The Holy Martyrs Trophimus, Theophilus, and thirteen martyrs with them, suffered during the persecution against Christians under the emperor Diocletian (284-305). Brought to trial, they bravely confessed themselves Christians and refused to offer sacrifice to idols. After fierce tortures, they broke the legs of the holy martyrs and threw them into a fire. Strengthened by the Lord, they came out of the fire completely unharmed, and they glorified Christ all the more. Unable to break the will of the holy confessors, the torturers beheaded them.

Saint Apollinaris was a disciple of the Apostle Peter, whom he followed from Antioch to Rome sometime during the reign of the Roman emperor Claudius (41-54). Saint Peter appointed Apollinaris as Bishop of Ravenna. Arriving in Ravenna as a stranger, Saint Apollinaris asked shelter of a local inhabitant, the soldier Irenaeus, and during their conversation he revealed the purpose for which he had come.

Irenaeus had a blind son, whom Saint Apollinaris healed, after he had prayed to the Lord. The soldier Irenaeus and his family were the first people in Ravenna to believe in Christ. The saint stayed at the house of Irenaeus and preached about Christ to everyone who wished to hear his words. One of the miracles that Saint Apollinaris performed was the healing of Thekla, the incurably sick wife of the tribune. Through the prayers of the saint, she got up from her bed completely healthy. Not only did she believe in Christ, but so did her husband the tribune. In their house Saint Apollinaris set up a small church, where he celebrated the Divine Liturgy. Saint Apollinaris ordained two presbyters, Aderetus and Calocyrus, and also two deacons for the newly-baptized people of Ravenna.

Saint Apollinaris labored with great zeal, preaching the Gospel at Ravenna for twelve years, and the number of Christians steadily increased. Pagan priests complained about the bishop to the governor Saturninus. The hierarch was brought to trial and subjected to grievous tortures. Thinking that he had died, the torturers took him out of the city to the seacoast and threw him into the water. The saint, however, was still alive. A certain pious Christian widow helped him and gave him shelter in her home. Saint Apollinaris stayed with her for six months, and secretly continued to preach about Christ. The saint’s whereabouts became known when he restored the power of speech to an illustrious resident of the city named Boniface, whose wife had requested the saint to help her husband.

After this miracle many pagans were converted to Christ, and once again Saint Apollinaris was brought to trial and tortured. His bare feet were placed on red-hot coals. They expelled him from the city a second time, but the Lord again kept him alive. The saint did not cease preaching until he left the city. For a certain time Saint Apollinaris found himself elsewhere in Italy, where he continued to preach the Gospel as before. Returning to his flock in Ravenna, Saint Apollinaris went on trial yet again and was sentenced to banishment.

In heavy fetters, he was placed on a ship bound for Illyrica and the Danube River. Two soldiers were responsible for escorting him to his place of exile. Three of the clergy voluntarily followed their bishop into exile. Along the way the vessel was wrecked and everyone drowned, except for Saint Apollinaris, his clergy and the two soldiers. The soldiers, listening to Saint Apollinaris, believed in the Lord and were baptized. Not finding any shelter, the travelers came to Moisia in Thrace, where Saint Apollinaris healed a certain illustrious inhabitant from leprosy. Both he and his companions were given shelter at the man’s home. In this land Saint Apollinaris preached tirelessly about Christ and he converted many of the pagans to Christianity, for which he was subjected to persecution by the unbelievers. They beat the saint mercilessly, then they sent him back to Italy aboard a ship.

After a three year absence, Saint Apollinaris returned to Ravenna and was joyfully received by his flock. The pagans, however, entered the church where the saint was serving the Divine Liturgy, scattered those at prayer, and dragged the saint before the idolatrous priests at the pagan temple of Apollo. The idol fell and shattered to pieces just as the saint was brought in. The pagan priests brought Saint Apollinaris to Taurus, the new governor of the district for trial. Apollinaris performed a new miracle, healing the son of the governor, who had been blind from birth. In gratitude for the healing of his son, Taurus tried to protect Saint Apollinaris from the angry crowd. He sent him to his own estate outside the city. Although Taurus’s wife and son were baptized, he feared the anger of the emperor, and did not receive Baptism. However, he was filled with gratitude and love toward his benefactor.

Saint Apollinaris lived for five years at Taurus’s estate and preached without hindrance. During this time pagan priests sent letters of denunciation to Emperor Vespasian requesting a sentence of death or exile for the Christian “sorcerer” Apollinaris. But the emperor told the pagan priests that the gods were sufficiently powerful to take revenge for themselves, if they felt insulted. All the wrath of the pagans fell upon Saint Apollinaris: they seized him and beat him fiercely as he was leaving the city for a nearby settlement. Christians found him barely alive and took him to the settlement, where he lived for seven days. During his final illness the saint did not cease to teach his flock. He predicted that after the persecutions ended, Christians would enter upon better times when they could openly and freely confess their faith. After bestowing his archpastoral blessing upon those present, the hieromartyr Apollinaris fell asleep in the Lord. Saint Apollinaris was Bishop of Ravenna for twenty-eight years, and he reposed in the year 75.

The Icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow” (With Coins) was glorified in the year 1888 in St. Petersburg, when during the time of a terrible thunderstorm lightning struck in a chapel. All was burned or singed, except for this icon of the Queen of Heaven. It was knocked to the floor, and the poor box broke open at the same time. Somehow, twelve small coins (half-kopeck pieces), became attached to the icon. A church was built in 1898 on the site of the chapel.

No information available at this time.

Commemoration of the Miraculous Appearance of the Mother of God at Pochaev, which saved the Monastery from the assault of the Tatars and Turks

The Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God is among the most revered sacred objects of the Orthodox Church. Located in the Dormition Cathedral at Pochaev, Ukraine, the Icon is reknowned throughout the entire Slavic world, and is venerated in Russia, Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria, and in other places. Christians of other confessions also venerate the Pochaev Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos. The wonderworking Icon has been treasured at the Pochaev Lavra for over 400 years.

Numerous miracles have taken place before the holy Icon, and these are recorded in special books at the monastery. The books contain the personal testimonies of people who prayed before the Pochaev Icon and were healed of their illnesses, delivered from unclean spirits, or freed from captivity. Many sinners were also brought to repentance.

Today's Feast Day in honor of the Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God was appointed to commemorate the deliverance of the Dormition Lavra from a siege by the Turks on July 20-23, 1675.

In the summer of 1675 during the Zbarazhsk War with the Turks, in the reign of the Polish King Jan Sobesski (1674-1696), regiments composed of Tatars under the command of Khan Nurredin via Vishnevets fell upon the Pochaev monastery, surrounding it on three sides. The weak monastery walls and its stone buildings did not offer much protection against a siege. Igoumen Joseph Dobromirsky urged the brethren and laypeople to pray to their heavenly intercessors, the Most Holy Theotokos and Saint Job of Pochaev (October 28).

The monks and the people prayed fervently, prostrating themselves before the wonderworking Icon of the Mother of God, and the reliquary containing the relics of Saint Job. At sunrise on the morning of July 23, as the Tatars prepared to attack the monastery, the Igoumen ordered an Akathist to the Theotokos to be sung. At the opening words, “O Queen of the Heavenly Hosts,” the Mother of God suddenly appeared over the church, in “an unfurled radiant white omaphorion,” with angels holding unsheathed swords. Saint Job stood beside the Mother of God, bowing to her and beseeching her to defend the monastery.

The Tatars believed that the heavenly army was a vision, and in their confusion they started shooting arrows at the Most Holy Theotokos and Saint Job, but the arrows turned backwards and wounded those who shot them. The enemy, gripped by terror, fled in panic, trampling upon and killing each other. The defenders of the monastery pursued them and took many prisoners. Later, some of the prisoners converted to the Orthodox Faith and remained at the monastery thereafter.

In the year 1721, Pochaev was occupied by the Uniates. Even during this difficult time for the Lavra, the monastery Chronicle lists 539 miracles of the Pochaev Icon. In the second half of the eighteenth century, a Uniate nobleman, Count Nicholas Pototski, became a benefactor of the Pochaev Lavra through the following miraculous circumstance. After accusing his coachman of overturning the carriage with runaway horses, the Count took out a pistol to shoot him. The coachman, turning towards the mountain of Pochaev, stretched out his hands and cried: "Mother of God, depicted in the Pochaev Icon, save me!”

Several times Pototski tried to shoot the pistol, which had never failed him, but the weapon misfired and the coachman remained alive. Pototski went at once to the wonderworking Icon and resolved to devote himself and all his property to building up the monastery. With the money he contributed, the Dormition cathedral was built, as well as other buildings for the brethren.

The return of the Pochaev Monastery to the Orthodox Church in 1832 was marked by the miraculous healing of the blind maiden Anna Akimchukova, who had come on pilgrimage to the holy shrine along with her seventy-year-old grandmother from Kremenets-Podolsk, 200 versts away. In memory of this event, the Archbishop of Volhynia and Archimandrite Innocent of the Lavra (1832-1840) appointed that an Akathist be read on Saturdays before the wonderworking Icon. During the time of Archimandrite Agathangelus, Archbishop of Volhynia (1866-1876), a separate chapel was built in the galleries of the Holy Trinity church, which was dedicated on July 23, 1875 in memory of the victory over the Tatars.

The wonderworking Pochaev Icon is also commemorated on Friday of Bright Week, and on September 8.

Saint Anna (Susanna) of Leukadio (or Leukati) was born in Constantinople in 840 during the reign of Emperor Theophilos the iconoclast (829-842), and was the daughter of a wealthy and distinguished family. She had many physical and spiritual
gifts because she was raised “in the discipline and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).

After the death of her parents, she inherited her father’s estate, which she shared with the poor. This beautiful young woman was loved by a certain Hagarene¹ who lived in Constantinople and asked her to marry him, and he obtained the consent of Emperor Basil I the Macedonian. Anna turned down the proposal, since she did not wish to marry him. The Hagarene tormented her and declared that he would have her as his wife, even if she did not wish it. The Saint tearfully entreated God to deliver her from this temptation. Indeed, the compassionate and righteous God heard her prayers. Punished for his impudence, the Hagarene was struck down by divine judgment and he died.

Around 896 Anna went to a certain church dedicated to the Mother of God in Constantinople. There she devoted herself to fasting, vigil, and prayer. For fifty years she lived in this angelic way. After a slight illness, she delivered her blessed soul to God. Years after her burial, her relics were found to be whole, incorrupt, and emitting a divine fragrance. By her grace-filled relics, demons were cast out, the blind received their sight, and the lame walked. So, in this manner, God glorifies those who glorify Him.

Venerable Anna is listed in the Menologion of Basil II, and her Life is contained in the Synaxaristes of Saint Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain The Saint's subsequent life is unknown. She is mentioned the printed Greek Menaion at the sixth Ode of the Canon at Matins, but without a Synaxarion.

¹ The Moslems were regarded as descendants of Hagar, Abraham's concubine (see Genesis, chapter 16).

The Holy Myrrh-Bearer Equal of the Apostles Mary Magdalene. On the banks of Lake Genesareth (Galilee), between the cities of Capharnum and Tiberias, was the small city of Magdala, the remains of which have survived to our day. Now only the small village of Mejhdel stands on the site.

A woman whose name has entered forever into the Gospel account was born and grew up in Magdala. The Gospel tells us nothing of Mary’s younger years, but Tradition informs us that Mary of Magdala was young and pretty, and led a sinful life. It says in the Gospels that the Lord expelled seven devils from Mary (Luke. 8:2). From the moment of her healing Mary led a new life, and became a true disciple of the Savior.

The Gospel relates that Mary followed after the Lord, when He went with the Apostles through the cities and villages of Judea and Galilee preaching about the Kingdom of God. Together with the pious women Joanna, wife of Choza (steward of Herod), Susanna and others, she served Him from her own possessions (Luke 8:1-3) and undoubtedly shared with the Apostles the evangelic tasks in common with the other women. The Evangelist Luke, evidently, has her in view together with the other women, stating that at the moment of the Procession of Christ onto Golgotha, when after the Scourging He took on Himself the heavy Cross, collapsing under its weight, the women followed after Him weeping and wailing, but He consoled them. The Gospel relates that Mary Magdalene was present on Golgotha at the moment of the Lord’s Crucifixion. While all the disciples of the Savior ran away, she remained fearlessly at the Cross together with the Mother of God and the Apostle John.

The Evangelists also list among those standing at the Cross the mother of the Apostle James, and Salome, and other women followers of the Lord from Galilee, but all mention Mary Magdalene first. Saint John, in addition to the Mother of God, names only her and Mary Cleopas. This indicates how much she stood out from all the women who gathered around the Lord.

She was faithful to Him not only in the days of His Glory, but also at the moment of His extreme humiliation and insult. As the Evangelist Matthew relates, she was present at the Burial of the Lord. Before her eyes Joseph and Νikόdēmos went out to the tomb with His lifeless Body. She watched as they covered over the entrance to the cave with a large stone, entombing the Source of Life.

Faithful to the Law in which she was raised, Mary together with the other women spent the following day at rest, because it was the great day of the Sabbath, coinciding with the Feast of Passover. But all the rest of the peaceful day the women gathered spices to go to the Grave of the Lord at dawn on Sunday and anoint His Body according to the custom of the Jews.

It is necessary to mention that, having agreed to go on the first day of the week to the Tomb early in the morning, the holy women had no possibility of meeting with one another on Saturday. They went separately on Friday evening to their own homes. They went out only at dawn the following day to go to the Sepulchre, not all together, but each from her own house.

The Evangelist Matthew writes that the women came to the grave at dawn, or as the Evangelist Mark expresses, extremely early before the rising of the sun. The Evangelist John, elaborating upon these, says that Mary came to the grave so early that it was still dark. Obviously, she waited impatiently for the end of night, but it was not yet daybreak. She ran to the place where the Lord’s Body lay.

Mary went to the tomb alone. Seeing the stone pushed away from the cave, she ran away in fear to tell the close Apostles of Christ, Peter and John. Hearing the strange message that the Lord was gone from the tomb, both Apostles ran to the tomb and, seeing the shroud and winding cloths, they were amazed. They went and said nothing to anyone, but Mary returned to the tomb and stood about the entrance to the tomb and wept. Here in this dark tomb so recently lay her lifeless Lord.

Wanting proof that the tomb really was empty, she went down to it and saw a strange sight. She saw two angels in white garments, one sitting at the head, the other at the foot, where the Body of Jesus had been placed. They asked her, “Woman, why weepest thou?” She answered them with the words which she had said to the Apostles, “They have taken my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” At that moment, she turned around and saw the Risen Jesus standing near the grave, but she did not recognize Him.

He asked Mary, “Woman, why weepest thou? Whom dost thou seek?” She answered thinking that she was seeing the gardener, “Sir, if thou hast taken him, tell where thou hast put Him, and I will take Him away.”

Then she recognized the Lord’s voice. This was the voice she heard in those days and years, when she followed the Lord through all the cities and places where He preached. He spoke her name, and she gave a joyful shout, “Rabbi” (Teacher).

Respect and love, fondness and deep veneration, a feeling of thankfulness and recognition at His Splendor as great Teacher, all came together in this single outcry. She was able to say nothing more and she threw herself down at the feet of her Teacher to wash them with tears of joy. But the Lord said to her: “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and tell them: ‘I ascend to My Father, and your Father; to My God and to your God.’”

She came to herself and again ran to the Apostles, to do the will of Him sending her to preach. Again she ran into the house, where the Apostles still remained in dismay, and proclaimed to them the joyous message, “I have seen the Lord!” This was the first preaching in the world about the Resurrection.

The Apostles proclaimed the Glad Tidings to the world, but she proclaimed it to the Apostles themselves.

Holy Scripture does not tell us about the life of Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection of Christ, but it is impossible to doubt, that if in the terrifying minutes of Christ’s Crucifixion she was at the foot of His Cross with His All-Pure Mother and Saint John, she must have stayed with them during the happier time after the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ. Thus in the Acts of the Apostles Saint Luke writes that all the Apostles with one mind stayed in prayer and supplication, with certain women and Mary the Mother of Jesus and His brethren.

Holy Tradition testifies that when the Apostles departed from Jerusalem to preach to all the ends of the earth, then Mary Magdalene also went with them. A daring woman, whose heart was full of reminiscence of the Resurrection, she went beyond her native borders and went to preach in pagan Rome. Everywhere she proclaimed to people about Christ and His teaching. When many did not believe that Christ is risen, she repeated to them what she had said to the Apostles on the radiant morning of the Resurrection: “I have seen the Lord!” With this message she went all over Italy.

Tradition relates that in Italy Mary Magdalene visited Emperor Tiberias (14-37 A.D.) and proclaimed to him Christ’s Resurrection. According to Tradition, she brought him a red egg as a symbol of the Resurrection, a symbol of new life with the words: “Christ is Risen!” Then she told the emperor that in his Province of Judea the unjustly condemned Jesus the Galilean, a holy man, a miracleworker, powerful before God and all mankind, had been executed at the instigation of the Jewish High Priests, and the sentence confirmed by the procurator appointed by Tiberias, Pontius Pilate.

Mary repeated the words of the Apostles, that we are redeemed from the vanity of life not with perishable silver or gold, but rather by the precious Blood of Christ.

Thanks to Mary Magdalene the custom to give each other paschal eggs on the day of the Radiant Resurrection of Christ spread among Christians over all the world. In one ancient Greek manuscript, written on parchment, kept in the monastery library of Saint Athanasius near Thessalonica, is a prayer read on the day of Holy Pascha for the blessing of eggs and cheese. In it is indicated that the igumen in passing out the blessed eggs says to the brethren: “Thus have we received from the holy Fathers, who preserved this custom from the very time of the holy Apostles, therefore the holy Equal of the Apostles Mary Magdalene first showed believers the example of this joyful offering.”

Mary Magdalene continued her preaching in Italy and in the city of Rome itself. Evidently, the Apostle Paul has her in mind in his Epistle to the Romans (16: 6), where together with other ascetics of evangelic preaching he mentions Mary (Mariam), who as he expresses “has bestowed much labor on us.” Evidently, she extensively served the Church in its means of subsistence and its difficulties, being exposed to dangers, and sharing with the Apostles the labors of preaching.

According to Church Tradition, she remained in Rome until the arrival of the Apostle Paul, and for two more years following his departure from Rome after the first court judgment upon him. From Rome, Saint Mary Magdalene, already bent with age, moved to Ephesus where the holy Apostle John unceasingly labored. There the saint finished her earthly life and was buried.

