Holy Great Martyr Eustathios and His Family in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. Saint Eustathios the Great Martyr was a military commander in the city of Rome, during the reign of the Emperor Trajan. He was called Plakidas, and his wife was Tatiana. He was very wealthy and, although a pagan, he gave alms to the poor with great joy. Once, when he had gone out hunting, a deer appeared to him, which he began to pursue. Just as he was about to catch it, he saw the honorable Cross of Christ between its antlers, while from the antlers came a voice saying: ‘O Plakidas, why are you pursuing Me? I am Christ.’ After this astonishing event, he believed in Christ and was baptized, and then the warfare against him by the man-slaying devil began: he lost his wealth, saw his wife taken captive, his children were carried away by wild beasts, and he himself found himself in great poverty. God, however, permitted him to find his wife and children again, and also allowed the emperor to seek him out and restore him to his former office. After all these things, the time of his martyrdom came. For he was compelled to sacrifice to the idols, something he immediately refused to do; and for this reason he was thrown into a bronze bull heated by fire, by which martyrdom he also brought his life to an end.

Homilies from the Menaion for Every Day of the Year: September 20

The Month of September

The 20th Day

21. Why the Lord Permits the Godly to Suffer in This Age

(From the Life of the Holy Great Martyr Eustathios Plakidas)

Many people, when they see a person suffering whom they consider to be a sinner, ordinarily say, “He deserves it!” But when they see a godly person suffering, they are perplexed, troubled, and think: “He has done nothing to anyone except good; he lived righteously. Why, then, does God punish him? Does God really not see his sufferings? And why does He not deliver him from them?” What should we say to these many people concerning such thoughts of theirs? 

 

First of all, we should say that when they see even someone whom they consider a sinner suffering, they must never fall into the sin of judgment and say, “He deserves it!” The life of every person and the dispositions of his heart are known by God alone. And when they see a righteous person suffering, even then they should not be troubled and say, “Why is he suffering?” We say this to the many who judge the misfortunes of the righteous and sinners, so that they may know that with God everything is not arranged according to their reasoning, but everything is arranged wisely, and everything, including the sufferings sent to the righteous, serves for their salvation and blessedness.

The Discovery of the Reliquary of Saint Trophimos in 1907

Introduction

The discovery of the Reliquary of Saint Trophimos at Chouhout Kassaba, the site of ancient Synnada in Phrygia, in 1907 provided an important piece of archaeological and epigraphic evidence for the study of early Christianity in Asia Minor. The small marble reliquary, fashioned in the form of an architectural sarcophagus, was discovered together with human cranial bones. Its subsequent study and publication by Gustave Mendel in his 1909 Catalogue des monuments grecs, romains et byzantins du Musée Impérial Ottoman de Brousse opened an important discussion concerning the date of the monument, the antiquity of the veneration of the martyrs, and the degree to which Christian communities in Asia Minor expressed their faith during the period of Roman persecution.

The discovery itself belongs to the archaeological history of the late Ottoman Empire. The reliquary was not uncovered by a Western archaeological expedition, but first came to official attention through Ottoman administrative and museum channels. According to the official report preserved by Mendel, the reliquary was discovered by a local inhabitant of Chouhout, Chaban-oghlou Hallil, while searching for stones in a field near the town. Ottoman authorities subsequently dispatched Achmet tchélebi effendi, president of the local commission of public instruction and conservator of the local branch of the Imperial Museum, to investigate the discovery together with the mudir. The objects were then sent through the Ottoman museum system and entered the collections of the Museum at Bursa, where Mendel examined and published the reliquary in 1909.

