By Fr. George Dorbarakis
1. Venerable Pelagia lived during the reign of Emperor Numerian and was from the city of Antioch. She lived among the orchestras and theaters of the time and was a prostitute, gathering a great deal of money from this wicked occupation. But when she was catechized in the Christian faith by Bishop Nonnus, who was a holy man, and earnestly repented, she was baptized and cast aside everything connected with her former sinful life as rubbish. Then she put on garments made of hair and, presenting herself as a man, secretly went to the Mount of Olives, where she enclosed herself in a cell, living out the rest of her life there in a manner pleasing to God. In this cell she reposed in the Lord.
2. Venerable Pelagia belongs to that company of people about whom the Lord, addressing the Pharisees, had said: “The tax collectors and the prostitutes go before you into the Kingdom of Heaven.” These are people who, although they do not have a good name socially, unlike the Pharisees, for example, who were considered the best Jews and therefore the closest to God, are distinguished by their good disposition and good intention, and who, for this reason, as soon as the call comes from God, immediately respond and follow God. The Lord spoke the Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee, as well as the Parable of the Prodigal Son, concerning such people, in order to show that what ultimately counts before God is awareness of one’s sinfulness, the “God, be propitious to me, the sinner,” and not an image of a person’s self-justification, perhaps because of some of his good deeds, which brings nothing upon him from God except condemnation.
With the Venerable Pelagia, as also with corresponding similar cases — the Venerable Mary of Egypt, for example, the Venerable Thais the prostitute (whom we also celebrate today), and others — we find ourselves, one might say, in a vivid manner, before the phenomenon of repentance, which also constitutes the only prerequisite for a person’s entry into the Kingdom of God. Our God, then, as the Lord showed from the beginning, does not ask a person for sinlessness, which certainly does not exist — for we all know that the only sinless One is our incarnate God Himself, Jesus Christ — but for his repentance, as awareness of his sin and hope in His philanthropy. It is not accidental that both the last of the Prophets, John the Forerunner, who was preparing the ground for the coming of the Messiah, and the Lord Himself, emphasized from the beginning and throughout their ministry the words: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has drawn near.” For this reason our Church always emphasizes that the only distinction among people that is accepted is not one of race, social standing, education, gender, and so forth, but whether people are repentant or not. A person who has become aware of his sins and turned with hope to God is considered a holy person; he is considered a citizen of Heaven. A person who feels “good” about himself, in the sense that he can boast of his virtues and therefore does not feel any deficiency within himself, is the person from whom God turns His face. The case of the Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee, which we mentioned above, is more than indicative.
With the Venerable Pelagia, therefore, we understand what repentance means. It means a change of way of life, and indeed without excuses and delays. As soon as the Venerable understood that her life was not pleasing to God, she immediately repented and expressed the genuineness of her repentance through a change in her life, and in a truly striking manner: she enclosed herself forever in a cell, even changing her appearance. And this is precisely the sign of genuine repentance: an immediate change of life; turning toward God and keeping His holy will. And we emphasize this truth because many times the devil deceives us, who does not come to tell us not to repent. What he drives us toward is postponing our repentance. Tomorrow is the spearhead of the Evil One, because he knows that tomorrow becomes the day after tomorrow, the day after tomorrow becomes the following day, and so on; consequently, the person remains forever in the same state. The hymnography of the day emphasizes this repentance almost in its entirety in the person of the Venerable Pelagia, in order to tell us that, on the one hand, repentance leads to the complete forgiveness of a person’s sins and his being filled with all the gifts of God, and on the other hand, it is the one-way road for us as well, if we want to see the face of God. Let us hear the oikos of today’s Kontakion:
“We who have been defiled by sins in this life, like me, the wretched one, let us emulate the repentance and the lamentation with tears of our Venerable Mother Pelagia, so that we may quickly receive forgiveness from God; just as the blessed one, while still alive, thoroughly washed away the filth of sin and received from God complete forgiveness, showing us the way of repentance.”
“Through her holy intercessions, Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us.”
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
