On the Second Coming of the Lord (St. Chrysostomos of Smyrna)

On the Second Coming of the Lord

By the Holy Hieromartyr Chrysostomos, Metropolitan of Smyrna

The discourse concerns the Second Coming of the Lord.

But does the Second Coming of the Lord truly exist?

Is there immortality and a life everlasting to come?

Is there a future judgment?

Is there recompense after death?

Or do all things cease at the grave in this present life, and is the grave the final end — where together with the body life itself is buried and forever extinguished — and beyond the grave there exists nothing but the void?

This question is among the most serious of all and bears the highest importance for every earthly human being.

In View of Meatfare Sunday, a Sermon on the Second Coming of the Lord (Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Mani)

In View of Meatfare Sunday, a Sermon on the Second Coming of the Lord 

By Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Mani

We confess and say in the seventh article of the Symbol of Faith:

“And He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end.”

This concerns the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ — a subject exceedingly important, primary, and of interest to every human being.

Let us recall, for consolation and spiritual edification, a few things about the Second Coming of the Lord.

First of all, the Second Coming of the Lord is called in Holy Scripture a “day” (1 Cor. 3:13), and indeed “that day” (Matt. 7:22; Luke 6:23; John 14:20), “the last day” (John 6:39), “the day of the Lord” (1 Cor. 5:5), “the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6), “the coming” (Matt. 24:3), “the appearing of glory” (Tit. 2:13), and “the revelation of His glory” (1 Pet. 4:13). The hymnography calls it “a dreadful day,” “a fearful day,” “the day of judgment.”

Homily for the Sunday of the Last Judgment (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

Homily for the Sunday of the Last Judgment

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

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

I congratulate you on Meatfare Sunday, during which we remember the terrible events that await us all — the Last Judgment. God will clearly appear on earth to reward each according to their deeds, to restore the whole world.

Then the whole universe will change, the heavens will pass with a roar and melt in flames, and the earth and all the works that are on it will burn up, and then all people will appear before the terrible Throne of God Almighty and Christ will gather us all to judge and reward each according to his deeds.

Each of us will stand in the flesh before God, naked, clad only in the garments we wove on earth from our deeds. If we lived ordinary lives as ordinary people, without doing good deeds, or even worse, if we committed iniquity, then we will remain naked. And on the day of great trial, on the Day of Judgment, all our deeds will be tested. All Christians have one foundation — Jesus Christ — but everyone builds their lives on Him differently. Some build houses of straw, others of wood, and such houses will burst into flames on the Day of Judgment.

Saint Anthimos of Chios (1869-1960): Hesychast, Philanthropist and Confessor

 

Christos Klavas, 
Theologian, Sociologist, Chanter

It is an indisputable fact that even in more recent times, closer to us, the Orthodox Church continues to bring forth saints. This admission is of great significance for contemporary man who, perhaps more than in any other era, has need of hope as well as lofty ideals.

A contemporary sanctified figure is, among many others, Saint Anthimos of Chios, whose life constitutes a model of spirituality and philanthropy.

Born in Chios on July 1, 1869, Argyrios Vagianos (his name in the world) grew up in an environment of deep faith and piety. He did not receive much formal education, although he was endowed with remarkable natural gifts. On August 23, 1889, at the age of 20, he visited the Sacred Skete of the Holy Fathers in order to deliver to the monastery’s icon workshop the icon of Panagia Voitheia (the Helper), which he had received as an heirloom from his ancestors. This visit became the occasion for him to make the great decision to enter the ranks of the monks and submit to the Elder Pachomios, "renowned for his virtue.”[1] This was the elder who taught the ascetical, neptic tradition to Saint Nektarios of Aegina, Bishop of Pentapolis.[2] Consequently, Saint Anthimos and Saint Nektarios were disciples of the same spiritual teacher; they were spiritual brothers, flowers that sprang from the same root.

Holy Apostle Onesimos in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Onesimos was a slave of Philemon, a Roman man, to whom the Holy Apostle Paul writes (the homonymous epistle of the New Testament, the Epistle to Philemon). Onesimos became a disciple of Paul (when he had fled from his master Philemon and took refuge in Rome, where he met the Apostle Paul, who was under custody awaiting trial before Caesar), and he ministered to him. After the death of the Apostle, he himself was also arrested and brought before Tertullus, the governor of the region, and by him was sent to Puteoli. When Tertullus also went there, he found Onesimos persisting in the faith of Christ, and so he first ordered him to be beaten severely with rods and then to have his legs broken. In this manner he departed from this temporary life.

The Apostle Onesimos is yet another case of a man who received in his life the almighty energy of divine grace and was converted: from a harsh and difficult slave he became an Apostle of Christ. That is to say, from a man who, because of the oppression he felt, harbored negative feelings toward the world, he became one who placed himself in loving service to his fellow human beings, even giving his life in the end for Christ’s sake. This of course means that, in order to reach the point of accepting the word of the Gospel, he preserved within himself good elements; that is, there existed in his soul a certain search for the truth. In this respect he resembles his spiritual father, the Holy Apostle Paul, who himself, from being a persecutor of the Christian faith, became its greatest preacher and theologian.

Prologue in Sermons: February 15

On Patience

February 15

(From a saying of the Paterikon about a certain monk who went from monastery to monastery, unable to endure annoyance from the brethren.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

There are people who think things are good only where they themselves are not. Wherever they live, they complain about everyone, saying that all treat them badly and all offend them.

“If only I could settle over there,” they say, “then things would be different.”

They are always searching for something, always running from place to place. But will they ever find peace?

If they do not abandon their irritability and impatience — never; but if they arm themselves with patience and discernment, they will find it very soon.

A certain monk lived in a coenobitic monastery, and there five brethren loved him, but one insulted him. Unable to endure the offense, the monk left, thinking to find peace in another monastery. There eight brethren began to love him, but two hated him. He fled to a third. There seven loved him and five hated him. What was he to do?

Concerning Those Who Have Fallen Asleep in Faith (St. John of Damascus)

PROLOGUE

Here I wish to add a very important note of Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite concerning Memorial Services:

“Since the present discussion concerns memorials, we note that the third-day memorials performed for the departed brethren signify, according to the sacred Symeon of Thessaloniki, that the departed brother was from the beginning composed by the Holy Trinity.

The ninth-day memorials signify that, having been dissolved into the elements from which he was composed, he is to be numbered among the nine immaterial orders of the Angels, being himself immaterial.

