Lives of the Saints
1. HOLY MARTYRS AGATHANICUS, ZOTICUS, AND OTHERS WITH THEM
Saint Agathanicus was a citizen of Nicomedia and a Christian by faith. With great zeal he turned the Hellenes away from idolatry and instructed them in the true faith. By order of Emperor Maximian, the imperial governor fiercely persecuted Christians. During this persecution he seized Saint Zoticus in a certain place called Carpi, crucified his disciples, and brought Zoticus to Nicomedia, where he also seized and bound Saint Agathanicus, Princeps, Theoprepius, Acindynus, Severian, Zeno, and many others. He led them all tightly bound toward Byzantium, but along the way Saints Zoticus, Theoprepius, and Acindynus died from their wounds and exhaustion. Near Chalcedon they slew Saint Severian, and Agathanicus with the rest was led to Thrace, to the town of Selymbria, where after torture before the emperor himself they were beheaded by the sword and passed into eternal life and the joy of their Lord.
2. HOLY MARTYR EULALIA
In the time of the dreadful persecutions of Christians in Spain, there lived a certain maiden Eulalia, born of Christian parents in a place called Barcinon. Wholly devoted to Christ as her Bridegroom, wholly immersed in Holy Scripture, she trained herself steadfastly in voluntary labors of body and spirit. When the persecutor Dacian was mercilessly slaying Christians throughout Spain and came to Barcinon, Eulalia slipped away from her parents by night, went before the persecutor, and in the presence of many people denounced him for the killing of innocent people, reviling the dead idols and publicly confessing her faith in Christ the living Lord. The enraged Dacian ordered that she be stripped and beaten with rods. But the holy maiden declared that she felt no pain in her torments for her Christ. Then the persecutor had her bound crosswise to a wooden frame and ordered that her body be burned with candles. The persecutor asked her where her Christ was now to save her. And Eulalia answered: "He is here with me, but you cannot see Him because of your impurity." In great torments Eulalia surrendered her spirit to God. And when she breathed her last, people saw a white dove fly out of her mouth. At that moment snow fell unexpectedly and covered the naked body of the martyr as with a white garment. On the third day Saint Felix came and mournfully wept before the hanging body of Eulalia. And on the dead face of the saint a smile appeared. Her parents came and together with the other Christians honorably buried the body of the holy maiden. She suffered for her Lord and passed into eternal joy at the beginning of the fourth century.
3. HOLY MARTYR ANTHUSA AND OTHERS WITH HER
The daughter of wealthy but pagan parents from Seleucia in Syria. Having learned of Christ, Anthusa believed in Him with all her heart, and secretly made her way to Bishop Athanasius, who baptized her. At her baptism the angels of God appeared. After that, Anthusa set out for the desert for ascetic labor, for she dared not even return to her parents. In the desert she practiced asceticism for twenty-three years. In prayer to God she surrendered her soul to God while kneeling upon a stone, beneath which she willed that she be buried.
Bishop Athanasius and two servants of Anthusa, Charisimus and Neophytus, were afterward beheaded for their faith in Christ, in the time of Emperor Valerian, around the year 257. All suffered honorably and were crowned with crowns of glory.
“He is here with me, but you cannot see Him because of your impurity.”
Hymn of Praise
White dove of God,
And martyr of Christ,
Eulalia desires torments,
To whiten her spirit through sufferings.
What is the body? A fragile vessel,
When the soul flies forth from it,
Dust returns to its own dust,
The soul to the world of angels.
Eulalia bears Christ within her,
Without a sigh she endures the torments,
She endures the torments, she prays to God,
That she may overcome the persecutor.
And the dove prevailed,
And the martyr conquered.
Her body wounded and torn,
Covered with white snow,
Her soul — a dove — flies forth from her,
Soars upward to her Creator.
On her dead face,
Covered with white snow,
Behold the smile of the victress,
Behold the smile of the avenger!
With a smile she avenged herself
And proclaimed a new life.
By the prayers of Eulalia
May God have mercy on us also!
“Behold the smile of the victress, behold the smile of the avenger! With a smile she avenged herself and proclaimed a new life.”
Reflection
When a man has once truly repented, he need no longer dwell upon the sins he has committed, lest he sin again. Saint Anthony counsels: "Guard yourself, lest your mind be defiled by the memory of former sins, and lest the feeling of those sins be renewed in you." Again in another place he says: "Do not fix in your soul the sins you committed earlier by thinking about them, lest they be repeated in you. Be assured that they have been forgiven you from the time when you gave yourself over to God and to repentance. And of this do not doubt." Of Saint Ammon they said that he had attained such perfection that from his great goodness he no longer knew that evil existed. When they asked him what is the narrow and sorrowful way, he answered: "It is the restraining of one's thoughts and the cutting off of one's own desires for the sake of fulfilling the will of God." He who restrains sinful thoughts thinks neither of his own nor of others' sins, nor of anything corrupt, nor of anything earthly. The mind of such a man is ceaselessly in heaven, where there is no evil. Thus gradually evil disappears in him also, even in his thoughts.
“Do not fix in your soul the sins you committed earlier by thinking about them, lest they be repeated in you.”
Contemplation
Contemplate God's wondrous help to David (I Samuel 19), namely:
1. How David played the harp before Saul;
2. How an evil spirit fell upon Saul, and Saul hurled a spear to kill David;
3. How Saul missed David at the closest range.
Homily
on the prophecy of Christ's miracles
Come, brethren, let us marvel at the power of our living God, who opened the eyes of mortal man to see at an exceeding great distance of time that which was to come to pass. And how clearly he saw it: down to the very details, as though that prophet himself had been an Apostle of Christ, and had walked with Christ the Lord, and had watched miracle after miracle — how He gave sight to the blind, and hearing to the deaf, and health of limb to the lame, and voice and speech to the mute. When John the Baptist from prison sent his disciples to ask Christ: "Art Thou He that should come?" Christ the Lord answered them with the words of His Prophet Isaiah: "Go and tell John what ye hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up" (Matthew 11:4-5). Behold how wondrously the Lord ordained our salvation! What He prophesied about Himself through His prophets, He also fulfilled. The prophet once spoke His words, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and now He speaks the words of His prophet. Once the prophet called upon Him as witness, and now He calls upon the prophet. To show thereby that whether He speaks His own words or speaks the words of the prophet, He always speaks only His own. To show that it was He who spoke then, and not the prophet, and it is He who speaks now, and no other. And to vindicate His prophet as His faithful servant, so that no one can say: the prophet spoke falsely. And thus the prophets served the glory of Christ the Lord, and Christ the Lord glorified His prophets, His true servants.
O Lord Jesus, glorified by Thy servants and glorifier of Thy servants, help us also to serve the magnificent glory of Thy name by word and deed and thought. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Come, brethren, let us marvel at the power of our living God, who opened the eyes of mortal man to see at an exceeding great distance of time that which was to come to pass.”