The Lives of the Saints
1. HOLY PRIEST-MARTYR POLYCARP, BISHOP OF SMYRNA
This great apostolic man was born a pagan. Saint John the Theologian brought him into the Christian faith and baptized him. In early childhood Polycarp was left an orphan, and according to a certain vision, he was taken in by a noble widow, Callista, who raised and educated him as her own son. From childhood Polycarp was pious and merciful. He took care to support with his means Saint Bucolus, the bishop of Smyrna at that time, as well as the holy Apostles John and Paul, whom he knew and heard. Saint Bucolus ordained him presbyter and, before his death, designated him as his successor in Smyrna. The apostolic bishops who gathered for the burial of Bucolus consecrated Polycarp as bishop. From the very beginning Polycarp was endowed with the gift of wonderworking. Thus he cast out an evil spirit from the servant of a certain prince and stopped a terrible fire in Smyrna through prayer. Seeing this, many pagans regarded him as one of the gods. He brought rain in time of drought, healed diseases, had clairvoyance, prophesied, and so forth. He suffered in the time of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Three days before his death, Saint Polycarp prophesied: "In three days I shall be burned in fire for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ!" And when on the third day soldiers seized him and led him to trial, he exclaimed: "May the will of my Lord God be done!" When the judge counseled him to renounce Christ and acknowledge the Roman gods, Polycarp said: "I cannot exchange the better for the worse!" The Jews in particular hated Polycarp and pressed for him to be burned. When they placed him bound upon the pyre, he prayed to God for a long time. He was very old, and grey-haired, and radiant as an angel of God. And all the people saw how the flame enveloped him, but did not touch him. Terrified by this phenomenon, the pagan judges commanded the executioner to pierce him through the flame with a spear. And when he was pierced, an exceedingly great quantity of blood flowed out of him, so that the entire fire was extinguished, and his body remained whole and unburned. At the instigation of the Jews the judge commanded that the dead body of Polycarp be burned according to the Hellenic custom. And so the impious burned dead the one whom alive they could not burn. Saint Polycarp suffered in the year 167 on Holy Saturday.
2. VENERABLE DAMIAN
Venerable Damian was a monk of the Esphigmenou Monastery on the Holy Mountain. He was a contemporary and companion of the great Cosmas of Zographou. He pursued his ascetic struggle on Mount Samaria, between Esphigmenou and Hilandar. He reposed peacefully in the year 1280. After his repose, for forty days a wondrous and fragrant myrrh emanated from his grave.
“I cannot exchange the better for the worse!”
Hymn of Praise
SAINT POLYCARP
The Lord preserves His chosen ones
Lest they perish before the appointed day,
Lest they perish before their work is done.
The man of God, the elder Polycarp,
Was traveling with his deacon,
And they lodged for the night at a roadside inn.
The deacon slept while the elder prayed,
When suddenly an angel of God appeared to the elder
And urgently commanded them to rise
And depart from the roadside inn,
For the inn would soon collapse.
The elder roused the young deacon,
But the deacon was weary and slept on.
Then again the angel appeared,
Again he gave the same warning,
Again the elder roused his deacon,
But the deacon, overcome by heavy sleep,
Would start awake, then sink back into slumber.
And a third time the angel appeared,
And a third time gave the warning.
The saint perceived that this was no delusion,
But a true warning from God.
The saint leapt up and roused the deacon,
And they stepped out from the roadside inn.
Scarcely had they stepped outside
When the entire building collapsed to its foundations,
And all who were within perished
On account of certain hidden iniquities.
The young deacon was filled with fear,
While the holy man remained silent in prayer.
They gave praise to the Most High God
And continued on their way beneath the stars.
Reflection
Saint Polycarp writes to the Philippians concerning a certain priest Valens, who had fallen into the sin of avarice and had embezzled church funds, as follows: "I have been greatly grieved on account of Valens, who was once a presbyter among us, that he should so forget the office which was given to him. I therefore beseech you to abstain from avarice, and to be chaste and truthful. Abstain from every form of evil. He who cannot govern himself in this, how shall he enjoin it upon another? If a man does not abstain from avarice, he will be polluted by idolatry, and shall be judged as one of the heathen. But do we not know that the saints shall judge the world? (I Cor. 6:2) — as Paul teaches. I have, moreover, neither seen nor heard of any such thing among you, in the midst of whom the blessed Paul labored, and who are commended in the beginning of his Epistle (to the Philippians). For he boasts of you in all those churches which alone had then known God — but we had not yet known Him (i.e., Polycarp and the inhabitants of Smyrna). Therefore I am greatly grieved, brethren, for Valens and his wife. May God grant them true repentance. And do ye be yourselves moderate in this matter, and do not count such as enemies (II Thess. 3:15), but call them back as suffering and straying members, that ye may save your whole body. For by so doing ye shall build up yourselves." Thus did the holy men deal with sinners: with circumspection and with tender compassion — with circumspection, to forewarn others against similar sin, and with tender compassion, to correct and save the sinners.
“He who cannot govern himself in this, how shall he enjoin it upon another?”
Contemplation
Contemplate the Lord Jesus in conversation with the Samaritan woman (John 4), namely:
1. How the woman's mind is at first entirely overgrown with carnal reasoning;
2. How the meek Lord gradually raises her mind toward higher and more spiritual understanding;
3. How that encounter ends with the conversion of many to Christ;
4. How the seed sown by the Lord first seems to rot in the carnal mind, yet afterward rises, grows, ripens, and brings forth much spiritual fruit.
Homily
on the works of Christ
The works which the Father hath given Me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of Me, that the Father hath sent Me (John 5:36)
What are the works of Christ, brethren? They are the works of a Master of the house who has returned from a journey and found his house plundered and desolate. They are the works of a Physician who has entered the most plague-ridden hospital, brought remedies, and begun to heal. They are, further, the works of a King who has returned to his realm and found it divided and in ruin, and his subjects as slaves in a foreign land. They are the works of an elder Brother who has gone afar to seek his younger brethren — wandered off and gone astray, impoverished and grown wild. They are also the works of a Teacher, and a Shepherd, and a Hero, and a Nourisher. Truly, these are no small works! An ordinary man, with the greatest worldly learning and skill and courage, could not accomplish in three thousand years the works that Christ accomplished in three years. Not one man, but all men of all ages together could not complete the works of Christ for all eternity.
How did the Lord accomplish so many works? By means of five principal miracles: humiliation, word, deed, blood, and resurrection.
What do the works of Christ bear witness to? They witness, first, that He was not sent by the earth but by heaven; second, that it was not an angel who sent Him, but the heavenly Father Himself; third, that for such works none is sufficient save He who is as great as God, as wise as God, as powerful as God, as merciful as God — yea, who is Himself equal to God.
How insignificant are all our works compared to the works of Christ! Only one grain of Christ's goodness and zeal, of His diligence and truthfulness, and we could accomplish our own works perfectly. Grant us that grain, O Lord Jesus, for we can neither find it nor merit it on earth. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“An ordinary man could not accomplish in three thousand years the works that Christ accomplished in three years.”