Category: Saints and Blesseds

Saint Philemon and companions

Today the Church commemorates the memory of one Saint Paul’s close collaborators in preaching Savior’s Good News. He was born in Turkey and died in Colossae.

One of Saint Philemon’s biographers writes:

These four Apostles were all disciples of the Apostle Paul, and are mentioned individually in his Epistle to Philemon. In the first verse of this epistle, he writes: “Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker – also to Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier — and to the church that meets in your home.”

Philemon was made the Bishop of Gaza by the Apostle Paul. He drove away from the inhabitants the darkness of ignorance and illuminated them with the light of the knowledge of God. Then he and his wife, Apphia, with the Apostle Archippus his son, ministered to the town of Colossae from its Christian center, Philemon’s home. There also they preached the word of truth.

During a pagan feast to the goddess Artemis, the Christians of Colossae had gathered in Philemon’s home for prayer. When the pagans learned of it they became enraged and raided the home and took the Apostles Philemon, Apphia, and Archippus to be killed. The other Christians managed to flee in fear. At first, they were whipped and afterwards they were buried up to their waists and the pagans began to stone them. They then killed Philemon and Apphia by laying them on the ground and beating them with sticks. Archippus they removed from the pit barely alive and left him to the amusement of the children. The children pierced him throughout with knives, and then he was stoned to death.

St John Chrysostom

Today, November 13th, we commemorate the great Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople. It’s his edition of the Divine Liturgy we pray most Sundays of the church year. He’s also one of the best preachers we had.

Today’s saint ought to be very familiar to you as you will recall at the end of each Liturgy of his we pray the priest always announces his name along with St Ann’s name and the saint of the day.

The Apolytikion of John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople reads, and we pray:

“The grace of your words illuminated the universe like a shining beacon. It amassed treasures of munificence in the world. It demonstrated the greatness of humility, teaching us by your own words; therefore, O Father John Chrysostom, intercede to Christ the Logos for the salvation of our souls.”

The Kontakion of John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople reads, and we pray:

“You received divine grace from Heaven, and by your own lips taught all to worship the One God in Trinity. All-blessed, venerable John Chrysostom, deservedly, we praise you for you are a teacher clearly revealing things divine.”

Blessed Theodore Romzha

“If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. … No slave is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.” (John 15:18.20)

Bishop Kallistos Ware [+2022] said that today is truly the age of martyrs. More people are giving witness to Christ than ever before.

Today, the Byzantine Catholic Church remembers Blessed Theodore Romzha, who was killed by the Communists as he performed his pastoral duties. In the epistle read today, St. Paul reflects on what Christians have always had to do to follow Christ, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church. (Colossians 1:24)” This, St. Paul, comes from the great mystery of the Church: Christ in us, our hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27) We do not give up our lives for our own purposes, but because we know that our life is in Christ. We die not only for some ideal, but in witness to a person -the Jesus Christ, our Lord, “light from light, true God from true God.” This is why in history Christians have been persecuted by all kinds of organizations and ideologies and economic systems which perceive Jesus, the Giver of Life, as a threat.

Sadly, even in our history, Christians have persecuted other Christians. However, today we proclaim the glory of all those who proclaim Jesus as Lord. Indeed, the feast is ecumenical, celebrating the Byzantine Catholic bishop who died for Christ in 1947, Theodore Romzha, and the Russian Orthodox priest, John Kochurev, who had served as a pastor in Chicago, but was the first Orthodox priest to be martyred by the Communists in Russia in 1917. Both Catholic and Orthodox therefore bear united witness to the one Lord Jesus Christ in the face of his enemies.

Meditation by Archpriest David Petras

Blessed Petro Pavlo Oros

Blessed Petro Pavlo Oros, a martyr

The Holy Father authorized to promulgate the Decrees concerning the martyrdom of the Servant of God Petro Pavlo Oros, Priest of the Eparchy of Mukachevo (Ukraine), thus beatifying one of the underground bishops, killed in hatred of the faith on 28 August 1953. The date of death is significant: it was the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God (on the Julian calendar).

Blessed Theodore Romzha was the consecrator of Father Petro Pavlo to the episcopate.

This event will be celebrated also in the Eparchy of Passaic: on Saturday, October 29th at 10am the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy will be celebrated at St Mary Byzantine Catholic Church in Hillsborough, New Jersey. Metropolitan William Skurla will serve the Liturgy.

