Synaxis of All the Venerable Russian Saints of the Holy Mountain

 

On May 7/20, the Russian Saint Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos prayerfully commemorates the Synaxis of All the Venerable Russian Saints of the Holy Mountain.

This day for honoring the memory of all the Russian Athonite saints who shone forth on the Holy Mountain was established in 2016 by the Council of Elders of the Panteleimon Monastery, with the blessing of the monastery’s abbot, Schema-Archimandrite Jeremiah (Alekhin), because ancient Russian liturgical tradition assigns to this day the repose of Anthony of Kiev, the “founder of Russian monasticism.”

In addition, on this same day the memory is celebrated of other Russian Athonite saints: Nil Sorsky and Pachomius the Russian. The feast of Nilus the Myrrhgusher is also kept on this day.

Altogether, the Synaxis of All the Venerable Russian Saints of the Holy Mountain includes more than sixty Athonite ascetics glorified at various times by one or another Local Church (the list, which began with over forty saints, is evolving). Some of them were Serbs, Greeks, and Georgians, yet their lives were connected in one way or another with Holy Rus’ or with Russian monasticism on Mount Athos.

Homily for the Second Sunday After Pentecost, the Sunday of All Saints Who Shone Forth in the Russian Land (Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov)

Homily for the Second Sunday After Pentecost, the Sunday of All Saints Who Shone Forth in the Russian Land

By Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov

(Delivered in 1964)

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

Beloved in Christ! Today the Orthodox Church solemnly celebrates the bright memory of all the saints who shone forth in the Russian land, glorified by God for their God-pleasing deeds and holy life. These are the firstborn of the Orthodox Russian people, redeemed by the priceless Blood of Christ and sanctified by the grace of the Holy Spirit, brought to God the Father by Jesus Christ. These are the blessed fruits of the holy Orthodox faith, Christianity, planted among our Russian people.

Remember what our Fatherland was before the adoption of Christianity? A wild, barbaric country where human sacrifices were made to idols, where life was spent in wars, debauchery, cruelty and violence. But as soon as the ray of Christian faith shone in Russia, the life of the people was immediately reborn. From a cruel, depraved pagan people, under the influence of the Christian faith, our people became a meek people, distinguished by a rare kindness of soul, simplicity of faith, devotion to Jesus Christ and the Mother of God, such devotion that for the Orthodox faith, Russian people were always ready not to spare even their own lives.

September: Day 20: Teaching 1: Holy Right-Believing Prince Michael and Boyar Theodore, Wonderworkers of Chernigov

September: Day 20: Teaching 1:
Holy Right-Believing Prince Michael and Boyar Theodore, Wonderworkers of Chernigov
 
(The Feat of Confessing of Faith in Our Time and in Our Fatherland)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Orthodox Church has long ago included two martyrs of the Russian land among the saints - the Chernigov prince Michael and his boyar Theodore, whose exploits in their confession of the Christian faith it remembers on this day. Almost six hundred years separate us from their martyrdom, but reflection on it is always accompanied by great moral benefit for us, their descendants.

Prince Michael lived in those difficult times for Russia, when it was ruled by the Tatars, pagans. Having received an order to appear before the Horde as a tributary of the Khan, he went there with a firm determination to die a martyr for the holy Christian faith rather than shamefully betray it by worshiping idols, as some princes had decided to do, having gone before him to the Tatar Khan. His boyar, Theodore, who accompanied him, had the same thoughts as the prince. Khan Batu, who was hostile to the Chernigov prince because he, burning with love for the holy faith and his dear homeland, encouraged his neighbors to rise up against the Tatar yoke, ordered that he be admitted to him only after he had passed through the so-called "sacred fire" and worshiped the pagan gods of the Tatars - the idols made of felt. "No," Michael answered courageously, "I can bow to your king, to whom heaven has entrusted the fate of earthly states; but a Christian serves neither fire nor soulless idols." Batu was furious to hear such a bold answer from his powerless tributary. He ordered that he be given one of two options: either to bow to his gods and receive life, freedom and the right to own the principality, or to die an evil death for resisting his will. So on the one hand - freedom and life with its pleasures, family happiness with a wife and children among the beloved subjects of his principality, but for that - betrayal of Christ and His Holy Church; on the other hand - torment and death far from family and homeland, but for that - fidelity to the Christian faith. The choice was short and decisive: the prince chose the latter.

What inclined his soul to this exalted feat?