[Readingsandsaints] Readings and Saints

Wed Sep 12 05:00:16 CDT 2007

Scripture Readings and Saints for Wed Sep 12 2007

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Galatians 2:6-10
6 But from those who seemed to be something-whatever they were, it
makes no difference to me; God shows personal favoritism to no man-for
those who seemed to be something added nothing to me.
7 But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the
uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the
circumcised was to Peter
8 (for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the
circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles),
9 and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars,
perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and
Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the
Gentiles and they to the circumcised.
10 They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing
which I also was eager to do.
Scripture Reading 1 of 4

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Ephesians 1:1-9  (Thursday)
1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, To the saints
who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus:
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has
blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in
Christ,
4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that
we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,
5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to
Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us
accepted in the Beloved.
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of His grace
8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His
good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,
Scripture Reading 2 of 4

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Mark 7:14-24
14 When He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them,
"Hear Me, everyone, and understand:
15 There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile
him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that
defile a man.
16 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!
17 When He had entered a house away from the crowd, His disciples
asked Him concerning the parable.
18 So He said to them, "Are you thus without understanding also? Do
you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile
him,
19 because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is
eliminated, thus purifying all foods?
20 And He said, "What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.
21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts,
adulteries, fornications, murders,
22 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye,
blasphemy, pride, foolishness.
23 All these evil things come from within and defile a man.
24 From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And
He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be
hidden.
Scripture Reading 3 of 4

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Mark 7:24-30  (Thursday)
24 From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And
He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be
hidden.
25 For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about
Him, and she came and fell at His feet.
26 The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept
asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
27 But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be filled first, for it is
not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little
dogs."
28 And she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little
dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs."
29 Then He said to her, "For this saying go your way; the demon has
gone out of your daughter."
30 And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out,
and her daughter lying on the bed.
Scripture Reading 4 of 4

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Leavetaking of the Nativity of the Mother of God
No information available at this time.
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Hieromartyr Autonomus the Bishop in Italy
The Hieromartyr Autonomus was a bishop in Italy. During the time of
the persecution against Christians under the emperor Diocletian
(284-305), St Autonomus left his own country and resettled in
Bithynia, in the locality of Soreus with a man named Cornelius. St
Autonomus did his apostolic duty with zeal and converted to Christ so
many pagans, that a large Church was formed, for which he consecrated
a temple in the name of the Archangel Michael. For this church, the
saint at first ordained Cornelius as deacon, and then presbyter.
Preaching about Christ, St Autonomus visited also Lykaonia and
Isauria.
The emperor Diocletian gave orders to arrest St Autonomus, but the
saint withdrew to Claudiopolis on the Black Sea. In returning to
Soreus, he had the priest Cornelius ordained bishop. St Autonomus then
went to Asia, and when he had returned from there, he began to preach
in the vicinity of Limna, near Soreus.
Once, the newly-converted destroyed a pagan temple. The pagans decided
to take revenge on the Christians. Seizing their chance, the pagans
rushed upon the church of the Archangel Michael when St Autonomus was
serving Divine Liturgy there. After torturing St Autonomus they killed
him, reddening the altar of the church with his martyr's blood. The
deaconess Maria removed the body of the holy martyr from beneath a
pile of stones and buried it.
During the reign of St Constantine the Great, a church was built over
the tomb of the saint. In the year 430, a certain priest had the old
church pulled down. Not realizing that the martyr's body had been
buried beneath the church, he rebuilt the church in a new spot. But
after another 60 years the relics of the saint were found incorrupt,
and a church was then built in the name of the Hieromartyr Autonomus.
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Venerable Bassian of Tikhsnen, Vologda
St Bassian of Tiksnensk [Totemsk] (in the world Basil) was a peasant
from the village of Strelitsa (by other accounts, from the village of
Burtsevo), near the city of Totma, and he was by trade a tailor.
