Lives of the Saints
1. THE COMMEMORATION OF THE FIRST ECUMENICAL COUNCIL
The commemoration and praise of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council is observed on the Sunday before Pentecost, or in the seventh Sunday after Pascha. This Council was held in Nicaea in the year 325 in the time of the holy Emperor Constantine the Great. This Council was convened to remove the confusion that Arius, a priest of Alexandria, had created with his false teaching. He had, namely, spread the teaching that Christ was created by God in time and was not the pre-eternal Son of God, equal in essence to God the Father. Three hundred and eighteen Holy Fathers participated in this Council. The Council condemned the teaching of Arius and delivered him over to anathema, since he would not repent. Furthermore, the Council definitively established the Symbol of Faith, which was later completed at the Second Ecumenical Council. At the First Ecumenical Council there were many illustrious saints, among whom the following were especially notable: Saint Nicholas of Myra, Saint Spyridon, Saint Athanasius, Saint Achilleus, Saint Paphnutius, Saint James of Nisibis, Macarius of Jerusalem, Alexander of Alexandria, Eustathius of Antioch, Eusebius of Caesarea, Metrophanes of Constantinople, John of Persia, Aristaces of Armenia, and many others from the East. From the West there were present: Hosius of Cordova, Theophilus the Goth, Caecilian of Carthage, and others. The chief work of this Council, then, was the establishment of the Symbol of Faith. But besides this, the Council also established the date for the celebration of Pascha. It resolved the question of the Meletian schism. And finally, it prescribed twenty canons.
2. THE HOLY MARTYR THEODOSIA OF TYRE
In the time of Emperor Maximian, in Caesarea of Palestine, many Christians stood one day bound before the praetorium. This pious virgin Theodosia approached them and blessed them and encouraged them for a martyr's death. When the soldiers heard what she was saying, they led her also before the judge. The enraged judge ordered that a stone be hung around her neck and that she be cast into the depths of the sea. But the angels of God brought her out alive upon the shore. When she appeared again before the judge, he ordered her beheaded. The following night Theodosia appeared to her parents, all in exceedingly great heavenly radiance, surrounded by many other saved maidens, and said: "Do you see how great is the glory and grace of my Christ, of which you wished to deprive me?" She said this to her parents because they had been trying to dissuade her from confessing Christ and from martyrdom. She honorably suffered and was glorified in the year 308.
3. THE VENERABLE MARTYR THEODOSIA
Born in answer to the prayer of her mother, the holy martyr Athanasia, who appeared to her and told her she would give birth. Her parents dedicated her to God and gave her early to a women's monastery. After the death of her parents, from their enormous estate she commissioned from a goldsmith three icons: of the Savior, the Theotokos, and Saint Anastasia, and distributed all the rest to the poor. She suffered in the time of the wicked Emperor Leo the Isaurian, the iconoclast, and received a twofold crown: the crown of virginity and the crown of martyrdom, in the year 730.
4. SAINT ALEXANDER, BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA
He was the first to lead the struggle against Arius. He reposed in the year 326.
5. SAINT JOHN THE FOOL-FOR-CHRIST, WONDERWORKER OF USTIUG
6. THE HOLY MARTYR NANUS (JOHN) OF THESSALONICA
He suffered for the faith at the hands of the Turks in the year 1802 in Smyrna.
7. THE HOLY MARTYR ANDREW OF CHIOS
He suffered for the faith at the hands of the Turks in the year 1465 in Constantinople.
8. THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE
Because of the sins of men, God permitted a grievous calamity to befall the capital of Christendom. Sultan Mehmed II conquered Constantinople on May 29, 1453, and slew Emperor Constantine XI.
Hymn of Praise
Emperor Constantine bravely defended Constantinople,
And within himself quietly prayed to God:
— O God Most High, Who watchest from the heavens
And dost not let injustice conquer justice,
Christians have greatly sinned against Thee
And shamefully trampled Thy laws.
Without Thy permission this battle is not,
Because of the sins of men this blood is shed.
