2-го числа

St. Sylvester, Pope Sylvester, a Roman by birth, was a student of the pious Kirin presbyter and loved to receive strangers. Then Bishop Timothy came to Rome from the east, from Antioch, to preach the Gospel to the pagans, and then there were not even a tenth of Christians among the two million inhabitants of Rome. He lived in Sylvester's house for a year and several months and converted many to Christ, but for this he was finally captured and imprisoned. He was forced to renounce the Christian faith, punished with whips three times and, as if he were unyielding, his head was cut off. The mayor summoned Sylvester and demanded the release of the estate left after Timofey. Having received in response that there was no estate left, the mayor demanded that he bow to idols, and threatened him with torment for disobedience. Sylvester, foreseeing the imminent death of the tormentor, said in Gospel expressions: “this night your soul will be taken from you (Luke 12:20), and your threats will not come true.” Then the mayor ordered him to be shackled and taken to prison, and he sat down to dinner. At dinner he choked on a fish bone and died by midnight, and Sylvester was released. Having reached the age of thirty, he was ordained a deacon by Pope Melchiades, and after the death of the latter (in 312) he was elevated to the episcopal throne. He lived in the bishopric for twenty-one years and eleven months, teaching his flock in word and deed. He forbade clergy to engage in trade and instead of pagan names for the days, he established Christian names. So, for example, the first day of the week was called by the pagans the day of the sun, and Saint Sylvester ordered to call it the day of the Lord, because on this day the Lord Jesus rose from the dead. Under him, Constantine defeated the enemies of the empire and Christianity and granted freedom to the Church. Having converted many pagans and Jews to Christ, St. Sylvester died in 335. Memory of Rev. Sylvester Pechersky The relics of the Monk Sylvester rest openly in the Kyiv caves with the Monk Anthony 1. In Kalnofoisky he is depicted as follows: “the holy elder Sylvester, the obedient miracle worker.” According to this single information (his life is not in the patericon), the Monk Sylvester through obedience achieved a high degree of spiritual perfection, subduing his obstinate pride in himself, and obedience elevated him so much that he was blessed with the gift of miracles. The Repose of Righteous Juliana Lazarevskaya St. Righteous Juliana of Lazarevskaya Righteous Juliana was the daughter of the pious and wealthy noblemen Nedyurev 2; her father Justin was a housekeeper at the court of King John; Left orphaned for six years after the death of her mother, she was taken into care by her grandmother Anastasia Lukina, née Dubenskaya; the grandmother, dying, passed it on to her married daughter Natalya Arapova, when Juliania was 12 years old; Arapova had many children of her own, so the orphan got a little something pleasant. The modest orphan girl loved fasting and prayer; her sisters mocked her for this, and her aunt scolded her; meek and unrequited, she diligently occupied herself with handicrafts (“spinning and hoopping”); while other girls found pleasure in empty fun and games, her consolation was to look after a sick poor man, sew a shirt for the poor, caress an orphan. Her peers only thought about cherishing their beauty; they ate and drank from early morning; Moreover, they encouraged Juliana; her aunt even scolded her for ruining her virgin beauty by not paying attention to her, but Juliana remained abstinent, cherished the purity of her soul and cherished only the fear of God. The orphan girl was not taught to read and write, and this seems to be in the order of things for an orphan. During her entire girlhood she had never been to church; in the village where she lived there was no church, it was 2 miles away, and the custom, which did not allow the girl to leave home and appear among strangers, plausibly covered up her omission of St. debt. Nevertheless, Juliana was a girl of rare kindness. Good meaning was her mentor in goodness, and the fear of God revealed her meaning. In her time, girls got married at 15. But Juliana was an orphan, they were in no hurry to give her a home. She was married off when she was 16 years old. But God sent the orphan a rich and noble husband, Yuri Osorin, owner of the village. Lazarevsky; in this village they were married by the pious priest Potapius, who later, with the name Pimen, was archimandrite of the Murom Spassky Monastery; the pious confessor helped Juliana a lot on her new path of life with his advice and instructions. Through her helpfulness and hard work, she soon gained the love of her father-in-law and mother-in-law, so they entrusted her with managing the house. In the morning and evening she constantly performed kneeling prayers, making 100 or more bows. In addition, she also taught her husband. At times she grieved that she did not remain a virgin, but she redoubled her efforts to fulfill God’s commandments in the circle of her life. It happened that the husband was in the royal service in Astrakhan for a year, two or three years. Then she did needlework at night, either spinning or sewing in a hoop, and distributed the money earned for her work to the poor or to the church of God; She did this secretly even from her mother-in-law, although she loved her; only one maid knew the exploits of her love. With her own hands she fed and watered the orphans and widows, sewed them and washed them. All her servants and maids were well fed, clothed, and shod; she did not allow any pride in her treatment of them; She politely called everyone by name and patronymic. For herself personally, she did not demand services from them: she never ordered them to give her water or take off her shoes - she did all this herself. Only when there were guests did she allow herself to order this and that to the servants. But even in such