Житие во святых отца нашего Левкия Исповедника

In pagan times, when the idolatrous Roman kings controlled the East and the West, 4062 there lived in Alexandria one noble man named Eudicius; not taught the art of books, he was wise by spiritual training, - adorned with good deeds. Evdikiy spent his life in the fear of God and love; He combined the feat of fasting and prayer with generous alms. He had an only son, about whom we have a word, named Eutropius by his parents, and subsequently renamed Leucius by God. When the boy was ten years old, his mother, Euphrosyne, died. Then Evdikiy, taking his son, went with him to the monastery of blessed Hermias, located in the Alexandria region and ruled by the blessed abbot Nikita; Here Evdikiy himself took a haircut and sent his son to book education. As a witty boy who learned everything quickly and without much effort, Eutropius, with the help of God, became so successful in book learning that he surpassed many in this regard. Moreover, he was meek, full of humility and obedience; He served everyone who lived in the monastery with zeal, and everyone loved Eutropius - some for his good character and obedience, others for his book reading and knowledge given to him by the Holy Spirit. Blessed Abbot Nikita reposed in the Lord when Eutropius was still only seventeen years old; Despite this, the brethren, having consulted among themselves, asked the young man, who had not yet been tonsured a monk, to be their abbot. But he stubbornly refused, and besides, his father, Evdikiy, admonished him, forbidding him at such a young age to take on a burden that he was not yet accustomed to carrying; he advised Eutropius to show himself unworthy of his superiors, as a young man in need of guidance. So the monastery of Hermia remained without an abbot for seven years, because the brethren did not want to entrust authority over themselves to anyone else: therefore, with all the reluctance of Blessed Eutropius and despite the fact that he was not tonsured, the brethren, guided by the example of his virtuous life, still revered him among themselves as the abbot. When Eutropius was twenty-five years old, the brethren gathered and said to him: - Why do you neglect both our needs and our requests - why don’t you want to be our boss? Seven years have already passed since the death of our blessed father Nikita, we have no abbot, and everyone lives according to his own will. Be careful not to answer for our death if some wolf, entering the monastery, plunders the flock of God; We wish to have no one else but you alone as our father: we all see your holy life, we know about your good morals and the wisdom given to you from God. To this Blessed Eutropius answered the brethren: - Why, honest fathers and brothers, do you relentlessly pray to me for something that I am completely unable to fulfill? I have not been tonsured a monk and have no church rank; how can I be a father to you, not having at the same time the power to teach you in the church of God? How can I admonish the elders among you, although I myself am young? Then they began to force him to take monastic vows and accept the priesthood, but in no case did he want to fulfill their wishes. True, in his soul Eutropius strove for the monastic rank, but was afraid to accept it for fear that the brethren would then force him to be abbot; Thus, while remaining un tonsured, he was an example of a true monk. At this time, the pagan Commodus reigned in Rome. He sent Philip to Alexandria as eparch 4063, whose daughter Eugenia, after converting to Christianity, led an ascetic life in masculine form, ending it with martyrdom. Philip, although he was generally merciful to Christians, however, by virtue of the king’s command, expelled Christians, saints, priests and monks from the city, allowing them, however, to freely settle in the suburbs, as well as build monasteries and churches here. In these days, the Christian bishop in this district was Saint Hellius, who had a residence in the city of Eliopolis, located at a short distance from Alexandria. In the suburbs of Alexandria, the aforementioned bishop created a monastery, entrusted to the leadership of St. Theodore. In addition to the monastery, in the same area there was a church famous in the area in the name of the Most Pure Mother of God and the Ever-Virgin Mary; On Her holidays, Christians flocked here not only from Alexandria, but also from surrounding cities and countries. Therefore, when the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary approached, many went to Her church; and blessed Eudikios, leaving the monastery of Hermias, went to the holiday in the same way along with his son Eutropius. It happened that on the same day and for the same celebration, the holy Bishop Elius came out from Eliopolis along with the clergy and a multitude of people; Eudicius and