[Readingsandsaints] Readings and Saints

[Daily Orthodox Readings and Saints]

Scripture Readings and Saints for Tue Nov 27 2007

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


-----------------------------
                                      
1 Timothy 5:11-21
11 But refuse the younger widows; for when they have begun to grow
wanton against Christ, they desire to marry,
12 having condemnation because they have cast off their first faith.
13 And besides they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to
house, and not only idle but also gossips and busybodies, saying
things which they ought not.
14 Therefore I desire that the younger widows marry, bear children,
manage the house, give no opportunity to the adversary to speak
reproachfully.
15 For some have already turned aside after Satan.
16 If any believing man or woman has widows, let them relieve them,
and do not let the church be burdened, that it may relieve those who
are really widows.
17 Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor,
especially those who labor in the word and doctrine.
18 For the Scripture says, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads
out the grain," and, "The laborer is worthy of his wages."
19 Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or
three witnesses.
20 Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all, that the rest
also may fear.
21 I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect
angels that you observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing
with partiality.
Scripture Reading 1 of 2


-----------------------------
                                      
Luke 19:45-48
45 Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who
bought and sold in it,
46 saying to them, "It is written, 'My house is a house of prayer,'
but you have made it a 'den of thieves.' "
47 And He was teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests, the
scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy Him,
48 and were unable to do anything; for all the people were very
attentive to hear Him.
Scripture Reading 2 of 2



