The Lives of the Saints
1. THE HOLY APOSTLE SIMEON
One of the Seventy Apostles. He was the son of Cleopas, and Cleopas in turn was the brother of Joseph, the betrothed of the Most Holy Theotokos. Having beheld the miracles of the Lord and Savior our Jesus Christ, Simeon believed and was numbered among the Seventy Apostles. With great zeal and courage he preached the Gospel of Christ throughout all Judea. And when the malicious Jews slew James, the Brother of the Lord and first bishop of the Church of Jerusalem, casting him down from the height of the Temple and striking him on the head with a club, then this Simeon, a kinsman of James, was appointed bishop in Jerusalem. And he, as the second bishop in the Holy City, governed the Church of God with wisdom and power until extreme old age. He was over one hundred years old when he suffered. And his suffering was thus: in the time of Emperor Trajan a twofold persecution was raised in Palestine, against the descendants of David and against Christians. Malicious men accused Simeon of being both the one and the other. Saint Simeon endured great torments and at last was crucified on a cross, even as his Lord, Whom he had faithfully served on earth.
2. VENERABLE STEPHEN, BISHOP OF VLADIMIR
A disciple of Saint Theodosius of the Kiev Caves. Stephen was for a time abbot of the Kiev Caves Lavra and labored greatly for the well-ordered governance of the monastic life and for the adornment of the churches. But the enemy inflamed malice among the monks against him, so that they not only deposed him from the abbacy but also expelled him from the monastery. But God, Who does not leave the righteous long under humiliation by the unrighteous, directed the life of Venerable Stephen so that he was elected Bishop of Vladimir. As a hierarch of God, Stephen governed the Church until his old age and peacefully reposed in the Lord in the year 1094.
3. THE BURNING OF THE RELICS OF SAINT SAVA, ARCHBISHOP OF SERBIA
The body of Saint Sava had been buried in Mileseva. In the time of Turkish tyranny the Serbian people gathered over the relics of their saint, seeking consolation and healing. Fearing that from that place a rebellion might arise against the Turks, Sinan Pasha of Belgrade gave orders that the relics of Sava be transferred to Belgrade and there burned, at Vracar, on April 27, 1594. But by burning the relics of the saint, the insolent pasha did not burn the saint himself, who remained alive before the throne of God in the heavens and in the heart of his people on earth.
4. VENERABLE JOHN THE CONFESSOR
Abbot of the Monastery of the Pure Ones (Kathari). This monastery was built near Nicaea during the reign of Emperor Justinian, in the sixth century. Because of his veneration of icons and his defense of icon-veneration, John suffered much from Emperors Leo and Theophilus, and ended his life in exile, around the year 832.
Hymn of Praise
THE HOLY APOSTLE SIMEON
Simeon shone with youth and strength
When he drew near the gentle Teacher.
He beheld not a kinsman known to him in the flesh,
But the unknown God in a veil of body;
And all the world grew dark from the surpassing light.
When he came to himself, he bade the world farewell,
And like a mighty eagle in lofty flight
He raised his spirit toward heaven and the heavenly world.
Through Christ he came to know the goodness of God,
And the immortal beauty of immortal Life.
Through Christ he also knew the true Man,
And therefore he scorned the glory and honor of this age;
He gave himself to labor like the honeybee,
Sparing neither youth nor body,
Only that he might fulfill the law of Christ to the end
And be deemed worthy of the divine Paradise.
And crucified upon the cross, a hundred-year-old elder,
He did not feel death's bitter sting,
For in spirit he had long since risen,
And now he awaits in body too to rise in glory.
“And crucified upon the cross, a hundred-year-old elder, he did not feel death's bitter sting.”
Reflection
The true faith must be persecuted in this world. The Savior Himself clearly and openly said this to His apostles. And Saint Apollinaris of Hierapolis, writing against the Montanist heretics, says: "Let them tell us before God, which of all their prophets, beginning from Montanus and his women, was persecuted by the Jews and killed by the impious? None. Which of them was seized for the name of Christ and crucified on the cross? Again, none. Was any of their women ever scourged or stoned in the Jewish synagogues? Nowhere, never." The Orthodox saint, therefore, wishes by this to say that the true faith must be persecuted in this world. Heresies are usually closer to the worldly and demonic spirit, and therefore the world and the demon do not persecute their own. To be constantly persecuted -- with brief respites -- that is the mark of the Orthodox faith and Church. This persecution has occurred throughout all of history either from without or from within: from without by those of other faiths, and from within by heretics.
“Heresies are usually closer to the worldly and demonic spirit, and therefore the world and the demon do not persecute their own.”
Contemplation
To contemplate the risen Lord Jesus, namely:
1. How He commands that repentance be preached in His name and the forgiveness of sins;
2. How He commands the disciples to wait for the promise of the Father, the power from on high from the Holy Spirit.
Homily
on the persecution of the godly
**Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution (2 Tim. 3:12; Acts 14:22). **
Both the Lord Jesus foretold this and proved it by His own example. The apostles too said this and proved it by their own example. And all the God-bearing Fathers of the Church, confessors and martyrs, said this and proved it by their own example. Need we then still doubt that through the narrow gate one enters the Kingdom of God? Need we hesitate even for a moment to acknowledge that through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God? No, there is no longer any ground or justification for doubt. Can a sheep live among wolves and not be attacked by them? Can a candle flame amid crosswinds and not be bent to and fro? Can a noble fruit tree grow beside the road and not be disturbed by passersby? So too the Church of godly souls cannot but be persecuted, and that persecuted: by pagans, by idolaters, by heretics, by apostates, by passions and vices, by sin and lawlessness, by the world and the demon. Likewise not a single godly soul can remain without persecution, whether external or internal, until it is separated from the body and the world. Someone may object to this and argue otherwise according to his own reckoning and his own logic. But here neither reason nor the logic of one man avails: thousands of the crucified speak otherwise, and thousands of the burned cry out otherwise, and thousands of those cut to pieces prove otherwise, and thousands of the drowned bear witness otherwise. O my brethren, the Christian faith is mighty not only when it accords with sensory reason and sensory logic but also when (and especially when) it opposes sensory reason and sensory logic. Those who will live godly shall be persecuted. This the Apostle prophesied at the beginning of the Christian centuries, and twenty Christian centuries give back a many-voiced echo that confirms the truth of the prophecy.
O risen Lord, grant us light to be godly unto the end, and grant us strength to endure persecution unto the end. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Can a sheep live among wolves and not be attacked by them? So too the Church of godly souls cannot but be persecuted.”