[Readingsandsaints] Readings and Saints

[Daily Orthodox Readings and Saints]

Scripture Readings and Saints for Sun Oct 21 2007

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John 21:1-14  (10th Matins Gospel)
1 After these things Jesus showed Himself again to the disciples at
the Sea of Tiberias, and in this way He showed Himself:
2 Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee,
the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples were together.
3 Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him,
"We are going with you also." They went out and immediately got into
the boat, and that night they caught nothing.
4 But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the
disciples did not know that it was Jesus.
5 Then Jesus said to them, "Children, have you any food?" They
answered Him, "No."
6 And He said to them, "Cast the net on the right side of the boat,
and you will find some." So they cast, and now they were not able to
draw it in because of the multitude of fish.
7 Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the
Lord!" Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his
outer garment (for he had removed it), and plunged into the sea.
8 But the other disciples came in the little boat (for they were not
far from land, but about two hundred cubits), dragging the net with
fish.
9 Then, as soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals
there, and fish laid on it, and bread.
10 Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish which you have just
caught."
11 Simon Peter went up and dragged the net to land, full of large
fish, one hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many,
the net was not broken.
12 Jesus said to them, "Come and eat breakfast." Yet none of the
disciples dared ask Him, "Who are You?"-knowing that it was the Lord.
13 Jesus then came and took the bread and gave it to them, and
likewise the fish.
14 This is now the third time Jesus showed Himself to His disciples
after He was raised from the dead.
Scripture Reading 1 of 2


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Galatians 2:16-20  (Epistle)
16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by
faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we
might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law;
for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.
17 But if, while we seek to be justi fied by Christ, we ourselves also
are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly
not!
18 For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself
a transgressor.
19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.
20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but
Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live
by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Scripture Reading 2 of 2



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Venerable Hilarion the Great
Saint Hilarion the Great was born in the year 291 in the Palestinian
village of Tabatha. He was sent to Alexandria to study. There he
became acquainted with Christianity and was baptized. After hearing an
account of the angelic life of St Anthony the Great (January 17),
Hilarion went to meet him, desiring to study with him and learn what
is pleasing to God. Hilarion soon returned to his native land to find
that his parents had died. After distributing his family's inheritance
to the poor, Hilarion set out into the desert surrounding the city of
Maium.
In the desert the monk struggled intensely with impure thoughts,
vexations of the mind and the burning passions of the flesh, but he
defeated them with heavy labor, fasting and fervent prayer. The devil
sought to frighten the saint with phantoms and apparitions. During
prayer St Hilarion heard children crying, women wailing, the roaring
of lions and other wild beasts. The monk perceived that it was the
demons causing these terrors in order to drive him away from the
wilderness. He overcame his fear with the help of fervent prayer.
Once, robbers fell upon St Hilarion, and he persuaded them to forsake
their life of crime through the power of his words.
Soon all of Palestine learned about the holy ascetic. The Lord granted
to St Hilarion the power to cast out unclean spirits. With this gift
of grace he loosed the bonds of many of the afflicted. The sick came
for healing, and the monk cured them free of charge, saying that the
grace of God is not for sale (MT 10:8).
Such was the grace that he received from God that he could tell by the
smell of someone's body or clothing which passion afflicted his soul.
They came to St Hilarion wanting to save their soul under his
guidance. With the blessing of St Hilarion, monasteries began to
spring up throughout Palestine. Going from one monastery to another,
he instituted a strict ascetic manner of life.
About seven years before his death (+ 371-372) St Hilarion moved back
to Cyprus, where the ascetic lived in a solitary place until the Lord
summoned him to Himself.
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Translation of the relics of St Hilarion the Bishop of Meglin
in Bulgaria
The Transfer of the Relics of Saint Hilarion, Bishop of Meglin, to the
Bulgarian city of Trnovo, occurred in the year 1206. Prior to this
event, the body of the saint rested in the city of Meglin.
