[Readingsandsaints] Readings and saints

Tue Feb 20 05:00:18 CST 2007

Scripture Readings and Saints for Tue Feb 20 2007

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------ READINGS FOR TODAY ----------------------------
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Isaiah 1:19-2:3  (6th Hour)
19 If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the
land;
20 But if you refuse and rebel, You shall be devoured by the sword;
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
21 How the faithful city has become a harlot! It was full of justice;
Righteousness lodged in it, But now murderers.
22 Your silver has become dross, Your wine mixed with water.
23 Your princes are rebellious, And companions of thieves; Everyone
loves bribes, And follows after rewards. They do not defend the
fatherless, Nor does the cause of the widow come before them.
24 Therefore the Lord says, The Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of
Israel, Ah, I will rid Myself of My adversaries, And take vengeance on
My enemies.
25 I will turn My hand against you, And thoroughly purge away your
dross, And take away all your alloy.
26 I will restore your judges as at the first, And your counselors as
at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of
righteousness, the faithful city.
27 Zion shall be redeemed with justice, And her penitents with
righteousness.
28 The destruction of transgressors and of sinners shall be together,
And those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.
29 For they shall be ashamed of the terebinth trees Which you have
desired; And you shall be embarrassed because of the gardens Which you
have chosen.
30 For you shall be as a terebinth whose leaf fades, And as a garden
that has no water.
31 The strong shall be as tinder, And the work of it as a spark; Both
will burn together, And no one shall quench them.
1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and
Jerusalem.
2 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of
the Lords house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And
shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it.
3 Many people shall come and say, Come, and let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach
us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go
forth the law, And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
Scripture Reading 1 of 3

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Genesis 1:14-23  (Vespers, 1st Reading)
14 Then God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens
to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and
seasons, and for days and years;
15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give
light on the earth; and it was so.
16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day,
and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.
17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the
earth,
18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the
light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
20 Then God said, Let the waters abound with an abundance of living
creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the
firmament of the heavens.
21 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that
moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and
every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill
the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.
23 So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
Scripture Reading 2 of 3

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Proverbs 1:20-33  (Vespers, 2nd Reading)
20 Wisdom calls aloud outside; She raises her voice in the open
squares.
21 She cries out in the chief concourses, At the openings of the gates
in the city She speaks her words:
22 How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners
delight in their scorning, And fools hate knowledge.
23 Turn at my rebuke; Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will
make my words known to you.
24 Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand
and no one regarded,
25 Because you disdained all my counsel, And would have none of my
rebuke,
26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror
comes,
27 When your terror comes like a storm, And your destruction comes
like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you.
28 Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me
diligently, but they will not find me.
29 Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the
Lord,
30 They would have none of my counsel And despised my every rebuke.
31 Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, And be filled
to the full with their own fancies.
32 For the turning away of the simple will slay them, And the
complacency of fools will destroy them;
33 But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, And will be secure,
without fear of evil.
Scripture Reading 3 of 3

