Holy Martyr Glykeria in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Glykeria belongs to the group of women martyrs who are characterized by an intense longing for Christ and by such courage that it astonishes every angelic and human mind. One of the many beautiful hymns of her feast gives us the spiritual depth of her martyrdom: how Christ accepted the sufferings she endured and what He granted her in return. “Offering the blood of your martyrdom to Christ like perfumes and myrrh, O victorious martyr, you were offered to Him as a sweet fragrance, overflowing healing upon all” (Ode 3).

The Holy Hymnographer considers the Saint to be a myrrhbearer — not because she offers Christ physical perfumes and myrrh, but because she offers her very self, which is what is most precious and honorable before Him. “Be faithful unto death” [Revelation 2:10], the Spirit of God asks of the faithful person, just as the Lord Himself lived in absolute faithfulness to the will of God the Father, giving His life out of love for mankind upon the Cross. “He became obedient unto death, even death on a Cross” [Philippians 2:8]. That is why the Saint is regarded as a sweet fragrance before God: because she was found to be perfectly attuned to the life of her Lord. In the same way, sadly, we become a foul odor and stench before Him whenever we walk in the path of disobedience toward Him. “Every lawless man is unclean before the Lord” [Proverbs 3:32]. For this reason the Lord granted her the gifts of healing for every person who comes to her in faith — and indeed to the point of an “overflow.” “Overflowing healing upon all.” Just like our God Himself, Who “does not give the Spirit by measure” [John 3:34].

Prologue in Sermons: May 13

How a Monk Should Conduct Himself

May 13

(Word concerning the character of the good and the evil.) 
 
By Archpriest Victor Guryev

More than once we have spoken with you, monks, about how you ought to conduct yourselves. But forgive us, for today again we think it necessary to speak to you of the same things from the Holy Fathers. The teaching of the Holy Fathers, even when repeated, is always beneficial and salvific for us. So then, how should a monk conduct himself?

First, says the church teaching, a monk must abandon judgment of others and every other evil deed, and repent of his sins with confession and tears. He must not boast of his self-correction or of his good works, nor become intoxicated with pride, for pride is a great evil, since even the devil fell away from the glory of God because of pride. A monk must flee gluttony and drunkenness, must not frequently wander without necessity through worldly homes, and must not give himself over to excessive sleep, for all these things bring great shame upon a monk. Rather, he ought to obey his spiritual guide, confess sinful thoughts to his spiritual father, keep the fear of God in his heart, and always keep death before his eyes. The conclusion of all this is that if you, monk, see anything with your eyes or hear anything with your ears, keep it to yourself and say: “Why should I judge my brother, when I myself am worse than all?”

Saint Epiphanios as a Bishop in Cyprus

By Dr. Georgios Kakkouras, 
Doctor of Theology, Secondary Education Teacher of Religious Studies

“Epiphanios the Great, the renowned Archbishop of Salamis or Constantia, is rightly considered one of the most illustrious adornments of the Church of Cyprus” (History of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus, Hackett–Papaioannou).

Nevertheless, he was not Cypriot by origin. He was born in Eleutheroupolis of Palestine to parents who were Christians(?) of Hebrew or Greek descent. He devoted himself with unusual zeal to learning and acquired a rich theological and literary education. He knew five languages — Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Syriac, and Coptic — something astonishing for that period, when no special methods for teaching languages existed.

His life was written by three biographers, two of whom are identified as his disciples, and for this reason there are many sources concerning his life and work. At a young age he entered the monastic life and became a disciple of the great ascetic Saint Hilarion. Thus the ascetic monastic element characterized his entire later life.

Saint Epiphanios of Cyprus in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The great Father and Hymnographer of Saint Epiphanios, Saint John of Damascus, repeatedly focuses our attention on what he considers the first thing we must notice: the Saint’s conversion from the Jewish faith to the grace of faith in Christ. For Saint Epiphanios, the Hymnographer notes, the Mosaic Law functioned in the way the Apostle Paul says: as a “schoolmaster unto Christ.” That is, Epiphanios did not have a veil over his mind when he studied the Old Testament. Rather, because his soul was open, he perceived the meaning of the Law, which is none other than Christ Himself. For we must not forget that the Old Testament also, as we learned from the Lord Himself, “points” to Christ. Without Christ it remains closed and uninterpreted. “What Moses and the prophets wrote, they wrote concerning Me,” revealed the infallible mouth of our incarnate God.

“The Law written in letters became for you a schoolmaster leading to Christ, Epiphanios, showing you the grace of the knowledge of God in the Savior, which shone forth and had been mystically prefigured and symbolized in the clearest way” (Sticheron of Vespers).

Prologue in Sermons: May 12

Woe To the One Who Becomes Rich in Himself and Not in God

May 12

(From the Life of Saint Epiphanios.) 
 