Her holy relics were transferred in the ninth century to Constantinople, and placed in the monastery Church of Saint Lazarus. In the era of the Crusader campaigns they were transferred to Italy and placed at Rome under the altar of the Lateran Cathedral. Part of the relics of Mary Magdalene are said to be in Provage, France near Marseilles, where over them at the foot of a steep mountain a splendid church is built in her honor.

The Orthodox Church honors the holy memory of Saint Mary Magdalene, the woman called by the Lord Himself from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.

Formerly immersed in sin and having received healing, she sincerely and irrevocably began a new life and never wavered from that path. Mary loved the Lord Who called her to a new life. She was faithful to Him not only when He was surrounded by enthusiastic crowds and winning recognition as a miracle-worker, but also when all the disciples deserted Him in fear and He, humiliated and crucified, hung in torment upon the Cross. This is why the Lord, knowing her faithfulness, appeared to her first, and esteemed her worthy to be first to proclaim His Resurrection.

The Transfer of the Relics of the Hieromartyr Phocas from Sinope to Constantinople occurred on July 22 in either the year 403 or 404. His life is found under September 22.

Saint Cornelius of Pereyaslavl, in the world Konon, was the son of a Ryazan merchant. In his youth he left his parental home and lived for five years as a novice of the Elder Paul in the Lukianov wilderness near Pereyaslavl. Afterwards the young ascetic transferred to the Pereyaslavl monastery of Saints Boris and Gleb on the Sands [Peskakh]. Konon eagerly went to church and unquestioningly did everything that they commanded him.

The holy novice did not sit down to eat in the trapeza with the brethren, but contented himself with whatever remained, accepting food only three times a week. After five years, he received monastic tonsure with the name Cornelius. From that time no one saw the monk sleeping on a bed. Several of the brethren scoffed at Saint Cornelius as foolish, but he quietly endured the insults and intensified his efforts. Having asked permission of the igumen to live as a hermit, he secluded himself into his own separately constructed cell and constantly practiced asceticism in fasting and prayer.

Once the brethren found him barely alive, and the cell was locked from within. Three months Saint Cornelius lay ill, and he could take only water and juice. The monk, having recovered and being persuaded by the igumen, stayed to live with the brethren. Saint Cornelius was the sacristan in church, he served in the trapeza, and also toiled in the garden. As if to bless the saint’s labors, excellent apples grew in the monastery garden, which he lovingly distributed to visitors.

The body of Saint Cornelius was withered up from strict fasting, but he did not cease to toil. With his own hands he built a well for the brethren. For thirty years Saint Cornelius lived in complete silence, being considered by the brethren as deaf and dumb. Before his death on July 22, 1693, Saint Cornelius made his confession to the monastery priest Father Barlaam, received the Holy Mysteries and took the schema.

He was buried in the chapel. Nine years later, during the construction of a new church, his relics were found incorrupt. In the year 1705, Saint Demetrius, Metropolitan of Rostov (October 28), saw the relics of Saint Cornelius, and they were in the new church in a secluded place. The holy bishop composed a Troparion and Kontakion to the saint.

Saint Markella lived in the village of Volissos, Chios sometime after the middle of the fourteenth century. Her parents were Christians, and among the wealthiest citizens of Volissos. The saint’s mother died when she was young, and so her father, the mayor of the village, saw to her education.

She had been trained by her mother to be respectful and devout, and to guard her purity. She avoided associations with other girls who were more outgoing than she was so that she would not come to spiritual harm through such company. Her goal was to attain the Kingdom of Heaven, and to become a bride of Christ.

Saint Markella increased in virtue as she grew older, fasting, praying, and attending church services. She tried to keep the commandments and to lead others to God. She loved and respected her father, and comforted him in his sorrow. She told him she would take care of him in his old age, and would not abandon him.

As an adult, Saint Markella was loved by everyone for her beauty and for her spiritual gifts. The Enemy of our salvation tried to lure her into sin by placing evil thoughts in her mind. She resisted these temptations, and so the devil turned away from a direct confrontation with the young woman. Instead, he incited her father with an unnatural desire for his daughter.

Markella’s father changed in his behavior toward her. He became moody and depressed, forbidding her to go into the garden or to speak with the neighbors. Unable to understand the reason for this change, the saint went to her room and wept. She prayed before an icon of the Mother of God, asking Her to help her father. Soon she fell asleep, only to be awakened by her father’s shouting.

The unfortunate man had spent a long time struggling against his lust, but finally he gave in to it. At times he would speak to his daughter roughly, then later he would appear to be gentle. He wanted to be near her, and to stroke her hair. Unaware of her father’s intentions, Saint Markella was happy to see him emerge from his melancholy state, thinking that her prayer had been answered.

One day, her father openly declared the nature of his feelings for her. Horrified, the saint tried to avoid him as much as she could. Even the neighbors realized that there was something wrong with the man, so they stopped speaking to him.

A shepherd was tending his sheep near the beach one morning, and was leading them into the shade of a plane tree to avoid the hot July sun. Just as he was about to lie down, he heard a noise and looked up. He saw a young woman with a torn dress running down the hill. She hid in a nearby bush, ignoring its thorns.

The shepherd wondered who was chasing her, and how she had come to this spot. Then he heard the sound of a horse approaching, and recognized the mayor of the village. He asked the shepherd if he had seen his daughter. He said that he had not seen her, but pointed to her hiding place with his finger.

The mayor ordered Markella to come out of the bush, but she refused. Therefore, he set fire to the bush in order to force her out. She emerged on the side opposite her father, and ran toward the rocky shore, calling out to the Mother of God for help.

Markella continued to run, even though blood was flowing from her face and hands. Feeling a sharp pain in her leg, she saw that she had been shot with an arrow. She paused to pull it out, then took to flight once more. She scrambled over the rocks, staining them with her blood. Hearing her father getting closer, she prayed that the earth would open up and swallow her.

The saint sank to her knees, her strength all gone, and then a miracle took place. The rock split open and received her body up to the waist. Her father drew near with wild-eyed joy shouting, “I have caught you. Now where will you go?

Drawing his sword, he began to butcher his helpless daughter, cutting off pieces of her body. Finally, he seized her by the hair and cut off her head, throwing it into the sea. At once the calm sea became stormy, and large waves crashed to the shore near the murderer’s feet. Thinking that the sea was going to drown him because of his crime, he turned and fled. His ultimate fate has not been recorded.

In later years, pious Christians built a church on the spot where Saint Markella hid in the bush. The spot where she was killed became known as “The Martyrdom of Saint Markella,” and the rock that opened to receive her is still there. The rock appears to be a large stone that broke off from a mountain and rolled into the sea. Soil from the mountain covers the spot on the side facing the land. On the side facing the ocean is a small hole, about the size of a finger. A healing water flows from the opening, which cures every illness.

The flow of water is not due to the movements of the tide, because when the tide is out, there would be no water. This, however, is not the case. The water is clear, but some of the nearby rocks have been stained with a reddish-yellow color. According to tradition, the lower extremities of Saint Markella’s body are concealed in the rock.

The most astonishing thing about the rock is not the warmth of the water, nor the discoloration of the other rocks, but what happens when a priest performs the Blessing of Water. A sort of steam rises up from the water near the rock, and the entire area is covered with a mist. The sea returns to normal as soon as the service is over. Many miracles have occurred at the spot, and pilgrims flock there from all over the world.

The Holy Prophet Ezekiel lived in the sixth century before the birth of Christ. He was born in the city of Sarir, and descended from the tribe of Levi; he was a priest and the son of the priest Buzi. Ezekiel was led off to Babylon when he was twenty-five years old together with King Jechoniah II and many other Jews during the second invasion of Jerusalem by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar.

The Prophet Ezekiel lived in captivity by the River Chebar. When he was thirty years old, he had a vision of the future of the Hebrew nation and of all mankind. The prophet beheld a shining cloud, with fire flashing continually, and in the midst of the fire, gleaming bronze. He also saw four living creatures in the shape of men, but with four faces (Ez. 1:6). Each had the face of a man in front, the face of a lion on the right, the face of an ox on the left, and the face of an eagle at the back (Ez. 1:10). There was a wheel on the earth beside each creature, and the rim of each wheel was full of eyes.

Over the heads of the creatures there seemed to be a firmament, shining like crystal. Above the firmament was the likeness of a throne, like glittering sapphire in appearance. Above this throne was the likeness of a human form, and around Him was a rainbow (Ez. 1:4-28).

According to the explanation of the Fathers of the Church, the human likeness upon the sapphire throne prefigures the Incarnation of the Son of God from the Most Holy Virgin Mary, who is the living Throne of God. The four creatures are symbols of the four Evangelists: a man (Saint Matthew), a lion (Saint Mark), an ox (Saint Luke), and an eagle (Saint John); the wheel with the many eyes is meant to suggest the sharing of light with all the nations of the earth. During this vision the holy prophet fell down upon the ground out of fear, but the voice of God commanded him to get up. He was told that the Lord was sending him to preach to the nation of Israel. This was the beginning of Ezekiel’s prophetic service.

The Prophet Ezekiel announces to the people of Israel, held captive in Babylon, the tribulations it would face for not remaining faithful to God. The prophet also proclaimed a better time for his fellow-countrymen, and he predicted their return from Babylon, and the restoration of the Jerusalem Temple.

There are two significant elements in the vision of the prophet: the vision of the temple of the Lord, full of glory (Ez. 44:1-10); and the bones in the valley, to which the Spirit of God gave new life (Ez. 37:1-14). The vision of the temple was a mysterious prefiguring of the race of man freed from the working of the Enemy and the building up of the Church of Christ through the redemptive act of the Son of God, incarnate of the Most Holy Theotokos. Ezekiel’s description of the shut gate of the sanctuary, through which the Lord God would enter (Ez. 44: 2), is a prophecy of the Virgin giving birth to Christ, yet remaining a virgin. The vision of the dry bones prefigured the universal resurrection of the dead, and the new eternal life bestowed by the Lord Jesus Christ.

The holy Prophet Ezekiel received from the Lord the gift of wonderworking. He, like the Prophet Moses, divided the waters of the river Chebar, and the Hebrews crossed to the opposite shore, escaping the pursuing Chaldeans. During a time of famine the prophet asked God for an increase of food for the hungry.

Ezekiel was condemned to execution because he denounced a certain Hebrew prince for idolatry. Bound to wild horses, he was torn to pieces. Pious Hebrews gathered up the torn body of the prophet and buried it upon Maur Field, in the tomb of Sim and Arthaxad, forefathers of Abraham, not far from Baghdad. The prophecy of Ezekiel is found in the book named for him, and is included in the Old Testament.

Saint Demetrius of Rostov (October 28 and September 21) explains to believers the following concepts in the book of the Prophet Ezekiel: if a righteous man turns from righteousness to sin, he shall die for his sin, and his righteousness will not be remembered. If a sinner repents, and keeps God’s commandments, he will not die. His former sins will not be held against him, because now he follows the path of righteousness (Ez. 3:20; 18:21-24).

The Monks Simeon, Fool-for-Christ, and his Fellow-Ascetic John were Syrians, and they lived in the sixth century at the city of Edessa. From childhood they were bound by close ties of friendship. The older of them, Simeon, was unmarried and lived with his aged mother. John, however, although he was married, lived with his father (his mother was dead) and with his young wife. Both friends belonged to wealthy families. When Simeon was thirty years old, and John twenty-four, they made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Venerable and Life-Creating Cross of the Lord. On the journey home the friends spoke of the soul’s path to salvation. Dismounting their horses, they sent the servants on ahead with the horses, while they continued on foot.

Passing through Jordan, they saw monasteries on the edge of the desert. Both of them were filled with an irrepressible desire to leave the world and spend their remaining life in monastic struggles. They turned off from the road, which their servants followed to Syria, and they prayed zealously that God would guide them to the monasteries on the opposite side. They besought the Lord to indicate which monastery they should choose, and they decided to enter whichever monastery had its gates open. At this time the Lord informed Igumen Nikon in a dream to open the monastery gates, so that the sheep of Christ could enter in.

In great joy the comrades came through the open gates of the monastery, where they were warmly welcomed by the igumen, and they remained at the monastery. In a short while they received the monastic tonsure.

After remaining at the monastery for a certain time, Simeon desired to intensify his efforts, and to go into the desert to pursue asceticism in complete solitude. John did not wish to be left behind by his companion, and he decided to share with him the work of a desert-dweller. The Lord revealed the intentions of the companions to Igumen Nikon, and on that night when Saints Simeon and John intended to depart the monastery, he himself opened the gates for them. He prayed with them, gave them his blessing and sent them into the wilderness.

When they began their life in the desert, the spiritual brothers at first experienced the strong assaults of the devil. They were tempted by grief over abandoning their families, and the demons tried to discourage the ascetics, subjecting them to weakness, despondency and idleness. The brothers Simeon and John remembered their monastic calling, and trusting in the prayers of their Elder Nikon, they continued upon their chosen path. They spent their time in unceasing prayer and strict fasting, encouraging one another in their struggle against temptation.

After a while, with God’s help, the temptations stopped. The monks were told by God that Simeon’s mother and John’s wife had died, and that the Lord had vouchsafed them the blessings of Paradise. After this Simeon and John lived in the desert for twenty-nine years, and they attained complete dispassion (apathia) and a high degree of spirituality. Saint Simeon, through the inspiration of God, considered that now it was proper for him to serve people. To do this, he must leave the desert solitude and go into the world. Saint John, however, believing that he had not attained such a degree of dispassion as his companion, decided not to leave the wilderness.

The brethren parted with tears. Simeon journeyed to Jerusalem, and there he venerated the Tomb of the Lord and all the holy places. By his great humility the holy ascetic entreated the Lord to permit him to serve his neighbor in such a way that they should not acknowledge him. Saint Simeon chose for himself the difficult task of foolishness for Christ. Having come to the city of Emesa, he stayed there and passed himself off as a simpleton, behaving strangely, for which he was subjected to insults, abuse and beatings. In spite of this, he accomplished many good deeds. He cast out demons, healed the sick, delivered people from immanent death, brought the unbelieving to faith, and sinners to repentance.

All these things he did under the guise of foolishness, and he never received praise or thanks from people. Saint John highly esteemed his spiritual brother, however. When one of the inhabitants of the city of Emesa visited him in the wilderness, asking for his advice and prayers, he would invariably direct them to “the fool Simeon”, who was better able to offer them spiritual counsel. For three days before his death Saint Simeon ceased to appear on the streets, and he enclosed himself in his hut, where there was nothing except for bundles of firewood. Having remained in unceasing prayer for three days, Saint Simeon fell asleep in the Lord. Some of the city poor, his companions, had not seen the fool for some time. They went to his hut and found him dead.

Taking up the dead body, they carried him without church singing to a place where the homeless and strangers were buried. While they carried the body of Saint Simeon, several of the inhabitants heard a wondrous church singing, but could not understand from whence it came.

After Saint Simeon died, Saint John also fell asleep in the Lord. Shortly before his death, Saint Simeon saw a vision of his spiritual brother wearing a crown upon his head with the inscription: “For endurance in the desert.”

In the calendar of the Moscow Patriarchate both Venerable Onuphrios the Silent of the Kiev Caves (XII century), and Onesimos the Recluse of the Kiev Caves, Near Caves (XII-XIII century) are commemorated on July 21.

Venerable Onuphrios the Silent of the Kiev Caves was an ascetic in the Near Caves of Saint Anthony during the XII century. He is also commemorated on September 28 (Synaxis of the Fathers of the Near Caves).

Venerable Onesimos the Recluse of the Caves (XII-XIII), was an ascetic in the Kiev Caves Lavra. He enclosed himself in the Near Caves of Saint Anthony. The holy relics of Saint Onesimos are buried in the place of his ascetical contests. He is also commemorated on October 4 with Saint Elladios.

The term Kiev Caves refers to both the Far (Дальних) Caves of Saint Theodosios, and to the Near (Ближних) Caves of Venerable Anthony. If term Kiev Caves Lavra is used, it means both Caves. If the text only says Far Caves, it is taken for granted that it means just the Far Caves, and not the Near Caves (and vice versa).

The Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of the Far Caves of Venerable Theodosios is celebrated on August 28. Furthermore, the Synaxis of All the Venerable Fathers of the Kiev Caves is observed on the second Sunday of Great Lent.

The Armatia Icon of the Mother of God was in Constantinople at the Armatian monastery. The place where the monastery was located, was called “Armation” or “of the Armatians” and received its name from the military magister Armatios, nephew of the tyrant Basiliscus, and a contemporary of the emperor Zeno (474-491).

The celebration of the wonderworking icon was established to commemorate deliverance from the Iconoclast heresy. The Seventh Ecumenical Council of 787 drew up dogmatic definitions about icon veneration based on Holy Scripture and Church Tradition.

The Armatia Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos is commemorated twice during the year, on July 21 and August 17.

The Holy right-believing Princess Anna of Kashin (Euphrosynē in monasticism) reposed on October 2, 1368.

On July 21, 1649, Archbishop Jonah of Kazan and some of the local clergy opened Saint Anna's tomb, and noticed that her relics were incorrupt. Several miracles of healing occurred at that time. The clergy and citizens of Kashin petitioned Tsar Alexei (reigned 1645-1676) to order an examination of Princess Anna's relics.

In 1650, a Council of the Russian Church met and decided to number Princess Anna among the Saints, ordering a Church Service to be composed for her, and that she be venerated throughout Russia. The solemn transfer of her relics from the wooden Dormition Cathedral to the stone Resurrection Cathedral took place on June 12, 1650.

In 1677 Patriarch Joachim proposed to the Moscow Council that Saint Anna's veneration throughout Russia should be discontinued because of the Old Believer Schism, which made use of her name for its own purposes. When she was buried, her hand was positioned to make the Sign of the Cross with two fingers, rather than three. Therefore, only her local veneration was permitted. However, the memory of Saint Anna, whom God had glorified, could not be erased by a decree. People continued to love and venerate her, and many miracles took place at her tomb.

Finally, the Church-wide veneration of Saint Anna was restored on June 12, 1909. During the Soviet period, however, the relics of Saint Anna were taken from the Cathedral and moved several times. Finally on June 25, 1993, her relics were returned to Kashin's Resurrection Cathedral.

The Holy Prophet Elijah is one of the greatest of the prophets and the first dedicated to virginity in the Old Testament. He was born in Tishba of Gilead into the Levite tribe 900 years before the Incarnation of the Word of God.

