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Holy Prophet Ezekiel Ezekiel, the son of the priest of Buziah, was taken into captivity along with other Jews and with King Jehoiachin during the second captivity of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and settled in the land of the Chaldeans, near the Chebar River. Here, in his thirtieth year and after four years of life in captivity (about 595 BC), Ezekiel was called by God to preach repentance to the Jews. The sign of his calling was a wonderful vision of the Glory of God walking on four animals, each having four faces: human, lion, calf and eagle, facing on four sides. This vision, according to the explanation of St. fathers, was the prototype of the four Evangelists who enlightened the whole world with the Gospel preaching. “When I saw this, I fell on my face,” says Ezekiel, “and I heard the voice of the Speaker, and He said to me: Son of man! I am sending you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious people who rebelled against Me; They and their fathers are traitors to Me to this very day. And these sons with hardened faces and hard hearts; I am sending you to them, and you will say to them: Thus says the Lord God! Will they listen or will they not, for they are a rebellious house; but let them know that there was a prophet among them. “And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them, and do not be afraid of their words, if they become thistles and thorns for you, and you will live among the scorpions; Do not be afraid of their speech and do not be afraid of their face, for they are a rebellious house. “Don’t be stubborn like this rebellious house; open your mouth and receive what I will give you”... It was a scroll written on both sides, and it was written on it: “weeping, and groaning, and grief”... Having filled his insides with this scroll, Ezekiel felt at the same time “grieved, with a troubled spirit,” but “the hand of the Lord was firmly upon him”... Seven days after this vision, however, Ezekiel still did not dare to begin the activity indicated to him from above, remaining all this time in great amazement. Then again God’s inspiration came to his soul: “Son of man! I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel, and you will listen to the words from My mouth and admonish them from Me. When I say to the wicked: “You will surely die!” but you do not admonish him and speak to warn the wicked man from his wicked way so that he may live, then that wicked man will die in his iniquity, and I will require his blood at your hands. But if you admonished the wicked, and he did not turn from his iniquity and from his lawless way, then he will die in his iniquity, but you saved your soul.” From then on, Ezekiel began to preach to the people the teachings with which he himself was admonished by God; he urged the captive Jews to correct themselves from their vices and turn to God with repentance; he announced terrible disasters that “the Lord will pour out in His wrath” on Jerusalem and Judah, and “will bring His wrath upon them and judge them according to their ways”... Ezekiel also predicted the ruin of other countries: Tire, Sidon, Idumea, Egypt because their people rejoiced at the destruction of Jerusalem; He promised the Jews a return from captivity after 70 years and the restoration of Jerusalem and the church. At the same time, he pointed out to them the coming of the Deliverer, Whom he portrayed as a shepherd seeking to save his lost sheep, and called Him David as a sign that He would come from the tribe of David: “I will save My sheep, and they will no longer be plundered,” says the Lord through the mouth of His prophet, “and I will set over them one Shepherd who will feed them, My servant.” David." “I will free them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day. I will feed them in good pasture, and their fold will be on the high mountains of Israel; I will feed My sheep and I will give them rest; I will find the lost and bring back the stolen, and I will bandage the wounded and strengthen the sick; but the fat and violent one I will destroy; I will shepherd them with righteousness. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and My servant David will be a prince among them. And I will make a covenant of peace with them, and I will remove fierce beasts from the land, so that they will live safely in the steppe and sleep in the forests. I grant them and the surrounding area of ​​My hill a blessing. And they will be safe in their land, and no one will frighten them. And I will bring forth a glorious planting among them, and they will no longer perish from hunger in the land or suffer shame from the nations. And they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and they, the house of Israel, are My people,” says the Lord God, “and that you are My sheep, the sheep of My pasture; “You are men, and I am your God,” says the Lord God” (Ezek. ch. 34). Explaining to those mired in wickedness and vices, Ezekiel appeals to them in the name of God: cast away from you all your sins that you have sinned, and create for yourself a new heart and a new spirit; and why should you die, O house of Israel? For I do not want the death of the dying, says the Lord God; but turn and live (Ezek. 18:31–32). In one of the significant visions with which God visited the exalted Ezekiel, he received a revelation about the resurrection of the dead. “The hand of the Lord was upon me,” he narrates, “and the Lord brought me out in the spirit, and set me in the middle of a field, and it was full of bones; and he led me around around them, and behold, there were quite a lot of them on the surface of the field, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me: Son of man! will these bones live? I said: Lord God! You know it. - And he said to me: prophesy on these bones and say to them: “The bones are dry!” listen to the word of the Lord!” Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will put breath into you, and you will live. And I will cover you with sinews, and I will grow flesh on you, and I will cover you with skin, and I will bring spirit into you, and you will live and know that I am the Lord. And so,” Ezekiel continues, “there was a noise, a movement, and bones began to come closer together, bone to bone. And I saw, behold, veins were on them, and flesh grew, and skin covered them above, but there was no spirit in them.” When, at the command of God, the prophet called on the spirit to breathe on these dead to revive them, then “the spirit entered into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet - a very, very great horde... And He said to me,” Ezekiel continues: “Son of man!” these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say: “Our bones are withered and our hope is lost, we are cut off from the root.” Therefore prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and bring you, My people, out of your graves, and will bring you into the land of Israel. And you will know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and bring you, My people, out of your graves, and put My spirit into you, and you will live, and I will place you in your land, and you will know that I, the Lord, said this and did it, says the Lord. This prophecy about the general resurrection of the dead is read during the matins of Holy Saturday. There are few details in the Bible about the life of the prophet Ezekiel, who lived in the 6th century BC and prophesied for about 27 years, but his book, consisting of 48 chapters, is contained in it. – His death is known only from legend, that he was torn to pieces by the horses to which the Jews tied him, embittered by his denunciations and threats for their lawless life. His body was buried in the village of Maur, near Baghdad. Rev. Simeon, Christ for the sake of the Fool, and his companion John Sirians from Edes. John, 30 years old, and Simeon, about that time, arrived in Jerusalem on Bogomolye and, having bowed to the life-giving Cross of the Lord, wished to see the monastery of St. Gerasima; here they accepted monasticism from Abbot Nikon, and a year later, with the blessing of the Abbot, they retired to a desert life near the Jordan River, where at the confluence of the river into the Dead Sea they found a cell and a vegetable garden with it, left after a certain deceased elder. Having prayed and thanked God, they settled here and pleased God in prayers, fasting and desert labors. John lived in his cell until his death (about 592), and Simeon a little earlier, precisely in 582, left him, visited Jerusalem and began to act as a fool in Emes, where he died around 590, blessed with the gift of insight and miracles, having shown many experiences of selflessness and love for others. † Memory of Rev. Onuphriya of Pechersk The life of St. Onuphrius of Pechersk is not described in the Patericon. Kalnofoysky calls him an elder and a miracle worker, and in the canon of the Lavra, a lover of silence. His relics rest openly in Anthony's Cave 272. Description Kyiv. laurels 110. 290. In the RKP. Saints: “pr. Fathers Onuphry and Anatoly." The relics of St. Onuphrius at Kalnofoisky - on the line of the Northern Cave, near St. John the Long-Suffering; - and under Gerbinia (1675) - already in the same place as now, at the table of the fathers.