[Readingsandsaints] Readings and saints

[Daily Orthodox Readings and Saints]

Scripture Readings and Saints for Sat Mar 31 2007

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------ READINGS FOR TODAY ----------------------------
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John 10:1-9  (Matins Gospel)
1 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by
the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a
robber.
2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
3 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he
calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
4 And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the
sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
5 Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him,
for they do not know the voice of strangers.
6 Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things
which He spoke to them.
7 Then Jesus said to them again, "Most assuredly, I say to you, I am
the door of the sheep.
8 All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep
did not hear them.
9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go
in and out and find pasture.
Scripture Reading 1 of 5


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Hebrews 12:28-13:8
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken,
let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence
and godly fear.
29 For our God is a consuming fire.
1 Let brotherly love continue.
2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have
unwittingly entertained angels.
3 Remember the prisoners as if chained with them-those who are
mistreated-since you yourselves are in the body also.
4 Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but
fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such
things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you
nor forsake you."
6 So we may boldly say: "The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What
can man do to me?"
7 Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to
you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct.
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Scripture Reading 2 of 5


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Hebrews 7:26-8:2   (Saint)
26 For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the
heavens;
27 who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up
sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people's, for this
He did once for all when He offered up Himself.
28 For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the
word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has
been perfected forever.
1 Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such
a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the
Majesty in the heavens,
2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the
Lord erected, and not man.
Scripture Reading 3 of 5


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John 11:1-45
1 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and
her sister Martha.
2 It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped
His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.
3 Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, "Lord, behold, he whom
You love is sick."
4 When Jesus heard that, He said, "This sickness is not unto death,
but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through
it."
5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
6 So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the
place where He was.
7 Then after this He said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea
again."
8 The disciples said to Him, "Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone
You, and are You going there again?"
9 Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone
walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of
this world.
10 But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is
not in him.
11 These things He said, and after that He said to them, "Our friend
Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up."
12 Then His disciples said, "Lord, if he sleeps he will get well."
13 However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was
speaking about taking rest in sleep.
14 Then Jesus said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead.
15 And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may
believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.
16 Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples,
"Let us also go, that we may die with Him."
17 So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb
four days.
18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away.
19 And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary,
to comfort them concerning their brother.
20 Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and
met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house.
21 Now Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother
would not have died.
22 But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give
You.
23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
24 Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the
resurrection at the last day."
25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who
believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.
26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you
believe this?
27 She said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the
Son of God, who is to come into the world."
28 And when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly
called Mary her sister, saying, "The Teacher has come and is calling
for you."
29 As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him.
30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place
where Martha met Him.
31 Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her,
when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her,
saying, "She is going to the tomb to weep there."
32 Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at
His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would
not have died."
33 Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with
her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.
34 And He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord,
come and see."
35 Jesus wept.
36 Then the Jews said, "See how He loved him!"
37 And some of them said, "Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of
the blind, also have kept this man from dying?"
38 Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a
cave, and a stone lay against it.
39 Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of him who
was dead, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he
has been dead four days."
40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe
you would see the glory of God?"
41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was
lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank You
that You have heard Me.
42 And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who
are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.
43 Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice,
"Lazarus, come forth!"
44 And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes,
and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Loose him,
and let him go."
45 Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things
Jesus did, believed in Him.
Scripture Reading 4 of 5


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John 10:9-16  (Saint)
9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go
in and out and find pasture.
10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to
destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have
it more abundantly.
11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the
sheep.
12 But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own
the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and
the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.
13 The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about
the sheep.
14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My
own.
15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down
My life for the sheep.
16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must
bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and
one shepherd.
Scripture Reading 5 of 5



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------ SAINTS/FEASTS FOR TODAY ----------------------------
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The Raising of Lazarus (Lazarus Saturday)
Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday
Visible triumphs are few in the earthly life of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He preached a kingdom "not of this world." At His nativity in the
flesh there was "no room at the inn." For nearly thirty years, while
He grew "in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man"
(Luke 2:52), He lived in obscurity as "the son of Mary." When He
appeared from Nazareth to begin His public ministry, one of the first
to hear of Him asked: "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" (John
I :46). In the end He was crucified between two thieves and laid to
rest in the tomb of another man.