Eutropius joined the crowd following the bishop. The bishop had the intention of first going to the monastery he created, run by Abbot Theodore, in order to rest here before the holiday. As he approached the monastery, on the way he met the eparch's daughter, Blessed Eugenia, walking in male form, accompanied by two eunuchs; seeing the bishop surrounded by people, she intervened in the crowd in order to ask someone about the bishop and started a conversation about him with Blessed Eutropius. He told her in detail everything about the bishop of God, as can be seen from the life of Blessed Eugenia, and then brought her to the bishop, to whom Eutropius was known for his purity of life and bookish intelligence. When blessed Eudikios was resting in a monastery built by a bishop, he had a divine revelation at night in a sleepy vision that he would soon die, and his son would be a bishop who would destroy the idols in Vruntisiopolis in Italy 4064, enlightening this country with holy baptism. At the same time, he heard a voice addressed to him: - Evdikiy, Evdikiy, faithful servant of the Lord! From now on, let your name be not Evdikiy, but Eudikliy, that is, meek comforter; Let your son’s name be not Eutropius, but Levky, that is, “the Spirit of the Lord has come upon him.” Having awakened, Eudiclius immediately called his son and told him about the vision that revealed the will of God: - Look, my son, the time of my departure is approaching; do not be seduced by the vain world; The Lord revealed to me about you that you will be worthy of episcopal service, for the Lord wants through you to cleanse Vruntisiopol from idolatry churches; and let your name no longer be Eutropius, but Levky; This is how the Lord renamed you, just as he renamed me instead of Eudikios - Eudikliem. Hearing this, Saint Leucius, who is also Eutropius, prostrated himself crosswise on the ground and worshiped God, offering to Him the following prayer of gratitude: - Blessed are You, God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, for You do not neglect those who trust in You and do not take away Your mercy from Your poor servants, having mercy on me, unworthy: therefore I glorify and magnify You, the Lord of heaven and earth, for You are the Lord who loved man; May glory be to You forever and ever. During this prayer of the saint, a voice was heard from heaven above the church: - Levky, Levky! Bright in soul and pure in heart, behold, your name is written in heaven and your memory will not be erased from the book of life. This voice was heard by the holy Bishop Elias and some of the brethren, who spent the night without sleep in prayer. But no one could understand to whom exactly it was addressed. When morning came, the brethren of the Ermiev Monastery came to the bishop and said: - Know, Vladyka, that we have been without an abbot for more than seven years, and each of us lives as he wants. More than once we asked honest Eutropius to take command over us; he grew up in our monastery, and his life in holiness surpasses the life of each of us; no one can compare with him in works of obedience; he always remains in fasting and prayer, reading and writing books; in a word, we see him striving in all good works. That's why we wanted to have him as our father, to follow in his footsteps; he does not consent to this, neglecting our request. We pray to you, Vladyka, make him abbot for us, even against his will. “I, too,” answered the bishop, “have been thinking about what you are talking about now; However, wait a little - I will try to convince him to submit to our will. After this, the bishop went to church, since it was time for the holy liturgy. He ordered the archdeacon, standing on the pulpit, to proclaim to the people: – Which of those present here bears the name Leukia? None of the people responded to this call, because there was no person who bore that name. When the archdeacon appealed to the people twice and thrice, Saint Leucius, seeing that there was no other Leucius among the people except him, responded, saying: Everyone looked at him in surprise and said in bewilderment: -Are you Eutropius, son of Eudikiev? Saint Leucos answered this: - Ask my father, he will tell you better than me about my name. Then they brought blessed Eudiclius, an honest ninety-seven-year-old old man, into the middle, and asked him: – What is the real name of your son? He, seeing God’s desire for the secret to be revealed about him and his son, told in detail his entire vision; among other things, about how the voice of God twice, in a dream and in reality, named his son Leucius. Everyone who heard this thanked God with joy and, approaching Saint Leucius, greeted him with great respect. Following this, the bishop began to exhort Saint Leucius to accept the rank of hegumen with the priesthood. He refused, and the people exclaimed: – Levky is worthy to be not only a presbyter and abbot, but even a bishop! And despite the reluctance of Saint Leucius, he was consecrated and made abbot. For this, everyone celebrated the feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos in Her church. Having taken over the management of the monastery, Saint Levky intensified his exploits and worked miracles with the grace of the Holy Spirit living in him. One day they brought to him a demon-possessed Ethiopian who had already been announced for holy baptism. Seeing his torment, Saint Leukos said to the demon: - Stop, devilish spirit, torturing a person! The demon, trembling, began to scream with a sob: – If I leave it, where will I go? - I don’t have a better house than this. “Unclean spirit,” Saint Leukos repeated his command, “leave God’s creation and do not dare to enter it again; come out, ashamed and disgraced, from the one whom you have hitherto misanthropically tormented, binding with the chains of your dark power. Enter those people who do not believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and do not worship His life-giving cross. With a terrible cry, a demon came out of the man’s mouth in the form of a black bird; at the same time he exclaimed: “What is it to me and to you, servant of God Levkiy, why are you driving me out of the dwelling that I have chosen for myself?” I did not want to enter a man with a white face, of ordinary appearance, but I entered an Ethiopian with a black skin color that was unpleasant to the eyes, hoping that no one would drive me out of such a dwelling. Having driven away the devil with the sign of the cross, Saint Leucius raised the man from the ground healthy and then honored him with baptism. The devil retreated to Egypt, where he took on the image of an enormous serpent; he crawled through the streets of one city, with unusual fury killing the pagans and Jews he encountered - husbands, wives and children; He did not spare animals either. Saint Leucos, foreseeing in his spirit such a murderous wickedness of the devil, hastily went to Egypt; Feeling the saint approaching the city, the devil rushed into the sea, leaving behind many corpses lying in the streets. Entering the city and seeing many people mourning their dead with sobs, Saint Leukos asked: Then they told him how a serpent suddenly appeared in the city, killed many, and how just now, before his arrival, he threw himself into the sea, where he disappeared. Saint Leucos ordered water to be brought, blessed it and began to sprinkle the dead with it, saying to them: - Arise in the name of the Lord of hosts - you are not held by the bonds of death, but only damaged by the devil’s poison, however, you yourself are not able to get rid of the action of the serpentine force, which is more powerful than you due to your wickedness and heart blindness. Arise, then, in the power of my God, and give glory to Him who created you. During this speech, Saint Leucius touched the corpses with his staff. And immediately everyone, as if awakening, rose up and, clutching the saint’s feet, said: – God, Whom it is proper to bow down to, is none other than the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Whom you, the servant of God and our father, preach. All those resurrected believed in Christ, and along with them, up to three thousand more men converted to Christianity; They were all baptized with their wives and children, glorifying our Lord Jesus Christ, who performed such wondrous miracles through His saint Leucius. After several years, the eparch of Alexandria Philip believed in Christ with his entire household, prompted to do so by the example of his holy daughter Eugenia; After some time, he left his leadership, becoming a Christian bishop. After the suffering death of Bishop Philip, Saint Leucius was unanimously chosen as his successor. Meanwhile, in Alexandria, after Philip, the eparch was first Terentius, and then Saturninus. Being an enemy of Christianity, the latter was considering with his idolater advisors how to raise a persecution of Christians in Alexandria, having first killed their bishop, Saint Leucius: Saturninus saw that he was converting many from paganism to Christianity. And the eparch began to look for a convenient time to carry out his evil intent. The faithful from the inhabitants of Alexandria, having learned about this, consulted among themselves on how to kill the eparch. Then Saint Leucius, calling all Christians to him, convinced them to abandon their rebellious plan and told them about the phenomenon that had happened to him from God: “Know, beloved, that my Lord was pleased to appear to me in a vision and commanded to appoint another bishop for you so that I could go West to Vruntisiopol, for this city is in need of Christian enlightenment. Hearing this, the Christians began to fall weeping at the feet of