The Holy Martyrs Basiliscus, Eutropius and Cleonicus suffered in the city of Pontine Amasea (Asia Minor) in about the year 308.
The brothers Eutropius and Cleonicus, and Basiliscus the nephew of the Great Martyr Theodore the Recruit (February 17), were comrades. After the martyric death of St Theodore, they wound up in prison and by their preaching brought many of the pagans in prison with them to the Christian Faith.
O Angel of God, my holy guardian, given to me from heaven, enlighten me this day, and save me from all evil. Instruct me in doing good deeds, Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
St Syncletica. Fresco by Elder Sophrony Sakharov at the refectory of St John the Baptist Monastery in Essex.
Our holy mother Syncletica was born at Alexandria in the course of the fourth century to rich and devout parents, who came originally from Macedonia. From her youth, she had been seen as an excellent match on account of her great beauty, intelligence and virtues, and she had many suitors; but she remained deaf and blind to every worldly attraction, for she aspired only to spiritual marriage to Christ, the heavenly Bridegroom. Bringing her flesh into subjection by fasting and austerities of every kind, she constantly gathered her spirit in the depths of her heart and cried out night and day: My Beloved is mine, and I am His (Song of Songs 2:16).
On the death of her parents, she distributed her great fortune to the poor and then, accompanied by her blind sister, she fled far from the city. Read more… Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
From a contemporary travel chronicle:*
Thursday, August 22, 2002
We crossed the Svir River, arriving at the renowned Monastery of St. Alexander of Svir.
The Monastery is composed of two separate clusters of buildings. The older section no longer functions as a Monastery, but rather as a mental hospital. The newer section is renovated and well equipped. It has an enormous interior courtyard with a free-standing Katholikon [main church] in the center. Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
Respect pour la Tradition
Nombre de saints martyrs, quand ils étaient peu familiers avec un dogme, disaient ceci: «j’ai confiance en tout ce que les saints Pères ont institué.» Si quelqu’un osait dire cela, il allait subir le martyre. En d’autres termes, bien qu’ils ne savaient pas comment présenter la moindre preuve à leurs persécuteurs, ils avaient cependant confiance dans les saints Pères. Ils devaient penser en eux-mêmes : «Comment pourrais-je ne pas avoir confiance aux saints Pères? Ils étaient bien plus expérimentés que moi, et vertueux, et saints. Comment pourrais-je être d’accord avec quelque chose qui n’a pas de sens? Comment pourrais-je tolérer que quelqu’un se moque des saints Pères?» Nous devons faire confiance à la Tradition. De nos jours, hélas, nous remarquons que «les bonnes manières européennes» sont là, et elles s’efforcent de présenter une face agréable. Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
All Saints Sunday
Metropolitan Antony Sourozh
The Mother of God and the Saints whose memory we keep today, those who are known to us because God has revealed them and because they have been understood and recognised, either by their contemporaries, or years, at times – centuries later, all the Saints are the response of the earth to the love of God. And this response is given by them not only in their own name but in the name of all creation and in our names also; because each of us has the privilege to be called by one name, our Christian name, the name of one of those Saints. Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
The holy Great Martyr Irene was born in the city of Magedon in Persia during the fourth century. She was the daughter of the pagan king Licinius, and her parents named her Penelope.
Penelope was very beautiful, and her father kept her isolated in a high tower from the time she was six so that she would not be exposed to Christianity. He also placed thirteen young maidens in the tower with her. An old tutor by the name of Apellian was assigned to give her the best possible education. Apellian was a Christian, and during her lessons, he told the girl about Christ the Savior and taught her the Christian Faith and the Christian virtues.
When Penelope reached adolescence, her parents began to think about her marriage. One day, a dove flew through the window carrying an olive branch in its beak, depositing it upon a table. Then an eagle swooped in with a wreath of flowers in its beak, and also placed it upon the table. Finally, a raven flew in carrying a snake, which it dropped on the table. Penelope was puzzled by these events and wondered what they meant. Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
La chapelle de la Mère de Dieu, sur les pentes de l'Athos (1.500 m d'altitude)
Il avait besoin d’indépendance pour mener ses recherches er mûrir sa décision ; c’est pourquoi, au lieu de faire d’emblée acte d’obéissance auprès d’un des Anciens qui vivaient à cette époque, il négocia un arrangement pour cohabiter avec un vieux moine des environs. De là, il se rendait souvent à la grotte de saint Athanase, le « Patriarche » du Mont Athos (†1001), et y rencontrait le père spirituel qui résidait là, homme paisible et ascète endurant. Mais cela ne plaisait pas à son hôte qui se mit à le traiter rudement, comme s’il avait autorité sur lui. Encore….
