The Lives of the Saints
1. SAINT MARY OF EGYPT
The life of this wondrous saint was written by Saint Sophronios, Patriarch of Jerusalem. A certain hieromonk, the Elder Zosimas, once withdrew during the Great Fast into the wilderness beyond the Jordan for a journey of twenty days. At one point he beheld a human being, with a body parched and naked, and hair white as snow, which began to flee from the gaze of Zosimas. The elder ran for a long time, until that being lay down beside a stream and cried out: "Abba Zosimas, forgive me for the Lord's sake, I cannot turn to face thee, for I am a woman, naked!" Then Zosimas threw her his outer garment; she wrapped herself in it and appeared before him. The elder was astonished to hear his own name from the lips of that unknown woman. After his long insistence the woman recounted to him the story of her life. She had been born in Egypt, and from her twelfth year began to live dissolutely in Alexandria, spending a full seventeen years in debauchery. Driven by the carnal fire of lust, she one day boarded a ship sailing to Jerusalem. Upon arriving in the Holy City she too desired to enter the church and venerate the Precious Cross, but some invisible force held her back and would not allow her to enter. In great fear she looked upon the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos in the narthex and prayed to Her, that She might permit her to enter and kiss the Precious Cross, confessing her sinfulness and impurity and promising that she would afterward go wherever the Holy Most Pure One might direct her. Then she was permitted to enter the church. After venerating the Cross she came out again into the narthex before the icon and gave thanks to the Theotokos, and at that moment she heard a voice: "If thou dost cross the Jordan, thou shalt find good peace!" She immediately bought three loaves of bread and set out for the Jordan, where she arrived that same evening. The next day she received Holy Communion at the Monastery of Saint John and crossed the river. And she lived in the wilderness for a full forty-eight years, in exceeding great torments, in fear, in combat with passionate thoughts as with wild beasts. She fed on herbs. After that, when she stood in prayer, Zosimas saw her standing raised up in the air. She asked him to bring her Holy Communion the following year to the bank of the Jordan, and she would come to receive it. The following year Zosimas came with the Holy Gifts in the evening to the bank of the Jordan, but wondered how the saint would cross the Jordan. Then he saw by the moonlight that she came to the river, made the sign of the Cross over it, and walked upon the water as upon dry land. When he gave her Communion, she asked him to come the following year to that same stream where they had first met. Zosimas went and found her body dead in that place, and above her head written in the sand: "Bury, Abba Zosimas, in this place the body of humble Mary; render dust unto dust. I departed on the first of April, on the very night of the saving Passion of Christ, after partaking of the Divine Mysteries." From this inscription Zosimas learned her name for the first time, and also this second and awesome miracle — that she had arrived at that stream on the very night she received Communion the previous year, a distance that had required him twenty days of travel. And so Zosimas buried the body of the wondrous Saint Mary of Egypt. When he returned to the monastery he recounted the entire history of her life and the miracles he had personally witnessed. Thus does the Lord know how to glorify repentant sinners. Saint Mary is also commemorated on the fifth week of the Great Fast. The Church sets her before the faithful in those fasting days as a model of repentance. She reposed around the year 530.
2. SAINT MELITON, BISHOP OF SARDIS
He served in Asia Minor. A renowned pastor of the Church in the second century. Possessing great learning, he labored to gather all the books of Holy Scripture into one codex. By his meekness and piety he also labored to bring peace to the Church of Laodicea, which had been troubled by the dispute over the celebration of Pascha. Besides this, he defended Christianity before the pagans. Thus around the year 170 he traveled to Rome and presented to Emperor Marcus Aurelius a written defense (apology) of the faith and the Christian Church. This learned, pious, and zealous man, Saint Meliton, reposed peacefully in the Lord in the year 177.
3. VENERABLE PROCOPIOS THE CZECH
Born in Chotěš in Bohemia of distinguished parents. He became a priest and withdrew into the mountains, to live after the example of the Eastern desert-dwellers. Duke Ulrich happened upon him and helped him found the Monastery of Saint John the Forerunner on the Sázava River. This holy man reposed in the year 1053.
Hymn of Praise
SAINT MARY OF EGYPT
Wondrous penitent, self-martyred one,
Mary hid herself from every human face —
O that sinful me,
By passion darkened utterly,
Passions are the beasts that gnaw upon our heart,
Within us like serpents weaving nests apart —
O that sinful me,
By passion torn asunder utterly!