Leaving his family, he became a monk under St Theodosius of Totemsk in
the Sumorinsk monastery at the River Sukhona, where he spent several
years in works and obediences.
In 1594, the monk resettled not far from Totma, at the River Tiksna,
near a church named for St Nicholas the Wonderworker. At first he
lived at the church portico, but then he made himself a cell near the
church. The monk visited at each divine service. For thirty years he
wore chains on his body: on his shoulders a heavy chain, on his loins
an iron belt, and on his head beneath his head covering an iron cap.
Yearning for solitude, the monk admitted no one to his cell, except
his spiritual Father. He lived by the alms which they put by his small
window. St Bassian died on September 12, 1624. Only at burial was it
discovered how much he had humbled his flesh.
At the place of St Bassian's ascetic struggles a monastery was
established in honor of the Icon of the Savior Not-Made-by-Hands.
Veneration of St Bassian began in the year 1647, when during a deadly
plague, many received healing at his tomb. The Life of the monk was
written in the year 1745 by the igumen Joseph.
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Translation of the relics of Righteous Simeon of Verkhoturye
Saint Simeon of Verkhoturye was a nobleman, but he concealed his
origin and led the life of a beggar. He walked through the villages
and for free sewed half-coats and other clothes, primarily for the
poor. While doing this he deliberately failed to sew something, either
a glove, or a scarf, for which he endured abuse from his customers.
The ascetic wandered much, but most often he lived at a churchyard of
the village of Merkushinsk not far from the city of Verkhoturye (on
the outskirts of Perm). St Simeon loved nature in the Urals, and while
joyfully contemplated its majestic beauty, he would raise up a
thoughtful glance towards the Creator of the world. In his free time,
the saint loved to go fishing in the tranquility of solitude. This
reminded him of the disciples of Christ, whose work he continued,
guiding the local people in the true Faith. His conversations were a
seed of grace, from which gradually grew the abundant fruits of the
Spirit in the Urals and in Siberia, where the saint is especially
revered.
St Simeon of Verkhoturye died in 1642, when he was 35 years of age. He
was buried in the Merkushinsk graveyard by the church of the Archangel
Michael.
On September 12, 1704, with the blessing of Metropolitan Philotheus of
Tobolsk, the holy relics of St Simeon were transferred from the church
of the Archangel Michael to the Verkhoturye monastery in the name of
St Nicholas.
St Simeon worked many miracles after his death. He frequently appeared
to the sick in dreams and healed them, and he brought to their senses
those fallen into the disease of drunkenness. A peculiarity of the
saint's appearances was that with the healing of bodily infirmities,
he also gave instruction and guidance for the soul.
The memory of St Simeon of Verkhoturye is celebrated also on December
18, on the day of his glorification (1694).
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Martyr Julian of Galatia
The Holy Martyr Julian lived during the fourth century not far from
the ancient city of Ancyra. A report was made to the governor of the
district of Galatia that the Presbyter Julian was hiding in a certain
cave with forty others of the same persuasion, and that he was
celebrating divine services there. They arrested St Julian and
demanded that he reveal where the remaining Christians were hidden,
but he refused.
The pagans ordered the holy priest to offer sacrifice to their gods,
but he would not consent to this, either. Then they stripped him and
placed him on a red-hot iron grate. The martyr signed himself with the
Sign of the Cross, and an angel of the Lord cooled the flame. St
Julian remained unharmed.
When the governor asked who he was and how he had quenched the fire,
the martyr said: "I am a servant of God." The torturers brought forth
an old woman, the mother of the saint, and they threatened her that if
she did not persuade her son to offer sacrifice to idols, then they
would torture her. The brave woman answered that if they defiled her
body against her will, this would not make her guilty of sin before
God. On the contrary, it would constitute an act of martyrdom.