By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The Psalmist says: “The rich have become poor and hungry, but those who seek the Lord shall not be deprived of any good thing” (Ps. 33). What do these words mean? The Prophet means that the Lord never abandons those who place their hope in Him. And we may add that they also mean this: woe to the one who grows rich in himself and not in God.

In the city where Saint Epiphanios was bishop, a famine once occurred, and there was great distress in that place. At that time there lived there a wealthy nobleman named Faustian, who possessed enormous stores of grain. He was a pagan. Epiphanios said to him: “Friend, sell me some wheat on credit, so that I may feed the starving. In time I will repay you.”

Faustian replied: “Go to your God, and He will give it to you.”

Epiphanios went to the church of the holy martyrs and all night long prayed to God with tears that He would feed the hungry. There was also there a pagan temple into which no outsider was permitted to enter, for whoever entered immediately died.

The Unenslaved Spirit of Romiosini (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

 

The Unenslaved Spirit of Romiosini 

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

(Delivered at the event organized by the “Philippoi of Nafpaktos” Society for the anniversary of the Fall of the City, in Nafpaktos on May 29, 2012.)

The month of May is dedicated to Romiosini, because in this month took place the inauguration of Constantinople (May 11), the memory of the first Christian emperor is celebrated (May 21), and we commemorate the Fall of the City (May 29). Reference to these subjects is always important and timely, especially in our own age.

A general observation is that the fall of the City is not a matter for mourning and lamentation, but for intense reflection and a starting point for reorientation. The points that will be emphasized below will define the importance of this subject for our own time and will express the free and unenslaved spirit of Romiosini, despite the fall of the City.

Homily One on Saints Cyril and Methodios, Equal to the Apostles (St. John Maximovitch)

Homily One on Saints Cyril and Methodios, Equal to the Apostles 

By St. John Maximovitch

(Delivered in Shanghai in 1941)

What a joyful cry of gratitude would burst forth from the lips of people who from birth had sat in a dark cave deprived of light, when someone, opening their gloomy dwelling, would pour into it the life-giving rays of the sun and then lead them out into freedom!

Such also should be the feeling of gratitude we experience toward the holy brothers Cyril and Methodios.

To the Slavic tribes who “sat in the land and shadow of death” (Matt. 4:16) of paganism, they brought the light of the true Faith of Christ.

To those who knew nothing of the Kingdom of Heaven, they proclaimed it and showed the way into it.

The servants of false pagan gods they made into servants of the True God!

Homily Two on the Commemoration of the Enlighteners of the Slavs and Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodios (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Two on the Commemoration of the Enlighteners of the Slavs and Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodios 

By St. John of Kronstadt

“And there shall be one flock and one Shepherd.” (John 10:16)

What does this honorable, though small, gathering in the church of the First-Called Apostle on this present day signify — a gathering such as had never taken place in former years? What church celebration is being observed today?

Today the Church celebrates the memory of the two holy brothers, Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodios, who enlightened the Slavic peoples with the faith of Christ, invented an alphabet for them, and translated the Holy Scriptures and church books from Greek into the Slavic language.

Until quite recently we did not honor Saints Cyril and Methodios with a special service on this day. Why then, for almost nine hundred years, was the memory of the holy enlighteners of the Slavs not especially honored in our Church? Probably because the holy brothers did not preach the Christian faith specifically to us Russians, nor did they invent the alphabet and translate the Holy Scriptures and church books specifically for us, but rather for our Slavic brethren — the Moravians, Pannonians, Czechs, Bulgarians, and others. To us these treasures came by inheritance from those Slavic tribes among whom the lust for power of the Roman Pope introduced Latin worship.

May: Day 11: Teaching 2: Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodios

May: Day 11: Teaching 2:*
Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodios
 
(The Merits of the Holy Brothers Cyril and Methodios for the Slavs)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Methodios, whose memory is celebrated today, together with his brother Cyril (whose memory is celebrated on February 14), was a teacher of the Slavs, to whose race we Russians also belong in the Christian faith. He came from a noble family in the city of Thessaloniki. Having received an education in his native city, he became governor of a Slavic region in Macedonia. But his heart was not inclined toward the world and its vain pleasures. After ten years of service he withdrew to the Monastery of Polychronion on Mount Olympus, where his brother Saint Constantine soon arrived. In the year 857 both brothers were called to preach to the Slavs. In order to accomplish this great and holy work more successfully, the holy brothers created the Slavic alphabet, translated the liturgical books from Greek into the Slavic language, and for the first time introduced divine services among the Slavs in their native tongue.

Because of the slanders of the German bishops, the holy brothers were summoned to Rome as preachers of the gospel in the Slavic language, while those bishops claimed that the word of God should be read only in the three languages in which the inscription on Christ’s Cross had been written. Pope Adrian vindicated the holy brothers. Saint Cyril, exhausted by his unceasing labors, became gravely ill in Rome and soon reposed there, while Saint Methodios was elevated to the rank of Archbishop of Pannonia or Moravia and returned to his flock, where he continued enlightening the Slavs until the end of his life. He reposed in the year 885.