Holy Prophet Daniel as a Model for our Lives

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas

The Prophet Daniel is one of the four great Prophets. He lived at the end of the 7th and the beginning of the 6th century B.C. He belonged to the tribe of Judah, was of royal lineage, and was born in Upper Beth-horon. He was taken captive to Babylon when he was about sixteen years old, and there he grew up and was educated. The king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, renamed him Belteshazzar and distinguished him among the children of the Hebrews, just as he also singled out three other youths — Ananias, Azarias, and Mishael — whom he kept at the imperial court and had educated. Indeed, because they excelled in their studies, he granted them high positions in the State.

When Nebuchadnezzar, out of arrogance, constructed a golden image of himself and demanded that all his subjects worship it, Daniel was absent on a mission. Ananias, Azarias, and Mishael refused to worship it, because they had learned to worship and serve only the true God of their Fathers and not lifeless idols; according to the word of God in the Old Testament: “You shall not make for yourself an idol, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.” For this reason “they were cast into the burning fiery furnace.” Yet, instead of being burned, they were refreshed as by dew, for the Son and Word of God, “the Angel of Great Counsel,” descended into the furnace and transformed the fire into coolness.

Homily for the Commemoration of the Holy Prophet Daniel and the Three Youths: Ananias, Azarias and Misael (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

Homily for the Commemoration of the Holy Prophet Daniel and the Three Youths: Ananias, Azaris and Misael 

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

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

I congratulate you all once again on our community's feast day, the feast day of the Prophet Daniel and the three youths Ananias, Azarias, and Misael! May the Lord, through their prayers, grant us courage and wisdom, and give us the ability to always remain faithful to our Creator even among atheists, unbelievers, and godless people. It's no wonder that the early Christians, wherever they gathered, always had two icons in the catacombs: the Prophet Daniel with his hands raised amidst lions, and the three youths in a fiery furnace. Because for them, this was the most relevant subject; they lived in the lions' mouths, not figuratively, but literally. They could be thrown to the lions at any time. We sometimes lack this state of mind and this attitude toward this world. Many people desire to make peace with this world. The sense that atheism is the fires of hell, already burning, has been lost. And the youths remembered well that the iniquities of this world are the beginning of hell, literally. As Honoratus of Arles, a fourth-century saint, said: "There are two hells, the upper and the lower, and the upper, which is earth, is the worse."

Prologue in Sermons: December 17

For Those Who Break Fasts

December 17
 
(Holy Prophet Daniel and the Holy Three Youths Ananias, Azaris and Misael)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Today’s lovers of ease and indulgence rebel against no ordinance of the Church so fiercely as against the ordinance of fasting. “What is the point of fasting?” they cry. “Without nourishing food, health is lost, the mind is darkened, we cannot pray, we become irritable because of it,” and so on. They cry out in this way, and in their opinion it turns out as though fasting were truly an evil, and that breaking it is in no way blameworthy, but even necessary. In reality, however, they are gravely mistaken; for fasting not only does not harm health, but restores it; not only does it not darken the mind, but enlightens it.

Homilies on the Books of Holy Scripture: The Prophetic Books of the Old Testament (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

Homilies on the Books of Holy Scripture 

The Prophetic Books of the Old Testament 

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

(Sunday, July 27, 2025)

After the historical books that we saw in previous sermons, there are the prophetic books in the Old Testament, which were written by blessed people called Prophets. In addition to the Kings who politically governed the Israelite people and the High Priests who performed religious ceremonies, there were also the Prophets, who performed miraculous works.

In the Hebrew language, Prophets firstly means those who speak in the name of God. Secondly, it characterizes those who spoke with divine inspiration and enthusiasm for the return to God of people who had strayed from Him. Thirdly, it denotes those who see God, but also all the future things that were to happen to Israelites and Gentiles, mainly they saw and predicted the coming of Christ at the appropriate time.

In these three senses the Prophets were the “foreseeers”, the “seeers” of God, they had communion with Him and prayed saying: “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” And afterwards, when they received a word from God, they spoke to the people with the phrase: “Thus says the Lord.”

December: Day 17: The Holy Prophet Daniel and the Three Youths: Ananias, Azariah and Misael

December: Day 17:
The Holy Prophet Daniel and the Three Youths: Ananias, Azariah and Misael
 
(Lessons From Their Lives:
a. The Benefits of Fasting, and
b. Constancy in Faith and Virtue)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Prophet Daniel and the Three Youths: Ananias, Azariah and Misael, whose memory is celebrated today, lived during the Babylonian captivity. They were among those youths whom the Babylonian king chose and ordered to be brought up at his court, so that later they could serve in his kingdom. When they were brought from the king's table dishes forbidden by the law of Moses, they refused to take them, wanting to eat only vegetables. The bailiff, who was obliged to watch over them, for fear that they would grow thin from meager food, forbade them this, but Daniel persuaded him to give them a period of ten days to test whether fasting food would be harmful to their health and physical beauty. At the end of this period, it turned out that the pious youths, who ate vegetables and drank plain water, were much healthier and more beautiful than their other peers who ate fasting food. Then Daniel and his companions were allowed to eat whatever food they wanted.

Homily on the Terrible Day of Judgment and the Dream of Nebuchadnezzar (St. Luke of Simferopol)

 

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on Meatfare Sunday in 1958)

In very ancient times, the powerful despot Nebuchadnezzar reigned in Babylon, subjugating many kingdoms of the earth.

One night he had a terrible dream, which greatly disturbed him. But waking up in the morning, he completely forgot this dream and ordered all magicians, charmers, fortune-tellers and wise men to be called to him. From them he demanded to explain his dream to him. But, of course, no one could know and say what the king dreamed of, and they only promised him to interpret his dream if he himself told it to them.

Nebuchadnezzar fell into a furious rage and ordered to exterminate all the wise men, magicians and charmers in his kingdom.