Lives of the Saints
1. THE PROTECTION OF THE MOST HOLY THEOTOKOS
The Church has from of old glorified the Most Holy Theotokos as the protectress and defender of the Christian race, who by her intercessory prayers propitiates God toward us sinners. Countless times the help of the Most Holy Theotokos has been manifestly shown to individuals and to nations, in peace and in war, in monastic deserts and in populous cities. The event which the Church commemorates and celebrates today demonstrates precisely this enduring protection of the Most Holy Theotokos over the Christian race. On October 1, 911, in the time of Emperor Leo the Wise (or the Philosopher), there was an all-night vigil in the Church of the Theotokos at Blachernae in Constantinople. The church was full of people. In the back of the church stood Saint Andrew the Fool-for-Christ with his disciple Epiphanius. In the fourth hour of the night the Most Holy Theotokos appeared above the people with her omophorion spread out upon her hands, as though covering the people with that garment. She was clad in gold-adorned purple and shone with ineffable radiance, surrounded by apostles, saints, martyrs, and virgins. Saint Andrew, seeing this apparition, pointed it out to the blessed Epiphanius and asked him: "Do you see, brother, the Queen and Lady over all, how she prays for the whole world?" Epiphanius answered: "I see it, Father, and am struck with awe!" For this reason this celebration was established, to remind us both of that event and of the constant protection of the Most Holy Theotokos, whenever we prayerfully seek that protection, that covering of hers, in our afflictions.
2. HOLY APOSTLE ANANIAS
One of the Seventy. He was bishop in Damascus. According to a revelation of God (Acts 9), he baptized Saul, the later Apostle Paul. Despite all persecutions he courageously preached the Gospel, for which he was stoned to death in the city of Eleutheropolis. His holy relics were translated to Damascus and later to Constantinople.
3. VENERABLE ROMANOS THE MELODIST
By origin from the Syrian city of Emesa. He served as a church sacristan first in Beirut and then in Constantinople at the cathedral church in the time of Patriarch Euthymius (490-504). He was unlettered and unskilled in chanting, for which certain learned clerics mocked him. Saint Romanos tearfully prayed to the Most Holy Theotokos, and she appeared to him in a dream, offered him a scroll of paper (called a kontakion), and told him to swallow it. The next day dawned as the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, and Romanos went up to the ambo and with an angelic voice sang: "Today the Virgin gives birth to Him." All were amazed both at the content of this hymn and the voice of the singer. Having received from the Theotokos the gift of hymnody, Romanos composed over one thousand kontakia. As a deacon of the Great Church, he reposed in the year 510 in Constantinople and was translated to the angelic choirs.
4. VENERABLE JOHN KOUKOUZELIS
A Slav from Durres (Dyrrachium). As a youth he was taken to a music school in Constantinople, where he became the favorite singer at the imperial court. Fearing human flattery and praise, he fled to the Holy Mountain and presented himself at the Great Lavra as a shepherd. As a shepherd and monk he practiced extraordinary asceticism. The Most Holy Theotokos appeared to him on two occasions. He reposed in the Lord in the twelfth century.
5. VENERABLE GREGORY
A monk of the Lavra on the Holy Mountain from the fourteenth century.
“Do you see, brother, the Queen and Lady over all, how she prays for the whole world?”
Hymn of Praise
Saint Romanos in the midst of the service
Appeared upon the ambo
And sang a wondrous hymn
In an angelic, sweet tone:
"Today the Virgin gives birth to Him
"Who was before all things;
"The earth offers to Him the Unapproachable
"A cave — a humble dwelling,
"And the wise men by the trail of a star
"Hasten to visit Him.
"For our sake the eternal God
"Is born as an infant of milk!"
Hearing this hymn
All felt delight,
And on the faces of all the people
There was mighty amazement.
Glory be to the Mother of God,
Who hears tearful prayers,
Who prayerful petitions of the devout
Most graciously fulfills.
“Glory be to the Mother of God, who hears tearful prayers, who most graciously fulfills prayerful petitions.”
Reflection
The Most Holy Theotokos has often appeared to holy people for various needs — whether to encourage them in their ascetic labors, to heal them of illness, or to reveal to them some mystery. Two somewhat similar and wondrous events occurred in the Great Lavra on the Holy Mountain, one with Saint John Koukouzelis and one with Saint Gregory the monk, only at different times. During the Great Akathist in Lent, and after its singing, John had grown weary and sat down in a stall facing the icon of the Theotokos. As soon as he sat down, he fell asleep. Then the Most Holy and Most Pure One appeared to him in all her heavenly radiance and said to him: "Rejoice, O John! Sing and do not cease to sing, and for this I shall not forsake thee." With these words she placed a gold coin in John's hand. When John started from sleep, the gold coin was in his hand. Astonishing miracles afterward took place both from the icon of the Theotokos and from that gold coin. The second event occurred with the monk Gregory. He, like Koukouzelis, was a chanter in the church. Patriarch Callistus had established that at the liturgies of Saint Basil the hymn "In Thee Rejoiceth" be sung instead of "It Is Truly Meet." His successor Patriarch Philotheus discontinued this and ordered that for the sake of brevity "It Is Truly Meet" always be sung. But once on the eve of Theophany, and in the presence of Gregory the Patriarch of Alexandria, Gregory the monk sang "In Thee Rejoiceth." After that the Most Holy and Most Pure One immediately appeared to him, as she had to Koukouzelis, placed a gold coin in his hand, and said: "I greatly thank thee for thy singing in my honor." Because of this and from that time it was established that at the liturgies of Saint Basil "In Thee Rejoiceth" always be sung.
“Rejoice, O John! Sing and do not cease to sing, and for this I shall not forsake thee.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the iniquities of King Ahaz and the punishments of God (II Chronicles 28), namely:
1. How Ahaz did that which was evil before the Lord all the days of his life;
2. How he raised up idols in all the corners of Jerusalem and throughout the whole land, and bowed down to them;
3. How he fought many wars and was defeated in all of them, his land was laid waste, hundreds of thousands perished, and as many were led into captivity.
Homily
on the blessed man
Blessed is he, above all, brethren, who is not so hardened by sin that he can hear and fulfill the counsel of God, which comes through the prophet. The ungodly are those who think everything contrary to God and the will of God; sinners are those who walk in the way of their own desires and their own thoughts, contrary to the desire of God and the Law of God; destroyers are those who, having ruined themselves by evil deeds, ruin others as well. And so first comes the evil thought (evil counsel), then the evil deed, then the evil example — scandal. Blessed, therefore, is the man who neither seeks counsel from ungodly people nor agrees with his own ungodly thoughts, but finds sufficient counsel for all he needs for salvation in the Law of God. Blessed is the man who never stood in the way on which sinners walk, or if he stood, repented and returned to the way of life, which is from the Lord. Blessed is the man who did not sit in the arena of the destroyers of innocent souls, to scandalize and destroy innocent souls by his scandalous example. For it is said of the one who causes scandal: it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea (Matthew 18:6). My brethren, blessed are all of you, both men and women, who carefully flee from these three evils: from ungodly thoughts and counsels, from the deeds of sinners, and from the scandal of others. All these three evils are as one and the same venomous serpent, which from a small snake grows into a great serpent. O good Lord, our Creator, help us by Thy power and Thy goodness to be saved from this fierce serpent, which Thou, O Christ the Lord, hast defeated with the invincible weapon of Thy Honorable Cross. Help us to heed only Thy counsel, to walk only in Thy way, and to shine only by Thy example. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the destroyers.”