[Readingsandsaints] Readings and Saints

[Daily Orthodox Readings and Saints]

Scripture Readings and Saints for Sat Apr 19 2008

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Hebrews 12:28-13:8  (Epistle)
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 1 of 2


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John 11:1-45  (Gospel)
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 2 of 2



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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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Venerable John of the Ancient Caves in Palestine
Saint John of the Ancient Caves is so called because he lived during
the eighth century in the Lavra of St Chariton (September 28). This
was called the "Old," or ancient cave, since it was one the oldest of
the Palestinian monasteries. The Lavra was situated not far from
Bethlehem, near the Dead Sea.
St John in his early years left the world, went to venerate the holy
places of Jerusalem, and settled at the Lavra, where he labored in
fasting, vigil, and prayer. He was ordained to the holy priesthood,
and glorified by his ascetic life.
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Martyr Christopher at Nicomedia
The Holy Martyrs Christopher, Theonas, and Anthony were officers in
the army of the emperor Diocletian (284-305). They were present at the
sufferings of the Holy Great Martyr George (April 23), they saw the
miracles accomplished by the power of God, and they witnessed St
George's faith and unshakable courage.
The soldiers came to believe in the Savior, threw down their golden
military belts, and declared themselves Christians in front of the
emperor. They were immediately thrown into prison. The next day the
emperor urged the former soldiers to renounce Christ, but they firmly
confessed their faith and glorified the Savior as the true God.
The emperor ordered that the martyrs be beaten with iron rods, and
their bodies to be raked with hooks. The holy martyrs endured all the
torments and remained unyielding. Then Diocletian gave orders to burn
them. The martyric death of Sts Christopher, Theonas, and Anthony
occurred in the year 303.
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Martyr Theonas at Nicomedia
The Holy Martyrs Christopher, Theonas, and Anthony were officers in
the army of the emperor Diocletian (284-305). They were present at the
sufferings of the Holy Great Martyr George (April 23), they saw the
miracles accomplished by the power of God, and they witnessed St
George's faith and unshakable courage.
The soldiers came to believe in the Savior, threw down their golden
military belts, and declared themselves Christians in front of the
emperor. They were immediately thrown into prison. The next day the
emperor urged the former soldiers to renounce Christ, but they firmly
confessed their faith and glorified the Savior as the true God.
The emperor ordered that the martyrs be beaten with iron rods, and
their bodies to be raked with hooks. The holy martyrs endured all the
torments and remained unyielding. Then Diocletian gave orders to burn
them. The martyric death of Sts Christopher, Theonas, and Anthony
occurred in the year 303.
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Martyr Anthony at Rome
The Holy Martyrs Christopher, Theonas, and Anthony were officers in
the army of the emperor Diocletian (284-305). They were present at the
sufferings of the Holy Great Martyr George (April 23), they saw the
miracles accomplished by the power of God, and they witnessed St
George's faith and unshakable courage.
The soldiers came to believe in the Savior, threw down their golden
military belts, and declared themselves Christians in front of the
emperor. They were immediately thrown into prison. The next day the
emperor urged the former soldiers to renounce Christ, but they firmly
confessed their faith and glorified the Savior as the true God.
The emperor ordered that the martyrs be beaten with iron rods, and
their bodies to be raked with hooks. The holy martyrs endured all the
torments and remained unyielding. Then Diocletian gave orders to burn
them. The martyric death of Sts Christopher, Theonas, and Anthony
occurred in the year 303.
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Hieromartyr Paphnutius of Jerusalem
Hieromartyr Paphnutius of Jerusalem was a bishop. He underwent many
sufferings from the pagans and was tortured by fire, wild beasts, and
finally was beheaded by the sword.
Some suggest that the hieromartyr Paphnutius was an Egyptian bishop
and suffered together with many other Egyptians, exiled to the
Palestinian mines during the persecution by Diocletian (284-305).
The myrrh-streaming relics of the hieromartyr were glorified by
miracles. The Canon in his honor was composed during the Iconoclast
period (before 842). In the final Ode is a petition for the
hieromartyr to put an end to the heresy disrupting the Church.
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St George the Confessor and Bishop of Antioch, in Pisidia
Saint George the Confessor, Bishop of Antioch in Pisidia, lived during
the Iconoclast period. In his youth he became a monk, was known for
his holiness of life and was made bishop of Antioch in Pisidia.
St George was at Constantinople during the iconoclastic persecution
