Lives of the Saints
1. VENERABLE CYRIACUS THE HERMIT
Born in Corinth to parents named John and Eudocia. His father John was a presbyter, and the local bishop Peter was a kinsman of his. In his early youth the bishop appointed him reader of the cathedral church. Reading the Holy Scriptures, the young Cyriacus marveled at the Providence of God: how He glorified all the true servants of the living God, and how He wrought the salvation of the human race. In his eighteenth year the desire for the spiritual life led him to Jerusalem. In Jerusalem he entered the monastery of a certain man of God, Eustorgius, who gave him his initial instruction in the monastic life. He then went to Saint Euthymius, who foresaw in him a future giant of the spirit, clothed him in the great schema, and sent him to Saint Gerasimus on the Jordan, where Cyriacus spent nine years. After the death of Gerasimus he returned to the monastery of Saint Euthymius, where he remained in stillness for ten years. After that he changed place after place, fleeing the praise of men. He practiced asceticism also in the community of Saint Chariton, where at last he ended his earthly path, having completed one hundred and nine years of life. A renowned ascetic and wonderworker, Saint Cyriacus was large and strong of body, and remained so into deep old age, despite his severe fasting and vigils. In the desert he sometimes ate nothing but raw herbs for years at a time. He was greatly zealous for the Orthodox faith, denouncing heresies, especially the heresy of Origen. He said of himself that since becoming a monk the sun had never seen him eating nor being angry at anyone. By the rule of Saint Chariton the monks ate only once a day, and that after sunset. Cyriacus was a great luminary, a pillar of Orthodoxy, a glory to monastics, a mighty healer of the sick, and a gentle comforter of the sorrowful. Having lived long for the benefit of many, he departed to the eternal joy of his Lord in 557.
2. HOLY MARTYRS DADA AND GOBDELAS
Dada was a Persian nobleman and kinsman of King Shapur, and Gobdelas was a son of the same king. When Saint Dada publicly confessed his faith in Christ, King Shapur ordered that he be subjected to cruel tortures. But during those tortures Dada worked great miracles in the name of Christ, which so powerfully moved the king's son Gobdelas that he too believed in Christ. The pagan king did not spare even his own son, but subjected him also to grievous torments. Both Dada and Gobdelas glorified God by their steadfast endurance and many miracles, and amid their tortures surrendered their souls to God. They suffered in the fourth century. Together with them there also suffered — for they too believed in Christ — Gobdelas's sister Casdoa, and the chief pagan priest Gargal.
3. SAINT THEOPHANES THE MERCIFUL
A wealthy citizen of Gaza. He was so merciful that by distributing his possessions to the destitute he himself became destitute. Toward the end of his life the disease of dropsy befell him, and he breathed his last in that illness. But from his body there flowed a healing myrrh by which the sick were healed.
4. SAINT MARY OF PALESTINE
She was at first a reader of the Psalter at the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem. And since she was beautiful of face, many looking upon her were scandalized by sinful thoughts. In order not to be a cause of sin for others, Mary withdrew into the desert of Souka with one basket of beans and one jug of water. Eighteen years Saint Mary lived in the desert, and by the power of God her beans and water were never depleted. The disciples of Saint Cyriacus found her still alive, and afterward buried her.
“A renowned ascetic and wonderworker, Saint Cyriacus was large and strong of body, and remained so into deep old age, despite his severe fasting and vigils.”
Hymn of Praise
Mary, of beautiful face,
Was born fair.
Mary, faithful to Christ,
Prayed to Christ:
— Help me, my Lord,
A powerless woman,
Show me the way of salvation,
To me, a wretch;
I strive not to sin
With Thy help,
But by my face I cause stumbling
To the weakness of others. —
Mary bowed down with tears
Before the living God,
Into the desert, from the eyes
Of men she hid.
With God does Mary speak,
That is her reward;
Her soul became brighter
Than purest gold.
When the years had passed,
Her body withered.
An angel descended and lifted to Paradise
The heavenly woman.
Among the angels now she rejoices,
Shining as an angel,
And for us prays to God, holy Mary.
“An angel descended and lifted to Paradise the heavenly woman.”
Reflection
Many people in their ignorance strive more to ease the pains of old age and mortal sickness than to deliver themselves from the torments of hell in the life after old age and death. There was thus a certain unmarried man, a great lover of silver, who from year to year gathered unnecessary riches with ever greater passion. When asked what he was laboring so hard for and storing up wealth superfluous for his life, he answered: "I am storing up for old age. This wealth will care for me and feed me in old age and sickness." And indeed, his presentiment came true. In old age a grievous and prolonged illness befell him. He gave his saved riches to physicians to treat him and to servants to watch over him and feed him. But the wealth was spent and the illness continued. The physicians and servants abandoned him, and he fell into despair. And his neighbors gave him some bread until his death, and after death he was buried at the expense of the community. To what he had intended his wealth, to that he gave it. God fulfilled his wish and sent him the illness he had spoken of and for which he had prepared great wealth. Yet all his wealth could not ease his torments in this world — and with what will he ease them in the next? With what — when he brought with him neither faith, nor hope, nor deeds of mercy, nor prayers, nor repentance? Someone saw a person who had reposed in great heavenly glory and asked him what he had done to be deemed worthy of such glory. The man answered: "In my earthly life I was a hired laborer of a certain evildoer who never paid me my wages; but I endured all and served to the end, hoping in God." He saw another in even greater glory, and when he asked, that one answered: "I was a leper, and to the end I offered thanksgiving to God for it." But the one who hoarded money for illness in old age was never seen by anyone in heavenly glory in the other world.
“Many people in their ignorance strive more to ease the pains of old age and mortal sickness than to deliver themselves from the torments of hell in the life after old age and death.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the punishment of God by which King Uzziah was punished (II Chronicles 26), namely:
1. How in his arrogance Uzziah approached the altar of God with a censer;
2. How leprosy suddenly appeared on his forehead.
“How leprosy suddenly appeared on his forehead.”
Homily
on the knowledge of the Father and the Son
The equal knows the equal best. The lower does not know the higher, nor the mortal the immortal. The Old Testament prophets and some of the wise men of the ancient world knew God as Creator and Provider, but none knew Him as Parent. Those who knew Him in antiquity knew Him through creation and not through begetting. Through creation they recognized something of the justice and wisdom and power of God, but they did not know His love, for love is known through begetting. The Parent knows the mystery of the begotten, and the begotten knows the love of the parent. The world hath not known Thee, for the world looked upon Thee as Master and upon itself as a slave; but I have known Thee, for I behold Thee as Parent and feel Thy inexpressible love. The world beholds Thee through the veil of Thy works, but I behold Thee face to face, in the eternal beauty of Thy love. That flame of eternal parental and filial love the Lord brought among men, that men might see God in that flame, in that new and heretofore unknown light. This new knowledge of God through love the Lord imparted to His Apostles. And it has come down to us. O that this flame of divine, unfading love would be kindled in us also! That we might thus know God as Parent, and ourselves as His children, adopted through the sacrifice of the Only-Begotten Son of God. O Thrice-flaming God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — enlighten us also, darkened by sin, with the eternal radiance of Thy love. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Through creation they recognized something of the justice and wisdom and power of God, but they did not know His love, for love is known through begetting.”