Saint Epiphanius of Cyprus gives the following account about the birth of the Prophet Elijah: “When Elijah was born, his father Sobach saw in a vision angels of God around him. They swaddled him with fire and fed him with flames.” The name Elijah (the Lord’s strength) given to the infant defined his whole life. From the years of his youth he dedicated himself to the One God, settled in the wilderness and spent his whole life in strict fasting, meditation and prayer. Called to prophetic service, which put him in conflict with the Israelite king Ahab, the prophet became a fiery zealot of true faith and piety.

During this time the Israelite nation had fallen away from the faith of their Fathers, they abandoned the One God and worshipped pagan idols, the worship of which was introduced by the impious king Jereboam. Jezebel, the wife of king Ahab, was devoted to idol worship. She persuaded her husband to build a temple to the pagan god Baal, which led many Israelites away from the worship of the true God. Beholding the ruin of his nation, the Prophet Elijah began to denounce King Ahab for impiety, and exhorted him to repent and turn to the God of Israel. The king would not listen to him. The Prophet Elijah then declared to him, that as punishment there would be neither rain nor dew upon the ground, and the drought would cease only by his prayer. Indeed, the word of Elijah was a torch (Eccles. 48: 1). The heavens were closed for three and a half years, and there was drought and famine throughout all the land.

During this time of tribulation, the Lord sent him to a cave beyond the Jordan. There he was miraculously fed by ravens. When the stream Horath dried up, the Lord sent the Prophet Elijah to Sarephta to a poor widow, a Sidonian Gentile who suffered together with her children, awaiting death by starvation. At the request of the prophet, she prepared him a bread with the last measure of flour and the remainder of the oil. Through the prayer of the Prophet Elijah, flour and oil were not depleted in the home of the widow for the duration of the famine. By the power of his prayer the prophet also performed another miracle: he raised the dead son of the widow.

After the end of three years of drought the Merciful Lord sent the prophet to appear before King Ahab, and promised to send rain upon the earth. The Prophet Elijah told the king to order all of Israel to gather upon Mount Carmel, and also the priests of Baal. When the nation had gathered, the Prophet Elijah proposed that two sacrificial altars be built: one for the priests of Baal, and the other for the Prophet Elijah who served the True God.

The Prophet Elijah told them to call on their gods to consume the sacrificial animals with fire, and he would call on his. Whichever was first to send fire on the sacrifice would be acknowledged as the true God. The prophets of Baal called out to their idol from morning till evening, but the heavens were silent. Towards evening the holy Prophet Elijah built his sacrificial altar from twelve stones, the number of the tribes of Israel. He placed the sacrifice upon the wood, gave orders to dig a ditch around the altar and commanded that the sacrifice and the wood be soaked with water. When the ditch had filled with water, the prophet turned to God in prayer. Through the prayer of the prophet fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice, the wood, and even the water. The people fell down to the ground, crying out: “Truly, the Lord is God!” Then the Prophet Elijah had all the pagan-priests of Baal put to death, and he began to pray for rain. Through his prayer the heavens opened and an abundant rain fell, soaking the parched earth.

King Ahab acknowledged his error and repented of his sins, but his wife Jezebel threatened to kill the prophet of God. The Prophet Elijah fled into the Kingdom of Judea and, grieving over his failure to eradicate idol worship, he asked God to let him die. An angel of the Lord came before him, strengthened him with food and commanded him to go upon a long journey. The Prophet Elijah traveled for forty days and nights and, having arrived at Mount Horeb, he settled in a cave.

The Lord told him that the next day Elijah would stand in His presence.There was a strong wind that crushed the rocks of the mountain, then an earthquake, and a fire, but the Lord was not in them. The Lord was in “a gentle breeze” (3 Kings 19: 12). He revealed to the prophet, that He would preserve seven thousand faithful servants who had not worshipped Baal.

Later, the Lord commanded Elijah to anoint Elisha into prophetic service. Because of his fiery zeal for the Glory of God the Prophet Elijah was taken up alive into Heaven in a fiery chariot. The Prophet Elisha received Elijah’s mantle, and a double portion of his prophetic spirit.

According to the Tradition of Holy Church, the Prophet Elijah will be the Forerunner of the Dread Second Coming of Christ. He will proclaim the truth of Christ, urge all to repentance, and will be slain by the Antichrist. This will be a sign of the end of the world.

The life of the holy Prophet Elijah is recorded in the Old Testament books (3 Kings; 4 Kings; Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 48: 1-15; 1 Maccabees 2: 58). At the time of the Transfiguration, the Prophet Elijah conversed with the Savior upon Mount Tabor (Mt. 17: 3; Mark 9: 4; Luke. 9: 30).

Orthodox Christians of all times, and in all places, have venerated the Prophet Elijah for centuries. The first church in Russia, built at Kiev under Prince Igor, was named for the Prophet Elijah. After her Baptism Saint Olga (July 11) built a temple of the holy Prophet Elijah in her native region, at the village of Vibuta.

In iconography the Prophet Elijah is depicted ascending to Heaven in a fiery chariot, surrounded with flames, and harnessed to four winged horses. We pray to him for deliverance from drought, and to ask for seasonable weather.

On July 20, 1741, the Feast Day of the Holy Prophet Elijah, an unnamed Hieromonk served the first Divine Liturgy in Alaskan waters while aboard the ship Saint Peter, commanded by Captain-Commander Vitus Bering, at 58 degrees 14 minutes northern latitude, and 141 degrees western longitude.

Saint Abraham of Galich (Chukhloma Lake), lived and pursued asceticism at the monastery of Saint Sergius of Radonezh during the fourteenth century. After long years as a novice, he was deemed worthy of the priesthood. Yearning after the perfection of silence, he asked for the blessing of Saint Sergius, and in the year 1350 settled in the Galich countryside, inhabited by foreign tribes of people.

Having settled in a remote place, Saint Abraham had a revelation to go up a mountain, where he found an icon of the Mother of God shining with an indescribable light. The appearance of the holy icon became known to Prince Demetrius of Galich, who entreated the monk to bring it to the city. Saint Abraham came with the icon to Galich, where he was met by the Prince and a throng of clergy. Numerous healings were worked through the icon of the Mother of God.

Prince Demetrius gave the monk the means to build a church and monastery near Chukhloma Lake, at the place of the appearance of the icon of the Mother of God. The church was built and dedicated in honor of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos. The newly built monastery of Saint Abraham became a source of spiritual enlightenment for the local foreign peoples. When the monastery was built up, he established in his place as head his disciple Porphyrius, and he himself withdrew 30 versts away in search of a solitary place, but there also disciples found him.

Still another monastery was established with a temple in honor of the Placing of the Robe of the Mother of God, called “the great Abraham wilderness monastery.” Saint Abraham twice withdrew to a quiet place, after which there gathered about him anew the disquieters. Thus two more monasteries were founded. One was named in honor of the Synaxis of the Most Holy Theotokos, of which Saint Abraham made Porphyrius the igumen. The other was dedicated to the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos, where Saint Abraham finished his earthly life. He died in 1375 A year before his death, he appointed his disciple Innocent to govern the monastery. Saint Abraham was an enlightener of the Galich land, having founded four monasteries dedicated to the Mother of God, who granted him Her icon at the beginning of his ascetical exploits.

The Monastic Martyr Athanasius of Brest (Uncovering and Transfer of Relics 1649): The martyric death of the holy Passion-bearer Athanasius, igumen of Bretsk, occurred on September 5, 1648. For eight months the body of the sufferer for Orthodoxy lay in the ground without a church funeral. On May 1, 1649 a boy pointed out to the brethren of the Simeonov monastery the place of the igumen’s burial. The ground in which the martyr was buried belonged at the time to the Jesuits, and therefore they had to go to work secretly. At night the monks dug up the incorrupt body of the igumen and immediately took it off to another place. In the morning, they brought it to their monastery, where after several days, on May 8, they buried him with honor at the right kliros (choir) in the main church of the monastery dedicated to Saint Simeon the Stylite.

The earthly life of the monastic martyr Athanasius had come to an end, but the remembrance of him remained always alive and sacred among the Orthodox inhabitants of the west Russian frontier. His incorrupt relics, placed in a copper reliquary, were glorified by grace-filled gifts of wonderworking, and attracted a vast number of believers.

On November 8, 1815 at the time of a fire at the Bretsk Simeonov monastery, the wooden monastery church burned, and the copper reliquary, in which the relics of the martyr were kept, melted in the flames. The day following the fire, an unharmed portion of the relics were found by the priest Samuel of Lisovsk and placed by the pious inhabitants of the city of Brest beneath the altar of the monastery trapeza church. In the year 1823, with the blessing of Archbishop Anatolius of Minsk, the holy relics were placed in a wooden vessel by the head of the monastery and put in church for veneration.

Thus, it pleased God to preserve a portion of the relics of the holy Martyr Athanasius.

Rising up before us is this great champion of Orthodoxy, with his great faith and love of neighbor. Deeply religious, inexorably devoted to the faith of the holy Fathers, he became bold and expressed by word and by deed his priestly indignation against the oppression of Orthodox Christians by the haughty Uniates. With fervent faith in his calling by God, he entered into the struggle for his oppressed brethren. “I am not a prophet, but only a servant of God my Creator, sent because of the times, in order to speak the truth to everyone. He has sent me, so that I might proclaim beforehand the destruction of the accursed Unia.” Such were the words of the fervent, unyielding and inspired struggler for Orthodoxy, who deeply believed in the victorious power of the true Faith.

Saint Athanasius saw the complete affirmation of Orthodoxy and the final and total undoing of the Unia as his single goal. He dedicated his whole life to this end. Having submitted to the will of God, he had no thought of danger, nor did he consider the obstacles, in fulfilling his holy duty. Saint Athanasius used His daring, spiritually-inspired speeches and writings, his published grievances, and voluntary folly in Christ for the attainment of his sacred goal: the affirmation of Orthodoxy in the ancient Russian land.

Having repudiated the Unia, he was inspired with a deep sense of pity and love towards those who had become the victims of Uniate proselytism. The righteousness and sincerity of Saint Athanasius in relation to those nearby defined the course of all his deeds. By his existence in the solitary life, surrounded by open and hidden enemies, the holy ascetic remained a steadfast defender and pillar of Orthodoxy. He constantly repeated his prediction: “The Unia will die out, but Orthodoxy will flourish.”

The Chukhloma Icon of the Mother of God of Galich appeared in the year 1350 to Saint Abraham of Galich, who came there from the north for ascetical labors with the blessing of Saint Sergius of Radonezh. On the wild shores of the Galich lake near the large mountain, hidden in the dense forest, he turned with prayer to the Mother of God, asking Her blessing for his endeavors. After completing his prayer the saint sat down to rest, and suddenly a bright light appeared on the nearby mountainside and he heard a voice: “Abraham, come up the mountain, where there is an icon of My Mother.”

The monk went up the mountain where the light shone, and indeed found an icon of the Mother of God with the Infant on a tree. With tenderness and in gratitude to God, the holy ascetic took the revealed icon and, strengthened by prayers to the Most Holy Theotokos, he built a chapel at that place, in which he put the icon.

After a certain time the Galich prince Demetrius Feodorovich, learned about the Elder’s trip, and asked him to bring the icon. Saint Abraham rowed across the Galich lake in a boat and, accompanied by clergy and a throng of people, he took the wonderworking icon to the cathedral church of the city of Galich.

On this day a large number of the sick were healed by this icon. When Saint Abraham told about the appearance of the icon, the Prince offered money to build a monastery. Soon a church was built in honor of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, around which a monastery grew. Saint Abraham founded several more monasteries, the last being founded was the Chukhloma, not far from the city of Chukhloma, from the name of this monastery the ascetic was named “of Chukhloma,” and the wonderworking icon became known as the Chukhloma Icon of Galich.

The icon is also commemorated on May 28, July 4, and August 15.

Saint Ilia, called the “Uncrowned King of Georgia,” the “Father of the Nation” and “the Righteous,” belonged to the noble family Chavchavadze. He was born on October 27, 1837, in the village of Qvareli in Kakheti. He received his primary education at home: his mother instructed him in reading and writing, prayer and the law of God. When he was eight years old, Ilia was sent to study with Archdeacon Nikoloz Sepashvili of Qvareli. The years he spent there left an indelible impression on this holy man’s life.

Ilia continued his education at a Tbilisi boarding school, and later at the court gymnasium (high school). His parents died at a young age, and the orphaned children were entrusted to the care of their aunt Macrina.

In 1857 Ilia enrolled in the law school at Saint Petersburg University. There he read a great deal and struggled to improve himself as an individual. He was fascinated by Georgian history and spent much of his time in the Saint Petersburg archives in search of old Georgian texts. His academic achievements were outstanding, but he was uninterested in receiving an official diploma from the school of law. In his fourth year he dropped out of the program and returned to Georgia.

Ilia was certain that a nation that forgets its own history “is like a beggar who knows neither his past nor where he is going.” For this reason he sought to inspire his fellow countrymen with the past glories of their nation and the loyalty of their forefathers to the Christian Faith and the Georgian nation.

The restoration of national independence and the autocephaly of the Georgian Church were the chief objectives toward which Saint Ilia strove in every aspect of his life. As a means by which to achieve these goals, Ilia took up the work of a historian: he conducted intensive research and exposed those who had falsified history and dishonored the Georgian nation.

This great philosopher, writer, and historian often repeated the statement “A nation whose language is corrupted can no longer exist as a nation.” He cared deeply about the Georgian language and fought to ensure that it remained the primary language taught in schools.

Ilia inspired many with his patriotic zeal, and he founded the Society for the Propagation of Literacy among the Georgians. He established a depository of Georgian manuscripts and antiquities. In addition he initiated a movement to document oral folk traditions and helped to found the Georgian Agrarian Bank.

Ilia the Righteous was often heard declaring, “We, the Georgian people, have inherited three divine gifts from our ancestors: our motherland, our language and our faith. If we fail to protect these gifts, what merit will we have as men?”

But Ilia’s righteous deeds were an affront and threat to those who adhered to the new atheist ideology, so they plotted to kill him. On August 30, 1907, Ilia Chavchavadze and his wife, Olga (Guramishvili), had just set off from Tbilisi for Saguramo when their carriage stopped abruptly outside of Mtskheta, near Tsitsamuri Forest.

They were awaited by a band of militant social democrats who attacked them and shot Ilia to death.

The Military Court of the Caucasus sentenced Ilia Chavchavadze’s murderers to death by hanging. But Ilia’s wife Olga requested that the governor-general pardon her husband’s murderers. She asserted that, if Ilia had survived, he would have done the same, since the killers were simply his “unlucky brothers gone astray.”

Indeed, Ilia had forgiven his murderers’ offense long before, in his prophetic poem “Prayer”:

Our Father Who art in Heaven!

In 1987 the Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church considered the deeds of Ilia Chavchavadze before God and his country and decreed him worthy to be numbered among the saints. He was joyously canonized as Saint Ilia “the Righteous.”

Elizaveta Pilenko, the future Mother Maria, was born in 1891 in Riga, Latvia, then part of the Russian Empire, and grew up in the south of Russia on the shore of the Black Sea. Her father was mayor of the town of Anapa, while on her mother's side, she was descended from the last governor of the Bastille, the Parisian prison destroyed during the French Revolution.

Her parents were devout Orthodox Christians whose faith helped shape their daughter's values, sensitivities and goals. As a child she once emptied her piggy bank in order to contribute to the painting of an icon that would be part of a new church in Anapa. At seven she asked her mother if she was old enough to become a nun, while a year later she sought permission to become a pilgrim who spends her life walking from shrine to shrine.

At the age of 14, her father died, an event that seemed to her meaningless and unjust and led her to embrace atheism. "If there is no justice," she said, "there is no God." She decided God's nonexistence was well known to adults but kept secret from children. For her, childhood was over. When her widowed mother moved the family to Saint Petersburg in 1906, she found herself in the country's political and cultural center — also a hotbed of radical ideas and groups — and became part of radical literary circles that gathered around such symbolist poets as Alexander Blok, whom she first met at age 15. Like many of her contemporaries, she was drawn to the left, but was often disappointed at the radicals she encountered. Though regarding themselves as revolutionaries, they seemed to do nothing but talk. "My spirit longed to engage in heroic feats, even to perish, to combat the injustice of the world," she recalled. Yet no one she knew was actually laying down his or her life for others. Should her friends hear of someone dying for the Revolution, she noted, "they will value it, approve or not approve, show understanding on a very high level, and discuss the night away till the sun rises and it's time for fried eggs. But they will not understand at all that to die for the Revolution means to feel a rope around one's neck."

In 1910, she married Dimitri Kuzmin-Karaviev, a Bolshevik and part of a community of poets, artists and writers, but she later commented that it was a marriage born "more of pity than of love." In addition to politics and poetry, she and her friends also talked theology, but just as their political ideas had no connection at all to the lives of ordinary people, their theology floated far above the actual Church. There was much they might have learned, she reflected later in life, from "any old beggar woman hard at her Sunday prostrations in church." For many intellectuals, the Church was an idea or a set of abstract values, not a community in which one actually lives.

Though still regarding herself an atheist, gradually her earlier attraction to Christ revived and deepened, not yet Christ as God incarnate but Christ as heroic man. In time, she found herself drawn toward the religious faith she had abandoned after her father's death. She prayed and read the Gospel and the lives of saints and concluded that the real need of the people was not for revolutionary theories but for Christ. She wanted "to proclaim the simple word of God," she told Blok in a letter written in 1916. Desiring to study theology, she applied for admission to Saint Petersburg's Theological Academy of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, in those days an entirely male school whose students were preparing for ordination. As surprising as her wanting to study there was the rector's decision that she could be admitted.

By 1913, her marriage collapsed. Later that year, her first child, Gaiana, was born. Just as World War I was beginning, she returned with her daughter to southern Russia, where her religious life grew more intense. For a time she secretly wore lead weights sewn into a hidden belt as a way of reminding herself both "that Christ exists" and also to be more aware that minute-by-minute many people were suffering and dying in the war. She realized, however, that the primary Christian asceticism was not self-mortification, but caring response to the needs of other people.

