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Holy Martyrs Mark the Bishop, Cyril the Deacon and many others About Mark, the bishop of the city of Arethusa in Syria, Gregory the Theologian says (in the first word on Julian) that “under the emperor Constantius, according to the power then given to Christians, he destroyed one demonic dwelling and turned many from pagan error to the path of salvation no less with his luminous life, as well as with the power of words. For this, the inhabitants of Arethusa, committed to the veneration of demons, were indignant at him. And when the affairs of Christians were shaken, and paganism began to rise under Julian the Apostate, then Mark, seeing the movement of the crowd against him, first decided to flee, not so much out of cowardice, but by following the commandment, which commands to run from city to city (Matthew 10:23) and evade persecutors; but having learned that many were being dragged and persecuted for his sake, he did not want to redeem his safety with the lives of others, returned from flight and gave himself up to the people - to do with him what they wanted. They demanded that he either rebuild the destroyed church, or pay the high price they set for it; and when he refused, they subjected him to the most frantic torture: they dragged him through the streets, pushed him into unclean pits, dragged him by his hair, and did not leave a single part of his body that was not abused. The pagans finally reduced the price to the smallest quantity and forced payment, using the most exquisite tortures: ears were cut with threads, doused with honey, exposed to the heat and devoured by wasps and bees. But the holy elder, not thinking about money, but jealous of the holy faith, courageously endured torture.” And seeing the firmness of the wondrous old man, says the historian (Theodoret III, 6), the Arethusians were moved and let him go free; then they learned from him and were all Christians. Died peacefully at a ripe old age. Cyril was a deacon of the Iliopolis Church in Phenicia, where he destroyed many idols under Constantine the Great; and during the reign of Julian, the pagans killed him and, cutting open the dead man’s belly, bit him with their teeth in a rage. Then in Gaza and Ascalon many martyrs of both sexes died in torment; The fanatics cut their bodies into pieces, devoured their raw livers, while others sprinkled their entrails with barley and gave them to pigs to eat. St. John the Hermit, who lived as a student While still a youth, John, together with his mother, Christian Juliania, and sister Thimistia, hid in Kivistra in Lesser Armenia during the persecution of Christians that took place in the 4th century. At this time, pious Juliana devoted her whole soul to the task of raising her children in a Christian mind. She carefully taught them the law of God and constantly talked with them about Jesus Christ and the saints of God. From their secret refuge, John sometimes went to pray in the monastery. Here he once met with a God-loving man, who advised him to settle on a secluded mountain, probably meaning for the boy both a more reliable refuge from his tormentors and, at the same time, deliverance from worldly people who could lead his young, inexperienced, unstrengthened soul astray... John conveyed this advice to his mother and asked her to pray that God would help him fulfill it... The mother sent her son away, hoping that he would return soon. John, having kissed his mother and sister, went into the desert, where, having met a hermit named Farmufia (mem. April 11), he settled near him in a deep-dug empty well and began to live there, eating what Farmufia provided him. John lived in this well for ten years... The life that the youth lived here is indescribable - truly in the community of angels who guarded him, and to whom he was like... The glory of God was accomplished in such a way of life as a human creature. A wondrous struggle between adolescent helplessness and the strength that lies in the depths of the human spirit - even in the soul of a youth who has not reached full reason - took place before the eyes of the One All-Seeing... The wondrous providence of God led and protected this young soul, who completely entrusted itself to Him - and the strength of the spirit triumphed over the weakness of the physical nature. Often fear and loneliness must have oppressed the young soul; Often the images of a crying mother and sister attracted the boy to them. But he retreated before them, held by another image, the image of God that inhabited his solitude, the image of God inherent in the immaculate soul... The child of a pious mother who poured her God-loving soul into him, John became a grace-filled vessel of prayer and striving for the one God, which anticipated for him the Kingdom of Heaven before the end of his earthly life. “Glory to You, Master, that You Yourself know those who love You and make them partakers of Your Heavenly Kingdom!” exclaimed a certain Chrysikhios, a former monk, but for a long time