[Readingsandsaints] Readings and Saints

[Daily Orthodox Readings and Saints]

Scripture Readings and Saints for Wed Feb 20 2008

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------ READINGS FOR TODAY ----------------------------
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2 Peter 3:1-18  (Epistle)
1 Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I
stir up your pure minds by way of reminder),
2 that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the
holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord
and Savior,
3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days,
walking according to their own lusts,
4 and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the
fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the
beginning of creation."
5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens
were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water,
6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with
water.
7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same
word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of
ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one
day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count
slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should
perish but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which
the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will
melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it
will be burned up.
11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of
persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,
12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of
which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements
will melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and
a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
14 Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to
be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless;
15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation-as
also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him,
has written to you,
16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in
which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable
people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the
Scriptures.
17 You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest
you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the
error of the wicked;
18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.
Scripture Reading 1 of 2


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Mark 13:24-31  (Gospel)
24 But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be
darkened, and the moon will not give its light;
25 the stars of heaven will fall, and the powers in the heavens will
be shaken.
26 Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great
power and glory.
27 And then He will send His angels, and gather together His elect
from the four winds, from the farthest part of earth to the farthest
part of heaven.
28 Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has
already become tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is
near.
29 So you also, when you see these things happening, know that it is
near-at the doors!
30 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away
till all these things take place.
31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass
away.
Scripture Reading 2 of 2



