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Day one. Memory of our venerable father Agapius of Vatopedi
While being a novice under one silent elder who labored on Mount Athos, in the Vatopedi monastery of Kolitsa (now defunct), the Monk Agapius one day went out to the sea to wash his clothes. The Turks who landed on the shore at that time, seeing the young man, captured him and then sold him in Magnesia to their fellow tribesman, with whom Agapius worked for 12 years, never leaving his shackles. The only consolation for him during all this time, the only hope was the prayer of the Mother of God for his release from grave captivity.
One day he saw in a dream the Mother of God, turning to him with the words: “Go without fear to your elder...” Waking up, Agapius felt freed from his shackles and, attributing this to the miracles of the Mother of God, the great Intercessor, boldly and immediately left his master’s house and returned to his elder on Athos. The elder, seeing him, became alarmed, thinking that Agapius had run away from his master. “My son,” he told him, “you deceived a man, but no one will ever deceive God; at the hour of the General Judgment you will have to give an answer for the money that your master spent on buying you in order to have you as an assistant in his needs; therefore, if you wish to be justified, then go back to your master and serve him. By doing this, you will become a true servant of God and His faithful servant; when God enlightens your master, he himself will give you leave.”
Agapius obeyed the Elder of God without question. The barbarian was surprised to see the slave unexpectedly return... “How did you leave and how did you decide to return?” - he asked him.
Agapius told him the whole matter in detail. The Mohammedan was amazed by this story, which so clearly expressed the entire height of the holy Christian faith; his soul softened and rose to Divine comprehension. Soon, taking Agapius and his two sons with him, he went to the Holy Mountain to Elder Agapev and wished to receive baptism from him for himself and his children. Subsequently, they all accepted monasticism and labored worthily until their death.
Apparently, the elder monk acted against the instructions of the Mother of God Herself... But - who can explore the depths and paths of the Spirit acting in His church - the pure human soul, “interceding for the salvation of man with unspeakable sighs?” Meanwhile, was it not by the Spirit of the Lord that the elder foresaw that the instruction of the Mother of God to Agapius to “return to his elder” also combined another instruction - to win the souls of non-believers in the same way. Agapius, who had not abandoned his master, could not have made such a significant return to his master, crowned with such good fruits... Through this return, the greatest truth of the elder, characteristic of him as a Christian, the greatest obedience of Agapius, obedience coupled with complete selflessness, which turned out to be available to him as a Christian and which amazed his master so much that he was inflamed with the desire to get closer to the source of such spiritual beauty and... exchanged his freedom for slavery to Christ, or the only true, saving freedom...
Memory of the Venerable Martyrius of Zelenetsky
The Monk Martyrius, in the world Mina 391, was born in Velikiye Luki from the famous citizen Stephen. He had barely learned the psalter when his parents died at the age of 10. The reverent priest of the Annunciation Church loved the kind orphan, often seeing him in church, and taught him goodness. A few years later, the widowed priest took monastic vows at the monastery of the unmercenary; Mina visited him here too, and visited him even when Bogolep was appointed builder of the Velikolutsk St. Sergius Monastery. In this monastery, Mina, having distributed all his property, took monastic vows from his mentor and was named Martyrius. The builder entrusted Martyrius with the church keys, and therefore Martyrius had to be the first to enter the church and the last to leave. Velikolutsk resident Afanasy, tonsured with the name Abraham, was entrusted to the leadership of Martyrius and replaced his work on the church. Having lived for 7 years under the mentor Bogolep, Martyrius wished to live in solitude in a deserted place, 60 miles from Luk. The mentor sent him advice to return to the hostel, since here he could be useful to others.
In bewilderment, he went to venerate the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God and the Wonderworker Abraham. In Smolensk, the Monk Abraham appeared to him in a dream vision with his disciple the Monk Ephraim and said: “You must live in the desert, where the Lord and His Most Pure Mother will indicate.” In the Tikhvin monastery, he was delighted to meet with his disciple Abraham, who, being sick, was healed by the Mother of God and remained in Tikhvin 392. Bored by the crowds of pilgrims in Tikhvin, Martyrius asked the Lord to show him a secluded place for his exploits. Such a place was indicated at night to the disciple Martiriev by the sign of the cross-shaped dawn on the island, which had long been called Green. Martyrius built himself a hut here. The surroundings of the island could not have been more wild and gloomy. There are mosses, swamps, swamps all around, and they stretch almost from Novgorod itself. Only the place where Martyrius settled was a significant hill, covered with pleasant greenery, and it was this that gave the place the name Green. The strict hermit found what he was looking for and thanked the Lord.
The pious villager Joseph brought him food from time to time, and sometimes, confused by his thoughts and vanity, he left him without it for a long time. Martyrius fasted and prayed. In time they learned about the hermit of the Green Island. No matter how many monastic monasteries there were in the Novgorod region at that time, there were none in the wilderness where Martyrius settled 393. Therefore, having learned about Martyria, sincere ascetics rushed to its deserts with special fervor. And there was a lot to learn from the strict hermit. Martyrius built a chapel and cells with a fence. The pious Novgorod boyar Theodore Syrkov also learned about the monk; Through his zeal, the Church of the Annunciation was built in the Martyrian Hermitage, and the brethren begged the elder to take upon himself the rank of priesthood and authority over them with the title of abbot. This was no later than 1570. This year, the benefactor of the Martyria Monastery, boyar Syrkov, who built up to 12 monasteries at his own expense and provided them with income, received a martyr’s crown for his love for the Lord, killed by Tsar the Terrible.
Near and far people came to the Green Desert with love to listen to the instructions of the Monk Martyrius. But blessed Martyrius in his wilderness had to struggle for a long time with needs and poverty. In the scribe book of 1582 we read: “in the Mikhailovsky churchyard on the Ladoga foothills, a monastery called the Green Hermitage, on an island, is being built again in a black forest. In the monastery there is the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity, another church - the Annunciation with a meal, both wooden; in the monastery hegumen Martyrius and 12 elders; the fence around the monastery is wooden; behind the monastery there is a cow yard and stables; there is no arable land" 394. As you can see, wealth is not great. Martyrius endured needs and grew in spiritual life.
According to the Apostle, patience was born in him from sorrow, experience was acquired through patience, and hope was formed through experience, that hope that leaves no one in shame (see: Rom. 5:3-4). This is what the monk tells about the heavenly consolation that visited him. “I slept in my cell, in the closet,” he writes, “and in a dream I saw the Most Pure Mother of God in a maiden form; She was beautiful in appearance: I have never seen such a beautiful girl among people; tender-faced and beautiful; black eyebrows, medium-sized nose, bent (pohil). On Her head was a golden crown decorated with multi-colored stones. It is impossible for the human mind to comprehend Her beauty, nor to express it in language. He sits in my cell, on a bench, in a large corner where the icons stand. And it was as if I had come out of the closet and was standing before Her, looking at Her diligently, not taking my eyes off Her beauty. She, the Queen and Mother of God, looks at me. Her eyes were full of tears, almost dripping down Her pure face. And suddenly She became invisible. I woke up and was terrified.
He got up and left the closet; I lit a candle from the lamp and wanted to see the Most Pure Virgin, whether She was sitting in the cell where she was sitting. I approached the most pure image of Hodegetria with a candle and realized that the Most Pure Mother of God had truly appeared to me in the form as She was written on my cell icon.”395 In the last years of his life, the blessed one became famous for the gift of healings. In 1595, on his way to Moscow, he stopped in Tver. Tsar Simeon Bekbulatovich, who was then living in Tver, had a very sick son, and the tsar, having learned about Martyria, asked him to come and pray for his dying son. The monk placed the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God on John’s chest, and the sick man was healed. After that, the grateful king was the most zealous benefactor of the Martyriev Monastery. A year and a half before his death, the holy elder devoted himself to silence and prayer; having dug a grave with his own hands and placed a coffin in it, he came here to cry and pray. Finally, having received the Holy Mysteries, he rested peacefully on March 1, 1603.
The relics of the Monk Martyrius rest in the tomb built by the Novgorod Metropolitan Korniliy, who was formerly the abbot of Zelenets, who, honoring this saint of God, described his life and composed a service to him 396
Day two. Memory of Saints Savva and Barsanuphius of Tver
The Monk Savva, abbot of Sretensky, otherwise Savvina, monastery, was placed among the saints according to handwritten calendars. According to the testimony of St. Joseph of Volokolamsk, St. Savva and Barsanuphius led a high spiritual life and were awarded the gift of miracles for the holiness of their lives. He describes their lives in some detail, calling them saints. “We saw,” he says, “and Blessed Savva, who abboted the Savvin Monastery, in the Tverskaya side, for more than 50 years. He cared so much for his flock that he always stood at the church door with a staff in his hand; If one of the brethren did not come to the church at the beginning of the service, or left before the holiday, or talked while singing, or moved from his place to another, then Savva did not remain silent about it, but forbade it, so that he did not ignore minor offenses. And those who entered into an argument and behaved outrageously, sometimes he beat with a rod, and sometimes he put them in prison; when necessary, he was strict; and when there was a need, he was also merciful.
Once, sternly admonishing his disobedient brother, he put his beard on the window, and this one, by demonic inspiration, grabbed his beard with both hands and almost tore it all out. The brothers grabbed him, brought him to blessed Savva and asked: how would he order him to be punished? He answered them: I beat them with a rod and put them in prison for outrages and insults to the brethren, but I cannot punish for my offense, but must endure everything. When he saw his brother repenting of his sins, he soon forgave him, and the forgiven brother remained in the monastery until his death, in repentance and tenderness. There was a great pestilence, and the priests died; only blessed Savva was left with concerns about his brethren - visiting the sick, making confessions and burying the dead.
When Blessed Savva visited a sick person and granted confession, and at that time a brother came and said that so-and-so was dying and required confession, the blessed one answered: go, brother, tell the dying man not to die, but to wait for my visit, and as soon as the brother conveyed this to the dying man, it became easier for him; when blessed Sava came and honored him with Holy Communion, then the brother died. And this was not with one or two, but with many. We heard about this from the reverent elders and especially from that great holy elder Barsanuphius, called Neumoya, who was the brother of blessed Savva and whom the elder Savva Borozdin, who was the abbot of that monastery and then went to the Holy Mountain, appointed as rector. Blessed Barsanuphius remained as abbess for five years and then retired to the desert, and handed over the abbess to this Savva (his brother), and then he was ordered to accept the rank of priesthood. Barsanuphius testified that he was pure from his mother’s womb and worthy of such grace.
Barsanuphius lived in the desert for forty years, and during all these years he had nothing else to do but pray, sing and read books. He took books from Christ-lovers and gave them away after reading them, then took them elsewhere. The blessed one had nothing, not even a copper coin, for he loved poverty and lack of possessions. For his long attention to himself, silence, prayers, reading, he was awarded such grace that he remembered all the Holy Scriptures by heart and freely passed them on to anyone who asked. Many came to him from everywhere, monks and worldly noble people, some for spiritual benefit, others demanding permission to some place of scripture. Even the Metropolitan of All Rus', Photius, from time to time sent to him with a request to give an explanation for an incomprehensible saying of the Holy Scripture, about which he had a dispute with someone. The local fathers informed us with an oath that when the blessed one was still living in the desert, the brother of Savvina of the monastery came to him and prayed for him to go to Savva and ask him to forgive him some of his sins.
Blessed Barsanuphius, going to the monastery, looked at the image of the Most Holy Theotokos that stood in his cell and said: “Most Pure Lady Theotokos! You be the keeper of my books." After his departure, his brother, seduced by the evil one, put all the books in his bosom and wanted to run away; but, approaching the door of the cell, he was struck by an invisible force and fell dead. Blessed Barsanuphius, returning, found him dead and with books in his bosom. He began to cry and sob and said: “I am guilty of my brother’s death.” The brother was taken to the monastery to be interred. When they began to perform his funeral service, Blessed Barsanuphius wept so much for his brother that the entire place where he stood was wet with tears. When they began to say goodbye to the deceased, then the dead began to move. They opened his head and untied him, and the dead man sat up. The brothers picked him up and asked: what did he see or hear? “I didn’t see or hear anything,” he answered. After this, the brother lived virtuously in the monastery until his death. When blessed Barsanuphius reached a ripe old age, Saint Sava ordered him to be brought to the monastery.
The brethren were very glad to see him: the blessed one was a doctor for mental and physical infirmities. While Blessed Sava and Saint Barsanuphius were alive, everything in the monastery was orderly, quiet and peaceful, under their instructions. If someone obstinate and with a bad disposition appeared, they did not allow him to do his will. When Blessed Sava, Saint Barsanuphius and other fathers, zealots of the fatherly tradition, reposed, the brethren chose an abbot from another monastery, and he began to live not according to the rules of this monastery and not according to the tradition of those holy elders: their tradition was such that no one ate or drank except at a common meal, that they did not leave the monastery without a blessing, that the youths did not live in cells or in the courtyard and that women should not enter the monastery; In general, everything was according to the rules of the hostel. And the abbot who came here ruined it all and left it unattended. After a little time, Saint Sava appears to him in a dream and says: “Unfortunate!
Why don’t you care at all about the monastic order and piety, but instead neglected everything and considered it as nothing?” And he beat him with the rod so hard that he could not get out of bed. When he recovered and felt his malfunction, he no longer dared to insist, but soon returned to where he came from.”397 The monastery where the Monks Savva and Barsanuphius labored was called the Savvina Hermitage, after the church in the name of the Monk Savva the Sanctified, and was located 20 miles from Tver, where the village of Savvino now remains. In the church of the village of Savvina there is an ancient icon of the Venerable Savva and Barsanuphius. Here the royal doors with small grass carvings and the inscription: “l. On August 7069 (1561), in the 29th day, these royal doors were erected under the power of the king and in. K. Ivana Vasil. - under Bishop Akaki of Tver, to the church of our venerable father Savva the Sanctified, through the efforts of the abbot Levanid Savvin of the monastery" 398. The Moscow Assumption Cathedral contains the charter of the Tver Savvin Monastery of the 15th century; at the end of his Paschal, brought to 8 thousand, it is said: “The end of seven thousand.
Holy Trinity, glory to Thee, Sôa aoi o 0goa.” On l. 295 the ancient precious note is read: “in fol. 6940 (1432) in Petrovo the monastery of St. Sava was 35 years old, and the death of the Great Prince Michael was 34 years old” 399. According to this note, there is no doubt that the Tver Savvin Monastery began in 1397 and from the same year the exploits of the Monks Barsanuphius and Savva began in the Savvin Hermitage. On the handwritten book of Isaac the Syrian, the signature says that the book was written in 1416 in the monastery of St. Sava, at the expense of the monastery’s ktitor, Prince Alexander Ivanovich (1426), at the will of Abbot Barsanuphius. Another book, “The Ladder,” was written in 1419 for the holy monk Savva 400. Since the Monk Savva, at the same time as he accepted the priesthood, also accepted the leadership of the monastery (as the Monk Joseph writes), it is obvious that in 1419 the Abbot of the Savvina monastery was already the Monk Savva. Judging by the time of the founding of the desert (1397) and the few years of Varsonofiev’s abbotship (5 years), it must be assumed that 1416 was the last year of Varsonofiev’s abbotship after the reign of Savva Borozdin.
If, after that, from 1417 we count 50 years of the leadership of the Monk Savva of Tver, then his blessed death will have to be attributed to 1467 401.
Memory of St. Savvaty of Tver and his disciple Euphrosynus
In the handwritten description of the saints of the city of Tver we read: “Reverend Savvaty, hegumen of the desert, is gray-haired and bearded, like John the Theologian.” The hermitage of St. Savvaty was located 15 versts from Tver, where the village of Savvatiyevo now remains. In one of the two churches of the former desert there is the tomb of St. Savvaty, with his image. His chains, found in a cave near the village, show his asceticism against the flesh, and the cave, a witness to his pure, silent prayers, says that being with the people of the desert was not always easy for his soul, and from time to time he hid in a cave to talk with the Lord 402. The Hermitage of Savvatiev was so famous for the severity and holiness of the rules of its founder that both the Venerable Cornelius of Komel and the Venerable Joseph of Volokolamsk came to study monastic life there. The latter no longer found the Monk Savvaty himself alive; he saw only his disciple, Blessed Euphrosynus.
Both by this circumstance and by the time of the glorious deeds of the Monk Euphrosynus, there is no doubt that the Monk Savvaty labored at the direction of St. Arseny, and his blessed death followed no later than 1434. The life of his student can partly show us how the teacher lived. “I saw in the Savvatiev Hermitage,” writes Joseph, “a holy elder, a hermit, named Euphrosyne. He was from the princes of Teprin. He lived hopelessly in the desert for 60 years. Many monks and worldly princes and boyars came to him and interrupted his silence. Bored with it, he fled to Veliky Novgorod, found an island on Lake Nevo (Ladoga) and lived here for several years. The Christians of those places, the inhabitants of the villages, having heard about him, came to him with their wives and children. He ran away again to the Savvatiev Hermitage.
When he came here, the ruler of that land, Prince Boris Alexandrovich, sent to him his young daughter, then the betrothed bride of Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich; Archimandrites, abbots, and boyars came with her and began to ask Blessed Euphrosynus to pray for the girl: she was very sick, and they brought her into the desert to Blessed Euphrosynus in their arms. He refused, calling himself unworthy and a sinner. They, falling to the ground, with tears begged him to pray: “If she remains alive through your prayers,” they said, “then you, father, will pacify two principalities.” When they said this, the girl fell into such an illness that everyone thought she had died. Seeing this, everyone began to cry. Blessed Euphrosynus ordered her to be taken to the church of the Savvatian Hermitage, and, having arrived at the monastery, he entered the church, where he saw the girl barely breathing. Blessed Euphrosynus, standing before the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos holding the Eternal Child in her arms, began to pray with tears and sobs. Then he ordered to sing a prayer service to the Most Holy Theotokos and the great wonderworker Nicholas.
When the prayer service ended, the girl opened her eyes and sat down; They picked her up healthy and took her to her father that same day. Seeing this, they glorified God, who glorifies His saints.” This is what St. Joseph writes. From other monuments it is known that Princess Maria, the daughter of Tver Prince Boris Alexandrovich, was engaged to the seven-year-old son of Grand Duke Vasily Ivan Vasilyevich at the end of 1446 403, and died as a wife in 1467 404. From here it is clear that the death of the Monk Euphrosynus occurred no later than 1460 405.
Memory of the holy 440 martyrs who suffered in Italy from the Lombards for resisting participation in the service of idols, around 579 406.
Day three. Memory of Saint Piama (or Piamuka) and Alexandra
In the vicinity of Alexandria, during the reign of St. Chrysostom, there were many virgins who were saved. Some lived in separate cells, others in cinemas. “In the country of Egypt,” says the great preacher, “in Antioch, you can see the army of Christ, a wonderful society, a way of life characteristic of the heavenly powers. And this is not only between men, but also between women... And wives often surpass their husbands in their exploits and erect signs of a brilliant victory” 407.
Near Alexandria, the great virgin Alexandra escaped and was saved in a grave cave. “I could not,” says the zealous visitor to the eastern hermits, Melania the Elder, “to see this blessed one in person, but, standing at the opening, I asked her to reveal the reason why she left the city and imprisoned herself in a grave cave.”
She answered me through the hole: “One man was crazy about me: in order not to upset or dishonor him, I decided it would be better to imprison myself alive in this tomb than to spoil the soul created in the image of God.” When I said to her: “How can you, servant of Christ, bear this, that you see no one at all, and alone you struggle with sorrow and thoughts”; she answered: “From the very morning until nine o’clock I pray; I spin flax for an hour; during the rest of the day I remember stories about the faith of the holy fathers and patriarchs, about the exploits of the blessed apostles, prophets and martyrs; when evening comes, I, having brought praise to my Lord, eat my share of bread, and spend the whole night in prayer, waiting for my end, when I will be released from here with good hope and appear in the face of Christ.” One kind woman brought her food and passed it through the opening of the cave. Otherwise, the recluse did not show herself to either man or woman. This is how she labored until she was twelve years old! Feeling the approach of death, she prepared herself for burial. Once a woman, having brought food, does not receive any response from the recluse.
Realizing that she had died, she let the city know about it. Whole crowds hurried from the city to the cave of the great ascetic, opened the entrance to the cave and saw that the Lord, in anticipation of the ascetic, took her to Himself in the village of the righteous 408.
Since Melania did not talk with the recluse until the year 373, and Palladius, who had been traveling through the deserts of Egypt since 388, no longer found her alive, the death of the saint must be attributed to the year 376 409.
The holy virgin Piamuka (Piama) ascended to a wondrous degree of spiritual perfection in her mother’s house. She lived here as if in a seclusion, alone, did not see empty people, ate food every other day, and after prayer she spun flax. This is what Palladium says about her life. With such simplicity of life, but also with vigilant observation of her soul, she so transformed her soul that the Lord honored her with the gift of insight. The latter opened on a special occasion. Since the Nile fertilizes the fields with its flood of water, the settlements, valuing the beneficial moisture, retain it in the fields with artificial fences; At the same time, human infirmities raise disputes and quarrels, often accompanied by fights.
A community more populous than the one where Piamuka lived vowed to exterminate the weak settlement for water. Through the prayers of Amma Piama, God saved her from crime and death. The angel revealed to Piamuka about the villainous plans of the neighbors. She, having called the elders of her village, announced to them the plan. “Go,” she said, “meet those who are coming at you, beg them to refrain from fighting.” The elders fell at her feet in fear and said: “We don’t dare go to meet them; we know their drunken life and their riotousness; show us a new kindness, go to them yourself and persuade them to leave us alone.” She did not act at their request, did not go to deal with people with whom she had long refused to communicate, but turned to the Lord; Retiring to her house, she spent the whole night in prayer. “Lord! - so she prayed. “You are the Judge of the earth and you do not love untruth, accept my prayer, send Your power, so that those who rush to our destruction will stand like pillars in the place where Your power will meet them!” And her prayer was heard. The enemies stopped on the third stone from the village and could not move.
They were also given to know that the prayer of the righteous woman was delaying them. They sent their envoys to the village and asked for peace. Give thanks, they said, to God, who, through the prayers of the virgin Piamuka, delivered your property from destruction 410.
The memory of Saint Piamuka (Piama) is honored on the 3rd day of March and on Cheese Saturday.
The kind of ascetic life that the blessed virgins Alexandra and Piamuk lived through has many advantages, but it is also associated with many dangers. According to the observations of spiritual experience, life alone brings one closer to pride or despair, and sometimes to a passion for self-interest, while the community takes away food from this last passion and breaks off angular pride. Here is an example given by Palladius from life contemporary with Saints Alexandra and Piamuka.
