Lives of the Saints
1. HOLY MARTYR CECILIA
Cecilia was born in Rome of wealthy and notable parents and had great faith in Christ the Lord and great zeal for the faith. Having vowed lifelong virginity to God, holy Cecilia wore a sharp hairshirt beneath the precious garments which her parents gave her. And when her parents compelled her to marriage, and that with a certain pagan, Valerian, she counseled her bridegroom on the first night to go to Bishop Urban and be baptized, and then himself to live a virginal life. Having received the Christian Faith, Valerian converted his brother Tiburtius to it as well. Both these brothers were soon thereafter condemned to death because of the faith. But their faithfulness did not weaken even before death itself. Being led to the place of execution, these wondrous brothers succeeded in converting to the faith the commander of the guard, Maximus. All three together suffered for Christ the Lord. Saint Cecilia buried their bodies together. Then Cecilia too was brought to trial, for she untiringly won over pagans to the Christian Faith. In one evening alone she won over four hundred souls. When the judge asked her whence came such boldness, she answered: "From a pure conscience and from faith without doubt." After cruel tortures she was condemned to beheading by the sword. The executioner struck her three times on the neck with the sword but could not kill her; he only wounded her, and from the wound blood flowed, which the faithful collected in handkerchiefs, sponges, and vessels for healing. Three days after this the martyr and virgin of Christ gave up her spirit to her Lord, with whom she rejoices eternally. Saint Cecilia suffered with the others around the year 230. Her relics rest in the Church of her name in Rome. In the Western Church Saint Cecilia is considered the patroness of church singing and music.
2. SAINT CALLISTUS, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE
Callistus was called Xanthopulos after the cell of Xanthopoul on Mount Athos, where he struggled ascetically for a long time with his friend Ignatius. With this Ignatius, Saint Callistus wrote his own account of the silent life in one hundred chapters. This work occupies a very prominent place in ascetical literature. Callistus was under the great influence of his teacher Saint Gregory of Sinai, whose Life he wrote. As Patriarch of Constantinople, Saint Callistus once went to Serbia, and on that journey he fell ill and died (as Saint Maximus Kapsokalivis in the Holy Mountain had predicted to him before the journey).
3. HOLY MARTYR MENIGNUS
Menignus was a native of the Hellespont and worked bleaching cloth, for which reason he was called the Bleacher. In the time of Emperor Decius he tore up the imperial decree about the persecution of Christians. For this he was thrown into prison, where the Lord Himself appeared to him and encouraged him saying: "Fear not, I am with thee." In that moment his chains melted like wax, the prison opened by itself, and he went out. Recaptured and tried again. He was tortured inhumanly: they cut off his fingers from his hands and his toes from his feet, and then they beheaded him. His head glowed at night like a candle.
4. SAINT MICHAEL THE RIGHTEOUS SOLDIER
Michael was a Bulgarian by birth. With his company he fought in the Greek army against the Hagarenes and Ethiopians. He showed miracles of fearlessness. He killed a terrible dragon and freed a maiden. Soon after this the righteous man passed into eternal life. He lived and died in the ninth century. He was buried first somewhere in Thrace, and in the year 1206 Tsar Kalo-John transferred his relics to Tarnovo.
5. HOLY APOSTLE PHILEMON, ARCHIPPUS AND APPHIA
(See February 19).
Hymn of Praise
Cecilia mighty in faith,
Rich in faith,
Her faith more beautiful than stars,
More precious than gold.
For the Lord as for a cross
She nailed herself to Christ,
Youth, joy, marriage, and honor,
She sacrificed to Christ.
Nothing can the fierce demon
Steal from her;
When only her body remained,
She gave it to Christ.
And the whole world she would give
For love of Christ,
And two worlds with her body
And her pure soul.
Such a flame faith kindles,
The flame of love.
Cecilia with this flame
Glorified herself.
“Thou seekest my body, corruption seeks corruption, while the immortal spirit is blessed with immortality.”
Reflection
In vain is all labor about learning without labor about purity of faith and life. The heavenly world is not revealed to the learned but to the pure. When holy Cecilia was brought on the first night into the bridal chamber with her bridegroom Valerian, she said to the bridegroom: "I wish to tell thee a secret: here is an angel of God, guardian of my virginity, whom thou dost not see; he stands here ready to protect me, his handmaiden, from violence; if thou dost but touch me, he will kill thee." Hearing this, Valerian began to ask Cecilia to show him the angel, that he too might see. The virgin answered him: "Thou art a man who dost not know the true God, and thou canst not see the angel of God until thou dost cleanse thyself from the defilement of thy unbelief." When Valerian was baptized, he saw the angel in great light and beauty ineffable. Likewise also Tiburtius, Valerian's brother, when he was baptized and changed his life from impurity to purity, saw the holy angels and conversed with them. Likewise also Maximus, their fellow sufferer, when those two brothers had been beheaded, swore with a great oath before the executioners and the people all around, saying: "I see the angels of God bright as the sun taking the souls from the bodies of the martyrs, like beautiful maidens from the bridal chamber, and carrying them with great glory to heaven." But what he saw neither saw nor could see the unfaithful and impure.
“I see the angels of God bright as the sun taking the souls from the bodies of the martyrs, like beautiful maidens from the bridal chamber.”
Contemplation
Contemplate the wondrous creation of the world, namely:
1. How God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there placed man;
2. How God caused trees to grow in Paradise beautiful to behold and good for food;
3. How God brought before man all the animals, and man gave them names.
Homily
on what constitutes the unity of the faithful
One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all (Eph. 4:5–6)
Behold the reason great, most great, and clear, most clear, why we Christians all should hold the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, and be one body and one spirit. For we have one Lord Jesus Christ, our Creator, Redeemer, and Resurrector. And there are not two true Christs, that there should be duality among us. One and the same blood was poured out from the Cross for all of us, just as one and the same lips prayed for all of us in Gethsemane. One faith we have in the Divine Trinity, undivided and life-giving, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one essence, three hypostases: in the Father unbegotten, in the Son begotten, and the Spirit proceeding from the Father. One baptism we have in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; baptism by triple immersion in water, for death to sin and the devil and for resurrection and life to Christ the Lord. One God and Father of all – this is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, who through Christ and because of Christ adopts us and gives us the right to say to Him: Our Father. Do ye see, my brethren, what bonds bind us? Not even the stars are bound to one another by stronger bonds, nor water to earth, nor fire to air. Do ye see how great, most great reasons call us to unity? Everything else that from the left side would urge us toward division is petty compared to these reasons, as a grain of sand compared to high mountains. The devil cannot destroy our unity if we do not help him. The devil can never conquer us if we do not surrender to him ourselves.
O Lord Jesus, sweet and good, how firmly Thou hast bound us to eternal good! Keep us in that bond. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Not even the stars are bound to one another by stronger bonds, nor water to earth, nor fire to air.”