Tuesday of the 14th week after Pentecost Mark 4.24-34 And he said to them, “Take heed what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. For to him who has will more be given; and from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how. The earth produces of itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything. 2Cor 12.20-13.2 For I fear that perhaps I may come and find you not what I wish, and that you may find me not what you wish; that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned before and have not repented of the impurity, immorality, and licentiousness which they have practiced. This is the third time I am coming to you. Any charge must be sustained by the evidence of two or three witnesses. I warned those who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again I will not spare them – HOLY AND RIGHTEOUS ANCESTORS OF GOD, JOAKIM AND ANNA. MONK JOSEPH, HEGUMEN OF VOLOKOLAMSK, WONDERWORKER (+ 1515). MARTYRS SEVERIAN (+ 320) AND CHARITON. MONK THEOPHANES THE CONFESSOR (+ C. 300). BLESSED NIKITA AT TSARGRAD (XII). REMEMBRANCE OF THE THIRD OECUMENICAL COUNCIL (431). Righteous Saint Joakim, son of Barpathir, was a descendant of King David, to whom God had revealed that from the descendants of his line would be born the Saviour of the world. Righteous Saint Anna was the daughter of Matthan and through her father she was of the tribe of Levi, and through her mother -- of the tribe of Judah. The spouses lived at Nazareth in Galilee. They were childless into their old age and all their life they grieved over this. They had to endure derision and scorn, since at that time childlessness was considered a disgrace. But they never grumbled and only but fervently prayed to God, humbly trusting on His will. Once during the time of a great feast, the gifts which Righteous Joakim took to Jerusalem for offering to God were not accepted by the priest Ruben, who considered that a childless man was not worthy to offer sacrifice to God. This pained the old man very much, and he, regarding himself the most sinful of people, decided not to return home, but to settle in solitude in a desolate place. His righteous spouse Anna, having learned, what sort of humiliation her husband had endured, in prayer and fasting began sorrowfully to pray to God for granting her a child. In his desolate solitude and with fasting Righteous Joakim also besought God for this. And the prayer of the saintly couple was heard: to both of them an Angel announced, that there would be born of them a Daughter, Who would bless all the race of mankind. By order of this Heavenly Messenger, Righteous Joakim and Anna met at Jerusalem, where through the promise of God was born to them the Daughter, named Mary. Saint Joakim died a few years later after the Entry into the Temple of his Blessed Daughter, at about age 80. Saint Anna died at age 70, two years after him, spending the time in the Temple alongside her Daughter. The Monk Joseph, Hegumen of Volokolamsk -- the account about him is located under 18 October. The Holy Martyr Severian (+ 320) suffered for Christ in Armenian Sebasteia under a governor named Licius during a time of persecution against Christians under the emperor Licinius. Even prior to his martyrs deed, Saint Severian had shown sincere compassion for 40 Christian soldiers, suffering for confessing the Name of Christ. He visited the captives in prison, raised their spirits, and appealed to their valour and stoic strength. These martyrs met their suffering end at Lake Sebasteia (Comm. 9 March). Half a year later Severian was likewise brought to trial for confessing the Christian faith and he was subjected to cruel tortures. Deeply devoted to the Will of God, Saint Severian during the time of torment called out to the Lord, imploring of Him the strength to bear the suffering and to go through his deed of martyrdom to the end. After intense torture, and unbroken in his faith, the holy martyr was suspended with a stone about the neck head downwards upon the city wall and thus he died. His body was carried by Sebasteia Christians to his home, whither thronged the local inhabitants to take their leave of him and to ask for his holy prayers. Amidst all this there arose a dead man, a servant of Saint Severian as yet unburied, who took up his death-cot and came to go along the final path of his master. He continued to live yet another 15 years even, never leaving the place of burial of the holy martyr. The Monk Theophanes, Confessor and Faster, was born into a family of pagans. In his youth Theophanes came to believe in Christ, was baptised and secretly left his pagan parents to go to Mount Dabis to an hermit-elder, who had asceticised there over the course of 75 years. The ascetic taught the lad the reading of the Scriptural books and the rules of monastic life. Five years later the elder died, and Saint Theophanes spent the next 58 years in his cave in solitude. Then he came down from the mountain and began to preach the faith in Christ amongst the pagans and he converted many to Christianity. By