Lives of the Saints
1. HOLY APOSTLE JAMES, THE BROTHER OF THE LORD
He is called the Brother of the Lord because he was the son of the righteous Joseph, the betrothed of the Most Holy Theotokos. When the righteous Joseph was near death, he divided his property among his sons and wished to leave a portion also to the Lord Jesus, the Son of the Most Holy Virgin Mary; but all the brothers opposed this, not considering Jesus their brother. James greatly loved Jesus and declared that he would take Him as his own share. And therefore he is called the Brother of the Lord. James from the beginning was devoted to the Lord Jesus. According to tradition, he even went to Egypt with the Most Holy Virgin and Joseph when Herod sought to slay the newborn King. As soon as he heard the teaching of Christ, Saint James began to live according to it. It is said of him that throughout his entire life he ate neither oil nor fat, but lived only on bread and water. And he was a virgin to the end of his life. He kept vigil much at night and prayed to God. The Lord numbered him among His Seventy Apostles. After His glorious Resurrection, the Lord Jesus appeared to him personally, as the Holy Apostle Paul testifies (I Corinthians 15). He was Bishop of Jerusalem for thirty years and zealously governed the Church of God. By the Lord's instruction he composed the first Liturgy, which was too long for later Christians, so that Saints Basil and John Chrysostom had to shorten it. He converted many Jews and Greeks to the faith of Christ. Even the unbelieving Jews marveled at his righteousness and called him James the Just. But when Anan became high priest, he together with other Jewish elders plotted to kill James as a preacher of Christ. Once, at the feast of Pascha, when many people had gathered in Jerusalem, the elders told him to climb to the roof of the Temple and speak against Christ. Saint James climbed up and began to speak to the people about Christ as the Son of God and the true Messiah, about His Resurrection and His eternal glory in the heavens. The enraged priests and elders pushed him from the roof, and he fell and was greatly injured, but was still alive. At that moment a certain man ran up and struck him on the head so forcefully that his brains came out of his head. And thus by a martyr's death this most glorious Apostle of Christ ended his life and departed to the Kingdom of his Lord. James was sixty-three years old when he suffered for his Lord.
2. SAINT IGNATIUS, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE
The son of Emperor Michael Rangabe. He became patriarch after Saint Methodius in the year 846. In 858 he was deposed from the throne and sent into exile. In his place Photius, the emperor's first secretary, was installed as patriarch. But when Emperor Basil the Macedonian came to the throne, he restored Ignatius to the patriarchate. And Saint Ignatius governed the Church with great zeal and wisdom. He built the Monastery of the Holy Archangel, in which he also reposed in the Lord in the eighty-ninth year of his earthly life.
3. HOLY MARTYR JAMES OF BOROVICHI
About this saint only as much is known as he himself revealed after his death in a vision to the people of the town of Borovichi. His body floated one day down the river Msta to Borovichi in the year 1540 and there came to rest. From his relics many miracles were manifested.
“By the Lord's instruction he composed the first Liturgy, which was too long for later Christians, so that Saints Basil and John Chrysostom had to shorten it.”
Hymn of Praise
James, the Brother of the Lord, a most beautiful righteous one,
Explained the teaching of Christ by his life.
When they tortured him, he meekly knelt,
And prayed to God for his murderers.
In the hardest place, in the hardest time,
He patiently bore the episcopal burden.
As a good shepherd he governed the Church;
By word and by deed he glorified the Lord.
He taught people to love Jesus,
And taught the faithful to pray to God.
O vain man, what good is faith alone?
Faith without works is like empty straw.
Let him hear the teaching, whoever has ears:
Faith without works is like a body without a spirit.
Whence come wars, detested by all?
From the impure passions in your members.
All men wage war and have no peace,
For they desire evil in their hearts and shed blood.
He who turns one sinner from his error,
The Lord shall repay with eternal life.
The Jews slew righteous James —
Nay, they slew themselves! Him they glorified.
O wondrous James, holy apostle,
Help the faithful who pray to thee.
“O vain man, what good is faith alone? Faith without works is like empty straw.”
Reflection
Grace is from God, but labor is from us. Let no one, therefore, even think that the holy apostles relied solely on God-given grace, and that things were easy for them, and that they accomplished their great task in the world without labor. Does not the Apostle Paul say: I chastise my body and subdue it, lest having preached to others I myself should be cast out (I Corinthians 9:27)? And in yet another place does he not say how he spent his life in fear, in labor and toil, in many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, in much fasting, in cold and nakedness (II Corinthians 11:26-27)? The holy Apostle James fed himself only on bread, and that not to fullness; he slept very little and spent his nights in prayer. He knelt so much in prayer that the skin on his knees grew hard like the skin on a camel's knees. This Brother of the Lord prayed with weeping and sighing not only for the Church which he governed but for the whole world. And when he was pushed from the roof of the Temple by the malicious Jews, so that he was completely broken, the holy apostle did not forget for a single moment his duty toward God and men. Gathering his last strength, he rose to his knees, stretched his hands toward heaven, and fervently prayed to God, saying: "Forgive them, Lord, this sin, for they know not what they do." While he was praying thus, the malicious men were striking him with stones from every side. Seeing this, one of the sons of Rechab cried out: "Stop! What are you doing? The righteous one is praying to God for you, and you are killing him!" But that cry of one compassionate soul could not restrain the murderers, accustomed to crime, from killing the saint of God. The apostles, therefore, did not rely on grace alone, but with great grace they invested nearly superhuman labor to show themselves worthy of God's grace.
“Grace is from God, but labor is from us. Let no one, therefore, even think that the holy apostles relied solely on God-given grace, and that things were easy for them, and that they accomplished their great task in the world without labor.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the miraculous resurrection of Tabitha (Acts 9), namely:
1. How Tabitha had died and lay dead upon her bed;
2. How the Apostle Peter prayed to God for her and said: Tabitha, arise!
3. How Tabitha came to life and arose.
Homily
on the beauty of the King's daughter
The Church of God is the daughter of the King. However outwardly poor, and unattractive to the bodily eye, and persecuted, and humiliated, she is inwardly filled with royal splendor and beauty. The King constitutes the beauty of the King's daughter, He who is fairer than the children of men. The Church of God is as the garment of Christ; Christ lives in her. No outward beauty can be compared with the inner beauty, that is, with the beauty of Christ. The Most Holy Theotokos is the King's daughter. She is clothed in golden garments and embroidered. These are the virtues of her soul. And that by garments are meant virtues is clear from the parable of the wedding feast of the King's Son. The man who was not clothed in a wedding garment was cast out from the King's table and punished (Matthew 22:11). The truth of faith in God — that was the golden garment of the Most Holy Virgin, and virginity, meekness, mercy, holiness, prayerfulness, submission to the will of God, and all the other virtues were like embroidery upon that golden garment. But all her beauty is made by Christ the Lord, hidden within her and born of her. And the soul of every faithful Christian is also like the King's daughter. All the beauty of that soul is in Christ and from Christ, who is within the soul. But a soul without Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, is in darkness, without countenance and beauty, just as the entire universe would be without countenance and beauty without the material sun. O great and gracious Lord, our true God and our loving Provider, help us to clothe ourselves in the garment of virtue, that we may not be found naked at Thy Dread Judgment. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“All the beauty of the King's daughter is within.”