If it be Thy will that this city should fall,
Encourage my people, that they be not dismayed,
That they trample not the Cross, nor turn to Islam,
But endure slavery until a new freedom.
Let him be a slave: let him even be a servant,
Let hatred and mockery pour upon him,
But let him endure with hope and repentance,
And with sighing for sins of the past,
Until he has washed away his sins and paid for all evil,
And until he returns to Thee with his whole being.
If he has Thee, he shall be rich,
All stolen treasures Thou shalt replace.
Constantinople on earth — whether it stands or not —
Constantinople in heaven Thou hast built,
Where Thou reignest gloriously with Thy saints.
Before that Constantinople, behold, I too stand.
O have mercy, Gracious One, on our sinful souls;
When the new is being built, let the old be demolished!
“Constantinople on earth — whether it stands or not — Constantinople in heaven Thou hast built.”
Reflection
O how great was the fearlessness of holy men and holy women! When we read their lives, both shame and pride are involuntarily awakened in us — shame, that we have fallen so far behind them; pride, that they are of our Christian race. Neither illness, nor prison, nor exile, nor tortures, nor humiliations, nor the sword, nor the abyss, nor fire, nor the gallows, could shake the exalted peace of their souls, firmly bound to Christ, the Helmsman of the universe and of human history. When the Emperor Julian apostatized from the faith and began to lay waste to Christianity throughout the entire Roman Empire, Saint Athanasius the Great calmly said of him to the faithful: "A little cloud — it will pass!" (Nubicula est, transibit). And indeed that dark little cloud soon passed, and Christianity sank its root even deeper and spread its branches even wider throughout the world. The impotent malice of Julian against Christ ended, after a few swift years, with Julian's cry in his death-rattle: "O Nazarene, Thou hast conquered!" Why should we, the sons of God, fear something of which God, our Father, is not afraid?
“A little cloud — it will pass!”
Contemplation
Contemplate the grace of God the Holy Spirit in the Mystery of Marriage, namely:
1. How that grace gives a certain dignity to the manner of the multiplication of the human race,
2. How it makes an honorable marriage an image of the bond of Christ with the Church.
Homily
on on the Twofold Mystery of Marriage
This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the Church (Eph. 5:32)
Great is the mystery that a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife. The Apostle himself, who was caught up to the third heaven and beheld many heavenly mysteries, calls the marriage of earthly men a great mystery. It is the mystery of love and of life, and greater than it is only the mystery of the bond of Christ with the Church. Christ is called the Bridegroom and the Church the Bride. Christ so loves the Church that for Her sake He left His heavenly Father — remaining with Him, of course, in the unity of essence and divinity — and descended to earth, and cleaved to His Church, and suffered for Her, that He might cleanse Her by His Blood from sin and every defilement, and make Her worthy to be called His Bride. With His love He warms the Church, with His Blood He nourishes Her, and with His Holy Spirit He enlivens and sanctifies and adorns Her. What the husband is to the wife, that Christ is to the Church. The husband is the head of the wife, and Christ is the head of the Church. The wife obeys her husband, and the Church obeys Christ. The husband loves his wife as his own body, and Christ loves the Church as His own Body. The husband loves his wife as himself, and the wife fears her husband; and Christ loves the Church as Himself, and the Church fears Christ. As no one hates his own body, but warms and nourishes it, so also Christ warms and nourishes the Church as His own Body. And the individual human soul is the bride of Christ the Bridegroom, and the assembly of all the faithful is the bride of Christ the Bridegroom. As is the relationship of one believing man to Christ, such is the relationship of the whole Church to Christ. Christ is the head of the great Body, which is called the Church, and which is partly visible and partly invisible.
O my brethren, this is a great mystery! It is revealed to us in proportion to our love for Christ and our fear of the judgment of Christ.
O Lord, gracious Savior, cleanse and save and adorn our souls, that they may be deemed worthy of the immortal and ineffable unity with Thee in time and in eternity. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Christ is called the Bridegroom and the Church the Bride.”