Lives of the Saints
1. SYNAXIS OF THE HOLY SERBIAN ENLIGHTENERS AND TEACHERS
On this day are commemorated not all Serbian saints in general, but only certain archbishops and patriarchs, namely: Saint Sava, the first Serbian archbishop, called equal-to-the-apostles; Arsenius, the successor of Saint Sava, a great hierarch and wonderworker; Sava II, the son of the first-crowned King Stephen, who lived in Jerusalem for a long time and is called "like unto Moses in meekness" (Srbljak); Nicodemus, who practiced asceticism on the Holy Mountain and was abbot of Hilandar, then Archbishop "of all the Serbian and coastal lands"; Joannicius, first an archbishop and from 1346 a patriarch, who died in 1349; Ephraim, an ascetic, elected against his will as patriarch in the time of Prince Lazar in 1376, who also crowned Lazar, and afterward renounced the patriarchal throne and withdrew into solitude; Spyridon, the successor of Ephraim, who died in 1388; Macarius, who restored many ancient endowments, printed church books in Shkoder, Venice, Belgrade and other places, built the famous refectory at the Patriarchate of Pec, and did much for the advancement of the Church with the help of his brother, the Grand Vizier Mehmed Sokolovic, and reposed in 1574; Gabriel, a nobleman of the Rajic family by birth, who participated in the Moscow Council under Patriarch Nikon, for which the Turks tortured him for treason and hanged him in 1656. Besides these, the following are also commemorated: Eustathius, James, Daniel, Sava III, Gregory, John, Maximus and Nikon. Many of them practiced asceticism on the Holy Mountain, but all were "faithful servants and true, and good laborers of the vineyard of the Lord."
2. SAINTS ALEXANDER, JOHN AND PAUL, PATRIARCHS OF CONSTANTINOPLE
Alexander participated in the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in place of the aged Patriarch Metrophanes, and afterward succeeded Metrophanes. When certain philosophers wished to debate him about the faith, he said to one of them: "In the name of my Lord Jesus Christ I command thee to be silent!" And the philosopher was struck dumb that very instant. By his prayer he also cut short the life of Arius. He died in the ninety-eighth year of his life, in 340. Saint John the Faster governed the Church in the time of the wicked Emperor Anastasius, an Acephalite heretic. He reposed in the Lord in 595. Saint Paul IV governed the Church for five years and eight months, and renounced the throne, secretly receiving the great schema in order to repent of his sin in that he had at first sided with the Iconoclasts. He was the predecessor of the great Tarasius, and reposed in the Lord in the time of Irene and Constantine, in 784.
3. VENERABLE CHRISTOPHER
An ascetic of the sixth century in the community of Saint Theodosius. In a vision he saw that the lamps of the diligent monks were burning, but the lamps of the lazy monks were not burning.
4. SAINT EULALIUS, BISHOP OF CAESAREA IN CAPPADOCIA
One of the predecessors of Saint Basil. He deprived his own son of his rank for wearing garments unbecoming to the spiritual calling.
“Faithful servants and true, and good laborers of the vineyard of the Lord.”
Hymn of Praise
Pleasers of God, Serbian saints,
Wise teachers and enlighteners,
Spiritual princes, glorious champions,
Most good shepherds of the flock of Christ,
Ye denied yourselves and served God
And were luminaries to your people;
God-bearing men, of divine nature,
Ye received the light from the Holy Trinity,
Ye received it generously, ye scattered it everywhere,
And from your labors wonders sprang forth.
All walking rightly in the footsteps of Sava,
Ye bore holiness throughout the Serbian lands,
Ye established the faith in the Word of God,
Ye clothed souls in a new garment,
Ye adorned the land with beautiful churches,
O men of God, equal to the angels!
Ye angels were of the Serbian nation,
Ye taught the Serbs to glorify God,
To bow before the living Christ the Savior,
And ye faithfully served the holy Gospel.
Therefore the Lord glorified you in heaven
And set you before the Serbian people as candles,
That living in heaven ye may shine upon earth
And lead your people to truth and righteousness.
While the Serbian race marvels at your example,
By your prayers it shall live.
“Ye angels were of the Serbian nation, ye taught the Serbs to glorify God.”
Reflection
With noise and dishonor the boisterous heretics perished. Their very death shows the wrath of God upon them for the falsehood they spread and the trouble they caused the Church of God. Arius, after being condemned at Nicaea, came one day to Emperor Constantine and besought the emperor to receive him back into the Church. The emperor asked him whether he believed the Nicene Creed, and he, the cunning one, held in his bosom a paper inscribed with his heretical false belief, and striking his breast with his hand said to the emperor: "So I believe." The emperor thought that Arius had repented, and sent him to Patriarch Alexander to be received into the Church. Alexander in no way wished to receive Arius, knowing that he was lying. But the emperor appointed a certain Sunday on which Arius was to be led into the great church. On the eve of that day the holy patriarch prayed to God to take his soul before the blasphemous heretic was brought into the church. When the appointed Sunday dawned, the patriarch was at the service in the church, while Arius with the emperor's men and his like-minded followers set out for the church. When they reached the Forum of Constantine, suddenly some torment seized him in spirit and in body, and he sought a place for a bodily necessity. There on the square was such a public place, and he went there. His escort waited for him a long time and grew impatient with waiting. When some went to see what had happened to Arius, they found him in that foul place dead, with his entire bowels spilled out, in filth and blood.
“When he was asked whether he believed the Nicene Creed, he, the cunning one, held in his bosom a paper inscribed with his heretical false belief, and striking his breast with his hand said to the emperor: 'So I believe.'”
Contemplation
Contemplate the victories of David over the Philistines (II Samuel 5), namely:
1. How the Philistines attacked the lands of David, and David prayed to God, and went out and defeated the Philistines;
2. How the Philistines attacked again, and David again prayed to God, and routed the Philistines.
Homily
on the mysterious generation of Christ
His generation, who shall declare? (Isaiah 53:8)
Like the hidden source of a great river, so for the Jews was the generation of the wondrous Lord Jesus hidden. They had read and knew that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem; and He was born in Bethlehem, but they did not recognize Him. They knew that the Messiah would come from the tribe of David; and He was born of the tribe of David, through His Most Holy Mother, but they did not recognize or acknowledge Him. They had read that He would be born of a virgin, that He would flee to Egypt and be called out of Egypt, that His Forerunner would appear before Him crying in the wilderness, that as a great light He would shine in the darkness and shadow of death in the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, and all else that the prophets had foretold and written as signs of His coming. And yet they did not recognize or acknowledge Him, but crucified the King of Glory as a criminal. Had He been an ordinary man, would the prophet have asked about His generation and origin? Whose generation and whose origin in the history of the people of Israel is unknown? But His generation is hidden, like that of Melchizedek. It was hidden from the Jews, and it is always hidden from unbelievers, but for us the faithful it is no longer hidden. We know that He is Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten not made. This is He in eternity. We know that He was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and appeared to the world as a man, as the God-Man. This is He in time. His generation, therefore, is both in heaven and on earth, both in eternity and in time; wondrous, mysterious, glorious and majestic is His generation. And when we have said all that has been revealed to us about Him, we can still ask: His generation, who shall declare? Not because His generation is unknown, but because it is unfathomable, inconceivable, above the senses, above nature. O Lord Jesus Christ, our God, enlighten us with Thy divine understanding and raise us up to Thyself by Thy man-loving power. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“His generation, who shall declare? Not because His generation is unknown, but because it is unfathomable, inconceivable, above the senses, above nature.”