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from the troparions for Holy Week:

 

In the night my soul rises early for thee o God, for thy commandments are a light on the earth.
Learn righteousness you inhabitants of the earth.
Behold the Bridegroom comes at midnight and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching

 

Thy bridal chamber I see adorned o my Saviour, and I have no wedding garment that I may enter
 O giver of light enlighten the vesture of my soul and save me

 

How shall the unworthy one, appear in the splendour of Thy saints
 for if I dare enter Thy bridal chamber with them
 my garments will betray me they are unfit for a wedding
 cleanse the filth of my soul O Lord
 and save me in thy love for mankind

 

Come, O faithful, let us work zealously for the Master
 for He distributes wealth to His servants
 let each of us according to his ability increase his talent of grace
 let one be adorned in wisdom through good works
 let another celebrate a service in splendour
 the one distributes his wealth to the poor
 the other communicates the word to those untaught

 

She rejoiced in pouring out her precious gift
 he hastened to sell the precious one
 she recognized the Master
 but Judas parted from Him
 she was set free
 but Judas was enslaved to the enemy.
 how terrible is slothfulness,
 how great her repentance,
 O Saviour who didst suffer for our sakes
 grant us also repentance and save us.

Today marks the 40 days after the death of Elena Katrina

Memory Eternal.

Christ my Lord, the Giver of light and wisdom, who opened the eyes of the blind man and transformed the fishermen into wise heralds and teachers of the gospel through the coming of the Holy Spirit, shine also in my mind the light of the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Grant me discernment, understanding and wisdom in learning.

Enable me to complete my assignments and to abound in every good work, for to You I give honour and glory.

Amen.

 

Most blessed Lord, send the grace of Your Holy Spirit on me to strengthen me that I may learn well the subject I am about to study and by it become a better person for Your glory, the comfort of my family and the benefit of Your Church and our Nation.

Amen

 

Christ, the true light, who enlightens and sanctifies every person coming into the world, let the light of Your countenance shine upon me (us) that I (we) may see Your unapproachable light; and guide my (our) steps in the way of Your commandments, through the intercessions of Your all-holy Mother and of all the Saints.

Amen.

I thank You, Lord our God, that again on this occasion You have opened my eyes to the light of Your wisdom.

You have gladdened my heart with the knowledge of truth. I entreat You, Lord, help me always to do Your will.

Bless my soul and body, my words and deeds.

Enable me to grow in grace, virtue and good habits, that Your name may be glorified, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and forever.

Amen.

Martyrs Tarachus, Probus, and Andronicus at Tarsus, in Cilicia:
The Martyrs Tarachus, Probus, and Andronicus suffered for Christ in the year 304 at Tarsus in Cilicia. When the pagans ordered him to offer sacrifice to idols, the old soldier Tarachus replied that he would offer a pure heart to the one true God instead of sacrifices of blood. Seeing the firmness of the saint's confession the true Faith, the proconsul gave them all over to torture.

"When my body suffers," St Probus said to the idol worshippers, "then my soul is healed and invigorated." The tormentors refined their tortures, such as their rage could invent, and then they tore the bodies of the saints apart. Christians secretly took up the relics of the saints and buried them.

St Cosmas the Hymnographer the Bishop of Maiuma:
Saint Cosmas the Hymnographer, Bishop of Maiuma, was a native of Jerusalem. He was raised by the parents of St John of Damascus (December 4) together with their son, and he received a fine education. When St Cosmas came of age, he set out to one of the monasteries of Palestine, where he attained renown for his monastic exploits.

During a time of persecution against holy icons St Cosmas, and the venerable John, came forward to defend Orthodoxy. In the year 743 Cosmas was made Bishop of Maiuma. He died in old age, leaving behind many canons for feast days and a Triodion for four days of Holy Week.

Venerable Amphilochius the Abbot of Glushetsa:
Saint Amphilochius, Abbot of Glushetsa, already a monk of priestly rank, came from Ustiug to St Dionysius of Glushetsa (July 1) in the year 1417. St Dionysius, learning of the wish of Amphilochius to become an ascetic, told him of the severity and harshness of life in his monastery, but this did not deter the newcomer. Then St Dionysius said, "If you wish to dwell here, then we shall make an accord not to be distinct one from another while we dwell upon the earth." Amphilochius joyfully agreed and vowed to fulfill the rule of the monastery.

The venerable Amphilochius spent twenty years in deeds of fasting, prayer and obedience under the guidance of St Dionysius, striving to imitate him in all things and assisting in the work of building up the monastery.

After the death of St Dionysius, St Amphilochius was the abbot of the Glushetsa monastery for fifteen years. He died peacefully in the year 1452, and was buried alongside his mentor.

Martyr Domnina of Anazarbus:
The Martyr Domnina of Anazarbus lived in the region of Cilicia, and suffered for confessing Christianity. She was beaten for a long time, by order of the governor Licius, and they also burned her with fire. Completely tormented, St Domnina was thrown into prison, where she died in 286.

St Edwin, King and Martyr:
Saint Edwin (Eadwine) was the son of Alla, King of Deira, and was born around 584. When his father died, Edwin was cheated out of his kingdom by King Ethelred of Bernicia, who united Bernicia and Deira into a single kingdom of Northumbria.

Edwin fled to East Anglia and took refuge with King Redwald. Redwald, because of the threats and promises he had received, was persuaded to give Edwin up to his enemies. Edwin was warned by a friend of the danger he faced. That night, a stranger promised that his kingdom would be restored to him if Edwin would do as he taught him. Edwin agreed, and the stranger laid his hand on Edwin's head, telling him to remember the gesture.

In time, Edwin became ruler of the entire north of England and, by force of arms, obliged the other kings to acknowledge him as sovereign. He married Ethelburga, the daughter of St Ethelbert (February 25), the first Christian king in England. Ethelburga was also the sister of King Ealbald of Kent.

There was an attempt on Edwin's life in 626, on the eve of Pascha. That night the queen gave birth to a baby girl, and King Quichelm of the West Saxons sent an assassin named Eumer to kill Edwin with a poisoned dagger. Eumer was admitted to Edwin's presence and tried to stab him. He would have succeeded if it had not been for Lilla, King Edwin's faithful minister, who placed himself between the king and the assassin. The blade passed through his body, however, and wounded the king. The assassin was killed, and Lilla saved Edwin's life at the cost of his own. This event is commemorated by a stone cross which stands on Lilla Howe near Flyingdales Ballistic Missle Early Warning System on the North Yorkshire Moors. Before the Pickering-Whitby road was built in 1759, this cross served as a guide for those who walked across the moors from Robin Hood's Bay to Saltergate.

Edwin thanked his gods that he had been spared, but he was told by Bishop Paulinus of York (October 10) that he had been saved by the prayers of his queen. The bishop said that he should show his gratitude to the true God by allowing his newborn daughter to be baptized. The child was baptized on Pentecost, and was given the name Eanfleda.

The king, who had been slightly wounded in the attack, promised Bishop Paulinus that he would become a Christian if he were restored to health, and if he would triumph over those who conspired to kill him.

As soon as his wound healed, King Edwin marched against the King of the West Saxons with an army. He vanquished the opposing army, killing or capturing those involved in the plot against him. He no longer followed the pagan religion, but he put off his promise to embrace Christianity, and it was many years before Edwin converted. He would sit alone for hours trying to decide which religion he should follow. St Paulinus, informed by a revelation about the stranger's promise to the king, went to Edwin and laid his hand upon his head. "Do you remember this gesture?" he asked.

The king trembled with astonishment, and would have fallen at the bishop's feet. St Paulinus gently raised him up and said, "You see that God has delivered you from your enemies. Moreover, He offers you His everlasting Kingdom. See that you fulfill your promise to become a Christian and keep the commandments of God."

King Edwin said that he would seek the counsel of his advisers and urge them to convert with him. He asked them what he should do. Coifi, a pagan priest, said it was readily apparent that their gods had no power. Another person said that this brief life was inconsequential, compared to eternity.

St Paulinus addressed the gathering, and when he had finished, Coifi told the king that the altars and temples of their false gods should be burned. The king asked him who should be the first to profane them. Coifi replied that he should be the first, since he had been foremost in leading their worship. The chief priest of the pagans was not permitted to bear arms or to ride a horse. It was customary that he ride a mare. Coifi, however, asked for a horse and for arms. Mounted on the king's own horse, Coifi threw a spear into their temple, commanding the others to pull it down and set it afire. This place was not far from York, and today it is known as Godmanham.

In 627, the eleventh year of his reign, St Edwin was baptized by St Paulinus of York in the wooden church of St Peter. St Edwin began the construction of a new stone church, which was completed by his successor St Oswald (August 5).

St Edwin ruled his kingdom in peace for six more years, and continued to practice and promote Christianity. He was killed in a battle with Penda of Mercia and Cadwalla of Wales in 633, when he was forty-eight years old, at a place now known as Hatfield.

St Edwin's body was buried at Whitby, but his head was buried at York in the church he had built. Most of the early English calendars list St Edwin as a martyr.

After the death of St Edwin, his wife St Ethelburga (April 5) returned to Kent, where she became the abbess of a monastery which she founded at Lyminge.

Icon of the Mother of God "Jerusalem":
The Jerusalem Icon of the Mother of God, by tradition, was painted by the holy Evangelist Luke fifteen years after the Ascension of the Lord at Gethsemane.

In the year 463, the icon was transferred to Constantinople. The Byzantine army carried the Jerusalem Icon into battle when they turned back an invasion of the Scythians. In 988 the icon was transferred to Korsun and given to the holy Prince Vladimir. When the people of Novgorod accepted Christianity, St Vladimir sent them this icon. In 1571, Ivan the Terrible transferred the icon to the Moscow Dormition cathedral. During the Napoleonic invasion of 1812, the original was stolen by the French and brought to Paris. An authenticated copy was placed in the Dormition cathedral.

The Jerusalem Icon is also commemorated on November 13, and on the Fifth Saturday of Great Lent.

Icon of the Mother of God of Rudens:
The Rudens Icon of the Mother of God appeared in the year 1687 in the Rudno locale of Mogilevsk diocese. In 1712 the icon was transferred to the Florovsk Ascension monastery in Kiev, where now it is located.

Translation of a Particle of the Life Giving Cross from Malta to Gatchina:
The Translation from Malta to Gatchina of a Portion of the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord, together with the Philermos Icon of the Mother of God, and the right hand of St John the Baptist took place in the year 1799. These holy things were preserved on the island of Malta by the Knights of the Catholic Order of St John of Jerusalem. In 1798, when the French seized the island, the Maltese knights turned to Russia for defense and protection. On October 12, 1799 they offered these ancient holy things to the emperor Paul I, who at this time was at Gatchina. In the autumn of 1799 the holy items were transferred to St Petersburg and placed in the Winter Palace within the church dedicated to the Icon of the Savior Not-Made-by-Hands. The Feast for this event was established in 1800.

By ancient tradition, the Philermos Icon of the Mother of God was painted by the holy Evangelist Luke. From Jerusalem it was transferred to Constantinople, where it was situated in the Blachernae church. In the thirteenth century it was taken from there by crusaders, and from that time was kept by the Knights of the Order of St John.

St Tarasius of Glushetsa:
Saint Tarasius of Glushetsa was abbot of a monastery built by St Stephen of Perm (April 26), and he zealously spread and affirmed the Orthodox Faith among the Zyryani people.

In 1427, under the successor of St Stephen, Bishop Gerasimus (January 29), St Tarasius voluntarily gave up leading the monastery and went to the Glushetsa monastery under the guidance of St Dionysius.

St Dionysius, seeing Tarasius' deep humility, accepted him. The former igumen Tarasius toiled alongside the novices as an equal at the monastery and he led a strict ascetic life. He was buried at the Dionysiev monastery in 1440.

St Macarius, Abbot of Glushetsa:
Saint Macarius, Abbot of Glushetsa (in the world Matthew), was born in Rostov. As a twelve-year-old boy he was given to St Dionysius to be raised. Growing up under the guidance of the great Elder, the saint was distinguished by a rare purity of soul. St Macarius, already a hieromonk, was chosen by the brethren as igumen of the monastery after the death of St Amphilochius. St Macarius fell asleep in the Lord on May 13 (not earlier than 1462).

Icon of the Mother of God of Yaroslav-Smolensk:
The Yaroslav-Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God was the cell icon of the archimandrite of the Trinity-St Sergius Lavra, Anthony. On October 12, 1642 while he was praying, he heard a voice from the Smolensk Hodigitria (Directress) icon saying, "Go, go to the limits of the city of Yaroslavl, to a newly-made monastery in My name." Archimandrite Anthony sent this icon with the Venerable Gersaim to the indicated monastery, being built in the forest, not far from Yaroslavl'. The wonderworking icon was set in the monastery church in the altar area.

Icon of the Mother of God of Kaluga:
The Kaluga Icon of the Mother of God appeared in the year 1748 (September 2). In 1812 many Russian and French soldiers beheld the Kaluga icon of the Mother of God, standing in the air. Thus also it was around Kaluga and Maloyaroslavl. During such appearances the Russian armies were always victorious. This vision was also granted to the peasant Paraskeva Alekseeva.

St Martin the Merciful the Bishop of Tours:
Saint Martin the Merciful, Bishop of Tours, was born at Sabaria in Pannonia (modern Hungary) in 316. Since his father was a Roman officer, he also was obliged to serve in the army. Martin did so unwillingly, for he considered himself a soldier of Christ, though he was still a catechumen.

At the gates of Amiens, he saw a beggar shivering in the severe winter cold, so he cut his cloak in two and gave half to the beggar. That night, the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to the saint wearing Martin's cloak. He heard the Savior say to the angels surrounding Him, "Martin is only a catechumen, but he has clothed Me with this garment." The saint was baptized soon after this, and reluctantly remained in the army.

Two years later, the barbarians invaded Gaul and Martin asked permission to resign his commission for religious reasons. The commander charged him with cowardice. St Martin demonstrated his courage by offering to stand unarmed in the front line of battle, trusting in the power of the Cross to protect him. The next day, the barbarians surrendered without a fight, and Martin was allowed to leave the army.

He traveled to various places during the next few years, spending some time as a hermit on an island off Italy. He became friendly with St Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers (January 14), who made Matrin an exorcist. After several years of the ascetic life, St Martin was chosen to be Bishop of Tours in 371. As bishop, St Martin did not give up his monastic life, and the place where he settled outside Tours became a monastery. In fact, he is regarded as the founder of monasticism in France. He conversed with angels, and had visions of Sts Peter and Paul (June 29) and of other saints. He is called the Merciful because of his generosity and care for the poor, and he received the grace to work miracles.

After a life of devoted service to Christ and His Church, the saint fell ill at Candes, a village in his diocese, where he died on November 8, 397. He was buried three days later (his present Feast) at Tours. During the Middle Ages, many Western churches were dedicated to St Martin, including St Martin's in Canterbury, and St Martin-in-the-Fields in London.

In 1008, a cathedral was built at Tours over the relics of St Martin. This cathedral was destroyed in 1793 during the French Revolution, together with the relics of St Martin and St Gregory of Tours (November 17). A new cathedral was built on the site many years later. Some fragments of the relics of St Martin were recovered and placed in the cathedral, but nothing remains of St Gregory's relics.

St Martin's name appears on many Greek and Russian calendars. His commemoration on October 12 in the Russian calendar appears to be an error, since ancient sources give the November date.

 

 

 

 

 

Venerable Mark the Grave-Digger of the Kiev Near Caves and the Childmartyr John:
Saints Mark the Grave-Digger, Theophilus and John are mentioned in the Kiev Caves Paterikon. Two brothers being monastics, Sts Theophilus and John, so loved each other that they prevailed upon St Mark to prepare a double grave so they could be buried side by side.

Venerable Prochorus the Wonderworker:
Saint Prochorus of the Caves was a native of Smolensk, and entered the Kiev Caves monastery under the igumen John (1089-1103). He was a great ascetic of strict temperance. In place of bread he ate pigweed (or orach), and so he was called "pigweed-eater." Every summer, he gathered pigweed and made enough bread from it to last him for a whole year. He also ate prosphora from church now and then, and his only drink was water. Seeing the patience of St Prochorus, God transformed the usual bitterness of the pigweed into sweetness.

Venerable Chariton the Confessor the Abbot of Palestine:
Saint Chariton the Confessor suffered at Iconium during one of the persecutions against Christians under the emperor Aurelian. The grace-bearing example of the holy Protomartyr Thekla (September 24) encouraged him in his confessor's deed. She being a native of his city, whose memory he in particular deeply venerated.

St Chariton bravely denounced the pagan gods and staunchly confessed faith in the One True God, Christ the Savior. The holy Confessor underwent fierce tortures but, through the Providence of God, he remained alive. When the persecution abated, the saint was set free from prison and he dedicated all his life to the service of the Lord.

Journeying to Jerusalem on pilgrimage to the holy places, he fell into the hands of robbers. They tied him up and threw him in a cave, intending to kill him later, and they hastened away on business. The saint prayed fervently in expectation of death. He gave thanks to God and entreated him to do with him according to His will.

At this time a snake crawled into the cave and began to drink wine from a vessel setting there, poisoning it with its deadly venom. Returning to the cave, the robbers drank the poisoned wine and they all perished. St Chariton gave thanks to God and began his ascetic struggles at the place of his miraculous rescue. He distributed the plundered gold of the robbers to the poor, and in the robbers cave he built a church, around which in time there formed a monastery, the renowned Pharan Lavra in Palestine.

St Chariton compiled a strict rule for his monastery. Yearning for solitude, the monk went farther into the desert, but there also he did not reject those who sought his spiritual guidance, and he founded two more monasteries: the Jericho and the Souka, named the "Old Lavra." At the end of his life, St Chariton struggled in a cave on a hill near the Souka monastery, but he did not cease to provide guidance for all three of the monasteries he founded.

According to Tradition, St Chariton compiled the office of taking monastic vows. St Chariton the Confessor died in extreme old age and was buried, in accord with his last wishes, in the Pharan monastery in the church, built on the site of the robbers' cave.

Venerable Chariton of Syanzhemsk, Vologda:
Saint Euthymius and his disciple St Chariton lived at the River Syanzhema during the close of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries. St Euthymius came to the Spasokamensk monastery from the outskirts of Volokolamsk. For a long time he continued as a novice at the monastery, but later he settled on the eastern shore of Lake Kuben near the mouth of the River Kushta.

The saint built a small cell in the impenetrable swamps and dense woods, where he struggled in total solitude. After a while, St Alexander of Kushta (June 9) came to him. He also had set out from the Spasokamensk monastery and at first settled at the River Syanzhema. St Alexander entreated St Euthymius to switch cells with him, since he was seeking a place of complete quiet.

Moving over to the River Syanzhema, St Euthymius did not refuse the local people his spiritual counsel and guidance. And there St Chariton also came to him.

St Euthymius built a church in honor of the Ascension of Christ and founded a monastery next to it. At Rostov, under the holy Archbishop Dionysius (1418-1425), he received the permission to build. Evidently, he was also ordained to the holy priesthood, and was made igumen of the monastery he established.

Both monks were an example to the brethren in prayer, and in the works of construction and supervision. They made do with food and clothing that even the brethren regarded as worthless. In church, St Euthymius stood in fear and trembling, and the brethren often saw tears of tenderness upon his face. While working at handicrafts, the saint always sang Psalms. St Euthymius died around the year 1465, though the actual day of his death is unknown.

His successor as igumen was his beloved disciple St Chariton. For more than forty years he continued the work at the monastery, and he died in old age on April 11, 1509. Both monks were buried at the Ascension church.

The memory of St Euthymius is celebrated also on January 20, and that of St Chariton on September 28, when their patron saints are commemorated.

Venerable Herodion the Abbot of Iloezersk:
Saint Herodion of Elias Lake and Novgorod, was a disciple of St Cornelius of Komel (May 19, 1537). After the death of his mentor, he settled at Elias Lake, 20 kilometers from White Lake, and there on a peninsula he built himself a cell and established a church in honor of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, marking the beginning of the Elias Lake Ozadsk monastery.

The monk was strict at fasting, he spent the nights at prayer and he received the Holy Mysteries every Saturday. An angel told the monk of his approaching end. He died as a schemamonk on September 28, 1541 and was buried in the chapel he had built.

The first icon of St Herodion was painted after his appearance to a certain Sophonios. Sophonios impiously thrust his staff into the grave of St Herodion and was struck blind, but after praying to the saint, he recovered his sight.

A short Life of St Herodion was written by Archimandrite Metrophanes of White Lake monastery, who in 1653, with the blessing of Metropolitan (afterwards Patriarch) Nikon, witnessed a miracle worked from the relics of St Herodion. Then an annual commemoration of the saint was established. At the place of the chapel of St Herodion a church was built in honor of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos together with a chapel dedicated to St Herodion of Elias Lake.

Prophet Baruch:
The Holy Prophet Baruch was an inseparable companion, disciple, friend and scribe of the great Prophet Jeremiah (May 1). He wrote an entire scroll of his prophetic sayings and read them to the people in the Temple of Jerusalem. Together with his teacher, St Baruch grievously lamented the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and he taught and censured the Jews, and he suffered spite and vexation from them. He witnessed the stoning of the holy Prophet Jeremiah, and buried his body.

After the martyr's death of the Prophet Jeremiah, St Baruch lived a short while and died in Egypt, in the sixth century before Christ. The holy Prophet Baruch prophesied the return of the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity, and the desolation of Babylon. He clearly prophesied the coming into the world of the Son of God, Who would "dwell with mankind." His prophecy begins with the words, "He is our God, and no other can compare with Him" (Bar 3:36).

The Book of the Prophet Baruch is regarded as uncanonical and is appended to the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah. On the eve of the Nativity of Christ it is read as one of the Old Testament readings, listed as a prophecy of Jeremiah.

Martyrs Alexander, Alpheius, Zosimus, Mark the Shepherd, Nikon, Neon, Heliodorus and others in Pisidia and Phrygia:
The Holy Martyrs Alexander, Alpheius, Zosimus, Mark the Shepherd, Nikon, Neon, Heliodorus and others suffered for confessing the Christian Faith in various places of Asia Minor during the reign of Diocletian (284-305).

St Mark, a shepherd, was arrested for his open confession of the Christian Faith in Pisidian Antioch. The thirty soldiers guarding him were converted by St Mark, and they were beheaded at Nicea, but St Mark was sentenced to tortures.

The brothers Sts Alexander, Alpheius and Zosimus were blacksmiths from the settlement of Katalitea, or Kalitea. They were summoned to forge the instruments of torture which would be used on St Mark the Shepherd. The iron did not melt and fuse, however, and the hands of the blacksmiths grew numb. Hearing a voice summoning them to suffer with St Mark, the brothers believed in Christ.

After fierce torture they poured molten tin down their throats. After enduring many tortures, St Mark was beheaded at Claudiopolis. When they carried the head of the holy martyr into the pagan temple of Artemis, all the idols fell down and were smashed. The witnesses of this miracle, Nikon, Neon, Heliodorus and other young men and women, believed in Christ, confessed their faith and died martyrs at Maromilium.

Martyr Wenceslaus the Prince of the Czechs:
The Holy Prince Wenceslaus (Vyacheslav) of the Czechs was a grandson of the holy Martyr and Princess Ludmilla (September 16), and he was raised by her in deep piety. He began to rule at age eighteen after the death of his father Prince Bratislav (+ 920).

In spite of his youthful age, he ruled wisely and justly and concerned himself much about the Christian enlightenment of the people. The holy prince was a widely educated man, and he studied in the Latin and Greek languages.

St Wenceslaus was peace-loving. He built and embellished churches, and in Prague, the Czech capital, he raised up a magnificent church in the name of St Vitus, and he had respect for the clergy. Envious nobles decided to murder the saint and, at first, to incite his mother against him, and later to urge his younger brother, Boleslav, to occupy the princely throne.

Boleslav invited his brother to the dedication of a church, and then asked him to stay another day. In spite of the warnings of his servants, the holy prince refused to believe in a conspiracy and exposed his life to the will of God. On the following day, September 28, 935, when Wenceslaus went to Matins, he was wickedly murdered at the doors of the church by his own brother and his brother's servants. His body was stabbed and discarded without burial.

The mother, hearing of the murder of her son, found and placed his body in a recently consecrated church at the princely court. They were not able to wash off the blood splashed on the church doors, but after three days it disappeared by itself.

After repenting of his sin, the murderer transferred the relics of St Wenceslaus to Prague, where they were placed in the church of St Vitus, which the martyr himself had constructed (the transfer of the relics of St Wenceslaus is celebrated on March 4). The memory of Prince Wenceslaus has been honored from of old in the Russian Orthodox Church.

Venerable Schemamonk Cyril the Father of the Venerable Sergius of Radonezh and his wife Venerable Schemanun Maria:
Saint Cyril were the parents of St Sergius of Radonezh (September 25). They belonged to the nobility, but more importantly, they were pious and faithful Christians who were adorned with every virtue.

When the child in Maria's womb cried out three times in church during Liturgy, people were astonished. Although frightened at first, Maria came to see this event as a sign from God that her child would become a chosen vessel of divine grace. She and her husband agreed that if the child was a boy, they would bring him to church and dedicate him to God. This child, the second of their three sons, was born around 1314. He was named Bartholomew at his baptism.

Because of civil strife, St Cyril moved his family from Rostov to Radonezh when Bartholomew was still a boy.

Later, when their son expressed a desire to enter the monastic life, Sts Cyril and Maria asked him to wait and take care of them until they passed away, because his brothers Stephen and Peter were both married and had their own family responsibilities. The young Bartholomew obeyed his parents, and did everything he could to please them. They later decided to retire to separate monasteries, and departed to the Lord after a few years. It is believed that Sts Cyril and Maria both reposed in 1337.

Forty days after burying his parents, Bartholomew settled their estate, giving his share to his brother Peter. He then went to the monastery when he was twenty-three years old, and was tonsured on October 7 with the name Sergius (in honor of the martyr St Sergius who is commemorated on that day). As everyone knows, St Sergius of Radonezh became one of Russia's greatest and most revered saints.

St Cyril was glorified by the Orthodox Church of Russia in 1992. He is also commemorated on January 18, and on July 6 (Synaxis of the Saints of Radonezh).

Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of the Kiev Near Caves:
The Synaxis of Monastic Fathers who are venerated in the Near Caves of St Anthony, is now celebrated on September 28. This general commemoration was originally on the first Saturday after the Leave-taking of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (i.e. after September 21).

The general commemoration of the monastic Fathers of the Near Caves of St Anthony on the Saturday after the Leave-taking of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Venerable Cross dates to the year 1670. During the restoration of the Caves, which had been damaged by an earthquake, some of the relics of the ancient ascetics were uncovered and a church was built in honor of the Exaltation of the Venerable Cross.

In 1760 a stone church in honor of the Exaltation of the Venerable Cross was built over the Caves. In 1886, under Metropolitan Platon of Kiev, the Synaxis of the Fathers of the Near Caves was moved to September 28 because of the celebration of the Synaxis of the Saints of the Far Caves on August 28 .

There are two Canons to the Monastic Fathers of the Near Caves. The first was compiled by the hieromonk Meletius the Orphan (inscribed in the Kiev Akathistnik of 1764). The second, found in the services in honor of the Fathers of the Kiev Caves, was compiled by St Demetrius of Rostov.

