Lives of the Saints
1. THE HOLY APOSTLES ARISTARCHUS, PUDENS, AND TROPHIMUS
These were of the number of the Seventy Apostles. Aristarchus was bishop in Apamea of Syria. The Apostle Paul mentions him several times (Acts 19:29; Col. 4:10; Philem. 23). In Ephesus he was seized together with Gaius by the crowd that had risen up against Paul. To the Colossians the Apostle Paul writes: *Aristarchus my fellow prisoner saluteth you. * And in his Epistle to Philemon, Paul calls Aristarchus my fellow laborer, together with Mark, Demas, and Luke. Pudens was a distinguished citizen of Rome. The Apostle Paul mentions him once (2 Tim. 4:21). The house of Pudens was at first a refuge for the chief apostles, and afterward was converted into a church called the Pastoral Church. Trophimus was from Asia (Acts 20:4) and followed the Apostle Paul on his journeys. In one place the Apostle Paul writes: Trophimus have I left at Miletus sick (2 Tim. 4:20). In the time of Nero's persecution, when the Apostle Paul was beheaded, all three of these glorious apostles were also beheaded.
2. THE HOLY MARTYR SAVA THE GOTH
In the land of the Goths there was a fierce persecution against the Christians. A certain Gothic prince came to the village where this pious Sava lived and asked the villagers whether there were any Christians in their village. They assured him with oaths that there were none. Then Sava stood before the prince and the people and said: "Let no one swear an oath for me — I am a Christian." Seeing him wretched and poor, the prince released him in peace, saying: "That one can neither harm nor benefit anyone!" The following year, however, at Pascha, a certain priest Sansalas came to that village and celebrated the bright Pascha with Sava. The pagans heard of this, and suddenly attacked Sava's house, and began to beat the servants of God mercilessly with staffs, and furthermore dragged Sava naked through thorns; then they bound both of them to a tree, and offered them meat from idolatrous sacrifices. But God's men, mindful of the words of the apostles, refused to eat of the unclean devilish sacrifices. Finally the prince condemned Sava to death and handed him over to the soldiers. Full of joy, Sava went to the place of execution praising the Lord. Recognizing him as a good man, the soldiers wished to release him along the way, but Sava was greatly saddened by this and told the soldiers that they were obliged to fulfill the prince's command. Then the soldiers brought him to a river, tied a stone about his neck, and cast him into the water. His body was washed ashore. Later the Greek commander Junius Soranus, in the time of Emperor Valens, while warring against the Goths, found the body of Sava and transferred it to Cappadocia. The holy Sava suffered in the thirty-first year of his life, in the year 372.
3. THE HOLY MARTYRS BASILISSA AND ANASTASIA
Two pious Roman women. In the time of Emperor Nero they gathered the beheaded bodies of the apostolic disciples and buried them with honor. For this they were accused and cast into prison, and after prolonged tortures (their breasts and tongues were cut off) they were beheaded.
Hymn of Praise
THE HOLY MARTYRS
The radiant martyrs poured out their own blood,
And all the dark earth with their blood was stained.
Fierce was the fire in which they burned,
But fiercer still the love with which they loved their Christ.
To be a martyr for the highest good —
What treasure can be measured against this?
The All-Victorious Christ, the King of that age to come,
Received your valiant souls in heaven.
He took them to Himself from the angels' hands,
And blessed all your grievous suffering.
“To be a martyr for the highest good — what treasure can be measured against this?”
Reflection
On contemplation Saint Gregory of Sinai writes: "We affirm that there are eight principal subjects of contemplation: first, God, invisible and without form, without beginning and uncreated, the Cause of all that exists, the Triune, sole, and super-essential Godhead; second, the order and standing of the rational powers; third, the composition of visible things; fourth, the dispensational Incarnation of the Word; fifth, the universal Resurrection; sixth, the dread Second Coming of Christ; seventh, eternal torment; eighth, the Kingdom of Heaven. The first four have been revealed and belong to the past, while the last four have not yet been revealed and belong to the future, although these four also are clearly contemplated by those who, through the grace they have acquired, have attained complete purity of mind. Let whoever approaches this work of contemplation without the light of grace know that he builds fantasies, and does not have true contemplation." So writes the great and clairvoyant Gregory of Sinai, who knew what he knew from personal experience.
“The sole companions of the soul into the next world are a man's deeds, whether good or evil.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the risen Lord Jesus, namely:
1. How He cares also for the bodily nourishment of His disciples: how He broke and blessed bread for the disciples in Emmaus;
2. How by the lake He asked the disciples: Have ye any meat? And when they said they had none, He prepared bread and fish for them and gave it to them.
Homily
on how we shall resemble Him Whom we love
Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2)
Until now we were slaves, but now we are children of God. We were slaves of evil, but now we are servants of the good, of the supreme good in heaven and on earth. We were enslaved to all that is lower and worse than man, but now we shall serve the Most High and the All-Good. We were crushed by darkness, but now we shall work in the light. Until now the devil, sin, and death held us in ceaseless fear, but now we shall live near to God, in freedom and joy. Now... When now? Now that the Lord has appeared on earth in the body; now that He has given us the teaching of light, freedom, and life; now that He has risen in glory and shown Himself in His glorified body; and now that He has fulfilled all the prophecies of the prophets and all His own promises. Now we too are children of God, sons of light, and heirs of the Kingdom. And we shall be as He is. This, it is true, has not yet been revealed, but He has been revealed, and for now that is sufficient. He has revealed what a beautiful man is like in the resurrection, and we know that we too shall be such as He is. The Apostle John says: *we know that we shall be like Him. He does not say: "we surmise," or "we have been told," but he says: we know that we shall be like Him. * For He did not rise for His own sake but for ours. He did not come forth from the tomb merely to show His power to the dead without hope, but to assure the dead that they too shall live, and to show them what they shall be like when they live again. Nor did the apostles write we know out of vanity before the ignorant, but out of brotherly love toward all people, that all might know the same thing — that we too might know. O risen Lord, strengthen in us also this saving knowledge, by the prayers of Thy holy apostles. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“He did not rise for His own sake but for ours, to assure the dead that they too shall live, and to show them what they shall be like when they live again.”