Lives of the Saints
1. THE HOLY APOSTLES PROCHORUS, NICANOR, TIMON, AND PARMENAS
These four were from the number of the Seven Deacons and from the Seventy Apostles. The other three deacons were Stephen, Philip, and Nicolaus. Stephen the Protomartyr is celebrated separately on December 27, and Philip on October 11. Nicolaus did not enter into the ranks of the saints because of his heresy. The first four do not have individual feast days, but all are commemorated on this one day, July 28. Prochorus was ordained by the Apostle Peter as Bishop of Nicomedia. He served for a time under St. John the Evangelist, and on the island of Patmos he recorded the revelations which he heard from the lips of St. John. After that he returned to Nicomedia, where he labored greatly in converting the people to the Faith. He ended his life as a martyr in Antioch, where he was slain by unbelievers. Holy Nicanor suffered in Jerusalem on the same day as St. Stephen the Archdeacon, and soon after him another two thousand Christians, whom the malicious Jews slew. Timon was a bishop in Arabia and suffered for Christ on the cross. Parmenas died before the eyes of the Apostles, and by them was mourned and buried.
2. THE HOLY MARTYR JULIAN
In the time of Emperor Antoninus, St. Julian came from Dalmatia to Campania in Italy. He was a young and handsome youth, with his soul wholly devoted to the Lord. On the way he met imperial soldiers who were going to seize Christians. "Peace to you, brethren!" Julian greeted them. By such a greeting and by the meekness of the young man's countenance, the soldiers concluded that he was a Christian. To their questioning Julian replied: "I am a Christian, by origin from Dalmatia." Julian further openly confessed to them that he was traveling with the purpose of converting idolaters to the one living God. The soldiers mercilessly beat him and finally cast him into a ditch, where he spent seven days without any human food. But an angel of God appeared to him and gave him heavenly sustenance. Brought before the court, Julian remained firm in the faith as a diamond. Seeing his manliness and steadfastness in the faith, thirty men converted to Christ the Lord. Condemned to death, St. Julian knelt and raised a prayer to God, thanking God for his martyric feat and beseeching Him to have mercy upon all those who would honor his memory. He was beheaded with an axe and surrendered his spirit to God.
3. THE VENERABLE PAUL OF XEROPOTAMOU
The son of Emperor Michael Kuropalates. With a brilliant education, with rare wisdom and at the same time meekness, Procopius (as he was first called) was in his youthful years an object of admiration for all of Constantinople. In one charter, Emperor Romanus the Elder called him "the greatest of all philosophers." But fearing that his soul might become proud and perish from human glory, this brilliant young man one day dressed himself in a beggar's rags and came to the Holy Mountain, where he received the monastic tonsure from the renowned saint Cosmas. After long labors of solitary asceticism, he restored the Monastery of Xeropotamou, and shortly thereafter built the new Monastery of St. Paul, where he ended his days in old age. When that monastery was consecrated, Emperor Romanus sent as a gift a large portion of the Precious Cross, which is preserved there to this day. It is said of this saint that he preached the Gospel in Macedonia and Serbia. He endured many torments from the wicked Emperor Leo the Armenian, the iconoclast, and reposed in the year 820. Before his death St. Paul said to the brethren: "Behold, the hour approaches which my soul has always desired and from which my body has always trembled."
4. THE HOLY MARTYR EUSTATHIUS
This martyr of Christ was a soldier in Ancyra. Brought before the court, he feared no torments but freely glorified the name of the Lord Christ. The commander Cornelius ordered that they bore through the soles of his feet, thread a rope through them, and drag the man of God to a certain river, and then cast him into the river. Saved by the power of God and healed of his wounds, he appeared before the commander completely whole. When the commander saw him alive, he was so terrified that he drew his sword and ran himself through. Eustathius lived for some time longer and reposed in the Lord in the year 316.
“Behold, the hour approaches which my soul has always desired and from which my body has always trembled.”
Hymn of Praise
The world glorified young Paul highly,
Therefore the young prince abandoned his princedom
And the imperial splendor, riches, and power,
And urban intrigues, and rotten luxury.