All the faithful of the Eparchy are welcome to attend!

St Moses the prophet

Today, the Church honors the memory of the Holy Great Prophet Moses, called the God-Seer and lawgiver, and born into the tribe of Levi. Scholars say he flourished 14th–13th century BCE. As we know, under Moses’ leadership the Hebrew people were lead to their freedom from the Egyptian oppressors in what is called the Exodus, meeting with God (see the image with this post) AND received the revelation from God that became the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible).

Moses is also listed in the Roman Martyrology. The entry for Moses reads:

1. Commemoratio sancti Moysis, prophetae, quem Deus elegit, ut populum in Aegypto oppressum liberaret et in terram promissionis adduceret; cui etiam in monte Sina sese revelavit dicens: “Ego sum qui sum”, atque legem proposuit, quae vitam populi electi regeret. Ille servus Dei in monte Nebo terrae Moab coram terra promissionis plenus dierum obiit.

The Troparion for the feast today reads:

O prophet Moses, you reached the summit of virtues. By this you came to see the glory of God. You received the tablets of the grace-giving Law and became the crown of prophets and a mystery of piety; for you carried grace deep within you.

On Mt. Horeb the great prophet Moses saw God in the bush that burned without being consumed, and God revealed his Name to him, “I am who I am.” (Exodus 3:14) It is this Name of God that we invoke in the Anaphora of St. Basil the Great, “O Eternal Being … “ On Mt. Sinai God revealed a portion of his glory to Moses when he gave him the ten commandments. On Mt. Tabor, Moses stood with Elijah to witness the glory of God revealed though Jesus.

Thus, today we honor this Great Prophet who has led us into the presence of God, who led his people into the land promised by God, who today leads us to an understanding of God, essential Being, the Creator of all that is, the Cause of all that is good and the Lover of each and every person, “In him we live and move and have our being. (Acts 17:28).”

Meditation by Archpriest David Petras, edited by PAZ

St Matthias, apostle

Today is the feast of the Holy Apostle Matthias, chosen to continue the Mission.

The Church prays in her Liturgy:

Chosen by lot through the grace of the Spirit, you were numbered with the twelve divine Apostles. Proclaiming with them the Word who emptied himself in the flesh for our sake, you were filled by the Lord with wondrous powers. O illustrious Apostle Matthias, entreat him to grant to those who praise your name the remission of sins and great mercy.

Though chosen by lot, as it were, by chance, Matthias still had one supreme qualification for being added to the twelve apostles, he was, in the words of Peter, “one of the men who accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus came and went among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us, become with us a witness to his resurrection.”

Matthias, whose name means “gift of God”, was one of the 72 disciples that Jesus sent out to preach the good news of the Resurrection. There seems to be some early evidence that there was once a Gospel according to Matthias in circulation, but it has since been lost.

Matthias spent three years with the Apostle Andrew, with him at Edessa and Sebaste. Church Tradition indicates he was preaching at Pontine, Ethiopia (presently Western Georgia) and Macedonia.

He was martyred in AD 63.

Grant, O Lord, that we may also be a witness to the resurrection by death to sin by God’s grace, and living in his holiness.

Saints Cosmas and Damian

Saints Cosmas and Damian were twins born to Christian parents in Arabia, in the third century. They lived in the region around the border between modern day Turkey and Syria. …[The brothers] were physicians who were renowned for their skill as well as their refusal to charge for their services. Before beside manner was a “thing”, they had a loving and respectful way, and for this reason, they were called by the Church “unmercenary physicians” (Anargyroi in Greek).

Their charity and Christian witness won many converts to the faith and earned them a place of prominence in the Christian communities of Asia Minor. Therefore, when the Diocletian persecutions began in the latter half of the third century they were of some of the first to be sought out for execution.

In 287, they were captured and ordered to deny their faith in Christ. They refused and underwent a series of tortures, including Crucifixion, from which, miraculously, they remained unscathed. The torturers, weary of what they realized was the impossible task of forcing apostasy from their mouths, finally beheaded them both. (DA, edited)

Saints Cosmas and Damian, help us to live our faith and be people of virtue, pray for us.
Saints Cosmas and Damian, pray for our medical professionals.