order of the Roman emperors Carlus (282-283) and his sons Numerian and Carlinus (283-284), Saint Theophanes was seized and subjected to torture. The holy confessor bravely endured his sufferings and was released alive. Having returned to the mountain, Saint Theophanes lived there yet another 17 years and peacefully died (c. year 300). Blessed Nikita lived at Constantinople and occupied the position of khartularium (letter-writer). They call him secretive because, living in the world amidst the bustle of the city, with secret exploits of faith he reached spiritual perfection and was a great saint of God. His saintly life was revealed through unusual circumstances. Two friends, a certain priest and the deacon Sozontos, had quarreled. The priest died, and the deacon grieved that they had not been able to be reconciled. He told about the tormenting sin on his conscience to an experienced ascetic-elder. This one gave him a letter and ordered him to give it to the first person, whom Sozontos would meet at midnight at the temple of Hagia Sophia, the Wisdom of God. Saint Nikita the Khartularian appeared before him. Having read the letter, he began weeping and said, that it makes him responsible for this, and that it exceeds his strength, but with the prayers of the elder who had sent Sozontos, he would strive to accomplish this. Making a prostration before the church doors, Saint Nikita said: Lord, open to us the doors of Thine mercy, -- and the doors of the temple flew open by themselves. Leaving the deacon at the thresh-hold, Saint Nikita began to pray, and Sozontos beheld, how he shone with a strange light. Afterwards they went from the church, and the doors again closed. Approaching the church of the Blakhernae Mother of God, Saint Nikita again began praying and again the doors opened in front of them. In the church there shone a light, and from the altar there came out two rows of priests, among whom deacon Sozontos recognised his dead friend. Saint Nikita quietly said: Father presbyter, chat with thine brother, and cease the enmity which ye have between ye. Immediately the priest and deacon Sozontos greeted each other. They hugged with love and were reconciled. The priest went back, and the doors closed by themselves. Blessed Nikita said to the deacon: Brother Sozontos, save thine soul both for thyself and for my benefit. To the father that did send thee, say, that the purity of his holy prayers and his trust on God made possible the return of the dead. After these words Blessed Nikita became invisible for Sozontos. Having returned to his spiritual father the elder, the deacon with tears gave him thanks, that through his prayers, the great secret saint of God Nikita the Khartularian had done away with the sin from both the living and the dead. The Third OEcumenical Council was convened in the year 431 in the city of Ephesus (Asia Minor) during the reign of the emperor Theodosius the Younger (408-450). The Council was convened for the purpose of an investigation by the Church of the false-teachings of the Constantinople patriarch Nestorius (428-431). Contrary to the dogmas of the OEcumenical Church, Nestorius dared to assert that the Son of God Jesus Christ is not one Person (Hypostasis), as Holy Church teaches, but is rather two distinct persons -- the one Divine, and the other human. Regarding the Mother of God, he impiously asserted, that She ought not to be called the Mother of God but rather only the mother of the man Christ. The heresy of Nestorius conflicts against one of the basic dogmas of the Christian faith -- against the dogma of the God-manhood of our Lord Jesus Christ, since according to the false-teaching of Nestorius, Jesus Christ was born as an ordinary man, and afterwards because of sanctity of life the he was conjoined with the Divinity, and abode in Him. With this blasphemous teaching of Nestorius the enemy of the race of man the devil attempted to undermine the Christian faith on these points: that the Praeternal God the Word, the Son of God, actually was incarnated in the flesh from the All-Pure Birthgiver of God, having therein become Man, He thereby redeemed by His suffering and death the human race from slavery to sin and death, and by His glorious resurrection He trampled down Hades and death and opened to believers in Him, and those striving to live in accord with His commandments, the path to the Kingdom of Heaven. A long while prior to the convening of the OEcumeical Council, Saint Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria, repeatedly tried to reason with the heretic Nestorius. Saint Cyril in his letters explained the mistakes of judgement by Nestorius, but Nestorius stubbornly continued with his pseudo-teachings. Saint Cyril wrote about the danger of the rising heresy to Celestine, the Pope of Rome, and to other Orthodox bishops, who also attempted to reason with Nestorius. When it became clear, that Nestorius would continue with his pseudo-teachings and that they were becoming widespread, the Orthodox bishops appealed to the emperor Theodosius