9th v. Saint Titus the
Wonderworker displayed zeal for the monastic life from his youth
He pursued asceticism in the ninth century at the
Studion monastery near Constantinople. By his deeds of fasting, purity
of life and mild disposition, St Titus gained the love of the brethren,
and at their request he was ordained priest.
Fervent of faith, the saint stood up for the Orthodox
veneration of icons during the Iconoclast persecution. Because of his
virtuous life, God granted him the gift of wonderworking. The saint
was translated to the Lord in his old age.
Titus der Wunderwirker Orthodoxe Kirche: 2. April
Titus war im 9. Jahrhundert Mönch im Studiteskloster
in Konstantinopel. Er wurde zum Priester ordiniert und setzte sich während
des Bildersturms für die Verehrung der Ikonen ein. Wegen seines
frommen Lebenswandels wurde ihm die Gabe verliehen, Wunder zu vollbringen.
Titus starb in hohem Alter.
VENERABLE TITUS, THE MIRACLE-WORKER
From his youth, Titus loved
Christ the Lord and detested the vanities of the world. Because of this,
he retreated from the world, entered a monastery and received the Great Angelic
Habit [The Great Schema-The Angelic Face]. Not feeling any remorse, he dedicated
himself to the somber and narrow path of monasticism. Through great
patience, he attained two basic virtues: that of humility and obedience.
In these virtues, he surpassed "not only the brethren, but also all
men." From his youth he preserved the purity of his soul and body. At
the time of the Iconoclastic heresy he proved himself to be an unwavering
pillar of the Church of God. Because of his great humility and purity,
God bestowed upon him the gift of performing miracles, both during his
life-time and after his death. When he was translated to the Lord he
left behind a countless number of disciples. He died peacefully in
the ninth century.
Amphian_St_Titus_the_Wonderworker_Edesius
The Monk Tito the Wonderworker
devoted himself from the time of youth to the monastic life. He pursued
asceticism in the IX Century at the Studite monastery near Constantinople.
By his deeds of fasting, purity of life and mild disposition the Monk
Tito gained the common love of the brethren and at their request he was
ordained presbyter. Fervent of faith, the monk stood up bravely for the
Orthodox veneration of icons during the time of Iconoclast persecution.
For his virtuous life he was granted by God the gift of wonderworking.
The saint expired to the Lord in old age.
|
800 Alcmund martyr virtuous
prince--humble and generous miracles at his tomb M (AC)
(also known as Alchmund, Ealhmund) Died in England
c. 800. Prince Alcmund was born into the royal house of Northumbria
as the son (or nephew) of Alchred (765-74) and brother of Osred. He was
described as a virtuous prince--humble and generous. During the Danish
invasions of England, he and his father were exiled. His subjects, who
were being maltreated convinced him to fight for the throne out of compassion
for their distress.
He met his death at Deorham in Shropshire after
more than 20 years of exile among the Picts of Scotland. King Eardwulf
was held responsible. The circumstances of his death were such that
he was venerated as a martyr, first at Lilleshall, where there were
miracles at his tomb, and then at Derby. Several churches were dedicated
to him in Shropshire and Derbyshire (Attwater2, Benedictines, Encyclopedia,
Farmer, Husenbeth). In art, Saint Alcmund is an Anglo-Saxon king with
a crown and a sword. He is venerated at Derby, Lilleshall, Shropshire
(Roeder).
|
812-821 Kenelm (Cynehelm)
highly honored in England during the Middle Ages as a saint and martyr,
and still is venerated at Gloucester and Winchcombe, where his relics
are enshrined, King M (AC)
According to a popular legend of the Middle Ages, Kenelm
was seven when his father, King Kenulf (Coenwulf) of Mercia, died,
and he succeeded to the throne. His sister Quendreda (Cynefrith or
Quoenthryth) bribed his tutor, Ascebert, to murder him in the forest
of Clent so that she could claim the throne. Ascebert did, but when
the body was discovered and enshrined at Winchcombe in Gloucestershire,
all kinds of marvels occurred at his grave. All three are actual figures,
but Kenelm did not die at seven and may even have died before his father.
It is certain that he lived until his adolescence and may have been killed
in battle (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia). In art, Saint
Kenelm is depicted as a young prince with a blossoming rod. The picture
may also contain a dove with a letter in its mouth (Roeder). He was highly
honored in England during the Middle Ages as a saint and martyr, and
still is venerated at Gloucester and Winchcombe, where his relics are
enshrined (Encyclopedia, Roeder). |
816
Venerable Gregory Decapolite gifts of prophecy and wonderworking permitted
to hear angelic singing in praise of the Holy Trinity
Constantinópoli sancti Gregórii Decapolítæ,
qui ob cultum sanctárum Imáginum multa passus est.
At Constantinople, St. Gregory of Decapolis,
who suffered many things for the veneration of sacred images.
Saint Gregory the Decapolite was born in the Isaurian city
of Decapolis (ten cities) in the eighth century. From his childhood
he loved the temple of God and church services. He read the Holy Scripture
constantly and with reverence.
In order to avoid the marriage which his parents had intended
for him, he secretly left home. He spent all his life wandering: he
was in Constantinople, Rome, Corinth, and he lived as an ascetic on
Olympus for a while. St Gregory preached the Word of God everywhere,
denouncing the Iconoclast heresy, strengthening the faith and fortitude
of the Orthodox, whom the heretics in those times oppressed, tortured
and imprisoned.
Through his ascetic effort and prayer, St Gregory attained
the gifts of prophecy and wonderworking. After overcoming the passions
and reaching the height of virtue, he was permitted to hear angelic
singing in praise of the Holy Trinity. St Gregory left the monastery
of St Menas near Thessalonica, where he had labored for a long time,
and he went again to Constantinople in order to combat the Iconoclast
heresy. At the capital, a grievous illness undermined his strength,
and he departed to the Lord in the year 816.
St Gregory was buried at a monastery in Constantinople,
and many miracles took place at his tomb. As a result, the monks removed
the holy relics of St Gregory and enshrined them in the church where
people could venerate them.
When Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453, the relics
of St Gregory were carried to the region of the Danube by a Turkish
official. In 1498 Barbu Craiovescu, the Ban of the Romanian Land (Wallachia)
heard of the miracles performed by the holy relics and bought them for
a considerable sum of money. Barbu Craiovescu placed the relics in
the main church of Bistritsa Monastery which he founded in Rimnicu Vilcea,
where they remain to the present day.
A small book describing the miracles and healings performed
by St Gregory the Decapolite in Romania has been written by Abbess
Olga Gologan, who reposed in 1972.
Gregory Decapolites (RM)
Born in Decapolis, Asia Minor; 9th century. Saint Gregory
opposed the Iconoclasts zealously and suffered much at their hands
(Benedictines).
|
818 St. Theophanes
Abbot Confessor relics were honored by many miraculous cures
His father, who was governor of the isles of
the Archipelago, died when he was only three years old, and left him
heir to a very great estate, under the guardianship of the Iconoclast
emperor, Constantine Copronymus. Amidst the dangers of such an education,
a faithful pious servant instilled into his tender mind the most generous
sentiments of virtue and religion. Being arrived at man's estate, he
was compelled by his friends to take a wife; but on the day of his marriage,
he spoke in so moving a manner to his consort on the shortness and uncertainty
of this life, that they made a mutual vow of perpetual chastity. She afterwards
became a nun, and he for his part built two monasteries in Mysia one of
which, called Megal-Agre, near the Propontis, he governed himself.
He lived, as it were, dead to the world and
the flesh, in the greatest purity of life, and in the exercises of
continual mortification and prayer. In 787, he assisted at the second
council of Nice, where all admired to see one, whom they had formerly
known in so much worldly grandeur, now so meanly clad, so modest, and
so full of self-contempt as he appeared to be.
He never laid aside his hair shirt; his bed
was a mat, and his pillow a stone; his sustenance was hard coarse
bread and water. At fifty years of age, he began to be grievously afflicted
with the stone and nephritic colic; but bore with cheerfulness the
most excruciating pains of his distemper. The emperor Leo, the Armenian,
in 814, renewed the persecution against the church, and abolished the
use of holy images, which had been restored under Constantine and Irene.
Knowing the great reputation and authority of Theophanes, he endeavored
to gain him by civilities and crafty letters. The saint discovered the
hook concealed under his alluring baits, which did not, however, hinder
him from obeying the emperor's summons to Constantinople, though at that
time under a violent: fit of the stone; which distemper, for the remaining
part of his life, allowed him very short intervals of ease. The emperor
sent him this message. "From your mild and obliging disposition, I flatter
myself you are come to confirm my sentiments on the point in question
with your suffrage, it your readiest way for obtaining my favor, and with
that the greatest riches and honors for yourself, your monastery, and
relations, which it is in the power of an emperor to bestow. But if you
refuse to comply with my desires in this affair, you will incur my highest
displeasure, and draw misery and disgrace on yourself and friends." The
holy man returned for answer: "Being now far advanced in years, and much
broken with pains and infirmities, I have neither relish nor inclination
for any of these things which I despised for Christ's sake in my youth,
when I was in a condition to enjoy the world. As to my monastery and
my friends, I recommend them to God. If you think to frighten me into
a compliance by your threats, as a child is awed by the rod, you only lose
your labor. For though unable to walk, and subject to many other corporeal
infirmities, I trust in Christ that he will enable me to undergo, in defense
of his cause, the sharpest tortures you can inflict on my weak body."
The emperor employed several persons to endeavor to overcome his resolution,
but in vain: so seeing himself vanquished by his constancy, he confined
him two years in a close stinking dungeon, where he suffered much from
his distemper and want of necessaries. He was also cruelly scourged.
having received three hundred stripes. In 818, he was removed out of his
dungeon, and banished into the isle of Samothracia, where he died in
seventeen days after his arrival, on the 12th of March. His relics were
honored by many miraculous cures. He has left us his Chronographia, or
short history from the year 824, the first of Dioclesian, where George
Syncellus left off, to the year 813. His imprisonment did not allow him
leisure to polish the style.
