The Lives of the Saints
1. THE HOLY PROPHET ELISHA
He lived nine hundred years before Christ. When the Lord wished to take to Himself the aged Prophet Elijah, He revealed to him that He had appointed Elisha, the son of Shaphat, of the tribe of Reuben, from the city of Abel-meholah, as his successor in the prophetic service. Elijah told Elisha the will of the Lord and cast his mantle over him and obtained from God a double portion of prophetic grace for him. Elisha immediately left his home and his kindred and followed Elijah. And when the Lord took Elijah on a fiery chariot, Elisha remained to continue the prophetic service with even greater power than Elijah. By purity and zeal he was equal to the greatest prophets, and by the miraculous power given him by God he surpassed them all. He divided the water of the Jordan as once Moses had divided the Red Sea; he made the bitter water of Jericho drinkable; he brought down water in the dug trenches during the war with the Moabites; he multiplied the oil in the vessels of a poor widow; he raised from the dead the son of the Shunammite woman; with twenty loaves he fed a hundred men; he healed the general Naaman of leprosy; he brought leprosy upon his servant Gehazi because of his love of silver; he blinded an entire Syrian army and put another to flight; he foretold many events, both for the nation and for individuals. He departed this life in deep old age.
2. SAINT METHODIUS, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE
A native of the city of Syracuse in Sicily. After completing his secular education he was tonsured a monk and began the ascetical life in a monastery. Patriarch Nicephorus took him into his service. During the time of the iconoclast emperors he became known everywhere as a resolute defender of the veneration of icons. The wicked Emperor Theophilus imprisoned him on an island, in a prison with two common criminals, where he spent a full seven years in damp, without light, and without sufficient food, as in a grave. In the time of the pious Empress Theodora and her son Michael, he was freed and elected patriarch (according to the earlier prophecy of Saint Joannicius the Great). On the first Sunday of Great Lent, Methodius solemnly brought icons into the church and composed a canon in honor of the icons. Unable to get at him in any other way, the vile heretics hired a woman who declared that the patriarch had impure bodily relations with her. All Constantinople was in an uproar from this slander. Not knowing how otherwise to prove his innocence, the patriarch overcame his modesty and undressed before the court, which he himself had requested, and showed his dry body, emaciated from fasting. The court was visibly convinced that the patriarch had been slandered. The people, hearing of this, rejoiced, and the heretics were put to shame. Then the woman herself confessed that she had been instigated and paid to bring this slander against the saint of God. And so those who had thought to bring shame upon Methodius involuntarily increased his glory. This great confessor of the faith peacefully ended his life in the year 846 and departed to the Kingdom of God.
3. SAINT JOHN, METROPOLITAN OF EUCHAITA
Called Mauron. A very educated yet at the same time spiritual man. Only in old age, in the time of Emperor Alexius Comnenus, did he become Metropolitan of Euchaita. He was glorified especially by the fact that Saints Basil, Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom appeared to him (see January 30) and explained to him how all three of them are equally glorified in heaven. After that vision the dispute among the people as to which of these three saints is greater and which lesser was quieted. Saint John also composed the well-known canon to Jesus Most Sweet, and the canon to the Guardian Angel, and besides these left other useful writings. He peacefully ended his life in the year 1100.
4. THE VENERABLE NIPHON
Born in the region of Argyrokastron in the village of Loukov, the son of a priest. From youth the desire for solitude and prayer drew him. That desire finally brought him to the Holy Mountain, where he struggled first in the cave of Saint Peter of Athos and then in the desert of Saint Anne. He would not even eat bread but fed on grass and roots. Certain envious persons accused him of supposedly abhorring bread, from which charge he easily and quickly vindicated himself. At last he joined Saint Maximus at Kapsokalyvia. Because of his sincere love for God, Niphon was endowed by God with the gift of wonderworking and clairvoyance. He healed the sick by prayer and anointing with oil, and he perceived events that had occurred and that would occur. He prophesied of himself that he would die during the Apostles' Fast. And when the day of his repose dawned, he said to the brethren around him: "Do not weep but rejoice, for you will have in me a prayerful intercessor before God for your salvation." At last he said: "It is time to go!" And he gave up his holy soul to God on June 14, 1330.
“Do not weep but rejoice, for you will have in me a prayerful intercessor before God for your salvation.”
Hymn of Praise
What good are riches and this fair world,
What are all power and strength when a man is leprous?
Naaman is a general, but covered with leprosy,
All white with leprosy, as if drenched with pus.
So the general hastens to the man of God,
Hoping for a cure from him alone,
With a whole caravan of garments and gold —
Let that be the payment for the man of God!
Elisha told him to go to the Jordan
And bathe in the water seven times.
Naaman grew angry in his misfortune:
— Have we not rivers, clearer and greater?
And he wished to return home quickly,
But his wise servant dissuaded him:
My lord, he said, do not turn back in haste;
Behold, the Jordan is near — go and bathe!
Naaman heeded him, to the Jordan he hastened,
And seven times he plunged into the river.
Naaman became well, the leprosy departed,
Naaman became well and clean as a child.
God is one! he cried, the God of Israel,
He works glorious miracles in abundance!
Reflection
"The place will not save us if we do not do the will of God," says the most wise Chrysostom. Of a certain monk it is told how he lived in a monastery where five brethren loved him and one offended him. Because of this one who offended him, he moved to another monastery. In that second monastery, however, eight loved him and two offended him. He fled to a third monastery. But there seven loved him and five offended him. He set out for a fourth monastery. But on the way he reflected: "How long shall I flee from place to place? In the whole world I shall not find rest. Better that I become patient." He took out a sheet of paper and wrote in large letters: "I will endure all things for the sake of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." When he entered the fourth monastery, there too some loved him and others offended him. But he began to bear the offenses patiently. And whenever someone offended him, he would take out that paper and read: "I will endure all things for the sake of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." And so by patience he succeeded in winning the love of all. And he remained in that place until his death.
“I will endure all things for the sake of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the miraculous walking of the Lord upon the water as upon dry land (Matt. 14:25), namely:
1. How the Lord, walking upon the waters Himself, calls Peter also: Come! Peter sets out but because of little faith begins to sink,
2. How the Lord also calls me to walk above the passionate waves and storms, and how I too set out but sink because of little faith.
Homily
On Humility as the Forerunner of Glory
Before honor is humility (Prov. 15:33)
Here the word is about true glory and not about false glory; about imperishable glory and not about dying glory. The glory that is from men is a dying glory, and the glory that is from God is an imperishable glory. He whom men glorify is not glorified, but he whom God glorifies is glorified. Ye receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only (John 5:44), said the Lord to the Jewish scribes. See how the Lord distinguishes human glory from divine glory. And of Himself He said: I receive not honor from men (5:41).
He who seeks glory from men walks the path of pride, and he who seeks glory from God walks the path of humility. No one without humility has been glorified by God. The saints of God were the most humble servants of God. The Most Holy Theotokos was distinguished by exceedingly great humility. To her exceeding great humility she attributed her election as the Mother of God: For He hath regarded the low estate of His handmaiden. But the most humble of the most humble was the Champion Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ. In His earthly life humility always went before glory. And in our life, brethren, it must be so, if we desire true glory. For if humility does not go before glory, glory will never come.
O Lord Jesus, model and teacher of humility, our only glory and the Glorifier of all the humble and meek, inspire us with Thy inexpressible humility. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Before honor is humility. No one without humility has been glorified by God.”