St Hilarion received a fine Christian upbringing. At eighteen, he
entered a monastery. Because of his virtuous and strict life he was
chosen to be igumen of the monastery. He was very concerned about the
salvation of the monks' souls. He unceasingly exhorted those souls
entrusted to him not to waste precious time intended to prepare for
salvation. Particularly persistent, Hilarion eradicated drunkenness in
the monastery.
In 1134, when the Bogomil heresy was spreading through Bulgaria, he
was consecrated bishop of Meglin. The followers of the heresy believed
that "good and evil manifest themselves as independent principles, and
a struggle between the two ensues." St Hilarion tirelessly fought
against the Bogomils with apostolic zeal and fervent prayer. He
continually unmasked their heresy and exposed their hypocritical guise
of piety. In refuting the teaching of the heretics, St Hilarion said:
"You are not Christians at all, since you are hostile to the Cross
of Christ the Savior. You do not acknowledge the One God, you
slander the teachings of the Old Testament venerated by Christians.
You deceive people by hypocritical meekness while full of pride.
True piety is not possible in those who do not see their own
heart's corruption, but by those who ask God's grace with prayer
and humility. Evil thoughts, envy, vanity, greed, lies are not the
deed of some evil thing within man to be conquered by mere fasting.
These vices are the fruit of self- love which demands rooting out
by spiritual efforts."
Because of the saint's exhortations many of the heretics abandoned
their false teaching and returned to the holy Church. St Hilarion also
successfully struggled against the rise of the Armenian Monophysite
heretics in Bulgaria, who acknowledged only the divine nature of
Christ. The saint fell asleep in the Lord in 1164.
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Venerable Hilarion the Schemamonk of the Kiev Caves
Saint Hilarion, Schemamonk of Kiev Caves, a strict ascetic, was a
disciple and co-ascetic with St Theodosius (May 3). Imitating the
example of his teacher, St Hilarion prayed to God with tears day and
night, while observing a strict fast. His contemporaries knew him as a
chronicler, who toiled over the copying of books in the cell of St
Theodosius. During this time his teacher chanted Psalms and spun wool.
St Hilarion lived an ascetic life during the eleventh century. His
memory is also celebrated on August 28 and on the second Sunday of
Great Lent.
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Venerable Hilarion the Abbot of Gdov and Pskov Lake
St Hilarion of Gdov and Pskov Lake, was a disciple of St Euphrosynus
of Pskov (May 15). In 1460 on the banks of the River Zhelcha, not far
from Gdov, he founded the Ozersk [Lake] Monastery of the Protection of
the Mother of God. The monastery bordered the territory of the
Livonian Knights, and the monks constantly suffered the incursions of
that military order. Despite harsh conditions and insufficient means,
St Hilarion maintained a high level of pious and ascetic life at the
monastery, and made great efforts to adorn and build up the monastery.
St Hilarion reposed on March 28, 1476 and was buried in the church of
the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos in the monastery he founded.
Afterwards, a church was built at the monastery in honor of the
Nativity of Christ. The left chapel was dedicated to the founder of
the Gdov monastery. St Hilarion of Gdov is also commemorated on
October 21, on the Feast of his heavenly patron and namesake.
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Venerable Theophilus the Abbot of Omutch, Pskov
Saint Theophilus and James, Abbots of Omucha in Pskov, lived the
ascetic life on the island of Konev with St Arsenius (June 12). In the
year 1396, in the Pskov diocese at the River Omucha, not far from the
city of Porkhov, Sts Theophilus and James established a wilderness
monastery in honor of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos. They
fell asleep in the Lord about the year 1412.
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Venerable James the Abbot of Omutch, Pskov
Saint James and Theophilus, Abbots of Omucha in Pskov, lived the
ascetic life on the island of Konevets together with St Arsenius (June
12). In the year 1396, in the Pskov diocese at the River Omucha, not
far from the city of Porkhov, Sts Theophilus and James established a
wilderness monastery in honor of the Dormition of the Most Holy
Theotokos. They fell asleep in the Lord about the year 1412.