Among the Monastic Fathers of the Near Caves are:

Monk Anthony the First-Founder (July 10) Monk Abramius the Lover of Labor (August 21) Monk Abramius the Recluse (October 29) Monk Agapitus, Unmercenary Physician (June 1) Monk Alexis the Recluse (April 24) Monk Alypius the Iconographer (August 17) Martyr Anastasius the Deacon (January 22) Monk Anatolius the Recluse (July 3) Monk Arethas the Recluse (October 24) Monk Athanasius the Recluse (December 2) Igumen Barlaam (November 19) Hosiomartyrs Basil and Theodore (August 11) Hieromonk Damian the Healer (October 5) Monk Elias of Murom (December 19) Bishop Ephraim of Pereyaslavl (January 28) Monk Erasmus the Black-Robed (February 24) Martyr Eustratius (March 28) Monk Gregory the Iconographer (August 8) Martyr Gregory the Wonderworker (January 8) Monk Helladius the Recluse (October 4) Monk Isaac the Recluse (February 14) Monk Isaiah the Wonderworker (May 15) Monk Jeremiah the Clairvoyant (October 5) Monk John the Faster (December 7) John the God-pleasing (December 29) Martyr John the Infant (December 29) (commemorated with the 14,000 Infants killed at Bethlehem by Herod) Monk John the Long-Suffering (July 18) Nun Juliana, Princess of Olshansk (July 6) Hieromartyr Kuksha, Enlightener of the Vyati (August 27) Bishop Laurence the Recluse of Turov (January 29) Monk Luke the Steward (November 6) Monk Macarius (January 19) Monk Mark the Grave-digger (December 29) Monk Matthew the Clairvoyant (October 5) Bishop Mercurius of Smolensk (August 7) Martyr Moses the Hungarian (July 26) Monk Nectarius the Obedient (November 29) Monk Nestor the Chronicler (October 27) Monk Nicholas Svyatosha, Prince of Chernigov (October 14) Monk Nicodemus the Prosphora-baker (October 31) Igumen Nikon (March 23) Monk Nikon the Shriveled (December 11) Bishop Niphon of Novgorod (April 8) Monk Onesimus the Recluse (October 4 and July 21) Monk Onesiphorus the Confessor (November 9) Monk Onuphrius the Silent (July 21) Monk Pimen the Faster (August 27) Monk Pimen the Much-Ailing (August 7) Archmandrite Polycarp (July 24) Monk Prochorus the Orach-eater (February 10) Monk Sava the God-pleasing (April 24) Monk Sergius the Obedient (October 7) Monk Simon, Bishop of Suzdal (May 10) Monk Sisoes the Recluse (October 24) Monk Spyridon the Prosphora-baker (October 31) Monk Sylvester the Wonderworker (January 2) Monk Theophanes the Faster (October 11) Monks Theophilus the Mourner (December 29) Monk Theophilus the Recluse (October 24) Hieromonk Titus (February 27) Twelve Master Architects of Constantinople who painted the monastery church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos (February 14)

Besides these Saints, there are thirty other Saints among the monks of the Kiev Caves, whose myrrh-producing heads were preserved. In the Service to the Monastic Fathers of the Near Caves on September 28 St Ephraim the Priest is mentioned (Ode 9). The hieromonk Athanasius Kalpophyisky wrote in 1638, that his incorrupt body, clothed in priestly vestments, lay opposite the relics of St Elias of Murom. Hieromonk Athanasius also mentions St Eustathius, (Ode 8), who was a goldsmith before he came to the monastery.

In the Canon of Meletius the Orphan, St Dionysius, Archbishop of Suzdal (June 26 and also October 15) is also mentioned. The holy hierarch was detained by the Lithuanian prince at Kiev after his consecration as Metropolitan of Moscow by the Patriarch of Constantinople. He died on October 15, 1384 and was buried in the Antoniev Cave.

Besides the monks mentioned in the Services, the hieromonk Athanasius Kalpophyisky in his Manuscript of 1638 indicated even more Saints, whose uncovered relics they venerated: St Hieronymos, Recluse and Wonderworker; St Meladius, holy Elder and Wonderworker; St Pergius, holy Elder; St Paul, a monk of remarkable obedience.

The names of the priests St Meletius, St Serapion, St Philaretos, St Peter are preserved in the old manuscript Calendars.

On May 24,1853, in one of the branches of the Near Caves, an inscription was discovered on an eleventh century crypt: "Lord, preserve Thy servants Theodosius and Theophilus. Many Years." "The Grave of the Cave-Dweller John. Here John the sinner lived and is now." On an oak board: "John the Cave-Dweller." Thus the names of the new Kiev Caves Fathers: Theophilus, Theodosius and John were revealed.

There is also a general commemoration of the Monks of the Near Caves together with the Monks of the Far Caves on the second Sunday of Great Lent, when the Synaxis of all the Monastic Fathers of Kiev Caves is celebrated. The Canon of the Hieromonk Meletius the Orphan enters into the Service of that feastday (the Service to the Kiev Caves Monastic Fathers, and to all the Saints who shone forth in Little Russia, inscribed from Akathists with a Canon). The service was printed by the Kiev Caves Dormition Lavra in 1866.

Without doubt, not all the names of the Fathers of the Kiev Caves are known. In the Synaxis, all the Fathers illumined by ascetic deeds in the Caves are glorified. In the Oikos of the Service of September 28 we sing: "Who can praise Your Saints, O Good One? I try to count their number, but they are multiplied more than the sands of the sea. O Master Christ, Who have numbered the stars and named them all, grant their petitions for us..."

 

Hieromartyr Phocas the Bishop of Sinope:
Hieromartyr Phocas was born in the city of Sinope. From youth he led a virtuous Christian life, and in his adult years he became Bishop of Sinope. St Phocas converted many pagans to faith in Christ. At the time of a persecution against Christians under the emperor Trajan (98-117), the governor demanded that the saint renounce Christ. After fierce torture they enclosed St Phocas in a hot bath, where he died a martyr's death in the year 117.

In the year 404, the relics of the saint were transferred to Constantinople (July 22).

The Hieromartyr Phocas is especially venerated as a defender against fires, and also as a helper of the drowning.

Prophet Jonah:
The Holy Prophet Jonah lived in the eighth century before the birth of Christ and was a successor of the Prophet Elisha. The Book of the Prophet Jonah contains prophecies about the judgments on the Israelite nation, the sufferings of the Savior, the downfall of Jerusalem, and the end of the world. Besides the prophecies, the Book of Jonah relates how he was sent to the Ninevites to preach repentance (Jon. 3: 3-10).

Our Lord Jesus Christ, addressing the Scribes and the Pharisees who demanded a sign from Him, said that no sign would be given except for the sign of the Prophet Jonah, "As Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so also shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights (Mt. 12: 40). From these words the Lord shows clearly the symbolic meaning of the Book of the Prophet Jonah in relation to Christ's death on the Cross, descent into Hell, and the Resurrection.

Reproaching the lack of penitence and recalcitrance of the Jews, the Lord said, "The Ninevites shall rise in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and one greater than Jonah is here" (Mt. 12: 41).

St Jonah the Presbyter, father of St Theophanes the Hymnographer and Theodore Graptus:
Saint Jonah the Presbyter, Father of Sts Theophanes the Hymnographer (October 11) and Theodore the Branded (December 27), lived in Palestine in the late eighth to early ninth centuries.

St Jonah lived a virtuous and holy life. He had two sons who were glorified afterwards for their confession of Orthodoxy during the time of the Iconoclast heresy. After the death of his wife, St Jonah withdrew to the Lavra of St Sava the Sanctified (December 5), where both his sons earlier had been tonsured as monks. St Jonah dwelt at the Lavra until his death in the ninth century. The Lord bestowed upon His saint the gift of healing.

Venerable Jonah the Abbot of Yashezersk:
Saint Jonah of Yash Lake was born in the village of Shoksha, sixteen versts from the monastery later established by him. The foundation of the monastery took place in 1580, when a wooden church was built in honor of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos, and eight monks joined together with the monk to labor in asceticism.

St Jonah toiled with great concern over the building up of the monastery. Thus, for example, in order to ease the catching of fish, he himself dug a channel from Yash Lake to the nearby Lake Senno. He often rode horseback along the solitary paths of the forest in search of necessities for the monastery.

The ascetic made vessels from wood to be used for the divine services. In time the monk became known for his holy life far beyond the bounds of the monastery. Many pilgrims brought gifts, among which also were Church service books. The boundaries of the monastery expanded, and the number of churches increased. Profound love and reverence for the ascetic were demonstrated by Metropolitan Isidore of Novgorod, by Igumen James of the Solovki monastery, by St Irenarchus (July 17), and also by many other contemporaries.

St Jonah died at the end of the sixteenth century and was buried in the Annunciation monastery founded by him.

Martyr Phocas the Gardener of Sinope:
The Holy Martyr Phocas the Gardener came from the city of Sinope on the southern shore of the Black Sea. Having a small garden, he lived modestly. He sold what he grew, and supported himself on the proceeds. He helped the needy and paid for the housing of vagrants. The Christian piety of the saint had a great influence on other people. Even pagans deferred to him with deep respect. Under his influence they often abandoned their error and accepted the Christian Faith.

The governor of the district, aware that St Phocas was spreading Christian teachings, gave orders to find and kill him. The saint himself accidentally came upon those sent after him, and without revealing his name, he courteously received them, fed them and prepared a place for them to spend the night.

At night he went into the garden, then prepared a grave and a place for his burial. He even made arrangements for all his possessions to be distributed to the poor after his death. In the morning St Phocas declared to the strangers that it was he for whom they were searching, and told them to fulfill the duty entrusted to them. The visitors were distressed, not wanting to kill the kindly saint. They felt honor bound to spare St Phocas, but he would not hear of it, and humbly bent his head beneath the sword.

They buried the holy Martyr Phocas in the grave that he himself had prepared in the garden. The place of his burial was glorified by miracles, and later a church was built there. An accurate account of the martyr's death was collected by Asterius of Amasea (+ 410). The holy Martyr Phocas is especially venerated by seafarers, and he is called upon by those traveling by sea.

St Peter the Tax-Collector:
Saint Peter, Former Tax-Collector, was the chief collector of taxes in Africa in the service of the emperor Justinian (527-565). He was a cruel and merciless man.

One day he threw a morsel of bread to a beggar who annoyed him by incessantly begging alms. In a vision Peter saw himself as dead and how the holy Angels weighed his deeds on the scale of the righteous judgment of God. On the side of good deeds nothing was placed except a morsel of bread, thrown at the beggar, but this prevented the opposite side from being pulled down by his vicious deeds.

Peter pondered the meaning of the dream, and thought that if one loaf of bread, thrown involontarily, was of such help to him, then he might receive much more help for good deeds performed with compassion and from the heart. He repented and completely changed his life. He liberally distributed alms to the needy, and fed and clothed many.

On day, in a dream, Peter saw Jesus Christ. The Lord was dressed in clothes which the saint once gave to a beggar. Peter then distributed his substance to the poor and ordered his slave to sell him into slavery and to give the money to the poor. The slave reluctantly carried out the orders of his master.

For many years St Peter worked diligently and humbly for his master. One day he was recognized by tradesmen to whom he had been known earlier. They told the master who his servant was. Having overheard this conversation, the saint quickly fled from the city. In departing, he worked a miracle: the gatekeeper, a deaf-mute slave, was ordered by St Peter to open the gates in the name of Jesus Christ. He fulfilled the command, and at once received his hearing and speech. He rushed around everywhere to tell his master and added moreover, that when the saint commanded him to open the gates, fire came forth from his mouth touching his face, after which he began to hear and speak. Everyone went to look for Peter, but the search proved in vain. The saint hid and remained hidden until his death.

The Life of St Peter was passed along by St John the Merciful, Patriarch of Alexandria (November 12), who in turn knew it from a man personally acquainted with the saint.

Venerable Cosmas of the Zographou Monastery on Mt. Athos:
Saint Cosmas, Hermit of Zographou, was a Bulgarian. In his youth he avoided entering into marriage, and secretly left his parents' home for Mount Athos. Then as he was on his way to the Holy Mountain, the devil tried to shake the yearning of the youth, vexing him with a vision of the infinite abyss of the sea surrounding the Holy Mountain. The fervent prayer of the youth dispelled the demonic temptation.

On Athos, St Cosmas was accepted in the Zographou monastery. There he was a novice for a long time, and then he was tonsured, and was appointed ecclesiarch. St Cosmas received a special mercy to see the heavenly abbess of Mount Athos Herself, Who on the Feast of the Annunciation at the Vatopedi monastery deigned to reveal to him a glimpse of Her care for Her earthly appanage. He saw a Woman of royal majesty and grandeur, Who attended to both in church for services, and in the trapeza. All the monks served and obeyed Her.

Soon the saint was ordained as deacon, and then as presbyter, which inspired him to new exploits. Zealous for salvation, the saint through fervent prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos was granted a particular sign of Her special favor. He heard the voice of the Mother of God issuing from Her holy icon and asking Her Son, "How will Cosmas be saved?" The Lord answered, "Let him withdraw from the monastery into silence." After obtaining the blessing of the Superior, St Cosmas withdrew into the wilderness, and there in a cave cut into a cliff, and began his new deed of silent seclusion. God did not forsake the faithful man of prayer, for the saint was granted the gift of clairvoyance.

Just as at the start of his ascetic life, the Enemy of the race of mankind again tried to dissuade the saint from his intended path, and so the final days before the righteous one's death were also a grievous trial for him.

Not long before the death of God's chosen one, he was granted a vision of Christ Himself, Who informed the saint that before his soul would depart to the heavenly Kingdom, Satan himself with his hosts would beat and gnash at him. Prepared for the suffering by this divine solace, the saint bravely underwent the terrible demonic assaults, and on the third day after furious beatings, he received the All-Pure Mysteries. With words of praise on his lips, he peacefully departed to the Lord.

God, "Who glorifies those who glorify Him," also glorified St Cosmas miraculously at his death. At the time of the saint's burial a multitude of beasts and birds flocked to his cave, as though sensing the common loss of the Holy Mountain. When they placed his body in the grave and began to cover it with ground, each of the speechless creatures let out a mournful cry, bestowing final respect to the saint of God.

Forty days later, when the brethren opened the saint's tomb after the all-night Vigil (as was customary), in order to transfer them to the monastery with honor, they were not to be found. The Lord hid them in a miraculous manner. This occurred in the year 1323.

Greatmartyr Eustathius (Eustace) Placidas with his wife and children of Rome:
The Holy Great Martyr Eustathius was named Placidas before his Baptism. He was a military commander under the emperors Titus (79-81) and Trajan (98-117). Even before he came to know Christ, Placidas performed acts of charity, helping the poor and destitute. Therefore, the Lord did not leave the virtuous pagan remain in the darkness of idolatry.

Once while hunting in a forest, he saw a stag which would stop now and then to look him right in the eye. Placidas pursued it on horseback, but could not catch up. The stag leaped over a chasm and stood on the other side facing him. Placidas suddenly saw a radiant Cross between its antlers. In surprise the military commander heard a voice coming from the Cross saying, "Why do you pursue Me, Placidas?"

"Who are You, Master?" asked Placidas.The Voice replied, "I am Jesus Christ, Whom you do not know, yet you honor Me by your good deeds. I have appeared here on this creature for your sake, to capture you in the net of My love for mankind. It is not fitting that one as righteous as you should worship idols and not know the truth. It was to save mankind that I came into the world."

Placidas cried out, "Lord, I believe that You are the God of Heaven and earth, the Creator of all things. Master, teach me what I should do." Again the Lord replied, "Go to the bishop of your country and receive Baptism from him, and he will instruct you."

Placidas returned home and joyfully recounted everything to his wife Tatiana. She in turn told him how the evening before, in a mysterious dream, she had been told, "Tomorrow you, your husband and your sons shall come to Me and know that I am the true God. The spouses then proceeded to do as they had been bidden.

They hastened to the Christian bishop, who baptized all their family, and communed them with the Holy Mysteries. Placidas was renamed Eustathius, his wife was called Theopiste, and their children, Agapius and Theopistus.

On the following day, St Eustathius set out to the place of his miraculous conversion and in fervent prayer he offered up thanks to the Lord for having called him onto the path of salvation.

Again St Eustathius received a miraculous revelation. The Lord Himself foretold his impending tribulations: "Eustathius, you shall suffer many misfortunes, as did Job, but in the end you will conquer the devil."

Soon St Eustathius was plunged into misfortune: all his servants died of the plague and his cattle perished. Brought to ruin, but not despairing in spirit, St Eustathius and his family secretly abandoned their home, to live unknown, humble and in poverty.

They went to Egypt to board a ship sailing for Jerusalem. During the voyage a new woe beset the saint. The ship owner, enchanted by Theopiste's beauty, cruelly set Eustathius and his children ashore, keeping the wife for himself.

In great sorrow the saint continued on his way, and new woe beset him. Coming to a tempestuous river, he went to carry his two sons across in turn. When he had brought one across, the other was seized by a lion and carried off into the wilderness. As he turned back towards the other, a wolf dragged that child into the forest.

Having lost everything, St Eustathius wept bitterly, but he realized that Divine Providence had sent him these misfortunes to test his endurance and devotion to God. In his inconsolable grief, St Eustathius went on farther, prepared for new tribulations.

In the village of Badessos he found work and spent five years in unremitting toil. St Eustathius did not know then that through the mercy of God, shepherds and farmers had saved his sons, and they lived right near him. He also did not know that the impudent shipowner had been struck down with a terrible disease and died, leaving St Theopiste untouched. She lived in peace and freedom at the place where the ship landed.

During this time it had become difficult for the emperor Trajan to raise an army for Rome to deal with a rebellion, for the soldiers would not go into battle without their commander Placidas. They advised Trajan to send men out to all the cities to look for him.

Antiochus and Acacius, friends of Placidas, sought him in various places. Finally, they arrived in the village where St Eustathius lived. The soldiers found Eustathius, but they did not recognize him and they began to tell him of the one whom they sought, asking his help and promising a large reward. St Eustathius, immediately recognized his friends, but did not reveal his identity to them.

He borrowed money from one of his friends and fed the visitors. As they looked at him, the travellers noted that he resembled their former commander. When they saw a scar on his shoulder from a deep sword-wound, they realized that it was their friend there before them. They embraced him with tears and told him why they were seeking him.

St Eustathius returned to Rome with them and again became a general. Many new recruits were drafted into the army from all over the empire. He did not know that two young soldiers who served him, and whom he loved for their skill and daring, were actually his own sons. They did not know that they were serving under the command of their own father, nor that they were brothers by birth.

While on campaign, the army led by Eustathius halted at a certain settlement. The soldier-brothers were talking in their tent. The elder one spoke about his life, how he had lost his mother and brother, and how in a terrifying way he had been parted from his father. The younger brother then realized that before him was his very own brother, and told him how he had been rescued from the wolf.

A woman overheard the soldiers' conversation, since their tent was pitched right next to her house, and this woman realized that these were her sons. Still not identifying herself to them, but not wanting to be separated from them, she went to their commander, St Eustathius, to ask him to take her to Rome with him. She said she had been a prisoner, and wanted to go home. Then she came to recognize the commander as her husband, and with tears she told him about herself and about the two soldiers who were actually their sons. Thus, through the great mercy of the Lord, the whole family was happily reunited.

Soon thereafter the rebellion was crushed, and St Eustathius returned to Rome with honor and glory. The emperor Trajan had since died, and his successor Hadrian (117-138) wanted to celebrate the event of victory with a solemn offering of sacrifice to the gods. To the astonishment of everyone, St Eustathius did not show up at the pagan temple. By order of the emperor they searched frantically for him.

"Why don't you want to worship the gods?" the emperor inquired. "You, above all others, ought to offer thanks to them. They not only preserved you in war and granted you victory, but also they helped you find your wife and children." St Eustathius replied: "I am a Christian and I glorify and give thanks to Him, and I offer sacrifice to Him. I owe my life to Him. I do not know or believe in any other god than Him."

In a rage, the emperor ordered him to take off his military belt and brought him and his family before him. They did not succeed in persuading the steadfast confessors of Christ to offer sacrifice to idols. The whole family of St Eustathius was sentenced to be torn apart by wild beasts, but the beasts would not touch the holy martyrs.

Then the cruel emperor gave orders to throw them all alive into a red-hot brass bull, and St Eustathius, his wife Theopiste, and their sons Agapius and Theopistus endured a martyr's death. Before being placed in the bull, St Eustathius prayed, "Grant, O Lord, Thy grace to our relics, and grant to those who call upon us a place in Thy Kingdom. Though they call upon us when they are in danger on a river or on the sea, we entreat Thee to come to their aid."

Three days later, they opened the brass bull, and the bodies of the holy martyrs were found unscathed. Not one hair on their heads was singed, and their faces shone with an unearthly beauty. Many seeing this miracle came to believe in Christ. Christians then buried the bodies of the saints.

Martyr and Confessor Michael the Wonderworker and Martyr Theodore the Counselor of Chernigov:
The Holy Prince Michael of Chernigov, son of Vsevolod Ol'govich the Dark-Red (+ 1212), was noted from childhood for his piety and mildness. His health was very poor, but in 1186, trusting in the mercy of God, the young prince asked for the holy prayers of St Nikita the Stylite of Pereyaslavl (May 24), who during these years received renown by his prayerful intercession before the Lord.

After he received a wooden staff from the holy ascetic, the prince was healed at once. In 1223 Prince Michael took part in a council of Russian princes at Kiev, debating whether to aid the Polovetsians against the approaching Mongol-Tatar hordes. With the death of his uncle, Mstislav of Chernigov in the Battle at the Kalka River in 1223, St Michael became Prince of Chernigov.

In 1225 he was invited to be prince of the Novgorod people. Through his sense of justice, compassion and firmness he gained the love and respect of Old Novgorod. This was particularly important for the Novgorodians, since the accession of Michael as prince signified a reconciliation of Novgorod with the city of Vladimir's holy Great Prince George Vsevolodovich (March 4), whose wife was the holy princess Agatha, sister of Prince Michael.

But St Michael did not long remain prince at Novgorod. He soon returned to his native Chernigov. To the stipulations and requests of the Novgorodians to remain prince he answered that Chernigov and Novgorod ought to become kindred lands, and their inhabitants like brothers, and he would forge the bonds of friendship of these cities.

The noble prince assiduously concerned himself with the building up of his appenage realm. But it was difficult for him in these troubled times. His activity provoked unease in the Kursk Prince Oleg, and in 1227 internecine strife nearly erupted, but Metropolitan Cyril of Kiev reconciled them. And in this same year Prince Michael peacefully resolved a dispute between the Kiev Great Prince Vladimir Rurikovich and the Galich prince. In 1235 Prince Michael occupied the throne of Kiev.

Troublesome times ensued. In 1238 the Tatars (Mongols) laid waste to Ryazan, Suzdal, and Vladimir. In 1239 they moved against South Russia, and ravaged the left bank of the Dniepr River, and the lands of Chernigov and Pereyaslavl. By the autumn of 1240 the Mongols were coming close to Kiev. The khan's emissaries proposed that Kiev surrender voluntarily, but the prince would not negotiate with them.

Prince Michael rode urgently to Hungary, to persuade the Hungarian king Bela to organize allied forces to resist the common enemy. St Michael tired to recruit both Poland, and the German emperor into the struggle against the Mongols, but the moment for a combined resistance was lost. Rus was devastated, and later Hungary and Poland. With no foreign support, Prince Michael returned to the ruins of Kiev and for a certain time he lived near the city on an island, and then he resettled in Chernigov.

The prince did not abandon hope in the possibility of an united Christian Europe against the Asiatic nomads. In 1245, at the Council of Lyons in France, his co-worker Metropolitan Peter (Akerovich) was sent as emissary by St Michael, calling for a crusade to march against the pagan Horde. Catholic Europe in the persons of its chief spiritual leaders, the Roman Pope and the German emperor, betrayed the interests of Christianity. The Pope was involved in a war with the German emperor, and the Germans took advantage of the Mongol invasion to attack Rus themselves.

In these circumstances affecting Christianity in general, there is a universal significance to the confessor's deed of the martyred Orthodox Prince St Michael of Chernigov in the midst of the pagan Horde. In Rus emissaries of the khan soon appeared, in order to conduct a census of the Russian population and to impose taxes upon it.

The prince was ordered to make full submission to the Tatar khan, and for his princely realm, the khan would grant a special charter. The emissaries informed Prince Michael that it was necessary for him to journey to the Horde for an affirmation of rights to rule the princedom under the khan's charter. Seeing the woeful plight of Rus, Prince Michael recognized the need to obey the khan, but as a fervent Christian he knew that he would not deny his faith before the pagans. From his spiritual Father, Bishop John, he received a blessing to journey to the Horde and be a true confessor of the Name of Christ.

With the holy Prince Michael on the journey to the Horde went his faithful friend and companion, the noble Theodore. At the Horde they knew about Prince Michael's attempts to organize an uprising against the Tatars in concert with Hungary and the other European powers. His enemies had long sought the opportunity to destroy him.

In 1246 when Prince Michael and the boyar Theodore arrived at the Horde, they were instructed on how to go to the khan, to proceed through a fire to cleanse them of their evil intents, and to worship the primal elements considered gods by the Mongols: the sun and fire. In answer to the pagan priests commanding them to perform the pagan rituals, the holy Prince replied, "A Christian worships only God, the Creator of the world, and not creatures."

They reported to the khan about the firmness of the Russian Prince. Batu's attendant El'deg delivered the conditions: either fulfill the demands of the pagan priests, or die in torments. But this also was followed by the resolute answer of holy Prince Michael, "I am prepared to submit to the emperor, since that God has entrusted him with the destiny of the earthly kingdoms, but as a Christian, I cannot worship idols." The fate of the brave Christians was sealed.

Taking courage in the words of the Lord: "Whoever would save his life, shall lose it, and whoever will lose his life for My sake shall save it" (Mt.16:25), the holy prince and his devoted boyar prepared for a martyr's death and received the Holy Mysteries, which their spiritual Father gave them, foreseeing this possibility. The Tatar executioners seized the prince and for a long time they beat him fiercely, until the ground ran crimson with blood. Finally, Domanus, an apostate from the faith in Christ, cut off the head of the holy martyr.

The Tatars deceitfully promised St Theodore great honor and his lord's princely rank if he would fulfill the pagan ritual. But St Theodore was not swayed by this, and he followed in the path of his prince. After quite vicious torments they beheaded him. The bodies of the holy passion-bearers were thrown to be eaten by dogs, but the Lord miraculously guarded them for several days, until faithful Christians could secretly bury them with reverence. Later on, the relics of the holy martyrs were transferred to Chernigov.

The confessor's act of St Theodore amazed even his executioners. Persuaded of the Russian people's steadfast fidelity to the Orthodox Faith , and their readiness to die for Christ with joy, the Tatar khans decided not to try the patience of God as before, and ceased demanding that Russians at the Horde perform any pagan rituals. But the struggle of the Russian nation and the Russian Church against the Mongol Yoke continued for yet a long time. The Orthodox Church was adorned in this struggle by new martyrs and confessors. Great Prince Theodore was poisoned by the Mongols. Also martyred were St Roman of Ryazan (+ 1270), St Michael of Tver (+ 1318), his sons Demetrius (+ 1325) and Alexander (+ 1339). All of these took courage from the example and holy prayers of the Russian Protomartyr of the Horde, St Michael of Chernigov.