Theophanes the Chronicler, Abbot
(RM) (also known as Theophanes of Mt. Sigriana)
Born in Constantinople; died in Samothrace,
March 12, 818. Saint Theophanes went from possessing great wealth
in his youth to great poverty. While he was still quite young, his
father died and left him a huge fortune. He was raised in the court
of Emperor Constantine V, married, but by mutual consent, he and his
wife separated so that she could become a nun and he a monk. Theophanes
built monasteries on Mount Sigriana and on the island of Kalonymos; after
six years at the latter, he became abbot of Mount Sigriana. He attended
the Council of Nicaea in 787 and when he supported the decrees of the
council approving the veneration of sacred images, he came into conflict
with Emperor Leo the Armenian, who supported iconoclasm. When Theophanes
refused to accede to the emperor's demands, he was scourged, imprisoned
for two years, and then banished to Samothrace, where he died in exile
soon after his arrival from the injuries he received in prison. He has
the appellation "the Chronicler" because he wrote a history covering
the years 284-813 entitled Chronographia (Delaney, Encyclopedia).
|
821 Benedict of Aniane
restorer of Western monasticism his relics remain and are attributed
with the working of miracles often called the 'second Benedict.' died
with extraordinary tranquility and cheerfulness
OSB Abbot Hermit (AC) Born in Languedoc,
France, 750; died at Cornelimuenster, Aachen, Germany, February 11,
feast day formerly on February 12.
The son of the Visigoth Aigulf, count or governor
of Maguelone, Witiza was cup-bearer to King Pepin and Charlemagne
and served in the army of Lombardy. About age 20 he made a resolution
to seek the kingdom of God with his whole heart. For three years more
he served at the court while mortifying his body.
In 774, having narrowly escaped drowning in
the Tesin near Pavia while trying to save his brother during a military
campaign in Lombardy, Italy, he made a vow to quit the world entirely.
Witiza became a Benedictine monk
at Saint-Seine near Dijon, France, where he took the name Benedict and was
appointed cellarer. He spent two and one half years there living on bread
and water, sleeping on the bare ground, often praying throughout the
night, and going barefoot even in winter. He received insults with
joy, so perfectly had he died to self. God bestowed upon him the gift
of tears and an infused knowledge of spiritual things.
When the abbot died he refused the abbacy offered
him there because he knew his brothers were unwilling to reform.
In 779 Benedict returned to his
estate at Languedoc, where he lived as a hermit near the brook of Aniane (Coriere),
attracted numerous disciples including the holy man Widmar, and in 782 built
a monastery and a church. The monks employed themselves in manual labor
and copying manuscripts.
They lived on bread and water except on Sundays
and great feast days when they added wine or milk if they received
any in alms. The results of his austere rule combining those of Benedict,
Pachomius, and Basil were disappointing, so he adopted the Benedictine
Rule and the monastery grew. From here his influence spread. He reformed
and inaugurated other houses.
When Bishop Felix of Urgel proposed that Christ
was not the natural, but only the adoptive son of the eternal Father
(Adoptionism), Benedict opposed this heresy and assisted in the Council (synod) of Frankfurt
in 794. He also employed his pen to refute this heresy in four
treatises, which were published in the miscellanies of Balusius.
Throughout the Frankish empire monasticism had
suffered from the dual evils of lay ownership and the attacks of the
Vikings. Monastic discipline had decayed regardless of the efforts of
8th and 9th century emperors who had legislated in favor of the Rule of
Saint Benedict as the fundamental and stable code of conduct throughout
their domains.
Benedict of Aniane and Emperor Louis the Pious
cooperated with each other to mutual benefit. The emperor, who built
the abbey of Maurmünster as a model abbey for Benedict in Alsace
and then Cornelimünster (initially called Inde) near Aachen (Aix-la-
Chapelle, Germany), made Benedict director of all the monasteries in the
empire. The monk instituted widespread reforms, though because of opposition
they were not as drastic as he had wanted. And Benedict supported
the emperor, first by moving closer to his throne at Aachen. Then, at
Aachen, he presided over a meeting of all the abbots of the empire in 817--a
turning point in Benedictine history.
During the meeting Benedict's Capitulare
monasticum, a systematization of the Benedictine Rule was approved
as the rule for all monks in the empire.
He also compiled the Codex regularum,
a collection of all monastic regulations, and Concordia regularum,
showing the resemblance of Benedict's rule to those of other monastic
leaders.
The legislation emphasized the
fundamental guidelines of the Benedictine Rule, stressing individual
poverty and chastity with obedience to a properly constituted abbot,
who was himself a monk. Under imperial pressure for uniformity in food,
drink, clothing, and the Divine Office (which can be compared
with Charlemagne's insistence on the Roman Rite), there was
also some attempt to impose monastic observance in less important details.
Benedict insisted upon the liturgical
character of monastic life, including a daily conventual Mass and
additions to the Divine Office. He also stressed the clerical
element in monasticism which led to the development of teaching and
writing as opposed to manual labor in the field. This innovative systematizing
and centralization fell into desuetude after the death of Benedict and
his patron Louis, but it had lasting effects on Western monasticism.
The influence of his reforms can be seen in
the reforms of Cluny and Gorze. For this reason, Benedict is considered
the restorer of Western monasticism and is often called the 'second
Benedict.'
Benedict died with extraordinary
tranquility and cheerfulness at about age 71 and was buried in the
monastery church, where his relics remain and are attributed with the
working of miracles (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Farmer, Husenbeth,
Walsh).
In art, Saint Benedict is portrayed as a Benedictine
abbot with supernatural fire near him. Sometimes he is shown (1) in
a cave, food lowered to him in a basket (this is more generally Saint
Benedict himself), or (2) giving the habit to Saint William of Aquitaine. He is venerated
at Dijon (Saint-Seine) and Aniane (Languedoc) (Roeder)
|
827 St. Adelard monk Charles
Martel grandson King Pepin nephew Charlemagne 1st cousin.
827 ST ADALHARD, on
ADELARD, ABBOT
THE family
of this holy monk was most illustrious, his father Bernard being son
of Charles Martel and brother of King Pepin, so that Adalhard was first
cousin to Charlemagne. He was only twenty years old when, in 773, he took
the monastic habit at Corbie in Picardy, a monastery founded by Queen
St Bathildis. The first employment assigned him was that of gardener,
in which, whilst his hands were employed in digging or weeding, his thoughts
were on God and heavenly things.
The great example of his virtue defeated the projects of his humility
and did not suffer him to live long unknown, and some years after he
was chosen abbot. Being obliged by Charlemagne often to attend at court,
he soon, in fact, became the first among the king’s counselors, as
he is styled by Hincmar, who had seen him there in 796. He was even compelled
by Charlemagne to quit his monastery altogether, and act as chief minister
to that prince’s eldest son Pepin, who, at his death at Milan in 810,
appointed the saint tutor to his son Bernard.
After the death of Charlemagne, Adalhard was accused of supporting
the revolt of Bernard against Louis the Debonair, who banished him to
a monastery in the little island of Hen, called afterwards Noirmoutier,
on the coast of Aquitaine. The saint’s brother Wala (one of the great
men of that age, as appears from his curious life, published by Mabillon)
he obliged to become a monk at Lérins. This exile St Adalhard regarded
as a great gain, and in it his tranquillity of soul met with no interruptions.
The emperor at length was made sensible of his innocence, and after
five years’ banishment recalled him to court towards the close of the
year 821 but he soon had again to retire to his abbey at Corbie, where
he delighted to take upon himself the most humbling employments of the
house. By his solicitude and powerful example his spiritual children
grew daily in fervour; and such was his zeal for their advancement, that
he passed no week without speaking to every one of them in particular,
and no day without exhorting them all in general by his discourses. The
inhabitants of the country round had also a share in his labours, and
he expended upon the poor the revenues of his monastery with a profusion
which many condemned as excessive, but which Heaven sometimes approved
by sensible miracles. The good old man would receive advice from the least
of his monks. When entreated to moderate his austerities, he answered,
“I will take care of your servant”, meaning himself, “that he may serve
you the longer.”
During his banishment another Adalhard, who governed the monastery
by his appointment, began at our saint’s suggestion to prepare the foundation
of the monastery of New Corbie, commonly called Convey, in the diocese
of Paderborn, that it might be a nursery of evangelical labourers for
conversion of the northern nations. St Adalhard, after his return to
Corbie, completed this undertaking, and to perpetuate the strict observance,
which he established in his two monasteries, he compiled a book of statutes
for their use, of which considerable fragments are extant. Other works
of St Adalhard are lost, but by those, which we have, and also by his disciples
St Paschasius Radbertus, St Anskar and others, it is clear that he was
a zealous promoter of literature in his monasteries.
Paschasius assures us that he instructed the people not only in
the Latin, but also in the Teutonic and vulgar French languages.
Alcuin, in a letter addressed to him under the name of Antony,
calls him his son, whence many infer that he had been scholar to that
great man. St Adalhard had just returned from Germany to Corbie, when
he fell ill three days before Christmas and died on January 2, 827, in
his seventy-third year. Upon proof of several miracles the body of the
saint was translated with solemnity in 1040; of which ceremony we have
a full account, by an author, not St Gerard, who also composed an office
in his honour, in gratitude for having been cured of intense pains in the
head through his intercession.
See his life, compiled
with accuracy but in a tone of panegyric, by his disciple, Paschasius
Radbertus, printed in the Acta Sanctorum,
and more correctly in Mabillon (vol. v, p. 306). Cf. also U.
Berlière in DHG., vol. i, cc. 457—458; and BHL., n. 11.
