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† Repose of Rev. David Serpukhovsky Blessed David began the monastic life under the supervision of St. Paphnutius Borovsky, in his monastery 256. Then he labored in silent solitude. In 1515, on the Lopasna River, 23 versts from Serpukhov, he built the Church of the Ascension of the Lord and thereby laid the foundation for a desert monastery, known as David’s Ascension Hermitage. – The relics of the venerable elder, who died on October 18, 1520, rest in the cathedral stone church of the monastery, where the coffin of St. Moses Ugrin, ascetic of Pechersk 257. † St. Golden Martyr The holy virgin and bride of Christ Zlata was born and suffered in the Mglin Bulgarian diocese, in the village of Zlatin. The daughter of a poor simple villager, she shone with both spiritual and physical high qualities: spiritual - firm faith in the Lord Jesus, humility and purity of heart, physical - rare beauty, which was the reason that her life was adorned by the sufferings of the great martyr. The local Turk, seduced by the rare beauty of Zlata, decided to find time and at all costs satisfy his vile passion. One day Zlata and others went into the forest to get firewood. The voluptuous Turk, having persuaded scoundrels like him, with their help, seizes her and takes her to his house. He first tries to seduce her into Islamism with various promises and gives her his word to marry her; If she refuses, he threatens her with torture. Zlata was amazed at the audacity, but refused firmly. Calling on the name of the Lord Jesus for help, she answered: “I believe and worship only the Lord Jesus and I will not renounce Him, even if they cut me down; and I also took a vow of virginity, which I also will not change for anything.” “The Turks realized that this girl could not be won over to their side by ordinary means, but that they needed to come up with something special. They entrust it to women who, in such matters, are more capable of luring the girl into deception. And what didn’t they do with the poor woman? What tricks were not used to seduce Zlata into the bestial, sensual life of Mohammedanism! And the delights of a luxurious life, and the benefits of wealth, and the passions of sensuality were presented to her in the most tempting pictures. It all turned out to be in vain. Zlata’s pure soul felt the stench of the preachers and turned away from them with trepidation. – Their singing was for her satanic singing. The Turkish women were irritated by the firmness of the bride of Christ; they call on the parents and three sisters of the sufferer to use their influence on the girl - to persuade her to Mohammedanism; otherwise, they said, they would be subjected to severe torture. Struck by fear, her parents and sisters persuaded Zlata to accept Mohammedanism, but their words did not change her intentions. “Our daughter, our dear! Sobbing, father and mother said, have pity on us and our sisters: we will all die if you do not agree to the wishes of the Turks; God is merciful and will forgive your sin, forced by necessity.” One can imagine the struggle that Zlata had to endure. Love for parents, love for sisters pulled in one direction, but the duty of a Christian demanded its own. The tears of her parents and sisters tore and tormented her heart. “Finally she said: “If you are already forcing me to renounce Christ the Lord, then you are not my parents or sisters!” My father remains the Lord Jesus alone and my mother is His Most Pure Mother, and my brothers and sisters are martyrs and martyrs.” When the infidels, especially the girl’s kidnapper, saw that all their tricks led them nowhere, they turned to torture. At first, for three months, they beat the sufferer every day with sticks. Then they cut out the straps from her back and hung them in front of her eyes; blood flowed from her and covered the entire floor. That wasn't enough for them. Animals, not people, heated an iron rod and pierced her head from one ear to the other. The sufferer’s patience was obviously “beyond human strength. It was a work of the strong grace of Christ, always close to humble hearts. Despite her high patience, the sufferer did not expect anything special from herself. She expressed this in experience. She heard a rumor that in the village there was the abbot of the Stavronikita Athos Monastery, the confessor of her father, Fr. Timofey. She sends one Christian to him with her earnest request to pray for her, so that the Lord will grant her to complete her feat in a God-pleasing manner. - and her humble prayer was fulfilled: the Lord gave her the strength to complete the feat of the great martyr. The bloodthirsty Mohammedans finally hanged the sufferer in a vacant lot and chopped her entire body into pieces. So St. Zlata, purified by the fire of suffering into pure gold, gave up her soul to the Lord, whom she loved with a love as strong as death. The great martyr moved to heaven on Oct. 1795 258 . St. Apostle and Evangelist Luke St. Apostle and Evangelist Luke, from the 70 Apostles, was born in Antioch from pagan parents. There