There was a virgin in Alexandria. She was humble in appearance, but proud in her soul, and loved money more than Christ. She was rich, but she did not give benefits to either the wanderer, or the virgin, or the monk, or the offended, or the poor, or to the church. She took her sister's daughter into her care. She promised her her property day and night, parting with her love for Heaven. The poor thing was deceiving herself. At first she became infected with a passion for money; then he brought his love for his niece to passion, under the influence of vanity. Whoever has enslaved his soul to the care of his relatives is subject to the judgment of the law for the fact that he valued his soul little. Presbyter Macarius, overseer of the almshouse for the crippled, decided to heal the sick virgin. In his youth he was a jeweler, as the maiden knew.
Having come to her, he says: “I came across expensive stones - emeralds and yachts; I can’t say whether they were stolen or not, only high-priced stones; the owner sells them for 500 chervonets; This is a wonderful outfit for your niece!” The virgin, attached to her niece-bride, says: “Do me a favor, do not yield them to anyone; Here’s the money for you,” and gave out 500 chervonets. Saint Macarius used the money for the needs of the almshouse. A lot of time passed, and the virgin was ashamed to remind him about the stones. “He was highly respected as a very pious and merciful elder; he lived for about a hundred years, and I still found him alive,” notes Palladius. Finally, having met him in the church, the maiden says: “What about the stones for which 500 ducats were given?” He answered: “On the same day that you gave me the money, I paid it for the stones; Let's go to the hospice house, I have them there; If you don’t like these stones, take your money back.” When they arrived at the house, the elder said: “Which would you like to see first – yachts or emeralds?” “Whatever you want,” she answered.
Macarius took her upstairs and, pointing to the crippled and blind women, said: “These are the yachts!” Then, going down, he pointed out to her the same men, saying: “And these are emeralds! In my opinion, you won’t find more precious stones than these anywhere! However,” he added, “if you don’t like them, take your money back.” The ashamed virgin went out and, coming to her place, fell ill with grief. But later she thanked the elder when her niece, after getting married, died childless. She herself began to use her property as it should 411.
In our regular monasteries, where money is divided between hands, how often we come across such patients!
On the same day there is a celebration in honor of the Volokolamsk Icon of the Mother of God. This holy icon became famous on March 3, 1677 in the Joseph Monastery in the city of Volokolamsk.
Holy martyrs Eutropius, Cleonicus and Basiliscus - Cappadocians, warriors from the squad of St. Theodore Tyrone, who suffered for the confession of Christ at the end of the 3rd century. The first two, brothers in the flesh, were crucified after suffering in Amasia Pontic from Asklipiad on March 3rd; The basilisk was beheaded by the sword under Maximian; his memory on May 22nd.
Day four. Memory of St. Gerasim of Vologda
The Monk Gerasim was born in Kyiv and here, in the Gniletsky cave monastery, he was invested with monasticism 412.
In 1147 he came from Kyiv to the Vologda River and founded a monastery with the Church of the Holy Trinity near the Kaisarov stream. This was “before the beginning of the city of Vologda.” Then there was a dense forest here and in the forest there was a settlement with the Church of the Resurrection, and on Lazy Square there was a “small market”. Recently the merchant Pyatyshev died in Vologda, the last descendant of Pyatyshev, who did not want to give Blessed Gerasim land for a monastery, but later agreed with the pious desire of the monk. The devotee of piety, by the example of life itself and with bright instructions, illuminated the wild country - and died peacefully on March 4, 1178. His relics rest hidden in the Trinity Church of his monastery, abolished in 1764 413.
Murder of Saints Joasaph and Basil, abbots
Four miles from Pskov, on the banks of the Velikaya River, on Snetnaya Mountain, the Monk Joasaph founded a monastery in honor of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos and was its abbot. At the same time, Abbot Vasily 414 labored in the Mirozh monastery. It was pleasing to the Lord that their ascetic life would culminate in a suffering death, and that the death of others would be cleansing from sins. In the chronicle we read: “On March 4, 1299, the Germans unexpectedly attacked the settlement near Pskov, killed abbot Vasily, Joasaph abbot Snetnaya Gora, many monks (17 monks and nuns), beggars, wives and children; God saved the men, but the monasteries were burned.” This was not in vain for the Germans. “Prince Dovmont and Ivan Dorogomilov came out against them and defeated them on the shore near Peter and Paul; the battle was hot: some (of the Germans) were killed, others rushed from the shore and drowned; the Fellinians, having been taken prisoner, were sent to Prince Andrei Alexandrovich in Russia; the others threw down their weapons and began to run, frightened by the courage of Dovmont and Ivan Dorogomilov” 415.
The incorrupt relics of the Monk Joasaph rest in his monastery under cover, and two bones and his head are kept openly, in a special ark. The relics of St. Basil rest in the Mirozh monastery, under cover 416.
Day five. Memory of the Venerable Adrian of Poshekhonsky
The Monk Adrian studied monastic life from the Monk Cornelius of Komel 417. After the death of the great mentor (1537), he, like some other disciples of Cornelius, wanted to plant a new hotbed of monasticism somewhere in a remote place. Once a magnificent old man appeared in the church of the Cornelius monastery. "Who are you?" - Adrian asked him, who was greatly impressed by him. “I am Bezstuzh,” answered the elder. Adrian invited him to his cell; in a spiritual conversation, the elder among other things said to Adrian: “You want to build the house of the Mother of God and gather monks to you; I know of a desert in which no human foot has yet walked.” Adrian was glad to go to this desert. “Our blessed father Cornelius commanded to let his disciples go if they wished for the desert,” Adrian said to Abbot Lawrence and asked to bless him to leave the monastery for desert solitude. Lavrenty blessed. In September 1540, Adrian, being a hierodeacon, with the novice Leonid and another, left the Cornelian monastery; the monk Bezstuzh led them into the dense Poshekhonsky forest and disappeared unnoticed.
This was on the eve of the Exaltation of the Lord. On the bank of the Votkha River they placed on an oak tree the icon of the Mother of God with whom they had come, and sang a canon to the Cross of the Lord. When they then went to explore the surrounding places, the fishermen from. Bely, while fishing in Votkha, came ashore and saw the icon of the Mother of God on an oak tree. One of them wanted to remove the icon and take it home, but fell without speaking or moving. Having come to his senses, he announced that the elder who had appeared had strictly forbidden him to take the icon. The fishermen left the caught fish and white bread near the oak tree. The returning hermits were amazed to see near the oak tree the food they needed so much and, glorifying the Mother of God, they remained to live in the place blessed by Her. In 1543, Adrian went to Metropolitan Macarius to ask for a blessing to found a monastery and church in honor of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the Votkha River; The metropolitan gave a blessing for the holy cause and ordained Adrian as abbot.
Quite a number of brethren gathered at the new desert monastery; its charter was the charter of the Cornelius monastery; women were not allowed to enter it; the hermits were content with little and spent most of their time reading the psalter. The reverend abbot was busy painting holy icons, for the edification of himself and others 418 . Elder Leonid died peacefully in 1549.
In 1550, during Lent, a gang of bad people from the village of Bely attacked Adrian's Hermitage, armed like a bandit. Those who lived in the monastery hurried to hide wherever they could; The abbot hid in the woodshed, but he was soon found here. The villains burned him with a burning torch, stabbed him with a knife, pressed him with a rope thrown around his neck, asking for money. The sufferer, pointing to a jug with forty rubles, said: “Here is all our property; I wanted to use it to build a new church of the Mother of God: take the money and let us monks go to the Cornelian monastery - we will not come to you anymore.” The villains said with impudent mockery: “Here we will put a helmet on you and let you into heaven.” And they strangled the holy elder. It was March 5th. Then they left Hadrian’s novices tied up and robbed everything in the church. Having found three monks behind the throne, they killed one during the meal, two were tortured until their bones cracked. The body of the Monk Adrian was taken from the monastery and hidden. The robbers were soon convicted of their crimes by the court and received a worthy punishment 419.
In 1626, the monk Jonah, before his death, revealed to his confessor that, according to the dying confession of his father, priest Isidore, when in 1550
The Beloselsky villains abandoned the body of Abbot Adrian, whom they had killed, at the Bely line, on the banks of the Ushloma River; he, Isidore and his neighbors took the body to the empty church of the Prophet Elijah and buried him under the floor of the church. Subsequently, the church collapsed; A rowan tree was planted on the grave for memory. Miracles began to happen at the grave. Although miracles were not recorded, those who gathered at the fair every year on the day of the prophet Elijah, hearing about miracles, performed prayers at the grave of Adrian to the martyr Paraskeva and the prophet Elijah, laid offerings on the grave, and the sick received healing. The abbot of the Trinity Poshekhon Hermitage reported this dying information to the abbot of the Adrian Hermitage, taking a promise from him and the brethren to stop drunken life in the desert. Having received the reports, Patriarch Filaret ordered that the relics be transferred to Hadrian's Hermitage and conveyed 420. During the transfer of the relics, several miracles occurred; among other things, a blind youth regained his sight. Now the relics of the Monk Adrian rest openly in the church of his monastery, built in 1659; one chapel of this church is dedicated to the Monk Adrian 421.
Memory of the Holy Martyr Konon Ogorodnik
Originally from Nazareth of Galilee, he lived and worked in Pamphylia, in the city of Mandona, doing gardening. He was simple in character and unlearned, but he feared God and kept His commandments. During the persecution of Decius (251), the governor Publius ordered him to be captured and forced him to sacrifice to idols; and when Conon remained firm in his confession, they drove nails into his feet and forced him to flee. The martyr became exhausted, fell to his knees and, having prayed, gave up his spirit to God.
Memory of the Holy Martyr Konon of Isauria, his wife Anna and Onisius
Konon’s parents, Nestor and Nada, who lived in the village of Vidania, 80 miles from Isauria, were contemporaries of the Apostles. Conon, betrothed by his parents to the bride they had chosen for him, Anna, although he fulfilled their will and entered into marriage with her, but, with all his soul devoted to the single concern for the future life in eternity, he lived with his wife, like brother and sister, like Angels, serving and working for God. After the death of his father, Saint Nestor, who was tortured by the pagans for confessing the faith of Christ, having also buried his wife and mother, he devoted the rest of his life until a very old age to the thought of God and strict asceticism in labor, fasting and prayer. Graced by God with the gift of great miracles, through them he converted the inhabitants of Isauria to Christ.
When the persecution of Christians began and the governor Migdon arrived in Isauria, and the suffering of the martyrs began, among whom Onisius was the first to suffer, Konon was also given over to torture for resisting offering sacrifices to the pagan gods. The Isaurians, hearing about this, armed themselves and wanted to kill the commander, but he escaped. They found Konon tied up and his body covered with wounds and bloody. They fell to the martyr with reverence, kissed his wounds and collected blood, wanting to be sanctified by it... Konon grieved that they did not allow him to suffer to the end. The believers took him to his homeland, the village of Vidaniya, and took care of his healing. He lived after that for another two years and died, mourned by those who were enlightened by him (in the 2nd century).
According to ancient Russian folk belief, he is revered as the guardian of children against smallpox; In remembrance of the fact that he was given the power to heal illnesses, a special prayer was composed for him against this illness.
The Suffering of Saint John the Bulgarian
Blessed John was from Bulgaria 422. The Turks are trying, or rather they tried in the past, to convert Christians to Mohammedanism, by the way, and according to such a clever belief. In heaven, they say, there will be no fire to light a pipe, and you will have to get it from Gehenna - a long walk. If anyone manages to convert a Christian to Islam, the convert to Mohammedanism will be in heaven, but as a traitor to his faith he will turn into a pillar of fire, and it will be easy for the Turks to light their pipes 423. How this belief expresses the bestial laziness of Mohammedanism, and at the same time an involuntary recognition of the dignity of the Christian faith! With such a high belief, the Turks somehow managed to bring John to the point where he renounced the faith of Christ. The unfortunate man, after a little time, came to his senses and, bitterly mourning his sin, came to Athos, to the Lavra of St. Athanasius. Here he began to struggle in repentance, subordinating himself to one elder. For three years he lived like a strict novice; but his conscience did not give him peace, he was constantly sad.
Finally, unable to bear the reproach of his conscience, he left the Holy Mountain, arrived in Constantinople and, dressed in Turkish clothes, came to the mosque of Sofia. Here, in the sight of everyone, he began to make the sign of the holy cross on himself and prayed the Christian prayer. Excited Turks run up to him and ask: “What are you doing?” The servant of Christ calmly replies that he is a Christian and prays in a Christian way - to Christ the Son of God and the only Savior of sinful people. The fanatics shouted: “Be silent, be silent,” then they tried to persuade him to be a Mohammedan. The saint firmly answered that he would not change his confession; he said and will continue to say that without Christ Jesus there is no salvation. They took him to the courtyard of the mosque and cut off his head. Saint John was martyred at the age of 19 in 1784
Day six. Memory of blessed Job, in the schema of Jesus
Honorable before the Lord is the death of His saints! (The death of His saints is precious in the sight of the Lord!) (Ps. 115:6). In old age, blessed Job died quietly and peacefully, saying before his death, as if already penetrating with his spiritual gaze the bliss that awaited him in the higher world: “Blessed is the God of our fathers! If so, then I am not afraid, but I depart from the world in joy!”
In this death is a reflection of the entire life of the blessed one. Both were majestically simple in their height. In the world - priest John, he was not only at the height of his calling, but also fulfilled the monastic prayer rule and, while still in the world, was already like a monk. He fasted strictly, retired to his room, where he often prayed on his knees all night until dawn, usually crying out with tears: “Have mercy on me, Lord! have mercy on me, Lord!” etc. His private relationships with people were absolutely exceptional. He lovingly received everyone who came to him and talked with everyone with full participation, applying his conversation to the position, rank and condition of everyone. He himself loved to visit his friends and acquaintances, sometimes unexpectedly appearing somewhere in the house - uninvited - and always with some beneficent purpose.
Therefore, everyone joyfully accepted him and listened to his teachings. If he accidentally offended someone, he immediately asked forgiveness from the offended person.
Sometimes Father John came to the house of ordinary people in the form of a private person, in the clothes of a layman, and, talking in this way with the poor, he more easily learned about their domestic needs and provided them with all possible help, while paying the main attention to their thoughts and feelings, which he did not leave without consolation and guidance. His house was always open to the poor; Having seated them to a meal, he himself sat among them and, like a good father, talked joyfully with them and, dismissing them, endowed them with what he could. If someone was exposed to ruin from a fire, from a crop failure, everyone knew that they would find the necessary help from the compassionate Father John. Respected by high-ranking officials, he successfully interceded with them on behalf of the offended and innocently suffering.
The good shepherd was burdened by human glory, but his virtuous life could not hide from it. Tsar Peter I, having heard about him, called him for priestly service in the court church and wished to have him as his confessor and a member of the reigning house. Taking advantage of his influence at court, Father John rejoiced that this provided him with even more means to be useful to those in need and an intercessor for the oppressed. He especially had compassion for those imprisoned for crimes and debts. He visited them with participation and, at the same time examining their conscience, exerted a beneficial influence on criminals, and helped those held for debt to pay off the debt.
But the more luminous the activity of the true Christian shepherd became, the more human slander sought to darken it. Even his visits to dungeons were subject to gossip, and then he decided to stop visiting dungeons for a while, without, however, stopping his benevolence through trusted persons. In general, except for church services, Father John decided not to leave the house anywhere and devote the rest of his days to the thought of God. Those who needed his help or advice turned to him in writing, and he did not hesitate to respond to any appeal. Thus, among constant Godly labors, Righteous John reached old age. Then suddenly the hour of testing came for him. In 1701, following a false denunciation in relations with the famous fanatic Grigory Talitsky, the royal confessor was exiled to the Solovetsky Monastery, where he was tonsured on April 3 with the name of Job and given obedience to an experienced elder...
After many trials, Elder Job was released from obedience and retired into silence in his cell; here he constantly prayed the Jesus Prayer, read the Holy Gospel, the Apostle, the Psalter, the lives of Saints Savvaty and Zosima, and handicrafts. He took little food from the brotherly meal, and did not prepare anything special for himself. Again the glory of his holy life reached Peter the Great and, having become convinced of the slander against him, the king again wanted to bring him closer to himself, but Job asked to be allowed to remain in the monastery. After this, wanting even greater silence, he moved to live in the Anzersky monastery. Here, with new zeal, he devoted himself to monastic exploits and soon, after the death of the Anzersky builder, he was appointed rector of this monastery.
In his new field of service, Hieromonk Job multiplied his labors and exploits. Under him, the brotherhood began to multiply and soon reached the number of 30.
Father Job taught everyone in general, and especially the new monks, humble obedience to God and their superiors, considering obedience to be the first virtue, without which there can be no salvation; he also made sure that they were constantly at work; He visited the sick, served them himself, washing and bandaging their wounds with his own hands, and often healed their ailments with his prayer.
In 1710, for his strict ascetic life, he was awarded tonsure into the schema with the name of Jesus, the Israeli leader.
Hieroschemamonk Jesus often retired to deserted places for the sake of silence, and also often went to desert dwellers for spiritual conversation. Once, while staying in a cell provided to him by a desert dweller, Paisius, who lived near a mountain called Golgotha, he read psalms and prayed for a long time at night. When, tired, he dozed off, he saw in a dream - among the extraordinary light that illuminated the cell, the Mother of God and the Monk Eleazar of Anzer; The Mother of God told him that on Mount Golgotha the Church of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ would be built, and a monastery would be established, and monks would gather to glorify the name of God...
Feeling the joy of this dream, accepting it as a blessing from God, Elder Job from that moment undertook the establishment of a new monastery on Calvary Mountain. He moved to live on Mount Golgotha and soon, with the help of his disciples, founded the Golgotha-Crucified Monastery on Anzersky Island. Soon the brethren gathered here up to 20 people; each of them had to arrange a cell for himself; the hermits lived in secluded places under the leadership of the schema-monk Jesus and came to the monastery every Sunday to attend the Divine service and to confess to the elder. All these ascetics lived here in spiritual exploits and in physical labor. Elder Jesus himself, as an example to others, often chopped wood, carried water up the mountain for the cook, and dissolved dough for bread in the bakery. In his cell, in his free time, he was constantly engaged in needlework; He used the money earned from his work for the church, for the needs of the brethren and for alms.
So the years passed, and the old man began to feel the approach of death. He then concentrated all his concern on preparing for the afterlife; his humble soul aroused itself to repentance: “My soul, my soul, arise! Why are you sleeping? The end is approaching, and I must be embarrassed...” All his life he who pleased God trembled, as if he had not pleased...
Meanwhile, the Lord, who had previously honored him with special revelations, did not now hide from him the time of his death. Long before his death, he told the brethren that his death would follow on Sunday before sunrise. And so it came true. And in his dying moments, he was completely filled with extraordinary joy, which proved that he was ready to move into eternity... And eternity came for him. Having lived on earth like an Angel, he fearlessly departed to continue his angelic life in the face of the One who lives in the unapproachable light...
Transfer of the relics of the Holy Martyr Abraham of Bulgaria
His memory is April 1st. Russian merchants from Murom, who witnessed the martyrdom of Saint Abraham, buried his body in Bolgari (1229), and in 1230 the relics of the saint were transferred to Vladimir and placed in the Princess Monastery (which is now the Dormition maiden monastery). Grand Duke Georgy Vsevolodovich greeted the holy relics with honor - with the clergy and with the entire city, and until 1712 they rested in the chapel of the Mother of God in a stone coffin, in the same year, on May 11, they were transferred to a wooden shrine and transferred to the main Church of the Assumption. In 1805, the relics of the martyr were transferred from a wooden shrine to a new silver one.
It is remarkable that Saint Abraham is considered the patron saint of children, and parents who have sick children bring them to the shrine of the holy martyr and pray for their recovery. “Rejoice, healing of sick children!” - says the akathist to Saint Abraham (ikos 6), and in the prayer to him: “We believe, glorious Wonderworker, that by the power of the Almighty Jesus Christ, through your holy relics... you mercifully help weak babies!”
Day eight. Presentation of St. Lazarus of Murmansk
160 versts from Petrozavodsk to the north, 60 versts from Pudozh to the west, on Lake Onega there is the island Much, or Murmansky. Here, in the second half of the 14th century, the Monk Lazarus, a preacher of the holy faith for the Lapps and a strict ascetic, labored. He conveyed his story in his dying will, written from the words of his spiritual friend Theodosius. This is the will 424.
“I, the sinful monk Lazarus, the servant of my Lord Christ, departing from this short life into the eternal age, to the Terrible Judge, I confess before God. To you, holy monk Theodosius, I entrust my soul; I earnestly pray to you, fathers and brothers, the flock gathered by God, to pray for me, a sinner, so that through your prayers the God of eternal torment will deliver me.
I was born and raised in the glorious new city of Rome (Constantinople). There I took upon myself the monastic image, in the Vysokogorsky monastery, from the hand of our father Afanasy Diskot. This Athanasius built many monasteries and tended the brethren in a good mood. I will also tell you how I came here by the will of God 425.
I lived in Caesarea with Saint Bishop Basil and spent 8 years in his monastery. From his youth, Vasily went through a fasting life and observed the purity of soul and body. In private he told me: “I want, friend, to leave the bishopric; a thought compels me to go to Novgorod to see holy places, venerate the image of St. Sophia and receive greetings from Bishop Vasily.” I forbade him to do this and told him that he should not dare to do this without the revelation of God. He prayed to God about this, and when he fell asleep after the morning singing, the Angel of God showed him the Cathedral of St. Sophia and all the churches of Novgorod. Waking up from sleep, he came to me and told me how an Angel appeared to him and showed all the churches of the city. I was surprised, and we glorified God. He ordered me not to tell anyone about it. Having written a message to Bishop Vasily with his own hand and having prepared many icons and robes of the saint, decorated with gold, in honor, he forced me to go with a message to Bishop Vasily to Novgorod to describe the image of St. Sophia, and what monasteries and churches stand where.
With the blessing of the saint, I set out on the journey, and with the help of God, under the protection of the Holy Mother of God, we were preserved on the journey. When I prayed to the image of St. Sophia in the church, I came to the saint for a blessing. Seeing me, he bowed to the ground, and I barely begged him to give me a blessing and handed him the message of Basil of Caesarea. The saint accepted the message with respect, as did the miraculous icons and holy robes. He gladly put on the clothes sent to him, served a prayer service and ordered me to live with him. By order of Basil of Caesarea, I copied the image of St. Sophia and described all the churches and monasteries that are in the city. Having received the message from Bishop Vasily, I sent myself first with the merchants with whom I came to Novgorod; Bishop Vasily of Caesarea wrote in a letter to Vasily of Novgorod about me, a sinner. And so, after I lived with Vasily of Caesarea for many years in Cenobium, I spent four years with Vasily of Novgorod. From the letters I learned that the spiritual superior and teacher of Caesarea, Vasily, went to the Lord to eternal dwellings.
