The Lives of the Saints
1. VENERABLE ISAAC THE SYRIAN II
(Isaac the Syrian I is commemorated on January 28.) About this Isaac, Saint Gregory the Dialogist writes. He came to Italy in the time of the Goths, and in the city of Spoleto one day entered a church for prayer. He asked the sexton to leave him locked in the church through the night as well. And so he spent the entire night in prayer without moving from his place. The next day likewise, and through the second night as well. The sexton called him a hypocrite and struck him with a slap. But at that very moment the sexton went mad. Seeing the sexton tormented grievously, Isaac bent over him, and the evil spirit fled from him, and the sexton was healed. People heard of this event, and the whole city gathered around this wondrous stranger. They offered him money and property, but he refused everything and accepted nothing, withdrawing instead into the forest, where he built himself a cell, which soon grew into a great monastery. Isaac was renowned for his wonderworking, especially for his clairvoyance. One evening he ordered the brethren to carry all the hoes out to the vineyard and leave them there. The next day he went with the brethren and brought lunch to the vineyard. The brethren wondered for whom the lunch was intended, since they had no laborers. When they arrived, they found as many men digging as there had been hoes. What had happened was that these men had come as thieves to steal the hoes, but by the power of God they were compelled to dig all night long. -- On another occasion two men came, nearly naked, and sought clothing from Isaac. Isaac sent a monk to a certain hollow tree beside the road, to bring whatever he found there. The monk went, found some garments, and brought them to the monastery. The abbot took those garments and gave them to the beggars. They were greatly ashamed when they recognized their own clothing, which they had hidden in that tree. -- A certain man sent two baskets of honeycombs to the monastery. The monk hid one beside the road and brought one to the abbot. The saint said to him: "Be careful on your return -- a poisonous serpent has crept into that basket you left beside the road. Take care that it does not bite you."
2. SAINT BASIL THE CONFESSOR
During the time of the Iconoclast heresy, this virtuous man was bishop in the city of Parium, in Asia Minor. He refused to sign the imperial decree against the veneration of icons. For this he was greatly persecuted and tormented. But he remained firm in Orthodoxy like a diamond. He ended his life in the first half of the eighth century, and departed to the Lord.
3. VENERABLE ACACIUS
From the village of Golitsa in Epirus. A great Athonite ascetic, spiritual father, and seer. He had many heavenly visions. He blessed several monks for the feat of martyrdom. He reposed at the age of 98, in the year 1730.
4. VENERABLE ATHANASIA
Born on the island of Aegina, of wealthy and noble parents. She distributed her possessions to the poor and withdrew to a monastery, where she imposed upon herself an ever heavier and heavier ascetic discipline. She took food only once a day, and that bread and water; during the Great Fast once every two days; and only at the Nativity and at Pascha did she taste oil and fish. Although she was the abbess of the monastery, she was a servant to all the other sisters, and was ashamed to have anyone serve her. She was granted the great gift of wonderworking, both during her life and after her death. She reposed in the Lord in the year 860.
Hymn of Praise
VENERABLE ATHANASIA
Athanasia fulfilled her vow,
Upon the earth she shone, a star most bright,
The weakness of the flesh by spirit she overcame,
She loved God even from her youth;
By fasting and by vigil she withered the body,
Only that she might gain salvation for her soul:
Her great possessions to the poor she gave,
Her whole self to the will of God she surrendered.
A vision she beheld in the holy temple:
A heavenly light cut through the darkness,
And a voice came to her: Athanasia,
Meekness and humility -- these are pleasing unto God,
In these do thou exercise thyself above all else
While thy heart doth beat and thy spirit breathe.
Athanasia, most beautiful soul,
She crushed all pride within herself,
To the will of God she gave herself completely,
Obedient to God as the radiant sun.
Love with love the Lord returned,
And with grace He repaid her labors.
And when her earthly term was finished,
He gave her life, immortal, heavenly.
“A heavenly light cut through the darkness, and a voice came to her: Meekness and humility — these are pleasing unto God.”
Reflection
The wicked Emperor Constantine Copronymus had a good daughter, the maiden Anthusa -- "a beautiful branch on an evil tree." Despite all the insistence of her father that she marry, she remained steadfast, for she was firmly bound by heartfelt love for Christ the Lord. And when her father died, Anthusa distributed her possessions to the poor and became a nun in a certain monastery. As much as many noble men are to be admired, who forsook the vanity of the world and followed the narrow way after Christ, twice as much are women to be admired, who despised youth, wealth, and all the passing attractions of the world for the sake of the love of Christ. That it is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God, the Lord Himself said -- hard, yes, but not impossible. It is easy to despise riches and the whole world for him who despises himself.
“It is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God — hard, yes, but not impossible.”
Contemplation
To contemplate the risen Lord Jesus, namely:
1. How He enters through closed doors among His disciples and bestows upon them peace;
2. How His glorified body has no material obstacles whatsoever, and He appears wherever He wills.
Homily
on the city that is being built
**For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one that is to come (Heb. 13:14). **
Were not Babylon and Nineveh, brethren, great and wondrous cities? Today only lizards hatch in the dust of their towers. And Memphis and Thebes -- were they not the pride of pharaohs and of human princes? Today it is difficult to determine even where those cities once stood. But let us leave aside cities of stone and brick; let us look upon cities of blood and flesh and bone. Men build the city of their body longer and more carefully than they do fortresses and cathedrals. For eighty and for a hundred years men build the cities of their bodies; and in the end they see that their labor was in vain: that which they built for decades with care and day-and-night anxiety collapses into the dust of the grave in the twinkling of an eye. Whose bodily city has not crumbled and tumbled into dust? No one's. But let us leave aside the bodily cities; let us look at the cities of happiness, which men build from generation to generation. The material from which those cities are built is: pleasure, delight, possessions, power, honor, glory. Where are those cities? Like a spider's web they enfold men for a moment, and like a spider's web they are torn apart and vanish, making the happy more miserable than the miserable.
Truly, we have no lasting city here. Therefore we seek the city that is to come. It is a city built of spirit, life, and truth. It is a city whose sole and only builder is the Lord Jesus Christ. That city is called the Heavenly Kingdom, immortal life, the court of angels, the haven of saints, the refuge of martyrs. In that city there is no duality of good and evil, but all is the unity of good. All that is built in that city is built forever. Every brick in that city remains, without end or limit. And the bricks are living angels and men. On the throne of that city the risen Lord Jesus Christ sits and reigns.
O risen Lord, deliver us from beneath the ruins of time and lead us mercifully into Thy eternal heavenly city. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Men build the city of their body longer and more carefully than they do fortresses and cathedrals, and in the end that which they built for decades collapses into the dust of the grave in the twinkling of an eye.”