On February 14, 1572, at the wish of Tsar Ivan Vasilievich the Terrible, and with the blessing of Metropolitan Anthony, the relics of the holy martyrs were transferred to Moscow, to the temple dedicated to them. From there in 1770 they were transferred to the Visitation cathedral, and on November 21, 1774 to the Archangel cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.

The Lives and service to Sts Michael and Theodore were compiled in the mid-sixteenth century by the renowned church writer, St Zenobios of Otonsk.

"The generation of the upright shall be blessed," says the holy Psalmodist David (Ps. 111/112:2). This occurred in full measure for St Michael. He is at the head of many famous families in Russian history. His children and grandchildren continued the holy Christian service of St Michael. The Church also numbers his daughter St Euphrosyne of Suzdal (September 25), and his grandson St Oleg of Briansk (September 20) among the saints.

St Oleg the Prince of Briansk:
Holy Prince Oleg Romanovich of Briansk (in Baptism Leontius) was grandson of the holy martyr Prince Michael of Chernigov. According to the chronicle histories, Prince Oleg together and his father, Prince Roman Mikhailovich of Briansk, participated in a war against Lithuania in 1274.

After 1274, he resigned as prince and became a monk with the name Basil at the Briansk monastery of Sts Peter and Paul, built through his generosity. The holy prince died at this monastery as a strict ascetic in the year 1285, and was buried in the monastery church.

St Eumenius the Bishop of Gortyna:
Saint Eumenius from the time of his youth was noted for his virtuous life. He strove to serve the One God and therefore he shunned worldly temptations. Concerned for the salvation of his soul, he distributed all his substance to the poor.

By the blessing of God St Eumenius was chosen as Bishop of Gortyna on the island of Crete. The saint, like a compassionate father, comforted his flock in their sorrows, and cared for the orphaned and indigent. He prayers were so strong before God that once, during a drought, he called forth abundant rain upon the earth.

St Eumenius wisely and zealously defended the Orthodox Faith against the Monophysite heresy. For his opposition to the heresy the saint was banished to the Thebaid, where he died in the seventh century. His body was then transferred and buried in Gortyna.

Martyr Ariadne of Phrygia:
The Holy Martyr Ariadne was a servant of Tertillos, a city official of Promyssia (Phrygia) during the reign of the emperor Hadrian (117-161). Once, when on the occasion of the birth of a son, the master made a sacrificial offering to the pagan gods, the Christian Ariadne refused to participate in the impious ceremony.

They subjected her to beatings and lacerated her body with sharp iron hooks. Then they threw the martyr into prison and for a long while they exhausted her with hunger, demanding that she worship their gods.

When they released the saint from prison, she left the city, but Tertillos sent pursuers after her. Seeing that they were chasing her, she ran, calling out to God to defend her from her enemies. Suddenly, through her prayers, a fissure opened in the mountain, and St Ariadne hid in it. This miracles brought the pursuers into confusion and fear. In their depravity of mind they began to strike one another with spears.

Martyrs Sophia, Irene and Castor of Egypt:
Saint Sophia endured martyrdom with Sts Castor and Irene in Alexandria.

Greatmartyr and Prince Bidzini, Shalva, and Elizbar of Georgia:
The Martyrs Bidzini (Cholokashvili), Shalva, and Elizbar of Xana were Georgian princes who liberated Kakheti (Eastern Georgia) from the Persians. At the request of Shah Abbas II, all three were handed over to him, with the connivance of the Georgian emperor Vakhtang V (1658-1675), who had accepted Islam and became known under the name Shah Navaza.

When they brought the holy captives before the shah, they said that they were Christians. No one was able to force the martyrs to change their minds, standing firm as they did in their confession of faith in Christ.

Shah Abbas, trying every which way, including promises, threats and tortures, sent Bidzini, Elizbar, and Shalva to the former ruler of Kakheti, the sultan of Aldaran, who lived then at Ispagana. The sultan, seeing their steadfastness, gave orders that after fierce tortures the heads of Elizbar and Shalva be cut off, and that this be done before the eyes of Bidzini. Bidzini he ordered as a sign of shame to be dressed in prostitute's attire and led through the city on a donkey. When even after this Bidzini did not waver in the Faith, they subjected him to new lacerations and torments. His body was broken at the joints, and finally, his venerable head was cut off.

This took place on September 18, 1660 (by other accounts, the martyrs suffered under Shah Sefi, son of Abbas II, in the year 1664). The bodies of the holy martyrs were thrown out in burial pits outside the city. By night a light shone over them, streaming down from the heavens. Seeing this, local Armenians removed and hid the holy relics in their church. After a certain time, the relics were transferred to Kartali, and with reverence buried in the Ikhort monastery near the city of Hora.

Translation of the Icon of the Mother of God in Triumph to Russia:
The Staro Rus Icon of the Mother of God was so named because for a long time it was in Staro Rus, where it had been brought by the Greeks from Olviopolis during the very first period of Christianity in Russia. The icon was in Staro Rus until the seventeenth century. In 1655 during a plague it was revealed to a certain inhabitant of the city of Tikhvin that the pestilence would cease if the wonderworking Staro Rus Icon were transferred there, and the Tikhvin Icon sent to Staro Rus.

After the transfer of the icons the plague ceased, but the people of Tikhvin did not return the icon and only in the eighteenth century did they give permission to make a copy of the Staro Rus Icon, which on May 4, 1768 was sent to Stara Russa. A feast was established in honor of this event. On September 17, 1888 the original was also returned to Staro Rus and a second Feast day established.

Icon of the Mother of God "the Healer":
The original icon known as "Tselitel'nitsa," or "The Healer" was from the Tsilkan church in Kartali, Georgia. It was painted at the time of St Nino (January 14).

There is another icon with the same name in the Alexeev women's monastery in Moscow, and many miracles took place before it at the end of the eightheenth century. St Demetrius of Rostov (September 21 and October 28) relates a story about this icon in his book The Bedewed Fleece.

A cleric of the Navarninsky church, Vincent Bulvinensky, was in the habit of venerating the icon of the Mother of God whenever he entered the church. He would also recite the following prayer before the icon: "Hail, Virgin Theotokos full of grace, the Lord is with Thee. Blessed is the womb which bore Christ, and the breasts which nourished the Lord God, our Savior."

In time, he found himself suffering from a dreadful affliction. His tongue began to putrefy, and he passed out from the pain. When he came to himself, he prayed his usual prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos.

As soon as he had finished his prayer, he saw a handsome young man at the head of his bed. The sufferer realized at once that this was his guardian angel. The angel looked at him with pity, calling on the Mother of God to heal him. Suddenly, the Theotokos appeared and healed the sick man who was so devoted to Her. He got out of bed and went to church, taking his place on the cliros for the service. Those present were astonished to see his recovery.

This miracle inspired the painting of "The Healer" icon depicting the Mother of God standing at the bed of the sick man.

Venerable Euphrosyne of Suzdal:
Saint Euphrosyne of Suzdal was born in 1212. Although she was a princess, she entered a women's monastery in Suzdal, where she was tonsured with the name Euphrosyne, in honor of St Euphrosyne of Alexandria (September 25).

After her death on September 25, 1250, many miracles took place at her grave. Believers were healed of various infirmities, and their prayers were answered.

On September 18, 1698, with the blessing of Patriarch Adrian, Metropolitan Hilarion of Suzdal glorified the nun Euphrosyne as a saint.

Venerable Hilarion of Optina:
Saint Hilarion (Ponamarov) was born in Kluch on the night of Pascha, April 8-9, 1805. Nikita and Euphemia Ponamarov named their third son Rodion in honor of St Herodion of the Seventy. He always considered April 8, the day of his patron saint's commemoration, as his birthday. After Rodion, a son and a daughter were born to the Ponamarovs. The daughter, however, died as a baby.

Nikita Ponamarov worked in town as a tailor, and sometimes his business took him to the homes of the local landowners. Consequently, Rodion seldom saw his father until he was fifteen years old.

Rodion was a quiet, uncoordinated child who did not play much with other children, since they made fun of his clumsiness. Even members of his own family behaved in a rude manner toward him, and seldom showed him any affection. The way he was treated made him thoughtful and introspective.

One winter he was playing in the snow with some friends, using an old board as a sled. The board broke and left Rodion with a permanent scar on the finger of his left hand. Another time he injured himself on a saddle-horn while riding. These injuries also had an effect on his health, which was never robust.

The family moved to the Novopersk region of Voronezh in 1820, and Rodion lived there until he was twenty. He helped his father in his work, and gradually acquired skill as a tailor. His parents wanted him to follow this trade, even though his mother once foretold that he would be a monk. Rodion himself desired the monastic life even as a young child, but now he applied himself to tailoring, for he knew that this handicraft would be very useful in the monastery.

Rodion went to Moscow in December of 1825 in order to learn more about being a tailor, arriving with very little money, and with nowhere to stay. He worked with various tailors, but the work was difficult and he became ill. His poor health, he said in later life, probably saved him from falling into many vices. Having increased his proficiency as a tailor, Rodion left Moscow and returned home.

The family moved again in 1829, this time to Saratov. Rodion was engaged twice, but the Lord did not want him to follow this path. His first fiancée died after a short illness, and Rodion simply lost interest in the second.

Saratov was the home to many sectarians of all sorts, and the future saint became involved with certain activists who tried to refute their false teachings. Rodion's missionary labors may have influenced many sectarians to return to the Orthodox Church. Because of some misunderstanding, however, Rodion and his friends were put on trial. As a result, the authorities kept Rodion under observation for the next four years. This scrutiny was hard for him to endure, and made it very difficult for him to conduct his affairs.

Through his study of the Holy Scripture and the writings of the holy Fathers, Rodion's desire to become a monk was reawakened. Therefore, he decided to find the monastery which was most suitable for him. In 1837 and 1838 Rodion visited monasteries at Sarov, Suzdal, Rostov, Tikhvin, Moscow, Pochaev, and other places. Finally, he arrived before the gates of Optina. He was thirty-four years old.

At first, Rodion was placed in a cell next to Fr Barlaam, a retired igumen of Valaam Monastery. Fr Barlaam was a man of great spiritual stature, who had a profound influence on the young man, and became his first instructor in the Jesus Prayer. In later years, Elder Hilarion recalled visiting Fr Barlaam to tell him of the various things he had seen or heard. Fr Barlaam would ask, "Is that useful? It would be better for you not to see or hear anything. Try to examine your thoughts and your heart more often." With his wise counsel, Fr Barlaam helped Rodion in his spiritual growth as a monk.

St Anthony (August 7), the Superior of the Skete, was transferred to Maloyaroslavets on December 1, 1839. He was replaced by St Macarius (September 7), the monastery's confessor. Rodion was assigned to be his cell attendant, remaining in this obedience until the Elder's death in 1860. Rodion went to Fr Macarius for Confession, and to St Leonid (October 11) for the daily revelation of his thoughts. In an effort to cleanse himself of the passions, Rodion renounced his own will and obeyed Elder Macarius in all things.

Fr Macarius was very strict with the novices, and would not permit the slightest disobedience. He was never the first to bring up a person's failures and shortcomings, but waited for him to confess his own negligence. He taught the novices to love their neighbor, and to bear their afflictions with patience.

From the time Rodion came to Optina, he had other obediences in addition to serving as cell attendant to Fr Macarius. He also tended the flower and vegetable gardens, and worked as a baker, and a bee-keeper. He carried out every task assigned him without complaint.

While his spiritual progress was hidden from men, it was certainly noticed by the all-seeing God. In due course, he received the monastic tonsure and was given the name Hilarion. Fr Macarius recognized his disciple's spiritual maturity, and predicted that he and St Ambrose (October 10) would succeed him as Elders after his death. Elder Macarius therefore entrusted Fr Hilarion and Fr Ambrose with giving counsel to his many spiritual children.

As the closest disciple of St Macarius, Fr Hilarion was chosen to be Superior of the Skete, and the monastery's Father Confessor. He confessed all the brethren entrusted to him five times a year, once during each of the Fasts, and twice during Great Lent. Each monk was questioned about the details of his inner life, and was given advice on how to conduct himself in future. Once he finished hearing the Confession of the monks, Fr Hilarion began confessing the nuns, and the men and women who came to him from various places. Although there were many people, Fr Hilarion never refused anyone. He rarely gave his own opinion, but quoted from the Scriptures or the writings of the Fathers. Sometimes, he would tell people what Fr Macarius had said in similar situations. He was very effective in giving advice, because he always practiced what he preached, and he had already experienced the things that were troubling his spiritual children.

The Elder led people to feel sorrow for their sins, and through his questions he brought them to an awareness of their spiritual state. Sometimes he would help them to remember sins which they had forgotten to confess, sins which might lie at the root of their spiritual infirmity. He gave penances according to a person's age, health, and circumstances. He might require the penitent to read certain prayers, do prostrations, give alms, and to avoid those habits and amusements which are not fitting for a Christian. Many people received much benefit from confessing to him, and continued to live according to the advice he had given them. Not only were they cured of their spiritual afflictions, but sometimes Fr Hilarion also healed them of their physical or mental illness as well.

Fr Hilarion, by God's providence, became seriously ill for two years. All during that time he did not ask God to let him recover. Instead, he asked to be given the patience to help him bear the illness. He received Holy Communion frequently, and twice he was given Holy Unction.

During the last thirty-three days of his life, Fr Hilarion partook of the life-giving Mysteries of Christ every day. In the last four weeks of his life, the Elder was unable to lie down in bed because of water in his lungs. Therefore, he remained seated on a couch in front of a portrait of Fr Macarius. He experienced great discomfort, and was not able to sleep very well.

Fr Hilarion observed the cell rule of prayer until the last moments of his life. Early on the morning of September 18, 1873 he listened to the morning rule being read, and received Holy Communion at 1:00 A.M. Five hours later, he rested from his labors and gave his soul into the hands of God.

It is said that during Fr Hilarion's final illness, St Macarius appeared to him many times in his dreams. As he drew closer to death, these appearances became more frequent. He died with his prayer rope in his hands, and was buried next to his beloved Elder St Macarius.

The Moscow Patriarchate authorized local veneration of the Optina Elders on June 13,1996. The work of uncovering the relics of Sts Leonid, Macarius, Hilarion, Ambrose, Anatole I, Barsanuphius and Anatole II began on June 24/July 7, 1998 and was concluded the next day. However, because of the church Feasts (Nativity of St John the Baptist, etc.) associated with the actual dates of the uncovering of the relics, Patriarch Alexey II designated June 27/July 10 as the date for commemorating this event. The relics of the holy Elders now rest in the new church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God.

The Optina Elders were glorified by the Moscow Patriarchate for universal veneration on August 7, 2000.

Afterfeast of the Elevation of the Cross:
From September 15 until the Leavetaking, we sing "O come, let us worship and fall down before Christ. O son of God crucified in the flesh, save us who sing to Thee: Alleluia" at weekday Liturgies following the Little Entrance.

Greatmartyr Nicetas the Goth:
The Holy Great Martyr Nicetas was a Goth (a Germanic tribe). He was born and lived on the banks of the Danube River, and suffered for Christ in the year 372. The Christian Faith was then already widely spread throughout the territory of the Goths. St Nicetas believed in Christ and accepted Baptism from the Gothic bishop Theophilus, a participant in the First Ecumenical Council. Pagan Goths began to oppose the spread of Christianity, which resulted in internecine strife.

After the victory of Fritigern, heading a Christian army and inflicting defeat on the pagan Athanaric, the Christian Faith began to spread increasingly among the Goths. The Arian bishop Ulfilas, the successor to Bishop Theophilus, created a Gothic alphabet and translated into the Gothic language many priestly books. St Nicetas worked intensely among his fellow Goths at spreading Christianity. By his personal example and inspired words he brought many pagans to the Christian Faith.

However, after his defeat Athanaric again contrived to gather his own forces, return to his own country and regain his former power. Since he remained a pagan, he continued to hate Christians and persecute them.

St Nicetas endured many tortures, and died after being thrown into a fire. His body remained unharmed by the fire and was illumined by a miraculous light. By night, a friend of the martyr, a Christian named Marianus, retrieved the body of St Nicetas,and buried it in Cilicia. Afterwards, it was transferred to Constantinople. Part of the relics of the Great Martyr Nicetas were later transferred to the monastery of Vysokie Dechani in Serbia. St Nicetas received an unfading crown of glory from Christ in the year 372.

We pray to St Nicetas for the preservation of children from birth defects.

Uncovering of the relics St Acacius the Bishop of Melitene:
Saint Acacius the Confessor lived during the Decian persecution, and was Bishop of Melitene, Armenia.

Arrested as a Christian, St Acacius was brought before the governor Marcianus, who ordered that he be tortured. He was not put to death, but was set free after a while, bearing the wounds of Christ on his body. He died in peace.

St Acacius the Confessor is also commemorated on March 31. He should not be confused with another St Acacius of Melitene (April 17) who lived in the fifth century.

Martyrs Theodotus and Maximus and Woman Martyr Asclepiodote of Adrianopolis:
The Holy Martyr Theodotus suffered with Sts Maximus, Asklepiodote, at the beginning of the fourth century under the emperor Maximian Galerius (305-311). Eminent citizens of the city of Marcianopolis, Maximus and Asklepiodote led a devout Christian life. By their example they brought many to faith in Christ and to holy Baptism.

During the persecution Tiris, the governor of Thrace, went around the city subject to him and persecuted those believing in Christ. He summoned Maximus and Asklepiodote before him and demanded they abandon the Christian Faith. When the martyrs refused, he ordered that they be beaten.

Then a certain pious man named Theodotus, began to reproach the governor for his inhumanity and cruelty. They seized him also, and hanging him on a tree, they tortured him with iron hooks. After this, they threw the three martyrs into prison. Tiris traveled for two weeks more and took the holy martyrs along with him.

In the city of Adrianopolis he put them to still greater tortures, commanding that their bodies be scorched with white-hot plates. In the midst of their suffering they heard a Voice from Heaven encouraging them to persevere. After several days of torture they threw the martyrs to be eaten by wild beasts in the circus, but instead the she-bear released upon Sts Maximus and Theodotus began to cuddle up to them.

St Asklepiodote was tied to a bull, but she seemed to be rooted to the spot, and did not budge. Tiris resumed the journey and stopped in the village of Saltis before reaching the city of Philippopolis. Again he urged the martyrs to renounce Christ. When they refused, he ordered them to be beheaded. God's wrath overtook him when a bolt of lightning struck him as he sat upon the judgment seat.

Martyr Porphyrius the Actor:
The Holy Martyr Porphyrius suffered during the reign of Julian the Apostate (361-363). Porphyrius was an actor and on the emperor's birthday he was performing a role at the theater, where he was supposed to mock the mystery of holy Baptism.

During the play Porphyrius was immersed in water and said: "The servant of God, Porphyrius, is baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Through divine grace, he emerged from the water and confessed himself a Christian. Julian ordered him to be tortured, and after the torments, to be beheaded. This took place in the city of Ephesus in the year 361.

St Philotheus the Presbyter in Asia Minor:
The Holy Presbyter and Wonderworker Philotheus lived in the tenth century in the village of Mravin (or Myrmix) located in Bythnia in Asia Minor. He was a married priest, and had children. He devoted himself to deeds of prayer and fasting, and works of charity. Because of his holy life, St Philotheus received from God the gift of working miracles. The ascetic continually fed the hungry and helped the needy. St Philotheus died in peace. Myrrh flowed from his relics.

Venerable Joseph the Abbot of Alaverdi in Georgia:
Saint Joseph, Bishop of Alaverdi, was one of the Twelve Holy Syrian (Cappadocian) Fathers, the establishers of Georgian Monasticism (May 7). He, as a "blossom of virginity" from his early years, chose the monastic life. Having arrived in Georgia with his teacher St John Zedazni (May 7), St Joseph settled in Kakheti in the unpopulated and barren Alaverdian steppes. Here he began his ascetic exploits. His spiritual strength was so great that even wild beasts did not touch him, and the deer of the steppes came and nourished him with their milk.

One of the Kakheti nobles found himself on the Alaverdian steppes during a hunt and was so astonished, seeing St Joseph standing at prayer, that he remained with him.

Reports of the hunter becoming a monk and of the holy life of St Joseph spread throughout Kakheti. People fervent for piety and the ascetic life began to throng to the Alaverdian steppe to St Joseph. A monastery thus sprang up, and a church was built in honor of the Great Martyr George.

Chosen to lead the monastery, St Joseph with fatherly love concerned himself with the brethren of the monastery, and with the spiritual enlightenment of Kakheti. Pagan superstitions were still not eradicated, and St Joseph, with cross in hand, often left his monastic solitude to preach the Word of God.

Seeing St Joseph's holy and blameless life and his sincere desire to serve them, the Kakheti people willingly and joyfully accepted the Gospel teaching, abandoning their unbelief and pagan customs.

St Joseph composed a catechism (lost in the sixteenth century) by which he taught the flock entrusted to him. Nearing the end of his life of lofty service, St Joseph secluded himself in a narrow cell for complete silence.

His peaceful and blessed repose occurred in the year 570. St Joseph was buried in the church of the holy Great Martyr George in Alaverdi.

In the ninth century the great Alaverdi cathedral was built to replace the former church. The body of St Joseph rests on the left side of the Altar by the north wall.

St Joseph the New of Partos the Metropolitan of Timishoara (Romania):
Saint Joseph the New was born in 1568 at Raguza in Dalmatia, and was given the name Jacob at his Baptism. When he was very young, his father died, and he was raised by his mother. At the age of twelve, he was sent to Ochrid to be schooled.

The young Jacob was called to live the monastic life when he was fifteen, and entered the monastery of the Mother of God. After five years, he traveled to Mount Athos, and was tonsured at the Pantokrator Monastery with the new name of Joseph. He fulfilled his various obediences in an exemplary manner, becoming perfected in virtue and holiness. He attained unceasing prayer of the heart, receiving from God the gift of tears. He also performed many miracles, healing the sick and the crippled. Some of the monasteries of the Holy Mountain would send for him so that he could heal those monks who were afflicted with severe bodily suffering.

On July 20, 1650, at the age of eighty-two, St Joseph was elected as Metropolitan of Timishoara. He was a wise and good shepherd to his flock, healing their physical and spiritual illnesses. Once he extinguished a fire in the western part of Timishoara by his prayers, when God sent a heavy rainfall.

After three years of archpastoral labors, he retired to the Partosh Monastery, where he was often visited by many of the faithful. The monastery was an important center of church activity in those days, and even had a school for training priests.

Metropolitan Joseph fell asleep in the Lord on August 15, 1656 when he was eighty-eight years old, and he was buried in the monastery church. He is commemorated on September 15.

He worked many miracles during his lifetime, and there are reports that his relics remained incorrupt after his death.

For more than 300 years the monks reverently tended his grave, then at his glorification on October 7, 1956 St Joseph's relics were transferred into the cathedral at Timishoara. The casket containing his holy relics is adorned with carvings depicting scenes from his life.

An Akathist composed to honor St Joseph speaks of his many virtues.

St Bessarion, Archbishop of Larissa:
Saint Bessarion, Archbishop of Larissa, lived during the sixteenth century and founded the Dusika monastery in Thessaly.

St Gerasimus:
Saint Gerasimus founded a monastery in honor of the Holy Trinity near Makrinitsa in Zagora (Mizia). This monastery received the name Zurvia (Survias).

New Martyr John of Crete:
The New Martyr John was from Crete, and worked as a farmer at New Ephesus (Kusantasi) in Asia Minor. He was a young man, and was engaged to be married.

On August 29, John and two friends from Crete went to a festival to celebrate the Feast of St John the Baptist. They were stopped by the Turks, and the two visitors were ordered to pay the head tax. The Cretans refused to pay, and got into a scuffle with the aga's men. The Turks took a gun belonging to one of the Cretans, but then he grabbed it back from the Moslem. In the confusion, one of the aga's men was killed and some of the others were stabbed.

Since John was not involved in the incident, he went back to his farm. The brother of the dead Moslem, however, wanted revenge. He knew that John was present when his brother was killed, so he had him arrested. John was thrown into prison, beaten, and was not allowed to have any visitors.

St John remained in prison for sixteen days. Then he was given the choice of saving his life by converting to Islam, or to remain a Christian and die. John stated, "I was born as an Orthodox Christian, and I shall die as an Orthodox Christian."

Since John was an attractive young man, the kadi's daughter became interested in him. If he were willing to convert, he could marry the girl and enjoy both wealth and position as a member of the kadi's family. Even this was not enough to make him deny Christ.

Finally the Hagarenes grew tired of trying to convert John, and he was sentenced to death by hanging. As he was led to the place of execution, he kept saying, "Most Holy Theotokos, help me." He also asked forgiveness of the Christians he met along the way.

St John suffered for Christ on September 15, 1811, and received the incorruptible crown of martyrdom. That night the martyr's body shone with a bright light. After three days, permission was granted to bury his holy relics in the courtyard of the church of St George.

Icon of the Mother of God of Novonikita:
The Novonikita Icon is one of the ancient icons of the Mother of God. It appeared to the holy Great Martyr Nikita (+ 372). St Nikita was a former soldier and disciple of Theophilus, Bishop of the Goths. Prior to his Baptism, Nikita saw a Child in a dream, holding His Cross in His hand. He awoke and pondered the meaning of the vision for a long time.

A certain Christian girl by the name of Juliana, inspired by God, told the youth that he should look at his own chest. To his unspeakable astonishment he discovered there an icon of the Most Holy Theotokos with the Pre-eternal Christ Child, standing on His Mother's knees and holding the Cross in His hand.

"This is the same image I saw in the dream," cried St Nikita. The appearance of the icon produced such an effect on him that he quickly received holy Baptism. Soon there was a persecution against Christians, and St Nikita received a martyr's crown, together with a number of other confessors.

The Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross:
The Elevation of the Venerable and Life-Creating Cross of the Lord: The pagan Roman emperors tried to completely eradicate from human memory the holy places where our Lord Jesus Christ suffered and was resurrected for mankind. The Emperor Hadrian (117-138) gave orders to cover over the ground of Golgotha and the Sepulchre of the Lord, and to build a temple of the pagan goddess Venus and a statue of Jupiter.

Pagans gathered at this place and offered sacrifice to idols there. Eventually after 300 years, by Divine Providence, the great Christian sacred remains, the Sepulchre of the Lord and the Life-Creating Cross were again discovered and opened for veneration. This took place under the Emperor Constantine the Great (306-337) after his victory in the year 312 over Maxentius, ruler of the Western part of the Roman empire, and over Licinius, ruler of its Eastern part. In the year 323 Constantine became the sole ruler of the vast Roman Empire.

In 313 he had issued the Edict of Milan, by which the Christian religion was legalized and the persecutions against Christians in the Western half of the empire were stopped. The ruler Licinius, although he had signed the Edict of Milan to oblige Constantine, still fanatically continued the persecutions against Christians. Only after his conclusive defeat did the 313 Edict of toleration extend also to the Eastern part of the empire. The Holy Equal of the Apostles Emperor Constantine, having gained victory over his enemies in three wars with God's assistance, had seen in the heavens the Sign of the Cross, and written beneath: "By this you shall conquer."

Ardently desiring to find the Cross on which our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, St Constantine sent his mother, the pious Empress Helen (May 21), to Jerusalem, providing her with a letter to St Macarius, Patriarch of Jerusalem.