And in 6860 (1352), the shepherd and teacher of Novgorod and Pskov, the good-singing horse, the dove of the Heavenly King, Bishop Vasily leaves the bishopric and flies to the eternal monasteries to the Lord, Whom he served faithfully. I, a sinner, with my own hands dressed the holy body of the great Saint Basil of Novgorod in ready-made robes and shed many tears.
The altar of the cathedral church of Sofia, Moses, a saint and reverend in life, showed great favor towards me; he ordered me to stay with him; but I lived according to the commandment of Bishop Vasily in the monastery he built. A long time after Vasily’s death, a bitter sadness came upon me that I was deprived of both Vasilys; I thought to myself: I will return to where I came from; I prayed a lot about this to the Lord, the Most Pure Mother of God and the great Baptist among the prophets, John. And so, not long after his repose, Saint Basil, Archbishop of the Great Novgorod, appears to me at night and commands me to go north to the sea; there, he said, there is a large Lake Onega, and he named me the island. But I did not heed this phenomenon. A little time later, another Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, appeared to me and said: “Remember, Lazarus, what Basil of the Great Novgorod told you; go to the place indicated to you; you will bury our brother Macarius, Metropolitan of the Egyptian country; you will have a large monastery, and you will gather many monks.”
Then I, a sinner, began to think about the holy place that both bishops had spoken about, and for their appearance I glorified God with all my soul. I began to ask many people about that place; I was told a lot that that place was very convenient for setting up a monastery. At that time there was a very respected mayor in Novgorod, Ivan Zakharovich. I came to him and asked him to give me an island called Much, in order to build a church and monastery there. The first time he felt sorry for the island and refused me it. I began to pester him, but he was offended and did not give me the island. I was left in grief and wondering what to do. I prayed to God, the Most Pure Mother of God and the Holy Forerunner, and when I dozed off, Saint Basil appeared to me with the wise Nicholas and, blessing, said: “Do not grieve, poor Lazarus; you will receive the place shown to you, where I told you to go.” When I woke up and came to the tomb of St. Basil, I cried for a long time, kissed his tomb, but, returning to my cell, I didn’t tell anyone. A short time after that, my lord Vasily, Bishop of Novgorod, appeared to Ivan in a menacing form and said: “Ivan!
I command you, let the island of Much on Lake Murmansk be given to build a monastery and for our friend Lazar to stay on it; this is your property; but here the name of the Mother of God will be glorified." After this appearance, Lord Ivan called me and said in private: “According to your request, go to the place shown to you, to my homeland, to the island Muchch of Lake Onega." Ivan even persuaded me to set off immediately. He told me how Vladyka Vasily, Bishop of Novgorod, appeared to him at night in a menacing appearance. “Your friend, Bishop Vasily, - said Ivan, “he appeared to me in a menacing form and strictly ordered to give you the island of Much for your stay.” “On that island,” said Vasily, “there will be a great monastery, many monks will gather and the name of the Most Pure Mother of God will be glorified.” Hearing this, I rejoiced, fell at his feet, then, leaving, thanked God and His saint, Vasily.
Ivan called me and said: “Father, my parents are very grieving for the island; he put me before them and told me how Bishop Vasily appeared to him at night in a menacing form and ordered that this monk be given the ancestral home of our great-grandfathers on Lake Onega to build a monastery.” Ivan's parents showered him with abuse for the island. I prayed a lot that they would give me the island of Much with Lake Murma. They set a price. I gave them 100 hryvnias of silver and some expensive things in payment for the island. After that I began to wait for the time to go to the island” 426.
Let us note that according to the chronicles, the first time Novgorod troops marched against Murmansk was in 1320; and in 1349 there was a second and stronger campaign against Murman 427. Consequently, according to the chronicles, there is no doubt that under the blessed Bishop Vasily they were greatly concerned about the conquest of the Murmansk Chud under Christian rule. “When Posadnik Ivan decided to send his people to Pomerania to collect tribute,” continues Lazar, “I asked him so that I could go with them. He ordered to take me to Lake Onega. Having thanked God, I came to Saint Moses and told him the reasons for my departure to the island. The saint gave me instructions from Scripture and predicted to me what happened to me later. I bowed to him to the ground and accepted the blessing with tears; He served a prayer service at the tomb of St. Basil and kissed the tomb with bitter weeping. Then I set off on a journey and, sailing along rivers and lakes, I saw, according to David, bickering on the water, a lot of trouble; We were close to drowning, and I barely reached the place where we now see the Church of God.
This holy Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is the very first in the entire Pomeranian region. And the monk, brothers, lived on the island before me; it will be discussed later. I will tell you, brothers, that I alone came to this place; there was no one living on the island. I built a cross and a small hut for rest, and then a small church, that is, a chapel. Near Lake Onega lived the Lop and the Chud, terrible raw foodists. The Apostle said: through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). I suffered many sorrows, beatings, wounds and annoyances from these bestial people. They beat me more than once, driving me away from the island, and burned my hut. Terrible raw foodists have long been committed to demonic instigation and created dreams; They did not have Holy Baptism. They settled near me with their wives and children, did dirty tricks on me and said: leave this place. They wanted to kill me and turn my body into food for themselves. Alas for me, a sinner! I left this place many times. But God my Savior did not leave me and did not allow the damned to fulfill their evil intentions. He strengthened me on the path of salvation.
Cruel people were bursting with frustration; many times they came to the island day and night and looked out for a way to kill me; but the power of God prevented them. Once they gathered on the island. By the providence of God, I was not in the place where the raw foodists came - I was in my hermit’s cave, in a mountain called Teterevitsa, a mile from the island. They, the damned ones, looked for me a lot and did not find me, they were burning with rage and worried. They hoped to find treasures and, finding nothing, they set my hut on fire. I saw all this from afar and shed tears before the Lord. The bestial savages finally left the island. I will tell you, brothers, about a wonderful thing. When I went to the hermitage, I remained in my hut, which was burned, by the image of the Most Pure Mother of God, the blessing of my father Athanasius of Rome. And then I remembered this image, looked around the cave and did not find it. He stayed in the hut. Then it came to my mind: he burned down in the hut that the raw foodists burned, and with bitter crying and sobbing, praying, I went to my hut.
I thought that God did not want there to be a monastery in this place; my labors are unworthy, unclean before God. So I stood and cried at the site of the burnt hut; It would be better for me to burn or be killed by evil people than to lose the image of my Lady. Looking back and forth, I saw from afar, like a ray of sunlight, the image of the Lady Theotokos, standing by a tree and not supported by anyone, three cubits from the ground. With joy I ran to the image of my Lady, fell before the icon and prayed for a long time with tears. Then there was a voice from the icon: “I will look at the humble slaves and at this place; I command you, build a church in this place in the name of the Dormition of the Mother of God.” Because of this voice I lay for a long time as if dead on the ground. Then he gradually stood up and sang a song of praise to the Mother of God. I also heard a voice from the icon of the Mother of God: “Unfaithful people will be faithful, there will be one Church and one flock of Christ.” The icon fell into my hands, I took it and kissed it and joyfully brought it to my hermit’s cave. From that time on, I placed my trust in my Creator and in the Most Pure Mother of God.
I will tell you another miracle, brothers. I hid near Lake Murma, in my hermitage, and waited for death from evil people. They were looking to kill me or drive me away from this island. I suffered in my soul and remembered in my heart the words of the Lord: many waves hit the stones and break, throw up foam and can do nothing. Evil raw foodists, like wolves, scoured the shores of Lake Murma; others wandered like dogs in the desert. Out of fear, I did not leave my tent for a long time and prayed to God, the Most Pure Mother of God, the great Forerunner John, Saint Nicholas and Bishop Basil. I sang the Psalter with canons. From a distance I looked at the place where I first came, and I see a light shining on the island; many handsome men walk around the island and sing in agreement, in ecstasies. In the middle of the island, where the icon stood in the air, I see a holy woman, in an indescribable light, shining with gold: beautiful men worshiped the holy woman, and She blessed the place where the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary now stands.
I was filled with joy from this vision, I fell with tears before the image of the Lord Christ and the Most Pure Mother of God, I prayed and cried for a long time. After the prayer rule, I began to sing Matins; and when it began to dawn, I sang a psalm: Blessed are the blameless on the way (Ps. 119:1). Arriving at the place shown by God, I placed the miraculous image near the tree where the icon had previously stood in the air. I prayed to the miraculous image and said: “Here is my rest, here I will dwell and rest forever.” He put up a cross and then a tabernacle 428.
After a short time, the elder of the Lapps came to me, carrying a child born blind in his hands, and said: “Heal him, and we will leave this island, as your servants order.” I was amazed at these words. But he made a prayer to the Lord God and His Most Pure Mother, took the child, sanctified him with the priestly prayer, sprinkled him with holy water and applied him to the image of the Lord. And the child received his sight. That man happily left me, and I glorified God about such a miracle. After a little time, the man comes to me and brings some of his property and food. I took one deer skin and some food and prayed for him. He bowed and told me: “Servants live with you on the island; they beat our wives and children with a stick and send them away from this place.” He also told me that they heard ringing in this place. I let him go in peace and thanked God for everything. Soon the Lapps and the Samoyeds, by the Providence of God, retreated to the borders of the ocean. And the aforementioned elder, living on Lake Rondo, later became a monk, and his sons were baptized.
Then they began to come to me from distant places and live with me; others took monastic vows and erected a wooden church of the Resurrection of God's friend Lazarus. In Novgorod the saint was Moses (1352–1360). I came to him for a blessing. The saint asked me about everything in order. And he marveled and praised the place. He gave me an antimension, sacred vessels, plenty of alms, and taught me how to preserve church rites and monastic tradition; handed me a certificate with a blessing. I asked him about the ruler of Novgorod Ivan, and he answered me: “He went to the Lord.” Coming to his son Theodore, I was received with love, and he said: my father, going to the Lord, ordered me to give you one hundred hryvnia, which he had previously taken from you for the Murmansk Island. I was upset, thinking that he wanted to take the island from me. He noticed my embarrassment and said: “I have a letter from my father to you about the island on which you live.”
When a little time later I came to him again, he, by order of his father, gave me 100 hryvnia and a lot of property for the establishment of a monastery and issued a charter, written by the hand of his father, with the following content: "In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I, the mayor of the Slavic end, Ivan Fomin, gave to the Most Pure Mother of God, the priest Lazarus and his monks, a part of my land and water, according to my soul and according to my parents, on Lake Onega, the island of Much with all the land, Lake Murmansk and around the lake there are rivers and islands, in them there are waters, traps, overhangs, which I owned, along the islands there are mowings and overgrown lands and waters. Let the Most Pure Chernets own the land and water for all ages. Do not interfere with the authorities, and do not take away any land or water, let them own by spiritual and by deed. my grandfather forever. Whoever violates our letter will give an answer to God and the Most Pure One.” This spiritual Ivan Fomin attached a lead seal with the image of the Most Pure One and the Eternal Child and with the image of a cross on the other side.
Then I went to the tomb of St. Basil, bishop of the great Novgorod, and venerated his holy tomb. Finally, Bishop Moses came to receive a blessing on the way. He blessed me and sent me away in peace. The brothers greeted me with joy and love and sang a prayer service. I began to take more care of the place than before, consecrated the Church of the Resurrection of God's friend Lazarus, erected cells for monks and fenced off this place. Then monks from Kyiv, Elder Jonah and Elder Euphrosynus, came to me and began to live with me. They erected a beautiful Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. And I was very happy about this, strengthening my hope in God and the Most Pure Mother of God. The number of Christ's disciples multiplied. A lot of time later, the elder of the Holy Mountain, Theodosius, came to us, virtuous in life, with chains on his body. He put John's meal at his own expense. The fame of this holy place spread, and people came here from distant places, took monastic vows and stayed to live with us. The monk Theodosius, skilled in book wisdom, named the Murmansk monastery of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary.
I, the sinful monk Lazarus, grew old with old age, and my friend, the great Master Vasily, Bishop of the Great Novgorod, appeared to me and announced to me the end of my life. Having thanked God and Bishop Vasily for such a vision, I called on the brethren and said: “Brothers! You yourselves see that the end of my life has come, and I was told about the end. Choose from among you a leader and a teacher for your God-chosen flock.” They unanimously said with one voice: “Do not leave us, father, orphans; give us a shepherd and teacher yourself.” I blessed Theodosius of the Holy Mountain so that after death he would be my elder and teacher of all the brethren.”
This ends the testament of the Monk Lazarus. Theodosius added a few words about the death of the monk. Saint Abba Lazarus, having received the Holy Mysteries, blessed the brethren and gave up his spirit to the Lord. The brothers buried him behind the altar of the Church of the Resurrection of God's Friend Lazarus. Abba reposed on March 8, 6898 (1391); of all the years of his life were 105,429. His relics rest hidden in a chapel, near the Assumption Church of the long-closed Lazarus Monastery 430.
Day eleven. Venerable Sophrony, recluse of Pechersk,
who saved himself in a cave, read the entire Psalter every day and did not take off his hair shirt and iron belt until his death. His relics are in the Theodosius Caves in the Kiev Lavra.
Day twelve. Memory of Saint Simeon the New Theologian
The biography writer and student of Simeon, Nikita Stifat, says about his teacher that he was raised at the court of Constantinople (during the reign of Basil and Constantine), but when his patron uncle, the senator, died, Simeon, while still a young man, entered the Studite monastery, where he devoted himself to the strictest asceticism under the leadership of Simeon the pious. Then, on the advice of Simeon, he moved to the monastery of St. Mamant, 431 where, after the death of the abbot, he was ordained to the rank of presbyter and to the title of abbot.
Simeon labored in the priesthood for 48 years; having once retired due to misunderstandings that arose, he was honorably returned to the capital, where he was even offered the rank of metropolitan, but he refused to accept it.
Simeon the Theologian attracted many lay people who wanted to learn from his wonderful instructions to his Mamantov monastery and died peacefully in 1032.
His student and biography writer Nikita Stifat speaks about his teaching: “He was not his own, but, by the grace of God, which adopted him for himself, his tongue was a cursive cane, and his mind was the source of the wisdom of God, which is why he theologized, although he did not know the sciences, like a beloved disciple.” He left behind many writings about spiritual life. The main subject of the instructions of Simeon the New Theologian is “Hidden Work in Christ.” He explains the ways of internal warfare; teaches measures of improvement primarily spiritual; forces one to strive especially against spiritual passions, against sinful thoughts and movements. “Our initial fall,” he says, “was due to pride, and therefore it should humble the soul.” Here is Simeon’s answer to contemporary co-questioners who rebelled against him as a violator of the conventional order of salvation known to them: “They do not believe and convince themselves that it is impossible for a person to be completely pure from lusts and vices, so that he would essentially accept the Comforter into himself.
They speak and act against their own salvation, they close the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven for themselves and forbid others who would like to enter. If they hear about someone that he has labored lawfully and is clean from outrageous passions, preaches before everyone the miracles of God that God did in him according to His false promises... stop, they say, you deceived and proud! Who is what the fathers were like? Who has seen or can see God? Who received the Spirit in such abundance that through Him he was worthy to see the Father and the Son? Yes, definitely none of you, as you yourself say. But of those who decided to bear the cross, to walk the narrow path, who are ready to destroy their souls for Eternal Life, very many of them saw God, and very many, as I think, still do, and everyone who wants to will will see.” - “They say: he was deceived; for whoever says he does not sin is blind and does not see. True, but he who has God cannot sin, for His seed abides in him, as John the Most Wise said, the thunder of the apostles.”
Although such a high state of soul seems achievable according to the understanding of Simeon, he also points to those extraordinary preparatory feats by which it can only be achieved: “before lamentation and tears, let them not deceive us with empty words, and let us not deceive ourselves in the success of piety... Without tears, the hardness of our heart will not soften, the soul will not attain spiritual humility, we will not be able to become humble, and whoever has not arranged himself this way will not can unite with the Holy Spirit...” The writings of Simeon the Theologian often testify to the Venerable Nil of Sora: “As Simeon the New Theologian commands...”, “As Saint Simeon spoke...”. The Monk Joseph of Volokolamsk also made extracts from the works of the New Theologian - in his collection he placed up to 15 of his words.
In Slavic prayer books, Simeon's prayer is read before communion of the Holy Mysteries. One is also read in Greek under the title: “Simeon the New Theologian, a pious test about Holy Communion.”
He is called “new” because he taught such deep secrets of inner asceticism that have not been heard of for a long time...
Day thirteen. Memory of the Holy Martyr Alexander the Presbyter
Saint Alexander was a presbyter in the city of Pidna (now Kitros, 30 versts from Thessaloniki). Shining with piety, through his preaching and life he converted many from idolatry to Christ. During the persecution, Emperor Maximian, who was there, demanded that Alexander sacrifice to idols, but Alexander overturned the table with the sacrifices and trampled underfoot the statue of the pagan god. The angry king ordered his beheading, but allowed the inhabitants of Thessalonica to take and bury the body of the martyr.
Celebration in honor of the Moldavian Icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary
This holy icon is located in the Gerbovetsky Assumption Monastery, in the Bessarabia province. She became famous in 1793. The icon depicts the Mother of God with the Baby Jesus, who sits on Her right hand and holds His hand at His head.
Transfer of the relics of Patriarch Nicephorus of Constantinople. Transferred from Priconnis (now the island of Marmara) to Constantinople 19 years after his death, in 846. His memory is June 2.
Day fourteen. Repose of the Righteous Grand Duke Rostislav-Mikhail Mstislavich
The son of the holy father, the great Mstislav, and the grandson of the pious Monomakh, Prince Rostislav, baptized Michael, is recorded in the ancient calendar with the name of the holy prince 432. In his youth he was distinguished by his feats of courage in battle. During the struggle of his brother Grand Duke Izyaslav with the Olgovichs and Yuri, in many cases he showed fearless courage, but together he tried to extinguish the enmity of the princes with compliant love. Having received Smolensk as an inheritance (in 1127), he tried with all his heart to ensure the happiness of his subjects, aroused and nourished piety in them. The stone church in honor of the holy princes Boris and Gleb, built (1145) on the site of the latter’s martyrdom, in Smyadyn, and in Smolensk Petropavlovsky are monuments to the pious ancestor of the Smolensk princes. The Peter and Paul Church, despite all the upheavals of time, especially terrible for Smolensk in 1612 and 1812, has survived to this day without damage 433 . Especially the opening of the episcopal see in Smolensk (1137) at the new Church of the Virgin Mary required many difficult donations from Prince Rostislav.
His surviving letter shows with what dispositions and with what donations the prince opened the department in Smolensk.
“God, the Most Holy Theotokos and the prayers of my father,” wrote the pious prince, “blessed, and after consulting with my people, I installed a bishop in Smolensk. This happened by the will of my holy father, who wanted to do this during his lifetime. There has never been a bishopric here before. But I, unworthy and sinful, in my reign, which God and the prayer of my father gave me, establish a bishopric and means so that the bishop and his clergy can live. “Here I give the Holy Mother of God and the bishop tithes from all the Smolensk tributes that come into them, with the exception of sales, vira and public collection.” Then it is shown how much tribute went from this or that place to the prince, and a tenth share is determined for the bishop; – the total cost for the bishop was 178 hryvnia or pounds of silver. “And now I also give to the Holy Mother of God and the bishop,” the prince continues, “in Toropets, a tithe of the fish that come to me; and in general, whatever tribute there is in the Smolensk region, small or large, give tithes to the Holy Mother of God without any excuse.”
Pointing to two more villages with their inhabitants and to the lands granted to the department, the prince says: “And I also give eight drops of wax from my courtyard for the consecration of the Holy Mother of God... This is my zeal for the Holy Mother of God! By command of my holy father, I give whatever I could. No one can judge episcopal lawsuits; they are judged by the bishop himself. The first litigation is divorce; another, if someone lives with two wives; third, if they marry illegally; fourth, if someone kidnaps the girl; for this, whatever the prince takes, half of it goes to the bishop; fifth, if they kidnap a woman, for which the bishop will be penalized; sixth, poison by potion and murder; seventh, if two women fight; eighth, if a church person is guilty of anything; ninth, if one of the church people is killed, but no harm will be done to the church. I am Prince Rostislav with Bishop Manuel, since Smolensk was entrusted to me by God, through the prayer of my grandfather and father, I established a bishopric and am decreeing the rules. If there is a lawsuit or an episcopal sale, neither the prince, nor the mayor, nor the tiun or anyone else in the entire Smolensk region will care.
By the grace of God and the prayers of the Mother of God, the tributes are now full, and in the future whatever God will arrange. If, by God's dispensation, any tribute becomes scarce, either due to war or for any other reason; whatever tribute comes out, a tenth of that will be given to the Holy Mother of God. Let no one change this after me, neither the prince nor the people... If someone, out of passion, classifies this bishopric again as the Pereyaslav bishopric and, breaking the word of the holy Russian Metropolitan Michael, destroys the Smolensk bishopric: then the prince will take what he has appointed for the bishop of the Holy Mother of God, since then the will of my father Mstislav, Russian Metropolitan Michael, will be violated.” The charter was given in September 1150 434. Give glory to the Lord your God before He brings darkness (Jer. 13:16), teaches the prophet of God. Blessed Prince Rostislav acted according to the teachings of the revelation of God. For earthly happiness he thanked the Lord and used earthly blessings for the glory of the name of God; for him, first of all and above all, was the glory of God. In 1154 he was called to the great reign of Kiev.
When Uncle Vyacheslav died, he distributed all his property to charitable institutions; “having called his father’s husbands, tiuns, key holders, he ordered them to bring all of Vyacheslav’s estate - clothes, gold, silver, and began to distribute to monasteries, churches, prisons and the poor”; He left himself one cross of the deceased from the inheritance. Having lost the Kyiv throne that same year and almost losing his life in battle, he returned to Smolensk 435. In 1158, the princes again called him to the great reign, and the people of Kiev (1159) received him with delight. His first task was now to conclude an alliance of love with the Chernigov prince Svyatoslav, who had been hostile to him from a young age. Prince Andrey of Suzdal expelled his son from Novgorod, and Rostislav bore the insult generously. The evil prince Izyaslav Danilovich with the predatory Polovtsians ravaged southern Russia here and there, and finally broke into Kiev; good Rostislav retired to Vyshgorod; the enemy pursued Rostislav here too, but found himself killed; Rostislav did not take revenge on his unfaithful allies.
