Lives of the Saints
1. VENERABLE JOHN OF RILA
This great ascetic and luminary of the Orthodox Church was born near Sofia, in the village of Skrino, in the time of Tsar Boris. He was born of poor but honorable parents. After the death of his parents he became a monk and withdrew to a wild mountain, and there in a cave he began to practice asceticism. He endured many temptations there from demons and from men, from brigands and from his own kinsmen. After that he moved to the Rila Mountains and settled in a hollow tree. He nourished himself only on grass and beans, which began to grow nearby by God's Providence. For many years he saw no human face, until, again by God's Providence, he was discovered by shepherds who were searching for their lost sheep. Thus the saint became known among men, and people began to come to him seeking help in their illnesses and afflictions. The Bulgarian Tsar Peter himself visited him and sought counsel from him. Many zealots of the spiritual life settled near John. Soon a church and monastery were built there. Saint John reposed peacefully in the Lord on August 18, 946, in the seventieth year of his life. After death he appeared to his disciples. His relics were first transferred to Sofia, then to Hungary, then to Trnovo, and finally to the Rila Monastery, where they repose to this day. Through the centuries the Rila Monastery has been a beacon of light and a place of miraculous power and spiritual consolation for the Christian people of Bulgaria, especially in the difficult times of bondage under the Turks.
2. HOLY MARTYRS FLORUS AND LAURUS
Brothers both in body and in spirit and in occupation. Both were zealous Christians, and by trade stonemasons. They lived in Illyricum. A certain pagan prince employed them in building a pagan temple. It happened during their work that a chip of stone flew off and struck the eye of the priest's son, who was curiously watching the builders at work. Seeing his son blinded and bleeding, the priest began to shout at Florus and Laurus and wanted to beat them. Then the holy brothers said to him that if he would believe in God, in whom they believed, his son would be healed. The priest agreed. Florus and Laurus with tears prayed to the Lord God, the living and only God, and with the sign of the Cross they signed the child's injured eye. And the child was healed at once, and his eye became whole as it had been before. Then the priest Memertinus and his son were baptized, and soon after both suffered for Christ in fire. When Florus and Laurus finished the temple, they placed a cross upon it, invited all the Christians, and consecrated it in the name of the Lord Jesus with an all-night vigil. Learning of this, the governor of Illyricum burned many of those Christians in fire, and cast Florus and Laurus alive into a well, and filled the well with earth. Later their relics were revealed and were transferred to Constantinople. They suffered for Christ and were glorified by Christ, these wondrous brothers, in the second century.
3. HIEROMARTYR EMILIAN THE BISHOP
An Armenian by birth. Of his own desire, seeking martyrdom, he went to Italy to preach Christ, in the time of Diocletian. In Treviso he was elected bishop. Because of the many miracles during his torture, about one thousand pagans believed in Christ. He was beheaded together with his spiritual father Hilarion and two brothers, Dionysius and Hermippus.
“Florus and Laurus with tears prayed to the Lord God, the living and only God, and with the sign of the Cross they signed the child's injured eye.”
Hymn of Praise
Two sons, two saints, one mother bore;
Blessed is such a mother, who pleased God.
Florus and Laurus, wondrous men, cut stone,
And all the while with the Cross set straight men's souls.
What the chisel is to stone, the Cross is to souls;
Dedicated to the Cross, for the Cross they perished.
The pagan priest beheld a wonder unseen:
An eye struck out — an eye restored!
A wonder unseen! That was enough for him,
So he was signed with the Cross and became a martyr.
Florus and Laurus, wondrous men, built a pagan temple,
But in their hearts they glorified Christ God.
The brothers built a new pagan shrine,
But placed a cross upon it, and behold — a Christian church!
Then they filled it with hymns of praise to Christ
And the beauty of candles and pure incense.
One man resembles another just the same,
But one is humble, while the other boasts.