He became a
monk at Corbie in Picardy in 773. Eventually he was chosen abbot, and
became Charlemagne's counselor. He was forced by the king to quit the
monastery and work for him as chief minister for his son Pepin. He was
accused of supporting a rival power (Bernard) against Emperor Louis the
Debonair and was banished to a monastery on the island of Heri. Five years
later he was recalled to the king's court (821). He later retired to the
Abbey at Corbie and died January 2 after an illness.
Miracles were reported
after his death. When Adelard first became monk at Corby in Picardy
(in 773), his first assignment was gardener of the monastery. He did his
job humbly and piously, praying throughout the day. His great virtues
eventually helped him become Abbot.
827 St. Adalard
Patron of French churches
and towns. A nephew of Charles Martel, he was raised as a nobleman at
the court of his cousin Charlemagne. At age twenty Adalard entered the
monastery of Cordie in Picardy, but then went to Monte Cassino, staying
there in seclusion until Charlemagne insisted he return to court. At
Corbie, Adalard was elected abbot and then named Prime Minister to Pepin,
Charlemagne's son, the King of Italy. He became involved in the political
struggles of the royal family and in 814 he was banished to Hermoutier.
After seven years of exile, Adalard was cleared of all charges and returned
to the court of Louis the Pious. Adelard died on January 2, 827.
|
828
St. Nicephorus Patriarch of Constantinople relics incorrupt and fragrant
known for his intellect and his eloquence opponent of the Iconoclasts
martyr
Constantinópoli
Translátio sancti Nicéphori, Epíscopi ejúsdem
urbis et Confessóris; cujus corpus e Proconnéso, Propóntidis
ínsula, ubi ipse quarto Nonas Júnii ob sanctárum
Imáginum cultum exsul obíerat, Constantinópolim
relátum est, atque a sancto illíus civitátis Epíscopo
Methódio honorífice in templo sanctórum Apostolórum
sepúltum, hac ipsa recurrénte die, in qua olim idem Nicéphorus
in exsílium fúerat deportátus.
At Constantinople, the transferral of the body
of St. Nicephorus, bishop of that city, and confessor. The body
was returned from the island of Propontis in the Proconnesus, where his
death occurred on the 5th of June while in exile for his reverence of
sacred images.
He was buried with honour by Bishop Methodius
in the Church of the Holy Apostles on this the anniversary day of
his exile.
The son of the secretary of Emperor Constantine
V, he was raised as an opponent of the Iconoclasts in the imperial
capital and remembered always that his father had been tortured for
opposing the Iconoclast emperor. Nicephorus became known for his intellect
and his eloquence, and received the post of imperial commissioner. After
founding a monastery near the Black Sea, he was chosen despite being a
layman to succeed to the office of patriarch of Constantinople in 806,
succeeding St. Tarasius. He
was opposed for a time by St. Theodore Studites after Nicephorus forgave
a priest who married Emperor Constantine VI toTheodota despite the fact
the Constantine’s wife, Mary, still lived. The patriarch also challenged
the Iconoclast policies of Emperor Leo V the Armenian and was deposed by
a synod of Iconoclast bishops at the conniving of the emperor. Nearly assassinated
on several occasions, Nicephorus was exiled to the monastery he had founded
on the Black Sea, spending his remaining years there in prayer. He died
on June 2 or March 13, 829. While patriarch, he brought various reforms to
his large diocese and inspired the lay people.
He was also the author of anti Iconoclast writings
and two historical works, a Chronographia and Brevianim.
Nicephorus of Constantinople
BM (RM) Born in 758; died June 2, 828; feast day formerly June 2.
It's no wonder that Nicephorus was a staunch opponent of iconoclasm;
his father, the emperor's secretary, had been tortured and exiled for
refusing to accept Emperor Constantine Copronymus's decrees banning sacred
images. Nicephorus became imperial commissioner known for his eloquence,
scholarship, and statesmanship. He built a monastery near the Black Sea.
Although he was still a layman and did not desire
any preference, he was named patriarch of Constantinople in 806 to
succeed Saint Tarasius.
Nicephorus incurred the enmity of Saint Theodore Studites for giving
absolution to the priest who had illicitly married Emperor Constantine
VI and Theodota while Constantine's wife Mary was still alive. The two
were later reconciled.
Nicephorus devoted himself to
reforming his see, restoring monastic discipline, and reinvigorating
the faith of his flock. The patriarch also brought Saint Methodius of Constantinople, who
later became patriarch, from his monastery on Chios. He resisted the
efforts of Emperor Leo the Armenian to reimpose iconoclasm, but was
deposed by a synod of iconoclastic bishops assembled by the emperor. Several
attempts were made on the life of Nicephorus and he was exiled to the
monastery he had built on the Black Sea, where he spent the last 15 years
of his life.
Nicephorus wrote several treatises
against iconoclasm and two
historical works, Breviarum
and Chronographia (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney).
Saint Nicephorus was a dignitary
at the court of the empress Irene (797-802), and then after receiving
monastic tonsure, he became known for his piety. In the year 806
he was elevated to the patriarchal throne. The saint was a zealous defender
of the holy Icons. When the Iconoclast emperor Leo the Armenian (813-820)
came to rule, the saint in 815 was exiled to Prokonnis, where he died
in the year 828.
In the year 846 the holy relics of Patriarch
Nicephorus were opened, and were found incorrupt and fragrant. They
transferred them from Prokonnis to Constantinople and placed them for
one day in Hagia Sophia, and then transferred them to the Church of the
Holy Apostles. The saint's hands are preserved in the Hilandar monastery
on Mount Athos.
The saint left behind three writings against
Iconoclasm. The main Feast of St Nicephorus is celebrated on June
2, but today we commemorate the finding and transfer of his holy relics.
|
830 St. Antoninus of Sorrento
St. Michael Archangel visited him Benedictine abbot patron of Sorrento
body is daily glorified by many miracles, especially by the deliverance
of possessed persons
Apud Surréntum
sancti Antoníni Abbátis, qui e monastério Cassinénsi,
a Longobárdis devastáto, in solitúdinem ejúsdem
urbis secéssit; ibíque, sanctitáte célebris,
obdormívit in Dómino. Ipsíus corpus multis
quotídie miráculis, et præsértim in energúmenis
liberándis effúlget.
830 St.
Antoninus of Sorrento St. Michael Archangel visited him Benedictine abbot
patron of Sorrento body is daily glorified by many miracles, especially
by the deliverance of possessed persons
Apud
Surréntum sancti Antoníni Abbátis, qui e monastério
Cassinénsi, a Longobárdis devastáto, in solitúdinem
ejúsdem urbis secéssit; ibíque, sanctitáte célebris,
obdormívit in Dómino. Ipsíus corpus multis quotídie
miráculis, et præsértim in energúmenis liberándis
effúlget.
<antony_abbot_Sorrento.JPG
830 ST ANTONINUS OF SORRENTO, ABBOT
ST ANTONINUS appears to have been born at Picenum, in the district
of Ancona in southern Italy, and to have entered when still young a monastery
under the rule of Monte Cassino—not Monte Cassino itself, as some writers
have erroneously supposed. The ravages of Duke Sico of Benevento forced
him to leave his convent, and he went to Castellamare near Sorrento, to
the bishop St Catellus, who received him very cordially and with whom he
soon formed the closest friendship. They lived and worked together, and
when St Catellus felt drawn to lead for a while a solitary life on a lonely
mountain-top he entrusted St Antoninus with the care of his diocese.
Antoninus, however, soon followed
his friend, and the two had a vision of St Michael which led them, later
on, to build an oratory there, dedicated to the archangel. When St Catellus
was recalled on a charge of neglecting his diocese, and then summoned to
Rome and imprisoned on a false accusation, St Antoninus continued to live
on his peak, which commanded an extensive view over the sea and land and
which, under the name of Monte Angelo, soon became a favourite place of
pilgrimage. After a time, the inhabitants of Sorrento begged him to come
and live in their midst, as their bishop was in prison and they felt that
Antoninus would be a help and support to them. He therefore abandoned his
solitary life and entered the monastery of St Agrippinus, of which he afterwards
became abbot. When he lay dying, he was understood to say that he wished
to be buried neither within nor without the city wall. Accordingly his monks
decided to bury him in the city wall itself.
Tradition adds that when Sicard
of Benevento (the son of Sico) besieged Sorrento, he tried with battering
rams to break down that portion of the city wall which contained the saint’s
tomb, but all in vain. During the night St Antoninus appeared to Sicard
and, after upbraiding him, beat him severely with a stick. In the morning
he was covered with weals and, as he was taking counsel with his advisers,
word was brought him that his only daughter had become possessed with devils
and was rending her garments like a madwoman. He discovered upon inquiry
that this had come upon her at the very hour when he had begun his attack
upon the wall. Convinced that he was withstanding the will of God, Sicard
abandoned the siege and sought the intercession of St Antoninus, who obtained
the girl’s restoration to health. Twice more—in 1354 and in i~8—Sorrento
was invested, but by the Saracens, and each time the successful repulse
of the enemy was attributed to the intercession of St Antoninus, who is
therefore considered the chief patron of Sorrento.
The anonymous
author of the Latin life of St Antoninus lived shortly after his time,
and his account is probably trustworthy in its main features. This document
was first printed by A. Caracciolo in his Antonini coenobii
Agrippinensis abbatis vita (1626). The same life with other material
will be found in the Acta Sanctorum, February, vol. ii, and
also in Mabillon.
At Sorrento, St. Anthony, abbot, who, when the monastery
of Monte Cassino was devastated by the Lombards, withdrew into a solitude
of the neighbourhood, where, celebrated for his holiness, he went calmly
to his repose in God. His body is daily glorified by many miracles,
especially by the deliverance of possessed persons.
While serving as a monk, Antoninus had to leave his monastery
when local wars threatened. He became a hermit recognized by the local
people as a man of holiness. The people of Sorrento invited him to become
the abbot of St. Agrippinus Monastery. While on Monte Angelo as a hermit,
he lived with St. Catellus,
former bishop of Castellamare. St. Michael the Archangel visited him on
the mountain. He repelled an attack by the Saracens on Sorrento by a miracle
after his death.