With the same generosity, he forgave Mstislav Volynsky, who had insulted him more than once with his self-will. Remaining with full respect for the patriarch, he forced, however, the Council of Constantinople to make it a rule not to send a metropolitan to Russia beyond her wishes. Caring for the common good, he persuaded all the princes to promote safe trade between Russians and Greece 436. In 1168, despite his old age, he went to Novgorod to establish his son Svyatoslav there. On the road, the Smolensk ambassadors met him 300 miles from Smolensk; then residents of all classes accepted him with gifts: this is how they loved the virtuous old prince in Smolensk. In Velikiye Luki he took an oath from the Novgorod ambassadors to forget displeasure against his son and to be separated from him by death alone. He arrived sick on his way back to Smolensk. His sister and son persuaded him to stay in Smolensk in order to be buried in the church he created. “Take me to Kyiv,” he answered.
“If I die on the road, put me in my father’s monastery near St. Theodore; If God heals me, through the prayers of His Most Pure Mother and Saint Theodosius, I will take monastic vows in the Pechersk Monastery.” Prince Rostislav, surrounded by happiness, was not captivated by anything earthly. He never sought power, but only accepted it when it was handed to him, and, moreover, as a burden. His kindness forgave everything to others; he remembered his sins, his debts to God and forgot about what others owed him. He was constantly concerned about how to please the Lord. He often said to the Pechersk abbot, especially after the death of Svyatoslav of Chernigov: “Prepare a cell for me, I’m afraid of an unexpected death.” During Great Lent, on Saturdays and Sundays, he invited the abbot to his meal with 12 selected elders and talked with them about spiritual salvation; and on every Sunday of Lent he received the Holy Mysteries. He really wanted to escape the bustle of life to the Pechersk monastery, and he repeatedly told the Pechersk abbot about this.
The abbot stopped him, pointing out that the prince’s job was to protect the peace of people with justice and the sword, and finally invited him to submit himself to the will of God. The blessed prince died on the way to Kyiv, with a quiet prayer on his lips. “Now let Your servant go, O Lord, in peace,” these were the last words, and the tears stopped on his frozen face. The righteous man reposed on March 14, 1168. His body was buried in the Kiev Feodorovsky Monastery on the 27th of 437.
Therefore, I, a prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and meekness and long-suffering, bearing with one another in love (Eph. 4:1-2).
Day fifteen. Memory of the Holy New Martyr Emmanumla (Manuel)
Manuel was born on the island of Crete in Sfaki. As a child, he was captured by the Turks and forcibly converted to Islam, but, having managed to escape and hide on the island of Mykon, the young man told the priest about his involuntary retreat and, upon fulfilling the penance imposed on him, was reintroduced into the Church of Christ.
Having come of age, Manuel married and, already having six children, had to leave his unworthy wife with them, not wanting, however, to sue her - in order to avoid public disgrace to the mother of his children. Despite such a peaceful outcome of the case, the brother of the abandoned guilty woman wanted and vowed to take revenge on her husband. The opportunity for revenge presented itself. One day, this unjust and evil man, being among the servants on a warship that monitored ships in the Archipelago and the Sea of Marmara, recognized his enemy Manuel on one ship that was sailing with firewood from the island of Samos to the island of Mykon and approached the ship for inspection. He immediately pointed him out to his captain and reported that Manuel was a Turk, and now he was posing as a Christian.
Having told his real story in response to the interrogation made to him and confirmed that he was a Christian, Manuel was detained on a ship sailing to Chios, and was subjected to all sorts of tortures from Turkish soldiers along the way. Knowing what awaited him, he begged one Christian who was on the ship to bring a priest to him from the shore during a stop to instruct him with the Holy Mysteries.
But the Turks instilled such fear at that time that no one dared to come to the ship, and only one priest responded through the messenger with a few words of encouragement and consolation. After listening to them, Manuel said: “And I think the same: today or tomorrow you need to die; such is the law of nature! It is better to die for the faith today and thereby save your soul, than to destroy it tomorrow.”
When the ship arrived in Chios, Manuel was presented to the captain pasha for trial. He, having learned that Manuel had returned to the Christian faith, immediately ordered his head to be cut off.
“Glory to You, God!” - the new martyr, called by the Lord, exclaimed only at this, in joyful anticipation of death. But then something strange happened: the executioner, approaching the condemned man, felt such fear and trembling that he threw his sword and fled... The Turks were embarrassed... Manuel continued to pray... Then one “Lashi chaush” pulled out his scimitar and struck several blows to the sufferer’s neck: before he could behead him, he knocked him to the ground, grabbed his head and cut it off... The next day, Christians gathered to honor the holy remains of the murdered man, but the ruler of the city, having learned about this, ordered heavy stones to be tied to the body of the martyr and thrown into the sea... This happened in 1772 438.
Memory of St. Nikander of Gorodnensky
In the Gorodnensky churchyard, near Lake Gorodny, in the Valdai district, according to the 1581 census, the Leschunovskaya volost “was the Resurrection Monastery of the pottery end of Novgorod 439. At the beginning of the 17th century, on the shore of Lake Gorodnoye, the servant of God Nikandr built the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, gathered monks and renewed the memory of the ancient Resurrection monastery of prayer for the surrounding residents. The Monk Nikandr served as a make-up artist of holy life for the monks he gathered, spending an ascetic life in labor, fasting and prayer. His relics lie hidden, and in the church of his former monastery there is a chapel of “Reverend Nikander of Gorodno-Ozersk”” 440.
Memory of the Holy Martyr Nikander Bishop
A doctor who visited and treated prisoners for the faith of Christ in prison and buried the dishonestly abandoned bodies of tortured Christians, for which, after suffering, he was beheaded during the persecution of Diocletian, in 302.
Day sixteen. Memory of the Holy Martyrs Savin and Pope
Savin was one of the original citizens of Ermopolis, in Egypt. During the persecution of Diocletianov, hiding from detectives, he retired from Ermopolis to a certain deserted village. A beggar, fed by him, heard that they were looking for Savin, came to the idolaters and, for two gold coins, agreed to lead them to Savin’s refuge. So the blessed one was captured and, after torture, first in Ermopolis, then in Antinopolis, he was drowned in the Nile River with other six Christians.
The holy Pope suffered around the year 305 in Seleucia of Isauria.
Memory of the Holy Apostle Aristobulus, Bishop of Britannia, one of the 70 Apostles of Christ
Lived in the 1st century. Apostle Aristobulus, a native of Cyprus, brother of the holy Apostle Barnabas, was made a bishop by the holy Apostle Paul. He preached in Britain, present-day England, which is why he is called Britanian or British. He worked a lot preaching to the pagans, suffered a lot from them, and died peacefully in Britain. The holy Apostle Paul mentions him in his letter to the Romans: Greet the faithful from the house of Aristobulus (Rom. 16:10).
His memory is still on October 31st with the other five of the 70 apostles: Stachy, Amplius, Urban, Narcissus and Apellius, and on January 4th, in the cathedral of the 70 apostles.
Memory of St. Christodoulus of Patmos
A native of Nicaea, he was first a monk on Mount Latre in Bithynia, then hegumen of a monastery on the island of Kos. In 1089, he begged Emperor Alexei Komnenos to give his monastery the island of Patmos, then deserted (from Saracen raids), in exchange for estates on the island of Kos and on the shores of Caria, and built a monastery here on a mountain near the cave in which, according to legend, the holy Apostle John the Theologian wrote the “Apocalypse.” In 1110, he fled with his disciples to the island of Euboea, due to raids by sea robbers, and died there the next year. The disciples brought back the relics of the monk, which still rest in his monastery.
Day nineteen. Memory of the Righteous Grand Duchess Maria
The wife of Grand Duke Vsevolod III, famous for her piety and wisdom. In the chronicles she is called the Russian Elena - the second Olga. The mother of a large family, who cared about the Christian upbringing of her children, became seriously ill after the birth of the eleventh of them, and she endured her illness, which lasted for several years, “with the patience of Job.” The chronicler conveys the touching instructions that she taught her children while lying on her deathbed 441. During her illness, a stone church in honor of the Dormition of the Mother of God was founded in Vladimir, at her request and with the help of her donation, and a convent for women, Novodevichya, was built with it. Feeling the approach of death, Grand Duchess Maria Shvarnovna (daughter of the Czech Duke Shvarn) wished to take monastic vows, but her monasticism (under) the name of Martha did not last long: from March 2 to March 19, 1206. On the same day she died and was bitterly mourned not only by her loved ones, but by all the people. Her body was buried in the Assumption Monastery that she created.
Her memory is still revered among the people; many not only from the residents of the city of Vladimir, but also from surrounding villages and cities often want to perform memorial services and lithiums over her tomb.
The Repose of St. Innocent
The Monk Innocent, the son of the boyar Okhlebinin and a relative of the princes Khvorostinin 442, accepted monasticism in the monastery of Cyril of Beloezersk, then, together with his mentor, the Rev. Nil of Sorsky, he wandered for a long time in the east and lived for some time on Athos. From the east he returned to the Beloezersky monastery, but did not stay here long; he followed the Monk Nile to the Sora River and lived with him here for some time. The perspicacious old man, seeing that his student was ripe to be a mentor for others and, moreover, in a life that was not the one he himself decided to lead, said to Innocent: “Go to Nurma: you will have a hostel there, and here my brethren must live one at a time in cells.” The obedient student, plunging into the depths of the Komel forest, chose a place for himself on the Eda River, 10 versts from Nurma and 70 from Vologda; Here (from 1491) he lived alone for a short time, soon a spiritual flock gathered around him, and he built a church in the name of the Angel of the Desert, the Holy Forerunner, and founded a cenobitic monastery. Before his death, he wrote a spiritual testament to the brethren.
“Here I am, the poor monk Innocent,” said the servant of God, “and wrote this will for those whom God will command to live in our desert.
First of all, I pray to you, for the Lord’s sake, remember me, a sinner, in your holy prayers; about this I bow to the ground to you, fathers and brothers. I also bequeath that there should be no quarrel between you, but that there should be love in Christ and spiritual peace. Young and beardless monks should not be accepted, just as such ones should not be tonsured here; Do not keep young beardless servants. We should not have drunken drinking at all. About how to pray in our desert, how to eat, when to go out for handicrafts and work - all this is established in the writings of my master, my teacher, Elder Nil. There you will find everything pleasing to God" 443.
The Monk Innocent died on March 19, 1521 444. His monastery was devastated by the Tatars in 1538, and three of his disciples then recorded their exploits in blood. The Tatars “accidentally came to the Innocent Hermitage, burned the church of the great Baptist John and the cells, killed three elders, put many Christians of that desert to the sword, and took others captive; some ran away from their hands and, bearing many wounds, came to the monastery of St. Paul.” This is what a contemporary says 445. Appearance of the Monk Innocent: medium height, unforked beard with slight gray streaks. The relics rest hidden in the stone Church of the Annunciation of his monastery, closed in 1764 446.
Venerable Sophia, Princess of Slutsk, who died in 1617, locally revered in the Minsk diocese. Her relics rest openly in the Slutsk Trinity Monastery 447.
Day twentieth. The Suffering of St. Euphrosynus of Sinozersk
The Monk Euphrosynus, in the world Ephraim 448, born in the Karelian region, near Lake Nevo (Ladoga), spent his youth in the Valaam monastery. Then for a long time he was a clerk in the village of Dolosskoye, Bezhetskaya Pyatina, 30 versts from Ustyuzhna in Zheleznopolskaya. Having reached adulthood, he felt a strong desire to pursue monastic asceticism. He left the house without taking anything with him, and became a monk in the large Tikhvin Monastery. With sincere zeal he fulfilled the obediences entrusted to him here. Bored by the crowds of people visiting the monastery, in 1600, with the blessing of the abbot, he left the Tikhvin Monastery to live in desert solitude.
15 versts from the village of Dolosskoye and 50 from Ustyuzhna, in the forest, between swamps and swamps, on the shore of Lake Sinichye, he found the desired place for solitude. Here he erected a cross and dug a cave for himself, and a year later he erected a cell; but in both years he did not see a piece of bread, eating only desert plants. In such a wild wilderness he was found by accident; but when word spread about the new hermit of Titmouse Lake, they began to come to him with the desire to listen to his instructions, while others stayed and live with him. It was necessary to build a church for the gathered disciples, and Euphrosynus, together with them, built the Church of the Annunciation of the Mother of God, which was consecrated by Gury, Abbot of Shalitsky, revered to this day for his strict life 449. The monk labored diligently for piety and diligently led others along the path of salvation. And he was destined to be crowned with the death of an innocent sufferer.
When the Jesuits found a new impostor for Russia - a Jew, bands of Poles entered the Ustyuzhna district in 1612 for robbery and robbery 450. The Orthodox, especially valuing their holy faith, hastened to hide in deep forests. Then the Euphrosyne desert served as a refuge for them from the surrounding areas. March 19 (1612) the monk announced in the hearing of everyone that the enemies of the holy faith would soon come to his hermitage. He advised to run wherever possible; about himself he said that he should stay here by vow. Monk Jonah, in fear, wanted to run away with the others. “Why allow the fear of cowardice into your soul? - the monk told him. “When war comes, that’s when courage is needed.” We made a vow to live and die in the desert. We must be faithful to the word given before the Lord. In this case, death brings peace. It’s a different matter for worldly people: they are not bound by words and they need to take care of themselves and for their children.” Strengthened by the words of the monk, Jonah remained with the holy elder. The next day the Poles appeared in the Euphrosyne hermitage. The monk in the schema prayed at the cross, which he erected as soon as he came here.
The brazen robbers demanded the monastery treasures from Euphrosynus. The hermit pointed to the church of the Mother of God as the hermit’s only treasure. Then one of the bloodsuckers struck the saint on the neck and cut his head. The old man fell half dead. The Poles burst into the church of God, but found nothing in it and returned to their victim. One hit Euphrosynus on the head with a hammer and broke the skull right down to the brain. The new sufferer gave his soul into the hands of the Lord. The monk Jonah was killed along with him. On the 8th day after the death of the holy elder, the gathered Orthodox Christians buried his suffering body at the cross; His disciple Jonah was buried with him. The Monk Euphrosynus was of average height, with broad shoulders and a manly chest; his brown hair was decorated with gray hair; the beard is oblong and forked at the end. This is how the Doloss resident John, who himself suffered at the same time from the Poles, recounted the painful death of the Monk Euphrosynus.
In 1653, with the blessing of the Novgorod Metropolitan Macarius, the relics of St. Euphrosynus were transferred to the bell tower of the Annunciation Church, then a monastery, and now the parish churchyard of Sinozersky 451.
Memory of the Holy New Martyr Myron of Crete
More than a thousand years have passed since the disaster from the Muslims in Palestine, but even changing time has not changed their fanatical enmity towards Christians, and to this day the purest vessels of the spirit of Christ are sacrificed to it. Here is another legend, majestic in its simplicity, about a young man who suffered from the Turks in 1793 (on the island of Crete or Candia). Modest, hardworking (a tailor by trade), well-behaved and good-looking young man Miron - with such properties he attracted the selfish attention of the Turks, and they wanted to convert him to Islam. But, seeing that the young man was not succumbing to their tempting influence, they slandered him and brought him to trial. The judge suggested that Miron - in order to get rid of punishment for the crime charged against him - convert to Islam.
Fearlessly, the young man then answered the judge that he would not renounce his faith and was better prepared to endure all kinds of torment; then, courageously enduring severe beatings, he was imprisoned. With the same steadfastness, which seemed to exceed the strength of his age, Myron withstood the new trial at trial and fearlessly listened to the death sentence.
The condemned man was led to execution. “Forgive me, brothers! - he addressed everyone who met and accompanied him on the way, - forgive me, and may the Lord forgive you! Then, asking permission, he rushed to his father, who was walking behind him with bitter sobs, fell at his feet, kissed his hands, begged him not to lament his death and, having received his father’s blessing, returned to his guards and asked the executioners to begin their work...
The noose was thrown around the young man’s neck, and... a new martyr shone forth among the host of victims of merciless, unquenchable Muslim fanaticism...
Reverend Fathers John, Sergius, Patricius and others, beaten in the monastery of St. Sava, victims of Saracen bandits in 796 - on March 13, 13 fathers were beaten, and on the 20th - 18; Of the latter, most were brought into a cave and killed by smoke.
On the same day, the holy martyr Photina, the Samaritan woman, with whom the Lord Jesus talked at Jacob’s well (John 4). According to legend, for the spread of the holy faith she suffered during the persecution of Nero, in the year 66, and died, thrown into a well.
Day twenty one. Memory of Saint James the Bishop, Confessor, and Saint Cyril the Bishop
Jacob was a monk from a young age, labored in a holy life, and for his zeal for the faith was elevated to the episcopal throne of the Catanian Church in Sicily. During the reign of Constantine, Copronymus suffered exile and imprisonment for the holy icons, in which he died (about 750).
Saint Cyril was the first bishop of the city of Katana; originally from Antioch and a disciple of the Apostle Peter, he was sent by this apostle around 45 A.D. to the west to preach the faith of Christ. He was given the gift of miracles from above. So, one day he transformed the bitter water in a spring into sweet, and this miracle especially contributed to his conversion of many pagans to faith. Died peacefully at a ripe old age.
Day twenty one. Memory of Saint Serapion, Bishop of Tmuin
An angel of the Church of Tmuin, a man highly respected for his holiness of life and eloquence, 452 Saint Serapion was one of the most zealous helpers of Saint Athanasius in the fight against the Arians. From the desert (where he retired during the Arian unrest) he was called to the See of Temuin under the Emperor Constantius and became famous for his confession. He was present and firmly defended the purity of faith at the Council of Sardia (347). In 355 he traveled to Constantinople in order to intercede with Constantius on behalf of the Egyptian bishops for Athanasius, but for this he was imprisoned. Died around 366.
He was known for his writings, about which Blessed Jerome, ranking Saint Serapion among the Fathers of the Church, says: “You don’t know what to marvel at more—whether his secular learning or his knowledge of the Holy Scriptures.”
Of the “letters” of Serapion, two letters are currently known: 1) to Bishop Eudoxius, written, as can be seen from the content, during Serapion’s imprisonment. “Do not be faint-hearted in sorrow,” the saint wrote, “but be complacent in faith, do not fall into illness, but be strong and do not sin. Do not consider illness a burden; heavy - one sin. Being sick is common to both the good and the bad; and sin, as we see, is characteristic of the bad. Whoever is sick, his sickness will die with death; and whoever sins, sin will find him there beyond the grave. The disease follows us to the grave, but it does not follow the dead beyond the grave; but sin secretly destroys the living, and even more affects the dead, reveals its fire and torments the sinner. This, beloved brother! I wrote so that you would not give in to cowardice, but would keep yourself in Christ. We must finally look at the fact that God is a protector. He retreats a little and again takes under His cover; leaves for a few and protects again; He never leaves the Church; the gates of hell will not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18).
And so show the strength of your virtue before God the All-Seer, so that in everything you will be pleasing to Him. We don’t dare invite you, so as not to distract you from the city.”
In the second letter, addressing the monks, Saint Serapion, exposing the advantages of monastic life, says: “Of you is Abba Anthony, who has reached the height of asceticism, which you have with a life devoted to writing. Of you - Ammun, Abba John, Abba Macarius - shone with virtues: they performed miracles and presented other evidence of their holiness. By driving away demons by the will of God, treating serious illnesses and various sufferings, they showed that medical science is weak. Diseases that doctors could not heal were healed through the prayer of saints and strong faith. But you yourself know this better than me: you lived with them, and so did your fathers.”
Saint Serapion also writes in one essay: “The mind is purified by spiritual knowledge, the movements of anger are healed by love, and the flows of lust are stopped by abstinence...”
Day twenty two. Memory of the Holy Hieromartyr Basil, Presbyter of Ancyra
Basil the presbyter, at a time when the will of the apostate King Julian to restore idolatry was announced everywhere and many Christians for the sake of worldly benefits renounced their faith, convinced everyone to remain faithful to God and openly prayed for the destruction of the plans of the wicked. Then one of the citizens, a zealot of paganism, grabbed him, saying: “Why are you walking around the city, confusing the people, breaking the royal law?” - and introduced it to the mayor. The mayor asked Vasily: “Why are you embarrassing the city and presenting the king as having violated good laws?” Vasily said: “I do not blame your king, but I know that the Most High King, Who is God, is able to destroy your unreasonable legalized wickedness in a short time.” And the mayor said: “Stop talking empty things and submit to the king.” Vasily: “Until now I have obeyed the King of Heaven, and now I obey, and I will never deviate from my holy faith in Him, and the king whom you praise is the king of the earth and, like a man, is subject to death.”
Then the judge ordered him to be hanged on a tree and tortured with iron; Seeing the confessor’s inflexibility, he threw him into prison and reported him to the king. Julian sent two apostates to convince Basil to abandon his faith in Christ, and a few days later (in January 363) he himself arrived in Ancyra, heading to Antioch. Neither the convictions of the apostates, nor the kindness and threats of the king himself could shake the valiant sufferer. Over the course of several days, the executioners tore off his skin piece by piece, then beat him on the shoulders and belly with a hot iron, in which agony the saint gave up his spirit to God on January 28, 363. After the death of Julian in June of the same year and the restoration of Christianity, the citizens of Ancyra honored the body of the martyr with a celebration and established the celebration of his memory on March 22.
Memory of the Holy Venerable Euthymius the New
Through many vicissitudes in life, through a sorrowful path - from great sin to great, all-covering repentance, the much-endured servant of God Euthymius (in the world Eleutherius) finally reached the one saving haven of eternal blissful tranquility.
The son of pious parents who lived in the Peloponnese, in the village of Dimitsami, he received a decent education as a child, first at a rural school, then at the Kurucheslie School of Constantinople. From Constantinople he went to his father, who was at that time in the city of Iasi on trade matters. Here, in the first years of a well-prepared spiritual mood, he rushed with all the ardor of youth - to devote himself to the service of the One God. And why didn’t he listen to this first call of a pure, immaculate soul! What a difficult path he had to respond to it later!
Having first given himself over to the impulse that carried him to Athos, so that there, among the ascetics who despised worldly vanity and loved the spiritual life - as if to anticipate the satisfactions of the higher world on earth, Eleutherius, leaving his father’s house, undertook a journey to the Holy Mountain. But, due to some circumstances, choosing the path there through Odessa and encountering obstacles to his further journey in Odessa, he returned to Bucharest, where he had to stay for a year and a half, during which he indulged himself to such an extent in the entertainment that surrounded him here that he forgot to remember the Holy Mountain and turned entirely into a “nest of sin and vice”...