Although the holy empress Helen was already in her declining years, she set about completing the task with enthusiasm. The empress gave orders to destroy the pagan temple and the statues in Jerusalem. Searching for the Life-Creating Cross, she made inquiry of Christians and Jews, but for a long time her search remained unsuccessful.

Finally, they directed her to a certain elderly Hebrew by the name of Jude who stated that the Cross was buried where the temple of Venus stood. They demolished the pagan temple and, after praying, they began to excavate the ground. Soon the Tomb of the Lord was uncovered. Not far from it were three crosses, a board with the inscription ordered by Pilate, and four nails which had pierced the Lord's Body (March 6).

In order to discern on which of the three crosses the Savior was crucified, Patriarch Macarius alternately touched the crosses to a corpse. When the Cross of the Lord touched the dead one, he came to life. Having beheld the raising of the dead man, everyone was convinced that the Life-Creating Cross was found.

Christians came in a huge throng to venerate the Holy Cross, beseeching St Macarius to elevate the Cross, so that even those far off might reverently contemplate it. Then the Patriarch and other spiritual leaders raised up the Holy Cross, and the people, saying "Lord have mercy," reverently prostrated before the Venerable Wood. This solemn event occurred in the year 326.

During the discovery of the Life-Creating Cross another miracle took place: a grievously sick woman, beneath the shadow of the Holy Cross, was healed instantly. The elder Jude and other Jews there believed in Christ and accepted Holy Baptism. Jude received the name Cyriacus and afterwards was consecrated Bishop of Jerusalem.

During the reign of Julian the Apostate (361-363) he accepted a martyr's death for Christ (see October 28). The holy empress Helen journeyed to the holy places connected with the earthly life of the Savior, building more than 80 churches, at Bethlehem the birthplace of Christ, and on the Mount of Olives where the Lord ascended to Heaven, and at Gethsemane where the Savior prayed before His sufferings and where the Mother of God was buried after her death.

St Helen took part of the Life-Creating Wood and nails with her to Constantinople. The holy emperor Constantine gave orders to build at Jerusalem a majestic and spacious church in honor of the Resurrection of Christ, also including under its roof the Life-Giving Tomb of the Lord and Golgotha. The temple was constructed in about ten years. St Helen did not survive until the dedication of the temple, she died in the year 327. The church was consecrated on September 13, 335. On the following day, September 14, the festal celebration of the Exaltation of the Venerable and Life-Creating Cross was established.

Another event connected to the Cross of the Lord is remembered also on this day: its return to Jerusalem from Persia after a fourteen year captivity. During the reign of the Byzantine emperor Phocas (602-610) the Persian emperor Khozroes II in a war against the Greeks defeated the Greek army, plundered Jerusalem and captured both the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord and the Holy Patriarch Zachariah (609-633).

The Cross remained in Persia for fourteen years and only under the emperor Heraclius (610-641), who with the help of God defeated Khozroes and concluded peace with his successor and son Syroes, was the Cross of the Lord returned to the Christians.

With great solemnity the Life-creating Cross was transferred to Jerusalem. Emperor Heraclius in imperial crown and royal purple carried the Cross of Christ into the temple of the Resurrection. With the emperor went Patriarch Zacharios. At the gates by which they ascended Golgotha, the emperor suddenly stopped and was not able to proceed farther. The holy Patriarch explained to the emperor that an angel of the Lord was blocking his way. The emperor was told to remove his royal trappings and to walk barefoot, since He Who bore the Cross for the salvation of the world from sin had made His way to Golgotha in all humility. Then Heraclius donned plain garb, and without further hindrance, carried the Cross of Christ into the church.

In a sermon on the Exaltation of the Cross, St Andrew of Crete (July 4) says: "The Cross is exalted, and everything true gathers together, the Cross is exalted, and the city makes solemn, and the people celebrate the feast".

Repose of St John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople:
Saint John Chrysostom died on September 14, 407, but because of the feast of the Exaltation of the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord, the commemoration of the saint was transferred to November 13. On January 27 we commemorate the transfer of the holy relics of St John Chrysostom from Comana to Constantinople, and on January 30, the Synaxis of the Three Hierarchs.

Monkmartyr Joseph of Dionysiou on Mt Athos:
Saint Joseph was a monk of Dionysiou Monastery on Mt. Athos, where he shone forth with the virtues of monastic life. He was an iconographer, and he painted the icon of the holy Archangels on the iconostasis of Dionysiou's main church.

In obedience to the instructions of Igumen Stephen, St Joseph traveled to Constantinople with Eudocimus, who had apostasized from Orthodoxy to become a Moslem. Eudocimus repented, and wished to wipe out his sin through martyrdom.

When faced with torture and death, however, the unfortunate Eudocimus denied Christ again, blaming Joseph for turning him from Islam.

St Joseph was arrested and threatened with death. In spite of many tortures, he refused to convert to Islam. This holy martyr of Christ was hanged on February 17, 1819, and so he obtained an incorruptible crown of glory.

Some sources list his commemoration on February 17, while others list him on September 14 or October 26.

Icon of the Mother of God of Lesna:
The Lesna Icon of the Mother of God was discovered on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord in 1683 by a shepherd on the branches of a pear tree, and taken to a nearby Orthodox church of the village of Bukovich, not far from the town of Lesna.

When news of the miraculously appearing icon circulated throughout all the surrounding area, the Catholic priests then decided to use the icon for spreading Catholicism. They took away the icon by force from the inhabitants of Bukovich in 1686 and put it in the Roman church at Lesna.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, monks of a Catholic order founded a large Roman church and monastery at Lesna, in which was the wonderworking icon. In 1863 the monks of the order took part in the Polish revolt, and, by decree of the Russian government, the monastery was closed and converted into an Orthodox women's monastery. Many miracles were worked by the icon. The celebration of the Lesna Icon of the Mother of God is celebrated also on September 8 and on the Day of the Holy Trinity.

Commemoration of the Founding of the Church of the Resurrection (Holy Sepulchre) at Jerusalem:
The Dedication of the Temple of the Resurrection of Christ at Jerusalem celebrates the dedication of the Church of the Resurrection, built by St Constantine the Great and his mother, the empress Helen.

After the voluntary Passion and Death on the Cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the holy place of His suffering was long trampled on by pagans. When the Roman emperor Titus conquered Jerusalem in the year 70, he razed the city and destroyed the Temple of Solomon on Mount Moriah, leaving there not a stone upon a stone, as even the Savior foretold (Mt.13:1-2).

Later on the zealous pagan emperor Hadrian (117-138) built on the site of the Jerusalem destroyed by Titus a new city named Aelia Capitolina for him (Hadrian Aelius). It was forbidden to call the city by its former name.

He gave orders to cover the Holy Tomb of the Lord with earth and stones, and on that spot to set up an idol. On Golgotha, where the Savior was crucified, he constructed a pagan temple dedicated to the goddess Venus in 119. Before the statues they offered sacrifice to demons and performed pagan rites, accompanied by wanton acts.

In Bethlehem, at the place the Savior was born of the All-Pure Virgin, the impious emperor set up an idol of Adonis. He did all this intentionally, so that people would forget completely about Christ the Savior and that they would no loner remember the places where He lived, taught, suffered and arose in glory.

At the beginning of the reign of St Constantine the Great (306-337), the first of the Roman emperors to recognize the Christian religion, he and his pious mother the empress Helen decided to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. At the beinning of the reign of St Constantine the Great (306-337), the first of the Roman emperors to recognize the Christian religion, he and his pious mother the empress Helen decided to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. They also planned to build a church on the site of the Lord's suffering and Resurrection, in order to reconsecrate and purify the places connected with memory of the Savior from the taint of foul pagan cults.

The empress Helen journeyed to Jerusalem with a large quantity of gold, and St Constantine the Great wrote a letter to Patriarch Macarius I (313-323), requesting him to assist her in every possible way with her task of the renewing the Christian holy places.

After her arrival in Jerusalem, the holy empress Helen destroyed all the pagan temples and reconsecrated the places desecrated by the pagans. She was zealous to find the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, and she ordered the excavation of the place where the temple of Venus stood. There they discovered the Sepulchre of the Lord and Golgotha, and they also found three crosses and some nails.

In order to determine upon which of the three crosses the Savior was crucified, Patriarch Macarius gave orders to place a dead person, who was being carried to a place of burial, upon each cross in turn. When the dead person was placed on the Cross of Christ, he immediately came alive. With the greatest of joy the empress Helen and Patriarch Macarius raised up the Life-Creating Cross and displayed it to all the people standing about.

The holy empress quickly began the construction of a large church which enclosed within its walls Golgotha, the place of the Crucifixion of the Savior, and the Sepulchre of the Lord, located near each other. The holy Apostle and Evangelist John wrote about this: "Now in the place where He was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been laid. Therefore they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day, for the tomb was nearby" (John 19:41-42). The Church of the Resurrection was ten years in building, and the holy empress Helen did not survive to see its completion. She returned to Constantinople, and reposed in the year 327. After her arrival in Jerusalem, the holy empress built churches in Bethlehem, on the Mount of Olives, at Gethsemane and in many other places connected with the life of the Savior and events in the New Testament.

The construction of the church of the Resurrection, called "Martyrion" in memory of the sufferings of the Savior, was completed in the same year as the Council of Tyre, and in the thirtieth year of the reign of St Constantine the Great. Therefore, at the assembly of September 13, 335, the consecration of the temple was particularly solemn. Hierarchs of Christian Churches in many lands: Bythnia, Thrace, Cilicia, Cappadocia, Syria, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Arabia, Palestine, and Egypt, participated in the consecration of the church. The bishops who participated in the Council of Tyre, and many others, went to the consecration in Jerusalem. On this day all the city of Jerusalem was consecrated. The Fathers of the Church established September 13 as the commemoration of this remarkable event.

Hieromartyr Cornelius the Centurion:
The Hieromartyr Cornelius the Centurion: Soon after the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross and His Ascension into Heaven, a centurion by the name of Cornelius settled at Caesarea in Palestine. He had lived previously in Thracian Italy. Although he was a pagan, he distinguished himself by deep piety and good deeds, as the holy Evangelist Luke says (Acts 10:1). The Lord did not disdain his virtuous life, and so led him to the knowledge of truth and to faith in Christ.

Once, Cornelius was praying in his home. An angel of God appeared to him and said that his prayer had been heard and accepted by God. The angel commanded him to send people to Joppa to find Simon, also called Peter. Cornelius immediately fulfilled the command.

While those people were on their way to Joppa, the Apostle Peter was at prayer, and he had a vision: three times a great sheet was lowered down to him, filled with all kinds of beasts and fowl. He heard a voice from Heaven commanding him to eat everything. When the apostle refused to eat food which Jewish Law regarded as unclean, the voice said: "What God hath cleansed, you must not call common" (Acts 10:15).

Through this vision the Lord commanded the Apostle Peter to preach the Word of God to the pagans. When the Apostle Peter arrived at the house of Cornelius in the company of those sent to meet him, he was received with great joy and respect by the host together with his kinsmen and comrades.

Cornelius fell down at the feet of the apostle and requested to be taught the way of salvation. St Peter talked about the earthly life of Jesus Christ, and spoke of the miracles and signs worked by the Savior, and of His teachings about the Kingdom of Heaven. Then St Peter told him of the Lord's death on the Cross, His Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven. By the grace of the Holy Spirit, Cornelius believed in Christ and was baptized with all his family. He was the first pagan to receive Baptism.

He retired from the world and went preaching the Gospel together with the Apostle Peter, who made him a bishop. When the Apostle Peter, together with his helpers Sts Timothy and Cornelius, was in the city of Ephesus, he learned of a particularly vigorous idol-worship in the city of Skepsis. Lots were drawn to see who would go there, and St Cornelius was chosen.

In the city lived a prince by the name of Demetrius, learned in the ancient Greek philosophy, hating Christianity and venerating the pagan gods, in particular Apollo and Zeus. Learning about the arrival of St Cornelius in the city, he immediately summoned him and asked him the reason for his coming. St Cornelius answered that he came to free him from the darkness of ignorance and lead him to knowledge of the True Light.

The prince, not comprehending the meaning of what was said, became angry and demanded that he answer each of his questions. When St Cornelius explained that he served the Lord and that the reason for his coming was to announce the Truth, the prince became enraged and demanded that Cornelius offer sacrifice to the idols.

The saint asked to be shown the gods. When he entered the pagan temple, Cornelius turned towards the east and uttered a prayer to the Lord. There was an earthquake, and the temple of Zeus and the idols situated in it were destroyed. All the populace, seeing what had happened, were terrified.

The prince was even more vexed and began to take counsel together with those approaching him, about how to destroy Cornelius. They bound the saint and took him to prison for the night. At this point, one of his servants informed the prince that his wife and child had perished beneath the rubble of the destroyed temple.

After a certain while, one of the pagan priests, by the name of Barbates, reported that he heard the voice of the wife and son somewhere in the ruins and that they were praising the God of the Christians. The pagan priest asked that the imprisoned one be released, in gratitude for the miracle worked by St Cornelius, and the wife and son of the prince remained alive.

The joyful prince hastened to the prison in the company of those about him, declaring that he believed in Christ and asking him to bring his wife and son out of the ruins of the temple. St Cornelius went to the destroyed temple, and through prayer the suffering were freed.

After this the prince Demetrius, and all his relatives and comrades accepted holy Baptism. St Cornelius lived for a long time in this city, converted all the pagan inhabitants to Christ, and made Eunomios a presbyter in service to the Lord. St Cornelius died in old age and was buried not far from the pagan temple he destroyed.

Martyrs Chronides, Leontius, and Serapion of Alexandria:
The Holy Martyr Chronides suffered for the Christian Faith in the third century with Sts Stratonicus, Serapion, Leontius and Seleucus. StsChronides, Leontius, and Serapion were from Egypt. After fierce torments for their confession of faith in Christ, the holy martyrs were savagely killed. Sts Chronides, Leontius and Serapion were bound hand and foot and cast into the sea. Their bodies were carried to shore by the waves, where Christians gave them burial.

Martyr Seleucus in Scythia:
The Holy Martyr Seleucus suffered for the Christian Faith with Sts Stratonicus, Chronides, Leontius and Serapion in the third century. St Seleucus came from Galatia. After fierce torments for their confession of faith in Christ, holy martyrs were savagely killed.

St Seleucus suffered in Galatia, where after many tortures he and his wife were thrown to be eaten by wild beasts.

Martyr Stratonicus in Scythia:
The Holy Martyr Stratonicus suffered for the Christian Faith with Sts Seleucus, Chronides, Leontius and Serapion in the third century. St Stratonicus was from Bithynian Nicomedia. After fierce torments for their confession of faith in Christ, holy martyrs were savagely killed.

St Stratonicus, after being tortured by order of the Bithynan governor, was bound to two bent tree trunks. His body was split in two (See also September 9).

Martyrs Macrobius, Gordian, Elias, Zoticus, Lucian, and Valerian at Tomis in Romania:
Saint Macrobius was from Paphlagonia, and suffered martyrdom with Sts Gordian, a native of Cappadocia, Elias, Zoticus, Lucian and Valerian.

Gordian and Macrobian served in the imperial court, and they enjoyed the particular favor of the emperor. When he found out that they were Christians, he sent them to Scythia. There they met Zoticus, Lucian and Elias, who were also courageous confessors of Christ. First Sts Gordian and Macrobius suffered. After this Sts Elias, Zoticus, Lucian and Valerian were tortured and then beheaded in the city of Tomis in Scythia (Tomis, Romania). They suffered at Paphlagonia (Asia Minor) at the beginning of the fourth century during the reign of the Roman emperor Licinius (311-324).

Hieromartyr Julian of Galatia:
Saint Julian was born at Ancyra, Galatia (in Asia Minor). He was a priest who boldly confessed Christ during the reign of Emperor Licinius (311-324). For this "crime," he was arrested by the authorities. Since he refused to offer sacrifice to the idols, he was tortured and put to death, thereby receiving an imperishable crown of glory from Christ.

St Peter of Atroe:
Saint Peter from Atroe was dedicated to God from childhood, and spent his whole life in exploits of fasting and unceasing prayer. He pursued asceticism in the city of Atroe, near Asian Olympos. A distinctive feature of the holy ascetic was his extreme temperance. During his lifetime, the saint worked many miracles and peacefully reposed in the time of Patriarch Tarasius of Constantinople (784-806).

Greatmartyr Ketevan the Queen of Georgia:
The Holy Great Martyr Ketevan was descended from the imperial Bagration lineage and was a great-grandchild of the emperor Constantine of Kartalin (1469-1505). Having become the spouse of David, successor to the emperor Alexander II of Kakheti (1577-1605), she herself governed the empire. The deep piety of the empress was manifest in her particular attention to the needs of the Georgian Church, in the building of churches, shelters, and vagrants homes. After the death of her husband St Ketevan settled into solitude.

Constantine (called Okayan), the brother of her husband, accepted Islam and, on the instructions of the shah Abbas I, sent assassins to kill his dying father, the emperor Alexander II, and his brother George. After the crime was committed, Constantine gave orders to place the bodies of the murder victims on camels and take them to the empress Ketevan. Horrified at the wicked deed, the empress mourned the innocent sufferers and buried them at the Alaverdsk cathedral. The impious one, however, enroached upon her honorable widowhood and demanded her hand, threatening force in case of refusal.

The empress Ketevan gathered the people of Kakheti and marched against Constantine, defeating the impious apostate. He met an inglorious death together with many in the Persian army. Under the wise rule of the empress Ketevan, peace and justice were re-established in Kakheti. Shah Abbas I returned her son Teimuraz, who although he had lived several years in court in the guise of a hostage, preserved his Orthodox Faith in purity.

Afterwards the shah Abbas, threatening Georgia with destruction, coerced the Kakheti feudal authorities into handing over illustrious hostages. In that number, voluntarily, was the empress Ketevan. Wanting to avert disaster for the Georgian nation and Holy Church, she arrived in Ispahan. Shah Abbas urged the empress to accept Mohammedanism, but he received decisive refusal.

Then the empress Ketevan was thrown into prison, where she spent ten years, filled with the sufferings of martyrdom. Neither the vileness of Persian courtiers, nor cunning offers by the shah to elevate her to empress of the Persian realm, nor offers of great treasure, nor the implorings and entreaties of the courtiers and Persian nobles - nothing was able to entice her to utter even a single blasphemous word against Christ. Nothing was able to move the sufferer for Christ.

They hung her cross-wise on a tree, and tortured her with red-hot tongs. A red-hot helmet was placed on her head, she was beaten with iron rods, and had nails driven into her body. The dense smoke from her burning hair and head rose upwards, and the blessed martyr gave up her soul to God on September 13, 1624.

Three bright pillars descended upon the body of St Ketevan, signifying her spiritual victory. The relics of the holy empress were taken to Rome to the cathedral of the holy Apostle Peter, by monks of the Augustinian order who had been witnesses to her martyrdom. Part of the relics (the venerable head and right hand of the martyr) was given by the Augustinian monks to emperor Teimuraz I and placed beneath the altar-table of the Alaverdi cathedral of the holy Great Martyr George in Kakheti. The Katholikos-Patriarch Zachariah (1613-1630) numbered the Great Martyr Ketevan among the saints and established her Feast for September 13.

Venerable Hierotheus the Younger of Iveron of Mt Athos:
Saint Hierotheus was born in 1686 in Greece. Desiring to comprehend Divine wisdom as it is in the sciences and also as it is in monastic life, the pious youth, displaying great ability and diligence, studied Latin and Greek philosophy.

After the death of his parents, and wanting to continue his education, St Hierotheus first of all visited Mount Athos, which was famous for its many male teachers. At first he was the disciple of a certain hermit near the cell of St Artemius (October 20), and then he joined the brethren of the Iveron monastery, where he received the monastic tonsure.

St Hierotheus soon journeyed to Constantinople on monastery business, and from there to Valachia, where the Lord directed him to continue his interrupted education. Having been instructed by a certain Cypriot monk, St Hierotheus by his good manners merited the favor of Metropolitan Auxentius of Sofia, and was ordained deacon.

After completing his education in Venice, St Hierotheus returned to the Holy Mountain. He settled near the Iveron monastery in the Khaga wilderness. According to the testimony of his contemporaries, he led a very strict hermit's life; with the constant Jesus Prayer the monk discovered deep love for neighbor and joy-creating sorrow. On the intercession of the igumen of the Iveron monastery St Hierotheus was ordained to the priesthood by Metropolitan James of Neocaesarea, who lived there in retirement.

At the request of the inhabitants of Skopelo, who had no priest, the self-denying ascetic forsook his solitude. He celebrated the services and preached for eight years, together with his Athonite disciples the hieromonk Meletius and the monks Joasaph and Simeon.

Foreseeing his own impending end, St Hierotheus with three disciples withdrew to the island of Yura, where those banished for life were usually sent. There after a short illness he departed to the Lord in the year 1745. His disciples buried him on that island, and after three years his venerable head was transferred to the Iveron monastery. Many sick and those afflicted with bodily suffering were healed by prayers to the saint.

St John of Prislop:
Saint John was a monk of the Prislop Monastery in southwestern Romania at the turn of the sixteenth century. After several years in that place, he went into the mountains to lead a solitary ascetical life, struggling against the assaults of the demons.

One day, while St John was making a window in his cell, he was shot and killed by a hunter on the other side of the creek, who mistook him for a wild animal.

St John's holy relics were later brought to Wallachia (southern Romania). He was glorified by the Orthodox Church of Romania in 1992.

Hieromartyr Autonomus the Bishop in Italy:
The Hieromartyr Autonomus was a bishop in Italy. During the time of the persecution against Christians under the emperor Diocletian (284-305), St Autonomus left his own country and resettled in Bithynia, in the locality of Soreus with a man named Cornelius. St Autonomus did his apostolic duty with zeal and converted to Christ so many pagans, that a large Church was formed, for which he consecrated a temple in the name of the Archangel Michael. For this church, the saint at first ordained Cornelius as deacon, and then presbyter. Preaching about Christ, St Autonomus visited also Lykaonia and Isauria.

The emperor Diocletian gave orders to arrest St Autonomus, but the saint withdrew to Claudiopolis on the Black Sea. In returning to Soreus, he had the priest Cornelius ordained bishop. St Autonomus then went to Asia, and when he had returned from there, he began to preach in the vicinity of Limna, near Soreus.

Once, the newly-converted destroyed a pagan temple. The pagans decided to take revenge on the Christians. Seizing their chance, the pagans rushed upon the church of the Archangel Michael when St Autonomus was serving Divine Liturgy there. After torturing St Autonomus they killed him, reddening the altar of the church with his martyr's blood. The deaconess Maria removed the body of the holy martyr from beneath a pile of stones and buried it.

During the reign of St Constantine the Great, a church was built over the tomb of the saint. In the year 430, a certain priest had the old church pulled down. Not realizing that the martyr's body had been buried beneath the church, he rebuilt the church in a new spot. But after another 60 years the relics of the saint were found incorrupt, and a church was then built in the name of the Hieromartyr Autonomus.

Venerable Bassian of Tikhsnen, Vologda:
St Bassian of Tiksnensk [Totemsk] (in the world Basil) was a peasant from the village of Strelitsa (by other accounts, from the village of Burtsevo), near the city of Totma, and he was by trade a tailor. Leaving his family, he became a monk under St Theodosius of Totemsk in the Sumorinsk monastery at the River Sukhona, where he spent several years in works and obediences.

In 1594, the monk resettled not far from Totma, at the River Tiksna, near a church named for St Nicholas the Wonderworker. At first he lived at the church portico, but then he made himself a cell near the church. The monk visited at each divine service. For thirty years he wore chains on his body: on his shoulders a heavy chain, on his loins an iron belt, and on his head beneath his head covering an iron cap.

Yearning for solitude, the monk admitted no one to his cell, except his spiritual Father. He lived by the alms which they put by his small window. St Bassian died on September 12, 1624. Only at burial was it discovered how much he had humbled his flesh.

At the place of St Bassian's ascetic struggles a monastery was established in honor of the Icon of the Savior Not-Made-by-Hands. Veneration of St Bassian began in the year 1647, when during a deadly plague, many received healing at his tomb. The Life of the monk was written in the year 1745 by the igumen Joseph.

Translation of the relics of Righteous Simeon of Verkhoturye:
Saint Simeon of Verkhoturye was a nobleman, but he concealed his origin and led the life of a beggar. He walked through the villages and for free sewed half-coats and other clothes, primarily for the poor. While doing this he deliberately failed to sew something, either a glove, or a scarf, for which he endured abuse from his customers.

The ascetic wandered much, but most often he lived at a churchyard of the village of Merkushinsk not far from the city of Verkhoturye (on the outskirts of Perm). St Simeon loved nature in the Urals, and while joyfully contemplated its majestic beauty, he would raise up a thoughtful glance towards the Creator of the world. In his free time, the saint loved to go fishing in the tranquility of solitude. This reminded him of the disciples of Christ, whose work he continued, guiding the local people in the true Faith. His conversations were a seed of grace, from which gradually grew the abundant fruits of the Spirit in the Urals and in Siberia, where the saint is especially revered.

St Simeon of Verkhoturye died in 1642, when he was 35 years of age. He was buried in the Merkushinsk graveyard by the church of the Archangel Michael.

On September 12, 1704, with the blessing of Metropolitan Philotheus of Tobolsk, the holy relics of St Simeon were transferred from the church of the Archangel Michael to the Verkhoturye monastery in the name of St Nicholas.

St Simeon worked many miracles after his death. He frequently appeared to the sick in dreams and healed them, and he brought to their senses those fallen into the disease of drunkenness. A peculiarity of the saint's appearances was that with the healing of bodily infirmities, he also gave instruction and guidance for the soul.

The memory of St Simeon of Verkhoturye is celebrated also on December 18, on the day of his glorification (1694).

Martyr Julian of Galatia:
The Holy Martyr Julian lived during the fourth century not far from the ancient city of Ancyra. A report was made to the governor of the district of Galatia that the Presbyter Julian was hiding in a certain cave with forty others of the same persuasion, and that he was celebrating divine services there. They arrested St Julian and demanded that he reveal where the remaining Christians were hidden, but he refused.

The pagans ordered the holy priest to offer sacrifice to their gods, but he would not consent to this, either. Then they stripped him and placed him on a red-hot iron grate. The martyr signed himself with the Sign of the Cross, and an angel of the Lord cooled the flame. St Julian remained unharmed.

When the governor asked who he was and how he had quenched the fire, the martyr said: "I am a servant of God." The torturers brought forth an old woman, the mother of the saint, and they threatened her that if she did not persuade her son to offer sacrifice to idols, then they would torture her. The brave woman answered that if they defiled her body against her will, this would not make her guilty of sin before God. On the contrary, it would constitute an act of martyrdom.

The humiliated torturers sent the old woman away, but they condemned St Julian to death. In his prayer the saint gave fervent thanks to God and asked that he be given strength to endure the sufferings. St Julian also asked a special grace from God: that those who take earth from the place of his burial be granted forgiveness of sins and deliverance from passions, and that harmful insects and birds might not descend upon their fields.

Commending himself to God with the words: "Lord, accept my spirit in peace!" the martyr bent his neck beneath the sword, and a Voice summoned the martyr to the Heavenly Kingdom. This Voice was heard also by those Christians who had hidden themselves in the cave. Emboldened, they come forth to the place of St Julian's sufferings, but they found him already dead. They all confessed themselves to be Christians, and they were arrested and brought to the governor, who ordered them beheaded.