Antoninus of Sorrento, OSB Abbot (RM). Antonius was a Benedictine
monk in one of the daughter houses of
Monte Cassino. When he was forced to leave his monastery because
of the wars raging in the country around him, he became a hermit until
he was invited by the people of Sorrento to live among them. He did so
as an abbot of Saint Agrippinus.
He is now venerated as the patron of Sorrento (Benedictines).
In art, Saint Antonius is a Benedictine holding a standard and the city
wall (Roeder).
At Sorrento, St. Anthony, abbot, who, when the
monastery of Monte Cassino was devastated by the Lombards, withdrew
into a solitude of the neighbourhood, where, celebrated for his holiness,
he went calmly to his repose in God. His body is daily glorified
by many miracles, especially by the deliverance of possessed persons.
While serving as a monk, Antoninus had to leave
his monastery when local wars threatened. He became a hermit recognized
by the local people as a man of holiness. The people of Sorrento invited
him to become the abbot of St. Agrippinus Monastery. While on Monte
Angelo as a hermit, he lived with St. Catellus, former bishop of Castellamare.
St. Michael the Archangel visited him on the mountain. He repelled an
attack by the Saracens on Sorrento by a miracle after his death.
|
830 St. Macarius the Wonder-Worker monk known
for miracles
Abbot and victim of persecution by Iconoclast heretics.
He was born Christopher at Constantinople. and became a monk at Pelekete
Monastery, taking the name Macanus. Elected abbot, he was called
the Wonder-Worker because of his prodigious miracles. Two Iconoclast
emperors of Constantinople exiled him. Emperor Leo V banished him
for a time and then Emperor Michael II sent him to Aphusia Island
on the coast of Bythinia, where he died on August 18.
Macarius the Wonder-Worker, Abbot (RM) Born in Constantinople;
died on Aphusia Island, Bithynia, on August 18, c. 830.
"To you, O Master, who loves all mankind I hasten on rising
from sleep. By your mercy I go out to do your work and I make my prayer
to you. Help me at all times and in all things. Deliver
me from every evil thing of this world and from pursuit by the devil.
Save me and bring me to your eternal kingdom, For you are my Creator,
You inspire all good thoughts in me.
In you is all my hope and to you I give glory, now and
forever." --Saint Macarius
Piously baptized Christopher in Constantinople, he took
the name Macarius upon becoming a monk at Pelekete nearby. Eventually
he was elected abbot and became known for the miracles he wrought.
Macarius was ordained by Patriarch Tarasius of Constantinople,
was imprisoned and tortured for his opposition to the iconoclasm
proclaimed by Emperor Leo the Armenian, and was released by Leo's
successor, Emperor Michael the Stammerer. When he refused Michael's
demands that he support the iconoclastic heresy, he was exiled to
the island of Aphusia off the coast of Bithynia and died there (Attwater2,
Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia).
Saint Macarius was born at Constantinople in 785. While
still a child, he lost his parents. The saint fervently read the Scriptures
and came to realize that earthly things are temporary and perishable,
and that heavenly things are permanent and imperishable. Therefore, he
decided to devote his life entirely to God. He entered the Pelekete monastery
in Bithynia, where at the time the igumen was the renowned ascetic,
St Hilarion (March 28). After the death of St Hilarion, St Macarius
was unanimously chosen as igumen by the brethren. During the reign
of the Byzantine Emperors Leo V the Armenian (813-820) and Michael
II the Stammerer (820-829), St Macarius suffered as a confessor for
the veneration of holy icons. He was sent to the island of Aphousia,
where he died in about the year 830. |
834 Etheldritha of
Croyland Aug 03 recluse for forty years devoting herself to assiduous prayer
and the practice of Christian virtue miracles prophesies OSB V (AC)
(also known as Ælfryth, Alfrida, Alfreda, Althryda,
Ethelfreda)
Saint Etheldritha was daughter of King Offa of the Mercians
and his queen, Quindreda. She was betrothed to King Ethelbert of the
East Angles, who was killed by her father's treachery. Because she
had wanted to consecrate her life entirely to the service of God, she
left the court and established herself about 793 in a small cell on
Croyland Island in the desolate marshes of Lincolnshire. There she lived
as a recluse for forty years devoting herself to assiduous prayer and
the practice of Christian virtue. Several miracles attested to her eminent
sanctity, however, she was best known for her prophesies. Her tomb was
among those arranged around that of Saint Guthlac, but her relics
were lost during the ravages of the Danes when they destroyed Croyland
Abbey in 870 (Benedictines, Farmer, Encyclopedia, |
837 St Peter of Atroa, Abbot; numerous miracles; undertook
restoration of St Zachary’s and reorganization of 2 other monasteries
he established, his own residence hermitage at Atroa; Iconoclast troubles
began again and, the local bishop being an opponent of images, Peter
judged it wise once more to disperse his monks to more remote houses;
ninth-century
Byzantine hagiography and for what it tells of monastic life during
the Iconoclast troubles; moines de l’Olympe
scanty ruins of St Peter’s monastery of St Zachary, and of numerous
others, can still be seen.
A LIFE of St Peter of Atroa,
who was born in 773 near Ephesus, was written by one of his own disciples
and is still extant. It goes into some detail, but is principally made
up of edifying anecdotes of no great interest, particulars of the saint’s
numerous journeys and, above all, accounts of his even more numerous
miracles.
He was the
eldest of three children, and was christened Theophylact, and nobody
was surprised when, at the age of eighteen, he decided to be a monk. Directed,
it is said, by the All-holy Mother of God, he joined St Paul the Hesychast
(Recluse) at his hermitage at Crypta in Phrygia, who clothed Theophylact
with the holy habit and gave him the name of Peter. Immediately after
his ordination to the priesthood at Zygos some years later, at the
very door of the church, there happened the first wonder recorded of him,
when he cured a man possessed by an unclean spirit.
Shortly afterwards
St Peter accompanied his spiritual father on his first pilgrimage,
when they directed their steps towards Jerusalem; but God in a vision
turned them aside, telling them to go to the Bithynian Olympus, where
St Paul was to establish a monastery at the chapel of St Zachary on the
edge of the Atroa. This accordingly was done, the monastery flourished,
and before his death in 805 Paul named Peter as his successor. He was then
thirty-two years old, and the access of responsibility made him redouble
his fervour and his extreme austerities.
The monastery
continued to flourish for another ten years, when St Peter decided to
disperse his community in the face of the persecution by the Emperor
Leo the Armenian of those who upheld the orthodox doctrine
concerning the veneration of images. Peter himself went first to Ephesus
and then to Cyprus; on his return, at a conference of some of his refugee
brethren, he escaped arrest by imperial troops only by making himself
invisible. Then, with one companion, Brother John, he continued his wanderings
and visited his home, where his brother Christopher and his widowed mother
received the monastic habit at his hands. He tried to settle down as a
recluse in several places, one of which was Kalonoros, The Beautiful Mountain,
at the end of the Hellespont; but so great was his reputation as a wonder-worker
and reader of consciences that he was never left in peace for long. But
at Kalorioros he remained for some years, making journeys about western
Asia Minor from time to time, each of which was starred with miracles.
The
death of Leo the Armenian in 820 made for a little more tranquillity in
the Church, and with the stimulus of persecution taken away for a time
the pettiness of small minds reasserted itself. Certain bishops and abbots,
jealous of his popularity and his miracles, accused St Peter of practising
magic and of casting out devils by the power of Beelzebub. When they refused
to listen to his modest expostulations, Peter decided to seek the advice
of St Theodore Studites, who was living in exile with some of his monks
at Kreskentios, on the gulf of Nicomedia. When he had made careful enquiry
and questioned Peter closely, St Theodore wrote a letter (it can be found
in his works) to all the monks around Mount Olympus, declaring that the
conduct and doctrine of Peter of Atroa were irreproachable and that he
was as good a monk as could be found. The detractors were thus rebuked,
and the vindicated Peter returned to Kalonoros.
He then
undertook the restoration of St Zachary’s and the reorganization of
two other monasteries that he had established, taking up his own residence
in a hermitage at Atroa. But a few years later the Iconoclast troubles
began again and, the local bishop being an opponent of images, Peter
judged it wise once more to disperse his monks to more remote houses. He
was only just in time, for soon after the bishop came to St Zachary’s with
the intention of driving them out and arresting those who resisted. St
Peter, meanwhile, having seen his community safely housed elsewhere, stayed
for a period with a famous recluse called James, near the Monastery of
the Eunuchs on Mount Olympus. It was while staying here that he miraculously
cured of a fever St Paul, Bishop of Prusias, who had been driven from his
see by the image-breakers: the instrument of the bishop’s cure was a good
square meal.
Persecution
becoming more envenomed in Lydia, Peter and James retired to the monastery
of St Porphyrios on the Hellespont, but soon after St Peter decided to
go back to Olympus to visit his friend St Joannicius at Balea, from whence
he returned to his hermitage at St Zachary’s. A few weeks later St Joannicius
had a vision: he seemed to be talking with Peter of Atroa, at the foot of
a mountain whose crest reached to the heavenly courts; and as they talked,
two shining figures appeared who, taking Peter one by each arm, bore him
away upwards in a halo of glory. At the same moment, in the church of St
Zachary’s, while the monks were singing the night office with their abbot
on a bed of sickness in the choir, death came to St Peter of Atroa, after
he had lovingly addressed his brethren for the last time. It was January
1, 837.