His vicious life led him into debt, and he was forced into service. At this time, the Turkish embassy was in Bucharest to negotiate peace with Russia, with which there was then a war, and Eleutherius took a place in the house of one of the members of the embassy, intending to return with him in the most convenient way to Constantinople. But the return was slowed down; on the way back, the embassy remained in Shumla for a long time. Here a new temptation presented itself to the young man... Thinking to soften his master’s cruel treatment of him and at the same time instigated by one of his recently comrade, he reached such depravity of soul that he himself decided to become a turk... he renounced his faith in Christ and accepted circumcision - a conventional sign of the followers of Mohammed.
But “he who wants to save the sinner and live for him” did not completely abandon this perishing soul, in which sincere love for Him once glowed... During the unbearable illnesses of circumcision, He visited her with a burning consciousness of his condition and, as a result, deep tearful repentance. And for Eleutherius the hour came about which the poet speaks:
Eleutherius's first move was to flee the home of the hated Mohammedans. But he was unable to escape from the close surveillance of him while the embassy was in Shumla. And only four months later, when it arrived in Adrianople, Eleutherius could leave the house one evening in order to turn to Metropolitan Kirill (who later occupied the patriarchal see). It was on Saturday; The clergy were in the church at that time for the evening service. The heart of the apostate Christian sank with pain when he saw the deacon burning incense: the grace of the sacred fragrance was not for him now... he recognized himself as detached from it. His soul was torn with pain; he could hardly restrain his bitter sobs.
He failed, however, to reach the metropolitan, and his request even for help, for participation in his situation, which he frankly described, was not accepted in the metropolis: it was an inconvenient time to set in motion the process of turning a Christian into Turkification, since this could irritate the Turkish authorities in Adrianople, which then included Turkish troops. Eleutherius had to remain among the Reis-effendi servants, who despised and insulted him, since they saw that he was always gloomy, gloomy and behaved among them like a stranger. So he spent another three months, experiencing all the languor of a bird, in vain trying to fly out of a locked cage into the freedom of life-giving nature among its native fields and forests... But the bird does not know the languor of sin and repentance...
Finally, Eleutherius arrived with his master in Constantinople, but even here for a long time he could not escape the strong, suspicious surveillance of him... All he had left was prayer. She was ardent with all the strength of his suffering... Will not the door of God's mercy open before such a prayer?
The day of liberation has finally arrived. Eleutherius waited for the moment when, unnoticed by anyone, he could leave the house. He hurried to the palace of the Russian embassy, where they listened to his sorrowful story with complete sympathy and helped him go to Athos on the first ship leaving there.
Arriving at the Holy Mountain, Eleutherius turned to the former Patriarch of Constantinople Gregory, who was there in retirement in the Lavra of St. Athanasius. As the father of the prodigal son, the compassionate saint received the unfortunate young man, kept him with him and assigned him to go every day to the virtuous confessor of the Lavra, Meletius, to listen to propitiatory prayers for the establishment of the Church. After 40 days, Eleutherius was anointed with holy myrrh. Strengthened spiritually and filled with immeasurable holy joy, he went to the monastery of St. Anna, appeared to that priest Vasily, who had already presented several apostates to Christ as martyrs, assisting and accompanying them in the feats of martyrdom - sometimes at the risk of his life and sacrificing his own means for expenses. This selfless ascetic calmed the young man a lot both mentally and physically. Having stayed with him for 20 days, Eleutherius, diligently laboring as a hermit, felt an irresistible urge to cover his sin of apostasy - with blessed martyrdom for Christ...
But Priest Vasily, wise in his experience, did not allow him to perform an arbitrary feat; however, leaning towards his convictions, he allowed him to go to Constantinople, but so as not to expose himself to danger before being recognized by one of the Turks, who in this case themselves would probably betray him to martyrdom...
The young man spent eight days in Constantinople, but inexplicably was not recognized there by anyone, even from his former acquaintances. It was painful for him to restrain his zeal, not to open up... but, having fulfilled what Priest Vasily commanded him, he appeared to his confessor Meletius and poured out his soul to him, which could no longer contain the impulse for martyrdom. Meletius, although he tried to moderate his zeal and restrain him, but, seeing the uncontrollable desire of the young man, blessed him for the feat.
However, apparently, the hour of God’s will has not yet come for the redemptive feat of Eleutherius to be accomplished.
Leaving the Lavra, he met on the way an old monk named Pankratius, originally from the Peloponnese, and, having told his compatriot about his past life and about his intentions at the present time, he was again restrained by an elder wise in spiritual experience and returned, on his advice, to the Lavra to further strengthen himself with spiritual exploits... Now again he completely devoted himself to them; it would be difficult to adequately describe all his exploits: immeasurable fasting, patience in labor, endless tears, extreme contrition at all-night vigils, incessant prayer, humility of spirit, composure of thoughts, vigilant attention and friendliness, silence, compassion... And with such strict asceticism, with complete self-denial, the young man was always bright and joyful.
With all his labors, he also occupied himself with reading the Gospel and other spiritually beneficial books. Reading about the exploits of the martyrs, Eleutherius became more and more inflamed with the desire to follow in their footsteps, and when the whole difficulty of the feat was presented to him, he always answered the same thing: “I never think about troubles and difficulties and do not measure them; but I only feel great sadness that I do not have a thousand bodies to give them all over to suffer, and a thousand heads to slaughter for the love of Christ.”...
Finally, his ardent desire was satisfied. One of the elders who led him, confessor Akakios, having preceded his decision with much prayer, drew from it the confidence that the hour of God’s will had come - for Eleutherius to enter the path of martyrdom... “You must go to confess the name of Christ by yourself, since by yourself you have renounced the Lord: the opposite is usually cured by the opposite,” the elder said to the young man.
The soul, returned to its Creator, was then filled with indescribable joy, and before giving himself up as an atoning sacrifice, Eleutherius wished to prepare for it with the last self-denial, namely, tonsure into monasticism. He then took the name Euthymius.
Thus purified, renewed in his entire being, called by an invincible force, Euthymius left a quiet refuge - the Holy Mountain, and, accompanied by the prayers and blessings of its inhabitants, set off on the desired path on February 21, 1814, accompanied by one novice Gregory.
On Thursday, March 19, in the 6th week of Lent, they arrived in Galata of Constantinople and stayed in the house of a pious Christian. On Saturday of the same week, the blessing of oil was performed on Euthymius, and he received the Holy Mysteries on that day and the next. Having thus achieved everything they wanted, after the Divine Liturgy, Euthymius and Gregory set off on a Cephalonian ship, the captain of which received them with respectful greetings.
Having completed the move, Euthymius took off his clothes, put on the Turkish clothes he had prepared in advance, said goodbye to his companion and all the Christians (who surrounded him, standing with their heads uncovered, trembling and marveling at such boldness and courage of their brother), took the cross and yesterday’s consecrated branches (vaiya) in his hands, went ashore and, making the sign of the cross and being inspired prayer, appeared in the Sublime Porte. Here, unnoticed by anyone, he went into the vizier’s house and, appearing before him, said to him: “Sir! I have been a Christian since my ancestors; to certify my words - here is the cross, which our true Christian faith gave us as a true weapon against all enemies, here is the vaya - also a Christian sign; and so that you may be even more convinced of what I have said, behold, I trample on the sign of your faith in the deceiver Mohammed, whom you call a prophet.”...
“Why do you allow such people to come to me? - the vizier turned to his servants with amazement and anger, - who is this impudent man? Is he a fool or drunk?"...
“My mind is sound,” answered Euthymius, “that’s why I confess Christ the true God and wish to die a Christian out of love for Him... And I’m not drunk, for three days now I haven’t even eaten anything...”
The vizier ordered Euthymius to be taken to prison, where he was chained and severely beaten. A few hours later the vizier demanded his presence to carry out the final test. Having made sure that the interrogated person consciously and firmly supported what he had previously expressed, and despairing of shaking him, the vizier ordered his head to be cut off. The executioner took Euthymius and wanted to tie his hands back, but the martyr objected: “Why do you tie my hands when I came here uninvited? You didn’t bring me in as a criminal, did you?” After some thought, the executioner left him.
Extraordinary joy shone on Euthymius’s face as he walked to the place of execution, holding a cross in one hand and a vaiah in the other. Having reached the appointed place, the executioners stopped. Euthymius began to pray and, making the sign of the cross, bowed his knees and head and said: “Lord! I commend my spirit into Your hands!” Then the executioner struck, but unsuccessfully. “Be sure to flog,” the martyr said to the executioner. But even with the second blow, only a piece of the body was cut off. After this, the executioner, without delivering a third blow, stabbed the martyr in the throat... His body, to the surprise of those present, remained on its knees even after the slaughter.
With great difficulty and for a lot of money, Euthymius’s companion Gregory managed to buy the body of the martyr from the executioners, who took him to the island of Prota. Having dressed him according to the monastic rite, Gregory placed him inside the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord and after his burial he returned to the Holy Mountain as a messenger of the victory of the new martyr Saint Euthymius.
His murder took place on March 22, 1814, on Palm Sunday, in the 25th year of his life. There are testimonies of numerous healings from illness - with faith touching parts of the martyr’s bloody clothes, parts of which Gregory distributed to many Christians during his stay in Constantinople.
Day twenty-three. Repose of St. Pachomius of Nerekhta
Nerekhta was known in civilian life even before the appearance of the Mongols, 453 but only in the 14th century did it become famous for the piety of one ascetic - the Monk Pachomius.
The Monk Pachomius, baptized Jacob 454, son of the Vladimir priest Ignatius, was seven years old “given to study the sacred books.” Education, carried out under the instruction of the word of God, formed a good youth in Jacob; when “he learned the Divine Scripture,” his consolation was to go to the church of God and praise the Lord; His most favorite place of prayer was the Nativity Monastery. Here, with the relics of the blessed prince Alexander Nevsky, his zeal to devote his life to serving the Lord was kindled in his soul. After the death of his parent, his mother did not prevent him from fulfilling the desire of his soul; he entered his beloved Nativity Monastery and here he was tonsured with the name Pachomius. Then he was 21 years old. The young monk is entrusted to an experienced elder; the spiritual father was strict towards the spiritual son, but the disciple silently followed the orders of the mentor. The will of the abbot appointed the young monk to serve in the bakery; The monk worked tirelessly in the bakery and pacified his flesh with his labors. For several years Pachomius worked in a bakery.
At the request of the rector, Saint Alexy, then Bishop of Vladimir (1352), ordained him as a hierodeacon. Pachomius matured in spiritual life. When Saint Alexy restored the Konstantinovsky monastery in Vladimir (and this was in 1365) 455, he appointed Pachomius as abbot of this monastery. The monk diligently fulfilled the wishes of the saint for the monastery. He stayed in it as long as was necessary to establish its external and internal order. His heart had long been burning with the desire to create a monastery of prayer not within the walls of the city, but in the desert, where many could have need of it. And he decided to fulfill this desire. At night, secretly from everyone, Pachomius left the Constantine monastery, having nothing with him except the Psalter and the book of canons. He came to the Nerekhta side. The place on the Gridenka River, which flows into Thessaloniki and then into the Volga, seemed to him beautiful and convenient for a monastic stay; Sypanovo, as that place was called, was located in a dense forest and represented an elevated peninsula.
The monk went to the settlement of Nerekhta and asked the residents to give him Sypanovo to establish a monastery of prayers. The Nerekhta residents happily agreed to the request of the man of God. Some of them went with him and helped him clear a place for his cell; others promised their help in setting up the monastery. Blessed Pachomius painted the image of the Holy Trinity. The hermit remained to labor in prayer. The Nerekhta residents fulfilled their promise: some helped him in his needs, while others came and stayed to live with him. His strict life inspired the piety of those who visited him. Monks also came to Pachomius with the desire to strive under his leadership; He willingly accepted laymen who expressed the same desire and tonsured them as monks. Saint Alexy, to whom he went to Moscow, lovingly blessed him to build a church and monastery of the Holy Trinity in a remote region. The Church of the Holy Trinity, decorated with icons and utensils, was consecrated with the living zeal of the monk.
Having completed the construction of the church, Pachomius was zealously engaged in establishing spiritual order in the new monastery. He made it a rule that in his desert monastery the monks themselves would cultivate the land and eat from the labor of their hands. He plowed himself, setting an example for others. According to his rule, no one should have any property of his own in the monastery. Having built cells and a meal for monastics, he also built a hotel, where from time to time he himself served wanderers and pilgrims. Among the desert solitude, the ascetic succeeded in spiritual life. Those who knew him saw in him a model of virtues and with special faith asked for his prayers. Having reached a very old age and feeling the approach of death, Pachomius appointed Theodore, who came to him from the Nativity Monastery, as his successor. On March 21, 1384, he gathered the brethren and said goodbye to everyone; a day later he received the Holy Mysteries once again and died peacefully. His ascetic body was placed on the right side of the altar of the Trinity Church.
The monk Irinarh, a sincere disciple of the blessed elder, who helped him a lot in establishing the monastery with the art of icon painting, the next year after the death of the elder, he was subjected to the temptations of an unclean spirit. The chaste man was tormented by the rebellion of the flesh to the point that he confessed it to all the brethren. At night he either prayed with tears before the icon of the Savior and the Mother of God, or went out of his cell to the grave of the elder, asking him to help get rid of the unclean demon. Tired of prayer, he fell asleep and saw before him an old man with a long and white beard, with a staff in his hand. The elder tells him: “Brother Irinarh! So always pray to the Lord and His Most Pure Mother; I prayed for you, and the Lord had mercy on you, sin no more - you are healed.” With these words, he struck the monk on the left thigh with his staff. The monk jumped up and saw Pachomius, who added: “Do not be afraid, child: you see me, write my image, the Lord has numbered me among the saints; tell the brethren about this.” Irinarch told the abbot and the brethren about everything, showing the sign of a blow on his thigh.
Freed from impure passion, he painted the image of Pachomius; They built a tomb over the grave and placed an icon here.
During the construction of the stone church, the relics of the monk were seen incorrupt and a church was built over them in his name 456. Nowadays the local celebration of the saint is held on May 15, the day of the monastic Angel of the Venerable. In the parish church of the closed Sypanov monastery on the day of remembrance of the saint there is a large gathering of people, and believers receive healing from the saint’s cancer.
The Suffering of Saint Basil of Mangazeya
Blessed Vasily, according to his handwritten life 457, was a Yaroslavl native, the son of the Yaroslavl petty merchant Theodore. Having become a clerk to a rich merchant, he went with his goods to Mangazeya, then a new Russian settlement among foreigners on the Taz River. Blessed Basil from a young age lived in the fear of God: he fervently prayed to God and kept himself pure. The merchant owner was a voluptuous and cruel man; he wanted to use Vasily as a tool to satisfy bestial passions. Unfortunately, this often happened then among the settlers of Siberia, as the strict letter of the patriarch shows 458. But the more common the vile vice was, the stricter the God-fearing Vasily was with himself. He was honest and faithful to the owner of the trade, but firmly remembered that God did not call us to uncleanness, but to holiness. The merchant threatened with revenge for not agreeing to his wild will; 19-year-old Vasily surrendered himself to the will of God. In the handwritten calendar we read: “the holy martyr Basil the youth, also in the city of Mangazeya, a new wonderworker, who suffered from his master for his chastity.”
According to the handwritten life, it was so. On a festive morning, a merchant's shop was robbed. The merchant reported this to the governor Pushkin and announced that this theft was the work of Vasily, it could not have been accomplished without his participation.
Pushkin, at the insistence of the angry merchant, immediately ordered Vasily to be brought to the hut and subjected him to torture. Vasily said one thing, that he was innocent. The torture was so cruel that Vasily fell dead several times, but, coming to his senses, he repeated that he was innocent. The enraged owner hit Vasily’s church with a bunch of keys; the sufferer sighed heavily and closed his eyes. When they raised him on the rack again, they saw that he had already died. Pushkin ordered the body to be immediately placed in a coffin and thrown into a swampy place, near the hut in which Vasily was tortured; the coffin was immersed in a swamp, and boards were placed through it for the passage of petitioners, archers and others, into the moving hut. This is how the unfortunate sinners thought to hide the crime 459.
In 1652, under the governor Ignatius Stepanovich Korsakov, Vasily’s coffin with his incorrupt body appeared on top of the mud. A young man without a beard, with blond hair and in a white shirt appeared in a vision to the Mangaze citizen Stepan Shiryaev, who had noticed this coffin even earlier but ignored it; other industrialists received various healings at the tomb. The legend said what a painful death and why the one hidden in the tomb died. The coffin was taken out and placed in a dry place, and a chapel was built over it.
Here many received help for their needs and illnesses, performing memorial services for the peace of the murdered Vasily.
In March 1670, Elder Tikhon, who had founded a monastery on the Yenisei 10 years earlier, appears to a young man with blond hair, no beard, in white clothes and orders him to go to Mangazeya for his body. “I am that same Vasily,” said the one who appeared, “about whom the people talk a lot and who was tortured by the commander Pushkin.”
Tikhon went 500 versts to Mangazeya, which was now falling into disrepair and was losing its importance to the new Mangazeya 460. He found an incorruptible body in the indicated place and on May 10 brought it to the monastery.
The life tells about the healing of many sick people who called on the name of Vasily in the monastery or at the place of death. In the chapel on the site of ancient Mangazeya, they still see animal skins - offerings from the Yuraks and other foreigners, and everyone considers it sacrilege to take anything from the chapel as their property. The settlers of the Turukhansk region have preserved icons of St. Basil of Mangazeya since 1672. In some he appears as a fresh, blond youth, in a white shirt, and on the side he is shown being tortured by a merchant and a governor; others depict the Trinity Turukhansky Monastery, and above him Vasily praying, in a shirt and without shoes; On the 25th day of March, an all-night service in honor of St. Basil is held at the Trinity Monastery 461.
Honoring the memory of Saint Basil, let us repeat the apostle’s teaching about virtue, for which Basil suffered. Keep yourself clean, the Apostle teaches (1 Tim. 5:22). Take care to be holy in body and soul (see 1 Cor. 7:34). Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor wicked people, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-10). The body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body (1 Cor. 6:13). Fornication and all uncleanness and covetousness should not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints (Eph. 5:3). Mortify your members on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil lust and covetousness, which is idolatry (Col. 3:5).
Day twenty-four. The suffering of Stephen and Peter, martyrs of Kazan
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; but fear Him more who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna (Matthew 10:28), - this is what the Savior taught. But Mohammed did not and could not teach this way. Mohammed's morality is low and dirty: it corrupts the soul and body here, in earthly life; such is the eternity of Magomet. Who would listen to Mohammed if he began to demand the sacrifice of temporary life for his faith? Can his dirty eternity be treasured by a soul created in the image of God? Christian eternity is another matter: it is just as sublime, pure, and spiritual as Christian morality is pure and spiritual. The immortal soul sees this, feels this. Blessed Stephen and Peter, former Mohammedans of Kazan, saw this and sacrificed their lives for the lofty Christian teaching.
When Timofey, the archpriest of the Kremlin Cathedral, was in Sviyazhsk, having been sent there with a message from the Metropolitan to the army (this was in 1552) 462; then a Tatar from the Arsk side came to him and announced that he wanted to be baptized. The archpriest asked him: is it not out of poverty or fear that he is seeking Baptism? In response to this, the Tatar said the following: “I was sick with my legs for 30 years, so I could not stand firmly on them. When the power of the Moscow Tsar became strong on our side and with it the Christian God became known, I began to think: great is the God in whom Christians believe; He can give health to my sore legs; I will believe Him and be baptized with the whole house. And suddenly, on the very day of my determination, my legs became healthy. And so I came to fulfill my promise. Please, baptize me." The archpriest told him: “By your faith, the Lord Jesus gave you health, you see His grace on you; if you want to receive Eternal Life, nothing prevents you from being baptized.
Just be careful not to return like a dog to its vomit; be firm against deception and persecution from infidels; a Christian must reach the Kingdom of Heaven through many sorrows.” The Tatar tore a tuft out of his beard and, tearing it into small pieces, said: “I am so convinced of the power and goodness of your God, of the superiority of your faith, that I am not only ready to endure sorrow, but if they tore me into pieces, as I tore my hair, then I will not renounce your God.” After that, he was declared in faith and baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, with the name Stephen. After a little time, their own people rebelled against him and for a long time forced him, either with admonitions or threats, to retreat from the Christian faith. Stefan, firm in faith, not only did not want to follow their convictions, but on the contrary, he denounced the wickedness of their faith and boldly preached the name of Christ. The wicked, impatient to hear his preaching, attacked him with weapons, chopped his body into pieces, scattered his bones, and plundered his house. Thus died the servant of God Stephen, who suffered for the name of Christ 463.
When Sheikh-Aliy, appointed Tsar of Kazan by the will of Tsar John, retired from Kazan to Sviyazhsk (this was in 1552) 464 and many of the people of Sheikh-Aliy and Tsar John, not having time to leave Kazan in time, were detained in the city involuntarily, then among the latter the Kazan residents recognized one newly baptized Tatar. His father and mother, brothers, sisters and many acquaintances from their tribe were found. They took him into their home; his father and mother began to call him their son, and his relatives a relative, and everyone called him by his Tatar name. But the newly baptized man renounced all his relatives and said: “I have a mother and relatives - only the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; I despise your unclean faith and your Mohammed; my name is Peter." They tried for a long time, both with affection and fear, to divert him from the holy Christian faith, but they did not have time; Finally, a whole crowd attacked him and killed him, while he repeated one thing: “I am a Christian.” This newly baptized Peter was buried in the very place where the Church of the Resurrection of Christ now stands, which is in the livestock market 465.
This is what Blessed Hermogenes, Archbishop of Kazan, wrote in his report to the Monk Job. The handwritten calendar says: “the holy great martyrs and new sufferers Peter and Stephen suffered from the Kazan Tatars, being killed - on the 24th day of March.”
Memory of the Holy Hieromartyr Parthenios, Patriarch of Constantinople, nicknamed Parthenaki
Born into a pious family on the island of Mytilene, Parthenius, distinguished from childhood by his curiosity and zeal for scientific pursuits, achieved a remarkable education. He primarily studied the Holy Scriptures and was generally distinguished by his piety. In consideration of his spiritual mood, he was first made a church reader, then passed the degrees of deacon, priest, and after the death of the Bishop of Chios, he was elevated to the episcopal see.
