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "O God, my helper art Thou", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 7th Tone", "Tone": "7" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "and Thy mercy shall go before me.
", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "Do you indeed decree what is right?", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "Rescue me from mine enemies, O God, and from them that rise up against me redeem me.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9831": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the Third Week of Lent", "short": "Thursday of the Third Week of Lent" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "If Thou shouldest mark iniquities, O Lover of mankind, what hope of salvation is there for us? But as Thou art compassionate, from on high send down Thy help upon Thy people, O Lord.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 3rd Tone", "Tone": "3" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "O God, in Thy name save me", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 4th Tone", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "and in Thy strength do Thou judge me.
", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "Give ear, O God", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 7th Tone", "Tone": "7" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "unto my prayer, and disdain not my supplication.
", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "O God, hearken unto my prayer, give ear unto the words of my mouth.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "Attend unto me, and hear me.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9832": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent", "short": "Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "There is no spiritual essence of good works in us, O Lord, but merciful art Thou, O Lover of Mankind; disdain not the work of Thy hands, O Sinless One.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 8th Tone", "Tone": "0" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "Sacrifice unto God a sacrifice of praise,", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 4th Tone", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "and pay unto the Most High thy vows.", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy.", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "chant unto our King, chant ye.", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "The God of gods, the Lord, hath spoken, and He hath covered the earth.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "Create in me a clean heart, O God.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9833": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent", "short": "Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Our salvation art Thou, O Lord, and a defender in the day of affliction; have mercy on us according to Thy great mercy, O Lover of mankind.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 7th Tone", "Tone": "7" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "The Lord of Hosts is with us,", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 4th Tone", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "our helper is the God of Jacob.", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "O chant unto the Lord, chant ye;", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 3rd Tone", "Tone": "3" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "chant unto our King, chant ye.", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "Our God is refuge and strength.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "Clap your hands, all ye nations; shout unto God with a voice of rejoicing.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9834": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the Third Week of Lent", "short": "Monday of the Third Week of Lent" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Heal our brokenness, for we are weak and crippled with sin, O Physician of our souls, O Lover of mankind, Who knowest the mind of man.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 4th Tone", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "My prayer unto the God of my life,", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 4th Tone", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "I will say unto God: Thou art my helper.", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "He is the salvation of my countenance, and my God.", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "and unto my supplication give ear.
", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "As the hart panteth after the fountains of water, so panteth my soul after Thee, O Lord.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "Judge me, O God, and give judgment to my cause.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9835": { "name": { "nominative": "Second Sunday of Lent", "short": "Second Sunday of Lent" } }, "9836": { "name": { "nominative": "Second Saturday of Lent", "short": "Saturday" } }, "9837": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the Second Week of Lent", "short": "Friday of the Second Week of Lent" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "By night and by day we fall down before Thee, O Lord, imploring Thee to grant unto our souls remission of sins, that in peace we may worship and glorify Thee, O Lover of mankind.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 1st Tone", "Tone": "1" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "O Lord, rebuke me not in Thine anger", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 4th Tone", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "nor chasten me in Thy wrath.
", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "Hearken unto my prayer, O Lord", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "and unto my supplication give ear.
", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "For Thine arrows are fastened in me.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "I said: I will take heed to my ways lest I sin with my tongue.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9838": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the Second Week of Lent", "short": "Thursday of the Second Week of Lent" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Raise up us the fallen, make us to return, for we have turned away from Thee, O God, Lover of mankind, Who upholdeth the ends of the earth.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 1st Tone", "Tone": "1" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "I sought the Lord, and He heard me", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "and delivered me from all my tribulations.
", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": ": Arise, O Lord, and be attentive unto my judgment.", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "let me not be put to shame in the age to come.
", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "I will bless the Lord at all times.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "Judge them, O Lord, that do me injustice.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9839": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent", "short": "Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O Thou Most High Who dwellest in the heavens, Creator of every breath, save us, O God: for we have hoped in Thee, O our Savior.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "Unto Thee, O Lord, will I cry", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 5th Tone", "Tone": "5" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "and unto My God will I make supplication.
", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "let me not be put to shame in the age to come.
", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "I will exalt Thee, O Lord, for Thou hast upheld me.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "In Thy righteousness deliver me, and rescue me.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9840": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent", "short": "Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "We cannot hymn Thee as is meet, but we ask as we pray: destroy us not with our iniquities, O Lord Who art ready to do good things.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "O Lord, I have loved the beauty of Thy house", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "and the place where Thy glory dwelleth.
", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "The Lord is my light and my savior;", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 3rd Tone", "Tone": "3" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "whom then shall I fear?", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "Judge me, O Lord, for in mine innocence have I walked.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "The Lord is the defender of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9841": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the Second Week of Lent", "short": "Monday of the Second Week of Lent" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O Thou that alone fashioned our hearts, remember that we are dust; condemn us not to the nethermost parts of the earth, O Sinless One.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 5th Tone", "Tone": "5" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him.", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him.", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "Thy rod and Thy staff,", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "they have comforted me.", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "O God my God, attend to me, why hast Thou forsaken me?", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "The Lord is my shepherd, and I shall not want.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9842": { "name": { "nominative": "First Sunday of Lent: Triumph of Orthodoxy", "short": "First Sunday of Lent: Triumph of Orthodoxy" } }, "9843": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Theodore Saturday", "short": "Saturday" } }, "9844": { "name": { "nominative": "Clean Friday", "short": "Clean Friday" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Our greatly sinful life and unrepentant disposition do thou forestall through thy compassion, O Lord; beside Thee we know none other, O thou that has dominion over life and death: save us, as Thou art the lover of mankind.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 5th Tone", "Tone": "5" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "I will love thee, O Lord, my strength;", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 7th Tone", "Tone": "7" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "in the Lord is my foundation.", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "O Lord my helper and my redeemer.", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "upon uprightness hath His countenance looked.", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "My God is my helper, and I hope in Him!", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaimeth the work of Thy hands.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9845": { "name": { "nominative": "Clean Thursday", "short": "Clean Thursday" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "From enemies visible and invisible deliver us, O Lord, lest haply the heathen say: Where is their God? Let them understand, O Master, that Thou disregardest the sins of Thy people that repent.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 1st Tone", "Tone": "1" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "When the Lord hath turned back the captivity of His people.", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 1st Tone", "Tone": "1" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "When the Lord hath turned back the captivity of His people.", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "O Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle?", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 4th Tone", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "upon uprightness hath His countenance looked.", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "The fool hath said in his heart: there is no God.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "O Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle?", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9846": { "name": { "nominative": "Clean Wednesday", "short": "Clean Wednesday" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Thou knowest our frame, thou knowest our weakness, O Lover of mankind; we have sinned, but have not turned away from Thee, O God, nor have we stretched out our hands to a strange god. Spare us in Thy goodness, O Compassionate One.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 4th Tone", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "I will confess thee, O Lord", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 4th Tone", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "with my whole heart.
", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "the Lord is righteous and hath loved righteousness;", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "upon uprightness hath His countenance looked.", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "I will be glad and rejoice in Thee.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "In the Lord have I hoped; how will ye say to my soul.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9847": { "name": { "nominative": "Clean Tuesday", "short": "Clean Tuesday" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "For we are strangers on the earth, as were all our fathers; keep our short life without sin, O our Savior, and have mercy on us, as the lover of mankind.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 1st Tone", "Tone": "1" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "Attend unto the voice of my supplication,", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 4th Tone", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "O my king and my God.", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "O Lord, rebuke me not in Thine anger.", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 4th Tone", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "and rejoice in him with trembling.", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "Unto my words give ear, O Lord; hear my cry.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak.", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9848": { "name": { "nominative": "Clean Monday: Beginning of Great Lent", "short": "Clean Monday: Beginning of Great Lent" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O Lord, O Lord, at the presence of Whose power all things do fear and tremble: we fall down before Thee, O Immortal One; we pray to Thee O Holy One: Save our souls, through the intercessions of Thy saints.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in Tone 5", "Tone": "5" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous,", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in Tone 4", "Tone": "4" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "and the way of the ungodly shall perish.", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "Serve ye the lord with fear,", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in Tone 7", "Tone": "7" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "and rejoice in him with trembling.
", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "Blessed is the man that hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners.", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "Why have the heathen raged, and the peoples meditated empty things?", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9849": { "name": { "nominative": "Cheesefare Sunday (Forgiveness Sunday): Commemoration of the Expulsion of Adam from Paradise", "short": "Cheesefare Sunday" } }, "9850": { "name": { "nominative": "Cheesefare Saturday", "short": "Cheesefare Saturday" } }, "9851": { "name": { "nominative": "Cheesefare Friday", "short": "Cheesefare Friday" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Help us in our sorrow, Lord, and save us, lover of mankind, born of the Virgin.", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 8th Tone", "Tone": "0" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "Let your mercy, Lord, be upon us", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 1st Tone", "Tone": "1" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "as we have set our hope on You!", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "Sing praises to our God, Sing praises!", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 3rd Tone", "Tone": "3" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "Sing praises to our King, sing praises!", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous! Praise befits the just!", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy!", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9852": { "name": { "nominative": "Cheesefare Thursday", "short": "Cheesefare Thursday" } }, "9853": { "name": { "nominative": "Cheesefare Wednesday", "short": "Cheesefare Wednesday" }, "services": { "SEXTE": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "King, Holy, and Almighty, Before you all creation stands in fear and trembling. Save us and forgive our sins, in Your great mercy", "Type": "1", "Header": "Troparion of the Prophecy in the 3rd Tone", "Tone": "3" }, "PROKEIMENON/1a": { "text": "O Lord, save your people", "Type": "1a", "Header": "First Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 6th Tone", "Tone": "6" }, "PROKEIMENON/1b": { "text": "and bless Your inheritance", "Type": "1b" }, "PROKEIMENON/2a": { "text": "The Lord will give strength to his people! *", "Type": "2a", "Header": "Second Prokeimenon of the Prophecy in the 7th Tone", "Tone": "7" }, "PROKEIMENON/2b": { "text": "The Lord will bless his people with peace.", "Type": "2b" }, "STICHOS/1": { "text": "To You, Lord will I call; my God, be not silent to me", "Type": "1" }, "STICHOS/2": { "text": "Gve ot the Lord, sons of God, give ot he Lord glory and praise!", "Type": "2" } } } }, "9854": { "name": { "nominative": "Cheesefare Tuesday", "short": "Cheesefare Tuesday" } }, "9855": { "name": { "nominative": "Cheesefare Monday", "short": "Cheesefare Monday" } }, "9856": { "name": { "nominative": "Meatfare Sunday (Sunday of the Dread Judgement)", "short": "Meatfare Sunday (Sunday of the Dread Judgement)" } }, "9857": { "name": { "nominative": "Memorial Saturday", "short": "Saturday" } }, "9858": { "name": { "nominative": "Meatfare Friday", "short": "Meatfare Friday" } }, "9859": { "name": { "nominative": "Meatfare Thursday", "short": "Meatfare Thursday" } }, "9860": { "name": { "nominative": "Meatfare Wednesday", "short": "Meatfare Wednesday" } }, "9861": { "name": { "nominative": "Meatfare Tuesday", "short": "Meatfare Tuesday" } }, "9862": { "name": { "nominative": "Meatfare Monday", "short": "Meatfare Monday" } }, "9863": { "name": { "nominative": "Sunday of the Prodigal Son", "short": "Sunday of the Prodigal Son" } }, "9864": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday of the Fast-free Week", "short": "Saturday of the Fast-free Week" } }, "9865": { "name": { "nominative": "Friday of the Fast-free Week", "short": "Friday of the Fast-free Week" } }, "9866": { "name": { "nominative": "Thursday of the Fast-free Week", "short": "Thursday of the Fast-free Week" } }, "9867": { "name": { "nominative": "Wednesday of the Fast-free Week", "short": "Wednesday of the Fast-free Week" } }, "9868": { "name": { "nominative": "Tuesday of the Fast-free Week", "short": "Tuesday of the Fast-free Week" } }, "9869": { "name": { "nominative": "Monday of the Fast-free Week", "short": "Monday of the Fast-free Week" } }, "9870": { "name": { "nominative": "Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee", "short": "Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee" } }, "9900": { "name": { "nominative": "Sunday after Theophany", "short": "Sunday after Theophany" } }, "9901": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday after Theophany", "short": "Saturday after Theophany" } }, "9902": { "name": { "nominative": "Sunday before Theophany", "short": "Sunday before Theophany", "cmd": "dow != 0" } }, "9903": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday before Theophany", "short": "Saturday before Theophany" } }, "9904": { "name": { "nominative": "Sunday after Nativity: Saints Joseph the Betrothed, David the King, and James the Brother of the Lord", "short": "Sunday after Nativity", "cmd": "dow == 0" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "On this Sunday is commemorated the righteous Joseph, the Betrothed of the Most Holy Virgin Theotokos, David the King, and James, brother of God. The Holy righteous elder came from the royal line of David (Mt. 1:6; Lk. 1:27). The holy Evangelist calls him “righteous” (Mt. 1:18), and this name, according to the remarks St. John Chrysostom, demonstrates that the betrothed of the Most Holy Virgin “had all virtues”. He lived in Nazareth and earned his living by working with his hands, being a woodworker, i.e. carpenter. As the man was strictly god-fearing, quite honorable, quiet, meek, humble, modest, sincere, peace loving, attentive to the voice of his conscience and to the announcements from above, Joseph was quite worthy of the great honor of living as the nearest spectator of the fulfillment of the “great mystery of godliness” (I Tim. 3:16). He was already an eighty year old man and, according to the witness of St. Epiphanius, already \n“lived many years as a widower”, when he was taken by his selection of the Providence of God to be the protector of the virginity of the Most Holy Virgin Mary (). In the opinion of some, St. Joseph died soon after his visit to Jerusalem with the twelve-year-old Jesus Christ (Luke 2:41-52), as he is not mentioned in the Gospels after that.
The Holy King David came from simple stock, and was the youngest son of Jesse, from the root of Judah, and was engaged in shepherding sheep, but he was distinguished by a rare mind, great courage, unshakable patience, great meekness, with a touching tenderness of heart, strict godliness, had a deep faith in God and truly loved Him, living with the constant feeling of the copresence of the unseen God and complete dependence on His leadership, and he was “a man according to the heart of God” (Acts 13:22), and that is why he was selected by God to the kingdom in Israel. He reigned a thousand years before the Nativity of the Savior and was the second king of the Israelites. Before his reign, when he was still a young man, he, when the strong nation of the Philistines warred against the Israelites, left, with his firm trust in the help of God, for a one on one struggle with Goliath and with a single hit with a stone struck down the Philistine giant. Glorified for this by his compatriots, the young David with unshakable patience, meekness, and magnanimity had endured various attacks and evil intentions of Saul. Having become the king of the Israelites, David conducted various wars with the neighboring peoples, conquered them, and in his reign has extended the limits of the kingdom to a rather significant degree. He made Jerusalem the capitol of the state. He transferred the ark of testimony there and resolutely was going to construct a permanent magnificent temple to the Lord to house the ark; but rather the will of God was declared to him, that he would not construct the temple, but that it would be his son (Solomon), that David only prepared all that was necessary for the building of the temple and entrusted to his son his intention and desire to carry out its fulfillment. He did many things for the glory of God and for the piety of the people. He led the divine services in the tabernacle in distinct order: he determined the number and order of the servers, he started a choir with many members of singers and he himself inspired by the Spirit of God composed many “psalms”, or hymns for use in the Divine Services. For his piety and righteousness he earned such love and mercy from God that God confirmed to him all the promise given to Abraham. He promised him the sureness of his throne, the blessing and multiplication of his posterity and announced to him that from his posterity will be born the Deliverer of the world (Psalm 71:17; 88:29,36; Mt. 1:1, 20:31, 21:9; Lk. 1:32,33). Although, the deeply edifying life of King David was also darkened, due to the frailty of human nature, it was a heavy downfall (2 Kings 11), but also in this downfall he taught us the greatest example of repentant contrition and firm faith in God (see Psalm 50), which gave him the opportunity and power to throw off from himself the burden of sinfulness and raise himself up for a new spiritual life. The living and indestructible faith in God was the distinctive trait of King David. This faith gave him the opportunity to forcefully deflect all of Saul’s animosity against him, to sustain the shock of various kinds of misfortunes of his multitested life, to deeply repent the union with sin, to humbly turn himself over to the watchful hand of God, to patiently endure all the punishments for this sin, to rise up higher after his downfall, rather than to where he was, and exhibit in himself a high example of penance, meekness, patience, hope and piety. And “the Lord took away David’s sins, and exalted his horn forever, and He gave him a royal covenant, and a throne of glory in Israel”( Sir. 47:11). Being the greatest king of the Israelites, a fearless leader, a skilful governor, a high guide and a holy man, St. David was at the same time, an inimitable poet and inspired prophet. He was the originator of psalm singing, and his psalms, in which he with inspiration poured out feelings of faith and hope in God, gratitude and doxology, joy and grief, exaltation and repentant contrition, with the power and tenderness of expressions, with the highest and burning religious feeling, nothing like it exists in the books of the Old Testament. The Book of Psalms of Holy King David serves as an inexhaustible treasury of the best examples of prayers, supplications, petitions, thanksgiving to God, the healing consolations for suffering souls, for those living in poverty, for those consumed with passions, and for the down-trodden. As a God-inspired prophet (Acts 2:30), the Holy King David in his psalms proclaimed many clear and strong prophecies about Jesus Christ (see Psalms 2:2; 40:10; 21:1, 8, 9, 15, 17, 18, 22; 62:22; 87:15, 10).
" }, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Proclaim the wonder, O Joseph, * to David, the ancestor of God: * thou didst see a Virgin great with Child, * thou gavest glory with the shepherds, * thou worshipped with the Magi, * thou received the news from the angel. * Pray to Christ God to save our souls!", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Today godly David is filled with joy; * Joseph and James offer praise. * The glorious crown of their kinship with Christ fills them with great joy. * They sing praises to the One ineffably born on earth, * and they cry out: “O Compassionate One, save those who honor Thee!”", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3", "Podoben": "1" } } } }, "9905": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday after the Nativity of Christ", "short": "Saturday after the Nativity", "cmd": "dow == 6" } }, "9906": { "name": { "nominative": "Sunday before the Nativity of Christ, of the Fathers", "short": "Sunday before the Nativity" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "In the services of this week are glorified the Old Testament saints, from whose human family came our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore in the Gospel appointed for this Sunday is read the “genealogy” of Jesus Christ. Together with these on this Sunday, as well as on the Sunday of the Forefathers (see Dec. 11), are commemorated all those living in faith and all the Old Testament saints who have come to the Savior, who are listed in the Epistle reading for this Sunday. In the church hymns for this day the Holy Church primarily sings “of the beginning fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” “together with the Three Youths, who quench the fiery flames with the dew of the Spirit” and “the physical images of the hidden mysteries of God revealed to the world,” and the prophet Daniel, who, “foretold the birth of the Christ from a virgin” and “foresaw that the cruel world would be counted among those with deep spiritual peace by the coming of Christ, having sometimes stopped the mouths of lions in the pit.” Together with this the Holy Church in the hymns for the present day as well as for the Forefeast of the Nativity of Christ, exclaims: “Come let us all faithfully celebrate the Nativity of Christ,” “Skip, O hills and mountains; Dance, O prophets who spoke of God! Clap your hands, O peoples and nations! The salvation and the enlightenment of all draw near. He comes to be born in the city of Bethlehem”; “The never setting Sun arises from the bedding of the Virgin to enlighten all those under the sun. Let us hasten with chaste eyes and pure deeds to meet Him.”" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Great are the accomplishments of faith, * for the Three Youths rejoiced in the fountain of flames as though in the waters of rest; * and the prophet Daniel appeared * a shepherd to the lions as though they were sheep. ** So by their prayers O Christ God save our souls", "Tone": "2", "Type": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Rejoice O Bethlehem! Prepare yourself O Ephratha! * The Lamb is on her way to give birth to the Chief Shepherd she carries in her womb. * The God-bearing forefathers will rejoice beholding Him ** and the shepherds will glorify her nursing Him.", "Tone": "1", "Podoben": "2", "Type": "1" } } } }, "9907": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday before the Nativity of Christ", "short": "Saturday before the Nativity of Christ" } }, "9908": { "name": { "nominative": "Sunday of the Holy Forefathers", "short": "Forefathers" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Thou didst justify the Forefathers by faith, when of old through them Thou didst betroth Thyself to the Church of the nations. The Saints rejoice in the glorious fruit of their seed, * even in her who bore Thee seedlessly. By their prayers, O Christ our God, save our souls.", "Tone": "2", "Author": "Traditional", "Type": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "An image made with hands you would not worship, O thrice blessed three; but protected by the ineffable Essence you were glorified in your ordeal by fire. * From the midst of the devouring flames you called upon God, crying: Hasten, O compassionate One, in Thy mercy come to our aid, for if Thou willest Thou canst.", "Tone": "2", "Author": "Traditional", "Type": "1" } } } }, "9909": { "name": { "nominative": "Sunday after the Exaltation", "short": "Sunday after the Exaltation" } }, "9910": { "name": { "nominative": "Saturday after the Exaltation", "short": "Saturday after the Exaltation" } }, "9911": { "name": { "nominative": "Sunday before the Exaltation", "short": "Sunday before the Exaltation" } }, "9912": { "name": { "nominative": "(Saturday before the Exaltation is commemorated today)", "short": "Saturday before the Exaltation", "cmd": "dow != 6" } }, "9913": { "name": { "nominative": "Demetrius Saturday: Commemoration of the Departed", "short": "departed", "cmd": "doy >= 287 && doy <= 294" } }, "9914": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council", "short": "Holy Fathers" } }, "9969": { "name": { "nominative": "Commemoration of the Holy Fathers of the Six Œcumenical Councils", "short": "Holy Fathers" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "In the Ninth Section of the Nicæno-Constantinoplitan Symbol-Creed of Faith—worked out by the holy fathers of the First and Second Œcumenical Councils, we confess our faith in “One, Holy, Catholic, Conciliar [Slavonic: соборный/sobornyi] and Apostolic Church.” By virtue of the Catholic Conciliar nature of the Church, the All-Churchly or Œcumenical Council is the Church’s supreme facility, and possessing the plenitude, to resolve the major questions of religious life. An Œcumenical Council is comprised of archpastors and pastors of the Church, and representatives of all the Local Churches, from every land of the world [Greek: οἰκουμένη/oikoumene, that is, from all the whole inhabited world, the œcumenical (ecumenical) basis of the “universality” (Slavonic: вселенность/vselennost′) of the Church is implied in the Greek word καθολόν/katholon, from whence the word “catholic”, which encompasses the evangelisation of the whole world].
[Translator’s note: The Church Slavonic word “sobornyi”—in English usually translated merely as “Catholic”, has actually a deeper and more profound meaning than commonly understood in the West, and it reflects linguistically the Greek word καθολικός/katholikos as interpreted by Holy Tradition for Saints Cyril and Methodius. The adjective “sobornyi” has its root in собор/sobor—meaning an “assembly” or “council.” The erudite might also recognise similarity with the word соборность/sobornost′—a term emphasised in ecclesiology by the Russian religious-philosopher A. S. Khomyakov in the 1800’s. “Sobornost′” is translated sometimes as “Catholic Conciliarity”, but often also as “Communality.” This latter nuance signifies the “Catholicity” of the Church, not as a formal external quality regarding the Church as worldly institution and outward authority, but rather existing as a spiritually inward and dynamic quality within each believer. It is the Gospel that defines the locus of the Church saying: “The Kingdom of God is within you.” This however does not mean the fragmenting individualism of belief often seen in Protestantism. The Church as “ekklesia” (assembly of believers) is “One” in Christ in the Apostolicity and Holiness of its faith in Christ—our own oneness is with the one authentic faith of the Holy Apostles in the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, preserved as Holy Tradition throughout all the generations of believers. The “Communality” or “Communion in Christ Jesus” is not merely with our fellow believers in the Church in the present time, but with all the generations of the “faithful” that have gone before us. All the Four Marks of the Church—One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic—are interconnected. The Catholicity of the Church extends universally not merely through spatiality, but also back through time—it is the “Church Triumphant” as well as the “Church Militant.”]
The Orthodox Church acknowledges Seven Holy Œcumenical Councils:
The significance of a special Church veneration of the Holy Fathers of the Œcumenical Councils consists in this, that the Œcumenical Councils, and only they, are of themselves in entirety expressive of the faith, will and mind of the Œcumenical Catholic Church—of an Orthodox Plenitude, by virtue of the immutable promises of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and by the Apostolicity inhering in the hierarchy,—they possess the wherewithal to bring forth infallible and “of benefit to all” definitions in the areas of Christian faith and Church piety.
The dogmatic conciliar definitions—“οροσοι/orosoi” in Greek, are employed in the Orthodox Church as having an inalienable and constant authority, and such definitions always begin with the Apostolic formula: “It hath pleased the Holy Spirit and us” (Acts 15: 28).
The Œcumenical Councils were convened in the Church each time regarding a special need, in connection with the appearance of divergent opinions and heresies, so as to seek out the Orthodox Church teaching of faith and tradition. But the Holy Spirit has thus seen fit, that the dogmas—the truths of faith, immutable in their content and scope, constantly and consequently are revealed by the conciliar mind-set of the Church, and are given precision by the holy fathers within theological concepts and terms in exactly such measure, as is needed by the Church itself for its economy of salvation. The Church, in expounding its dogmas, is dealing with the concerns of a given historical moment, “not revealing everything in haste and thoughtlessly, nor indeed, ultimately hiding something” (Saint Gregory the Theologian).
A brief summary of the dogmatic theology of the First Six Œcumenical Councils is formulated and contained in the First Canon (rule) of the Council of Trullo (also known as Quinisext), held in the year 692. The 318 Holy Fathers of the First Œcumenical Council are spoken of in this Canon I of Trullo as having: “with one-mindedness of faith revealed and declared to us the oneness of essence in the three Hypostases [Persons] of the God-original nature and,… instructing to be worshipped—with one worship—the Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, they cast down and dispelled the false-teaching about unequal degrees of Divinity.” The 150 Holy Fathers of the Second Œcumenical Council left their mark on the theology of the Church as regards the Holy Spirit, “repudiating the teaching of Macedonias, who wanted to chop apart the Undivided Unity, such that there should not perfectly be the mystery of our hope.” The 200 God-bearing Fathers of the Third Œcumenical Council expounded the teaching about “the One Christ, the Son of God Incarnate” and they confessed that “truly the God-begetter [Greek: θεοτόκος/Theotokos, Богородица/Bogoroditsa, that is, Mother of God] without seed hath given birth to Him, whilst being the Immaculate and Ever-Virgin.” The point of faith of the 630 God-chosen Holy Fathers of the Fourth Œcumenical Council promulgated “One Christ, the Son of God…glorified in two natures.” The 165 God-bearing Holy Fathers of the Fifth Œcumenical Council “collectively gave anathema and repudiated Theodore of Mopsuetia, the teacher of Nestorius, and Origen, and Didymas, and Euagrios, renovators of the Hellenic teaching about the transmigration of souls and the transmutation of bodies and the impieties raised against the resurrection of the dead.” The faith-confession of the 170 Holy Fathers of the Sixth Œcumenical Council “explained, that we ought to confess two natural volitions, or two wills [translator’s note: the one Divine and the other human], and two natural operations (energies) in He That hath been incarnated for the sake of our salvation, our One Lord Jesus Christ, True God.”
In decisive moments of Church history, the holy Œcumenical Councils promulgated their dogmatic definitions, as trustworthy delimitations in the spiritual militancy for the purity of Orthodoxy, which will last until such time, as “all shalt come into the oneness of faith in the knowledge of the Son of God” (Eph. 4:13). In the struggle with new heresies, the Church does not abandon its former dogmatic concepts nor replace them with some sort of new formulations. The dogmatic formulæ of the Holy Œcumenical Councils need never to be superseded, they remain always contemporary to the living Tradition of the Church. Wherefore the Church proclaims:“The faith of all in the Church of God hath been glorified by men, which were luminaries in the world, cleaving to the Word of Life, so that it be observed firmly, and that it dwell unshakably until the end of the ages, conjointly with their God-bestown writings and dogmas. We reject and we anathematise all, whom they have rejected and anathematised, as being enemies of Truth. And if anyone doth not cleave to nor admit the aforementioned pious dogmas, and doth not so think nor preach, let that one be anathema” (from Canon I of the Council of Trullo, ascribed to the Sixth Œcumenical Council).
Besides the dogmatic activity, the Holy Fathers of the Œcumenical Councils exerted great efforts towards the strengthening of churchly discipline. Local Councils promulgated their disciplinary canons (rules), as is obvious, according to the circumstances of the times and place, frequently differing among themselves in various particulars. The universal unity of the Orthodox Church required unity also in canonical practise, that is, a conciliar deliberation and affirmation of the most important canonical norms by the fathers of the Œcumenical Councils. Thus, according to conciliar judgement, there have been accepted by the Church: 20 Canons from the First, 7 Canons from the Second, 8 Canons from the Third, and 30 Canons from the Forth, Œcumenical Councils. The Fifth and the Sixth Œcumenical Councils concerned themselves with the resolving of exclusively dogmatic questions and did not leave behind any disciplinary canon-rules. The need to establish in codified form in the Church of the customary practises over the years 451-680, and ultimately to affirm the aggregate of a canonical codex for the Orthodox Church, occasioned the convening of a special Council, the activity of which was wholly devoted to the general application of churchly rules. This was convened in the year 692. The Council “in the Imperial Palace” or “Under the Arches” (in Greek “en trullo”), came to be called the Trullo Council. They also called it the “Qunisext” [meaning the “fifth and sixth”], considering it to have completed in canonical matters the activities of the Fifth and Sixth Councils, or rather more so—that it was simply of the Sixth Council itself, that is, a direct continuation of the Sixth Œcumenical Council, separated by but a few years.
The Trullo Council, with its 102 Canon-rules (more than of all the Œcumenical Councils combined), had a tremendous significance in the history of the canonical theology of the Orthodox Church. It might be said, that by the fathers of this Council there was a complete compilation of the basic codex from the relevant sources for the Orthodox Church’s canons. Listing through in chronological order, and having been accepted by the Church—the Canons of the Holy Apostles, and the Canons of the Holy Œcumenical and the Local Councils and the holy fathers, the Trullo Council declared: “Let no one be permitted to alter or to annul the aforementioned canons, nor in place of these put forth, or to accept others, made of spurious inscription” (2nd Canon of Trullo Council, ascribed to the Sixth Œcumenical Council).