is a legend that even in his youth he was well educated in the Greek sciences. In his writings, the Greek language is distinguished by its special purity and correctness. But pagan wisdom did not satisfy his desires, and he joined the Jewish Church, which can be concluded from his writings, in which one can see the writer’s exact knowledge of the Law of Moses and the customs of the Jews. While in Jerusalem, Luke heard the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. The seed of the saving word of God fell on his heart, as on good soil: he believed in the Lord, became a follower of Him and was numbered among the seventy Apostles, about whose election he himself tells in his Gospel (Luke 10:1-16). During the suffering of the Lord, when, after the defeat of the Shepherd, the sheep of the flock scattered, and St. Luke left the Lord, although neither faith in Him nor love for Him was completely erased from his heart; When the news of the resurrection of the Lord spread, the state of the spirit of St. Luke was the same as the other Apostles: he did not believe for joy and was miraculous. The Lord Himself brought him out of such a troubled state, appearing to him on the very first day of His resurrection, in the evening, when he walked with Cleopas from Jerusalem to Emmaus, saying that from all the scriptures about Him, “began from Moses and from all the prophets.” The Lord then deigned to reveal himself to them in the breaking of bread, and then again appeared to them in the circle of all the Apostles, when they, having returned to Jerusalem, told other disciples about the Lord’s appearance to them (Luke 24:13–31). Having convinced himself of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the fact that he definitely wants to deliver Israel, St. After the Ascension of the Lord, Luke became His preacher to others. According to the appeal of St. Apostle Paul, St. Luke was his constant companion and companion of all his illnesses and labors in the gospel of Christ. With him he repeatedly passed through the regions of Asia Minor and Greece; was with him in Jerusalem; with him he was in Rome during his first and second bonds and did not leave him until his death, as can be seen from the Acts of the Apostles and from many places in the epistles of St. Apostle Paul (Acts 16:10 and further to the end of the book; Col.4:14; Phil.1:23). Luke is one with me (2 Tim. 4:10), wrote the Apostle Paul to Timothy. 15 years after the Ascension of the Lord and about 48 years after the Nativity of Christ, after Matthew in Mark, St. Luke wrote his Gospel in the countries of Achaia and Boeotia, i.e. Greece, in the Greek language, as he had given it to him, who at first were the witnesses and servants of the word (Luke 1:2), and set forth in his Gospel the teaching preached by the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 15:1-3) about Jesus Christ, the God-man. In addition to the internal signs of its Divine origin, which all sacred books have, the Gospel of Luke, according to the legend of ancient writers, has evidence of external approval from St. The Apostle Paul, who in his letter to the Corinthians speaks of St. Luke: His praise is in the Gospel in all the churches (2 Cor. 8:18). Also, when he narrates that (Christ) appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, and says: according to the gospel, which was eaten (1 Cor. 15: 1, 3), he means the Gospel of Luke. The Gospel of Luke is more complete than the other Gospels. The order of events described in it is closer to chronological order than that of the first two Evangelists. While in Rome around the year 59 after the Nativity of Christ, Saint Luke, at the command of the Apostle Paul, also expounded the book of the Acts of the Apostles, in which, says St. Chrysostom, “primarily describes the acts of Paul, who labored more than anyone else, because the compiler of this book was his disciple, blessed Luke, whose virtue can be seen both from many other things, and especially from the fact that he was inseparable from his teacher and constantly followed him. If anyone asks: why didn’t Luke describe everything, remaining with Paul to the end, then I will answer that this is enough for those who want to be attentive, that (the Apostles) were always busy with the most necessary things, and that their main concern was not to write books, since they communicated a lot through unwritten tradition.” He wrote the Gospel and the book of Acts to one pious and famous Christian Theophilus, in the opinion of some the chief of Achaia, in Greek. According to legend, St. Luke preached the faith of Christ in Greece. In Thessaloniki he was installed as bishop of this city of Macedonia. St. Chrysostom writes about the Apostle Luke that “he was awarded ordination. For the Apostle Paul testifies of him that he is sanctified (χειροτονηθεις) from the churches to walk with us by this grace, which we serve (2 Cor. 8:19). Carrying out the ministry of Apostle, Evangelist and Bishop, healing the souls of people, St. Luke also healed bodily ailments: St. The Apostle Paul calls him a doctor (Col.4:14). According to legend, St. Luke was also engaged in painting: he painted icons of the Mother of God, to which She imparted special grace, and icons of St. Apostles Peter and Paul. Luke sealed the truth of his gospel with martyrdom for Jesus Christ, according to others, in Ephesus, where he was buried. According to another legend, St. Luke finished his Apostolic labors in the city of Thebes, or Patras, the city of Achaia, about 84 years old, being hanged, for lack of a cross, on an olive tree. Under Emperor Constantine in 360, his body was transferred from Achaia to Constantinople to the Church of Peter and Paul, along with the relics of the Apostles Andrew and Timothy. Philostorgius writes about the transfer of the relics of St. Evangelist Luke: “When the people arrived carrying the coffin in which Luke lay, and when this coffin was carried from the sea to the church, Anatoly the eunuch approached with zeal and, as much as he had the strength (he was sick), helped the carriers. At this time his illness suddenly stopped.” In the 4th century, St. testified to the Apostle and Evangelist Luke about the celebration. Gregory Nazianzen in his word against Julian. In the 5th century, Anatoly of Constantinople, Leo Magister, wrote some hymns in honor of the Evangelist Luke, which are now exalted. Church on the day of his memory. The Church in its hymns, among other things, glorifies St. Luke, as an Evangelist and writer of the Acts of the Apostles and as a physician. Rev. Julian the Hermit, Persian About Rev. Juliana St. Chrysostom says in his conversation to the Antiochians: “You know, and heard, and some also saw the man about whom I will speak, Julian - amazing. This man is a simple peasant and born in an unknown place, without any external education, but filled with a philosophy that is not vain. When he entered the cities, which happened rarely, there was such a concourse that does not happen during the arrival of a rhetorician, sophist or anyone else. What else can I say? Isn’t his name now being sung more gloriously than any of the kings!” 259 In his “History of God-Lovers,” Blessed Theodoret talks about St. Julian, that the place of his exploits he chose a cave in the depths of the desert in the Parthian country, stretching west to the banks of the Euphrates. Here he spent his life, once a week only taking food - bread with salt and water, and then without satiety, but in a measure taken once and for all. The psalmody of St. served as consolation and spiritual nourishment for him. prophet and King David and continuous reflection and prayerful conversation with God. Inexhaustibly enjoying such food, he did not know satiety in it, and along with it the love for God of the one who sang: “My soul cleaves to You; My soul thirsts for the mighty, living God: when will I come and appear before the face of God! Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice! Taste and see how good the Lord is! – Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart; Commit your way to the Lord, and trust in Him, and He will accomplish... The revelation of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; The commandment of the Lord is bright, it enlightens the eyes. The judgments of the Lord are true, all are righteous. They are more desirable than gold and even much pure gold, sweeter than honey and drops of honeycomb.” Singing these psalms, David says: “I would like to gain many accomplices and partners in the love of God,” and his desire was fulfilled, he attracted the pious Julian and a host of others to Divine love, forever singing with his words the glory of God and love for God and an insatiable desire for Him... “Julian,” says Blessed. Theodoret, “was inflamed with such love for God that in his rapture with it, he seemed to not notice anything earthly, but only thought about his Beloved both at night and constantly thought during the day.” The rumor about the desert ascetic reached the ears of people, many wanted to live under the guidance of a strict example, and gradually up to a hundred people populated Julian’s cave cell and began to imitate his strict life. Sharing his fast, however, they considered it necessary to have wild vegetables prepared in a timely manner in case of need for the sick, and since there was dampness and mold in their cave, they asked Elder Julian to build a separate room to store supplies. Julian, although he did not consider this care necessary, but, having learned from Ap. Paul “not to look for his own,” but to indulge in the needs of the weakest, allowed them to build a separate room, at the same time determining its dimensions, and he himself retired 50 miles deep into the desert, where he used to retire from time to time. Returning to the cave and finding that the hut for supplies was larger than he had appointed, he said to the brethren: “I am afraid, brethren, that by expanding our earthly dwellings, we will not reduce the heavenly ones, which should serve us for eternity, while they are suitable only for a short time.” The elder said this, leading the brethren to the highest