Lives of the Saints
1. SAINT EPIPHANIUS, BISHOP OF CYPRUS
Born a Jew, but seeing the power of the faith of Christ, he was baptized together with his sister Callithropia. In his twenty-sixth year he was tonsured a monk in the monastery of Saint Hilarion. Later he founded a separate monastery, where he became renowned throughout all Palestine and Egypt for his ascetical struggle, spiritual wisdom, and wonderworking. Fleeing from the glory of men, he withdrew to Egypt. On the way he met the great Paphnutius, who prophesied to him that he would become a hierarch on the island of Cyprus. And indeed, after many years, by the Providence of God, Epiphanius came to Cyprus, where he was suddenly elected bishop. In his sixtieth year he became bishop in the city of Salamis, and as bishop he governed the Church of God for fifty-five years. In all he lived on earth one hundred and fifteen years, and he reposed from this life to live eternally in the kingdom of Christ. Before his death he was summoned to Constantinople by Emperor Arcadius and his wife Eudoxia for a council of bishops, which was intended, according to the wishes of the emperor and empress, to condemn Saint John Chrysostom. Having arrived in Constantinople, he went to the imperial court, where the emperor and empress detained him at length, urging him to declare himself against Chrysostom. The citizens heard, and Chrysostom himself heard, that Epiphanius had agreed with the emperor against Chrysostom. Therefore Chrysostom wrote him a letter: "Brother Epiphanius, I have heard that you have advised the emperor to banish me; know that you too will never see your throne again." To this Epiphanius replied: "O suffering John, endure insults; know that you too will not reach the place to which they are banishing you." — And both of these saintly prophecies were quickly fulfilled: not wishing in any way to agree with the emperor on the banishment of Chrysostom, Epiphanius secretly boarded a ship and set out for Cyprus, but he died on the ship; and the emperor drove Chrysostom into exile in Armenia, but this saint died along the way. Saint Epiphanius reposed in the year 403. Of the many works of Saint Epiphanius the best known is the Panarion (Medicine Chest), in which eighty heresies are set forth and refuted.
2. SAINT GERMANUS, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE
The son of the emperor's first senator, whom Emperor Constantine Pogonatus killed. This same wicked emperor castrated the senator's son, this Germanus, and drove him by force into a monastery. As a monk, Germanus shone like a star by his virtuous life. Because of this he was elected first as Bishop of Cyzicus, and then, when Anastasius II became emperor, as Patriarch of Constantinople. As patriarch he baptized the infamous Copronymus, who during his baptism defiled the water with filth. And the patriarch then prophesied that this child, when he became emperor, would bring some unclean heresy into the Holy Church. This came to pass. When Copronymus became emperor, he revived the iconoclast heresy. Leo the Isaurian, the father of Copronymus, began the persecution of icons, and when Patriarch Germanus opposed him, the surly Leo exclaimed: "I am emperor and priest!" and cast Germanus from his throne and drove him into a monastery, where this saint lived for ten more years, until the Lord called him to Himself in the Kingdom of Heaven in the year 740.
3. THE HOLY MARTYR PANCRATIUS
He came from Phrygia to Rome, where as a fourteen-year-old boy he was tortured and killed for Christ in the year 304. This saint is greatly venerated in the West. In Rome there is a church bearing his name, and in that church his holy relics repose.
“O suffering John, endure insults; know that you too will not reach the place to which they are banishing you.”
Hymn of Praise
Epiphanius, follower of Christ,
Is nourished by bread and drinks water,
By the power of Christ he works wonders,
Like a thunderer he strikes down heresy,
A soldier of Truth, a pillar of Orthodoxy.
At death he leaves this testament:
— Quench the base thirst for money,
Never envy the wealthy,
And do not hate, do not slander,
And every heresy avoid,
Drive away like serpents impure thoughts —
They make the faithful faithless.
Keep a sober mind bound to God,
The prey of the devil is the unsober man.
Pray to God for me, a sinner.
Glorify God with your whole life!
“Drive away like serpents impure thoughts — they make the faithful faithless.”
Reflection
Saint Clement of Alexandria describes a terrible custom among the barbarians. When they capture an enemy, he says, they bind him alive to the corpse of a dead man, and leave them both so that both the living and the dead rot together. Would that one could say: thank God that this barbaric custom has passed! In fact, it has not passed, but reigns in full force even today. Everyone who binds his living spirit to a body deadened by passions is just as much a barbarian as the one who binds a living man to a corpse and leaves them both to rot.
“Everyone who binds his living spirit to a body deadened by passions is just as much a barbarian as the one who binds a living man to a corpse.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the action of God the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, namely:
1. How from fishermen He makes fishers of men for the Kingdom of God,
2. How from shepherds of a dumb flock He makes shepherds of a rational flock.
Homily
on How Men in Prosperity Do Not Heed the Law of God
I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear (Jer. 22:21)
This complaint the Lord of Hosts raises against Jehoiakim King of Judah and against the Jewish people. But are not these words in full force even today, when they are spoken in the face of our people and of almost every one of us individually? When we feel happy, we leave God in the shadows and consign His words to oblivion; but as soon as misfortune surrounds us with its dark wings, we turn to God and cry out for help. In misfortune the commandments of the Lord seem sweet to us as honey, while in prosperity they seem bitter as medicine. Is not then misfortune better than prosperity? Is not the misfortune in which we seek God more salvific than the prosperity in which we forget God?
O earth, earth, earth! Hear the word of the Lord! cries out the true prophet of God. Man is earth, and the word of the Lord is life planted in that earth. Would the earth rather remain without a life-giving crop and be cursed, or will it cultivate the crop entrusted to it and be blessed? O how ugly is a bare, eroded, and barren field, and how beautiful is a cultivated field covered with a rich crop! Both fields art thou, O man. Choose: death or life! No farmer values land at all if it bears no crop. Would God be less wise than an ordinary farmer, and value a field that renders barren every seed cast upon it?
What will become of a man who in his prosperity does not heed the word of God? With the burial of a donkey shall he be buried. So the prophet said to King Jehoiakim, and his word came to pass. When the Chaldeans seized Jerusalem, they slew Jehoiakim, dragged him beneath the city walls, and left him to the dogs. And what happens to a donkey happened to the disobedient king. O man, O earth! Hear the word of the Lord in good time, lest the wrath of the Master be poured upon thee as upon a barren field, and lest thy end be the same as the end of a donkey.
O long-suffering Lord, save us from the petrification of the heart and the darkening of the mind — from these two fierce diseases, the wretched consequences of those hours of life which men call happy. Save and have mercy, O Lord of Hosts! To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“In misfortune the commandments of the Lord seem sweet to us as honey, while in prosperity they seem bitter as medicine. Is not then misfortune better than prosperity?”