The Holy Martyr Roman was from Karpenisi: he came from parents who were simple and illiterate, but pious. Due to their illiteracy, Roman remained illiterate and therefore had little understanding of the dogmas of faith. One day, having heard the story of some about St. At the tomb of our Lord Jesus Christ, he became jealous to visit St. the city of Jerusalem, where he immediately went. Having reverently bowed to the life-giving Sepulcher of the Lord and all the saints there. places, he came to the Lavra of St. Sava the Sanctified. Hearing readings there about the torment to which the holy martyrs were subjected for the name of Christ in order to receive future eternal benefits, he asked: what are future benefits? Having received an understanding of them, he himself desired to achieve these blessings through the feat of martyrdom. Returning from the Lavra to Jerusalem, he announced his intention to the then patriarch, but the saint of God kept him from suffering, both because the end of this great and terrible matter was unknown, and so as not to bring persecution from the Turks on the brotherhood of the Holy Sepulcher and other Christians.
Roman, however, certainly desired martyrdom and could no longer suppress this desire in himself, or, so to speak, could not extinguish the flame that kindled in his heart: why, having left there, he appeared in Thessaloniki, and here appearing before the judge, boldly confessed before him Christ as the true God, the Creator of everything visible and invisible and the Savior of men, and called the prophet of Hagaryan a fabulist, a deceiver and an enemy all human goodness and happiness, and recognized their faith as deception and delusion, as filled with fables and worthy of laughter. Not tolerating such insolence, the judge ordered to beat him without mercy: the barbarians, forcing him to renounce Christ, took several belts from his back and cut his cheeks. In addition to this, the martyr for the name of Christ then endured other various torments. But since he remained firm in his confession, the judge sentenced him to be flogged.
It happened then that the captain of the Thessaloniki galleys was there, who began to ask the judge for a martyr for ship service, saying that this punishment for him would be more severe than a beating with the sword: he would suffer in the galley for the rest of his life. This reasoning of the captain pleased all the wicked, and they gladly gave him a martyr. So, the captain, taking him, shaved his beard and hair, chained him to the galley and forced him to row with an oar. After a little time, some of the Christians, friends of the captain, giving him a ransom, freed the sufferer from hard work and escorted him to Holy Mount Athos. Having appeared there, he chose as his mentor in the spiritual life a wondrous ascetic at that time, the Monk Akakios, who was silent in the monastery of Kafsokalivsky, and began to strive angelically under his leadership. However, Roman’s soul was not calm: he seemed alien to everything earthly, did not care about food or drink, for his thought was constantly directed towards the feat of martyrdom that he desired.
For a better solution to this issue, with common consent, both - the elder and the disciple - imposed a fast on themselves for several days and devoted themselves to warm and earnest prayer to the Lord God, so that He would reveal His will to them about this; Soon the Monk Akaki received a revelation that this was the will of God and that Roman would gloriously accomplish his martyrdom for Christ. So, Romanus, on the day of Pentecost, having clothed himself in the image of an angel and having been strengthened by the prayers of his elder and the local fathers, went to Constantinople. Having arrived here, the saint used the following means to declare himself to the Hagarians: having caught one of the dogs running there, he tied it to his belt and began to drag it in the middle of the bazaar. The Turks, seeing such an ungodly action, according to their concept, asked him: why was he dragging the dog; The martyr answered them: to feed her, as Christians feed you Hagarites.
Enraged by his response, the Muslims rushed at him like untamed animals and began to beat him without mercy, and then presented him to the vizier himself, who, hearing the same words from the mouth of the martyr, handed him over to the wicked to be tortured until he renounced his faith. The wicked servants took him, threw him into a dry well, where murderers are usually thrown, and kept him there for 40 days, without giving him any food or drink, then, taking him out, they again mercilessly tortured him, but unable to persuade him to their wickedness, they reported this to the vizier, who ordered to take his life with a sword. The executioners immediately took him and, bringing him to the place of execution, by taking away his honorable head there, they conveyed his holy soul to the righteous Judge of all - God. After cutting off the head, the holy relics of the martyr turned and fell to the east; Envying this, the Hagarites began to beat and drive away the Christians who had flocked in large numbers from there.
Divine grace deigned to reveal the holiness of these passion-bearing relics to people by illuminating them with heavenly light, which illuminated them for three whole nights while the wicked were guarding them: everyone saw this light and marveled. Christians, glorifying God, rejoiced at this; The Hagarites were put to shame. Then an English ship arrived there: it bought the holy relics and took them to England. But one of the Christians managed to soak a cloth in the blood of the holy martyr, who is located on Mount Athos in the Dochiarsky monastery, where the Christian ended his life as a monk with the name Agapia. Thus, blessed Roman received the crown of martyrdom for the glory of Christ our God. Amen.
The Holy Martyr Roman suffered in 1694.
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Prmch. Damian the New, Philothean, Larissa († 1568, commemorated February 23, 3rd Sunday after Pentecost)
The ascetic of Christ Damian had as his fatherland the village of Rikhvo, in the diocese of Agrafskaya. Born of pious parents, from his youth he desired a monastic life; therefore, leaving the world and even in the world, he retired to the holy Mount Athos, and here, in the sacred monastery of Philotheus, taking upon himself the angelic image, he began to strive worthy of his title. But desiring even greater feats, after some time he left the monastery and went into silence with one then famous silent ascetic, who even possessed the gift of miracles, named Dometius. He used the guidance and soul-helping instructions of this silent man for three years, rising from strength to strength and succeeding in all virtues, so that for his unremitting zeal and zeal, thoroughness and accuracy in fulfilling all the commandments of God, he was honored to hear the Divine voice calling him to serve his neighbors: “Damian,” this was the Divine broadcast to him, “you must seek not only your own benefit, but also the benefit of others.”
Therefore, he immediately left the Holy Mountain, retired to the borders of Olympia and began to preach the word of God everywhere with boldness and loud voice, stirring up Christians to repentance and moving away from untruths and vices and calling everyone to keep the commandments of God and do good and godly deeds.
The good-hater devil was angry with anger, looking at his brotherly loving works and, not tolerating them, aroused many false Christians against him, who began to slander his life and, calling him seduced and a deceiver, began to cruelly persecute him. Imitating the ascetic Christ, the saint gave way to anger and withdrew from there to the borders of Kisso and Larisa, where preaching the word of God was also an essential subject of his studies.
Having been subjected there to criticism, envy and persecution of malice, he retired to the upper reaches of the Agraf diocese, and everywhere he instructed Christians to remain firm in the faith and keep the commandments of the Lord. But the devil did not sleep: even there he raised up against the saint some Christians who did not fear God and had forgotten their duties, and they, driven by the misanthrope, persecuted him, calling him deceived and a false monk; why the saint left these borders and returned to Kissovo. Desiring serenity, he built a monastery there and, having gathered the brethren, began to send up prayers and thanksgiving to the Lord God with them day and night: however, many came to him there for spiritual benefit; for, being endued from above, he performed great signs and wonders, and rivers of soul-helping teachings flowed from his lips.