under Emperor Leo the Armenian (813-820). He denounced the Iconoclast
heresy at a Council of bishops, calling on the emperor to abandon it.
When St George refused to remove the icons from the church, as ordered
by the emperor's decree, he was exiled to imprisonment (813-820).
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St Tryphon the Patriarch of Constantinople
Saint Tryphon, Patriarch of Constantinople, was a monk from the time
of his youth, distinguished by his meekness, lack of malice, full
submission to the will of God, and his firm faith and love for the
Church. At this time the emperor Romanus (919-944) ruled in
Constantinople. He wanted to elevate his younger son Theophylactus to
the patriarchal throne. When Patriarch Stephanos (925-928) died,
Theophylactus was only sixteen years old. The emperor then suggested
that St Tryphon be "locum tenens" of the patriarchal throne until
Theophylactus came of age.
St Tryphon meekly accepted the burden of patriarchal service and for
three years he wisely governed the Church. When Theophylactus turned
twenty (931), the emperor told St Tryphon to resign the patriarchal
throne. St Tryphon did not consider it proper to hand over the throne
to an inexperienced youth, and he refused to do so. The emperor could
not intimidate St Tryphon, since his life was blameless. Then Romanus
employed the cunning counsels of Bishop Theophilus of Caesarea.
The deceitful bishop went to St Tryphon and urged him not to obey the
emperor, and not to resign the patriarchal throne. Then Bishop
Theophilus craftily obtained St Tryphon's signature on a blank sheet
of paper. Not suspecting any treachery, the guileless saint took a
clean sheet of paper and wrote: "Tryphon, by the Mercy of God,
Archbishop of Constantinople, the New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch."
When they presented this paper to the emperor, he ordered them to
write over the saint's signature: "I hereby resign the position of
Patriarch, because I consider myself unworthy of this office." When
this false document was read before the imperial dignitaries, servants
removed St Tryphon from the patriarchal chambers.
St Tryphon patiently endured the injustice done to him, and returned
to his own monastery. He lived there as a simple monk for a year
before his death (+ 933). His body was taken to Constantinople and
buried with the Patriarchs.
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Venerable Nicephorus the Abbot of Catabad
Saint Nicephorus was born at Constantinople into a rich and
illustrious family. His parents, Andrew and Theodora, raised their son
in the Christian Faith. After their death, young Nicephorus
distributed all his wealth to the poor and went to Chalcedon. The
strict monastic life at the Monastery of St Andrew appealed to
Nicephorus, and he remained there with the brethren.
>From the very start, the saint displayed unusual fervor in prayer and
at work. He had such endurance in asceticism, that soon the igumen
sent the saint to a Phoenician island to preach Christ, and he was
made igumen of a monastery dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos.
St Nicephorus lived on the island for thirty-three years, and he
brought many pagans to Christ. A church was built on the island on the
site of a pagan temple.
Sensing the approach of death, the saint was carried aboard a ship and
said to the captain, "I am going to the Lord, but take my body to
Chalcedon to the monastery of St Andrew." As soon as he said these
words, he died.
The ship sailed to Chalcedon, and the brethren of the monastery of St
Andrew reverently buried the body of the holy ascetic.
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Monkmartyr Agathangelus of Esphigmenou of Mt Athos
The Monk Martyr Agathangelus, in the world Athanasius, was born in the
city of Enos, Thrace, and was raised in a strict Orthodox family.
After the death of his parents Constantine and Krystalia, he became a
sailor. The Turks wanted to convert the skilled and intelligent youth
to Islam, but knew that he would not do so of his own free will. So
they arrested him in the city of Smyrna, wounded him and threatened
him with death, then demanded that he become a Moslem.
The youth was terrified and promised to do as they asked, hoping to
escape from the bullies and then go back on his promise. However, he
was unable to do this for a long time. Tormented by pangs of
conscience, he was able to quit the city and seek refuge on Mount
Athos. Igumen Euthymius of Esphigmenou monastery confessed him and
blessed him to become a novice.
St Athanasius considered even his most intense efforts insufficient to
atone for his sin of apostasy. He believed that he had to suffer
martyrdom for Christ, and he began to pray about this.
On the fourth Sunday of Great Lent the nineteen-year-old youth was
tonsured as a monk with the name Agathangelus.
St Nicholas the Wonderworker appeared to the new monk in a dream and
promised to help him. The igumen of the monastery saw this as a
special sign, and blessed St Agathangelus to bear witness to Christ at
Smyrna before those who forced him to become a Moslem.
In the Ottoman courtroom the confessor told how they had compelled him
to accept an alien faith. Then he publicly renounced Islam and
confessed himself a Christian. They began to cajole and admonish St
