The Lives of the Saints
1. THE HOLY MARTYRS AGATHOPOUS AND THEODULUS
The first was a deacon and the second a reader of the church in Thessalonica; the first adorned with the grey hair of old age and the second with the chastity of youth. In the time of Diocletian's persecution of Christians, these two were summoned before the court. With joy they answered the summons, and holding one another by the hand they went crying out: "We are Christians!" All the counsels of the judge, that they should renounce Christ and bow down to idols, remained in vain. After prolonged imprisonment and starvation they were condemned to death by drowning in the sea. Then their hands were bound behind them and a heavy stone was hung about the neck of each, and they were led away to be drowned. When they first sought to cast Agathopous into the deep, he cried out: "Behold, by a second baptism we wash ourselves clean of all our sins and depart pure to Christ Jesus!" The sea soon cast their drowned bodies upon the shore, and the Christians buried them with honor. Saint Theodulus appeared to his acquaintances, radiant as an angel, in white raiment, and commanded them to distribute all his remaining possessions to the poor. These wondrous soldiers of Christ suffered honorably in the time of Emperor Diocletian and the governor of Thessalonica, Faustinus, in the year 303.
2. VENERABLE MARK OF THRACE
He is also called the Athenian, for Athens was his birthplace. When he completed his higher studies in Athens, his parents died. He reflected within himself that death was inescapable for him as well, and that one ought to prepare in good time for an honorable departure from this world. Having distributed all his possessions to the poor, he sat upon a plank in the sea with firm faith in God's help and with prayer that God would lead him wherever it was His will. And God the Provider preserved him and brought him to Libya (or Ethiopia), to a mountain called Thrace. On that mountain Mark labored in asceticism for ninety-five years, seeing neither man nor beast. For a full thirty years he waged a terrible battle with evil spirits and was tormented by hunger and thirst, by cold and heat. He ate earth and drank seawater. After thirty years of the fiercest suffering the vanquished demons fled from him, and an angel of God began to bring him food each day, in the form of bread, fish, and fruit. Shortly before his death he was visited by Saint Serapion, who afterward made known the wondrous life of this Mark. Mark asked Serapion whether there were now Christians in the world who, if they were to say to a mountain, "Rise up from here and cast thyself into the sea," it would so come to pass. At that moment the mountain on which they stood began to move like the sea. But Mark waved his hand and stopped it. Such wonderworking power did this man of God possess. Before his death he prayed for the salvation of mankind and surrendered his soul to God. Saint Serapion saw the angels take the soul of Mark and a hand extended from heaven that received it. Saint Mark lived one hundred and thirty years and reposed around the year 400.
Hymn of Praise
The Prayer of Saint Mark
Behold, the final hour on earth now strikes for me,
I depart to where the Lord shines in place of the sun,
From the dusty garment of the body I emerge,
And before Thy face, O Christ, I now set forth.
One more desire along the earth I spread,
Before Thy throne with prayer I descend;
Salvation I desire for all the human race,
For all and each, from sin release.
I desire that the steadfast ascetics be saved,
And the diligent laborers in Thy field.
I desire that those imprisoned for Thy sake be saved,
Who for the sake of Thy love sacrifice themselves,
And fierce sinners who commit violence,
And those who suffer violence for Thy sake,
Salvation for the lavras with their many monks,
Salvation for the faithful, the tearful and the poor,
Salvation for the churches throughout all the world,
For the pastors of the Church, for all as for me,
For all servants of God and all handmaidens,
Whom either the world knows, or solitude conceals;
Salvation for the baptized and the adopted,
By the Life-giving Spirit of God made alive:
Salvation for the humble and the merciful,
For faithful emperors, for faithful princes;
For every human heart, both healthy and infirm,
Salvation also for my brother Serapion.
O Lord Almighty, this is my desire
And my final prayer. Thy will be done!
Reflection
"Live as though thou dost not exist in this world, and thou shalt have peace." So spoke Saint Anthony to his disciple. A strange instruction, but a true one. The greatest misery and unrest we bring upon ourselves by desiring to feel and assert ourselves as much as possible in this life. The more a man withdraws from the world, the more often he contemplates this world as existing without him, and the more deeply he immerses himself in the thought of his own needlessness to this world, the closer he shall stand to God and the deeper shall be his inner peace. I die daily, the Apostle Paul declares (1 Cor. 15:31) — that is to say, every day he felt as though he did not exist in this world. But for that very reason he felt in spirit every day as a citizen of heaven. When the persecutor Faustinus asked Saint Theodulus: "Is not life better than a bitter death?" Theodulus answered: "Truly, I too have understood it so, that life is better than death, and for this reason I resolved to despise this mortal and brief existence on earth, so as to be a partaker of immortal life."
“Live as though thou dost not exist in this world, and thou shalt have peace.”
Contemplation
To contemplate the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus, namely:
1. How the earth quaked at His return to the body, even as it had quaked at His departure from the body;
2. How the angels descended upon the tomb to minister to Him, as they had always ministered to Him whenever He permitted it.
Homily
on the fulfillment of prophecy
**Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades, neither wilt Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption (Ps. 16:10). **
These are the words of the inspired seer, words luminous and prophetic. David speaks them concerning Christ the Lord, concerning His soul and concerning His body — that is, concerning that which is human in Him. That these words of David refer to the risen Christ was attested by the Apostle Peter in his first discourse immediately after the descent of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:27). For he says: David died and was buried, and his tomb is among us unto this day. Therefore those words cannot refer to David — even though he speaks them as though of himself and about himself — but to some descendant of David according to the flesh. David's body decayed, and the bodies of his other descendants also decayed. But Christ is his descendant according to the flesh, Who neither remained in Hades nor did His body see corruption.
*Foreseeing this, he spoke of the Resurrection of Christ. * Truly, a splendid prophecy! Truly, a wondrous farsightedness! How these words must have sounded both incomprehensible and irrational to all the Jewish interpreters of the Psalms before the Resurrection of the Lord! When the seal was removed from the stone of the tomb, the seal was also removed from many utterly dark and obscure prophecies. Christ is risen, and mysteries became manifest. The stone was lifted not only from His holy body but also from the manifold words and visions of the prophets. Christ is risen, and the prophetic words were resurrected. By His descent into Hades the Lord led forth the souls of the righteous forefathers and prophets into the heavenly light, and by His Resurrection He brought their words and visions into the light of understanding and truth.
Christ is risen, and all that is good, righteous, and true — before and after the morning of Pascha — is risen.
O risen Lord, number us also among the risen citizens of Thy Kingdom immortal! To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“When the seal was removed from the stone of the tomb, the seal was also removed from many utterly dark and obscure prophecies.”