Category: Saints and Blesseds

Sts Peter and Paul

“The feast of Peter and Paul and the Birth of John the Baptist are ranked as great feasts, after those of Christ and the Theotokos. Icons of the apostles grouped at the Ascension or at Pentecost always picture Peter and Paul at the head of the assembly, although, historically, Paul was not present at either.

The rapid spread of the early Church is due mainly to these two apostles. Peter was crucified in Rome during the time of Nero in 61 AD. He was married and worked as a fisherman with his brother Andrew in Galilee. When the Twelve were called, Peter took up the role of senior. He openly acknowledged Christ as the Son of God, the Messiah. Although he faltered during Christ’s passion, he still remained first. Peter called for an election to replace Judas. He was the first to preach on Pentecost, and the first to heal and to raise the dead. Peter was, above all, a man of great faith. This earned for him the name Rock, and the assurance from Christ that the Church would be built on such faith.

Paul was born in Tarsus, outside the Jewish homeland. He was a Hellenized Jew, at home in the Graeco-Roman culture. Thus, he was well-qualified by background and personality to be apostle to the Gentiles. Over half of the chapters in the Acts of the Apostles are devoted to Paul’s missionary activity. Thirteen of Paul’s letters, in the New Testament, portray the mettle and stature of his burning zeal for the Word of God. He was beheaded in Rome a few years after Peter met his own death. (NS)

The Birth of St John the Baptist

THE BIRTHDAY OF THE GLORIOUS PROPHET AND FORERUNNER AND BAPTIST OF THE LORD, JOHN.

Pagan antiquity had festivals marking the winter and summer solstices. The Christian calendar absorbed these feasts, observing the birth of Christ in December on the shortest day, and that of John the Baptist in June on the longest day. From this day on, the sun slowly sinks from its zenith for six months, and begins its ascent again at Christmas. In the eyes of the Fathers, this solar rhythm is an expression of John’s words: “He must grow greater, while I grow smaller.”

The role of the prophet and forerunner began with John’s birth which Luke narrates with the same paradoxical circumstances of barrenness bearing fruit as Old Testament figures like Sarah, Hannah, and others. The name, John, with the dramatic details of its imposition, means The Lord has shown favor. Like other heavenly bestowed names in Scripture, it underlines his prophetic role in the history of salvation, which is to prepare for the immediate coming of the Messiah. Zachary’s canticle amplifies the meaning of his son’s name and parallels the canticle of the Theotokos. (NS)

Today is a holy day.

The holy prophet and saint Amos

The Church liturgically recalls the memory of the holy prophet, Amos. Like the other prophets, he is revered as a saint. Amos is third of the Twelve Minor Prophets who lived during the eighth century before Jesus Christ.

The Church sings in the Kontakion: Purifying your fervent heart by the Spirit, / O glorious Prophet Amos, / And receiving the gift of prophecy from on high, / You cry with a loud voice to the nations: / This is our God, and there is none beside Him.

One of the minor prophets, Amos was the first to write down any of his public preaching. A shepherd by occupation, he was called by God to speak out against social injustice and hypocritical piety in Israel. Through his austere life in the wilderness, by his faith and his own intense consciousness of God’s justice, Amos was compelled to preach harsh words at a time when Israel was most prosperous and secure. His uncompromising prophecy exposes the peril in which Israel was placed by its complacency, the dishonesty of its courts, the mistreatment of the poor, the selfish affluence of its upper classes, and its dependency on military might rather than on the strength of God. He came into conflict with the priests and was expelled from Israel. (NS)

Let us renew our adherence to the Lord in all things following his holy precepts and living a holy life.

Saint Amos, pray for us.

Martyrs of Sebaste, Armenia

Together let us honor that holy company united by faith, those noble warriors of the Master of all; they were divinely enlisted for Christ and passed through fire and water. The they entered into refreshment and pray for those who cry: Glory Him who has strengthened you; glory to Him who has crowned you; glory to Him who has made you wonderful, O holy Forty Martyrs. (Apolytikion)

Today, the Churches of the Constantinopolitan Tradition (as a point of comparison, the Armenian Apostolic Church commemorates liturgically these martyrs on March 21) recalls the forty holy martyrs who perished on the ice of Lake Sebaste in Armenia in AD 320.

The 12th legion of the Roman army was stationed at Sebaste in Armenia when the emperor Licinius decreed the profession of Christianity a capital offense. Forty soldiers of this legion who were Christian refused to renounce their faith. Their sentence was mass execution, carried out by forcing them to strip and wade into a freezing lake. A warming fire was burning on shore to encourage renunciation. One soldier gave up but his place was quickly taken by one of the guards who was so impressed by his comrades valor and commitment that he was willing to join their ranks. All were dead from the cold by the following morning. (NS)

A friend marked the occasion by listening to Donizetti’s opera on this subject, Les Martyrs (Poliuto), based on Corneille’s tragedy Polyeucte. The recording on Opera Rara was sponsored by Haig and Elza Didizian, Bob and Tamar Manoukian and Armen and Nouneh Sarkissian.

Through their holy prayers, O Savior, save Armenia, all the Oriental Orthodox and those of us who love them dearly as brothers!

St Ephrem the Syrian

Today, the Church liturgically recalls the life and work of Our Holy Father Ephrem the Syrian.

As we have seen, the theology of Syrian was a fountain of teaching about the incarnation of our Lord, especially his baptism in the Jordan. The feast of Theophany was the foremost manifestation of the Triune God. Among the Syrian theologians, none was most important than St. Ephrem.