an inhabitant of the desert, to whom the Lord led to find and learn the short but full of boundless content of the story of a young man who lived and died in an underground well, and who conveyed the story about him so that it would be written down for the memory of people for the glory of the Lord, wondrous in His saints. † Memory of the Venerable Jonah and Mark of Pskov-Pechersk The Monk Jonah, in the world John, was a priest in the city of Yuryev (Dorpta), where he was sent from Moscow. Due to the latter circumstance, the Pskovites called him shestnik (settler). He lived in Yuryev for two and a half years, diligently correcting the affairs of his rank for the Russians who inhabited the Russian end of Dorpat. “The Germans, then zealous servants of the pope, began to force him and his children to union. The pious shepherd suffered various insults, but in 1470 he was forced to retire to Pskov along with his wife and children. - Having learned here that his comrade, blessed Isidore, courageously endured a painful death for the holy faith, he decided to suffer the suffering of a desert life. - Information reached him that on the border of Livonia, on the Kamyanka River, there is a natural cave; he went, looked at it and fell in love with the secluded area, especially since here he hoped to have relations with the persecuted children of Orthodoxy. – Taking his wife and children from Pskov and placing them with the owner of the land where there was a cave, he himself began to dig a place for the church of God in the mountain behind the cave. Soon his wife, Vassa, a monk, died and was laid in a cave. John accepted monasticism with the name Jonah. Having finished the cave church and two cells with it, he asked Archbishop Theophilus for a blessing to consecrate the church, and the church was consecrated in 1477 by the Pskov priests, in honor of the Dormition of the Mother of God. During the consecration of the church, a blind woman was healed in front of the church icon; this consoled the sincere ascetic. The owner of the place, John Dementievich, gave up land for the monastery, a mile around the monastery. Blessed Jonah labored diligently in a cave and here he reposed holyly around 1480. After his death, a ringed armor was found on his body, which he wore secretly on himself to pacify his flesh; the armor was hung over his tomb; In one of their attacks, the Germans carried away this property of the holy elder. – His relics were honestly placed in cave 274. Before the Monk Jonah, the Monk Mark labored in the same natural cave. The trappers saw him either near three stones on the mountain, or on the Kamenka stream, near the place where the cave was later found; two of these stones are still visible near the roof of the Assumption Church, overgrown with moss, under centuries-old oak trees; one is entirely on the surface, the other sank deep into the ground, but the third has already completely sunk into it. The chronicle relays the story of an eyewitness to the trapper Izborsky: “one day my father and I accidentally came to the edge of the mountain (where the Church of the Virgin Mary is now) and we heard as if church singing; they sang harmoniously, reverently, but the singers were not visible, and the air was filled with the fragrance of incense.” Without a doubt, these were hermits who performed the evening service in the cave - blessed Mark with one or two disciples. – The successor of St. Jonah brought blessed Mark into the Synodikon as the first ascetic of the Pskov cave. The Monk Cornelius at one time doubted the fidelity of the record, since no written monument was found about his exploits, and ordered his name to be erased from the Synodic. But suddenly struck by illness, he was informed in spirit about the cause of the illness and ordered to be carried to the elder’s tomb. Here, having asked for forgiveness with a tearful prayer, he received healing and ordered that St. Mark be included in the Synodic again 275. In 1642, according to the charter of the Pskov Bishop Gennady, new tombs with veils were built, and the relics of the first ascetics of the cave were placed in them with the singing of psalms; the tomb of St. Mark and St. Jonah was placed in the same places: the first under the image of the Savior, the second - at the entrance to the cave on the right side; the tomb of the Venerable Vassa was moved from the left side to the right 276. Russian time 2, 67–73. About the beginning of Pechersk. monastery l. 2. 3. V. 1831 About the beginning of Pechersk. Monast., p. 25. M. 1831. RKP. Saints: “Reverend Fathers of Pechersk, the first priest Mark and Jonah the monk and builder, in the year 6900 of the month of March on the 29th day.” According to Othen. sp. “Their memory is March 20th day.” Between hands n. Philaret, according to the inventory of 1630, “the story of the Pechersk monastery and the first elder Mark and the miracles of the Most Holy Theotokos”; two more books “about the Pechersky Monastery in Pskov.” Ivanova described. sovereign arch. 292. 293. M. 1849.