Homily Two on the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord (St. Innocent of Kherson)

Homily on the Day of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord 

(Delivered in Kiev when Bishop Innocent was a Student at the Kiev Theological Academy)

By St. Innocent of Kherson

“And the people answered, saying, ‘His blood be on us and on our children.’” (Matthew 27:25)

The desire of your heart, O godless people, has been fulfilled! Your princes and leaders have been destroyed; “the walls of your city have been overthrown, your altars have been dug up, your prophets saw vanity, your priests sigh; the infants asked for bread; those who were joined to it have rejected it” (Lamentations 2:14–16; 4:4; 1:2; 3:44). The Most High Himself “covered Himself with a cloud, so that your prayer might not reach Him” (Lamentations 3:44).

Christians! We, being “wild branches,” have by the grace of God been deemed worthy to take the place of the “natural branches,” the Jews, and to be grafted onto the good olive tree, Jesus Christ, from which they were broken off (Romans 11:17–21). What feeling does this change wrought by the right hand of the Most High produce in us? Shall we say in shameful self-exaltation, “The branches were broken off so that we might be grafted in” (Romans 11:19)? But have we considered through what they were broken off from the tree of life, and through what we were grafted onto this tree? “They were broken off through unbelief” (Romans 11:20); we, however, stand through faith. Yet faith is not “from ourselves, but the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). The same merciful God who bestowed upon us the pledge of faith can also restore it to them; the same righteous God who sent them a spirit of insensibility, “that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not hear” (Luke 8:10; Romans 11:8), can send us “an activity of delusion, so that we should believe the lie” (2 Thessalonians 2:11). Therefore, we must not become high-minded when we look upon the rejected Jews, but must be filled with fear, lest God, who “did not spare the natural branches,” “should not spare” us either (Romans 11:21). The example of this people should awaken us from sinful carelessness. Let us unfold this thought.

Holy Martyrs Trophimos, Sabbatios and Dorymedon in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. These three holy martyrs lived during the reign of Probus. Of these, Sabbatios was found standing accused before the Vicar in Antioch on account of his Christian faith. After being severely tortured and shut up in prison, he gave up his spirit amid his sufferings. Trophimos, on the other hand, after having iron soles placed upon his feet as though they were sandals and being exiled to the region of Synnada, was severely tortured there, together with Dorymedon, and in the end they were beheaded.

2. These three holy martyrs are not very well known among the fullness of the Church, as is, of course, similarly the case with many other of our Saints, whether martyrs, ascetics, or Saints belonging to some other group. This, however, does not mean that they are any less holy than those who are better known among the faithful. Many, for example, may know Saint George and Saint Demetrios, among the Great Martyrs and those who have particular boldness before the Lord our God; yet we likewise believe that Saints Trophimos, Sabbatios, and Dorymedon have a powerful intercession for us before the Lord, since what led them to martyrdom was the same thing that we point out in all those regarded as great Saints: their love for God, burning love like fire, and their complete turning toward Him. “The three, burning with love for the revered Trinity,” “being wholly adorned by their inclinations toward the Divine,” as the Hymnographer characteristically notes.

Homilies from the Menaion for Every Day of the Year: September 19

 

The Month of September

The 19th Day

20. Those Who Live Holy and Piously Are Obeyed Even by Wild Beasts

(The Sufferings of the Holy Martyrs Trophimos, Sabbatios, and Dorymedon)

It is known that at the creation of man, God gave him authority over all animals in general, and over wild beasts in particular. It is also known that after the Fall he lost this authority. What do you think, brethren: did he lose it absolutely, or not? Know that he did not lose it absolutely, for the examples of the Saints prove the truth that even now, to those who live holy and piously, not only ordinary domestic animals but also wild beasts are obedient. There are a great many such examples in the Lives of the Saints. Let us bring forward two of them in confirmation of our words and for your edification.