But to save the sinful Thou didst suffer, O Christ,
Be not repulsed now by me, the most unclean!
Hear the cry of Mary
Of all the most sinful!
The Lord showed mercy, and Mary He did heal,
The darkened soul He made white as snow to gleam.
Glory to Thee, All-Gracious,
O Lord most dear and precious!
An impure vessel He cleansed and gilded with gold,
He filled it to the brim with His own grace —
This is mercy true,
To Thee, O God, be praise!
Then Mary became by the Spirit illumined,
And like an angel of God with strength she was girded,
By Thy power, O Christ,
By the mercy of the Most Pure!
What is that fragrance in the dreadful wilderness,
Like beautiful incense in the temple's shrine?
It is Mary breathing —
With holiness she is fragrant!
“An impure vessel He cleansed and gilded with gold, He filled it to the brim with His own grace.”
Reflection
Why is it that so much is always spoken and written about the sufferings of holy men and holy women? Because only the victorious are counted among the saints; and can anyone be a victor without struggle, suffering, and affliction? Even in ordinary earthly warfare no one is counted a victor or a hero who has never been in battle, and who has not suffered enough and endured enough. How much more so in spiritual warfare, where truth is known, and where self-aggrandizement not only avails nothing but actually hinders. He who has no struggle for Christ's sake — neither with the world, nor with the devil, nor with himself — how can he be counted among Christ's soldiers? How then among Christ's co-victors? Of her titanic struggle Saint Mary spoke to the Elder Zosimas: "The first seventeen years I spent in this wilderness struggling with my senseless lusts as with fierce beasts. I desired to eat meat and fish, which I had in abundance in Egypt. I desired also to drink wine, yet here I had not even water. I desired to hear dissolute songs... And I wept, and beat my breast. I prayed to the Most Pure Theotokos, that She would drive away such thoughts from me. When I had wept enough and beaten my breast enough, then I beheld a light that illumined me on all sides, and a certain wondrous stillness filled me."
“He who has no struggle for Christ's sake — neither with the world, nor with the devil, nor with himself — how can he be counted among Christ's soldiers?”
Contemplation
To contemplate the Lord Jesus in death, namely:
1. How in the tomb lies the dead body of Him Who during His life raised the dead to life;
2. How even against Him in death the wrath of His enemies seethes;
3. How His disciples locked themselves in a house for fear of the Jews.
Homily
on the great prophecy fulfilled
**He was led as a lamb to the slaughter (Isa. 53:7). **
Through many centuries of time the far-seeing prophet Isaiah foresaw the dreadful sacrifice on Golgotha. He saw from afar the Lord Jesus, led to the slaughter as a lamb is led. And a lamb allows itself to be led to the slaughter just as to the pasture: without resistance, without agitation, without malice. So too did the Lord Jesus go to the slaughter: without resistance, without agitation, without malice. He did not say: "Do not do this, O men!" He did not ask: "Why do ye this to Me?" He condemned no one. He did not protest. He did not become angry. He did not think evil of His judges. When blood poured over Him from the crown of thorns, He was silent. When His face was defiled by spitting, He was silent. When His Cross was heavy along the way, He endured. When pain became unbearable on the Cross, He did not complain to men but to the Father. When He breathed His last, He directed His gaze and His sigh toward heaven and not toward earth. For the source of His strength is heaven and not earth. The source of His consolation is in God and not in men. His true homeland is the Heavenly Kingdom and not the earthly. *Behold the Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sins of the world! * That was the first exclamation of John the Baptist, when he beheld the Lord. And behold, now on Golgotha that prophecy is fulfilled: behold, under the burden of the sins of the whole world lies the Lamb of God, slain and dead!
O brethren, this is a costly sacrifice for our sins as well. The blood of that guiltless and meek Lamb was destined for all ages and all generations, from the first to the last man on earth. Christ felt the pains on the Cross on account of our sins too, in the present time. He wept in the Garden of Gethsemane over our malice, our weakness, and our sinfulness as well. His blood He destined also for us. Let us not despise, brethren, that inexpressibly precious price by which we have been purchased. Because of that sacrifice of Christ we have any worth as human beings. Without that sacrifice — or if we reject that sacrifice — our worth in ourselves is equal to nothing, equal to smoke without fire, and to a cloud without light.
O Lord incomparable in mercy, have mercy on us also! To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Because of that sacrifice of Christ we have any worth as human beings. Without that sacrifice our worth in ourselves is equal to nothing.”