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------ SAINTS/FEASTS FOR TODAY ----------------------------
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St Leo the Bishop of Catania in Sicily
Saint Leo was bishop of the city of Catania, in Sicily. He was famed
for his benevolence and charity, and his Christian love for the poor
and the vagrant. The Lord granted him the gifts of healing various
illnesses, and working miracles.
When St Leo was Bishop of Catania, there was a certain sorcerer named
Heliodorus, who impressed people with his fake miracles. This fellow
was originally a Christian, but then he rejected Christ and became a
servant of the devil.
St Leo often urged Heliodorus to repent of his wicked deeds and return
to God, but in vain. Once, Heliodorus impudently entered the church
where the bishop was serving, and tried to create a disturbance,
sowing confusion and temptation by his sorcery.
Seeing the people beset by devils under the sorcer's spell, St Leo
realized that the time for gentle persuasion had passed. He calmly
emerged from the altar and, tying his omophorion around the magician's
neck, he led him out of the church into the city square. There he
forced Heliodorus to admit to all his wicked deeds. He commanded that
a fire be lit, and jumped into the fire with the sorcerer. Thus they
stood in the fire until Heliodorus got burnt. St Leo, by the power of
God, remained unharmed. This miracle brought St Leo great renown
during his lifetime.
When he died, a woman with an issue of blood received healing at his
grave. The body of the saint was placed in a church of the holy Martyr
Lucy (December 13), which he himself had built. Later on, his relics
were transferred into the church of St Martin the Merciful, Bishop of
Tours (November 11).
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Venerable Agathon the Wonderworker of the Kiev Caves
Saint Agathon of the Kiev Caves was a great ascetic, and he healed the
sick by a laying his hands upon them. He also possessed the gift of
prophecy and foretold the time of his own death. His memory is
celebrated also at the Synaxis of the Monks of the Far Caves on August
28.
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Beheading of the Venerable Cornelius the Abbot of the Pskov
Caves
The Hieromartyr Cornelius of the Pskov Caves was born in the year 1501
at Pskov into the noble family of Stephen and Maria. In order to give
their son an education, his parents sent him to the Pskov Mirozh
monastery, where he worked under the guidance of an Elder. He made
candles, chopped wood, studied his letters, transcribed and adorned
books, and also painted icons. Having finished his studies, Cornelius
returned to his parental home with the resolve to become a monk.
Once, the government clerk Misiur Munekhin took Cornelius with him to
the Pskov Caves monastery in the woods, which then was in the worst
condition of any church in Pskov. The beauty of nature, and the
solemnity of services in the cave church produced such a strong
impression on Cornelius that he left his parental home forever and
received monastic tonsure at the Pskov Caves monastery.
In 1529, at the age of twenty-eight, St Cornelius was made igumen and
became head of the monastery. While he was igumen, the Pskov Caves
monastery reached its prime. The number of brethren increased from 15
to 200 men. This number of monks was not surpassed under any
subsequent head of the monastery.
The activity of St Cornelius extended far beyond the bounds of the
monastery. He spread Orthodoxy among the Esti [Aesti]) and Saeti
people living around the monastery, he built churches, hospices, homes
for orphans and those in need. During a terrible plague in the Pskov
region St Cornelius walked through the plague-infested villages to
give Communion to the living and to sing burial services for the dead.
During the Livonian war St Cornelius preached Christianity in the
occupied cities, built churches, and distributed generous aid from the
monastery storerooms to the Esti and Livonians suffering from the war.
At the monastery he selflessly doctored and fed the injured and the
maimed, preserved the dead in the caves, and inscribed their names in
the monastery Synodikon for eternal remembrance.
In the year 1560, on the Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God,
St Cornelius sent a prosphora and holy water as blessing for the
Russian armies besieging the city of Thellin. On that very day the
Germans surrendered the city.
In 1570 when a See was established in Livonian Yuriev, a certain
igumen Cornelius was appointed as Bishop of Yuriev and Velyansk (i.e.,
Thellin). Some have identified him with St Cornelius, but this does
not correspond with actual events.
St Cornelius was a great lover of books, and at the monastery there
was quite a collection of books. In 1531 his work entitled, "An
Account of the Origin of the Pechersk Monastery" appeared. In the
mid-sixteenth century the Pskov Caves monastery took over the
tradition of writing chronicles from the Spaso-Eleaszar monastery.
At the start of the chronicles were accounts of the first two Pskov
chronicles from 1547 to 1567. Besides this, Igumen Cornelius left
behind a great monastery Synodikon for remembering the deceased
brothers and benefactors of the monastery, and from the year 1588 he
began to maintain the "Stern Book" ["Kormovaya kniga." Since the rear
