Lives of the Saints
1. VENERABLE MARTYR ANASTASIA THE ROMAN
Born in Rome of noble parents, she was left an orphan at the age of three. As an orphan she was taken into a women's monastery near Rome, where the abbess was a certain Sophia, a nun of a high degree of perfection. After seventeen years Anastasia became known far and wide, among Christians as a great ascetic and among the pagans as a rare beauty. The pagan governor Probus heard of her and sent soldiers to bring her. The good abbess Sophia counseled Anastasia for two hours on how to hold fast to the faith, how to endure flattering deceptions, and how to bear torments. Anastasia said to her: "My heart is ready to suffer for Christ, my soul is ready to die for the sweetest Jesus." Brought before the prince, Anastasia publicly professed her faith in Christ the Lord. And when the prince tried to dissuade her from the faith, first with promises then with threats, the holy martyr said to him: "I am ready to die for my Lord not once but — oh, if only it were possible — a hundred times!" When they had stripped her for mockery, she cried out to the servants: "Strike me, and cut me, and tear me, cover my naked body with wounds, and with blood hide my shame!" She was beaten, torn, and cut. Twice she felt great thirst and asked for water. And a certain Christian named Cyril gave her drink, for which he was blessed by the martyr of Christ and beheaded by the pagans. Her breasts and tongue were cut off. An Angel of God appeared and sustained her. Finally she was beheaded by the sword outside the city. The blessed Sophia found her body and honorably buried it. Anastasia was crowned with the martyr's crown in the time of Emperor Decius.
2. VENERABLE ABRAHAM THE RECLUSE AND HIS NIECE MARY
Compelled by his parents, he married, but on the very day of the wedding he left both bride and parents and home and all, and withdrew into solitude for the great ascetic struggle. He practiced asceticism for fifty years. Only twice did he leave his cell during all that time. The first time he went out by order of the local bishop, to convert to the Christian faith a certain pagan village. The second time he went out to save his wayward niece Mary. He reposed peacefully in the year 360, in the seventieth year of his life on earth.
3. VENERABLE MARTYR TIMOTHY OF ESPHIGMENOU
From Kisani, a village in Thrace. He was married and had two daughters. The Turks seized his wife and converted her to Islam. In order to free his wife from the harem, he himself outwardly converted to Islam. Having freed his wife, he placed her in a women's monastery, and he himself went to the Holy Mountain, first to the Lavra and then to Esphigmenou. Desiring martyrdom for Christ, after the example of Agathangelus of Esphigmenou, he was beheaded in Adrianople on October 29, 1820. His body was thrown into the river, and a garment was brought by the Elder Herman, his spiritual father, to the monastery of Esphigmenou.
“I am ready to die for my Lord not once but — oh, if only it were possible — a hundred times!”
Hymn of Praise
Holy Abraham left his bride
And directed his life to the difficult struggle.
Through the struggle of salvation he saved himself,
And wisely guided others toward salvation.
The power of the demons assailed the saint,
But he crushed it by the name of Christ.
Into various terrors the demon transformed himself,
Only to frighten and hinder the man of God.
He did not let himself, a man of God, be frightened,
Nor from his God his mind be parted,
But like a candle he stood and shone upon the world,
Glorifying one God — the Most Holy Trinity.
Enclosed, alone, and to the world unneeded,
For Christ's sake Abraham was imprisoned,
Fifty years — fifty years!
Of tears, of fasting, of struggle — all for the Son of God,
Fifty years — fifty years!
On a firm foundation — built upon Christ.
Glory to Abraham, the soldier of Christ,
Who on mortal earth shone with immortality!
“The power of the demons assailed the saint, But he crushed it by the name of Christ.”
Reflection
But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved (Matthew 10:22), said the Lord. Faith is the only light in suffering, for suffering by itself represents unbearable darkness. Faith is a shining star in that darkness; faith softens the sharpness of suffering; it upholds upon its wings the full weight of endurance. Saint Abraham provides us a magnificent example of perseverance in suffering. The annoyances that the devil caused him through various temptations and terrors would have moved nearly anyone to leave one place and move to another. But Abraham did not wish to move, lest the evil demon exult, but rather persevered in his place and conquered the devil. The bishop of that region sent Abraham to go to a certain pagan village and attempt to convert it to the Christian faith. After long hesitation Abraham set out, saying: "The will of God be done; I go out of obedience." First he built a church in that village. Then he smashed the idols before the faces of the villagers. At that the villagers beat him and thrashed him half to death, and drove him from their village. But he prayed to God with tears for those people, that the Lord would open the eyes of their hearts to the knowledge of the truth of Christ. And so the pagans continually beat and reviled him for the course of three years, and he continually prayed to God for them, and did not grow angry at them, "enduring in faith like a firm stone." And only after three years were his labor and tears and forgiveness and faith rewarded. All at once the conscience of those villagers was opened, and they all gathered and went to Abraham and bowed before him, and received the Christian faith from him.
“Faith is the only light in suffering, for suffering by itself represents unbearable darkness. Faith is a shining star in that darkness.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the fearful punishment with which Paul punished the sorcerer (Acts 13), namely:
1. How a certain Jewish sorcerer held the proconsul Sergius under his dark power;
2. How Paul by a word made that sorcerer blind;
3. How the proconsul saw this miracle, believed in Christ, and was baptized.
Homily
on the glory of the name of God
From the heart of the prophet, filled with grace, flow words of grace. The prophet speaks of a King and the King's Son, of the most extraordinary King who has ever appeared on earth. His name shall be blessed forever, the prophet said first; and then, as if he had said too little, he now repeats and adds: the name of His glory. The Church of Christ is the glory of Christ. Blessed is His holy Church — the fruit of His labors, the crown of His humiliations, the work of His hands, the flower from His blood! Blessed be even the very name of His Church, holy and salvific! And with His Church, that is, with His work, with His glory, the whole earth shall be filled. With the words "forever and ever" the prophet foretells the immortality of the work of Christ, that is, His Church. She will be built in time and revealed in eternity. She will be built until the end of time, and revealed in her fullness in eternity. O my brethren, let us strive to be built with our souls into the Church of Christ, into that living and immortal body, whose life has no end and whose beauty has no name. Let us strive not to be cast aside as unfit and unnecessary stones, and thrust into the abyss of eternal darkness. O Lord Jesus Christ, King and Son of the King, inscribe us also in the book of the immortals and remember us in Thy heavenly kingdom. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Blessed be the name of His glory forever and ever, and let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and amen.”