Church canons, sanctified by the authority of the first Six Œcumenical Councils (including the rules of the Seventh Œcumenical Council in 787, and likewise the Constantinople Councils of 861 and 879, which were added on later under holy Patriarch Photius), form the basis of the books of “The Rudder” (Slavonic: Кормчаѧ книга/Kormchaya Kniga) and the canon codex known as “Syntagma” or “Nomokanon” of 14 titles). In its repository of grace is expressed a canonical norm, a connection to every time period for guidance in churchly practise for all the Local Orthodox Churches.
New historical conditions can lead to the change of this or that particular external aspect of the life of the Church, which causes for it the necessity of creative canonical activity in the conciliar reasoning of the Church, as regards the inclusion of external norms of churchly life in conformity with historical circumstances. The details of canonical regulation are not at all once fleshed out into life for the various eras of churchly organisation. But amidst every push to either forsake the literal-letter of a canon or fulfill and develop it, the Church again and again turns for reasoning and guidance to the eternal legacy of the Holy Œcumenical Councils—to the impoverishable treasury of dogmatic and canonical truths.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Most glorious art Thou, O Christ our God, Who hast established our fathers upon the earth as beacons, and hast thereby guided us all to the true Faith! O greatly Compassionate One, glory be to Thee!", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "The preaching of the apostles and the dogmas of the fathers sealed the one Faith of the Church; and clad in the robe of truth woven of theology from on high, it setteth aright and glorifieth the great mystery of piety.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0", "Podoben": "3" } } } }, "13101": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the relics of St Alexis the Metropolitan of Moscow and Wonderworker of All Russia (1431)", "short": "St Alexis" } }, "14172": { "name": { "nominative": "Great Martyr Paraskeva (Piatnitsa) of Iconium (3rd C)", "short": "Great Martyr Paraskeva" }, "rank": 3 }, "14261": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Martha, mother of St. Symeon the Stylite", "short": "Martha" } }, "14280": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Adamantine", "short": "Adamantine" } }, "14281": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Callirrhoe", "short": "Callirrhoe" } }, "14282": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Chariclia", "short": "Chariclia" } }, "14283": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Penelope", "short": "Penelope" } }, "14284": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Clio", "short": "Clio" } }, "14285": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Thalia", "short": "Thalia" } }, "14286": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Marianthe", "short": "Marianthe" } }, "14287": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Euterpe", "short": "Euterpe" } }, "14288": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Terpsichore", "short": "Terpsichore" } }, "14289": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Urania", "short": "Urania" } }, "14291": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Callista", "short": "Callista" } }, "14292": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Evodus", "short": "Evodus" } }, "14293": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Hermogenes", "short": "Hermogenes" } }, "15501": { "name": { "nominative": "Saints Stephen and Amphilochius, Bishops of Volodymyr Volynsky", "short": "Saints" } }, "16501": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation of the relics of venerable martyr Anastasius the Persian", "short": "Venerable Martyr Anastasius" } }, "18201": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Martyr Andrew of Crete († 767)", "short": "Venerable Martyr" }, "rank": 1 }, "18601": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy and All-priased Apostle Andrew the First-Called († 62)", "short": "St. Andrew" } }, "19001": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Andrew Stratelates and the 2,593 Martyrs with him in Cilicia († c. 284-305)", "short": "Martyrs" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Martyr Andrew Stratelates was a military commander in the Roman armies during the reign of the emperor Maximian (284-305). They loved him in the Roman armies because of his bravery, invincibility and sense of fairness. When a large Persian army invaded the Syrian territories, the governor Antiochus entrusted Saint Andrew with the command of the Roman army, giving him the title of “Stratelates” (“Commander-General”). Saint Andrew chose for himself a not large detachment of brave soldiers and proceeded against the adversary. His soldiers were pagans. Saint Andrew himself had still not accepted Baptism, but he believed in Jesus Christ. Before the conflict he persuaded the soldiers, that the pagan gods—were demons and unable to render help in battle. He proclaimed to them Jesus Christ, the omnipotent God of Heaven and earth, giving help to all believing in Him. The soldiers went into battle, calling on the help of the Saviour. The not large detachment set to flight the numerous host of the Persians. Saint Andrew returned from the campaign in glory, having gained a total victory. But the jealous reported on him to the governor Antiochus, that he—was a Christian, converting to his faith the soldiers under his command. Saint Andrew was summoned to trial, and there he declared his faith in Christ. For this they subjected him to torture. He reclined himself upon a bed of white-hot copper, but as soon as he recoursed to help from the Lord, the bed became cool. They crucified his soldiers on trees, but not one of them renounced Christ. Having locked the saints away in prison, Antiochus dispatched the report of charges on to the emperor, being undecided on whether to impose the death sentence upon the acclaimed victor. The emperor knew, how the army loved Saint Andrew, and fearing a mutiny, he gave orders to free the martyrs, and secretly he ordered that each under some pretext be executed separately.
Having been set free, Saint Andrew together with his fellow soldiers went on to the city of Tarsus. There the local bishop Peter and bishop Nonos of Berœa baptised them. Then the soldiers proceeded on to the vicinity of Taxanata. Antiochus wrote a letter to the governor of the Cilicia region Seleucus, that under the excuse of deserting their military standards he should overtake the company of Saint Andrew and kill them. Seleucus came upon the martyrs in the passes of Mount Taurus, where they were evidently soon to suffer. Saint Andrew, calling the soldiers his brothers and children, urged them not to fear death. He prayed for all who would honour their memory, and besought the Lord to send a curative spring on the place where their blood would be shed. At the time of this prayer the steadfast martyrs were beheaded with swords († c. 302). During this time a spring of water issued forth from the ground. Bishops Peter and Nonos, with their clergy secretly following the company of Saint Andrew, buried their bodies. One of the clergy, suffering for a long time from an evil spirit, drank from the spring of water and at once he was healed. Reports about this spread amongst the local people and they started to come to the spring, and through the prayers of Saint Andrew and the 2,593 Martyrs suffering with him, they received gracious help from God.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Leaving the glory of earthly rank behind, thou didst inherit the kingdom of heaven; and thou didst adorn crowns of incorruption as with all-wondrous stones, and didst lead to Christ an assembly of athletes. With the choirs of the angels thou didst find Christ, the never-setting Sun, in light unwaning, O holy general Andrew. With those who suffered with thee ever entreat Him, that He save our souls.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "5" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Standing before the Lord in prayer, like a star preceding the sun, thou didst gain sight of the desired treasure of the kingdom, full of ineffable joy; and for ages without end, O general Andrew, thou dost unceasingly sing to the immortal King with the angels. With them pray thou continually for us all.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "20001": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the relics of Venerable Martinian, Abbot of Belozersk (1514)", "short": "Finding" } }, "20201": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Peter of Anium, at Hieropolis (309-310)", "short": "Martyr Peter" } }, "20901": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Anthony of Dymi Lake, Novgorod († 1224)", "short": "Venerable Anthony" } }, "21001": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Anthony, John, and Eustathius of Lithuania († 1347)", "short": "Martyrs" }, "rank": 1 }, "21101": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Anthony the Abbot of Dymsk, Novgorod († 1224)", "short": "Venerable Anthony" } }, "21501": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Monastic Fathers slain in Sinai and Raithu (4th-5th C): Isaiah, Sabbas, Moses and his disciple Moses, Jeremiah, Paul, Adam, Sergius, Domnus, Proclus, Hypatius, Isaac, Macarius, Mark, Eusibius, Benjamin, Elias, and others [their service is sung on the 13th]", "short": "Monastic Fathers" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monastic Fathers, Murdered at Sinai and Raithu, asceticised at the monasteries and caves of Mount Sinai, where previously the Ten Commandments had been given through Moses; near to it also was the Raipha monastic wilderness (on the shores of the Red Sea). They suffered under the Saracens and under nomadic brigands from among the Arab tribes. The first massacre occurred in about the year 312. It was recorded by Ammon, an Egyptian monk, who witnessed the murder of the 40 holy fathers in Sinai. During this time the Arabs also killed 39 fathers at Raipha. The second period of the massacres occurred nearly an hundred years later, and was likewise recorded by an eye-witness who himself in the process miraculously escaped—the Monk Nilos the Faster (Comm. 12 November).
The Sinai and Raipha ascetics lived a particularly strict lifestyle: they spent the whole week in their cells at prayer, on Saturday they gathered for the all-night vigil, and on Sunday they communed the Holy Mysteries. Their only food was dates and water. Many of the wilderness ascetics were glorified by wonderworking—the elders Moses, Joseph and others. By name, remembered in the service to these monastic fathers are commemorated: Isaiah, Sava, Moses and his student Moses, Jeremiah, Paul, Adam, Sergios, Domnos, Proklos, Ipatios, Isaac, Makarios, Mark, Benjamin, Eusebios and Elias.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O God of our fathers, * deal with us ever according to Thy meekness. * Deprive us not of Thy mercy, * but through their supplications ** direct our life in peace.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Ye fled from the tumult of the world * and have found rest in the calm haven, * crowned with the blood of martyrdom * and the labors of asceticism. ** Wherefore, ye have been shown to dwell together with the martyrs and the venerable.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "21502": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Anthony the Stylite (Pillar-Dweller), of Martqopi, Georgia (6th C)", "short": "Saint Anthony" } }, "21801": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Anthony of the Kiev Caves, Founder of Monasticism in Russia († 1073)", "short": "Venerable Anthony" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Antony (Anthony) of Kiev Caves was born in the year 983 not far from Chernigov, at the locale of Liubech. Possessing the fear of God from his youthful years, he desired to be clothed in the monastic form. Attaining maturity of age, he set off wandering, and having reached Athos, he burned with the desire to emulate the deeds of its holy inhabitants. Here he received monastic tonsure and in everything the young monk pleased God in his asceticising upon the path of virtue; he throve especially in humility and obedience, such that all the monks did rejoice to look upon his holy life.
The hegumen foresaw within Saint Anthony the great future ascetic, and on an inspiration from God, he sent him off back to his native land, saying: “Anthony! It is time for thee to guide others also into an holy life. Return to thine own Russian Land, and be thou upon thee the blessing of Holy Mount Athos, so that from thee shalt come a multitude of monks.”
Having returned to Rus′, Anthony began to make the rounds of the monasteries about Kiev, but nowhere did he find that strict life, which had drawn him to Athos.
Through the Providence of God, on one of the hills of Kiev at a steep bank of the River Dneipr, reminiscent for him of the beloved Athos, in a forested area near the village of Berestovo, he espied a cave, dug out by the Priest Ilarion (who afterwards became Metropolitan of Kiev, Commemorated October 21st). He began to asceticise there in prayer, fasting, vigil and work, eating over the course of a day but a bit of food, and sometimes he did not eat throughout the week. People began to come to the ascetic for blessing and counsel, and some decided to remain thereafter with the saint. Among the first disciples of the Monk Anthony was Saint Nikon, who in the year 1032 tonsured at the monastery the similarly arrived Monk Theodosius (Feodosii) of Kiev Caves († 1074, Commemorated May 3rd).
The holy life of the Monk Anthony brightened all the Russian Land with the beauty of monastic striving. Saint Anthony received with love those yearning for monasticism. After instructions on how one ought to follow Christ, he bid Blessed Nikon to tonsure those willing. When 12 men had gathered about the Monk Anthony, the brethren together dug out a large cave and within it was built a church and cells for the monks. Saint Anthony, having appointed Blessed Varlaam as hegumen over the brethren, himself withdrew from the monastery, and having dug out for himself a new cave, he secluded himself within it. But there also, around the place of his seclusion, monks soon began to settle. Thus were formed the Nearer and Farther Cave monasteries. Afterwards over the Farther Caves was built by the monk a small wooden church in honour of the Dormition (Uspenie) of the Mother of God.
At the insistence of prince Izyaslav, the hegumen Varlaam withdrew to the Dimitriev monastery. With the blessing of the Monk Anthony and with the general agreement of the brethren , there was chosen as hegumen the meek and humble Theodosius. During this time the number of brethren had already reached an hundred men. The Kiev Great-prince Izyaslav († 1078) gifted to the monks the hill, on which was built the large church and cells, and around it was built a palisade wall. Thus was established the renowned monastery, which was called the Kiev Caves, built over the caves. Giving the account of this, the chronicler remarks, that many a monastery exists built by rich emperors and nobility, they however cannot compare with those, which are built up by the prayers of saints, and by their tears, fasting and vigil. And thus though the Monk Anthony possessed not gold, he raised up by his efforts a monastery, incomparable with others, which became the first spiritual centre of Rus′.
For his holiness of life, God glorified the Monk Anthony with the gift of foresight and wonderworking. In an especial instance this occurred during their construction of the Great Kiev Caves church. The Most Holy Mother of God Herself stood before him and the Monk Theodosius in the Blachernæ church (in Constantinople), whither they had been miraculously transported and enraptured, without having left their Kiev Caves monastery (see the account of this under May 3rd, regarding the Kievo-Kiev Caves Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God). Having received gold from the Mother of God, the saints commissioned master-architects, who on the command of the Queen of Heaven set off (from Constantinople) to the Russian Land for building the church at the Kiev Caves monastery. During this appearance the Mother of God foretold the impending death of the Monk Anthony, which occurred at age 90 on May 7th 1073. The relics of the Monk Anthony, through Divine Providence, remain concealed.
" }, "rank": 3 }, "21802": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Anthony and Theodosius of the Kiev Caves", "short": "Venerable Anthony" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Antony (Anthony) of Kiev Caves was born in the year 983 not far from Chernigov, at the locale of Liubech. Possessing the fear of God from his youthful years, he desired to be clothed in the monastic form. Attaining maturity of age, he set off wandering, and having reached Athos, he burned with the desire to emulate the deeds of its holy inhabitants. Here he received monastic tonsure and in everything the young monk pleased God in his asceticising upon the path of virtue; he throve especially in humility and obedience, such that all the monks did rejoice to look upon his holy life.
The hegumen foresaw within Saint Anthony the great future ascetic, and on an inspiration from God, he sent him off back to his native land, saying: “Anthony! It is time for thee to guide others also into an holy life. Return to thine own Russian Land, and be thou upon thee the blessing of Holy Mount Athos, so that from thee shalt come a multitude of monks.”
Having returned to Rus′, Anthony began to make the rounds of the monasteries about Kiev, but nowhere did he find that strict life, which had drawn him to Athos.
Through the Providence of God, on one of the hills of Kiev at a steep bank of the River Dneipr, reminiscent for him of the beloved Athos, in a forested area near the village of Berestovo, he espied a cave, dug out by the Priest Ilarion (who afterwards became Metropolitan of Kiev, Commemorated October 21st). He began to asceticise there in prayer, fasting, vigil and work, eating over the course of a day but a bit of food, and sometimes he did not eat throughout the week. People began to come to the ascetic for blessing and counsel, and some decided to remain thereafter with the saint. Among the first disciples of the Monk Anthony was Saint Nikon, who in the year 1032 tonsured at the monastery the similarly arrived Monk Theodosius (Feodosii) of Kiev Caves († 1074, Commemorated May 3rd).
The holy life of the Monk Anthony brightened all the Russian Land with the beauty of monastic striving. Saint Anthony received with love those yearning for monasticism. After instructions on how one ought to follow Christ, he bid Blessed Nikon to tonsure those willing. When 12 men had gathered about the Monk Anthony, the brethren together dug out a large cave and within it was built a church and cells for the monks. Saint Anthony, having appointed Blessed Varlaam as hegumen over the brethren, himself withdrew from the monastery, and having dug out for himself a new cave, he secluded himself within it. But there also, around the place of his seclusion, monks soon began to settle. Thus were formed the Nearer and Farther Cave monasteries. Afterwards over the Farther Caves was built by the monk a small wooden church in honour of the Dormition (Uspenie) of the Mother of God.
At the insistence of prince Izyaslav, the hegumen Varlaam withdrew to the Dimitriev monastery. With the blessing of the Monk Anthony and with the general agreement of the brethren , there was chosen as hegumen the meek and humble Theodosius. During this time the number of brethren had already reached an hundred men. The Kiev Great-prince Izyaslav († 1078) gifted to the monks the hill, on which was built the large church and cells, and around it was built a palisade wall. Thus was established the renowned monastery, which was called the Kiev Caves, built over the caves. Giving the account of this, the chronicler remarks, that many a monastery exists built by rich emperors and nobility, they however cannot compare with those, which are built up by the prayers of saints, and by their tears, fasting and vigil. And thus though the Monk Anthony possessed not gold, he raised up by his efforts a monastery, incomparable with others, which became the first spiritual centre of Rus′.
For his holiness of life, God glorified the Monk Anthony with the gift of foresight and wonderworking. In an especial instance this occurred during their construction of the Great Kiev Caves church. The Most Holy Mother of God Herself stood before him and the Monk Theodosius in the Blachernæ church (in Constantinople), whither they had been miraculously transported and enraptured, without having left their Kiev Caves monastery (see the account of this under May 3rd, regarding the Kievo-Kiev Caves Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God). Having received gold from the Mother of God, the saints commissioned master-architects, who on the command of the Queen of Heaven set off (from Constantinople) to the Russian Land for building the church at the Kiev Caves monastery. During this appearance the Mother of God foretold the impending death of the Monk Anthony, which occurred at age 90 on May 7th 1073. The relics of the Monk Anthony, through Divine Providence, remain concealed.
The Monk Siluan, Kievo-Kiev Caves Schema Monk, was a zealous preserver of purity both of soul and body, he beset his flesh with fasting and vigil, and he cleansed his soul with prayer and meditation on God. He was granted by the Lord an abundance of spiritual gifts: an especial prayerful boldness towards God, constant joy in the Lord, perspicacity and wonderworking. The monk lived at the end-XIII to beginning-XIV Centuries. His relics rest in the Theodosiev Caves.
" } }, "21901": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Anthony the Roman, Abbot and Wonderworker of Novgorod († 1147)", "short": "Venerable Anthony" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Anthony the Roman was born at Rome in the year 1067 of rich parents, keeping to the Orthodox confession of faith, and he was raised by them in piety. As an orphan having lost his parents at age 17, he took up the study of the fathers in the Greek language. Afterwards he distributed part of his inheritance to the poor, and the other portion he put into a wooden box and threw it into the sea. And then he took monastic vows at one of the wilderness skete-monasteries, where he lived for 20 years. A persecution of the Latins against the Orthodox forced the brethren to separate. The Monk Anthony wandered about, going from place to place, until he came upon a large rock upon the solitary shore of the sea, where he lived for a whole year in fasting and prayer. A terrible storm, happening on September 5th, 1105, tore away the stone on which the Monk Anthony was situated, and threw him into the sea. On the Feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God the stone halted 3.2 km [3 versts] from Novgorod on the banks of the River Volkhov near the village of Volkhovsk. This event is testified to in the Novgorod Chronicles. At this place the monk, with the blessing of Saint Nikita the Hermit († 1109, Commemorated: May 14th), founded a monastery in honour of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God. In another year fishermen fished out the box with the inheritance of the Monk Anthony, cast into the sea many years before. Having declared what was in the box, the monk took the box and bought land for the monastery. Spiritual asceticism was combined at the monastery with intense physical work.
The Monk Anthony was concerned, that from the monastery income help should be rendered for the needy, and for orphans and widows. In the year 1117 the monk began construction with stone at the monastery. Up until our own day there has been preserved a cathedral in honour of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God—built during the lifetime of the monk in the years 1117-1119 by the reknowned Novgorod architect Peter, and with wall-frescœs in the year 1125. In the year 1131 Saint Niphont of Novgorod made the Monk Anthony hegumen of the monastery. He died on August 3rd, 1147 and was buried by Saint Niphont.
The Monk Anthony was glorified in the year 1597. His memory is noted likewise (in honour of the uncovering of the relics) on the first Friday after the feast day of the First-Ranked Apostles Peter and Paul (June 29th), and on January 17th—on the same nameday when the memory of the Monk Anthony the Great is celebrated. The first life of the Monk Anthony the Roman was written soon after his death by his student and successor as hegumen—the hieromonk Andrew. A collected life, with an account about the uncovering of the relics and praiseworthy discourse, was done by a novice of the Antoniev monastery, the monk Niphont, in the year 1598.
" }, "rank": 3 }, "25501": { "name": { "nominative": "Apostle Aristobulus of the Seventy, Bishop of Britain (1st C)", "short": "Apostle Aristobulus" } }, "26001": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Theoctistus († 467)", "short": "Venerable Theoctistus" }, "rank": 1 }, "26701": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation of the relics of St. Maximos the Confessor (662)", "short": "Translation" }, "rank": 1 }, "26901": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Arsenius, Archbishop of Serbia", "short": "Holy Hierarch" }, "rank": 3 }, "27401": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the relics of the Venerable Maximus the Greek (1996)", "short": "Finding of" } }, "27402": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Righteous Artemius of Verkola († 1545)", "short": "Holy Righteous" } }, "29401": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the Relics of Venerable Athanasius, Abbot of Brest", "short": "Finding" } }, "29402": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Athanasius of Brest-Litovsk († 1648)", "short": "Hieromartyr Athanasius" } }, "29501": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Athanasius the Great, Patriarch of Alexandria († 373)", "short": "St. Athanasius" }, "rank": 2 }, "30701": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Athanasius, Wonderworker of Lubensk and Patriarch of Constantinople († 1654)", "short": "St. Athanasius" } }, "31701": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Joseph, Archbishop of Thessalonica, brother of St. Theodore of the Studion († 830)", "short": "Saint Joseph" } }, "32401": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Passion-bearers Princes Boris (in baptism Roman) and Gleb (in baptism David) of Russia († 1015)", "short": "Passion-bearers" }, "rank": 4 }, "34101": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Zeno the Hermit of Antioch, a disciple of Saint Basil the Great (5th C)" } }, "34701": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the relics of St Nikita, Bishop of Novgorod (1558)", "short": "Finding" } }, "34702": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Nikita the Bishop of Novgorod and the Recluse of the Kiev Far Caves († 1108)", "short": "Nikita" } }, "34901": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Victorinus, Victor, Nicephorus, Claudius, Diodorus, Serapion and Papias of Egypt († 251)", "short": "Martyrs Victorinus" } }, "36901": { "name": { "nominative": "The service to St. Tryphon is transferred to Compline Friday evening" } }, "36902": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Peter, Archbishop of Alexandria († 311)", "short": "Hieromartyr Peter" }, "rank": 1 }, "36903": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Peter of Galatia († c. 429)", "short": "Venerable Peter" } }, "37301": { "name": { "nominative": "The feast of the Meeting of the Lord is transferred to Sunday", "short": "" } }, "37302": { "name": { "nominative": "Apodosis of the Meeting of the Lord", "short": "Apodosis" }, "rank": 3 }, "37303": { "name": { "nominative": "Afterfeast of the Meeting of the Lord", "short": "Afterfeast" } }, "38701": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the relics (1609) of St. Basil, bishop of Ryazan", "short": "Finding" }, "rank": 1 }, "43101": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles, Great Prince Vladimir (in Baptism Basil), Enlightener of Russia († 1015)", "short": "Prince Vladimir" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Few names in the annals of history can compare in significance with the name of holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Vladimir, the Baptiser of Rus′, who stands forever at the onset of the foreordained spiritual destiny of the Russian Church and the Russian Orthodox people. Vladimir was the grandson of holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Olga, and he was the son of Svyatoslav († 972). His mother, Malusha († 1001)—was the daughter of Malk Liubechanin, whom historians identify with Mal, prince of the Drevlyani. Having subdued an uprising of the Drevlyani and conquered their cities, Princess Olga gave orders to execute prince Mal, for his attempt to marry her after his murder of her husband Igor, and she took to herself the children of Mal, Dobrynya and Malusha. Dobrynya grew up to be a valiant brave warrior, endowed with a mind for state affairs, and he was later on an excellent help to his nephew Vladimir in matters of military and state administration.
The “capable girl” Malusha became a Christian (together with Great-Princess Olga at Constantinople [Tsar′grad]), but she preserved in herself a bit of the mysterious darkness of the pagan Drevlyani forests. And thus she fell in love with the austere warrior Svyatoslav, who against the will of his mother Olga made her his wife. The enraged Olga, reckoning as unseemly the marriage of her “housekeeper” and captive servant with her son Svyatoslav, heir to the Great Kiev principality, sent Malusha away to her own native region not far off from Vybut′. And there in about the year 960 was born the boy, called with the Russian pagan name—Volodimir (in Slavonic: Vladimir), meaning peaceful ruler, ruling with a special talent for peace.
In the year 970 Svyatoslav set out on a campaign from which he was fated not to return. He had divided the Russian Land amongst his three sons. At Kiev Yaropolk was prince; at Ovrucha, the centre of the Drevlyani lands, there was Oleg; at Novgorod there was Vladimir. His first years as prince we see Vladimir as a fierce pagan. He heads a campaign, in which the whole of pagan Rus′, is sympathetic to him, against Yaropolk the Christian, or in any case, according to the chronicles, “having given great freedom to the Christians,” on July 11th 978 he enters into Kiev, having become the “sole ruler” of the Kiev realm, “having subdued the surrounding lands, some—by peaceful means, and the unsubmissive ones—by the sword.”
Young Vladimir indulged himself in a wild sensuous life, though far from being the libertine that they sometimes portray him. He “shepherded his land with truth, valour and reason,” as a good and diligent master, of necessity he extended and defended its boundaries by force of arms, and in returning from military campaign, he made for his companions and for all Kiev liberal and merry feastings.
But the Lord prepared him for another task. Where sin increases, there—in the words of the Apostle,—grace abounds. “And upon him did come visitation of the Most High, and the All-Merciful eye of the Good God did gaze upon him, and shine forth the thought in his heart, of understanding the vanity of idolous delusion, and of appealing to the One God, Creator of all things both visible and invisible.” The matter of the acceptance of Baptism was facilitated through external circumstances. The Byzantine Empire was in upheaval under the blows of the mutinous regiments of Bardas Sclerus and Bardas Phocas, each of which sought to gain the imperial throne. In these difficult circumstances the emperors—the coregent brothers Basil the Bulgar-Slayer and Constantine, turned for help to Vladimir.
Events unfolded quickly. In August 987 Bardas Phocas proclaimed himself emperor and moved against Constantinople, and in Autumn of that same year the emissaries of emperor Basil were at Kiev. “And having exhausted his (Basil’s) wealth, it compelled him to enter into an alliance with the emperor of the Russians. They were his enemies, but he besought their help,—writes one of the Arab chronicles of events in the 980’s.—And the emperor of the Russians did consent to this, and did make common cause with him.”
In reward for his military help, Vladimir besought the hand of the emperor’s sister Anna, which for the Byzantines was an unheard of audacity. Princesses of the imperial lineage did not go off to marry “barbarian” rulers, even though they be Christian. At this same time the emperor Otto the Great was seeking the hand of this Anna for his son, and he was refused, but herein regarding Vladimir Constantinople was obliged to consent.
An agreement was concluded, according to which Vladimir had to send in aid to the emperors six thousand Varangians, to accept holy Baptism, and under these conditions he would receive the hand of the imperial daughter Anna. Thus in the strife of human events the will of God directed the entering of Rus′ into the graced bosom of the Œcumenical Church. Great Prince Vladimir accepted Baptism and dispatched the military assistance to Byzantium. With the aid of the Russians, the mutineers were destroyed and Bardas Phocas killed. But the Greeks, gladdened by their unexpected deliverance, were in no hurry to fulfill their part of the agreement.
Vexed at the Greek duplicity, Prince Vladimir “hastened to collect his forces” and he moved “against Kherson, the Greek city,” the ancient Chersoneses. The “impenetrable” rampart of the Byzantine realm on the Black Sea fell, and it was one of the vitally important hubs of the economic and mercantile links of the empire. This blow was so much felt, that its echo resounded throughout all the regions of Byzantium.
Vladimir again had the upper hand. His emissaries, the commanders (voyevoda ) Oleg and Sjbern soon arrived in Constantinople for the imperial daughter. Eight days passed in Anna’s preparation, during which time her brothers consoled her, stressing the significance of the opportunity before her: to enable the enlightening of the Russian realm and its lands, and to make them forever friends of the Roman Byzantine realm. At Taurida, Saint Vladimir awaited her, and to his titles there was added a new one—Cæsar (tsar′ or emperor). It required the haughty rulers of Constantinople to accede also in this—to bestow upon their new brother-in-law the Cæsar (that is, the imperial) insignia. In certain of the Greek historians, Saint Vladimir is termed from these times as a “mighty basileios-king,” he coins money in the Byzantine style and is depicted on it with the symbols of imperial might: in imperial attire, and on his head—the imperial crown, and in his right hand—the sceptre with cross.
Together with the empress Anna, there arrived for the Russian cathedra-seat metropolitan Michael—ordained by holy Patriarch Nicholas II Chrysobergos, and he came with his retinue and clergy, and many holy relics and other holy things. In ancient Chersoneses, where each stone brings to mind Saint Andrew the First-Called, there took place the marriage-crowning of Saint Vladimir and Blessed Anna, both reminiscent and likewise affirming the oneness of the Gospel good-news of Christ in Rus′ and in Byzantium. Kherson, the “empress’s dowry,” was returned to Byzantium. In the Spring of 988 the great prince with his spouse set out through the Crimea, Taman, and the Azov lands, which had come into the complexion of his vast realm, on the trip of return to Kiev. Leading the great princely cortege with frequent prayers (moliebens) and incessant priestly singing they carried crosses, icons, and holy relics. It seemed, that the Œcumenical Holy Church was moving into the spacious Russian land, and renewed in the font of Baptism, Holy Rus′ came forth to meet Christ and His Church.
There ensued the unforgettable and quite singular event in Russian history: the morning of the Baptism of the Kievans in the waters of the River Dneipr. On the evening beforehand, Saint Vladimir declared throughout the city: “If anyone on the morrow gœth not into the river—be they rich or poor, beggar or slave—that one be mine enemy.” The sacred wish of the holy prince was fulfilled without a murmur: “all our land all at the same time did glorify Christ with the Father and the Holy Spirit.”