The fortieth-day memorials signify that, in the future resurrection, having again been re-constituted in a higher manner, he too is to be taken up as the Lord was, and, caught up in the clouds, to meet the Judge.

These three states of man are also signified by the three-month, six-month, and nine-month memorials; in general they are performed for the purification of the departed — especially the fortieth day, as is indicated by the example of our Lord, who in His three births kept three complete forties, thus imprinting our own life in Himself. For the day of birth and the death of each person are called a ‘birthday,’ according to the temple in Laodicea.

The Apostolic Constitutions (Book VIII, ch. 42) say that the third day is observed because Christ rose on the third day; the ninth day in remembrance of the living and the dead; and the fortieth day according to the ancient type — for thus also the people mourned Moses.

Some say the third day is for the purification of the threefold aspect of the soul; the ninth for the purification of the five bodily senses together with the generative, natural, and transitional faculty; and the fortieth for the purification of the four elements in the body — each of which served in the transgression of the ten commandments; and four times ten make forty.” (Pedalion, Athens 1886, p. 221)

Memorial Services for the Reposed

Memorial Services

By Fr. Theodosios Martzouchos

"The dead man has not lost his place 
in the conscience and the mind of people, 
because he is absent from their eyes." 
— John Henry Newman

More or less, all of us have attended a Memorial Service for a relative or acquaintance. All of us have taken part in “remembrances of the dead.” We have all experienced the awkwardness of the mournful atmosphere, in which we do not know how to react or what to think. We have all felt uncomfortable, offering cold and indifferent condolences that we did not truly feel. Memorial Services, whether for acquaintances or relatives, have taken their place in the lives of Christians without the “why” of them being self-evidently understood and accepted.

In our own day especially, Memorial Services tend to become a psychologically comforting habit and at the same time a rational denial and objection. I do “something” for my loved one who has departed and remain with a sense of communication through the offering. At the same time my mind “protests” as to whether all this has any substantial usefulness, since when you die… everything seems futile and useless, just as indeed all material human things are useless for the dead.

What truly happens? What is a Memorial Service and why are Memorials needed?

Something Deeper (A Poem for the Saturday of Souls)

 

By Fr. Ioannis Papadimitriou

Many times, out of good intention,
some people leave an electric candle
on the grave of their loved ones.
It is not bad in the sense of sin,
but our Church has taught something deeper.

We do not light the vigil lamp or the natural candle
because our departed are afraid of the darkness.
They do not need it in order to “see.”
The oil symbolizes the mercy of God
which drips like balm
upon our suffering souls,
and the candle symbolizes the person who melts
little by little from sacrificial love;
and because love is not activism or an idea,
but becomes incarnate in the Person of Christ,
who is both Light and Life,
as it burns it spreads light all around!

Venerable Auxentios in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Venerable Auxentios lived during the reign of Theodosius the Younger (5th century A.D.). He came from the East and was a man of learning. He embraced the monastic life and went up to the mountain opposite the region of Oxeia, where he showed the greatest endurance in asceticism and complete Orthodoxy in faith. After long exposing the corruption and delusion of the false teaching of Eutyches and Nestorius and accepting the Fourth Ecumenical Synod at Chalcedon (451 A.D.), he became revered by emperors and radiant in countenance with divine grace for all who approached him, while he continually poured forth springs of miracles and healings for those who came near him. He reposed in peace, and his honorable body was placed in the church he himself rebuilt.

We cannot avoid the temptation to compare what the worldly mentality promotes today (February 14): a “Saint” of doubtful existence and character, Valentine — the so-called “Saint” of romantic love (for Saint Valentine may exist as a martyr, but he has nothing to do with what is usually attributed to him) — with what the Orthodox Church presents: the Venerable Father Auxentios of the Mountain. For both become occasions to speak about love, but in the first case in its human, worldly dimension — that is, as “a child of poverty” according to Plato: the one in love begs and seeks the other’s response, therefore he seeks to satisfy his own needs, and thus it is understood as an expression of selfishness; whereas in the second case love appears in the majestic dimension of divine love, which makes man partake of God and then radiate the rays of God’s love to the whole world, regardless of who receives them and in what condition he is. In this case we have the true nobility of love, offered “in the absence” of the other — that is, without expecting any response.

Prologue in Sermons: February 14

One of the Best Means of Making Unbelievers Believers

February 14

(Commemoration of our Venerable Father Abraham)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Why is it, brethren, that so few pagans are converted to our faith, and why do so few from the schism enter Orthodoxy? It is because we often forget that evil cannot be stopped or overcome by evil, and that evil can be halted — and cut off — only by good.

Venerable Abraham lived among pagans. Some mocked him and forced him to leave them; others constantly troubled him with requests for help. Abraham shared with them what he received from the Orthodox, and by this, it is said, he was delivered from abusive torment. And how did it end? The pagans, struck by the Venerable one’s love for mankind, built a Christian church and themselves all became Christians, and they entreated Abraham to be their priest.

Thus meekness and freedom from malice conquered evil and hatred and increased the flock of Christ!

Venerable Papa-Tychon and the Grandeur of the Divine Liturgy

By the late Metropolitan Kosmas of Aetolia and Acarnania

Forgive me, I do not wish to speak about my personal moments. But since I was asked to mention some of my personal experiences from my contact with Saint Paisios, I will simply recount a few events, solely for the benefit of us all....

As a young priest I approached the Sacred Cell of the Honorable Cross of Kapsala on Mount Athos, where Fr. Paisios was practicing asceticism before settling at Panagouda. With much fear I went to meet him, but also to lay before him my problems. Within myself I had formed an image of an imposing monk who would impress us and instruct us.

When we entered the cell and Saint Paisios received us, we encountered not an imposing monk, but a simple, humble, modest, though neatly kept, yet poorly dressed monk, who shone with the grace of God, radiated love, and whose words were seasoned and Spirit-bearing. He received us with his spiritual embrace wide open and gave us rest.

Homily on Saint Martinian (St. Michael Choniates)

Editorial Introduction

This homily survives in only one manuscript, the Laurentian codex (Λ), folio 104a, but it was found without its beginning, the opening having been lost together with the leaves of the codex that went missing between the end of the address “To Stryphon” and the leaf now bearing the number 104. The missing leaves were probably three in number. The title, being absent in the manuscript, was supplied conjecturally.

