Tuesday of the 22nd week after Pentecost Luke 11.34-41 Your eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is sound, your whole body is full of light; but when it is not sound, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.” While he was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him; so he went in and sat at table. The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of extortion and wickedness. You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give for alms those things which are within; and behold, everything is clean for you. Col 2.20-3.3 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations, “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things which all perish as they are used), according to human precepts and doctrines? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting rigor of devotion and self-abasement and severity to the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. MONK IOANNIKES THE GREAT (+ 846). PRIESTMARTYR NIKANDER, BISHOP OF MYRA, AND HERMES THE PRESBYTER (I). BLESSED SIMON OF YUREVETSK (+ 1584). The Monk Ioannikes the Great was born in Bithynia in the year 752 in the village of Marikat. His parents were destitute and could not provide him even the basics of an education. From childhood he had to tend the family cattle -- their sole wealth. Love for God and prayer completely held sway in the soul of the lad Ioannikes. Often, having shielded the herd with the sign of the Cross, he went to a secluded place and spent the whole day praying, and neither thieves nor wild beasts came near his herd. By order of the emperor Leo IV (775-780), a multitude of officials spread through the cities and towns to draft fine young men for military service. Young Ioannikes was also drafted into the imperial army. He earned the respect of his fellow soldiers for his good disposition, but also as a brave soldier and fierceness to enemies. Saint Ioannikes served in the imperial army for 6 years. More than once he was rewarded by his commanders and the emperor. But military service weighed heavily on him, his soul thirsted for spiritual deeds and solitude. And the Lord summoned His servant to Him for service. The Monk Ioannikes, having renounced the world, was intent to go off at once into the wilderness. However, on the advice of an elder experienced in monastic deeds, he spent a further two years at the monastery. Here the saint became accustomed to monastic obedience, to monastic rules and practices, he studied reading and writing, and he learned by heart thirty psalms of David. After this, on the urging by God, the monk withdrew into the wilderness. For three years he remained in deep solitude in the wilderness, and only once a month a shepherd brought him some bread and water. The ascetic spent day and night in prayer and psalmody. After each verse of singing the psalms the Monk Ioannikes made a prayer, which in somewhat altered form the Orthodox Church keeps to this day: My hope is the Father, my refuge is Christ, and my protection is the Holy Spirit. By chance encountering his former companions from military service, the saint quit the wilderness and withdrew to Mount Konturea. Only after 12 years of ascetic life did the hermit accept monastic tonsure. The saint spent three years after the tonsure in seclusion, wrapped in chains, after which he set off to Chelidon to the great faster Saint George (Comm. 21 February). The ascetics spent together three years. During this time the Monk Ioannikes learned by heart the entire Psalter. Having gotten up in age, the Monk Ioannikes settled in the Antidiev monastery and dwelt there in seclusion until his end. The Monk Ioannikes spent 70 years in ascetic deeds and attained to an high spiritual perfection. Through the mercy of God the saint acquired the gift of prophecy, as his student Pakhomios has related. The monastic elder during the time of prayer hovered over the ground. One time he traversed a river flooded to overflowing. The saint could make himself invisible for people and make others invisible: one time the Monk Ioannikes led out from prison Greek captives under the watch of a crowd of guards. Poison and fire, with which the envious wanted to destroy the saint, did him no harm, and predatory beasts did not touch him. It is known, that he freed the island of Thasos from a multitude of snakes. The Monk Ioannikes likewise saved a young nun, who was preparing to quit the monastery on a whim to marry; he took upon himself the agonised maidens suffering of passion, and by fasting and prayer annihilated the seductive assault of the devil. Foreseeing his end, Saint Ioannikes expired to the Lord on 4 November 846, at the age of 94. The Holy PriestMartyrs Nikander, Bishop of Myra, and the Presbyter Hermes (I), were disciples of the holy Apostle Pauls follower and co-ascetic, the holy Disciple Titus (Comm. 25 August), and they were ordained by him to the priestly dignity. Asceticising amidst incessant pastoral works, the saints converted many pagans to Christ. For this they were arrested and brought before the city governor, named Libanius. Neither flattery nor threats swayed the holy martyrs to renounce Christ. Then Libanius gave orders that they be tortured. The saints endured fierce and inhuman torments: they were bound to horses, dragged over stones, their bodies were lacerated with iron hooks and they were cast into an hot oven. The Lord helped them endure things, that a mere man by his own strength could not endue. Towards the end the martyrs were pierced in head and heart with spears, and thrown into a pit, they were covered over with ground. Blessed Simon of Yurevetsk was born in the city of Yurevetsa in the Povolzhsk or Volga region. Forsaken by his parents, the saint took upon himself the exploit of fool-for-Christ. Both winter and summer he went barefoot, in a single shirt, so that his skin became blackened and withered from fasting. Unthinking people often were cruel to him. Blessed Simon was fond of praying in the porticos of various churches. The ascetic exploit of self-denial cleansed his soul, and he received from God the gift of foresight: he foresaw many things and predicted the future. And contemporaries, mentioning his name, beheld various miraculous signs. Just before his end the saint went to the house of the voevoda (military commander) Feodor Petelin. Here, not knowing the saint, in a fit of anger he gave orders to give him a beating. Saint Simon fell grievously ill. He summoned a priest, made his confession, received the Holy Mysteries of Christ and consigned his soul to God. The voevoda became remorseful in his sinfulness. And amidst this, all the city gathered for the funeral of the saint. The body of Blessed Simon was buried in Theophany monastery. This occurred on 4 November 1584. In the year 1635 Patriarch Joasaph ordered the Theophany hegumen Dionysii to compile an account of the life and miracles of Blessed Simon and gave blessing to write his icon. The celebration of Blessed Simon has been made since he year 1635. © 2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 13:23:11 +0000
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