It is difficult to overestimate the deep spiritual transformation—effected by the prayers of Saint Vladimir, effected within the Russian people, in all the entirety of its life and world-outlook. In the pure Kievan waters, as in a “bath of regeneration,” there was realised a mysteried transfiguration of the Russian spiritual element, the spiritual birth of the nation, called by God to yet unforeseen deeds of Christian service to mankind.—“Then did the darkness of the idols begin to lift from us, and the dawn of Orthodoxy appear, and the Sun of the Gospel didst illumine our land.” In memory of this sacred event, the renewal of Rus′ by water and the Spirit, there was established within the Russian Church the custom of an annual church procession “to the water” on 1 August, combined afterwards with the feast day of the Bring-Forth of the Venerable Wood of the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord, in common with the Greek Church, and likewise the Russian Church feast day of the All-Merciful Saviour and the Most Holy Mother of God (established by Saint Andrei Bogoliubsky in the year 1164). In this combination of feasts there is found a precise expression of the Russian theological consciousness, for which both Baptism and the Cross are inseparable.
Everywhere throughout Holy Rus′, from the ancient cities to the far outposts, Saint Vladimir gave orders to tumble down the pagan sanctuaries, to flog the idols, and in their place to chop along the hilly woods for churches, in which to consecrate altars for the Bloodless Sacrifice. Churches of God grew up along the face of the earth, at high elevated places, and at the bends of the rivers, along the ancient trail “from the Variangians to the Greeks”—figuratively as road signs, and lamps of national holiness. As regards the famed church-building activity of holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Vladimir, the Kiev Metropolitan Saint Ilarion (author of the “Word about the Law and Grace”) exclaimed: “They demolished the pagan temples, and built up churches, they destroyed the idols and produced holy icons, the demons are fled, and the Cross hath sanctified the cities.” From the early centuries of Christianity it was the custom to raise up churches upon the ruins of pagan sanctuaries or upon the blood of the holy martyrs. Following this practise, Saint Vladimir built the church of Saint Basil the Great upon an hill, where a sanctuary of Perun had been located, and he situated the stone church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God (Desyatinnaya or the Tithe Church) on the place of the martyrdom of the holy Varangian Martyrs (Comm. July 12th). The magnificent temple intended to become the place of serving for the Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus′—and hence the primal-altar of the Russian Church, was built in five years: it was richly adorned with wall-fresco painting, crosses, icons and sacred vessels, brought from Kherson. The day of the consecration of the church of the Most Holy Mother of God, May 12th(in some manuscripts May 1th), was ordered by Saint Vladimir to be inserted as an annual celebration in the Church calendar lists. This event was tied in with other previous happenings for the celebration of May 11th, and it provided the new Church a twofold sense of succession. Under this day in the Saints is noted the churchly “renewal of Constantinople”—dedicated by the holy emperor Saint Constantine as the new capital of the Roman Empire, the Constantine-city Constantinople, dedicated to the Most Holy Mother of God (330). And on this same day of May 11th, under holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Olga, there had been consecrated at Kiev the church of Sophia—the Wisdom of God (in the year 960). Saint Vladimir, having had the cathedral church consecrated to the Most Holy Mother of God, followed the example of Saint Constantine in dedicating the capital city of the Russian Land, Kiev, to the Queen of Heaven.
And then there was bestown on the Church a tithe or tenth; and since this church had become the centre of the All-Russian gathering of churchly tithes, they called it the Desyatinnaya (Tithe) church. The most ancient text of the deed-grant document, or church ustav-rule by holy Prince Vladimir spoke thusly: “For I do bestow this church of the Holy Mother of God a tenth of all mine principality, and likewise throughout all the Russian Land from all the princely jurisdiction a tithe of squirrel-pelts, and from the merchant—a tithe of the week, and from households each year—a tenth of every herd and every livelihood, to the wondrous Mother of God and the wondrous Saviour.” The ustav likewise specified “church people” as being free from the jurisdictional power of the prince and his “tiuni”-officials, and placed them under the jurisdiction of the metropolitan.
The chronicle has preserved a prayer of Saint Vladimir, with which he turned to the Almighty at the consecration of the Tithe Church of the Dormition: “O Lord God, look Thou down from Heaven and behold, and visit Thine vineyard, which Thy right-hand hath planted. And make this new people, whom Thou hast converted in heart and mind—to know Thee, the True God. And look down upon this Thine church, which Thy unworthy servant hath built in the name of the Mother Who hath given birth to Thee, She the Ever-Virgin Mother of God. And whosœver doth pray in this church, let his prayer then be heard, on account of the prayers to the All-Pure Mother of God.”
With the Tithe Church of the Dormition and bishop Anastasias, certain historians have made a connection with the beginnings of Russian chronicle writing. At it were compiled the Life of Saint Olga and the account of the Varangian Martyrs in their original form, and likewise the “Account, How in the Taking of Kherson, Vladimir came to be Baptised.” Here also there originated the early Greek redaction of the Lives of the holy Martyrs Boris and Gleb.
The Kiev Metropolitan cathedra-seat during the time of Saint Vladimir was occupied successively by the Metropolitan Saint Michael († June 15th, 991, Comm. September 30th), Metropolitan Theophylactus—transferred to Kiev from the see of Armenian Sebasteia (991-997), Metropolitan Leontius (997-1008), and Metropolitan John I (1008-1037). Through their efforts the first dioceses of the Russian Church were opened: at Novgorod (its first representative was Saint Joachim the Khersonite—† 1030, compiler of the Joachim’s Chronicle), Vladimir-Volyn (opened May 11th, 992), Chernigov, Pereslavl′, Belgorod, and Rostov. “And thus throughout all the cities and villages there were set up churches and monasteries, and the clergy did increase, and the Orthodox Faith did blossom forth and shine like the sun.” To advance the faith amongst the newly enlightened people, learned people and schools were needed for their preparation. Saint Vladimir therefore with holy Metropolitan Michael “did command fathers and mothers to take their young children and send them to schools to learn reading and writing.” Saint Joachim the Khersonite (†1030) set up such a school at Novgorod, and they did likewise in other cities. “And there were a multitude of schools of scholars, and of these were there a multitude of wisdom-loving philosophers.”
With a firm hand Saint Vladimir held in check enemies at the frontiers, and he built cities with fortifications. He was the first in Russian history to set up a “notched boundary”—a line of defensive points against nomadic peoples. “Volodimir did begin to set up cities along the Desna, along the Vystra, along the Trubezha, along the Sula and along the Stugna. And he did settle them with the Novgorodians, the Smoliani, the Chuds, and the Vyatichi. And he did war against the Pechenegs and defeated them.” But the actual means was often the peaceful Christian preaching amongst the steppe pagans. In the Nikolsk’s Chronicles under the year 990 was written: “And in that same year there came to Vladimir at Kiev four princes from the Bulgars and they were illumined with Divine Baptism.” In the following year “ there came the Pecheneg prince Kuchug and accepted the Greek faith, and he was baptised in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and did service to Vladimir with a pure heart.” Under the influence of the holy prince there were baptised also several apparent foreigners, as for example, the Norwegian king Olaf Trueggvason († 1000) who lived several years at Kiev, and also the renowned Torvald the Wanderer—founder of a monastery of Saint John the Precursor along the Dneipr near Polotsk, among others. In faraway Iceland the poet-skalds called God the “Protector of the Greeks and Russians.”
Amidst the Christian preaching was also the renowned feastings of Saint Vladimir: after Liturgy on Sundays and Church Great-Feasts there were put out abundant feasting tables for the Kievans, they rang the bells, choirs sang praise, the “transported infirm” sang bylini-ballads and spiritual verses. On May 12th, 996, for example, on the occasion of the consecration of the Tithe Church of the Dormition, the prince “made a bright feast,” “distributing goods to many of the poor, and destitute and wanderers, and through the churches and the monasteries. To the sick and the needy he delivered through the streets casks and barrels of mead, and bread, and meat, and fish, and cheese, desiring that all might come and eat, glorifying God.” Feasts were likewise arrayed in honour of the victories of Kievan bogatyr-warriors, and the regiments of Vladimir’s retinue—of Dobrynya, Aleksandr Popovich, and Rogda the Bold.
In the year 1007, Saint Vladimir transferred the relics of holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Olga to the Tithe Church of the Dormition. And four years later, in 1011, there was also buried there his spouse and companion in many of his undertakings, the Blessed Empress Anna. After her death the prince entered into a new marriage—with the young daughter of the German Count Kuno von Enningen, granddaughter of the emperor Otto the Great.
The era of Saint Vladimir was a crucial initial period for the state formation of Orthodox Rus′. The unification of the Slavic lands and the formation of state boundaries under the domain of the Riurikids (descendants of Rurik, the founder of the dynasty) resulted from a strenuous spiritual and political struggle with neighbouring tribes and states. The Baptism of Rus′ by Orthodox Byzantium was a most important step in its state self-definition. The chief enemy of Vladimir became the Polish king Boleslav the Brave, whose plans included the extensive unification of the West-Slavic and East-Slavic tribes under the ægis of Catholic Poland. This rivalry arose still back in the times, when Vladimir was still a pagan: “In the year 6489 (981), Vladimir went against the Lakhs and took their cities, Peremyshl′, Cherven′, and other cities, which be under Rus′.” The final years of the tenth century are likewise filled with the wars of Vladimir and Boleslav.
After a short lull (the first decade of the eleventh century), the “great stand-off” enters into a new phase: in the year 1013 at Kiev a conspiracy against Saint Vladimir is discovered: Svyatopolk the Accursed, who is married to a daughter of Boleslav, yearns for power. The instigator of the conspiracy is the clergyman of Boleslav—the Kolobzheg Catholic bishop Reibern.
The conspiracy of Svyatopolk and Reibern was an all-out threat to the historical existence of the Russian state and the Russian Church. Saint Vladimir took decisive measures. All the three involved were arrested, and Reibern soon died in prison.
Saint Vladimir did not take revenge on those that “opposed and hated” him. Under the pretense of feigned repentance, Svyatopolk was set free.
A new misfortune erupted in the North, at Novgorod. Yaroslav, still not so very much “the Wise”—as he was later to go down in Russian history, in the year 1010 having become ruler of Novgorod, decided to defect from his father the great prince of Kiev, and he formed his own separate army, moving on Kiev to demand the customary tribute and tithe. The unity of the Russian land, for which Saint Vladimir had struggled all his life, was threatened with ruin. In both anger and in sorrow Saint Vladimir gave orders to “secure the dams and set the bridges,” and to prepare for a campaign against Novgorod. His powers were on the decline. In the preparations for his final campaign, happily not undertaken, the Baptiser of Rus′ fell grievously ill and gave up his spirit to the Lord in the village of Spas-Berestov, on 15 July 1015. He had ruled the Russian realm for thirty-seven years (978-1015), and twenty-eight of these years had been spent since holy Baptism.
Preparing for a new struggle for power and hoping for Polish help in it, and to play for time, Svyatopolk attempted to conceal the death of his father. But patriotically inclined Kievan boyar-nobles, secretly by night, removed the body of the deceased sovereign from the Berestov court, where Svyatopolk’s people were guarding it, and they conveyed the body to Kiev. At the Tithe Church of the Dormition the coffin with the relics of Saint Vladimir was met by Kievan clergy with Metropolitan John at the head. The holy relics were placed in a marble crypt, set within the Clement chapel of the Tithe Church of the Dormition alongside the marble crypt of Empress Anna.
The name and deeds of holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Vladimir, whom the people called the Splendid Sun, is interwoven with all the successive history of the Russian Church. “Through him we too have come to worship and to know Christ, the True Life,—testified Saint Ilarion. His deeds were continued by his sons, and grandsons and descendants—rulers of the Russian land over the course of almost six centuries: from Yaroslav the Wise with the taking of the first steps towards the independent existence of the Russian Church—down to the last of the Riurikids, tsar Feodor Ivanovich, under whom (in 1589) the Russian Orthodox Church became the fifth independent Patriarchate in the dyptich lists of the Orthodox Autocephalous Churches.
The feastday celebration to holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Vladimir was established under Saint Alexander Nevsky, in memory of the intercession of Saint Vladimir on May 15th, 1240, for his help in gaining the renowned victory by Nevsky over Swedish crusaders.
But the first reverencing of the holy prince began in Rus′ rather earlier. The Metropolitan of Kiev Saint Ilarion († 1053), in his “Word on Law and Grace,” spoken on the day of memory of Saint Vladimir at the saint’s crypt in the Tithe Church of the Dormition, calls him “an apostolic sovereign,” “like” Saint Constantine, and he compares his apostolic evangelisation of the Russian Land to that of the evangelisation by the holy Apostles.
" }, "rank": 5, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Seated on the high throne of Kiev, the mother of cities saved by God, thou didst emulate the merchant who sought the goodly pearl, O Vladimir glorious in might, and examining and sending emissaries to the Imperial City to learn about the Orthodox Faith, thou didst find Christ the priceless Pearl, Who chose thee as a second Paul and in the holy font removed thy blindness, spiritual and bodily. Wherefore, we, thy people, celebrate thy repose. Pray thou, that Russia, thy land, be saved, and that peace and great mercy be granted to the Orthodox people.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Emulating the great Apostle Paul in thy maturity, O most glorious Vladimir, * and putting aside all thy zeal for idols as childish thoughts, * thou hast adorned thyself with the purple robe of divine baptism. * And standing now in gladness before Christ the Savior, * pray thou that Russia, thy land, be saved, ** and that peace and great mercy be granted to the Orthodox people.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "43501": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Mary (known as the Monk Marinus), and her father, the Venerable Eugene at Alexandria (6th C)", "short": "Venerable Mary" } }, "43601": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Boniface the Merciful, Bishop of Florence (6th C)", "short": "Saint Boniface" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "He was born in the province of Tuscany, Italy and lived in the sixth century. He was glorified for disinterestedness, love for the poor and working wonders." } }, "43801": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation of the relics of the Blessed Vsevolod, in Holy Baptism Gabriel, Prince of Pskov (1834)", "short": "Translation" } }, "43802": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the relics of Saint Vsevolod, in baptism Gabriel, Prince of Pskov (1192)", "short": "Finding" } }, "43901": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Zoe and Photina (5th C)", "short": "Venerable Zoe" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Martinian at age 18 settled into the wilderness, somewhat off from the city of Palestinian Cæsarea, where he dwelt in ascetic deeds and silence for 25 years, and he was granted a graced gift of healing illness. But the enemy of the race of man would not stop bothering the hermit with various temptations. One time a profligate woman got into a wager with some dissolute people, as to whether she could seduce Saint Martinian, the fame of whose virtuous life had spread throughout all the city. She came to him at night-time under the guise of a wandering suppliant asking night lodging. The saint let her enter, since the weather outside was inclement. But here the wicked guest changed over into her good clothes and began to tempt the ascetic. The saint thereupon rushed out of the cell, set alight a fire and put his bare feet upon the burning coals. He said such as this to himself: �It is hard enough for thee, Martinian, to suffer this temporal fire, now then wilt thou instead suffer the eternal fire, prepared for thee by the devil?� The woman, shaken by the spectacle, became repentant and besought the saint to guide her onto the way of repentance. At his directing she set off to Bethlehem, to a monastery of Saint Paula, where she dwelt for 12 years in strict ascetic deeds until her blessed end. The name of this woman was Zoa.
Having recovered from his scorching, Saint Martinian set off to an uninhabited rocky island, and lived on it under the open sky for several years, nourished by the victuals brought by a certain sailor from time to time, and in return the monk weaved baskets for him. One time a powerful storm wrecked a ship, and to the island of Saint Martinian the waves carried on the ship debris a maiden named Photinia. Saint Martinian helped her to survive the island. �Remain here,�said he to her,�for here is bread and water, and in two months a boat will come,�� and he jumped into the sea and swam off. Two dolphins carried him to dry land. Thereafter Blessed Martinian began to lead the life of a wanderer. And so passed two years. One time, having come to Athens, the saint fell ill, and sensing the nearness of his end, he went into church and lay upon the floor, and calling out to the bishop he besought him to give his body over to burial. This occurred in about the year 422." } }, "44101": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrdom of Saint Wenceslaus (Václav/Vyacheslav), Prince of the Czech Lands († 935)", "short": "Wenceslaus" } }, "46801": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Flavian the Confessor, Patriarch of Constantinople († 449-450)", "short": "Saint Flavian" } }, "47101": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Genadiy, Archbishop of Novgorod († 1505)", "short": "Saint Genadiy" } }, "49702": { "name": { "nominative": "Consecration of the Church of the Great Martyr George at Kiev (1051-1054)", "short": "Consecration of" }, "rank": 1 }, "49801": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable George of Georgia, on Mt. Athos († 1065)", "short": "Venerable George" } }, "50201": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarchs of Perm: Gerasimus († c. 1441), Pitirim († 1455), and Jonah († 1470)", "short": "Hierarchs of Perm" } }, "50601": { "name": { "nominative": "Glorification of Saint Herman of Alaska", "short": "Glorification" }, "rank": 1 }, "50602": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Herman, Wonderworker of Alaska († 1837) [ROCOR]", "short": "Venerable Herman" }, "rank": 4 }, "50901": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation of the relics of Saint Herman, Archbishop of Kazan (1595)", "short": "Translation" } }, "50902": { "name": { "nominative": "Repose of Saint Herman, Archbishop of Kazan († 1567)", "short": "St. Herman" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "St. Herman descended from a family of boyars, Sadirev-Polev (descendants of the princes of Smolensk), was born in the city of Staritsa, Tver province at the beginning of 16th century and in the world bore the name Gregory. From his young years he loved church services and the reading of the divine scriptures, observed much moderation in food and all the time devoted himself to pious exercises. When he was 25 years old, with the blessing of his parents and taking the name of Herman, he entered the Volokolamsk-St. Joseph Monastery. And here he learned the high moral qualities of a monk, was the first in the temple for prayer and the last leaving it, and when he was free from services and monastic obediences he devoted his time to the transcription of church service books. Since 1543 Hegumen Gurius, later the first archbishop of Kazan, revealed Herman as the leader in monastic asceticism. In 1555, when St. Gurius was installed the Archbishop of Kazan, St. Herman already was known for his holy life, and was entrusted to build a monastery in the city of Sviazhsk (see Kazan Diocese), in order that it serve as a garden of the holy faith among the Moslems. The Ven. Herman honorably performed his duties and upon the death of St. Gurius in 1564 was installed as the Archbishop of Kazan. Called in 1566 to Moscow to become Metropolitan, St. Herman, with deep monastic humility, distinguished by sincere love of truth and unshakable firmness, powerfully accused the disordered oprichnina (private court) during the first personal appointment of Ivan the Terrible. For this he was quietly removed as Metropolitan and remained in Moscow under the ban of the Tsar for a year and seven months before his death. However the imperial anger did not frighten the firm spirit of Herman. At the council called in 1568 by Ivan the Terrible for the condemnation of St. Philip, St. Herman was one among all who raised his voice in the defense of the innocent. Soon after that council on November 6, 1568, St. Herman died in Moscow in abject poverty from the plague epidemic and was interred in the Nicholay-Mokrago Church. Within 24 years his relics were transferred to the Dormition Monastery in Sviazhsk (see the Kazan Diocese), during which a wonderful odor permeated not only throughout the temple but also the entire monastery." } }, "51801": { "name": { "nominative": "Killing of the Holy Right-Believing Prince Gleb, in Baptism David († 1015)", "short": "Killing of" } }, "53901": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Gregory Decapolites († 816)", "short": "Venerable Gregory" }, "rank": 1 }, "54301": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica († c. 1360)", "short": "Saint Gregory" } }, "54401": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Gregory, Wonderworker of Vologda († 1442)", "short": "Venerable Gregory" }, "rank": 3 }, "54501": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Euthalia of Sicily († 257)", "short": "Martyr Euthalia" } }, "55301": { "name": { "nominative": "Transfer of the Relics of Saint Gurias, Archbishop of Kazan (1630)", "short": "Transfer" } }, "55302": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the relics of St Gurias, 1st Archbishop of Kazan († 1563), and Saint Barsonophius, Bishop of Tver († 1576) in 1595", "short": "Finding" }, "rank": 3 }, "55304": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Gurias, Archbishop of Kazan († 1563)", "short": "Saint Gurias" } }, "57901": { "name": { "nominative": "42 Martyrs of Ammoria in Phrygia († c. 845): Theodore, Constantine, Aetius, Theophilus, Basoes, Callistus, and others", "short": "42 Martyrs" }, "rank": 1 }, "57902": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the relics of the Right-Believing Prince Daniel of Moscow (1652)", "short": "Finding" }, "rank": 4 }, "58201": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Daniel the Abbot of Pereyaslavl-Zalesski († 1540)", "short": "Venerable Daniel" } }, "58401": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Daniel, Archbishop of Serbia († 1338)", "short": "Saint Daniel" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "St. Daniel was born in Serbia, the son of rich and famous parents. Aspiring to asceticism, he accepted monasticism in the Konchulsk Monastery. From here he went to Mt. Athos where he became the Hegumen of the Hilandar Monastery. In 1325, Daniel was elected Archbishop of Serbia and most successfully deflected the attacks of the Pope of Rome. Serbia is obliged to St. Daniel for the construction of many churches and cultivation of vineyards. He died in 1338." } }, "60001": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Urpasianus of Nicomedia († c.295)", "short": "Martyr Urpasianus" } }, "60102": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the relics of St Demetrius, Metropolitan of Rostov (1752)", "short": "Hierarch" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "MATINS": { "SCRIPTURE/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Reading": "Jn_10:1-9", "Pericope": "35 (mid.)" } }, "LITURGY": { "SCRIPTURE/apostol": { "text": "", "Type": "apostol", "Reading": "Heb_7:26-8:2", "Pericope": "318" }, "SCRIPTURE/gospel": { "text": "", "Type": "gospel", "Reading": "Jn_10:9-16", "Pericope": "36" } } }, "scripture": [ { "Type": "1", "Reading": "Jn_10:1-9", "Pericope": "35 (mid.)" }, { "Type": "apostol", "Reading": "Heb_7:26-8:2", "Pericope": "318" }, { "Type": "gospel", "Reading": "Jn_10:9-16", "Pericope": "36" } ] }, "60103": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Dmitri, Metropolitan of Rostov († 1709)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" }, "rank": 4 }, "60401": { "name": { "nominative": "Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica († c. 306)", "short": "Great Martyr" } }, "60501": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Crown Prince Demetrius of Uglich and Moscow († 1591)", "short": "Crown Prince" }, "rank": 3 }, "60502": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation of the relics (1606) of slain Crown Prince Demetrius of Moscow from Uglich", "short": "Translation" } }, "65301": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Sabinus of Egypt († 287)", "short": "Martyr Sabinus" }, "rank": 1 }, "66301": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Marius the Soldier and Asterius the Senator", "short": "Martyrs" } }, "67501": { "name": { "nominative": "New Martyr Dimitrius", "short": "New Martyr Dimitrius" } }, "68501": { "name": { "nominative": "St. James the Confessor the Bishop of Catania (8th-9th C)", "short": "St. James" } }, "71401": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Basil the New, Anchorite, Near Constantinople († 10th C)", "short": "Venerable Basil" } }, "73701": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Vassa of the Pskov Caves († c.1473)", "short": "Venerable Vassa" } }, "74301": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the Relics (1507) of Venerable Euthymius of Suzdal", "short": "Finding" } }, "74701": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Euphrosynus the Abbot and Wonderworker of Pskov († 1481) and his disciple Serapion († 1480)", "short": "Venerable Euphrosynus" } }, "75801": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Eleutherios of Constantinople († 305-311)", "short": "Martyr Eleutherios" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "Martyr Eleutherius the Chamberlain see Aug. 4.
" } }, "76401": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Prophet Elisha (9th C BC)", "short": "Prophet" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Prophet Elisha (Elisei) lived in the ninth century before the Birth of Christ, and was a native of the village of Abelmaum, near Jordan. By the command of the Lord he was called to prophetic service by the holy Prophet of God Eliah (Ilias, Elijah) (Comm. 20 July).
When it became time for the holy Prophet Eliah to be taken up to Heaven, he said to Elisha: “Ask, what shalt I do for thee, before that I be taken from thee.” Elisha boldly asked for a double portion of the grace of God: “The Spirit, which be in thee, let it be upon me twofold.” The Prophet Eliah said: “Thou dost ask the difficult; if thou seest as I be taken from thee, then so shalt it be for thee, but if thou seest not, it wilt not be” ( 4 [2] Kings 2: 12 ). And when they went along the way and conversed, there appeared a fiery chariot and horses and parted them both. Elisha cried out: “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horse!” ( 4 [2] Kings 2: 12). Picking up the cloak (mantle) of his teacher which fell from the sky, Elisha received the power and prophetic gift of Eliah. He spent more than 65 years in prophetic service, under six Israelite kings (from Ahab to Joash). “And in those days he trembled not before the prince, and no one could overcome him” ( Sirach 48: 13 [“Sirach” in the canon of Old Testament books is found in Catholic, but not Protestant English translations of the Bible, as “Ecclesiasticus”]). The holy prophet worked numerous miracles. He divided the waters of the Jordan, having smitten it with the mantle of the Prophet Eliah; he made fit for drinking the waters of a Jericho spring; by an abundant bringing forth of water by his prayer he saved the armies of the kings of Israel and Judah that stood in an arid wilderness; he delivered a poor widow from death by starvation through a miraculous increase of oil in a vessel. The Shunamite woman showing hospitality to the prophet was gladdened by the birth of a son through his prayer, and when the child died, he was raised back to life by the prophet. The Syrian military-commander Namaan was healed from leprosy but the servant of the prophet, Gehazi, was afflicted since he disobeyed the prophet and on the sly took money from Namaan. Elisha predicted to the Israelite king Joash the victory over his enemies and by the power of his prayer worked many other miracles ( 4 [2] Kings 3-13). The holy Prophet Elisha died in old age at Samaria. “And in life he worked miracles, and at death astounding was his deed” (Sir. 48: 15). A year after his death, a corpse was thrown into the cave wherein lay his remains, and came alive by a mere touch to his bones. The Prophet Elisha, just like his teacher the Prophet Eliah, left behind them no books, since their prophetic preaching was but oral. Jesus, son of Sirach, inscribed eulogistic praise to both the great prophets (Sir. 48: 1-15).
Saint John Damascene compiled a canon in honour of the Prophet Elisha, and at Constantinople a church was built in his name.
Julian the Apostate (361-363) gave orders to burn the relics of the Prophet Elisha, Abdia (Obadiah) and John the Forerunner, but the remains of the holy relics were preserved by believers, and part of them were transferred to Alexandria.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "The angel in the flesh, the foundation of the prophets, the second forerunner of the coming of Christ, the glorious Elijah from on high sent down grace upon Elisha to dispel infirmities and to cleanse lepers. Wherefore, he poureth forth healings upon those who honor him.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thou wast shown to be a prophet of God, receiving a twofold measure of grace, which truly befitted thee, O blessed Elisha; for thou wast the companion of Elijah, and with him dost unceasingly entreat Christ God in behalf of us all.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "79101": { "name": { "nominative": "Apostle Hermas of the Seventy († 1st C)", "short": "Apostle Hermas" }, "rank": 1, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Disciple Hermas was a bishop in Thracian Philippopolis. The holy Apostle Paul greets him in the Epistle to the Romans ( Rom. 16: 14). Preaching the Gospel, the Disciple Hermas endured much grief from the pagans, but he died peacefully.
" } }, "79201": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Theodora of Thessalonica († 892)", "short": "Venerable Theodora" } }, "79202": { "name": { "nominative": "Apostles of the 70: Patrobus, Hermas, Linus, Gaius, Philologos (1st C)", "short": "Apostles of" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "St. Patrobus was bishop in Naples and Puteoli. St. Hermas was bishop in Philippopolis (see March 8 and May 31). St. Linus was the first bishop in Rome after Apostle Peter. St. Gaius was bishop in Ephesus after St. Timothy. St. Philologus was consecrated by the Holy Apostle Andrew and was bishop in Sinope (near the Black Sea).
" } }, "79901": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Jeremiah and the Priest Archilius († 3rd C)", "short": "Martyrs" } }, "80401": { "name": { "nominative": "Glorification (1913) of Hieromartyr Hermogenes, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia", "short": "Glorification" } }, "81301": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation of the relics (1572) of Venerable Ephraim, abbot of New Torzhok", "short": "Translation" } }, "81401": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Ephraim of Perekop, Wonderworker of Novgorod († 1492)", "short": "Venerable Ephraim" } }, "81501": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Pausilippus of Heraclea in Thrace († 117-138)", "short": "Martyr Pausilippus" } }, "82201": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Terence, Pompius, and with them Africanus, Macarius, Xeno, Alexander and the other 33 beheaded at Carthage († c.249-251)", "short": "Martyrs" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Martyr Terence and his companions suffered under the emperor Decius (249-251). The emperor issued an edict, which commanded all subjects to offer sacrifice to the pagan idols.
When the governor of Africa Fortunatian received this edict, he gathered the people into the city-square, set out cruel instruments of torture and declared, that everyone without exception had to offer the sacrifice to the idols. Many, afraid of torture, complied, but forty Christians with Saint Terence at their head bravely stood forth for their faith in the Saviour. Fortunatian was amazed at their boldness and he asked, how they as rational people, could confess as God, One Who was crucified by the Jews as a malefactor. In answer to this, Saint Terence boldly answered, that their belief was in the Saviour, Who voluntarily endured death on the Cross and on the third day was resurrected. Fortunatian perceived, that Terence by his example inspired the others, and so he gave orders to isolate him in prison together with his three closest companions—Africanus, Maximus and Pompius. The remainder of the martyrs—which included Xenon, Alexander and Theodore, Fortunatian resolved to force into renouncing Christ. But neither threats nor terrible tortures could sway the holy martyrs: they burned at them with red-hot iron, they poured vinegar on the wounds, they sprinkled on salt, they tore at them with iron claws. In spite of their sufferings, the saints did not weaken in their confession of Christ, and the Lord gave them strength.
