1
St. Agapius of Vatopedi (Athos) († XIII, commemorated March 1)
The Monk Agapius was a novice of a certain virtuous elder who was silent in the cell of the Holy Trinity in an area called Kolitsa, within the boundaries of the Vatopedi monastery. At one time he went out to the sea to wash his clothes, and the Hagarians happened there: they immediately took him and, taking him with them, sold him in Magnesia to one also Hagarene, with whom the saint was in chains for 12 years and worked every day with zeal. With complete faith and hot tears, Agapius prayed day and night to the Lady Theotokos, the speedy helper of all who resort to Her in faith, so that She, as She Herself knows, would free him from this bitter captivity and hard work. The All-Merciful One finally heeded the prayers of Her servant. One night, appearing to him in a dream, She tells him to go without any fear to her elder. Oh miracle! - Having awakened, Agapius sees that the chains have fallen off him and the doors are open. Then the saint realized that this was done by the miracle of the Mother of God, and therefore, immediately, without any obstacle, leaving the house of the Hagarene, he arrived on the Holy Mountain to his elder.
But this elder, seeing him, was saddened, for he thought that he had secretly run away from his master, and said to him: “Child! You deceived Hagarene, but no one will ever deceive God; at the hour of general judgment, you will have to answer for those pieces of silver that your master spent to buy you in order to have you as an assistant in his needs: therefore, if you truly desire salvation for yourself, 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 a vacation.” Agapius, who loves God and is beloved by God, accepting these words of his elder as from God, returned to the one who bought him. Hagaryan, unexpectedly seeing him, was surprised. “How did you leave me and why did you return,” the barbarian asked him. Then the saint explained the whole matter to him in detail. The barbarian was surprised and even amazed at the virtue of the Agapian elder and the height of the holy Christian faith, and at the same time his hardened soul softened with tenderness.
Soon, taking Agapius and his two sons with him, he came to the Holy Mountain to Elder Agapius and asked him for baptism for himself and his children. Having been properly confirmed in the faith of Christ, these barbarians were baptized, and after that they took on the angelic image and, having lived piously in virtuous submission first to the elder Agapius, and after his death to Agapius, they went to the Kingdom of Heaven to rejoice with the other reverend fathers in Christ Jesus, to whom honor and worship are due forever. Amen.
5
Mch. John the Bulgarian († 1784, commemorated March 5)
Blessed John was from Bulgaria. One day it happened that, forgetting precautions against the machinations of the devil, he denied Christ, but after a while, coming to his senses, he repented of his crime. In repentance, he left his fatherland, he arrived on the Holy Mountain and chose the Lavra of St. Athanasius as his home: here he spent three years in the service of one spiritual elder, but since his conscience never gave him peace, he was sad, sad and silent; His very appearance showed everyone that he had suffered some great evil. Unable to bear the remorse of conscience any longer, he left the Holy Mountain, arrived in Constantinople, dressed there in Turkish clothes and in this form entered the mosque of St. Sophia. Having appeared here, he began to perform the sign of the honorable cross on himself and pray according to Christian custom, which greatly amazed the Hagarians who were there. Confused, they run up to him and sternly ask why he is doing this.
Then the blessed one fearlessly confessed that he was a Christian and, as a Christian, he made the sign of the cross on himself and worshiped Christ, Who is the true Son of God and God. The wicked wanted to distract him from this holy confession, but, seeing the inflexibility of his thoughts, they immediately beheaded him outside the courtyard of St. Sophia. Thus, blessed John received the bright crown of martyrdom from Christ our God, to whom be glory and dominion forever. Amen.
Saint John suffered in the 19th year of his life, in 1784.
19
St. Innokenty Komelsky, Vologda († 1521, commemorated March 19)
The Monk Innocent, the son of the boyar Okhlebinin, accepted monasticism in the monastery of the Monk Kirill of Belozersky; then, together with his friend and mentor, the Rev. Nil of Sorsky82, he wandered for a long time to the East and lived in St. Mount Athos. Returning from the East to the Belozersky Monastery, he did not stay there long and followed the Monk Neil into the desert.
The monastery of St. Nile, where, as on St. Mount Athos, Innocent labored with him, was located fifteen miles from the large monastery of Kirillov on the banks of the unknown river Sorka. There Nile built his wretched hut, and not far from it, so that he could give voice to each other, according to Palestinian custom, his interlocutor Innocent built himself another cell; and other hermits little by little began to gather to him; In this way the first Russian monastery was formed, examples of which we see on Holy Mount Athos. Shortly before his blessed death, the Monk Nile, anticipating his departure to God, sent his interlocutor Innocent to the Vologda region, to the Nurma River, and predicted the future glory of his monastery, which was to flourish with community life. “Here,” said the monk, “as it was during my life, so let it be after death: let the brethren live alone, each in his own cell.”
Fulfilling the teacher’s dying will, he plunged into the depths of the Komel dense forest, on the southern side of which the monks Sergius of Nuromsky and Pavel Obnorsky settled at the beginning of the 15th century. From 1491, the Monk Innocent labored alone, but little by little a desert herd gathered around him, which he subordinated to the strict rules of the Monk Nile; then he built a church for the brethren in the name of the Angel of the Desert, the Forerunner of the Lord - and his monastery flourished.
Innocent reposed in 1521 on March 19, and in the last years of the 15th century, monks began to penetrate from all sides into the depths of the hitherto inaccessible wilds of Komelskaya. These were the spiritual children of Kirill Belozersky and Dionysius Glushitsky, who revived the dead desert with monastic deeds. The Tatar sword devastated the monastery of St. Innocent in 1536. Subsequently, a stone church was erected, in the name of the Annunciation, over his tomb; it survived the newly assembled and again abolished monastery in 1764
22
Prmch. Euthymius of Constantinople, Dimitsansky, New, Athos († 1814, commemorated March 22, May 1)
Euthymius the New (in the world Eleutherius), the son of rich and pious parents Panagiotis and Mary, came from the city of Dimitsana (Peloponnese). Together with his brother John, he was educated at the Greek school (later the Patriarchal Academy) in Kuruceshme (now within the boundaries of Istanbul). Then Eleutherius lived in Iasi for 2 years with his father and older brothers.
After a two-year stay in Iasi, a good idea was born in Eleutherius’s soul - to go to St. Mount Athos and become a monk; as a result, hiding from his father and brothers, he quickly flew like a bird from the vain world to the quiet refuge of the ascetics of Christ staying on the Holy Mountain. But before he achieved his desired goal, God was pleased to test his patience with great difficulties.
So, wanting to go to the Holy Mountain through Constantinople, he encountered unforeseen obstacles on this way due to the war between Russia and Turkey, and therefore went to Odessa in the hope of somehow getting from there to Athos. But even here he met an obstacle and returned back to Bucharest with sorrow. Here he became known to the French consul and a certain Russian official, with whom he remained for a year and a half, taking advantage of their patronage.