cases, I was burdened by their services. “Who am I, poor thing,” she said, “that others should serve me?” Among the servants there were those who, despite all her kindness, showed her rudeness; she happened to see and hear quarrels between servants. She tried to overcome their obstinacy with patient kindness. “I often sin before God,” she said, “and God tolerates me: I will also tolerate it, especially since although they are subordinate to me, in their souls, perhaps, they are much better than me before God.” Without embarrassment, she endured a reprimand from her father-in-law, mother-in-law and husband for the servants' disorder, but not only did she not say unnecessary or unfair things about them, but tried to cover up and correct their mistakes. At night she usually prayed to God; Her zeal was especially great for Saint Nicholas. One night, during prayer, she was struck by such fear that, leaving prayer, she hurried to hide in bed, but even then terrible dreams haunted her; her dreams threatened to destroy her if she did not stop praying; Finally, she mentally turned to God and called on St. Nicholas for help. Suddenly the saint appeared with a book in his hands and said: “Be strong, my daughter, do not be afraid of these threats, Christ commanded me to keep you.” Having awakened, she already saw in reality her magnificent husband leaving her room. From then on, she began to pray even more. There was a great famine, so that many died from lack of food. Juliana doubled her secret alms. She took food from her mother-in-law for breakfast and midday and distributed everything to those in need, but she herself, as before, did not eat anything until lunch and evening. Her mother-in-law told her: “I’m glad that now you eat more; But why couldn’t I force you to have either breakfast or afternoon tea before?” The blessed one, hiding her feat, answered: “Then I did not give birth to children, but now I cannot eat enough.” If one of the poor died, the blessed one hired to remove the dead man, bought a shroud and prayed for the deceased. Famine was followed by infection; people locked themselves in their houses, fearing a sticky death. The blessed one, secretly from her own people, cared for those suffering from the infection and, if someone died, she did not hesitate to wash him herself and buried him at her own expense. The father-in-law and mother-in-law, having reached a ripe old age, died in monastic attire. The blessed one gave out generous alms for them, made meals for the poor, sent alms to prisoners in dungeons, and sent a memorial service in the church without her husband, who was serving in Astrakhan. She had many children, and of them six sons and one daughter she raised in the fear of God. Her eldest son was killed by a servant: this greatly upset her, but she still had so much firmness that she consoled her husband. Soon after that, another son was killed in the royal service - she suffered this loss complacently. And yet these two losses shocked her so much that she strongly begged her husband to allow her to join the monastery. Her husband restrained her: “your job,” he says, “is to raise children for the Lord.” He read to her the books of Kozma the Presbyter and other blessed teachers, where it is said: “Black robes will not save us if we live badly, and a white robes are not harmful if we do the will of God. They do bad things when they retire to a monastery out of poverty and abandon their children without a caretaker; the children cry at them before God.” “If so,” said the blessed one, “God’s will be done,” and she remained to live with the children. The blessed one begged permission from her husband to no longer have marital cohabitation with him and began to sleep on a special bed. She began to fast and pray more than before. She spent every Friday in a solitary cell in prayer, not eating anything; on Monday and Wednesday I ate dry bread once; on Saturday and Sunday she established meals for the spiritual and the poor. At night she slept no more than two hours, in the evening, and then with a log under her head and her keys under her side. When others fell asleep soundly, she got up for prayer and prayed until matins, then went to church. Although she did not know how to competently, lovingly, listen to books read, she learned so much that she explained to others how to live in order to please the Lord. Pious feelings and life experiences led her to an understanding of the highest Christian truths. In the house she was a mother to everyone, taking care of the contentment of every servant; She admonished the guilty servants and maids not with scolding and beatings, but with the gentle words of a loving mother. After the death of her husband, she distributed alms to churches and monasteries. She prayed earnestly for his soul and told the children: “Don’t cry too much for him, my children! his death tells us that we also need to prepare for judgment. Instead of tears, do alms according to your strength, and keep love between each other.” Her generosity for the poor now reached such an extent that, at times, she did not have a penny left; borrowing money from children to buy clothes for herself, she gave the clothes to a beggar, and she herself went without warm clothes in winter. Weighing herself down with deeds for the Lord, she put shells under her bare feet in her boots and walked like that. The Lord looked mercifully on her exploits. One day the winter was very severe; The blessed one, having neither clothes nor shoes, did not go to church for some time; she was already 60 years old. Priest of the Church of St. Lazarus, having come to the church for Matins, suddenly heard a voice from the icon of the Mother of God: “Go, tell the merciful widow Juliana that she does not go to church in vain; home prayer is pleasing to God, but not as much as church prayer; and you respect her, the Spirit of God rests on her.” The priest, frightened, ran to Juliana and told everyone out loud what he had heard. The