Lives of the Saints
1. HOLY APOSTLE BARTHOLOMEW
On this day is celebrated the translation of the relics of Saint Bartholomew, while his principal feast is on June 11. When this great Apostle was crucified on a cross in Albanopolis in Armenia, the Christians took down his body and honorably buried it in a leaden coffin. Since numerous miracles occurred at the tomb of the Apostle, especially healings of the sick, and the number of Christians thereby increased, the pagans took the coffin with the relics of Bartholomew and cast it into the sea. At the same time they also cast four other coffins with the relics of four martyrs: Papian, Lucian, Gregory, and Acacius. But by the Providence of God the coffins did not sink; rather, borne by the water they floated: the coffin of Acacius to the city of Askalon, that of Gregory to Calabria, that of Lucian to Messina, that of Papian to the other side of Sicily, and that of Bartholomew to the Lipari Islands. By a mysterious revelation, Agathon, the Bishop of Lipari, learned of the approach of the relics of the holy Apostle Bartholomew. Agathon went with his clergy and people to the shore and received the coffin with great joy. On that occasion many healings of the sick took place through the relics of the holy Apostle. Those relics were placed in the Church of Saint Bartholomew, and there they lay until the time of Theophilus the Iconoclast (around 839), and since at that time the Muslims threatened the Lipari Islands, the apostolic relics were translated to the city of Benevento. Thus the Lord glorified His Apostle with miracles both during his life and after death.
2. HOLY APOSTLE TITUS
One of the Seventy. Born on Crete and raised on Greek philosophy and poetry. On account of a dream, he took to reading the Prophet Isaiah and came to doubt all the wisdom of the Hellenes. Hearing of Christ the Lord, he went to Jerusalem with some other Cretans, and personally heard the words of the Savior and beheld His mighty works. His youthful heart cleaved wholly to Christ. Later he was baptized by the Apostle Paul, whom he served as a son serves a father in the work of the Gospel. Paul so loved Titus that he called him at one time his son (Titus 1:4) and at another his brother (II Corinthians 12:18). Titus traveled much with the great Apostle to the nations, and was by him appointed Bishop of Crete. During the suffering of Paul in Rome, Titus was also present, and he honorably buried the body of his teacher and spiritual father. After that he returned to Crete, where with great success he baptized the pagans and wisely governed the Church of God until a ripe old age. He reposed in the ninety-fourth year of his life.
3. HOLY CONFESSORS OF EDESSA
They suffered much in prisons and in exile for the Orthodox faith in the time of Emperor Valens, who held to the heresy of Arius. But under Emperor Theodosius they were set free.
4. SAINT MENAS, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE
He wisely governed the Church from 536 to 552. Before that he administered the house of Saint Sampson (for the poor and the afflicted). At his consecration as bishop, Pope Agapitus also participated, who had then come to Constantinople for the refutation and deposition of the heretical Patriarch Anthimus.
“On this day is celebrated the translation of the relics of Saint Bartholomew, while his principal feast is on June 11.”
Hymn of Praise
Only an immature spirit delights in fables;
Fables help not him who seeks the truth.
Titus was a virgin on unclean Crete.
A longing for truth led him to Christ.
When he beheld the face of the almighty Lord,
All fables were to him as muddy water:
Christ is the truth, the Cross the path to truth,
The Cross lifts the soul to divine heights.
Consecrated into the mysteries of God's dispensation,
Titus received labors and torments without number,
Labors for himself and for his teacher,
For the great Paul, his father in the spirit.
When the vile Nero struck Paul down with the sword,
Titus did not lose faith or courage for it,
But buried his father honorably and calmly,
Then returned to Crete to labor doubly.
The temple of Diana fell, the temple of Zeus vanished,
By the wondrous power of Titus's prayer.
He scattered the darkness of error and enlightened Crete with Christ,
Paul's fellow apostle, the wondrous and holy Titus.
“Consecrated into the mysteries of God's dispensation, Titus received labors and torments without number.”
Reflection
The superhuman boldness, readiness to endure all torments, and voluntary dying for Christ of our Christian forebears struck fear into their persecutors. Emperor Maximian, the fierce and merciless persecutor of Christians, ordered his proconsul in Antioch to release Saint Andrew Stratelates from prison into freedom, out of fear that the people, who honored Andrew more than the emperor, would revolt. Emperor Valens ordered his eparch in Edessa to slay all Christians who were against Arius. The eparch had more human compassion than the emperor, and secretly by night warned the Christians not to go out of the city the following day to the field where they usually held their services (since the Arians had seized all the churches in the city), lest they perish. Contrary to this warning, the Christians all went out joyfully to the field in the morning, glad that they would suffer for the true faith. As the eparch was leaving the city with his soldiers, he saw a Christian woman with a child in her arms hurrying past the soldiers toward the field. The eparch said to her: "Have you not heard that the governor will come with soldiers and slay all whom he finds?" The woman answered: "I have heard, and that is precisely why I am hurrying to die with the others for Christ." The eparch further asked: "And why do you carry this child with you?" The woman answered: "I want my child also to be deemed worthy of martyrdom together with me." Hearing and seeing this, the eparch was frightened and turned back and reported to the emperor. And the emperor was very frightened and withdrew his order for the massacre.
“Have you not heard that the governor will come with soldiers and slay all whom he finds? The woman answered: I have heard, and that is precisely why I am hurrying to die with the others for Christ.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the extraordinary magnanimity of David (I Samuel 24), namely:
1. How Saul, pursuing David, unknowingly entered the very cave where David was hiding with his men;
2. How the men urged David to kill Saul, but David would not do it;
3. How David cried out to Saul: "The Lord judge between me and thee!"
“Lord, let Thou judge between me and thee!”
Homily
on the opened prison and the illumined darkness
Who is a greater prisoner than he who is bound by sins? Is there a greater darkness than the darkness of sin, death, and hell? Who can loose from sin? God alone — this even the scribes and Pharisees themselves acknowledged (Mark 2:7). Christ loosed many from sin and made them free and whole. If, then, God alone can loose the prisoners of sin from sin, why did the Jews not acknowledge Him as God? Because they too were bound by sin, and so could not reason logically to the end, nor did they surrender themselves to the Lord that He might loose them also from the bonds of sin. Behold into what foolishness the wise men of the Jews fell: while on the one hand they maintained that God alone can loose men from sin, on the other hand they accused Christ of acting by the power of the devil! The devil is the one who binds — how can the devil loose? The devil is the one who destroys man — how can he also save? Where the devils are, there too is the prison: sin, death, and hell. Christ alone had the power — divine power, incomparable — to lead forth and save the souls of men from that prison. "Son, thy sins are forgiven thee!" "Young man, arise!" "Lazarus, come forth!" By His mighty word He severed the bonds of sinners and led the dead out into the light of life. By His descent into hell He destroyed the throne of Satan and liberated the souls of the righteous. By His Resurrection He fully and perfectly revealed His irresistible authority over all the bonds of the devil, over all the intrigues of hell, and over the last enemy — death.
O Lord, Vanquisher of demons, Liberator from sin, Raiser of the dead, we worship Thee and beseech Thee: free us, raise us, and bless us. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves.”