Papa-George Aspropoulos (†1929), le premier père spirituel de Joseph l'Hésychaste
L’Ancien, jusqu’à la fin de l’adolescence, demeurait à Lefkes, son village, et se chargeait des divers menus travaux de l’environnement familial. Puis il partit travailler au Pirée, jusqu’à ce qu’il fasse son service militaire, dans la marine. Encore… Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
Saint Grigorios Palamas. Detail from a stole. Vatopaidi Monastery
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
In one of the Psalms we can read the following words: Those who have sown with tears will reap with joy… If in the course of weeks of preparation we have seen all that is ugly and unworthy in us mirrored in the parables, if we have stood before the judgement of our conscience and of our God, then we have truly sown in tears our own salvation. And yet, there is still time because even when we enter into the time of the harvest, God gives us a respite; Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
The following represents the teaching of the Church from the [early] second century through to the fifth century…. Note that penalties, when they are given, are neither civil nor criminal, but ecclesiastical and pastoral (excommunication for the purpose of inducing repentance). Also note that the these quotes deal with both surgical and chemically induced abortion, both pre- and post-quickening.
All quotes are from «The Church Fathers on Social Issues», Department of youth Ministry of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America.
From the Letter to Diognetus
(speaking of what distinguishes Christians from pagans):
«They marry, as do all others; they beget children but they do not destroy their offspring» (literally ‘cast away fetuses’). Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
Saint Parthenius was the son of the deacon Christodoulus from Melitopolis on the Hellespont. Although illiterate, he listened attentively to the reading of Holy Scripture in church, and he did his best to put what he heard into practice. Working as a fisherman, he would give whatever he earned from the sale of his catch to the poor, keeping nothing for himself. His charity became well-known in the area, and Philetus, the Bishop of Melitopolis, obliged him to accept ordination to the priesthood, with a commission to traverse the diocese visiting the Christians in their homes. The Grace of God brought forth abundant fruit in him through many miracles and healings. One day, he met a man on the road whose eye had been dislodged by the horn of a bull. He restored the eye to its socket and healed the wound. On another occasion, he cured a woman of a fatal cancer solely by the sign of the Cross. Then again, when a mad dog attacked him, he brought the creature down stone dead with a simple puff of his breath.
While the Emperor Valerian’s persecution was raging in the Roman province of Africa where Christianity was already widespread (c. 203), the young catechumens Perpetua, Revocatus, Felicity, Saturninus and Secundus were arrested in the town of Thubordo. Revocatus and Felicity were bondservants, while the twenty-two-year-old Perpetua was of noble birth. She asked to keep her child, which was still at her breast when she was arrested, and she was transferred to Carthage with the others, in spite of the efforts of her pagan father to retain her. The stifling at- mosphere of the dungeon in which the Martyrs were crammed became a veritable palace for the young mother, in which she awaited the visit of Christ the King. God then revealed to her in a vision what she and her companions were to expect. She saw a narrow, bronze ladder set up on the earth and reaching to heaven. Instruments of death of all kinds were attached to its rungs and a dreadful dragon sat at its foot threatening all who would climb it. The first to mount the ladder was their catechist, Saturus, who had given himself up voluntarily in order to join them. On reaching the top, he called: Perpetua, I’m waiting for you, but take care that the dragon doesn’t bite you!’ ‘Through the Name of Jesus Christ’, she replied, it shan’t do me any harm.’ Then, springing forward, she crushed the dragon’s head with her heel and reached the top of the ladder in a single bound, gaining entrance to the Paradise of delight in which she was welcomed by countless thousands of white-clad Martyrs.
On the 30th of the month, we celebrate the joint Memory of our THREE Holy Fathers and DOCTORS of the Universe: BASIL the GREAT, GREGORY the THEOLOGIAN and JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
During the reign of the Emperor Alexius Comnenus (1081-1118), a controversy arose in Constantinople among men learned in the Faith and zealous for virtue about the three holy Hierarchs and Fathers of the Church, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom. Some argued for Saint Basil above the other two because he was able, as none other, to explain the mysteries of the Faith, and rose to angelic rank by his virtues. Organizer of monastic life, leader of the entire Church in the struggle with heresy, austere and demanding shepherd as to Christian morals, in him there was nothing base or of the earth. Hence, said they, he was superior to Saint Chrysostom who was by nature more easily inclined to absolve sinners.
