Lives of the Saints
1. VENERABLE MARTYR LUCIAN, PRESBYTER OF ANTIOCH
Born of noble parents in Samosata in Syria. In his youth he acquired a very broad education, both secular and spiritual. A man renowned as much for his learning as for the ascetic strictness of his life. Having distributed his property to the poor, he supported himself by composing instructive works, and from that, as from a kind of handicraft, he fed himself. He rendered a very great service to the Church by correcting, according to the Hebrew text, many places in Holy Scripture which the heretics had corrupted in accordance with their perverse teaching. Because of his learning and spirituality he was ordained a presbyter in Antioch. During the persecution of Maximian, when Saint Anthimus of Nicomedia and Saint Peter of Alexandria had been tormented, Saint Lucian was also placed on the list of those whom the emperor desired to put to death. Lucian fled from the city and hid, but he was betrayed by an envious heretical priest, Pancratius. At that time the persecution was terrible. Not even small children were spared. Two boys who refused to eat of the sacrifices offered to idols were cast into a scalding bath, where in torment they surrendered their holy souls to God. A certain disciple of Lucian named Pelagia, in order to preserve her virginal purity from debauched assailants, threw herself from the roof of a house to the ground and was killed. Lucian was brought to Nicomedia before the emperor. On the way, by his counsel he succeeded in converting forty soldiers to the faith of Christ. And all suffered a martyr's end. After examination and beating, Saint Lucian was cast into prison, where he was tortured by hunger. "He despised hunger," writes Saint John Chrysostom about Saint Lucian, "let us too despise luxury and destroy the dominion of the belly, so that when the time comes which demands such courage of us, being prepared in advance by lesser ascetic labors, we may show ourselves glorious in the time of battle." On the eve of Theophany he received Holy Communion in prison, and the next day surrendered his spirit to God. He suffered on January 7, in the year 311.
2. VENERABLE EUTHYMIUS THE NEW
Born in Ancyra in 824, of righteous parents, Epiphanius and Anna. He served in the army, married, and had one daughter, Anastasia. He practiced asceticism rigorously and for a long time in the Olympian monasteries, and then on the Holy Mountain. For a time he lived as a stylite near Thessalonica. Near Thessalonica he also founded one monastery for men and one for women. He reposed on the Sacred Island near the Holy Mountain at the end of the ninth century. His holy and wonderworking relics rest in Thessalonica.
“Two boys who refused to eat of the sacrifices offered to idols were cast into a scalding bath, where in torment they surrendered their holy souls to God.”
Hymn of Praise
VENERABLE MARTYR LUCIAN
Lucian the most wise, an ascetic and a scholar,
Boldly walks the path of Christ.
Against the heretics and the darkness of idolatry
Lucian the victorious wages a fierce battle.
The Most Holy Trinity he placed as the foundation,
The Unoriginate Father with the Spirit and the Son,
By word and deed Lucian glorified them,
And confirmed it with his own innocent blood.
Furious Rome collapsed, the heresies perished,
The dishonorable and shameful works were destroyed,
The martyrs raised the Church to the heavens —
The Church outlives all, great and glorious.
This is the kingdom of the saints, a kingdom without end,
Which Daniel prophesied and Christ founded —
O longed-for kingdom, from the world's beginning,
With golden domes above the heavenly roof!
And holy Lucian, a builder of that kingdom,
Labored greatly and gave his all for it.
Now he reigns in glory beside his Jesus,
Raised by God into the angelic host.
“This is the kingdom of the saints, a kingdom without end, which Daniel prophesied and Christ founded.”
Reflection
The saints of God placed great importance on receiving Holy Communion before death. Even martyrs and female martyrs, although they sacrificed their lives for Christ the Lord and washed away all their sins with their martyr's blood, ardently received the Holy Mystery wherever this was possible. Saint Lucian was in prison with several of his disciples and other Christians. When the eve of Theophany came, he desired on that great Christian feast to commune of the Body and Blood of Christ, for he knew that death was near. Seeing the heartfelt desire of His sufferer, God Almighty arranged that certain Christians smuggled bread and wine into the prison. When the Feast of Theophany dawned, Lucian called all the Christians in the prison to stand in a circle around him. "Surround me and be a church." But there was in the prison neither table nor chair, neither stone nor wood on which to celebrate the Holy Liturgy. "Where shall we place the bread and wine, holy father?" they asked Lucian. And he lay down in their midst and ordered them to place the bread and wine on his chest. "Place them on my chest; let the living altar serve the Living God!" And so the Liturgy was celebrated, fully and prayerfully, on the chest of the martyr, and all received Holy Communion. The next day the emperor sent soldiers to bring Lucian out for torture. When the soldiers opened the prison doors, holy Lucian cried out three times: "I am a Christian! I am a Christian! I am a Christian!" And in that moment he surrendered his spirit to God.
“Surround me and be a church.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the miraculous deliverance of the apostles from prison (Acts 5), namely:
1. How the Jewish elders cast the apostles into prison;
2. How the angel of God appeared by night, opened the prison, led the apostles out, and commanded them to go to the church and preach the Gospel.
“How the angel of God appeared by night, opened the prison, led the apostles out, and commanded them to go to the church and preach the Gospel.”
Homily
on how the Lord preserves the bones of the righteous
Let the righteous not be afraid. The all-seeing God watches over them. Or can the All-Seeing One lose or forget anything? On the day of the resurrection He will gather together their entire bodily composition and raise it up in glory. Persecutors cast the bodies of the martyrs into the sea, or buried them in deep pits, or left them in the field for the birds to devour. And the Lord by His Providence so directed events that those holy relics nonetheless came into the hands of the faithful; they were placed with honor in precious reliquaries, churches were built over them, and miraculous power went forth from them. God willed it so in order to show the faithful, first, that He preserves the bones of the righteous, and second, that He has glorified them in the heavenly kingdom, of which the Church on earth is informed through the miraculous power of their glorified bodies. Wonderworking relics are a forerunner of the general and glorious resurrection of the righteous. If the bones of certain righteous ones have been burned or ground to dust, can this be an obstacle to the almighty power of God, that on the day of the resurrection He should reassemble and enliven them from scattered ashes? Not a hair of your head shall perish (Luke 21:18), the Savior assures us. But if you wish to understand "bones" as meaning deeds, then know that the deeds of the unrighteous are like smoke, while the deeds of the righteous are mighty and lasting as strong bones. Not one righteous deed shall be diminished or disappear in the course of time. God knows them and God preserves them, that He may display them as precious pearls before the assembly of angels and men on That Day.
O Lord All-Seeing, Master and Keeper of the righteous, multiply our righteous deeds by Thy Holy Spirit, without Whom nothing good can be done. And save us by Thy mercy and not by our deeds. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“The Lord preserves all their bones; not one of them shall be broken.”