The Lives of the Saints
1. VENERABLE TITUS THE WONDERWORKER
From his young years he loved Christ the Lord and despised the vain world. For this reason he left the world, went to a monastery, and received the angelic habit. Not sparing himself he gave himself over to the sorrowful and narrow monastic path. Through great patience he acquired two fundamental virtues: humility and obedience, and in these virtues he surpassed "not only the brethren but all men." Purity of soul and body he had preserved from his youth. In the time of the iconoclast heresy he showed himself to be an unshakable pillar of the Church of God. Because of his great humility and purity, the gift of wonderworking was granted him by God both during his life and after his death. And when he departed to the Lord he left behind numerous disciples. He reposed peacefully in the ninth century.
2. HOLY MARTYRS AMPHIANUS AND EDESIUS
Two young men, two brothers by birth. From the city of Patara, of distinguished but pagan parents. When they were studying the secular sciences in the city of Berytus they were somehow enlightened by the Spirit of God, and having recognized the falsehood of paganism they perceived the truth of Christianity. And when they returned home, they could no longer live with their pagan parents and kinsmen but secretly fled to Caesarea in Palestine, to the priest Pamphilus, known for his holiness and spiritual learning. Under Pamphilus they were instructed in the law of God day and night and practiced Christian ascetic labors. Of Amphianus it is said that in body he was twenty years of age, but in understanding and magnanimity a centenarian. When the persecution began, in the time of Maximinus, many Christians fled the city and hid themselves, while others voluntarily and joyfully gave themselves into the hands of the torturers, that they might suffer for the name of Him Who had first suffered for them. Amphianus was among these latter. He came fearlessly into the pagan temple, where the governor Urban was offering sacrifices to idols, and seized the governor by the hand with which he held the sacrifice, and cried out to him to cease from the service and sacrifice to dead idols and to acknowledge the true God. Some who heard these words and saw such great courage in Amphianus repented and received the Christian faith. But the enraged governor cast Amphianus to the torments. Among other tortures they wrapped his feet in cotton and set them ablaze. But when he remained alive, they cast him into the sea with a stone about his neck; and the sea rose up and cast the body of the martyr back into the city. Edesius was first sent to the copper mines in Palestine, and then taken to Egypt. In Alexandria he was filled with holy zeal against a certain governor Hierocles, who in the marketplace had gathered Christian nuns, maidens, and honorable women, and was distributing them to the most shameless debauchers for their mockery — Edesius was filled with holy zeal and struck the dishonorable governor across the face. For this he was tortured and drowned in the sea, as was his brother Amphianus. Like two innocent lambs they were sacrificed for Christ, around the year 306, and departed to the wondrous courts of the Lord.
Hymn of Praise
HOLY MARTYRS AMPHIANUS AND EDESIUS
Two brothers gave themselves to God as sacrifice,
Despising the decaying world, a lifeless corpse,
Amphianus and Edesius, brothers of one womb,
In torments wondrous brothers, to Christ alike in doom.
He who has faith in God does not esteem the world,
The world can replace God only for a dead soul.
He who has love for Christ does not fear death at all,
Among the immortals even before death he is enrolled.
He who considers death a dark and inglorious end,
Must also count himself a slave of hopeless dread.
The martyrs regarded death as the curtain of heaven,
They gave the example that death should not be feared.
Fear not, O man, that there is no heaven above,
But fear the Dreadful Judgment that heaven does prepare.
It would be easier for the sinner if there were no heaven,
Therefore the sinner asks with wrath: Where is heaven, then?
O sinner, heaven is not there where thou art found,
Thou and heaven together shall never be bound.
“He who has love for Christ does not fear death at all, among the immortals even before death he is enrolled.”
Reflection
"It is better to be ignorant and draw near to God through love, than to be learned and at the same time an enemy of God." These are the words of Saint Irenaeus, the Priest-Martyr of Lyons. The truth of these words has been confirmed in all ages, and is confirmed in our own time as well. Only one thing must be added to this, namely, that lovers of God are not ignorant, since they know God well enough to be able to love Him. Of all human knowledge this knowledge is the most important and the greatest. And it must further be added that enemies of God cannot be truly learned — though they consider themselves such — since their knowledge is inevitably chaotic, for it has no head and no order. For the head and the order of all knowledge is God. Some of the saints — such as Paul the Simple — could neither read nor write, but by the power of their spirit and by divine love they surpassed the whole world. He who draws near to God through love is incapable of crime. But learning without love for God is inspired by the spirit of crime and war. Saint Euthymius the Great taught: "Have love, for what salt is to food, that is love to every virtue." Tasteless and cold is every virtue if it is not salted and warmed by divine love.
“What salt is to food, that is love to every virtue.”
Contemplation
To contemplate the Lord Jesus in Hades, namely:
1. How His plan of salvation is all-encompassing, embracing all generations and all ages from the beginning to the end;
2. How He came to earth in the body not only for the sake of those who then lived on earth but also for those who would live, and for those who had lived;
3. How, while His dead body lies in the tomb, He descends in soul into Hades to proclaim salvation and liberation to those in bondage.
Homily
on the living God and on His living children
**Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's (Rom. 14:8). **
Whose are we when we live? The Lord's. Whose are we when we die? The Lord's. Whose are the righteous? The Lord's. Whose are the sinners? The Lord's. The Lord encompasses all — both the living and the dead, both those of the present and those of the past and of the future. No one is so all-encompassing as the Lord Jesus. Which of the so-called benefactors of mankind, of teachers, leaders, or enlighteners, ever attempted to do some good for the dead? To this one can decisively answer: never and no one! The very thought would be laughable in the eyes of the whole world — to do some good for the dead! It is laughable to all those who think that death is more powerful than God, and that what death swallows it destroys forever. But caring for the dead, and doing good for the dead, has ceased to be laughable since the revelation of the Lord Jesus, Who revealed that God is the God of the living, and Who demonstrated this in deed by descending into Hades to free and save the souls of the departed righteous, from Adam to His death on the Cross.
All-encompassing is our most glorious Lord in His far-seeing thought, for He thinks of all and sees all who are born of woman, both above the graves and within the graves; so also in His love, for He embraces all righteous souls regardless of what place or time conceals them; and so finally in His labor, for He labors for them all, to free them all, to save them, to lead them into the Kingdom, and to glorify them before the face of His Heavenly Father, of the Holy Life-Giving Spirit, and of the numberless holy angels. O Lord, to Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Which of the so-called benefactors of mankind ever attempted to do some good for the dead? Never and no one!”