In October 1917, she was present in Saint Petersburg when Russia's Provisional Government was overthrown by the Bolsheviks. Taking part in the All-Russian Soviet Congress, she heard Lenin's lieutenant, Leon Trotsky, dismiss people from her party with the words, "Your role is played out. Go where you belong, into history's garbage can!" She grew to see how hideously different actual revolution was from the dreams of revolution that had once filled the imagination of so many Russians! In February 1918, she was elected deputy mayor of Anapa. Eventually, she was arrested, jailed, and put on trial for collaboration with the enemy. In court, she rose and spoke in her own defense: "My loyalty was not to any imagined government as such, but to those whose need of justice was greatest, the people. Red or White, my position is the same — I will act for justice and for the relief of suffering. I will try to love my neighbor." It was thanks to Daniel Skobtsov, a former schoolmaster who was now her judge, that she avoided execution. After the trial, she sought him out to thank him. Eventually they married.

As the course of the civil war was turning in favor of the Bolsheviks, the Skobtsovs fled to Georgia, where she gave birth to a son, Yura, in 1920. A year later, having relocated to Yugoslavia, she gave birth to Anastasia, Their long journey ended with their arrival in Paris in 1923, where to supplement their income she made dolls and painted silk scarves, often working ten or twelve hours a day.

A friend introduced her to the Russian Student Christian Movement, an Orthodox association founded in 1923. She began attending lectures and other activities and felt herself coming back to life spiritually and intellectually. In 1926, she grieved the death of her daughter Anastasia. She emerged from her mourning determined to seek a "new road before me and a new meaning in life, to be a mother for all, for all who need maternal care, assistance, or protection." She devoted herself to social work and theological writing. In 1927 two volumes, Harvest of the Spirit, were published, in which she retold the lives of many saints.

In 1930, she was appointed traveling secretary of the Russian Student Christian Movement, work which put her into daily contact with impoverished Russian refugees throughout France and neighboring countries. She often lectured, but she was quick to listen to others as they related some terrible grief that had burdened them for years. She took literally Christ's words, that He was always present in the least person. "Man ought to treat the body of his fellow human being with more care than he treats his own," she wrote. "Christian love teaches us to give our fellows material as well as spiritual gifts. We should give them our last shirt and our last piece of bread. Personal alms-giving and the most wide-ranging social work are both equally justified and needed."

In time, she began to envision a new type on community, "half monastic and half fraternal," that would connect spiritual life with service to those in need, in the process showing "that a free Church can perform miracles." Father Sergei Bulgakov, her confessor, was a source of support and encouragement, as was her bishop, Metropolitan Evlogy [Georgievsky], who was responsible from 1921 to 1946 for the many thousands of Russian expatriates scattered across Europe. Recognizing her devotion to social work, and knowing of her waning marriage, he suggested to her the possibility of becoming a nun. In time, Daniel came to accept the idea after meeting with Metropolitan Evlogy. In the spring of 1932, in the chapel at Paris' Saint Sergius Theological Institute, she was professed as a nun with the name Maria. She made her monastic profession, Metropolitan Evlogy recognized, "in order to give herself unreservedly to social service." Mother Maria called it simply "monasticism in the world." Intent "to share the life of paupers and tramps," she began to look for a house of hospitality and found it at 9 villa de Saxe in Paris, which she leased with financial assistance from Metropolitan Evlogy. She began receiving guests, mainly young Russian women without jobs, giving up her own room to house them while herself sleeping on a narrow iron bedstead in the basement. A room upstairs became a chapel — she painted the iconostasis icons — while the dining room doubled as a hall for lectures and dialogues.

In need of larger facilities, a new location was found two years later in an area of Paris where many impoverished Russian refugees had settled. While at the former address she could feed only 25, here she could feed a hundred. Here her guests could regain their breath "until the time comes to stand on their two feet again." Her credo was: "Each person is the very icon of God incarnate in the world." With this recognition came the need "to accept this awesome revelation of God unconditionally, to venerate the image of God" in her brothers and sisters. As her ministry evolved, she rented other buildings, one for families in need, and another for single men. A rural property became a sanatorium. By 1937, she housed several dozen women, serving up to 120 dinners every day. Every morning, she would beg for food or buy cheaply whatever was not donated.

Despite a seemingly endless array of challenges, Mother Maria was sustained chiefly by those she served — themselves beaten down, people in despair, cripples, alcoholics, the sick, survivors of many tragedies. But not all responded to trust with trust. Theft was not uncommon. On one occasion a guest stole 25 francs. Everyone guessed who the culprit was, a drug addict, but Mother Maria refused to accuse her. Instead she announced at the dinner table that the money had not been stolen, only misplaced, and she had found it. "You see how dangerous it is to make accusations," she commented. At once the girl who stole the money burst into tears.

Mother Maria and her collaborators would not simply open the door when those in need knocked, but would actively seek out the homeless. One place to find them was an all-night café at Les Halles where those with nowhere else to go could sit for the price of a glass of wine. Children also were cared for, and a part-time school was opened at several locations. Turning her attention toward Russian refugees who had been classified insane, Mother Maria began a series of visits to mental hospitals. In each hospital five to ten percent of the Russian patients turned out to be sane and, thanks to her intervention, were released. Language barriers and cultural misunderstandings had kept them in the asylum. In time, she and her associates helped establish clinics for TB sufferers and a variety of other ministries. Another landmark was the foundation in September 1935 of a group named "Orthodox Action" — a name proposed by her friend, philosopher Nicholas Berdyaev. Cofounders included Father Sergei Bulgakov, historian George Fedotov, the scholar Constantine Mochulsky, the publisher Ilya Fondaminsky, and her long-time coworker Fedor Pianov, with Metropolitan Evgoly serving as honorary president. With financial support from supporters across Europe and the United States, a wider range of projects and centers were made possible: hostels, rest homes, schools, camps, hospital work, help to the unemployed, assistance to the elderly, publication of books and pamphlets, etc. In all of these growing ministries, Mother Maria's driving concern was that it should never lose its personal or communal character.

In October 1939, Father Dimitri Klepinin, then 35 years old, began to assist Mother Maria as she began the last phase of her life — a series of responses to World War II and Germany's occupation of France. While Mother Maria could have fled Paris when the Germans were advancing, or even sought refuge in America, she would not budge. "If the Germans take Paris, I shall stay here with my old women. Where else could I send them?" She had no illusions about the Nazi threat, which to her represented a "new paganism" bringing in its wake disasters, upheavals, persecutions and wars. With defeat came greater poverty and hunger, and the local authorities in Paris declared her house an official food distribution point, where volunteers sold at cost price whatever food Mother Maria had bought in that morning.

Russian refugees were among the particular targets of the occupiers. In June 1941, a thousand were arrested, including several close friends and collaborators of Mother Maria and Father Dimitri, who launched an aid project for prisoners and their dependents. Early in 1942, their registration now underway, Jews began to knock at Mother Maria's door, asking Father Dimitri if he would issue baptismal certificates to them. The answer was always yes. The names of those "baptized" were also duly recorded in his parish register in case there was any cross-checking by the police or Gestapo, as indeed did happen. Father Dimitri was convinced that in such a situation Christ would do the same. When the Nazis issued special identity cards for those of Russian origin living in France, with Jews being specially identified, Mother Maria and Father Dimitri refused to comply, though they were warned that those who failed to register would be regarded as citizens of the USSR — enemy aliens — and be punished accordingly.

With the subsequent mass arrest of Jews — 12,884, of whom 6,900 (two-thirds of them children) were brought to the Velodrome d'Hiver sports stadium and held for five days before being sent to Auschwitz — Mother Maria entered the stadium and for three days offered comfort to the children and their parents, distributing what food she could bring in. She even managed to rescue a number of children by enlisting the aid of garbage collectors and smuggling them out in trash bins. Meanwhile, her house house was bursting with people, many of them Jews. "It is amazing," Mother Maria remarked, "that the Germans haven't pounced on us yet." Father Dimitri, Mother Maria and their coworkers set up routes of escape to the unoccupied south. It was complex and dangerous work. Forged documents had to be obtained. A local resistance group helped secure provisions for those Mother Maria's community was struggling to feed.

On February 8, 1943, while Mother Maria was traveling, Nazi security police entered the house and found a letter in her son Yura's pocket in which Father Dimitri was asked to provide a Jew with a false baptismal document. Yura, now actively a part of his mother's work, was taken to the office of Orthodox Action, soon after followed by his distraught grandmother, Sophia Pilenko. The interrogator ordered her to bring Father Dimitri. Once the priest was there, said the interrogator, they would let Yura go. His grandmother Sophia was allowed to embrace Yura and give him a blessing. It was last time she saw him in this world.

The following morning, after celebrating the Divine Liturgy, Father Dimitri set off for the Gestapo office, where he was interrogated for four hours, making no attempt to hide his beliefs. The next day, February 10, Mother Maria was arrested and her quarters were searched. Several others were called for questioning and then held by the Gestapo. She was confined with 34 other woman at the Gestapo headquarters in Paris. Her son Yura, Father Dimitri and their coworker of many years, Feodor Pianov, were held in the same building. Pianov later recalled witnessing Father Dimitri being prod and beaten by an SS officer while Yura stood by, weeping. Father Dimitri "began to console him, saying the Christ withstood greater mockery than this."

In April, the prisoners were transferred to Compiegne, where Mother Maria was blessed with a final meeting with Yura, who said his mother "was in a remarkable state of mind and told me … that I must trust in her ability to bear things and in general not to worry about her. Every day [Father Dimitri and I] remember her at the proskomidia … We celebrate the Eucharist and receive Communion each day." Hours after their meeting,Mother Maria was transported to Germany.

On December 16, Yura and Father Dimitri were deported to Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany, followed several weeks later by Pianov. In January 1944, Father Dimitri and Yura were sent to another camp, Dora. Within ten days of arrival, Yura contracted furunculosis. On February 6, "dispatched for treatment" — a euphemism for "sentenced to death." Four days later Father Dimitri, lying on a dirt floor, died of pneumonia. His body was disposed of in the Buchenwald crematorium.

Meanwhile, Mother Maria — now "Prisoner 19,263" — was sent in a sealed cattle truck to the Ravensbruck camp in Germany, where she endured for two years, an achievement in part explained by her long experience of ascetic life. She was assigned to Block 27 and befriended the many Russian prisoners who were with her. Unable to correspond with friends, little testimony in her own words has come down to us, but prisoners who survived the war remembered her. One of them, Solange Perichon, recalls: "She was never downcast, never. She never complained…. She was full of good cheer, really good cheer. We had roll calls which lasted a great deal of time. We were woken at three in the morning and we had to stand out in the open in the middle of winter until the barracks [population] was counted. She took all this calmly and she would say, 'Well that's that. Yet another day completed. And tomorrow it will be the same all over again.' … She allowed nothing of secondary importance to impede her contact with people."

Anticipating that her own exit point from the camp might be via the crematoria, Mother Maria asked a fellow prisoner whom she hoped would survive to memorize a message to be given at last to Father Sergei Bulgakov, Metropolitan Evlogy and her mother: "My state at present is such that I completely accept suffering in the knowledge that this is how things ought to be for me, and if I am to die, I see this as a blessing from on high." Her work in the camp varied. There was a period when she was part of a team of women dragging a heavy iron roller about the camp's pathways for 12 hours a day. In another period she worked in a knitwear workshop. Her legs began to give way. As her health declined, friends no longer allowed her to give away portions of her own food, as she had done in the past to help keep others alive.

With the Red Army approaching from the East, the concentration camp administrators further reduced food rations while greatly increasing the population of each block from 800 to 2,500. In serious decline, Mother Maria accepted a pink card freely issued to any prisoner who wished to be excused from labor because of age or ill health. In January 1945, those who had received such cards were transferred to what was called the Jugendlager — the "youth camp" — where the authorities said each person would have her own bed and abundant food. Mother Maria's transfer was on January 31. Here the food ration was further reduced and the hours spent standing for roll calls increased. Though it was mid-winter, blankets, coats and jackets were confiscated, and then even shoes and stockings. The death rate was at least fifty per day. Next all medical supplies were withdrawn. Those who still persisted in surviving now faced death by shootings and gas, the latter made possible by the construction of a gas chamber in March 1945, in which 150 were executed every day. Amazingly, Mother Maria survived five weeks in the "youth camp" before she was returned to the main camp on March 3. Though emaciated and infested with lice, with her eyes festering, she began to think she might actually live to return to Paris, or even go back to Russia.

Such was not to be the case. On March 30, 1945 — Great, Holy and Good Friday that year — Mother Maria was selected for the gas chambers, in which she perished the following day, on Great and Holy Saturday. Accounts are at odds about what happened. According to one, she was one of the many selected for death that day. According to another, she took the place of another prisoner, a Jew, who had been chosen. Although perishing in the gas chamber, she did not perish in the Church's memory. Survivors of the war who had known her would again and again draw attention to the ideas, insights and activities of the unusual nun who had spent so many years coming to the aid of people in desperate straits. Soon after the end of World War II, essays and books about her began to appear in France and Russia. A Russian film, "Mother Maria," was made in 1982. There have been two biographies in English and, little by little, the translation and publication in English of her most notable essays.

On January 18, 2004, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople recognized Mother Maria Skobtsova as a saint, along with her son Yuri; the priest who worked closely with her, Fr. Dimitri Klépinin; and her close friend and collaborator Ilya Fondaminsky. Their glorification took place in Paris' Cathedral of Saint Alexander Nevsky.

No information available at this time.

No information available at this time.

Very little information has come down to us about the holy martyr Salome of Jerusalem and Kartli, who lived in the XIII century at a women’s monastery in Jerusalem. She was arrested by the Persian Moslems because of her outspoken defense of Christ.

The Synaxarion of the Monastery of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, where she was martyred, tells us that at first, she gave in to the threats of the Persians and denied Christ. Later, however, she repented and publicly confessed Christ as the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

Saint Salome was tortured by the Persians because of her faith in Christ. Finally, she was beheaded and her holy relics were thrown into the fire.

It is believed that she was executed after the martyrdom of Saint Luka of Jerusalem, which occurred on February 12, 1277.

The Righteous Aaron (1445 B.C.) was the first Old Testament High Priest. The son of Amram and Jochebed of the tribe of Levi, and elder brother of the Prophet Moses and Miriam, was born in Egypt. He assisted Moses in freeing the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt, appearing before Pharaoh as the Prophet's representative, and speaking for him (Exodus 4:14-17).

Later Aaron took part in the forty-year wandering of the Hebrews in the wilderness, where, at God's behest, he was consecrated as the first High Priest (Exodus chapter 29).

Aaron reposed at the age of 123 years, in 1445 B.C. on Mount Or in the wilderness. Like Moses, he was not worthy to reach the Promised Land, and was punished for murmuring against God (Numbers 20:10).

Aaron's entire family was chosen by God for priestly ministry in the Old Testament Church, and the title of High Priest was preserved by his descendants until the coming of Christ the Savior on earth, passing in succession to the eldest son in the family.

The descendants of Aaron are called "the sons of Aaron" and "the house of Aaron" in the Holy Scriptures. According to the teaching of the Apostle Paul (Hebrews 5:4-6), as High Priest, Aaron was a type of Jesus Christ, the High Priest of the New Israel – the New Testament Church. He is also commemorated on Bright Wednesday (Synaxis of the Saints of Sinai); on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers; and on the Sunday of the Holy Fathers.

In Greek practice, the Righteous Aaron is commemorated on March 12.

The Commemoration of the Holy Fathers of the First Six Ecumenical Councils.

In the Ninth Article of the Nicea-Constantinople Symbol of Faith proclaimed by the holy Fathers of the First and Second Ecumenical Councils, we confess our faith in “One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.” By virtue of the catholic nature of the Church, an Ecumenical Council is the Church’s supreme authority, and possesses the competence to resolve major questions of church life. An Ecumenical Council is comprised of archpastors and pastors of the Church, and representatives of all the local Churches, from every land of the “oikumene” (i.e. from all the whole inhabited world).

The Orthodox Church acknowledges Seven Holy Ecumenical Councils:

The First Ecumenical Council (Nicea I) (May 29, and also on seventh Sunday after Pascha) was convened in the year 325 against the heresy of Arius, in the city of Nicea in Bithynia under Saint Constantine the Great, Equal of the Apostles.

The Second Ecumenical Council (Constantinople I) (May 22) was convened in the year 381 against the heresy of Macedonias, by the emperor Theodosius the Great.

The Third Ecumenical Council (Ephesus) (September 9) was convened in the year 431 against the heresy of Nestorius, in the city of Ephesus by the emperor Theodosius the Younger.

The Fourth Ecumenical Council (Chalcedon) (July 16) was convened in the year 451, against the Monophysite heresy, in the city of Chalcedon under the emperor Marcian.

The Fifth Ecumenical Council (Constantinople II) (July 25) “Concerning the Three Chapters,” was convened in the year 553, under the emperor Justinian the Great.

The Sixth Ecumenical Council (Constantinople III) (January 23) met during the years 680-681, to fight the Monothelite heresy, under the emperor Constantine Pogonatos.

The fact that the Seventh Ecumenical Council (Nicea II) is not commemorated today testifies to the antiquity of today’s celebration. The Seventh Council, commemorated on the Sunday nearest to October 11, was convened at Nicea in the year 787 against the Iconoclast heresy, under the emperor Constantine and his mother Irene.

The Church venerates the Holy Fathers of the Ecumenical Councils because Christ has established them as “lights upon the earth,” guiding us to the true Faith. “Clad in the garment of truth,” the doctrine of the Fathers, based upon the preaching of the Apostles, has established one faith for the Church. The Ecumenical Councils, are the highest authority in the Church. Such Councils, guided by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and accepted by the Church, are infallible.

The Orthodox Church’s conciliar definitions of dogma have the highest authority, and such definitions always begin with the Apostolic formula: “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us…” (Acts 15: 28).

The Ecumenical Councils were always convened for a specific reason: to combat false opinions and heresies, and to clarify the Orthodox Church’s teaching. But the Holy Spirit has thus seen fit, that the dogmas, the truths of faith, immutable in their content and scope, constantly and consequently are revealed by the conciliar mind of the Church, and are given precision by the holy Fathers within theological concepts and terms in exactly such measure as is needed by the Church itself for its economy of salvation. The Church, in expounding its dogmas, is dealing with the concerns of a given historical moment, “not revealing everything in haste and thoughtlessly, nor indeed, ultimately hiding something” (Saint Gregory the Theologian).

A brief summary of the dogmatic theology of the First Six Ecumenical Councils is formulated and contained in the First Canon of the Council of Trullo (also known as Quinisext), held in the year 692. The 318 Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council are spoken of in this Canon I of Trullo as having: “with unanimity of faith revealed and declared to us the consubstantiality of the three Persons of the Divine nature and, … instructing the faithful to adore the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with one worship, they cast down and dispelled the false teaching about different degrees of Divinity.”