Forunatian gave orders to lead the martyrs into the pagan temple and still yet another time he urged them to offer sacrifice to the idols. The valiant warriors of Christ cried out to God: “O God All-Powerful, having once poured out fire on Sodom for its iniquity, destroy now this impious temple of idolatry, on account of Thine Truth.” The idols fell down with a crash and a smash, and then all the temple was in ruins. The enraged governor gave orders to execute them; and the martyrs, glorifying God, put their necks beneath the sword of the executioner.
After the execution of the 36 martyrs, Fortunatian summoned before him Terence, Maximus, Africanus and Pompius, pointed out to them the executed and again urged them to offer sacrifice to the idols. The martyrs refused. The governor put heavy chains on them and gave orders to starve them to death in prison. By night an Angel of the Lord took the chains off the martyrs and fed them. In the morning the guards found the saints cheerful and strong. Then Fortunatian ordered sorcerers and conjurers to carry into the prison snakes and all kinds of viperous creatures. The guards through an opening in the prison ceiling glanced down into the jail-cell and saw the martyrs unharmed, praying, and the snakes crawling at their feet. When the snake-charmers in obeying the order opened the door of the prison-cell, the snakes disregarded the charms and struck and began to bite them. The furious Fortunatian gave orders to behead the holy martyrs. Christians took up their holy bodies and buried them with reverence outside the city.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Today the honored memorial * of the martyrs Terence and his companions * hath arrived, gladdening all things. Wherefore, let us hasten, that we may receive healing; * for they have received from God the grace of the Holy Spirit, ** for healing the infirmities of our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "85001": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Zosimas the Hermit of Cilicia (4th C)", "short": "Martyr Zosimas" } }, "85401": { "name": { "nominative": "First (1566) and Second (1992) Translation of the relics of the Venerable Zosima and Sabbatius of Solovki", "short": "Zosima and Sabbatius" }, "rank": 4 }, "85701": { "name": { "nominative": "Icons of the Mother of God “Hodigitria of Vilna” and “Vilenskaya-Ostrobramskaya”", "short": "Icons" } }, "86701": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Apostle James the son of Alphæus (1st C)", "short": "Holy Apostle" }, "rank": 4 }, "90001": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Ignatius, Abbot in Asia Minor († 963-975)", "short": "Venerable Ignatius" } }, "90201": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Ignatius of Lomsk and Yaroslavl († 1591)", "short": "Venerable Ignatius" } }, "90401": { "name": { "nominative": "New Martyrs who suffered from the Persians in the Fereydan valley (17th C) (Georg.) [movable feast on Ascension]", "short": "Martyrs" } }, "90621": { "name": { "nominative": "Tabynsk and «Znamenie» Kursk-Root Icons of the Mother of God", "short": "Tabynsk and «Znamenie» Kursk-Root Icons of the Mother of God" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "V. Simonov. Ufa Diocese Bulletin. №4, April 2001. English translation by Igor Radev", "text": "The Chinese Life of the Tabynsk Icon
On June 1597 Hierodeacon Amvrosy of the Ascension hermitage walking by a salt spring discovered the miracle working icon of the Mother of God. The brethren took the icon to the church, but the next morning it was not to be found there. They finally came across it at the monastery gates.
They soon built a small chapel over that location. After the destruction of the monastery in 1633 the icon was lost, but around one hundred years later it was discovered for the second time. In 1766 the icon was seen by some shepherds near the salt springs. The icon was then brought to the Theophany church of the Bogoyavlensk Copper Smelting Factory. But the icon mysteriously disappeared from that church and was found in the village of Tabynsk. From then on it is called \"the Tabynsk icon\".
During the cholera epidemic in 1854 the icon was transferred in Orenburg and the epidemic was stalled.
Until 1918 it was carried annually from Tabynsk to Orenburg where it was placed in a special casket where it stayed for three months.
In 1914 the icon was taken to the frontlines. In the time of the Civil War during the withdrawal of the White Army under the Orenburg Cossack corps' hetman, and the combat hetman of the entire Cossack Army, Lieutenant General Alexander Ilevich Dutov (December 5, 1879 - February 6, 1921) , the miraculously discovered Tabynsk icon of the Mother of God was brought to China by His Eminence Methodius, the bishop of Orenburg. He was later made the ruling Hierarch of the Harbin Diocese, and then Metropolitan.
According to one tradition, the icon was in Harbin placed in a specially built monastery church until 1948. Afterwards it had been moved, first to Australia, and then to the USA, presumably in San Francisco.
Still, based on the archive materials of the local museums of Irkutsk, Barnaul, Vladivostok, the Archive of the Buriat branch of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, and by living in the capital of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Province of China - Urumqi, we can speak about the other \"Chinese\" life of the icon.
The detached Orenburg army of Dutov, having left Orenburg during winter 1919, and passing through Orsk, which till the end of March numbered more than 30 thousand people, crossed the Chinese border near Chuchuchon.
From 1920, the icon brought by the Dutov men was put in the church of Suiding town (present-day Shuiding, Xinjiang Province). The rectors of the church during that time were Archimandrite Jonah (Pokrovsky), made later the bishop of Hankou (1920), Priest Grigory Shtokalko (1921 - 1925), Priest Theodosy Soloshenko (1925 - 30), Archpriest Mikhail Malyarovsky (1930 - 1933), Archpriest Pavel Kochunovsky (1938 - 1944), the rector of the Xinjiang Orthodox churches and the parish priest Archpriest D. Modzyanovsky (1946 - 1952), the rector and the church elder Abbot Sofrony (Yogel) (July 8, 1954 - 1960).
The most revered sacred object of St Nicholas Church - the miracle working image of the Tabynsk Icon of the Mother of God was kept at the left kliros of the church in Ghulja. The icon, almost meter high, was covered in gilded silver casing. Similar as when in Russia, on the ninth Friday after Pascha, in Ghulja (present-day Yining), Suiding (present-day Shuiding), Chuguchak (present-day Tacheng) and Urumqi a Litany was performed.
In the late sixties St Nicholas Church was destroyed. During the \"Cultural Revolution\", the icon was lost too.
The remaining Orthodox faithful in Ghulja are gathering in private homes, where old icons are still kept together with some Service books. Many of them, not having prayer books, are manually copying prayers, passing them to one another and carefully keeping them. The natives of Ghulja, the Izmailovs, Ostroumovs, Iakovlevs are well remembering where the church together with the miracle working icon once stood. They do not believe that the icon was destroyed and are of the opinion that it was concealed by one of the parishioners somewhere outside the city. One of these natives has given to me a copy of picture of the St Nicholas church.
There is a connection between the Tabyinsk holy image and the founding in 1934 in Kanagashi near Dalian of the Mother of God of Kazan and Tabynsk female monastery. The priest serving there was Archpriest Ioann Petelin from Harbin. At the Monastery a copy of the icon was kept. In the beginning of the sixties the female monastery was closed and the nuns moved to California. Maybe it is the Kansgashi copy they are looking for in America!?
" } }, "90701": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Prince Igor of Chernigov and Kiev († 1147)", "short": "Holy Prince" } }, "91005": { "name": { "nominative": "St. John the Faster, Patriarch of Constantinople († 595)", "short": "St. John" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint John IV the Faster, Patriarch of Constantinople (582-595), is famed in the Orthodox Church as the compiler of a Penitential nomokanon (i.e. Law-Canon of penances), which has come down to us in several distinct versions. But their foundation is one and the same. This—is an instruction for priests, how to hear a secret confession of secret sins, be this a sin already committed or constituting merely a sin of intent. Ancient churchly rules address the manner and duration of churchly public penances, established for obvious and evident sinners. But it was necessary to effectively adapt these rules for the secret confession of undetected things being repented of. Saint John the Faster because of this issued his Penitential nomokanon (or “Canonaria”), so that the good-intentioned confession of secret sins, unknown to the world, already testifies to the disposition of the sinner and his conscience in being reconciled to God, and therefore the saint shortened the penances by the ancient fathers by half or more. Yet on the other hand, he set more exactly the character of the penances: severe fasting, daily performing of an established number of prayerful prostrations to the ground, the distribution of alms. The length of penance is determined by the priest. The main purpose of the nomocanon, compiled by the holy Patriarch, consists in establishing penances not simply by the measure of sins, but by the measure of admitting the confessed, and through the appraisement of penitence not by continual punishment, but through the extent of the experience to be confessed, one’s spiritual state.
Among the Greeks, and afterwards also in the Russian Church the rules of Saint John the Faster are honoured on a level “with other saintly rules,” and the law-canons of his book are accounted “applicable for all the Orthodox Church.” The Monk Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain (Nikodim Svyatogorets, Comm. 1 July) included him in the Greek handbook for priests (Exomologitaria), first published in 1796, and in the Greek “Rudder Book” (Pedalion), published by him in 1800.
The first Slavonic translation was done quite possibly by the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Methodios, at the same time as he produced the “Nomocanon in 50 Titles” of the holy Patriarch John Scholastikos, whose successor on the Constantinople cathedra-seat was Saint John the Faster. This ancient translation was preserved in Rus’ in the “Ustiug Rudder” (XIII), published in 1902.
From the XVI Century in the Russian Church was circulated the nomocanon of Saint John the Faster in another redaction, compiled by priest-monks and clergy of Holy Mount Athos. In this form it was repeatedly published at the Kievo-Kiev Caves Lavra (in 1620, 1624, 1629). In Moscow the Penitential Nomokanon was published in the form of a supplement to the Trebnik (“Book of Needs”): under Patriarch Joasaph in 1639, under Patriarch Joseph in 1651, and under Patriarch Nikon in 1658. The last edition since that time invariably is that printed in the Large Trebnik. A scholarly edition of the nomocanon with parallel Greek and Slavonic texts and with detailed historical and canonical commentary was done by A. S. Pavlov (Moscow, 1897).
" } }, "91007": { "name": { "nominative": "The Beheading of the Holy Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord, John", "short": "Beheading" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Beheading of the Prophet, ForeRunner of the Lord, John the Baptist: The Evangelists Matthew (Mt. 14: 1-12) and Mark (Mk. 6: 14-29) provide accounts about the Martyr’s end of John the Baptist in the year 32 after the Birth of Christ.
Following the Baptism of the Lord, Saint John the Baptist was locked up in prison by Herod Antipas, holding one-fourth the rule of the Holy Land as governor of Galilee. (After the death of king Herod the Great, the Romans divided the territory of Palestine into four parts, and into each part put a governor. Herod Antipas received from the emperor Augustus the rule of Galilee). The prophet of God John openly denounced Herod for having left his lawful wife—the daughter of the Arabian king Aretas, and then instead co-habiting with Herodias,—the wife of his brother Philip (Lk. 3: 19-20). On his birthday, Herod made a feast for dignitaries, the elders and a thousand chief citizens. The daughter of Herod, Salome, danced before the guests and charmed Herod. In gratitude to the girl he swore to give her anything, whatsœver she would ask, anything up to half his kingdom. The vile girl on the advice of her wicked mother Herodias asked, that she be given at once the head of John the Baptist on a plate. Herod became apprehensive, for he feared the wrath of God for the murder of a prophet, whom earlier he had heeded. He feared also the people, who loved the holy ForeRunner. But because of the guests and his careless oath, he gave orders to cut off the head of Saint John and to give it to Salome. By tradition, the mouth of the dead head of the preacher of repentance once more opened and proclaimed: “Herod, thou ought not to have the wife of Philip thy brother.” Salome took the plate with the head of Saint John and gave it to her mother. The frenzied Herodias repeatedly stabbed the tongue of the prophet with a needle and buried his holy head in a unclean place. But the pious Joanna, wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, buried the head of John the Baptist in an earthen vessel on the Mount of Olives, where Herod was possessor of a parcel of land (the Uncovering of the Venerable Head is celebrated 24 February). The holy body of John the Baptist was taken that night by his disciples and buried at Sebasteia, there where the wicked deed had been done. After the murder of Saint John the Baptist, Herod continued to govern for a certain while. Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea, later sent to him the bound Jesus Christ, over Whom he made mockery (Lk. 23: 7-12).
The judgement of God came upon Herod, Herodias and Salome, even during their earthly life. Salome, crossing the River Sikoris in winter, fell through the ice. The ice gave way for her such that her body was in the water, but her head trapped beneath the ice. It was similar to how she once had danced with her feet upon the ground, but now flailing helplessly in the icy water. Thus she was trapped until that time when the sharp ice cut through her neck. The corpse was not found, but they brought the head to Herod and Herodias, as once they had brought them the head of Saint John the Baptist. The Arab king Aretas in revenge for the disrespect shown his daughter made war against Herod. Having suffered defeat, Herod suffered the wrath of the Roman emperor Caius Caligua (37-41) and was exiled with Herodias first to Gaul, and then to Spain. And there they were from view.
In memory of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, the feastday established by the Church is also a strict day of fast,—as an expression of the grief of Christians at the violent death of the saint. On this day the Church makes remembrance of soldiers, killed on the field of battle, as established in 1769 at the time of a war of Russia with the Turks and the Poles.
" }, "rank": 6, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "The memory of the righteous is celebrated with hymns of praise, * but the Lord”s witness is sufficient for thee, O forerunner. * Thou wast truly shown to be more honorable than the prophets, * in that thou wast counted worthy to baptize in the streams Him Whom thou didst proclaim. * Wherefore, having suffered, rejoicing, for the truth, * even unto those in hades thou didst proclaim God, * Who had manifested Himself in the flesh, ** Who taketh away the sin of the world and granteth us great mercy.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "The glorious beheading of the forerunner * was part of God”s dispensation, * that he might proclaim to those in hades the coming of the Savior. * Let Herodias, who demanded the iniquitous murder, therefore lament; * for she loved not the law of God nor the age of life, ** but rather this false and transitory one.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "5" } } } }, "91022": { "name": { "nominative": "Repose of the Blessed John of Ustiug the Fool-for-Christ († 1494)", "short": "Repose of" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Blessed John, Fool-for-Christ, Ustiug Wonderworker, was born in the village of Pukhovo, near Old Ustiug, of pious parents Savva and Maria. From his youthful years he distinguished himself by a strict life of fasting, on Wednesdays and Fridays he ate nothing, and on the remaining days he ate only bread and water. His parents relocated to the city of Orlets along the River Iug,’ 40 versts from Ustiug. Left widowed, the saint’s mother took monastic tonsure at the Orletsk Trinity monastery. The lad John began with the keeping of silence, and then he asceticised as a fool. Going about the city of Ustiug, he settled in an hut built for him and spent his nights at unceasing prayer. By day however, barefoot and in torn tatters of clothing the whole year long he went about the streets of the city, resting sometimes on a dung heap and bearing much abuse and derision by the people of the city. While still alive the saint had been granted a gift of wonderworking. He died young on 29 May 1494, and was buried near the Uspensky cathedral in the city of Ustiug. Afterwards over his relics was built a church in his name. The Service to Blessed John Ustiuzhsky was written in the XVI Century. In 1554 with the recollections of people who had known him in life his life was compiled, and somewhat afterwards—an eulogy. The holy ascetic was famed as an intercessor during invasions of enemies, and by graced healings of those sick with various maladies.
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Need English translation
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "5" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Need English translation
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "91037": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the relics of the Venerable Job, Abbot and Wonderworker of Pochaev (1659)", "short": "Venerable Job" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Job of Pochaev died on 28 October 1651. On 28 August 1833 the relics of the Monk Job were solemnly opened for general veneration. In the year 1902 the Holy Synod decreed on this day to carry the holy relics of the Monk Job round the Uspensk cathedral of the Pochaev Lavra-monastery after the Divine Liturgy.
" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" } } } }, "91547": { "name": { "nominative": "Commemoration of the Miracle of the Archangel Michael at Chonah (4th C)", "short": "Archangel" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "In Phrygia, not far from the city of Hieropolis, in a place called Kherotopos, there was a church named for the Archangel Michael, and outside the church flowed a health-curative spring. This church was built through the zeal of a certain inhabitant of the city of Laodiceia in gratitude to God and to the holy Archistrategos Michael, who had appeared in a dream vision to this man—the father of a mute girl, and who then had not yet been illumined by holy Baptism, and revealed to him, that his daughter would receive the gift of speech in drinking from the water of the spring. During her drinking the girl actually did receive healing and began to speak. After this miracle, the father with his daughter and all their family were baptised, and in fervent gratitude the father built the church in honour of the holy Archistrategos Michael. And for healing began to come to the water-spring not only Christians, but also pagans. In so doing, many of the pagans turned from their idols and were converted to the faith in Christ.
At this church of the holy Archistrategos Michael a certain pious man by the name of Archippos served over the span of 60 years as church-attendant. By his preaching and by the example of his saintly life he brought many a pagan to faith in Christ. With the general malice of that time towards Christians, and even moreso against Archippos, who had never forsaken the church and gave example of a real servant of Christ, the pagans gave thought to destroying the church and at the same time kill Archippos. Towards this end they made a confluence of two mountainous rushing streams and directed its combined flow against the church. Saint Archippos prayed fervently to the Archistrategos Michael to ward off the danger. Through his prayer the Archangel Michael appeared at the temple, and with a blow of his staff opened into the mountain a wide fissure and commanded to flow into it the rushing torrents of water. The temple thus remained unharmed. In beholding such an awesome miracles, the pagans fled in terror, and Archippos together with Christians gathered in church glorified God and gave thanks to the holy Archangel Michael for the help. The place where the miracle happened received the name “Khona,” which means “opening” or “fissure.”
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Supreme commander of the armies of Heaven, * we, the unworthy, do ever entreat thee, * that by thy prayers thou dost ever surround us * with the protection of the wings of thine immaterial glory, * preserving us that earnestly fall down before thee and cry aloud: * Deliver us from misfortunes, ** in that thou art the leader of the hosts on high.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "O chief commander of God, * minister of glory divine, * captain of the angels and instructor of men: * beg thou great mercy and that which is profitable for us, ** for thou art the supreme commander of the bodiless hosts.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "92401": { "name": { "nominative": "Righteous Joshua, Son of Nun", "short": "Joshua" } }, "92801": { "name": { "nominative": "Transfer of the relics of Saint Hilarion, Bishop of Meglina in Bulgaria (1206)", "short": "Transfer" }, "rank": 2 }, "92901": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Castor of Alexandria", "short": "Martyr Castor" } }, "93301": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Hilarion the Schema-Monk of the Kiev Caves (16th C)", "short": "Saint Hilarion" } }, "93601": { "name": { "nominative": "Righteous Virgin Glaphyra († 322)", "short": "Righteous Virgin" } }, "93602": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the relics of St Basil, Bishop of Amasea (4th C)", "short": "Finding" } }, "94201": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Ilya of Murom, Wonderworker of the Kiev Caves († c. 1188)", "short": "Venerable Ilya" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "He was born in Murom and practiced asceticism in the Kievan Monastery of the Caves in the Twelfth Century. His relics repose in the St. Anthony’s Cave. In the words of Philaret, Archbishop of Chernigov, Ven. Elias reposes in a prayerful position and irresistibly accuses the schism (Raskol): his first three fingers are joined together and outstretched, but the last two, the fourth and fifth fingers, are folded into his palm." } }, "94601": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Saturninus, Iakischolus, Faustianus, Januarius, Marsalius, Euphrasius, Mammius, Zeno, Eusebius, Neon, and Vitalis († c.63)", "short": "Martyrs" } }, "95101": { "name": { "nominative": "Repose of Saint Innocent, 1st Bishop of Irkutsk († 1731)", "short": "St. Innocent" }, "rank": 1 }, "95201": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Memnon the Wonderworker", "short": "Venerable Memnon" }, "rank": 1, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Memnon the Wonderworker from the time of his youth asceticised in the Egyptian wilderness. By his arduous ascetic efforts he attained a victory of spirit over the flesh.
Having become abbot (hegumen) of one of the Egyptian monasteries, he wisely and carefully guided the brethren. And even while aiding them through prayer and counsel, the saint did not waver in his efforts in the struggle with temptation.
Through unceasing prayer and toil he received the gift of perspicacity: through his prayer a spring of water gushed forth in the wilderness; locusts destroying the harvest perished; those suffering shipwreck and calling on his name were saved. After his death the mere mention of his name dispelled a plague of locusts and undid the cunning wiles of evil spirits.
" } }, "95301": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Diodorus and Rhodopianos the Deacon († 284-305)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" } }, "96001": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Donatus the Bishop of Eurœa in Epirus († c.387)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" } }, "96201": { "name": { "short": "Holy Apostle", "nominative": "Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian († 98-117)" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian occupies a unique place in the ranks of the chosen disciples of Christ the Saviour. Often in iconography the Apostle John is depicted as a gentle, majestic and spiritual elder, with features of innocent tenderness, with the imprint of complete calm upon his forehead and the deep look of a contemplator of unuttered revelations. Another main trait of the spiritual countenance of the Apostle John is revealed through his teaching about love, for which the title “Apostle of Love” is pre-eminently designated to him. Actually, all his writings are permeated by love, the basic concept of which leads to the comprehension, that God in His Being is Love (1 Jn. 4: 8). In his writings, Saint John dwells especially upon the manifestations of the inexpressible love of God for the world and for mankind, the love of his Divine Teacher. He constantly exhorts his disciples to mutual love one for another.
The service of Love—was the entire pathway of life of the Apostle John the Theologian.
The qualities of calmness and profound contemplation were in him combined with an ardent fidelity, tender and boundless love with intensity and even a certain abruptness. From the brief indications of the Evangelists it is apparent, that he was endowed in the highest degree with an ardent nature, and his hearty passionateness sometimes reached such a stormy zealousness, that Jesus Christ was compelled to give the admonishment, that it was discordant with the spirit of the new teaching (Mk. 9: 38-40; Lk. 9: 49-50, 54,56) and He called the Apostle John and his brother by birth the Apostle James “Sons of Thunder” (“Boanerges”). During this while Saint John shows scant modesty, and besides his particular position among the Apostles as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, he did not stand out among the other disciples of the Saviour. The distinguishing features of his character were the observance and sensitivity to events, permeated by a keen sense of obedience to the Will of God. Impressions received from without rarely showed up in his word or actions, but they penetrated deeply and powerfully into the inner life of the holy Apostle John. Always sensitive to others, his heart ached for the perishing. The Apostle John with pious tremulation was attentive to the Divinely-inspired teaching of his Master, to the fullness of grace and truth, in pure and sublime comprehending the Glory of the Son of God. No feature of the earthly life of Christ the Saviour slipped past the penetrating gaze of the Apostle John, nor did any event occur, that did not leave a deep impression on his memory, since in him was concentrated all the fullness and wholeness of the human person. The thoughts also of the Apostle John the Theologian are imbued with suchlike an integral wholeness. The dichotomy of person did not exist for him. In accord with his precepts, where there is not full devotion, there is nothing. Having chosen the path to service to Christ, to the end of his life he fulfilled it with complete and undivided devotion. The Apostle John speaks about wholistic a devotion to Christ, about the fullness of life in Him, wherefore also sin is considered by him not as a weakness and injury of human nature, but as evil, as a negative principle, which is completely set in opposition to the good (Jn. 8: 34; 1 Jn. 3: 4, 8-9). In his perspective, it is necessary to belong either to Christ or to the devil, it is not possible to be of a mediocre lukewarm, undecided condition (1 Jn. 2: 22, 4: 3; Rev. 3: 15-16). Therefore he served the Lord with undivided love and self-denial, having repudiated everything that appertains to the ancient enemy of mankind, the enemy of truth and the father of lies (1 Jn. 2: 21-22). Just as strongly as he loves Christ, just as strongly he contemns the Anti-Christ; just as intensely he loves truth, with an equal intensity does he contemn falsehood,—for light doth expel darkness (Jn. 8: 12; 12: 35-36). By the manifestation of the inner fire of love he witnesses with the unique power of spirit about the Divinity of Jesus Christ (Jn. 1: 1-18; 1 Jn. 5: 1-12).
To the Apostle John was given to express the last word of the Divine Revelation (that is, the final book of the Holy Scripture), ushering in the most treasured mysteries of the Divine inner life, known only to the eternal Word of God, the Only-Begotten Son.
Truth is reflected in his mind and in his words, wherein he senses and grasps it in his heart. He has comprehension of eternal Truth, and as he sees it, he transmits it to his beloved spiritual children. The Apostle John with simplicity affirms or denies and speaks always with absolute precision (1 Jn. 1: 1). He hears the voice of the Lord, revealing to him what He Himself hears from the Father.
The theology of the Apostle John abolishes the borderline between the present and the future. Looking at the present time, he does not halt at it, but transports his gaze to the eternal in the past time and to the eternal in the future time. And therefore he, exhorting for holiness in life, solemnly proclaims, that “all, born of God, sin not” (1 Jn. 5: 18; 3: 9). In communion with God the true Christian partakes of life Divine, whereby the future of mankind is accomplished already on earth. In his explanation and disclosing of the teaching about the Œconomia of salvation, the Apostle John crosses over into the area of the eternal present, in which Heaven would coincide with earth and the earth would be enlightened with the Light of Heavenly Glory.
Thus did the Galilean fisherman, this son of Zebedee, become Theologian proclaiming through Revelation the mystery of world-existence and the fate of mankind.
The celebration on May 8th of the holy Apostle John the Theologian was established by the Church in remembrance of the annual drawing forth on this day at the place of his burial of fine rose ashes, which believers gathered for healing from various maladies. The account about the life of the holy Evangelist John the Theologian is situated under September 26th, the day of his repose.
" }, "rank": 5, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O beloved apostle of Christ God, haste thou to deliver a defenseless people. He Who permitted thee to recline against His breast receiveth thee, prostrate in supplication. Him do thou beseech, O theologian, that He dispel the gloom of the nations which doth beset us, asking for us peace and great mercy.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Who can recount thy mighty works, O virgin apostle * For thou pourest out miracles and dost cause healings to flow forth; and thou prayest for our souls, in that thou art a theologian and the friend of Christ.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "96701": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed John “the Hairy” and Fool-For-Christ at Rostov († 1580)", "short": "Blessed John" } }, "96901": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr John, the soldier at Constantinople (4th C)", "short": "Martyr John" }, "rank": 1 }, "97801": { "name": { "nominative": "Repose of St John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople", "short": "Repose" }, "rank": 1 }, "97802": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople († 407)", "short": "Saint John" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "He was born in 347 of famous, rich and pious inhabitants of Antioch, Secundus and Anthusa. Having lost his father early, he grew up under the direction of his pious mother, known for her high intellectual and moral qualities and who has devoted, despite her youth, herself exclusively to his education. The pious and chaste widow by her humble affection instilled in her son a loving heart, natural to him, and by her example of a truly Christian life taught him in accordance with the will of God self-denial for the sake of the highest moral purposes and unshakable firmness in pursuing these goals and in the struggle with the trials and tribulations of life. In all of his early childhood John was occupied with the Holy Scriptures, studying it under the direction of his mother. The early acquaintance with the Bible and the beneficent influence on the heart of John by his virtuous mother have instilled in him an ardent aspiration to virtue and the sacred life, and revulsion to the splendor prevailing everywhere in his time, and to all the generation of the prophets. In his youth John studied under the famous orator Libanius. Upon completing his education, Saint John became a lawyer and soon achieved fame for his eloquence.
The moral feeling, fostered by his Christian education, restrained John from enthusiasm for worldly vanity, and he soon left the secular life and civil service and, living in the world, began to follow strictly a selfless life. St. Meletius, bishop of Antioch, having noticed the great talents of John and his openly Christian attitude, approached him to complete his instruction in the Christian faith and baptized him (in the 25th year of his life), and during the year (370) tonsured him as reader of the Antiochian church. John, not looking at his illustrious birth, his great talent and his already acquired fame as an eloquent orator, has humbly accepted the humble rank of reader, witnessed to by his deep devotion to the Church. Fulfilling the duties of the reader, he at this time continued seriously to study the Holy Scriptures. Following his love for monasticism John was ready to withdraw to the solitary life, but as an obedient and loving son, at the request of his mother, continued to live in her house.
After the death of his mother, St. John gave his estate to the poor, freed his slaves, left for the desert and lived four years in ascetic labors of communal monasticism, and then, wishing to enter the ascetic life of a full hermit, he entered one cave, where he lived for two years (379-380) in unreasonably strict and severe ascetic labors. The hermit ascetic labors enriched his experiences of spiritual life, his knowledge of the human heart and strengthened in him a high ideal of moral perfection. After the impairment of his health, and his need to return to Antioch, St. John was ordained to the rank of deacon by St. Meletius in 381. This decision to entirely devote his life to sacred service for St. John was submission to the will of the bishop and the expression of maturity in the ascetic deeds of monasticism. Besides serving the divine services and the supervision of the deanery in church assemblies, St. John as a deacon conducted works of ecclesiastical charity and executed various assignments of the bishop. It has prepared him for an effective life. The visitation to the rich to ask them alms for the poor and to the poor to help them, has given St. John an all around knowledge of life and people and even more inflamed in him a love for the people and compassion for those living in misery and the needy. The first money, which St. John has given back to the poor, was his own, and from that day up to his very death he had nothing, and it may be said, that he was the first poor man in the Antiochian church.
Ordained (in 386) to the rank of priest in Antioch, Saint John tirelessly preached the word of God. He preached sermons at least once a week, for the most part twice, and quite often each day. In his sermons Saint John explained the Holy Scripture, rose up against false teachers, praised the ascetic exploits of the saints, censured unrighteousness and especially cruelty to poor. The inhabitants of Antioch, drawn by his eloquence, not only the Orthodox, but also the heretics and even those of Judea and the pagans, crowded about to hear him, interrupted his sermon by loud applause, and sometimes, touched to the depth of their souls, began to cry and to sob. Especially was Saint John blessed with the gifts of smooth speech that he had become famous during a time of national rebellion arising in 387 by the imposition by the Antiochians of new taxes and the destruction of the imperial statues. Then the holy preacher was shown to be a true father – a comforter, a spiritual leader to his disciples, each day soothing their complaints and their cries by conversations (number 21) in the market place and in the temple. The sermon of Saint John thundered without tiring from the church cathedra and the fame of his eloquence was propagated to all corners of the empire. During one sermon, he received from one woman the name of Chrysostom.