In 1657, members of the Synod of Constantinople unanimously elected Parthenius to the patriarchal throne. But this lamp did not have long to shine for the common good: the crown of martyrdom worthily crowned his high pastoral activity.
It happened at this time that the Crimean Khan sent his ambassador to the Cossack hetman with important instructions. The ambassador met at the hetman's with the former Metropolitan of Nicaea, who enjoyed great honor and influence there. This aroused the suspicion of the Khan's ambassador; Having returned, he informed the khan of his assumptions that the metropolitan had been sent by the Patriarch of Constantinople for purposes hostile to Turkey... The khan reported this news to the vizier, who summoned the patriarch to him for an explanation. After a thorough examination of the case, of course, there was no alleged treason and betrayal, but to cover up the khan’s lies and to ward off suspicion of partiality, the vizier decided to sacrifice the ruler and handed him over as a state traitor to the mayor for execution of a death sentence. At the same time, the vizier gave a secret order to let the saint live. If, in order to testify to his devotion to Turkey, he agrees to become a Muslim...
In fulfillment of such an order, the mayor invited the Orthodox patriarch to convert to Islam, adding to this the promise of all kinds of honors.
“I am not a traitor to the state and am not involved in any ambitious plans,” Parthenius answered him, “you will see this for yourself if you wish to reveal the truth. As for your proposal that I accept Islam, I am ready to die rather than renounce my faith, Christ alone is my joy and my refuge!”
Seeing the futility of the influence of brilliant promises, the mayor hoped to more accurately influence the saint with cruel tortures, but he was mistaken in this calculation too... With unshakable patience the martyr endured all the torments; courageously accepting serious wounds, he only thanked God that he was worthy to suffer for the sake of His holy name, and prayed to Him to strengthen him to the end...
After all the torment, the patriarch was hanged in Parmakkani, on Lazarus Saturday in 1657.
Meletius, Bishop of Sigiriya, wrote about the martyrdom of the blessed Patriarch Parthenius. Dositheos mentions him in his book about the Patriarchs of Jerusalem and Meletius in the third volume of his Church History.
Memory of Saint Artemon, Bishop of Seleucia of Pisidia
A native of Seleucia of Pisidia, he was enlightened by Saint Paul the Apostle around 45 A.D. (Acts 14) and made bishop of that city. And ruling the flock entrusted to him in a godly manner, in his old age he reposed before the Lord.
Day twenty-fifth. Memory of Saint Pelagius, Bishop of Laodicea, in Syria
According to Theodoret: “the wonderful Bishop of Laodicea Pelagius was united with his bride in marriage from his youth, but from the very moment of marriage he convinced her to honor brotherly love above marital relations.” During the reign of the emperor, Valens suffered from the Arians. (Remembered again on Cheese Saturday).
Venerable Nikander, hermit of Pskov (see his memory on September 24)
Day twenty-six. The Suffering of the Pannonian Saints Irenaeus, Bishop of Srem, Eusebius the Bishop and Pullius the Reader of Kivali
Although the Slavic County and the Slovenes (Rhaetians) and Norica were enslaved by the Romans under Augustus, the conquered Slavs, with the exception of a few, were left in their places 466. So they listened to the first sermon of the Gospel on an equal basis with their conquerors and almost more willingly than the latter. Saint Andronicus, a relative of Saint Paul and who believed in Christ before him (see: Rom. 16, 17), was the first preacher of the holy faith in Pannonia 467.
There were already martyrs here under Diocletian. Such was Saint Irenaeus, Bishop of Srem, the main city of Lower Župania, who suffered for Christ in 304 468.
Before taking the priesthood, Blessed Irenaeus was married and had children. The high qualities of his soul, his strict life, his education, which earned him respect, elevated him to the cathedral - even in his young years. The many relatives, close and distant, who surrounded him during his martyrdom, show that he was a native in Srem - a Slav, and not an alien Roman. Having become a saint, he devoted himself entirely to serving the Lord and his flock and lived as a virgin. He zealously taught those who came to him, announced the truth of Christ and openly preached Christ, despite the pagan power 469.
Following the orders of Diocletian, Probus, the regional commander of Pannonia, ordered Bishop Irenaeus to be brought to him. When the saint appeared to him, Probus announced: “The sacred laws command everyone to make sacrifices to the gods.” “Whoever makes a sacrifice to the gods, and not to God, will perish,” answered Irenaeus. “The will of the merciful emperors is such,” said Probus, “that either sacrifices be made to the gods, or the stubborn suffer execution.” Irenaeus answered: “The will of the true God is such that I endure all kinds of suffering, but do not make sacrifices to the gods.” Irenaeus was subjected to severe torture. “What do you say, Irenaeus? - said the prefect. “Make a sacrifice.” “I offer a sacrifice of good confession to my God, to whom I constantly performed sacred acts,” answered Irenaeus.
“The saint’s parents came and, seeing that he was being tortured, begged him to have pity on his youth. Here the children, hugging his legs, said: “Have mercy on yourself and on us, father”; there the wife and mother begged. Relatives were crying, family members were moaning, neighbors and friends were crying.” But the saint remained firm. “Know,” he said, “neither your love nor threats to power will force me to violate the will of my Lord.” “Bend down on these tears, give smart advice to your youth,” said the prefect. “I always advise you not to sacrifice to idols,” answered the courageous Irenaeus. Probus ordered him to be taken to prison. There he stayed for many days and was subjected to various tortures.
At one time, at midnight, the prefect was sitting in court and the most blessed martyr Irenaeus was brought here. Probus said: “Make a sacrifice, Irenaeus, to avoid torment.” “Do what the truth demands; “Don’t expect that from me,” answered the saint. Probus, in anger, ordered to beat him with sticks. Irenaeus said: “From my youth I learned to honor my God; I honor Him, who strengthens me in everything; but I cannot honor man-made gods.” The prefect again tried to shake his firmness with a reminder of those close to his heart, especially his children. “My children have a God who can preserve them,” answered the saint. “Have mercy on yourself, young man,” said the prefect. “Do what you want; you will see what patience the Lord Jesus Christ will give me,” answered the saint. Probus said: “I will pronounce the sentence.” “I will be grateful,” answered Irenaeus. “I order Irenaeus, who disobeys the imperial decrees, to be thrown into the river,” said the prefect; then he added: “And decapitate him with a sword.” “I thank You, Lord Jesus Christ, who grants patience of sorrows and participation in eternal glory,” said the confessor.
When he came to the bridge called Bosvetsky 470, he took off his clothes and raised his hands to the sky, praying: “Lord Jesus Christ, who deigned to suffer for the salvation of the world! May the Angels accept the soul of Your servant Irenaeus, who suffers for Your name and for Your people of the Church of Srem; I pray Thy mercy to accept me and confirm them in Thy faith.” Then he was decapitated with a sword and thrown into the Sava River.
The servant of God, Saint Irenaeus, bishop of the city of Srem, suffered on the 8th Ides of April (March 26) under the emperor Diocletian, during the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is what the story about Saint Pullia says. According to other news, it turns out that the Pannonian Church was then adorned with many martyrs. According to martyrologies, on February 23 in Srem, 62 sufferers committed the feat of martyrdom, whose names remained unknown. “Saint Irenaeus, first tormented by cruel tortures, then languishing in prison for many days, was deprived of his head on the 8th calendar of April,” otherwise March 25th day 471. Presbyter Montanus and his wife Maxima were thrown into the river on March 26th, and on the same day 40 of his friends completed their feat 472. On April 9th, 7 virgins were crowned together in Srem; these were “sanctified virgins” - deaconesses 473. And on the same day, five other virgins suffered in Srem, also Fortunatus, Donatus and six others 474. Saint Pullius suffered on April 28, 475. After him, on July 4, Saints Innocent and Sabbatius with 30 others were crowned with the crown of martyrdom.
Probus decided, says the note about Saint Pullia, to bypass the neighboring cities. When he arrived in the city of Kivalis (on a tributary of the Sava), where Eusebius, bishop of the Church of Kivalis, 477 suffered during a previous persecution, then on the same day the chief of the readers, Pullius, was captured. "What's your name?" – Probus asked him. “A Christian,” answered Pullius. “What is your position?” – asked the prefect. Pullius answered: “Chief of the readers.” “Are these the ones,” said Probus, “who persuade frivolous wives not to marry?” “You can experience our lightness now,” answered Pullius and added: “those are frivolous who, having abandoned their Creator, are content with superstitions; but the truly pious are firm in their loyalty to the Eternal King and fulfill His commandments even in the midst of torment.” “What are these commandments?” – asked the prefect.
“These are those,” said the confessor, “who point out one God in the sky and make it clear that wood and stone cannot be God; these are those who strengthen the righteous in virtue and teach holy virgins to achieve the highest perfection; a pure wife is taught moderation in childbearing; they are ordered to carry out the just orders of their superiors, forgive their enemies, and take care of the poor.” “What is the benefit,” said Probus, “if a person is deprived of all bodily pleasures?” Pullius answered: “Eternal light is better than earthly light, and unchanging pleasures are sweeter than perishing ones; and it is foolish to prefer the past to the eternal.” “But what about that? Carry out the will of the emperor, make a sacrifice,” said Probus. “I cannot fulfill this,” answered Pullius, “the will of the One God is above all.” “You will be executed by the sword if you do not make a sacrifice,” said the prefect. “Do what you are commanded,” answered the confessor. “I should follow in the footsteps of bishops, presbyters and all fathers.” The prefect pronounced the sentence to burn Pullius.
The servants grabbed the martyr, and he fearlessly, glorifying God, accomplished his feat in 304 on the same day on which Bishop Eusebius died as a martyr 478.
Attila, who removed (in 441) the Roman yoke from the Slavs, greatly weakened Christianity in Pannonia with his steppe paganism; the cruel obras - the Huns - spread pagan darkness. Under Atilla, his ambassador in Constantinople was Orestes, a natural Pannonian Slav and a Christian by name, and the translator of Vigilas was Vigilius; with him, among the top officials were Negish, Skotan 479. Then the further it went, the worse it became, until the Slavic enlighteners Cyril and Methodius 480 appeared here.
Venerable Basil the New. He labored in Constantinople and died at the age of 944, one hundred years old.
Day twenty eight. Memory of Saint George the Bishop, Presbyters Parod and Peter and Prince Boyan, Bulgarian Martyrs
When Grubosh (Krum), Prince of Bulgaria, having taken several cities of the Greek Empire, won (June 29, 813) near Odrin (Adrianople) a victory over the Greek army; then, going himself to Constantinople, he entrusted the siege of Odrin to his son Shaved, or Krutogon, and some of the captives were presented to the military leader Tsok 481. Among the prisoners, of whom there were more than 100,000,482, were Slavic Christians. These were the parents of the future emperor Basil the Macedonian and Basil himself, then still a young man 483. “The wonderful bishop (Manuel of Adrianople) and the people who were with him led many of the Bulgarians to the faith of Christ and sowed the seeds of Christian teaching here and there, distracted the Slavs from pagan error and led them to the light of the knowledge of God” 484. When Tsok saw that the captives were so successfully spreading the faith of the Greeks, who had become hated especially for the ignoble, treacherous act of Lev the Armenian with Grubosh, Tsok, as cruel as he was a fanatic of paganism, demanded that famous Christians renounce Christ.
377 Christians, among them two military leaders, willingly accepted martyrdom. First of all, Manuel, Bishop of Adrianople 485, was put to a painful death. George, bishop of Debelogo, otherwise Zogora, one of the cities of Slavic Thrace, and, therefore, bishop of the Slavs, also died a martyr 486. Among the affected priests was Presbyter Parod, a Slav by name; Peter served as priest in the Slavic city of Mglin, and the Bulgarians especially honor this martyr to this day: near Ternov there is a monastery of St. Peter of Mglin. The time of Grubosh was very important in the history of the South Slavs. Their rulers, especially in the political struggle with the Greeks, still fanatically protected paganism, although one of them, Prince Tserig, in 777, leaving his own, received Baptism in Constantinople from the Slavic Patriarch Nikita 487. And among the Slavic people, the holy faith already had tens and hundreds of thousands of its admirers, especially after the sermon taught by the captives of Grubosh to the Slavs 488.
Grubosh's son Shaved, otherwise Krutogon, made peace with the empire and released the captives 489. Kinnamon, beautiful in appearance and even more beautiful in soul, pleased Shaven, and he kept Kinnamon with him. The prince did not like the fact that he was a Christian; but he thought that with affection and favors he would persuade him to a pagan life. Meanwhile, Kinnamon had the opportunity to raise a martyr of the holy faith in the young Bulgarian prince Boyana. When the solemn sacrifice was being made, Kinnamon was invited among the Slavic nobility to participate in the sacrifice. The sincere Christian answered: You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons (1 Cor. 10:21). He was brought by force to the place of the victim. He boldly explained the insignificance of the pagan gods and the criminal stupidity of worshiping them. They made a furious noise against him, beat him cruelly and threw him into a stinking prison. Shaven was not against Christians; having made peace with the empire, he turned against the Germans and in 824 saved Emperor Michael from the rebel Tomas 490. And yet Kinnamon, due to the anger of pagan fanatics, remained in prison until the death of Shaven (826)
When Shaven’s son Malomir, otherwise Vladimir, ascended the Bulgarian throne, his brother Boyan, who had known Kinnamon for a long time, asked Malomir to find and send Kinnamon to him. His wish was fulfilled. Boyan, seeing Kinnamon, was amazed that he was extremely exhausted and emaciated. Kinnamon explained that it does not matter if the body is tired, but it is very dangerous if the soul is tired. “Why did you suffer so much?” - asked the prince. Kinnamon replied that he had not done anything bad, only darkness does not like light. In a long conversation, a sincere and enlightened Christian explained to the pagan prince the misfortune of Slavic paganism and the destruction of pagan life, as well as the inevitable need of Christianity for human eternity. The God of heaven and earth, the Christian said, is humiliated and insulted by the worship of the idiot Perun; the sun is God’s creation, not Dazhdbog; fire is also a creation of God, and not the god Svarog 491; all paganism is the work of sinful humanity, which, according to the movements of passions and to please passions, invented gods. Sacrifice and washing do not cleanse the sinful soul, but only feed the sinful flesh 492.
Without Christ Jesus there is no light for the mind, no life for the soul. He alone is both the Teacher of mankind and our Savior, who reconciled the truth of God with His death with guilty humanity. Don't you want to die for yourself? Believe in the Lord Jesus. Boyan joyfully accepted Baptism and began to devote his life to prayer, contemplation of God, and fasting. Malomir, having learned about his brother’s conversion to Christianity, demanded that he renounce the Greek faith with all his persistence. “I would rather accept death than dare to live the life of a pagan; I honor Christ my Savior and I will die for Him,” Boyan answered. The ruling pagan prince condemned his Christian brother to death. The confessor, going to the place of execution, was filled with the prophetic spirit. “Faith,” he said in the hearing of everyone, “for which I am now losing my life, will spread throughout the entire Bulgarian country. It is in vain that they think of stopping her with my death. The sign of the cross will be placed in every place; and the idols and their altars and churches will disappear. It’s a pity that my brother Malomir will soon lose his life.”
The prediction was fulfilled, and, first of all, for his brother: Malomir soon died completely unexpectedly (830); The martyr prince died from the blow of a sword 493.
In memory of St. Hilarion of Gdov
Blessed Hilarion taught himself prayer and asceticism from the Monk Euphrosynus of Pskov. But then he became inflamed with zeal to found a monastery of prayer books where there was none, in the current Gdov district. In 1424, the Pskovites built a fortress in Gdov as a border guard against the Livonian Germans and Swedes 494. Hilarion founded the Pokrovsky-Ozersky Monastery on the banks of the Zhelchi River in 1460. The monastery had to fight both the scarcity of means of maintenance and the dangers from its unpeaceful neighbors - the papists. It was not easy to live near the wild Estonians, and it was even harder from those who, in the name of faith, imposed on others the iron power of the pope and the same German one. The Monk Hilarion courageously labored for sincere piety until his death, which followed on March 28, 1476 495.
His monastery in 1623 was still independent, and in 1695 it was assigned to the Pskov bishop's house 496. His relics rest hidden in the church of his monastery, closed in 1764 497.
Memory of St. Hilarion the new Abbot of the Pelikit Monastery
Even in his youth, having laid a cross on his shoulder, the monk renounced all the sweets of the world and, abandoning himself to monastic labors, soon surpassed everyone in his strict life and virtues. Subsequently, he was ordained to the rank of presbyter and abbot of the Pelicite monastery in Asia Minor, near the Hellespont.
During the reign of Emperor Constantine Copronymus, Hilarion suffered persecution for the veneration of icons (and died around 754). He is called New - in contrast to Hilarion of Dalmatia, also a confessor who suffered persecution under Leo the Armenian.
The monk Joseph the hymn-writer glorifies Hilarion in the following expressions: “Your death appeared honorable before God, most sacred father, because you honored the icon and you endured persecution, we are insulted by the tormentors, reverend one, a martyr in this way!” (3rd Troparion, 8th Canto).
Referring to Hilarion’s written instructions, the hymnographer adds: “When you created the sayings of Divine words, the Divine mind, Father, you drew from there, and you imparted piety to everyone.” “Your word comes like dew, driving away the heat of despondency, reverend” (2nd troparion of the 4th canto and 2nd troparion of the 7th canto).
Among other written instructions of Hilarion, his message, entitled: “To my eldest brother and servant of Christ, I am wretched and considered Hilarion, of the least understanding and incapable of any good deed, has been preserved. All who have renounced this world, accepting the monastic image and taking the cross of Christ on their shoulder, naming themselves successors to the apostles! Let us love the morals of those whose image we bear, let us follow those whom we call disciples, let us hate earthly things, following the example of our fathers. Come, let us ask the witness and servant of the Word of God, the beloved disciple of Christ, who reclined on the chest of the Lord and drew wisdom there: come, you who are troubled among earthly things, come, you who are double-minded, not open to the world and appropriating eternal life; Come, let us ask John the Virgin, and he will proclaim something useful. Tell us, say to us, John the Theologian, what shall we do that we may be saved? What tricks can we use to get rid of torment and gain Eternal Life? We want the Kingdom of Heaven, but is it true that we want it?
Not visible; we are carried away by the love of the world; we love gold, we collect property, we love bright houses, we love glory, honor, beauty; and this is obvious to everyone. Tell us the truth, Apostle, sort out our dispute, reconcile us, let us be of the same mind; The rich monks among us reproach the poor, the beggars condemn the rich. Answer us, beauty of the Apostles, John, answer us, loud lips. And so he proclaims: “As I have heard and seen from the Word of God Himself, so I preach: Do not love the world, neither those who are in the world, for if anyone loves this world, the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15)” 498.
Memory of the Venerable Hesychius the Theologian, Presbyter of Jerusalem
Hesychius, a native and since 412 a presbyter of Jerusalem, a disciple of St. Gregory the Theologian, is revered as one of the most famous teachers of the Church. “He explained and set forth all the Holy Scriptures with clarity and offered for the general benefit why he was very famous and amazing for everyone” 499.
In one of the Palestinian deserts, Hesychius lived an ascetic life and at the same time was zealously devoted to scientific research and the study of the spirit of Christianity. Up to twelve “Conversations” of Hesychius are known today: their content, for the most part, consists of events from the life of Jesus Christ and the Mother of God or those saints of God, the place of whose exploits was mainly the Holy Land. One of Hesychius’s conversations begins like this: “The memory of the righteous must truly be sanctified, and every holiday in their honor is a sacred holiday. For they all fought courageously for the faith, they all suffered toils for the faithful confession, they all, at the behest of God, gave themselves up to dangers in order to achieve the crowns of truth. But the holiday that is celebrated now, above all praise, is the triumph of the Virgin, who is so superior to everyone that she accepted God the Word Himself and embraced Him without hesitation. First of all, Archangel Gabriel announced: Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you! (Luke 1:28)"
The work of Saint Hesychius, “The Mental Teaching on Sobriety and Virtue,” written for the monk Theodulus 500, is also distinguished by its great edification.
The Monk Hesychius died peacefully in the year 434 501.
Day twenty-nine. Memory of the 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 by his luminous life, as well as by 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 following the commandment, which commands to run from city to city (see: Matt. 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 3, 6), the Arefusians 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 stomach, bit him with their teeth in a rage. Then in Gaza and Ascalon many martyrs of both sexes died amid torment: fanatics cut their bodies into pieces, devoured their raw livers, while others sprinkled their entrails with barley and gave them to pigs to eat.
Memory of Saints 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 (migrant). He lived in Yuryev for two years and a half, 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 Kamenka 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 Theophilos for a blessing to consecrate the church, and the church was consecrated in 1477 by 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 comforted 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; The Germans, in one of their attacks, carried away this property of the holy elder. His relics were honestly placed in cave 502.
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 completely on the surface, the other sank deep into the ground, but the third has already completely sunk into it. The chronicle conveys the story of an eyewitness to the trapper Izborsky: “Once by chance my father and I 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 synodik as the first ascetic of the Pskov cave. The Monk Cornelius at one time doubted the accuracy of the record, since no written monument was found about his exploits, and ordered his name to be erased from the synodik.
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 to bring St. Mark into the synod again 503.
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 504.
Day thirty. On this day our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, in the year from the creation of the world 5541
Memory of the Holy New Hieromartyr Zechariah, Bishop of Corinth
A small reason is enough to inflame the ever-excited mood of the Mohammedans against the Christian population, but in the present case, without any reason, the hatred of the Muslim population was aroused solely by his pastoral virtues, “the good and God-fearing shepherd of the flock of Christ, who shone in his pulpit like a lamp on a candlestick,” as the descriptor of his life puts it about him.
The Turks slandered him in secret correspondence with the “Franks,” whom the bishop allegedly called to Corinth and promised to help them take possession of the city. The people, excited by such news, furiously attacked the home of the Christian bishop, and, chained, showered with beatings and curses, Zacharias was brought before the judge. He, without any questioning, invited the saint to convert to Islam. “God save me from such madness! - answered the bishop, - God forbid that I should deny my Lord Jesus Christ, the true God! No, I believe in Him, Almighty God, Creator of the whole world, and I am ready to shed my blood for His holy name!”
The resumption of beatings was a response to these words of the new confessor of Christ; then he was imprisoned, where he was subjected to such cruel tortures as Mohammedan fanaticism is capable of. The patience of the martyr, however, turned out to be higher even than the cruelty of the tormentors, who finally came up with the most painful death for their victim - to pierce the sufferer with a spit and roast him like a lamb on the fire...
