Lives of the Saints
1. THE HOLY ANDREW, ARCHBISHOP OF CRETE
Born in Damascus of Christian parents. From birth until his seventh year he was mute. When his parents brought him to church and gave him Holy Communion, he began to speak. Such is the power of divine Communion. At the age of fourteen he went to Jerusalem and was tonsured in the Lavra of Saint Savvas the Sanctified. In intellect and asceticism he surpassed many older monks and was an example to many. The patriarch then took him as his secretary. And when the Monothelite heresy (the heresy of the single will) — which taught that the Lord Jesus had no human will but only a divine will — began to rage, the Sixth Ecumenical Council was convened in Constantinople in the year 681, during the reign of Constantine the Bearded. Patriarch Theodore of Jerusalem was unable to attend the Council, so he sent as his representative this Andrew, then an archdeacon. At the Council, Andrew displayed his brilliant giftedness, eloquence, zeal for the faith, and extraordinary discernment. Having helped to confirm the Orthodox faith, Andrew returned to Jerusalem to his duties. He was later elected and appointed Archbishop of the island of Crete. As a hierarch he was greatly beloved by the people. He was zealous for Orthodoxy and vigorously combated all heresies. He worked miracles through his prayers. By prayer he drove the Saracens from the island of Crete. He wrote many instructive books, hymns, and canons, of which the most renowned is the Great Canon of the Theotokos, which is read on the Thursday of the fifth week of the Holy Fast. His outward appearance was such "that looking upon his face and listening to his honey-flowing words, everyone was delighted and edified." Returning once from Constantinople, he foretold his death before reaching Crete. And so it came to pass. When the ship was sailing near the island of Mytilene, this luminary of the Church ended his earthly life and passed over in soul to the Kingdom of Christ, in the year 712.
2. THE HOLY MARTHA
The mother of Saint Simeon of the Wondrous Mountain (see May 24). Wholly devoted in soul to the faith, she had no thought of marriage. And when her parents betrothed her to a young man, she resolved to leave her parents' home and withdraw from the world. But Saint John the Forerunner appeared to her and counseled her to do her parents' will and enter into marriage, which she did. From this marriage was born the wondrous Saint Simeon, the ascetic of the Wondrous Mountain. She had the steadfast custom of rising at midnight for prayer. With great compassion she helped the destitute, visited orphans, and served the sick. A year before her death, she beheld a multitude of angels with candles in their hands, and learned from them the time of her death. Upon learning this, Martha devoted herself with even greater zeal to prayer and good works. She reposed peacefully in the year 551 and was buried beside the pillar of her son, Simeon the Stylite. After her death she appeared many times, for the instruction of people and the healing of the sick. Particularly noteworthy was her appearance to the abbot of Simeon's monastery. After the burial of Saint Martha, the abbot placed a vigil lamp upon her grave with the resolution that it never be extinguished. But after some time the people grew negligent, and the lamp went out. Thereupon the abbot fell ill, and the saint appeared to him and said: "Why do you not light the lamp upon my grave? Know that I have no need of light from your candles, since I have been deemed worthy of the eternal heavenly light from God; but it is needful for you. For when you kindle a light upon my grave, you move me to pray for you to the Lord." From this it is clear that the purpose of our veneration of the saints is to move them, as ones more worthy than we, to pray to God for us and for our salvation.
Hymn of Praise
Wondrous is the Lord in His providence,
He gave a clear voice to Andrew the mute
And made the speechless one His resounding trumpet,
As once He made of Saul — a pillar of His Church.
In vain did holy Martha shun the bond of marriage,
Before God's will she had to bow,
God's providence led Martha into wedlock
That she might bear a saint for God and for the world.
Who gives himself to God has given himself to the Best,
And by God's will has bridled his own.
Plan nothing, child, apart from the Lord,
Lest all thy plans should prove without fruit.
All the threads of life and all thy desires
Rest in the almighty hand of the Creator.
His are the fields, His are the slopes,
His is the weft, the warp, and the threads.
His is the soul, His also is the body,
And the spirit of every creature, and its raiment.
With His tools upon His field,
Whose will shall we fulfill but — His.
“Who gives himself to God has given himself to the Best, and by God's will has bridled his own.”
Reflection
If all thy life has passed smoothly and without care, weep over thyself. For both the Gospel and the experience of the nations unanimously attest that no one, without great sufferings and travails, has left any great and beneficial work upon the earth, nor has been glorified in the heavens. But if thy path through life has been drenched with sweat and tears in the pursuit of righteousness and truth, rejoice and be glad, for great indeed is thy reward in the heavens. Never surrender to the foolish thought that God has abandoned thee. God knows exactly how much each one can bear, and accordingly He measures out the sufferings and travails for each. "If even men know," says Saint Nil Sorsky, "how great a weight a horse can carry, how great a donkey, and how great a camel, and accordingly load them according to their strength; if even a potter knows how long to keep a vessel in the fire, so that it neither cracks nor remains underfired — how much more, then, does God know how many trials to send upon each soul, that He might make it fitting and capable for the Kingdom of Heaven?"
“Never surrender to the foolish thought that God has abandoned thee.”
Contemplation
Contemplate all the miracles that the Lord wrought by the hand of Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt (Exodus 7–10), namely:
1. How great and terrible were those miracles;
2. How the heart of Pharaoh remained hardened before all those miracles of God;
3. How my own heart is hardened before the countless miracles of God in my life and around me, and how I must repent before the end overtakes me and eternal punishment.
Homily
on the Salvation of the Soul as the End of Faith
Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls (1 Peter 1:9)
What is the end of faith, brethren? The salvation of the soul. What is the goal of faith? The salvation of the soul. What is the fruit of faith? The salvation of the soul. We do not, therefore, hold the faith for the sake of faith, but for the salvation of our souls. No one travels for the sake of the road, but for someone or something that awaits him at the end of that road. No one casts a rope into the water in which someone is drowning for the sake of the rope, but for the sake of the drowning man, to save him. And God has given us the faith as a road, at the end of which the travelers shall receive the salvation of their souls. And as a rope God has cast the faith to us who are drowning in the dark waters of sin, ignorance, and vice, that by means of faith we might save our lives.
This is the purpose of faith. Whoever knows the value of the human soul, and what the salvation of the soul means, must acknowledge that nothing in this world is either more needful or more profitable than faith. A merchant who carries precious stones in an earthen jar carefully and cautiously guards the jar, hides it, and watches over it. Is it for the sake of the jar that the merchant expends such effort and care? Not for the sake of the jar, but for the precious stones that are within it. Our entire earthly life is like an earthen jar in which a priceless treasure is hidden. That treasure is our soul. The jar is cheap, but the treasure is a treasure. One must have faith, first, in the preciousness of the human soul; second, in the future splendor and life of the soul in the Kingdom of God; third, in the living God, who awaits us to return to Him the souls that He Himself has given us; and fourth, in the possibility that the soul can be lost in this world. He who has faith in this fourth point will know how to guard his soul, and he will know further that the salvation of the soul is the end of his road, the goal of his believing, the fruit of his life, the meaning of his existence upon the earth, and the justification of his sufferings.
We believe for the sake of the salvation of our souls. He who has true faith must know that faith exists for the salvation of souls. He who thinks that his faith serves some other purpose and not the salvation of his soul neither has true faith nor knows the preciousness of his own soul.
O Lord Jesus, most gracious, Thou hast given us a radiant and victorious faith; do Thou strengthen it and preserve it within us, that we may stand unashamed before Thy Judgment with souls pure and radiant. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“No one travels for the sake of the road, but for someone or something that awaits him at the end of that road.”