Lives of the Saints
1. HOLY APOSTLE ARISTOBULUS
The holy Apostle Aristobulus was one of the Seventy Apostles. He was the brother of the Apostle Barnabas and born on Cyprus. He followed the Apostle Paul, who also mentions him in his Epistle to the Romans (Rom. 16:10). When the great Apostle Paul was appointing many bishops for various regions of the world, he appointed this Aristobulus as bishop of Britain (England). In Britain the peoples were wild, unbelieving, and wicked, and Aristobulus endured indescribable torments, miseries, and abuses among them. They beat him mercilessly, dragged him through the streets, mocked and derided him. But in the end this holy man achieved success through the power of God's grace. He enlightened the peoples, baptized them in the name of Christ the Lord, built churches, ordained priests and deacons, and at last reposed peacefully there and departed to the kingdom of the Lord, Whom he had faithfully served.
2. HOLY MARTYR SABINUS
Sabinus was an Egyptian from the city of Hermopolis, and the chief official of that city. During one of the persecutions of Christians he withdrew to a certain mountain with many other Christians and shut himself in a hut, where he spent his time in fasting and prayer. But he was betrayed by a certain beggar who used to bring him food and to whom Sabinus had done great kindnesses. Like Judas with Christ, this wretch for money — two gold coins — betrayed his benefactor. Sabinus, along with six others, was seized by soldiers, bound, and hauled to trial. After great torments he was cast into the river Nile, where he gave his spirit to God in the year 287.
3. HOLY PRIEST-MARTYRS TROPHIMUS AND THALIUS
These two presbyters were brothers by birth, from Syria. They preached Christ openly and freely and rebuked the follies of the Graeco-Roman religion. The enraged pagans resolved to stone them to death. But when they hurled stones at these holy brothers, the stones turned back and struck the attackers themselves, while the brothers remained unharmed. Afterward they crucified both of them. From their crosses the brothers taught and encouraged the Christians who stood around them in sorrow. And after their torments they gave their spirits to the Lord, Whom they had remained faithful to unto the end. They suffered honorably in the year 300 in the city of Vophorus.
“He was betrayed by a certain beggar to whom Sabinus had done great kindnesses. Like Judas with Christ, this wretch for money betrayed his benefactor.”
Hymn of Praise
HOLY PRIEST-MARTYRS TROPHIMUS AND THALIUS
Two brothers by birth, steeped in the Spirit,
Illumined by faith and reborn,
These two holy brothers, crucified on crosses,
Counseled the multitude of the Orthodox faithful:
— O brethren, who look up at us from below,
Do not weep bitterly on account of our torments!
Christ our Savior, the Author of spiritual contest,
Became the Redeemer through such torments as these —
The Redeemer of all the human race.
We are being saved by hearkening to Him.
He obeyed the Father and descended to earth,
Suffered and rose again, and ascended to heaven.
We hearken to Him, and we bear torments,
We walk into His kingdom through torments.
Fear not, O brethren, neither fire nor sword —
The justice of Christ is stronger than all the world.
Fear not, O brethren, do not spare yourselves;
For eternal salvation, deny yourselves.
All torments are small, worthless, and bearable
Compared with the reward of Paradise, eternal and glorious.
The world is a false mask and foolish chatter,
Eternity — that is our true homeland.
Give the world to those who love the world's lie
And for the sake of a lie forfeit life and truth.
Do you catch the pearl above the world's filth —
Heed your brethren, Trophimus and Thalius!
“The world is a false mask and foolish chatter, eternity — that is our true homeland.”
Reflection
If we fulfill the law of God mentally, we shall easily fulfill it sensibly — that is, outwardly as well. That is: if we do not err in our thoughts, we shall all the more easily not err in our deeds. Or again: if our heart is with God, then the tongue and the hands and the feet and the whole body cannot be against God. The heart, the heart — prepare the heart for God, consecrate and offer it to God, in it fulfill the law of God, inflame it with love toward God, through it unite yourself with God — everything else will follow and be ordered according to the heart. It is not he who holds a spoke of the wheel who steers the wheel, but he who holds the axle of the wheel. The heart is the axle of our being. Speaking of the commandments of God, Venerable Hesychius says: "If you compel yourself to fulfill them mentally, you will rarely have need to struggle with their sensible fulfillment." That is: if you have wound yourself toward God by the heart as by an axle, the wheels will run easily and willingly after the axle — that is, the whole man after the heart. Thy law is within my heart (Ps. 40:8), says the wise David.
“The heart is the axle of our being. If your heart is with God, then the tongue and the hands and the feet cannot be against God.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the Lord Jesus as He walks under the cross toward Golgotha, namely:
1. How He bears His cross patiently and silently;
2. How they then took the cross from Him and gave it to Simon of Cyrene, who bore the cross walking after Christ;
3. How He turned to the women of Jerusalem who were weeping and said to them: Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children — thereby declaring His victory and the defeat of His murderers.
Homily
on the shame of Christ as riches
By faith Moses... esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward (Heb. 11:26)
Moses did not wish to remain at the court of Pharaoh, nor to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He preferred to suffer with the people of God rather than to enjoy the earthly pleasure of sin. How different from Moses were his descendants, who for Pharaonic reasons condemned the King of Glory to death! All of these would have preferred to live a single year in the decaying court of Pharaoh rather than to journey with God for forty years through the desert. But Moses left all honors, all wealth, all flattery that only wealthy Egypt — and at the royal court at that — could give, and at God's command set out through the hungry and thirsty wilderness, trusting that beyond the wilderness there was a promised land. This is what it means to hold the reproach of Christ above all the treasures of Egypt.
The reproach of Christ is that of which worldly men — with their powerful smell of earth — are ashamed in Christ. And that is Christ's poverty on earth: His fasting, vigil, prayer, wandering without shelter, condemnation, humiliation, and shameful death. The apostles esteemed that reproach of Christ, and after them all the countless saints, as greater riches than all the treasures of the universe — because the Lord rose after this reproach and opened the heavenly gate and showed the promised land of Paradise, into which He led humanity by the path of His reproach, or through the desert of His suffering.
O Lord, glorified and risen, help us to hold steadfastly every drop of Thy sweat and Thy blood as riches greater than all the treasures of the world. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.