Holy Martyr Pelagia of Tarsus in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. Saint Pelagia was from Tarsus, in the time of the emperor Diocletian. She heard about the faith of Christ and desired to learn what it was. Then she saw in a dream the bishop of her region baptizing her. So she left her mother, pretending that she was going to her nurse, but instead she went to the bishop. He, being enlightened by God, received her and baptized her. The son of the emperor, who desired her as his wife, learned what had happened and became so enraged by the passion that possessed him that he took his own life. Then Diocletian sent for the virgin girl to be brought before him, and since he could not persuade her to abandon the faith of Christ, he heated a bronze bull and placed the Saint inside it. There the Saint received her end and the crown of her confession.”

2. The Holy Martyr Pelagia is not incidental. She was a wealthy and beautiful girl who would have become a queen, since the son of Emperor Diocletian desired her as his wife. And yet, without any particular connection from her family to the Christian faith, she not only becomes a Christian, but also gives her life for Christ. How? The Lord called her through a dream, which ultimately became her path for entering into the Body of Christ, the Church, through Holy Baptism. These are those exceptional cases of dreams whose origin is neither natural nor demonic, but from God. And how are we certain of the divine nature of the dream? It was the bishop who, by divine illumination, recognized the Lord’s calling through this means. Otherwise, we know from our saints that dreams in most cases are means of deception, and therefore we should not give them attention or rely upon them. According to the saying of John Climacus, “the one who trusts in dreams is utterly inexperienced and unwise.”

Life of the Holy Venerable Mavra of Mount Ceahlău

By Archimandrite Mihail Daniliuc

Nuns, monks, priests, and laypeople have carried love and devotion toward the Venerable Mavra of Mount Ceahlău for more than two centuries, after which written testimonies began to be recorded concerning the hermit life and the miracles of the Venerable Mavra in the oldest Romanian Synaxaria and Paterika.

A hermit life on Mount Ceahlău most likely existed from the time Christianity appeared at the foothills of the Carpathians, but it intensified after Romanian monasticism experienced a reorganization and a beautiful flourishing after the 14th century.[1] Countless hermits, monks, and nuns living in cenobitic communities labored here,[2] among them also the Holy Venerable Mavra of Mount Ceahlău,[3] also called Mount Pion.[4]

She lived toward the end of the 17th century[5], being originally from a village in the Bistrița Valley, not far from Ceahlău.[6] Born and raised in a pious family, Maria — as she was named at Baptism — came to know the beauty of our Holy Orthodoxy from early childhood. Her parents, people of good lineage and faithful, zealous for holy things, raised her in faith and love for God, urging her toward prayer and fasting, but also toward the doing of good works. She had a gentle nature and loved the beauty of God’s creation that surrounded her everywhere. She dearly loved the birds of the sky and the animals of the forest, feeding them especially during harsh winters with severe frost and snow. Her love for the Gospel of Christ she learned at home, but she deepened it in the village church and in the monasteries and sketes nearby, where she went on pilgrimage with her parents and family or with many children of her age. Some old records show that near the village of the Venerable Mavra there was the Skete of Silvestru,[7] founded by a hermit named Silvestru, the church of the monastic settlement being built by the ruler Bogdan IV, the son of Alexandru Lăpușneanu.[8]

Prologue in Sermons: May 4

 

The More Humble a Person Is, the More He Receives Grace-filled Gifts From God

May 4

(A word about Saint Sisoes, how by a word he raised the dead. 
A word from the Paterikon about Bessarion, how by a word he cast out demons.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The virtue of humility brings one so close to God, so unites him with Him, that it makes the whole being of the humble person a vessel of divine grace; and this grace pours forth through the humble one also upon others and works great deeds, sometimes even apart from the will of the humble lover of humility himself. To be convinced of this, listen to the account of two incidents from the life of our Venerable Fathers Sisoes the Great and Bessarion of Egypt.

A certain common man set out with his sick son to the Venerable Sisoes, in the land of Egypt. On the way, the sick boy died. The father was not troubled by this; he took the dead body and brought it to the Venerable one. Knowing the latter’s humility, the common man did not openly ask him for help, but, entering with the dead child in his arms, he made a bow before the Saint and, while bowing, placed the dead son at the feet of the elder. Not knowing that a dead man lay before him, and thinking that the one who had bowed did not wish to rise, Sisoes said to the dead man: “Rise and go out.” And the dead man came to life, stood up, and went out to meet his astonished father. Then the father went in to Sisoes and told him what had happened to his son on the way and how he had brought him dead to the Venerable one. And the holy elder was grieved when he heard this, and he forbade the common man and his disciples to speak of what had happened until after his death.

Homily for the Sunday of the Paralytic (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

 

Homily for the Sunday of the Paralytic 

On the Abolition of the Sabbath by Christ

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria

“Let no one therefore judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a feast, or new moon, or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come” (Colossians 2:16–17)

Christ is risen!

Beloved faithful,

In today’s Gospel we see that Jesus Christ healed, on a Sabbath day, a paralytic who had been lying for 38 years. For this the Jews were angered, because the Lord had broken the commandment of the Sabbath. If, however, you listen attentively to what we shall speak today, you will clearly understand that the observance of the Sabbath is not given to Christians, but to the Jews; and at the same time you will understand that both the Savior and the Holy Apostles abolished, by word and deed, the observance of the Sabbath.