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Martyr Dasius at Nicomedia
The Martyrs Dasius, Gaius and Zoticus of Nicomedia suffered martyrdom
in the year 303, under the emperor Diocletian (284-305) because they
destroyed a pagan temple. After enduring many tortures, stones were
tied around their necks, and they were drowned in the sea.
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Martyr Gaius at Nicomedia
The Martyrs Gaius, Dasius, and Zoticus at Nicomedia suffered martyrdom
in the year 303, under the emperor Diocletian (284-305) because they
destroyed a pagan temple. After enduring many tortures, stones were
tied around their necks, and they were drowned in the sea.
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Martyr Zoticus at Nicomedia
The Martyrs Zoticus, Dasius, and Gaius of Nicomedia suffered martyrdom
in the year 303, under the emperor Diocletian (284-305) because they
destroyed a pagan temple. After enduring many tortures, stones were
tied around their necks, and they were drowned in the sea.
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Venerable Philotheus of Dionysiou of Mt Athos
Saint Philotheus of Dionysiou, Mt. Athos was a native of Elateia.
Fearing the Turks, his parents moved away to Chrysopolis in Macedonia,
where his father soon died. The child Philotheus and his brother were
snatched by the Turks and thrown into prison.
They were delivered in a miraculous manner by the Mother of God
Herself. She appeared to the children in the image of their mother and
led them to the monastery of the Most Holy Theotokos in the city of
Neapolis in Asia Minor. At this monastery the brothers accepted
monastic tonsure. By progressing through the obediences assigned by
the igumen they attained the position of ecclesiarchs.
Meanwhile, Eudokia, the mother of St Philotheus, had herself settled
into a women's monastery in this same city, through the mysterious
guidance of Divine Providence, and for many years knew absolutely
nothing of the fate of her children. Visiting a men's monastery with
several other nuns for a temple Feastday, Eudokia recognized her sons.
In answer to her question about how they chanced to be there they
replied, "You know, for you yourself freed us from the Turks and led
us from prison." Thus Eudokia became convinced of the intercession of
the Mother of God, for it had only been in prayers to the Theotokos
that she had found any consolation. The brethren, learning of the
joyful reunion of the mother and her sons, as well as their miraculous
deliverance, gathered around them and glorified the Lord.
Upon the repose of his mother, St Philotheus went to the Holy
Mountain. He joined the brethren of the Dionysiou monastery, and then
withdrew into complete solitude. Devoting himself to deeds of prayer,
St Philotheus attained high spiritual perfection and was granted the
gift of clairvoyance.
At the age of eighty-four the venerable one peacefully fell asleep in
the Lord. Before his death he bade his disciples not to bury his body,
but rather to cast it dishonorably into the forest to be eaten by
beasts and birds. His disciples fulfilled the wish of their Elder, but
the Lord glorified his relics of the saint with a wondrous radiance,
after which his relics were returned to the monastery.
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Venerable Bessarion Sarai the Confessor in Romania
Saint Bessarion (Sarai) was a Serb who was born in Bosnia in 1714.
Longing for the monastic life, he was tonsured at the Monastery of St
Sava in the Holy Land in 1738. He returned to Serbia and lived in a
cave for several years as a hesychast, and received from God the grace
of working miracles.
About this time there was a great deal of unrest in the regions of the
Banat and Transylvania because many Romanian Orthodox Christians had
been forced into union with Rome. At Karlovits, Patriarch Arsenius had
heard of St Bessarion's holy and ascetical life, and asked to see him.
After ordaining him to the holy priesthood, he sent him to defend the
Orthodox Faith northwest of the Carpathian Mountains.
St Bessarion left for the Banat in January of 1774, and was warmly
received by the local people. Hundreds of people came to hear him
preach, and many of them returned to the Orthodox Church. He
encouraged his listeners not to abandon the faith which their fathers
had passed down to them, but to remain firm and steadfast in it.