There seems
to have been no liturgical cultus
of St Peter of Atroa, but it is nevertheless curious that
his contemporary biography should have been ignored or overlooked by hagiologists
for so long. As is said above, it is largely taken up with the Saint’s
miracles, but it is interesting as
a good specimen of ninth-century Byzantine hagiography and for what it
tells of monastic life during the Iconoclast troubles. Rescuing the manuscript
“from wherever the caprice of the learned had, hidden it”, as Fr V. Laurent
puts it, Fr B. Menthon published a translation in L’Unité
de l’Eglise, nos. 60 and 71 (1934—35), as one chapter
from his work on Les moines de l’Olympe. Father Menthon
was pastor of the Latin Catholics at Brusa, and had an intimate knowledge
of the topography and archaeology of the neighbouring mountain, where scanty
ruins of St Peter’s monastery of St Zachary, and of numerous others, can
still be seen.
|
838
Saint Nicetas the Confessor of Paphlagonia patrician at imperial
court during reigns of empress Irene and her son Constantine
He represented the empress Irene at the Seventh Ecumenical
Council in 787, though his name does not appear in the Acts of the
Council. He also assisted at the transfer of the relics of St Euphemia
(September 16).
Renouncing all positions and honors, Nicetas decided to
become a monk. At the request of the emperor, he did not go into the
wilderness, but rather remained in a monastery in the capital. When
the Iconoclast Theophilus occupied the imperial throne, the venerable
Nicetas was banished from the monastery by the heretics for opposing
the heresy. He wandered for a long time throughout the country.
St Nicetas died at the age of seventy-five about the year
838. During his life and after his death he worked many miracles. |
840 St. Ansovinus
Bishop sanctity and miracles a great builder confessor of the Frankish
Emperor Louis the Pious
He was born in Camerino, Italy, and entered
the religious life at a young age. After living as a hermit for many
years, Ansovinus elected Camerino. Ansovinus' sanctity and miracles
also brought him to the court of Emperor Louis the Pious where he served
as confessor and spiritual counselor.
Ansovinus of Camerino B (RM) Born in Camerino,
Italy; Ansovinus was a hermit at Castel Raimondo near Torcello who
was consecrated bishop of Camerino. He accepted the office on the condition
that his see should be exempt from the service of recruiting soldiers,
then imposed upon most bishops in their capacity as feudal lords (Benedictines,
Encyclopedia). Saint Ansovinus is depicted as a bishop with a barn
near him. He may also be shown with fruit and garden produce (Roeder).
He is venerated in Camerino, is the patron of gardeners, and is invoked
for good harvests (Roeder).
|
841 St. Theodore
bishop of Nicaea and Theophanes (martyred) brothers monks supported
icons they worked many healings
Two brothers who endured persecution because
of their resistance to the Iconoclasts of the Byzantine Empire. Both
were monks in the monastery of St. Sabbas in Jerusalem at the
time when Byzantine officials demanded that the icons be destroyed. When
the brothers opposed the action, they were beaten and had their faces
cruelly disfigured by having verses carved into them.
Theodore died in prison. Theophanes may have survived
him long enough to become bishop of Nicaea.
Saint Theodore the Confessor, and his brother
Theophanes (October 11) were born in Jerusalem of Christian parents.
From early childhood Theodore shunned childish amusements and loved
to attend church services. With his younger brother Theophanes (October
11), he was sent to the Lavra of St Sava to be educated by a pious
priest. Both brothers became monks, and St Theodore was ordained to
the holy priesthood.
The iconoclast emperor Leo V the Armenian (813-820)
expelled and replaced the pious ruler Michael I Rhangabe (811-813).
In the beginning, Leo concealed his heretical views, but later declared
himself an iconoclast. The Patriarch of Jerusalem sent the two brothers
to Constantinople to defend the holy icons. Theodore refuted Leo's
arguments, proving the falseness of his beliefs. Leo ordered that both
brothers be beaten mercilessly, and then had them sent into exile, forbidding
anyone to help them in any way.
Under the subsequent emperors, Michael II (820-829),
and particularly under the iconoclast Theophilus (829-842), both brothers
returned from exile. Again they were urged to accept iconoclasm, but
they bravely endured all the tortures. They were sent into exile once
more, but later returned. This time they were subjected to fierce torture,
and finally, their faces were branded with the verses of a poem which mocked
the holy confessors. Therefore, the brothers were called "the Branded."
The city prefect asked St Theodore to take communion
with the iconoclasts just once, promising him freedom if he did. But
the holy martyr replied, "Your proposal is the same as saying: 'Let
me cut off your head once, and then you may go wherever you wish.'"
After torture the holy brothers were banished
to Apamea in Bithynia, where St Theodore died around the year 840.
St Theophanes survived until the end of the iconoclast heresy, and died
as Bishop of Nicea. St Theophanes was author of many writings in defense
of Orthodoxy. The relics of St Theodore were transferred to Chalcedon,
where they worked many healings.
|
846
St. Joannicus Hermit prophet miracle worker defied Byzantine
emperor Theophilus
and his Iconoclast policies. Born in Bithynia, in modern Turkey, Joannicus
was an Iconoclast until he was converted to the religious life at
the age of forty. He became a recluse on Mount Olympus in Bithynia
and a monk. Later, he defied the emperor and declared that sacred images
would be restored to the Church. Empress Theodora did restore the icons. |
850 St. Maura Virgin God performed many miracles
in her favor
850 ST MAURA OF TROYES, VIRGIN
SHE was born at Troyes in Champagne in the year 827, and in her youth
obtained of God by her prayers the conversion of her father, who had tilt
then led a worldly life. After his death, Maura continued to live in dutiful
obedience to her mother, Sedulia, and by the fervour of her example was
the sanctification of her brother Eutropius, who became bishop of Troyes,
and of the whole family.
The maiden’s whole time was
consecrated to prayer, to offices of obedience or charity in attending on
her mother and serving the poor, or to her work, which was devoted to the
service of the needy and of the Church.
As order in what we do leads
a soul to God, according to the remark of St Augustine, Maura was regular
in the distribution of her time and in all her actions. She spent almost
the whole morning in the church worshipping God, praying to her divine Redeemer,
and meditating on His passion. Every Wednesday and Friday she fasted, allowing
herself no other food than bread and water and she sometimes walked barefoot
to the monastery of Mantenay, two leagues from the town, to open the secrets
of her soul to the holy abbot of that place.
The profound respect with
which she was penetrated for the word of God is not easily to be expressed,
and so wonderful was her gift of tears that she seemed never to fall upon
her knees to pray but they streamed from her eyes. God performed miracles
in her favour, but it was her care to conceal His
gifts, because she dreaded human applause. In her last moments she said
the Lord’s Prayer, and died as she pronounced the words, “Thy kingdom come”,
being twenty-three years old.
The Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. vi, prints a short life by St Prudentius
of Troyes, who died in 861. See also E. Socard, Ste Mauve de
Troyes (1867).
She was nobly born at Troyes in Champagne in the ninth century,
and in her youth obtained of God by her prayers the wonderful conversion
of her father, who had till then led a worldly life. After his happy death,
Maura continued to live in the most dutiful subjection and obedience to her
mother, Sedulia and by the fervor of her example was the sanctification of her brother Eutropius
and of the whole family.
The greatest part of the revenues of their large estate was converted
into the patrimony of the poor. The virgin's whole time was consecreted
to the exercises of prayer, to offices of obedience or charity, in attending
on her mother and serving the poor, or to her work, which was devoted to
the service either of the poor or of the church; for it was her delight in
a spirit of religion to make sacred vestments, trim the lamps, and prepare
wax and other things for the altar.
As order in what we do leads a soul to God, according to the remark of
St. Austin, she was regular
in the distribution of her time, in all her actions. She spent almost the
whole morning in the church, adoring God, praying to her divine Redeemer,
and meditating on the circumstances of his sacred life and passion. Every
Wednesday and Friday she fasted, allowing herself no other sustenance than
bread and water, and she walked barefoot to the monastery of Mantenay, two
leagues from the town, where she prayed a long time in the church, and with
the most perfect humility and compunction laid open the secrets of her soul
to the holy abbot of that place, her spiritual director, without whose advice
she did nothing.
The profound respect with which she was penetrated for the word of God,
and whatever regarded the honor of his adorable name, is not to he expressed.
So wonderful was her gift of tears, that she seemed never to fall upon her
knees to pray hut they streamed from her eyes in torrents.
God performed many miracles in
her favor but it was her care to conceal his gifts, because she dreaded
the poison of human applause. In her last sickness she received the extreme
unction and viaticum with extraordinary marks of divine joy and love and
reciting often the Lord's Prayer, expired at those words, Thy kingdom come,
on the 21st of September, 850 being twenty-three years old. Her relics and
name are honored in several churches in that part of France, and she is mentioned
in the Gallican Martyrology. See her life written by Saint Prudentius of Troves, who was acquainted
with her, also Goujet
and Mezangui, Vies des Saints.
|
852 St. Fandila entered the Benedictine monastery
of Tabanos at Cordoba habitual practices of frequent prayer, vigils,
and penances. His zeal to preach the faith and defend it prompted him
to take the audacious step of going before a Moorish magistrate to deliver
a refutation of Islam miracle of hailstones
Córdubæ,
in Hispánia, sancti Fándilæ, Presbyteri et Mónachi;
qui, in persecutióne Arábica, amputáto cápite,
pro Christi fide martyrium súbiit.
St. Fandila, a priest and monk, At Cordova in Spain, in the persecution of the
Arabs, who underwent martyrdom by beheading for the faith of
Christ.
A native of Cadiz, Spain, Fandila
entered the Benedictine monastery of Tabanos at Cordoba. His great
holiness attracted the attention of the monks of the San Salvador Monastery
at Pinna Mellaria. These persuaded him to become a priest for their
religious community. Following his ordination, Fandila continued his
habitual practices of frequent prayer, vigils, and penances. His zeal
to preach the faith and defend it prompted him to take the audacious step
of going before a Moorish magistrate to deliver a refutation of Islam. This
sermon incurred the anger of the Moorish authorities occupying Spain, who
thereupon imprisoned him, and afterwards beheaded him.