Born of pagan parents, he found the Christian faith, was baptized and eventually ordained a deacon. His life was marked by asceticism, as he imitated our Lord in the desert. He had the ascetic gift of tears, sorrow for sin and joy in the salvation of our Lord. His Troparion begins, “Your abundant tears made the wilderness sprout and bloom, and your deep sighings made your labor fruitful a hundredfold. “His theology was equal to the greatest fathers, but his style was entirely different. He wrote in verse, so that it might be sung in hymns, and so he is called the “Harp of the Holy Spirit.”

The corpus of his work was huge, and over 400 hymns still exist, many of which are used in the Syrian Liturgy. He writes of the mystery of the Incarnation:

“A tiny stream from your teaching, Lord,
For us below makes a flood of interpretations.
In your Bread is hidden a Spirit not to be eaten,
In your Wine dwells a Fire not to be drunk.
Spirit in your Bread, Fire in your Wine,
A wonder set apart, [yet] received by our lips!
See, Fire and Spirit in the womb that bore you!
See, Fire and Spirit in the river where you were baptized!
Fire and Spirit in our Baptism;
In the Bread and the Cup, Fire and Holy Spirit!” (Hymns on the Faith 10)

Meditation by Archpriest David Petras

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St Gregory the Theologian

Today the Church liturgically commemorates one the greats: St Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople. The Troparion for this feast reads:

The sweet-sounding shepherd’s pipe of your theology overpowered the trumpeting of the orators; for having searched the depths of the Spirit eloquence was also bestowed upon you. Pray to Christ God, Father Gregory, that our souls may be saved.

St Gregory said,

“If someone asked us, what is it that you worship and respect, we should readily reply, love, for in the Holy Spirit’s own words our God Is Love. This is in fact the name that God cherishes above all others. “What is the sum of the law and the prophets?” This is the only answer that the evangelist would accept. Why in the world then do we the disciples of Love hate one another so? Why do we do disciples of peace engage in wars which do not admit of treaty or truce?”

Can we say this in our parish? in our personal lives?

St Timothy

The holy apostle and martyr, Timothy, bishop of Ephesus, is honored by the Church today.

This disciple and companion of St. Paul was put in charge of the christian community at Ephesus (reportedly for 15 years) and is honored as their first bishop. Around AD 97, he was killed by an angry mob, not unlike the silversmiths’ riot triggered by Paul.

The two letters addressed to Timothy in the New Testament are considered by modern scholarship to be compositions of the Pauline community.

The Kontakion for the feast reads:

Let us the faithful praise the Holy Apostle Timothy, the companion of Paul in his travels and together with him let us honor the wise Anastasius, who came as a star from Persia for the healing of the passions of our souls and the diseases of our bodies.

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St Maximus the Confessor

St Maximus the Confessor is liturgically commemorated today.

“God created all things with his limitless power, brought them into being, holds them there and gathers them together and sets boundaries to them; in his providence, he links them all – intellectual beings as well as sensible – to each other as he does to himself. In his might, God draws up all the things that are naturally distinct from each other and binds them to himself as their cause, their origin and goal; and through the power of this relationship to him as source, he lets them also be drawn toward each other…No being can permanently isolate itself through its own particularity or through the drive of its nature toward some other end; rather, everything remains, in its very being, bound without confusion to everything else, through the single, enduring relationship of all to their one and only source.”

A previous post on St Maximus can be read here.

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Our Holy Father Anthony the Great

St. Anthony the Great, also called St. Anthony the Abbott (though he was a hermit) and St. Anthony of Egypt is commemorated on January 17. He is identified as the founder of desert monasticism, though the story of his life, particularly how he met St. Paul of Thebes, who preceded him into the desert, is a study of the search for Christian perfection. This story tells how he heard the gospel about the rich young man, to whom Jesus said, ““If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven” (Matthew 19:21). When Anthony heard this gospel, he immediately divested himself of all his possessions and went into the desert to seek Christian perfection. This is really the calling of all Christians, as Jesus commanded, “Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:47)” For this we are baptized, that we might seek Godly perfection.

St. Anthony imitated Christ when he heard this gospel, and just as Jesus went out into the desert after his baptism by John, in order to foil the wiles of Satan, so, too, does Anthony go to the desert to conquer the evil passions exploited by the temptation of the devil. The monastic calling is an intensification of our baptismal calling, the renunciation of all worldly concerns to find perfection in the grace of Christ.

Therefore, in Eastern theology, consecration as a monastic (monk or nun) has been deemed a sacramental mystery, not a separate mystery, but as part of the mystery of repentance. In a similar way, Holy Orders and Marriage are also considered sacramental mysteries, because they confirm the baptismal calling in a particular vocation of life. St. Anthony, then, is a model for our life in Christ through baptism, which is called enlightenment, the perfection of the wisdom that leads us to life.

We pray, then, to our Holy Father Anthony, “Having clearly received immortality and eternal life, pray for my darkened soul to be enlightened by the light of grace, so that I may worthily praise you; for you bear the Three-fold Light, O Father Anthony!” (Matins, Ode 1).

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The Holy Prophet Malachi

The holy prophet, Malachi. Second day of the prefestive period.

Malachi lived and wrote after the return from Babylonian exile. He denounced the cooling zeal after the restoration of worship in the temple. He underlines respect for the priesthood and its responsibilities, and reminds the people that purity and sincerity are essential for true religion.

Malachi’s name comes from the Hebrew for “my messenger,” probably from his mention of the coming of a messenger to prepare the way for the Covenant. This passage is quoted in the Gospels to refer to the role of John in the coming feast.

Malachi also affirms the universal fatherhood of God and emphasizes how the Gentiles also worship him. His book is the last in the Old Testament canon. (NS)

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