perfection, but forgave them for their deviation from obedience to him, because of his obedience and imitation of the Apostle, who said: “I please everyone in everything, seeking not my own benefit, but the benefit of many, so that they may be saved”... (1 Cor. 10:33). When, after living together with the brothers in exploits, Julian retired for a while for solitary prayer, he used to take with him one of the best among the brothers to participate in prayer. One day, a young man of noble birth, brought up in bliss, earnestly asked the elder for permission to accompany him into the desert, but had such zeal for piety that it exceeded his strength. Julian dissuaded this young man, named Asteria, from a long journey into the desert, where there was still no water, but finally, convinced by his desire, he bowed to his request and took him with him. Asterius followed the elder with joy; after three days he began to faint from the unbearable heat in the desert; Tormented by thirst, he was nevertheless ashamed to tell the elder about his suffering, which he warned about. Finally, completely exhausted, Asterius begged the elder to take pity on him. Since there was still a long way to go, Julian invited the young man to return back. But Asterius did not know the way to the cave, and besides, he could not go, because his strength was exhausted from the thirst that tormented him. Then the man of God, touched by the suffering of his companion, condescending to his weakness, knelt down and earnestly cried out to God, watering the earth with hot tears, for the salvation of the young man. And God heard the prayer of the righteous man: the drops of his tears that fell to the ground turned into a water source. “This source,” says Theodoret, “has been preserved to this day as a monument to the prayer of a pious elder, similar to the prayer of Moses. For just as Moses, striking a dry stone with his rod, brought out streams of water to give drink to many thousands of people who were exhausted from thirst, so this God-pleasing old man, watering the dry sand with his tears, produced water to quench the thirst of one young man 260. Speaking about the high dignity of Julian’s prayer, the biography writer also mentions his meekness, evidence of which, by the way, is presented in the following incident. One day Asterius, the above-mentioned student of Julian, who had already become an ascetic and leader of others and often visited his beloved teacher, as a sign of his zeal for him, brought him a large bag of figs on his shoulders as a gift; he bore this burden on himself for seven days of travel. Confused and upset that another man had gone to such trouble for his sake, Julian did not want to take advantage of his labor and refused to accept the offering. When Asterius began to assure the elder that he would not remove the burden from his shoulders until he agreed to accept the offering, then, although the elder was burdened to accept the food obtained by the labor of another, but, seeing the ardent zeal of the one who wanted to serve him, he preferred to accept this service against his own will. “I will fulfill your demand, just first, quickly lay aside this burden,” the meek old man conceded. In his humility, he did not consider himself worthy of the slightest attention, of any honor, and rejected it as undeserved of him, but then accepted it as soon as he saw that with his consent he could relieve and delight another... Having acquired the gift of clairvoyance through his life, Julian, by the way, once had a revelation during a prayer for the speedy deliverance of the Church from its cruel persecutor, the apostate Julian 261. “The unclean and vile animal has died,” the prayer heard the mysterious announcement, and “he replaced the intercessory prayer for the deliverance of the Church from its enemy with a psalmody of thanksgiving to the Lord, the Savior of His servants and the Almighty punisher of His enemies.”... Having finished the prayer, the old man, calm in his soul, returned to the brethren and drew their attention to the joy expressed in his face, as it usually was sad. To their question about the reason for this change, Julian answered: “Brothers, the present time is a time of complacency and joy: the wicked is gone... and the daring have received a worthy punishment; he who rebelled against the Lord received a worthy defeat from the hand that persecuted him. That is why I rejoice, seeing that the Churches persecuted by him are triumphant, and the apostate did not receive any help from the demons whom he revered" ... However, the Church did not calm down, although from another kind of shocks during the reign of Emperor Valens, who inherited the throne of the Roman Empire after Julian: adherents of the errors of Arius rebelled against the primates of the Churches who were not infected with heresy, and expelled them from the Church of God with a people of like minds, who honored the one and inseparable being of the Divine Trinity. Then the time came for the lover of the silent desert to part with it and appear in city squares, so as not to