Homily on Saint Martinian 

By St. Michael Choniates, Metropolitan of Athens

… though differing in rank of glory, yet all are glorified and shining with purity: virginity is gold, widowhood and marriage silver — second indeed in order and glory to virginity, yet not deprived of splendor, provided they are kept free from the defiling stain that corrupts.

Venerable Martinian in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

This Venerable one was from Caesarea of Palestine. He began his ascetic life at the age of eighteen, living in deserts and mountains. After he had spent twenty-five years in withdrawal together with many others, he received the following temptation from the evil one.

A certain harlot, appearing as a poor woman, arrived at the mountain where the Saint lived. When night fell, she wept with sobs, claiming that she had supposedly lost her way and would become food for wild beasts. Therefore she begged the Venerable one to receive her into his cell so that she might not be devoured by their teeth.

Since it was impossible to leave her outside, he told her to enter, while he himself withdrew into the inner part of the cell. In the morning, seeing the change in her appearance (for she had dressed herself during the night in garments with which she adorned herself), the Venerable one asked who she was and why she had come there.

She answered him shamelessly, “Because of you.” And after maliciously criticizing his ascetic conduct and adding that all the Righteous of the Old Testament had been with women, she invited him to lie with her.

He, slightly disturbed but already having himself under control and obedience, and considering how, if he committed this sin, he could possibly hide from divine grace, rose up before falling into sin.

What then did he do?

He set fire to a large quantity of dry branches and entered into the midst of the flames, admonishing himself and saying: “If you can endure the fire of Gehenna, since you long for shameful pleasure, obey the woman and go with her.”

Thus he burned himself and humbled the uprising of his flesh. The woman, chastened by what she had seen, he sent to a monastery. And he himself, healed by the grace of God from the wounds of the fire, went with the guidance of a ship captain to a small barren island one day’s journey from the mainland. There he remained for ten years, receiving food from the captain.

But again he arose and departed from there, when a young girl who had survived a shipwreck upon a plank arrived near him. The Venerable one pulled the girl ashore, but he himself left from there also, saying that grass and fire cannot exist in harmony.

He was even brought to land upon dolphins.

Afterward he passed through countries and cities, having as his watchword: “Flee, Martinian, lest temptation overtake you” — for thus he resolved to spend the remainder of his life — and he arrived in Athens. As soon as he reached there, he departed to the Lord and was deemed worthy of a glorious burial by the bishop and all the people.

It is also said of the women that the first, who went from the mountain to a monastery and lived there, was deemed worthy to work miracles; while the other remained patiently on the barren island until the end of her life, clothed in men’s garments brought to her by the ship captain.
 

Prologue in Sermons: February 13

What it Means to Crucify One’s Flesh with Its Passions and Desires

February 13

(Commemoration of our Venerable Father Martinian)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The Apostle Paul says: “Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5:24).

What does this mean?

The Venerable Martinian became an ascetic and withdrew into the desert at the age of eighteen. Having lived there twenty-five years, he once endured the following temptation from the devil. A certain harlot, putting on beggar’s clothing, went up the mountain where Venerable Martinian lived. Approaching the Venerable one’s cell in the evening, she began to weep and wail and asked the venerable one to save her from wild beasts. Martinian, suspecting nothing, let her into his cell and asked, “Who are you and why have you come here?”

The harlot replied, “Hating you and all monks, and likewise the ascetic life, I have come to tempt you into sin.”

Papa-Tychon and Hatzi-George, Ascetics of Mount Athos, Canonized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate

 

With feelings of deep compunction and spiritual joy, the Orthodox Church welcomes the official recognition of two new Saints.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate, under the presidency of His All-Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, proceeded to the canonization of Venerable Tychon the Russian and Venerable Hatzi-George the Athonite, confirming in the conscience of the fullness of the Church what the faithful had experienced for decades.

Morals and Customs Targeted for Deconstruction

Archimandrite Philip Hamargias,
Protosyngellos of the Holy Metropolis of Messinia

With sorrow and great surprise I read the news:

“An appeal to block Tsiknopempti in schools sent to the Minister of Education by the Federation,” and then the justification of the Panhellenic Federation NEMESIS, which, as stated on the same website, “sent letters to the Ministry of Education asking that a ‘brake’ be put on the now-established school events with grills and souvlaki.” Continuing in the article, we see the same Federation presenting the following reasons:

1) Tsiknopempti is not a school holiday and events of mass meat consumption within school premises are irregular and unlawful, with possible legal consequences for those who organize them,

2) it violates the pedagogical role of education,

3) it creates pressure and exclusion for students with different dietary choices,

4) it conflicts with the principles of inclusion, non-violence, and animal-welfare education.

Tsiknopempti: Hypocrisy Smells Worse Than Charcoal

Every year around these days the same play is performed. The same articles, the same announcements, the same “concerns.” About Tsiknopempti (Barbecue Thursday). About what children are eating. About whether it smells like meat on the streets. About whether it “fits” in schools. About whether it “promotes the wrong messages.” And somewhere there always appears the same protagonist: the morally superior one — usually vegan, automatically animal-loving, permanently annoyed by anything that resembles tradition that hasn’t passed through an activism filter.

Suddenly, Tsiknopempti is labeled a problem. Not because it threatens health or safety, but because it doesn’t fit their ideological mold. Schools, they say, are not taverns. Correct. But neither are they spaces of ideological re-education, nor places where a minority choice becomes the rule for everyone. Nor halls of guilt because a child ate a souvlaki.

Saint Meletios of Antioch in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

 

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Meletios, because of his very great virtue and his pure love for Christ, became so beloved by many that from the very first day of his ordination, when he entered Antioch, every believer, moved by longing for him, invited him into his home, believing that the Saint would sanctify it by his entrance. He did not complete thirty days in the city before he was expelled by the enemies of the truth, for the emperor had then been led astray — and, of course, God permitted this. When he returned after that unlawful persecution, he remained for more than two years in Constantinople. Again the emperor summoned him by letters, not somewhere nearby but to Thrace. Other bishops from many regions also gathered there, called likewise by imperial letters, because the Churches, which had emerged from trials as from a long winter, began to find peace and calm. Then this great Meletios, after being praised by all, committed his soul into the hands of God and rested in peace in a foreign land. This blessed man was also honored with encomiums by the honorable Chrysostom and Gregory of Nyssa.