This glorious heroine of the Christian Faith was born in Rome into a wealthy senatorial family of a pagan father and a Christian mother. From her early youth, she clung in love to the Lord Jesus, guided in the teaching of Christ by a devout teacher, Chrysogonus. Anastasia was forced by her father to enter into marriage with a pagan landowner, Publius. Excusing herself on the basis of a female illness, she in no way wished to enter into physical relations with him. Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
Again we pray for the children of God condemned to death by the unjust judgement of men: that the Lord our God would soften the hearts of those who seek their violent destruction, and rescue those who are being led forth to the slaughter, we diligently pray Thee, O Lord, hearken and have mercy!
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Life is a precious gift of God. It is given to us so that we, while completing our earthly course, should acquire Divine Grace, should become members «of the household of God» and spiritual «fellow citizens with the Saints» (Ephesians 2:19). It is for this reason also that the Lord has established His Holy Church. In the life of the Church, of this Kingdom of God on earth, we are already destined for blessedness, and partake of it in proportion to our piety.
But the fall of our forefathers introduced sin deeply into our life. Sin has poisoned it, has become a property of this world: that is why the Apostle John can say that «the whole world lieth in wickedness» (1 John 5:19). This evil surrounds us and lures us with particular force when the opposition to it on the part of the society around us weakens. Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
Venerable St. John of Rila, a great spirit-filled ascetic struggler of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, is the heavenly patron of the Bulgarian People.
He was born in the year 876 in the village of Skrino in Sardica Province (which today is Sofia). Orphaned at an early age, the boy hired himself out to strangers as a shepherd. It happened that a rich man beat him because a cow and its calf had gotten lost. For a long time, the little boy wept and prayed that God help him. At the time he located the cow and the calf, the water level of the Sturma River had risen sharply. The young shepherd prayed, made the sign of the cross over his outer clothing, laid it on the surface of the water, picked up the calf and carried it across, as if on dry land, to the other shore, where the cow was waiting for them. The rich man, who had been hiding in the woods, was terrified upon witnessing this miracle; giving the boy a generous reward, he released him from service.
The boy gave away his fortune, and went off to his native village. When and where he received monastic tonsure is unknown. Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
9. Various Trials and Manifest Aid from our Lady the Mother of God
The Apostle Paul informs the fullness of the Church about his trials and his affliction, which were so extensive the he ‘despaired of life itself’ (2 Cor. 1:8). He stresses that he was ‘utterly crushed beyond his strength’; and corresponding to this we have the patristic interpretation and practice which describes how terrible and numerous are the trials which lurk in the way of those who wish to be saved. Of course, there are also other passages in Scripture which deal with the same subject, and it may be said that the chief prerequisite for salvation is endurance of many trials. But it is the Apostle Paul in particular who reveals to us the mystery and the meaning of tribulations – the chief of the Apostles, the giant of the Church, the exact image of Christ. If he, Paul, who constantly urges us to imitate him (1 Cor. 11:1), and who quite simply carried out all that has been commanded us (Lk 17:10), according to our Lord’s word – if Paul expresses himself in this way, saying that the tribulations that are for salvation and perfection can push one to despair even of life itself, then one can understand the furnace that our Fathers passed through, those who in ancient times and more recently have held to the same path (cf. Phil. 3:16).
8. The Trials grow more Intense
Any extra aid from grace, when it comes legitimately to those who labour systematically, is like a prize, a good mark or a promotion, upon which the faith of contemplation increases perceptibly, according to the Fathers. And for beginners this is a sign of the bitterest struggle, while for those who are advanced it is an extension of illumination.
I used the word ‘systematically’, and with fear I shall explain in brief the difference this makes. The grace of God give help, comfort and consolation to all believers who live according to conscience. It gives to each according to what he requires to strengthen or console him. These gifts are exceptional, without repetition or continuation, and belong to the overall, general providence of God by which He sustains His creatures.