Fandilas of Penamelaria M (RM) Born in Andalusia,
Spain; died at Cordova in 853. Saint Fandilas was a priest and the
abbot of the monastery of Peñamelaria near Cordova, where he
was beheaded by order of the Moorish emir (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
Centuries later, there was a Spanish farming
district where each year in June, close to the date of Fandila’s feastday
on the thirteenth, thunderstorms pounded the crops with hail, devastating
the vineyards. Finally, one of the farmers invoked the intercession
of Fandila by erecting a cross with the martyr’s name inscribed upon
it. From that time onward, hailstorms no longer occurred in that district
.
|
860 Athanasia of
Constantinople Matron married twice reluctantly turned their home into a
convent venerated by Empress Theodora (RM)
In Ægína ínsula sanctæ Athanásiæ
Víduæ, monástica observántia et miraculórum
dono illústris.
In the island of Aegina, St. Athanasia,
widow, celebrated for monastical observance and the gift of miracles.
St Athanasia, Matron
She was born on the island of Aegina,
in the gulf of that name, and married an officer in the army; but only
sixteen days after their union he was killed while fighting against
the Arabs, who had made a descent on the Grecian coast. Athanasia was now
anxious to become a nun, especially as she had had a dream or vision
in which the passingness of all earthly things had been strongly impressed
on her. But she was persuaded by her parents to marry again. Her
second husband was a devoted and religious man, and shared in and encouraged
his wife's good works. She gave alms liberally and helped the sick,
strangers, prisoners and all who stood in need; after the Liturgy on
Sundays and holy-days she would gather her neighbours round her and read
and explain to them a passage from the Bible. After a time her husband decided
he wanted to become a monk, which with Athanasia's consent he did, and
she turned her house into a convent, of which she was made abbess.
These nuns followed a life of excessive
austerity, till they came under the direction of a holy abbot called
Matthias; he found that they had by mortifications reduced themselves
to such weakness that they could hardly walk. He therefore
insisted to St Athanasia that she should modify the austerities of her
subjects, and also arranged for the community to move from their noisy
house in a town to one more quiet and suited for monastic life at Timia.
Here so many came to them that their buildings had to be enlarged, and
the fame of St Athanasia caused her to be called away to the court of
Constantinople as adviser to the Empress Theodora. She had to live
there for seven years, being accommodated in a cell similar to that which
she occupied in her own monastery. She had not been allowed to
return to Timia long when she was taken ill for twelve days she
tried to carry on as usual, but at last she had to send her nuns to sing
their office in church without her, and when they returned their abbess
was dying and survived only long enough to give them her blessing.
The evidence for this history is
unsatisfactory, for though the author of the life which the Bollandists have
translated from the Greek (Acta Sanctorum,
August, vol. iii) claims to be virtually a contemporary, such pretensions
are not of themselves convincing. No great cultus seems to have existed, but
an account of Athanasia is given in some texts of the synaxaries
on April 4. I. Martynov, Annus Ecclesiasticus
Graeco-Slavicus, pp.
107-108, speaks of her on April 12. One point of interest in
the Greek life is the stress laid upon the commemoration on the fortieth
day after burial, which amongst the Greeks corresponded to the "month's
mind" in western lands.
Born on the island of Aegina. Some complain
that most of the saints were hermits and virgins, priests and popes,
who bear little resemblance to the typical Catholic in the pews.
Saint Athanasia was married. Not
only was she married, she was married twice. Both times she did so reluctantly.
The first time her parents arranged a marriage
to an army officer. Although Athanasia would have preferred the religious
life, she readily complied with their wishes. Three weeks after their
wedding, her husband was killed in a battle with a Moorish raiding party
from Spain. The savagery of these raids so decimated the population of
Aegina that authorities passed a law that make celibacy illicit. So, Athanasia
married again.
She was equally yoked with her
second spouse. Together they led a life of good works and prayer
so that their home became a center of religious activity. His wealth
permitted them the means to extend considerable charity to those in
need. In a division of labor, Athanasia visited the sick in their homes
in the city and countryside, while her husband remained at home and
dispensed aid to all who came to them. On Sundays, Athanasia conducted
Bible- reading groups.
After a few years of marriage,
her husband decided to become a monk. He turned over all his property
to Athanasia, so that she could continue their work. When he had entered
the monastery, Athanasia turned their home into a convent. The sisters
lived an extremely austere life that was moderated by the able guidance
of an abbot named Matthias, who also suggested that they move the convent
to a more isolated location called Tamia.
The monastery grew and so prospered at
Tamia that the fame of Athanasia reached the ears of the empress at
Constantinople. Theodora, the wife of Emperor Theophilus the Iconoclast,
called her to Constantinople to help her restore the veneration of
images. Athanasia stayed in Constantinople for seven years, and fell
deathly ill shortly after her return to Tamia. Nevertheless, Athanasia
continued to attend divine office until the eve of her death (Benedictines,
Encyclopedia).
In art, Saint Athanasia is shown weaving. There
is a star over her or on her breast.
Sometimes the picture will include Empress
Theodora (Roeder). She is venerated in the Eastern Church (Roeder).
|
862
St. Swithun educated at old monastery, Winchester, where ordained;
became chaplain to King Egbert of the West Saxons appointed him tutor
of son, Ethelwulf; one of the King's counselors; built several churches
and was known for his humility and his aid to the poor and need Malmesbury
affirms that a great number of miraculous cures of all kinds were wrought
on occasion relics translation
Swithun "Swithin", also spelled
Swithin, was born in Wessex, England and was educated at the old monastery,
Winchester, where he was ordained. He became chaplain to King Egbert
of the West Saxons, who appointed him tutor of his son, Ethelwulf,
and was one of the King's counselors. Swithun was named bishop of Winchester
in 852 when Ethelwulf succeeded his father as king.
Swithun built several churches
and was known for his humility and his aid to the poor and needy.
He died on July 2. A long-held superstition declares it will rain for
forty days if it rains on his feast day of July 15, but the reason for
and origin of this belief are unknown.
St. Seduinus English saint possibly identical
to St. Swithin or Sithian.
Swithun (Swithin) of Winchester,
OSB B (RM) Born in Wessex, England; died at Winchester, England,
July 2, 862. Saint Swithun was educated at the Old Abbey, Winchester,
and was ordained (it is uncertain whether or not he was a monk).
He became chaplain to King Egbert of the West Saxons, who appointed
him tutor of his son Ethelwulf, and was one of the king's counselors.
Swithun was named bishop of Winchester in 852 when Ethelwulf succeeded
his father as king. Swithun built several churches and was known for his
humility and his aid to the poor and needy. His veneration as a saint
appears to date from the removal of his bones from the churchyard into
the cathedral a century after his death.
Swithun was born in Wessex at the
end of the eighth century or beginning of the ninth, and passed his
youth in the study of grammar, philosophy and the Holy Scriptures at
the Old Monastery in Winchester, of which, however, he was probably never
a member. Being ordained priest, his learning, piety and prudence
moved Egbert, King of the West Saxons, to make him his chaplain, under
which title the saint subscribed a charter granted to the abbey of Croyland
in 833. That prince also committed to his care the education of his
son Ethelwulf, and made use of his counsels in the government of his kingdom.
On the death of Egbert, Ethelwulf succeeded, and he governed his kingdom
by the prudent advice of Aelfstan, Bishop of Sherborne, in temporal affairs,
and of St Swithun in ecclesiastical matters, especially those which
concerned his own soul. Bearing always the greatest reverence to Swithun,
he procured him, upon the death of Helmstan, to be chosen bishop of Winchester,
to which see he was consecrated by Ceolnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury,
in 852.
William of Malmesbury says that this good
bishop was a treasury of all virtues, and those in which he took
most delight were humility and charity to the poor; in the discharge
of his episcopal functions he omitted nothing belonging to a true
pastor. He built several churches and repaired others; and when
he had to dedicate any church, he used to go barefoot to the place.
He died on July a, 862, and at his own request was buried in the churchyard,
where his grave might be trodden by passers-by and the rain fail upon it.
But his feast is
observed in the dioceses of Portsmouth and Southwark on July15, on
which date, over a hundred years after, his relics were taken up and
translated into the church, which legend says was done in accordance
with a vision of the saint granted to a poor labourer.
Malmesbury affirms that a great number of
miraculous cures of all kinds were wrought on this occasion. In the
reign of William the Conqueror, Walkelin, Bishop of Winchester, laid
the foundation of a new cathedral church, and on July 15, 1093, the shrine
of St Swithun was translated from the old to the new church.
Swithun is still
in the memory of the English people by reason of the superstition
that if it rains on his feast-day it will rain for forty days after,
and the opposite. Many ingenious attempts have been made to
explain this belief, but no one of them is convincing.
Other saints elsewhere have the same story
attaching to their day, for example, SS. Gervase and Protase, and St
Medard in France and St Cewydd in Wales.
The scanty sources available
for the life of St Swithun have been printed by the Bollandists in
the Acta Sanctorum, July,
vol. i, and in the Analecta Bollandiana,
vol. iv, pp. 367-410, vol. vii, pp.373-380, and vol. lviii, pp. 187-196.
There are also some fragments in Anglo-Saxon, for which see Earle,
Glousester Fragments,
vol. i (1861), and G. H. Gerould in the periodical Angus, vol. xx, pp. 347-357. Most
of this material, particularly the account by Santfrid and the long
Latin poem by Wolstan (ed. Alistair Campbell, 1951), deals only with
the translation and miracles of the saint. For the little we know
concerning his life we are indebted mainly to William of Malmesbury
and Simeon of Durham. That a genuine cultus of Swithun existed
in England is shown by the fact that, in contrast to many others commonly
styled "saints", his feast and translation day are entered in many of our
native calendars. Churches were dedicated in his honour even in Scandinavia.
|
863 SAINT VERON et sa
soeur SAINTE VERONE existe toujours sous le nom de "puits saint Véron".