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


Greatmartyr James the Persian
The Holy Great Martyr James the Persian (the Sawn-Asunder) was born in
the fourth century into a pious Christian family, both wealthy and
illustrious. His wife was also a Christian, and the couple raised
their children in piety, inspiring in them a love for prayer and the
Holy Scriptures. James occupied a high position at the court of the
Persian emperor Izdegerd (399-420) and his successor Barakhranes
(420-438). But on one of the military campaigns James, seduced by the
emperor's beneficence, was afraid to acknowledge himself a Christian,
and so he offered sacrifice to idols with the emperor.
Learning of this, James' mother and wife wrote him a letter, in which
they rebuked him and urged him to repent. Receiving the letter, James
realized the gravity of his sin. Faced with the horror of being cut
off not only from his family, but also from God Himself, he began to
weep loudly, imploring the Lord for forgiveness.
His fellow-soldiers, hearing him pray to the Lord Jesus Christ,
reported this to the emperor. Under interrogation, St James bravely
confessed his faith in the one True God. No amount of urging by the
emperor could make him renounce Christ. The emperor then ordered the
saint to be put to death.
They began to cut off his fingers and his toes one by one, then his
hands and his feet, and then his arms and legs. During the prolonged
torture St James offered prayers of thanksgiving to the Lord, Who had
granted him the possibility of redemption from his sins by enduring
these terrible torments. Finally, the martyr was beheaded. Christians
gathered up the pieces of his body and buried them with great
reverence.
_________________________________________________________________
Venerable Palladius of Thessalonica
No information available at this time.
_________________________________________________________________
St James the Bishop and Wonderworker of Rostov
Saint James, Bishop of Rostov According to a local tradition, he
received monastic tonsure at Kopyrsk monastery on the River Ukhtoma,
80 kilometers from Rostov. For a long time he was igumen of this
monastery, and in the year 1385 he was made Bishop of Rostov when
Pimen was Metropolitan and Demetrius of the Don was Great Prince.
In defending a woman condemned to execution, the saint followed the
example of the Savior, inviting whoever considered himself to be
without sin to cast the first stone at her (John 8:7), and he then
sent the woman forth to repentance. The Prince and the Rostov nobles,
disgruntled over the bishop's judgment, threw St James out of Rostov.
Leaving the city, the saint proceeded to Lake Nero, spread his
bishop's mantiya on the water, and having signed himself with the Sign
of the Cross, he sailed off on it as if on a boat, guided by the grace
of God. Traveling one and a half versts from the city, St James
emerged on shore at the site of his future monastery. The prince and
the people, repenting their actions, besought the saint's forgiveness.
The gentle bishop forgave them, but he did not return again.
On the shore of Lake Nero he made himself a cell and built a small
church in honor of the Conception of the Most Holy Theotokos by
Righteous Anna, marking the beginning of the Conception-St James
monastery. St James died there on November 27, 1392.
There is a story that St James fought against the Iconoclast heresy of
a certain fellow named Markian, who appeared in Rostov toward the end
of the fourteenth century. The more ancient Lives of our saint do not
mention this, and even the great hagiographer St Demetrius of Rostov
was unaware of it. More recent hagiographers were wont to draw
material from the Service to St James of Rostov. But the Service
itself, preserved in copies from the sixteenth-seventeenth centuries,
was compiled by borrowing from the Service to St Bucolus (February 6),
who struggled against the first century heretic Marcian, and from the
Service to St Stephen of Surozh (December 15), who contended against
the emperor Constantine Kopronymos (741-775).
St James is also commemorated on May 23.
_________________________________________________________________
Uncovering of the relics of St Vsevolod (Gabriel) of Pskov
No information available at this time.
_________________________________________________________________
17 Monkmartyrs in India
No information available at this time.
_________________________________________________________________
St Romanus
Saint Romanus the Wonderworker was born in the city of Rosa and lived
an ascetical life on the outskirts of Antioch, acquiring the gifts of
clairvoyance and healing. Through his intercession, the Lord granted
many childless women the joy of motherhood.
St Romanus was strict in his fasting, and he wore heavy chains beneath
his hairshirt. The saint spent many years as a hermit without lighting
a fire. Reaching old age, he departed to the Lord in peace.
St Romanus is one of many saints to whom we pray for deliverance from
childlessness and barreness. Some of the others are: St Stylianos
(November 26), St Hypatius of Rufinus (March 31), Sts Theodore and
John (July 12).
_________________________________________________________________
Repose of the Venerable Diodorus the Abbot of the Yuriev
Monastery, Solovki
No information available at this time.
_________________________________________________________________
Commemoration of the Weeping Icon of the Mother of God "of
the Sign" at Novgorod
The Icon of the Mother of God "Of the Sign", depicts the Most Holy
Theotokos with prayerfully uplifted hands, and the Divine Infant is at
Her bosom in a mandorla (or sphere). This depiction of the Mother of
God is regarded as one of the very first of Her iconographic images.
In the mausoleum of St Agnes at Rome is a depiction of the Mother of
God with hands raised in prayer with the Infant Christ sitting upon
Her knees. This depiction is ascribed to the fourth century. There is
also an ancient Byzantine icon of the Mother of God "Nikopea" from the
sixth century, where the Most Holy Theotokos is depicted seated upon a
throne and holding in Her hands an oval shield with the image of the
Savior Emmanuel.
Icons of the Mother of God, known as "The Sign", appeared in Russia
during the eleventh-twelfth centuries, and were so called because of a
miraculous sign from the Novgorod Icon in the year 1170.
In that year the allied forces of Russian appanage princes, headed by
a son of Prince Andrew Bogoliubsky of Suzdal, marched to the very
walls of Great Novgorod. For the people of Novgorod, their only
remaining hope was that God would help them. Day and night they
prayed, beseeching the Lord not to forsake them. On the third night
Bishop Elias of Novgorod heard a wondrous voice commanding that the
icon of the Most Holy Theotokos be taken out of the church of the