Two themes occupy the Church hymnography of the day, written by Theophanes the Hymnographer: the orthodox faith of Saint Meletios — something not at all self-evident in Antioch of that time (4th century A.D.) — and his sanctified life.

Indeed, Saint Meletios, though not a great theologian according to patrologists, was a man who quickly embraced the right dogma of the First Ecumenical Synod (325), became a fervent preacher of the truth concerning the Holy Trinity, and prepared the ground for the Second Ecumenical Synod (381). His Orthodox instinct and struggle for Orthodoxy are properly understood when one considers that Antioch in his time was torn by ecclesiastical divisions, which great ecclesiastical figures such as Saint Athanasios the Great and Saint Basil the Great labored intensely to overcome. Thus Saint Meletios preached what Athanasios and Basil had fought to show the Church — the genuine apostolic tradition — something that Saint Theophanes demonstrates extensively in his hymns.

“Having become by grace a son of God, you did not irrationally reduce the Word of God from God to a creature, but you glorified Him as co-eternal and enthroned with the Father, Creator and Maker of all things, O divinely-inspired one.” (Ode 3)

His struggle was therefore also against the heretical distortions of Arius and his followers, who by their ideas essentially abolished the revelation of Christ and the teaching of the Apostles.

“Illumined by divine radiance, you theologized that the Only-begotten Word from the beginningless Father is uncreated and eternal; therefore you confounded the allies and like-minded followers of Arius, fortified by divine power.” (Ode 1)

He may not have been a great theologian in the sense of solving ecclesiastical controversies, yet he possessed a strong Orthodox phronema (mindset), gained both through his holy life and through constant study of Holy Scripture. The Hymnographer even uses his very name — Meletios (“meditation,” a favorite technique of hymnographers) — drawing on the image from the first Psalm about the tree planted by streams of water:

“You meditated, blessed Hierarch Meletios, on the saving law of God, as it is written, and you appeared like the tree planted by the waters of ascetic struggle, bringing forth fruits of virtues by grace.” (Vespers sticheron)

The hymns also emphasize his sanctified life, even comparing him to the Holy Apostles, whose manner of life he sought to follow and therefore inherited their throne:

“Through your virtues you were likened to the Apostles of Christ and clearly received their authority and throne, all-glorious Meletios.” (Ode 3)

One Vespers hymn records nearly all stages of his ascetic life:

“By self-control you withered the impulses of the flesh; you subdued the passions, Meletios, and brightened yourself with the splendor of dispassion; and you ministered to Christ in purity and cleanness.”

Saint Theophanes takes the life of Saint Meletios as a foundation and states axiomatically: no one can minister to Christ — that is, offer his life as a sacrifice to Him with his whole being (remember that all the baptized, not only clergy, share in the general priesthood) — unless he struggles to attain dispassion, the overcoming of sinful passions. And this is achieved through self-restraint.

Especially in view of Great Lent, this is most timely: the self-control emphasized by this blessed period, when practiced in the manner of the Church, leads to mastery over the passions and thus to direct communion with Christ — the liturgical offering of our life to Him.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

 

Prologue in Sermons: February 12

The Benefits of Praying for the Dying

February 12

(From a Homily of Saint Gregory, Pope of Rome, about a monk who was given to a serpent as food because of sin, and was delivered by the prayers of the brethren.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

All of us, brethren, by Christian love are obliged to pray for one another at all times, as the Apostle says: "Pray for one another" (James 5:16); but our prayer must be especially fervent and heartfelt for those of our neighbors who are approaching death. The dying are in particular need of prayer, and earnest prayer for them frees them from the terrors of the hour of death, and sometimes even brings them recovery.

Saint Gregory, Pope of Rome, relates the following:

“In my monastery there lived a devout monk. One day his brother came to him and also asked to be admitted into the monastery. He was accepted. But alas! the newcomer lived quite differently from his brother. He showed no concern for his soul, did not keep the rule, judged others, dressed finely, and could not bear it when anyone began speaking to him about the life to come and repentance. Several times they intended to expel him, but each time, unwilling to grieve his pious brother, they left him.

Holy Hieromartyr Blaise of Sebaste in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Blaise lived during the reign of Emperor Licinius (early 4th century A.D.). He was Bishop of Sebaste and dwelt in one of the caves of Mount Argaeus. On this mountain the wild animals were tamed by the Saint’s blessing and appeared gentle. Because he was also skilled in medical science, he performed many healings, having received from the Lord the grace of working miracles.

However, he was arrested and brought before the governor Agricolaus. He confessed the name of Christ, and for this the governor ordered that he be beaten with rods, suspended on a cross, and torn with iron claws. Then, as they were leading him to prison, seven women followed him; their heads were cut off as well, because they too confessed that Christ is God. As for Saint Blaise, after they threw him into the depths of a lake — without his suffering any harm whatsoever — they eventually cut off his head, together with two infants who were in the prison.

It is said that he was the steward of the decree of the Great Martyr Eustratios at the time of that martyr’s suffering, as Saint Blaise is depicted standing on an old cloth among the five holy martyrs, very near Saint Eustratios, receiving from his hand the scroll of the decree. 

Prologue in Sermons: February 11

 

The Lord Always Receives the Truly Repentant

February 11

(A homily about one who robbed the dead and was again saved through repentance.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

People who have fallen into grave sins, but have washed them away with tears, sincerely repented of them, and firmly set themselves on the path of correction, should never think that the Lord will not forgive their former heavy sins or show them His mercy. Let them know that if they persevere on the path of virtue, the Lord will certainly forgive them and will no longer remember their former iniquities.

The abbot of one of the monasteries of Jerusalem, named John, related the following:

“A young man came to me,” he said, “who, weeping bitterly, said: ‘Father, receive me; I wish to repent.’ Seeing him in terrible sorrow, I said to him, ‘Why are you so distressed? Reveal to me the cause of your grief, and the Lord will ease it for you.’

The young man answered, ‘Oh, I have sinned terribly.’ And sighing deeply, he began to beat his breast and, from intense agitation, could speak no further. I did not cease urging him on, giving him examples of sinners who had repented and been forgiven, and at last I succeeded. The young man confessed.

The "Sweat" of Saint Haralambos and Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyva

Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyva said:

“Listen, Dimitri. I go down, I grab the child and say to her, ‘Get things ready so we can do a sanctification of the waters.’

