[Readingsandsaints] Readings and Saints

Thu Aug 16 05:00:20 CDT 2007

Scripture Readings and Saints for Thu Aug 16 2007

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------ READINGS FOR TODAY ----------------------------
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2 Corinthians 7:1-10
1 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves
from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in
the fear of God.
2 Open your hearts to us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no
one, we have cheated no one.
3 I do not say this to condemn; for I have said before that you are in
our hearts, to die together and to live together.
4 Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my boasting on
your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful in all
our tribulation.
5 For indeed, when we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but
we were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts, inside were
fears.
6 Nevertheless God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the
coming of Titus,
7 and not only by his coming, but also by the consolation with which
he was comforted in you, when he told us of your earnest desire, your
mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more.
8 For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it;
though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you
sorry, though only for a while.
9 Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow
led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you
might suffer loss from us in nothing.
10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to
be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
Scripture Reading 1 of 4

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Colossians 1:12-18  (Image)
12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of
the inheritance of the saints in the light.
13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into
the kingdom of the Son of His love,
14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all
creation.
16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are
on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or
principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for
Him.
17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the
preeminence.
Scripture Reading 2 of 4

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Mark 1:29-35
29 Now as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the
house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.
30 But Simon's wife's mother lay sick with a fever, and they told Him
about her at once.
31 So He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and
immediately the fever left her. And she served them.
32 At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to Him all who were
sick and those who were demon-possessed.
33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door.
34 Then He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast
out many demons; and He did not allow the demons to speak, because
they knew Him.
35 Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He
went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.
Scripture Reading 3 of 4

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Luke 9:51-56; 10:22-24  (Image)
51 Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received
up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem,
52 and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered
a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him.
53 But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the
journey to Jerusalem.
54 And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord,
do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume
them, just as Elijah did?"
55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what
manner of spirit you are of.
56 For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save
them. And they went to another village.
22 All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows
who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the
Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
23 Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, "Blessed are
the eyes which see the things you see;
24 for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see
what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and
have not heard it.
Scripture Reading 4 of 4

