The Lives of the Saints
1. THE HIEROMARTYR METHODIUS, BISHOP OF PATARA
From his youth he devoted himself to the ascetical life, and as a city set upon a hill he was seen and called to the episcopacy in the city of Patara in Lycia. A learned and eloquent hierarch, Methodius wrote against the heresy of Origen. His "divinely inspired words shone like lightning throughout the whole world." The pagans rose up against him, tortured him, and beheaded him in Chalcis of Syria in the year 311.
2. THE HOLY MARTYRS ARISTOCLES, DEMETRIAN, AND ATHANASIUS
Aristocles was a priest of the cathedral church in the city of Tamasus on Cyprus and led a God-pleasing life. Because of his great zeal for the faith he was deemed worthy of a voice from heaven, telling him to go to Salamis of Cyprus and receive the crown of martyrdom. The deacon Demetrian and the reader Athanasius joined him. Coming to Salamis, these men of God began to preach Christ. The pagans seized them, and after tortures they beheaded Aristocles with a sword, and burned Demetrian and Athanasius in fire in the year 306.
3. THE VENERABLE NAUM OF OHRID
His principal feast is December 23, while June 20 is his summer feast. On this summer feast a great assembly of people gathers at the Monastery of Saint Naum. Many who are sick come or are brought there, to receive healing over the relics of the saint through faith and prayer. Not only Orthodox but also people of other faiths come to seek help from Saint Naum. A Muslim from Resen brought and donated a bell to the monastery in 1926 out of gratitude because the saint had healed his brother and raised him from his deathbed back to life. The donor's name was Dzemail Zizo, and his healed brother Suleiman Zizo. Both were distinguished citizens of Resen.
4. SAINT CALLISTUS I, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE
As a disciple of Gregory of Sinai, he struggled ascetically on Athos at the skete of Magoula near the Monastery of Philotheou for a full twenty-eight years. There he later built the monastery of Saint Mammas. He was elected Patriarch of Constantinople in the year 1350. After four years he withdrew from the patriarchal throne again to the Holy Mountain. But in the time of Emperor John Palaeologus he was again returned to the throne, where as patriarch he remained until his death. He reposed in the year 1368 on a journey from Serres, where he had gone to the Serbian Empress Helena to ask for help against the Turks. Together with Ignatius he composed a fine guide for ascetics. Besides this he wrote the life of Saint Gregory of Sinai and Saint Theodosius of Trnovo, as well as numerous homilies. It is interesting to mention how Saint Maximus of Kapsokalyvia prophesied the death of Patriarch Callistus. On the way to Serbia, Callistus stopped at the Holy Mountain. Seeing him, Saint Maximus said: "This elder will not see his flock again, for behind him is heard the funeral chanting: Blessed are the blameless in the way."
5. SAINT LEUCIUS, BISHOP OF BRUNDISIUM
In Italy. Born in Alexandria and entering a monastery early. He was deemed worthy of great revelations and powerful grace, so that he even raised the dead and cast out demons from men. He was first a bishop in Alexandria, and by a command from heaven he crossed to Italy to the pagan city of Brundisium, which he entirely baptized and in which he built a church to the Mother of God. After much and successful labor he departed to eternity in the time of Emperor Theodosius II, in the fifth century.
6. THE BLESSED STUDIUS
A distinguished patrician and consul in Constantinople. He founded near the Golden Gate a church of Saint John the Forerunner and a monastery, called after him the Studion. This monastery became famous for many illustrious men — spiritual fathers, ascetics, and sufferers for the faith — of whom the best known is Saint Theodore the Studite. The Latin crusaders destroyed this monastery in the year 1204, but Emperor Constantine Palaeologus Porphyrogenitus restored it in 1293. On that site there now stands a Turkish mosque.
Hymn of Praise
— Leucius, Leucius, of whitened heart,
Of blessed name in the Book of Life,
Thy memory shall be eternal in heaven,
And on earth the Church shall glorify thee!
Such a voice Leucius heard from heaven,
And a fragrant peace calmed his heart.
Against holy Leucius the black enemy rose,
But Leucius raised the Cross against him.
By the enemy's arrows he was not wounded,
But by the power of God he shattered all the enemy's might.
God gave him power, the good shepherd,
And he preserved the flock in sinful Egypt.
He also founded a church in Brundisium
And taught the people to uphold God's will.
He baptized many people and illustrious nobles,
Illumining all with the ray of the Orthodox faith.
By his miracles he amazed the whole world,
Then departed to the Lord — and received the crown of glory.
Reflection
Saint Cyprian writes about immortality: "If some distinguished man were to promise thee something, thou wouldst believe his promise and wouldst not even think that he who is always faithful to his word would deceive thee. But behold, O faithless one, God Himself speaks to thee, and thou dost waver with doubt! God has promised thee immortality upon thy departure from this world, and thou dost brazenly doubt that promise! This means: not to know God at all; it means: by unbelief to insult Christ the Lord and Teacher." O how mighty is the faith of God's saints! And how clear and reasonable, and well supported by simple but powerful examples! The unholy do not doubt because they are supposedly more reasonable, but because they are unholy. The holier a man is, the more reasonable he always is, for in the clean mirror of his heart he sees the truth.
“The holier a man is, the more reasonable he always is, for in the clean mirror of his heart he sees the truth.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the miraculous withering of the barren fig tree (Matt. 21:19), namely:
1. How the Lord cursed the fig tree with much foliage but no fruit, and the fig tree withered,
2. How my life too has much foliage — bodily cares, desires, thoughts — but no spiritual fruit, and it may come under the same curse if I do not amend my ways.
Homily
On How Our Salvation Is in the Hands of God
The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the Lord (Prov. 21:31)
We are obliged to prepare, but our success depends on God. All our preparation is merely a proposal to God, but it is not the preparation that decides but God. Therefore the people wisely say from their experience: man proposes but God disposes.
O soldier of Christ, prepare thy mind as a good horse, arm thy heart with virtues, steel thy will with ascetical struggles, but know — that salvation is of the Lord.
O ploughman of Christ, plough and replough thy soul, sow in it every day the good seed of the Gospel, weed the field of thy soul of tares, keep watch over it, but know — that salvation is of the Lord.
O merchant of Christ, exercise thyself every day in good trade, exchanging the material for the spiritual, the earthly for the heavenly, the mortal for the immortal, but know — that salvation is of the Lord.
The horse did not help Pharaoh at the Red Sea. Nor did wealth help Babylon on the day of reckoning with God. A man may prepare everything, and yet in the decisive hour lose everything. For salvation is not in preparation but in the Lord. Therefore the saints, though the most prepared for the Kingdom of God, even at the hour of death sighed, not knowing whether they would be received into the Kingdom. O how well they remembered the word of the Lord: When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say: We are unprofitable servants (Luke 17:10)!
Let us be ready, brethren, for the day of trial, well girded, and belted, and armed, but let us not trust in our preparation but in the Lord.
O Lord our Savior, have mercy on us and save us. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“A man may prepare everything, and yet in the decisive hour lose everything. For salvation is not in preparation but in the Lord.”