Two brief days stand out as sharp exceptions to the above - days of
clearly observable triumph. These days are known in the Church today
as Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday. Together they form a unified
liturgical cycle which serves as the passage from the forty days of
Great Lent to Holy Week. They are the unique and paradoxical days
before the Lord's Passion. They are days of visible, earthly triumph,
of resurrectional and messianic joy in which Christ Himself is a
deliberate and active participant. At the same time they are days
which point beyond themselves to an ultimate victory and final
kingship which Christ will attain not by raising one dead man or
entering a particular city, but by His own imminent suffering, death
and resurrection.
By raising Lazarus from the dead before Thy Passion, Thou didst
confirm the universal resurrection, 0 Christ God! Like the children
with the palms of victory, we cry out to Thee, 0 Vanquisher of Death:
Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is He that comes in the name of the
Lord! (Troparion of the Feast, sung on both Lazarus Saturday and Palm
Sunday)
Lazarus Saturday
In a carefully detailed narrative the Gospel relates how Christ, six
days before His own death, and with particular mindfulness of the
people "standing by, that they may believe that thou didst send me"
(John I I :42), went to His dead friend Lazarus at Bethany outside of
Jerusalem. He was aware of the approaching death of Lazarus but
deliberately delayed His coming, saying to His disciples at the news
of His friend's death: "For your sake I am glad that I was not there,
so that you may believe" (John 11:14).
When Jesus arrived at Bethany, Lazarus was already dead four days.
This fact is repeatedly emphasized by the Gospel narrative and the
liturgical hymns of the feast. The four-day burial underscores the
horrible reality of death. Man, created by God in His own image and
likeness, is a spiritual-material being, a unity of soul and body.
Death is destruction; it is the separation of soul and body. The soul
without the body is a ghost, as one Orthodox theologian puts it, and
the body without the soul is a decaying corpse. "I weep and 1 wail,
when I think upon death, and behold our beauty, fashioned after the
image of God, lying in the tomb dishonored, disfigured, bereft of
form." This is a hymn of St John of Damascus sung at the Church's
burial services. This "mystery" of death is the inevitable fate of man
fallen from God and blinded by his own prideful pursuits.
With epic simplicity the Gospel records that, on coming to the scene
of the horrible end of His friend, "Jesus wept" (John 11:35). At this
moment Lazarus, the friend of Christ, stands for all men, and Bethany
is the mystical center of the world. Jesus wept as He saw the "very
good" creation and its king, man, "made through Him" (John 1:3) to be
filled with joy, life and light, now a burial ground in which man is
sealed up in a tomb outside the city, removed from the fullness of
life for which he was created, and decomposing in darkness, despair
and death. Again as the Gospel says, the people were hesitant to open
the tomb, for "by this time there will be an odor, for he has been
dead four days" (John 11:39).
When the stone was removed from the tomb, Jesus prayed to His Father
and then cried with a loud voice: "Lazarus, come out." The icon of the
feast shows the particular moment when Lazarus appears at the entrance
to the tomb. He is still wrapped in his grave clothes and his friends,
who are holding their noses because of the stench of his decaying
body, must unwrap him. In everything stress is laid on the audible,
the visible and the tangible. Christ presents the world with this
observable fact: on the eve of His own suffering and death He raises a
man dead four days! The people were astonished. Many immediately
believed on Jesus and a great crowd began to assemble around Him as
the news of the raising of Lazarus spread. The regal entry into
Jerusalem followed.
Lazarus Saturday is a unique day: on a Saturday a Matins and Divine
Liturgy bearing the basic marks of festal, resurrectional services,
normally proper to Sundays, are celebrated. Even the baptismal hymn is
sung at the Liturgy instead of Holy God: "As many as have been
baptized into Christ, have put on Christ."
Very Rev. Paul Lazor
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Repose of St Innocent the Metropolitan of Moscow the
Enlightener of the Aleuts and Apostle to the Americas
St Innocent (Veniaminov), Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomensk (August
26, 1797 - March 31, 1879), was glorified by the Russian Orthodox
Church on October 6, 1977. He was born in the village of Anginsk in
the Irkutsk diocese. The Apostle of America and Siberia proclaimed the
Gospel "even to the ends of the earth": in the Aleutian islands (from
1823), in the six dialects of the local tribes on the island of Sitka
(from 1834), among the Kolosh (Tlingit); in the remotest settlements
of the extensive Kamchatka diocese (from 1853); among the Koryak,
Chukchei, Tungus in the Yakutsk region (from 1853) and North America
(in 1857); in the Amur and the Usuriisk region (from 1860).