In 397 Saint John was consecrated the archbishop of Constantinople. Pouring out “with a mouth of golden radiance” “ the rivers of sweet teachings”, he fervently made an effort to maintain his congregation “in holiness and truth”. As “an earthly angel and celestial man”, Saint John, being example of virtue, also taught others the holy life. He cared much for the improvement of the Constantinople clergy; was the trustee and advocate of the widows, the orphans and the poor, built hospitals and hospices. The activity of the caring bishop was not limited to only the Constantinople diocese, but reached even to the others, even to remote countries: he sent missionaries to Thrace, Arabia, Persia, and God blessed his apostolic work: the wild barbarians leaving their worship of idols, converted to the religion of peace and love. The flaming zeal for Orthodoxy, the unshakable steadfastness in faith, the fervent love for his neighbors, the spirit of meekness, the wise moderation and condescension for the fallen, the spirit of a living faith and the rare pastoral persistence demanding of all the true life of a Christian, - absorbed the entire life and activity of the great hierarch. Full of love and with strict words he boldly railed against the prevailing vices of his congregation, especially the passion for theatrical shows, the love of money and the cruelty of the rich, the women’s passion for the latest fashion and dress, and the various superstitions of the simple people. The impartial sermon of Saint John, his strict accusation of the vices which he railed against, without any concessions to rank or position, soon rallied the wealthy, the elite and many others against him, and upon him came the denunciation of the Empress Eudoxia. The obvious slander, the spiteful misinterpretation of his words and his acts laid guilt on him, and the great teacher of Church in the sixth year of his Episcopal service was condemned to exile.
Because of the occurrence of an earthquake after his departure and the concern of the people, he returned from exile back to Constantinople, and continued as before to thunder against the vices of society and within six months was again sent into exile to the city of Cucusus (in Armenia), and then within two years still further to Abassia (see the New Athonite Monastery in the Georgian exarchate). But on the way to Abassia Saint John died in the city of Comana (407). The last words of Saint John—this great ecumenical teacher, the smooth speaking preacher, the strict charitable and loving pastor, were: “Glory to God for all things!”
In the church chants Saint John is praised, as “pillar of the church”, “treasury of good deeds “, “the wisdom of the depths”, “great bishop”, shining “into all the world, more than the rays of the sun with good deeds and pearly words, more wise than the wisest, and the greatest rhetor, defender of true doctrine, revealer of lies, teacher of repentance”, “father of orphans, speedy help to the injured, alms to the poor and drink to the thirsty”.
There is the existence of his Order of the Divine Liturgy known under the name of Chrysostom. Besides this, the Church has received from Saint John Chrysostom the teaching “Concerning the Priesthood” (representing an ideal Christian shepherd, his cycle of duties and the quality of service required of him), the numerous scripture commentaries, contained in his works (about 800), the sacred hymns, the commentary on the Word of God in letters to various persons, and his other compositions. In his works he is of incomparable wit and the greatest in oratory. No one possessed such a plenitude of speech, in which he was so rich. The most abstract subjects of faith in his descriptions are clear for everyone, because he explains them by comparisons, by pictures. Under his well-delivered speeches one always hears the presence of poetical feeling, generated by a lot of captivating pictures and images. By his own words he with inimitable artistic touches, rejoices, excites the emotions of the soul and convinces. As in the basis of all of his acts lay the love, that love which penetrated even to his every word. Saint John was pre-eminently a preacher of love in his sermons and breathes authority and perseverance, an unusual sensitivity and sincerity. It is impossible to present all the power and interest of the conversations of Saint Chrysostom, in which one may find the connection to all that is the highest in oratory and most convincing in the hidden conduct of conscience and hearts. These talks represent by themselves the best examples for imitation of preachers in all centuries and peoples. Our ancestors drew up a lot of “book sweetness” from the works of Saint Chrysostom and for them these works were the most favored reading. And at the present time everyone looking for spiritual truth and deep edification will find for himself a fuller satisfaction in the eternal works of Saint John Chrysostom. They always were new and will ever stay new. About the divine Chrysostom, Saint Demetrius of Rostov says: “It is right to say, he surpassed the reason of all the Hellenic wise men, by word and delightful speech and the divine Scripture is beautifully explained and commented on”. Concerning the transferring of the relics of Saint John see January 27.
" }, "rank": 5, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Grace shining forth from thy mouth like a beacon hath illumined the universe, * and disclosed to the world treasures of uncovetousness, and shown us the heights of humility; * but while instructing by thy words, O father John Chrysostom. ** intercede with the Word, Christ our God, to Save our souls.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "From the heavens hast thou received divine grace, * and by thy lips thou dost teach all to worship the one God in Trinity, * O John Chrysostom, all-blessed righteous one. ** Rightly do we acclaim thee, for thou art a teacher revealing things divine.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" } } } }, "99001": { "name": { "nominative": "St. John, Archbishop and Wonderworker of Novgorod († 1186)", "short": "St. John" }, "rank": 3, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint John, Archbishop of Novgorod, was born at Novgorod of the pious parents Nikolai and Christina. He passed his childhood in quiet and peaceful surroundings.
After the death of the parents John and his brother Gabriel, having received a small inheritance, decided to make on their inherited property a small monastery in honour of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Mother of God. At first they built a wooden church, but a short time later built also a stone church. Their good intentions were not without difficulties. Before they finished construction on the stone temple, the brothers totally exhausted their means. Only their steadfast and living faith inspired them to continue what they had started. They turned for help with it to the Queen of Heaven, on Whose account this God-pleasing matter was begun. Through their unflagging prayer She manifested to them Her mercy—She foretold in a dream, that everything necessary for the completion of the temple would be provided. On the following morning the brothers saw a splendid horse, loaded with two sacks of gold. No one came by for it, and when the brothers took hold of the sacks, the horse then vanished. Thus did the Mother of god send means for the monastery.
Upon completion of the monastery construction,—here under the protection of the Mother of God, the brothers took monastic vows. Saint John took the name of Elias (Ilia), and Saint Gabriel—the name Gregory.
The chronicles speak about Saint John being made bishop under the entries for the year 1162. His first archpastoral missive was directed to the clergy of his diocese. It was imbued with an endearing concern about his flock, written in a spirit of fatherly guidance: “It pleased God and the Most Holy Mother of God, through your prayers, that I but a mere man, should not refrain from this high dignity, of which I am unworthy. Wherein that ye yourselves have encouraged me to this service, now hearken to me…” The saint spoke about the vocation of the pastor—he is concerned about his sheep, he not only chastises but also heals those that lead a sinful life. “At the beginning of my discourse I ask you, be not strongly attached to this world, but rather be instructive to people. Look first of all, that they not give themselves over to strong drunkenness. Yet ye yourselves know, that through this most of all do not only the simple people perish, but we also. When your spiritual children approach you in repentance, then question them with mildness. It is not seemly to impose harsh penances. Scorn not the reading of books, since if we do not make a start of doing this, then what will distinguish us from the simple unschooled people?… Do not impose penances upon orphans…. Let everything be seemly, in that the yoke of Christ ought to be light…”
In the year 1165 Saint John was elevated to archbishop (from that time the Novgorod cathedra became archbishopal).
The winter of 1170 was a very difficult time for Novgorod. Suzdal′ forces with their allies laid siege to the city for two days since the Novgorod people would not accept prince Svyatoslav, and likewise they took the tribute-tax of the Dvina district which was not subject to them.
In grief the Novgorod people prayed to God and the Most Holy Mother of God for the salvation of the city. On the third night, while he was praying before an image of the Saviour, Saint John heard a voice, ordering him to go to the church of the Saviour on Elias’s (Il′ina) street, to take the icon of the Most Holy Mother of God and put it up upon a trident-hook. In the morning the saint told the assembly about the command and sent the archdeacon with clergy to the Sophia church for the icon. Going into the church, the archdeacon bowed down before the icon and wanted to take hold of it, but the icon would not budge. The archdeacon returned to the archbishop and told him about what happened. Then the saint with all the assembly went to the Elias’s (Il′ina) church and on their knees began to pray before the icon. They began to sing a moleben canon, and at the 6th ode at the kondak “ Mediatrix of Christians” the icon itself moved from the place. The people with tears cried out: “Lord, have mercy!” Then Saint John took the icon and together with two deacons carried it on the trident-hook. The Novgorod people in terror foresaw their doom, since the Suzdal′ forces with their allies had made their way ready for pillage. In the sixth hour of the evening there began an assault, and the arrows fell like rain. Then by the Providence of God the icon turned its visage towards the city, and from the eyes of the Most Holy Mother of God there trickled down tears, which the saint gathered on his phelon. A darkness like ashes covered over the Suzdal′ forces, they became unable to see and with terror they fell back. This occurred on February 25th 1170. Saint John established in honour of this a solemn feast day for Novgorod—the Sign (Slavonic: Znamenie) of the Most Holy Mother of God (celebrated November 27th).
The Suzdal′ army wreaked great harm on the Novgorod region. Here also the archpastor did not remain on the sidelines. He showed fatherly concern about devastated households suffering hunger, and he distributed aid to hapless orphans. Just like other Russian hierarchs, by prayer and by virtue he calmed and soothed the internecine strife in much-suffering Rus′. Thus, in 1172 the archpastor himself journeyed to Vladimir to reconcile the noble-born prince Andrew the God lover (Bogoliubskii) with the Novgorod people.
The saint not only shared in the adversity of his people, but most of all he concerned himself about their spiritual enlightenment. Saint John devoted great attention to spiritual conversations, which often occurred in the circle of the clergy and the laypeople. There are preserved about 30 of his instructions: concerning Baptism, Confession, the Holy Eucharist. The Guidance for Monks is filled with spiritual grandeur: “Once having followed after Christ, monks as actualisers of spiritual life by the cross ought to live in solitary places, separate from worldly folk. Let them pilfer nothing for themself, nor not wholly be dedicated to God. A monk ought always to be a monk, at every time and at every place—both in sleep and in wakefulness they should preserve the memory of death, and in flesh to be fleshless. Not for everyone does the monastery serve as a doctoring for sensual-love, just as silence—is to anger, and death—to greed for money, and the tomb—to avarice… Monastic life and worldly life are incompatible,—just as they do not harness together a camel and horse. The monk bends his neck beneath the yoke of the Creator and ought to pull the plough in the valley of humility, in order to multiply the fine wheat by the warmth of the Life-bestowing Spirit and to sow the seed-grains of the reason of God. The black-robed is not his own master; being like gods take care not to rot in likeness to people, nor fall from the heights like the light-bearing prince [that is of angels, Lucifer-satan]… for from human glory is begotten haughty pride…”
The saint’s spiritual powers of grace were unusual. For his simplicity of soul and purity of heart God gave him power against devils. One time, when the saint as was his custom prayed by night, he heard in the wash-bowl something splashing the water. Seeing that there was no one alongside him, the saint perceived, that this was the doing of a devil trying to scare him. The saint made the sign of the cross over the wash-bowl and restrained the devil. Soon the evil spirit could no longer bear the prayer of the saint, which scorched it with fire, and it began to implore to be released from the wash-bowl. The saint was agreeable, but set a condition, that the devil carry him from Novgorod to Jerusalem to the Sepulchre of the Lord, and back all in one night. The devil fulfilled the command of the saint, but asked him to tell no one about his shaming.
In one of his conversations the saint told his flock, that he knew a man, who by night visited the Holy Land. The revenge of the evil spirit was not slow in coming. It began to scatter about women’s things in the cell of the saint. One time when a large crowd of city-folk, stirred up by jealous and unvirtuous people, had gathered at the cell of the monk, the devil appeared to them, looking like a woman which ran out from the cell. The saint came out to the racket and gently asked: “What has happened, my children, what is the noise all about?” The unruly crowd, shouting various charges of perverse life against the saint, dragged him to the River Volkhov. They put the saint on a raft and released it down along the current of the river, reckoning to be rid of it. But the raft, contrary to expectation, sailed against the current straight to the male Yur′iev monastery, situated 3.2 km [3 versts] from Novgorod. Seeing this, people took shame and with weeping and shouts they went along the river-bank after the raft, beseeching the saint to forgive them and to return to the city. The heart of the simple-souled archpastor was filled with thankful joy, not only for himself but just as much for his flock: “Lord, hold this not in sin against them!”—he prayed and granted pardon to all.
This occurrence happened not long before the death of the saint. Sensing its approach, he put off the hierarch’s omophor and took the schema with the name John,—the same name he had in his youth. As successor to himself he appointed his brother, Saint Gregory (Commemorated May 24th). The saint died on September 7th, 1186 and was put in the portico of the Sophia church.
In 1439 through the zeal of Saint Euphumius (Evphymii) repairs were being made at the Sophia cathedral; in the portico chapel-temple of Saint John the Forerunner a stone suddenly came loose and powerfully cracked the lid of the tomb standing there. Saint Euphumius gave orders to lift off the boards broken by the stone, and the temple was filled with fragrance. In the tomb they beheld the undecayed relics of the saint, but no one was able to identify whom this archpastor was. In his cell Saint Euphumius began fervently to pray to God to reveal to him the name of this saint. By night there appeared before him a man, clothed in hierarchical garb, and said that he was Archbishop John, found worthy to serve the miracle of the Most Holy Mother of God in honour of Her Sign (Znamenie). “I proclaim thee the will of God,—continued the saint,—to make the memory of the archbishops and princes lying here, on October 4thth; in 1630 a feast day was also established on December 1st.
" } }, "99101": { "name": { "nominative": "Great Martyr John the New of Suceava, who suffered at Belgrade († 1330-1340)", "short": "Great Martyr" }, "rank": 2 }, "136801": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Longinus the Centurion, who stood at the Cross of the Lord and with him 2 other Martyrs (1st C)", "short": "Martyr Longinus" } }, "140401": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the relics (1521) of the Venerable Macarius the Abbot of Kalyazin", "short": "Finding" } }, "140402": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Joanna the Myrrhbearer (1st C)", "short": "St. Joanna" } }, "140501": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Macarius, Archimandrite of Kanev and Pereyaslavl († 1678)", "short": "Martyr Macarius" }, "rank": 1 }, "140601": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Severus the Presbyter of Interocrea in Italy (6th C)", "short": "St. Severus" } }, "141101": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Macarius the Faster of the Kiev Caves (12th C)", "short": "Venerable Macarius" } }, "141102": { "name": { "nominative": "Saints Sergius and Herman, the Wonderworkers of Valaam (14th C)", "short": "saints" }, "rank": 4, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monks Sergei and German of Valaam settled on the island of Valaam in 1329. The brethren gathered by them shone forth the light of Orthodoxy in this frontier land. The Karelian people began to regard Christianity with renewed suspicion, with its authority in the XIII Century being undermined by the Swedes, who sought to spread Catholicism by means of the sword. The Monks Sergei and German died in about the year 1353. A second commemoration of them is on September 11th.
" } }, "141103": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation of the relics of the Venerable Sergius and Herman, Wonderworkers of Valaam", "short": "Sts Sergius and Herman" }, "rank": 4 }, "141201": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God of “the Three Handed” (8th C)", "short": "Icon of" }, "rank": 4 }, "142810": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Cleonice", "short": "Cleonice" } }, "142811": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Sappho", "short": "Sappho" } }, "142812": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Erato", "short": "Erato" } }, "142813": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Polyhymnia", "short": "Polyhymnia" } }, "142814": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Dodona", "short": "Dodona" } }, "142815": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Athena", "short": "Athena" } }, "142816": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Troas", "short": "Troas" } }, "142817": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Cleopatra", "short": "Cleopatra" } }, "142818": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Coralia", "short": "Coralia" } }, "142819": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Callista", "short": "Callista" } }, "142820": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Theonoe", "short": "Theonoe" } }, "142821": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Theano", "short": "Theano" } }, "142822": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Aspasia", "short": "Aspasia" } }, "142823": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Polynice", "short": "Polynice" } }, "142824": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Dione", "short": "Dione" } }, "142825": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Theophane", "short": "Theophane" } }, "142826": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Erasmia", "short": "Erasmia" } }, "142827": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Hermenia", "short": "Hermenia" } }, "142828": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Aphrodite", "short": "Aphrodite" } }, "142829": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Margaret", "short": "Margaret" } }, "142830": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Antigone", "short": "Antigone" } }, "142831": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Pandora", "short": "Pandora" } }, "142832": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Chaido", "short": "Chaido" } }, "142833": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Lampro", "short": "Lampro" } }, "142834": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Moscho", "short": "Moscho" } }, "142835": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Areboia", "short": "Areboia" } }, "142836": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Theonymphe", "short": "Theonymphe" } }, "142837": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Acribe", "short": "Acribe" } }, "142838": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Melpomene", "short": "Melpomene" } }, "142839": { "name": { "nominative": "Virgin-Martyr Elpinice", "short": "Elpinice" } }, "142840": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Deacon Ammun", "short": "Ammun" } }, "143001": { "name": { "nominative": "Repose of Blessed Maxim of Moscow, the Fool-for-Christ († 1434)", "short": "Maxim" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "He was tonsured in Moscow in the 15 century “He was righteous and gentle, truthful and chaste, avoided every evil thing” and “shining with piety”. Enduring both cold and heat, the Blessed Maximus dressed in sackcloth ran on streets of Moscow and with brief sayings taught the people with patience who accused him of sins. He died in 1433. In 1568 his relics were found incorruptible and were glorified with miracles. They repose in Moscow, in a temple of his name. See August 13.
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "With naked flesh and great patience thou uncovered the cunning of the enemy, exposing his impure deeds. Suffering greatly from scorching heat and biting frost, thou did not feel great need for fire, being covered by Divine help, O most wise Maximus. Pray for those who with faith are honorably keeping thy memory and are zealously hastening to the shrine of thy relics, that they may be delivered from troubles and falls.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "5" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Wishing for the higher beauty, thou hast reckoned as nothing the sweet delights of the flesh and attire, and thou hast loved poverty instead of this vain world, thou hast died leading the angelic way of life, O Blessed Maximus, With them pray unceasingly to Christ for us all.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "143601": { "name": { "nominative": "3,618 Martyrs who suffered at Nicomedia (3rd-4th C)", "short": "Martyrs" } }, "145901": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Abdias of Persia (5th C)", "short": "Martyr Abdias" } }, "146401": { "name": { "nominative": "Martry Romulus and 11,000 soldiers († c. 107-115)", "short": "Martry Romulus" } }, "146402": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Mark the Grave-Digger, Theophilus and John of the Kiev Caves (11th-12th C)", "short": "Venerable Mark" } }, "147901": { "name": { "nominative": "Forefeast of the Nativity of the Theotokos", "short": "Forefeast of" }, "rank": 2 }, "147904": { "name": { "nominative": "Apodosis of the Nativity of the Theotokos", "short": "Theotokos" }, "rank": 3 }, "147912": { "name": { "nominative": "Afterfeast of the Nativity of the Theotokos", "short": "Afterfeast of" } }, "149401": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Nicetas the Hidden of Constantinople (12th C)", "short": "Blessed Nicetas" } }, "150301": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Greek Empress Pulcheria († 453)", "short": "Pulcheria" } }, "151501": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Presbyter Julian", "short": "Hieromartyr Presbyter Julian" } }, "152101": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Mercurius of Smolensk († 1239)", "short": "Martyr Mercurius" }, "rank": 2 }, "152301": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Seleucus, Stratonicus, Chronides, Leontius and Serapion († c. 237)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" } }, "152501": { "name": { "short": "Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles", "nominative": "Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Methodius († 885) and Cyrill († 869), teachers of the Slavs [from Monday]", "cmd": "nday == 51" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles First-Teachers and Enlighteners of the Slavic Peoples, the Brothers Cyril and Methodius came from an illustrious and pious family living in the Greek city of Thessalonica (Soluneia). Saint Methodius was the oldest of seven brothers, Saint Constantine (Cyril—was his monastic name) was the youngest. Saint Methodius was at first in the military profession and was governor in one of the Slavic principalities dependent to the Byzantine Empire—probably Bulgaria, which made it possible for him to learn the Slavic language. Having dwelt there for about 10 years, Saint Methodius afterwards accepted monastic orders at one of the monasteries on Mount Olympus (Asia Minor). Saint Constantine from his early years distinguished himself by great aptitude and he studied together with the emperor Michael during that one’s youth—under the finest teachers in Constantinople, among which were Photios, future Patriarch of Constantinople. Saint Constantine, having attained knowledge in all the sciences of his time and also many languages, also with particular diligence studied the works of Saint Gregory the Theologian. Because of his keen mind and penetrating perception, Saint Constantine received the title “Philosopher” (wise). Upon the completion of his education, Saint Constantine accepted the dignity of priest and was appointed curator of the patriarchal library at the church of Saint Sophia, but he soon quit the capital and went off secretly to a monastery. Discovered there and having returned to Constantinople, he was appointed teacher of philosophy in the highest level of the Constantinople schools. The wisdom and strength of faith for the still rather young Constantine was so great, that he won the victory in a debate with the leader of the heretic-iconoclasts Ananias. After this victory Constantine was sent by the emperor to dispute in a debate about the Holy Trinity with the Saracens (Muslims) and again he gained the victory. Having returned, Saint Constantine went off to his brother Saint Methodius on Mt. Olympus, spending the time in unceasing prayer and reading the works of the holy fathers.
The emperor soon summoned forth both of the holy brothers from the monastery and dispatched them to preach the Gospel to the Khazars. Along the way they stayed for some time in the city of Kherson (Kherson), making preparations for preaching. There the holy brothers in miraculous manner discovered the relics of the hieromartyr Clement, Pope of Rome (Comm. 25 November). There also at Kherson Saint Constantine found a Gospel and Psalter written in “Russian letters” [that is, Slavonic], and a man speaking in Slavic, and he began to learn from this man to read and to speak in his language. After this, the holy brothers set off to the Khazars, where they gained the victory in a debate with Jews and Moslems by preaching the Gospel teaching. On the way home the brothers again visited Kherson and, taking up the relics of Saint Clement there, they returned to Constantinople. Saint Constantine remained in the capital, but Saint Methodius received the abbacy (hegumenate) at the small Polychronion monastery—not far from Mount Olympus, where he pursued asceticism as before.
Soon there came to the emperor messengers from the Moravian prince Rostislav, otherwise pressured by German bishops—with a request to send teachers to Moravia, who would be able to preach in the vernacular Slavic tongue. The emperor summoned Saint Constantine and said to him: “It is necessary for thee to go thither, where it be better for thee that no one realise this.” Saint Constantine prepared for the new task with fasting and prayer. With the help of his brother Saint Methodius and the students Gorazd, Clement, Sabbas (Savva), Naum and Angelyar he composed a Slavonic alphabet and translated into the Slavic tongue books—without which it would be impossible to celebrate Divine services: the Gospel, Epistles, Psalter, and collected services. This occurred in the year 863.
After completing the translation, the holy brothers set off to Moravia, where they were received with great honour, and they began to teach the Divine services in the Slavic language. This aroused the malice of the German bishops, who celebrated Divine services in the Moravian churches in the Latin language, and they rose up against the holy brothers, convinced that Divine services must be done only in one of three languages: Hebrew, Greek, or Latin. Saint Constantine answered them: “Ye recognise only three languages by which to give glory to God. But David sang: Come to the Lord, all nations, praise the Lord all peoples, let everything that hath breath praise the Lord! And in the Holy Gospel it says: Go teach all nations…” The German bishops were humiliated, but they became all the more bitter and sent off a complaint to Rome. The holy brothers were summoned to Rome for a decision on this question. Taking with them the relics of Saint Clement Pope of Rome, Saints Constantine and Methodius set off to Rome. Knowing that the holy brothers were bringing along with them these relics, Pope Adrian met them along the way with his clergy. The holy brothers were greeted with honour, the pope of Rome gave permission for Divine services in the Slavonic language, and the books translated by the brothers he ordered to be placed in Roman churches and to make liturgy in the Slavonic language.
At Rome Saint Constantine fell ill and, in a miraculous vision from the Lord advising of the nearness of death, he accepted the monastic schema-order with the name of Cyril (Kirill). Fifty days after the accepting of the schema, on February 14th, 869, Saint Cyril died at 42 years of age. In expiring to God, Saint Cyril commanded his brother Saint Methodius to continue with their common task—the enlightening of the Slavic peoples with the light of the true faith. Saint Methodius entreated the pope of Rome to send the body of his brother for burial in their native land, but the pope commanded the relics of Saint Cyril to be placed in the church of Saint Clement, where miracles began to occur from them.
After the death of Saint Cyril, the pope in fulfilling the request of the Slavic prince Kotsel, sent Saint Methodius to Pannonia,—having ordained him Archbishop of Moravia and Pannonia, on the ancient throne of the holy Disciple Andronicus. In Pannonia, Saint Methodius together with his students continued to propagate Divine services in books inscribed in the Slavonic language. This again aroused the wrath of the German bishops. They obtained an arrest and held a trial over Saint Methodius, who was sent in chains to Swabia, where during the course of two and an half years he underwent many sufferings. Having been set free by order of the Pope of Rome, John VIII, and restored to the rule of his archdiocese, Saint Methodius continued to preach the Gospel among the Slavs. He baptised the Czech prince Borivoi and his spouse Liudmila (Comm. 16 September), and also one of the Polish princes. The German bishops started a persecution against the saint for a third time,—for not accepting the Roman teaching about the procession of the Holy Spirit from both the Father and from the Son. Saint Methodius was summoned to Rome, but he justified himself before the pope, and preserved in its purity the Orthodox teaching, and was sent off again to the capital of Moravia, Velehrad.
Here in the ensuing years of his life Saint Methodius with the help of two of his priest-students translated into the Slavonic language all the Old Testament except for the Book of Maccabbees, and even the Nomocanon (Rule of the Holy Fathers) and books of the Holy Fathers (Patericon).
Sensing the nearness of death, Saint Methodius decreed one of his students—Gorazd, as worthy successor to himself. The sainted-bishop predicted the day of his death and he died on April 6th, 885 at an age of about 60 years. The burial service of the saint was done in three languages—Slavonic, Greek, and Latin. He was buried in the cathedral church of Velehrad.
" }, "rank": 5, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In that ye share the ways of the apostles, O divinely wise Cyril and Methodius, ye teachers of the Slavic lands, entreat the Master of all, that He confirm all the Slavic nations in Orthodoxy and oneness of mind, grant peace to the world and save our souls.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Let us honor our two sacred enlighteners, who poured forth upon us a spring of divine knowledge through their translation of the divine Scriptures. Drawing forth abundantly therefrom to this very day, we bless you, O Cyril and Methodius, who stand before the throne of the Most High and fervently pray for our souls.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "152502": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Peter of Atroe (9th C)", "short": "St. Peter" } }, "152911": { "name": { "nominative": "Forefeast of the Exaltation of the Cross", "short": "Forefeast of" } }, "152912": { "name": { "nominative": "Afterfeast of the Exaltation of the Cross", "short": "Afterfeast of" } }, "152915": { "name": { "nominative": "Apodosis of the Exaltation of the Cross", "short": "Apodosis of" }, "rank": 3 }, "153301": { "name": { "nominative": "Great Martyr Nicetas the Goth († c. 372)", "short": "Great Martyr" }, "rank": 2 }, "154501": { "name": { "nominative": "Second finding of the relics of Saint Metrophan, Bishop of Vorenzh (1989)", "short": "Second finding" } }, "154502": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyrs Sebastiana (1st C) and Melitina of Marcianopolis (2nd C)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" } }, "154503": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hieararch Mitrophan, in monastic-schema Macarius, Bishop of Voronezh († 1703)", "short": "Hierarch" } }, "154701": { "name": { "nominative": "Synaxis of the Chief of the Heavenly Hosts, Archangel Michael and the Other Heavenly Bodiless Powers: Archangels Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Selaphiel, Jehudiel, Barachiel, and Jeremiel", "short": "Bodiless Hosts" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Commander Michael, whose name in Hebrew means “Who is like God?,” or “Who is Equal to God?,” is the leader of heavenly Powers and is why in Holy Scriptures he is called the “Commander of the Powers of the Lord” (Joshua 5:14), “One of the chief princes” (Dan. 10:13) “Your great prince” (Dan. 10:21; 12: 1). In church hymns he is hymned as “leader of the angelic choir”, “Intercessor to the Tri-solar Divinity”. Celebrating him, the Holy Church celebrates also all the bodiless Powers, and is why the same feast is called the Synaxis. This feast was established in the fourth century. The reason why the Holy Angels is commemorated in November is that November is the ninth month from March (which originally was the first month of the year) and there are nine orders of angels. These nine orders, according to the teaching of the Holy Church, are divided into three hierarchies: the highest, the middle and the lowest; each hierarchy has three ranks. To the highest hierarchy belong
Saint Nicephoros was a dignitary at the court of the empress Irene (797-802), and then accepting monasticism, he became known for his piety. In the year 806, he was elevated to the patriarchal throne. The saint was a zealous defender of icon veneration. When the Iconoclast emperor Leo the Armenian (813-820) came to rule, the saint in 815 was exiled to the Island of Prokonnis, where he died in the year 828.
In the year 846 the holy relics of Patriarch Nicephoros were opened, undecayed and fragrant. They transferred them from Prokonnis to Constantinople and placed them for one day in the church of Saint Sophia, and then they transferred them to the church of the Holy Apostles. The hands of the saint are preserved in the Khilendaria monastery on Mount Athos.
The saint left behind three writings, directed against Iconoclasm. The memory of Saint Nicephoros is celebrated also on 2 June.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "The choir of patriarchs doth honor thy holy memory with praises and hymns, O Nicephorus; for it received thy soul at thy translation, O glorious one. Wherefore, today the holy Church, magnifying Christ the King, doth glorify Him Who alone loveth mankind.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "1" } } } }, "162701": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Dadas, Habeddai, Casdœ or (Kazdoia) of Persia († 4th C)", "short": "Martyrs" } }, "163201": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Ripsimia and Gaiania and 35 Holy Virgins and 70 men martyred with them in Armenia (4th C)", "short": "Martyrs" } }, "163401": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Coprios of Palestine († 530)", "short": "Venerable Coprios" } }, "163501": { "name": { "short": "Transfer", "nominative": "Transfer of the relics of St Nicholas the Wonderworker from Myra to Bari (1087)", "cmd": "nday != 46" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "In the eleventh century the Byzantine Greek empire was living through some terrible times. The Turks put an end to her influence in Asia Minor, they destroyed cities and villages, the murdered her inhabitants, and they accompanied their cruel outrage with the desecration of churches, holy relics, icons and books. The Muslim attempted also to destroy the relics of Saint Nicholas, deeply venerated by all the Christian world.
