Lives of the Saints
1. HOLY MARTYR ANDREW STRATELATES
He was an officer — a tribune — in the Roman army in the time of Emperor Maximian. By birth from Syria, and serving in Syria. When the Persians threatened the Roman Empire with their army, the command of troops in the battle against the enemy was entrusted to Andrew. On this occasion Andrew was promoted to commander — stratelates. A secret Christian, although still unbaptized, Andrew placed his trust in the living God, and from the multitude of soldiers he selected only the best and went into battle. Before the battle he said to his soldiers that if they all called upon the one true God, Christ the Lord, for help, their enemies would scatter before them like dust. And indeed all the soldiers, inspired both by Andrew and by his faith, called upon Christ for help and charged. The Persian army was utterly destroyed. When the victorious Andrew returned to Antioch, certain envious men accused him as a Christian, and the imperial governor summoned him to trial. Andrew openly declared his unwavering faith in Christ. After cruel tortures the governor cast Andrew into prison and wrote to the emperor in Rome. Knowing Andrew's prestige among the people and in the army, the emperor ordered the governor to release Andrew, but to watch for another opportunity and another pretext — not his faith — to kill him. Through divine revelation Andrew learned of that imperial command, so taking with him his faithful soldiers, 2,593 in number, he went with them to Tarsus in Cilicia, and there they were all baptized by Bishop Peter. Pursued by the imperial authorities there as well, Andrew with his company withdrew far into the Armenian mountain of Taurus. There in a gorge, while they were at prayer, the Roman army overtook them and slew them all to the last man. None of them wished to defend himself, but all were eager for a martyr's death for Christ. On that spot where the blood of the martyrs poured out in a stream, a spring of healing water burst forth which healed every disease. Bishop Peter came secretly with his people and honorably buried the bodies of the martyrs on that very spot. They all suffered honorably, and crowned with wreaths of immortal glory they passed into the Kingdom of Christ our God.
2. VENERABLE THEOPHANES
Born in Ioannina, as a young man he left everything and went to the Holy Mountain, where he became a monk in the Monastery of Docheiariou. In fasting, prayer, vigil and self-denial in all that was unnecessary, he was an example to all the monks. Because of this he was in time elected abbot. But later, because of some disagreement with the monks, he left the Holy Mountain and with his nephew came to Beroea in Macedonia, where he founded a monastery in honor of the Most Holy Theotokos. When that monastery flourished with spiritual life, he left his nephew to govern it, and he himself went to Naoussa, where he founded another monastery in honor of the Holy Archangels. He reposed peacefully in the fifteenth century. His wonderworking relics now lie in Naoussa, and manifest the great power of God.
3. HOLY MARTYRS TIMOTHY, AGAPIUS AND THECLA
They suffered for Christ in the time of the wicked Emperor Diocletian. Timothy was burned in fire, while Agapius and Thecla were thrown before wild beasts.
“None of them wished to defend himself, but all were eager for a martyr's death for Christ.”
Hymn of Praise
Nature's song amid the Taurian mountains
Echoed without a human voice to answer.
Until one day the mountain trembled,
And a new echo resounded through it;
The mountain halted its eternal echo
To hear a new one, never heard before.
There came the end of Andrew's valiant company,
There wolves slaughtered innocent lambs.
Andrew had saved the Roman realm from Persia,
And now the Roman army struck at Andrew.
With two thousand comrades Andrew knelt to earth
And spoke a gentle counsel to his companions:
"Now is the acceptable hour, now is the day of salvation,
Of our separation from earthly life.
On our knees let us humbly kneel before God
And for His many blessings warmly give thanks,
And most of all, brethren, for a martyr's death,
Without wrath or outcry at the hand of the executioner."
Thus Andrew spoke. Upon their knees they fell,
Two thousand men began to pray;
The hosts of fierce pursuers flashed their swords,
Choirs of angels shone above the mountain,
In heaven the gates of Paradise opened wide
For holy Andrew, the glorious stratelates,
And for his army that conquered the devil
And shed its honorable blood for its Christ.
“The hosts of fierce pursuers flashed their swords, choirs of angels shone above the mountain.”
Reflection
When an unexpected misfortune befalls us innocently, we should not immediately begin to lament, but should see in it the Providence of God, who through that misfortune is arranging something new and beneficial for us. One day an unexpected message came to the divine Theophanes, abbot of Docheiariou, that the Turks had seized his sister's son, converted him to Islam and taken him to Constantinople. Theophanes immediately went to Constantinople and, with God's help, succeeded in finding his nephew and secretly leading him out of Constantinople and bringing him to his monastery on the Holy Mountain. There he restored him to the Christian faith and then tonsured him a monk. But the brethren began to murmur against their abbot and against his nephew out of fear of the Turks, for they were afraid that the Turks would find out and come and destroy the monastery. Not knowing what else to do, Saint Theophanes took his nephew and withdrew with him secretly, not only from Docheiariou but from the Holy Mountain altogether, and came to Beroea. Theophanes's subsequent activity in Beroea and in Naoussa showed how beneficial that misfortune had been for the Church. What he never could have accomplished on the Holy Mountain, he accomplished in these other places to which he had fled from that misfortune. Namely, he founded two new monasteries in which in time a multitude of monks found salvation and countless people found consolation. Moreover, his holy relics, in the midst of the Christian people, became a source of healing, strengthening the faith of many unbelievers and those of little faith. Thus God wisely arranges the destinies of men through sudden misfortunes which at the moment seem to people to lead to their final ruin.
“God wisely arranges the destinies of men through sudden misfortunes which at the moment seem to people to lead to their final ruin.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the wondrous Providence of God in the life of David (I Samuel 16), namely:
1. How the Spirit of God departed from Saul because of Saul's sin;
2. How an evil spirit attacked Saul, so that he sought a minstrel (harpist) to soothe him;
3. How the king's servants found none other than David and brought him to the king, to comfort him with the harp.
Homily
on the power of the Lord and the impotence of idols
Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at His presence (Isaiah 19:1)
Fleeing from King Herod, the Pharaoh of Jerusalem, the Lord came to Egypt. True Israel is reckoned not by place but by spirit and deeds. At the time of the Lord's birth, a greater evil reigned in Jerusalem than once in Pharaoh's Egypt, as it often happens that when the faithful fall away from the faith they become worse than the unbelievers who never knew the true faith. And so Egypt at that time was a milder and more hospitable place for the Savior of the world than Jerusalem. Compare the words of the prophet with the words that the angel spoke in a dream to righteous Joseph: Arise, take the young Child and His mother, and flee into Egypt (Matthew 2:13), and at once you will be convinced that the words of Isaiah cannot refer to anyone other than Christ the Lord. You will be confirmed in this even more when you hear another prophet who says: Out of Egypt have I called My Son (Hosea 11:1). What does the swift cloud signify, upon which the Lord shall come into Egypt? It signifies the body of the Lord, in which He shall clothe His Divinity. For the body of man is like a condensed cloud in which the soul dwells. This, then, is the prophetic vision of the incarnate Lord. Some interpreters think that the swift cloud also signifies the Most Pure Theotokos, who by long fasting and prayer and other ascetic labors had made her body as light as a cloud. That cloud — the body of the Theotokos — was especially light because of the absence of passions, which burden human bodies.
O most merciful Lord, who desirest the salvation of all men, and lookest not upon who is Jew and who is Egyptian, save and have mercy on us also, for in Thy name we hope unceasingly. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.