Preaching at Timishoara, Lipova-Arad, Deva, Orashtie, Salishtea of
Sibiu, and other places, he would set up a wooden cross in the middle
of each village, and people would gather to hear him. In each place,
he was able to bring most of the people back into the fold of the
Orthodox Church. This, of course, did not please the Roman Catholic
authorities.
On April 26, 1744, St Bessarion was arrested by the Austrian army
while on his way to Sibiu. They took him to Vienna, where he was
placed on trial, and then thrown into the Kufstein prison on the
orders of Empress Maria Teresa. There he endured much suffering
because of his confession of the Orthodox Faith. After about a year in
chains and tortures, he surrendered his soul to God.
St Bessarion the Confessor was glorified by the Holy Synod of the
Romanian Orthodox Church in 1950, and the date of his annual
commemoration was designated as October 21.
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St Sophronius the Confessor of Ciorara in Romania
Saint Sophronius was originally from Ciorara-Sebesh in Alba county in
Romania. From his childhood, he demonstrated a great love for Christ
and the Church, so it was not surprising that he eventually received
the monastic tonsure.
He returned to his village in 1756, and established a small hermitage
called Cioara Skete in the forest. Several disciples came to join him
there, drawn by reports of his holy life. Seeing the persecution of
the Orthodox by the Catholic authorities at that time, St Sophronius
traveled through many villages of Ardeal, encouraging people to remain
firm in the Orthodox Faith.
St Sophronius was so effective in his preaching that the Crai of
Ardeal ordered him thrown into prison, where he was beaten. After his
release from prison, he went to preach in the villages of the Apuseni
Mountains, and once again he was incarcerated and tortured for Christ.
After being freed on February 14, 1761, St Sophronius assembled a
great crowd of people in the city of Alba Iulia, and demanded equal
rights under the law for Romanians. He also demanded an Orthodox
bishop for Ardeal. That very year his demands were granted, and he
retired to the Curtea de Argesh Monastery. He departed to the Lord not
long afterward.
The Orthodox Church of Romania numbered St Sophronius among the saints
in 1955, appointing October 21 as the date of his annual
commemoration.
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Martyr Oprea of Salistie in Romania
Saint Oprea Nicholas of Salistie suffered martyrdom in Romania at the
hands of Roman Catholics in 1776.
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St Hilarion, Metropolitan of Kiev
Saint Hilarion, Metropolitan of Kiev, lived during the era of the
Great Prince Yaroslav the Wise (+ 1054), son of St Vladimir. In the
history of the Russian Church he is remembered as the first Russian
installed as Metropolitan by a Council of Russian bishops. The Russian
Church up to that time had been a Metropolitan See, under the
patriarchate of Constantinople. Russia's first metropolitans were
Greeks, and they were appointed by Constantinople.
St Hilarion, priest of the prince's village of Berestovo near Kiev,
was the spiritual Father and companion of Prince Yaroslav. St Nestor
the Chronicler relates:
"God-loving prince Yaroslav loved Berestovo, and built the church
of the Holy Apostles there, and he honored many priests. Among them
was the presbyter Hilarion, a man of virtue, knowledge, and given
to fasting. He made his way from Berestovo to the Dniepr, where the
old Kiev Caves monastery is now, and he made his prayer in the deep
forest there. Having dug out a shallow 14 foot cave, he chanted the
Hours and prayed in solitude to God...."
St Hilarion, as his works attest, was not simply a "man of books", but
was endowed with great spiritual gifts and profound theological
knowledge. He devoted all his efforts to the service of the Russian
Church. When Metropolitan Theopemptus died, Rus was in a state of war
against Byzantium. By decision of a Council of the Russian hierarchs,
a resolution was made to establish a Metropolitanate at Kiev, not
subject to Constantinople.
St Hilarion was famed among the Russian clergy for his heightened
spiritual life and gift for preaching. Prior to this, he gave a eulogy
in the "Tithe" church of Kiev to the holy Prince Vladimir with his
acclaimed "Discourse Concerning Law and Grace," in which he provided a
theological explanation of the place of the Russian Church in the
history of the divine economy of Salvation.