The humiliated torturers sent the old woman away, but they condemned
St Julian to death. In his prayer the saint gave fervent thanks to God
and asked that he be given strength to endure the sufferings. St
Julian also asked a special grace from God: that those who take earth
from the place of his burial be granted forgiveness of sins and
deliverance from passions, and that harmful insects and birds might
not descend upon their fields.
Commending himself to God with the words: "Lord, accept my spirit in
peace!" the martyr bent his neck beneath the sword, and a Voice
summoned the martyr to the Heavenly Kingdom. This Voice was heard also
by those Christians who had hidden themselves in the cave. Emboldened,
they come forth to the place of St Julian's sufferings, but they found
him already dead. They all confessed themselves to be Christians, and
they were arrested and brought to the governor, who ordered them
beheaded.
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40 Martyred with Julian of Galatia
These forty Christians endured martyrdom with St Julian of Galatia in
the fourth century. The governor of the district of Galatia was
informed that St Julian and forty others were hiding in a certain
cave, and sent men to arrest them. When they arrived at the cave, they
found only Julian, who refused to tell them where the others were
hiding.
When Julian refused to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods, he was
tortured and then beheaded. The forty Christians heard a Voice
summoning the martyr to the Heavenly Kingdom. Emboldened, they come
forth to the place of St Julian's sufferings, but they found him
already dead. They all confessed themselves to be Christians, and they
were arrested and brought to the governor, who ordered them beheaded.
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Martyr Theodore of Alexandria
This StTheodore of Alexandria is not the same person as St Theodore
the Bishop of Alexandria (December 3).
Today's saint was a simple Christian who was thrown into prison for
confessing Christ. Later, he was tortured and thrown into the sea, but
remained unharmed.
St Theodore was beheaded and buried in Alexandria.
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St Coronatus the Bishop of Nicomedia
The Hieromartyr Coronatus, Bishop of Nicomedia [Iconium], suffered for
Christ in the persecution of Decius and Valerian (253-259) in the
third century. The governor of Iconium, Perennius, through his
interrogations and persecution, forced Christians to go into hiding.
St Coronatus voluntarily appeared before Perennius. The torturers
tightly bound the legs of the bishop with thin cords and led him
through the city. The hieromartyr underwent excruciating sufferings,
and blood flowed from the wounds on his legs, because the cords dug
into his flesh. After terrible tortures, Bishop Coronatus was
beheaded.
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St Athanasius of Serpukhov
Saint Athanasius of Serpukhov (in the world Andrew) was born at
Obonezh Pyatina into the family of the priest Auxentius and his wife
Maria. He was, from youth, inclined towards prayer and renunciation of
the world, and he sought a worthy guide in monastic labors.
At this time, news of St Sergius of Radonezh had already spread
throughout the whole of Rus. The monastery of the Life-Creating
Trinity at Makovets had become for everyone a luminous model of
monastic organization. Here in the monastery, the cenobitic life
transformed "the hateful discord of this world," creating an oneness
of spirit in an unity of love based on the example of the Divine
Trinity Itself. The youth Andrew went from the outskirts of Novgorod
to Abba Sergius at Makovets, following in his footsteps in search of
spiritual perfection.
Named Athanasius in monasticism, in honor of St Athanasius the Great,
the disciple and copier of the Life of St Anthony the Great, the
founder of Egyptian monasticism. St Athanasius in turn became a worthy
disciple of the great Igumen Sergius, the Father and teacher of
Russian monasticism.
The disciples of St Sergius, in addition to the usual monastic
obediences, received the holy abba's blessing for special church
services: copying books, painting icons, buildin churches. This added
a genuine churchly quality to life, imparting churchly beauty and
hymnology, a liturgical transfiguration of God's world.
The favourite obedience of Abba Athansios, which he imposed upon
himself, was copying books. The holy books were regarded by the
Fathers as on the same level as the holy icons, the most important way
to impart churchly ideas, those of theological and liturgical
creativity.