humble servant of God was upset by the priest’s story. “You’re adorable,” she said; “Who am I, a sinner, to be worthy of such an invitation?” She conjured the priest and everyone who heard not to say a word about it, either during her life or after her death. Then I went to the church and served a prayer service to the Mother of God. From that time on, no matter the weather, she went to church whenever there was a service. In the house, no matter what she did, whether she ate or drank, she constantly said the Jesus Prayer. She lived as a widow for nine years, pleasing God with fasting, prayer and almsgiving. She managed the bread reserves so that there was enough for the household for a year, and distributed the rest to the poor. At c. Boris had a terrible hunger: some even ate the human flesh of the dead. The blessed one asked the children and household not to touch other people's property; How many livestock and household items she had, she sold everything to buy bread and fed not only her family, but also strangers. Finally, she reached extreme poverty and, trusting in God, moved to the Nizhny Novgorod village of Vochnevo. When poverty increased here too, she called her slaves and said: “You yourself see what the hunger is like; If any of you does not want to endure need with me, let him go wherever he pleases to earn bread for himself.” Some stayed with her, while others she sent away, at their request, with all her love. She ordered those who remained to collect quinoa and tree bark to make bread from it; through her prayers, the bread turned out to be tasty and not only were their own people fed and healthy, but also the poor received help. The neighbors said to the beggars: “Why do you go to Juliana? she herself is dying of hunger.” The beggars answered: “We went to many villages, but no one ate such delicious bread as hers.” The wealthy sent to her on purpose for bread, in order to believe the words of the poor, and were amazed at the pleasantness of her bread. Throughout the famine, two whole years, she spent in extreme poverty, but she was always calm and cheerful, thanking the Lord for everything. When the time of her death approached, on the very day of the Nativity of Christ she fell ill and was sick for six days. But even in these days she herself got up at night to pray, so that the servants laughed and said: what kind of sick woman is this? On the very day of her death, early in the morning, she called her confessor, confessed and received Holy Communion. Mysteries, then blessed the children and commanded them to live in the fear of God. “Ever since my youth,” she added, “I strongly wanted to put on monasticism, but because of my sins, God did not vouchsafe me this mercy; thank God for everything!” And on January 2, 1604, she peacefully surrendered her spirit to God. That same night she appeared to her maid and asked to bury her body near her husband, near the church of St. Lazarus. This was done. In 1614, when they buried her son, they opened her coffin, full of fragrant myrrh. Many sick people who were anointed with this world received healing. Other sick people received healing after prayer over her tomb; among them, the children of Cherveva suffered from wounds from which blood flowed and could not control their hands, and after prayer over the tomb of the righteous woman they were healed; in the same way, the blind woman's sight was restored; Relaxed and crouched, Andrei completely recovered 3. Such is the servant of God Juliana. St. Martyr Sergius, who suffered in Caesarea Cappadocia in 304 St. Martyr Sergius, who suffered at Caesarea Cappadocia in 304 Bishop of Paria, city of Troas, who lived in the 4th century. For confessing the faith of Christ, he was condemned by Licinius to be drowned at sea; Before carrying out the execution, he asked for time to pray, and when he prayed, his face lit up with an extraordinary light, which so amazed those who were present that many of them accepted the Christian faith. After drowning, his body was taken out of the water by Christians and buried at the city wall, and here many miracles were performed and illnesses were healed to glorify the saint of God. St. Theodota, mother of the unmercenaries and wonderworkers Cosmas and Damian Widowed early, she led a pious life and devoted herself entirely to raising her children in the fear of God. Her memory is also on November 1 and Cheese Saturday. Rev. Ammon who lived at the beginning of the 5th century He was the abbot of the Tabennisiot monastery in Egypt, in which he had up to 3,000 monks. He labored in the 4th century. in the Pisper monastery, on the ber. Nile, where he was the successor of his teacher, Anthony the Great. Description Kyiv. laurels, p. 201. K. 1847. RKP. Saints: “Rev. Isaiah (May 15) and Sylvester." Life is right. Juliania is described by her son Kallistrat Osorin, who in 1640 was the governor; he brings God as a witness that he wrote the truth, and allows his words to be believed by questioning neighbors who personally knew the life of Juliana. This is a description in Tsarsky No. 129, 136, in Tolstoy with a description of miracles 2. No. 303. In the Russian translation, this life, with the exception of a few things, is printed. in "Russian Bulletin" 1858 No. 19. A true story, but without a description of miracles, ed. in memory old rus. liter. I, 63–67. “When her honest repose approached: she fell ill on December 26 and lay down for 6 days.” Therefore, death on the 7th day after December 26th followed on January 2nd. And, however, in the printed edition it is stated: “Genvar in 4 days,” the latter is a scribe’s error. In the RKP. Saints: “St. bolyarina Juliana, already in the village. Lazarevsky, new wonderworker, reposed in L. 7112 (1604) m. January on the 2nd day." Osorin: “buried at the church of righteous Lazarus, next to her husband, in the village. Lazarev, four miles from the city, in l. 7112 (1604) gen. at 10 days.” Service of the Righteous. Juliania in Tolstoy III. No. 68. (25).