July: Day 29: Holy Martyr Kallinikos

July: Day 29:
Holy Martyr Kallinikos
 
(Every Christian Can Contribute to the Spread of the Christian Faith Through Pious Words and Good Life)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Today the Holy Church celebrates the memory of the Holy Martyr Kallinikos. Saint Kallinikos was born in Cilicia and was raised in the Christian faith. He was deeply grieved, seeing that the people in their error worshiped soulless idols and did not know the true God, and decided to devote his whole life to preaching the holy faith. He went around many cities and villages, converting pagans from idols to Christ God. Among other things, he arrived in the Galatian city of Ancyra, and laboring there in the gospel of Christ, he won many for God. The unbelievers seized him, presenting him to the city governor as a corrupter of the people and a preacher of the forbidden law. The governor, an evil and cruel man and hater of Christians, began to severely reproach him for turning the people away from the gods, and then subjected him to cruel tortures, but the Martyr endured them patiently. Then they sent him to the city of Gangra to be burned there. The journey was difficult and torturous: exhausted and weakened by the tortures he had endured, he had to keep up with the soldiers who were riding on horses; iron boots with sharp nails caused him the most severe pain at every step. But the Martyr trusted in God, prayed to Him the entire journey, and God did not abandon him with His mercy. The weather was sultry; the soldiers accompanying him were exhausted from thirst and heat. Kallinikos, pitying them, turned to the Lord with prayer, and at his prayer there suddenly gushed water out of a stone. The pagans cried out: "Great is the God of Christians!" But then they brought him to the city where the execution was to take place. Seeing the fire prepared for him, he cried out joyfully: "I thank You, Heavenly Father, that You have deemed me worthy to suffer for Your name! Receive my spirit in peace." With these words, he entered the fire and gave up his soul to God. This was in the middle of the 3rd century. His body remained unharmed in the fire and was reverently buried by Christians.

II. We have seen that Saint Kallinikos, deeply grieving over the error of the people, decided to devote his entire life to preaching the holy faith, which he actually spread everywhere he could. What holy determination! What a high and difficult feat is the preaching of the gospel! But this feat can be accomplished by anyone, without leaving his place of residence, without abandoning his occupation, moving in the circle in which God has destined him.

a) Anyone who has the gift of speech can be a herald of the faith of Christ. Let your speech be kind, edifying, moral; speak though a little, but thoughtfully and meaningfully, first of all, that which relates to the good of your neighbor, temporal and eternal - and who will you be if not a preacher of the teaching of faith? You are in the circle of frivolous people who allow themselves to speak disrespectfully about faith, to mock everything sacred. Refute such unbelievers, stand firmly for the glory of the name of God, for the faith, the Church and its institutions, speak boldly in their defense, what you can and what you know, for the admonition of the ignorant. And who will you then be if not the most sincere and zealous preacher of faith? And the mother who teaches her children to cross themselves and pray, tells them about the life of Jesus Christ and the Saints, goes with them to church, reads something edifying; a mother who at every step inspires her children to fear God, to flee evil, to do good - who is she if not a herald of God's will? And a master who inspires his servants to fulfill Christian duties, and a boss, a teacher, who dispose those dependent on them to live first of all for God and according to God, who care about rooting in them the fear of God, love for God and neighbor - are they not all preachers of the gospel in their circle, in that circle in which God has destined them to act?

b) But one can be a preacher of faith without words; it is possible to spread and solidify it in others through a good life, through a life of faith. A wise, kind, and instructive word that comes from a deeply believing heart also holds great significance. An example is higher, more powerful, and more effective than words.

You are in the company of people who are occupied with earthly gains alone and are entirely immersed in the cares of acquisition, but you know and understand that a Christian on earth must live first of all for heaven, his whole life must be a glorification of God and a service to Him. Knowing this, you care about spiritual acquisitions, about success in faith, hope and love; you give from your wealth to the poor, feed the needy and the wretched. And such a way of life serves as an edifying lesson for your brethren! Without words, how powerfully and clearly you tell them about what we live for and how we need to enrich ourselves!

You, a craftsman, you see that your brothers behave in a far from Christian manner, they swear and are almost universally drunk; they go for years without confession or communion, they live without the fear of God, in complete carelessness about their souls. But you know that such a life is disastrous, that it is not life, but a constant betrayal of Christ, a quick striving for destruction. And so you try to live differently, to be extremely careful in words, sober and chaste in behavior, you do everything with prayer, you try to be hardworking, honest, caring for your home and family. And with all this, what a high example you will set for others! Without words, you will be a teacher of all that is good.

III. May the example of the Holy Martyr Kallinikos, who gave his life to spread the light of the Christian faith among people who sat in the darkness of sin, and who suffered for it, awaken in us holy and God-pleasing zeal by word and example of his pious life to spread around us the light of Christian faith and piety. 

 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.