The choice of the Council hierarchs was dear to the heart of Yaroslav
the Wise. St Hilarion was installed as Metropolitan at the Holy Wisdom
(Hagia Sophia) cathedral in the year 1051 and was later confirmed by
the Patriarch of Constantinople. He was not the primate of the Russian
Church for long. The chronicle does not mention the year of his death,
but the saint was not at the death of Prince Yaroslav the Wise
(February 20, 1054), and in the year 1055 a new metropolitan had
arrived at Kiev. Evidently, St Hilarion had died in 1053.
His spiritual legacy lives on in the Russian Church especially in a
fine example of Russian church literature, the "Discourse Concerning
Law and Grace." Its content is profound and multi-faceted. At the
heart of the "Discourse" is the teaching concerning salvation and
grace. Secondly, great attention is devoted to the question of the
superiority of Christianity over Judaism. This theme was essential
during those times in Kievan Rus. The Jews had approached St Vladimir,
hoping to convert him to their faith, and St Theodosius of the Kiev
Caves (May 3) had gone to the "Jewish Quarter" in Kiev to preach
Christ Crucified. It is also known that the Jews had attempted to
convert the holy hierarch Nikita the Hermit to Judaism when he was
still a monk of the Kiev Caves monastery (1088). St Simon relates this
in the KIEV CAVES PATERIKON. This explains the attention which St
Hilarion devotes to the question "about the Law given to Moses, and
about grace and truth, through the coming of Jesus Christ."
And finally, the third theme, the occasion of the uttering of the
"Discourse" was the glorification of the apostolic work of holy Prince
Vladimir. The kingdom of nature, the kingdom of grace and the future
Kingdom of Glory are perceived in the spiritual experience of the
Church as inseparably connected. The Law is only the forerunner and
servant of grace and truth. Truth and grace are but servants of the
future age and true life. St Hilarion teaches thus about the
superiority of the Church: "Moses and the prophets foretold the Coming
of Christ, whereas Christ and His Apostles bore witness to the
Resurrection and the future age."
The saint explains that from the moment the Savior came into he world,
the Old Covenant of man with God ceased to be in effect. With the
theological symbols of the Old and New Covenants the saint employs
images borrowed from the holy Apostle Paul (Gal. 4:22-31) relating to
the two wives of Abraham: the freeborn Sarah and the maidservant
Hagar. "Hagar was cast out, a slave, together with her son Ishmael;
and Isaac, the free son, was heir to Abraham. Thus also were the Jews
cast out and dispersed through the lands, whereas the sons of grace,
the Christians, have become heirs to God the Father. As the light of
the moon fades at the shining of the sun, so also the Law fades at the
shining forth of grace. The cold of night vanishes when the warmth of
the sun heats the earth, and mankind is no longer bent over under the
burden of the Law, but instead walks freely in grace."
The joy of Christ fills the holy preacher when he speaks about the
entry of his native Rus into the host of Christian peoples. "The grace
of Christ has filled all the earth," and especially, the youthfully
alive peoples, to which the Russian people also belong. "It becomes
grace and truth to shine forth in new peoples. They do not, in the
words of the Lord, pour new wine (this being the teaching of grace)
into old wineskins (referring to the Jews) but the rather put the new
teaching, into new wineskins, into new peoples," Thus the faith
"throughout all the earth has spread and reached our Russian tongue.
Here now we too, glorify the Holy Trinity with all Christians, and the
Jews be silent Pagans are accepted, but the Jews are spurned."
Now the Orthodox Russians "are not termed idolaters, but rather
Christians. No longer do we build heathen temples, but rather the
churches of Christ. No longer do we sacrifice others to the demons
(Varangian Martyrs July 12), but instead, Christ has been slain for us
in sacrifice to God the Father. The Blessed God has had mercy on all
lands, and has not despised us, for He also desired to save us and
bring us to our senses in truth."