The school of St Sergius, revealing to the Russian and to the
Universal Church the whole extent of theological experiential
knowledge of the Holy Trinity, is closely connected with the
flourishing of church literature, with the necessity of interactive
enrichment of the Russian Church by the literary works of the
Byzantine Church and its theologians, and by the deep spiritual
experience of the Russian ascetics.
In the year 1374, the Serpukhov prince Vladimir Andreevich the Brave,
a colleague of Demetrius of the Don , turned to St Sergius with a
request to found a monastery on his lands. Abba Sergius came to
Serpukhov with his beloved disciple Athanasius, and having established
the monastery of the Conception of the Most Holy Theotokos, he blessed
St Athanasius to organize it, and then to be its igumen.
The monastery of St Athanasius was built near the city of Serpukhov,
on the high bank of the River Nara. They therefore called it
"Vysotskoi" ["of the heights"]. Hence also its title, with which
entered into Russian Church history its founder and first igumen, St
Athanasius of Vysotsk.
Abba Athanasius zealously set about the organization of the monastery
entrusted to him. Many Russian ascetics arrived here, "on the
heights," for an heightened schooling in monasticism.
According to the teaching of Abba Athanasius, preserved for us by
Epiphanius the Wise, to be a monk was no easy thing. "The duty of the
monk consists in this, that he be vigilant in prayer and in divine
precepts until midnight, and sometimes for the whole night. He should
eat nothing but bread and water, oil even and wine would be altogether
improper." Through the words of the saint of God, many came to him at
the monastery on the heights, "but then they slackened, and, unable to
endure the work of ascetic struggle, they fled."
Those ascetics of higher monastic worth remained with the holy abba.
Therefore, it was to this monastery, to his disciple and
fellow-ascetic Athanasius, that the God-bearing Abba Sergius of
Radonezh sent his future successor, St Nikon (November 17) for tonsure
and guidance in monastic endeavors. St Athanasius taught him: "Monks
are called voluntary martyrs. Many holy martyrs suffered for a single
hour and then died, but each day monks endure sufferings not from
torturers, but from within, from the properties of the flesh and from
mental enemies. There are struggles, and they suffer until their last
breath."
In 1478, after the death of St Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow, the new
Metropolitan, St Cyprian (September 16) arrived in Moscow. But Great
Prince Demetrius of the Don wanted to establish his own priest and
colleague Michael [Mitaya] as metropolitan, and he would not accept
Metropolitan Cyprian. Instead, he expelled him from Moscow.
St Cyprian was in a difficult position. But he found support and
sympathy among the pillars of Russian monasticism, Sts Sergius of
Radonezh and Athanasius of Vysotsk. From the very beginning, they saw
the canonical legitimacy of the Metropolitan in his dispute with the
Great Prince and they supported him in the prolonged struggle
(1478-1490) for the restoration of canonical order and unity in the
Russian Church. St Cyprian had to journey several times during these
years to Constantinople to participate in council deliberations
concerning the governace of the Russian Church. On one of these
journeys, with the blessing of holy Abba Sergius, St Athanasius of
Vysotsk went to Constantinople with his friend the Metropolitan,
leaving his own disciple, St Athanasius the Younger as the igumen of
the Vysotsk monastery.
At Constantinople St Athanasius settled into the monastery of the holy
Forerunner and Baptist John (Studion), where he found a cell for
himself and for several disciples who had come with him. St Athanasius
occupied himself with prayer and salvific theological books. The monk
spent about twenty years in the capital of Church culture, working to
translate books from the Greek language and copying Church books,
which he then sent off to Rus. Thereby, he transmitted to the Russian
Church not only a legacy of great Orthodox thought, but also the
traditions of Constantinople's masters of manuscript illumination,
with their elegant penmanship and artistry of textual miniatures,
achieving a harmony of content and form. A continuing creative
connection was established between St Athanasius's skillful copying of
books at Constantinople and the calligraphic and iconographic school
of the Vysotsk monastery at Serpukhov.