Having spent a large part of his life in journeys, St Innocent
translated a Catechism and the Gospel into the Aleut language. In
1833, he wrote in this language one of the finest works of Orthodox
missionary activity INDICATION OF THE WAY TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
In 1859, the Yakut first heard the Word of God and divine services in
their native language. Twice (in 1860 and 1861) St Innocent met with
St Nicholas the Apostle to Japan (February 3), sharing with him his
spiritual experience.
A remarkable preacher, St Innocent said, "Whoever abounds in faith and
love, can have mouth and wisdom, and the heart cannot resist their
serving it."
Having begun his apostolic work as a parish priest, St Innocent
completed it as Metropolitan of Moscow (January 5, 1868 - March 31,
1879). He obeyed the will of God all his life, and he left behind a
theme for the sermon to be preached at his funeral: "The steps of a
man are rightly ordered by the Lord" (Ps 36/37:23).
St Innocent is also commemorated on October 5 (Synaxis of the Moscow
Hierarchs) and on October 6 (his glorification).
For further information on St Innocent, Apostle to America, see the:
Celebration of the Year of St Innocent (1997) in the special features
section.
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Repose of St Jonah the Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia
Saint Jonah, Metropolitan of Moscow and Wonderworker of All Russia,
was born in the city of Galich into a pious Christian family. The
father of the future saint was named Theodore. The youth received
monastic tonsure in one of the Galich monasteries when he was only
twelve years old. From there, he transferred to the Moscow Simonov
monastery, where he fulfilled various obediences for many years.
Once, St Photius, Metropolitan of Moscow (May 27 and July 2), visited
the Simonov monastery. After the Molieben, he blessed the
archimandrite and brethren, and also wished to bless those monks who
were fulfilling their obediences in the monastery.
When he came to the bakery, he saw St Jonah sleeping, exhausted from
his work. The fingers of the saint's right hand were positioned in a
gesture of blessing. St Photius said not to wake him. He blessed the
sleeping monk and predicted to those present that this monk would be a
great hierarch of the Russian Church, and would guide many on the way
to salvation.
The prediction of St Photius was fulfilled. Several years later, St
Jonah was made Bishop of Ryazan and Murom.
St Photius died in 1431. Five years after his death, St Jonah was
chosen Metropolitan of All Russia for his virtuous and holy life. The
newly-elected Metropolitan journeyed to Constantinople in order to be
confirmed as Metropolitan by Patriarch Joseph II (1416-1439). Shortly
before this the nefarious Isidore, a Bulgarian, had already been
established as Metropolitan. Spending a short time at Kiev and Moscow,
Isidore journeyed to the Council of Florence (1438), where he embraced
Catholicism.
A Council of Russian hierarchs and clergy deposed Metropolitan
Isidore, and he was compelled to flee secretly to Rome (where he died
in 1462). St Jonah was unanimously chosen Metropolitan of All Russia.
He was consecrated by Russian hierarchs in Moscow, with the blessing
of Patriarch Gregory III (1445-1450) of Constantinople. This was the
first time that Russian bishops consecrated their own Metropolitan. St
Jonah became Metropolitan on December 15, 1448. With archpastoral zeal
he led his flock to virtue and piety, spreading the Orthodox Faith by
word and by deed. Despite his lofty position, he continued with his
monastic struggles as before.
In 1451 the Tatars unexpectedly advanced on Moscow; they burned the
surrounding area and prepared for an assault on the city. Metropolitan
Jonah led a procession along the walls of the city, tearfully
entreating God to save the city and the people. Seeing the dying monk
Anthony of the Chudov monastery, who was noted for his virtuous life,
St Jonah said, "My son and brother Anthony! Pray to the Merciful God
and the All-Pure Mother of God for the deliverance of the city and for
all Orthodox Christians."
The humble Anthony replied, "Great hierarch! We give thanks to God and
to His All-Pure Mother. She has heard your prayer and has prayed to
Her Son. The city and all Orthodox Christians will be saved through
your prayers. The enemy will soon take flight. The Lord has ordained
that I alone am to be killed by the enemy." Just as the Elder said
this, an enemy arrow struck him.
The prediction of Elder Anthony was made on July 2, on the Feast of
the Placing of the Robe of the Most Holy Theotokos. Confusion broke
out among the Tatars, and they fled in fear and terror. In his
courtyard, St Jonah built a church in honor of the Placing of the Robe
of the Most Holy Theotokos, to commemorate the deliverance of Moscow
from the enemy.
St Jonah reposed in the year 1461, and miraculous healings began to
take place at his grave.
