LIVES OF THE SAINTS
1. Hieromartyr Acepsimas, Bishop of Naeson, and others with him
The eighty-year-old elder Acepsimas, filled with every Christian virtue, was sitting one day in his home with his guests. At that moment a certain child filled with the grace of the Spirit of God ran up to the old bishop, kissed him on the head, and said: "Blessed is this head, for it will receive torment for Christ!" This prophecy soon came true. King Shapur raised up a fierce persecution of Christians throughout all of Persia, and Saint Acepsimas was seized and brought before a certain prince of the priests. As the captured and bound bishop stood there, one of his household approached and asked what he commanded concerning his house. The saint replied to him: "That is no longer my house; I am departing irrevocably to the house on high." After great interrogations he was cast into prison, where the next day Joseph, a presbyter and elder of seventy years, and Aithalas the deacon were also brought. After three years of imprisonment and many torments, they beheaded Acepsimas, and Joseph and Aithalas they buried up to their hips in the earth, and the merciless ones commanded Christians to stone them. Joseph's body disappeared that night by Divine Providence, and over the body of Aithalas grew a myrtle tree, which healed every disease and every affliction in people. And so it remained for five years, but then the malicious and envious unbelievers cut down that tree. These soldiers of Christ suffered in the fourth century in Persia during the reign of the pagan king Shapur.
2. Holy Great Martyr George
On this day is celebrated the translation of the relics of Saint George from Nicomedia to the city of Lydda in Palestine, where he suffered in the time of Emperor Diocletian. The passion of this wondrous saint is described under April 23. Before his death, Saint George entreated his servant to take his body after death and carry it to Palestine, whence his mother was by birth, and where he had a great estate, which he distributed to the poor. The servant did so. In the time of Emperor Constantine, a beautiful church of Saint George was built in Lydda by pious Christians, and at the consecration of that church the relics of the saint were transferred into it and buried there. Innumerable miracles have occurred from the wonderworking relics of Saint George, the Great Martyr of Christ.
3. Venerable Elias of Egypt
Elias struggled ascetically near Antinopolis, the chief city of the Thebaid. He lived seventy years in the harsh and inaccessible rocks of the desert. He fed only on bread and dates, and in his youth he fasted for whole weeks at a time. He healed all afflictions and infirmities in people. He trembled all over from old age. He reposed in the one hundred and tenth year of his life and departed into the joy of his Lord. "Guard your mind from evil thoughts about your neighbors, knowing that demons introduce them with the purpose of drawing the mind away from seeing its own sins and from striving toward God."
“That is no longer my house; I am departing irrevocably to the house on high.”
HYMN OF PRAISE
George the martyr
George the victorious:
O have mercy now upon us
Protect us with prayers
Before the throne of Christ God
Our almighty Savior:
That we fear not torments
That through suffering we conquer!
George the martyr
George the victorious:
Through torments thou didst conquer
And through death wast glorified
Thou didst hold all cheaper
Than the truth, O George
Power and earthly honor thou gavest up
And stood with the living Christ.
George the martyr
George the victorious
Torn, broken, with terrible torment
Thou wast held by God's hand
All torments were light to thee—
Because of God's mighty hand.
We all bow down to thee
Thy name we glorify.
REFLECTION
Among the numerous miracles of Saint George, one is told thus: on the island of Mytilene there was a church of Saint George the Great Martyr and Victorious. The inhabitants of that entire island would gather at that church on the annual feast of the saint. Learning of this, the Saracens from Crete attacked the island one year on the feast day, plundered and enslaved the people, and returned to Crete. On that occasion a certain handsome young man was also captured, whom the pirates presented to their prince in Crete. The prince received him and appointed him as his cup-bearer. The young man's parents were in very great sorrow for their son. When a year had passed and again the day of Saint George came, then the sorrowful parents, according to ancient custom, set a table and entertained many guests. Remembering her son, the wretched mother went before the icon of the saint, fell to the ground, and began to pray to Saint George to deliver her son from captivity as he knew how. Then the mother returned to the guests at the table. Then the master raised a cup and drank to the glory of Saint George. In that instant their son appeared among them holding in his hand a small glass of wine. When all asked him with amazement and fear, whence and how he came to be there, the young man replied that just as he was about to serve wine to his master in Crete, some knight on horseback appeared before him, took him onto his horse, and instantly transported him to his parents' home. All marveled and glorified God and His wondrous saint George the commander and victorious one.
CONTEMPLATION
Contemplate the wondrous deliverance of Paul and Silas from prison (Acts 16), namely:
1. How these holy apostles were cast into the innermost prison and their feet put in the stocks;
2. How at midnight they were in prayer praising God;
3. How the earth shook, the chains fell from those who were bound, and the prison doors opened.
HOMILY
on Christ as the head of all saints
That in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth (Eph. 1:10).
Sin maddens, sin beheads. A man sunk in sins and vices is like a chicken whose head has been cut off, which in dying convulses and jumps here and there. The entire pagan world before Christ the Lord represents a beheaded mass that is dying in convulsions. Christ joined the severed head with the dark torso and brought to life the body of the human race. He is the head of the heavenly host, and this He never ceased to be. And as the creative Word of God, He was from the very beginning the head also of all the created visible world, especially of the human race. But by sin as by a sword, sinful Adam separated the torso from the head. By becoming incarnate on earth, the Lord reconciled heaven and earth, bringing heaven down to earth and raising earth up to heaven, and placing all under His mind, under His headship. Through Christ we are reconciled with the Holy Trinity, and with the angels of God, and with one another, and with created nature around us. The lost head has been found and all has been harmoniously ordered under it. We have the mind of Christ, says the Apostle. What the head is to the bodily man, the mind is to the spiritual, inner man. If we are Christ's, therefore, we must think and judge with Christ as our head—about everything we must think and judge only by Him and through Him. And thinking and judging by Him, we will feel ourselves to be organs of one body with other people and with the angels, one body whose head is Christ. Thence our love toward God is enkindled and our faith is strengthened and our hope is illumined. Only a sleeping body does not feel its connection with its head. Let us awaken, my brethren, let us awaken in time.
O Lord Jesus Christ, our all-wise Head, unite us with Thyself. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Sin maddens, sin beheads. A man sunk in sins and vices is like a chicken whose head has been cut off.”