The Holy and All-praised Apostle Philip was a native of the city of Bethsaida in Galilee. He had a profound depth of knowledge of the Holy Scripture, and rightly discerning the meaning of the Old Testament prophecies, he awaited the coming of the Messiah. Through the call of the Savior (John 1:43),…
Saint Philip, Abbot of Irap near Novgorod, in the world Theophilus, was the founder of the Irap wilderness-monastery. As an orphan and not remembering his parents, the twelve-year-old Theophilus wandered about and eventually settled near the Komel monastery and lived on charity. Saint Cornelius…
Saint Justinian, a major figure in the history of the Byzantine state, was also a great champion of Orthodoxy, a builder of churches and a Church writer. He was born in the Roman province of Illyricum. During his reign (527-565), Byzantium won glory with military victories in Persia, Africa, and…
Saint Theodora was the wife of Saint Justinian the emperor, and lived during the sixth century. The Empress Theodora was at first a notorious harlot and actress, and an adherent of the Monophysite heresy, but then she repented. After becoming empress, she led a virtuous life, maintaining purity of…
Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica, was born in the year 1296 in Constantinople. Saint Gregory’s father became a prominent dignitary at the court of Andronicus II Paleologos (1282-1328), but he soon died, and Andronicus himself took part in the raising and education of the…
Demetrius Mikhailovich Benevolenskii was born on October 10, 1883 in Vishny Volochyok, Tver province. After his ordination to the priesthood in 1911, he was assigned to the Church of the Great Martyr Demetrius in the village of Ostrovno and, in 1919, to the Church of All the Afflicted in the…
The Holy New Martyr Constantine was born on the island of Hydra; his father was named Michael, and his mother was called Marina. At the age of eighteen, he left Hydra and went to Rhodes, where he served the Turkish ruler Hasan Kapetan. There Constantine converted to Islam and took the name Hasan,…
1. Saints Cosmas and Damian.
Unmercenaries and wonderworkers, they were brothers in the flesh and in the spirit, born somewhere in Asia of a pagan father and a Christian mother. After their father's death, their mother Theodota devoted all her time and energy to the bringing-up of her sons as true Christians. God helped her, and her sons grew as two choice fruits and as two holy lamps. They were skilled in medicine and ministered to the sick without payment, and so fulfilled Christ's command: 'Freely have ye received; freely give' (Matt. 10: 8). They were so strict in their unpaid ministry to men that Cosmas became greatly enraged with his brother Damian when he took three eggs from a woman, Palladia, and gave orders that, after his death, he should not be buried with his brother. In fact, holy Damian had not taken those eggs as a reward for healing Palladia's sickness, but because she had sworn by the Most Holy Trinity that he should have them. However, after their death in Fereman, they were buried together in obedience to a revelation from God. These two holy brothers were great wonderworkers both during their lifetime and after their death. A farm labourer, on lying down to sleep at one time, was attacked by a snake, which entwined itself around his mouth and stomach. This poor man would have breathed his last in the greatest torment had he not at the last moment invoked the help of Saints Cosmas and Damian. Thus the Lord glorified forever by miracles those who glorified Him here on earth by their faith, purity and mercy.
2. The Holy Martyr Hermenegild the Heir.
He was the son of the Gothic King Luvigeld, who held the Arian heresy. Hermenegild, however, did not turn from Orthodoxy, in spite of the flattery and threats of his brutal, heretic father. His father threw him into prison and, at Easter, sent a heretic bishop early in the morning to give him Communion. This man of God would not receive Communion at the hands of a heretic; a fact that the bishop passed on to the king. The king was furious, and ordered the executioners to cut off Hermenegild's head, which came to pass in 586. Luvigeld later repented of having killed his son, abjured his heresy and returned to Orthodoxy.
3. Our Holy Father, the Martyr James, with his disciples James and Dionysius.
He was born in the diocese of Kastoria, of parents called Martin and Paraskeva. Working as a shepherd, James became rich and thus incurred the envy of his brother, who reported him to the Turks as having found some money in the ground. James fled to Constantinople, where he became poor. He was once the guest of a Turkish Bey. The Turks were eating meat, but James was fasting. The Bey said: 'Your Christian faith is indeed great!', and he related how his wife had been sick in mind and how, after trying all doctors and medicines, he had taken her to the Patriarch for prayers to be read over her. As soon as the Patriarch opened the book to read, a heavenly light filled the church. When the prayer was ended, his wife was made whole. James, hearing how the Bey extolled the Christian faith, gave away all that he had and went to the Holy Mountain, where he became a monk in the monastery of Iviron. He lived in asceticism on the Holy Mountain, and suffered for the Faith at the hands of the Turks in Jedrene on November 1st, 1520. His wonderworking relics and those of his disciples are preserved in the monastery of St Anastasia near Salonica.
"During a time of intense distress from the enemy, when the soul is in fear, one must pronounce aloud psalms and prayers, or combine with prayer handiwork so that the mind will pay attention to what it is performing and pay no attention to the confusion and not be afraid, for with him is the Lord, and the angel of the Lord never departs from us." -- St. Paisius Velichkovsky
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Nativity Eve/Nativity Day
Jan 6/7
Palm Sunday April 25 2021