.png){kind=tracking}
By Fr. George Dorbarakis
Saint Loukilianos became known to the broader Church through the renowned and holy Elder of our times, Father Paisios the Athonite. Shortly before 1980, when he moved to the Koutloumousiou Cell of Panagouda, and before he had even unpacked his few belongings and ecclesiastical books from their boxes, he decided to perform the service of the day, June 3, using his prayer rope. When the time came to commemorate the saint whose feast was being celebrated, he became perplexed because he could not remember which saint it was. Then, to his amazement, he saw two men appear in his cell, one younger and the other older. He immediately recognized the younger one: it was Saint Panteleimon. The other, however, he did not recognize. When he asked who he was, the second Saint replied, “I am Saint Loukilianos.” The Elder did not hear clearly and asked again, “What? Saint Loukianos?” “No,” repeated the Saint, who was unknown to him, “Saint Loukilianos.” Then the Saints disappeared.
The Elder was deeply moved that God had responded even to an unspoken thought of his. Yet he wished to verify the vision. He searched through the boxes, found the June Menaion, and saw with great emotion that indeed, on June 3, our Church celebrates Saint Loukilianos. From that time on, the Elder honored this Saint in a special manner and kept an icon of him in the humble chapel of Panagouda.
The incident is, of course, trustworthy because the holy Elder himself is trustworthy. Yet it also helps us understand once again how truly alive our saints are, even though with our bodily senses we are unable to see or hear them. It is the saints of every age, such as the sanctified Father Paisios, who become the channels through which we too, miserable because of our many sins, which have closed even our spiritual senses, are able to perceive something of the immediacy of their presence. In this way we increase our faith in what the Church calls us to do every day: to turn to the saints and speak to them as living persons and not as myths or products of the imagination.
This, indeed, is the fundamental truth of our faith: that the Church is the Body of Christ, having Christ Himself as its Head, and consisting both of her militant and her triumphant dimensions. One could confidently say that the saints of the triumphant Church are far more alive than we who still remain in this world, a world that in many respects lacks true existence because of the darkness of its sins. What else does our Church testify when, for example, in today’s Apolytikion of the Holy Martyrs she calls us to beseech them because they pray to God for our salvation? “Let us all entreat the martyrs of Christ, for they intercede for our salvation.”
Indeed, the Holy Hymnographer grants us a glimpse of their spiritual vision: not only are they alive and interceding for us and for our salvation, but in their own age and in every age they are like the sun, shining and enlightening mankind. “Having truly appeared as morning stars in the Church of Christ God, the martyrs shine forth with the light of their confession” (Ode 9).
And elsewhere: “You became a most radiant lamp to those who struggled together with you” (Ode 3).
And again: “You shine forth by your words and enlighten the world through your contests” (Ode 4).
And this means, of course, that our saints, both through their words and, above all, through their lives, are our guides and examples. Particularly in a disoriented world such as the present one, where people afflicted by every kind of passion and perversion are held up as role models, the Church continues to insist upon the truth: our saints are the true models and luminous guides. And why is this so? Because they followed, with the greatest possible consistency, the very Founder of our faith, Jesus Christ Himself, proving that their highest priority was their love for Him.
In the case of Saint Loukilianos, the ecclesiastical poet Ignatios does not hesitate to compare him to Christ’s own chosen vessel, the Apostle Paul: “Together with Paul you cried out: ‘Neither danger nor sorrow, neither famine nor the sword shall separate me from the love of Christ, O martyr’” (Ode 7).
And it is this truth that explains the power possessed by our saints. Living in the love of Christ, chiefly by preserving His word within their hearts — for this is the proof of love for Christ according to His own saying, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” — they possess Him fully alive within their being and His power active within them. Does not the Lord Himself also assure us: “If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you”? (That is, if you remain united to Me and keep My words within your being, ask whatever you desire and it will be granted to you.)
This is precisely what the Holy Hymnographer also notes: “Having acquired within your heart the words of life, O wise one, you put to death through your steadfast resistance the flatteries of the tyrants, O ever-memorable one” (Ode 5).
Through the intercessions of Your Saint, O Christ God, save our souls.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
Indeed, the Holy Hymnographer grants us a glimpse of their spiritual vision: not only are they alive and interceding for us and for our salvation, but in their own age and in every age they are like the sun, shining and enlightening mankind. “Having truly appeared as morning stars in the Church of Christ God, the martyrs shine forth with the light of their confession” (Ode 9).
And elsewhere: “You became a most radiant lamp to those who struggled together with you” (Ode 3).
And again: “You shine forth by your words and enlighten the world through your contests” (Ode 4).
And this means, of course, that our saints, both through their words and, above all, through their lives, are our guides and examples. Particularly in a disoriented world such as the present one, where people afflicted by every kind of passion and perversion are held up as role models, the Church continues to insist upon the truth: our saints are the true models and luminous guides. And why is this so? Because they followed, with the greatest possible consistency, the very Founder of our faith, Jesus Christ Himself, proving that their highest priority was their love for Him.
In the case of Saint Loukilianos, the ecclesiastical poet Ignatios does not hesitate to compare him to Christ’s own chosen vessel, the Apostle Paul: “Together with Paul you cried out: ‘Neither danger nor sorrow, neither famine nor the sword shall separate me from the love of Christ, O martyr’” (Ode 7).
And it is this truth that explains the power possessed by our saints. Living in the love of Christ, chiefly by preserving His word within their hearts — for this is the proof of love for Christ according to His own saying, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” — they possess Him fully alive within their being and His power active within them. Does not the Lord Himself also assure us: “If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you”? (That is, if you remain united to Me and keep My words within your being, ask whatever you desire and it will be granted to you.)
This is precisely what the Holy Hymnographer also notes: “Having acquired within your heart the words of life, O wise one, you put to death through your steadfast resistance the flatteries of the tyrants, O ever-memorable one” (Ode 5).
Through the intercessions of Your Saint, O Christ God, save our souls.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