She spread a towel on a table, put down a plate, and I read the Service of Sanctification. Her son, Yiannis G., well, he was mute — he couldn’t speak. I read the prayer with all my heart, with all my soul, and at the end, when I sprinkled him, as I said, ‘having the Holy Unmercenaries as a fountain of healings,’ Yiannis spoke.

Overjoyed, he kissed me, and I kissed him too; his mother kissed me as well — the wife of Hadji-G., you know, the one who had the coppersmith’s shop. Yiannis was healed, and afterward he came up to Saint Haralambos. Little Yiannakis wanted to stay with me - Yiannis G.

Listen, Dimitri! In those very days when this miracle happened, he came here to Achladeri and baptized a child and named him Porphyrios.”

Homily for the Sunday of the Prodigal Son -- On True Repentance and the Mercy of God (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

Homily for the 34th Sunday after Pentecost
(Sunday of the Prodigal Son)
On True Repentance and the Mercy of God

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria

“I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you” (Luke 15:18)

Beloved faithful,

In Holy Scripture God is called the “Father of mercies” (2 Corinthians 1:3), because He continually shows mercy to sinners who return to Him with all their heart through true repentance. God says through the Prophet Isaiah: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and trust shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15). In another place, through the same Prophet, God says: “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before My eyes; cease to do evil… Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” (Isaiah 1:16–18).

This truth was also fulfilled in the case of the prodigal son from the Holy Gospel that was read today. First, he came to himself; he longed for the happiness he had enjoyed when he was in his father’s house; then he said: “How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish here with hunger!” (Luke 15:17). These were the words of the prodigal son when he came to himself — that is, when he began to recognize the weight of his sins. Without this feeling and awakening, none of the sinners can return with all their heart to the all-good God.

Holy Hieromartyr Haralambos in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Haralambos lived during the reign of Severus, when Lucian was governor in the city of Magnesia. Because he was a priest of the Christians and taught the way of truth, the tyrants ordered that he be stripped of his priestly vestments and then that the skin of his entire body be flayed. As the governor saw him patiently enduring the tortures, he became enraged and attempted to scrape the Saint with his own hands; immediately his hands were severed and remained suspended upon the body of the Martyr. The Saint, however, prayed and restored him to health. When the executioners, who were named Porphyrios and Baptos, saw this miracle, they renounced the idols and believed in Christ. The same also did three women from among those who were present there. The governor arrested all of these, and after subjecting them to tortures, mercilessly beheaded them. For although he was healed, he nevertheless remained in unbelief.

Saint Haralambis, more popularly known as Haralambos, is regarded, according to the hymnography of our Church, as the pride of Greece — of that Greece which bears the name of Christ; which is Christian and acknowledges and honors the saints; which considers the existence of their relics, such as the skull of the Holy Hieromartyr, as the greatest blessing and a most precious treasure; which hastens with faith and longing to the churches to celebrate their memory.

Prologue in Sermons: February 10

Fasting, the Reading of the Gospel, and the Struggle Against Evil Thoughts Drive Away the Devil

February 10

(A Discourse on the Abba Makarios the Great)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Speaking to you about the means given to us for combating the devil — means that serve to shame him and drive him away from us — we have already pointed to prayer, humility, the reading of the Psalter, diligence in labor, and prayer to the Holy Archangel Michael. Now we intend to speak of the benefit of several others as well, namely: fasting, the reading and study of the Gospel, and the struggle against evil thoughts.

Once, as Venerable Makarios was sitting by the roadside, he saw the devil in the form of a man, hung about with various vessels and heading toward a nearby monastery. By his prayer the Venerable one stopped the demon and asked him, “Where are you going?”

Homily on the Reception of the Lord (Saint Gerasimos Palladas)

In this homily Saint Gerasimos refers to the origin of the feast of the Reception (Hypapante), which goes back to God’s decision to strike all the firstborn male children of the Egyptians, in order that the Hebrews might be freed from the slavery of Pharaoh. From that time on, God required the Jews to bring to the Temple for consecration all firstborn males, of both humans and animals, as an expression of gratitude for that saving intervention of His.

The forty-day period that intervened between the birth of a child and the act of expiation in the Temple was necessary so that the mother and the newborn might be “purified” from the consequences of childbirth. This process would have had no reason to be undergone by the Word of God—nor by His all-pure Mother—yet He did undergo it: “first, so that the Jews might not immediately write that He does not submit to the Law; and second, so that they might not think and say that He is not truly man.”

In the text various symbols are mentioned, such as that of Jesus being offered in place of the lamb—which by tradition was offered on that day—and which in this case was destined to be sacrificed later on behalf of mankind. It is emphasized, of course, that Jesus is the Firstborn of all, the universal Holy One; therefore, in His person every being that comes into life can be “sanctified.” There is also the symbolism of the two turtledoves, which prefigure the Church because of their purity, and that of the two pigeons, which symbolize the Old and the New Testament.

Below is rendered into English the greater part of the homily, in which the author blesses the Spirit-bearing elder Symeon, who was deemed worthy to hold the infant Jesus in his arms.

Homily for the Sunday of the Prodigal Son (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

Homily for the Sunday of the Prodigal Son 

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

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

Today we began to sing the 136th Penitential Psalm: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion; upon the willows in the midst thereof we hung our harps” (Psalm 136:1-2). The time of Great Lent is approaching. And in this wondrous and terrible Psalm, we hear both the lament of the Jews expelled from their earthly Fatherland, and the lament of the Christian who has lost his heavenly Homeland. We are all strangers and aliens, exiles on this earth. Our Homeland is in Heaven with God the Father, to which we must strive. We all hear and sing at the Divine Liturgy the words: "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted" (Matthew 5:4). These words signify not only a lament for sins, but a lament for the fact that man has not yet reached his homeland in Heaven. Gregory of Nyssa said that "truly blessed is he who has no permanent city on earth, who seeks the Heavenly Fatherland, who strives for Heaven." Such a person will certainly be comforted. He will find his homeland — the Promised Land; he will find that very Heavenly Jerusalem, the homeland of all Christians. As the Apostle Paul said: we all "died with Christ" (Col. 2:20).

Holy Martyr Nikephoros in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Nikephoros lived in the time of the emperors Valerian and Gallienus and was a simple layman. He also had a Christian friend, a presbyter of the Church named Saprikios, who, through demonic influence, came to hate Saint Nikephoros and harbored resentment against him. When Saprikios was arrested by the pagans and endured many tortures for the faith of Christ, Saint Nikephoros sent intermediaries to him, asking for forgiveness, but Saprikios would not listen to them.