Agathangelus to reconsider his statement. He replied, "I will not give
in to you, nor to your threats, nor to your promises. I love only
Christ, I follow only Christ, only in my Christ do I hope to know
happiness."
The judge threatened him with death by torture. "I am prepared to
endure all for my Christ! I accept every manner of torment with the
greatest joy! I ask only that you do not tarry in carrying out your
word," the saint replied.
They bound St Agathangelus with heavy chains, hammered his feet into
wooden boots, and threw him into prison. With him were two other
wrongly condemned Christians. One of them, Nicholas, gave an account
of the saint's martyrdom.
On the following day, St Agathangelus was again brought before the
judge in fetters. Bravely enduring all the torments which the Turks
had readied for him, he again was sent to prison. Nicholas told him
that a certain influential man would intervene before the judge for
his release, but St Agathangelus wrote a note to this man asking that
he not attempt to free him, but to pray to God that he be strengthened
for martyrdom.
The saint readied himself for the final trial. At midnight, it was
revealed to him in a vision that they would execute him no later than
five o'clock, and he waited for the appointed hour. At about the
fourth hour, a watch was placed over him. Seeing no possibility of
converting the confessor from his faith in Christ, the judges decided
to execute him. Absorbed in prayer, the martyr did not take notice the
preparations for execution, nor the large throng of people.
He was beheaded at the fifth hour of the morning, on April 19, 1818.
Christians gathered up the holy relics of the martyr and buried them
in the city of Smyrna, in the church of the Great Martyr George.
A portion of the relics of St Agathangelus was sent to the Esphigmenou
monastery on Mount Athos in 1844.
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Venerable Simeon of Philotheou
St Simeon the Bare-Foot [Bosoi] was the son of a priest. When he was
fifteen years old, he came under the spiritual guidance of Pachomius,
the Bishop of Demetriada (Larissa diocese), who tonsured him and
ordained him as hierodeacon. Desiring to follow a strict monastic
life, St Simeon soon went to a monastery near Mount Olympus, and then
to Mount Athos, to the Lavra of St Athanasius.
By his humility and obedience he gained the respect of the brethren
and was ordained hieromonk. After he transferred to the Philotheou
monastery, he intensified his God-pleasing labors, he became an
example for the brethren, and was unanimously chosen as head of this
monastery. Later, through the cunning of the Enemy of mankind, St
Simeon had to endure the complaints of monks who thought he was too
strict.
Leaving it to God to judge the culprits, St Simeon left the monastery
and went to Mt. Phlamourion on Mt. Pelion. There, in solitude and
quiet, with neither roof nor fire, the holy hermit engaged in
spiritual struggles dressed in old clothing, with almost without food,
in constant prayer either standing or on bended knees. After three
years, he was found by certain God-loving people. Inspired with
reverence for his way of life, they begged him to allow them to live
with him.
After seven years, through the efforts and zeal of St Simeon, a
monastery was formed. A church was built in honor of the Most Holy
Trinity, where he served the Divine Liturgy every day. When the life
of the brethren in the wilderness monastery had been put in order, the
wise servant left the monastery and began to preach the Word of God in
Epirus, Thessaly and Athens.
By his instructions and teaching the saint strengthened the wavering
in their faith, and he set those in error on the path to salvation. He
made those who were strong in their faith even stronger, and he taught
everyone to love one another, and to attend church on Sundays and
feastdays.
The boldness of the holy confessor aroused the malice of the opponents
of Christianity. In the city of Euripa they slandered St Simeon before
the city ruler, Ayan, accusing him of converting a Turk to
Christianity. The saint was arrested and sentenced to public burning.
However, God did not permit the unjust sentence to be carried out.
The condemned one was led to his interrogation in shackles, barefoot
[bosoi] and in an old rassa. St Simeon, inspired by the Holy Spirit,
answered the governor so wisely that Ayan could not impose the death
sentence. The saint received his freedom and continued his efforts,
sealing his preaching with healings and miracles.
Many followed St Simeon and submitted themselves to him. He accepted
everyone, blessed them for the monastic life, and sent them to his
monastery.
St Simeon ended his life at Constantinople. He fell asleep in the Lord
and was buried by the Patriarch at Chalke, in a church dedicated to
the Most Holy Theotokos. After two years, when the monks of the
Phlamourion monastery decided to transfer his holy relics to their
monastery, and his grave was opened, an ineffable fragrance came
forth, and healings began.
The Life and the Service to St Simeon were published at Smyrna in
1646.
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St Matrona of Moscow
No information available at this time.
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