In 1472 the incorrupt relics of Metropolitan Jonah were uncovered and
placed in the Dormition Cathedral of the Kremlin (the Transfer of the
holy Relics is celebrated May 27). A Council of the Russian Church in
1547 established the commemoration of St Jonah, Metropolitan of
Moscow. In 1596, Patriarch Job added St Jonah to the Synaxis of the
Moscow Hierarchs (October 5).
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St Hypatius the Wonderworker and Bishop of Gangra
Hieromartyr Hypatius, Bishop of Gangra, was bishop of the city of
Gangra in Paphlagonia (Asia Minor). In the year 325 he participated in
the First Ecumenical Council at Nicea, at which the heresy of Arius
was anathematized.
When St Hypatius was returning in 326 from Constantinople to Gangra,
followers of the schismatics Novatus and Felicissimus fell upon him in
a desolate place. The heretics ran him through with swords and spears,
and threw him into a swamp. Like the Protomartyr Stephen, St Hypatius
prayed for his murderers.
An Arian woman struck the saint on the head with a stone, killing him.
The murderers hid his body in a cave, where a Christian who kept straw
there found his body. Recognizing the bishop's body, he hastened to
the city to report this, and the inhabitants of Gangra piously buried
their beloved archpastor.
After his death, the relics of St Hypatius were famous for numerous
miracles, particularly for casting out demons and for healing the
sick.
>From of old the hieromartyr Hypatius was particularly venerated in the
Russian land. Thus in the year 1330 the Ipatiev monastery was built at
Kostroma, on the place where the Mother of God appeared with the
Pre-eternal Christ Child, the Apostle Philip, and the hieromartyr
Hypatius, Bishop of Gangra. This monastery later occupied a
significant place in the spiritual and social life of the nation,
particularly during the Time of Troubles.
The ancient copies of the Life of the hieromartyr Hypatius were widely
distributed in Russian literature, and one of these was incorporated
into THE READING MENAION of Metropolitan Macarius (1542-1564). In this
Life there is an account of the appearance of the Savior to St
Hypatius on the eve of the martyr's death.
The entry for the saint's Feast consists of his Life, some prayers,
and words of praise and instruction. The pious veneration of St
Hypatius was also expressed in Russian liturgical compositions. During
the nineteenth century a new service was written for the hieromartyr
Hypatius, distinct from the services written by St Joseph the Studite,
contained in the March MENAION.
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Venerable Hypatius the Healer of the Kiev Caves
Saint Hypatius the Healer of the Caves, attained glory through his
severe fasting and prayerful vigilance. By night he stood at prayer,
slept very little, and ate only bread and water.
St Hypatius devoted himself entirely to the service of the sick, and
received from God the gift of healing. Those sick with various
illnesses often hastened to his prayerful intercession.
The memory of St Hypatius is celebrated also on August 28, on the
Synaxis of the Saints of the Far Caves.
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Venerable Apollonius, Ascetic, of Egypt
Saint Apollonius, when he was a fifteen-year-old youth, withdrew into
the inner Thebaid desert (Lower Egypt), where he spent forty years in
monastic struggles. Directed by God, he founded a monastery near
Hermopolis, where eventually about five hundred monks gathered. St
Apollonius was strict in fasting, only on Sundays did he eat cooked
food, and on other days he ate wild plants.
All the monks followed the example of St Apollonius, engaging in
spiritual struggles at the monastery. The holy ascetic died in the
fourth century.
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Hieromartyr Audas the Bishop of Persia
The Hieromartyrs Audas (Abdas), the Bishop and the Deacon Benjamin.
St Audas was Bishop of Bethchasar in Persia. He destroyed a temple of
the fire-worshippers, and was brought to trial before the Persian
emperor Izdegerd I (401-402), who ordered the saint to rebuild the
temple. When Bishop Audas refused, the emperor ordered soldiers to
destroy all the Christian churches, persecute the Christians, and to
torture them.
St Audas was the first to be martyred. He was beheaded after lengthy
tortures. After thirty days, the other martyrs were also executed.
Among them was the deacon Benjamin, who suffered particularly cruel
torments. They stuck sharp needles under his nails and impaled him on
a spear.
The hieromartyrs died in the old Persian city of Suza.
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Martyr Benjamin the Deacon
The Hieromartyrs Audas (Abdas) the Bishop of Persia and the Deacon
Benjamin.
St Audas was a bishop in Persia. He destroyed a temple of the
fire-worshippers, and was brought to trial before the Persian emperor
Izdegerd I (401-402), who ordered the saint to rebuild the temple.