However, with the help of a large ransom, the Christians, indignant at such a sentence and devoted to their saint, managed to save him from such a cruel death. The sentence was commuted, and Bishop Zacharias was beheaded in his diocese on the third Sunday after the Week of the Cross, in 1684.
Memory of St. Zosimas, Bishop of Syracuse
He was ordained a bishop by Pope Theodore (641–649) from the abbots of one monastery, in which he was a monk for thirty years, and then for forty years - abbot and presbyter. In his bishopric, the Monk Zosima was particularly distinguished by his mercy, so that one day he took off his clothes in order to give the money received for them to the poor; He led his flock both by word and example: he decorated the church of the Mother of God. Struck by a dying disease, he lay on a rough bedding, covered with thin clothes, and when Eupraxius, the bed-keeper of Emperor Constantine II (642-668), who lived in Syracuse for the last six years of his reign, gave the sick man a rich bed, he, after lying on it for a while, ordered it to be sold and the money to be used for the impoverished poor. After ruling his flock for 13 years, Saint Zosimas died around the year 662. Many sick people were healed at his death with one touch of his tomb.
Saint Cephas the Apostle, from the age of 70. According to legend, he served as bishop in Iconium. The Apostle Paul mentions him, saying that after the resurrection Christ appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve (see: 1 Cor. 15:5). See 4 Jan. in the cathedral 70.
Venerable Monaca of Alexandria, 4th century. This is a virgin, admonished in her pride and covetousness by Macarius, the overseer of the almshouse for the crippled. See March 3 about Saint Piama.
Holidays are moving. Raising Lazarus
On the Saturday before the sixth week of Great Lent, the Holy Church remembers the resurrection of Lazarus.
Fulfilling the law of the Old Testament public worship (see: Exodus 23:17) and doing the will of the Father who sent Him, Jesus Christ during the days of His earthly life went to the Old Testament Easter holiday in Jerusalem. Four Easters cover the time of the Gospel saving sermon, which He began after His baptism and continued until His ascension. So Jesus Christ went to Jerusalem for the feast of His last Passover, despite the fact that the Divine glory of His teaching and miracles, which had already spread everywhere in the Promised Land, strongly armed the envious Jewish elders against Him, who had long been plotting and trying to put Him to death. The last journey of Jesus Christ to Easter further revealed and increased His Divine glory, and also increased the envy and hatred of the scribes towards Him.
The first event during this journey, which especially glorified the Lord and increased the anger of the Jewish Sanhedrin against him, was the resurrection of Lazarus of four days, performed by the Lord in the presence of a large crowd and converting many to faith in Jesus Christ (see: John 11:45).
Lazarus was a Jew and a Pharisee, the son of Simon the Pharisee (see: Matt. 26:6), originally from Bethany. The Lord often during the days of His earthly life went to the house of Lazarus, whom He loved with his sisters and called His friend (see: John 11, 3, 5, 11). The Lord allowed him to die, so that the Son of God might be glorified and His disciples might believe (see: John 11, 4, 15). Hearing about the resurrection of Lazarus, the Jewish high priests and elders said about Jesus Christ: what should we do? This Man does many miracles. If we leave Him like this, then everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take possession of both our place and our people (John 11:47-48). Bishop Caiaphas gave the Sanhedrin advice that served as a prophecy about the saving power of the death on the cross of Jesus Christ:
You know nothing, and you will not think that it is better for us that one man should die for the people, than that the whole nation should perish (John 11:49-50). From that day they decided to kill Jesus Christ without fail, promulgating the command to take Him wherever they saw him (see: John 11:53). The resurrection of Lazarus so embittered the scribes and high priests that they decided to kill not only the Resurrectionist, but also the resurrected one (see: John 12:10). Lazarus retired to the island of Cyprus, where he was subsequently appointed bishop by the apostles; the Mother of God gave him an omophorion made by Her hands. After his resurrection, Lazarus lived for 30 years and maintained strict abstinence. He reposed for the second time in Cyprus. In the 9th century, the Byzantine Emperor Leo the Philosopher transferred the relics of righteous Lazarus from Cyprus to Constantinople.
The Orthodox Church, at the end of Lent, entering the week of the suffering and death of the Lord, begins its sacred memories with the resurrection of Lazarus, which served as the beginning of a decisive uprising of the Jewish council for the destruction of the Savior and even Lazarus.
The Church has remembered the resurrection of Lazarus since ancient Christian times. The Church Fathers of the 4th century, St. Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium, St. John Chrysostom, Blessed Augustine and others left us their teachings that they delivered on Lazarus Saturday. “Today,” says St. Chrysostom, “Lazarus, raised from the dead, has destroyed for us many and various temptations.” In the 7th century, Saint Andrew of Crete also wrote a discourse on the four days of Lazarus and a canon now sung by the Church. In the 8th century, Cosmas of Maium and John of Damascus also betrayed to the Church the canons for the day of the resurrection of Lazarus, now sung by the Church. At the end of the 9th century, the Byzantine Emperor, Leo the Philosopher, having transferred the relics of the holy righteous Lazarus from Cyprus to Constantinople, composed for the day of his resurrection some of the sacred hymns now used by the Holy Church.
According to the voice of the Church, with the resurrection of Lazarus, Jesus Christ wanted, among other things, to show God and man in Himself, to assure His disciples of His future resurrection, of everyone - in the general resurrection of the dead - to show sinners an image of spiritual resurrection. Indeed, in His person, the Lord Jesus Christ revealed in the most obvious way Divinity and humanity at the tomb of Lazarus. As an omniscient God, He announced to His disciples about the death of Lazarus without being notified of it. The Lord comes to Bethany; Martha and Mary, sisters of the deceased Lazarus, and others publicly confess Jesus Christ as omnipotent and the Son of God. “Lord,” says Martha, “if You were here, my brother would not be dead. But even now we know that if you beg God earnestly, God will give you (see: John 11:21–22). Yes, Lord: I believe, for You are the Christ, the Son of God, Who will come into the world.” Mary says the same thing, falling at the feet of the Savior. Likewise, other Jews talk about Him among themselves: see how they love Him; Couldn’t He, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have ensured that this one too would not die (John 11:36–37).
Then Jesus Christ Himself publicly calls Himself the Giver of Life. Your brother will be resurrected, He says to Martha’s consolation: I am the resurrection and the life: believe in Me, even if he dies, he will live. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die (John 11:23, 25–26). Finally, as the true God, Jesus Christ, after a short prayer to the Heavenly Father, with His omnipotent word, resurrects Lazarus on the fourth day after his death. “To You, Master, all things are possible to the King,” says the Church, “Your voice destroyed the kingdom of hell, and the word of Your power raised the four-day-old from the tomb, and Lazarus became a saving prototype of the restoration of existence.”
As a true man, Jesus Christ came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived and died, and seeing the sister of His dead friend crying and those who came with her crying, He Himself was indignant, shed tears, and, as if ignorant, asked: where did they lay him? (John 11:34) Thus the Lord appeared at the tomb of Lazarus, “assuring us of His two beings,” says the Church. How a man asked: “Where was he buried, and how did God raise the four-day old man?”
You weep, O Jesus, this mortal being:
You revive Your friend, these Divine fortresses, says the synaxar on the Saturday of the resurrection of Lazarus.
Day thirty. Memory of Saint Sophrony, Bishop of Irkutsk
Saint Sophrony, Bishop of Irkutsk, known under the name Kristalevsky (in the world Stefan), was born in Little Russia in the Chernigov regiment in 1704. His father Nazariy Feodorov was a “pospolitan man” (that is, a commoner, a peasant; in this case, a servant of peasant origin).
Saint Stephen's childhood years were spent in the town of Berezan, Pereyaslavsky district, Poltava province, where the family settled after his father was dismissed from service. Saint Stephen had two brothers and a sister, Pelageya. The name of one brother is Pavel, the name of the other, older one, is unknown, but there is information that he was later the abbot of the Krasnogorsk Zolotonosha Monastery. With age, Saint Stephen entered the Kyiv Theological Academy, where at that time two other future saints were studying - Joasaph, Bishop of Belgorod (December 10, 1754), and Paul, Metropolitan of Tobolsk (November 4, 1770).
Having received theological education, Saint Stephen entered the Krasnogorsk Transfiguration Monastery (later renamed Pokrovsky, and from 1789 transformed into a convent), where his elder brother was already asceticizing. On April 23, 1730, he took monastic vows with the name Sophronius, in honor of Saint Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem (March 11).
On the night after he was tonsured a monk, the holy monk Sophrony heard a voice in the Church of the Intercession: “When you become a bishop, build a church in the name of All Saints,” which foretold his future service. Two years later, in 1732, he was called to Kyiv, where in the St. Sophia Cathedral he was ordained to the rank of hierodeacon, and then hieromonk. About the subsequent period of the life of Saint Sophronius, his service record says the following: “After his dedication to this Zolotonosha monastery, he was treasurer for two years, and then, by decree of the Pereyaslav diocese, the Right Reverend Arseny Berlov was taken to his bishop’s house, in which he was housekeeper for 8 years after being taken to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, from which in those years he was sent to St. Petersburg for his affairs bishops, for whom I remained in intercession for two years.”
These data testify quite specifically to the life path of the saint. While undergoing obedience to the ruling bishop in Pereyaslavl, he often retired to the nearby Transfiguration Monastery for silent contemplation and other monastic labors.
During Hieromonk Sophrony's stay on bishop's affairs in St. Petersburg, special attention was paid to him in the Synod. When the need arose to replenish the brotherhood of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg, the future saint was among the 29 monks called from different monasteries in Russia in January 1742. A year later, he was appointed treasurer of the monastery, and in 1746 he was confirmed in the position of vicar of the monastery, which he held for more than seven years.
To help himself, Hieromonk Sophrony called his fellow countryman, a native of the city of Pridlka, Hieromonk Synesius, and appointed him the builder of the New Sergius Hermitage, assigned to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. From that time on, the friendship of the two ascetics - Hieromonk Sophrony and Hieromonk Sinesius - became increasingly stronger in a single pastoral work. They were inseparable until the death of both on Siberian soil. During these years, Saint Sophronius put a lot of work into improving the monastery and improving teaching in the seminary located at it. Together with Archbishop Theodosius, he took care of the proper stocking of the monastery library.
Under him, a two-story church was built: the upper one in the name of St. Theodore Yaroslavich, the elder brother of Alexander Nevsky, and the lower one in the name of St. John Chrysostom.
In 1747, Bishop Innokenty (Nerunovich) of Irkutsk died. For six years, the largest diocese in Irkutsk remained without spiritual guidance. Finally, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna (1741–1764), by decree of February 23, 1753, recommended to the Holy Synod the pious abbot of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery Sophrony, as “a person not only worthy of the episcopal rank, but also fully capable of justifying the desire and hopes of the Empress and the Synod - to lift the burden of episcopal service in the distant outskirts and satisfy the needs of the flock in harsh country, among wild nature and human tyranny.”
On April 18, 1753, on the Sunday of Thomas, in the large Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, Sophrony was ordained Bishop of Irkutsk and Nerchinsk. In Moscow, the Archbishop of Moscow and Sevsk Platon (Malinovsky), who participated in his consecration, rendered great services to the saint. He gave him fatherly instructions for the upcoming feat, since he was well acquainted with the peculiarities of the Siberian spiritual life, warned him about the willfulness of the local authorities and advised him to select reliable assistants.
Anticipating a difficult ministry in the remote Siberian region, the newly ordained saint did not immediately go to the Irkutsk diocese, but began to select educated and spiritually experienced employees. Saint Sophrony visited his first Krasnogorsk monastery, and also visited the shrines of Kyiv, where he asked the blessing of the Kiev-Pechersk saints for his service.
On March 20, 1754, the saint arrived in Irkutsk. First, he stopped at the Ascension Monastery - the place of residence of his predecessors, and prayed at the grave of St. Innocent (Kulchitsky; 1731, commemorated November 26). By the time of Saint Sophrony’s arrival, the Irkutsk monasteries already had almost a hundred years of history. The founders of these monasteries were filled with an ardent desire for a monastic, ascetic life.
Having become familiar with the state of affairs in the diocese, Saint Sophrony began reforms in the spiritual consistory, monasteries and parishes, and turned to the Holy Synod with a request to send worthy people to serve in the priesthood in the Irkutsk diocese. The insightful saint appointed pious, wise, active people, with great life and spiritual experience, as abbots of the monasteries. In 1754, Saint Sophronius elevated his friend and associate Hieromonk Synesius to archimandrite of the Ascension Monastery. This memorable abbot served the monastery for thirty-three years before his death. In September 1754, the saint issued a decree expressing concern for the education and upbringing of children. The clergy was charged with teaching their children the Book of Hours, the Psalter, singing and the primer, and the teaching “had to be done with all diligence and extreme diligence, so that the children could fulfill the sexton and sexton duties according to their merits.”
In his sermons and personal conversations, Saint Sophronius tirelessly encouraged everyone to higher moral ideals. He paid great attention to the reverent and correct performance of divine services and the Sacraments by the clergy, and also monitored the moral purity of the laity, took care of the position of women in the family, and protected them from injustice. Saint Sophrony tried to establish statutory worship everywhere, for which he summoned priests, deacons, sextons and sextons who concelebrated during the bishop's service, participated in the choir or served as subdeacon. By special decrees he restored the correct censing and blazing.
Called to apostolic service in Siberia, Saint Sophronius put a lot of work into enlightening the pagans. To this end, he took care of the way of life of small peoples, promoted the development of sedentism and culture in the local population, offered them monastic lands for settlement and tried in every possible way to isolate them from the influence of paganism. Numerous visitors constantly came to the saint and came from distant places for blessings.
But among many worries, he did not forget about eternity, about his inner spiritual life. The testimony of the cell attendant of Saint Sophronius has been preserved, which reports that the saint “ate the simplest food and in small quantities, served very often, spent most of the night in prayer, slept on the floor...” His ascetic spirit corresponded to the general rise of the Christian spirit in Russia as a result of the ascetic labors of Saints Theodosius, Archbishop of Chernigov (February 5, 1696), Demetrius, Metropolitan Rostov (October 28, 1709), Innocent, Bishop of Irkutsk (February 9, 1711).
Until the end of his days, Saint Sophrony retained his love for the Krasnogorsk Zolotonosha monastery, which nurtured him in the days of his youth. He constantly contributed to maintaining its splendor, sending the necessary funds for this. Feeling a deterioration in his health, Saint Sophronius submitted a petition to the Synod to retire him. But they delayed the answer from St. Petersburg, because it was difficult to find a worthy successor.
Saint Sophronius spent the last days of his life in feat of prayer. He died at an advanced age on March 30, 1771, on the second day of Easter.
The celebration of Saint Sophronius was established at the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church on April 10–23, 1918. At the second session of this Council, chaired by His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, the service to St. Sophronius was approved.
The troparion to the saint was compiled by Archbishop John, who ruled the Irkutsk diocese at that time. Saint Sophronius is commemorated on March 30, the day of his righteous death, and also on June 30, in connection with his glorification on this day in 1918.
RKP. life written by Metropolitan. Cornelius in 1695. This life was compiled with the help of the notes of the saint himself. Martyria.
The Tikhvin Monastery was founded on February 11, 1560 by Archbishop. Pimen; Abraham was healed by the Mother of God in the presence of the archbishop. Pimen, who was in Tikhvin on the occasion of the establishment of the monastery, and Abraham was then the first candle monk in Tikhvin; therefore, Abraham’s healing took place in 1560 or 1561. See: Berednikov. I. Historical and statistical description of the first-class Tikhvin Theotokos large monastery, located in the Novgorod diocese in the city of Tikhvin. St. Petersburg, 1859.
The Gostinopol monastery of the Mikhailovsky churchyard stood almost empty in 1582 (Nevolin K.A. About Pyatina and churchyards).
Nevolin K.A. About Pyatina and Pogosts. About Theodore Syrkov, see: Ambrose (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian hierarchy. Part IV. In 1662, the Green Desert had 5 settler households.
Historical essays on Russian folk literature and art. T. 2.
Ambrose (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian hierarchy. Part IV; Collection l. 3, 174. According to the RCP. Saints generally ist. Rev. Martyriy Zelenetsky is a new miracle worker. The Dictionary of Saints speaks about Met. Cornelia: “through his efforts, the desert was given a charter for patrimonial lands in 1642.” In 1642 there was no Metropolitan in Novgorod. Cornelia. Cornelius was Metropolitan of Novgorod in 1674–1695.
“Spiritual Letter” by St. Joseph, ch. X.
Antiquities of the Russian state, published by the highest order of the sovereign Emperor Nicholas Ï In the 6th department. St. Petersburg, 1849–1853. Dept. V (hereinafter – Antiquities of the Russian State. – Ed.); Ethnographic collection published by the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. Vol. 1. In the description of the saints of the city of Tver: “St. Savva the abbot of the Sretensky Monastery."
The inscription at the beginning of it leaves no doubt that this charter is the property of Savvin of the Tver Monastery: “l. 7138 this book is the charter of the Tver district of the Savvina Monastery; taken in Moscow under Abbot Tikhon, on the 24th day of September, upon the signature of the Archbishop of Tver and Kashinsky. Euphemia. The leaders Savva and Barsanuphius brought that charter of the same monastery with them from Greece.” Only here the last note of the 17th century is a mistake. According to Rev. Joseph, St. went to Athos. Savva Borozdin.
Description RKP. Tolstoy 2 No. 174 and 4.
Census of 1662: “Savvin monastery 50 yards” (Notes of the Imperial Russian Archaeological Society).
Journal of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. T. V; Historical essays on Russian folk literature and art. T. 2.
Karamzin N. M. History of the Russian State. T.V. Note 341.
Karamzin N. M. History of the Russian State. T.VI. Note 12.
According to the 1662 census: “Savvatiev Hermitage Monastery 45 yards” (Ratshin A. Complete collection of information about monasteries).
See: Rudakov A., archpriest. History of the Christian Orthodox Church. St. Petersburg, 1913.
Demon. 4, on the Gospel of Matthew. Among the Abyssinians and Copts they are revered among the saints: Feb. 9. (3) “three clear hermits”; Apr. 8 (3) Agapis, Ariana and Ascopius virgins; Apr. 13 (8) Deaconess Dionysius; May 6 (1) Salome the ascetic; May 20 (15) Sedeza student of St. Ammon; July 3 (June 27) Mary the ascetic; July 6 (June 30) Saturnine ascetic (Ludolfi. Ad soam historiam aethiopicam commentaries). Unfortunately, we do not have detailed information about their lives.
Palladium of Elenopolsky. Lovesaik. Ch. 5. In Heraclides, in ch. 1, Didymus speaks of the recluse: “in the twelfth year, going to her last rest, she cleaned herself up.” The same according to the special edition of Lavsaik. Migne. T. 94, p. 255, 348.
Among the Copts, St. Alexandra – Apr. 15 (10) (Ludolfi. Ad soam historiam aethiopicam commentaries).
Heraclides, ch. 18; Lavsaik, ch. 33.
Lavsaik, ch. 6; Heraclides, ch. 2. The same story in the Prologue March. 30 and in the collection Patericon under the banner. m. There and here the nun is called Monaco.
According to the RCP. Gerasim came to his life “from the God-saved city of Kyiv, the same weight of the Glushensky monastery, tonsured.” From the very composition of the words it is clear that Vologzhanin did not understand much in the original. There was no Glushensky monastery in Kyiv; and the Gniletskaya Assumption Monastery with caves is known (Fundukleyi. Review of Kyiv). The preface of the life says that the life of St. Gerasim and his service were lost during the devastation of Vologda and that the information offered is taken from the Vologda chronicle notes.
Ambrose (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian hierarchy. Part IV; Karamzin N. M. History of the Russian State. T.IV. Note 117. RKP. Saints: “St. Father Gerasim, head of the Trinity Monastery near Kaisarov Stream, reposed in L. 6686 of the month of March on day 4≫.
Ambrose (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian hierarchy. Part VI.
Collection l. 4, 45. 182. 5, 11; Karamzin N. M. History of the Russian State. T.IV. Note 193, 203.
Ratshin A. Complete collection of information about monasteries; Tolstoy M. Shrines and antiquities of Pskov.
"The Legend of St. icon painters" in the original by Count Stroganov; Historical essays on Russian folk literature and art. T. 2.
Shchekatov A.M. Geographical dictionary. Part 1.
Historical acts. T. 3, No. 141 - two memories from April 1 and October 12, 1626. Here is the testimony of the schema-monk Jonah, recorded by his confessor Lukyan. Here is the letter from Patr. Philaret with an order to transfer the relics to Hadrian's Hermitage.
Ratshin A. Complete collection of information about monasteries. RKP. Saints: “St. Adrian and Leonid; The builder of the Assumption Monastery, Adrian, was killed by robbers, and was laid to rest at the Trinity in the Ryabivka Hermitage. There was a student of Cornelius of Komel; and his relics were transferred on December 17th.”
The suffering of St. John, see: Athos Patericon. Part 2.
Letters of the Holy Mountainer 1, 215.
The will was published in: Ambrose (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian hierarchy. Part V. But the list is very poorly written, with errors and omissions. Undolsky's list is written with diligence; but here the text of the will is supplemented with inserts, and not everything here is a will. We place the first half of the will according to the text of Undolsky, the second - according to the list of the hierarchy.
The list of “History of the Russian Hierarchy” is followed by dark, barely understandable words. We read them like this: “I, a sinner, was sent from Constantinople by Bishop Vasily with notification of the white hood and the appearance of an Angel, also in order to become spiritually acquainted with Vasily, Bishop of Novgorod.” According to Undolsky’s list: “Patriarch Philotheus of Constantinograd sent Bishop Evmenios and me to Bishop Vasily of Novgorod with notice of the white hood. Having arrived safely in Novgorod, we delivered to Bishop Vasily everything sent with us, a white hood and a message. He received us with great honor, in front of a crowd of people and with gratitude to God. After a short time we asked for leave. The saint generously gave us gifts and released us with honor to Constantinople. Through the prayers of Saint Bishop Vasily, we calmly completed the sea journey to Constantinople. Patr. Filofey was glad to see us return.” But this story about the white hood is a later composition. The will says that Lazar stayed in Novgorod until the death of Bishop Vasily (f 1352) for four years. Consequently, by order of Patr.
Filofey would have been in Novgorod no later than 1348, which could not have happened. In 1348, Isidore Bukhira was patriarch; and Philotheus was then the Metropolitan of Irakli and was for the first time in the patriarchal see in 1353, that is, after the death of Vasily.
Muchch Island near the eastern shore of Lake Onega, 60 versts from Pudozh and 70 versts from Vytegra.
Collection l. 4, 49. 59. Suprasl. l., pp. 48.70.
Here ends Undolsky's list, which is obviously not complete.
“Abba Lazarus reposed in L. 6699 (1191) m. March at 8 days; and all the years of his belly are 105.” This is what was noted at the end of Lazarev’s will (Amvrosy (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian Hierarchy. Part V). But the indication of the year of Lazareva’s death is undoubtedly erroneous. It should have been written: 6899 (1391). After this, it turns out that Lazar lived on the island for 39 years, and at the time of his death, Archbishop. Vasily, in 1352, he was 66 years old. This is also consistent with his story about his life.
According to the census of 1582 in the Murmansk monastery village. Church of the Forerunner with a meal, behind the monastery is the Church of St. Lazarus; the Assumption Church and the fence burned down; in the monastery there is an abbot, two hieromonks and 35 brothers (Nevolin K.A. About Pyatina and Pogosts). According to the census of 1662, there are 34 courtyards behind the Murmansk monastery (Notes of the Imperial Russian Archaeological Society. Vol. 2). Ratshin A. Complete collection of information about monasteries; Ambrose (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian hierarchy. Part V
Monastery of St. Mamanta Ksilotsirskaya was located at the city wall of the Xylotsirk (wooden circus) at the city gate of the same name, which is why Simeon is called the abbot of the monastery of Mamantova at the Xylocirk, sometimes simply Xylotsirsky.
RKP. description of the saints of Kyiv: “the holy, blessed, great prince Rostislav Mstislavich reposed in l. 6674 months March on the 14th day."
Ratshin A. Complete collection of information about monasteries; Materials for statistics of the Russian Empire.
Additions to historical acts. T. 1, No. 4. On the construction of the church, see: Vostokov A. Description of the Rumyantsev Museum.
Collection l. 2, 75–77. 3, 11, 1, 146–148. 4, 60–63.
Collection l. 2, 81–86. 7, 72–76.
Collection l. 2, 86–95. 5, 161.162. 7, 79–80; The book is sedate. Part 1.
1 See: Soloviev P. Christian martyrs who suffered in the East since the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks. St. Petersburg, 1862.
Nevolin K.A. About Pyatina and Pogosts.
Ambrose (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian hierarchy. Part V; Ratshin A. Complete collection of information about monasteries; Dictionary of Saints.
Complete collection of Russian chronicles. T. 1; The book is sedate. Part 1.
RKP. life of St. Innocent at the Tsar's No. 134. 274.
Ambrose (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian hierarchy. Part IV.
RKP. Saints: “St. Innocent, abbot of the Baptist Monastery, was on the river. Food; reposed in L. 6999 (1491) months. March at 19:00.” The same is in Evgeniy’s note about the Vologda diocese. Why does the Dictionary of Saints say that St. Innocent died on March 1, - not shown. But the year of death is more accurate in the Oten calendar: “he reposed in l. 7029 (1521) Mar. at 6 pm." This is in accordance with the year of death of his mentor, St. Nile (1508). See Apr. 7.
Ambrose (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian hierarchy. Part IV; Historical essays on Russian folk literature and art. T. 2. According to the census of 1652, there are 130 households behind the Innocent Monastery.
See: “Minsk Diocesan Gazette”, 1872, No. 47.
RKP. life of St. Euphrosyne.
Ratshin A. Complete collection of information about monasteries.
They wrote: “in the days of Ts. Boris's defrocking brought hordes of Poles to Rus'.... Mar. 19 1612 the blessed one advised everyone to flee.” But in 1612, both Boris and the defrocked man were already lying on the ground. Probably, a band of the robber Lisovsky appeared in the Euphrosyne hermitage (Artsybashev N.S. Narrative of Russia: In 3 vols. M., 1838–1843. Vol. III (hereinafter referred to as Artsybashev N.S. Narrative of Russia. - Ed.).
Ambrose (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian hierarchy. Part VI. RKP. Saints: “St. Euphrosynus the hermit, who was also on Lake Sinichye, was the head of the monastery of St. Apostle John the Theologian" (News of the Archaeological Society. Vol. II).
This was the name of Serapion by Socrates (Socrates Scholasticus. Church history: In 7 books / Trans. SPbDA. St. Petersburg, 1850. Book 4 (hereinafter referred to as Socrates Scholasticus. Church history. - Ed.)) and Sozomen (Ermius Sozomen of Salamis. Church history: In 9 books. St. Petersburg, 1851. Book 4 (hereinafter referred to as Sozomen. Church history. – Ed.).
Pereyaslav. l., p. III, m. 1851. The Journal of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (T. XXII) says that Nerekhta is mentioned for the first time in the life of St. Pachomia, but this is a mistake.
RKP. life of St. Pachomia. For an extract from it, see: Christian Reading. 1858. T. I.
See the life of St. Alexia February 12th.
RKP. Saints: “St. Pachomius, abbot of the Trinity Monastery, also called Sypanov in the Nerekhotsk camp, the Kostroma wonderworker, reposed in L. 6892 (1384) Mar. at 21 days.” Ambrose (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian hierarchy. Part VI; Ratshin A. Complete collection of information about monasteries. In the calendar, the day of death is set as the 21st, but according to his life he took communion on the 21st day, and died a day after that.
An extract from a life written around 1727 was published in Moskvityanin (1852, No. 8). The very description of the life and miracles of Blessed. Vasily, ineptly compiled, was published in the Irkutsk Diocesan Gazette (1863 and 1864).
Certificate of Patr. Philaret to Siberia dated February 11, 1622, published in: Collection of state charters and treaties. Part 3.
According to the Siberian Chronicle (Northern Archives. Part 19), Mangazeya was built in 1601 by the governor Prince. Vasily Mikhailovich Masalsky and Vluk (Vukol) Pushkin; then 100 service people were sent to them from Tobolsk. According to the brief calculation of the Siberian governors, e.g. in Tobolsk in 1792, Masalsky and Pushkin were governors in 1601 and 1602. In 1600, Easter was March 23; in 1601 and 1602 it was in April; in 1592 March 26. According to the RCP. Saints day of the death of St. Vasily is supposed to fall either on March 22, 1592, or on March 25, 1622. According to the time of Pushkin’s stay in Mangazeya, Vasily’s suffering death should be attributed to 1601 or 1602, and according to the indication of Easter time, it should fall on 1600. But if we assume that the theft occurred on Matins of one of the days of Holy Week, when the pious Vasily was of course in the church; then his painful death can be attributed to 1602, when Pushkin was in charge. This year of suffering is consistent with the testimony that the relics were discovered 50 years after his death, in 1652.
New Mangazeya, 30 versts from the Tikhon Monastery, was built in 1672 (Spassky. About the monument to the conqueror of Siberia Ermak with a drawing // Temporary of the Society of History and Antiquities. Book 3).
Muscovite. M., 1852. No. 8; Temporary of the Society of History and Antiquities. Book 3; Ratshin A. Complete collection of information about monasteries.
According to Nikon. l. (7, 107. 129) Arkhangelsk Archpriest Timothy “a man of considerable merit and taught in the Inspired Scripture was sent to Sviyazhsk with a message from Metropolitan. Macarius to the army and with verbal instructions on matters of faith.” The same for the “Royal Book”.
The book is sedate. Part 2. In the printed “History of the Kazan Kingdom” (St. Petersburg, 1791) the martyr is named Alexander, but this is a publishing error: in the RKP. "History" he is called Stephen.
Artsybashev N.S. A story about Russia. T. III.
Hermogenes' certificate was published in: Scientific Notes of Kazan University. Kazan, 1839. Book. 4; Gabriel (Voskresensky), archimandrite. Historical description of the Kazan Assumption second-class Zilantov Monastery and the Kazan monument. Kazan, 1840.
Savelyev-Rostislavich N.V. Slavic collection. St. Petersburg, 1845 (hereinafter – Savelyev-Rostislavich N.V. Slavic collection. – Ed.). St. Nestor: “Illurik are Slavs, norci are Slavs. The Slavs settled along the Danube, where there are now Ugric and Bulgarian lands.” Boguslav: Scribitur in vetustissimis codicibus, quod Pannonia sit mater et origo omnium Slavonicarum nationum. Munich manuscript IX table. (Safarik P.Y. Slavic antiquities / Translated from Czech. O. Bodyanska: In 2 vols. M., 1852. T. 1, appendix 79 (hereinafter referred to as Safarik. Slavic antiquities. - Ed.). Zerviani, quod tantum est regnum, est eo cunctae gente Slavorum exortae sint. Barnefrid (VI, 52): Karniolia slavorum patria. Srem, the leader of the tribal Serbs, who left his name behind the city of Srem, bravely defended himself against Alexander the Great, who then crossed through the country of the lords (navatô) into Macedonia (Strabonis. Geographica. Paris, 1587. Lib. VII). (147) and other ancient monuments, the names of cities, mountains, tracts, rivers of Pannonia are all Slavic (Vremennik of the Society of History and Antiquities. Books 10, 16; Katancic, M. P. Specimen Philologiae et Geographiae Pannoniorum. Zagrabiae, 1795; Solarich P. The Romans glorified. Kharkov, 1818). As for Caesarea’s words about the Slavs, they believed in vain (Venelin Yu.V.
Ancient and modern Bulgarians in their political, folk, historical and religious attitude towards the Russians: In 2 vols. M., 1829–1841. T. 2 (hereinafter – Venelin Yu.V. Ancient and modern Bulgarians. – Ed.); Christian Readings. St. Petersburg, 1859. T. 2) author of conversations for the brother of St. Gregory the Theologian. Writer, famous patr. Photius, who uses the church song: “Holy God,” should be recognized as a contemporary of St. Maxim (662). But even in this form, his words about the Slavs are important. Their Greek text and Slavic translation of the 14th century. - in the description Synod. RKP. No. 129.
Nestor: “The teacher of the Slovenian language is Andronicus the Apostle, - his table is in Pania” - in Pannonia. Collection l. 1, 11. 12.
There are two pieces of news about him in the prologue, one on March 26 is incorrect, the other on August 23 is correct, taken from Vasily’s menologist; in Chetya-Minea March 26 the description is close to the modern note. For an eyewitness account of the martyrdom, see: Henschen. Acta Sanctorum mart.; Acta martyrum sincera et selecta / Ed. A. Ruinart. Paris, 1689 (hereinafter – Acta martyrum sincera. – Ed.).
Menologium Basilii ad 23 Augusti. In 1807, a parchment collection of the 10th century was found in Bavaria, in it two confessions and a teaching in the Slavic language, with differences in the Serbian dialect, written in Latin letters. The teaching is the same as that placed in the prologue under April 25th. Confessions and teachings are examples of instructions offered to newly baptized Slavs. Part of the teaching was published by Sreznevsky (Sreznevsky I.I. Ancient monuments of writing and language of the southwestern Slavs // Christian Antiquities and Archeology. St. Petersburg, 1864). This is how they learned in Pannonia under St. Irenaeus!
The Bosveta River, where Srem was located, flowed into the Sava River somewhat below the city.
Adon de Vienne. Martyrologium; Usuardi San-Germanensis monachi. Martyrologium sincerum.
Adon de Vienne. Martyrologium; Usuardi San-Germanensis monachi. Martyrologium sincerum. Adon writes: Montani presbyteri, qui cum Maxima uxore sua tentus et in fluvium praecipitatus est. In Jerome's Martyrology, Maxima is also named the wife of Presbyter Montanus. Usuard does not call her Montana’s wife, is it because the priests did not begin to live with their wives? Vandalbert is precise: Septima Montanum memorat cum coniuge sancta Atque simul quadragena cum martyre passum. Baronius in the Roman Martyrology on February 23. Montanus is called a presbyter and then it is shown: “also (the suffering of) the holy martyrs Codratus, Theodosius, Emanuel and 40 others.”
Baronio. Martyrologium Romanum; Adon de Vienne. Martyrologium; Usuardi San-Germanensis monachi. Martyrologium sincerum.
Martyrology of Jerome and Adon.
Martyrology of Jerome, Adon and Usuard.
Jerome, Usuard. The same is true of Baronius in the Roman Martyrology.
The “former persecution” was the persecution of Valerian 257–258 Cibalis - Kinal.
For the martyrdom of Pullius, see: Acta martyrum sincera. The description says: de qua (urbe Cibalitarum) Valentinianus christianissimus imperator oriundus esse cognoscitur. Valentinian was a Western emperor in 364–375. It is clear that the now known edition of the martyrdom was compiled no earlier than 364. As for the Christian names: Irenaeus, Eusebius, Montanus and others, Savelyev rightly noted (Savelyev-Rostislavich N.V. Slavic collection) that as the name of St. Theodosius of Pechersk or Leonty Rost. shows that the names were given by ministers of the Orthodox Eastern Church, and not that Theodosius is a Greek; Thus, the names of the martyrs of Srem and others only indicate that at that time the preachers of the faith gave names to those being baptized, both Greek and Latin.
Embassy of Priscus, described by himself: Venelin Yu.V. Ancient and modern Bulgarians. T. 1.
Stritteri Slavica § 50. Avarica. 53–55. Quercius de bello avarico.
Chertkov AD. On the translation of the Manasseh Chronicle; Chertkov A.D. Description of the war of Grand Duke Svyatoslav Igorevich. M., 1843.
Even after January 814, more than 12,000 prisoners were taken by Krum to Bulgaria, and another part of Krum’s army took another 50,000 (Chertkov A.D. On the translation of the Manasseh Chronicle). The main location of Hrubosh is Shumen, from which Shumla was later formed.
Kedrin G. Review of History; Zonara I. Abridged history. Basil the Macedonian is recognized as a Slav by the Arab writer Hamza and the Byzantine Genesius. According to the latter, Vasily the farmer loved to fight “to cut.” The translator of the Manasseh Chronicle says that imp. Basil was “from the village of Belipra, near the present right city of Macedon” (Chertkov A.D. On the translation of the Manasseh Chronicle), while according to the monk George, “he was born in Macedonia, in the district of Adrianople,” in the words of Simeon the logothete, “he was a Macedonian by birth, an Adrianopolis by birth.” According to Kedrin (Kedrin G. Review of History), imp. Mikhail, attempting to return Odrin, did not want to use battered towers, otherwise “the Scythians living around Adrianople” would not learn to operate these machines. Thus, the villages located around Odrin, at the end of the 8th century, consisted of Scythian inhabitants - Slavs, and Macedonia - meant the country of the Slavs, as in ancient times. Near Adrianople mountains. Bersinitsia - Bereznitsa (796 and 813 at Feofan) mountain pass Gema - Beregava (678 at Feofan).
Constantine VII Progenitors. Vita Basilii. The same Kedrin G. Review of History.
In Vasily’s menology on January 21: “at the imp. Leo the Armenian Krum, the Bulgarian prince, with many people, besieged Adrianople of Thracia and took St. Manuel the Bishop. First he ordered his hands to be cut off, then he gave him who was cut with a sword as food for the beasts. For this wickedness he fell into hatred from his people and was strangled with a rope. The wicked Tsok, who assumed power over the Bulgarians, gathered all the captured Christians, governors, priests, and ordinary laymen, and forced them to renounce the Christian faith. The Bulgarians were not yet Christians at that time. When they did not want to fulfill his will, he ordered some to be beheaded, others to be killed with cruel executions.” There is a lot that is wrong here. Grubosh died, strangled by a rush of blood, on Friday, Holy Week of April 14, 814 (Krug byzantin. chronol.). Since St. Manuel died on January 22, and in this month 814 Leo the Armenian wanted to kill Grubosh by deception; that martyrdom of St. Manuel followed, of course, following the revealed deception, on January 22, 814. After Hrubosh, his son Shaved, otherwise Krutogon and Murtagon, inherited the throne.
Tsok was never a sovereign prince, but only a military leader. The name Tsoka is still common among Bulgarians. Slavs the translation of the synaxarion of 1340 (Notes of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. T. 6) is incorrect to the original, but Odrin grad Fracski, Krug the Bulgarian prince are remarkable in it.
Theophan clearly says that St. George was taken in 811, when the city of Zagora was taken (Assemani. Biblioteca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana. V. II). Not only the Menaion (extracts in Act. Sant. Januar. 2), but also Constantine Porphyrogenetus (Vita Basilii) attribute the death of St. George and others already by the time of Shaved. But did the Shaven One torture Christians? Since Shaven was always more disposed towards Christians than his father, and the prisoners were entrusted to Grubosh Tsok, the torment of Christians is rightly attributed in the monthly book of Vasily Tsok.
Stritteri. Bulgarica; Slavica; Baronins. Annales ecclesiastici a Christo nato ad annum 772; Chertkov A. D. On the translation of the Manasseh Chronicle.
The historian of the miracles of St. Demetrius of Thessalonica speaks about the captives of the Avar Kagan: “from that time (from the time of captivity) they (Christians) mixed with the Bulgarians, Anars and other pagans and, when they gave birth to children from each other and grew into a populous people, the children from their parents adopted the disposition and love for Greek morals; Through the Orthodox faith and life-giving baptism, the Christian tribe has multiplied.” Kubar with these people crossed the Danube around 640 and settled it not far from Ohrid (Filaret of Chernigov. St. Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessaloniki and the Thessalonica Slavs // Reading OIDR. 1847. Book 6.). The final and most populous migration of the Slavs from the northern bank of the Danube to their ancient southern places took place in 678. Then they, uniting with the Slavs who remained in the south, began to rule over the Greek colonists in Thrace, Macedonia, Illyricum - the Bulgarian principality was formed (Constantine Porphyrogenitus. About themes; Zonara I. Abridged history; Kedrin G. Review of history; Chertkov A.D. On the translation of the Manasseh Chronicle).
“On the beginning of Christianity, its spread and establishment (?) among the Bulgarians,” see: Christian Reading. St. Petersburg, 1858. There is a lot of correct information collected here, but quite a few omissions and errors. Leo the Wise (Leonis Imperatoris. Tactica) wrote: “and the Slavs in ancient times were free when they lived beyond the Danube. But the Romans defeated the Slavs, who lived a shepherd’s life, and before they crossed the Danube, they were submissive to the yoke of Roman power... Having crossed (from across the Danube) they no longer wanted to submit to anyone other than their own; they thought that it was better to be under the authority and laws of the prince of their tribe than under the Romans. So they remain the same to our times, although they accepted the consecration of Holy Baptism.” About the time of the return of the Slavs to Macedonia and Epirus - in the Bulgarian translation of the Manasseh Chronicle. Here it refers to the time of imp. Anastasia (491–518). See: Chertkov A.D. On the translation of the Manasseh Chronicle; Journal of the Ministry of Public Education. St. Petersburg, 1837. No. III. Kodin about the buildings of Constantinople: “Damian’s monastery was built by Damian, a Slav by birth, prefect of the bed guards under the emperor. Theophilus the iconoclast" (Georgius Codinus. De antiquitatibus Constantinopolitanis).
Constantine VII Progenitors. Vita Basilii. Peace was concluded and the captives were released in 817 (Assemani. Kalendaria Ecclesiae Universae. T. 2). George the monk, according to some lists, says that Krum put obstacles in the way of the return of prisoners; but in other lists the one who hindered is named Kotsp^ - Komis, count (Stritteri. Bulgarica. § 73). In this Komis one cannot help but recognize the dear Tsok.
Chertkov A.D. On the translation of the Manasseh Chronicle.
About the deities of the Bulgarian saints. Gregory in the translation of the Malad Chronicle from Prince Obolensky (Obolensky M.A. Chronicler of Pereyaslavl of Suzdal // Vremennik MOIDR. M., 1851. Book IX). See: Chernigov Diocesan News. 1863, 1864.
Simeon Logothet: “Krum, according to the custom of the people, having built an altar behind the golden gates, sacrificed a lot of livestock and people; then, immersing his feet at the seashore, he washed himself with water and cleansed his people (Stritteri. Bulgarica). About the Russians, Svyatoslav Leo the Deacon: “while celebrating, they killed babies and roosters, plunging them into the waters of the Danube” (Leo Diaconus. Historia. Bonnae, 1828).
Theophylact's life of the martyrs translated by Savelyev (Savelyev-Rostislavich N.V. Slavic collection), who was the first to explain the Byzantine confusion about the Bulgarian princes, but not everywhere successfully. On the origin of the Bulgarians, a detailed study by S. Uvarov: De Bulgarorum utrorum que origine et sedibus antiquissimis. Dorpatiae, 1853. The writer, familiar with sources and manuals, proves that the Danube Bulgarians are Slavs and their homeland is the Carpathians, while the homeland of the Volga Bulgarians is the Caucasus.
To this day, the remains of stone loopholes near the earthen rampart are still visible here. According to the popular dialect, in ancient times Gdovsk was called Vdovsk, because it was supposedly given into the possession of a widower. book Olga. According to the book of the Big Drawing: “from Ivan’s city 70 versts near Lake Peipsi, the city of Gdov” (Book, verb Big Drawing / Published by Spassky G.I.M., 1846).
Evgeny (Bolkhovitinov), Metropolitan. History of the Principality of Pskov. Part 3. RKP. Saints: St. Hilarion, abbot of the Intercession Monastery, also on Zhelchi, was (Oten. sp. “reposed”) in l. 6984 March 28 d.
Acts collected by the Archaeographic Expedition. T. 3. In 1662, “behind the Pokrovsky Ozersky Monastery there are 33 courtyards.”
Ratshin A. Complete collection of information about monasteries; New and complete geographical dictionary of the Russian state / Ed. L. M. Maksimovich: At 6 o’clock. Moscow, 1788–1789. Part 2 (hereinafter referred to as the New and Complete Geographical Dictionary. – Ed.).
About Hilarion the Confessor, see: Filaret of Chernigov. Historical teaching about the Fathers of the Church. T. III, § 258.
In Russian in “Christian Reading” (1827).
See: Filaret Chernigovsky. Historical teaching about the Fathers of the Church. T. III, § 203.
Russian temporary book. Part 2; The story of the beginning and foundation of the Pechersk Monastery.
The story of the beginning and foundation of the Pechersk Monastery. RKP. Saints: “venerable fathers of Pechersk, the first priest Mark and Jonah, the priest and builder in l. 6900 of the month of March on the 29th day≫. According to Othen. list ≪their memory is March 20th day≫. Between the manuscripts of Patr. Philaret, according to the inventory of 1630, “The Tale of the Pechersk Monastery and the First Elder Mark and the Miracles of the Most Rev. Mother of God≫; two more books “about the Pechersky Monastery in Pskov” (Ivanov P.I. Description of the State Discharge Archive).
The story of the beginning and foundation of the Pechersk Monastery.