The persecutor Dionysios decided to give the holy martyrs Trophimos and Dorymedon, for confessing the name of Christ, to be devoured by wild beasts. On the appointed day, Dionysios, together with his counselors, servants, and a great multitude of people, came to the arena, and the holy martyrs, naked and covered with wounds, were placed in the place where the beasts were to be released against them. First they released a she-bear, which, having rushed at them in fury, immediately afterward changed her fury into gentleness and turned her mouth away from them. Then they released a leopard, and it merely licked the feet of the Saints. Finally, they released a lion, and it became gentle before the martyrs like a lamb. And all the people, it is said, seeing such a wonder, marveled and recognized the power of our great God and Savior.

Discourse on the Finding of the Honorable Relic of Saint Euphemia (Constantine, Bishop of Tios)

Introduction

The following Discourse on the Finding of the Honorable Relic of Saint Euphemia was written by Constantine, Bishop of Tios, at the request of George, Bishop of Amastris. The work recounts the remarkable history of the relic of Saint Euphemia, from its removal from Chalcedon during the Iconoclastic persecution, its casting into the sea and miraculous recovery on the island of Lemnos, to its eventual return to Constantinople in 796, during the reign of the Empress Irene and her son Constantine VI and the patriarchate of Saint Tarasios. Constantine composed the account sometime in the late eighth or early ninth century, probably near the beginning of the ninth century, although the precise date is uncertain. His purpose is not merely historical: by recounting the miracles associated with the relic, and especially the Saint’s miraculous confirmation of the Orthodox faith at the Synod of Chalcedon, he presents its recovery as another manifestation of divine providence and a vindication of the Orthodox veneration of the relics of Saints.

A Discourse by Constantine, Most Holy Bishop of Tios, on the Finding of the Honorable Relic of the Holy and Most Renowned Martyr Euphemia, as Proposed by George, Most Holy Bishop of Amastris.

Prologue

1. I have come bearing the command, O most holy Father, lover of every good desire and guide of my own humble person, having taken courage from your holy prayers. For I am not capable of undertaking this task, being unlearned and filled with every kind of rusticity, but, fearing that the penalty of disobedience is always perilous and that failure to carry out a fatherly command is harmful, I have taken courage from your most excellent prayers. Writing, therefore, what I have heard from devout men and all that I have seen with my own eyes, I have undertaken to set down the exile and removal of the relic of the most renowned martyr Euphemia, its discovery and translation, and the account thereof, so that another generation may come to know the great deeds of God, which the all-good God, who has governed all things from the beginning and continues to do so even now and beyond, never ceases to accomplish, to the glory and praise of those who fear Him, and to the defeat and shame of those who dare to bark against His glory and against His Saints.

Homily for the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord (St. Sergius Mechev)

 

Homily for the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord

By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!

There are two understandings of the feasts of the Church and two attitudes toward them: a worldly one and a spiritual one. The worldly understanding consists in thinking that we must not forget events that took place in ancient times, and that we gather in church on these days in order to “remember” them. Such an attitude toward the feasts is the fruit of an “ideological,” or merely conceptual, understanding of Christianity.

For those who understand Christianity in this way, Christianity is reduced to certain religious and moral ideas about which one can speak, which one can accept intellectually, and with which one can even become fired up for a time.

This “ideological” understanding of Christianity is a condemnation against us; it kills true Christian life within us. The worst thing for us would be to be called ideological Christians. Therefore, we must struggle against this “ideological” character in Christianity, overcome it within ourselves if it is present in us, and strive for another understanding of Christianity, a spiritual one.

The Chapel of Saint Ariadne in the Nisimos Plateau of Crete

 

On the Nisimos Plateau in Lasithi, on its southwestern side, stands the country chapel of Saint Ariadne.

The small church was built in 1995 by the dentist Emmaneul N. Spanakis, as is also recorded on a marble plaque set into the western exterior wall, beside its entrance.

Constructed of local stone, it stands out against the expansive plateau, which is lush green during the winter months and dry during the summer.

The church is single-naved and barrel-vaulted, as prescribed by the architectural tradition of churches in Crete. Its interior is simple and has no iconostasis. The sanctuary is separated from the nave by low marble panels.