7. The Discovery of the Hesychast Elder Daniel as Spiritual Father
From the very beginning of his venture, the Elder longed to find a spiritual father: a spiritual man, in the full sense of the word, who could teach him and guide him in this subtle and mysterious life. And despite all his disappointments, as he told us, he never ceased to search and hope. There was a rumour about ascetics whom most people never saw, who lived in obscurity and would present themselves from time to time to certain priests, themselves spiritual men, and receive Communion. For a long time this was a problem and a trial for the Elders, because they kept trying and searching constantly in the hope of meeting such people. In their persistent efforts they went round all the caves and huts, and any other trace of earlier habitation or place where there was evidence that some ascetic had once lived.
6. The Nature and Forms of Trials
Trials or temptations (peirasmoi) have been so named because they produce experience (peira) in those who are tried. As to their nature, they comprise all the distressing events in life, from the smallest pain to the greatest of all, which is death. They are also called collectively a Cross, because just as a cross tortures a man and puts him to death, so distressing things in general lay us low and destroy us. Sorrows do not have their beginning in the creation that was from the beginning, but are parasitic, symptoms accompanying our fallen state. They are born of transgression and sin, and that is why they are disgusting and repellent to life and nature, as causes and constituent elements of corruption and death, and always provoke aversion and repugnance. So in a certain way our life has been changed into boundless bitterness and sorrow, into an endless pain and labour, unending agony and unhappiness with lamentation as its one inseparable companion!
5. The Time of Bitter Struggles
Such were the patterns of their outward movements, but the deeper meaning of all this was the pursuit of grace and the struggle which combatants have to take on to this end. With his moral background and his upbringing in accordance with the Christian principles of the time, the Elder had grown up in true chastity in the unaffectedly traditional environment of his native island. Up to the time when he left to seek the monastic life, he had made no concession to anything that could be called carnal. When he read in the Lives of the Saints about warfare and temptations of this kind, it seemed strange to him, how it was possible for these things to operate and to torment the spiritual warriors in the absence of anything to cause them.
A modern-day Byzantine Orthodox icon of St Irenaeus.
Information as to his life is scarce, and in some measure inexact. He was born in Proconsular Asia, or at least in some province bordering thereon, in the first half of the second century; the exact date is controverted, between the years 115 and 125, according to some, or, according to others, between 130 and 142. It is certain that, while still very young, Irenaeus had seen and heard the holy Bishop Polycarp (d. 155) at Smyrna. During the persecution of Marcus Aurelius, Irenaeus was a priest of the Church of Lyons. The clergy of that city, many of whom were suffering imprisonment for the Faith, sent him (177 or 178) to Rome with a letter to Pope Eleutherius concerning Montanism, and on that occasion bore emphatic testimony to his merits. Returning to Gaul, Irenaeus succeeded the martyr Saint Pothinus as Bishop of Lyons. During the religious peace which followed the persecution of Marcus Aurelius, the new bishop divided his activities between the duties of a pastor and of a missionary (as to which we have but brief data, late and not very certain) and his writings, almost all of which were directed against Gnosticism, the heresy then spreading in Gaul and elsewhere. In 190 or 191 he interceded with Pope Victor to lift the sentence of excommunication laid by that pontiff upon the Christian communities of Asia Minor which persevered in the practice of the Quartodecimans in regard to the celebration of Easter. Nothing is known of the date of his death, which must have occurred at the end of the second or the beginning of the third century. In spite of some isolated and later testimony to that effect, it is not very probable that he ended his career with martyrdom. His feast is celebrated on 28 June in the Latin Church, and on 23 August in the Greek. Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
A Greek Orthodox icon of St Elessa of Kythera from Mount Athos (1956).
Saints Panteleimon and Hermolaus. Byzantine wall-painting of the late 13th century at the Church of Panagia Olympiotissa at Elassona, Greece.
Pantaleon was born in Nicomedia of a Christian mother and a pagan father. His mother was called Eubula and his father Eustorgius. As a young man he studied the science of medicine. The priest, Hermolaus, invited Pantaleon to be with him and taught him the Faith of Christ and baptized him. Pantaleon miraculously cured a blind man whom the other doctors treated in vain; he cured him by the power of Christ and baptized him. Out of envy the doctors accused Pantaleon of being a Christian and he went before the Emperor Maximian to stand trial. «He stood before the earthly king in body but in thought he stood before the heavenly King.» Before the emperor, he freely declared that he was a Christian and, before the eyes of the emperor, he healed a paralytic of a long-standing illness.
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