Then Saint Nikephoros saw that Saprikios was being led to the place where his head would be cut off, so he ran and fell at his feet, begging for forgiveness. And although he reminded him of the laws of Christ concerning reconciliation among people, Saprikios would not relent. Saprikios had passed through many tortures and the hour was approaching for him to receive the crown and the rewards from Christ. Yet even when only a short time remained before his beheading, he would not grant forgiveness. For this reason, he was stripped of God’s help and said to the executioners: “Leave me, and I will sacrifice to the gods.”

When Saint Nikephoros saw this, he surrendered himself to the executioners and confessed Christ with boldness. Then, by the command of the tyrant, they cut off his head, and thus the Saint swiftly received the rewards of love, which he strove to put into practice for the sake of Christ, the Giver of love.

Prologue in Sermons: February 9

It Is Not Always Possible to Judge Others Correctly by Ourselves

February 9

(From a saying of the Paterikon about a certain monk who had formerly been a nobleman at the court of the emperor in Rome.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

It sometimes happens that pious people, who please God by various ascetic labors, become troubled when they see around them other people who are also pious, but who, in their opinion, labor less for the Lord than they do. They become disturbed and think: “Why do they not struggle as we do? Why do they not bear such ascetic labors as we bear? What kind of God-fearers are they? Why are they considered righteous?” and so forth. Such judgment, brethren, is mistaken; for God is pleased not only by ascetic labors visible to us, but chiefly by an inward disposition toward Him, known to Him alone. Moreover, one cannot demand identical labors from everyone, because not all have been given the same means, strength, or capacity to bear them. Finally, one’s position in the world and one’s upbringing also play a great role here.

Homily Three for the Sunday of the Prodigal Son (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Three for the Sunday of the Prodigal Son 

By St. John of Kronstadt

“Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you” (Luke 15:18)

Beloved brethren, who among us has not labored and does not labor for sin every day, willingly or unwillingly, consciously or unconsciously, in understanding or in ignorance? Who has not angered the Lord, infinite Truth and Love? Who has not been wounded by the blade of sin and felt its sharpness and bitterness — the heavy confusion of conscience, sorrow and distress, those constant companions of sin? All of us, from the least to the greatest, are sinners before God, and therefore are subject to punishment and separation from Him. And if the Lord, in His boundless love and mercy toward fallen humanity, had not granted repentance and the forgiveness of sins for the sake of the sacrificial death on the Cross of His only-begotten Son, then all people would have descended into hell, the place of eternal torment. But glory be to the all-good and all-wise God, who has given repentance to sinners unto eternal life. Countless multitudes of sinners have been washed by the words of repentance, justified and sanctified by the most pure Blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who took upon Himself our sins and bore all the punishments prepared for us — and now they rejoice with the Angels in the dwellings of the saints. All of you standing here, sinners like myself — do you cherish this priceless gift of the Lord, the gift of repentance? Do you sigh like the publican, weep like the harlot, wash your bed with tears like David the forefather? Do you return to the heavenly Father with sincere and deep repentance, like the prodigal son of whom you heard in today’s Gospel reading?

Holy Great Martyr Theodore the Stratelates in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

 

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Theodore lived during the reign of Emperor Licinius (the first decades of the 3rd century AD). He came from Euchaita, but resided in Heraclea of Pontus. He surpassed most people in the beauty of his soul, the stature of his body, and the power of his speech. For this reason, everyone sought to gain his friendship. For the same reason Licinius greatly desired to meet him, even though he had heard that Theodore was a Christian and abhorred the so-called gods. Therefore, from Nicomedia he sent several men of the same rank as Theodore and ordered them to bring the martyr to him in a courteous manner. When they returned saying that the blessed Theodore had objected, stating that the emperor should rather come together with his greater gods, the emperor immediately came to Heraclea.

Saint Theodore, who willingly agreed to meet Licinius after a nocturnal vision sent to him by God, when he learned that the emperor was approaching, mounted a horse, went out to meet him, and honored him as was fitting. The emperor then extended his right hand and warmly greeted Theodore. He entered the city, and after sitting upon an elevated platform, urged the blessed Theodore to offer sacrifice to his gods. The Saint asked to take the statues of the most prominent gods to his own house, to offer his prayers there first, and afterward to make public libations to those gods. The emperor agreed and gave orders that the golden and silver statues be handed over to him. The Saint took them, and in the middle of the night shattered them, broke them into small pieces, and distributed them to the needy and the poor.

On the following day, when Maxentius the commentariensis reported that he had seen the head of the great goddess Aphrodite being carried about by a beggar, Licinius gave orders, and immediately the Saint was arrested by the emperor’s guard. First they stripped him naked, stretched him out held by four men, and flogged him with whips made of ox sinews: seven hundred blows on the back, fifty on the belly, and blows with leaden balls to the nape of his neck. Then they scraped him until blood flowed, burned him with torches, and rubbed his swollen and burned wounds with shards, after which they threw him into prison, fastening his feet in a wooden vise.

He remained in prison without food or water for seven days. They brought him out again and nailed his hands and feet to a cross, and there they drove a spike through the lower part of his body, reaching his entrails. Around him stood even children, who shot arrows at the Saint’s face and eyes, and from the arrows that struck his eyes the pupils fell out. Others cut off his genital organs, making transverse incisions. He spent the night upon the cross, and Licinius thought that he had already died. But he was mistaken. For an angel of the Lord released him from his bonds, and he became completely whole and healthy, and he sang and blessed God.

At dawn Licinius sent orders for the body of the martyr to be taken down and thrown into the sea. But when the emissaries arrived and saw that the Saint was still alive and entirely healthy, they believed in Christ — about eighty-five men in number. After them, another three hundred soldiers also believed in Christ, led by the proconsul Cestus, who had been sent to kill the former group. When Licinius saw the city in turmoil, he ordered that the Saint be beheaded. But vast crowds of Christians stood in the way and hindered the soldiers. Only when the Saint calmed them and prayed to Christ did they cut off his head, and thus the course of his martyrdom came to an end. His body was transferred from Heraclea to Euchaita, to his ancestral home, according to the instructions the martyr had previously given to his secretary Augaros. Augaros, who had been with the Saint throughout the entire period of his martyrdom, wrote the martyrdom account of the Saint in full detail — namely the questions posed to him and the answers he gave, the various kinds of tortures he endured, and the manifestations and help granted by God.