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------ SAINTS/FEASTS FOR TODAY ----------------------------
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Afterfeast of the Dormition of the Mother of God
In today's hymns at Vespers, the Mother of God is praised as "only
created being to pass from earth to heaven in the flesh."
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Translation of the Image "Not-Made-By-Hands" of our Lord
Jesus Christ from Edessa to Constantinople, the Third "Feast of the
Savior in August"
The Transfer from Edessa to Constantinople of the Icon of our Lord
Jesus Christ Not-Made-by-Hands occurred in the year 944. Eusebius, in
his HISTORY OF THE CHURCH (I:13), relates that when the Savior was
preaching, Abgar ruled in Edessa. He was stricken all over his body
with leprosy. Reports of the great miracles worked by the Lord spread
throughout Syria (Mt.4:24) and reached even Abgar. Without having seen
the Savior, Abgar believed in Him as the Son of God. He wrote a letter
requesting Him to come and heal him. He sent with this letter to
Palestine his own portrait-painter Ananias, and commissioned him to
paint a likeness of the Divine Teacher.
Ananias arrived in Jerusalem and saw the Lord surrounded by people. He
was not able to get close to Him because of the large throng of people
listening to the preaching of the Savior. Then he stood on a high rock
and attempted to paint the portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ from
afar, but this effort was not successful. The Savior saw him, called
to him by name and gave him a short letter for Abgar in which He
praised the faith of this ruler. He also promised to send His disciple
to heal him of his leprosy and guide him to salvation.
Then the Lord asked that water and a cloth be brought to Him. He
washed His Face, drying it with the cloth, and His Divine Countenance
was imprinted upon it. Ananias took the cloth and the letter of the
Savior to Edessa. Reverently, Abgar pressed the holy object to his
face and he received partial healing. Only a small trace of the
terrible affliction remained until the arrival of the disciple
promised by the Lord. He was St Thaddeus, Apostle of the Seventy
(August 21), who preached the Gospel and baptized Abgar and all the
people of Edessa. Abgar put the Holy Napkin in a gold frame adorned
with pearls, and placed it in a niche over the city gates. On the
gateway above the icon he inscribed the words, "O Christ God, let no
one who hopes on Thee be put to shame."
For many years the inhabitants kept a pious custom to bow down before
the Icon Not-Made-by-Hands, when they went forth from the gates. But
one of the great-grandsons of Abgar, who later ruled Edessa, fell into
idolatry. He decided to take down the icon from the city wall. In a
vision the Lord ordered the Bishop of Edessa to hide His icon. The
bishop, coming by night with his clergy, lit a lampada before it and
walled it up with a board and with bricks.
Many years passed, and the people forgot about it. But in the year
545, when the Persian emperor Chozroes I besieged Edessa and the
position of the city seemed hopeless, the Most Holy Theotokos appeared
to Bishop Eulabius and ordered him to remove the icon from the sealed
niche, and it would save the city from the enemy. Having opened the
niche, the bishop found the Icon Not-Made-by-Hands: in front of it was
burning the lampada, and upon the board closing in the niche, a copy
of the icon was reproduced. After a church procession with the Icon
Not-Made-by-Hands had made the circuit of the city walls, the Persian
army withdrew.
In the year 630 Arabs seized Edessa, but they did not hinder the
veneration of the Holy Napkin, the fame of which had spread throughout
all the East. In the year 944, the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitos
(912-959) wanted to transfer the icon to the Constantinople, and he
paid a ransom for it to the emir of the city. With great reverence the
Icon of the Savior Not-Made-by-Hands and the letter which He had
written to Abgar, were brought to Constantinople by clergy.
On August 16, the icon of the Savior was placed in the Tharossa church
of the Most Holy Theotokos. There are several traditions concerning
what happened later to the Icon Not-Made-by-Hands. According to one,
crusaders ran off with it duringtheir rule at Constantinople
(1204-1261), but the ship on which the sacred object was taken,
perished in the waters of the Sea of Marmora.
According to another tradition, the Icon Not-Made-by-Hands was
transported around 1362 to Genoa, where it is preserved in a monastery
in honor of the Apostle Bartholomew. It is known that the Icon
Not-Made-by-Hands repeatedly gave from itself exact imprints. One of
these, named "On Ceramic," was imprinted when Ananias hid the icon in
a wall on his way to Edessa; another, imprinted on a cloak, wound up
in Georgia. Possibly, the variance of traditions about the original
Icon Not-Made-by-Hands derives from the existence of several exact
imprints.
During the time of the Iconoclast heresy, those who defended the
veneration of icons, having their blood spilt for holy icons, sang the
Troparion to the Icon Not-Made-by-Hands. In proof of the validity of
Icon-Veneration, Pope Gregory II (715-731) sent a letter to the
Byzantine emperor, in which he pointed out the healing of King Abgar
and the sojourn of the Icon Not-Made-by-Hands at Edessa as a commonly
known fact. The Icon Not-Made-by-Hands was put on the standards of the
Russian army, defending them from the enemy. In the Russian Orthodox
Church it is a pious custom for a believer, before entering the
temple, to read the Troparion of the Not-Made-by-Hand icon of the
Savior, together with other prayers.
According to the Prologue, there are four known Icons of the Savior
Not-Made-by-Hands:
at Edessa, of King Abgar (August 16)
the Kamulian, -- St Gregory of Nyssa (January 10) wrote of its
discovery, while according to St Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain
(July 14), the Kamulian icon appeared in the year 392, but it had
in appearance an icon of the Mother of God (August 9)
in the time of Emperor Tiberius (578-582), St Mary Syncletike
(August 11) received healing from this on ceramic tiles (16 August)
The Feast of the Transfer of the Icon Not-Made-by-Hands, made together
with the Afterfeast of the Dormition, they call the third-above Savior
Icon, the "Savior on Linen Cloth." The particular reverence of this
Feast in the Russian Orthodox Church is also expressed in iconography,
and the Icon Not-Made-by-Hands was one of the most widely distributed.
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Martyr Diomedes the Physician of Tarsus, in Cilicia
The Martyr Diomedes was born in Cilician Tarsus. He was a physician,
and a Christian, and he treated not only ills of the body but also of
the soul. He enlightened many pagans with belief in Christ, and
baptized them. The Church venerates him as a healer and mentions him
during the Mystery of Holy Unction.
St Diomedes traveled much, converting people to the true Faith. When
he arrived in the city of Nicea, the emperor Diocletian (284-305) sent
soldiers to arrest him. Along the way from Nicea to Nicomedia, he got
down from the cart so as to pray, and he died.
As proof of carrying out their orders, the soldiers cut off his head,
but became blinded. Diocletian gave orders to take the head back to
the body. When the soldiers fulfilled the order, their sight was
restored and they believed in Christ.
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Venerable Cherimon (Chaeremon) of Egypt
Saint Cherimon was an ascetic in Egypt in the Skete desert monastery,
either at the end of the fourth century, or the beginning years of the
fifth century. His name is remembered in the LAUSIAC HISTORYof
Palladius and in the alphabetic Paterikon.
His cave stood at a distance of 40 stadia from church and 12 stadia
from a spring of water. The saint died at handicraft at more than 100
years of age. St Cherimon is remembered by St Theodore the Studite
(November 11) in the Lenten Triodion, in the Service for Cheesefare
Saturday, in the 6th Ode of the Matins canon.
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Icon of the Mother of God of St Theodore
On August 16 we commemorate the miraculous finding of the Icon of the
Most Holy Theotokos of St Theodore. According to Tradition, the
Theodore Icon of the Mother of God was painted by the Evangelist Luke,
and resembles the famous Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God.
This icon received its name from St Alexander Nevsky's father Great
Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich (+ 1246), who in holy Baptism was named
Theodore in honor of St Theodore Stratelates (February 8).
According to Tradition, his elder brother, St George (February 4), had
found the icon in an old wooden chapel near the city of Gorodets.
Later, the Gorodets monastery of St Theodore was built on this spot.
When the citizens of Gorodets fled the city at the approach of Khan
they did not have time to take the Icon with them.
In 1239 the residents of Kostroma saw the Icon being carried through
their city by a radiant figure who resembed St Theodore Stratelates.
The next day the Icon was found in a tree by Prince Basil of Kostroma,
St Alexander Nevsky's younger brother while he was hunting in the
forest. The Icon was placed in the church of St Theodore Stratelates,
and many miracles took place before it.
Prince Yaroslav-Theodore became the Great Prince of Vladimir after his
brother St George perished in battle with the Mongols at the Sita
River. He gave the icon which he inherited from his brother to his own
son, St Alexander Nevsky.
The wonderworking Theodore Icon of the Mother of God was constantly
with St Alexander, and he often prayed before it. After St Alexander
Nevsky died on November 14, 1263 at the monastery founded by his
father, the icon was taken by his younger brother Basil.
Numerous copies of the Kostroma Theodore Icon were made, and one of
the first was commissioned and brought to Moscow by Tsar Michael's
mother, the nun Martha. From the second half of the seventeenth
century, various copies of the Theodore Icon were enlarged with scenes
depicting events from the history of the wonderworking icon.
The Theodore Icon is two-sided. On the reverse side is the image of
the holy Great Martyr Paraskeva, depicted in the splendid attire of a
princess. It is believed that the image of Paraskeva on the reverse of
the icon is connected with the wife of St Alexander Nevsky.
The first Romanov tsar was acclaimed as sovereign before the Theodore
Icon in 1613.
The Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos of St Theodore is also
commemorated on March 14.
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St Anthony of Martkofeli
No information available at this time.
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Martyr Christopher of Guria, Georgia
It is commonly believed that St. Christopher Guruli was martyred, but
little information exists about him to prove this. Christophers name
has been preserved in the nations memory, and he is commemorated in
the Church calendar.
The Georgian ancestry of Holy Martyr Christopher is indicated by his
appellation, Guruli, which means from the province of Guria (in
western Georgia). From this, Church historians have been led to
believe that Holy Martyr Christopher labored in Georgia.
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Martyr Isaac of Karnu, Georgia
No information available at this time.
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Martyr Joseph of Karnu, Georgia
No information available at this time.
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St Joachim of Osogovo
Saint Joachim of Osogov was one of four great hermits of Bulgaria. He
inspired hundreds and thousands of people to Christian asceticism by
his ascetic efforts. He lived in the eleventh century, unknown by
anyone, in a cave on a mountain of Osogov.
