Lives of the Saints
1. SAINT TARASIUS, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE
His predecessor, the Patriarch Paul, secretly abandoned the throne, departed to a monastery, and received the schema. Irene and Constantine were then ruling. At the counsel of Paul, Tarasius, a senator and imperial counselor, was elected patriarch in the year 783. He quickly passed through all the ecclesiastical ranks and became patriarch. A man of high learning and great zeal in the Orthodox faith, Tarasius accepted this office reluctantly, in order to aid in the victory of Orthodoxy over heresies, and especially over iconoclasm. Under him the Seventh Ecumenical Council was convened in Nicaea in the year 787, where iconoclasm was condemned and the veneration of holy icons was restored and confirmed. Tarasius was very merciful toward the destitute and the poor, creating shelters for them and giving them food. But toward the powerful he was resolute in the defense of the faith and of morality. When Emperor Constantine drove away his lawful wife Mary and took a certain kinswoman of his, living with her and demanding from the patriarch a blessing for the marriage, Tarasius not only refused him the blessing but first counseled him, then rebuked him, and at last excluded him from Holy Communion. Before his death he was seen answering the demons, saying: "I am not guilty of that sin! I am not guilty of that sin either!" until his tongue grew too weak, and he began to defend himself with his hands, driving them away from him. When he breathed his last, his face shone with a radiance like sunlight. This truly holy hierarch reposed in the year 806. He governed the Church for twenty-two years and four months.
2. VENERABLE PAPHNUTIUS CEPHALAS
This saint was a contemporary of Saint Anthony the Great. It is said of him that for eighty years he wore one and the same monastic habit. Saint Anthony held him in high esteem and told everyone that he was a true ascetic who knew how to heal and save souls.
Hymn of Praise
THE RADIANT CREATOR
The radiant Creator, crowned with light,
By nothing expressible, by no one describable,
He raises up for the Church wise builders,
And good shepherds, zealous defenders.
On account of our sins He permits suffering,
Though He Himself is mercy and goodness entire.
As one prepares the hard earth with bitter frost
And makes it soft and ready for sowing,
So He softens our hearts with bitter affliction,
Yet guides all things toward good with His gracious hand.
Through the darkness of suffering He gazes toward the light,
And will not permit the darkness to linger past its appointed time:
Through grief and tears He perceives joy ahead,
He penetrates to the ends of every beginning.
For He began all things, and He wills to complete them —
Who shall oppose Him when He commands?
He seems powerless, one might say, for He withdraws with skill,
And conceals and shelters Himself behind the shadow of His works.
When the shadow has passed and the world has reached its end,
And the Church, now complete, rises up to heaven,
Then the Sun of Righteousness, which never fades,
Shall clothe Himself in the Church as in a royal robe.
“He seems powerless, one might say, for He withdraws with skill, and conceals and shelters Himself behind the shadow of His works.”
Reflection
A Christian is like a betrothed maiden. Just as a betrothed maiden thinks unceasingly of her bridegroom, so does the Christian think of Christ. Though the bridegroom be far away beyond ten mountains, the maiden nonetheless conducts herself as though he were constantly there, beside her and with her. She thinks of him, sings to him, speaks of him, dreams of him, prepares gifts for him. So likewise does the Christian conduct himself toward Christ. And just as the betrothed maiden knows that she must first depart and remove herself from the house where she was born in order to meet and be wholly united with her bridegroom, so also the Christian knows that he too cannot be wholly united with Christ until death separates him from the body — that is, from the material home in which his soul has dwelt and grown from birth.
“The Christian knows that he cannot be wholly united with Christ until death separates him from the body.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the Lord Jesus sitting in a boat and teaching the people on the shore (Mark 4:1), namely:
1. How a great multitude of people pressed to hear Him, so that He had to enter the boat;
2. How He taught them in parables of the sower, the seed, and the soil — that is, by those comparisons and examples which repeat themselves day after day from the beginning of the world and shall repeat themselves until its end;
3. How He teaches them not by means of some rare and wondrous events, but by means of those ordinary ones which entered into time together with man and shall depart from time together with man.
Homily
on the impossibility of secrecy
For there is nothing hidden that shall not be made manifest (Mark 4:22)
All secret deeds of men shall one day be made public. And no human act can remain concealed. The Jews thought they could hide from God the murder of so many prophets, and that the bloody crime against Christ could be concealed both from God and from men. Yet what they thought to hide has become a tale told day and night both in heaven and on earth, lo, for thousands of years.
Judas thought to conceal his treacherous conspiracy against his Lord, but the Lord foresaw that conspiracy and disclosed it to Judas to his face. And Jesus said to him: "Judas, betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?" (Luke 22:48).
The Lord also looked into the hearts of the Pharisees and discerned their evil thoughts: "Why think ye evil in your hearts?" (Matt. 9:4). What deeds, what things, what events in this world could be hidden from Him who sees and discloses even the most secret thoughts of the human heart?
There is nothing hidden that shall not be made manifest. Let us fear because of this, and let us rejoice because of this. Let us fear — for all our secret evil deeds, evil desires, and evil thoughts shall be brought to light. Let us rejoice — for all the good that we have done, or desired, or thought in secret shall be brought to light. If all is not brought before men into the open, it shall be brought before the heavenly angels. So much the greater the fear for sinners, and so much the greater the joy for the righteous.
O Lord, Lover of mankind, forgive us our sins and do not disclose them to our destruction and to the grief of Thy holy angels. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Let us fear — for all our secret evil deeds shall be brought to light. Let us rejoice — for all the good that we have done in secret shall be brought to light.”