Encomium on the Great Euthymios, Bishop of Madytos (George of Cyprus) - 1 of 3

GEORGE OF CYPRUS

ENCOMIUM ON THE GREAT EUTHYMIOS, BISHOP OF MADYTOS

PUBLISHED BY VASILIOS ANTONIADIS [1]

From manuscript codex no. 363 of the “Synodal Library” in Moscow, the Russian Archimandrite Arseny published three years ago a noteworthy product of ecclesiastical rhetoric from the 13th century, the “Encomium on the Great Euthymius, Bishop of Madytos” (10th century), a work of George of Cyprus, later known under the monastic name Gregory,[2] Patriarch of Constantinople (1283–1289). This edition, accompanied also by a Russian translation, is not the first fruit of the scholarly labors of Father Arseny; and anyone who almost daily finds him in the Synodal Library diligently engaged in copying ancient codices readily acknowledges that the venerable servant of the Church has chosen the good portion.

Despite the voluminous and costly editions already produced, there still remains no small amount of work toward the preparation of a complete and critically reliable edition of the “Greek Patrology.” Not only are there still many unpublished works preserved in libraries of both East and West, but even the text of those already published does not in all respects meet the demands of critical scholarship. For this reason, we ought gladly and gratefully to welcome every effort, even one that contributes only a little to this completion.

Homily on the Fourth Sunday After Pascha (St. Innocent of Kherson)

Homily on the Fourth Sunday After Pascha
 
By Saint Innocent, Archbishop of Kherson and Tauride

“In these (porches) lay a great multitude of the sick—blind, lame, paralyzed—waiting for the moving of the water” (John 5:3).

It is not surprising that by the Pool of Siloam there was a very great number of the sick: for in it there acted the power of God, yet its action was very limited. Not many angels descended into the pool, but only one: “an angel of the Lord” (John 5:4). And that one angel did not descend every day, but only once a year. And once a year he descended not upon all the streams of the Siloam spring, but upon one principal one: “he went down into the pool.” Moreover, not everyone who entered the pool after the troubling of the water received healing, but only the one who entered it first: “and whoever stepped in first after the troubling of the water was made well” (John 5:4).

But can we, brethren, fail to marvel when we find a multitude of the sick at the Christian pool, at the pool of grace, of which the Pool of Siloam was only a faint image? Here it is not one angel, but the whole choir of the purest spirits, together with the Son of God Himself and the Holy Spirit, who descend to earth to give healing to the suffering; here it is not one pool that pours forth healing, but, one may say, as many pools as there are diseases and as there are the sick; here the fountain of life is not opened once a year, but, having once flowed forth from the pierced side of the Redeemer, it flows through all times and ages; here not only the one who comes first receives healing, but all — from the first to the last — whoever and whenever they may come. And yet, if we judge by the number of those healed in proportion to the abundance of the remedies given, the Christian pool heals fewer sick than the Pool of Siloam.

Venerable Martyr Ephraim of Nea Makri in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The Holy Hymnographer, the Venerable Gerasimos Mikragiannanites, does not have many details at his disposal from the life of the Venerable Martyr Ephraim in order to present and interpret them in a spiritual and theological way. For this is the task of a hymnographer of our Church: to base himself on the earthly life of a Saint, yet to perceive the depth of his life — that is, his life in Christ — which gives the tone and the fragrance of His grace, especially by focusing on his ascetic or martyric end. In this way, moreover, the Saint becomes a model for the faithful, and the saying is fulfilled: “to honor a martyr is to imitate a martyr.”

Thus, the Venerable Hymnographer in this case does not have many details about Saint Ephraim. Yet the few he possesses, through divine inspiration and his experience in the Holy Spirit, are multiplied in his hands, to the point that he offers us a wealth of spiritual blossoms from the newly-revealed Venerable Martyr.

What gives him the occasion to hymn the Saint — and through him, of course, the Lord Himself? The fact that from childhood he was dedicated to God as a monk; that he lived a consistent ascetic life while he remained in the monastery; that he confirmed his good ascetic struggle with the martyrdom of his blood when the monastery was attacked by the Hagarenes; that his relics, by God’s good pleasure, were discovered fragrant — a sign of his holiness; and finally, that he performs many miracles by the grace of God, both through the invocation of his name and through the veneration of his relics.

Life of Holy Venerable Matrona of Hurezi (+ 1935)

 

Venerable Matrona of Hurezi (1852–1935) stands among the great ascetic women of modern Romanian Orthodoxy, a model of humility, prayer, obedience, and spiritual motherhood.

She was born in Sibiu in 1852, into a pious Orthodox family. From her earliest years she was marked by a deep inclination toward the spiritual life. Her father, who had been a shepherd, later renounced the world and embraced monasticism on Mount Athos, receiving the name Nikodemos. She was also the aunt of Hieroschemamonk Teodosie Domnariu — the abbot of the Cell of Saint Hypatios on the territory of Vatopaidi Monastery.

At the age of five, the young girl was entrusted to the Monastery of Sărăcinești in Vâlcea, where she was raised in a monastic environment. There she learned prayer, obedience and monastic discipline. In time she was tonsured into monasticism, dedicating her entire life to Christ.

Holy Great Martyr Irene in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The ecclesiastical poet considers it a priority in the Service of the Saint to explain the change of her name from Penelope to Irene. In her Apolytikion, which usually summarizes for each Saint the main elements of his or her life, he emphasizes this from the very beginning:

“Christ, who is peace, called you Irene; for you bestow peace upon those who celebrate your memory and who come with hymns and spiritual songs to your divine temple, and you intercede for all, standing before the Thrice-Radiant Godhead.”

He does the same also in the other brief hymn, the Kontakion:

“From God the Bride of Christ received the Christ-bearing name; for the Angel of God, coming, called her Irene instead of Penelope.”

Prologue in Sermons: May 5

On Not Judging our Neighbors

May 5

(A word on repentance and on the forgiveness of sins.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

We say: “This one did such-and-such an evil, and for this he will receive such-and-such a punishment from God; and that one sinned differently and will also be punished by God; and for another there will be no forgiveness at all.” And so, according to us, it turns out that no one will be forgiven. Is this really so?

A certain maiden ascetic shut herself in a dark cell and there fasted for nineteen years. But, by the instigation of the devil, she once fell into a mortal sin. Fortunately, however, she very soon came to her senses, was moved in soul, and began to ask God for forgiveness. Her repentance was so deep, her self-restraint so strict, that she forgot absolutely everything except her sin. With tears she prayed to God and said:

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.