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------ SAINTS/FEASTS FOR TODAY ----------------------------
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St Leo the Bishop of Catania in Sicily
Saint Leo was bishop of the city of Catania, in Sicily. He was famed
for his benevolence and charity, and his Christian love for the poor
and the vagrant. The Lord granted him the gifts of healing various
illnesses, and working miracles.
When St Leo was Bishop of Catania, there was a certain sorcerer named
Heliodorus, who impressed people with his fake miracles. This fellow
was originally a Christian, but then he rejected Christ and became a
servant of the devil.
St Leo often urged Heliodorus to repent of his wicked deeds and return
to God, but in vain. Once, Heliodorus impudently entered the church
where the bishop was serving, and tried to create a disturbance,
sowing confusion and temptation by his sorcery.
Seeing the people beset by devils under the sorcer's spell, St Leo
realized that the time for gentle persuasion had passed. He calmly
emerged from the altar and, tying his omophorion around the magician's
neck, he led him out of the church into the city square. There he
forced Heliodorus to admit to all his wicked deeds. He commanded that
a fire be lit, and jumped into the fire with the sorcerer. Thus they
stood in the fire until Heliodorus got burnt. St Leo, by the power of
God, remained unharmed. This miracle brought St Leo great renown
during his lifetime.
When he died, a woman with an issue of blood received healing at his
grave. The body of the saint was placed in a church of the holy Martyr
Lucy (December 13), which he himself had built. Later on, his relics
were transferred into the church of St Martin the Merciful, Bishop of
Tours (November 11).
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Venerable Agathon the Wonderworker of the Kiev Caves
Saint Agathon of the Kiev Caves was a great ascetic, and he healed the
sick by a laying his hands upon them. He also possessed the gift of
prophecy and foretold the time of his own death. His memory is
celebrated also at the Synaxis of the Monks of the Far Caves on August
28.
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Beheading of the Venerable Cornelius the Abbot of the Pskov
Caves
The Hieromartyr Cornelius of the Pskov Caves was born in the year 1501
at Pskov into the noble family of Stephen and Maria. In order to give
their son an education, his parents sent him to the Pskov Mirozh
monastery, where he worked under the guidance of an Elder. He made
candles, chopped wood, studied his letters, transcribed and adorned
books, and also painted icons. Having finished his studies, Cornelius
returned to his parental home with the resolve to become a monk.
Once, the government clerk Misiur Munekhin took Cornelius with him to
the Pskov Caves monastery in the woods, which then was in the worst
condition of any church in Pskov. The beauty of nature, and the
solemnity of services in the cave church produced such a strong
impression on Cornelius that he left his parental home forever and
received monastic tonsure at the Pskov Caves monastery.
In 1529, at the age of twenty-eight, St Cornelius was made igumen and
became head of the monastery. While he was igumen, the Pskov Caves
monastery reached its prime. The number of brethren increased from 15
to 200 men. This number of monks was not surpassed under any
subsequent head of the monastery.
The activity of St Cornelius extended far beyond the bounds of the
monastery. He spread Orthodoxy among the Esti [Aesti]) and Saeti
people living around the monastery, he built churches, hospices, homes
for orphans and those in need. During a terrible plague in the Pskov
region St Cornelius walked through the plague-infested villages to
give Communion to the living and to sing burial services for the dead.
During the Livonian war St Cornelius preached Christianity in the
occupied cities, built churches, and distributed generous aid from the
monastery storerooms to the Esti and Livonians suffering from the war.
At the monastery he selflessly doctored and fed the injured and the
maimed, preserved the dead in the caves, and inscribed their names in
the monastery Synodikon for eternal remembrance.
In the year 1560, on the Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God,
St Cornelius sent a prosphora and holy water as blessing for the
Russian armies besieging the city of Thellin. On that very day the
Germans surrendered the city.
In 1570 when a See was established in Livonian Yuriev, a certain
igumen Cornelius was appointed as Bishop of Yuriev and Velyansk (i.e.,
Thellin). Some have identified him with St Cornelius, but this does
not correspond with actual events.
St Cornelius was a great lover of books, and at the monastery there
was quite a collection of books. In 1531 his work entitled, "An
Account of the Origin of the Pechersk Monastery" appeared. In the
mid-sixteenth century the Pskov Caves monastery took over the
tradition of writing chronicles from the Spaso-Eleaszar monastery.
At the start of the chronicles were accounts of the first two Pskov
chronicles from 1547 to 1567. Besides this, Igumen Cornelius left
behind a great monastery Synodikon for remembering the deceased
brothers and benefactors of the monastery, and from the year 1588 he
began to maintain the "Stern Book" ["Kormovaya kniga." Since the rear
of a ship is called the stern, the sense of the title is "looking back
in remembrance"]. He also compiled a "Description of the Monastery"
and a "Description of the Miracles of the Pechersk Icon of the Mother
of God."
St Cornelius expanded and beautified the monastery, he further
enlarged the monastery caves, he moved the wooden church of the Forty
Martyrs of Sebaste beyond the monastery enclosure to the monastery
gate, and on its site he built a church in the name of the
Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos in the year 1541. In 1559, he
constructed a church dedicated to the Protection of the Most Holy
Theotokos.
The Caves monastery, on the frontier of the Russian state, was not
only a beacon of Orthodoxy, but also a bulwark against the external
enemies of Russia.
In 1558-1565, St Cornelius built a massive stone wall around the
monastery, and over the holy gates, he built a stone church dedicated
to St Nicholas, entrusting the protection of the monastery to him. In
the church was a sculpted wooden icon of "Nicholas the Warrior."
In the chronicle compiled by the hierodeacon Pitirim, the martyric
death of St Cornelius was recorded: "This blessed Igumen Cornelius ...
was igumen forty-one years and two months. Not only as a monk, but
also by his fasting and holy life, he was an image of salvation ... in
these times there was much unrest in the Russian land. Finally, the
earthly Tsar (Ivan the Terrible) sent him from this corruptible life
to the Heavenly King in the eternal habitations, on February 20, 1570,
in his 69th year." (This information is on a ceramic plate, from the
ceramics covering the mouth of the tomb of St Cornelius).
In the ancient manuscripts of the Trinity-Sergiev Lavra it was written
that Igumen Cornelius came out from the monastery gates with a cross
to meet the Tsar. Ivan the Terrible, angered by a false slander,
beheaded him with his own hands, but then immediately repented of his
deed, and carried the body to the monastery. The pathway made scarlet
by the blood of St Cornelius, along which the Tsar carried his body to
the Dormition church, became known as the "Bloody Path." Evidence of
the Tsar's repentance was the generous recompense he made to the Pskov
Caves monastery after the death of St Cornelius. The name of the
igumen Cornelius was inscribed in the Tsar's Synodikon.
The body of St Cornelius was set into the wall of "the cave formed by
God," where it remained for 120 years without corruption. In the year
1690, Metropolitan Marcellus of Pskov and Izborsk, had the relics
transferred from the cave to the Dormition cathedral church and placed
in a new crypt in the wall.
On December 17, 1872 the relics of St Cornelius were transferred from
the former tomb into a copper-silver reliquary. They were placed into
a new reliquary in 1892. It is presumed that the service to the martyr
was composed for the Uncovering of the Relics in the year 1690.
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Hieromartyr Sadoc (Sadoth) the Bishop of Persia
The Hieromartyr Sadoc, Bishop of Persia, and 128 Martyrs with him
suffered in Persia under Sapor II. St Sadoc was successor of the
hieromartyr Simeon (April 17). He once had a dream, in which St Simeon
told him of his own impending martyric death. Standing in great glory
atop a ladder reaching up to Heaven, St Simeon said, "Ascend to me,
Sadoc, and be not afraid. Yesterday I ascended, and today you will
ascend."
Soon the emperor Sapor, renewing the persecution against Christians,
ordered that St Sadoc be arrested with his clergy and flock. In all,
128 people were arrested, including nine virgins. They were thrown
into prison, where they were cruelly tortured for five months. They
were told to renounce the Christian Faith and instead to worship the
sun and fire. The holy martyrs bravely answered, "We are Christians
and worship the One God." They were sentenced to beheading by the
sword.
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128 Martyrs in Persia
The Hieromartyr Sadoc, Bishop of Persia, and 128 Martyrs with him
suffered in Persia under Sapor II. St Sadoc was successor of the
hieromartyr Simeon (April 17). He once had a dream, in which St Simeon
told him of his own impending martyric death. Standing in great glory
atop a ladder reaching up to Heaven, St Simeon said, "Ascend to me,
Sadoc, and be not afraid. Yesterday I ascended, and today you will
ascend."
Soon the emperor Sapor, renewing the persecution against Christians,
ordered that St Sadoc be arrested with his clergy and flock. In all,
128 people were arrested, including nine virgins. They were thrown
into prison, where they were cruelly tortured for five months. They
were told to renounce the Christian Faith and instead to worship the
sun and fire. The holy martyrs bravely answered, "We are Christians
and worship the One God." They were sentenced to beheading by the
sword.
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St Agathon the Pope of Rome
Saint Agathon, Pope of Rome, was the son of pious Christian parents,
who provided him an excellent education. After their death, St Agathon
distributed his inheritance to the poor and became a monk. His
virtuous life could not remain concealed from people. In 679, he was
elected as the Bishop of Rome, and he remained in this position until
his death in 682.
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