The Lives of the Saints
1. HOLY PRIEST-MARTYR THEODOTUS, BISHOP OF CYRENIA
On account of his wisdom and virtue he was elected bishop and governed the Church of God with love and zeal. But when a persecution of Christians arose in the time of the wicked Emperor Licinius, this man of God was brought to trial and subjected to many torments. When the torturer Sabinus counseled him to renounce Christ and bow down to pagan idols, Theodotus replied: "If you knew the goodness of my God, in whom I hope that He will account me worthy of eternal life on account of these brief torments, you yourself would desire to suffer for Him as I do." They drove nails into his body, and he prayed to God with thanksgiving; and thinking his end was near, he counseled and instructed the Christians who were around him. But by God's Providence, at that time Emperor Constantine proclaimed freedom for Christians and commanded that all who were under judgment for Christ's sake be released. Then this saint also was freed, returned in that tormented state to his see in Cyrenia, and lived yet two more years. After that he reposed in the Lord, whom he had served faithfully and for whom he had suffered greatly. He completed his earthly life in the year 302 and departed to the courts of the Lord.
2. HOLY MARTYR TROADIUS
He suffered for Christ as a young man. Gregory of Neocaesarea saw him in a vision bravely enduring torments for Christ until he was slain. He also saw his soul, which, when it was separated from the body, hastened joyfully toward heaven. The holy Troadius suffered and was glorified in the third century.
3. FOUR HUNDRED AND FORTY MARTYRS
These four hundred and forty martyrs were slain by the Lombards in Italy around the year 579. Saint Gregory the Dialogist writes of them. In one place forty of them were beheaded, and in another place the remaining four hundred — all because they refused to eat of the idol-sacrifices, and moreover these four hundred also because they refused, according to the custom of the pagan Lombards, to dance around a goat's head that had been offered as a sacrifice to the demons by the pagans.
4. VENERABLE AGATHO
Venerable Agatho was a great Egyptian ascetic of the fifth century. A contemporary of Saint Macarius and a disciple of Saint Lot. He strove to fulfill all the commandments of God. A certain brother praised a small knife of his with which he cut reeds for baskets. Hearing the praise, the saint with joy offered that knife to the brother as a gift. Saint Agatho also said: "It would be a satisfaction to me if I could take for myself the body of a leper, and give him mine." Is that not perfect love?
5. HOLY MARTYR EUTHALIUS
This holy Euthalius was a virgin of Sicily, and she had a mother of the same name and a brother named Sermilianus. All were unbaptized and pagan. The elder Euthalius suffered from a flow of blood. In a dream the holy martyrs Agapheus, Adelphus, and Cyryl (see May 10) appeared to her and told her she would be healed, but only if she were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Euthalius believed in Christ, was baptized, and indeed recovered. Seeing this miracle, her daughter also was baptized. Sermilianus, however, began to mock his mother and sister for the Christian faith, and then to threaten them. The mother took fright and fled the house. Then the brother began to persecute his sister. But the sister was not afraid, for Christ was dearer to her than her brother, and she said to Sermilianus: "I am a Christian and I am not afraid to die." The wicked brother sent a servant to her to dishonor her. But when the servant attacked Saint Euthalius, he lost his sight. The evil brother saw this miracle but remained hard of heart. He pursued his sister, seized her, and cut off her head, in the manner of Cain. Thus the holy virgin Euthalius was crowned with the crown of eternal glory. And thus on this occasion too was fulfilled the word of Christ the Lord, that He had brought a sword among men which divides those related by blood but not related by faith (Matt. 10:34-35).
“If you knew the goodness of my God, you yourself would desire to suffer for Him as I do.”
Hymn of Praise
VENERABLE AGATHO
The silent Agatho spent three years learning,
With a stone beneath his tongue, enduring and enduring,
That his tongue might not serve sin,
But speak words of comfort to men,
And glorify God who created him.
Once when the saint began to speak
He said of anger: "he whom anger masters
Pleases God neither now nor ever;
We have the power to raise the dead,
Yet from the wrathful God accepts no sacrifice."
When death drew near even over Agatho,
The brethren gathered to see him in his illness!
He whispered his prayer with great fear,
Sigh after sigh welled up from his breast.
The brethren asked him: "do even you fear,
O most good father, standing before God?
You have been so good — all know it —
Among the stones of men you shone like gold!"
Then the elder said with face grown brighter:
"I now stand, my children, before the judgment of God.
Human judgment is one thing, and God's another."
And a still more powerful sigh broke from the elder.
“Human judgment is one thing, and God's another.”
Reflection
If someone loses faith in God, foolishness is given to him in recompense. And of all foolishness there is hardly any greater than this: that someone calls himself a Christian yet goes gleaning wretched proofs of God and immortal life from other faiths and philosophies. He who finds no gold in the house of the rich man, how shall he find it in the house of the poor? Revelations of immortal life, facts, proofs, demonstrations, real manifestations of the spiritual world — all this not only forms the foundation of the Christian faith, but constitutes also its walls, its floors, its adornments, all its furnishings, its roof, and the domes of the majestic edifice of the Christian faith. Through every word of the Gospel there shines a ray from that spiritual world — to say nothing of the miraculous events, both of the Gospel and after the Gospel, throughout the entire history of the Church for two thousand years. Christianity has thrown wide open the gates of that world to such a degree that it ought hardly to be called a religion at all — lest confusion arise, lest it be mingled with other faiths and religions — but rather Revelation: the Revelation of God.
Contemplation
Contemplate the Lord Jesus at the Last Supper, namely:
1. How He was compelled to tell the disciples that one of them would betray Him;
2. How, after all that He had done for Judas — after the washing of feet and the hint that He knew of his treacherous intentions — Judas remained fixed in his thoughts of selling his Teacher and his own soul for silver;
3. How the Lord grieved over the perdition of Judas, as over the perdition of all other betrayers of Him and His Church throughout all time until the end, all of which He foresaw with His all-seeing spirit.
Homily
on the Father and the Son
He that seeth Me seeth Him that sent Me (John 12:45)
He who sees the light sees also the sun on the other side: can anyone see the sun without seeing its light? If the sun did not send us its light, none of us would know of the sun. All our knowledge of the sun we have received by means of the light that is from the sun. No one has ever seen the sun by means of any other light than that which is from the sun.
So it is also with our knowledge of the Father through the Son. He who does not know the Son cannot know the Father. He who has known the Son has known the Father. He who sees the Son sees the Father. God cannot be known without His own light, which came among men. The light of the Father is the Son. "I am the light," Christ said. And the light shineth in darkness. The physical world would be all darkness were it not for the light of the sun. And the spiritual and moral world, and all human life, would be darkness were it not for the light that is from the Father. And that light is Christ the Lord.
Truly, brethren, there is no true light that illumines the being of God as Christ the Lord does. He who sees Him sees God. He who does not see Him is in darkness.
O Lord, Son of God, ever help our spirit to see Thee, and through Thee Thy heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit the Comforter — the Trinity of one essence and undivided, to whom be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“The physical world would be all darkness were it not for the light of the sun. And the spiritual world would be darkness were it not for the light that is from the Father.”