Lives of the Saints
1. THE HOLY APOSTLE JAMES
The son of Zebedee and the brother of John, one of the Twelve. At the call of the Lord Jesus he left his fishing nets and his father, and together with John immediately followed the Lord. He belonged to that group of three Apostles to whom the Lord revealed the greatest mysteries, before whom He was transfigured on Tabor, and before whom He sorrowed before His Passion in the Garden of Gethsemane. After receiving the Holy Spirit he preached the Gospel in various lands, and traveled as far as Spain. Upon his return from Spain the Jews began to dispute with him over Holy Scripture, and being unable to prevail against him they hired a certain sorcerer named Hermogenes. But both Hermogenes and Philip, the disciple of Hermogenes, were defeated by the power of the truth which James preached, and both were baptized. Then the Jews accused James before Herod and persuaded a certain Josias to slander the Apostle. This Josias, seeing the manly bearing of James and hearing his clear preaching of the Truth, repented and believed in Christ. But when James was condemned to death, this Josias too was condemned to death. As they walked to the place of execution, Josias begged James to forgive him the sin of slander. And James embraced and kissed him and said: "Peace to thee, and forgiveness!" And both bowed their heads beneath the sword and were beheaded for the Lord, Whom they loved and Whom they served. The holy James suffered in the year 45 in Jerusalem. His body was taken to Spain, where at his tomb wondrous healings occur to this day.
2. SAINT DONATUS
Bishop of Euroea in Albania. He was endowed by God with a great grace of wonderworking, and he performed many miracles for the benefit of the people. Thus he turned bitter water into sweet; he brought rain in a time of drought; he healed the emperor's daughter of madness; he raised a dead man. This dead man had repaid a debt to a certain creditor. But the unscrupulous creditor wished to collect the debt a second time, and taking advantage of the death of his debtor, he came to the man's widow and demanded that she pay the debt at once. The widow wept and complained to the bishop. Saint Donatus admonished the creditor to wait until the man was buried, and then they would discuss the debt. But the creditor angrily insisted on his claim. Then Donatus approached the dead man, took hold of him, and cried out: "Arise, brother, and see what thou hast to settle with thy creditor!" Then the dead man rose, and with a fearsome gaze looked upon his creditor, and told him when and where he had paid the debt. And he further demanded from the creditor his written obligation. The terrified creditor placed the document in his hands, and the revived dead man tore it up, then lay down again and fell asleep in peace. Saint Donatus reposed peacefully in deep old age and departed to the Lord in the year 387. His holy relics still rest for the benefit of the faithful in Euroea in Albania.
3. THE HOLY MARTYR ARGYRA
This new martyr was from Bursa, born of pious parents. No sooner had she married a Christian man than a certain Turk from the neighborhood cast his eyes upon her and summoned her to live with him. The Christ-loving Argyra rejected such foul proposals from the Turk. But he flew into a rage and accused her before the court, claiming that she had wished to accept Islam and then recanted. From judge to judge, from prison to prison, the holy Argyra spent a full fifteen years suffering for Christ. For she loved Christ above all things in the world. At last she died in prison in Constantinople in the year 1725.
Hymn of Praise
THE HOLY APOSTLE JAMES
James, son of Zebedee, was of the three,
Who beheld the wondrous mysteries of Christ,
Who saw the Savior in His Transfiguration,
In garments white, with countenance aflame,
And in the Garden saw Him sorrowful again,
In the cage of this world, like a captive without strength.
Bewildered was James by this contradiction,
Until illumined by the light of Resurrection.
And when the Lord arose, James then believed;
His doubts were shattered like a cloud of dreams!
And when the Spirit came and gave him power,
James became an unconquerable commander.
He began to wage his war by day and night,
And to work wonders with the help of God.
All for the name of Christ, all for the glory of Christ,
Until that holy name shone forth upon the world.
In vain did bloody Herod sever his head —
God gave His commander everlasting glory.
“Bewildered was James by this contradiction, until illumined by the light of Resurrection.”
Reflection
A certain pious elder lay upon his deathbed. His friends gathered around him and wept for him. Then the elder laughed three times. When the monks asked him why he was laughing, the elder replied: "The first time I laughed because you fear death; the second time, because you are not ready for death; the third time, because I am going from labor to rest." Behold how the righteous man dies! He does not fear death; he is ready for death; and he sees that through death he departs from a toilsome life into eternal rest. When one considers the nature of man in its original paradisal state, then death is as unnatural as sin is unnatural. From sin death came forth. A man who has repented and been cleansed of sin does not regard death as annihilation, but as a gateway to immortal life. And if the righteous ever prayed to God to prolong their earthly life, it was neither out of love for this life nor out of fear of death, but solely in order to gain more time for repentance and cleansing from sin, so that they might come before God as sinless and as pure as possible. And if they ever showed fear before death, it was not fear of death itself but fear of the Judgment of God. What fear, then, must unrepentant sinners have before death?
“The first time I laughed because you fear death; the second, because you are not ready; the third, because I go from labor to rest.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the Ascension of the Lord Jesus, namely:
1. How all the attractive force of the earth could not hold back the body of the Lord from ascending;
2. How by His Ascension the Lord showed Himself exalted above the laws of nature.
Homily
on the illumination of Christ
Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light (Eph. 5:14)
The holy Apostle Paul, like all other Apostles and Christian saints, teaches others everything from his own personal experience. For the faith of Christ is experience, trial, and not theory and human speculation. Paul too had lain as one spiritually asleep, and was dead in spirit as long as he opposed the Christian faith. But he was awakened, and he rose, and was resurrected in spirit, and was illumined by Christ. He knows himself from the time when he was asleep in spirit, then from the time when he was awakened, when he arose, when he was resurrected by the Spirit, and when he was illumined by Christ. That which he knows about himself as a Christian, he counsels to others as well. As an Apostle he sees himself in a great light, and he believes that all other people, if they so desire, can be as radiant as he. The light is not his own but Christ's; his is only the love for that light.
But illumination by Christ is needful for man at the beginning as at the end. For without Christ's illumination man can neither awaken, nor arise, nor be resurrected from the dead, just as afterward he cannot by himself either live in faith or die in hope. Christ is needed at the beginning as at the end. Just as a drowning child needs the hand of a parent both to pull it from the water and afterward to lead it on dry land, guarding it lest it drown again, so too is Christ the Lord needed by those who are drowning in the waters of sin. The Apostle himself received the illumination of Christ at the beginning, on the road to Damascus, and then received it again afterward. The first illumination is the turning toward Christ, and the second is the strengthening of oneself in Christ. The first illumination we all receive through Baptism, and the subsequent ones through faith and the fulfillment of the Lord's commandments. All those, however, who do not have the illumination of Christ, or who once had it and lost it, are as those asleep, as the dead.
O gracious Lord, awaken us, raise us, resurrect us, for none of this can we do without Thee. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Christ is needed at the beginning as at the end. Just as a drowning child needs the hand of a parent both to pull it from the water and afterward to lead it on dry land.”