January: Day 26: Venerable Xenophon and His Wife Maria

January: Day 26:
Venerable Xenophon and His Wife Maria
 
(On Devotion To the Will of God)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Venerable Xenophon and his wife Maria, now being commemorated by the Church, were among the first nobles of Constantinople and at the same time were very pious people. Their two sons, Arcadius and John, imitated the piety of their parents. When Arcadius and John had grown considerably, their parents announced to them that they must go overseas to a foreign land to study various sciences. The obedient youths willingly set out on a long and dangerous journey, because they had a love for learning. The journey was at first favorable, but soon a storm arose, and the sailors had to lower the sails. The ship, damaged by the waves, began to fill with water. Everyone was terrified. Arcadius and John burst into tears and prayed to God for salvation. Meanwhile, the storm grew even stronger. Then the sailors, seeing no hope of saving the ship, went down into a small vessel and set out to sea to try their luck. Arcadius0 and John, seeing the sailors fleeing and the ship sinking, took off their clothes and exclaimed, "Farewell, dear parents!" and threw themselves into the sea. They struggled with the waves for a long time and were finally thrown ashore in different places. They considered each other lost and therefore did not dare go to their parents, fearing to shock them with sad news. Soon, however, the parents learned of the shipwreck and considered their children drowned, but they did not express despair with a single word, but "cast their sorrow before God," completely surrendering themselves and their children to the will of God.