40 Martyred with Julian of Galatia:
These forty Christians endured martyrdom with St Julian of Galatia in the fourth century. The governor of the district of Galatia was informed that St Julian and forty others were hiding in a certain cave, and sent men to arrest them. When they arrived at the cave, they found only Julian, who refused to tell them where the others were hiding.

When Julian refused to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods, he was tortured and then beheaded. The forty Christians heard a Voice summoning the martyr to the Heavenly Kingdom. Emboldened, they come forth to the place of St Julian's sufferings, but they found him already dead. They all confessed themselves to be Christians, and they were arrested and brought to the governor, who ordered them beheaded.

Martyr Theodore of Alexandria:
This St Theodore of Alexandria is not the same person as St Theodore the Bishop of Alexandria (December 3).

Today's saint was a simple Christian who was thrown into prison for confessing Christ. Later, he was tortured and thrown into the sea, but remained unharmed.

St Theodore was beheaded and buried in Alexandria.

St Coronatus the Bishop of Nicomedia:
The Hieromartyr Coronatus, Bishop of Nicomedia [Iconium], suffered for Christ in the persecution of Decius and Valerian (253-259) in the third century. The governor of Iconium, Perennius, through his interrogations and persecution, forced Christians to go into hiding. St Coronatus voluntarily appeared before Perennius. The torturers tightly bound the legs of the bishop with thin cords and led him through the city. The hieromartyr underwent excruciating sufferings, and blood flowed from the wounds on his legs, because the cords dug into his flesh. After terrible tortures, Bishop Coronatus was beheaded.

St Athanasius of Serpukhov:
Saint Athanasius of Serpukhov (in the world Andrew) was born at Obonezh Pyatina into the family of the priest Auxentius and his wife Maria. He was, from youth, inclined towards prayer and renunciation of the world, and he sought a worthy guide in monastic labors.

At this time, news of St Sergius of Radonezh had already spread throughout the whole of Rus. The monastery of the Life-Creating Trinity at Makovets had become for everyone a luminous model of monastic organization. Here in the monastery, the cenobitic life transformed "the hateful discord of this world," creating an oneness of spirit in an unity of love based on the example of the Divine Trinity Itself. The youth Andrew went from the outskirts of Novgorod to Abba Sergius at Makovets, following in his footsteps in search of spiritual perfection.

Named Athanasius in monasticism, in honor of St Athanasius the Great, the disciple and copier of the Life of St Anthony the Great, the founder of Egyptian monasticism. St Athanasius in turn became a worthy disciple of the great Igumen Sergius, the Father and teacher of Russian monasticism.

The disciples of St Sergius, in addition to the usual monastic obediences, received the holy abba's blessing for special church services: copying books, painting icons, buildin churches. This added a genuine churchly quality to life, imparting churchly beauty and hymnology, a liturgical transfiguration of God's world.

The favourite obedience of Abba Athansios, which he imposed upon himself, was copying books. The holy books were regarded by the Fathers as on the same level as the holy icons, the most important way to impart churchly ideas, those of theological and liturgical creativity.

The school of St Sergius, revealing to the Russian and to the Universal Church the whole extent of theological experiential knowledge of the Holy Trinity, is closely connected with the flourishing of church literature, with the necessity of interactive enrichment of the Russian Church by the literary works of the Byzantine Church and its theologians, and by the deep spiritual experience of the Russian ascetics.

In the year 1374, the Serpukhov prince Vladimir Andreevich the Brave, a colleague of Demetrius of the Don , turned to St Sergius with a request to found a monastery on his lands. Abba Sergius came to Serpukhov with his beloved disciple Athanasius, and having established the monastery of the Conception of the Most Holy Theotokos, he blessed St Athanasius to organize it, and then to be its igumen.

The monastery of St Athanasius was built near the city of Serpukhov, on the high bank of the River Nara. They therefore called it "Vysotskoi" ["of the heights"]. Hence also its title, with which entered into Russian Church history its founder and first igumen, St Athanasius of Vysotsk.

Abba Athanasius zealously set about the organization of the monastery entrusted to him. Many Russian ascetics arrived here, "on the heights," for an heightened schooling in monasticism.

According to the teaching of Abba Athanasius, preserved for us by Epiphanius the Wise, to be a monk was no easy thing. "The duty of the monk consists in this, that he be vigilant in prayer and in divine precepts until midnight, and sometimes for the whole night. He should eat nothing but bread and water, oil even and wine would be altogether improper." Through the words of the saint of God, many came to him at the monastery on the heights, "but then they slackened, and, unable to endure the work of ascetic struggle, they fled."

Those ascetics of higher monastic worth remained with the holy abba. Therefore, it was to this monastery, to his disciple and fellow-ascetic Athanasius, that the God-bearing Abba Sergius of Radonezh sent his future successor, St Nikon (November 17) for tonsure and guidance in monastic endeavors. St Athanasius taught him: "Monks are called voluntary martyrs. Many holy martyrs suffered for a single hour and then died, but each day monks endure sufferings not from torturers, but from within, from the properties of the flesh and from mental enemies. There are struggles, and they suffer until their last breath."

In 1478, after the death of St Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow, the new Metropolitan, St Cyprian (September 16) arrived in Moscow. But Great Prince Demetrius of the Don wanted to establish his own priest and colleague Michael [Mitaya] as metropolitan, and he would not accept Metropolitan Cyprian. Instead, he expelled him from Moscow.

St Cyprian was in a difficult position. But he found support and sympathy among the pillars of Russian monasticism, Sts Sergius of Radonezh and Athanasius of Vysotsk. From the very beginning, they saw the canonical legitimacy of the Metropolitan in his dispute with the Great Prince and they supported him in the prolonged struggle (1478-1490) for the restoration of canonical order and unity in the Russian Church. St Cyprian had to journey several times during these years to Constantinople to participate in council deliberations concerning the governace of the Russian Church. On one of these journeys, with the blessing of holy Abba Sergius, St Athanasius of Vysotsk went to Constantinople with his friend the Metropolitan, leaving his own disciple, St Athanasius the Younger as the igumen of the Vysotsk monastery.

At Constantinople St Athanasius settled into the monastery of the holy Forerunner and Baptist John (Studion), where he found a cell for himself and for several disciples who had come with him. St Athanasius occupied himself with prayer and salvific theological books. The monk spent about twenty years in the capital of Church culture, working to translate books from the Greek language and copying Church books, which he then sent off to Rus. Thereby, he transmitted to the Russian Church not only a legacy of great Orthodox thought, but also the traditions of Constantinople's masters of manuscript illumination, with their elegant penmanship and artistry of textual miniatures, achieving a harmony of content and form. A continuing creative connection was established between St Athanasius's skillful copying of books at Constantinople and the calligraphic and iconographic school of the Vysotsk monastery at Serpukhov.

It was not by chance that it was especially at the Vysotsk monastery that the holy Igumen Nikon guided the future iconographer St Andrew Rublev (July 4), as once previously the God-bearing Abba Sergius had guided Nikon himself in this monastery to spiritual maturity and an understanding of the rejuvenating and transformative spirit of pure churchly beauty.

In this sacred service of churchly beauty, in constant liturgical activity for the glory of the Life-Originating Trinity, the life-bearing genius of St Andrew matured. God destined him for the great visual rendering of the theological and liturgical legacy of St Sergius, with the immortal wonderworking icon of the Most Holy Trinity for the iconostasis of the Trinity cathedral. In the iconographic creativity of St Andrew Rublev, just as in the temple-building activity of St Nikon, and in the hagiographic works of Epiphanius the Wise, we find embodiment and synthesis of the finest traditions of the Byzantine and Russian art.

This creative synthesis was served also by St Athanasius of Vysotsk all his life. Living at Constantinople, he continued to work for the Russian Church, and for his native land. To give but one example, he sent to the Vysotsk monastery ten icons of the finest Greek style. He and his disciples translated into the Slavonic language the "Four Hundred Chapters" of St Maximus the Confessor, the Chapters of Mark about church services, and the Discourses of St Simeon the New Theologian.

In the year 1401, just before his death, the venerable elder copied, and possibly translated himself, a Church Rule, distributed within the Russian Church under the title, "The Eye of the Church."

St Athanasius spent his life in constant work with books. He died at Constantinople in old age in the year 1401 (or perhaps a bit later). Russian chroniclers note him as an elder "virtuous, learned, knowing the Holy Scriptures", to which "at present his writings give witness." His Life was written in the year 1697 by the hieromonk Karion [Istomin] of the Moscow Chudov monastery.

St Athanasius's successor and disciple, St Athanasius the Younger, successfully directed the spiritual life of the brethren and gave an example by his own God-pleasing life. St Athanasius the Younger reposed after a long illness on September 12, 1395. In the ancient manuscripts of the saints it says of him: "St Athanasius, igumen of Vysotsk Conception monastery at Serpukhov, a new wonderworker who reposed in the year 6904 (1395) on the twelfth day of September, a disciple of St Athanasius, wondrous disciple of St Sergius, who later was at Constantinople and reposed there."

[Great thanks to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese who made this available - taken from their website www.goarch.org]

 

The life of prayer, which we shall discuss, is one part of a much broader topic ­ spiritual life in general ­ the life in Christ, spiritual ascension, the way to sanctification and deification. Combined with personal inner purification and a regular sacramental life, a life of prayer will help significantly in the regeneration of the faithful during this difficult period in which we live.

The content of this discussion is not the property of the author. It consists primarily of material borrowed from the abundant resources bequeathed to us as an inheritance by the holy Fathers. Also included are precious morsels gathered eagerly from the spiritual dinner table of contemporary elders of Mt. Athos.

There are many stations or steps in the journey of prayerful spiritual ascent. We shall briefly address some of the more significant ones related to our topic.

Study is one of the very first steps. In the austere monastic rule of St. Pachomios one of the canons requires that novice monks be taught reading and writing by older monks, to assist them in their study of Sacred Scripture. Father Theodoros of Thebes, a disciple of St. Pachomios, made the following observation about his monastic life:

"Neither in our heart nor in our mouth had we anything other than the word of God alone, and we did not feel that we were living on earth but were celebrating in heaven."

The mind learns that with which it is preoccupied. If one is preoccupied during the entire day with the lives of others, he derives no benefit for himself. Through unbridled curiosity and idle discussion, particularly where the sins of others are addressed with satisfaction and interest, we stimulate and arouse our own passions. It has been observed that people who are scandalmongers, who gossip, and who defend morality by accusing others, usually have very serious problems themselves. Preoccupation with vain things and malicious conversations are to be avoided; they can totally incapacitate the spirit of prayer.

Study will help in our effort to pray by arousing our forgotten powers, by strengthening and invigorating us. In this vein Father Isaias instructs us:

"When you arise in the morning, before you begin your work, study the words of God. When you have the words of God as your constant companion, you will not be preoccupied with worldly matters, you will not be troubled, you will not sin."

St. Ephraim the Syrian, who incidentally was described by St. Gregory of Nyssa as having Sacred Scripture as his only nourishment, adds this:

"The words of God refresh the heat of the soul. Suckle the words of God like an infant so that you may grow."

For one who desires to live the life of prayer daily nourishment from Sacred Scripture is indispensable. Study of the Bible expedites the intervention of God in our life. And it is good for such study to precede prayer. In addition to Sacred Scripture, particularly Psalms, the life of the saint of the day and a selected ascetic text from the Fathers can provide relief from the confusion and distress of the day, and help us prepare to surrender to God. And let it be emphasized that God is not to be dealt with in a few minutes out of the entire twenty-four hour period. God is for the entire day. His abiding presence should accompany us continuously so that all our activities are a preparation for the sacred hours when we embrace God. And, in turn, these sacred hours of prayer will strengthen us for the struggles that follow.

Everything flows calmly under the watchful eye of God, who blesses and sanctifies us. And if we transgress he may intervene austerely to bring us back to our senses. Let us, therefore, always remember him.

Liturgical books ­- the horologion, psalter, menaia, triodion,pentekostarion, parakletiki ­- are not only for the lectern in church but also for the prayer room in our home. These books offer great assistance to our spiritual life. It is a beautiful thing when one comes to love these books and makes them daily companions ­ even if only for an abbreviated Orthros or a few hymns from Vespers, the Compline, or the Salutations to the Theotokos.

The Church has designated particular prayers for important events in our lives such as birth, sickness, engagement, marriage and death, as well as for various other occasions, such the opening of a home, the beginning of a business, or the start of a professional career. The Church has also designated prayers for prescribed hours of the day.

St. John Chrysostom, commenting on prayer before and after meals, notes that among the reason for these prayers are the following: that we also remember the nourishment of the soul; that we avoid intoxication and over-indulgence; that we develop the discernment of moderation; and that we express our gratitude to God for his gifts.

At prescribed times the Church gathers in common prayer and worship. The prayers of many faithful who have gathered are more readily received and heard by God ­ he is particularly attentive to such petitions. To help us receive the full benefit of ecclesiastical gatherings let us pay close attention to these words of St. Symeon the New Theologian:

"Stand in church as if you are in heaven together with the angels, and consider yourself unworthy to be praying together with your brothers. And be vigilant not to be looking back and forth to observe the brothers and sisters, how they are standing or chanting, but observe only yourself, your chanting and your sins."

St. Paul noted that he who is happy should sing. Psalmody - spiritual song - is not only for church services, but for any circumstances that permit. We can chant aloud or silently, individually or as a group, before and after prayer, and even during intermissions.

According to Diadochos, bishop of Photiki, in addition to the familiar ecclesiastical psalmody, we also have another psalmody which comes from an overflow of joy, powerful and moving, with a prayerful disposition. This psalmody, when moved by the Holy Spirit, is accompanied by delight of the heart, spiritual tears and incredible joy.

Returning to the preparatory aspects of prayer, let us note the words of St. Athanasios in his treatise on virginity: "The believer who is dedicated to God must be found with the Book in his hands when the sun rises." He also provides instructions for the hours of the day and night, and how the faithful must stand before God.

It is well established that books are beneficial, but they do not always lead to prayer. And it is to be noted that a greater teacher than books is prayer itself. Innumerable ascetics have learned to pray without any books at all. Books and church gatherings cannot always be with us, but we can always learn by the inner work of prayer, which can be with us at all times. The soul of each one who truly prays becomes a temple of God and a sacred place of sacrifice. All prayers are good ­ audible prayers, book prayers, public prayers, silent prayers of the heart ­ when practiced carefully and attentively.

As there is no healthy plant without roots, there can be no life of prayer without the sacraments, especially Holy Eucharist. For, as Abba Apollos says, "He who withdraws from communing the Sacred Mysteries, causes God himself to withdraw from him." It is customary for monks to complete prayers begun in their cell when they have gathered in church. And common prayers started in church are completed in their cells. The sacrament of Holy Eucharist, in which they participated during Divine Liturgy is continued on the sacred altar of their hearts with ongoing prayer.

The Nature of Prayer

What, after all, is the nature of prayer? Is it worth the toil, concern and effort that goes into it? Let us examine the words of the holy Fathers for insight.

St. John Chrysostom says:

"Prayer is a harbor in the storms of life, an anchor for those who are storm-tossed, the treasure of the poor, the security of the rich, the healing of the sick, the preservation of health. Prayer banishes evil things, and preserves the good."

And the God-bearing ecumenical father continues:

"Prayer silences the passions of the soul, assuages the rebellion of anger, dismisses envy, dissipates evil desire, withers the love of worldly things, and brings great peace and serenity to the soul."

The essence of prayer becomes clear from what it offers. St. John of the Ladder says that prayer is the means which unites man with God. The most ascetic St. Gregory of Sinai, who wanted to traverse the universe to teach everyone the benefits of prayer, penetrates the matter more deeply proclaiming:

"Prayer is a pleasant fire for beginners, 'a light made fragrant when activated' for the advanced. Prayer informs the heart; it is the hope of salvation, the sign of purification, a symbol of holiness, the knowledge of God, the engagement of the Holy Spirit, the joy of Jesus, the gladness of the soul, the mercy of God, the sign of reconciliation, the seal of Christ, the ray of the intelligible sun, the confirmation of Christianity, proof of angelic life."

Serious obstacles to prayer are too much sleep, too much food, too much talk, and luxurious living. These contribute to forgetfulness of God and a sluggish body, while making vigilance and exaltation of the spirit difficult. They do not help in purification and they confuse mind, heart and judgment, which should be calm, peaceful and in quietude during prayer.

How should I pray? When should I pray? How extensive should my prayer be? Questions such as these reveal an absence of fervent and continuous prayer. For the one who loves prayer intensely there are no bounds. He will simply pray at every opportunity. Today's prayer is a continuation of yesterday's. And today's prayer will be continued tomorrow. It is said that a holy man never used the dismissal prayer ­ "Through the prayers of our holy Fathers ..." ­ because his prayer life had no end.

Difficulty in making prayer a daily experience is indicative of a serious weakness in our spiritual life. But, with recognition and acknowledgment of this weakness, we should not be disheartened. Rather, we should let it be a stimulus to intensified and more persistent efforts. We can learn to pray virtually anywhere we may be, whenever we think of it. But there should be special times, in addition to church services, when we conduct our individual prayers. And, as Abba Isaac suggests for each monk within his cell, we must seek the most quiet place available for our prayers.

Once Abba Makarios of Egypt was asked how we should pray and he answered in this way:
"It is not necessary to babble foolishly at great lengths, but to extend your arms and to say: 'Lord, have mercy on me as You desire and know best.' And if there is a war about to break out, say: 'Lord, help me,' for he knows what is best for us and provides his mercy."

We have prayer with words, and we can also make our entire life a prayer, a sacrifice of consecration to God, a prayer without words, which is perhaps the strongest and greatest prayer. Let us sit, patiently, tirelessly, as permanent disciples listening to God speak. Ignorant, innocent, humble, poor, dumb before the all-merciful Father, let us beseech his mercy, his salvation and his salutary help with "ineffable sighs." With a silent humble prayer, let us allow God to speak in our life. Let us allow him to do whatever he desires with us, that we may become similar to the saints, his ever obedient children, and be restored to our pristine and original beauty, making his life truly our own life.

Abba Isaac says that when you approach God to pray, "think of yourself as an insignificant ant, a creeping creature of the earth, a leech, a stammering infant."

Abba Serapion says that the stance of people in prayer must be like that of soldiers standing guard, constant, vigilant, in a state of emergency and courageous readiness.

That great teacher of prayer, St. John Chrysostom, whose entire life was a petition, has this to say:
"We must pray with ever vigilant attention. And this will be possible if we understand well with whom we are conversing, and that during such time we are his servants offering sacrifice to God. We must pray with contrition, with tears, with reverence, with serenity and great calmness. Our sins should not stop us from prayer. We should be ashamed of our sins, but they should not keep us from our prayers. Even though you are a sinner, approach God with prayer, that you may be reconciled with him; give him an opportunity to forgive your sins, which he will, in order to reveal his love for mankind."

And the holy Father continues:
"If you are afraid to approach God because of your sins, you are actually hindering him, to the extent, at least, that is dependent upon you, from expressing his goodness and the wealth of his providential care. Remove afar, therefore, every hesitation and doubt about prayer because of sin."

How to Pray
Compressing lengthy, beautiful and comprehensive homilies of St. John Chrysostom on prayer, we offer the following salient points to help the praying person. Prayer must be a systematic and regular practice in our life, with a pious and reverent stance, and with absolute attention. To pray as we should, with the reverence appropriate to conversation with God, we should be aware of the great benefit of prayer, independently of knowing whether there have been specific responses. The person whose prayer is truly a conversation with God is transformed into an earthly angel.

God does not ask that we converse with him using beautiful words, but that what we say emanates from a beautiful soul. Prayer does not need mediators, formalities, or appointments at prescribed hours. God's door is always open and he awaits us. If we are withdrawn from God that is something totally dependent upon us. He is always near. We need no particular eloquence. He hears us no matter how softly we speak. He understands us completely even if we say little. All hours are appropriate and all places good. And prolonged instruction in the art of prayer in unnecessary. It is sufficient that we want to pray; then learning becomes rapid and effortless.

It is the manner of prayer that is significant. We must pray with perspicacity and contrition ­ seeking spiritual progress, forgiving others and asking their forgiveness, being truly humble. Our prayers will be received and heard if we are praying as God wants us, if we persist in our prayers, if we seek what is profitable to our souls and the souls of others, if our motives are pure, and if we avoid focusing exclusively on material things. And please note that all the prayers of the Prophet Moses and of St. Paul were not heard by God, simply because it was not expedient.

It cannot be overemphasized that when we pray, our efforts should not focus exclusively on the idea of receiving. The objective of making our soul better is necessary and this too is accomplished through prayer. The one who prays with this objective becomes stronger than the force of worldly things and is able to fly high above them all.

We mentioned earlier that prayer is obstructed by much sleeping, much eating, much talking and luxury. If these are obstacles to effective prayer, then certainly vigils, fasting, silence, quietude and asceticism are the wings which make our prayers fly higher.

Vigils are inseparable from the life of prayer. As there is no bird without wings, there cannot be a life of prayer without vigils. A night without the memory of God is like a garden without flowers, a tree without fruit, a house without a roof. The prayers best loved by God are those of the night: before we sleep, after we sleep a little and arise at midnight, and early in the morning, before dawn. In this way we dedicate the night not only to bodily rest, but also to the well-being of the soul. By sacrificing some of our sleep, we give something of our own to God who sacrificed his Son for our sins. Nocturnal prayer makes our sleep sweeter because the words of prayer continue to be active and stimulate beautiful dreams. It is said that St. Arsenios the Great would begin his prayer each Saturday night just as the sun was setting in the west. He would conclude just as the sun arose to shine in his face on Sunday morning. That is how he measured his time of prayer!

A simple and frugal diet of fasting gives clarity to the mind and vigilance to the soul. A person who has eaten to satiety cannot pray, nor can one pray who is starved. One should eat just enough not to be hungry, perhaps a little less.

Silence is the adornment of the people of God who measure their words and do not use their tongue as a lethal weapon. The person who is easy-going with words may find it difficult to pray effectively. Loquacity confuses, tires and obscures. Silence concentrates the mind, gives rest to the spirit, and keeps it in constant readiness. Monks persistently search for the most quiet corner possible to set up their sanctuary. The objective is to have external quietude penetrate into the soul, for without inner silence and peace, external quiet is of no avail. When the serenity of the soul is accompanied by gratitude toward God, great results can be achieved.

According to St. Makarios of Egypt, guarding our thoughts and praying with much quietude and peace are fundamental to prayer. And, according to St. Ephraim the Syrian, the one who prays purely will burn and banish demons, while he who prays carelessly will become the demons' laughing stock.

Obstacles to Prayer
An elder of Mt. Athos used to tell young monks: "Do not strike up a conversation with your thoughts and imaginings!" Another elder said: "Above my cell many birds will fly. I cannot forbid them. But that which I can do is to disallow them to make their nest on my roof!" St. John of the Ladder says: "Even if your mind is constantly distracted from your prayer, you must struggle unceasingly to recall it. We shall not be condemned because our attention was distracted in prayer, but rather because we did not attempt to bring it back."

The "thoughts and imaginings" of which the first elder spoke trouble many of us a great deal and can be serious obstacles to prayer. A long and difficult struggle may be needed to cut them off completely. This is so because, in many cases, even though these thoughts and imaginings are foreign to our true nature, they have nonetheless become very familiar. They have established their lairs in us. We have become accustomed to them and, as a matter of course, consider them quite natural. When they come to disturb our prayer, concentration can be quickly lost. And these thoughts may not leave us when we want them to go away, especially if they correspond to our uncontrolled desires, if they are indicative of a weakness in our will. As we said, the struggle can be long and difficult. Let us be honest and not try to hide or justify our weakness.

There are many other and varied obstacles to prayer. There is hesitation, anxiety and pain related to nonexistent illness. There is ill disposition, hunger, thirst, sleepiness, impatience, remembrances, weariness. We may recall details that we thought had been relegated to oblivion ­ telephone numbers, sayings of elders, irritations and annoyances of the past. All these can be problems to beginners, but they should not dishearten us. In addition, there are imaginings and demonic fears that usually trouble those who are advanced in prayer, and sometimes beginners to a lesser degree.

More fundamentally, we can say that the devil uses our negligence and our inattention to leave the heart unenlightened by the life of prayer, bringing a myriad of vain thoughts and imaginations to draw us away from the essence of prayer. But we must keep in mind that which is exclaimed in the Divine Liturgy: "The doors, the doors; in wisdom, let us be attentive!" The doors of the mind and of the heart must be well guarded, so that the originator of evil will not control them and be able to enter freely.

It is most difficult to guard our thoughts and protect them from evil theories, demonic deceptions, false visions. Very particular attention is needed here. The purpose of prayer is not the vision of God, but the pouring out of his mercy. A strong desire to see God may be the beginning of error. Let us live as unworthy and incapable, as we certainly are, and if God should will to appear to us, then all well and good. But this should not be our agonizing purpose.

There was once an ascetic who was praying in the desert and a temptation came to disturb him. Humbling himself as usual, the ascetic was tempted with the presence of a false light. Deeming himself unworthy to look upon the divine light, and wanting to shun false lights, he buried his face in the sand. The temptation disappeared and an inexpressible peace filled the heart of the ascetic. This story illustrates how very much aware and sober we must be.

Let us therefore guard against obstructions. Let us stand courageously, like the ascetic mentioned by St. Neilos the Ascetic, who had been bitten by a snake while praying. He did not move until he had completed his prayer. "And he who loved God more than himself was not harmed at all."

A similar incident is mentioned by Palladios about a certain monk called Elpidios. He was bitten by a scorpion but did not move from his position of prayer either.

A characteristic of contemporary man, who is easy-going in some ways, is a strong sense of hurry, and great impatience. He expects a great deal quickly and without much toil. The impatience which possesses him makes him want to hurry in prayer; he wants instant results, here and now. He wants to reap fruit before even sowing. Without a drop of sweat, he expects miracles, visions and revelations. Such pure but naïve desires of contemporary man, who in spite of his folly does not cease desiring God, are frightfully and dangerously exploited by the many wolves in sheep's clothing, who have infiltrated the spiritual fold of Christ.

The Answer to Our Prayer
The delay in seeing our prayer requests fulfilled, in having our questions answered, is yet another point on which our life of prayer is tested. It is neither a matter of God not hearing our prayers nor of his being indifferent to our suffering. God does not want us to be troubled and tormented, but to be in constant communion with him with our fervent prayers, which should increase if not immediately answered. We should thank God whether he gives us what we ask for or not, since in either case he is acting for our own good. We should not be discouraged and disillusioned when we do not receive what we ask for in prayer. God may be testing our persistence. Let us not tire easily.

If we do not receive what we seek we should thank God, nonetheless, as if our prayer has indeed been answered, since he knows our true needs of the present hour better than we do. It may be that our hope does not materialize because what we desire is not essential, even though it may seem indispensable to us at the time. If something is truly indispensable God will provide it instantly. Therefore, even in the case of apparent rejection, St. John Chrysostom reassures that in essence we have succeeded. Any failure that brings a benefit to our life is in fact not a failure but success.