It was not by chance that it was especially at the Vysotsk monastery
that the holy Igumen Nikon guided the future iconographer St Andrew
Rublev (July 4), as once previously the God-bearing Abba Sergius had
guided Nikon himself in this monastery to spiritual maturity and an
understanding of the rejuvenating and transformative spirit of pure
churchly beauty.
In this sacred service of churchly beauty, in constant liturgical
activity for the glory of the Life-Originating Trinity, the
life-bearing genius of St Andrew matured. God destined him for the
great visual rendering of the theological and liturgical legacy of St
Sergius, with the immortal wonderworking icon of the Most Holy Trinity
for the iconostasis of the Trinity cathedral. In the iconographic
creativity of St Andrew Rublev, just as in the temple-building
activity of St Nikon, and in the hagiographic works of Epiphanius the
Wise, we find embodiment and synthesis of the finest traditions of the
Byzantine and Russian art.
This creative synthesis was served also by St Athanasius of Vysotsk
all his life. Living at Constantinople, he continued to work for the
Russian Church, and for his native land. To give but one example, he
sent to the Vysotsk monastery ten icons of the finest Greek style. He
and his disciples translated into the Slavonic language the "Four
Hundred Chapters" of St Maximus the Confessor, the Chapters of Mark
about church services, and the Discourses of St Simeon the New
Theologian.
In the year 1401, just before his death, the venerable elder copied,
and possibly translated himself, a Church Rule, distributed within the
Russian Church under the title, "The Eye of the Church."
St Athanasius spent his life in constant work with books. He died at
Constantinople in old age in the year 1401 (or perhaps a bit later).
Russian chroniclers note him as an elder "virtuous, learned, knowing
the Holy Scriptures", to which "at present his writings give witness."
His Life was written in the year 1697 by the hieromonk Karion
[Istomin] of the Moscow Chudov monastery.
St Athanasius's successor and disciple, St Athanasius the Younger,
successfully directed the spiritual life of the brethren and gave an
example by his own God-pleasing life. St Athanasius the Younger
reposed after a long illness on September 12, 1395. In the ancient
manuscripts of the saints it says of him: "St Athanasius, igumen of
Vysotsk Conception monastery at Serpukhov, a new wonderworker who
reposed in the year 6904 (1395) on the twelfth day of September, a
disciple of St Athanasius, wondrous disciple of St Sergius, who later
was at Constantinople and reposed there."
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Hieromartyr Dositheus of Tbilisi
Thirty-five thousand Persian soldiers marched toward Georgia in the
year 1795. The Georgian king Erekle II (17621798) and his two thousand
soldiers declared war on the invaders as they were approaching
Tbilisi. The Georgians won the first skirmish, but many perished in
the fighting. The enemy was shaken and was preparing to flee the
battleground, when several traitors reported to Aqa Muhammed Khan that
King Erekle had lost nearly his entire army. This betrayal decided the
fate of the battle: the one hundred fifty soldiers who remained in the
Georgian army barely succeeded in saving the life of King Erekle, who
had willed to perish on the battlefield with his soldiers.
All of Tbilisi was engulfed in flames. The plunderers murdered the
people, set fire to the libraries, destroyed the print shop, and
vandalized the churches and the kings palace. They slaughtered the
clergy in an especially cruel manner.
Unfortunately, history has not preserved the names of all those
martyrs who perished in this tragedy, but we do know that a certain
Metropolitan Dositheus of Tbilisi was killed because he would not
abandon his flock. While the invaders simply killed most of the
clergymen, from St. Dositheus they demanded a renunciation of the
Christian Faith. They commanded him to defile the True and Life-giving
Cross of our Lord. But the holy hieromartyr Dositheus endured the
greatest torments without yielding to the enemy, and he joyfully
accepted death for Christs sake. The invaders slaughtered Christs
devoted servant with their swords.
St. Dositheus was martyred on September 12 in the year 1795.
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