Lives of the Saints
1. HIEROMARTYR ELEUTHERIUS
From a good tree comes good fruit also. This wondrous saint had parents noble and renowned. Eleutherius was born in Rome, where his father was the imperial proconsul. His mother Anthia heard the Gospel from the great Apostle Paul himself, and by this apostle was baptized. Left a widow early, she gave her only son for instruction and service to Anicetus, Bishop of Rome. Seeing Eleutherius gifted by God and enlightened by God's grace, the bishop ordained him in his fifteenth year as deacon, in his eighteenth as presbyter, and in his twentieth as bishop. God-given wisdom compensated in Eleutherius for what he lacked in years. And this God-pleaser was appointed bishop of Illyria with his see in Valona (Avlona) in Albania. The good shepherd guarded his flock well and increased it from day to day. Adrian, the Christ-persecuting emperor, sent a certain General Felix with soldiers to capture and bring Eleutherius to Rome. When the furious Felix arrived in Valona and entered the church, seeing and hearing God's holy hierarch, suddenly his heart was changed and he became a Christian. Eleutherius baptized him and went with him to Rome, going joyfully as if going to a feast and not to trial and torments. The emperor imposed cruel tortures upon the noble Eleutherius: flogging, burning on an iron bed, boiling in pitch, burning in a fiery furnace. But by God's power Eleutherius was delivered from all these deadly tortures. Seeing all this, Corib, the Roman eparch, himself declared that he was a Christian. Corib was tortured and then beheaded. Likewise also blessed Felix. Finally the imperial executioners cut off the honorable head of Saint Eleutherius also. When his mother came to the dead body of her son, Saint Anthia too was beheaded. Their bodies were transferred to Valona, where Saint Eleutherius to this very day glorifies the name of Christ by many miracles. He suffered in the time of Hadrian, in the year 120.
2. SAINT STEPHEN THE CONFESSOR OF SUROZH
Stephen was from Cappadocia. Stephen was raised in Constantinople under Patriarch Saint Germanus. Stephen withdrew into solitude and lived hidden from the world. An angel revealed him to Saint Germanus and commanded him to appoint Stephen as bishop of the city of Surozh (present-day Sudak in Crimea). The patriarch did so. The zealous Stephen converted many to Christianity. Stephen suffered bitterly under Emperor Leo the Isaurian for the icons. Stephen foretold the emperor's swift destruction. After the evil death of this evil emperor, Stephen was returned to his diocese, where he tended his flock in a God-pleasing manner and reposed peacefully at the end of the eighth century.
3. VENERABLE PAUL OF LATROS
Paul was from Pergamum; Paul struggled on a mountain called Latros in Asia Minor. Paul was glorified by many struggles and miracles. Paul reposed peacefully in old age and passed to the Lord in the year 950.
4. VENERABLE PARDUS THE HERMIT
Pardus in his youth was a muleteer, but because of one unintentional sin Pardus abandoned the world and withdrew into the desert to struggle. Pardus lived in Palestine in the sixth century.
Hymn of Praise
Eleutherius, God's saint,
Did not hide God's truth from men,
By God's truth he enlightened men,
Salvation to each and all he offered.
Let the Church of God rejoice,
Let all Illyria be glad,
Behold, God sent her a wondrous man,
A true saint—Eleutherius.
His very name signifies freedom,
Freedom Eleutherius bears,
True freedom from slavery to sin
There is no true freedom without Christ.
Let the city of Valona also rejoice,
The saint's relics lie within her,
Miraculous relics that heal the sick,
A flame from which demons flee.
Blessed the mother who bore a saint,
Thrice blessed Saint Anthia,
In paradise's garden now she is blessed
And beholds her son Eleutherius.
Pray for us, Eleutherius,
That the gracious God may have mercy on us also.
“His very name signifies freedom. True freedom from slavery to sin — there is no true freedom without Christ.”
Reflection
For unintentional manslaughter an earthly court acquits the killer. The Church, however, imposes a penance upon the unintentional killer, a penance much lighter than for an intentional killer, but nevertheless does not leave him without penance. If a priest has killed unintentionally, the Church forbids him priestly service for life. A Christian with a sensitive soul and sharpened conscience imposes upon himself an even heavier penance than the Church has prescribed. Saint Pardus as a muleteer had once come to Jericho. Leaving his mules before the inn, he entered the inn. Just then a certain child fell under a mule, and the mule trampled it with its feet and killed it. When Pardus saw the dead and bloody child, killed by his mule, he was so broken in heart as if he himself were intentionally guilty of the child's death. And this conscientious man imposed upon himself a most severe penance: he left his occupation, abandoned the world, though he was still quite young, and withdrew to the harsh desert for the difficult struggle of bodily and spiritual labor and repentance. With much weeping he offered repentance to God for the killing of the child. He desired to pay for the child's life with his own life. And he prayed to God that God would somehow arrange this. He provoked a lion, that the lion might tear him apart, but the lion fled from him. He lay down on a narrow path where the lion walked, that he might be killed by the beast, but the lion jumped over him and would not touch him. Seeing by this that it was God's will that he live and not perish, he was calmed, but remained until his death a broken penitent. Is this not a sensitive, humane and God-fearing soul? Is this not the refined and sharpened conscience of a true Christian?
“A Christian with a sensitive soul and sharpened conscience imposes upon himself an even heavier penance than the Church has prescribed.”
Contemplation
Contemplate Abraham's mighty faith (Gen. 15), namely:
1. How God promised childless and aged Abraham abundant offspring;
2. How God promised him posterity as numerous as the stars in heaven;
3. How Abraham believed God, contrary to all, and how God received this in righteousness.
Homily
on Joseph
And he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out (Gen. 39:12)
Two great and difficult temptations Joseph the guileless and chaste endured and conquered: the temptation of malicious envy from his own brothers, and the temptation of lustful passion from the seductive Egyptian woman. Envy sold him as a slave, and lustful passion sent him innocent into prison. And in both cases he returned good for evil: to his hungry brothers he gave food, and for the terrified Pharaoh he saved both life and throne and people. His brothers plotted to kill him, God preserved him; the lustful woman plotted to destroy him, God preserved him. From a slave and prisoner God crowned him with glory and unlimited power. And from him whom his malicious brothers could have killed with one blow, and whom the powerful wife of Potiphar could have crushed with one wink, God made an unlimited lord over the lives of many millions of people and the sole provider of his starving brothers. Such is the wondrous mercy of God toward the righteous. Thus the Lord knows how to preserve and glorify the guileless and the chaste. In the greatness of Joseph's destiny we see the greatness of God's mercy. One eye never sleeps, O my brethren. Let us hold fast to God and fear no one. Let us be guileless and chaste and fear neither malice, nor slander, nor prison, nor mockery, nor misery. On the contrary, let us rejoice when all this befalls us because of guilelessness and chastity, let us rejoice and with faith await the manifestation of God's miracle with us. Let us await in every storm the thunder of God's justice and stillness.
O mysterious Lord, who secretly yet watchfully followest the righteous man in bondage and in prison, manifesting Thy mercy in Thine own time, help us to be guileless and chaste. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
“Let us hold fast to God and fear no one.”