"But Father, I am asking for spiritual things that are good for me, why is it that I do not receive them?" you may ask. Perhaps because your zeal for them is insufficient. Perhaps because the requests are not truly from your own heart, but contrived from other sources or motives. Perhaps you are not worthy to receive them at this time. It is not possible that God, who takes care of the birds, the irrational animals and the plants of the earth, and whose compassion for human beings far surpasses any paternal bond of kinship ignores us without reason.

Our drowsy yawning, our flight even from the very first disappointment when everything seems to bother us, our indifference, accompanied by much carelessness and doubt, indicate quite clearly that in the final analysis we do not really know what we want and what we seek. There are times when it is clear, as when we do not ask today what we were asking just yesterday, that we do not really need what we pray for. The illness of constant change in our desires, easily understood psychologically, can affect and torment our life of prayer. Essential changes in the way we pray come from mystical experiences, divine breezes, subtle whispers of the Holy Spirit in humble, peaceful and understanding hearts. As our hearts improve, so does our attitude in prayer.

St. John Chrysostom asks rhetorical questions and provides answers which summarize the matter well:
"Are you in a state of calmness and serenity? Then, beseech the Lord to make more permanent this joy in your heart. Are you troubled by the onslaught of tribulations and temptations? Beseech the Lord to calm the storm in your life. Has your prayer been heard? Thank God. Have you not been heard? Persist in your prayer until you are heard."

To thank God for pleasant things that come our way is natural. But to be able to thank God even for the unpleasant events that happen in our life is remarkable. and when this really happens in our lives, we truly bring delight to God ­ and shame to the devil. Sorrow changes to spiritual joy. No one is more holy than the person who can be grateful to God in his suffering.

St. John of the Ladder says that effective prayer is characterized by two main elements: sincere thanksgiving and contrite confession. He clearly tells us that our requests in prayer are sometimes not fulfilled for one of the following reasons. We may be asking before the appropriate time, we may not be worthy, or we may be seeking out of a sense of vainglory. Another possible reason is that, if we do receive what we pray for, we may fall into the sin of pride. Also, having received what we ask, we may fall into the other sin of negligence.

Contrition and Compunction in Prayer
According to the same holy Father, St. John, who authored the famous spiritual book, The Ladder, true prayer is both mother and daughter of tears. Contrition and compunction are its regular companions. Compunctious prayer is based on an attentive life ­ attentive to the ever-presence of God in our life, to the purity of our heart, to the genuine humility of our spirit, and to the mystery of death which we must ever remember and contemplate. As it is impossible for fire and water to live together, it is similarly impossible to mix compunction with a life of luxury. And if we could only direct our awareness to the many salutary interventions of God in our life, our eyes would fill with tears of joy for his abundant blessings. Orthodox hymnology is replete with such sweet tears ­ tears of gratitude combined with tears of compunction, which in ascetic terminology refer to harmolypi (joyful sadness).

Should our prayers be favored with such tears, let us be careful not to lose this blessing because of pride. Mark the Ascetic informs us that with these tears Christ has visited us and has opened our eyes. The memory of our sins in general, and not necessarily specific sins, is sufficient for compunction. St. Barsanouphios says that compunction will come when we tame our will such that we are able to abandon our non-spiritual rights and our love for worldly popularity. It is important to distinguish true compunction from the tears of superficiality, vanity and sentimentality. And we must be careful. Compunction can be wiped out by a careless tongue.

Prayer without compunction is like a meal without taste, according to Elias the Elder. The saintly Theognostos tells us that compunction can be gained in prayer by temperance, vigilance and humility, says. And Niketas Stethatos observes that compunction begets humility and humility compunction.

Unceasing Prayer of the Heart
The present author is insufficiently prepared for an adequate discussion of the next stage in this topic ­ the unceasing, spiritual prayer of the heart, marked by a single unwavering thought ­ otherwise known as the Jesus Prayer. The topic of spiritual sobriety and vigilance, spiritual contemplation and action is very advanced and extremely difficult. I shall limit my efforts to the mentioning of a few applicable comments found in the inexhaustible treasury of the holy Fathers.

St. John of the Ladder instructs that if the mind wants to pray united with the heart and is unable to achieve this, then the prayer should be said with the mouth, while the mind holds and attends to the words of the prayer. In time the Lord will bless us with the prayer of the heart when we will be able to pray without constraints and distracting imaginations. This charisma is given, as are all charismata, to the simple and humble soul, in accordance with the austere and precise spiritual order. To the one who is simple, humble and temperate in all things, Christ himself will bestow the prayer of the heart.

The so-called Jesus Prayer is simply the repetition of the phrase: "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me a sinner." There are some minor variations in the wording. The power of this prayer is unlimited. The very name of Jesus banishes the demons, as St. Anthony the Great tells us. This prayer and the name of Jesus is repeated by many saints. St. John Chrysostom says that the acquisition of the prayer of the heart is not a matter of one or two days, but involves much time and effort, until the enemy is banished and Christ comes to dwell in our heart. According to St. Neilos the Ascetic, the best defense against the enemies is the name of Jesus. And who are the enemies? Burning desires, sinful delights, diabolical schemes and the like. As to how to say the Jesus Prayer properly we have instructions in the book called Philokalia.

The unceasing prayer comes from great love. It is lost of course when one becomes inattentive, idle and critical. Our love for God cannot be impeded by the work we do. The person of God, no matter what he or she is doing, can have a constant remembrance of God, a constant doxology, a constant thanksgiving. God loves us all, but he loves even more those who love him. Our prayer reveals the measure of our love for him. The infinite love of God for man has provided for prayer, so that, at any moment one so desires and all the days of his life, one can have conversation with God. All the saints kept their life of prayer unceasing.

Abba Poimen, the great father of discernment, says that there are three most useful principles: fear of God, unceasing prayer, and love for our neighbor. The disciple of Abba Bessarion, Abba Doulas, mentions in the Gerontikon that he found his elder praying continuously with his arms raised for fourteen days. Only after he lowered his arms did the disciple disturb his elder. St. Basil the Great says that unceasing prayer means to so unite yourself with God, through the manner of your whole life, that your very life becomes an unceasing prayer. Abba Isaac says that unless the grace of the Holy Spirit abides in our heart, perfection in this prayer cannot be attained. When the Holy Spirit dwells in our heart, prayer is not interrupted even when we sleep. And Niketas Stethatos calls this unceasing prayer a spiritual reflection, a remembrance of God with persistent contrition.

One of the elders on Mt. Athos related to us that he had received a letter from a simple woman in which, among other things, she wrote:
"Father, I am a widow with two children and am working to raise them, etc. Please pray for me because I do not have enough time and I pray only eight hours"

Yes, you read correctly, eight hours, and she did not consider it enough! Apparently she was practicing the spiritual prayer. The person who is dedicated to God does not measure, does not calculate, does not give in order to receive. He or she is offered completely to God and God gives himself completely in return.

Concluding Remarks on Prayer
Dear friends, let our prayer be regular, but not out of custom and duty; let it be with a program, but not for the sake of the program. In this way our prayer can be expected to have sweet warmth and inspirational variations and graces. In a mystical yet certain way, God will inform us if our prayer is true and pleasing to him through the joy and peace which will fill our soul. For many, temptations, difficulties, misfortunes, dangers, deaths, losses have been stimuli which led them to the art of prayer. These difficulties have helped them to more fervent and stronger prayers which earlier had not been achieved, even with persistent effort, because they were not whole-hearted or lacked sincerity.

The true art of prayer is taught to the person who prays by God himself. Customary prayer, without a spirit of contrition, of compunction is not pleasing to God. A soul who loves God cannot live without prayer. God draws the soul to himself through prayer. Only to the humble person will God give the taste of the sheer sweetness of prayer. Only the prayer of the humble person can be pure.

In the final analysis, my dear brothers and sisters, whoever you are ­ strong or weak, warm or cold, young or old, educated or uneducated, wealthy or poor, clergymen or laymen ­ know that not even a single word of our prayers is in vain. They are all heard, all of them. For this reason do not forget, during those sacred hours, to mention my unworthy person, since God also loves prayers for others, particularly for those who have so much need …

The great instructor of the spiritual life, Bishop Theophan the Recluse of Vysha, says that prayer is "the receptacle or field of all spiritual life, spiritual life itself in motion or action" (An Outline of Christian Moral Teaching, pp. 405-06). Another definition which he gives concerning prayer is that "prayer is the breath of the soul"(Ibid). If prayer is the breathing of the soul of every individual Christian, then public prayer, or divine service, is the breathing of the soul of the whole society of Christians, i.e., the Church. If the Christian prays carelessly and poorly, spiritual life dies in him. If he completely ceases to pray, then he is in danger of spiritual death. In exactly the same way, only that church is alive in which spiritual life exists, in which public prayer is conducted in the proper way, in which the divine service is performed properly and in order. The church in which the divine service is celebrated carelessly, in which the ritual is given secondary importance, in which the ritual is performed only for "form's sake," such a church dies spiritually.

Such are the fundamental considerations according to which the practical study of liturgics among sciences concerning the divine service should be granted the most important and honored place in the theological schools. Unfortunately, it has not always been thus everywhere and I is not. In some schools liturgics was taught as a dry, abstract science, as something divorced from "the breath of life" - the divine services. As a result, those who are finishing theological schools, when ordained to holy orders, have not been able to properly celebrate the divine services. A great deal of attention was given to the historical process in the development of our divine services. Great importance was given to the opinions of various scholars concerning the origin of one or another aspect of Octoechos, or some liturgical action. Much was spoken about the symbolism of various religious rites. However, the service itself, its exposition, order, and content have been left without due attention.

Meanwhile, what richness is contained in our divine services! Only who delves deeply into them, studying them according to the original sources, our wonderful service books, sees this. Our divine services present a genuine "school of piety," and a real theological school, instructing us in all our theological sciences through live, colorful images and highly inspired, prayerful expressions.

Thus, the annual cycle of divine services sets forth for us completely, with people and main events, all of biblical history, Old Testament as well as New Testament, and also the history of the Church, general as well as particular, i.e., the history of the Russian Church. Before us pass the majestic Old Testament images of the patriarchal forefathers, the great leaders of the chosen people of God, Moses and Joshua, the Judges of the Kings of Israel, the stern prophets, the zealots of Jehovah and condemners of the apostasy of the Hebrew people from the true God. The wonderful foreshadowings and prophecies about the coming Messiah are revealed, and then a complete series of feasts all the New Testament history from the Nativity of John the Baptist until the Ascension of the Lord. Here is contained the history of the Church in people and events, a general history as well as the Russian Church history in particular.

And how many great dogmatic truths are unfolded for us with our verses and canons in lofty poetical images! Particularly the so-called Triadica (Trinitarian hymns), in a fresh and graphic way inform us about the great truth of the "Trinity in Unity" - the Three-in-One Divine Being. The Theotokia, among which the "Dogmatic Theotokia," especially, expound for us concerning the great mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God from the unwedded and most pure Virgin Mary, concerning the perpetually-confessed dogma of the Church regarding the ever-virginity of the unwedded Theotokos. For one who can read and investigate thoroughly, this is a full course of dogmatic theology revealing to us all the dogmatic teaching of the Church: about God, one in essence and three in Persons; about God as the Creator of the world and mankind; about the provider and Savior of man; about the Son of God as Redeemer; about the Holy Spirit as sanctifier, about the Church as the storehouse of the Grace of the Holy Spirit. Each of the Seven Mysteries is given full expression in a separate service, where the significance and meaning is revealed fully and in detail. And finally, we have the last destiny of the world and man - the second coming of Christ, the Last Judgment, the eternal suffering of sinners and the eternal blessedness of the righteous.

What plentiful material our divine service books give us in the area of moral theology - the teaching concerning Christian morality! In this area we find inexhaustible examples from the lives of the God-pleasing saints. And above all, we find the teaching on prayer in the innumerable images of the most diversified prayers for all occasions of life, answering all the varied needs of the human being. We have a full picture of the war continually waged in man 5 soul between virtue and sin; the lofty examples of virtues; the censure of sin; the graphic examples of virtuous and depraved life gathered from Sacred Scripture, the history of the Church, and the lives of saints. In this sphere especially rich material is provided by the Lenten Triodion with its incomparable and exalted penitential Canon of St. Andrew of Crete, and also by the penitential and tender verses of the Octoechos.

However, not only the above-mentioned theological sciences find their expression, in one way or another, in our Orthodox divine services, but all the others also receive their content from them. During the course of the centuries our divine services have built up an harmonious system, rich in content, through the efforts of many great hymnographers, people of prayer, and ascetics, holy fathers of the Church. To set in order all this rich material, a special arrangement was composed according to the days and months of the year, with exact indications as to how and when, and on which days, and in which service, and in what order this material is to be used. This is the Typicon, or Ustav.

The first, most ancient edition of the Typicon goes back to the 5th century of the Christian Era and belongs to the Monastery of St. Sava the Sanctified, near Jerusalem. The second edition has come down to us from the 9th century, from the Monastery of St. Theodore the Studite. The Typicon was composed in fulfillment of the commandment of the holy Apostle Paul, who indicated that in the Church everything should be done decently and in order (I Corinthians 14:40).

It would seem that having such a very rich inheritance, received from the first centuries of Christianity, it would behoove us to learn the Typicon, to investigate it, and to try to use it fully for our instruction and the salvation of our souls.

However, what do we observe in actuality in our times? For the significant majority of believers, this greatest of spiritual riches has become unapproachable, it seems to be hidden under a bushel; it remains completely unused.

The reason for this, of course, most importantly lies in the secularization of life, in the departure from the Church, which began long ago among our Russian society, from the middle of the 17th century, as a result of an imprudent rapprochement with the West and a flippant enthusiasm for anti-Christian, Western pseudo-culture. In society different secular interests and aspirations, as opposed to spiritual ones, began to dominate. Genuine, living faith began to weaken, and people became weary of true services conducted according to the actual Typicon. Services were shortened. As a result of this process, as can be observed in contemporary parishes, only the skeleton of the services remains. The unalterable parts remain, but the stichera often are shortened or left out. Such is the case also with Matins. The odes of the canons are shortened; not all of the eirmosi are sung, so also with the katavasia, and so on. This in spite of the fact that all the richness and depth of the services are to be found in the stichera and the canons. In them are reflected the festal events, in them are glorified the saints in whose memory the services are celebrated. With such abbreviations the worshippers do not receive any impressions from the event celebrated, inasmuch as, except for the troparion and the magnification, they do not hear anything related to the given feast. For this reason, all the above-mentioned richness of our divine services is lost and is not accessible to the faithful.

At the same time, those who support abbreviating the services give attention to providing that the unchangeable parts of the service be diversified, and they often resort to concert-like four part harmonizations. Because of this choir directors devote much time to the execution of complicated, concert pieces for the unalterable portions of the services which are repeated; for example: Bless the Lord, 0 my soul; Blessed is the man; Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart; Praise ye the name of the Lord; the Great Doxology. In actuality, with plain chant [harmonized simply] the time spent in concerts could be used to sing the stichera and in the reading of the canons. Of course, with the use of plain chant and the additional material the services would be somewhat longer. However, the worshippers would have the ability to grasp the meaning of the event celebrated and to receive spiritual edification. The services would not be monotonous (some say boring), as the case often is now, and because of which the worshippers lose interest, and our churches are empty during vigils. Quite the opposite, they will be beneficial and edifying because of their content. Such a service creates a spiritual mood, a spiritual uplift, and would fill the worshippers with the Grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Theatrical concert singing came into fashion in Russia during the last two centuries, and it is a direct violation of the 75th Canon of the Sixth Ecumenical Council which states: "We desire those who attend church for the purpose of chanting neither to employ disorderly cries nor to force themselves to unnatural shrieks, nor to introduce anything that is not becoming and proper for the church; but, on the contrary, to offer up such psalmodies with much attentiveness and contriteness to God, Who sees all that is hidden from our sight. For the sons of Israel shall be reverent (Lev. 15:30), the sacred word has taught us."

Chant of Italian origin arrived in Russia together with immigrant Italians during and after the reign of Catherine II, and brought into our churches a spirit foreign to Holy Orthodoxy. Under the influence of a general enthusiasm for the West in all areas of life, it spread widely throughout Russia and established deep roots. Nevertheless, at the beginning of this century in Russia there were people who began to understand the problem involving church chant, and they began to return to the ancient, strict church melodies.

A great authority on the question of church chant, the New Hieromartyr Arsenius, Archbishop of Novgorod, at one time one of three candidates for patriarch at the All-Russian Council of 1~ 7, twice convoked in his diocese conferences for teachers of church chant - in 1911 and 1913 with the goal of returning the church choir to true chanting as it was in Russia during the course of 700 years from the time of the Baptism of Rus'. At the first of these conferences he made a speech, from which we cite some ideas.

"Beginning in the 17th century we directed our gaze toward the West, and then we began to change in every respect," said Vladyka Arsenius. "We have forgotten that church chant is a holy work. We have forgotten the wonderful Znamenny, Bulgarian, and Greek chants,... church singers imagine themselves to be artists ~.. For this reason they often choose for church hymns unsuitable melodies and they are ready to make the choir a stage.. we answer to God for this profaning of the divine services with our singing. The choir is not a stage for actors. In church everything should be sacred." The basic characteristic by which real church chant should be distinguished is dispassion.

Closely bound up with liturgics along with chant is church art or iconography. If chant is called upon to illustrate and to imprint strongly in our hearts liturgical material by means of such an important organ of our external senses as hearing, so iconography also acts by means of another organ of sense - sight. Iconography also, like chant, should be conducive to the education of the faithful in an Orthodox spirit, and iconography should respond to the needs of Orthodox aesthetics and lead, not to deception, but to healthy religious feeling.

Orthodox iconography is not realistic, but symbolic. It cannot and should not illustrate anything that is of this world, which lies in evil, disfigured by sin, carrying in itself the stamp of sin, and attracting to sin. Iconography should not remind one of anything worldly. On the contrary, it should attract one's thoughts and feelings away from all worldliness and carry us over into another, higher world, the spiritual world. Not only should Raphael's madonnas not be found in Orthodox churches, but also all art that cannot cut us off from everything earthy, art which, even though it might seem to be inspired and beautiful from the point of view of aesthetics, nevertheless portrays only worldly images encountered upon earth and bound up with the world. Iconography, as well as church chant, should completely separate us from the world. Without this it is not Orthodox and cannot instruct us in Orthodoxy.

Such is the criteria, such is the touchstone for evaluating the "Orthodoxy" of church chant and iconography. Here one cannot talk about such a thing as "personal tastes"; we cannot permit the criterion." whether it pleases one or not." Both chant and iconography should be, above all, in agreement with the spirit of Orthodox aesthetics, which demands a full denial of the world, with the Orthodox teaching about prayer, free from ecstatic prelest [deception]. For this reason, not for one minute can we forget that according to the word of the beloved disciple of Christ, the holy Apostle John the Theologian, "the whole world lieth in wickedness," and "[Whosoever loveth] the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Dispassion is the very criterion for the "Orthodoxy" of church chant and iconography.

And this question is very important! The divine services should cultivate in the faithful the spirit of Orthodoxy and not the prelest of the West. Unlawful Western chant and realistic art invading our churches obviously can only foster the spirit of Western, ecstatic, seducing prelest, destructive to souls but in no way in the spirit of genuine Orthodox piety.

In relation to the above, it is important to point out that all non-Orthodox who become interested in Orthodoxy, of whom we see more and more in our diaspora, instinctively draw closer to the Orthodox Church, love, appreciate, and highly esteem our ancient chants and our ancient iconography, which perfectly reflect all the exalted heavenly beauty of Orthodoxy. Many among them wince and wonder when they hear in our churches bravura Italian melodies which have nothing in common with Orthodoxy.

Thus, Liturgics should be the inspiring study of the living richness of the Church, which is to be found in our divine service books and, besides, should not be separate from external expression in church chant and iconography.

Such a mission we at Holy Trinity Seminary try to fulfill, according to our abilities and strength. Our seminarians learn the divine services in practice. They also study the history of the divine services. They participate in the church choir and they serve in the altar. In such a way those who try, have the possibility not only to become closely acquainted with the services and learn church chant, but also to immerse themselves in the life of the church year.

During the last few years we have organized seminars in church singing, which are held in the summer. Further, the Church-singing Commission of the Synod of Bishops holds annual conferences which are conducted precisely in that Church spirit and direction about which the New Hieromartyr Arsenius of Novgorod spoke and emphasized. Under his initiative and with his blessing there was printed The Church Choir Director's Companion in 1~3. By 1916 in Russia there were already three editions of this book. Holy Trinity Monastery printing press reprinted this valuable aid for choirs in 1959. Many of our parishes now use this Companion, both in the choir and during other services. This very handbook, The Church Choir Director's Companion, is the principal handbook and directive for our church-singing conferences. Such a guide in church-singing tradition we find in the majority of our parishes where graduates of Holy Trinity Seminary are priests.

In some degree we can also observe that in the majority of the parishes of the Church Abroad church iconography is kept in the ancient Russian-Byzantine tradition, thanks to the fact that in our monastery we have an iconographer, Archimandrite Cyprian, around whom has gathered an iconographic school and tradition. Many of our churches have been painted by Archimandrite Cyprian and his students. They have also painted icons which have been printed and distributed not only among our faithful, but also in Russia in great quantities.

Here my desire has been to indicate what important work is carried on by our Seminary, by our Monastery, and by our Church Abroad!

The Nativity of our Most Holy Lady the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary:
The Nativity of Our Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever Virgin Mary: The Most Holy Virgin Mary was born at a time when people had reached such a degree of moral decay that it seemed altogether impossible to restore them. People often said that God must come into the world to restore faith and not permit the ruin of mankind.

The Son of God chose to take on human nature for the salvation of mankind, and chose as His Mother the All-Pure Virgin Mary, who alone was worthy to give birth to the Source of purity and holiness.

The Nativity of Our Most Holy Lady Theotokos 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, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary was born on this radiant day, having been chosen before the ages by Divine Providence to bring about the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Word of God. She is revealed as the Mother of the Savior 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 Joachim of the tribe of the Prophet-King David, and Anna from the tribe of the First Priest Aaron. The couple was without child, since St Anna was barren.

Having reached old age, Joachim and Anna did not lose hope in God's mercy. They had strong faith that for God everything is possible, and that He would be able to overcome the barrenness of Anna even in her old age, as He had once overcame the barrenness of Sarah, spouse of the Patriarch Abraham. Sts Joachim and Anna vowed to dedicate the child which the Lord might give them, to the service of God in the Temple.

Childlessness was considered among the Hebrew nation as a Divine punishment for sin, and therefore the righteous Sts Joachim and Anna had to endure abuse from their own countrymen. On one of the feastdays at the Temple in Jerusalem the elderly Joachim brought his sacrifice to offer to God, but the High Priest would not accept it, considering him to be unworthy since he was childless.

St Joachim in deep grief went into the wilderness, and there he prayed with tears to the Lord for a child. St Anna wept bitterly when she learned what had happened at the Jerusalem Temple. Never once did she complain against the Lord, but rather she prayed to ask God's mercy on her family.

The Lord fulfilled her petitions when the pious couple 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 Joachim and Anna the joyous message that 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 surpassed in purity and virtue not only all mankind, but also the angels. She was manifest as the living Temple of God, so the Church sings in its festal hymns: "the East Gate... bringing Christ into the world for the salvation of our souls" (2nd Stikhera on "Lord, I Have Cried", Tone 6).

The Nativity of the Theotokos marks the change of the times when the great and comforting promises of God for the salvation of the human race from slavery to the devil are about to be fulfilled. This event has brought to earth the grace of the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom of Truth, piety, virtue and everlasting life. The Theotokos is revealed to all of us by grace as a merciful Intercessor and Mother, to Whom we have recourse with filial devotion.

Icon of the Mother of God "of the Sign", the "Kursk-Root":
The Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God "Of the Sign" is one of the most ancient icons of the Russian Church. In the thirteenth century during the Tatar invasion, when all the Russian realm was put to the extremest tribulation, the city of Kursk, ravaged by the Horde of Batu, fell into desolation.

One day in the environs of the city a hunter noticed the ancient icon, lying on a root face downwards to the ground. The hunter lifted it and saw that the image of the icon was similar to the Novgorod "Znamenie" Icon. With the appearance of this icon immediately there appeared its first miracle. Just as the hunter lifted up the holy icon from the earth, right then, at that place where the icon lay, gushed up strongly a spring of pure water. This occurred on September 8, 1259. The hunter decided not to leave the icon in the forest and settled on as a resting place an ancient small chapel, in which he put the newly-appeared image of the Theotokos. Soon inhabitants of the city of Ryl'a heard about this, and being in location not far away, they began to visit the place of the appearance for venerating the new holy image.

They transferred the icon to Ryl'a and put it in a new church in honor of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos. But the icon did not long remain there. It disappeared and returned to its former place of appearance. The inhabitants of Ryl'a repeatedly took it and carried it to the city, but the icon incomprehensibly returned to its former place. Everyone then realized, that the Theotokos preferred the place of appearance of Her Icon. The special help granted by the Mother of God through this icon is bound up with important events in Russian history: with the war of liberation of the Russian nation during the Polish-Lithuanian incursion in 1612, and the 1812 Fatherland war. From the icon several copies were made, which also were glorified.

Icon of the Mother of God of Pochaev:
The Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God is in the Pochaev monastery. Two monks settled on the hill where the monastery is now located in the year 1340. One of the monks went to the top of the hill after he had prayed, and suddenly he saw the Theotokos standing on a stone and encircled by flame. He summoned the other monk to behold the marvel. A third witness of the vision was the herdsman Ioann Bosoi. He ran to the hill, and the three of them glorified God. The Most Holy Theotokos left the imprint of Her right foot on the stone where She had stood.

In 1559 Metropolitan Neophytus of Constantinople, on his journey through Volhynia, visited the noblewoman Anna Goiskaya living at the estate of Orlya, not far from Pochaev. As a farewell blessing he left Anna an icon of the Mother of God which he brought from Constantinople. They began to notice a radiance coming from the icon. In 1597 Anna's brother Philip was healed of an ailment before the eyes of a monk who lived on the hill at Pochaev. She then gave the wonderworking image to the monk. The icon was placed in a church which was built in honor of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos. A monastery was later established there, and Anna Goiskaya provided a large portion of the money needed for construction.

The following is one of the more famous accounts of help from the Queen of Heaven through her wonderworking Pochaev Icon.

A monk of Pochaev monastery was taken into captivity by the Tatars. Held as a slave, he thought of the Pochaev monastery, its holy things, the divine services, and the church singing. In particular the monk yearned to be in Pochaev for the approaching Feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos. He prayed tearfully to the Mother of God for deliverance from captivity, and suddenly, through the prayers of the Holy Virgin, the walls of the dungeon disappeared, and the monk found himself standing before the walls of the Pochaev monastery.

The Pochaev Icon is also celebrated on Friday of Bright Week and on July 23.

Icon of the Mother of God of Kholm:
The Kholm Icon of the Mother of God, by a tradition transmitted through Bishop James the Emaciated, was painted by the Evangelist Luke. It was brought from Greece to Russia in the time of St Vladimir, who after Baptism received many icons as a gift from Constantinople.