When Bishop Audas refused, the emperor ordered soldiers to destroy all
the Christian churches, persecute the Christians, and to torture them.
St Audas was the first to be martyred. He was beheaded after lengthy
tortures. After thirty days, the other martyrs were also executed.
Among them was the deacon Benjamin, who suffered particularly cruel
torments. They stuck sharp needles under his nails and impaled him on
a spear.
The hieromartyrs died in the old Persian city of Suza.
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Venerable Hypatius the Abbot of Rufinus in Chalcedon
Saint Hypatius, Igumen of Rufinus in Chalcedon was born in Phrygia
(Asia Minor) into the family of a lawyer and he received a fine
education. Once, when he was eighteen years old, his father punished
him, after which the youth left home and went to Thrace (Balkans).
There he herded cattle for a time, and then he lived with a priest who
taught him how to chant the Psalms. Soon the chosen one of God was
tonsured in one of the monasteries. Struggling against the temptations
of the flesh, the holy ascetic spent fifty days in a strict fast. One
night, with the blessing of the igumen, he drank some wine and ate
some bread in the presence of the brethren, and was healed of his
passions.
In search of a new place for ascetic struggles, St Hypatius settled
with two other monks in the neglected Rufinus monastery near Chalcedon
(Asia Minor). The monastery was rebuilt and soon many monks gathered
about the holy ascetic, and the monastery began to flourish
spiritually once more.
At the age of forty, St Hypatius was chosen igumen and he guided the
monastery for forty years. Many monks, imitating their guide, attained
spiritual perfection. For his strict ascetic life and love for others,
St Hypatius was granted the gifts of wonderworking and healing by the
Lord. Through his holy prayers bread was multiplied at the monastery,
those afflicted with demons, and the blind, the withered and the
hemorrhaging, came to the monastery and were healed.
St Hypatius reposed in 446, at eighty years of age. On the eve of his
death, he predicted misfortunes to come: a devastating hailstorm, an
earthquake, and Attila the Hun's invasion of Thrace.
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Appearance of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God
The Iveron Icon of the Mother of God (which is preserved on Mt. Athos)
was kept in the home of a certain pious widow, who lived near Nicea.
During the time of the emperor Theophilus, the Iconoclasts came to the
house of this Christian, and one of the soldiers struck the image of
the Mother of God with a spear. Blood flowed from the place where it
was struck.
The widow, fearing its destruction, promised the imperial soldiers
money and implored them not to touch the icon until morning. When the
soldiers departed, the woman and her son (later an Athonite monk),
sent the holy icon away upon the sea to preserve it. The icon,
standing upright upon the water, floated to Athos.
For several days, the Athonite monks had seen a fiery pillar on the
sea rising up to the heavens. They came down to the shore and found
the holy image, standing upon the waters. After a Molieben of
thanksgiving, a pious monk of the Iveron monastery, St Gabriel (July
12), had a dream in which the Mother of God appeared to him and gave
him instructions. So he walked across the water, and taking up the
holy icon, he placed it in the church.
On the following day, however, the icon was found not within the
church, but on the gates of the monastery. This was repeated several
times, until the Most Holy Theotokos revealed to St Gabriel Her will,
saying that She did not want the icon to be guarded by the monks, but
rather She intended to be their Protectress. After this, the icon was
installed on the monastery gates. Therefore this icon came to be
called "Portaitissa" or "Gate-Keeper" (October 13). This comes from
the Akathist "Rejoice, O Blessed Gate-Keeper who opens the gates of
Paradise to the righteous."
There is a tradition that the Mother of God promised St Gabriel that
the grace and mercy of Her Son toward the monks would continue as long
as the Icon remained at the monastery. It is also believed that the
disappearance of the Iveron Icon from Mt. Athos would be a sign of the
end of the world.
The Iveron Icon is also commemorated on February 12, October 13 (Its
arrival in Moscow in 1648), and Bright Tuesday (Commemorating the
appearance of the Icon in a pillar of fire at Mt. Athos and its
recovery by St Gabriel).
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Acacius the Confessor
Saint Acacius the Confessor lived during the Decian persecution, and
was Bishop of Melitene, Armenia.
Arrested as a Christian, St Acacius was brought before the governor
Marcianus, who ordered that he be tortured. He was not put to death,
but was set free after a while, bearing the wounds of Christ on his
body. He died in peace.
St Acacius the Confessor is also commemorated on September 15. He
should not be confused with another St Acacius of Melitene (April 17)
who lived in the fifth century.
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Righteous Joseph the Patriarch
No information available at this time.
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