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St Roman of Banat
No information available at this time.
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St Eustathius of Serbia
No information available at this time.
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St Raphael of Banat
No information available at this time.
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Hieromartyr Nicodemus of Meteora
Hieromartyr Nicodemus of Meteora struggled in Thessaly, and suffered
in the year 1551.
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New Martyr Stamatius of Volos
The New Martyr Stamatius was a native of the city of Volos, Thessaly.
They accused him of accepting Islam, but he bravely confessed himself
a Christian and was beheaded by the sword at Constantinople in 1680.
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Venerable Gerasimus the New Ascetic of Cephalonia
Saint Gerasimus the New Ascetic of Cephalonia was born in the village
of Trikkala in the Peloponessos. As a young adult, he became a monk on
the island of Zakynthos. On the Holy Mountain he became a schemamonk
and studied with the ascetics of Mt Athos. Receiving a blessing from
the Elders, the monk went to Jerusalem to worship at the Life-bearing
Tomb of the Savior. After visiting many holy places in Jerusalem,
Mount Sinai, Antioch, Damascus, Alexandria and Egypt, he returned to
Jerusalem where he became a lamp-lighter at the Sepulchre of the Lord.
The monk was ordained a deacon and then a priest by the Patriarch of
Jerusalem, Germanus (1534-1579). St Gerasimus maintained the
discipline of an ascetic. For soltitude he withdrew to the Jordan,
where he spent forty days without respite. Having received the
Patriarch's blessing for a life of silence, St Gerasimus withdrew to
Zakynthos in solitude, eating only vegetation.
After five years he was inspired to go the the island of Cephalonia,
where he lived in a cave. He restored a church at Omala, and he
founded a women's monastery where he lived in constant toil and vigil
for thirty years. He prayed on bent knees stretched out on the ground.
For his exalted life he was granted a miraculous gift: the ability to
heal the sick and cast out unclean spirits.
At 71 years of age, the venerable Gerasimus knew that he would soon
die. He gave his blessing to the nuns and peacefully fell asleep in
the Lord on August 15, 1579. Two years later, his grave was opened and
his holy relics were found fragrant and incorrupt with a healing
power.
Since the Feast of the Dormition falls on August 15, St Gerasimus is
commemorated on August 16th. Today's Feast celebrates the uncovering
of his holy relics in 1581.
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St Constantine Brancoveanu
The holy Prince Constantine Brancoveanu, the son of Prince Matthew
Basarab, was born in 1654. When his parents died, he was raised and
educated by his uncle, Constantine Cantacuzino. When another uncle,
Prince Serban Cantacuzino died on on October 19, 1688, Constantine was
chosen to succeed him as Prince of the Romanian Land (Wallachia). St
Constantine was a wise and just ruler who was guided by Christian
principles, and worked for the benefit of his people. He also built
and restored many churches and monasteries. His philanthropy extended
even into Transylvania and Moldavia, which were ruled by others.
In 1714, after a reign of twenty-five years, St Constantine, his sons,
and his sons-in-law were arrested by soldiers sent to Bucharest by
Sultan Ahmed III (1703-1730).The prisoners were brought to
Constantinople, where they were tortured for four months. Prince
Constantine was told that if he and his sons wanted to escape death,
they would have to convert to Islam and pay a large sum of money.
Constantine did not have the money required by the Turks, and he did
not wish to convert to the Moslem faith.
Seeing that neither tortures nor threats would induce the prisoners to
forsake Christ, the Turks sentenced them to death. Before his own
execution, St Constantine had to watch as his sons were beheaded
before his eyes.
On the Feast of the Dormition (August 15), The sixty-year-old prince,
his sons, and his counsellor Ianache Vacarescu died as martyrs for
Christ. Their bodies were left unburied for three days, then they were
thrown into the sea. Their relics were recovered by Orthodox
Christians who brought them to the Monastery of the Theotokos on the
island of Chalki.
St Constantine's wife Marica brought his holy relics back to Bucharest
and placed them in the church of St George the New, which he had
founded. He was glorified by the Orthodox Church of Romania in 1992.
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St Constantine the Younger
Saint Constantine the Younger was one of the four sons of the holy
Prince Constantine Brancoveanu. He was martyred with his father on
August 15, 1714. He was glorified by the Orthodox Church of Romania in
1992.
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St Stephen Brancoveanu
Saint Stephen was one of the four sons of the holy Prince Constantine
Brancoveanu. He was martyred with his father on August 15, 1714. He
was glorified by the Orthodox Church of Romania in 1992.
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St Radu Brancoveanu
Saint Radu was one of the four sons of the holy Prince Constantine
Brancoveanu. He was martyred with his father on August 15, 1714. He
was glorified by the Orthodox Church of Romania in 1992.
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St Matthew Brancoveanu
Saint Matthew was one of the four sons of the holy Prince Constantine
Brancoveanu. He was martyred with his father on August 15, 1714. He
was glorified by the Orthodox Church of Romania in 1992.
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St Ianache Vacarescu
Saint Ianache Vacarescu was the loyal Counsellor of the holy Prince
Constantine Brancoveanu. He was martyred with his master on August 15,
1714, and was glorified by the Orthodox Church of Romania in 1992.
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