remain silent about the truth. The followers of the lie, to confirm it, spread a rumor in Antioch that the famous Julian, respected by the people, also adheres to the dogmas preached by them. The Orthodox were alarmed, lest this rumor, having deceived the simple and inexperienced, lure them into the net of heretics, and then Asterius and his disciple Acacius, prompted by the pious men Flavian and Diodorus, decided to go to Julian, this luminary of the Church, the defender of the Gospel teaching with his very life, to ask him to “leave the desert life and come to the aid of thousands of Orthodox, perishing from deception, and with the dew of his coming to extinguish the Arian flame.” “Great, father, are your labors before God,” Bishop Akakiy said to the ascetic, “but there is a way to serve God more than you serve now; I say this not only from my own consideration, but also from the instruction of the word of God. The Lord, who once asked Peter whether he loved Him more than the other disciples, and having learned what he knew before Petrov’s answer: “So, Lord, You know how much I love You,” showed him by what feat he could please Him more: “If You love Me, feed My lambs”; This is also what you should do, Father, because the flock is in danger and harm of being destroyed by wolves, but it is deeply loved by the One who is dearly loved by You; Those who love tend to do something pleasant for their loved ones; otherwise, your previous exploits will lose meaning if you are indifferent or inactive to the fact that the truth is so brazenly oppressed, and that those devoted to it are drawn into deception, to which your very name serves as a bait for them. The adherents of Aryan blasphemy are spreading the word that you are participating in their false teaching... Hearing this, the elder asked to be calm for the time being, and he himself went to Antioch. Crossing the desert, he reached a village at night, where he stopped to rest in the house of a pious woman. While she was serving the famous ascetic and those who were with him, her seven-year-old only son, amid the bustle of the home, quietly left the house at dusk and, running around the yard, fell into a well. When alarm arose in the house on this occasion, then, to everyone’s surprise, the mother of the child herself, remaining calm, calmed others and, having covered the well, continued to reverently serve her distinguished guest... So great was her faith that in the presence of the prayer book, already known for the gift of miracles, no misfortune could happen in her house... And the Lord accomplished it by wonderful faith. When, before eating the prepared meal, the holy elder wished to bless the son of the pious mistress of the house who had sheltered him, she answered him that he was sick; when Julian urgently demanded that the child be brought to him, the mother informed him of the misfortune that had happened. The elder immediately left the meal, went to the well, opened it and in the light of the fire he saw that the child was sitting on the surface of the water and was amusing himself with splashing it with his hands... Now the man lowered on a rope into the well pulled the child out of the water. The boy, looking at the old man, fell to him, saying that he saw him when he carried him through the water, preventing him from drowning... And many more miraculous manifestations accompanied Julian’s journey to Antioch. When he arrived in this city, people came to him from everywhere, wanting to see the man of God and hoping to receive healing from his illness from him. He settled in the very cleft of the mountain where, according to legend, St. lived and took refuge. Apostle Paul. From here the ascetic performed not only physical, but also spiritual healing with his words, and soon the slanderers were exposed and put to shame, and the adherents of the truth were reassured and rejoiced and “carried from here to their homes the light of Orthodoxy”... Having blessed the city with his visit, abundantly lavishing many miracles all along the way, Julian returned to his desert and, staying there until a very old age, peacefully departed to his beloved Heavenly Father. The Monk Julian died no earlier than the year 262. Mixed. about the monastery 246. East. Hier. 4.1. According to one list of calendars, the saint reposed on Oct. 18, and according to another – June 26. The first one is more trustworthy, based on other examples of proven accuracy of testimony. About her martyrdom - Christians. martyrs in the East, pp. 275–279. The description is compiled from the words of the confessor, Fr. Timofey. “Full. months East." arch. Serg., vol. II, part 2, p. 333. This young man, the later famous ascetic Asterius, was the founder of a monastery in the vicinity of Gindar (a village near Antioch) and raised many students famous for their virtues. At this time, this event was revealed to other holy men. In Alexandria, the famous Christian scientist St. Blind Didymus, while praying at night, heard the words: “Today the Emperor Julian passed away, Athanasius the Great was notified about this.”