The Lives of the Saints
1. THE HOLY MARTYRS HESPERUS, ZOE, CYRIACUS, AND THEODULUS
In the time of Emperor Hadrian (117-138), a certain pagan named Catallus purchased as slaves Hesperus, his wife Zoe, and their sons Cyriacus and Theodulus. As these were convinced Christians, they would not taste anything from the idolatrous sacrifices; instead, whatever was given to them they threw to the dogs, while they themselves went hungry and endured suffering. When Catallus learned of this, he grew exceedingly angry and began to torture all his slaves grievously. First he tormented the children, but the children remained unwavering in their faith, and even more, they demanded heavier torments from their torturer. At last all four were cast into a fiery furnace, where, after a prayer of thanksgiving, they surrendered their spirits to the Lord. Their bodies remained whole and unscorched by the fire.
2. SAINT ATHANASIUS THE GREAT, ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA
On this day is celebrated the translation of his relics and the miracles wrought through them. The life and work of this great hierarch is described under January 18.
3. THE HOLY MARTYRS BORIS AND GLEB
Sons of the great Prince Vladimir, the baptizer of the Russian people. Before his baptism, Vladimir had many wives and children by them. Boris and Gleb were brothers from the same mother. Before his death, Vladimir divided the state among all his sons. But Sviatopolk, his eldest son, the Prince of Kiev, desired to seize the portions allotted to Boris and Gleb. Therefore he sent men who slew Boris in one place and Gleb in another. These two brothers were extraordinarily devout and pleasing to God in all things, and they met death with prayer and the lifting up of their hearts to God. Their bodies remained incorrupt and fragrant, and were buried in the city of Vyshhorod, where to this day a grace-filled power flows from them, healing people of various diseases and afflictions.
4. SAINT MICHAEL (BORIS), TSAR OF BULGARIA
Born and raised as a pagan. Boris was baptized under the influence of his uncle Boyan and his sister. At his baptism he received the name Michael. Patriarch Photius sent him priests, who gradually baptized the entire Bulgarian people. Many nobles in Bulgaria opposed the new faith, but the new faith prevailed, and the cross shone upon many churches built by the pious Tsar Michael. The faith among the Bulgarians, as among the Serbs, was strengthened especially by the Five Disciples of Ohrid, students of Saints Cyril and Methodius, who preached the teaching of Christ to the people in the native Slavonic tongue. Michael became a monk in old age and withdrew to a monastery. But when his son Vladimir began to undo his father's work and suppress Christianity, Michael donned his princely garments again, girded on a sword, removed Vladimir from the throne, and placed his younger son Simeon upon it. Then he again put on the monastic habit, withdrew into silence, and in ascetical struggle and prayer peacefully ended his earthly life "in the good faith, in the true confession of our Lord Jesus Christ, great, honorable, and pious," and departed to the heavenly life on May 2, 906.
Hymn of Praise
Michael of Bulgaria, with the Cross he baptized his people,
Into Christ's flock he brought the pagans.
And by his own example he touched human hearts,
That men might love the faith of salvation.
He built churches, he destroyed godlessness,
And glorified the Spirit of God within himself.
He abandoned glory and foolish vanities,
And taught his people truth and righteousness.
He spared not himself for the sake of God's name
And for the salvation of the Bulgarian nation.
On earth he was crowned with the crown of kingship,
And in heaven with the crown of eternal joy.
Reflection
Blessed Maximus, fool-for-Christ, walked naked through the streets of Moscow in winter. To those who counseled him to dress and protect himself from the cold, he answered: "Indeed the winter is fierce, but sweet is Paradise!" And he also said: "For patience God grants salvation." When Christ the Lord did not spare Himself from suffering and death, why should we spare ourselves for our own sake? He prescribed for us a remedy, a diet for our spiritual healing, and He called it a light yoke. Much heavier is the yoke that we ourselves load upon ourselves, for that yoke casts us into ever deeper and deeper spiritual illness. The earth demands from us far greater sacrifices, promising us no reward after death. The earth demands that we sacrifice to it both God and soul and conscience and mind and all human and divine dignity, and for this it shows us a dark and foul-smelling grave as the end of everything and the payment for all. Christ asks that we sacrifice only the earth, and our beastliness, and sin, and vice, and every wickedness, and for this He promises us resurrection and immortal life in Paradise. Indeed the winter is fierce, but sweet is Paradise!
“Indeed the winter is fierce, but sweet is Paradise!”
Contemplation
Contemplate the Ascension of the Lord Jesus, namely:
1. How His disciples worshipped Him,
2. How they returned to Jerusalem with great joy.
Homily
On the Fountain of Living Water and the Dry Well
Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this... saith the Lord, for My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water (Jer. 2:12-13)
Was this spoken only for that time, or also for today? Certainly, also for today. Was this spoken only for the Jewish people, or also for our people? Certainly, also for our people. Just as it was said: thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness — not only for that time but for all times, and not only for the Jewish people but for all peoples — so also this. And this holds true today and always, for every nation and every person who turns his back upon the fountain of living water in his own courtyard and digs a cistern to drink rainwater from it.
The fountain of living water is the Lord Himself — inexhaustible, abundant, and sweet. The cistern is every human enterprise undertaken contrary to God and God's law, from which people expect progress and happiness and the satisfaction of their hunger and thirst. Such a cistern is godlessness, and love of money, and gluttony, and debauchery, and love of power, and vanity, and worship of idols, and divination, and everything else that has the devil for counselor, sin for digger, and false hope for water-bearer. Be astonished at this, O heavens, and be horrified, and be utterly desolate! saith the Lord — how man lost his mind and began to abandon living water and to dig a cistern in burning coals, which only inflame his thirst all the more!
O brethren, our people too have committed two evils, for they have forgotten the Lord as the fountain of every good, and have set out to seek good in evil and through evil. Can water be found in fire? And wheat in sand? It cannot, it cannot, brethren. Still less can peace, and happiness, and contentment, and joy, and life, and any good whatsoever be found in the cisterns of sin and godlessness.
O Lord, immortal fountain of every good that the human heart can desire and the human mind can imagine, have mercy upon us sinners and unworthy ones. Turn us by Thy mighty right hand from our godless and vain labors, and give us to drink of Thy sweet and living water. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Can water be found in fire? And wheat in sand? It cannot, it cannot, brethren.”