The 150 Holy Fathers of the Second Ecumenical Council left their mark on the theology of the Church concerning the Holy Spirit, “repudiating the teaching of Macedonius, as one who wished to divide the inseparable Unity, so that there might be no perfect mystery of our hope.”

The 200 God-bearing Fathers of the Third Ecumenical Council expounded the teaching that “Christ, the Incarnate Son of God is One.” They also confessed that “she who bore Him without seed was the spotless Ever-Virgin, glorifying her as truly the Mother of God.

The 630 Holy Fathers of the Fourth Ecumenical Council decreed that “the One Christ, the Son of God… must be glorified in two natures.”

The 165 God-bearing Holy Fathers of the Fifth Ecumenical Council “in synod anathematized and repudiated Theodore of Mopsuestia (the teacher of Nestorius), and Origen, and Didymus, and Evagrius, renovators of the Hellenic teaching about the transmigration of souls and the transmutation of bodies and the impieties they raised against the resurrection of the dead.”

The 170 Holy Fathers of the Sixth Ecumenical Council “taught that we ought to confess two natural volitions, or two wills [trans. note: one divine, and the other human], and two natural operations (energies) in Him Who was incarnate for our salvation, Jesus Christ, our true God.”

In decisive moments of Church history, the holy Ecumenical Councils promulgated their dogmatic definitions, as trustworthy delimitations in the spiritual battle for the purity of Orthodoxy, which will last until such time, as “all shall come into the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God” (Eph. 4: 13). In the struggle with new heresies, the Church does not abandon its former dogmatic concepts nor replace them with some sort of new formulations. The dogmatic formulae of the Holy Ecumenical Councils need never be superseded, they remain always contemporary to the living Tradition of the Church. Therefore the Church proclaims:

“The faith of all in the Church of God hath been glorified by men, which were luminaries in the world, cleaving to the Word of Life, so that it be observed firmly, and that it dwell unshakably until the end of the ages, conjointly with their God-bestown writings and dogmas. We reject and we anathematize all whom they have rejected and anathematized, as being enemies of Truth. And if anyone does not cleave to nor admit the aforementioned pious dogmas, and does not teach or preach accordingly, let him be anathema” (Canon I of the Council of Trullo).

In addition to their dogmatic definitions, the Holy Fathers of the Ecumenical Councils exerted great efforts towards the strengthening of church discipline. Local Councils promulgated their disciplinary canons according to the circumstances of the time and place, frequently differing among themselves in various particulars.

The universal unity of the Orthodox Church required unity also in canonical practice, i.e. a conciliar deliberation and affirmation of the most important canonical norms by the Fathers of the Ecumenical Councils. Thus, according to conciliar judgment, the Church has accepted: 20 Canons from the First, 7 Canons from the Second, 8 Canons from the Third, and 30 Canons from the Fourth Ecumenical Synods. The Fifth and the Sixth Councils concerned themselves only with resolving dogmatic questions, and did not leave behind any disciplinary canons.

The need to establish in codified form the customary practices during the years 451-680, and ultimately to compile a canonical codex for the Orthodox Church, occasioned the convening of a special Council, which was wholly devoted to the general application of churchly rules. This was convened in the year 692. The Council “in the Imperial Palace” or “Under the Arches” (in Greek “en trullo”), came to be called the Council in Trullo. It is also called the “Quinisext” [meaning the “fifth and sixth”], because it is considered to have completed the activities of the Fifth and Sixth Councils, or rather that it was simply a direct continuation of the Sixth Ecumenical Council itself, separated by just a few years.

The Council in Trullo, with its 102 Canons (more than of all the Ecumenical Synods combined), had a tremendous significance in the history of the canonical theology of the Orthodox Church. It might be said that the Fathers of this Council produced a complete compilation of the basic codex from the relevant sources for the Orthodox Church’s canons. Listing through in chronological order, and having been accepted by the Church the Canons of the Holy Apostles, and the Canons of the Holy Ecumenical and the Local Councils and of the holy Fathers, the Trullo Council declared: “Let no one be permitted to alter or to annul the aforementioned canons, nor in place of these put forth, or to accept others, made of spurious inscription” (2nd Canon of the Council in Trullo).

Church canons, sanctified by the authority of the first Six Ecumenical Councils (including the rules of the Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787, and the Constantinople Councils of 861 and 879, which were added later under the holy Patriarch Photius), form the basis of THE RUDDER, or KORMCHAYA KNIGA (a canon law codex known as “Syntagma” or “Nomokanon” in 14 titles). In its repository of grace is expressed a canonical norm, a connection to every era, and a guide for all the local Orthodox Churches in churchly practice.

New historical conditions can lead to the change of some particular external aspect of the life of the Church. This makes creative canonical activity necessary in the conciliar reasoning of the Church, in order to reconcile the external norms of churchly life with historical circumstances. The details of canonical regulation are not fully developed for the various eras of churchly organization all at once. With every push to either forsake the literal meaning of a canon, or to fulfill and develop it, the Church again and again turns for reasoning and guidance to the eternal legacy of the Holy Ecumenical Councils, to the inexhaustable treasury of dogmatic and canonical truths.

Uncovering of the Relics of Saint Seraphim, Wonderworker of Sarov: The glorification of Saint Seraphim of Sarov (January 2), took place in 1903, seventy years after his repose. On July 3, 1903 Metropolitan Anthony of Saint Petersburg, assisted by Bishop Nazarius of Nizhni-Novgorod and Bishop Innocent of Tambov, transferred the saint’s relics from their original burial place to the church of Saints Zosimus and Sabbatius. Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra provided a new cypress coffin to receive the relics. This cypress coffin was then placed inside an oak coffin and remained in the church until the day of the saint’s glorification.

At noon on July 16, the first day of the festivities, Metropolitan Anthony offered a Memorial Service for the ever-memorable Hieromonk Seraphim in the Dormition Cathedral. Services also took place in the monastery’s other churches.

The next day Metropolitan Anthony and Bishop Nazarius served a Memorial Liturgy in the Dormition Cathedral. At 5:00 that afternoon, the bells of Sarov began to ring, announcing the arrival of Tsar Nicholas and his family. Metropolitan Anthony greeted them and then led them to the Dormition Cathedral for a Service of Thanksgiving.

The royal family attended the early Liturgy on July 18th and received the Holy Mysteries. Later that morning, the final Memorial Service for the repose of Hieromonk Seraphim’s soul was offered in the Cathedral. These would be the last prayers offered for him as a departed servant of God. From that time forward, prayers would be addressed to him as a saint. At 6 P.M. the bells rang for Vigil, the first service with hymns honoring Saint Seraphim, and during which his relics would be exposed for public veneration.

At the time of the Litia during Vespers, the saint’s coffin was carried from the church of Saints Zosimus and Sabbatius and into the Dormition Cathedral. Several people were healed of various illnesses during this procession. During Matins, as “Praise ye the Name of the Lord” was sung, the coffin was opened. After the Gospel, Metropolitan Anthony and the other hierarchs kissed the holy relics. They were followed by the royal family, the officiating clergy, and all the people in the cathedral.

On July 19, the saint’s birthday, the late Liturgy began at 8 o’clock. At the Little Entrance, twelve Archimandrites lifted the coffin from the middle of the church, carried it around the altar, then placed it into a special shrine. The long awaited event was accompanied by numerous miraculous healings of the sick, who had gathered at Sarov in large numbers. More than 200,000 people came to Sarov from all across Russia.

The festivities at Sarov came to an end with the dedication of the first two churches to Saint Seraphim. The first church to be consecrated was over his monastic cell in Sarov. The second church was consecrated on July 22 at the Diveyevo convent.

In 1991, Saint Seraphim’s relics were rediscovered after being hidden in a Soviet anti-religious museum for seventy years. Widely esteemed in his lifetime, Saint Seraphim is one of the most beloved saints of the Orthodox Church.

Saint Macrina was the sister of the holy hierarchs Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, and was born in Cappadocia at the beginning of the fourth century. Her mother, Emilia, saw an angel in a dream, naming her unborn child Thekla, in honor of the holy Protomartyr Thekla. Saint Emilia (January 1) fulfilled the will of God and named her daughter Thekla. Another daughter was named Macrina, in honor of a grandmother, who suffered during the time of persecution under the emperor Maximian Galerius.

Besides Macrina, there were nine other children. Saint Emila herself guided the upbringing and education of her daughter Macrina. She taught her reading and writing in the Scriptural books and Psalms of David, selecting examples from the sacred books which spoke of a pious and God-pleasing life. Saint Emilia taught her daughter to pray and to attend church services. Macrina was also taught the proper knowledge of domestic governance and various handicrafts. She was never left idle and did not participate in childish games or amusements.

When Macrina grew up, her parents betrothed her to a certain pious youth, but the bridegroom soon died. Many young men sought marriage with her, but Macrina refused them all, having chosen the life of a virgin and not wanting to be unfaithful to the memory of her dead fiancé. Saint Macrina lived in the home of her parents, helping them fulfill the household tasks as an overseer together with the servants, and she helped with the upbringing of her younger brothers and sisters. After the death of her father she became the chief support for the family.

When all the children grew up and left the parental home, Saint Macrina convinced her mother, Saint Emilia, to leave the world, to set their slaves free, and to settle in a women’s monastery. Several of their servants followed their example. Having taken monastic vows, they lived together as one family, they prayed together, they worked together, they possessed everything in common, and in this manner of life nothing distinguished one from another.

After the death of her mother, Saint Macrina guided the sisters of the monastery. She enjoyed the deep respect of all who knew her. Strictness towards herself and temperance in everything were characteristic of the saint all her life. She slept on boards and had no possessions. Saint Macrina was granted the gift of wonderworking. There was an instance (told by the sisters of the monastery to Saint Gregory of Nyssa after the death of Saint Macrina), when she healed a girl of an eye-affliction. Through the prayers of the saint, there was no shortage of wheat at her monastery in times of famine.

Saint Macrina died in the year 380, after a final prayer of thanks to the Lord for having received His blessings over all the course of her life. She was buried in the same grave with her parents.

Saint Dius was born in Antioch, Syria towards the end of the fourth century into a pious Christian family. From his youth he was noted for his temperance. He ate food in small quantities, but not every day, and his flesh was humbled by vigil and unceasing prayer. For these deeds the Lord granted Saint Dius dispassion and the gift of wonderworking.

In a vision, the Lord ordered Saint Dius to go to Constantinople and there to serve both Him and the people. Saint Dius settled beyond the city in a solitary place, where people feared to live. Saint Dius bravely contended with the evil spirits which tried to expel him from this place. The Lord heard the prayer of His saint: his staff took root, began to grow and with time was transformed into an immense oak, which stood for a long time even after the death of Saint Dius.

The surrounding inhabitants began to come to the saint for advice and guidance, and they sought healing from illnesses of body and soul. Saint Dius doctored the infirm with prayer, and whatever was offered him he distributed to the poor, the homeless and the sick.

Reports of Saint Dius reached even the emperor Theodosius the Younger. He came to Saint Dius for a blessing together with Patriarch Atticus of Constantinople (406-425). The emperor wanted a monastery to be built on the place of Saint Dius’ efforts, and he provided the means for its construction. The Patriarch ordained the monk as a priest and made him the igumen. Soon numerous monastic brethren gathered to Saint Dius. The monastery was in need of a well, and they dug for a long time without success. Through the prayers of the monk the Lord brought forth a spring of pure water, which soon filled up the entire well. Once, through his prayers, the monk raised up a drowned man. The Lord worked many other miracles through His saint.

In extreme old age Saint Dius became grievously ill. He took his leave of the brethren, received the Holy Mysteries, and lay upon his cot like one dead. At the monastery His Holiness Patriarch Atticus (Comm. on Cheesefare Saturday) came for the funeral service and also Patriarch Alexander of Alexandria, who was then at Constantinople. The holy Elder unexpectedly rose up from his death bed and said, “The Lord has granted me fifteen more years of life.” Great was the joy of the brethren.

Saint Dius did live another fifteen years, helping all with guidance and counsel, healing the sick, and being concerned for the poor and homeless. Shortly before his death, a radiant man in priestly garb appeared to him in the altar of the church and told him of his impending death. Having given thanks to the Lord for this news, Saint Dius quietly died and was buried in his monastery.

The Holy Prince Roman Olegovich of Ryazan was from a line of princes, who during the time of the Tatar (Mongol) Yoke won glory as defenders of the Christian Faith and of their Fatherland. Both his grandfathers perished for the Fatherland in the struggle with Batu.

Raised to love the holy faith (the prince lived in tears and prayers) and his homeland, the prince with all his strength concerned himself about his devastated and oppressed subjects. He defended them from the coercion and plundering of the Khan’s “baskaki” (“tax-collectors”). The “baskaki” hated the saint and they slandered him before the Tatar Khan Mengu-Timur.

Roman Olegovich was summoned to the Horde, where Khan Mengu-Timur declared that he had to choose one of two things: either a martyr’s death or the Tatar faith. The noble prince said that a Christian cannot change from the true Faith to a false one. For his firmness in the confession of faith he was subjected to cruel torments: they cut out his tongue, gouged out his eyes, cut off his ears and lips, chopped off his hands and feet, tore off the skin from his head and, after beheading him, they impaled him upon a spear. This occurred in the year 1270.

The veneration of the royal martyr began immediately with his death. The chronicle says about the saint: “By your suffering, you have gained the Kingdom of Heaven, and a crown from the hand of the Lord, together with your kinsman Michael Vsevolodovich, co-sufferers with Christ for the Orthodox Christian Faith.”

Since 1854, there have been church processions and Moliebens at Ryazan on the Feast day of Saint Roman. A church was consecrated in honor of the holy Prince Roman at Ryazan in 1861.

Saint Paisius of the Caves was a monk of the Kiev Caves monastery. From the Canon to the Kiev Caves monks, venerated in the Far Caves, it is known that he was connected by oneness of mind and brotherly love with Saint Mercurius (November 24). Both saints were inseparable, they lived in the same cell, and after death were placed in the same grave. At the present time their relics rest in separate reliquaries.

Saint Stephen was the son of prince Saint Lazar of Serbia (June 15). In the terrible times of the Turkish Yoke Saint Stephen became the great benefactor of his enslaved countrymen. He built up the city, constructed churches and expended his treasury on the help of the needy. Saint Stephen exceeded many rulers in his wisdom, his charity and his faith. He died peacefully in the year 1427.

Saint Militsa (Milica) was born in 1335, the daughter of Prince Vratko Nemanjić. In Holy Baptism she was named Euphrosynē. Later, she married the Holy Prince Lazarus (Lazar), who was killed during the great Battle of Kosovo (June 15, 1389), which was fought to defend the Holy Church against the Moslems. After her husband's death, she ruled Serbia until her son Stephen the Tall came of age. She also composed several prayers and religious poems, including "A Mother's Prayer" (Молитва матере) and a very touching poem of mourning for her husband, "The Bridegroom of my Widowhood" (Удовству мојему женик).

Saint Militsa founded Ljubostinja monastery around 1390, and there in 1393, she was tonsured as a nun with the name Eugenia. She was concerned about beginning her monastic life as a widow and about being accepted by the other nuns, whose husbands had also fallen on the battlefield. This inspired her to build and support many monasteries and churches.

At the end of her life, Mother Eugenia was tonsured into the Great Schema with the name Euphrosynē.

After her repose on November 11, 1405, Saint Militsa worked many miracles, and her myrrh-streaming relics healed many sick people.

The Russian Orthodox Church commemorates Saint Militsa on July 19, while the Church of Serbia commemorates her on August 30.

The Saint’s father was named Symeon, and his mother’s name was Maria. He received a good education and was distinguished for his philosophical knowledge, as well as for rhetoric.

At the age of ten he was left as an orphan and gave half of his parents’ wealth to his sister, and kept the other half himself. Sharing this with the poor, he departed for Jerusalem. There he venerated the holy places and, when he was nineteen years old, he became a monk in the Lavra of Saint Savva.

Saint Theodore remained there for twenty-four years, leading an ascetic and virtuous life, and became a renowned ascetic. Hearing of his great virtues, the Patriarch of Jerusalem made him Bishop of Edessa in 836. He was an excellent Archpastor, with his vast theological knowledge, his many virtues, and above all, his great love, which he bestowed abundantly upon his flock. At that time Edessa was plagued with many heresies: Arian, Nestorian, Eutychian, etc. The holy hierarch instructed his flock in the Orthodox Faith in order to combat these errors. Saint Theodore also went to see the Persian king in Babylon, asking him to protect the Orthodox Christians of Edessa from the malevolence of the heretics.

The King was very sick, but the Saint healed him and spoke to him about Christ. After many days the King was baptized with the name John. After returning to Edessa, Saint Theodore was informed in a vision that King John and his three bodyguards, who had been baptized with him, proclaimed their faith openly and received the unfading crown of martyrdom.

Sensing the approach of death, Saint Theodore retired to the Lavra of Saint Savva. After calling the clergy and laity of Edessa together and blessing them, he surrendered his holy soul to the Heavenly Father in the year 848.

Bishop Basil of Emessa wrote the Saint’s life in Greek, which is preserved at the Ivḗron Monastery on Mount Athos.

The Holy Martyr Emilian, who was a Slav, suffered for Christ during the reign of Emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363). Julian wanted to restore the cult of the pagan gods throughout the Roman Empire, and he issued an edict, according to which all Christians who failed to honor the pagan gods would be subject to death.

Saint Emilian lived in the Thracian city of Dorostolum on the banks of the River Dunaj (Danube).The imperial edict was read in the city square, but the people of Dorostolum declared that there were no Christians in the city.

Saint Emilian was a slave of a cruel and fanatical idolater, and was a secret Christian. Some sources state that he was the son of a local officer named Sabbatianus. When the father learned that Emilian believed in Christ, he was so enraged that he insulted him with vulgar words and had him whipped. He pointed out that he could expect even worse things to happen to him if he remained a Christian.

Instead of being intimidated by these threats, Saint Emilian’s faith in Christ was strengthened. The next day he went into a pagan temple and smashed the statues with a hammer.

An angry crowd started to beat a certain Christian, who was passing by. Saint Emilian then shouted out loudly that they should not harm that innocent man, since he himself was the one who had damaged the pagan temple.