Behold, they are very alike in body and attire,
Yet very different in mind and spirit.
In one dwells Christ and a pure light,
In another a demonic torment and emptiness.
May our bodies — God grant us this —
Become temples of the Spirit of the living God,
By the mighty prayers of God's saints,
The brothers Florus and Laurus, holy martyrs.
“What the chisel is to stone, the Cross is to souls.”
Reflection
It is not a rare case, especially in our time, that parents become the cause of the spiritual death of their children. Whenever a child has an inclination toward the spiritual life, asceticism, and monasticism, and the parent suppresses that inclination instead of fostering it, such a parent becomes the slayer of his child. And such children — as a punishment to their parents — often swing to the opposite extreme and become debauched. A certain boy named Luke, the nephew of Saint John of Rila, hearing about his uncle and drawn by a desire for the spiritual life, came to his uncle in the mountains. John received him with love and began to instruct him and support him in asceticism. But Luke's father appeared one day before John's cave and furiously began to revile the saint for keeping his son in that wilderness. John's words and counsels were of no avail. The father took his son home by force. But on the way a serpent bit the child, and Luke died. The cruel father saw in this the punishment of God and repented, but it was all too late. He returned to John, lamenting and accusing himself. But the saint only told him to bury the child and to go back whence he had come.
“A child like Luke had an inclination toward the spiritual life, yet his father suppressed that inclination instead of fostering it — and such a parent becomes the slayer of his child.”
Contemplation
Contemplate God's miraculous choice of David as king (I Samuel 16), namely:
1. How the Lord directed Samuel to the house of Jesse to anoint one of his sons as king;
2. How the Lord directed Samuel to anoint the eighth and youngest son of Jesse, David, a shepherd of sheep;
3. How Samuel anointed David, and how the Spirit of God descended upon David.
Homily
on peace between the wolf and the lamb
Thus the true prophet foretold the truth. And he further adds: *the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed together... and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And a child shall put his hand in the hole of the venomous serpent, and the serpent shall not harm him. * When will this miracle come to pass, brethren? It has already come to pass, when Christ the Wonderworker appeared on earth. This is the reality of Paradise, which was renewed among men by the coming of the Savior to earth. The prophet speaks in riddles, yet clearly; in riddles, because he speaks not of beasts but of men; clearly, because his prediction was fulfilled in the Church of Christ. Men who by nature were like wolves, and leopards, and lions, and bears, and oxen, and lambs, and kids, and serpents — all stand before the Child of Bethlehem, equalized by faith, tamed by grace, illumined by hope, softened by love. The prophet further prophesies why this will come to pass: *For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. * Viewed bodily, every man is earth. That man who believes in Christ and in truth follows after Christ becomes full of the knowledge of the Lord as the sea is full of water. Such were many individuals. Such were entire communities of ascetics in Egypt, on the Holy Mountain, on Cyprus, in Russia, in Armenia and in other lands. But that is not all. The knowledge of the Lord has today spread over the whole earth. Holy Scripture has been distributed among all peoples. And few are the corners of the earth where the Gospel of Christ is not read, where the name of God is not known, and where the bloodless sacrifice of the Lord is not offered. Some reject Christ, others accept Him; some fall away from the true faith, others embrace the true faith. And so a struggle goes on throughout the whole world under the banner of the Lord Jesus. Overflowing waters pour out and spill into empty valleys; the empty valleys fill up and are leveled with the high waters. Not all is as glorious in the world as we Christians desire, but the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah has been most gloriously fulfilled and verified.
O how wondrous is the vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, the true and farsighted prophet! O Lord the Wonderworker, tame the beastly nature of those men and nations that have not yet been tamed by the power of Thy love. May we all be noble with Thy nobility. May we all be glorious with Thy glory. And alive, O Lord, alive with Thy immortal life. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“The knowledge of the Lord has today spread over the whole earth. Holy Scripture has been distributed among all peoples.”