The Kholm image of the Mother of God is rendered on a board of cypress wood. In the year 1261 at the time of an invasion of the Tatar (Mongol) Horde, the city of Kholm was pillaged, and the icon of the Theotokos also suffered: the jeweled frame was taken, the painting damaged and the icon itself thrown down. After an hundred years the holy icon was relocated and solemnly placed in the Kholm cathedral. On the icon there remain two deep gashes: one on the left shoulder of the Theotokos, the other on Her right hand. There is a tradition that the invading Tatars were punished after they plundered and damaged the holy icon. They lost their sight, and their faces became distorted. Accounts of the miraculous signs worked by the Kholm Icon of the Mother of God, are recorded in a book by Archimandrite Joannicius (Golyatovsky) entitled The New Heaven.

Icon of Sophia, the Wisdom of God:
The Icon of Sophia, the Wisdom of God (Kiev), occupies an unique place in the Russian Orthodox Church. On the icon is depicted the Theotokos, and the Hypostatic Wisdom, the Son of God incarnate of Her.

In Wisdom or Sophia, ponders the Son of God, about Whom in the Proverbs of Solomon it says: "Wisdom has built a house for herself, and has set up seven pillars" (9:1). These words refer to Christ, the Son of God, Who in the Epistles of St Paul is called "Wisdom of God" (1 Cor.1:30), and the word "house" refers to the Most Holy Virgin Mary, of Whom the Son of God is incarnate.

The arrangement of the icon bears witness to the fulfillment of this prophecy. On the Kiev icon of Sophia is a church, and standing there is the Mother of God in a robe with a veil on her head, under an archway of seven pillars. The palms of Her hands are outstretched, and her feet are set upon a crescent moon. The Theotokos holds the Pre-eternal Christ Child, blessing with Her right hand, and holding the Infant with Her left.

On the cornice of the entrance are inscribed the words from the Book of Proverbs: "Wisdom has built a house for herself, and has set up seven pillars." Over the entrance are depicted God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. From the mouth of God the Father issues the words: "I am affirmation of Her footsteps."

Along both sides the seven Archangels are depicted with outstretched wings, holding in their hands symbols of their duties. On the right side: Michael with flaming sword; Uriel with a lightning flash hurling downwards; Raphael with alabaster vessel of myrrh. On the left side: Gabriel with a lily blossom; Selaphiel with a scale; Jerudiel with royal crown; and Barachiel with flowers on a white shawl.

Under a cloud with the crescent moon, serving as a footrest for the Mother of God, is a staircase with seven steps (depicting the Church of God on earth). Those standing on the seven steps are the Old Testament witnesses of the manifestation of Wisdom, the Forefathers and the Prophets.

On each of the seven steps are inscribed: faith, hope, love, purity, humility, blessedness, glory. The seven steps of the staircase are set upon the seven pillars, on which images are inscribed, and their explanation taken from the Apocalypse.

Icon of the Mother of God of Syamsk:
The Syamsk Icon of the Mother of God was found at the Syamsk-Vologda monastery, established in the sixteenth century. In the year 1542, during a fire at the monastery, only the wonderworking icon was saved. After the fire, the monastery was rebuilt.

In the year 1770, a church was built at the monastery in honor of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, and in it was placed this wonderworking icon.

Icon of the Mother of God of Glinsk:
The Glinsk Icon of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos appeared in the seventeenth century in the Glinsk wilderness of the Kursk region. A monastery was established in 1648 and received its name from the noble Glinsky family.

Icon of the Mother of God of Domnitsa:
The Domnitsa Icon of the Mother of God appeared in the year 1696 on the bank of the Domnitsa River in Chernigov diocese, not far from the city of Berezna. At the place of appearance of the icon a monastery was established, in which was situated the wonderworking image. In the year 1771 the inhabitants of the city prayed before the holy icon and were delivered from plague through the intercession of the Theotokos.

Icon of the Mother of God of Isaakov:
The Isaakov Icon of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos appeared in the year 1659, not far from the village of Isaakievo. The peasants wanted to take the icon to their own village, but they were not able. They then turned to the priest, and he got vested, and in the company of choir and people with church banners, went to the place of the appearance of the icon of the Mother of God.

In the branches of a willow tree was the icon, radiating an extraordinary light like the sun. After the singing of a Molieben the priest reverently took the icon with the tree branch and carried it to the Isaakievo village into the parish church.

On the following day the icon was not in the church. It was at the place where it was first found. At this place of the appearance of the wonderworking icon they built a chapel, around which a skete was formed.

With the blessing of St Jonah, Metropolitan of Yaroslavl and Rostov, at the place of the chapel there was built in 1662 a wooden church in honor of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos. In the year 1758 a stone church was built in place of the wooden, into which they transferred this icon.

Icon of the Mother of God of Lukianov:
The Lukianov Icon of the Nativity of the Theotokos is from a church in honor of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in the village of Ignatiev. In 1594, it appeared three times in the wilderness area of Pokovitino-Ramen'e, not far from the village.

The priest Gregory, after he consulted with his parishioners, petitioned the blessing of Patriarch Job to transfer the church to the place of the appearance of the icon. The priest was also resettled with the transferred church.

During a Polish-Lithuanian invasion the church was looted. In the year 1640, the Monk Lukian arrived in Ramen'e from an Uglich monastery and found in the neglected church two icons which remained unharmed: the temple icon of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, and an Altar icon: the Smolensk Mother of God. A new church was built at the Lukianov monastery in honor of the appearance of the two wonderworking icons.

Icon of the Mother of God "Kathariotissa":
This wonderworking icon depicting the Nativity of the Theotokos is venerated on the Greek island of Ithaca.

Forefeast of the Nativity of the Mother of God:
The first lesson at Great Vespers (Genesis 28:10-17) describes Jacob's dream of a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, and the angels ascending and descending upon it. The second lesson (Ezekiel 43:27-44:4) speaks of the gate of the sanctuary which faces east. God enters through this gate, which is shut so that no one else can enter by it. The third reading (Proverbs 9:1-11) talks about the house that Wisdom has built.

These readings are interpreted as prefiguring the Mother of God.

Martyr Sozon of Cilicia:
The Martyr Sozon, a native of Lykaonia, 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.

One night, as he sat under an oak tree, he had a vision foretelling his martyrdom for Christ. He went 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, St Sozon went into the pagan temple and broke off the idol's hand, then he smashed it and gave the gold to the poor. The missing hand of the idol caused an uproar and commotion in the city. Many were under suspicion, and were subjected to interrogation and torture.

Not wanting to be the cause of suffering for other people, St Sozon went to the emperor Maximian (284-305) and declared that it was he who broke the hand of the idol.

"I did this," he said, "so that you might see the lack of power of your god, which offered me no resistance. It is not a god, but a deaf and dumb idol. I wanted to smash it all into pieces, so that people would no longer worship the work of men's hands."

The emperor in a fitful rage commanded that St Sozon be tortured mercilessly. They hung him up and struck him with iron claws, and then they put iron boots in which there were nails on his feet 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 St Sozon gave up his spirit to God. By decree of the emperor, slaves lit a fire to burn the body of the martyr, but suddenly lightning flashed, it thundered loudly, and rain poured down over the fire.

Christians took the body of the martyr by night and buried it. By his grave and at the place where he had the vision, many of the sick were healed. A church was built later in memory of the sufferings of the holy martyr.

St John the Archbishop and Wonderworker of Novgorod:
Saint John, Archbishop of Novgorod, was born at Novgorod of the pious parents Nicholas and Christina. He passed his childhood in quiet and peaceful surroundings.

After the death of their parents, John and his brother Gabriel decided to establish a small monastery in honor of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos with their inheritance.

At first they built a wooden church, but a short time later they also built 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.

Because of their unflagging faith and zeal, She manifested Her mercy to them. She told them 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 for it, and when the brothers removed the sacks, the horse vanished. Thus did the Mother of God provide for the monastery.

Upon completion of the monastery construction, under the protection of the Mother of God, the brothers were clothed in the monastic schema. St John took the name of Elias, and St Gabriel took the name Gregory.

The chronicles speak of St John being made bishop under the entries for the year 1162. His first archpastoral letter was addressed to the clergy of his diocese. It was filled with an endearing concern about his flock, written in a spirit of fatherly guidance: "It has pleased God and the Most Holy Theotokos, through your prayers, that I, a mere man, should not refuse this high office, of which I am unworthy. Since you yourselves have encouraged me to this service, now listen to me ..."

The saint spoke about the vocation of the pastor. He is concerned about his sheep, he not only chastizes, but also heals those who lead a sinful life. "At the beginning of my discourse I ask you not to be too much attached to this world, but rather be instructive to people. Look first of all, that they not give themselves over to drunkenness. You yourselves know, that through this vice most of all, not only do the simple people perish, but we also. When your spiritual children come to you in repentance, then question them with mildness. It is not seemly to impose harsh penances. Do not scorn the reading of books, since if we do not start doing this, then what will distinguish us from the simple unschooled people? ... Do not impose penances upon orphans.... Let everything be seemly, for the yoke of Christ ought to be light."

In the year 1165 St John was elevated to archbishop (from that time the Novgorod cathedra became an archbishopric).

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. They also took the tribute-tax of the Dvina district which was not subject to them.

In grief the people of Novgorod prayed to God and the Most Holy Theotokos for the salvation of the city. On the third night, while he was praying before an icon of the Savior, St John heard a voice ordering him to go to the church of the Savior on Il'ina street, to take the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos and carry it out to the walls of the city.

In the morning the saint told the people about the command and sent his deacon with clergy to the church of the Savior for the icon. Going into the church, the archdeacon bowed down before the icon and wanted to take it, but the icon would not budge. The archdeacon returned to the archbishop and told him what had happened.

Then the saint with all the assembly went to the Il'ina church and on their knees began to pray before the icon. They began to sing a Molieben, and after the Sixth Ode at the kontakion "Protectress of Christians," the icon itself moved from the place. The people with tears cried out: "Lord, have mercy!"

Then St John took the icon and together with two deacons carried it to the city walls. The Novgorodian people saw their doom, for the Suzdal forces and their allies were ready for pillage. In the sixth hour the assault began, and the arrows fell like rain. Then the icon turned its visage towards the city, and tears trickled down from the eyes of the Most Holy Theotokos, which the saint gathered on his phelonion.

A darkness covered the Suzdal forces, they became unable to see and they fell back in terror. This occurred on February 25, 1170. St John established a solemn feastday for Novgorod, the Sign of the Most Holy Theotokos (November 27).

The Suzdal army inflicted great harm on the Novgorod region. Here also the archpastor did not remain on the sidelines. He showed fatherly concern for devastated households suffering hunger, and he distributed aid to orphans. Just like other Russian hierarchs, he calmed and soothed the internecine strife in much-suffering Rus by his prayers and his virtue. In 1172, the archpastor journeyed to Vladimir to reconcile Prince Andrew Bogoliubsky with the Novgorod people.

The saint not only shared in the adversity of his people, but most of all he concerned himself with their spiritual enlightenment. St John devoted much 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.

His 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 steal nothing for themselves, and let them be wholly dedicated to God. A monk ought always to be a monk, at every time and at every place, both in asleep and awake he should preserve the memory of death, and be fleshless in the flesh."

"Not for everyone does the monastery serve as a therapy for sensual love, just as silence is for anger, and non-acquisitiveness is for money, and the tomb is for avarice. Monastic life and worldly life are incompatible, just as one would not harness a camel and horse together. The monk bends his neck beneath the yoke of the Creator and ought to pull the plow in the valley of humility, in order to multiply the fine wheat by the warmth of the Life-giving Spirit and to sow the seeds 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 Lucifer... for haughty pride comes from human glory."

The saint's spiritual powers of grace were unusual. For his simplicity of soul and purity of heart God gave him power against demons. Once, when the saint prayed by night, as was his custom, he heard something splashing the water in the washbasin. Seeing that there was no one beside him, the saint realized that this was a demon trying to scare him.

The saint made the Sign of the Cross over the washbasin and restrained the devil. Soon the evil spirit could no longer bear the prayer of the saint, which scorched it like fire, and it began to beg to be released from the washbasin. The saint was agreeable, but ordered the demon to carry him from Novgorod to Jerusalem to the Sepulchre of the Lord and back, all in one night. The demon fulfilled the saint's command, but asked him to tell no one about his shame.

In one of his conversations, the saint told his flock that he knew a man who visited the Holy Land in one night. The revenge of the evil spirit was not slow in coming. It began to scatter women's things in his cell. Once, when people had gathered in St John's cell, the devil transformed himself into a woman who ran in front of them as if fleeing from the cell.

The saint heard 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. But the raft, contrary to expectation, sailed against the current straight to the St George men's monastery, three versts from Novgorod.

Seeing this, people were ashamed and with weeping and shouts they went along the riverbank after the raft, beseeching the saint to forgive them and to return to the city. The heart of the simple archpastor was filled with joy, not only for himself, but for his flock: "Lord, do not hold this sin against them!" he prayed, and granted pardon to all.

This 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. He appointed his brother, St Gregory (May 24) as his successor. The saint died on September 7, 1186 and was buried in the church of Holy Wisdom.

In 1439, repairs were being made at the cathedral of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) through the zeal of St Euthymius; in the portico chapel of St John the Forerunner, a stone suddenly came loose and cracked the lid of the tomb standing there. St Euthymius gave orders to lift off the boards broken by the stone, and the temple was filled with fragrance.

In the tomb they beheld the incorrupt relics of the saint, but no one was able to identify who this archpastor was. In his cell, St Euthymius fervently began to pray for God to reveal to him the name of this saint.

That night a man appeared before him, clothed in the vestments of a hierarch, and said that he was Archbishop John, who was found worthy to serve the miracle of the Most Holy Theotokos in honor of Her Sign.

"I proclaim to you the will of God," continued the saint, "to celebrate the memory of the archbishops and princes lying here, on October 4, and I shall pray Christ for all Christians." His memory is also celebrated at the Synaxis of Novgorod hierarchs on February 10. In 1630, a feastday was also established for December 1.

Venerable Serapion of Spaso-Eleazar Monastery, Pskov:
Saint Serapion of Pskov was born at Yuriev (now Tartu), which then was under the rule of Germans, who sought to stamp out Orthodoxy. His parents were parishioners of a Russian church in the name of St Nicholas.

St Serapion was well versed in the Holy Scripture, and more than once he entered into the defense of Orthodoxy. When they wanted to convert him by force to the foreign faith, he departed to the Tolvsk wilderness, not far from Pskov, where the Pskov ascetic monk Euphrosynus (May 15) began his prayerful work.

Under his nurturing, St Serapion began to acquire the wisdom of wilderness life. But soon he happened to undergo temptations. Without a blessing, he wanted to leave his guide and to live an ascetic life in complete solitude. But the Lord brought the inexperienced novice to his senses: after he seriously hurt his leg, he repented of his self-will and disobedience and returned to the Elder.

After he received the Great Schema, he dwelt constantly with St Euphrosynus for 55 years, strictly keeping the vow of silence. Brethren began gradually to gather around St Euphrosynus, for which the Elder built a temple in the name of the Three Hierarchs and gave a skete rule.

St Serapion zealously fulfilled everything commanded of him and was a role model for the monks. The monk so strictly fulfilled the monastic vow of uncovetousness, that a copyist of his life called him "an unburied corpse." He bore every insult with extraordinary humility, always blaming himself alone, and he himself asked forgiveness of his insulter. The monk deeply sensed the power of communal prayers and he said that "the order of the twelve Psalms" sung alone in the cell cannot equal one "Lord, have mercy" sung in church.

St Serapion died on September 8, 1480, on the Feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos. Since the day of repose of St Serapion coincides with one of the twelve Great Feasts, his commemoration is on September 7. A Troparion and Kontakion were composed for the saint.

St Euphrosynus himself committed the body of his disciple to the earth. By his fervent deeds he had transformed himself into mere "bones, covered by skin." St Serapion was not separated from his spiritual Father even after death: their holy relics were placed beside each other. A common service was composed to Sts Euphrosynus and Serapion (15 May), wherein St Serapion is glorified as the first co-ascetic, "companion and friend" of St Euphrosynus.

Martyr Macarius the Archimandrite of Kanev and Pereyaslavl:
The Hieromartyr Macarius of Kanev lived in the seventeenth century. This was a most terrible time for Orthodox Christians in western Rus. The constant struggles of the Hieromartyr, were an attempt to defend the Orthodox Faith under difficult conditions, when it was possible only to defend the future of the Russian Orthodox Church, which was preserved from the brusque passing of the hurricane of the Unia, endured together with Tatar incursions.

The holy Hieromartyr Macarius was born in 1605 in the city of Ovruch in Volhynia into the illustrious Tokarevsky family, renowned adherents of Orthodoxy. In the years between 1614-1620 the saint studied at the Ovruch Dormition monastery, and upon the death of his parents he became a monk at this monastery, having begun his service as a novice.

In 1625 St Macarius, with the blessing of the archimandrite, left the Dormition monastery and was sent to the Pinsk bishop, Avramii, who assigned him to the Pinsk Kupyatichsk monastery. In 1630 he was ordained as hierodeacon, and in 1632 as hieromonk.

Fame about the excellence of the monastic life of the hieromonk Macarius spread beyond the bounds of the Kupyatichsk monastery, and in 1637 the brethren of the Bretsk Symonov monastery turned with a request to the igumen of the Kupyatichsk monastery, Hilarion (Denisevich), to send them St Macarius to be their head. But the Kupyatichsk igumen also had need of the hieromonk Macarius.

In 1637 the head of the Kupyatichsk monastery sent him to Metropolitan Peter Moghila of Kiev to hand over money collected by the brethren for the rebuilding of Kiev's church of the Holy Wisdom, and for the solicitation of help for the construction and repair of damaged monastery churches. Seeing in the hieromonk Macarius a talented son of God's Church, the Metropolitan issued him a certificate to collect offerings, and in 1638 appointed him head of the Kamenetsk Resurrection monastery (in Grodnensk district).

Until the pillaging and seizing of the monastery by the Uniates in 1642, St Macarius guided the brethren of the Resurrection monastery. In these harsh times the brethren of the Kupyatichsk monastery elected St Macarius as igumen, who led the monastery until 1656. From 1656 through 1659, St Macarius headed the Pinsk monastery, and from 1660 as archimandrite St Macarius guided the brethren of his original Ovruch Dormition monastery.

More than ten years passed in constant struggle with the Latin Poles in Ovruch. Nothing could compel the brethren to quit the monastery, neither the seizure of the farm lands belonging to the monastery by the Dominicans, nor the rapacious pillaging of moveable property, nor beatings. Only in the year 1671, after the devastation of Ovruch by the Tatars, did the holy archimandrite Macarius leave the monastery, in which there remained not a single monk, and he went to the Kiev Caves Lavra.

But the defenders of Orthodoxy, like St Macarius, were needed not only at Kiev, but even more outside of Kiev. Metropolitan Joseph (Neliubovich-Tukal'sky) assigned Archimandrite Macarius as head of the Kanev monastery. Thus, after thirty years of struggle with the Uniates, St Macarius was again on the front lines of battle for the Orthodox Faith.

In 1672 Yuri, the son of Bogdan Khmel'nitsky, sought shelter at the Kanev monastery. The hetman Doroshenko, petitioned Metropolitan Joseph for the assignment of St Macarius, and repeatedly visited Kanev monastery. In 1675, he switched his allegiance to Russia, after he renounced allegiance to the Turks, evidently, not without counsel from St Macarius.

In response the Turkish powers dispatched an army to Little Russia. On September 4, 1678, the aggressors rushed on the monastery. St Macarius met the enemy with cross in hand at the entrance to the church. The Turks demanded that the monk hand over to them the monastery treasury. Hearing the answer of the monk, that his treasure was in Heaven, the furious robbers hung the saint hand and foot between two posts.

After two days they beheaded the Hieromartyr on September 7, 1678. Witnesses to the martyric death of Archimandrite Macarius carried his body to the monastery church, in which they were hidden for safety. But the returning Turks placed firewood around the church and burned everything in the temple. When the surviving citizens of Kanev began removing the bodies of those who perished, then only one body was found whole and as though alive. This was the body of the Hieromartyr Macarius, attired in hairshirt, with a cross on his breast and another cross in his hand. The holy body was buried in this temple beneath the altar on September 8, 1678.

The holy Hieromartyr Macarius was a man of highly righteous and spiritual life, glorified while still alive by miracles and the gift of clairvoyance. At Kanev, he healed the blind and the dying.

In 1688, during renovation of the temple, the grave of the Hieromartyr was opened, and the incorrupt body of the saint was found. In connection with the danger of invasion for the Kanev monastery, on May 13, 1688 the holy relics were solemnly transferred to the Pereyaslavl regimental Resurrection church. There also they transferred the beloved book of the Hieromartyr, "Discourse of John Chrysostom on the 14 Epistles of the holy Apostle Paul" (Kiev edition 1621-23) with his signature on one of the pageleafs. Under Bishop Zachariah (Cornelovich) the relics were transferred in 1713 to a new-built temple of the Pereyaslavl Mikhailovsk monastery, and after its closing the relics rested at the Pereyaslavl Resurrection monastery from August 4, 1786.

In 1942, the relics were transferred to the Trinity church in the city of Cherkassa, and from 1965 they have been in the church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in that same city.

The commemoration of the Hieromartyr Macarius is made twice: September 7, the day of his repose, and on May 13, the transfer of his holy relics.

Apostle Evodius (Euodias) of the Seventy:
The Holy Apostle Evodius of the Seventy was, after the holy Apostle Peter, the first bishop in Syrian Antioch. His successor, the Hieromartyr Ignatius the God-Bearer (December 20), disciple of the holy Apostle John the Theologian, mentions him in his Letter to the Antiochians: "Remember your blessed father Evodus, who was made your first pastor by the Apostles."

St Evodius served as bishop for 27 years and died as a martyr under the emperor Nero (54-68). St Evodus wrote several compositions. In one of them he writes that the Most Holy Virgin Mary gave birth to the Savior of the world at the age of fifteen.

Other writings of the saint have not survived. A book entitled The Star is mentioned by the fourteenth century church historian Nicephorus Callistus. St Evodus received the crown of martyrdom in the year 66.

Apostle Onesiphorus of the Seventy:
The Holy Apostle Onesiphorus of the Seventy St Paul writes of him: "God grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my bonds. When he was at Rome, he searched for me with great diligence, and found me. May the Lord grant him to find the mercy of the Lord on that day; and you know how much he served me at Ephesus." (2 Tim 1:16-18).

St Onesiphorus was bishop at Colophon (Asia Minor), and later at Corinth. He died a martyr in the city of Parium (not far from Ephesus) on the shores of the Hellespont, where he had gone to proclaim Christ among the local pagans.

Martyr Eupsychius of Caesarea, in Cappadocia:
The Holy Martyr Eupsychius was born in Caesaria, Cappadocia. In one of the Synaxaria he is called the son of a senator Dionysius. During a time of a persecution against Christians under Hadrian, he was arrested and tortured. After the torture they threw him into prison, where he was healed of his wounds by an angel.

When they set the martyr free, he distributed all his property to the poor. He gave away a certain portion even to his enemies, who had reported him and given him over to torture. Under a new governor, St Eupsychius was again arrested. They hung him up and cut his body with iron hooks, and then they cut off his head with a sword. The martyr died under the emperor Hadrian (117-138).

Venerable Luke the Abbot, Near Constantinople:
St Luke of Prusa was the third holy igumen at the monastery of the Savior, in Batheos Ryakos (near Triglia, Lykaonia). He died in peace.

The first holy igumen was St Basil, who died at the beginning of the ninth century (July 1 on the Greek calendar); the second holy igumen was St Ignatius (September 27).

The monastery was famed for the strictness of the ascetic life of its residents. St Luke died at the end of the tenth century.

Venerable Cloud (Clodoald) the Abbot-Founder of Nogent-Sur-Seine Near Paris:
Saint Cloud was born in 520. When his father was killed in battle in 524 he and his brothers were brought up by their grandmother St Clotilde (June 3). His brothers were murdered by their uncles Childebert and Clotaire to prevent them from succeeding to the Frankish throne. St Cloud escaped and lived as a hermit, renouncing any claim to the throne.

Later, St Cloud was ordained to the holy priesthood, and lived a life of virtue and good works. He died around 560.

Venerable Macarius of Optina:
The future St Macarius was born in 1788 into the noble Ivanov family, and was baptized with the name Michael in honor of St Michael of Tver (November 22). His parents Nicholas and Elizabeth had an estate in the village of Shepyatino in the Dimitrov district in the Orel province. They also owned property in other provinces, including the village of Zhelezniki in Orel Province where they lived. The Ivanovs moved to Moscow in 1794 so Elizabeth could receive medical treatment for tuberculosis.

Michael's beloved mother died on January 21, 1797, and was buried in the St Andronicus monastery. The nine-year-old Michael moved to the village of Karachev to live with his sister Daria and her husband Simeon Peredelsky, who had been elected to the District Court of Karachev. Michael received his primary education there in the local parish school.

Around 1801, Michael and his two brothers moved into the house of his aunt Anna M. Verevkina, where they were educated along with her own son. In 1802, when he was fourteen, Michael and his brother Alexis were hired as assistant bookkeepers in the District Treasury of Lgov. Although the job was difficult, Michael carried out his duties with precision and care that he attracted the attention of the provincial authorities.

In 1805 Michael was appointed as head of the Financial Board (Treasury) in Kursk. When he was not working, he liked to spend his time reading or playing the violin. Michael's father died on March 17, 1806 after a long illness, and was buried near the parish church at Turischev.

Michael visited the Ploschansk Hermitage, twenty-four miles from his family's estate in Schepyatino, in October of 1810. From there he wrote to his brothers saying that he was leaving the estate to them, for he intended to remain at the hermitage. His only condition was that they donate 1000 rubles to build a stone church at Turischev where their father was buried.

Those closest to Michael never knew whether his visit to Ploschansk was accidental or premeditated. He did seem inclined to the monastic life, but perhaps he did not make a final decision to become a monk until he had observed the monastic life at Ploschansk.

Michael entered the Ploscansk Hermitage of the Theotokos at the age of twenty-two. It had no large buildings, no great wealth, and was far from populated areas. Perhaps he was attracted by the unpretentiously humble circumstances of the place. There were fifty monks at the Hermitage, led by Hieromonk Joannicus.

Michael was enrolled as a novice a month after arriving at Ploschansk, and was tonsured as a rassophore on December 24, 1810 with the name Melchizedek. He did not mind the privation and hard work at the Hermitage, but there were no Elders there capable of offering spiritual guidance.

Hearing that Elders of lofty spiritual life were living in the forests of Bryansk, and in the monasteries of the Orel and Kursk dioceses, Fr Melchizedek longed to meet them and profit from their teaching. However, the opportunity did not arise for some time.

In 1814, he went on pilgrimage to Kiev, where he venerated the relics of various saints. On the way back, he met some experienced Elders and was able to converse with them.

Father Paul, who came from a family of Rostov merchants, and who was tonsured on Mount Athos, became the new Superior of Ploschansk in 1815. He noticed Fr Melchizedek's zeal for the monastic life, and for fulfilling his obediences. On March 7, 1815 Fr Paul tonsured him as a monk with the new name Macarius. A few days later, on March 12, Bishop Dositheus of Orel and Sevsk ordained Fr Macarius as a hierodeacon.