The saint was seized and brought to Capitolinus the governor for judgment. In spite of further threats, Saint Emilian would not deny Christ. “He is my Lord, and I will never deny Him,” the martyr exclaimed. The governor ordered that Saint Emilian be beaten mercilessly, and then to be burned alive. He did not perish when he was thrown into the fire, but instead the flames consumed many of the pagans who were standing about. When the fire had gone out, Saint Emilian lay down upon the dying embers, and gave up his soul to the Lord. The wife of the pagan ruler was also a secret Christian, and she gathered up the saint’s relics and buried them. Afterward, a church dedicated to the holy Martyr Emilian was built at Constantinople, where his relics were transferred.

The Holy Martyr Hyacinthus was born into a pious Christian family in the city of Amastridea (now Amastra in Anatolia). An angel which appeared gave him his name. As a three-year-old boy Saint Hyacinthus asked God that a dead infant might be resurrected. The Lord hearkened to his childish prayer, and the dead one arose. Both lads afterwards grew up together, and they lived an ascetic life.

Saint Hyacinthus once noticed how the pagans were worshipping a tree, and so he chopped it down. For this they subjected him to harsh tortures. They smashed out all his teeth, and having bound him with rope, they dragged him along the ground and threw him in prison. It was there that the holy sufferer departed to the Lord.

Saint John the Much-Suffering pursued asceticism at the Kiev Caves Lavra, accepting many sorrows for the sake of virginity.

The ascetic recalled that from the time of his youth he had suffered much, tormented by fleshly lust, and nothing could deliver him from it, neither hunger nor thirst nor heavy chains. He then went into the cave where the relics of Saint Anthony rested, and he fervently prayed to the holy Abba. After a day and a night the much-suffering John heard a voice: “John! It is necessary for you to become a recluse, in order to weaken the vexation by silence and seclusion, and the Lord shall help you by the prayers of His monastic saints.” The saint settled into the cave from that time, and only after thirty years did he conquer the fleshly passions.

Tense and fierce was the struggle upon the thorny way on which the monk went to victory. Sometimes the desire took hold of him to forsake his seclusion, but then he resolved on still greater effort. The holy warrior of Christ dug out a pit and with the onset of Great Lent he climbed into it, and he covered himself up to the shoulders with ground. He spent the whole of Lent in such a position, but the burning of his former passions did not leave him. The enemy of salvation brought terror upon the ascetic, wishing to expel him from the cave: a fearsome serpent, breathing fire and sparks, tried to swallow the saint. For several days these evil doings continued.

On the night of the Resurrection of Christ the serpent seized the head of the monk in its jaws. Then Saint John cried out from the depths of his heart: “O Lord my God and my Savior! Why have You forsaken me? Have mercy upon me, only Lover of Mankind; deliver me from my foul iniquity, so that I am not trapped in the snares of the Evil one. Deliver me from the mouth of my enemy: send down a flash of lightning and drive it away.” Suddenly a bolt of lightning flashed, and the serpent vanished. A Divine light shone upon the ascetic, and a Voice was heard: “John! Here is help for you. Be attentive from now on, that nothing worse happen to you, and that you do not suffer in the age to come.”

The saint prostrated himself and said: “Lord! Why did You leave me for so long in torment?” “I tried you according to the power of your endurance,” was the answer. “I brought upon you temptation, so that you might be purified like gold. It is to the strong and powerful servants that a master assigns the heavy work, and the easy tasks to the infirm and to the weak. Therefore pray to the one buried here (Moses the Hungarian), he can help you in this struggle, for he did greater deeds than Joseph the Fair” (March 31). The monk died in the year 1160, having acquired grace against profligate passions. His holy relics rest in the Caves of Saint Anthony.

We pray to Saint John for deliverance from sexual impurity.

Hieromonk Pambo, Hermit of the Kiev Caves, was a confessor for the Faith. Captured while on a monastic obedience, he was taken off by Tatars and for many years suffered from them for his refusal to renounce the Christian Faith. The monk was afterwards miraculously transported from captivity and put within his own cell. He died in seclusion in 1241. His relics rest in the Caves of Saint Theodosius.

Saint Pambo lived the ascetic life in the Nitrian desert in Egypt. Saint Anthony the Great (January 17) said, that the Monk Pambo by the fear of God inspired within himself the Holy Spirit. And the Monk Pimen the Great (August 27) said: “We beheld three things in Father Pambo: hunger every day, silence and handcrafts”. The Monk Theodore the Studite termed Saint Pambo “exalted in deed and in word.”

At the beginning of his monasticism, Saint Pambo heard the verses from the 38th [39th] Psalm of David: “preserve mine path, that I sin not by my tongue”. These words sank deep into his soul, and he attempted to follow them always. Thus, when they asked him about something, he answered only after long pondering and prayer. He would say, “I must think first, and perhaps I can, in time, give an answer, with God’s help.” Saint Pambo was a model of a lover of work for his disciples. Each day he worked until exhausted, and lived by the bread acquired by his own toil.

The disciples of Saint Pambo became great ascetics: Dioscorus, afterwards Bishop of Hermopolis (this Dioscorus, bishop of Hermopolis, is distinguished from another Dioscorus, an arch-heretic and Patriarch of Constantinople who lived rather later and was condemned by the Fourth Ecumenical Council), and also Ammonius, Eusebius and Euthymius, mentioned in the life of Saint John Chrysostom. One time Saint Melania the Younger (December 31) brought Saint Pambo a large amount of silver for the needs of the monastery, but he did not leave off from his work nor even glance at the money that was brought. Only after the incessant requests of Saint Melania did he permit her to give the alms to a certain monastic brother for distribution to the needs of the monastery. Saint Pambo was distinguished by his humility, but together with this he highly esteemed the vocation of monk and he taught the laypeople to be respectful of monastics, who often converse with God.

It was said that sometimes Saint Pambo’s face shone like lightning, as did the face of Moses. Yet, speaking to the brethren who stood about his deathbed, Saint Pambo said: “I go to the Lord as one who has not yet begun to serve Him.” He died at the age of 70.

Saint Elizabeth was the older sister of Tsarina Alexandra, and was married to the Grand Duke Sergius, the governor of Moscow. She converted to Orthodoxy from Protestantism of her own free will, and organized women from all levels of society to help the soldiers at the front and in the hospitals.

Grand Duke Sergius was killed by an assassin’s bomb on February 4, 1905, just as Saint Elizabeth was leaving for her workshops. Remarkably, she visited her husband’s killer in prison and urged him to repent.

After this, she began to withdraw from her former social life. She devoted herself to the Convent of Saints Martha and Mary, a community of nuns which focused on worshiping God and also helping the poor. She moved out of the palace into a building she purchased on Ordinka. Women from the nobility, and also from the common people, were attracted to the convent.

Saint Elizabeth nursed sick and wounded soldiers in the hospitals and on the battle front. On Pascha of 1918, the Communists ordered her to leave Moscow, and join the royal family near Ekaterinburg. She left with a novice, Sister Barbara, and an escort of Latvian guards.

After arriving in Ekaterinburg, Saint Elizabeth was denied access to the Tsar’s family. She was placed in a convent, where she was warmly received by the sisters.

At the end of May Saint Elizabeth was moved to nearby Alopaevsk with the Grand Dukes Sergius, John, and Constantine, and the young Count Vladimir Paley. They were all housed in a schoolhouse on the edge of town. Saint Elizabeth was under guard, but was permitted to go to church and work in the garden.

On the night of July 5, they were all taken to a place twelve miles from Alopaevsk, and executed. The Grand Duke Sergius was shot, but the others were thrown down a mineshaft, then grenades were tossed after them. Saint Elizabeth lived for several hours, and could be heard singing hymns.

The bodies of Saint Elizabeth and Saint Barbara were taken to Jerusalem in 1920, and buried in the church of Saint Mary Magdalene.

Saint Barbara died with Saint Elizabeth on July 5, 1918, the day after the murder of Tsar Nicholas and his family. The two nuns were thrown into a mineshaft, and grenades were tossed in after them. Saint Elizabeth remained alive for several hours, and could be heard singing hymns.

The bodies of Saint Barbara and Saint Elizabeth were taken to Jerusalem in 1920, and buried in the church of Saint Mary Magdalene.

The Tolga Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos appeared on August 8, 1314 to the Rostov hierarch Prochorus (Tryphon in schema). Going about his diocese, the saint visited the environs of White Lake and from there traveled along the banks of the Rivers Sheksna and Volga, to Yaroslavl. Having stopped with the approach of night 7 versts distant from Yaroslavl, at the right bank of the Volga River there flows opposite into it the River Tolga.

At midnight, when everyone was asleep, the saint awoke and saw a bright light illuminating the area. The light proceeded from a fiery column on the other bank of the river, to which there stretched a bridge. Taking up his staff, the saint went across to the other bank, and having approached the fiery column, he beheld on it the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, suspended in the air. Astonished at the miracle, the saint prayed for a long time, and when he went back, he forgot to take his staff.

The next day, after serving Matins, when Saint Prochorus was preparing to continue his journey by boat, they began to search for his staff, but they were not able to find it anywhere. The saint then remembered that he had forgotten his staff on the other side of the river, where he had gone across on the miraculous bridge. He then revealed what had occurred, and sent servants across on a boat to the other shore. They came back and reported that in the forest they had seen an icon of the Mother of God suspended in the branches of a tree, next to his bishop’s staff.

The saint quickly crossed over with all his retinue to the opposite shore, and he recognized the icon that had appeared to him. Then after fervent prayer before the icon, they cleared the forest at that place, and put down the foundations of a church. When the people of Yaroslavl learned of this, they came out to the indicated spot. By midday the church was already built, and in the evening the saint consecrated it in honor of the Entrance into the Temple of the Most Holy Theotokos, and having installed the icon there he established a Feast on the day of its appearance. Saint Prochorus later built the Tolga monastery near this church. Saint Prochorus died on September 7, 1328.

The Tolga Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos is also commemorated on August 8.

Over the centuries the monastic complex founded by Saint David of Gareji became a spiritual and cultural center for all of Georgia. Many of the faithful flocked there with a desire to serve Christ.

Among them was the hieromonk Kozman, who would end his earthly life as a martyr.

Few details of the life of Holy Martyr Kozman have been preserved. According to the Georgian catholicos Anton, Saint Kozman was a learned and righteous ascetic, well-versed in the canons of the Orthodox Church.

Saint Kozman composed a set of “Hymns to the Great-Martyr Queen Ketevan” but his work has not been preserved. According to the 19th-century historian Platon Ioseliani, Hieromonk Kozman was taken captive and tortured to death in the year 1630, when the Dagestanis were carrying out a raid on the Davit-Gareji Wilderness.

Saint Marina was born into the family of a pagan priest from the city of Antioch, in the center of the Roman Province of Pisidia in Asia Minor. She was raised by a wet nurse who lived on an estate owned by Marina's mother, who died when the Saint was still an infant. From the nurse or from an unnamed man of God from the wanderers Marina learned the basics of Christianity at the age of twelve.

After hearing the story of the conception and birth of Jesus Christ by the Most Holy Virgin, Marina's faith in the Christian God was strengthened, and it was her intention to renounce worldly temptations. She decided she would never marry and, despite the fact that she attracted the attention of men, she would become the bride of Christ. Some sources explicitly indicate on her willingness to "lay down her life for the Lord."

Olymbrios, the imperial governor of that region, was fascinated by Marina's beauty and wanted to marry her. The Saint did not hide the fact that she was a Christian. Then the ruler gave her into the care of a noble woman, hoping that she would persuade the girl to deny Christ. Then Olymbrios offered her his hand and heart publicly, in the center of the city, from the prefect's podium, but Saint Marina remained unwavering in her refusal.

The temptations of this life, which promised her fame and fortune, were immediately replaced by physical suffering. The forces that made it possible to overcome physical suffering and the temptation to end pain at the cost of apostasy, the Martyr drew from prayers to the Lord. The Saint bravely endured cruel tortures: she was beaten with rods, her body was raked with tridents, they drove nails into her, and burned her with fire.

But even this, the second level of temptation did not exhaust the Saint's feat (podvig). The source of the third level of testing was Satan himself, whose onslaught was also threefold.

The first time the devil appeared to the Saint in prison, on the night after the first day of torture, when she prayed, as the Coptic Life clarifies, she folded her arms crosswise. In Russian hagiography, it is emphasized that Marina asked the Lord: "Let me see the Enemy of the human race fighting against me. Let him come face to face before me. You are the Judge and Ruler of the living and the dead, so judge between me and the devil. Deliver me from perdition. Help me to overcome him, send Satan to hell by Your invincible power."

Taking the form of a serpent (dragon), Satan devoured the captive. But Saint Marina was able to pray in his belly, and she made the Sign of the Cross, which tore the dragon apart. Once again on the floor of the dungeon, Marina saw Satan himself in the corner, who began a second physical onslaught on the Saint.

The peculiarity which distinguishes the Great Martyr Marina from other holy virgins, and even men, is that the girl made active physical resistance to Satan. After entering into single combat with him, Saint Marina continued to pray. Noticing a copper hammer lying in the corner of the dungeon, she grabbed it and began to beat Satan on the head with it, holding him by the horns, and stepping on his neck, Saint Marina said: "Depart from me, O lawless one."

After that, the heavens opened, and the Martyr's body was healed of her wounds from the previous day. A voice from above encouraged her, urging her not to be afraid of anything.

But the devil made a third onslaught on the girl. Under the guise of the frankness of the story of his atrocities, he tried to draw her into those sins to which the Saint was opposed. But Marina defeated the Father of lies, making the Sign of the Cross over him. The abyss swallowed up Satan, and the Saint spent the rest of the night in prayers of thanksgiving and joy until the day of her final contest began.

The eparch tried again to break the Holy Virgin's resistance by torture. The Martyr was suspended on a tree, scorched with fire, dunked in a barrel of water – and that became her Holy Baptism. Suddenly, as she was being submerged in the water, a light shone, and a snow-white dove descended upon the girl with a golden crown in its beak.

The astonished crowd began to praise God and declared themselves to be Christians. The governor ordered everyone to be executed. On that day, together with the fifteen-year-old bride of Christ Marina, 15,000 people were beheaded. This occurred in the year 304.

The tradition of Saint Marina's veneration was established by a witness to the Great Martyr's imprisonment and execution, and then by the hagiographer Theotimos (Theótimos).¹ After anointing the Saint's body with fragrances and incense, he first placed her in the house of the pious wife of a senator in Antioch. Subsequently, the relics were placed in a stone tomb in a specially built house of prayer (martyrium), where every year on the Saint's Feast Day the Divine Liturgy was served. The basis for the recognition of Marina as a Saint was the numerous miracles attributed to her relics.

Already in the IV century, the Virgin Martyr Marina was revered as a deliverer from misfortunes and troubles, from unrighteous judgment and lawless sentences. In the Athonite proskynitaria (descriptions of holy places) from 1701 it is said that her relics heal the afflicted, give "healing to the sick, consolation to mourners, correction and forgiveness to those who live in sins." The Holy Great Martyr Marina, who defeated the devil during her lifetime, protects us against the Enemy's slanders and defamations, she intercedes for those who are overwhelmed by the spirits of malice: the possessed and mentally ill, as well as for those who are on their deathbed, driving the demons away from them.

It has been suggested that at some stage in the history of Western Europe, Marina was renamed Margarita (pearl) in Latin hagiography and it was given to her for beauty and nobility. At some point, the Saint began to be venerated in various parts of Europe under different names. Closer to the south and east she was known by her original name of Marina, but in the west and north as Margarita.

In Greek and Coptic icons of the Great Martyr Marina, there is either a dragon or a devil in the form of a dark-skinned man, a short man with horns. In the latter case, the Saint holds him with one hand by a horn, or a tuft of hair, and with the other hand she is about to strike him with a hammer.

¹ Theotimos is not mentioned in the Greek Life of Saint Marina, only in the Latin Life.

Saint Irenarchus of Solovki accepted tonsure at the Solovki monastery, and in his monastic life he zealously imitated the Monks Zosimus (April 17) and Sabbatius (September 27). In 1614, after the death of the igumen Anthony, Irenarchus became his successor. During these times the Solovki monastery held tremendous significance in the defense of Northern Russia from the Swedes and the Danes. The new igumen did much to fortify the monastery. Under the Monk Irenarchus there was constructed a stone wall with turrets, deep ditches dug, and with stones spread out.

Concerned about the external dangers to the monastery, the monk also devoted much attention to fortifying it inwardly and spiritually. Very humble and meek, constantly immersed in thoughts of God, he was zealous for supporting in the monks a true monastic spirit. Under the spiritual guidance of Saint Irenarchus at the Solovki monastery there matured many worthy ascetics. With the blessing of the igumen and under his assistant, Saint Eleazar (January 13), a friend and co-ascetic of the venerable Irenarchus, founded a skete monastery on Anzersk Island.

In an imperial document to the Solovki monastery in the year 1621, the monks were bidden “to live according to the rules of the holy Fathers… and in full obedience to their igumen (Irenarchus) and the elders”.

The last two years of the monk’s life were spent in silent prayer, and he reposed on July 17, 1628.

Saint Lazarus the Wonderworker of Mount Galesius near Ephesus was born in Lydia, in the city of Magnesia. An educated young man who loved God, Lazarus became a monk at the monastery of Saint Savva, the founder of great ascetic piety in Palestine. He spent ten years within the walls of the monastery, winning the love and respect of the brethren for his intense monastic struggles.

Ordained to the holy priesthood by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Saint Lazarus returned to his native country and settled near Ephesus, on desolate Mount Galesius. Here he saw a wondrous vision: a fiery pillar, rising up to the heavens, was encircled by angels singing, “Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered.”

On the place where the saint beheld this vision, he built a church in honor of the Resurrection of Christ and took upon himself the feat of pillar-dwelling. Monks soon began to flock to the great ascetic, thirsting for spiritual nourishment by the divinely-inspired words and blessed example of the saint, and a monastery was established there.

Having received a revelation about the day of his death, the saint told the brethren. Through the tearful prayers of all the monks, the Lord prolonged the earthly life of Saint Lazarus for another fifteen years.

Saint Lazarus died at 72 years of age, in the year 1053. The brethren buried the body of the saint at the pillar upon which he had struggled in asceticism. He was glorified by many miracles after his death.

Saint Lazarus is also commemorated on November 7.

Saint Nicholas, the last Russian Tsar, was born in 1868. As a child, he was very religious, guileless and free from malice.

Nicholas II was crowned as Tsar in 1894, following the death of his father Tsar Alexander. He began his reign with lofty hopes for peace, urging other nations to reduce the size of their armies, and to seek the peaceful settlement of international disputes. The Peace Conference at the Hague in 1899 laid the groundwork for the League of Nations and the United Nations.