the Younger for permission to convene an OEcumenical Council. The Council was convened on the Day of the MostHoly Trinity, 7 June 431. At the Council arrived 200 bishops. Nestorius also arrived in Ephesus, but despite the fact that the fathers of the Council three times suggested that he attend the sessions there, he did not appear. Then the fathers began to sort out matters concerning the heresy in the absence of the heretic. The sessions of the Council continued from 22 June to 31 August. At the Ephesus Council were present such famed fathers of the Church, as the Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Juvenal of Jerusalem, Memnon of Ephesus (Saint Celestine, Pope of Rome, was unable to attend because of illness, but he sent papal legates). The Third OEcumenical Council condemned the heresy of Nestorius and confirmed the Orthodox teaching on these matters: that it is necessary to confess the Lord Jesus Christ as One Person (Hypostasis) and of two natures -- the Divine and the Human, and that the All-Pure Mother of the Lord be acclaimed as Ever-Virgin and in truth the Birthgiver of God. In the guidance of the Church the holy fathers issued 8 rule-canons, and the Twelve Anathemas against Nestorius by Saint Cyril of Alexandria. © 2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos. from the OCA Website: St Ciaran of Clonmacnois Saint Ciaran (Kieran), who has been described as a lamp shining with the light of knowledge, was born in 512 and raised in Connacht, Ireland. His father was a builder of chariots. He was one of eight children, at least two of whom also embraced the religious life. St Ciaran had a special affinity for animals, and even had a fox for a pet. The future saint left home as a boy, driving a cow before him to pay for his keep. He went to study with St Finnian of Clonard (December 12), and became one of the “twelve apostles to Ireland.” Some of the others were St Columba of Iona (June 9), Ninnidh (Nennius) of Lough Erne (January 16), and St Brendan the Voyager (May 16). There is a story that one day the students were studying the Gospel of St Matthew when St Ninnidh came into class without a book. He asked Ciaran to lend him his, which he did. So when Finnian tested the class, Ciaran knew only the first half of the Gospel. The other students laughed and called him “Ciaran half-Matthew.” St Finnian silenced them and said, “Not Ciaran half-Matthew, but Ciaran half-Ireland, for he will have half the country and the rest of us will have the other half.” After spending some time in Clonard, Ciaran visited other monasteries, including that of St Enda (March 21) on Aran, where he was ordained to the holy priesthood. He left there because of a vision which St Enda interpreted for him. Then he went to Scattery Island to study under St Senan (March 8). Later, he went to visit his brothers Luachaill and Odhran, who had a foundation at a place called Isel. Ciaran’s charity was so great that his brothers asked him to leave. They said, “Brother, leave us for we cannot live in the same place with you and feed and keep our brethren for God, because of your unbounded lavishness.” St Ciaran left them and set off with his books in a bag. On the way he met a stag and placed the bag on its back. He followed the animal until he came to Lough Ree opposite Hare Island, where he founded a monastery. Leaving his brother Donnan (January 7) as abbot, he went to dwell in the wilderness. With nine other companions, St Ciaran founded another monastery at Clonmacnoise on the banks of the River Shannon. Within seven months, he became ill and asked to be taken outside and laid on the ground. He looked up at the heavens and said something about the way being steep and difficult. He departed to the Lord at the age of thirty-three. Clonmacnoise was a thousand years old when it was suppressed by Henry VIII. The monastery was destroyed by Reformation armies in 1552, but the ruins are still very impressive. There is a cathedral, seven other churches, three high crosses, and two stumps of round towers. Fifty kings are said to be buried here with the abbots and monks of the monastery. St Ciaran’s crozier survives to the present day. From the ORTHOWIKI website: Chrysostomos (Kalafatis) of Smyrna Our Father among the saints, Chrysostomos (Kalafatis) of Smyrna ((Greek) Χρυσόστομος (Καλαφάτης) Σμύρνης) 1867-1922, was the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Smyrna (Izmir) between 1910 and 1914 and again from 1919 to his death in 1922. He was notable for his charity work and for having been deeply involved in the politics of his day. He was lynched and brutally murdered by a Turkish mob incited by Nureddin Pasha in Smyrna on September 9 1922, soon after the Turkish army regained control of the city at the end of the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922), and sent the Greek population into exile. He is also known to be the founder of the sports club Panionios. He was unanimously declared an Ethnomartyr and a Saint of the Orthodox Church by the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, in an Encyclical of July 5 1993 (Encyclical 2556, of 5 July 1993, of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece).[note 1][1] He is commemorated on the Sunday before the Feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross, together with the other Holy Hierarchs of Asia Minor: Ambrosios of Moschonision, Euthymios (Agritellis) of Zela (†1921), Gregorios of Kidonion (†1922), and Procopius of Iconium. Chrysostomos of Smyrna. He was born in Triglia of Bithynia in 1867. In 1902 he was elected Metropolitan of Drama by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Drama, located in Eastern Macedonia, had a predominantly Greek population but at the time was part of the Ottoman Empire and was engulfed in the Balkan Wars. The metropolitan worked to encourage the Greek population to build schools and churches, take back churches occupied by the Bulgarians, and to build athletic centers, hospitals, and nursery schools. His actions led to his exile on August 30, 1907, by the Turkish authorities. On May 10, 1910, he was elected Metropolitan of Smyrna. During World War I and the persecution of the Greeks of Anatolia by the Ottoman Empire, he helped members of the Greek population to take refuge in the Greek islands of the Aegean. Additionally, he served as a spokesman for the civilian population to diplomatic officials and the world press. The German ambassador in Constantinople wrote that Chrysostomos stands to the best of living clerics. His actions resulted in a second exile on August 20, 1914, when he left Smyrna for Constantinople. Following the end of the world war, he returned to Smyrna. On May 2, 1919, the Greek army occupied Smyrna in accordance with the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres. Chrysostomos continued his work with the Greek population while also supporting the needs of the Turkish and Armenian populations. He was notable for his charity work and for having been deeply involved in the politics of his day. The American Consul at Smyrna, George Horton, wrote in his book The Blight of Asia, that he was there [in Smyrna] up until the evening of September 11, 1922, on which date the city was set on fire by the army of Mustapha Khemal. Horton refers to Metropolitan Chrysostom several times: on one occasion I was present at an important service in the Orthodox Cathedral, to which the representative of the various powers, as well as the principal Greek authorities, had been invited. The [Hellenic] High-Commissioner [for Ionia, Aristidis Stergiadis, which Horton spells Sterghiades] had given the order that the service should be strictly religious and non-political. Unfortunately, Archbishop Chrysostom (he who was later murdered by the Turks) began to introduce some politics into his sermon, a thing which he was extremely prone to do. Sterghiades, who was standing near him, interrupted, saying: But I told you I didn’t want any of this. The archbishop flushed, choked, and breaking off his discourse abruptly, ended with, In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Amen, and stepped off the rostrum.[2] Death The Mitre of Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Smyrna. (National Historical Museum, Athens, Greece) After the defeat of the Greek Army in Anatolia and the reoccupation of Smyrna by the Turks, Chrysostomos refused to leave Smyrna and abandon his flock. The metropolitan was abducted by a mob incited by Nureddin Pasha on September 9, 1922. According to eyewitness accounts, he was tied to a barber chair, cruelly tortured, and put to death. According to the French observers,...The mob took possession of Metropolitan Chrysostom and carried him away,...a little further on, in front of an Italian hairdresser named Ismail...they stopped and the Metropolitan was slipped into a white hairdressers overall. They began to beat him with their fists and sticks and to spit on his face. They riddled him with stabs. They tore his beard off, they gouged his eyes out, they cut off his nose and ears. The French soldiers were disgusted by what they saw and wished to intervene, but their commanding officer was under orders to remain strictly neutral. At the point of a revolver, he forbade his men from saving the metropolitans life. Chrysostom was dragged into a backstreet in the Iki Cheshmeli district, where he eventually died from his terrible wounds.[3] Professor Marjorie Housepian (Hovsepian) Dobkin remarks in her book The Smyrna Affair that The Archbishops murder was reported to Admiral Dumesnil aboard the French flagship. Family Survivors Metropolitan Chrysostomos was survived by his nephews, among whom Yannis Elefteriades, who witnessed the arrest and execution of his uncle, having found shelter by his side after the killing of his parents. He escaped to Lebanon, as a refugee, where today, his grandson Michel Elefteriades is a well-known Greek-Lebanese politician, artist and producer.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 22:34:31 +0000
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