In the year 792, the caliph Hārūn ar-Rashīd (Aaron the Just) sent Khumeid at the head of a fleet to pillage the island of Rhodes. Having lain waste this island, Khumeid set off to Lycian Myra with the intent to rob from the tomb of Saint Nicholas. But instead of it he robbed another, standing alongside the crypt of the saint. Just as they succeeded in committing this sacrilege, a terrible storm lifted upon the sea and almost all the ships were shattered into pieces.
The desecration of holy things shocked not only Eastern, but also Western Christians. Christians in Italy were particularly apprehensive for the relics of Saint Nicholas, and among them were many Greeks. The inhabitants of the city of Bari, located on the shores of the Adriatic Sea, decided to save the relics of Saint Nicholas.
In the year 1087 merchants from Bari and Venice set out to Antioch for trade. Both these and others also had proposed on the return trip to take up the relics of Saint Nicholas and transport them to Italy. In this plan the men of Bari commissioned the Venetians to land them at Myra. At first two men were sent in, who in returning reported that in the city—all was quiet, and in the church where rested the glorified relics, they encountered only four monks. Immediately 47 men, having armed themselves, set out for the church of Saint Nicholas. The monk-guards, suspecting nothing, showed them the raised platform, beneath which was concealed the tomb of the saint, where by custom, they anointed foreigners with myrrh from the relics of the saint. The monks told them during this about an appearance of Saint Nicholas that evening to a certain elder. In this vision Saint Nicholas ordered the cautious preserving of his relics. This account encouraged the barons,—they saw an avowal for them in this vision and as it were a decree from the saint. In order to facilitate their activity, they revealed their intent to the monks and offered them money—300 gold coins. The monk-guards refused the money and wanted to warn the inhabitants about the misfortune threatening them. But the newcomers bound them and put their own guards at the doorway. They took apart the church platform beneath which stood the tomb with the relics. In this effort the youth Matthew was excessive in his especial zeal, wanting to as quickly as possible to find the relics of Saint Nicholas. In his impatience he broke the cover and the barons saw, that the sarcophagus was filled with fragrant holy myrrh. The compatriots of the barons, the presbyters Luppus and Drogus, made a litany, after which the break of Matthew began to flow with myrrh from the overflowing sarcophagus of the relics of the saint. This occurred on April 20th, 1087.
Seeing the absence of a container chest, presbyter Drogus wrapped the relics in the cover cloth, and in the company of the barons he carried them to the ship. The monks—having been set free, alerted the city with the sad news about the abduction of the relics of the Wonderworker Nicholas by foreigners. A crowd of people gathered at the shore, but it was too late…
On 8 May the ships arrived in Bari, and soon the joyous news made the rounds of all the city. On the following day, May 9th, 1087, they solemnly transported the relics of Saint Nicholas into the church of Saint Stephen, situated not far from the sea. The solemn bearing of the relics was accompanied by numerous healings of the sick, which inspired still greater reverence for the Saint of God. A year afterwards a church was built in the name of Saint Nicholas and consecrated by Pope Urban II.
This event, connected with the transfer of the relics of Saint Nicholas, evoked a particular veneration for the Wonderworker Nicholas and was marked by the establishing of a special feast day on May 9th. At first the Feastday of the Transfer of the Relics of Saint Nicholas was observed only by the people of the city of Bari. In the other lands of the Christian East and West it was not adopted, despite the fact that the transfer of the relics was widely known about. This circumstance is to be explained by the custom in the Middle Ages of venerating primarily the relics of local saints. Moreover, the Greek Church did not establish the celebration of this remembrance, since for it the loss of the relics of Saint Nicholas was a sad event.
The Russian Orthodox Church celebration of the memory of the Transfer of the Relics of Saint Nicholas from Lycian Myra to Bari in Italy on May 9th was established soon after the year 1087, on the basis of an already established veneration by the Russian people of the great Saint of God, brought over from Greece simultaneously with the acceptance of Christianity. The glorious accounts about the miracle-workings, done by the saint on both land and sea, were widely known to the Russian people. Their inexhaustible strength and abundance testify to the especially graced help of the great Saint of God for suffering mankind. The image of Saint Nicholas, a mighty Wonderworker and Benefactor, became especially dear to the heart of the Russian people, since it inspired deep faith and hope for his intercession. The faith of the Russian people in the abundant aid of the Saint of God was marked by numerous miracles.
A significant body of literature was compiled about him very early in Russian writings. Accounts about the miracles of Saint Nicholas done in the Russian land were recorded early on in deep antiquity. Soon after the Transfer of the Relics of Saint Nicholas from Lycian Myra to Bari, there appeared a Russian redaction of his Vita and an account about the Transfer of his holy relics, written by one contemporary to this event. Earlier still was written a laudation to the Wonderworker. And each week on Thursday, the Russian Orthodox Church honours his memory in particular.
In honour of Saint Nicholas were erected numerous churches and monasteries, and with his name Russian people are wont to name their children at Baptism. In Russia are preserved numerous wonderworking icons of the saint. Most renown among them are the images of Mozhaysk, Zaraysk, Volokolamsk, Ugreshsk and Ratny. There was neither house nor temple in the Russian land, in which there was not an image of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker. The significance of the graced intercession of the great Saint of God is expressed by the ancient compiler of the Life (Vita), in the words of whom Saint Nicholas “did work many glorious miracles both on land and on sea, aiding those downtrodden in misfortune and rescuing the drowning, carried to dry land from the depths of the sea, raising up others from corruption and bringing them home, liberating from chains and imprisonment, averting felling by the sword and freeing from death, and granting much healing to many: sight to the blind, walking to the lame, hearing to the deaf, and speech to the mute. He brought riches to many suffering in abject poverty and want, he provided the hungry food and for each in their need he appeared a ready helper, an avid defender and speedy intercessor and protector, and such as appeal to him he doth help and deliver from adversity. Both the East and the West know of this great Wonderworker, and all the ends of the earth know his miracle-working.”
" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "The day of splendid solemnity is come; the city of Bari rejoiceth, and with it the whole world doth exult with hymns and spiritual songs. For today is the sacred feast of the translation of the precious and much-healing relics of the hierarch Nicholas the wonderworker. For like the never-setting Sun, he shineth with brilliant beams of light, driving away the darkness of temptations and misfortunes from them that cry out with faith: Save us, O Nicholas, for thou art our intercessor!", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thy relics have moved like a star, from the East unto the West, O holy hierarch Nicholas; and the sea hath been sanctified by thy passage. The city of Bari receiveth grace through thee, for thou hast been shown forth for us as a wonder-worker: illustrious, most wondrous and merciful.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "165201": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Andrew, Fool-for-Christ, at Constantinople († c. 936)", "short": "Blessed Andrew" }, "rank": 1 }, "165901": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Dinoysius, Hermit of the Kiev Caves, far caves (15th C)", "short": "Venerable Dinoysius" } }, "168501": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Sergius and Baccus in Syria († 290-303)", "short": "Martyrs" } }, "170701": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Theophilus", "short": "Venerable Theophilus" } }, "176401": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke (1st C)", "short": "Holy Apostle" }, "rank": 4 }, "177901": { "name": { "nominative": "Repose of Saint Peter, Metropolitan of Moscow and Wonderworker of All Russia († 1326)", "short": "St. Peter" }, "rank": 4, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "He was born in Volhynia and since childhood was nurtured by his parents in the awe of God. When he was 12 years old, St. Peter, moved with love for asceticism, accepted monasticism and soon showed himself a paradigm of high virtue and piety, for which at a mature age was ordained a presbyter. He loved to read the Holy Bible and write icons. After many years of asceticism, St. Peter founded the Monastery of the Savior on the Rata River in which he became the Rector, (now village of Dvorets (Palace)). As Hegumen of the monastery St. Peter became glorified by his own life, and became known to the princes and noblemen and on a broader scale to the whole country. In 1308 St. Peter was installed as the Metropolitan Kiev and all Russia and settled in Vladimir on the Kliazma. The hierarch worked much to build up piety in his extensive flock: he himself went throughout the diocese, instructing the people in the faith and holy life, built temples, reconciled princes warring among themselves, himself went to the Horde to intercede for the clergy before the khan and so forth. In 1325 St. Peter transferred his see to Moscow that promoted its exaltation, since it then was yet insignificant as a city and to uniting all the Rus about him. Having set the foundation of the famous Dormition (Uspensky) Cathedral, St. Peter died in peace in 1326. Glorified while yet alive with the gift of insight, St. Peter after his death also became glorified for numerous miracles and healings. The Holy Church hymns him, as “the joy of the heavenly ranks, and on earth the praise of bishops, the glory of priests, the rule of monastics and confirmation of the church,” “comfort of the needy, advocate of widows and orphans and great defender of the Russian land.” His relics repose in the Moscow Dormition (Uspensky) Cathedral. In their presence local princes kissed the cross in loyalty to the Grand Prince of Moscow. Russian hierarchs were elected and named here. Concerning the transfer of his relics see Aug. 24." } }, "184301": { "name": { "nominative": "The service for Venerable Procopius, Confessor of Decapolis is transferred to February 24th", "short": "" } }, "190402": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Sava, Abbot of Zvenigorod († 1406)", "short": "Venerable Sava" }, "rank": 3 }, "197401": { "name": { "nominative": "Repose of Venerable Sergius, Abbot of Radonezh and Wonderworker of All Russia († 1392)", "short": "Sergius" } }, "199801": { "name": { "nominative": "The service to Sts Simeon and Anna is transfered to Monday. The service to St Nicholas of Japan is chanted today.", "short": "", "cmd": "nday == -47" } }, "199901": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation of the relics of Righteous Simeon of Verkhoturye (1704)", "short": "Translation" } }, "199902": { "name": { "nominative": "Righteous Simeon, Wonderworker of Verkhotursk († 1694)", "short": "Righteous Simeon" } }, "204301": { "name": { "nominative": "Glorification of Saint Sophronius, Bishop of Irkutsk and All Siberia (1918)", "short": "Glorification" } }, "205101": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the relics of the Holy Protomartyr and Archdeacon Stephen (415)", "short": "Finding" } }, "205102": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Protomartyr and Archdeacon Stephen († c.34)", "short": "Protomartyr" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "He belonged to the group of seven deacons installed by the apostles to serve meals for the widows (Acts 6) and was called archdeacon because he was the eldest of them. Filled with the Holy Spirit and power, he preached the word of God, confirming it with signs and wonders. During his last sermon about Christ in the Sanhedrin, those sitting there saw his face, “as the face of an Angel.” Upon finishing his sermon, St. Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, “gazed into heaven and saw the glory to God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55). He underwent the hatred of the Jews for this sermon, who slandered him for blasphemy of God and Moses and they stoned him (about the year 34). Before his death St. Stephen, “knelt down,” prayed for his murderers, and cried “with a loud voice: ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them′. And when he had said this, he fell asleep” (Acts 7:60). St. Stephen was the first of the Christians who suffered for their faith, according to St. Asterius, being “the first of the martyrs, teacher of suffering for Christ, the foundation of good confession, because before Stephen nobody poured out blood for the Gospel,” is why he is called Protomartyr. The body of Holy Protomartyr Stephen was honorably buried on the grounds of the Jewish teacher Gamaliel near Jerusalem. Refer to Aug. 2 and Sep. 15. The right hand of the Holy Protomartyr and Archdeacon Stephen is kept in a special ark (kivot) in the Serapion vault near the church of the Ven. Nikon in the Trinity - St. Sergius Laura." }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Thou didst fight the good fight, and, didst denounce the impiety of the tyrants, * O protomartyr and apostle of Christ; * for, stoned at the hands of the iniquitous, * thou hast received from on high a crown from the right hand of the Lord, ** and didst exclaim to God, crying aloud: O Lord, lay not this sin to their charge!", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Yesterday the Master came to us in the flesh, * and today his servant departeth from the flesh. * Yesterday He that reigneth over the flesh was born, * and today his servant is slain by stoning. ** For His sake the godly protomartyr Stephen doth meet his end.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "3" } } } }, "219701": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Prince Theodore of Smolensk († 1299) his sons David and Constantine, Wonderworkers of Yaroslavl", "short": "Holy Prince" }, "rank": 3 }, "220001": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation of the relics of St Theodore the Sykeote (9th C)", "short": "Translation" } }, "220101": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation of the relics of the Great Martyr Theodore Stratelates (319)", "short": "Great Martyr" }, "rank": 2 }, "220201": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Theodore the Confessor, Abbot of the Studion († 826)", "short": "Venerable Theodore" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Born in Constantinople, he received his higher education and, having accepted monasticism, he was tonsured in their Saccudion monastery, committing his life to the high principle of good works. During the reign of the Emperors Constantine Copronymus and Leo the Armenian Saint Theodore suffered much as a venerator of icons and underwent imprisonment. In the reign of Irene he founded the Studite Monastery in Constantinople, for which he wrote the rule and in which he was the rector. The venerable Theodore put in the basis of the monastic organization the general rule of St. Basil the Great, for which he was given special respect and with which he knew to perfection, while yet a monk in the Saccudion monastery. Following these rules in his the personal life, he soon became rector, and tried to apply them to the structure of the whole monastery. Owing to the increase in the number of brothers, the venerable Theodore did not have enough time, nor the strength to enter into it himself and personally to keep the rules, that is why he set up the entire order of positions, to help him with the administration and management of the monastery. For the direction of these persons he wrote a manual in iambic verses, where he set forth the duties beginning with the abbot and ending with the least of the brethren. He died in 826 in the little place of Acritos. The Venerable Theodore left many compositions, letters, canons, and church stikhera. The Typikon is indebted to the Venerable Theodore for his significant additions, concerning the structure and cycle of the church services. For the Great Lenten services the Venerable Theodore structured the Three Ode Canon for Matins, and together with his own brother Joseph of Saloni_a was called the author of the Triodion." }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O instructor of Orthodoxy, teacher of piety and purity, * beacon for the whole world, divinely inspired adornment of monastics. * O most wise Theodore by thy doctrines thou hast illumined all. ** O harp of the Spirit, entreat Christ God that our souls be saved.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thine angelic life of fasting * thou didst adorn with the struggles of suffering, * O divinely blessed Theodore, * and thou hast been shown to abide with the angels. ** With them cease thou never to pray to Christ God for us all.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "220601": { "name": { "nominative": "Repose of Right-believing Prince Theodore Yaroslavich of Novgorod († 1233), brother of St. Alexander Nevsky", "short": "St. Theodore" }, "rank": 1 }, "221101": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation of the relics of the Venerable Theodosius of the Kiev Caves (1091)", "short": "Translation of" }, "rank": 3 }, "221401": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the relics of St Theodosius, Archbishop of Chernigov (1896)", "short": "Finding" }, "rank": 1 }, "221601": { "name": { "nominative": "Repose (1783) and Second Finding of the Relics (1991) of Saint Tikhon, bishop of Voronezh, Wonderworder of Zadonsk", "short": "Saint Tikhon" }, "rank": 4 }, "232101": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Phocas, Bishop of Sinope († 117)", "short": "Hieromartyr" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "As thou didst share in the ways of the apostles and didst occupy their throne, thou didst find thine activity to be a passage to divine vision, O divinely inspired one. Wherefore, ordering the word of truth, thou didst suffer for the Faith even to the shedding of thy blood. O hieromartyr Phocas, entreat Christ God, that our souls be saved.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Offering up sacrifices as a high priest, O father, in the end thou didst offer thyself as a living sacrifice, bearing witness lawfully to Christ God, accepting death and strengthened by angels, who cried out to thee: Come with us, O Phocas, and no-one will be against us!", "Type": "1", "Tone": "6" } } } }, "237201": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Anna of Rome and Cyrilla, of Cyrene in Libya († 304)", "short": "Martyrs" } }, "238201": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Anastasia of Thessalonika", "short": "Martyr Anastasia" } }, "239301": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Anna of Kashin", "short": "Venerable Anna" } }, "239302": { "name": { "nominative": "Repose of Blessed Princess Anna of Kashin († 1338)", "short": "Anna" } }, "239401": { "name": { "nominative": "Conception by Righteous Anna, of the Most Holy Mother of God", "short": "Conception" }, "rank": 3 }, "246701": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Eudoxia, in monasticism Evphrosynia, Grand Duchess of Moscow († 1407)", "short": "Venerable Eudoxia" }, "rank": 1 }, "246801": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Ia of Persia and 9000 others († c.363)", "short": "Martyr Ia" } }, "247901": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Acepsimas, Hermit of Cyrrhus in Syria (4th C)", "short": "Venerable Akepsimos" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "He practiced asceticism as a hermit near Cyrrhus, Syria during the reign of Theodosius the Great. Ven. Acepsimas spent 60 years in a rather narrow cave, committed to fasting and continual prayer, and not seeing anybody, and died in peace.
" } }, "248801": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyrs Galaction and his wife Epistimia, at Emesa (3rd C)", "short": "Martyrs Galaction" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "They suffered for Christ during the persecution of Decius in the city of Emesa, Phœnicia. St. Galaction, being a Christian, according to the will of his parents, was betrothed to the pagan Epistime. Having instructed her in the holy faith, St. Galaction convinced her to lead a virgin life, and was himself tonsured as a monk on Mount Publion near Sinai. During the persecution when he was seized for torture, St. Epistime voluntarily joined him to share with him the cup of suffering. After severe tortures both holy martyrs were beheaded.
" }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Thy martyrs, O Lord, through their sufferings have received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God. For having Thy strength, they despoiled their adversaries, and shattered the powerless audacity of demons. Through their intercessions, save Thou our souls!", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thou hast been counted among the ranks of the martyrs of Christ, having fought valiantly, thou brightly struggled, O glorious Galaction, with thine honourable wife and fellow sufferer, Epistime; pray ye unceasingly to the one God for us all.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" } } } }, "249001": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Euphrosene of Suzdal (in the world Theodulia, † 1250)", "short": "Venerable Euphrosene" } }, "249101": { "name": { "nominative": "Great Martyr Catherine of Alexandria († 305-313)", "short": "Great Martyr Catherine" } }, "249901": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Lazarus the Wonderworker of Mt Galiseia near Ephesus († 1053)", "short": "Venerable Lazarus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "The Ven. Lazarus was born in the village of Magnesia in Asia Minor. From childhood he distinguished himself by gentleness, meekness, compassion and love of the poor, and during his whole life he signed himself with great asceticism. Having traveled to worship in the Jerusalem holy places, he practiced asceticism for ten years as a monk in the Laura of St. Sabbas in Palestine. Being worthy of holiness by his good works, the Ven. Lazarus, upon revelation from above, left for Mount Galesius (near Ephesus) and built on it the Monastery of the Resurrection of Christ, where he practiced asceticism on a pillar. “Having subdued the flesh to the spirit”, having tamed “its great turmoil” “through spiritual armor”, “in the mountains and arid deserts ever learning to ascend to the divine being”, he achieved the gift of prophecy and insight. Pious people began to gather around him, wishing to learn from him the highest asceticism of perfection. He died at age 72, in the middle of the 11th Century, and was buried on a pillar. See July 17." }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "With prayerful vigils and outpourings of tears didst thou water thy pillar, * and with sighs from the depths of thy soul thou didst render thy labors fruitful an hundredfold. * Thou wast a shepherd granting the petitions of all. ** O our father Lazarus, entreat Christ God that our souls be saved.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "With gladness the Church of Christ doth glorify thee in psalms as a luminary most great. * Wherefore, cease thou never to beseech Christ, ** that He grant forgiveness of transgressions unto all.
", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4", "Translator": "Aleksandr Andreev" } } } }, "252601": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint John the Merciful, Patriarch of Alexandria († 612)", "short": "Saint John" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Born on the island of Cyprus, son of a prince, he devoted his whole life to prayer and virtue and for his piety he was chosen to be the patriarch. In this post St. John even more cared for the poor, the suffering and the captives, not leaving anyone without bountiful grants. St. John gave alms to everyone who asked. Once among the poor gathering for a handout there were well-dressed girls who approached and asked the hierarch whether they should give alms in the same way. St. John answered: “if you are servants of Christ, give as Christ has enjoined, not looking at the person for we do not give of our own but of Christ’s”. One rich noblewoman, who visited the hierarch and saw on his bed a thin coverlet, sent him a silk one, costing 36 gold coins (zlatnitsa). The hierarch respected her zeal and put on the coverlet presented to him, but in that same night he woke up, and repented and said: “wœ to you, the condemned! You are covered with an expensive blanket, and the brothers in Christ, the poor, freeze in the cold. Let this costly gift cover some of the poor”. In the morning he sent to sell the coverlet and gave the money to the needy. The noblewoman again gave him a coverlet, but the hierarch did not want to take advantage of the gift and turned the noblewoman”s attachment to him into a means of philanthropy. So that no one from the needy would be set aside, St. John on Wednesday and Friday sat all day at the church gate so that all having business with him would not be forbidden to come to him. When they expressed surprise at his patience, the hierarch answered: “ if I always have access to my Lord Jesus Christ, in prayer I talk to Him and I ask Him everything that I want: how I can forbid my neighbor to come to me?” And it is true that no urgent business could force St. John to postpone acts of mercy. One widow approached him when he went to church. Accompanying him she listened to his advice after the service. But the hierarch answered: “but would God listen to me if I do not want to listen to her?” Then he analyzed the situation and satisfied the widow. Being “meek, the good compassionate one was also gentle”. St. John once for the defense of poor people was deeply offended by one secular leader and on the same day, before sunset, sent a message to his offender: “soon the sun will set: let us reconcile”. The leader was so touched with these words, that he not only reconciled with the peace loving hierarch, but also promised to flee from conflicts with anyone in his life. During an attack of the Persians in Egypt, St. John left for the island of Cyprus where he died in 620. His relics repose in city of Bratislava, Slovakia.
" }, "rank": 2, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "In thy patience, O venerable father, thou didst acquire thy reward, * having endured in prayers without ceasing, and loved the poor and provided for them. ** Beseech Christ God, O blessed almsgiver John, that our souls be saved.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "0" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Thou didst distribute thy wealth to the destitute, * and hast now received heavenly riches, O John most wise. * Wherefore, celebrating thy memory, ** we all honor thee, O namesake of almsgiving.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "252901": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Nilus the Myrrhstreaming of Mt Athos (17th C)", "short": "Venerable Nilus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Born in the village of Petra (in Morea), he was tonsured as an ascetic on Mount Athos. He died in peace in the 17th century. In 1815 the relics of Nilus were discovered uncorrupted and sweet smelling. Today part of them is in the temple constructed on the place of the ascetical efforts of the Venerable Nilus and the rest in the Athonite Laura.
" } }, "256801": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Xenia of Saint Petersburg (19th C) [transferred to Saturday]", "short": "Blessed Xenia", "cmd": "dow == 0" } }, "257401": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Nerses and Joseph his Disciple, with John, Saverios, Isaac and Hypatios, Bishops of Persia", "short": "Hieromartyrs" } }, "257510": { "name": { "nominative": "Forefeast of the Entry of the Theotokos", "short": "Forefeast of" } }, "257511": { "name": { "nominative": "Afterfeast of the Entry of the Theotokos", "short": "Afterfeast of" } }, "257512": { "name": { "nominative": "Apodosis of the Entry of the Theotokos", "short": "Theotokos" } }, "263001": { "name": { "nominative": "Sts. Zabulon and Susanna, parents of Equal to the Apostles Nina (3rd-4th C.)", "short": "Sts" } }, "271401": { "name": { "nominative": "Virginmartyr Theodosia of Tyre († c.307)", "short": "Virginmartyr Theodosia" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "On 29 May, the memory of the transfer of her relics from Constantinople and Venice is celebrated. See April 3rd for her vita
" } }, "281201": { "name": { "nominative": "Meeting of the Vladimir Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God (1395)", "short": "Vladimir Icon" }, "rank": 4 }, "285801": { "name": { "nominative": "Iveron Icon of the Mother of God", "short": "Iveron Icon" }, "rank": 4 }, "286501": { "name": { "nominative": "Commemoration of the deliverance of Moscow from the Poles by the Kazan Icon (1612)", "short": "Kazan Icon" }, "rank": 4 }, "305001": { "name": { "nominative": "Prophet Habakuk (7th C BC)", "short": "Prophet Habakuk" }, "rank": 1 }, "308501": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy 362 Martyrs: 62 Clergy and 300 Laymen, who suffered in Africa under the Arian Heretics († 477)", "short": "Holy Martyrs" } }, "313301": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Sophia, in the world Princess Solomonia († 1542)", "short": "Venerable Sophia" }, "services": { "0": {}, "1": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } }, "2": { "LITURGY/0": { "text": "" } } }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1999-2008 Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris.", "text": "Divorced from her spouse for barrenness, she against her will was tonsured in the Nativity of Christ Women’s Monastery and was then sent to the Suzdal Protection Monastery. Ascending from perfection to perfection through grief and struggle with herself, the Venerable Sofia lived a godly life in the monastery for 17 years and died in 1542. From the grave of the Venerable Sofia flowed many miracles and healings for those who came with faith. Her relics are in the Suzdal Monastery in a hidden place.
" } }, "316801": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Theoctist, Archbishop of Novgorod († 1310)", "short": "Holy Hierarch" } }, "324801": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Akakios of Sinai, mentioned in The Ladder (6th C)", "short": "Venerable Akakios" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "The Clergyman’s Handbook. Moscow. 1978. English translation Copyright 1997 Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Akakios of Sinai (VI Century): The account about him is located under 29 November." }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "O God of our fathers, * deal with us ever according to Thy meekness. * Deprive us not of Thy mercy, * but through their supplications ** direct our life in peace.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "4" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "Forsaking the world, thou didst follow Christ from childhood, * O all-wise and venerable Acacius, * and, emulating His voluntary humility, * thou didst cast down the prideful tyrant. ** Pray thou unceasingly in behalf of us all.", "Type": "1", "Tone": "2" } } } }, "414501": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Longin of Yarensk († 1544-1545)", "short": "Venerable Longin" } }, "427801": { "name": { "nominative": "Icons of the Mother of God: “Atskurskaya,” “Of the Pskov Caves,” “The Giver of Reason,” and “Of the Crimea”", "short": "Icons" } }, "432001": { "name": { "nominative": "Apostle of the 70 Nicanor the Deacon († 38)", "short": "Nicanor" } }, "438611": { "name": { "nominative": "Afterfeast of the Transfiguration of the Lord", "short": "Afterfeast of" } }, "439001": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Pimen the Faster of the Kiev Caves, far caves (13th-14th C)", "short": "Venerable Pimen" } }, "444411": { "name": { "nominative": "Forefeast of the Dormition of the Mother of God", "short": "Forefeast of" }, "rank": 2 }, "444412": { "name": { "nominative": "Afterfeast of the Dormition", "short": "Afterfeast of" } }, "444414": { "name": { "nominative": "Apodosis of the Dormition", "short": "Theotokos" }, "rank": 3 }, "462001": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Epimachus of Alexandria († c. 250)", "short": "Martyr Epimachus" }, "rank": 1, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "He was born in Egypt and from the first for a long time was an ascetic in desert solitude on the hills of Pelusium. During the persecution of Christians in Alexandria, St. Epimachus, burning with zealousness for the true faith, went into the city, destroyed pagan altars and firmly preached Christ to the pagans. After enduring many tortures he was beheaded for this in about the year 250.
" } }, "464501": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Ambrose, Elder of Optina, the Wonderworker († 1891)", "short": "Saint Ambrose" }, "rank": 4 }, "468312": { "name": { "nominative": "Apodosis of the Transfiguration of the Lord", "short": "Apodosis of" }, "rank": 3 }, "474701": { "name": { "nominative": "New Martyrs Seraphim and Theognostus (1921)", "short": "New Martyrs" } }, "476604": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Priest Basil († 1930)", "short": "New Hieromartyr Basil" } }, "476605": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyrs Priests Peter and Valerian († 1930)", "short": "New Hieromartyrs Peter and Valerian" } }, "476606": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Priest John († 1933)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "476607": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Priest Sergius († 1933)", "short": "Sergius" } }, "476608": { "name": { "nominative": "St. Michael the New Hieroconfessor († 1935)", "short": "St. Michael" } }, "476609": { "name": { "nominative": "New Martyr Priest Dimitry (1937)", "short": "New Martyr" } }, "476610": { "name": { "nominative": "New Martyrs Priests Alexander, Peter, Michael, John, Dimitriy, and Alexey († 1937)", "short": "New Martyrs" } }, "476614": { "name": { "nominative": "New Hieromartyr Priest John († 1937)", "short": "New Hieromartyr" } }, "649201": { "name": { "nominative": "Blessed Princes Basil and Constantine of Yaroslav (13th C)", "short": "Blessed Princes" } }, "663001": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the Relics of St John, Archbishop and Wonderworker of Shanghai, Western Europe, and San Francisco (1993)", "short": "Finding" } }, "663201": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Job, Patriarch of Moscow", "short": "Holy Hierarch" }, "rank": 4 }, "664901": { "name": { "nominative": "Finding of the Relics (2000) of the Venerable Job, in schema Joshua, of Anzer († 1720)", "short": "Finding" } }, "689201": { "name": { "nominative": "Translation of the Relics of St Theophan the Recluse of Vyshna (2002)", "short": "Translation of" } }, "772121": { "name": { "nominative": "Feast of the Life-Giving Spring of the Mother of God", "short": "Theotokos" } }, "772423": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Peter Mogila, metropolitan of Kiev (1646)", "short": "Peter" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Wikipedia", "text": "Metropolitan Peter Mohyla (Mogila)" } }, "772424": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Hierarch Dositheus the Confessor, Metropolitan of Zagreb (1945)", "short": "Dositheus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/080618174933.htm. Translated by Priest Andrew Phillips.", "text": "The Holy Confessor Dositheus (Vasich), Metropolitan of Zagreb, was canonized by the Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church in May 2000, together with the other New Martyrs of Serbia. They all suffered in the middle of the twentieth century, either at the hands of the Croat Ustaši or else as a result of the Communist terror campaign. In their scale and barbarity, the sufferings of the Serbian Church are quite comparable with what the Russian Church also underwent in the last century.
After the Yugoslav defeat in 1941, an Independent Croat State was proclaimed in Zagreb. Before the war its territory had been populated by some five million Roman Catholics, mainly Croats, some two million Orthodox Serbs and about 750,000 Muslims.