He married Princess Alice of Hesse, who converted to Orthodoxy and took the name Alexandra. Their children were Olga (1895), Tatiana (1897), Maria (1899), Anastasia (1901), and Alexis (1904).

The glorification of Saint Seraphim of Sarov took place on July 19, 1903, and Tsar Nicholas attended the ceremonies at Sarov with his family. At that time he was given a letter written by Saint Seraphim more than seventy years before, which seemed to disturb him. Although the Sovereign never revealed the letter’s contents, it is believed that it was a prophecy of the bloodshed that would engulf Russia in less than fifteen years.

Saint Nicholas was executed by the Bolsheviks at Ekaterinburg on July 4, 1918 along with his family and servants. The prisoners were awakened late at night and ordered to get dressed for travel. They went down to the cellar of the home in which they were being held, waiting for the word to leave. The Tsar sat on a chair in the middle of the room holding his son Alexis in his lap, while his wife and daughters stood around them.

The executioners entered the room and read out the order for their execution. Saints Nicholas and Alexandra died under the hail of bullets, but the children did not die right away. They were stabbed and clubbed with the butts of rifles. Their bodies were taken to an abandoned mine, cut into pieces, then piled in front of the mine. Sulphur and gasoline were poured on the bloody mound and set on fire. When the fire went out two days later, whatever remained of the bodies was thrown into the mine and grenades were tossed into it. Then the ground was plowed so that no trace of the disposal of the bodies remained.

Saint Leonid of Ustnedumsk lived in the Poshekhonsk district of Vologda, and he was a farmer by occupation. At age fifty, he saw the Mother of God in a dream, Who directed him to go to the River Dvina to the Morzhevsk Nikolaev hermitage. He was to take from there the Hodēgḗtria Icon of the Mother of God, and build a church for it at the River Luz and Mount Turin.

Saint Leonid decided not to follow the advice of this vision, thinking it simply a dream, and considering himself unworthy. He went to the Kozhe Lake monastery, accepting monastic tonsure there and spending about three years at work and ascetical efforts. From there he transferred to the Solovki monastery and labored there in the bakery.

The miraculous vision was repeated, and Saint Leonid was advised not to oppose God’s will. The venerable one then set off to the Morzhevsk hermitage, and after a year he told Igumen Cornelius (1599-1623) about the command of the Mother of God. Having received from the abbot both a blessing and the Hodēgḗtria icon, the monk reached the River Luz near Mount Turin, 80 versts from the city of Ustiug, and he built himself a hut from brushwood. The local people, fearing that their land would be taken from them for the saint’s monastery, compelled him to resettle up the river in a marshy wilderness spot.

At 30 versts from the city of Lalsk, the Elder constructed a cell and set about building a monastery. For draining the marshes, the ascetic dug three canals, about 2 kilometers in length, from the River Luz to Black Lake, and from Black Lake to Holy Lake, and from there to the Black Rivulet. During this time of heavy work he was bitten by a poisonous snake. Entrusting himself to the will of God, Saint Leonid decided not to seek medical treatment, nor did he think of the consequences. He went to sleep and woke up healthy. In gratitude to the Lord for His mercy, he called the canal the “Nedumaya Reka” (“Unplanned River”), and his monastery the “Ustnedumsk” (“the mouth of the Nedumaya”) monastery.

With the blessing of the Metropolitan Philaret of Rostov (afterwards the Patriarch of All-Russia, 1619-1633), Saint Leonid was ordained hieromonk in 1608. In the newly-built church in honor of the Entrance of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple, Hieromonk Leonid installed the Hodēgḗtria icon, as the Mother of God commanded him. Because of his difficult labors on the frontier, called the “Luzsk Permtsa”, which means “the pocket-land of the wild Permians”, it is fitting that Saint Leonid is venerated as one of the first enlighteners of these remote lands.

The monk had many struggles with the severe and inhospitable forces of nature. Although his canal-system had drained the marsh, in times of floodings the River Luz engulfed the monastery. Towards the end of his life the tireless worker undertook construction on a point of land at Black Lake. At the new site a church was built and consecrated in 1652. Saint Leonid died at age 100, on July 17, 1654. He was buried at the monastery church, where for a long time his coarse and heavy hair-shirt was preserved, a reminder of the ascetic toils of the holy saint.

There is a Troparion to Saint Leonid, and his holy icons are in churches at the places of his struggles.

The Sviatogorsk Icon of the Mother of God is from the Sviatogorsky Monastery in the province of Pskov. In the year 1563, during the time of Ivan the Terrible, in the environs of Pskov a “Tenderness” Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos appeared to a fifteen-year-old shepherd and fool named Timothy, not far from the stream Lugovitsa. This icon was thereafter situated in the Voronicha parish church of Saint George. The voice from the icon said that after six years the grace of God would shine forth upon this hill.

In 1569 to this same youth upon the Sinicha hill, there appeared a Hodēgḗtria icon of the Mother of God upon a pine tree. Timothy spent forty days at this place in fasting and prayer. The miraculous voice from the icon commanded that the clergy and the people should come to the Sinicha heights with the Tenderness icon on the Friday following the Sunday of All Saints.

When the church procession reached the hill and began the Molieben, a light suddenly shone during the reading of the Gospel. The air was filled with fragrance and everyone saw upon the pine tree the Hodēgḗtria icon. Both holy icons, the Hodēgḗtria and the Tenderness, were put into the church of the Great Martyr George. From them many miraculous signs and healings took place, about which reports were made to Tsar Ivan IV. Through his decree, upon the Sinicha Hill, called from that time the “Svyata” (“Holy”), a chapel was built, into which were transferred the wonderworking icons. But soon, on the Feast of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos, when a church procession with icons went to Holy Hill, the chapel suddenly burned that night. The fire destroyed everything else inside, but the holy things remained unharmed.

On this sacred spot they built a stone church in honor of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, the altar of which stood on the place where the Hodēgḗtria icon had appeared. Both glorified icons were placed into the lower tier of the iconostas: the Hodēgḗtria on the right side (a chapel in honor of which was built in 1770), and the Tenderness on the left (a chapel was built in 1776).

In that same year of 1569 on Holy Hill was founded the Sviatogorsk (“Holy Hill”) Dormition monastery.

Every year, on the first Friday of the Peter and Paul Fast, the icons are conveyed to the Trinity cathedral of the city of Pskov. On the following Sunday, a procession is made with them along the inner walls of the city.

The celebration in honor of the Tenderness icon is March 19, and on the ninth Friday after Pascha. The Hodēgḗtria icon is commemorated on July 17, and on the Feast of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos (October 1).

Hieromartyr Athenogenes and his Ten Disciples suffered for Christ during the persecution of Christians in the city of Sebastea in Cappadocia. The governor Philomachos arranged a large festival in honor of the pagan gods and called upon the citizens of Sebastea to offer sacrifice to the idols. Most of the inhabitants of Sebastea were Christians, and refused to participate in the impious celebration. Soldiers were ordered to kill those who resisted, and so many Christians received a martyr’s crown.

It came to the governor’s attention that Christianity was spreading because of the grace-filled preaching of Bishop Athenogenes. Soldiers were ordered to find the Elder and arrest him. Bishop Athenogenes and ten of his disciples lived in a small monastery not far from the city. The soldiers did not find the bishop there, so they arrested his disciples. The governor ordered that they be bound with chains and thrown into prison.

Saint Athenogenes was arrested when he came to Sebastea to inform the judge that those who had been jailed were innocent. While in prison, Saint Athenogenes encouraged his spiritual children for their impending struggle. Led forth to trial, all the holy martyrs confessed themselves Christians and refused to offer sacrifice to idols.

After undergoing fierce tortures, the disciples of the holy bishop were beheaded. After the execution of the disciples, the executioners were ordered to torture the bishop. Strengthened by the Lord, Saint Athenogenes underwent the tortures with dignity. His only request was that he be executed in the monastery.

Taken to his own monastery, the saint gave thanks to God, and he rejoiced in the sufferings that he had undergone for Him. Saint Athenogenes asked that the Lord would forgive the sins of all those who would remember both him and his disciples.

The Lord granted the saint to hear His Voice before death, announcing the promise given to the penitent thief: “Today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” The hieromartyr willingly bent his neck beneath the sword.

The Holy Martyrs Paul, Alevtina, and Chionia were from Egypt. During the persecution against Christians under the emperor Maximian (305-313), they were taken to Palestinian Caesarea. Without the slightest fear they confessed themselves as followers of Christ. In the year 308 the sisters Alevtina and Chionia were burned, and Paul was beheaded.

The Holy Martyr Antiochus, a native of Cappadocian Sebastea, was the brother of the holy Martyr Platon (November 18), and he was a physician. The pagans learned that he was a Christian, and they brought him to trial and subjected him to fierce tortures. Thrown into boiling water, the saint remained unharmed. He was then given over to be eaten by wild beasts, but they did not harm him. Instead, the beasts lay peacefully at his feet.

Through the prayers of the martyr many miracles were worked and the idols crumbled into dust. The pagans beheaded Saint Antiochus. Seeing the guiltless suffering of the saint, Cyriacus, a participant in the execution, was converted to Christ. He confessed his faith in front of everyone and was also beheaded. They buried the martyrs side by side.

The Virgin Martyr Julia was born in Carthage into a Christian family. While still a girl she was captured by the Persians. They carried her off to Syria and sold her into slavery. Fulfilling the Christian commandments, Saint Julia faithfully served her master. She preserved herself in purity, kept the fasts and prayed much to God. No amount of urging by her pagan master could turn her to idolatry.

Once the master set off with merchandise for Gaul and took Saint Julia with him. Along the way the ship stopped over at the island of Corsica, and the master decided to take part in a pagan festival, but Julia remained on the ship. The Corsicans plied the merchant and his companions with wine, and when they had fallen into a drunken sleep, they took Julia from the ship. Saint Julia was not afraid to acknowledge that she was a Christian, and the savage pagans crucified her.

An angel of the Lord reported the death of the holy martyr to the monks of a monastery, located on a nearby island. The monks took the body of the saint and buried it in a church in their monastery.

In about the year 763 the relics of the holy Martyr Julia were transferred to a women’s monastery in the city of Breschia (historians give conflicting years of the death of the saint: as either the fifth or seventh century).

No information available at this time.

In the XV century, in the territory of the Pskov principality, there was a certain village called Chirsk, or Chersk, where, in the church of the Nativity of Christ, there was a Hodēgḗtria Icon of the Mother of God. In 1420, during the reign of Tsar Basil I of Moscow, and when Archbishop Simeon occupied the See of Novgorod and Pskov, a great disaster broke out over the Pskov region – the plague. People were despondent and sought solace and comfort by praying to God and the Queen of Heaven for help.

On July 16, 1420, as a consolation for the faithful and the encouragement of the faint-hearted, a great Sign took place in the church of the Nativity of Christ at Chirsk: tears flowed from the eyes of the Mother of God on the Icon. News of the miracle spread quickly among the inhabitants of that region, and they began to flock in large numbers to venerate the newly glorified Icon.

Soon Prince Theodore of Pskov was informed of this, so he sent priests to Chirsk, along with many noble and devout persons, with orders to take this Icon and bring it to Pskov. With reverence and solemnity, they obeyed the command of their Prince. At Pskov, when it was learned that the holy Icon was nearing the city, Prince Theodore went out to meet it, with all the clergy and people.

This moment of the meeting was marked by an amazing new miracle: tears began to flow again from the eyes of the Mother of God, even more copiously than before, which was witnessed by all those who were present. The people, trembling at the sight, fell to the ground with tears, crying out: "Lord, have mercy! O Most Holy Sovereign Lady Theotokos, do not forsake us, but help us, your sinful and unworthy servants, and save us!"

The Cross Procession came to a halt, and the priests who carried the Icon served a Moleben of thanksgiving. This wonderworking Icon was brought into the city of Pskov and was placed in the cathedral church of the Life-Giving Trinity, where it remains to this day. Every year, on the Feast of Mid-Pentecost, the Icon is taken from Holy Trinity Cathedral and carried around the city.

The Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke and Saint Theodosios of the Kiev Caves are depicted on the reverse of the Icon.

The Holy Equal of the Apostles and Great Prince Vladimir, the youngest son of Prince Svyatoslav of Kiev, was born in 963. He was only six years old when his grandmother, the Holy Princess Olga (July 11), who had raised him, reposed, and his father sent him to reign in Novgorod under the tutelage of the voivode Dobryn, his mother's brother. Princess Malusha, who still bore her Scandinavian name Malchrid, was a Christian. After Saint Vladimir converted to Christianity and founded the church of the Tithes at Kiev, she donated her estate to it.

Saint Olga's son Prince Svyatoslav was killed in battle with the Pechenegs three years after his mother's repose. Then his sons' tutors fought a war among themselves. Christian Kiev and pagan Novgorod struggled for supremacy. After the death of his father Svyatoslav in 972, Prince Vladimir of Novgorod was forced to flee to Scandinavia in 976, Vladimir's brother Yaropolk murdered his other brother Oleg of Drelinia and conquered Rus'. For the rest of his life Prince Vladimir mourned their deaths.

At the age of seventeen he began to rule on his own. He spent the first six years of his reign on military campaigns, leading his army personally, reconquering Novgorod from Yaropolk. By 980, Vladimir had consolidated the territory of Kievan Rus' from what is now Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine to the Baltic Sea. In addition, he strengthened the frontiers against the incursions of Bulgarians, Baltic tribes, and Eastern nomads.

All the Slavic tribes from the Carpathians and the Neman, and the city of Gorodyon (Grodno) to Beloozero, Anka and Volga united to form a single whole – the Russian land (Русскую землo), and they were called Russians. In gratitude for his victory at Kiev he set up idols of pagan gods – Perun and Beles – and offered them human sacrifices. In ancient times, the Slavs did not have idols and sacrifices, but adopted them much later from other pagan lands.

In the VI century, the Greeks said of them: "They recognize one God as the Ruler of the whole world." He was called Svarog, which means "blue sky." Perun, Veles, and other, lesser deities were thought to be his children. The Slavs believed in the immortality of the soul and in the afterlife, which predisposed them toward Christianity.

In the year 860 the Russians attacked Constantinople from the sea, but the Greeks immersed the robe of the Most Holy Theotokos in the ocean. The sea became agitated, and the Russian ships were swept away and retreated. After that, they sent an embassy to Constantinople to request Baptism. This was the first Baptism of Rus'.

Also in 860 Saint Cyril, the enlightener of the Slavs, baptized 200 families in the southern Russian steppes. He made his own translation of the Gospel and the Psalter. Metropolitan Michael was sent to care for the converts, and the Prince gathered the people and called them to be baptized. The elders agreed, but they demanded a miracle. They wanted a Gospel book to be thrown into the fire without being burnt. The Gospel was thrown in, the miracle occurred, and the people were baptized. This was the second Baptism of Rus'.

The third took place under Princess Olga. By that time, there were already many Christians in Kiev and there was a church dedicated to the Prophet Elijah. After Saint Olga's repose, the spread of Christianity was halted temporarily, but not for long. The time of Prince Vladimir had come.

In those days, Kiev was a large trading city. Merchants came from all over the world, as well as preachers of various religions. Saint Vladimir wanted to unite his people, not just under one government, but also under one Faith. The Prince sent envoys to various countries to see which religion would be most suitable for his people. When Vladimir's emissaries returned from Constantinople, they told him that when they stood in the church of Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), they did not know "whether they were on earth or in heaven."

Kiev was located on a great waterway from the Varangian region to Constantinople; that is, from Scandinavia to the Byzantine Empire. The proximity of Orthodox Constantinople may have influenced Saint Vladimir, and the memory of Christianity, recently destroyed by Svyatoslav, was revived. According to the XI century writer Jacob Mnikh, the young Prince Vladimir remembered the example of his grandmother, Princess Olga, "the wisest of men," as she was called by her contemporaries. Furthermore, he could not help being influenced by the example of his mother, the Christian Princess Malusha, as well. The heroic death of Holy Protomartyrs Theodore and his son John (July 12) in 983 also made a lasting impression on him.

In one Icelandic saga it is said that in his youth, King Olaf of Norway had lived for a long time at the court of "the Gardarikian king Vol'demar" (Gardarika, that is, the land of cities. The Scandinavians called it Northwestern Russia). When he reached adulthood, he left there on military campaigns, according to the custom of the Scandinavians of that time. While upon the sea, he heard a heavenly voice calling him to Constantinople, where he would come to know the only true God. There he was baptized, and on the way back, he stopped to see King Vol'demar and urged him to convert to Christianity. When he returned from his campaign as a Christian, King Olaf encouraged his people to be baptized.

Prince Vladimir, however, was still a pagan, and he adhered to pagan customs. He also had five wives. How he was brought to Christ, and how his conversion was took place, remains a mystery.

Metropolitan Hilarion († 1053) in his "Word of Law and Grace," addressed the departed Great Prince Vladimir, saying, "How did you believe? How was your mind moved to love what is unseen, and to strive for heavenly things? You have not seen any Apostle who, after coming to your land, inclined your heart to humility. Guided only by your kind heart and sharp mind, you realized that there is one God."

He continued: "Upon him came a visitation of the Most High, and the eye of the All-Merciful God looked upon him; and a thought shone forth in his heart – he realized the futility of idol worship, and sought the one God, the Creator of all things, both visible and invisible. He had heard about the Orthodox, and the strong Christ-loving faith of the Byzantine Empire, who honor the one God in Trinity, and worship Him. When he heard all this, he was aflame in spirit, and with all his heart he longed to be a Christian, and to convert his entire land to Christianity."

As to the reason for the conversion of Saint Vladimir to Christ, another writer of the XI century, Saint Nestor the Chronicler (October 27) states in his Life of Saints Boris and Gleb: "In those years there was a Prince named Vladimir, who ruled the Russian land. He was righteous and merciful to the poor, to orphans, and to widows, but he was a pagan. God intervened and made him a Christian, just like Saint Eustathios Plakidas (September 20). So Prince Vladimir became a Christian, receiving the name Basil at his Baptism."

Although Venerable Nestor the Chronicler pointed out that the Holy Prince Vladimir's experience was similar to that of Saint Eustathios, the exact details are not known. Meanwhile, by the will of God, external events led Saint Vladimir to the fulfillment of his desire. The Byzantine Emperors Constantine and Basil asked Vladimir to help them put down the revolt of Phokas. Vladimir agreed, but asked for the hand of Princess Anna Porphyrogenita, in return. The Emperors agreed, and sent clergy and the sacred utensils required for the Baptism of Rus'.