Schemamonk Athanasius (Zakharov), a disciple of St Paisius Velichkovsky (November 15) was visiting Ploschansk in 1815. He had lived at White Bluff Monastery and Florischev Hermitage in the Vladimir Province. While at Ploschansk, Fr Athanasius fell off a bench and dislocated a joint in his leg. He went to Cholnsk Monastery in 1816 and partially recovered, but he could no longer walk without a crutch. In 1817 he returned to Ploschansk, and Fr Macarius moved to his cell to take care of him.

Elder Athanasius had a great influence on the spiritual development of Fr Macarius, who revered him as his Father and teacher. For seven years he had lived in the Neamts Monastery, where he was tonsured by St Paisius Velichkovsky. Fr Athanasius finished the course of his earthly life on October 17, 1825, and died in the arms of Fr Macarius. He had lived at Ploschansk for ten years, and Fr Macarius derived much benefit from his Elder's example.

Fr Athanasius had copies of the translations of the ascetical Fathers made by St Paisius, and he himself had translated the Life of St Gregory of Sinai, the Catechetical Homilies of St Theodore the Studite, the homilies of St Gregory Palamas, and many other profitable writings. Not only did Fr Macarius read and copy these translations and absorb the wisdom contained in them, he later published them for the benefit of others.

Fr Macarius was ordained to the holy priesthood by Bishop Dositheus of Orel and Sevsk on May 27, 1817. When Igumen Paul retired to the bishop's residence at Kaluga in 1818, he was replaced by Hieromonk Seraphim, a disciple of Fr Basil (Kishkin), the Superior of White Bluff Hermitage. Fr Seraphim brought good order to Ploschansk, instructing the monks in the spiritual life.

With Fr Seraphim's blessing, Fr Macarius made a pilgrimage to Kiev in 1819 with Hierodeacon Palladius. There they met Archimandrite Anthony, who later became Archbishop of Voronezh and Zadonsk. On the way back to Ploschansk, the two visited Glinsk Hermitage. Fr Macarius became acquainted with Hierodeacon Samuel, who was experienced in mental prayer. Since Fr Athanasius had never spoken to him of this activity, Fr Macarius was gratified to meet someone who could speak about it from personal experience.

In 1824, Fr Macarius went to Rostov to venerate the relics of St Demetrius (September 21 and October 28). On that same trip he visited Optina Monastery and its new Skete for the first time.

Two of Fr Macarius's spiritual guides passed away within a short time: Elder Athanasius in 1825, and Igumen Seraphim in 1826. Hieromonk Marcellinus was appointed as Superior of Ploschansk in addition to his duties as Bishop Gabriel's steward. He continued to live at Orel for two years, while the Ploschansk Hermitage was administered by Fr Anatole, the treasurer.

Fr Macarius was made dean of the Hermitage on June 10, 1826. In January of 1827, he was assigned as confessor at the Holy Trinity Convent of Sevsk. This began his period of spiritual direction and spiritual correspondence which lasted until his death. He did not assume such a role on his own, but only in obedience to the will of the bishop.

In 1828 Fr Leonid (Nagolkin) came to Ploschansk from the St Alexander of Svir Monastery with several disciples. Fr Macarius thought that the arrival of Fr Leonid was the answer to his prayers, for Fr Leonid was a man of great spiritual wisdom. This holy Elder, who had struggled against many visible and invisible foes, was able to give useful advice to those who were experiencing temptations. He understood from personal experience that those who wish to serve the Lord must prepare their souls for temptation (Sirach 2:1). He agreed to Fr Macarius's repeated requests to accept him as a spiritual son and disciple. When Fr Leonid moved to Optina in 1829, Fr Macarius kept in touch with him through letters.

Fr Macarius visited Optina and Fr Leonid in 1831 on his way to Petersburg, where Bishop Nicodemus of Orel was serving his term in the Holy Synod. He appointed Fr Macarius as treasurer and steward, much to the latter's chagrin. Fr Macarius did not care for the bustle of the city, and longed to return to the tranquility of the monastery, yet he remained in his position out of obedience to the bishop.

After serving for almost a year in Petersburg, Fr Macarius returned to Ploschansk Hermitage. On the way back, he visited Fr Leonid again at Optina. He also submitted a request to Fr Moses to be admitted to the Skete at Optina as soon as this might be arranged. The desired transfer from Ploschansk to Optina did not take place until January 14, 1834.

Fr Macarius had lived at Ploschansk for twenty-three years, and always retained a certain fondness for the place for the rest of his life. Fr Macarius finally arrived at Optina on February 5, 1834.

At the age of forty-six, Fr Macarius placed himself at the feet of Fr Leonid, humbling himself and demonstrating complete obedience. At first, he helped the Elder with his correspondence, but later his responsibilities increased. In October of 1836 he was appointed as confessor for the monastery. After Fr Anthony was assigned to St Nicholas Monastery in Maloyaroslavets as abbot, Fr Macarius succeeded him as Superior of the Skete on December 1, 1839. Fr Macarius's relationship with Fr Leonid did not change because of his new position. He never did anything without consulting Fr Leonid, and always attributed any success he achieved to the blessing and prayers of his Elder.

Fr Macarius remained humble and obedient to Fr Leonid until the Elder's death on October 11, 1841. Even when Fr Leonid was transferred from the Skete to the Monastery in 1836, Fr Macarius visited him every day to ask his advice on various matters.

During his final illness, Fr Leonid told his spiritual children to go to Fr Macarius for spiritual counsel. Seeing in Fr Macarius the same spiritual gifts possessed by Fr Leonid, people recommended him to their friends and acquaintances. As a result, the number of Fr Macarius's disciples grew larger every year. He was also assigned as instructor of the new novices, and of those who were about to be tonsured.

Fr Macarius received visitors from morning until night, and also kept up an extensive spiritual correspondence. Sometimes he was exhausted by the crowds of people, and by the number of letters he had to write. His humility and love for people who were afflicted in body and in spirit would not permit him to curtail his activities, however.

Fr Macarius had always loved reading and studying patristic literature. At Ploschansk, he had copied many translations done by St Paisius Velichkovsky which were in the possession of Schemamonk Athanasius. His knowledge and understanding of the Fathers increased at Optina under the guidance of Fr Leonid, a disciple of Fr Theodore of Svir, who was himself a disciple of St Paisius. Fr Anthony, abbot of the Skete and Fr Moses, abbot of the Monastery, both encouraged the study of patristic books. Conditions for the publication of these manuscripts, translated and corrected by St Paisius, were quite favorable, for Optina possessed the best copies of these writings.

In 1845, Ivan V. Kireyevsky, the editor of The Muscovite, asked Fr Macarius to write a biography of St Paisius for his magazine. In 1846, Fr Macarius was visiting the Kireyevskys at their estate, and the discussion turned to the lack of spiritual books offering instruction in the Christian life. Natalia Kireyevsky, the spiritual daughter of Fr Macarius since 1838, happened to have some manuscripts of ascetical literature. They both asked Fr Macarius, "What prevents us from offering these spiritual treasures to the world?"

At the beginning of 1847 a biography of Fr Pasius Velichkovsky, with extracts from his writings, was published. Over the course of time, sixteen books of patristic literature were published under the Elder's supervision, including works by St Nilus of Sora, Sts Barsanuphius and John, St Simeon the New Theologian, and St Isaac of Syria.

In 1853, Fr Macarius resigned as Superior of the Skete of St John the Baptist, and was succeeded by Fr Paphnutius. This took place on November 30, exactly fourteen years from the time Fr Macarius had first assumed the office.

In 1859, one of Fr Macarius's spiritual daughters, was at the point of death. Maria asked Fr Macarius to pray that God would spare her life so that she could see her son again. The Elder told her that she would recover, and that they would both die around the same time. The old woman told her friends of this prediction, saying, "Beware my death, for it is connected with the Elder's death. Maria died on August 23, 1860 in the presence of Fr Macarius and Fr Leonid Kavelin.

On August 26, the Elder became ill with ischuria. A doctor who happened to be at Optina saw him and treated him with drugs. Fr Macarius felt worse that evening, and so they sent for a certain nobleman's personal physician. That doctor was not available, so Fr Kavelin went to another doctor to ask for advice. Fr Macarius showed no improvement, so he received Holy Unction and the life-giving Mysteries of Christ. On September 2, he received two gifts which delighted him. One was an enamel icon of the Vladimir Mother of God from Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow, which wore on his breast. The other was a cross containing a relic of the Cross of Christ.

The Elder felt weaker on September 4, and received Holy Communion after Vespers. During his illness the brethren who cared for him read the daily rule of prayer for him at the proper times. He also asked them to read certain portions of the writings of the holy Fathers.

On September 5, Fr Macarius was moved from his small bedroom into the larger reception room where the air was fresher. During the night the ninety-year-old Schemamonk Hilarion reposed, and the church bell was rung three times according to the custom of the Monastery, indicating that one of the brethren had departed. Many of Fr Macarius's disciples and some visitors in the guesthouse thought that the bell tolled for him. They became alarmed until it was announced that Fr Hilarion had passed away.

The Elder experienced shortness of breath on September 6. He received Communion, and was visited by two doctors, but there was nothing they could do for him. Fr Macarius felt worse that evening, and received Holy Communion a second time around 8:00 P.M. Around midnight he talked with his confessor for about half an hour, receiving absolution and forgiveness of his sins.

Fr Macarius asked to have the prayer for the dying read, which he heard while sitting in a chair. The Canon and Akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos were also read, and the Canon to the Sweetest Lord Jesus Christ was read during Matins. During these readings it appeared that the Elder's sufferings were alleviated.

During the night Fr Macarius asked to be moved several times from the bed to the chair. He was calm and peaceful, and thanked those around him for caring for him. At 6:00 the next morning he received Holy Communion for the last time.

At 7:00 on the morning of September 7, 1860, Fr Macarius departed to the Lord while the Ninth Ode of the Canon for the Departure of the Soul from the Body was being read. Two years before his death, he was secretly tonsured into the Great Schema. Therefore, a schema which had been blessed on the Lord's Sepulchre was placed on his body. Several Panikhidas were offered for his soul throughout the day.

Fr Macarius was laid to rest on September 10, in a grave prepared for him opposite the altar of the St Nicholas chapel in the main church. He was buried to the right of the grave of Fr Leonid, his friend and fellow ascetic.

The Moscow Patriarchate authorized local veneration of the Optina Elders on June 13,1996. The work of uncovering the relics of Sts Leonid, Macarius, Hilarion, Ambrose, Anatole I, Barsanuphius and Anatole II began on June 24/July 7, 1998 and was concluded the next day. However, because of the church Feasts (Nativity of St John the Baptist, etc.) associated with the actual dates of the uncovering of the relics, Patriarch Alexey II designated June 27/July 10 as the date for commemorating this event. The relics of the holy Elders now rest in the new church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God.

The Optina Elders were glorified by the Moscow Patriarchate for universal veneration on August 7, 2000.

Commemoration of the Miracle of the Archangel Michael at Colossae:
The Miracle of the Holy Chief Commander Archangel Michael at Colossae. In Phrygia, not far from the city of Hieropolis, in a place called Cheretopos, there was a church named for the Archangel Michael, built over a miraculous spring.

This church was built by a certain inhabitant of the city of Laodicia in gratitude to God for healing his mute daughter. The holy Chief Commander Michael appeared to this man in a dream and revealed to him that his daughter would receive the gift of speech after drinking from the water of the spring. The girl actually did receive healing and began to speak. After this miracle, the father and his daughter and all their family were baptized. In fervent gratitude, the father built the church in honor of the holy Chief Commander Michael. Not only did Christians begin to come to the spring for healing, 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 Chief Commander Michael, a certain pious man by the name of Archippus served for sixty years as church custodian. By his preaching and by the example of his saintly life he brought many pagans to faith in Christ. With the general malice of that time towards Christians, and especially against Archippus, the pagans thought to destroy the church in order to prevent people from coming to that holy place of healing, and at the same time kill Archippus.

Toward this end they made a confluence of the Lykokaperos and Kufos Rivers and directed its combined flow against the church. St Archippus prayed fervently to the Chief Commander Michael to ward off the danger. Through his prayer the Archangel Michael appeared at the temple, and with a blow of his staff, opened a wide fissure in a rock and commanded the rushing torrents of water to flow into it. The temple remained unharmed. Seeing such an awesome miracle, the pagans fled in terror. Archippus and the Christians gathered in church glorified God and gave thanks to the holy Archangel Michael for the help. The place where the rivers plunged into the fissure received the name "Chonae", which means "plunging."

The Chudov ("of the Miracle") monastery in Moscow is named for this Feast.

Martyrs Eudoxius, Zeno, Macarius and their Companions:
The Martyrs Eudoxius, Zeno, Macarius and their Companions received a martyric death for Christ under the emperor Maximian Galerius, the successor of the emperor Diocletian.

St Eudoxius held the high position of a military commander in the imperial armies. He was a Christian, as were his friend Zeno and his house steward Macarius. After the emperor Diocletian issued an edict that Christians who refused to offer sacrifice to idols were to be put to death, many people fled to various lands with their families to avoid torture and death. At this time St Eudoxius resigned his high position, and with his wife St Basilissa and all their family abandoned their property and went into hiding in the region of Armenian Melitene.

The governor of Melitene sent soldiers to search for Eudoxius. When they found Eudoxius, he was attired in white garb. Not recognising him, the soldiers began to question whether a certain military commander Eudoxius had come into these parts. Not revealing who he was, the saint invited the soldiers into his home, fed them and gave them lodging for the night.

St Eudoxius considered his encounter with the soldiers as a sign from the Lord of his impending death by martyrdom. In the morning, he disclosed to his guests that he was the one whom they were seeking. In gratitude for the hospitality, the soldiers offered to conceal from the authorities that they had found St Eudoxius. However, the saint would not consent to this.

Setting his affairs in order, he told his wife not to weep for him, but on the contrary to celebrate the day of his martyric death. Donning his military garb, he went with the soldiers to the governor. St Basilissa and his friends Sts Zeno and Macarius followed after St Eudoxius.

The governor tried to persuade St Eudoxius to offer sacrifice to the idols and by this safeguard his life, exalted rank and property. St Eudoxius firmly refused, denouncing the folly of anyone who would worship soulless idols. He removed his soldier's belt, the emblem of his authority, and threw it in the governor's face.

Soldiers present at this, secret Christians, did the same thing, and they numbered more than a thousand men. The embarrassed governor asked the emperor what he should do. He was ordered to try the ringleaders and set the others free.

After prolonged tortures, they led St Eudoxius forth to execution. Following after her husband, St Basilissa wept, and his friend St Zeno also wept for the martyr. St Eudoxius again urged his wife not to mourn him, but rather to rejoice that he was worthy of the crown of martyrdom. He asked that she bury his body in a place called Amimos.

To his weeping friend St Zeno St Eudoxius predicted that they would enter the Kingdom of Heaven at the same time. Emboldened by these words, Zeno loudly declared himself a Christian, for which he was immediately sentenced to death.

Later, St Basilissa took her husband's body without hindrance, and buried it in the place where he had requested. After this, they arrested the saint and led her before the governor. Desiring to share the fate of her husband, she fearlessly denounced both the governor and his false gods, the idols. The governor, however, saw her intent and would not torture her, but instead sent her away. As she left, the saint said to him that God would see her intention to suffer for her faith and would accept this intent as an accomplished deed.

Seven days later, St Eudoxius appeared to his wife in a vision and bade her to inform his friend and house steward Macarius, that both he and St Zeno awaited the arrival of Macarius. Macarius immediately went to the governor and declared himself a Christian, for which he was sentenced to death and beheaded. Many Christians also suffered martyrdom during this time.

St Archippus of Herapolis:
Saint Archippus, son of devout Christians from the city of Hieropolis, at age ten went to pray in the church of the holy Chief Commander Michael and he remained at this temple to serve as church caretaker. He led a strict and ascetic manner of life, constantly at fasting and prayer.

He persuaded many pagans who came to the holy spring to accept holy Baptism, to forsake pagan impiety, and to turn to the One True God and Savior Jesus Christ. Tenacious pagans headed by idolous priests repeatedly tried to kill St Archippus, but each time the Lord delivered him out of their hands.

Finally, the pagans devised a plan to destroy the church and at the same time kill also Archippus by flooding the spot where both the church and the curative spring stood. Seeing the preparations for this wicked deed, St Archippus firmly resolved not to abandon the holy place, and he prayed to God and to the Archangel Michael to preserve the church and the spring. The Lord heard his prayer, and the saint witnessed the great Miracle of the Chief Commander Michael at Colossae. Miraculously delivered from death, St Archippus lived at the church into his old age, and he died peacefully at the age of 70. Christians buried the saint at Colossae, at the place of his deeds.

Martyr Romulus and with him many others:
The Martyr Romulus lived during the reign of the emperor Trajan (98-117) and was a confidant of the emperor by virtue of his office of military commander. While the emperor was waging war in the East to put down the uprisings of various peoples against the Romans, the Iberians, the Sarmatians, the Arabs.

In the year 107, and again a second time in 115, the emperor conducted a review of the military strength of his army, and found in his troops upwards of 11,000 Christians. Trajan immediately sent these Christians into exile in Armenia in disgrace. St Romulus, in view of this, reproached the emperor for his impiety and the sheer folly to diminish the army's strength during a time of war. St Romulus, moreover, acknowledged that he himself was a Christian. The enraged Trajan had the holy martyr subjected to a merciless beating, after which St Romulus was beheaded.

The Christian soldiers sent into exile in Armenia were killed by various forms of execution.

Hieromartyr Cyril the Bishop of Gortyna:
The Hieromartyr Cyril, Bishop of Gortyna, lived during the time of the emperor Diocletian and his co-emperor Maximian (284-305). As a Christian he was brought to trial before the governor Agrippina and after interrogation he was thrown into prison. One night the saint heard a voice commanding him to go to Rome.

In the morning the doors of the prison were open, and the idols overthrown and destroyed. On the road to Rome St Cyril had a vision: St Philoxenos appeared and said that he would receive two crowns, one of a hierarch and the other of a martyr.

At Rome, St Cyril rendered great help to the Church by his preaching. When a persecution against Christians started up, St Cyril went to Jerusalem to encourage the Christians living there. Along the way he had a vision and received a command not to neglect Crete.

When he arrived there, St Cyril was chosen bishop of the city of Gortyna. He was then 60 years of age. Still on the episcopal throne of Gortyna at age 95, St Cyril was brought to trial at the start of a new persecution against Christians and sentenced to death. He was beheaded with the sword in the vicinity of Raukos at the beginning of the fourth century.

St Cyril is commemorated on June 14 on the Greek calendar.

St David of Hermopolis in Egypt:
Saint David of Egypt before his entry into a monastery was the leader of a band of bandits in Egypt, in the desert of Hermopolis. He had committed many murders and other wicked deeds. As he grew older, he contemplated his life and was filled with fear because of his past crimes. Leaving his gang of bandits, he went to the monastery intending to repent of his wickedness.

He begged the igumen to accept him as one of the brethren, but the igumen refused. He explained to David that their monastic life was very severe and would be beyond his strength. David persisted and finally, he revealed to the igumen, that he was the notorious robber David. He said that if they did not accept him, he would return to his former life, then come back and plunder the monastery and kill the monks.

Then the igumen allowed him into the monastery, and to the surprise of all, David became an excellent monk. By his severe efforts David surpassed all the monks. After a certain time the Lord sent the Archangel Gabriel to David to say that the Lord had forgiven him. St David, in his great humility, could not believe that the Lord would forgive such a great sinner as he was, in such a short time. The Archangel then said to him, that because of his doubt David would become speechless. David asked that he should be permitted to say his prayers, monastic rule and share in the church services. This was granted him, but the rest of the time he remained speechless. Towards the end of his life, St David received from God the power to perform miracles. He healed many of the sick and cast out evil spirits. Having lived in such manner for many years, he fell asleep in the Lord.

Icon of the Mother of God of Kiev-Bratsk:
The Kiev-Bratsk Icon of the Mother of God was at first in the church of Sts Boris and Gleb in the city of Vyshgorod (Kiev), where it miraculously appeared in the year 1654. In 1662, when Russia was at war with Poland (1659-1667), the city was dealt heavy losses by the Crimean Tatars fighting on the side of the Polish. The temple of the holy Passion-Bearers Boris and Gleb was destroyed and defiled. But the Providence of God preserved the holy wonderworking icon of the Mother of God, which was taken out of the church beforehand and set off along the Dniepr. The relics of the saints were hidden beneath a crypt.

The river carried the icon to the Podol section of Kiev, where it was joyfully taken up by the Orthodox and with due reverence transferred to the Bratsk (Brotherhood) monastery. The icon is described in the records of church property of the Kiev-Bratsk monastery, made in the year 1807.

There existed a "Song about the Wonderworking Kiev-Bratsk Icon of the Mother of God", compiled soon after the year 1692. The Kiev-Bratsk Icon of the Mother of God is commemorated four times during the year: September 6, May 10, June 2, and on Saturday of the Fifth Week of Great Lent. All these days are dedicated to the miraculous appearance of the holy icon in 1654. The original icon has not been preserved. The copy was painted from it "measure for measure," and is at present located in the Kiev monastery of the Protection of the Mother of God.

Icon of the Mother of God Arapet (Arabian):
The Arapet, or "Arabian" Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos appeared while the holy Apostle Thomas (October 6) was evangelizing Ethiopia, Arabia, and India.

Instead of the usual three stars (signifying the perpetual virginity of the Mother of God), the outer garment of the Theotokos has three circles with the head of an angel inside each one. In this feature, it resembles the icons "In Giving Birth you Preserved your Virginity" ("A Virgin Before and After Giving Birth") (October 17) and "O All-Hymned Mother" (October 6).

The Beheading of the Prophet, Forerunner of the Lord, John the Baptist: The Evangelists Matthew (Mt.14:1-12) and Mark (Mark 6:14-29) provide accounts about the martyric end of John the Baptist in the year 32 after the Birth of Christ.

Following the Baptism of the Lord, St John the Baptist was locked up in prison by Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch (ruler of one fourth of the Holy Land) and governor of Galilee. (After the death of king Herod the Great, the Romans divided the territory of Palestine into four parts, and put a governor in charge of each part. Herod Antipas received Galilee from the emperor Augustus).

The prophet of God John openly denounced Herod for having left his lawful wife, the daughter of the Arabian king Aretas, and then instead cohabiting with Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip (Luke 3:19-20). On his birthday, Herod made a feast for dignitaries, the elders and a thousand chief citizens. Salome, the daughter of Herod, danced before the guests and charmed Herod. In gratitude to the girl, he swore to give her whatever she would ask, up to half his kingdom.

The vile girl on the advice of her wicked mother Herodias asked that she be given the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Herod became apprehensive, for he feared the wrath of God for the murder of a prophet, whom earlier he had heeded. He also feared 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 St John and to give it to Salome.

According to Tradition, the mouth of the dead preacher of repentance once more opened and proclaimed: "Herod, you should not have the wife of your brother Philip." Salome took the platter with the head of St 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 had a parcel of land. (The Uncovering of the Venerable Head is celebrated (February 24). The holy body of John the Baptist was taken that night by his disciples and buried at Sebastia, there where the wicked deed had been done.

After the murder of St John the Baptist, Herod continued to govern for a certain time. Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea, later sent Jesus Christ to him, Whom he mocked (Luke 23:7-12).

The judgment 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 in such a way that her body was in the water, but her head was trapped above the ice. It was similar to how she once had danced with her feet upon the ground, but now she flailed helplessly in the icy water. Thus she was trapped until that time when the sharp ice cut through her neck.

Her corpse was not found, but they brought the head to Herod and Herodias, as once they had brought them the head of St John the Baptist. The Arab king Aretas, in revenge for the disrespect shown his daughter, made war against Herod. The defeated Herod suffered the wrath of the Roman emperor Caius Caligua (37-41) and was exiled with Herodias first to Gaul, and then to Spain.

The Beheading of St John the Baptist, a Feast day established by the Church, is also a strict fast day because of the grief of Christians at the violent death of the saint. In some Orthodox cultures pious people will not eat food from a flat plate, use a knife, or eat food that is round in shape on this day.

Today the Church makes remembrance of Orthodox soldiers killed on the field of battle, as established in 1769 at the time of Russia's war with the Turks and the Poles.

 

 

The New Martyr Anastasius, a Bulgarian, was born in 1774 in the Strumnitsk diocese, in the village of Radovicha. His parents gave him over to military studies. When the youth was twenty years old, he happened to be with his teacher in Thessalonica. The master wanted to sell some Turkish clothes without paying the customary duty. He told his disciple to dress himself as a Turk and go into the city. The collectors of the duty stopped him and demanded the written receipt of duty payment. The youth answered that he was a Turk. Then the collectors demanded that he recite the salutation with the Moslem prayer. The youth became confused and quiet. They ordered him to appear before the commander, who in interrogating the martyr suggested that he become a Moslem. The youth refused, and they led him away to the chief tax-collector.

The official tried at first to flatter, then to threaten the martyr, who admitted his civil guilt, but would not agree to betray the holy Faith. The tax-collector made this known to the mufti, who in turn answered, "You have in one hand the sword, in the other the law, use what you wish."

He knew that by law the tax-collector ought to collect the tax from the youth, but then by judgment of the mufti he would not be a follower of Mohammed, armed with a sword. When he had received such an answer, the commander of the haraje sent the youth to the local mullah together with five Turks, who were obliged to testify that the Christian had blasphemed the Moslem religion.

To the accusations of blasphemy against Mohammed by these witnesses, the youth honestly answered that he did not blaspheme him, but he would allow having shown disrespect to Moslem customs. They subjected him to torture and condemned him to hanging. Along the way, they continued to urge the martyr to renounce his faith, but bleeding and exhausted, he fell upon the wayside and died on August 29, 1794.

I was walking to work today and I wondered whether we are being the stewards of creation that we are called to be.

I was walking so that I wouldn't use my car which pollutes, but then I use disposable starbucks cups instead of my travel cup, I don't recycle what I should, and I don't pay the small amount extra for premium gas which, presumably (the advertising would have us believe), burns cleaner and is not as detrimental to the environment.

Everyone knows that international war would most likely destroy life as we know it, the cold war was lived in fear of nuclear attacks, and now there are peacekeeping missions to try to keep wars from happening as we have recognized that we have the ability to destroy ourselves very quickly... so what about destroying ourselves slowly?

Did people start to die from skin cancer long ago? or was the UV from the sun not so harsh? What about the whole thing on Global Warming and how will it affect the next generations? What about sustainability? can we sustain the food/electricity requirements which we have become used to? what about waste? where does it go and what is being done about it?

There are all sorts of problems, and it seems like things are not what they should be, why are there cigarette ends all over the side walk, beside the garbage...? is there some law that prohibits people from throwing out the end of a cigarette after it is partially smoked? (nevermind smoking at all...)

Have people lost any respect for the planet that we have been given to care for?

Will we be judged on how we took care of that which we are stewards of...

As we are called to be stewards of creation it seems that we will be expected to care for the planet, and yet we seem paralyzed by the thought of losing anything.

By taking action and doing something, even small, we will be fulfilling our duty, a duty which very few have felt, and a duty which calls us to sacrafice out of love. We do this as stewards of creation, as a duty, but out of love for God we sacrafice our own selfishness and actually behave as a steward.

 

well, that's all that I have to say, Glory to God for all things and I hope that we will start or continue to be conscious of our duty to offer back to God the fruits of the earth that they may be pleasing to Him in the same way a child will be thankful and take care of a present from its parents.