St Samson the hospitable

Today we are given as a model of holiness and witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ the venerable father, Samson, called the hospitable, priest and physician. Samson is numbered among a few who are ordained priests and physicians, so we ought to make it a point to ask for his intercession as we all face medical concerns personally or with family and friends.

The Church teaches us the place St Samson has among the great Cloud of Witnesses in the Troparion for the Divine Liturgy. We have a clear expectation for our own Christian life in seeing St Samson extolled:

“Patience reaped you your reward, O holy father, for you persevered in constant prayer and devotion. In your great love for the poor and the afflicted, you attended to their needs of body and soul. So now we entreat you in our need, O holy father, Samson, beg Christ, our God, so save our souls.”

Samson is known for his patience, perseverance in troubled times, constant prayer and devotion, care for the poor and weakened of body and soul. Here we see what Christ wants for us and how He (the Lord) wants us to reflect to the world. These virtues of life will lead us to our union with Christ in heaven.

We are convinced that St Samson is given to us today as we face the tragedy of the war in Ukraine. We need his intercession before the Lord.

His biographers speak of St. Samson this way:

Samson was born to a patrician family in Rome in the sixth century, when the city had fallen on hard times. He was a physician, and inspired by his faith in the healing Christ, he devoted all his time, wealth, and skill to others. He turned his estate into a clinic to treat the poor. After he trained a staff to care for the large numbers coming to seek both medical and spiritual attention, Samson left, as a virtual beggar, to make a pilgrimage to Constantinople. His reputation soon followed him, and once again he was busy fighting disease and despair. He was so respected that he was summoned to treat the emperor Justinian. In gratitude for both his medical and spiritual counsel, Justinian endowed him with funds to establish a medical clinic much larger than the one he had left in Rome. Samson worked until his death on this day in 598. (NS)

The Birth of the Holy Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist John

This feast is the story of the fidelity of God, and of his servants. The first reading at Vespers compares the story of Elizabeth and Zechariah to Abraham and Sarah. Abraham and Sarah were barren until their old age and had lost hope of being able to pass on life to a new generation. But beyond the bounds of all hope, God told Abraham that he and Sarah would have a child, and, indeed, not just any child but the founder of Israel, of the people of God, and of all who believe in his name. Elizabeth and Zechariah also had lost all hope of new life, and for them it was a shame before the people.

Yet the angel of the Lord appeared to Zechariah in the holy place and told him that Elizabeth would give birth to a son, and again, not just any son, but the forerunner of the Messiah, who would give life to all by his resurrection. We see the fidelity of God – he will bless us with life, he loves us beyond all limits, beyond our despair, beyond all hopes.

However, these stories also tell us of what it means to be faithful, for Abraham and Sarah, and Zechariah and Elizabeth had to live most of their lives in barrenness and discouragement. God blesses us when we think no blessing is possible.

Meditation by Archpriest David Petras

Holy Prophet Amos

The Holy Prophet Amos is known as the prophet of doom, the third of the Twelve Minor Prophets who lived during the eighth century before Jesus Christ. Amos accurately foretold the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel due to the unfaithfulness of the Israelites. That is, the tribes of Israel were governed by an idol-worshipper and the people joined in that worship of a golden calf (a false god) instead of the One, Living God. Thus, they rejected the God of Israel.

Biographically, little is known about his life and what we known comes from his book in the Bible, the first to be named after a Hebrew prophet.

The faith of the Church is seen in the liturgical hymns of the Divine Liturgy. In the Kontakion, therefore, for today’s Liturgy commemorates the Holy Prophet in this way:

Having purified your heart spiritually, O glorious Prophet Amos, you received the gift of prophecy from on high and proclaimed to all: “This is our God and beside Him there is no other.”

As point of comparison, today Amos is remembered liturgically by the Byzantine Catholics and Orthodox; the Armenians recall his memory on July 31 and the Latin Church has his feast on March 31.

Why is the Holy Prophet important for us today in the 21st century? The prophets remind us, like they did when they lived, to be faithful to the God who made us and continues to give us his gifts. Perhaps Amos’ own words are helpful to answer the question when he delivers God’s message:

“The people of Israel have sinned again and again, and for this I will certainly punish them. They sell into slavery honest people who cannot pay their debts, the poor who cannot repay even the price of a pair of sandals. They trample down the weak and helpless and push the poor out of the way’’ (Amos 2:6).

Holy Prophet Amos, keep us faithful to God and not false gods, pray for us.