But when Vladimir defeated Phokas, they did not fulfill their obligations. Then Vladimir conquered Korsun, thereby forcing the Emperors to keep their promise. He returned Korsun to the Greeks as a ransom for his bride. His army was baptized and, according to the "Tale of the Baptism of Russia," he himself was baptized. This was in 988, and the Chronicle says that before Baptism he became blind, but received his sight when he came out of the water. However, Jacob Mnikh (XI century) writes that Vladimir captured Korsun when he was already a Christian, and that he was baptized in 987 at his estate Vasiliev (now Vasilkov).

When Prince Vladimir returned to Kiev, the Orthodox priests who came with him were obviously Bulgarians (Bulgaria was then subject to the Byzantine Empire). They baptized the people of Kiev at the confluence of the river, then called Khreshchatyk, with the Dnieper. They brought with them liturgical books translated into Slavonic by Saints Cyril and Methodios (May 11), the enlighteners of the Slavs. With them was Metropolitan Michael of Kiev (June 15, September 30). At Kiev, where people had heard of Christianity, the Faith was quickly established. In the north, at Novgorod, Rostov, and Murom, paganism lasted longer, and it took a great deal of effort for princes and preachers to uproot it.

Prince Vladimir was twenty-five years old at the Baptism of Rus'. With all the fervor of youth, he began to fulfill the precepts of Christ, especially those about helping the poor, sick and disadvantaged. This assistance was provided on a large scale. Throughout Russia, the poor were sought and were given everything they needed, and the sick also received treatment. During Saint Vladimir's reign, the state served the people, which was very unusual in those days. In ancient times there was no death penalty in Russia. Instead, there was a "penalty," that is, a monetary fine. Saint Vladimir confirmed this custom, saying: "I am afraid of sin." This custom became law and entered the Code of Laws compiled under his son, Great Prince Yaroslav under the name "Russkaya Pravda."

The people loved their Prince, praising him in songs and epics, calling him the Beautiful Sun. Saint Vladimir summoned the elders of the people from all over Russia for meetings and provided feasts for them. The memory of these feasts is also preserved in the epics. He built new cities, such as Volodymyr-Volynsky (where his palace once stood), Vladimir in the land of Suzdal, and others. He strengthened the boundaries of his possessions as a defense against the neighboring pagan tribes. In order to unite Russia, he sent his sons to rule in different cities: at Rostov, Murom, Novgorod, Polotsk, and other places. Soon the influence of the Varangians began to wane, and the importance of the Slavs increased. In Kiev, at the place where the Russian Protomartyrs Theodore and John were murdered, he built the church of the Tithes and dedicated it to the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, donating a tenth of his income for its upkeep.

The Holy Prince Vladimir reposed on July 15, 1015 in his beloved village of Berestov and was buried in the church of the Tithes. A piece of his holy relics was kept in Holy Wisdom Cathedral, established by his son, Great Prince Yaroslav the Wise.

The Feast Day of Saint Vladimir was instituted by Saint Alexander Nevsky (November 23) after May 15, 1240, because of Saint Vladimir's help and intercession at Saint Alexander's renowned victory over the Crusaders at the Neva River. In Russia, the Church veneration of the Holy Prince began much earlier. In Saint Hilarion's "Word of Law and Grace," the holy Prince is called "an apostolic sovereign," similar to Saint Constantine (May 20); and his evangelization of the Russian land is likened to the preaching of the Gospel by the Holy Apostles.

Saint Vladimir is commemorated on July 15 (the day of his repose) and on the second Sunday of Great Lent, along with the Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of the Kiev Caves, and all Saints who shone forth in Little Russia.

The Holy Martyrs Quiricus and Julitta lived in the city of Iconium in the province of Lykaoneia in Asia Minor.

Saint Julitta was a Christian, descended from an illustrious family. Widowed early on, she raised her three-year-old son Quiricus on her own. In those days men, women, and even young children entered the contest and obtained imperishable crowns from Christ. During Emperor Diocletian’s persecution of Christians, Saint Julitta fled the city with her son and two trustworthy handmaidens, leaving behind her home, her property, and her servants.

Concealing her noble rank, she went first to Seleukeίa, and then to Tarsus, where she was recognized, arrested, and brought to trial before the ruler Alexander. Strengthened by the Lord, she answered the judge’s questions, and firmly confessed her faith in Christ.

The ruler ordered Julitta to be stretched out and beaten. During her torments, Saint Julitta kept repeating, “I am a Christian, and I will not offer sacrifice to demons.”

The little boy Quiricus cried when he saw his mother being tortured, and wanted to go to her. The ruler Alexander tried to sit him on his lap, but the boy kicked him in the stomach and shouted, “Let me go to my mother, I am a Christian.”

Infuriated, Alexander took the child by the foot and threw him down the stone steps of the tribunal, and so Saint Quiricus struck his head on the sharp edges and died.

Saint Julitta, seeing the broken body of her son, gave thanks to God that He had allowed her child to be perfected before her, and to receive the unfading crown of martyrdom. After her sides had been raked with hooks, and hot pitch had been poured over her feet, Saint Julitta was beheaded with a sword in the year 304 or 305. Secretly, her two maids buried the bodies of the Martyrs in a field.

The relics of Saints Quiricus and Julitta were uncovered during the reign of Saint Constantine the Great (May 21). A monastery was built near Constantinople in honor of these holy martyrs, and a church was built not far from Jerusalem.

The head of Saint Quiricus is in Grigoriou Monastery on Mount Athos. Portions of the relics of Saint Julitta may be found in the following Monasteries on Mount Athos: the Greatest Lavra, Simonopetra, Xenophontos, and Dionysiou, as well as at Palaiokastro on Kerkyra, and Kykko Monastery on Cyprus.

We pray to Saints Quiricus and Julitta for family happiness, and for the restoration of sick children to health.

This courageous soldier of Christ was from the island of Tenedos, which lies opposite the renowned city of Troy,
and he was one of the first Christians to be put to death during the persecution of the Church under Diocletian in the early IV century.

Since Saint Aboudimos would not agree to worship idols, or to eat any food which had been sacrificed to them, he was bound and severely beaten. All the while he kept shouting, “I am a Christian.” Then they broke his ribs with iron nails; and when he continued to confess Christ, they beheaded him.

The Saint’s holy relics were seen on the island of Tenedos at the beginning of the XII century by the Russian pilgrim Daniel.

Saint Aquila, Apostle of the 70: It is possible that he was a disciple of the Apostle Paul, a native of Pontus and a Jew, living in the city of Rome with his wife Priscilla (they are commemorated on February 13 on the Greek Calendar). During the reign of the emperor Claudius (41-54) all the Jews were banished from Rome, so Saint Aquilla and his wife were compelled to leave. They settled in Corinth. A short while later, the holy Apostle Paul arrived there from Athens preaching the Gospel. Having made the acquaintance of Aquila, he began to live at his house and labored together with him, making tents.

Having received Baptism from the Apostle Paul, Aquila and Priscilla bacame his devoted and zealous disciples. They accompanied the apostle to Ephesus. The Apostle Paul instructed them to continue the preaching of the Gospel at Ephesus, and he himself went to Jerusalem, in order to be present for the feast of Pentecost. At Ephesus, Aquila and Priscilla heard the bold preaching of a newcomer from Alexandria, the Jew Apollos. He had been instructed in the fundamentals of the Faith, but knew only the baptism of John the Forerunner. They called him over and explained more precisely about the way of the Lord.

After the death of the emperor Claudius, Jews were permitted to return to Italy, and Aquila and Priscilla then returned to Rome. The Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans recalls his faithful disciples, “Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my coworkers in Christ Jesus, who put forth their heads for my soul, whom I do not alone thank, but also all the Church of the Gentiles and the church of their household” (Rom. 16: 3-4). Saint Aquila did not long dwell in Rome: the Apostle Paul made him a bishop in Asia. Saint Aquila zealously labored at preaching the Gospel in Asia, Achaia and Heraklia. He converted pagans to Christ, he confirmed newly-converted Christians in the faith, he established presbyters and destroyed idols. Saint Priscilla constantly assisted him in the apostolic work. Saint Aquila ended his life a martyr: pagans murdered him. According to the Tradition of the Church, Saint Priscilla was killed together with him.

Saint Stephen of Makhra (Makhrishche) was a native of Kiev. He accepted monasticism at the monastery of the Caves, where he spent several years in deeds of obedience and prayer. The oppressions of the Latins compelled him to journey on to Moscow, where Great Prince Ivan II (1353-1359) graciously received him, permitting him to settle in the locale of Makhra not far from Gorodisch, 35 versts from the Sergiev monastery.

Having built himself a cell and spending his life at ascetic labors, and esteeming silence, he did not accept those wishing to join him. But then he yielded to the requests, and in this way, in 1358 he founded a monastery, in which he was established as igumen.

Living near his monastery were the Yurkov brothers. Fearing that the land which they ruled might be given over to the monastery, they threatened to kill the holy ascetic. The admonitions of the monk did not help. Saint Stephen then moved to a different place. Sixty versts north of Vologda, at the River Avnezha, he founded with his disciple Gregory a monastery in the name of the Holy Trinity. Great Prince Demetrius Ioannovich sent books and other liturgical items to the Avnezhsk wilderness, but the venerable Stephen sent them in turn to the Makhra monastery. Having returned to his monastery, Saint Stephen ordered life in it according to a cenobitic Rule.

When Saint Sergius of Radonezh moved from his monastery, in order to find a place for his ascetic deeds, Saint Stephen then received him, and gave the great ascetic Sergius his own disciple Simon, who knew the surrounding area quite well. Saint Sergius settled together with Simon on the island of Kirzhach, where he founded a monastery.

Saint Stephen was strict with himself and indulgent towards others. He worked for the monastery the hardest of all, he zealously guided the brethren to the ways of salvation with gentle and quiet talks, and he wore very old and coarse clothing.

The monk lived to extreme old age, became a schemamonk and died in 1406 on July 14. In 1550 during the construction of a new stone church in the name of the Holy Trinity, his holy relics were found to be incorrupt. They were glorified by blessings of help in various sicknesses and misfortunes for all who called on the name of the saint.

The Holy Martyr Justus was a Roman soldier, to whom the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord appeared in a vision. Justus believed in Christ and gave away his possessions to the poor. By decree of the official of Magnesia, Justus was taken to trial as a Christian. After various tortures, the holy martyr was thrown into a fire and gave up his soul to God, but the flames did not harm his body.

Saint Hellius lived and died in the fourth century. He was sent to a monastery when he was still a child. There he was raised in piety, temperance and chastity.

When he grew up, he went into the Egyptian desert, where through his ascetical struggles he attained great proficiency in the spiritual life. He was endowed with the gift of clairvoyance, and he knew all the thoughts and disposition of the monks conversing with him.

Great faith, simplicity of soul and deep humility allowed Saint Hellius to command wild animals. Once, the saint became tired while carrying a heavy load to the monastery. He prayed and called a wild donkey to carry his burden. The donkey meekly carried the load to the place and was set free to return to the wilderness. Another time, when Saint Hellius needed to cross a river and there was no boat, he summoned a crocodile from the water and crossed to the opposite shore while standing on its back.

One of the young novices of the monastery, whom Saint Hellius visited, asked him to take him along into the far desert. Saint Hellius warned him about the great work, exploits and temptations which inevitably beset all the hermits, but since the novice continued fervently to ask, he took him along. On the first night the novice, frightened by terrible visions, ran to Saint Hellius. The monk comforted and calmed him down and ordered him to return. Tracing the Sign of the Cross over the cave, the monk told the young hermit not to fear, because he would not be disturbed by these apparitions any more. Trusting the word of the saint, the novice decided to remain in solitude and afterwards attained such perfection that he, like his teacher Hellius, received food from an angel.

Saint Hellius peacefully entered the heavenly mansions after reaching an advanced age.

Saint Onesimus the Wonderworker was born in Caesarea in Palestine at the beginning of the fourth century, and entered a monastery in Ephesus.

Later, he founded a monastery at Magnesia and remained there for the rest of his life. He performed many miracles.

Saint Nikodemos (Νikόdēmos) of the Holy Mountain was born on the Greek island of Naxos in the year 1748, and was named Nicholas in Holy Baptism. As a child he was well-behaved, avoiding bad company and everything which might harm the inner man. He was zealous in his love for that which is good and beneficial, and he loved sacred and secular learning. His first education on Naxos came from the village priest, who taught him to love Christ and His Church. He also assisted the priest during the Divine Liturgy and other Services.

Later Nicholas attended the school at Naxos, where Archimandrite Chrysanthos, the brother of Saint Cosmas Aitolos (August 24), taught him sacred and secular letters.

At the age of twenty-six, he arrived on Mount Athos and was tonsured at Dionysiou Monastery with the name Nikodemos. As his first obedience, Father Nikodemos served as the monastery’s secretary. Two years after entering Dionysiou Monastery, the Metropolitan of Corinth, Saint Makarios Notaras (April 17), arrived there, and assigned the young monk to edit the manuscript of the Philokalia, which he had found in 1777 at Vatopedi Monastery. Editing this book was the beginning of many years of literary activity for Saint Nikodemos. He soon moved to Pantokrator Skḗtē, where he was under obedience to Elder Arsenios of the Pelopónnēsos, under whose guidance he studied Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Holy Fathers.

According to the testimony of his contemporaries, Saint Nikodemos was a simple man, without any malice, unassuming, and distinguished by his profound concentration. He possessed remarkable mental abilities: he knew the Holy Scriptures by heart, and even remembered chapter, verse, and the pages they were on. Moreover, he could recite long passages from the writings of the Holy Fathers from memory.

In 1783 Saint Nikodemos was tonsured into the Great Schema, and spent the next six years in complete silence. On his next visit to Mount Athos, Saint Makarios gave Nikodemos the obedience of editing of the writings of Saint Symeon the New Theologian (printed in three volumes: Syros, 1790). This meant giving up his silence and occupying himself once more with literary work. From that time until his death, he continued to devote himself to such endeavors.

One of the ascetic's remarkable books was his Exomologitarion (Manual of Confession), which was published in 1794. This was the first book of its kind in the Orthodox Church. Drawing from Holy Scripture and from the Fathers of the Church, Saint Nikodemos lists the qualifications a confessor must have, if he is to be a true confessor, and offers advice on how one should prepare for Confession, how to confess, and how one ought to guard himself against sin after Confession.

The Saint also made great contributions by publishing liturgical books. Using materials from the manuscript collections on Mount Athos, he published sixty-two Canons to the Most Holy Theotokos under the title, New Theotokarion (Venice, 1796).

The most wise Nikodemos is also known as a composer and interpreter of hymns. His Canon in honor of the "Quick to Hear” Icon of the Mother of God (November 9) and his “Service and Encomium in Honor of the Fathers who Shone on the Holy Mountain of Athos” are used even beyond the Holy Mountain. Some of his other books include the Heortodromion, an interpretation of the Canons which are sung on Feasts of the Lord and of the Mother of God (Venice,1836), and The New Ladder, an interpretation of the 75 Hymns of Degrees (Anabathmoi) of the liturgical book called the Oktoekhos (Constantinople, 1844).

It is readily apparent that the literary work of Saint Nikodemos was multi-faceted, representing more than half a dozen fields of theology: ascetical-mystical theology, ethics, Canon Law, exegesis, hagiology, liturgics, and hymnography. He wrote the preface to the Philokalia, and brief Lives of the ascetics whose writings are included therein. Among the Saint’s ascetical works, his translation of Lorenzo Scupoli’s book, Unseen Warfare (1796), is well known, and has been translated into Russian, English, and other languages.

Saint Nikodemos had a special love for hagiography, as attested by his work, New Eklogion (Venice, 1803), and his posthumous book, The New Synaxarion (1819). He completed a Modern Greek translation of Saint Paul's Fourteen Epistles in three volumes (1819) as interpreted by the Hierarch Mētrophánēs, by Saint Theophylaktos, the Archbishop of Bulgaria (December 31), and others.

Saint Nikodemos also wrote An Interpretation of Saint Paul's Seven Catholic Epistles (published in Venice in 1806).

In 1799 Nikodemos edited the New Martyrologion, which he and Saint Makarios of Corinth seem to have prepared together in order to demonstrate that the Orthodox Church continues to produce Saints, particularly Martyrs, who were subjected to the same trials, torments, and death as the ancient Martyrs. The example of the Saints whose Lives appear in this book strengthened and encouraged the Orthodox to remain faithful to Christ, and not to convert to the religion of their oppressors.

Saint Nikodemos prepared a new edition of the Pedalion or Rudder, in collaboration with Hieromonk Agapios. This was printed in 1801, and contained the Canons of the Holy Apostles, those of the Holy Ecumenical and Local Synods, and of the Holy Fathers.

His most edifying book, Christian Morality, was published in Venice in 1803. In it he says: "Those monks who are strong in body and in soul … should occasionally go into the world to preach and to counsel. Those who cannot go into the world, either because of the passions that assail them when they are in the midst of society, or because they are physically infirm, should seek the good of their brethren through prayer and by offering counsel to those who visit them, and if they are learned, by writing edifying books."¹

Not long before his repose, Father Nikodemos, worn out by his literary work and ascetical struggles, went to live at the Kelli of the iconographers Hieromonks Stephen and Neophytos Skourtaίos, who were brothers by birth. He asked them to help with the publication of his works, because he was hindered by his infirmities.

The day before he went to the Lord, he was able to make his Confession, receive Holy Unction, and then Holy Communion.

His first biographer, Father Euthymios, describes the Saint's repose in this manner: "When the sun rose on the earth that day (Wednesday July 14, 1809), the intelligible sun of the Church set. The fiery pillar, the guide of the New Israel into piety disappeared; the cloud which refreshed those who were melting in the heat of sin, hid itself.”

His many friends and acquaintances mourned, and the words of a certain Christian were typical of the thoughts of many individuals of that time: “Oh, my Fathers, it would have been better for a thousand Christians to have died today, and not Nikodemos.”

Saint Nikodemos reposed peacefully at the age of sixty on July 14, 1809, and was glorified by the Church of Constantinople in 1955.

¹ Constantine Cavarnos, Modern Orthodox Saints Volume 3, Saint Nicodemus the Hagiorite, pages 46-47. (Belmont, Massachusetts, 1974).