The mind of Saint Theodore, set aflame with divine longing, is the key that explains his endurance amid the many torments he suffered, as well as his power first to transcend all the offers made by the emperor himself. One must have one’s mind entirely turned toward God and be inflamed with love for Him in order to despise the friendship of a king — especially one wielding such authority in that era — and to scorn tortures that shatter the human body. This is precisely what the Church continually seeks for the faithful person: not merely to restrain him with certain commands and rules — for that would be a Judaization of her spiritual life — but to orient him toward love for God, the first and great commandment that God has given to humanity. “With your mind set ablaze by divine longing, with courage and great boldness you advanced to death by fire,” notes the Saint’s Hymnographer in the Kathisma of Orthros. “Your longing for God erased every impassioned attachment to earthly things, O all-blessed one, the pleasure of glory, wealth and luxury, and the famed height of universal recognition” (Ode 4).

The Hymnographer Nicholas, who wrote for Saint Theodore, emphasizes his beauty and bearing: Saint Theodore was “a handsome young man, of rare beauty, distinguished for the beauty of soul and body.” Yet human beauty, according to the Hymnographer — as we see in our Saints such as the one commemorated today — lies chiefly in the beauty of the soul. “A handsome youth you were shown, exceedingly comely, fittingly radiant with the beauty of soul and body, beautified by the loveliness of virtues and adorned with the marks of martyrs” (Ode 3). Indeed, for our faith, bodily beauty is a good, but because it is perishable it does not have primary importance. Old age comes, and what is often a source of pride for the possessor of this good disappears — without even taking into account possible injuries, illnesses that disfigure a person, or the all-destroying death. True beauty lies, as the Hymnographer says of the Saint, in the acquisition of the virtues. When the human soul is clothed in virtues, when the grace of God overshadows a person, then even one considered outwardly unattractive acquires a sweetness and a “radiance” that captivates and draws everyone. “A glad heart makes the face shine,” we hear the word of God say in this regard. In Saint Theodore, of course, both elements coexisted: the beauty of the body and the beauty of the soul. But for the Saint the priority was clear — the beauty of the soul, and not only through virtues, but above all through the sufferings he endured, for they clearly placed him in the footsteps of Him who is “fairer in beauty than all the sons of men,” Jesus Christ.

Through the martyrdom of Saint Theodore, however, we also have a kind of confirmation of the resurrection of the bodies that will come with the Second Coming of the Lord. That is to say, when the Lord, through His grace and by means of an angel, restored the body of the Saint — dismembered by tortures — making it once again completely healthy as it had been before his beheading, He gives us with great clarity an image of the re-creation of bodies that will take place. For there are Christians who ask: how will bodies dissolved by death, burned by fire, or devoured by beasts be raised? The answer, of course, is simple: God will bring about a new creation of them. He who created all things “out of nothing” will again create what has become corrupt and dissolved. And here precisely, in the martyrdom of Saint Theodore, we receive an image of this future creation: by a single act of His will, and indeed through His angel, the body is restored. “You were shown victorious, completely whole, after the crucifixion and every other cutting off and mortification of your members, you who conquered the world; for Christ, the Prince of Life, by the hand of an angel, restored you to life” (Ode 5).

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

 

Prologue in Sermons: February 8

How the Rich Should Conduct Themselves in Order to Be Saved

February 8

(A Discourse of Saint Ephraim to the rich on almsgiving.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Saint Gregory of Nazianzus says: “He who makes poor use of his wealth is himself poor, just as is the one who willingly wounds himself with the sword which he carries for the avenging of enemies.”

If you are rich and wish to be saved, do not attach your soul to riches in such a way that, for their sake, you forget God, trample the law, and lull your conscience to sleep; but strive more and more by your deeds to glorify Him who bestowed them upon you (from the book Imperishable Food, p. 216).

How are these words to be understood?

The Death and Resurrection of a Cart Driver (From the Life of Saint Parthenios of Lampsakos)

The Death and Resurrection of a Cart Driver

(From the Life of Saint Parthenios of Lampsakos)

The demons did not refrain from interfering in the beautiful and good works of Saint Parthenios. For this reason, one day the following event took place:

When Parthenios had completed the construction work of the house of worship built in the name of the Most High Lord, he found a flat stone which he deemed suitable for the altar. He ordered a cart driver named Eutychianos to transport this flat stone to the church that was being built. However, the crafty evil spirit, envying this good work of Parthenios, sought to create an obstacle to his plans. Thus, during the transport of the flat stone, it enraged the oxen, and in their frenzy they threw the poor cart driver between the wheels. As a result, his belly was torn open, his intestines spilled out, and shortly thereafter he died.

Venerable Luke of Steirion in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorborakis

This holy man is an offshoot and delight of Greece. His ancestors were from the island of Aegina, who, unable to endure the continual attacks of the Hagarenes, migrated and arrived in central Greece, where the blessed Luke was born. From early childhood he abstained not only from meat, but also from eggs and cheese. His food and drink were barley bread, water, and legumes. By afflicting his body with every form of ascetic hardship and discipline, he considered it his joy to feed the hungry and to give clothing to the naked, and by these deeds he was satisfied. For this reason, because he often gave away even his own garment, he would return to his dwelling naked. And whenever he lifted up his prayers to God, his feet would rise almost a cubit from the ground and appeared not to touch the earth at all. When he later embraced the monastic life, it is impossible to describe the degree of self-control and hardship the blessed one displayed. As a monk he traveled through all the coastal regions, and through the miracles wrought by him he became a cause of salvation for many. Afterwards he ceased his wanderings and remained at the Monastery. Seven years later, in that very place, he foretold his end to all, and thus departed this life.

The life of Venerable Luke of Greece — known to us as Hosios Loukas of Steirion in Boeotia — constitutes a precise and living commentary on the words of the Lord: “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.” For Venerable Luke indeed, from a very young age, turned with a fervent love toward Christ so strong that it surpassed even his natural love for his parents, especially for his mother, who loved him deeply.