He fled from the world, he fled from all,
Into the desert where the saints are hidden,
And by arduous feats they save their souls,
With ceaseless praise they glorify God.
On Mount Athos Paul found a place
To make of his soul a new leaven,
That his soul might be as a child's,
And that he might find the center of himself and of the world.
What Paul desired, that he attained.
On the arduous path God helped him,
Delivered his body from ruinous passions,
Delivered his soul from demonic dominion:
He sealed all with the Cross of Christ's Crucifixion,
Both body and soul. And like a pure candle,
With the love of God beautifully kindled,
By the angels of God to heaven upborne.
God glorified young Paul, who left his kingdom,
In the heavenly Kingdom glorified him highly.
Reflection
On guilelessness St. Nilus of Sinai writes: "Strive, my son, to be always simple and guileless. Do not have one thing in thy heart and another on thy tongue, for this is cunning and falsehood. Be truthful and not false, for falsehood is from the evil one. Return not evil for evil; but if someone does thee evil, forgive him, that God may also forgive thee. If the remembrance of wrongs torments thee, pray to God with all thy soul for that brother (the wrongdoer), and the remembrance of wrongs shall flee from thee." It is told how a certain young man resolved to serve a very ill-tempered elder, solely that God might forgive his sins. He endured this most toilsome service for twelve years, and then departed to God. A certain great spiritual father saw the young man's soul in Paradise, where it prayed to God for that ill-tempered elder: "Lord, as Thou hast had mercy upon me because of him, have mercy also on him, by Thy great goodness, because of me, Thy servant!" After forty days that ill-tempered elder also died, and again that spiritual father saw the soul of that elder at rest in the heavenly Kingdom. What a beautiful and wondrous guilelessness of that patient young man -- truly wondrous indeed!
“A certain ship suffered a shipwreck and lost its entire cargo; with great difficulty it reached the harbor, and you wish to sink even that which was saved from the wreck!”
Contemplation
Contemplate the miraculous burning of the sacrifice on the rock (Judges 6), namely:
1. How an angel appeared to Gideon, and Gideon ran and brought bread and meat to feast the angel;
2. How the angel touched the bread and meat with the tip of his staff, and fire rose up and consumed the offering.
Homily
on the Foolish Question of the Foolish
**Where is the promise of his coming? ** (II Peter 3:4)
So ask the scoffers of God's holy things. Those who scoff at the words and works of God scoff also at the promises of God. We faithful say: the Lord shall come, but they scoff and say: when shall He come, since He has not already come? We say: the Lord has promised to come, but they scoff and say: where is the promise of His coming? Our fathers, they say, lived and died waiting for His coming, yet He did not come. Shall we, they say, wait for Him still? Yes, brethren, we wait for Him, and we shall continue to wait for Him. He has promised to come, and He shall come. And the holy Apostle confirms the promise of the Lord; behold, he heard it from the very lips of the Lord, from lips from which only truth proceeds. Before the Lord a thousand years is as one day. By these words the Apostle shuts the mouths of the scoffers and teaches us patience. Nearly two thousand years have passed since the Son of God gave His promise that He would come again in power and glory to save the faithful and punish the unfaithful, yet He still does not come -- so say the scoffers. O foolish scoffers, are two thousand years for God as long as they are for you? Do you not consider that for Him two thousand years are as two days? Must He fulfill all His promises within two days? He who is immortal is not in such haste as you who are mortal. You are in haste because you shall soon die, but He is immortal and does not fear death. He shall find you even in your graves when He comes. The angelic trumpet shall rouse you, and you shall arise only to see that He is truthful, and then you shall be cast down into the dark kingdom of the slanderer, for you slandered the Lord of truth and charged Him with falsehood. The Lord does not desire, brethren, that we be curious about the day and the hour when He shall come; He only desires that we believe that He shall come. Whether we be alive or dead when He comes, we shall behold His coming. Is that not enough?
O Lord God, our Savior, teach us patience and confirm us in the faith. Thou shalt come, we know. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“When God does not spare His own works, shall He spare ours? God shall not seek works but workers.”