Lives of the Saints
1. HOLY MARTYRS TROPHIMUS, SABBATIUS, AND DORYMEDON
In the time of Emperor Probus, in the third century, when a certain Atticus governed Antioch, two Christians came to Antioch: Trophimus and Sabbatius, both eminent and honorable citizens. But it happened at that very time that an impure celebration and sacrifice to Apollo was being held in Daphne near Antioch. Atticus took special care that all citizens take part in that celebration. When certain people saw Trophimus and Sabbatius and reported to Atticus that these strangers were not taking part in their celebration, Atticus brought them before the court, and when they would not renounce Christ, he subjected them to tortures one after the other. After he had beaten and tortured Trophimus, he sent him to Phrygia, to a certain Dionysius, an even more savage persecutor of Christians, while he brought Sabbatius out of prison and began to judge him. When the torturer asked Sabbatius who he was and of what rank, he answered: "My rank and dignity, and homeland, and glory, and wealth is Christ the Son of God, ever-living, by Whose providence the universe stands and is governed." For this they beat him, and tore at him, and scraped him with iron, until the bones beneath his flesh were exposed. In these torments he perished. The torturer Dionysius then subjected Trophimus to great tortures and kept him in prison for still greater ones. Then a certain senator named Dorymedon, a secret Christian, came to Trophimus in prison and served him. When the torturer learned of this, he began to torture them both equally, and finally cast them before wild beasts. But the beasts did not touch them. The holy Dorymedon especially provoked a she-bear, pulling her by the ears so that she would tear him apart, but the bear only fawned upon him. The torturer finally gave the order, and they beheaded Saints Trophimus and Dorymedon by the sword. The souls of these holy martyrs now reign in the heavens.
2. HOLY MARTYR ZOSIMAS THE HERMIT
A certain Cilician prince, Dometian, went hunting in the mountains with his servants. In the mountains he saw an old man surrounded by wild beasts, gentle as lambs. Asked who he was and what he was, the elder answered that his name was Zosimas, that he was a Christian, and that he had long been living with wild beasts, who are better than the persecutors of Christians in the city. This offended Dometian, who was himself a cruel persecutor of Christians, so he bound Zosimas in chains and sent him before him to Nazareth, where he especially wished to torture him in order to frighten those there who believed in Christ. And when he had wounded and bloodied him all over with blows, he tied a stone around his neck and raised him up on a tree. Then the prince mocked him: "Command one of your beasts to come, and then we too will all believe!" The holy martyr prayed to God, and indeed an enormous lion appeared, who approached Zosimas and placed his head beneath the stone to relieve the martyr. In great fear the prince released Zosimas, but shortly afterward Zosimas surrendered his spirit into the hands of his Lord.
3. SAINT THEODORE, PRINCE OF YAROSLAVL
Righteous and merciful, before his death he received the great schema and reposed in the Lord in the year 1298.
“My rank and dignity, and homeland, and glory, and wealth is Christ the Son of God, ever-living, by Whose providence the universe stands and is governed.”
Hymn of Praise
Into the dry wilderness, far from men,
Holy Zosimas had early fled,
To converse with God in solitude,
And to spend his life in abundant toil,
In prayer, in fasting, in vigil by night,
And in salvific immersion in God.
Like an angel in vigil, like a giant in faith,
The wild beasts sensed his innocence.
Haters of men came to love the saint,
Obedient to him as children to a father.
And the merciful saint tamed them with mercy;
The beast responds to goodness with goodness,
And remembers goodness, and does not repay it with evil,
To its benefactor it pays with gratitude.
Persecuted by men, beloved by wild beasts,
Among the beasts Zosimas had settled,
But the beasts that are men discovered his dwelling
And with cruel torments slew his body.
Now holy Zosimas rejoices in heaven,
With the many saints he exults in Paradise.
And he prays for us, that we may weather the voyage
And in Paradise with him may we rejoice.
“Persecuted by men, beloved by wild beasts, among the beasts Zosimas had settled.”
Reflection
Even the dead feel and know the good deeds that are done for them. A Christian need have no doubt of this. A good deed, like an electric current, spreads through the entire heavenly world. A certain imperial official, Magistrianus, was sent by the emperor on an important mission. While traveling, Magistrianus saw a dead man, a beggar, completely naked. He took pity, removed his own shirt, clothed the dead man, and honorably buried him. After some time a misfortune befell Magistrianus: he fell from his horse and broke his leg. And he lay ill in bed for a long time. Once several doctors gathered to consult about his illness. The doctors concluded that the leg had to be amputated. That night Magistrianus could not sleep, but only grieved and wept. At midnight a man suddenly appeared to him and asked: "Why are you weeping?" When Magistrianus explained, the unknown man rubbed the sick leg with his hand, and the leg became well. "For God's sake, tell me, who are you?" asked Magistrianus. To this the unknown man said: "Look at me and see — is this shirt not yours? I am the one whom you saw naked and dead, and whom you clothed in this shirt. And behold, for your good deed, God has sent me to heal you. Give thanks to God!"
“At midnight a man suddenly appeared to him and asked: "Why are you weeping?" When Magistrianus explained, the unknown man rubbed the sick leg with his hand, and the leg became well. "For God's sake, tell me, who are you?" asked Magistrianus.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the sin of King Asa and the punishment of God (II Chronicles 16), namely:
1. How Asa, frightened by a neighboring king, took gold from the temple of God to buy an ally in the king of Syria;
2. How the king of Syria, having taken the gold, betrayed him;
3. How God permitted a grievous illness to come upon Asa.
Homily
on the sorrow of Christ
Nothing more real has entered into this earthly world than the Lord Jesus Christ — nothing more real as God and nothing more real as man. In truth, this entire world outside of Jesus Christ seems a phantom. Neither earth, nor water, nor air, nor light possess even remotely the reality that He possesses. Behold, all this shall pass away, but He shall remain. Truly He is the cornerstone of an imperishable world, and only he, or that, which cleaves firmly to that stone will be able to share in that imperishable world, in imperishable reality. The stormy yet powerless waves of time have fiercely beaten, and beat today, now against the reality of Christ's Divinity, now against the reality of His Humanity. For Christians have had to expend as much effort opening the eyes of the godless and proving Christ's Divinity as they have had to expend opening the eyes of heretics and proving His Humanity. But the all-knowing Holy Spirit took care in advance and, through the Evangelists, prepared weapons for Christian warriors beforehand. Now is My soul troubled. Would the Lord have felt sorrow had He not been a true man, subject to all the infirmities of bodily nature except sin? And not only sorrow but fear as well: Father, save Me from this hour. This is the infirm nature of man speaking, which recoils from death (for it is of death that He speaks), but not a sinful nature — rather a sinless human nature, for the Lord immediately adds: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Do you see how important the death of Christ is? By it we are redeemed, by it we are saved. Let no one, therefore, dwell solely on the teaching of Christ, but let him transport himself to Golgotha and behold with horror the bloody sacrifice on the Cross, which was offered for our sins, for our salvation from the fetid jaws of the serpent of the netherworld.
O Lord Jesus, Who suffered for our sake and for our salvation, have mercy on us once more, and yet once more. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.”