Savior's Transfiguration on Ilina street, and carried about on the
city walls.
When they carried the icon, the enemy fired a volley of arrows at the
procession, and one of them pierced the iconographic face of the
Mother of God. Tears trickled from Her eyes, and the icon turned its
face towards the city. After this divine Sign an inexpressible terror
suddenly fell upon the enemy. They began to strike one another, and
taking encouragement from the Lord, the people of Novgorod fearlessly
gave battle and won the victory.
In remembrance of the miraculous intercession of the Queen of Heaven,
Archbishop Elias established a feastday in honor of the Sign of the
Mother of God, which the Russian Church celebrates to the present day.
The Athonite hieromonk Pachomius the Logothete, who was present at the
festal celebration of the Icon in Russia, composed two Canons for this
Feast.
On certain Novgorod Icons of the Sign, the miraculous occurrences of
the year 1170 were also depicted. For 186 years afterwards, the
wonderworking icon remained in the Savior-Transfiguration church on
Ilina street. In 1356 it was transferred to a church built in Novgorod
in honor of the Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos "of the Sign," which
became the cathedral church of the monastery of the Sign.
Numerous copies of the Sign Icon are known throughout Russia. Many of
them were also glorified by miracles in their local churches, and were
then named for the place of the appearance of the miracle. Similar
copies of the Sign Icon are the icons of Dionysievo-Glushets, Abalaka
(July 20), Kursk, Seraphim-Ponetaev and others.
_________________________________________________________________
Icon of the Mother of God "Kursk-Root"
The Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God "Of the Sign" is one of the
most ancient icons of the Russian Church. In the thirteenth century
during the Tatar invasion, when all the Russian realm was put to the
extremest tribulation, the city of Kursk, ravaged by the Horde of
Batu, fell into desolation.
One day in the environs of the city a hunter noticed the ancient icon,
lying on a root face downwards to the ground. The hunter lifted it and
saw that the image of the icon was similar to the Novgorod "Znamenie"
Icon. With the appearance of this icon immediately there appeared its
first miracle. Just as the hunter lifted up the holy icon from the
earth, right then, at that place where the icon lay, gushed up
strongly a spring of pure water. This occurred on September 8, 1259.
The hunter decided not to leave the icon in the forest and settled on
as a resting place an ancient small chapel, in which he put the
newly-appeared image of the Theotokos. Soon inhabitants of the city of
Ryl'a heard about this, and being in location not far away, they began
to visit the place of the appearance for venerating the new holy
image.
They transferred the icon to Ryl'a and put it in a new church in honor
of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos. But the icon did not long
remain there. It disappeared and returned to its former place of
appearance. The inhabitants of Ryl'a repeatedly took it and carried it
to the city, but the icon incomprehensibly returned to its former
place. Everyone then realized, that the Theotokos preferred the place
of appearance of Her Icon. The special help granted by the Mother of
God through this icon is bound up with important events in Russian
history: with the war of liberation of the Russian nation during the
Polish-Lithuanian incursion in 1612, and the 1812 Fatherland war. From
the icon several copies were made, which also were glorified.
_________________________________________________________________
Icon of the Mother of God of Abalaka
The Abalaka Icon of the Mother of God "Of the Sign" was painted by
Matthew, a protodeacon of the Tobolsk cathedral, in honor of Sophia
(the Wisdom of God), in fulfillment of a vow by a paralytic peasant
Euthymius to rebuild the church at the Abalaka monastery of the Mother
of God "of the Sign." This church was built in 1637 after the Mother
of God, accompanied by St Nicholas and St Mary of Egypt, appeared to
the pious widow Maria. After the temple's Icon "of the Sign" was
painted, the paralytic Euthymius was completely healed. Many healings
took place during the solemn transfer of the icon to the Abalaka
church.
In general appearance, the Abalaka Icon resembles the Novgorod Icon of
the Sign, but with this distinction: on the Abalaka Icon, St Nicholas
and St Mary of Egypt stand before the Most Holy Theotokos. St Basil of
Mangazeya (March 23) is also depicted on this icon. Many wonderworking
copies of the Abalaka Icon are venerated throughout Siberia.
The Abalaka Icon "Of the Sign" is also commemorated on July 20.
_________________________________________________________________
St Theodosius of Trnovo
No information available at this time.
_________________________________________________________________
Icon of the Mother of God of Tsarskoe Selo
The Tsarskoe Selo Sign Icon of the Mother of God an ancient
wonderworking icon, was brought by way of a present to Tsar Alexis
Mikhailovich by one of the Eastern Patriarchs, supposedly by St
Athanasius of Constantinople (October 28). Tsar Peter I transferred
the icon, together with other sacred items from Moscow, to his new
capital city.
In the year 1747, a church was built for the icon at Tsarskoe Selo.
Moliebens were served before it during times of national catastrophe,
for example, during a plague in 1771, and of cholera in 1831. Through
the intercession of the Mother of God, the terrible epidemics almost
did not touch Tsarskoe Selo. Prayers before the Tsarsko Selo Icon of
the Most Holy Theotokos "of the Sign," were also offered entreating
the Mother of God's help during fires and shipwrecks.
On the icon, Cherubim shade the head of the Mother of God. More recent
copies of the icon depict the Apostle Peter, Sts Zachariah, Alexis the
Man of God, and Righteous Elizabeth.
_________________________________________________________________
Icon of the Mother of God "Seraphim-Ponetaevka"
The Seraphim-Ponetaevka Icon of the Mother of God "of the Sign" was
painted in the year 1879 by the nuns of the Seraphim-Ponetaevka
women's monastery, not far from Arzamas, near the village of
Ponetaevka. The monastery was named after St Seraphim of Sarov by the
founder of the monastery, a sister of the Diveyevo community.
Six years after it was painted, the icon became for its numerous
miracles and became the chief holy item of the monastery. When the
sisters were praying during the services, they noticed distinct
changes in the countenance of the Mother of God: Her All-Pure face
became bright and life-like. Numerous pilgrims thronged to the icon,
and many were healed from blindness and crippling. In all, about
seventy instances of healing were noted.
_________________________________________________________________