24-го числа

The first and second discovery of the venerable head of St. John the Baptist The killers of the Forerunner did not allow his head to be laid down with his body, fearing that the terrible accuser of them, if his head was attached to the body, would not resurrect and begin to expose them again (Mark 6:14-16). The body of the Forerunner was buried by his disciples in Sebaste, the city of Samaria, and his severed head was especially hidden by Herodias in Herod’s palace, in a place of dishonor. Knowing about this humiliation, pious Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward (Luke 8:3), secretly at night took the head of the Forerunner from there and, putting it in a vessel, buried it on the Mount of Olives - on Herod’s estate. Long after that, a certain Innocent, a pious ascetic, bought Herod’s estate and began to build a church. Digging a ditch for the foundation, he found in the ground an earthen vessel and in it the head of the Forerunner, which he recognized by the signs of grace that came from her, and kept it with himself with great reverence. This discovery was the first. Before his death, wanting to save the head of the Baptist from the reproach to which it could be subjected to from those who did not believe in Jesus Christ, St. John hid it in the ground in the place where he found it. Subsequently, after the death of Iniokenty, the church built by him became deserted and fell apart, and thus the honest head again became unknown to anyone. In the days of Constantine the Great, when the Christian faith reigned in the world, and pious Christians from everywhere began to go to holy places to worship, two monks who came to Jerusalem to worship the Life-Giving Cross and the Holy Sepulcher, by revelation and command of the Forerunner himself, who appeared to them in a dream, found it on the Mount of Olives and took its venerable head with them. Returning with her to their home, they met on the way with one poor poor man, a resident of the Syrian city of Emessa, who was going from his fatherland to another country, and they went with him. The monks allowed their companion to carry the sackcloth in which the head of the Baptist was kept. The skudelnik did not know what was hidden in the sackcloth he was carrying. St. appeared to him. The Forerunner ordered to depart from his companions with the sackcloth that was in his hands. So God, for unbelief and laziness, took away the shrine from the unworthy monks, who at first did not believe the Forerunner’s appearance to them in a dream, and then did not want to bear his head! Having left the monks, the poor man, at the command of the Baptist, came with his head to his house; God blessed his house with an abundance of blessings. Believing that the author of these blessings is St. John the Baptist, the poor man, kept his honest head with great reverence. Before his death, he revealed about the shrine that he had and bequeathed to his sister to guard it with special respect, and then hand it over to the most worthy of the Christians. For a long time, the honest head of the Baptist was preserved in continuity among pious Christians. Subsequently, this treasure was acquired by a certain Eustathius, a man infected with the Aryan heresy, who had no fear of God. Then Providence was pleased to take the shrine away from the unworthy and, with his own hand, hide it for a long time in a cave unknown to the Orthodox. Eustathius, escaping the justice of the law for his evil faith and forced to leave his home and hide, hid the head of the Forerunner in a cave, so that later he could secretly take it from there. But, driven out of his home, he could not later return and again own the priceless shrine. On the site of the cave in which the spiritual treasure was hidden, pious monks settled and lived, not knowing what treasure was hidden in their peaceful haven of piety. Many years have passed; the head of the Baptist was again forgotten. A monastery was subsequently formed from a refuge for monks in a cave. The pious archimandrite of this monastery, Marcellus, who himself narrates the second discovery of the head of the Baptist, was honored with the appearance of the Baptist and notification from him of his venerable head, hidden in the cave of the monastery, and it was found again in 452 AD and, by order of the Greek king Marcian, was transferred from Emessa to Chalcedon, and then to Constantinople. † Memory of St. Erasmus of Pechersk Blessed Simon, Bishop of Vladimir, in instructions to his friend Polycarp, among other things, wrote: “There was a Monk Erasmus in the Pechersk Monastery. He acquired an inheritance of glory in the kingdom of heaven because he used everything he had to decorate the Pechersk Church and forged many icons, which we still have above the altar. The following temptation happened to him: when he became poor, they began to neglect him. The spirit of malice then began to inspire him: “There is no benefit to you from the fact that you spent your property on the church; It would be better if you used it on the poor.” Without considering such thoughts, he became despondent and began to live carelessly. The generous and merciful God saved him for his virtue. He brought upon him a serious illness. In this illness, Erasmus lay tongueless, with his eyes closed, for seven days, barely breathing. On the eighth day, the brothers came to him and, seeing his heavy breathing, said: “Woe, woe to the soul of this brother, who lived in laziness! She sees something and is restless, without leaving her body.” And then Erasmus suddenly stood up as if healthy and said: “Fathers and brothers! It’s as if I am a sinner, and an unrepentant sinner, as you said; but now our venerable fathers Anthony and Theodosius appeared to me and said: we prayed for you and the Lord has given you time to repent. Then I saw the Most Pure Mother of God with the Son of Christ God in her arms, and She said to me: Erasmus! because you have adorned My church with icons, and I will adorn you in the kingdom of My Son; Arise, repent, put on the image of an angel, and on the third day I will take you to Me, as one who has loved the splendor of My house.” Having said this, Erasmus began to confess his sins to everyone without shame. Then he went to church and was tonsured into the schema; and on the third day he died.” “I heard all this from holy witnesses and eyewitnesses,” says Blessed Simon, and then, turning to Polycarp, he writes: “Knowing this, do not think, brother, that you spent what you had in vain. Everything is counted by God down to the coppersmith. Expect mercy from God for your work. You built two doors in the great Pechersk Church of the Most Holy Theotokos, and God will open the doors of His mercy to you. For the priests cry out in that church: “Sanctify, O Lord, those who love the splendor of Thy house!” Remember Patricius, who ordered a cross to be forged from pure gold; The young man, who was jealous of him and added a little of his gold, became the heir of everything. And you, if you spend what you have for the glory of God and His Most Pure Mother, you will not be left without a reward. Say with David: “I will add Your praise to all” (Ps. 70:14), so that the Lord may also say to you: “I will glorify those who glorify Me.” You yourself told me: “It is better for me to spend what I have on church needs, so that it is not taken away from me by war, or thieves, or fire.” I praised your good intention. I promised, so fulfill it. Promise, it is said, and repay. It is better not to promise, than, having promised, not to deliver. And if you happen to be robbed, or lose everything from the war: do not grumble, do not be embarrassed, but glorify God for it and say with Job: The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away” 335. This is the story of Blessed Simon about Erasmus! because blessed Simon, according to him, saw eyewitnesses of the dying Erasmus: the death of the Monk Erasmus followed probably around 1160. He rests in the cave of Anthony with the name of the saint and wonderworker 336. Meletius Sirig prayed: “Wise Erasmus, who spent his wealth on the splendor of the church of God! Through your prayers may I become a spiritual Erasmus” 337. Description K. laurels p. 110. RKP. Saints: “teacher. Fathers Pergius and Erasmus, church beauty.” In Kalnofoysky: “St. Erasmus monk, wonderworker." In the printed patericon, Simon's simple and beautiful story about Eraem is not only shortened by half, but also changed with strange additions. Rev. Macarius (Ist. Russian ts. III, 33) in vain excluded St. Erasmus, as well as several others, from the number of ascetics of 1147–1240.