of a ship is called the stern, the sense of the title is "looking back
in remembrance"]. He also compiled a "Description of the Monastery"
and a "Description of the Miracles of the Pechersk Icon of the Mother
of God."
St Cornelius expanded and beautified the monastery, he further
enlarged the monastery caves, he moved the wooden church of the Forty
Martyrs of Sebaste beyond the monastery enclosure to the monastery
gate, and on its site he built a church in the name of the
Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos in the year 1541. In 1559, he
constructed a church dedicated to the Protection of the Most Holy
Theotokos.
The Caves monastery, on the frontier of the Russian state, was not
only a beacon of Orthodoxy, but also a bulwark against the external
enemies of Russia.
In 1558-1565, St Cornelius built a massive stone wall around the
monastery, and over the holy gates, he built a stone church dedicated
to St Nicholas, entrusting the protection of the monastery to him. In
the church was a sculpted wooden icon of "Nicholas the Warrior."
In the chronicle compiled by the hierodeacon Pitirim, the martyric
death of St Cornelius was recorded: "This blessed Igumen Cornelius ...
was igumen forty-one years and two months. Not only as a monk, but
also by his fasting and holy life, he was an image of salvation ... in
these times there was much unrest in the Russian land. Finally, the
earthly Tsar (Ivan the Terrible) sent him from this corruptible life
to the Heavenly King in the eternal habitations, on February 20, 1570,
in his 69th year." (This information is on a ceramic plate, from the
ceramics covering the mouth of the tomb of St Cornelius).
In the ancient manuscripts of the Trinity-Sergiev Lavra it was written
that Igumen Cornelius came out from the monastery gates with a cross
to meet the Tsar. Ivan the Terrible, angered by a false slander,
beheaded him with his own hands, but then immediately repented of his
deed, and carried the body to the monastery. The pathway made scarlet
by the blood of St Cornelius, along which the Tsar carried his body to
the Dormition church, became known as the "Bloody Path." Evidence of
the Tsar's repentance was the generous recompense he made to the Pskov
Caves monastery after the death of St Cornelius. The name of the
igumen Cornelius was inscribed in the Tsar's Synodikon.
The body of St Cornelius was set into the wall of "the cave formed by
God," where it remained for 120 years without corruption. In the year
1690, Metropolitan Marcellus of Pskov and Izborsk, had the relics
transferred from the cave to the Dormition cathedral church and placed
in a new crypt in the wall.
On December 17, 1872 the relics of St Cornelius were transferred from
the former tomb into a copper-silver reliquary. They were placed into
a new reliquary in 1892. It is presumed that the service to the martyr
was composed for the Uncovering of the Relics in the year 1690.
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Hieromartyr Sadoc (Sadoth) the Bishop of Persia
The Hieromartyr Sadoc, Bishop of Persia, and 128 Martyrs with him
suffered in Persia under Sapor II. St Sadoc was successor of the
hieromartyr Simeon (April 17). He once had a dream, in which St Simeon
told him of his own impending martyric death. Standing in great glory
atop a ladder reaching up to Heaven, St Simeon said, "Ascend to me,
Sadoc, and be not afraid. Yesterday I ascended, and today you will
ascend."
Soon the emperor Sapor, renewing the persecution against Christians,
ordered that St Sadoc be arrested with his clergy and flock. In all,
128 people were arrested, including nine virgins. They were thrown
into prison, where they were cruelly tortured for five months. They
were told to renounce the Christian Faith and instead to worship the
sun and fire. The holy martyrs bravely answered, "We are Christians
and worship the One God." They were sentenced to beheading by the
sword.
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128 Martyrs in Persia
The Hieromartyr Sadoc, Bishop of Persia, and 128 Martyrs with him
suffered in Persia under Sapor II. St Sadoc was successor of the
hieromartyr Simeon (April 17). He once had a dream, in which St Simeon
told him of his own impending martyric death. Standing in great glory
atop a ladder reaching up to Heaven, St Simeon said, "Ascend to me,
Sadoc, and be not afraid. Yesterday I ascended, and today you will
ascend."
Soon the emperor Sapor, renewing the persecution against Christians,
ordered that St Sadoc be arrested with his clergy and flock. In all,
128 people were arrested, including nine virgins. They were thrown
into prison, where they were cruelly tortured for five months. They
were told to renounce the Christian Faith and instead to worship the
sun and fire. The holy martyrs bravely answered, "We are Christians
and worship the One God." They were sentenced to beheading by the
sword.
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St Agathon the Pope of Rome
Saint Agathon, Pope of Rome, was the son of pious Christian parents,
who provided him an excellent education. After their death, St Agathon
distributed his inheritance to the poor and became a monk. His
virtuous life could not remain concealed from people. In 679, he was
elected as the Bishop of Rome, and he remained in this position until
his death in 682.
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