the saint, saying: - Holy Father! Do not leave us orphans; do not be separated from those whom you have acquired for God; do not leave us until your death. “You all know,” objected Saint Leucius, “that even in the days of my youth the Lord deigned to reveal to my father Eudiclias about me how unworthy I would accept this holy rank and how I would go to an idolatrous city, among a people who do not know God.” It is so pleasing to our Master that through me, His unworthy servant, he would join those people to the Holy Church. That is why the Lord commanded me to give you another father, but I am going to do the work that was prescribed to me. About Eparch Saturninus, know that his wicked plan to persecute Christians will not be fulfilled, for the days of his life have shortened and his death is near: as I leave here, his house collapses, burying him with all his household under the ruins. Having said this and consoled the weeping Christians, he chose a man worthy of the holy throne; So another bishop was installed instead of Saint Leucius. – Taking with him two of his deacons, Eusebius and Dionysius, and five disciples, Saint Leucius set out from the city to the ship pier. All the Christians, numbering five thousand, not counting their wives and children, saw off their bishop with weeping and sobbing. “Why,” they exclaimed, “are you leaving us, father, without sparing your children?” Turning back and seeing those crying, Saint Leukos himself became indignant in spirit, shed tears and, raising his hands to heaven, said: “Lord, my God Jesus Christ, if it is Your will, do not separate me from these Your people, to whose service You have placed me!” He had just finished this prayer when a voice heard from heaven was heard by all Christians: - Levky! Do not neglect the commandment of the Lord, but get on board the ship and go in peace where you are commanded. “Do you hear,” Saint Levky turned to those accompanying him, “the will of the Lord, brothers?” So, know that I am not parting with you of my own free will. Having said goodbye to everyone, he entered the ship and set off. In Alexandria, according to the saint’s prophecy, the eparch’s house suddenly collapsed, killing everyone inside along with the latter. After fifteen days the ship sailed to Adrianople, not Thracian, but located in ancient Egypt; Here Saint Leukos stayed for a short time, receiving two presbyters, Leon and Savin. Finding another ship, he boarded it, handing over the agreed payment, and sailed to Hydrunt, where he boarded a Dalmatian ship, on which he reached the Vruntisiopolis region. Having left the ship, Saint Leukos headed towards the city with his clergy. On the way they met the tribune 4065 Armaleon with his warriors; Saint Leukios, one of the latter, asked: “Who is the leader of this city?” “Have you not heard,” answered the warrior, “about the great Antiochus, the lord of this country?” “What faith does your master Antiochus profess?” – Saint Leukius asked the question again. Hearing this question, the tribunes and soldiers said with laughter: “Is there any other faith and any other god other than the sun and moon that illuminate the universe?” Do not the ears of all hear their voices thundering in the clouds? What is more like lightning coming from the sun? What is brighter than the moon, which with its changes foretells the coming changes in the weather? - Poor ignoramuses! - Saint Leukius said with a sigh. – Divine enlightenment has not yet reached you and therefore you do not know that the sun and the moon are the creation of God and obey the command of the Lord, carrying out their continuous flow. And one should not call them gods: there is nothing Divine in them; they cannot even stand in one place, but are constantly moving, rising and setting, sometimes covered by a cloud, sometimes by the darkness of the night, and sometimes visible, sometimes hidden from view. And their light is as different from the ever-present Light, that is, God, whom we worship, as the creation is different from the Creator. Our God, who created the sun, moon, sky and earth with everything that fills them, is the true Light, enlightening all who believe in Him. He created the radiance of the sun and the moon, commanding them to serve the people who inhabit the heavens - let the sun shine during the day, and the moon at night. And if you knew the invisible Light - our God, you would never bow before the visible luminaries. “What kind of light is this,” asked the tribune Armaleon, “about which you say that it is invisible to our eyes?” “Christ, the son of God,” explained Saint Leucius, “born of the Virgin Mary from the Holy Spirit.” And he told them everything about Christ: how He was born, how He lived among people, how He suffered by His will, died, was resurrected on the third day, ascended into heaven, sat down at the right hand of God the Father, and how He would come to judge the whole world, to reward everyone according to their deeds. The soldiers listened with emotion to the teaching of Saint Leucius; Believing his words to be true, they fell to the ground before him, saying: – We pray to you, Father, make us participants in eternal life! After the announcement, he baptized them; the number of converts was sixty-seven men. Accompanied by them and the clergy, Saint Leukos entered the city. This was the beginning of the enlightenment of Vruntisiopol with the light of Christ’s teaching. Prince Antiochus, having learned that the tribune Armaleon believed in Christ along with his soldiers, called him to him and asked: – Is it true what I hear about you, Armaleon? As if you and the soldiers subordinate to you became a Christian? Armaleon was silent. Then Antiochus said angrily: – Why don’t you answer me? “Do you really,” asked the tribune, “need to be angry with me because I am now a Christian?” “I ask you,” Antiochus objected, “without any anger: tell us, who taught you the Christian faith?” We all knew you as a wise man in our teachings, who had hitherto rejected Christianity, and now we wonder how you turned into a Christian? “Until now,” answered Armaleon, “I was blind and wandered in the shadow of death, and now, enlightened by the grace of God, I have received my sight and remain in the hope of eternal life.” - “What is this eternal life that you talk about? - asked Antiochus. “If you want, you can know her,” the tribune suggested. “If you really show it to us,” Antiochus reasoned, “then of course I want to see and understand; however, I don’t think that there is any other life other than the present one, and I don’t believe that there is any other light and God other than the sun and the moon. “The sun and the moon,” said Armaleon, “are not gods, but a creation of God, established by the Lord in heaven, not for the purpose of attracting anyone to serve themselves, but then to serve, by illuminating the earth, a rational creature, that is, a person living on earth. Antiochus listened to these words of the tribune with surprise and asked him: – Who taught you such wisdom? “I was enlightened,” he said, “by an Alexandrian named Levky, who recently came here.” At this time, Saint Leukos was outside the city at the place of spectacles opposite the western gate of Vruntisiopolis; he taught the people here the faith of Christ, baptizing those who approached the Lord Jesus. Antiochus sent for him, honorably asking him to come to him. Seeing the bishop of God, he said to him: “If you want us to believe in the God you preach, then beg Him to send rain to our land, which we have not seen for two years now.” Due to lack of rain, our land has dried up and lost its former fertility, which is why the people remain in poverty and need. Saint Leucos, having called his clergy and all the newly baptized Christians, made a common fervent prayer to the Lord God, and immediately the sky was covered with clouds, from which abundant rain poured down, watering the entire land of that country. Then the whole city, led by Antiochus, believed in Christ, so that twenty-seven thousand people were baptized, and everyone praised Christ our God. They built a church in the middle of the city in the name of the Most Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary; another church, in the name of John the Baptist, was erected in the place where the people were baptized. Thus, the whole of Vruntisiopol was illuminated with the light of the holy faith. While teaching and confirming the faith of the newly enlightened, Saint Leukos became very ill and, by Divine revelation, learned that his illness was fatal. Calling Antiochus to him, he bequeathed to him that his body should be buried in the place where their ship landed. Then, raising his hands, he made a prayer for his flock, gave everyone a final blessing and a farewell greeting with a wish for peace; after which he reposed in the Lord, mourned by the whole city 4066. Taking the holy body of the saint, Antiochus carried it with due honors to the place where the saint, having arrived from Alexandria, came out of the ship to earth. Having created a church here in the name of Saint Leucius, Antiochus placed in it the honest relics of the saint of God. And many miracles were performed from his grave to the glory of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit - God, glorified in the Trinity, to Him from all creation be praise, thanksgiving and worship forever. Amen. Other news refers to the birth of St. Leucia to the time of the Christian Greco-Roman sovereigns and precisely to the time of Theodosius the Great (379–395). Tribune is the leader of a detachment of warriors. Some news refers to the death of St. Leucia to the 5th century. 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