Ce confesseur de
la Foi aurait été le fils de Louis le Germanique, petit-fils
de Louis le pieux et donc arrière petit-fils de Charlemagne.
Dès l'âge de 16 ans, il quitta la cour pour venir se réfugier
à Lembeek, près de Hal, où il travailla comme valet
de ferme, dans la plus humble condition, imitant en cela Jésus
qui travailla de ses mains à Nazareth. Il y acquit une grande
réputation de sainteté. Il fit un jour jaillir une source
en plantant son bâton en terre, et cette source existe toujours
sous le nom de "puits saint Véron". Il connut les invasions normandes
et mourut en 863. Son tombeau devint bien vite un lieu de pélerinage.
On l'invoque contre le typhus, les fièvres malignes, les migraines,
les névralgies, les rhumatismes et les maux de tête. Ses
reliques ont été transportées à Mons, en
l'église sainte-Waudru.
Une marche dédiée
à Saint Véron est organisée à Lembeek le
lundi de Pâques, et à Ragnies, dans le Hainaut, un pèlerinage
est organisé le même jour. Saint Véron est honoré
dans le diocèse de Malines et fêté le 31 janvier
[et le 30 mars en Hainaut]. Tropaire d'un confesseur (apôtre).
Quant à sa soeur, nous ne connaissons rien de sa vie. Elle mourut
à Leefdael, dans le Brabant, et un premier oratoire en bois fut
immédiatement construit sur son tombeau. Il fut remplacé
par une église en pierres au 11ème siècle. Une source
située à proximité a la réputation de guérir
les fièvres. Fête le même jour et tropaire d'une religieuse.
SAINT MINNOW and
his HOLY sister VERONE
This confessor of
the Faith would have been the son of Louis the Germanic one, grandson
of Louis the piles and thus postpones grandson of Charlemagne. As of the
16 years age, it left the court to come to take refuge in Lembeek, close
to Hal, where it worked as farmhand, under the humblest condition, imitating
in that Jesus who worked with his hands with Nazareth. It acquired
a great reputation of holiness there. It was dawning one to spout out
a source by planting its ground stick, and this source always exists under
the name of “holy well Véron”. It knew the invasions Normans and
died into 863. Its tomb well quickly became a place of pélerinage.
One calls upon it against typhus, the fevers malignant, the migraines,
the neuralgias, rheumatisms and the headaches. Its relics were transported
to Mons, in the holy-Waudru church.
A walk dedicated to
Saint Minnow is organized in Lembeek the Easter Monday, and in Ragnies,
in Hainaut, a pilgrimage is organized the same day. Saint Véron
is honoured in the diocese the Malignant ones and is celebrated on
January 31 [and on March 30 in Hainaut]. Tropaire of a confessor (apostle).
As for his/her sister, we do not know anything of his life. It died in
Leefdael, in the Brabant, and a first wood oratory was immediately built
on its tomb. It was replaced by a stone church at the 11th century. A
source located in the vicinity with the reputation to cure the fevers.
Celebrates the same day and tropaire of a chocolate éclair.
|
866 Fremund of Dunstable
Anglo-Saxon hermit relics many miracles are recorded M (AC)
An unreliable, possibly fictitious account, relates that
Fremund was related to King Offa of Mercia and King Edmund of East
Anglia. Although Fremund was an Anglo-Saxon hermit, he was a possible
claimant to the throne of Mercia. Therefore, he was killed by his kinsman
Oswy with the help of the Danish invaders who had also murdered King Edmund.
He is honored as a martyr. His relics were first enshrined at at Offchurch
in Warwickshire and later (1212) translated to Dunstable, where many
miracles are recorded. Cropredy in Oxonshire also claimed his relics.
His feast is recorded in three medieval calendars including that of Syon
Abbey (Benedictines, Farmer). |
868 Saint Nicholas
the Confessor Igumen of the Studion Monastery venerated holy icons
gift of healing continued even after his repose
lived during the ninth century. He was
born on the island of Crete in the village of Kedonia into a Christian
family.
When he was ten, his parents sent him to Constantinople
to his uncle, St Theophanes (October
11), who was a monk at the Studion monastery. With the approval of
St Theodore (November 11),
the head of the Studion monastery, the boy was enrolled in the monastery
school. When he finished school at sixteen years of age, he was tonsured
a monk. After several years, he was ordained a priest.
During this time there was a fierce persecution,
initiated by the Byzantine emperor Leo the Armenian (813-820), against
those who venerated the holy icons. St Nicholas and St Theodore the
Studite were repeatedly locked up in prison, tortured in various ways,
and humiliated. However, they zealously continued to defend Orthodoxy.
Under the holy Empress Theodora (February 11),
who ruled the realm while her son Michael was still a minor, icon
veneration was restored, and a time of relative peace followed. St Nicholas
returned to the Studite monastery and was chosen its head. But this calm
did not last very long. The Empress Theodora was removed from
the throne, and the emperor's uncle, Bardas, a man who defiled himself
by open cohabitation with his son's wife, came to power.
Attempts of Patriarch Ignatius (October 23)
to restrain the impiety of Bardas proved unsuccessful. On the contrary,
he was deposed from the patriarchal throne and sent into exile.
Unwilling to witness the triumph
of iniquity, St Nicholas left Constantinople. He spent seven years
at various monasteries. Later on, he returned as a prisoner to the Studite
monastery, where he spent two years imprisoned, until the death of
the emperor Michael (855-867) and Bardas. When emperor Basil I the
Macedonian (867-886) ascended the throne, St Nicholas was set free,
and again became igumen on the orders of the emperor. Because
of his life as a confessor and ascetic he received from God the gift
of healing, which continued even after his repose in the year 868.
|
871 Edwold of Cerne,
Hermit worked many miracles was buried in his cell near which the
abbey of Saint Peter's was built (AC)
Farmer gives him two feast days: August 29 and the feast
of his translation, August 12. Saint Edwold is reputed to be the
brother of Saint Edmund the Martyr, king of East Anglia. He lived on
bread and water as a penitential recluse near Cerne in Dorsetshire.
He worked many miracles and was buried in his cell near which the abbey
of Saint Peter's was built. His relics were later translated into its
church (Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer). |
880
St. Solange a shepherdess Besides having a great power over animals,
she was endowed with the gift of healing and effected many cures
880 ST SOLANGIA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR
ST SOLANGIA (Solange), who is sometimes called the St Genevieve
of Berry, is also the patroness of that province of France. The child
of vine-dressers, poorly endowed with this world’s goods, she was born
at Villemont, near Bourges. She dedicated herself to God from early childhood
and took a vow of chastity at aft early age. Her occupation was to
mind her father’s sheep as they grazed on the pasturages. It is said
that she was attended by a guiding star which shone over her head with
special brilliancy as the hour of prayer approached. Besides having a
great power over animals, she was endowed with the gift of healing and
effected many cures. Reports of her beauty and sanctity reached the ears
of Bernard, one of the sons of the count of Poitiers, and he came on horseback
to make advances to her as she was alone with her flock. When she resisted,
he caught her up and set her in the saddle before him, but she succeeded
in slipping from his horse, sustaining serious injury in her fall. The young
man then despatched her with his hunting-knife. According to the legend,
the girl afterwards arose and carried her head in her hands as far as the
church of Saint-Martin-du-Cros, in the cemetery of which an altar was erected
in her honour about the year 1281. A field near her home in which she liked
to pray received the name of “Le Champ de Sainte Solange.”
That St Solangia
has enjoyed much popular veneration in Bourges and surrounding districts
is made clear by the number of devotional brochures published about
her. See, for example, the Vie de Sainte Solange, written
by Joseph Bernard de Montmélian, which has appeared in more than
one edition. There is an account of this martyr in the Acta
Sanctorum, May, vol. ii, but the evidence there furnished
is very unsatisfactory. See Ombline P. de Ia Villéon,
Sainte Solange, protectrice du Berry (1948).
St. Solange, Born of a poor family of vineyard
workers near Bourges, France, she became a shepherdess whose beauuuty
attracted the lustful attention of a noble in Poitiers. He kidnaped
her, but when she leaped from the horse on which he was carrying her off,
he pursued and killed her. |
898
Euthymius the Younger, Abbot miraculous powers and the gift of prophecy
(AC)
898 ST EUTHYMIUS THE YOUNGER, ABBOT
THIS
holy monk was a Galatian, born at Opso, near Ancyra. He is called
“the Thessalonian” because he was eventually buried at Salonika, or
“the New” or “Younger“, apparently to distinguish him from St Euthymius
the Great who lived four hundred years earlier. Euthymius at his baptism
received the name of Nicetas. At an early age he married, and had a daughter
Anastasia, but when he was still only eighteen, in the year 842, he
left his wife and child (in circumstances that, as reported, look curiously
like desertion) and entered a laura on Mount Olympus
in Bithynia. For a time he put himself under the direction of St Joannicius,
who was then a monk there, and afterwards of one John, who gave him
the name of Euthymius. When he had trained him for a time, John sent
him to lead the common life in the monastery of the Pissidion, where Euthymius
advanced rapidly in the ways of holiness.
When the patriarch of Constantinople,
St Ignatius, was removed from his see and Photius succeeded in 858,
the abbot Nicholas was loyal to Ignatius and was deposed from his office;
Euthymius took the opportunity to seek a less troubled life in the solitudes
of Mount Athos. Before leaving Olympus he asked for and received the
“ great habit “, the outward sign of the highest degree to which the
Eastern monk can aspire, from an ascetic named Theodore. Euthymius was
accompanied by one companion, but he was frightened away by the rigors
of Athos, and Euthymius sought the company of a hermit already established
there, one Joseph. He was a good and straightforward soul, in spite of
the fact that he was an Armenian (says the biographer of St Euthymius),
and soon the two hermits were engaged in a sort of competitive trial of
asceticism. First they fasted for forty days on nothing but vegetables. Then
Euthymius suggested that they should stop in their cells for three years,
going outside only to gather their nuts and herbs, never speaking to the
other hermits and only rarely to one another. At the end of the first
year Joseph gave it up, but Euthymius persevered to the end of the period,
and when he came out of his seclusion was warmly congratulated by the
other brethreh. In 863 he was at Salonika, visiting the tomb of Theodore,
who before his death had made a vain attempt to join his disciple on Athos.
