Память святого священномученика Мефодия, епископа Патарского

The saint of God Methodius, who from a young age devoted himself to serving the Lord, appeared as an honest vessel who received the Holy Spirit; for this, by Divine election, he was awarded episcopal dignity, becoming the archpastor of the verbal sheep of the city of Patara, in the Lycian region 4067. Saint Methodius led his verbal flock with godly diligence, directing it to perfection with gentle teachings. During the days of the bishopric of Saint Methodius, the Origen heresy 4068 arose, which deceived many; Seeing its growth, Saint Methodius, as an outstanding shepherd, burned down heresy as if with fire with his denunciations - with teachings filled with wisdom and Divine grace, he destroyed the heretical darkness hanging over the faithful. His divinely inspired instructions swept across the universe like lightning, and like the sound of an intelligent trumpet, the voice of his teachings resounded throughout the earth. Therefore, the invisible enemy was unable to endure the zeal with which Saint Methodius was animated in his great labors, raised for the sake of piety, for the sake of the Church of Christ; he armed his visible servants against the holy bishop - pagans who worship idols; At his instigation, the pagans set out to put to a painful death the servant of God, who, even before suffering, had clothed himself in “life-giving mortification.” Having seized the saint of Christ, the pagans cut off his honest head with a sword. And Saint Methodius passed on to a better life; He who in the beginning served the Lamb of God was offered to God as a living sacrifice, and then he himself was slain as a lamb. Thus, the good ascetic of piety, who fought against heresies and confessed Christ before the pagans without fear, was crowned with a double crown, even before the shedding of blood and martyrdom, which followed in the kingdom of Aurelian 4069. Amen 4070. Your blood is wise, secretly crying out from the earth like Abel’s to God, the God-wise Saint Methodius, who clearly preached God’s incarnation: in the same way you put to shame Origen’s flattery, and you reposed in the heavenly palace. Pray to Christ God to save our souls. The sacred mystery of the Holy Trinity, and even more than the mind of the commandments of the Divine preacher, and you were an Orthodox affirmation, Methodius, you exposed the slanderous meanings, for the sake of orthodoxy, for the sake of your blood, the hieromartyr appeared: and Christ with the Angels standing before you, pray for us to be saved. Origen is the famous teacher of the Alexandrian Church, a miracle of his age in intelligence and depth of learning. Many of the most remarkable Fathers of the Church had deep respect for the theological works and merits of Origen; but later, during his lifetime, he was condemned as a heretic at two local councils of Alexandria and, after his death, at the Council of Constantinople in 543. Without expressing his non-Orthodox opinions as immutable truths, Origen, nevertheless, did not think correctly about many of the truths of the doctrine of the Christian Church, which is why some considered his firmness in the most important Christian dogmas doubtful. Developing the non-Orthodox doctrine of the pre-existence of souls, he thought incorrectly about Christ, believing that God created a certain number of spiritual beings of equal dignity, capable of understanding the Divine and becoming like Him; one of these created spirits rushed to the Divine with such fiery love that he inextricably united with the Divine Word or became Its created carrier; this, according to Origen, is the human soul through which God the Word could be incarnated on earth, since the direct incarnation of the Divine, in his erroneous opinion, is unthinkable. Holding a heretical view of the incarnation of God the Word and the creation of the world and man, Origen understood the death of Christ in a non-Orthodox sense, representing it as something repeated spiritually in the spiritual world and having there an effect on the liberation of Angels and attributing too much in the matter of salvation to the action of ordinary forces with which our nature is endowed. Origen also thought incorrectly in some points of his teaching about the resurrection and future life, for example, that the devil can be saved in the interpretation of St. Too much of Scripture was exaggeratedly understood in a mysterious sense, to the detriment of the historical meaning of Scripture. But, in any case, Origen’s services to the Church are more significant and cover up his errors. In his schools he educated many remarkable fathers and teachers of the Church, some of whom owe him their conversion from paganism to the Christian faith, with which he wanted to harmonize knowledge and philosophy. Particularly remarkable are his works on the study of St. Scripture, - interpretation, and most importantly, - restoration and purification of the original text; Origen’s writings are also remarkable, aimed at defending Christianity against its enemies and heretics. – During the persecution of Decius, Origen was awarded the glory of a courageous confessor of Christ; he died as a seventy-year-old old man in Tire in 254. 270–275 But a more likely assumption is that the death of St. Methodius followed later 310–312. From St. Methodius has preserved written works related to: 1) the defense of St. faith against paganism, 2) to the presentation of the dogmas of faith, especially against the errors of Origen, 3) to moral teaching and 4) to the explanation of St. Scriptures. You might be interested in: