[Readingsandsaints] Readings and Saints

[Daily Orthodox Readings and Saints]

Scripture Readings and Saints for Fri Aug 24 2007

----------------------------------------------------
------ READINGS FOR TODAY ----------------------------
----------------------------------------------------


-----------------------------
                                      
Mark 4:1-9
1 And again He began to teach by the sea. And a great multitude was
gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea;
and the whole multitude was on the land facing the sea.
2 Then He taught them many things by parables, and said to them in His
teaching:
3 Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow.
4 And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside;
and the birds of the air came and devoured it.
5 Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and
immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth.
6 But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root
it withered away.
7 And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked
it, and it yielded no crop.
8 But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang
up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a
hundred.
9 And He said to them, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"
5 For I consider that I am not at all inferior to the most eminent
apostles.
6 Even though I am untrained in speech, yet I am not in knowledge. But
we have been thoroughly manifested among you in all things.
7 Did I commit sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted,
because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge?
8 I robbed other churches, taking wages from them to minister to you.
9 And when I was present with you, and in need, I was a burden to no
one, for what I lacked the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied.
And in everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and so I
will keep myself.
10 As the truth of Christ is in me, no one shall stop me from this
boasting in the regions of Achaia.
11 Why? Because I do not love you? God knows!
12 But what I do, I will also continue to do, that I may cut off the
opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just
as we are in the things of which they boast.
13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming
themselves into apostles of Christ.
14 And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel
of light.
15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform
themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be
according to their works.
16 I say again, let no one think me a fool. If otherwise, at least
receive me as a fool, that I also may boast a little.
17 What I speak, I speak not according to the Lord, but as it were,
foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.
18 Seeing that many boast according to the flesh, I also will boast.
19 For you put up with fools gladly, since you yourselves are wise!
20 For you put up with it if one brings you into bondage, if one
devours you, if one takes from you, if one exalts himself, if one
strikes you on the face.
21 To our shame I say that we were too weak for that! But in whatever
anyone is bold-I speak foolishly-I am bold also.
Scripture Reading 1 of 2



----------------------------------------------------
------ SAINTS/FEASTS FOR TODAY ----------------------------
----------------------------------------------------


Hieromartyr Eutyches the Disciple of St John the Theologian
The Hieromartyr Eutyches, a disciple of the holy Apostles John the
Theologian and Paul, lived from the first century into the beginning
of the second century, and was from the Palestinian city of Sebastea.
Although St Eutyches is not one of the 70 Apostles, he is called an
Apostle because of his labors with the older Apostles, by whom he was
made bishop. After hearing about Christ the Savior, St Eutyches first
became a disciple of the Apostle John the Theologian. Later he met the
Apostle Paul, and preached together with him on the early journeys.
St Eutyches underwent many sufferings: they starved him with hunger,
beat him with iron rods, they threw him into the fire, and then to be
devoured by wild beasts. Once, a lion was let loose upon the saint,
which astonished everyone because it praised the Creator with a human
voice. The hieromartyr Eutyches completed his labors in his native
city, where he was beheaded with a sword at the beginning of the
second century.
_________________________________________________________________
Translation of the relics of St Peter the Metropolitan of
Moscow and All Russia
Saint Peter, Metropolitan of Moscow, died on December 21, 1326. The
first transfer of his relics was on July 1, 1472 and a feastday was
established. The second transfer of the relics of St Peter was after
the consecration of the Dormition Cathedral, rebuilt on August 24,
1479, and the July 1 feastday was replaced.
There was a feastday of the appearance of the relics of St Peter
(August 4) upon the occasion of an appearance to the wife of Ivan the
Terrible (1533-1584), the Tsaritsa Anastasia (1547-1560). St Peter
appeared to Tsaritsa Anastasia and would permit no one to open his
grave. He commanded the grave to be sealed and a feastday established.
Three epistles of St Peter are preserved. The first was to priests
with an exhortation to pursue their pastoral service worthily, and to
tend their spiritual children with zeal. It concluded with an account
of Church law concerning widowed priests, and intended to protect them
from reproach and temptation. He advised them to settle in a
monastery, and for their children to be enrolledin a monastery school
for upbringing and instruction. In the second missive, the saint urged
priests to be true pastors and not hirelings, and to be concerned
about the strengthening of themselves with Christian and pastoral
virtues. In the third letter, St Peter again exhorts priests
concerning their pastoral obligations, and he urges laypeople to
fulfill the commandments of Christ.
Prominent in church-state affairs, there was good reason even for his
contemporaries to compare St Peter with Sts Basil the Great, Gregory
the Theologian and John Chrysostom. The principal effort of St Peter
was in the struggle for an unified Russian state and the blessing of
Moscow as the unifier of the Russian land.
_________________________________________________________________
Venerable Arsenius the Abbot of Komel, Vologda
Saint Arsenius of Komel was born in Moscow, and was descended from a
noble family, the Sakharusov. In his youth he was tonsured at the
Trinity-Sergiev monastery, and he occupied himself there with the
copying of books. There is a Gospel that he copied in the year 1506.
In the years 1525-1527 the monk was igumen at the Trinity-Sergiev
monastery. He often withdrew to the solitary Makrisch monastery. Great
Prince Basil IV (1505-1533), making a visit to the monastery at that
time, was surprised to behold the igumen of a prosperous monastery in
old clothes covered with patches. The brethren explained that St
Arsenius wished to travel in the wilderness.
Setting out together with his own cell elder to the Komel forest
located 50 versts from Vologda, St Arsenius made a large wooden cross,
and with this cross on his shoulders he set out through the forest to
pick out a spot for a future monastery. Coming to a marshy place
through a swamp, the monk stumbled under the heavy cross and fell. A
heavenly beam of light flashed upon the ascetic at this very moment
and convinced him to establish his monastery on this site. He set up
the cross and built the first cell.
The local inhabitants, went there to hunt wild animals, and killed the
disciple of St Arsenius. He himself was forced to withdraw into the
Shelegod forest. Several monks soon gathered at his new monastery, and
afterwards fugitives from a Tatar incursion upon the surrounding
populace settled there. St Arsenius, seeking after silence, desired to
live in a quieter spot.
In the year 1530 Great Prince Basil gave him a deed for land in the
Komel forest at the Kokhtisha River. The monk began here to clear the
forest together with his disciple Gerasimus. By prayer, the saint
tamed the wild beasts. When several monks had gathered about him, he
built a church in honor of the Placing of the Veil of the Most Holy
Theotokos.
Visiting the Shelegod monastery, the monk instructed the peasants who
had settled in the area of the monastery. He bid them reverently to
observe feastdays and Sundays. Once when a peasant who had heard him
started to work on a feastday, a wind suddenly arose scattering all
his sheaves.
Having spent his life in fasting, prayer and constant work, St
Arsenius died on August 24. 1550. His Life was written soon after his
death, but burned in a fire in the Komel monastery in 1596. In
shortened form, it was restored from the surviving manuscripts and
augmented with posthumous miracles by John, a monk of the monastery.
A hundred years later after the death of the saint, the igumen Joasaph
built a stone church at the monastery in honor of the Placing of the
Veil of the Most Holy Theotokos. Two chapels of this church show the
spiritual bond of teacher and disciple. The left chapel was dedicated
to St Sergius of Radonezh, and the right to St Arsenius of Komel.
_________________________________________________________________
Martyr Tation (Tatio) of Claudiopolis
The Martyr Tation lived in Bythnia and suffered under the emperor
Diocletian (284-305). When the persecutors of Christians learned that
he believed in Christ, they arrested him and took him to the city of
Claudiopolis to the governor, Urban.
Many times they urged the saint to deny Christ, and they locked him in
prison and gave him over to various tortures. They beat him with
sticks and dragged him beyond the city for execution. The holy martyr,
after making the Sign of the Cross, died along the way.
_________________________________________________________________
Virginmartyr Syra of Persia
The martyr Syra lived during the sixth century in Persia and was the
daughter of an illustrious pagan priest of the fire-worshippers (i.e.
Zoroastrians) from Karkh-Seleucia in Elimiade (Abizarde). Syra's
father, fearing the influence of Christianity on his daughter, sent
her to the city of Tharsis after the death of her mother to be
educated as a pagan priestess.
Syra became a priestess at the heathen temple of fire, and occupied
herself with honorable activity. But once, after speaking with some
Christian beggars, Syra believed in Christ the Savior and began to
live as a Christian. She began to learn prayers and Psalms, to fast
and to read Christian books.
Syra once fell ill. She was not able to find a remedy for her
sickness, so she went to the Christian church and asked the priest
only to give her some of the ashes from the church, hoping to receive
healing from them. The priest, knowing Syra to be a servitor of idols,
refused her request.
Syra was not angered, recognizing her own unworthiness, but with faith
she touched the robe of the priest, as the woman with the issue of
blood once touched the robe of the Savior (Mt. 9: 20-22). She
immediately received healing and she returned home healed.
Syra's family began to suspect that she wanted to accept Christianity,
and they asked Syra's stepmother to persuade her to abandon this
intention. The stepmother, pretending that she herself was a secret
Christian, talked sweetly with Syra, telling her to keep her faith
secret. She also told Syra to continue to serve the fire outwardly, so
she would not fall away from Christ altogether by being subjected to
torture.
Syra began to hesitate about accepting Baptism, but when she saw a
vision in her sleep about the desolate fate which befell her mother
after her death, and about the luminous abodes foreordained for
Christians, she made up her mind and went to the bishop, asking him to
baptize her. The bishop declined to fulfill her request, fearing to
give the pagan priests a reason for persecuting Christians. Besides
this, he thought that Syra, fearing her father's wrath, would deny
Christ. The bishop advised her first to openly confess her faith in
the Savior before her kinsfolk.
Once during the morning sacrifice, St Syra was stoking the priestly
fire worshipped by the Persians as their god, and overturning the
sacrifice she proclaimed loudly: "I am a Christian and reject false
gods and I believe in the True God!"
The father beat his daughter until he became exhausted, and then threw
her in prison. With tears and entreaties he urged her to return to her
former faith, but Syra was unyielding. The father then denounced her
to the pagan high priest, and afterwards to the governor and to the
emperor Chozroes the Elder.
They tortured the holy maiden for a long time in prison, but the Lord
strengthened her, and she stood firmly on her faith in Christ. After
she bribed the prison guard, St Syra went to the bishop and received
Baptism. The Lord granted St Syra the gift of wonderworking. When the
Persians gave the martyr over for the leering of impious men, they
began to jeer at the saint, saying: "What's the fable told about you,
that the chains fall from your neck, hands and legs by themselves? Let
us see now how the chains fall off!" St Syra prayed in the depths of
her heart to the Savior, and immediately the chains fell from her. And
this was not the only time.
Succumbing to her tortures, St Syra fell deathly ill. She began to
entreat the Lord that He not permit her to die from the illness, but
rather to grant her a martyr's crown. The Lord heard her and granted
healing. Seeing the martyr healed, the prison guard and jail warden
went to dishonor the holy maiden, but the Lord struck one with illness
and the other one was struck dead. The martyr was condemned to be
stranged.
They conducted the execution with refined cruelty. After a while they
left go of the rope, asking the saint whether she wanted to change her
mind and remain among the living. But the martyr, barely alive,
refused and requested the execution be done quickly. The body of the
saint was thrown to dogs to be devoured, but they would not touch it.
Christians then buried the body of St Syra.
_________________________________________________________________
St George Limniotes the Confessor of Mt. Olympus
Saint George Limniotes lived during the seventh and eighth centuries
and was a monk of the Olympian monastery near Constantinople. He
suffered for venerating icons under the Iconoclast emperor Leo the
Isaurian (716-741). They burned his head and cut off his nose. St
George died in the year 718.
_________________________________________________________________
St Cosmas of Berat, Evangelizer of Southern Albania
No information available at this time.
_________________________________________________________________
Repose of the New-Hieromartyr Cosmas of Aitolia, Equal of the
Apostles
The New Hieromartyr Cosmas, Equal of the Apostles, in the world
Constas, was a native of Aitolia. He studied at first under the
guidance of the archdeacon Ananias Dervisanos, and afterwards
continued his education on Mount Athos, at the Vatopedi school
renowned for teachers such as Nicholas Tzartzoulios (from Metsovo) and
Eugenius Voulgaris (afterwards in the years 1775-1779 the archbishop
of Ekaterinoslav and the Chersonessus).
Remaining on Athos at the Philotheou monastery to devote himself to
spiritual labors, he was tonsured a monk with the name Cosmas, and
later was ordained hieromonk. The desire to benefit his fellow
Christians, to guide them upon the way of salvation and strengthen
their faith, impelled St Cosmas to seek the blessing of his spiritual
fathers and go to Constantinople. There he mastered the art of
rhetoric and, having received a written permit of Patriarch Seraphim
II (and later from his successor Sophronius) to preach the Holy
Gospel.
So the saint began to proclaim the Gospel at first in the churches of
Constantinople and the surrounding villages, then in the Danube
regions, in Thessalonica, in Verroia, in Macedonia, Chimaera,
Akarnania, Aitolia, on the islands of Saint Maura, Kephalonia and
other places.
His preaching, filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, was simple,
calm, and gentle. It brought Christians great spiritual benefit. The
Lord Himself assisted him and confirmed his words with signs and
miracles, just as He had confirmed the preaching of the Apostles.
Preaching in the remote areas of Albania, where Christian piety had
almost disappeared among the rough and coarse people entrenched in
sin, St Cosmas led them to sincere repentance and improvement with the
Word of God.
Under his guidance, church schools were opened in the towns and
villages. The rich offered their money for the betterment of the
churches, for the purchase of Holy Books (which the saint distributed
to the literate), veils (which he gave women, admonishing them to come
to church with covered heads),for prayer ropes and crosses (which he
distributed to the common folk), and for baptismal fonts so that
children could be baptized in the proper manner.
Since the churches could not accommodate everyone wanting to hear the
wise preacher, St Cosmas with forty or fifty priests served the Vigil
in the fields, and in city squares, where thousands of people prayed
for the living and for the dead, and were edified by his preaching.
Everywhere that St Cosmas halted and preached, the grateful listeners
set up a large wooden cross, which remained thereafter in memory of
this.
The apostolic service of St Cosmas was brought to a close by his
martyric death in the year 1779. At 65 years of age, he was seized by
the Turks and strangled. His body was thrown into a river, and after
three days, was found by the priest Mark and buried near the village
of Kolikontasi at the monastery of the Entrance into the Temple of the
Most Holy Theotokos. Afterwards, part of his relics were transferred
to various places as a blessing.
He was glorified by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1961.
_________________________________________________________________
Icon of the Mother of God of St Peter of Moscow
The Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos "Of St Peter" was so called
because it was painted by St Peter, Metropolitan of Moscow (+ December
21, 1326) while he was igumen of the Ratsk monastery near Volhynia.
During a visit to the Ratsk monastery by St Maximus, Metropolitan of
Kiev and All Russia (+ December 6, 1306), St Peter gave him this icon
as a gift. The Metropolitan took it to Vladimir at Klyazma, where his
cathedral was then located.
Upon the death of St Maximus, the igumen Gerontius, who wished to
become the new metropolitan, intended to take this icon to Patriarch
Athanasius of Constantinople (October 24). The journey of Igumen
Gerontius was delayed, however, by a terrible storm at sea. During
this storm, the Most Holy Theotokos appeared to him and said: "The
office of bishop will not be conferred upon you, but rather on the one
who painted My Icon."
When he came before Patriarch Athanasius, St Peter was already in
Constantinople and had been consecrated as Metropolitan. The Patriarch
gave the icon to St Peter with the words: "Take the holy icon of the
Mother of God, which you painted with your own hands, for this reason
the Ever-Virgin Herself has granted you this gift, and She foretold
your path."
St Peter took the icon to Vladimir, and when the metropolitan
cathedral was transfered to Moscow in the year 1325, the icon was
placed in the Dormition Cathedral above the table of oblation.
_________________________________________________________________
St Martyrius, Archbishop of Novgorod
Saint Martyrius, Archbishop of Novgorod, was born in Stara Rus. On the
northeast side of the city, near the right bank of the Polista River
he founded in the year 1192 the Transfiguration men's monastery.
At the Novgorod cathedral, St Martyrius was chosen by lot after the
death of St Gregory (May 24). On December 10, 1193 in Kiev, he was
elevated to the rank of archbishop. St Martyrius became famous as an
indefatigable builder of churches. In May 1195 he contracted for a
church in the name of the Mother of God at the city gates, on
September 13, 1196 he consecrated a church in honor of the
Resurrection of Christ in a new women's monastery at Lake Myachina.
In January 1197 the saint consecrated a church in honor of St Cyril of
Alexandria at the men's monastery of the same name 3 versts from
Novgorod. In the year 1197, he contracted in the carpenter's quarter
of Novgorod for a women's monastery in the name of the holy Great
Martyr Euphemia, built by devout young women of the city.
In January 1197 St Martyrius consecrated at the Transfiguration
monastery in Stara Rus a temple dedicated to St Nicephorus, Patriarch
of Constantinople. In May 1198, he began to build a stone church in
honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord, and on August 15 of the same
year he consecrated it.
In that same year Princess Elena, wife of Prince Yaroslav
Vladimirovich, built on the merchants' side at Molotkova a church in
honor of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos at the monastery,
founded by St Martyrius. The church was built in memory of the
following miracle. A certain devout man of Novgorod went to church
each day. Once he returned home, and became tired, fell asleep, and
dropped a prosphora stamped with the image of the Theotokos. The dogs,
smelling bread, ran up to the prosphora but jumped away, driven off by
an invisible power.
Great Prince Vsevolod became disaffected with the people of Novgorod.
In 1199 St Martyrius went to Vladimir with representatives of the
townspeople. Along the way, on the shore of Lake Seliger, he died on
August 24, 1199. His body was taken to Novgorod to the Martyriev
Portico of the Sophia Cathedral, so named because it was built by St
Martyrius. His icon is in the altar of the Novgorod Sophia Cathedral.
_________________________________________________________________
Appearance of the Mother of God to St Sergius of Radonezh
The Appearance of the Most Holy Theotokos to St Sergius of Radonezh:
Once, late at night, St Sergius (1314-1392) was reading an Akathist to
the Mother of God. Having finished his habitual rule, he sat down to
rest a bit, but suddenly he said to his disciple, St Micah (May 6):
"Be alert, my child, for we shall have a wondrous visitation."
Scarcely had he uttered these words than a voice was heard: "The
All-Pure One approaches!"
St Sergius rushed from the cell to the entrance, and suddenly it was
illumined by a bright light, brighter than the sun. He beheld nearby
in imperishable glory the Mother of God, accompanied by the Apostles
Peter and John. Unable to bear such a vision, St Sergius reverently
prostrated himself before the Mother of God. She said to him, "Fear
not, My chosen one! I have come to visit you. Your prayer for your
disciples and your monastery has been heard. Do not be troubled, for
your habitation shall prosper, not only in your lifetime, but also
after your departure to God. I will be with your monastery, supplying
its needs abundantly, and protecting it." Having said this, the Mother
of God became invisible.
For a long time St Sergius was in an inexpressible rapture, and having
come to himself, he raised up St Micah. "Tell me, Father," he asked,
"what is the meaning of this miraculous vision? My soul nearly left my
body from terror!" But St Sergius was silent, and only his luminous
face spoke of the spiritual joy which he had experienced. "Wait a
bit," he said finally to his disciple, "my soul also trembles because
of this wondrous vision."
After a while St Sergius summoned two of his disciples, Sts Isaac and
Simon, and shared with them the vision and the promise of the
Theotokos. They all sang a Molieben to the Mother of God. St Sergius
spent the remaining part of the night without sleep, calling to mind
the divine vision.
The appearance of the Mother of God at the cell of St Sergius, at the
present place of the Serapionov chamber, was on one of the Fridays of
the Nativity Fast in the year 1385. The commemoration of the visit of
the Mother of God to the Trinity monastery and of Her promise was
reverently kept by the disciples of St Sergius.
On July 5, 1422 the holy relics of St Sergius were uncovered, and soon
after an icon of the Appearance of the Mother of God was placed on the
grave of St Sergius. The icon was honored with great reverence.
In the year 1446 Great Prince Basil (1425-1462) was besieged at the
Trinity monastery by the armies of Princes Demetrius Shemyaka and John
of Mozhaisk. He barricaded himself into the Trinity cathedral, and
when he heard that he was being sought, he took the icon of the
Appearance of the Mother of God and with it met Prince John at the
southern church doors, saying: "Brother, we kissed the Life-Creating
Cross and this icon in this church of the Life-Creating Trinity at
this grave of the Wonderworker Sergius, that we would neither intend
nor wish any evil to any of our brethren among ourselves. Now I do not
know no what will happen to me here."
The Trinity monk Ambrose reproduced the icon of the Appearance of the
Mother of God to St Sergius, carved in wood (mid-fourteenth century).
Tsar Ivan the Terrible took the icon of the Appearance of the Mother
of God on his Kazan campaign (1552). The most famous icon, painted in
the year 1588, was by the steward of the Trinity-Sergiev Lavra,
Eustathius Golovkin on a board from the wooden reliquary of St
Sergius, which was taken apart in the year 1585 when the relics of St
Sergius were placed in a silver reliquary (August 14).
Through this icon, the Mother of God repeatedly protected the Russian
army. Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich (1645-1676) took it on the Polish
campaign in 1657. In the year 1703, the icon took part in all the
military campaigns against the Swedish king Charles XII, and in 1812
Metropolitan Platon sent it to the Moscow military levy. The icon was
carried in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, and during World War I it
was at the quarters of the supreme commander-in-chief in 1914.
A church was built over the grave of St Micah and at its consecration
on December 10, 1734 was named in honor of the Appearance of the Most
Holy Theotokos and the holy Apostles to St Sergius of Radonezh.
On September 27, 1841 the church was restored and consecrated by
Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow , who said: "By the grace of the
All-Holy and All-Sacred Spirit the restoration of this temple is now
accomplished, fashioned before us in honor and memory of the
Appearance of our Lady the Most Holy Theotokos to our holy God-bearing
Father Sergius, to which St Micah was also an eyewitness."
The commemoration of this grace-bearing event is rightly marked by the
consecration of a church, however, this whole monastery is a memorial
of that miraculous visit. Therefore, its purpose in the continuing
centuries was the fulfillment of the promise of the heavenly Visitor:
"This place shall endure."
In memory of the visit of the Mother of God at the Trinity-Sergiev
monastery, an Akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos is sung on Fridays,
and a special service in honor of the appearance of the Mother of God
is celebrated at the monastery on August 24, on the second day of the
leave-taking of the Feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos.
_________________________________________________________________
Venerable Serapion, Abbot and Wonderworker of the St. John
the Baptist Monastery
Saint Serapion was abbot of the Monastery of St. John the Baptist in
the Davit-Gareji Wilderness. He was endowed by God with the ability to
work miracles.
Once St. Serapion set off for the city, following at a short distance
behind several of the monasterys brothers.
While they were traveling, a group of bandits attacked the monks who
were walking in front of their abbot and made off with many of the
church vessels they were carrying.
Terrified, the monks ran back to Serapion and told him what had
happened.
Great is God! said Serapion. I will not permit the unbelievers to
steal His sacred things!
With staff in hand, the elder raced ahead alone in pursuit of the
robbers. When the robbers turned back they saw a terrible flame
issuing forth from the elders staff and became greatly afraid. They
abandoned the donkey that had been carrying their spoils and took to
their heels. Another time Serapion suddenly burst out of his cell and
cried to the brothers, Woe is me! Woe is me! Robbers have attacked the
servants on their way to the monastery!
Having made this frightening announcement, he returned to his cell and
began to pray. After a few hours the distraught servants arrived at
the monastery and reported that bandits had attacked them along the
way. The servants said that, when fleeing their attackers, they had
abandoned the mules that were hauling the monasterys property. A short
time later the mules arrived at the monastery unaccompanied, bearing
their load as before.
St. Serapion eventually abandoned his leadership of the monastery. He
was tonsured into the great schema and withdrew into seclusion. Soon
after, God revealed to him that his death was near, and he asked the
brothers to bury him under the church gates, in a grave that he had
prepared for himself. He intended for all who entered there to walk
over his grave.
St. Serapion reposed in the year 1774.
_________________________________________________________________