After the entry into Zagreb of German troops, welcomed by flowers and singing, on 13 April 1941 there arrived the leader of the Fascist Croat Ustaši, Ante Pavelić. The next day he received the visit of the Catholic Archbishop Aloysius Stepinac, who greeted him and blessed him as the head of the new State. At that time local newspapers published instructions, according to which the Orthodox Serb population had to quit the capital of Croatia within twelve hours and anyone who had hidden Orthodox was threatened with arrest. At Easter 1941, blessing Ante Pavelićh in the name of the Vatican, Archbishop Stepinac of Zagreb said: “I sincerely congratulate you as head of the Independent Croat State, we pray that the God of Heaven may send down his celestial blessing on you, the leader of our people” (1).
Vatican support was extremely important for Pavelić. On 18 May 1941 he went to Rome with a large Ustaši delegation, in order to give the crown of Croatia to Tomislav II, with the blessing of the Vatican. Pope Pius XII received the delegation and had a lengthy conversation with Pavelić. Afterwards Pavelić met Mussolini (2).
From the first days of the existence of the Independent Croat State, there began beatings, arrests and the deportation of the Serb population from the towns and to concentration camps. With the arrival of Pavelić in Zagreb, the anti-Serb terror campaign took on a “legal” aspect. Twelve days after his arrival in Zagreb, Pavelić issued instructions that the Cyrillic alphabet was to be forbidden. On 3 June 1941 all Serbian schools, educational institutions and orphanages were abolished. Orthodox Serbs in Zagreb and other towns were forced to wear an armband with the Latin letter R on them. The name of every town and village which had the word “Serb” in it was changed to “Croat”.
All property belonging to the Serbian Church in Sremski Karlovtsy was expropriated in the name of the State. On 18 June 1941 a statement was issued declaring that the term “Serbian Orthodox Faith” did not accord with the new State structure and the term “Eastern Greek faith” was to be used in the future. These and other harsher measures regarding the Serbian people were publicized by the Ustaši leaders and State activists. One of them, Mile Budak, publicly stated in the Zagreb Parliament that a third of the Serbs were to be annihilated, a third to be deported and a third to be made Roman Catholic and thus be assimilated with the Croats.
About this period Bishop Athanasius Yevtich has written: “The Serbian Orthodox Church, like the whole Serbian people, was at that time outlawed. The only law which operated with regard to the Serbs was the law of total annihilation. The adherents and advocates of the Ustaši ideology understood perfectly well the importance of the Orthodox Church for the Serbian people”. The well-known Serbian writer Marko Markovich rightly confirms that nothing, “could alter the conviction of the Ustaši that the Serbian Orthodox Church was the first thing to be uprooted and destroyed on the territory of Pavelić’s Croatia”.
Among the first victims of the Ustaši was Metropolitan Dositheus (Vasich) of Zagreb. One of the most famous, best educated and respected bishops of the Serbian Church. Vladyka Dositheus was the first Orthodox Metropolitan of Zagreb, having been appointed in 1932. He brought with him a wealth of experience as a bishop.
Born and brought up in Belgrade, after finishing seminary in 1900, he won a scholarship to the Kiev Theological Academy. In 1904, a hieromonk, he graduated from the Academy with a doctorate. After this the future bishop went to Germany, where he studied theology and philosophy for two years at the University of Berlin and then for two more years in Leipzig. He returned to Serbia in 1907 and taught at the St. Sabbas seminary in Belgrade. With a bursary from the Ministry of Education in Belgrade, in 1909 Fr. Dositheus headed for France. Here he studied philosophy and social sciences at the Higher School of Social Sciences in the Sorbonne. In 1910 he went to Switzerland, where he was living at the outbreak of the First Balkan War in autumn 1912. The hieromonk returned to Serbia and gave himself up wholeheartedly to the cause of the freedom and unity of the Serbian people.
In May 1913 the Council of Bishops of the Kingdom of Serbia appointed him Bishop of Niš. With the outbreak of the First World War the young bishop supported the soldiers spiritually and laboured to help refugees and orphans. When the Serbian Army retreated, he did not leave his residence and when Niš was occupied, he was interned by the Bulgarian forces of occupation. He managed to return to his see only in 1918. His health was seriously affected by his imprisonment. On his return, he set up orphanages, worked a great deal with young people and founded charities. He set up an orphanage for blind children in one of the monasteries of his diocese. Through his efforts, several memorials were put up in memory of the herœs of the nation, who had sacrificed their lives for the freedom of their homeland.
After the First World War the new State of Yugoslavia took shape and conditions were favourable for the reunion of Serbian dioceses and metropolias into one Church. Bishop Dositheus took part in negotiations with the Patriarchate of Constantinople regarding the restoration of the Patriarchate of Serbia. These were successful, and on 12 September 1920 the reunion of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the restoration of the Patriarchate were triumphantly proclaimed in Sremski Karlovtsy.
On December 1st, 1920 the Council of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church decided to send Bishop Dositheus to Czechoslovakia, at the repeated requests of Carpatho-Russians, Czechs and Slovaks. On August 21st, 1921 Bishop Dositheus went to Subcarpathian Russia and visited the centre of Orthodoxy in the area, the village of Iza, where he was welcomed in triumph. Then Vladyka visited several villages and officiated. Visiting the town of Velyki Lučky, Vladyka received three Uniate school teachers into the Church. A meeting took place, chaired by the Bishop, at which delegates from sixty Orthodox villages discussed priorities for the organization of a Carpatho-Russian Church. The meeting resolved that the delegates should ask the Very Reverend Bishop Dositheus not to leave the Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Church without his care and commit to him the governance of the affairs of this Church until the definitive canonical resolution regarding the Eastern Orthodox Church in Carpatho-Russia. A constitution for the new Church was drawn up and Bishop Dositheus went to Prague for it to be approved at the Second Council of the Church of Czechoslovakia on August 28th and 29th, 1921.
When this Council was over, Vladyka went to Serbia and took part in the Council of Bishops at which he gave a talk about the situation of Orthodox in Czechoslovakia and Subcarpathian Russia. Bishop Dositheus played a particularly important role in the rebirth and organization of the Orthodox Church on Czechoslovak territory. However, in 1932 he was appointed to the recently founded Diocese of Zagreb. Nevertheless, Vladyka did not forget his flock in Czechoslovakia. On September 29th, 1935, the feast-day of St Wenceslas, the patron-saint of the Czechs, Metropolitan Dositheus took part in the consecration of the Cathedral of Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Prague. He returned to Czechoslovakia in 1939 and took part in the consecration of the new Orthodox Cathedral in Olomouc.
In the Croat capital, where Orthodox Serbs were a minority, Vladyka soon had problems with national and religious intolerance. This is what the Carpatho-Russian political and religious leader Alexis Gerovsky had to say about this: “The Catholics were very dissatisfied when Vladyka Dositheus was appointed to Zagreb. His name had already been blacklisted, because, ‘he had made Carpatho-Russians Orthodox with his propaganda’”, as could be read in the supplementary volumes of the official “Catholic Encyclopedia”, as published by Cardinal Spellman in New York. When, a few years before the outbreak of World War II, Vladyka told me that he had been appointed to Zagreb, I urged him not to accept, since he had never been there and was not acquainted with the religious fanaticism of the Zagreb Croats. Among other things, I told him about Stepinac, who was already notorious for his intolerance, and warned him that he would have a lot of trouble there. I told him: “Stepinac spent seven years in the Jesuit seminary in Rome and will be offended by the presence of an Orthodox Metropolitan in his capital”. I advised him to persuade the members of the Synod to send a bishop who had been born before the First War, had been brought up in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and who was already familiar with people like Stepinac. But Vladyka answered that it was his duty to obey the Patriarch and go to Zagreb.
When, a few months later, I met Vladyka in Belgrade, he told me that I had been right. He was often insulted in the street. Sometimes they would break his windows in the night. Stones even fell into his bedroom. I asked whether he had contacted the police. He answered that it was not fitting for a bishop to call the police. But when I told him that in that case his enemies would think that he was frightened of them and that they would grow even more insolent, Vladyka answered: “No, they know that I’m not frightened of them. When they swear at me or spit at me, I simply raise my hand and bless them”.
Vladyka was very, very active in Zagreb. Among other things, he founded a convent dedicated to St Paraskeve. However, immediately after the Independent Croat State was proclaimed, he was arrested by the Ustaši. On that day he was ill and lying in bed. Half-dressed, he was taken out onto the street in front of a Catholic mob. Led around the streets of Zagreb, the mob mocked him and beat him. By the time he was taken to hospital, he was almost unconscious.
The hospital that Vladyka was taken to was run by Catholic nuns. This became for him not a place of treatment, but a real prison. Instead of caring for him, the nuns mocked him. Nearly every day they scourged him and pulled out nearly every hair of his beard. After a time, seriously ill, he was taken to Belgrade. According to one of the prison doctors there, one day, two SS guards in uniform brought to the prison surgery a man dressed in rags, breathing heavily and unable to speak. His body was covered in bruises and hæmorrhages. The Germans said that they had found him in a police cell in Zagreb and, discovering that he was a Serbian bishop, decided to bring him to Belgrade.
At the insistence of the Serbian government, Bishop Dositheus was released from hospital. Very ill, he arrived in Belgrade and received constant medical treatment. However, on January 14th, 1945 he died as a result of the torture he had endured and he was buried in the cemetery of the Monastery of the Presentation in Belgrade.
" } }, "772425": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Melania the Younger of Rome († 439)", "short": "Melania" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Clergyman’s Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Nun Melania, the first of a series of Roman girls who “yearned from their youthful years for Christ, thirsting for bodily chastity and stung by Divine love\",– was born into a Christian family. Her parents, people of property and wealth, looked on their daughter as an heiress and continuant of their line. At fourteen years of age Melania was given, against her will, in marriage to the illustrious youth Apinian. From the very beginning of their married life, Saint Melania besought her spouse to live with her in chastity or else release her from the marriage, chaste in both body and soul. Apinian answered: “When through the will of the Lord we come to have two children as heirs to the property, then together we shall renounce the world”. Soon Melania gave birth to a daughter, whom the young parents dedicated to God. Continuing to live together in marriage, Melania in secret wore an hairshirt and spent her nights at prayer. The second time Melania gave birth, it was premature and with severe complications. A boy was born, they baptised him, and at once he expired to the Lord. Seeing the suffering of his spouse, Blessed Apinian besought the Lord to preserve Saint Melania alive, and he gave a vow to spend the rest of their life together in chastity. Recovering, Saint Melania did away once for all with her silken-like clothing. Soon also their daughter died. Amongst themselves, the parents of the Saints were against the desire of the young couple to devote themselves to God. It was only when the father of Saint Melania became deathly sick, that he asked forgiveness of them and gave his permission for them to follow their chosen path, meanwhile asking them to pray for him. The saints then quit the city of Rome, and a new life began for them, completely dedicated to the service of God. Apinian at this time was 24 years of age, and Melania–age 20. They began to visit the sick, to take in wanderers, and generously to help the indigent. They made the rounds of the prisons, places of those exiled and mine-convicts and the destitute, held there in debtor”s prison. Having sold off estates in Italy and Spain, they generously rendered help to elders and monasteries by purchasing for the monasteries–lands in Mesopotamia, Syria, Egypt, Phœnicia and Palestine. By their assist was built many a church and sick-house. Churches of both West and East benefited from them. When in forsaking their native land, they set sail for Africa, a strong storm broke loose as they sailed. The sailors said, that this was from the wrath of God, but Blessed Melania said, that they had been given over in the ship to His unfathomable will. The waves carried the ship to an island, on which stood a city, besieged by barbarians. The besiegers demanded a ransom payment from the inhabitants, elsewise they threatened to lay waste the city. The saints supplied the necessary money, and thus saved the city and its people from destruction. Arriving then in Africa, they rendered help to all the needy there, and with the blessing of the local bishops they made offerings to churches and monasteries. During this while Saint Melania continued to humble her flesh by strict fasting, and she fortified her soul by constant reading of the Word of God, making copies of the sacred books and distributing them to those that lacked them. She herself sewed an hairshirt, and having donned it continued to wear it.
In Africa the saints spent 7 years and then, freed of all their wealth, on the command of Christ, they set off to Jerusalem. Along the way, at Alexandria, they were welcomed by the bishop, Saint Cyril, and they met in church with the holy elder Nestorios, who was possessed of the gift of prophecy and healing. The elder turned to them, comforting and calling them to courage and patience in expectation of the Glory of Heaven. At Jerusalem the saints distributed to the destitute their remaining gold and then spent their days in poverty and prayer. After a short visit to Egypt, where the saints visited many of the desert fathers, Saint Melania secluded herself into a solitary cell on the Mount of Olives, and only occasionally saw Saint Apinian. Gradually around her cell there arose a monastery, where gathered eventually nine women. Saint Melania, out of humility, would not consent to be hegumeness, and as before lived and prayed in solitude. In her instructions Saint Melania urged the sisters to be vigilant and to pray, to disdain their own opinions and cultivate first of all love for God and for one another, to keep the holy Orthodox faith and purity both of soul and of body. In particular she exhorted them to be obedient to the will of God. Calling to mind the words of the Apostle Paul, she counselled them to keep the fasts “not with wailing nor from compunction: but in virtuous disposition bestown with love for God”. By her efforts in the monastery was built an oratory and altar, where they buried relics of saints: of the Prophet of God Zachariah, of the holy First Martyr Stephen, and of the Forty Martyrs of Sebasteia. At about this time Saint Apinian expired to the Lord. Saint Melania buried his relics and there spent another four years in fasting and unceasing prayer.
Saint Melania wanted to build a men”s monastery on the Mount of the Ascension of the Lord. The Lord blessed her intent, by sending a benefactor who provided the means for the monastery. Joyfully accepting it, Saint Melania finished the great work in a single year. In this monastery, saintly men began to lift up unceasing prayer in the church of the Ascension of Christ. Having finished her tasks, the saint left Jerusalem for Constantinople, to go to her pagan uncle in hope of saving his soul. Along the way she prayed at the relics of Saint Lawrence, at the place of his martyrdom, and received auspicious signs. Arriving in Constantinople, the saint found her uncle suffering in sickness, and she conversed with him. Under her influence the sick man gave up paganism and died a Christian. During this period many inhabitants of the capital were worked up over the heretical teaching of Nestorius. Saint Melania accepted anyone who turned to her for proper explanation. Many miracles were worked through the prayer of the saint. Returning then to her own monastery, the saint sensed the nearness of death, and declared this to the presbyter and the sisters. They listened to her final instructions in deep sorrow and with tears. Having asked their prayers and commanding them to preserve themselves in purity, and having communed the Holy Mysteries with joy and psalmody, Saint Melania calmly and in peace gave up her soul to the Lord. This occurred in the year 439.
" }, "rank": 1 }, "772426": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Basil the Great, Archbishop of Cæsarea in Cappadocia", "short": "Basil", "index": "Basil the Great" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Clergyman’s Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "Saint Basil the Great, Archbishop of Cæsarea Cappadocia, “belongs not to the Church of Cæsarea alone, nor merely to his own time, nor to his own kinsmen was he merely of benefit, but rather to all lands and cities worldwide, and to all people he brought and yet brings benefit, and for Christians he always was and will be a teacher most salvific,”—thus spoke the contemporary of Saint Basil,—Saint Amphylokhios, Bishop of Iconium († 344, Comm. 23 November).
Saint Basil was born in about the year 330 at Cæsarea, the administrative centre of Cappadocia. He was of illustrious lineage, famed for its eminence and wealth, and giftedly zealous for the Christian faith. The grandfather and grandmother of the saint on his father’s side, during the time of persecution under Diocletian, had to hide themselves away in the forests of Pontum for a space of seven years. The mother of Saint Basil—Saint Emilia (Emily), was the daughter of a martyr. The father of Saint Basil was also named Basil: he was a lawyer and reknown rhetorician and lived constantly at Cæsarea.
Into the family of this elder Basil ten children were born—five sons and five daughters. Of these, five were later enumerated to the ranks of the Saints: Basil the Great; Macrina (Comm. 19 July)—was an exemplar of ascetic life, and exerted strong influence on the life and character of Saint Basil the Great; Gregory, afterwards Bishop of Nyssa (Comm. 10 January); Peter, Bishop of Sebasteia (Comm. 9 January); and Righteous Theozua—a deaconess (Comm. 10 January). Saint Basil spent the first years of his life on an estate belonging to his parents at the River Irisa, where he was raised under the supervision of his mother Emilia and grandmother Macrina. They were women of great refinement, preserving in memory the tradition of an earlier sainted-hierarch of Cappadocia—Saint Gregory Thaumatougos (Wonderworker) († c. 266-270, Comm. 17 November). Basil received his initial education under the supervision of his father, and then he studied under the finest teachers in Cæsarea Cappadocia, and it was here that he made the acquaintance of Saint Gregory the Theologian (Bogoslov, i.e. title of Saint Gregory Nazianzus; Comm. 25 January and 30 January). Later on, Basil transferred to school at Constantinople, where he listened to eminent orators and philosophers. For the finishing touches to his education Saint Basil set off to Athens—a centre of classical enlightenment.
After a four or five year stay at Athens, Basil the Great had mastered all the available disciplines: “He so thoroughly studied everything, more than others are wont to study a single subject, each science he studied to its very totality, as though he would study naught else”. Philosopher, philologist, orator, jurist, naturalist, possessing profound knowledge in astronomy, mathematics and medicine,—“this was a ship, loaded down full of learning, to the extent allowed of by human nature”. At Athens a close friendship developed between Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian (Nazianzus), which continued throughout all their life. Later on, in an eulogy to Basil the Great, Saint Gregory the Theologian speaks with delight about this period: “Various hopes guided us and in deed inevitably—in learning… Two paths opened up before us: the one—to our sacred temples and the teachers therein; the other—towards preceptors of disciplines beyond”.
In about the year 357 Saint Basil returned to Cæsarea, where for a certain while he devoted himself to rhetoric. But soon, refusing offers from Cæsarea citizens wanting to entrust him with the education of their offspring, Saint Basil entered upon the path of ascetic life.
After the death of her husband, Basil’s mother together with her eldest daughter Macrina and several maidservants withdrew to the family estate at Irisa and there began to lead an ascetic life. Basil, however, having accepted Baptism from the bishop of Cæsarea Dianios, was ordained a reader. As an expounder of the Sacred Scriptures, he at first read them to the people. Later on, “wanting to acquire a guide to the knowledge of truth”, the saint undertook a journey into Egypt, Syria and Palestine,—to the great Christian ascetics dwelling there. Upon returning to Cappadocia, he decided to do likewise. Having given his wealth to the needy, Saint Basil settled on the opposite side of the river not far from his mother Emilia and sister Macrina, gathering around him monks living in common community. Through his letters, Basil the great attracted to the wilderness monastery his good friend Gregory the Theologian. Saints Basil and Gregory asceticised amidst strict abstinence in their hovel, without roof and without fireplace, and the food was very humble. They themselves heaved the stones, planted and watered the trees, and carried heavy loads. Their hands were constantly calloused from the hard work. For clothing Basil the great had only chiton-tunic and monastic mantle; the hairshirt he wore only at night, so that it would not be obvious. In their solitude, Saints Basil and Gregory occupied themselves in an intense study of Holy Scripture with manuscript guidances from the most ancient commentators, and in parts Origen also,—from all whose works they compiled an anthology—a Philokalia (Dobrotoliubie). And also at this time at the request of the monks, Basil the Great wrote down a collection of rules for virtuous life. By his preachings and by his example Saint Basil the Great assisted in the spiritual perfecting of Christians in Cappadocia and Pontus; and many indeed turned to him. Monasteries were organised for men and for women, in which places Basil sought to unite the cœnobitic (koine-bios or life in common) lifestyle with that of the solitary hermit.
During the reign of Constantius (337-361) the heretical false-teachings of Arius spread about, and the Church summoned both its saints into service. Saint Basil returned to Cæsarea. In the year 362 he was ordained deacon by the bishop of Antioch, Meletios; later on, in 364 he was ordained to the dignity of priest by the bishop of Cæsarea, Eusebios. “But seeing,—as Gregory the Theologian relates,—that everyone exceedingly praised and honoured Basil for his wisdom and reverence, Eusebios, through human weakness, succumbed to jealousy of him, and began to show dislike for him”. The monks rose up in defense of saint Basil. To avoid causing Church discord, Basil withdrew to his own monastery and concerned himself with the organisation of monasteries. With the coming to power of the emperor Valens (364-378), who was a resolute adherent of Arianism, there began for Orthodoxy the onset of a time of troubles—“the onset of the great struggle”. Saint Basil then hastily returned to Cæsarea at the call of bishop Eusebios. In the words of Gregory the Theologian, he was for bishop Eusebios “a good advisor, a righteous representative, an expounder of the Word of God, a staff for the aged, a faithful support in matters internal, and an activist in matter external”. From this time church governance passed over to Basil, though he was subordinate to the hierarch. He preached daily, and often twice so—in the morning and in the evening. And during this time Saint Basil compiled the order of his Liturgy; he wrote a work Discourse on the Six Days and another in 16 Chapters on the Prophet Isaiah, yet another on the Psalms, and also a second compilation of monastic rules. Saint Basil wrote also Three Books Against Eunomios, an Arian teacher who with the help of Aristotelian concepts had presented the Arian dogmatics in learnedly philosophic form, converting the Christian teaching into a logical scheme of rationalist concepts.
Saint Gregory the Theologian, speaking about the activity of Basil the Great during this period, points to “the caring for the destitute and the taking in of strangers, the supervision of virgins, written and unwritten monastic rule for the monasticising, the arrangement of prayers (Liturgy), the felicitous arrangement of altars and other things”. Upon the death of the bishop of Cæsarea Eusebios, Saint Basil in the year 370 was elevated onto his cathedra-chair. As Bishop of Cæsarea, Saint Basil the Great was the newest in rank of 50 bishops in eleven provinces. Saint Athanasias the great (Comm. 2 May), with joy and with thanks to God welcomed the bestowing of Cappadocia with such a bishop as Basil, famed for his reverence, deep knowledge of Holy Scripture, great learning, and his efforts for the welfare of Church peace and unity. In the empire of Valens the external government belonged to the Arians, who held several various opinions on questions of the Divinity of the Son of God and hence were divided into several factions. And to these dogmatic disputes were connected questions about the Holy Spirit. In his books Against Eunomios, Saint Basil the Great taught about the Divinity of the Holy Spirit and Its Oneness together with the Father and the Son. Subsequently, for a full explanation of the Orthodox teaching on this question,—at the request of the Bishop of Iconium Saint Amphylokhios, Saint Basil wrote his book About the Holy Spirit.
The generally sorry state of affairs for the Cæsarea bishop was made even worse by various circumstances: Cappadocia was divided in two under the re-arrangement of governance of provincial districts. Then too at Antioch a schism occurred, occasioned by the ordination of a second bishop. There was the negative and haughty attitude of Western bishops to the attempts to draw them into the struggle with the Arians. And there was also the departure over to the Arian side by Eustathios of Sebasteia, with whom Basil had been connected by close friendship. Amidst the constant perils Saint Basil gave encouragement to the Orthodox, affirmed them in the faith, summoning them to bravery and endurance. The holy bishop wrote numerous letters to the Churches, to bishops, to clergy and to individuals. Overcoming the heretics “by the weapon of his mouth, and by the arrows of his letters”, as an untiring champion of Orthodoxy, Saint Basil all his life gave challenge to the hostility and the every which way possible intrigues of the Arian heretics.
The emperor Valens, mercilessly dispatching into exile any bishops that displeased him, and having implanted Arianism into other Asia Minor provinces, suddenly appeared in Cappadocia for precisely this purpose. He sent off to Saint Basil the prefect Modestus, who began to threaten the saint with ruin, banishment, beatings and even death by execution. “All this,—replied Basil,—for me means nothing, since one cannot be deprived of possessions that one does not have, beyond some old worn-out clothing and some books, which comprises the entirety of my wealth. For me it would not be exile, since I am bound to no particular place, and this place in which I now dwell is not mine, and indeed any place whither I be cast shalt be mine. Better it is to say: everywhere is the place of God, whither be naught stranger nor new-comer (Ps. 38 [39]: 13). And what tortures can ye do me?—I am so weak, that merely but the very first blow will be felt. Death for me would be an act of kindness: it wilt bring me all the sooner to God, for Whom I live and do labour, and to Whom moreover I do strive”;. The official was bewildered by such an answer. “Perhaps,—continued the saint,—thou hast never had encounter with a bishop; otherwise, without doubt, thou wouldst have heard suchlike words. In all else we are meek, the most humble of all, and not only affront the mighty, but also affront all, since such is prescribed for us by the law. But when it is a matter concerning God and they make bold to rise up against Him, then we—being mindful of naught else, think only of Him alone, and then fire, sword, wild beasts and chains, the rending of the body, would sooner hold satisfaction for us, than to be afraid”.
Reporting to Valens on the not to be intimidated Saint Basil, Modestus said: “Emperor, we stand defeated by a leader of the Church”. Basil the Great again showed firmness and in front of the very person of the emperor himself and his retinue produced such a strong impression on Valens, that the emperor dared not give in to the Arians demanding the exile of Basil. “On the day of Theophany, amidst an innumerable multitude of the people, Valens entered the church and mixed in amidst the throng, in order to give the appearance of being in unity with the Church. When began the singing of psalmody in the church, it was like thunder to his hearing. The emperor beheld a sea of people, and in the altar and all around was splendour; in front of all was Basil, acknowledging neither by gesture nor by glance, as though in church was occurred aught else, than that everything was intent only on God and the altar-table, and the clergy thereat in awe and reverence”.
Saint Basil almost daily celebrated Divine-services. He was particularly concerned about the strict fulfilling of the canons of the Church, and kept attentive watch, so that only worthy individuals should enter into the clergy. He incessantly made the rounds of his own church, lest anywhere there be an infraction of Church discipline, and setting aright any unseemliness. At Cæsarea Saint Basil built two monasteries, a men’s and a women’s, with a church in honour of 40 Martyrs whose relics were buried there. On the example of monks, the metropolitan clergy of the saint ,—even deacons and priests lived in remarkable poverty, to toil and lead lives chaste and virtuous. For his clergy Saint Basil got an exemption from taxes. All his personal wealth and the income proceeds from his church he used for the benefit of the destitute; in every centre of his diocese he built a poor-house; at Cæsarea—an home for wanderers and the homeless.
Sickly since youth, the toil of teaching, efforts at abstinence, the concerns and sorrows of pastoral service early sapped the strength of the saint. Saint Basil died on 1January 379 at age 49. Shortly before his death, the saint gave blessing to Saint Gregory the Theologian to enter upon the Constantinople cathedra-chair.
Upon the repose of Saint Basil, the Church immediately began to celebrate his memory. Saint Amphylokhios, Bishop of Iconium († 394), in his eulogy to Saint Basil the Great, said: “It is neither without a reason nor by chance that holy Basil hath taken leave from the body and had repose from the world unto God on the day of the Circumcision of Jesus, celebrated betwixt the day of the Nativity and the day of the Baptism of Christ. Wherefore this most blessed one, preaching and praising the Nativity and Baptism of Christ, extolling spiritual circumcision, himself forsaking the flesh, doth ascend to Christ now especially on the sacred day of remembrance of the Circumcision of Christ. Therefore also let be established on this present day annually to honour the memory of Basil the Great festally and solemnly.”
" }, "rank": 4, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "Thy sound hath gone forth into all the earth, which hath received thy discourse, whereby thou didst divinely teach and make clear the nature of things, and didst adorn the ways of men. O venerable father, thou royal priesthood, entreat Christ God, that our souls be saved.", "Tone": "1", "Type": "1" }, "KONTAKION/4032": { "text": "Thou hast been shown to be the unshakable foundation of the Church, bestowing upon all men a dominion which cannot be taken away, and sealing them with thy precepts, O newly revealed and venerable Basil.", "Tone": "4", "Podoben": "1", "Type": "4032" } } } }, "772427": { "name": { "nominative": "New Venerable Martyr Jeremias (Leonov)", "short": "Jeremias", "index": "Jeremias (Leonov)" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Jeremias (Leonov), a monk of Valaam, was martyred in 1918.
