Prologue in Sermons: March 15

The Chosen Servants of God Sometimes Also Bear Upon Themselves Special Signs of God’s Mercy Toward Them

March 15

(A Word about Sergius the clairvoyant hermit.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The beloved servants of God, who are appointed by the Lord for higher service in His Church, sometimes bear within themselves not only special spiritual signs of His mercies toward them, but also — visible to some — particular tokens indicating their future great service. This we shall demonstrate by the following example.

In the Prologue, on the fifteenth day of March, in the church reading, it is written:

“Monk George the Armenian related: ‘Abba Gregory, the abbot of the Lavra of Pharan, many times asked me to bring him to Sergius the hermit, who lived not far from the Dead Sea. I fulfilled his wish and once brought him to the elder, who received him very kindly, brought water and washed his feet, conversed with him the whole day about the salvation of the soul, and only on the next day dismissed him.

After Gregory had departed, I said to the elder: 'Do you know, father, that yesterday you scandalized me?'

'With what?' asked the elder.

'How so? I have brought to you bishops and presbyters, and you have never washed the feet of any of them, yet you washed Gregory’s feet. What does this mean?'

The elder replied: 'What are you saying to me, brother? I do not understand. I only know this: when Gregory entered my cave, I, Sergius, received him as a patriarch, because I saw him girded with an episcopal omophorion, and the Gospel was in his hands. We do not look at faces, but penetrate into the heart of a man, which the Lord has granted us.’

And what happened? After five years God deemed Gregory worthy to become Patriarch of Antioch, just as Sergius had foretold concerning him."

Thus, brethren, to His beloved servants who are appointed for higher service in the Church, the Lord indeed reveals great signs indicating their great and lofty ministry in the Church. And the example of Gregory is not the only one. Read the life of Saint Nicholas, and you will be convinced of this.

When he was at the First Synod of Nicaea, he put the heretic Arius to shame not only by word but also by deed, striking him on the cheek. The fathers of the Synod were angered by this and decided to deprive him of the episcopal rank. But the Lord Himself and the Most Holy Theotokos approved his action and praised his zeal.

Some of the fathers of the Synod had the same vision which the Saint himself had once been granted before his consecration to the episcopacy. They saw that on one side of the Saint stood Jesus Christ with the Gospel, and on the other side the Most Holy Mother of God with the omophorion, giving the Saint the signs of his episcopal rank of which he had been deprived.

Understanding from this that the boldness of the Saint was pleasing to God, the fathers of the Synod ceased reproaching him and rendered him honor as a great pleaser of God (Cheti-Minei, Dec. 6).

What more shall we say? Let us say: “For whom He foreknew, them He also predestined” (Rom. 8:29). And since God foresaw that some would use their free will well and others badly, therefore He predestined some to glory and condemned others (Exposition of the Faith of the Eastern Patriarchs, Article 2). Amen.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.