The Lives of the Saints
1. HOLY MARTYRS TIMOTHY AND MAURA
Wondrous is the destiny of these glorious martyrs, bridegroom and bride! Twenty days after their wedding they were brought to trial for the Christian Faith before the Thebaid governor Arianus, in the time of Emperor Diocletian. Timothy was a reader of the church in his town. "Who art thou?" the governor asked him. Timothy answered: "I am a Christian and a reader of the Church of God." The governor said further: "Dost thou not see around thee the instruments of torture prepared for thee?" Timothy answered: "And thou dost not see the angels of God who strengthen me." Then the governor ordered that his ears be pierced with iron rods, so that from the pain the pupils of his eyes burst forth. Maura was at first frightened by the torments, but when her husband encouraged her, she too confessed her unwavering faith before the governor. He ordered that first all her hair be pulled out and then the fingers of her hands cut off. After many other torments, to which they would have quickly succumbed had not the grace of God strengthened them, they were both crucified on crosses, one facing the other. And so hanging on their crosses, they remained alive for a full nine days, counseling and encouraging one another in endurance. On the tenth day they surrendered their spirits to the Lord, for Whom they endured death on the cross, and thus were deemed worthy of His Kingdom. They suffered honorably for Christ in the year 286.
2. VENERABLE THEODOSIUS OF THE KIEV CAVES
From his earliest youth he shunned laughter and merriment and gave himself over to meditation on God and to prayer. Because of this he was often beaten by his mother, and especially when his mother one day noticed an iron belt around his bare body, from which his shirt was bloody. Having once read in the Gospel the words of the Savior: "He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me," he left his parents' home and fled to the Kiev cave to the Venerable Anthony. Anthony received him and soon tonsured him a monk. When his mother found him and began calling him home, he counseled his mother, and she too was tonsured in a women's monastery. By his ascetical struggle, meekness, and goodness, Theodosius soon surpassed all the monks and became very dear to Anthony, who appointed him Abbot of the monastery. During his time, the monastery's wealth greatly increased, churches and cells were built, and the Studite Rule was introduced in its fullness. God endowed Theodosius with great grace on account of his virginal purity, his exceedingly great labor in prayer, and his love for his neighbor, so that this man of God had great power over unclean spirits, healed diseases, and saw into the destinies of men. Together with Saint Anthony, Theodosius is considered the founder and organizer of monasticism in Russia. He reposed peacefully in the year 1074. His healing relics rest beside the relics of Anthony.
“Truly I am as a beast before Thee, O Lord!”
Hymn of Praise
HOLY MARTYRS TIMOTHY AND MAURA
Timothy and Maura, crucified and pale,
Through the Lord Christ gaze upon each other,
And in spirit they see better than with eyes,
By pain exalted above all earthly things.
Then Timothy speaks: Maura, my sister,
Thou art the weaker sex — thy torment is the greater!
But do not falter, sister, strengthen thyself with prayer,
Bind all thy thoughts fast unto Christ.
— Maura answers: brother Timothy,
I feel the Spirit of God, it breathes within my soul;
He keeps me wakeful, He strengthens me in weakness,
And sweetest Jesus soothes my torments.
But for thee I worry, my worthy pride,
What pains could be compared to thine?
But just a little more, my sweetest brother,
And roses from the thorns of torment shall blossom forth.
To all the heavenly host thou shalt be a glory,
Only endure, endure, without sound or cry.
Let us keep watch, brother, lest we fall asleep,
The Lord may come — let us not be put to shame.
Behold, I see all the heavens opened,
And blessings unseen prepared for us.
—
Then Timothy to Maura: O wondrous little sister,
Bride of Christ, glorious martyress,
Let us glorify God for His beautiful mercy,
That He permitted for us such an honorable death.
O glory to Thee, Savior, Who didst suffer for us:
Into Thy hands we now commit our spirits.
Reflection
Abba John Colobos asked the monks: "Who sold Joseph?" One answered: "His brothers." To this the elder said: "Not his brothers, but his humility. Joseph could have declared that he was their brother and resisted the sale; but he kept silent about it. Humility, therefore, sold him; but that same humility afterward made him lord of Egypt."
We defend ourselves far too much against external adversities instead of surrendering to the will of God, and therefore we lose the good fruits that are reaped at the end of adversities borne with humility.
Abba Pimen spoke wisely: "We have abandoned the light yoke, that is, self-reproach, and have loaded upon ourselves the heavy one, that is, self-justification."
A Christian receives every adversity as deserved by his present or past sins, examining in all things the will of God with faith and awaiting the end with hope.
“We have abandoned the light yoke, that is, self-reproach, and have loaded upon ourselves the heavy one, that is, self-justification.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the ascended Lord Jesus, namely:
1. How He began His saving work on earth as a simple and humble laborer,
2. How He completed His saving work with His wondrous and glorious Ascension into heaven.
Homily
on how the idolaters shall be regarded
**They shall be put to shame ... who say to a tree: thou art my father; and to a stone: thou hast begotten me. For they have turned their backs to Me and not their faces; yet when they are in trouble they say: arise and deliver us! ** (Jer. 2:26–27)
Truly, they shall all be put to shame, brethren, who see no further than wood and stone, and who in their folly say: man is entirely of plants and minerals, and what happens to plants and minerals happens also to him. Having turned their backs to the Creator, they can see nothing but creation, and forgetting the Creator, they proclaim creation to be the Creator. Nature, they say, both created and begat man; therefore man is less than nature, lower than nature, a servant in the bosom of nature, a slave on the chain of nature, a corpse in the grave of nature. They shall be put to shame who speak thus when they fall into trouble, and they shall cry out to God: arise and deliver us!
Why do they cry to God: Arise? — as though God were lying down! God is not lying down but standing, standing and waiting to serve everyone who with faith and humility asks service of Him. But those who have loved wood and stone while trusting in their own strength — they have cast Him down in their lives and expelled Him from their lives. Therefore when trouble presses upon them, they cry to Him: arise!
But the Lord is meek, and He arises, and He goes to help every penitent. Let the sinner repent truly, and casting aside his sinful love, let him return to the love of God, and God will help him. Let him turn his back on dead wood and stone and his face toward the living God, and God will deliver him. For the Almighty is neither vindictive nor vengeful. Neither did He create men for death but for life.
O brethren, let us not seek help from the helpless, nor life from the lifeless. Let us turn our faces toward our living Creator, Who gave us a face more radiant than the face of every earthly creature. Let us return from the western byway to the eastern path, for on this path is salvation. Only let us hasten, before our last day on earth has sunk into the darkness of the west.
O ascended Lord, raise our minds to heaven. Cleanse them from darkness and lighten them from earth, O our light-bearing Creator. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Having turned their backs to the Creator, they can see nothing but creation, and forgetting the Creator, they proclaim creation to be the Creator.”