Venerable Ioannikios the New of Muscel; Hieromartyr Hermolaus at Nicomedia; Martyr Paraskeva of Rome (The Feeding of the Five Thousand)

Orthodox Calendar July 26 Venerable Ioannikios the New of Muscel This pious man obedient to God was born to religious parents living in Muscel area. Having obeyed the call of Christ, he gave up all the pleasures and temptations of the vain world ever since he was a young man and withdrew to Cetăţuia Negru-Vodă Monastery , in Dâmboviţa valley, where he became a monk and learned the monastic order from the spiritually advanced monks.

He met several hermits who were living close to the monastery at the time, so that this territory was called the Valley of the Cells. After learning the life of the advanced spiritually monks, he received the blessing to retire to one of the caves of Negru-Vodă Mount, where he lived for more than 30 years after he received the Great monastic Schema.

His efforts, needs, inner labour, permanent prayer and seeking divine grace which this pious man experienced were not known by the people because the cave where he had retired was hard to reach and he did not want the glory of the world but took the path of humbleness, which is the foundation of spiritual growth.

Once a week, one of the pious man’s disciples used to come to bring him bread and…