First, I will show that from Adam until Moses, for a period of 4,108 years, none of the ancient patriarchs kept the Sabbath as a feast. In order to understand this great truth, we will appeal to the testimonies of Holy Scripture, through which we will show that when God created man, He did not give him from the beginning a commandment to observe any day, but only placed him in the Garden of Eden — that is, in Paradise — to cultivate it and to guard it (Genesis 2:15). Then He gave him the first commandment: not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17). Moreover, after Adam broke the commandment of God and was driven out of Paradise, he received no commandment from God to observe any day. On the contrary, his whole life now became a continuous labor under the form of a curse, and he received this command and sentence from God, who said to him: “In the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread, until you return to the earth from which you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19).

Church of the Venerable Meteorite Fathers in Kalambaka

About 5 minutes from the center of the city of Kalambaka is the Church of the Venerable Meteorite Fathers, dedicated to all the Holy Fathers and Founders of the Monasteries in Meteora, whose Synaxis is celebrated annually on the Sunday of the Paralytic. It is a modern church of the three-aisled basilica type, established on December 7, 1986. The opening of the doors (first service) took place in March 1993; and it was consecrated on March 27, 2001 by His Eminence Metropolitan Seraphim of Stagoi and Meteora. It is located on the southeastern side of the town and constitutes one of the four parish churches of Kalambaka. The building of this church was at the expense of the Monasteries of Varlaam (primarily) and of Saint Stephen in Meteora.

 

Homily for the Sunday of the Paralytic - On Sinful Habits (St. Makarios of Patmos)

Homily for the Sunday of the Paralytic 

On Sinful Habits

By St. Makarios Kalogeras of Patmos (+ 1737)

A person is naturally inclined to feel sorrow and pain at the misfortunes and calamities of others. Perhaps because they are common, or because we are all of the same substance, or because a person does not know “what the coming day will bring.” He is not certain that later the thorns of pains which he sees in others will not also grow in himself. For these reasons, one is rightly drawn into a sympathetic disposition when he observes the illnesses and sufferings of his fellow human beings.

Who, then, would be so hard in heart, so beast-like in disposition, as not to grieve and not to feel compassion today, hearing from the holy Gospel of those many years which today’s paralytic spent lying down, like an insensible stone, upon a bed? Whose soul would not feel pain, hearing that this wretched man was not only paralyzed but also in extreme poverty, and for this reason was deserted by friends, deprived of relatives? Who would not feel compassion, when he considers not only the pains caused to him by the very grave illness of paralysis, but also the sorrow and the complaint that he felt when he saw the Angel troubling the water of the pool, another being healed and departing, while he himself remained always lying there?

Holy Martyrs Timothy and Mavra in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Joseph the Hymnographer once again makes use of the names of the Saints in order to characterize, by means of them, the quality of their holiness. Timothy and Mavra thus "honored God" and "darkened error”: “Having honored God, they darkened error, namely Timothy and the glorious Mavra” (Kathisma of Matins). Repeatedly he employs figures of speech, especially the contrast between light and darkness, to show that although the Saint is called Mavra (“dark”), she is full of the light of God. “With a flashing form, O modest and all-blessed Mavra, and by the light of your grace you darkened the faces of the dreadful tyrant” (Sticheron of Vespers). “Having cast off the dark evil-mindedness, you became light through martyrdom, O God-blessed one” (Ode 5).

Prologue in Sermons: May 3

Solitary Prayer

May 3

(On the repose of our Venerable and God-bearing Father Theodosius of the Kiev Caves.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The Lord says: “But you, when you pray, enter into your room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly” (Matthew 6:6). What do these words of the Lord mean? They mean that we must pray, as much as possible, also in solitude, so as to have closer communion with the Lord, and to spend time at times even away from people, so as not to be entirely scattered in the vanities of the world. Thus also the holy pleasers of God acted, from whom, for your instruction, we shall take examples for you.

The Venerable Theodosius of the Kiev Caves would withdraw during the time of Great Lent into a cave, and there he would shut himself in until Palm Sunday, spending the time in fasting and prayer; and afterward he would come out to the brethren on the Friday of Palm Week and would then remain with the monks, instructing them.

“Who Will Roll Away the Stone For Us?” (Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Mani)

“Who Will Roll Away the Stone For Us?”

By Metropolitan Chrysostomos III of Mani

The Myrrhbearing women were saying among themselves: “Who will roll away the stone for us?” (Mark 16:3). And they were going forward with this thought, that morning, “very early on the first day of the week” (Mark 16:2). Who will roll away for us the great stone that lies at the entrance of the tomb, there where Christ had been buried through the care of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemos? This particular Gospel passage informs us that the stone “was very great” (Mark 16:4). Who will lift it so that the door may be opened, so that this obstacle may be removed for the entrance into the tomb, into the All-Holy Sepulchre?

However, this question, “Who will roll away the stone for us?” is also the question of each one of us. It is a concern. Who, and in what way, will we move the “stone” of our inner world, the great mass of our heart?