The Lives of the Saints
1. VENERABLE PAUL OF THEBES
Paul was born of wealthy parents in Lower Thebaid (Thebes) of Egypt in the time of Emperor Decius. Paul inherited all his parents' estate together with his one sister. But his brother-in-law, an idolater, desired to seize Paul's portion of the estate as well, and threatened Paul that he would denounce him to the court as a Christian if he did not yield his estate to him. On the one hand this misery, and on the other the heroic examples of the self-sacrifice of Christian martyrs, which Paul saw with his own eyes, moved him, so that he gave his portion of the estate to his sister as well, and he as a pauper withdrew into the desert, where he practiced asceticism until his death. To what spiritual height this giant monk attained, no one less than Saint Anthony the Great testified, who once visited Paul and saw how wild beasts and the birds of heaven served him. Returning from that visit, Anthony said to his monks: "Woe is me, my children, a sinful and false monk, that I am a monk only in name. I have seen Elijah, I have seen John in the desert, and truly I have seen Paul—in Paradise!" Saint Paul lived one hundred thirteen years and peacefully reposed in the Lord in the year 342.
2. VENERABLE JOHN THE HUT-DWELLER
John was born in Constantinople in the time of Emperor Leo I. Of wealthy and distinguished parents. He was the only child of his parents. Drawn by an inclination for the spiritual life, the young John secretly fled with a certain monk to a monastery in Asia Minor. In that monastery he spent six years in the greatest abstinence, prayer and obedience to the abbot. Then the devil attacked him with a temptation, that he should leave the monastery and return to his parents, and live with them as a nobleman. He indeed returned to the home of his parents, dressed as a beggar, saw his parents but did not wish to reveal himself to them as their son, but as a beggar settled in their courtyard, living so to speak from the crumbs which the servants tossed to him, and enduring much mockery from everyone. He lived three years thus, all the while praying to God that God would save the souls of his father and mother. When he fell ill and felt the approach of death, he revealed himself to his parents, who recognized him by a precious Gospel book, which they had given him in childhood and which he kept with him as his only possession. And thus this young man, although very wealthy, saved his own soul, saved the souls of his parents, conquered the devil and reposed in the Lord, around the year 450.
3. VENERABLE GABRIEL OF LESNOVO
Gabriel was a Slav and companion of Saint Prohor of Pčinja and John of Rila. He practiced asceticism in the tenth century near Kratovo on Mount Lesnovo, where he built a church to the holy Archangel Michael. A wonderworker both during his life and after his death. The present magnificent church in that place was built by Tsar Dušan's voivode, Jovan Oliver. Saint Gabriel reposed in the Lord at the end of the tenth century.
4. HOLY MARTYR PANSOPHIUS
Pansophius was the son of the Alexandrian proconsul Nilus. He abandoned worldly honor and wealth and became a monk while young. He practiced asceticism severely for twenty-seven years and raised his spirit toward the higher world. In the time of Decius he was dragged before the court, where he was flogged for the name of Christ, until in great torments he gave up his spirit to God.
Hymn of Praise
John was a young lad,
A young lad and wealthy,
But nothing deceived him—
Neither youth nor gold.
His father a royal nobleman,
And his mother a fine lady,
But both of them he left
For the love of God's Son.
Christ was his wealth,
All wealth, all beauty,
And he loved Christ God
More than his very life.
And instead of his parents
Now crying out in Hell,
Behold, their son through poverty
Saved both himself and them.
And to this very day many people
Who choke themselves with wealth
John can shame
And save their sinful souls.
“Christ was his wealth, all wealth, all beauty, and he loved Christ God more than his very life.”
Reflection
Never even think that God does not hear you when you pray to Him. He hears our thoughts just as we hear the voices and words of one another. And if He does not act immediately upon your prayer, it is either because you pray unworthily to Him, or because you ask for something that will be destructive to you, or because He by His wisdom and providence delays the fulfillment of your petition until a more suitable moment. Father John of Kronstadt writes: "Just as we communicate quickly with persons far from us through the electric telegraph, so through living faith, as through a kind of telegraph, we communicate quickly with God, with the angels and the saints. Send by the telegraph of faith your petition to God or to the saints and you will immediately receive an answer." And again in another place he writes: "God and created spirits and the souls of the departed and living people—these are thinking beings, and thought is swift and somehow present everywhere. Think of them with all your heart, and they will be present to you, and God always necessarily so, and the others by the gift and authority of God."
“Think of them with all your heart, and they will be present to you, and God always necessarily so.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the purity of the Lord Jesus, namely:
1. The purity of His mind;
2. The purity of His heart;
3. The purity of His will;
4. The purity of His tongue;
5. The purity of His gaze and all His senses.
Homily
on the victorious faith
This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith (1 John 5:4)
Christ the Lord conquered the world; this, brethren, is our victory also. The Apostles conquered the world, and this is our victory. The saints, virgins and martyrs conquered the world, and this is our victory. Nothing is more powerful in the world, brethren, than the Christian faith. The swords that hewed at this faith have been blunted and broken, and the faith has remained; the emperors who fought against this faith have been suffocated under the anathema of crime; the kingdoms that waged war against this faith have been destroyed; the cities that rejected this faith lie buried in their ruins; the heretics who corrupted this faith have perished in soul and body and departed from this world under anathema, and this faith has remained.
When the world rushes upon us, brethren, with its deceptions: the deception of outward beauty, the deception of wealth, the deception of pleasures, the deception of passing glory, with what shall we resist and with what conquer if not with this faith? Truly, with nothing except this unconquerable faith, which knows of something better than all the treasures of this world.
When all the deceptions of this world show their reverse side: when beauty turns into ugliness, health into sickness, wealth into poverty, glory into disgrace, power into humiliation, and all flourishing bodily life into filth and stench—with what shall we bridge this misery, this decay, this filth and stench, and preserve ourselves from despair, if not with this faith? Truly, with nothing except this unconquerable faith, which teaches us of the lasting and unchanging values in the Kingdom of Christ.
When death shows its destructive power over our neighbors, over our relatives and friends, over our flowers, over our crops, over the works of our hands, and when it turns its irresistible teeth upon us as well—with what shall we conquer the fear of death, and with what unlock the doors of life, stronger than death, if not with this faith? Truly, with nothing except this unconquerable faith, which knows of resurrection and life without death.
O Lord Jesus, conqueror of the world, help us also to conquer the world by faith in Thee. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Nothing is more powerful in the world, brethren, than the Christian faith.”