" } }, "772428": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy New Hieromartyr Platon (Kul′bush), Bishop of Revel", "short": "Platon" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Platon (Kul′bush), Bishop of Revel (now Tallinn) in Estonia was martyred in 1919." } }, "772429": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy New Hieromartyr Priest Michael Bleive", "short": "Michael" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Priest Michael (Bleive) of Revel (now Tallinn) in Estonia was martyred in 1919." } }, "772430": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy New Hieromartyr Priest Nicholas Bezhanitsky", "short": "Nicholas" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Priest Nicholas (Bezhanitsky) of Revel (now Tallinn) in Estonia was martyred in 1919." } }, "772431": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy New Hieromartyr Alexander (Trapitsyn), Archbishop of Samara", "short": "Alexander" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Alexander (Trapitsyn), Archbishop of Samara was martyred in 1938." } }, "772432": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy New Hieromartyr Priest John Sul′din", "short": "John" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "John Sul′din, a priest in Samara, was martyred in 1938." } }, "772433": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy New Hieromartyr Priest Alexander Organov", "short": "Alexander" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Alexander Organov, a priest in Samara, was martyred in 1938." } }, "772434": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy New Hieromartyr Priest John Smirnov", "short": "John" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "John Smirnov, a priest in Samara, was martyred in 1938." } }, "772435": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy New Hieromartyr Priest Alexander Ivanov", "short": "Alexander" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Alexander Ivanov, a priest in Samara, was martyred in 1938." } }, "772436": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy New Hieromartyr Priest Trophim Myachin", "short": "Trophim" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Trophim Myachin, a priest in Samara, was martyred in 1938." } }, "772437": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy New Hieromartyr Priest Vyacheslav Infantov", "short": "Vyacheslav" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Vyacheslav Infantov, a priest, was martyred in 1938." } }, "772438": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy New Hieromartyr Priest Basil Vitevsky", "short": "Basil" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "Basil Vitevsky, a priest, was martyred in 1938." } }, "772439": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy New Hieromartyr Priest James Alferov", "short": "James" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "James (Jacob) Alferov, a priest, was martyred in 1938." } }, "772440": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Basil of Ancyra", "short": "Basil", "index": "Basil of Ancyra" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "" } }, "772441": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Emily of Cæsarea, mother of St. Basil the Great", "short": "Emily", "index": "Emily of Cæsarea" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "" } }, "772443": { "name": { "nominative": "New Martyr Peter of Peloponnesus", "short": "Peter", "index": "Peter of Peloponnesus" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "" } }, "772444": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Gregory (``the Elder''), Bishop of Nazianzus, father of St. Gregory the Theologian", "short": "Gregory", "index": "Gregory of Nazianzus (the Elder)" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "", "text": "" } }, "772446": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Theodosius, Abbot in Triglia", "short": "Theodosius" } }, "772447": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Theodotus", "short": "Theodotus" } }, "772455": { "name": { "nominative": "Saint Sylvester, Pope of Rome († 335)", "short": "Hierarch" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Holy Pope of Rome Sylvester (314-335) was born at Rome of Christian parents named Rufinus and Justa. His father soon died, and the saint remained in the care of his mother. Sylvester’s teacher, the presbyter Quirinus, gave him a fine education and raised him as a true Christian. Having reached the age of maturity, Sylvester set about fulfilling the command of the Lord about service to neighbour, and particularly concerned himself with the taking in of vagrants, offering them in his own house shelter and respite. During a time of persecution against Christians, Sylvester did not hesitate to take in the holy confessor Bishop Timothy, who dwelt with him for more than a year and who by his preaching converted many to Christ. After the Martyr’s death of Timothy, Sylvester secretly took up the body of the saint and reverently gave it burial. This however came to the attention of the city head Tarquinius, and the saint was arrested and brought to trial. Tarquinius demanded him to renounce Christ, threatening him with torture and death. Saint Sylvester was however not intimidated, and he remained steadfast in his confession of faith, and was then thrown into prison. When Tarquinius suddenly died after the trial, the saint was set free and fearlessly he evangelised amongst the pagans, converting many to Christianity. At thirty years of age Saint Sylvester was accepted into the clergy of the Roman Church and was ordained to the dignity of deacon, and then also presbyter, by Pope Marcellinus (296-304). After the death of Pope Militiades (or Melchiades, 311-314), Saint Sylvester was chosen bishop of Rome. He zealously concerned himself about the purity of life in his flock, and he insisted that presbyters strictly fulfill their duty, and not be overwhelmed with worldly matters.Saint Sylvester became renowned as a profound expert on Holy Scripture and as a staunch defender of the Christian faith. During the reign of the emperor Saint Constantine the Great, when the periods of persecution had ended for the Church, the Jews arranged a debate about the true faith, at which were present the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine and his mother—the holy Empress Helen, together with a numerous retinue. On the side of the Christians Pope Sylvester stood forth, and on the side of the Jews—a number of learned rabbis, headed by Zambrius, a magician and sorcerer. On the basis of the Sacred books of the Old Testament, Saint Sylvester convincingly demonstrated, that all the prophets foretold the Birth of Jesus Christ from the Immaculate Virgin, and also His voluntary Suffering and Death for the Redemption of the fallen race of mankind, and His glorious Resurrection. In this verbal confrontation the saint was declared the victor. Then Zambrius tried to resort to sorcery, but the saint obstructed the evil by calling on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Zambrius and the other Jews came to believe in Jesus Christ, and they besought that there be made over them the holy Baptism. Pope Saint Sylvester directed the Roman Church for more than twenty years, and earning deep esteem as a Christian. He died peacefully in old age in the year 335." }, "rank": 1, "services": { "LITURGY": { "TROPARION/1": { "text": "The truth of things revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, * a model of meekness and a teacher of abstinence * wherefore thou hast attained the heights through humility * and riches through poverty. ** O hierarch Sylvester our father, entreat Christ God that our souls be saved.", "Tone": "4", "Type": "1" }, "KONTAKION/1": { "text": "As a conversor with the ascetics, thou becamest a priest among the priests of God the King; wherefore, thou rejoicest now with the angelic choirs. O father Sylvester, thou God-bearing shepherd, dwelling in the heavens, save those who with love celebrate thy memory.", "Tone": "4", "Podoben": "2", "Type": "1" } } } }, "772456": { "name": { "nominative": "Righteous Juliana of Lazarevo and Murom († 1604)", "short": "Juliana" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "
Righteous Juliania of Lazarev and Muromsk presents an astonishing example of a self-denying Russian Christian woman. She was the daughter of the nobleman Justin Nediurov. From her early years she lived piously, kept the fasts strictly and set aside much time for prayer. Early on having become orphaned, she was given over into the care of kinsfolk, who did not take to her and laughed at her. Juliania bore everything with patience and without complaint. Her love for people expressed itself in this manner—she often nursed the sick and sewed clothing for the poor. The pious and virtuous life of the maiden attracted the attention of the Lazarev village owner, Yurii Osor′in, who thereafter soon married her. The husband’s parents loved their gentle daughter-in-law and gave over into her hands the running of the household. Domestic concerns did not disrupt the spiritual efforts of Juliania. She always found time for prayer and she was always prepared to feed the orphaned and clothe the poor. During the time of a harsh famine, she herself remained without food, having given away her last morsel to someone begging. When an epidemic started after the famine, Juliania devoted herself completely to the nursing of the sick.
Righteous Juliania had six sons and a daughter. After the death of two of her sons she decided to withdraw to a monastery, but her husband persuaded her to remain in the world, and to continue to raise their children. On the testimony of a son of Juliania—Kallistrat Osor′in, who wrote her life, at this time she became all the more demanding towards herself: she intensified her fasting and prayer, slept not more than two hours at night, and then laying her head upon a board.
Upon the death of her husband, Juliania distributed to the poor her portion of the inheritance. Living in extreme poverty, she was none the less for it vivacious, cordial, and in everything she thanked the Lord. The saint was vouchsafed a visitation by Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker and guidance by the Mother of God in church. When Righteous Juliania expired to the Lord, she was then buried alongside her husband at the church of Saint Lazarus. Here also was buried her daughter, the schema-nun Theodosia. In the year 1614 the relics of Righteous Juliania were uncovered, exuding a fragrant myrh, from which many received healing.
" } }, "772457": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Seraphim of Sarov", "short": "Seraphim" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Seraphim of Sarov, a great ascetic of the Russian Church, was born on July 19th, 1754. His parents, Isidor and Agathia Moshnin, were inhabitants of Kursk. Isidor was a merchant involved in the construction of buildings, and towards the end of his life he began construction of a cathedral in Kursk, but he died before the completion of the work. His little son Prokhor – the future Seraphim, remained in the care of his widowed mother, who raised her son in deep faith.
\nAfter the death of her husband, Agathia Moshnina continued with the construction of the cathedral, and one time when she took Prokhor along with her there, he stumbled and fell down from the belfry. But the Lord watched over the life of the future luminary of the Church: the terrified mother, running down, found her son unharmed.
\nYoung Prokhor, endowed with an excellent memory, soon mastered his reading and writing. From the time of his childhood he loved to visit church services and to read with his fellow students both the Holy Scripture and the Lives of the Saints, but most of all he loved to pray or to read the Holy Gospel in private.
\nAt one point Prokhor fell grievously ill, and his life was in danger. In a dream the boy saw the Mother of God, promising to visit and heal him. Soon through the courtyard of the Moshnin home there came a church procession with the Znamenie (Sign) Icon of the Mother of God; his mother carried out Prokhor in her arms, and he kissed the holy icon, after which he speedily recovered.
\nWhile still in his youth Prokhor matured his plans to entirely devote his life to God and to go off to a monastery. His pious mother did not object to this and she blessed him on his monastic path with a cross, which the monk all his life wore on his chest. Prokhor set off on foot with pilgrims going from Kursk to Kiev to venerate the Kiev Caves Saints.
\nThe starets (elder) schema-monk Dosiphei, whom Prokhor visited, blessed him to go off to the Sarovsk wilderness monastery and there seek his salvation. Returning briefly to his parental home, Prohkor bid a final farewell to his mother and kinsfolk. On November 20th, 1778 he arrived at Sarov, where the monastery then was headed by a wise starets, Father Pakhomii. He amiably accepted him and put him under the spiritual guidance of the starets Joseph. And under his direction Prokhor passed through many obediences at the monastery: he was the cell-attendant of the elder, he toiled in the making of bread and prosphora and at carpentry, he did duty as a church-attendant, and he did everything with zeal and fervour, just as though serving the very Lord Himself. By constant work he hedged himself in against boredom–this being, as he later said, “the most dangerous temptation for newly-become monks, which is doctored by prayer, abstaining from idle chatter, exertive handwork, by reading of the Word of God and by patience, since that it is engendered by pettiness of soul, neglectfulness and idle talk”.
\nProkhor already in these years, on the example of the other monks that went off into the forest for prayer, besought the blessing of the elder for free time likewise to withdraw into the woods, where in complete isolation he made the Jesus Prayer. After two years as a novice, Prokhor fell ill with dropsy, his body became swollen, and he was beset with suffering. His instructor Father Joseph and the other elders were fond of Prokhor, and they provided him care. The illness dragged on for about three years, and not once did anyone hear from him a word of complaint. The elders, fearing for his very life, wanted to call a doctor for him, but Prokhor asked that this not be done, in saying to Father Pakhomii: “I have given myself over, holy father, to the True Physician of soul and body–our Lord Jesus Christ and His All-Pure Mother…”, and he besought, that they might commune him with the Holy Mysteries. Prokhor then had a vision: in an inexpressible light there appeared the Mother of God accompanied by the holy Apostles Peter and John the Theologian. Pointing with Her hand towards he that was sick, the Most Holy Virgin said to Saint John: “This one–is of our lineage”. Thereupon with Her staff She touched the side of the sick man, and immediately the fluid that had swelled up his body began to flow through a sort of opening made, and he quickly became well. Soon at the place of the appearance of the Mother of God there was built an infirmary church for the sick, and one of the side-chapels was dedicated in the name of the Monks Zosima and Savvatii of Solovetsk. The altar table for the chapel was fashioned by the Monk Seraphim with his own hands from cypress wood, and he always communed the Holy Mysteries in this church.
\nBeing eight years an obedient (novice) at the Sarov monastery, Prokhor accepted monastic tonsure with the name Seraphim, a name so finely expressive of his fiery love for the Lord and the desire zealously to serve Him. After a year, Seraphim was ordained to the dignity of monk deacon. Earnest in spirit, he daily served in temple, incessantly praying even after the service. The Lord vouchsafed the monk graced visions during the time of church-services: repeatedly he beheld holy Angels, concelebrating with the brethren. The monk was vouchsafed one particularly graced vision during the time of Divine Liturgy on Holy Great Thursday, which was celebrated by the monastery head Father Pakhomii and by Father Joseph. When after the Little Entrance with the Gospel, the Monk-deacon Seraphim pronounced the words “O Lord, save the God-fearing, and hear us”, and standing in the royal doorway, he lifted his orarion (deacon’s stole) with the exclamation prayer “And unto ages of ages”, suddenly a bright ray of light blinded him. [translator’s note: this prayer “O Lord, save the God-fearing…” in Divine Liturgy falls between the priest’s exclamation “For holy art Thou…” and the choir’s beginning of the “Holy God, Holy Mighty…”. To Orthodox believers in the West, this is likely unfamiliar (even though found in Hapgood): its use apparently ceased in Russia after the Revolution, and was restored only recently with the demise of the Soviet Union, with other liturgical changes, such as the adding of Saint Seraphim of Sarov to the commemoration of the 6th rank of saints in Proskomedia, a particle being taken from the third prosphora for the rank of the Monastics.] Looking upwards, the Monk Seraphim beheld the Lord Jesus Christ, coming through the air from the western doors of the temple, surrounded by the Heavenly Bodiless Hosts. Reaching the ambon, the Lord blessed all the praying and entered into His Image located there to the right of the royal doors. The Monk Seraphim, in spiritual rapture viewing this miraculous vision, was able to utter neither a word, nor to move from the spot. They led him by the hand into the altar, where he just stood for another three hours, his face having changed colour from the great grace that shone upon him. After the vision the saint intensified his efforts: by day he toiled at the monastery, and nights he spent at prayer in the forest wilderness cell.
\nIn 1793, at age 39, the Monk Seraphim was ordained to the dignity of hieromonk and he continued at serving in the temple. After the death of the monastery head Father Pakhomii, the Monk Seraphim,–having before this received deathbed blessing for the new exploit of wilderness dwelling, and having likewise received blessing of the new monastery head Father Isaiah,–went off to a wilderness cell some several kilometers from the monastery, in the deep forest. Here he devoted himself to solitary prayer, arriving at the monastery only on Saturday before the all-night vigil, and returning to his cell after Liturgy, at which he communed the Divine Mysteries. The monk spent his time at severe efforts. His cell rule of prayer he made according to the Typikon (ustav) rule of the ancient wilderness monasteries; from the Holy Gospel he never parted, reading through the course of the week all the New Testament, and he read likewise the holy fathers and the Divine service books. The monk learned by heart many of the Church songs and sang them during his hours at work in the forest. Around his cell he cultivated a garden and set up a beehive. Having seen to his subsistence, the monk kept to a very strict fast, he ate only once during the entire day, and on Wednesdays and Fridays he completely abstained from food. On the first Sunday of the Holy Forty Days (Lent), he did not partake of food at all until Saturday, when he communed the Holy Mysteries.
\nThe holy elder in his solitude was sometimes so immersed in his inner prayer of the heart, that at length he remained without stirring, neither hearing nor seeing anything around him. The schema monk Mark the Silent and the monk-deacon Aleksandr, also wilderness dwellers, would visit him every now and then, and finding the saint immersed in such prayer, in reverent quiet they would leave, so as not to disrupt his contemplation.
\nIn the heat of summer the monk gathered moss in a swamp as fertilizer for his garden; the gnats relentlessly bit at him, but he good-naturedly endured this vexation, saying: “Passions are destroyed by suffering and by sorrow, either arbitrarily or as sent by Providence”. For about three years the monk ate only a certain vegetable, which grew about his cell. All the more frequently there began to come not only monks, but also laypeople,–for advice and blessing. This disrupted his solitude. Having besought the blessing of the monastery head, the monk at first barred the admittance of women to him, and then all the rest, having received a sign that the Lord approved of his intent for complete silence. Through the prayer of the monk, the pathway to his wilderness cell was blocked by huge branches blown down from ancient pine trees. Now only the birds, flocking to him in throngs, and the wild beasts, paid him visit. The monk fed a bear with bread from his hand, when they happened to bring him bread from the monastery.
\nSeeing the efforts of the Monk Seraphim, the enemy of the race of man roused up against him, and wanting to force the saint to foresake his silence, he decided to frighten him, but the monk shielded himself by prayer and by the power of the Life-Creating Cross. The devil conducted against the saint “mental warfare”–persistent and continous temptation. For repulsing the onslaughts of the enemy the Monk Seraphim intensified his toil, and took upon himself the exploit of pillar dwelling. Each night he climbed up upon an immense rock in the forest and he prayed with up-raised hands, crying out: “God, be merciful to me a sinner”. By day he prayed in his cell and likewise upon a stone, which he had brought from the forest, coming down from it only for brief rest and to refresh his body with a scant bit of food. The monk prayed thus for 1,000 days and nights. The devil, shamed by the monk, hatched a plan to kill the saint and sent out robbers. Coming upon him while working in his garden, the robbers began to demand money from him. The monk had in his hands at this time an axe, he was physically strong and could have put up a fight, but he did not want to do this, having called to mind the words of the Lord: “Those taking up the sword wilt perish by the sword” ( Mt. 26-52). The monk, dropping his axe to the ground, said: “Do what ye intend to?” The robbers began to beat the monk, with the butt-end of the axe they bloodied his head, broke several of his ribs, and then having tied him, they wanted to throw him in the river, but first they searched the cell for money. Having trashed everything in the cell and finding nothing in it besides icons and a few potatœs, they were shamed in their wicked deed and left. The monk, gaining consciousness, got to his cell, and suffering terribly, he lay there all night. In the morning with great difficulty he reached the monastery. The brethren were horrified, seeing the ascetic all bruised with wounds. For eight whole days the monk just lay there, suffering from his wounds; doctors were called for him, who were amazed that after such a beating he even remained alive. But the monk did not receive his healing from the physicians: the Queen of Heaven appeared to him in a subtle dream vision together with the Apostles Peter and John. Touching the head of the monk, the Most Holy Virgin granted him healing. After this instance the Monk Seraphim had to spend about five months at the monastery, and then he again went off to his wilderness cell. Left in posture stooped over always henceforth, the monk walked, leaning upon his staff or small axe, and he indeed forgave his abusers and asked that they not be punished.
\nAfter the death of the monastery head, Father Isaiah,–a friend of the monk since his youth,–the Monk Seraphim took upon himself the deed of silence, being completely cut off from any worldly ponderings for a most purified being in the presence of God in unceasing prayer. If the saint encountered a man in the forest, he fell face downwards and did not rise up, until the passerby had moved on. In such a manner of silence the starets spent about three years, ceasing even to visit the monastery on Sundays. The fruit of silence for the Monk Seraphim was the acquisition of peace of soul and joy in the Holy Spirit. The great ascetic afterwards spoke thus to one of the monks of the monastery: “…my joy, I pray thee, acquire a spirit at peace, and then a thousand souls wilt be saved around thee”.
\nThe new monastery head, Father Nyphont, and the elder brethren of the monastery suggested to Father Seraphim that either as before he show up at the monastery on Sundays for participation in Divine services and communing the Holy Mysteries at the monastery, or that he return to the monastery. The monk chose the latter course, since it had become difficult for him to walk from the wilderness to the monastery. In spring of the year 1810 he returned to the monastery after 15 years of living in the wilderness. Not breaking off with his silence, he added onto it also that of hermit enclosure, neither coming out anywhere nor admitting anyone, he dwelt in unceasing prayer and meditation on God. In his hermitage the Monk Seraphim discovered a height of spiritual purity and was vouchsafed of God the special gifts of grace–perspicacity and wonderworking. Then the Lord sent His chosen one to serve people in an utmost monastic exploit–“elderhood” (that is, being an elder, in Russian starchestvo). On November 25th, 1825 the Mother of God accompanied by the two sainted hierarchs celebrated this day (that is, hieromartyr Clement, Pope of Rome, and Peter, Archbishop of Alexandria), appeared to the elder in a dream vision and bid him emerge from his hermitage, so as to receive infirm human souls, needful of instruction, consolation, guidance and healing. The monastery head gave blessing to this change in the manner of his life, and the monk opened the doors of his cell to everyone. The starets saw into the hearts of people, and as a spiritual physician, he healed the infirmities of soul and body with a prayer to God and by words of grace. Those coming to the Monk Seraphim sensed his great love and with tenderness they hearkened to his amiable words, with which he turned to people: “my joy, my precious”. The starets began to visit his own wilderness cell and water-spring, called Bogoslovsk (Russian: God’s Word), around which they built him a small cell. Coming out from the cell, the starets always carried on his shoulders a knapsack with stones. To the question as to why he did this, the saint humbly answered: “I oppress that which oppresseth me”.
\nIn the final period of his earthly life the Monk Seraphim especially concerned himself about his spiritual children–the Diveevo women’s monastery. While still in the dignity of monk deacon he had accompanied the belated monastery head Father Pakhomii to the Diveevo community to its monastic leader, the nun Mother Alexandra–a great woman ascetic, and then Father Pakhomii blessed the Monk Seraphim to concern himself always for the “Diveevo orphans”. He was a genuine father for the sisters, who turned to him with all their spiritual and material difficulties. His students and spiritual friends helped the saint to feed and nourish the Diveevo community:–Mikhail Vasil′evich Manturov, healed by the monk from grievous illness and on the advice of the elder having taken upon himself the exploit of voluntary poverty; Elena Vasil′evna Manturovna, one of the Diveevo sisters, voluntarily consenting to die out of obedience to the elder for her brother, who was still needed in this life; Nikolai Aleksandrovich Motovilov, who likewise was healed by the monk. N. A. Motovilov recorded in writing the remarkable teachings of the Monk Seraphim about the goals of Christian life. In the last year of the life of the Monk Seraphim, one of those healed by him saw him standing in the air during the time of prayer. The saint strictly forbade this to be told of before his death.
\nEveryone knew and esteemed the Monk Seraphim as a great ascetic and wonderworker. A year and ten months before his end, on the feast of the Annunciation, the Monk Seraphim was vouchsafed yet once more to have appear the Queen of Heaven in the company of the Baptist of the Lord John, the Apostle John the Theologian and twelve virgins, martyrs and monastics. The Most Holy Virgin conversed at length with the monk, entrusting the Diveevo sisters to him. Concluding the conversation, She said to him: “Soon, My dear one, thou shalt be with us”. During this vision with the miraculous visit of the Mother of God, a certain Diveevo eldress was present, through the prayer of the monk for her.
\nDuring the final year of his life the Monk Seraphim became noticeably weaker and he spoke much about his approaching end. During this time they often saw him at his grave, set at the approaches to his cell, and which he had prepared for himself. The monk himself had pointed out the place, where finally they would bury him–near the altar of the Dormition (Uspenie) cathedral. On January 1st, 1833 the Monk Seraphim one last time came to the Zosimo-Savvatiev church for liturgy and he communed the Holy Mysteries, after which he blessed the brethren and bid farewell, saying: “Ye seeking salvation, be not discouraged, but take heart, the day of crowns is prepared for us”. On January 2nd, the cell attendant of the monk, Father Pavel, at six in the morning left his own cell heading for church, and he caught the smell of burning coming from the cell of the Monk Seraphim; in the cell of the monk candles always burned, and he had said: “While I yet live, there wilt be no fire, but when I die, my end shalt reveal itself with a fire”. When they opened the doors, it appeared that the books and the other things had burned, but the monk himself remained upright on his knees before an icon of the Mother of God in a position of prayer, but was already lifeless. His pure soul at the time of prayer was taken by the Angels and had flown off to the Throne of the All-Mighty God, to Whom the Monk Seraphim had been a faithful servant all his life.
" } }, "772458": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Sylvester of the Kiev Caves (12th C)", "short": "Sylvester" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The Monk Sylvester of Kiev Caves lived during the 12th century and was hegumen of the Mikhailovsk Vydubitsk monastery at Kiev. He continued the work of the monk chronicler Nestor and he wrote nine Lives of the Kiev Caves holy saints. In the service to the Kiev Caves Fathers venerated in the Nearer Caves, the Monk Sylvester is called blessed and endowed with “a miraculous gift to ward off demonic suggestions” (Ode9 of the Canon). The Monk Sylvester was buried in the Nearer Caves, and his memory is celebrated likewise on 28 September and on the 2nd Sunday of Great Lent." } }, "772459": { "name": { "nominative": "Hieromartyr Theogenes, Bishop of Parium on the Hellespont († c. 320)", "short": "Theogenes" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "Bulgakov Handbook. Copyright 1997 by translator Fr. S. Janos.", "text": "The hieromartyr Theogenes was bishop of the Asian Minor city of Pareia at the beginning of the 4th century. During the reign of the emperor Licinius (307-324),– a coruler of Constantine the Great, the tribune Zalicentius demanded him to forsake the priestly dignity, to renounce Christ and to enlist in military service. After his resolute refusal, Saint Theogenes was mercilessly beaten with canes and thrown into prison, where it was forbidden to allow him food. They then sentenced him to be drowned in the sea. Before execution the saint requested time for prayer, during which time an extraordinary light shone on him. The sailors and certain of the soldiers entrusted to drown the saint were struck by the light and were converted to Christ, but other soldiers hastened to cast the saint into the sea. Saint Theogenes accepted a martyr’s death in about the year 320. His body was afterwards taken from the waters by Christians and buried at the city walls. And at this spot numerous healings occurred." } }, "901501": { "name": { "nominative": "Right-believing Tamara, Queen of Georgia († 1213) (movable feast on Sunday of Myrrhbearing Women)", "short": "Tamara" } }, "902201": { "name": { "nominative": "Holy Martyr Abraham the Bulgar, Wonderworker of Vladimir († 1229) (movable feast on the 4th Sunday of Pascha)", "short": "Abraham" } }, "902202": { "name": { "nominative": "Righteous Tabitha of Joppa (1st C) (movable feast on the 4th Sunday of Pascha)", "short": "Tabitha" } }, "902501": { "name": { "nominative": "Mozdok and Dubensky-Krasnohorská (17th C) Icons of the Mother of God (movable feast at Mid-Pentecost)", "short": "Theotokos" } }, "902801": { "name": { "nominative": "Synaxis of New Martyrs of Butovo (movable feast on the 4th Saturday of Pascha)", "short": "Saints" } }, "904301": { "name": { "nominative": "Chelnskoy and Pskov-Kiev Caves called “Tenderness” icons of the Mother of God (movable feast on 7th Sunday after Pascha)", "short": "Theotokos" } }, "904601": { "name": { "nominative": "Venerable Dodo of St. David-Gareji Monastery († 596) (Georg.) (movable feast celebrated on Wednesday of the Ascension)", "short": "St Dodo" } }, "905101": { "name": { "nominative": "Icons of the Mother of God “Tupichevsk” (1847) and “Cypriot” (392) (movable feast on the Day Of the Holy Spirit)", "short": "Theotokos" } }, "905401": { "name": { "nominative": "Icon of the Mother of God “Surety of Sinners” in Korets (1622) (movable feast on Pentecost Thursday)", "short": "Theotokos" } }, "905701": { "name": { "nominative": "Icons of the Mother of God: “the Softener of evil hearts” and “the Indestructible Wall” (movable feast on the Sunday of All Saints)", "short": "Theotokos" } }, "906211": { "name": { "nominative": "Tabynsk Icon of the Mother of God", "short": "Tabynsk Icon" }, "life": { "id": "", "copyright": "V. Simonov. Ufa Diocese Bulletin. №4, April 2001. English translation by Igor Radev", "text": "The Chinese Life of the Tabynsk Icon
On June 1597 Hierodeacon Amvrosy of the Ascension hermitage walking by a salt spring discovered the miracle working icon of the Mother of God. The brethren took the icon to the church, but the next morning it was not to be found there. They finally came across it at the monastery gates.
They soon built a small chapel over that location. After the destruction of the monastery in 1633 the icon was lost, but around one hundred years later it was discovered for the second time. In 1766 the icon was seen by some shepherds near the salt springs. The icon was then brought to the Theophany church of the Bogoyavlensk Copper Smelting Factory. But the icon mysteriously disappeared from that church and was found in the village of Tabynsk. From then on it is called \"the Tabynsk icon\".
During the cholera epidemic in 1854 the icon was transferred in Orenburg and the epidemic was stalled.
Until 1918 it was carried annually from Tabynsk to Orenburg where it was placed in a special casket where it stayed for three months.
In 1914 the icon was taken to the frontlines. In the time of the Civil War during the withdrawal of the White Army under the Orenburg Cossack corps' hetman, and the combat hetman of the entire Cossack Army, Lieutenant General Alexander Ilevich Dutov (December 5, 1879 - February 6, 1921) , the miraculously discovered Tabynsk icon of the Mother of God was brought to China by His Eminence Methodius, the bishop of Orenburg. He was later made the ruling Hierarch of the Harbin Diocese, and then Metropolitan.
According to one tradition, the icon was in Harbin placed in a specially built monastery church until 1948. Afterwards it had been moved, first to Australia, and then to the USA, presumably in San Francisco.
Still, based on the archive materials of the local museums of Irkutsk, Barnaul, Vladivostok, the Archive of the Buriat branch of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, and by living in the capital of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Province of China - Urumqi, we can speak about the other \"Chinese\" life of the icon.
The detached Orenburg army of Dutov, having left Orenburg during winter 1919, and passing through Orsk, which till the end of March numbered more than 30 thousand people, crossed the Chinese border near Chuchuchon.
From 1920, the icon brought by the Dutov men was put in the church of Suiding town (present-day Shuiding, Xinjiang Province). The rectors of the church during that time were Archimandrite Jonah (Pokrovsky), made later the bishop of Hankou (1920), Priest Grigory Shtokalko (1921 - 1925), Priest Theodosy Soloshenko (1925 - 30), Archpriest Mikhail Malyarovsky (1930 - 1933), Archpriest Pavel Kochunovsky (1938 - 1944), the rector of the Xinjiang Orthodox churches and the parish priest Archpriest D. Modzyanovsky (1946 - 1952), the rector and the church elder Abbot Sofrony (Yogel) (July 8, 1954 - 1960).
The most revered sacred object of St Nicholas Church - the miracle working image of the Tabynsk Icon of the Mother of God was kept at the left kliros of the church in Ghulja. The icon, almost meter high, was covered in gilded silver casing. Similar as when in Russia, on the ninth Friday after Pascha, in Ghulja (present-day Yining), Suiding (present-day Shuiding), Chuguchak (present-day Tacheng) and Urumqi a Litany was performed.
In the late sixties St Nicholas Church was destroyed. During the \"Cultural Revolution\", the icon was lost too.
The remaining Orthodox faithful in Ghulja are gathering in private homes, where old icons are still kept together with some Service books. Many of them, not having prayer books, are manually copying prayers, passing them to one another and carefully keeping them. The natives of Ghulja, the Izmailovs, Ostroumovs, Iakovlevs are well remembering where the church together with the miracle working icon once stood. They do not believe that the icon was destroyed and are of the opinion that it was concealed by one of the parishioners somewhere outside the city. One of these natives has given to me a copy of picture of the St Nicholas church.
There is a connection between the Tabyinsk holy image and the founding in 1934 in Kanagashi near Dalian of the Mother of God of Kazan and Tabynsk female monastery. The priest serving there was Archpriest Ioann Petelin from Harbin. At the Monastery a copy of the icon was kept. In the beginning of the sixties the female monastery was closed and the nuns moved to California. Maybe it is the Kansgashi copy they are looking for in America!?
" } }, "981501": { "name": { "short": "Theotokos", "nominative": "Laudation of the Most Holy Theotokos" } }, "991301": { "name": { "nominative": "Commemoration of all the saints, who showed forth in asceticism", "short": "Ascetics" } }, "1554011": { "name": { "nominative": "Martyr Agathoclia", "short": "Agathoclia" } }, "15250101": { "name": { "nominative": "The service for Sts. Cyril and Methodius is transferred to Tuesday." } }, "16350101": { "name": { "nominative": "The service for the transferring of the relics of St. Nicholas from Myra to Bari is transferred to Thursday." } } }