Prologue in Sermons: February 7

Chaste People, By Preserving Chastity Themselves, Take Care That Others Preserve It As Well

February 7

(A Saying from the Lemonarion about a black-robed nun who fled into the desert for the sake of a young man.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

To turn a sinner away from sin and to bring him back from the error of his way is a great work, as the Holy Apostle James also teaches. “Brethren,” he says, “if any of you err from the way of truth, and one convert him; let him know, that he who converts the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:19–20). Thus the Apostle teaches, but does he teach rightly?

One of the desert elders, named John, related the following: There was in Jerusalem a certain maiden, tall in stature, chaste, and of holy life, named Mastridia. The devil, envying her piety, implanted in a certain young man the thought of seducing her into sin. Mastridia learned of this and, in order to turn the young man away from sin and to preserve her virginity, acted thus: she gathered bread-grains into a basket and departed into the desert. By this she drove away from the young man the evil thought that inclined him toward sin and brought peace to his heart.

Hymns to our Venerable Fathers Barsanuphios and John (Venerable Gerasimos Mikragiannanitis)

On the sixth day of the same month [February], the commemoration of Venerable Barsanuphios the Great Elder and of Venerable John, called the Prophet, his disciple.

Verses

From the earth was formed the body of Barsanuphius.
And he returned to the earth, to his own mother.
It is just, O John, at the same time
To place you here, the beloved teacher.
On the sixth, the divine spirit of Barsanuphius was lifted from the earth.

Apolytikion. 
Tone Plagal First. "Ton synanarchon Logon."

Having lived a life equal to the angels, O Father Barsanuphios, together with John, you appeared as radiant stars of asceticism and guides of monastics toward the better path. Being full of divine light, you unceasingly intercede that our souls may be shown mercy.

Saint Photios the Great in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The great Father and Teacher of the Church, Photios (9th c.), the Confessor of the Faith and Equal to the Apostles, lived during the reigns of the emperors Michael, son of Theophilos, Basil the Macedonian, and Leo his son. His earthly homeland was the imperial city of Constantinople, being of origin from a pious and distinguished family, while his heavenly homeland was the Jerusalem above. Before entering the priesthood he distinguished himself in high offices, serving as a professor at the University of the Magnaura; and always living a virtuous and God-loving life, he was later entrusted, as Patriarch, with the guidance of the Church of Constantinople.

This took place as follows: when Saint Ignatios was violently deposed from the archiepiscopal throne by the emperor, the vacant throne had to be filled, and so the emperor turned to Photios and compelled him to succeed Saint Ignatios canonically. Thus he was first tonsured a monk and then passed “in rapid succession” through all the ranks of the priesthood.

As Patriarch he struggled greatly on behalf of the Orthodox faith against the Manichaeans, the Iconoclasts, and other heretics, but above all against the papal heresy which appeared for the first time in his era, whose leader was Pope Nicholas, the father of the Latin schism. After reproving Nicholas for his heretical views with proofs from Holy Scripture and the Fathers, and after judging him synodically, he considered him outside the Church and consigned him to anathema. For these actions, he naturally suffered many persecutions and dangers from the supporters of papism, many attacks and acts of violence against him, all of which he endured in a Christ-like manner, he who was distinguished for his long-suffering, patience, and adamantine character — facts well known to anyone who studies Church history.

What must especially be recalled, however, is that the blessed Photios, who ministered the gospel like another Apostle Paul, converted to the faith of Christ the entire nation of the Bulgarians together with their king, after catechizing and baptizing them. Likewise, by his words full of grace, wisdom, and truth, he regenerated and returned to the Catholic Church of Christ many different heretics — Armenians, Iconoclasts, and other heterodox believers. Indeed, when by the firmness of his conviction he astonished the murderous and ungrateful Emperor Basil and uprooted the weeds of every false teaching with his fervent zeal, he appeared more than anyone else as a genuine successor of the Apostles, filled with their Spirit-bearing teaching.

Thus, after shepherding the Church of Christ in a holy and evangelical manner, after ascending twice to the archiepiscopal throne against his will and being twice exiled from it by tyrannical force, and after leaving to the Church and the people of God many and varied writings — excellent and most wise, such as every age can truly admire — and after suffering greatly, as we have said, for his struggles on behalf of truth and justice, the much-contending one finally departed to the Lord, dying in exile at the Monastery of the Armenians, like the divine Chrysostom at Comana. His sacred and most honorable body was laid to rest in the monastery called Eremia or Hiremia. In former times his most holy synaxis was celebrated in the Church of the Honorable Forerunner located in that monastery, but now it is celebrated at the sacred and Patriarchal Monastery of the Holy Trinity on the island of Halki, where the Theological School of the Great Church of Christ is also located.

Saint Boukolos of Smyrna in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Boukolos from a young age sanctified himself and became a vessel of the Holy Spirit. He was found worthy and fit by the all-praised and Christ-beloved divine John the Theologian, who ordained him bishop and good shepherd of the Church of Smyrna. Boukolos, illumined by the Holy Spirit, led those who were in the darkness of error into the light of the faith of Christ, and through holy baptism made them sons of the day, saving them from countless savage beasts. Thus, before departing this life, he ordained and appointed as shepherd and Teacher of the rational sheep in the same city, Smyrna, the blessed Polycarp, and then he fell asleep in the Lord. And when his honorable body was laid beneath the earth, God caused a plant to spring up that provides healings to this day.

Saint Boukolos is not very well known to most of our Christians, although he belongs to the Apostolic Fathers, who shone by their life and preaching. Perhaps this is because he stood between two most eminent men, great stars of our Church, who overshadowed him with their brilliance: Saint John the Theologian and Saint Polycarp of Smyrna. And on the other hand, he is also commemorated together with another star, a universal father and teacher, equal to the apostles and confessor, great in his very title — Saint Photios, Patriarch of Constantinople. Yet despite all the radiance of these great and eminent figures, Saint Boukolos, according to our Church, never ceases “to flash forth with the light of his God-working virtues, being set as a light on the lampstand of the divine Church and making it radiant with his sacred teachings” (“Shining with the light of God-working virtues, most holy one, you were mystically set as a light on the lampstand of the divine Church, making it radiant, Father, by your sacred teachings” - Vespers sticheron). He is the man who, as Saint Joseph the Hymnographer notes elsewhere in his Canon, “shone as light, as radiance, as a great sun, as lightning in the Church of Christ, and illumined the minds of the faithful” (“As light, as radiance, as a great sun, as lightning you shone forth in the Church of Christ and illumined the minds of the faithful” - Ode 9).