The Lives of the Saints
1. SAINT ANNA
The mother of the Most Holy Theotokos. Today her dormition is celebrated, but her principal feast is September 9, under which date her service and life are written. Anna was of the tribe of Levi, the daughter of Matthan the priest. After a long and God-pleasing life, she reposed in deep old age.
2. SAINT OLYMPIAS THE DEACONESS
Born in Constantinople of very illustrious parents. Her father, Anysius Secundus, was a senator, and her mother was the daughter of the famous nobleman Eulavius, who is mentioned in the life of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker. When Olympias came of age, she was betrothed to a certain nobleman, who died before the wedding with this honorable virgin. In vain both the emperor and the rest of her family pressed Olympias to marry another, but she would not hear of it; instead she devoted herself to a God-pleasing life, making from her inherited estate great offerings to churches and generous alms to the destitute. She served in the church as a deaconess, first under Patriarch Nectarius and, after his death, under Saint John Chrysostom. When Chrysostom was sent into exile, he counseled Olympias to remain in the church as before and to serve the Church regardless of who might be patriarch after him. But immediately after the exile of this great saint, someone set fire to the great church, and the conflagration engulfed many notable buildings in the capital. The enemies of Chrysostom accused this holy woman of malicious arson. Olympias was banished from Constantinople to Nicomedia, where she reposed in the year 410, having left a testament that her body be placed in a coffin and cast into the sea, and that wherever the water cast it ashore, there it should be buried. The coffin was cast ashore at a place called Brochthi, where there was a church of the Apostle Thomas. Great healing miracles were manifested through the centuries from her relics. The exiled Chrysostom wrote beautiful letters to the exiled Olympias, which even today can serve as a great consolation to all those who suffer for the sake of the righteousness of God.
3. THE VENERABLE EUPRAXIA THE VIRGIN
The daughter of the Constantinopolitan nobleman Antigonus and a kinswoman of Emperor Theodosius the Great. Together with her mother, a young widow, she moved to Egypt, and there they visited monasteries, giving offerings and praying to God. Seven-year-old Eupraxia, of her own ardent desire, was tonsured as a nun in a women's monastery. The more she grew, the heavier the ascetic labors she imposed upon herself. On one occasion she fasted for forty days. She reposed in the year 413, in the thirtieth year of her life. She possessed great grace from God and healed the most grievous illnesses.
4. COMMEMORATION OF THE FIFTH ECUMENICAL COUNCIL
This Council was held in Constantinople in the time of Emperor Justinian the Great, in the year 553. At this Council all the Monophysite heresies were condemned, as well as the heretical writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyrrhus, and Origen.
“Seven-year-old Eupraxia, of her own ardent desire, was tonsured as a nun. The more she grew, the heavier the ascetic labors she imposed upon herself.”
Hymn of Praise
Eupraxia, a maiden young,
For Christ's sake fasted, an ascetic one,
Of royal lineage, noble and grand,
Yet her soul was a God-bearing land.
All honors she cast off as a burden,
And riches, and her royal station.
Day and night before God she prayed,
With fasting and vigil herself she flayed.
God heard His humble handmaiden,
Eupraxia, the tearful virgin,
Who shed such abundant tears of grief
And with tears set her prayer alight beneath.
Wondrous gifts God bestowed on her,
To help both young and old together,
To drive away the demons vile,
And heal the sick of every trial.
With a pure soul before God she appeared,
And in heaven found her dwelling prepared,
Built by faith and by labors untold,
And purchased with sufferings manifold.
That dwelling shines with God alone,
There holy Eupraxia made her home,
Amid eternal good to feast,
And with the immortal Christ to reign as priest.
Reflection
"As virginity is better than marriage, so is a first marriage better than a second." Thus wrote Saint John Chrysostom to a young widow, the wife of the reposed Constantinopolitan nobleman Tyrasius, counseling her not to enter into a second marriage. The first marriage the Church blesses with joy, the second with sorrow. The elder Eupraxia, the mother of Saint Eupraxia and a kinswoman of Emperor Theodosius the Great, remained a young widow after the death of her husband Antigonus, with whom she had lived in bodily union only two years and three months, and then for one more year, by mutual vow, as brother and sister. The emperor and empress counseled her to enter into marriage with another nobleman. But she would not even hear of it; instead she took her little daughter Eupraxia and fled with her to Egypt. And what shall we say of Saint Olympias and the younger Saint Eupraxia? Like Saint Macrina, they too had only been betrothed as virgins, and when their betrothed died, they regarded themselves as widows and would not even allow it in their thoughts to enter into marriage. What purity of heart! What faithfulness to one betrothed! What fear of God! What clear faith in the future life, in which the betrothed hopes to see her betrothed!
“The first marriage the Church blesses with joy, the second with sorrow.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the miraculous halting of the sun and the moon (Joshua 10), namely:
1. How Joshua, in order to complete the victory over the Gibeonites, commanded the sun and the moon to halt their course;
2. How God heard the voice of a righteous man and by His power halted the sun and the moon;
3. How God created nature to serve man, and how God acts according to the will of the righteous.
Homily
On Slaves Who Preach Freedom
While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage (2 Peter 2:19).
The Apostle still speaks of the impure, the shameless, and the self-willed, admonishing the faithful to beware of their seductions through proud and deceitful words. First he said of them that they blaspheme against the glory of God; second, that they entice through the lusts of the flesh; and now he speaks of how they promise freedom — that is, they promise something they themselves do not possess, for, overcome by vile passions, they are slaves of their own passions, obedient servants of the most terrible tyrants of this world. O my brethren, how contemporary for us are these apostolic words, written nineteen centuries ago! Look how, frothing at the mouth, those who have not the slightest freedom declaim about freedom all around us! Listen to the cries of the desperate slaves of passions and vices — how the deceived deceive others, and the blinded preach light! Passions are the fabric of a net woven by the devil to catch men therein. Those caught in that net call other people slaves and themselves free, to the amusement of the devil, who silently gathers up the net and draws it toward his own shore. O brethren, beware of those desperate ones who call themselves heralds of freedom while day and night they serve their master, the devil. Their poverty they call riches, and the riches of others they call poverty, just as the madman calls the whole world mad and himself sane. So too they, the most unfree, call others unfree. And service to God and neighbor out of love they call slavery, while service to the devil they call freedom. They are the malicious enemies of God and men, even as the devil himself is the malicious enemy of God and men.
O Lord, sole Bestower of true freedom, preserve us from the net of all Thy and our malicious enemies. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Passions are the fabric of a net woven by the devil to catch men therein. Their poverty they call riches, and the riches of others they call poverty.”