# 23. April
Lives of the Saints
1. HOLY GREAT MARTYR GEORGE
This glorious and victorious saint was born in Cappadocia as the son of wealthy and pious parents. His father suffered for Christ, and his mother moved to Palestine. When George came of age, he entered the army, where by his twentieth year he had attained the rank of tribune, and as such was in the service of Emperor Diocletian. When this emperor began the terrible persecution of Christians, George stepped before him and boldly confessed that he too was a Christian. The emperor cast him into prison and ordered that his feet be placed in stocks and a heavy stone laid upon his chest. After that he ordered him bound to a wheel, beneath which were boards with great iron nails, and that he be turned upon it until his entire body became one bloody wound. After that he had him buried in a ditch, so that only his head was above the ground, and left him in the ditch for three days and three nights. After that, through a certain sorcerer, he gave him a deadly poison. But through all these torments George prayed unceasingly to God, and God healed him instantly and delivered him from death, to the great astonishment of the people. When he even raised a certain dead man by his prayer, then many received the Christian Faith. Among these was the emperor's own wife Alexandra, the chief priest Athanasius, the farmer Glycerius, and Valerius, Donatus, and Therina. At last the emperor condemned George and his own wife Alexandra to be beheaded by the sword. The blessed Alexandra breathed her last at the place of execution before the beheading, and Saint George was beheaded in the year 303. The miracles that have occurred at the grave of Saint George are without number. Without number also are his appearances in dream and in waking vision to the many who have commemorated him and sought his help, from that time to this very day. Having been inflamed with love for Christ the Lord, it was not difficult for Saint George to leave all things for the sake of that love: his rank, his wealth, imperial honors, his friends, and the whole world. For this love the Lord rewarded him with a crown of unfading glory in heaven and on earth and with eternal life in His Kingdom. Moreover, the Lord bestowed upon him power and authority to help in troubles and afflictions all those who glorify him and invoke his name.
2. HOLY MARTYR LAZARUS THE NEW
This new martyr, Lazarus, was a Bulgarian by origin, from Gabrovo. As a young man he left his birthplace and went to Anatolia. In a certain village called Soma, Lazarus tended sheep. But as a Christian he provoked the wrath of the Turks against himself, and was cast into prison by a certain aga. After long torments and inhuman tortures, which Lazarus heroically endured out of love for Christ, this young martyr was slain on the 23rd of April, 1802, in his twenty-eighth year. The Lord received him into His eternal courts and glorified him in heaven and on earth. At the relics of Saint Lazarus many miracles have occurred.
Hymn of Praise
SAINT GEORGE UPON HIS HIGH STEED
Saint George upon his high steed
From the serpent delivers the maiden.
On his lance the sign of the Cross,
A holy weapon, invincible.
With that weapon he slew the serpent,
And returned the maiden whole to her father.
He put God Himself in his debt by his goodness,
And with a crown of glory God repaid him.
Saint George with a heroic heart
Gave away all his wealth to the poor,
And cast aside worldly honor and glory
For the sake of the name of Christ the Victorious.
He accepted torments, torments willingly borne,
He crushed his body for the salvation of his soul.
He put God Himself in his debt by his goodness,
And with a crown of glory God repaid him.
George the holy and victorious
Still rides forth with his cross-bearing lance,
Defending what is right, punishing what is wrong.
Whoever calls on him with faith and weeping,
Whoever prays to him with heartfelt repentance,
George the holy flies to his aid.
George put God in his debt by his goodness,
And with a crown of glory God repaid him.
“He put God Himself in his debt by his goodness, and with a crown of glory God repaid him.”
Reflection
During a certain disturbance in Constantinople in the time of Emperor Constantine, some embittered men broke off the nose and ears of the emperor's statue in the city. Many flatterers then hastened to the emperor and, as though with great indignation, told the emperor how the rebels had broken the nose and ears of his statue, demanding that the emperor punish the offenders with the most severe punishment. But this great emperor felt his nose and ears with his hand and said to the courtiers: "I feel that both my nose and my ears are whole and uninjured!" The courtiers were put to shame and withdrew. With such imperial magnanimity ought we all to bear insults from others. And furthermore: with particular caution should we listen to slanders against other people which our flatterers bring to us. We ought always to confess before God and before ourselves that by our sins we have deserved far greater insults than those which are done to us.
“We ought always to confess before God that by our sins we have deserved far greater insults than those which are done to us.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the risen Lord Jesus, namely:
1. How His resurrection is the beginning of a new and radiant day in the history of the human race;
2. How His resurrection is my peace, and my strength, and the resurrection of my soul even while I am still in the body.
Homily
on the awakening of the pure mind
Behold, beloved, I now write to you this second epistle, in both of which I stir up your pure mind by way of remembrance (2 Peter 3:1)
Do you see, brethren, with what aim the Apostle Peter writes his epistles? To awaken in men their pure mind! This the Apostle considers the chief thing. And indeed it is the chief thing. For if the slumbering pure mind were awakened in all men, there would not remain a single human soul on earth that would not believe in Christ the Lord, that would not confess Him as the crucified and risen Savior of the world, and that would not with contrition turn to repentance for sins committed at the urging of the impure mind. Nothing so distances one from the Gospel as an impure mind. What makes the human mind impure? Sin. As milk, when poison is poured into it, becomes entirely poison, so also the human mind, when impure sin enters it, becomes entirely impurity. Every sin is impurity; every sin makes a man's mind impure, murky, poisoned. All the knowledge that an impure mind possesses is impure. Like the murky and filthy images of objects in a murky and filthy mirror. To the pure all things are pure, said the other chief Apostle. While Adam had a pure mind in Paradise, all his knowledge of the Creator and of created things was clear and true. But sin darkened both his mind and the mind of his descendants. That paradisiacal, pure mind of sinless man is not dead but only sleeping in men under sin. It need only be awakened, and it will then unerringly lead man to Christ. Therefore the Apostle sets it as his duty to awaken in men that primordial, pure, clear, clairvoyant, God-created mind. O my brethren, let us help the holy Apostle — who was crucified head-downward for his preaching — in the awakening of men; let us help him at least insofar as it concerns us ourselves, and let each of us awaken his own pure mind. And when each of us does this, we shall see that we all have one mind. For the pure mind is one, while the impure mind is legion!
O risen Lord, awaken Thou in us the pure mind, by the prayers of Thy holy Apostle Peter. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“If the slumbering pure mind were awakened in all men, there would not remain a single soul that would not believe in Christ.”