The great apostolic exploit of the enlightening of the Russian Land
was made by holy Prince Vladimir (15 July 15), "like St Constantine,"
who "commanded throughout all his land that they be baptized in the
Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In a clear and
loud voice, he ordered all in the cities to glorify the Holy Trinity
and to be Christians, the small and great, slave and free, young and
old, rich and poor." St Hilarion speaks with pride about his native
land, "St Vladimir did not exercise sovereignty in a bad or ignorant
land, but the rather in Russia, which is known and heard of by all the
ends of the earth."
The "Discourse Concerning Law and Grace" was the first work of its
time in the Russian Church in which the holy Baptizer of Rus is
acclaimed blessed among the ranks of the equals-to-the-Apostles.
"Rejoice in the midst of sovereigns, O apostle, not in having dead
bodies resurrected, but our deadened souls resurrecting: for by you
have we been made alive in God and given to know life in Christ." Such
is the content of this remarkable memorial of ancient Russian
theology. Among the other works of St Hilarion is his episcopal
"Confession," having become the model for a bishop's vow in the
Russian Church. Usually appended to the manuscripts of the "Discourse
Concerning Law and Grace" is the "Prayer of St Hilarion." This work of
the saint also possesses a long history within the tradition of his
native church. In the year 1555, upon his journey to the newly-formed
Kazan diocese, St Gurias ordered that there be read to him the prayer,
"The Work of Metropolitan Hilarion the Russian", at Moscow and in the
other cities, through which he was to travel.
St Hilarion was buried in the Kiev caves. In the inscribed titles to
his works, in the manuscripts of saintly literature and lists of holy
hierarchs, St Hilarion is invariably termed a saint and described as a
wonderworker. His assured literary veneration as a saint is evidenced
in the services to the Fathers of the Kiev Caves. Both in the service
of the Synaxis of Fathers of the Near Caves (September 28), and also
in the service to all the Kiev Caves Saints (second Sunday of Great
Lent), St Hilarion is numbered among the saintly hierarchs of the
Russian Orthodox Church.
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St Moses (Macinic), Martyr and Confessor
Saint Moses Macinic was ordained to the holy priesthood in Bucharest
around 1746, and worked to oppose the Unia. Because of his activities
he was arrested and jailed in Sibiu for seventeen months. Ultimately,
he was released with the understanding that he would cease to function
as a priest, and live as an ordinary peasant.
In 1752 he was chosen to go to Vienna with St Oprea Nicholas of
Salistie to deliver a petition to Empress Maria Theresa. The petition
asked her to recognize the rights of the Orthodox Church in
Transylvania. She received them, but she had them thrown into the
Kufstein Prison in the Tyrolean Mountains.
Although representatives from Transylvania repeatedly asked the
Hapsburg rulers to free the two saints, they denied all knowledge of
them.
St Moses Macinic was glorified as a martyr by the Orthodox Church of
Romania in 1992.
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St John of Galesh
Saint John of Galesh was a priest who was consecrated bishop at
Bucharest, since there was no bishop for Transylvania. He resisted the
plans of the Hapsburg authorities to persuade Orthodox Christians to
convert to Catholicism. He was arrested and thrown into prison at
Sibiu in 1756, then Empress Maria Theresa ordered him confined in the
prison of Deva Castle until he died.
St John was transferred to a prison in Graz, Austria at the end of
1757. Later, he was brought to the notorious Kufstein Prison, where
many Orthodox from Transylvania ended their lives.
In 1780, Gennady Vassie, a Serb who was incarcerated there, was able
to send a letter to Empress Catherine II of Russia asking her to
intervene on behalf of the Orthodox prisoners. In his letter he
mentioned a Romanian priest named John, who had been kept there for
twenty-four years because of his Orthodox faith.
St John of Galesh died in prison, and was glorified as a martyr by the
Orthodox Church of Romania in 1992.
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