Lives of the Saints
1. HOLY MARTYRS ADRIAN AND NATALIA
Husband and wife, both of noble and wealthy lineage from Nicomedia. Adrian was the chief officer of the praetorium and a pagan, while Natalia was a secret Christian. Both were young, and they had lived in marriage only thirteen months before his martyrdom. When the wicked Emperor Maximian visited Nicomedia, he ordered that Christians be seized and put to torture. Near the city, in a cave, twenty-three Christians were hiding. Someone reported them to the authorities, and they were fiercely beaten with rawhide and rods, then cast into prison. Then they were led out of prison and brought to the praetorium to have their names recorded. Adrian gazed at these people, tortured yet patient, peaceful and meek, and adjured them to tell him what they expected from their God for such great torments endured. They told him of the blessedness of the righteous in the Kingdom of God. Hearing this, and again looking at those people, Adrian suddenly turned to the scribe and said: "Write my name also with these holy ones, for I too am a Christian!" When the emperor heard of this, he asked Adrian: "Have you lost your mind?" To which Adrian replied: "I have not lost my mind; rather, I have come to my senses." Hearing of this, Natalia was exceedingly glad, and when Adrian sat fettered in prison with the others, she came and served them all; and when her husband was beaten and tormented with various tortures, she encouraged him to endure to the end. After long torments and imprisonment, the emperor ordered that an anvil be brought to the prison and that their legs and arms be broken with a hammer. This was carried out, and Adrian together with twenty-three honorable men breathed their last amid the most terrible torments. Natalia translated their relics to Constantinople and there honorably buried them. After a few days Saint Adrian appeared to her, all in light and beauty, and called her also to come to God, and she peacefully surrendered her spirit to God.
2. VENERABLE TITHOES
A disciple of Saint Pachomius and a great one among the ascetics of Egypt. He was abbot of a monastery in Tabennisi. He spent his entire life in perfect purity. Once a certain brother asked him: "What is the path that leads to humility?" To this Tithoes answered: "The path to humility is: self-restraint, prayer, and considering oneself lower than every creature." He attained a very high degree of perfection, and whenever he raised his hands in prayer, his spirit was caught up in ecstasy. He reposed in the fourth or fifth century. Together with him, Venerable Ivistion is also commemorated.
3. SAINT ZAR'A YAQOB
A great missionary of Christianity in Abyssinia.
4. MIRACLE OF THE MOST HOLY THEOTOKOS IN MOSCOW IN THE YEAR 1395
“The path to humility is: self-restraint, prayer, and considering oneself lower than every creature.”
Hymn of Praise
The path is thorny, but in Paradise are roses,
Bitter the torments, but Christ is sweet.
What is heard in the dark prison?
A hammer strikes upon a hard anvil,
But it forges neither iron nor lead,
It breaks the legs of the martyrs
And it breaks the arms of the martyrs,
The martyrs, the soldiers of Christ.
One white, noble hand
Fell to the dust, drenched in blood.
That is the hand of holy Adrian.
Holy Natalia seized the hand,
And with the hand rushed from the prison,
She washed the hand, wrapped it in silk,
She kissed the hand and bedewed it with tears,
And wherever she went, she carried the hand.
When she slept she placed it beneath her head,
Quietly she spoke to the severed hand:
O hand of my holy Adrian,
You helped me so much,
Once more help me, O hand,
Bear me as swiftly as you can to heaven,
Where Adrian lives with the saints.
A short while passed, not long it lasted,
Adrian appeared to Natalia,
More fair and radiant than all earthly kings,
And called her with a heavenly voice:
"Come to me, sister Natalia,
Come to me, be forever alive,
The Eternal King summons you to His Kingdom."
“Come to me, sister Natalia, come to me, be forever alive, the Eternal King summons you to His Kingdom.”
Reflection
Sometimes the godless word is heard even among Christians: here not even God can help! There is no danger in which God cannot help, nor is there an enemy who by his own power, without God's permission, could prevail. Do not ask how God will shatter the mighty army of our enemies — that is easier for God than for you to breathe in and breathe out the air. Read how God by a single apparition frightened the army of the Syrians, so that the army scattered and Israel was saved (II Kings 7:6). Read how Jerusalem was saved from the mighty army of Babylon without any effort on the part of King Hezekiah, except for his weeping before God and prayer (II Kings 19:35). But God performed such miracles not only in ancient times; He performs them at all times when the faithful pray to Him. Thus in the year 1395, the Tatar ruler Tamerlane besieged Moscow with an innumerable army. The Russians brought the wonderworking icon of the Most Holy Theotokos from the city of Vladimir to Moscow, and all the people with tears began to pray to the All-Holy and Most Pure One. Suddenly the Tatar army, without any visible reason, began to retreat hastily and flee. What had happened? Tamerlane had a vision in a dream: clouds of saints hovered beneath the heavens, in their midst the Holy Theotokos as a queen, and beyond them an innumerable host of angels. The Theotokos sternly threatened Tamerlane and commanded him to withdraw at once from the Russian land, and the saints waved their staffs at the ruler. Terrified by this dream, Tamerlane, as soon as dawn came, ordered the retreat and flight.
“Clouds of saints hovered beneath the heavens, in their midst the Holy Theotokos as a queen, and beyond them an innumerable host of angels.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the magnanimity of David (I Samuel 26), namely:
1. How David by night entered the camp of Saul, and while Saul slept took his spear and his cup;
2. How David's commander wished to run Saul through, but David forbade it;
3. How David left vengeance to God.
Homily
on the sufferings of Christ, as Isaiah foresaw them
I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting (Isaiah 50:6)
This is prophecy, brethren; and now hear the exact fulfillment of that prophecy: "Then Pilate took Jesus, and scourged Him, and delivered Him to be crucified" (Matthew 27:26) — is this not what the prophet prophesied: "I gave my back to the smiters"? Hear further: "one of the officers which stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand" (John 18:22); and again: "they blindfolded Him and struck Him on the face, and asked Him, saying, Prophesy, who is it that smote thee?" (Luke 22:64) — is this not what the prophet prophesied: "I gave my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair"? Hear yet further: "and they mocked Him" (Matthew 27:29) and "they smote Him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon Him" (Mark 15:19) — is this not what the prophet prophesied: "I hid not my face from shame and spitting"? Behold, brethren, how clear is the prophecy, clear from word to word. Behold with awe how a God-seeing man sees through the walls of several hundred years more clearly than an ordinary eye sees through the bottom of clear and shallow water! It is God who by His irresistible power opens the spirit of mortal man, that he may see in the spirit events far distant as clearly as he sees events nearby with his bodily eyes. How much more, then, does God Himself, the All-Seeing, see through the very marrow of our bones, through the fog of our thoughts, through all the secrets of our hearts? He is present to our thoughts before they are born, and to our desires before they are conceived. He is the only undeceived and undeceivable witness of all events, without and within, on high and in the deep, in length and in breadth. And He bears witness to our spirit without falsehood concerning that which our spirit desires to know for good benefit and the salvation of the soul.
O All-Seeing and most wondrous Witness of all mysteries in heaven and on earth, our gracious Creator and Provider, Thou alone seest the weakness of each one of us. Help us, O help us, to know that which is needful for us for our eternal salvation. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“My back I gave to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.”