While in Salonika St Euthymius lived for a time on a hollow tower, from
whence he could preach to the crowds who came to him and use his power of
exorcism over those who were possessed, while keeping something of the solitude
which he loved. Before leaving the city he was ordained deacon. So many
visitors came to him on Mount Athos that he fled with two other monks to
the small island of Saint Eustratius; when they were driven out of here
by sea-rovers Euthymius rejoined his old friend Joseph and remained with
him.
Some
time after the death of Joseph St Euthymius was told in a vision
that he had contended as a solitary long enough; he was to move once
more, this time to a mountain called Peristera on the east of Salonika.
There he would find the ruins of a monastery dedicated in honour of
St Andrew, now used for folding sheep: he was to restore and re-people
it. Taking with him two monks, Ignatius and Ephrem, he went straight
to the place and found as it had been said. At once he set about rebuilding
the church and dwellings were also made for the monks, who rapidly increased
in number and fervour, and St Euthymius was their abbot for fourteen
years. Then he paid a visit to his home at Opso and gained there a number
of recruits, male and female, including some of his own family. Another
monastery was built for the women; and when both houses were thoroughly
established St Euthymius handed them over to the metropolitan of Salonika
and went to pass the rest of his days in the solitude of Athos once more.
When he knew that death was approaching he summoned his fellow-hermits
to celebrate with him the feast of the translation of his patron St Euthymius
the Great; then, having said farewell to them, he departed with the
monk George to Holy Island, where five months later he died peacefully
on October 15 in the year 898.
The
life of St Euthymius was written by one of his monks at Peristera, Basil
by name, who became metropolitan of Salonika. He narrates several miracles
of his master, of some of which he was himself a witness and even a beneficiary,
and as an example of the saint’s gift of prophecy he tells how, while
he was in retreat after having been shorn a monk, Euthymius came to
him and said, “Though I am utterly unworthy to receive enlightenment from
on high, nevertheless, as I am responsible for your direction, God has
shown me that love of learning will draw you from the monastery and you
will be made an archbishop.”— “And later” , says Basil, “the call of ambition made me choose the noisy
and troubled life of a town before the peace of solitude.”
The name of this St Euthymius does not seem to occur in the
synaxaries and, except for a reference under October 15 in Martynov’s Annus ecciesiasticus
graeco-slavicur, his existence was hardly known in the West
until Louis Petit published the Greek text of the life in the
Revue de l’Orient chrétien, vol. vi (1903), pp. 155—205 and 503—536. The life, with the Greek office for the feast,
was also published separately in 1904. The reference to the “hollow tower” which he occupied at Salonika
shows, as Delehaye points out (Les Saints Stylites, pp.
cxxix—cxxx), that Euthymius was at one time a “stylite”. See also E. von Dobschutz
in the Byzantinische Zeitschrift, vol. xviii (1909), pp. 715—716.
(also known as Euthymius the Thessalonian; Euthymius
the New)
Born at Opso near Ankara, Turkey (then Ancrya, Galatia),
c. 824; died on Hiera, 886-898.
Baptized Nicetas, he married
early and sired one daughter whom he named Anastasia (means 'Resurrection').
In 842, after being married only a year, he left his wife and baby
in order to become a monk on Mt. Olympus in Bithynia by entering a laura,
where he took the name Euthymius.
Shortly, he entered the monastery
of Pissidion. The community was very disturbed by the troubles between
the patriarch Ignatius at Constantinople and his rival Saint Photius.
Abbot Nicholas was removed as abbot for supporting Patriarch Ignatius,
who was deposed in 858. So, in 859 Euthymius sought a quieter life on
Mt. Athos, where he became a hermit with an in situ hermit, Joseph. Here
he lived alone in a cave for three years.
In 863, Euthymius visited the tomb of a fellow
ascetic from Olympus, Theodore, at Salonika and lived for a time in
solitude on a tower (as a Stylite), preaching to the crowds. He was
ordained a deacon there, returned to Mount Athos, but left to escape the
crowds seeking him.
After a time on a small island
with two companions, he returned to Mount Athos and lived there
with Joseph until Joseph's death. In response to a dream he had of
Joseph, he took two disciples, Ignatius and Ephrem, to Mount Peristera,
where in 870 he re-founded the abbey of Saint Andrew at Peristera, east
of Salonika, attracted numerous disciples, and served as their abbot
for fourteen years.
He built another double monastery
(men and women), which he turned over to the metropolitan of Salonika.
When these houses were firmly established he put them in charge of
his grandson and granddaughter respectively, and returned to Athos. He
remained in Athos until a few months before his death, when he went to
Hiera (Holy) Island with George, a fellow monk, and died there.
Saint Euthymius was credited with miraculous
powers and the gift of prophecy, as related by his biographer Saint
Basil, who was one of his monks at Saint Andrew's. He is called "the
Younger" to distinguish him from Euthymius the Great (c. 378-473, Armenian)
(Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia).
Saint Euthymius the New of Thessalonica and
Mt Athos, in the world was named Nicetas, and he was a native of the
city of Ancyra in Galatia. His parents, Epiphanius and Anna, led virtuous
Christian lives, and from childhood their son was meek, pious and obedient.
At age seven he was left fatherless and he soon became the sole support
of his mother in all matters. Having entered military service, Nicetas
married, on the insistence of his mother. After the birth of a daughter,
he secretly left home in order to enter a monastery. For fifteen years
the venerable Euthymius lived the ascetic life on Mount Olympus, where
he learned monastic deeds from the Elders.
The monk went to resettle on Mount Athos.
On the way he learned that his mother and wife were in good health.
He informed them that he had become a monk, and he sent them a cross,
calling on them to follow his example. On Mt Athos he was tonsured into
the Great Schema and lived for three years in a cave in total silence,
struggling with temptations. St Euthymius also lived for a long time
as a stylite, not far from Thessalonica, instructing those coming to
him for advice and healing the sick.
The monk cleansed his mind and heart to such an extent
that he was granted divine visions and revelations. At the command
of the Lord, St Euthymius founded two monasteries in 863 on Mount Peristeros,
not far from Thessalonica, which he guided for 14 years, with the rank
of deacon. In one of these his wife and mother received monastic tonsure.
Before his death he settled on Hiera, an island of Mt Athos, where he
reposed in 898. His relics were transferred to Thessalonica. St Euthymius
is called "the New" to distinguish him from St Euthymius the Great (January
20).
|
9th v. Barbarus The Holy
Martyr, formerly a robber, lived in Greece and for a long time he
committed robberies, extortions and murders; miracles after death
But the Lord, Who does not desire the death of a sinner, turned
him to repentance. Once, when Barbarus was sitting in a cave and gazing
upon his stolen possessions, the grace of God touched his heart. He thought
about the inevitability of death, and about the dread Last Judgment. Pondering
over the multitude of his wicked deeds, he was distressed in his heart
and he decided to make a beginning of repentance, saying, "The Lord did
not despise the prayer of the robber hanging beside Him. May He spare
me through His ineffable mercy."
Barbarus left all his treasures behind in
the cave and he went to the nearest church. He did not conceal his
wicked deeds from the priest, and he asked to be accepted for repentance.
The priest gave him a place in his own home, and St Barbarus followed him,
going about on his hands and knees like a four-legged animal, since he
considered himself unworthy to be called a man. In the household of the
priest he lived with the cattle, eating with the animals and considering
himself more wicked than any creature. Having received absolution from his
sins from the priest, Barbarus went into the woods and lived there for twelve
years, naked and without clothing, suffering from the cold and heat. His
body became dirty and blackened all over.
Finally, St Barbarus received
a sign from on high that his sins were forgiven, and that he would die
a martyr's death.
Once, merchants came to the place where
St Barbarus labored. In the deep grass before them they saw something
moving. Thinking that this was an animal, they shot several arrows
from their bows. Coming closer, they were terrified to see that they
had mortally wounded a man. St Barbarus begged them not to grieve. He
told them about himself and he asked that they relate what had happened
to the priest at whose house he had once lived.
After this, St Barbarus yielded up his spirit to God. The priest,
who had accepted the repentance of the former robber, found his body
shining with a heavenly light. The priest buried the body of St Barbarus
at the place where he was killed. Afterwards, a curative myrrh began to
issue forth from the grave of the saint, which healed various maladies.
His relics are located at the monastery of Kellios in Thessaly, near the
city of Larissa.
|
9th v. Saint Michael
of Parekhi native of the village Norgiali in Shavsheti region of southern
Georgia tonsured a monk in the Midznadzori Wilderness miracles at
grave
Fr. Michael journeyed to Khandzta Monastery, and with the
blessing of the brotherhood, he built a small chapel and dwelling for
the monks nearby. Built in a cave on the side of a cliff, St. Michael’s
establishment was difficult to reach (the new monastery was called “Parekhi,”
or “Cave”). God was pleased with his good works, and He granted St.
Michael the gift of working wonders. In a divine revelation, St. Michael
was instructed to send his disciples Serapion and John to the region
of Samtskhe. There they established a beautiful monastery in the village
of Zarzma.
After some time Father Michael abandoned his cell and settled
at the top of a large boulder. Once the devil caused him to stumble
off the rock, but the Lord protected him and he remained unharmed.
Frightened by the incident, Michael sent his disciples to bring St.
Gregory of Khandzta, and he related to him all that had happened. The
blessed Gregory assuaged his brother’s fears, erected a cross on either
side of Michael’s cell, and told him, “These two crosses of Christ will
protect you, and the mercy of the Most Holy Trinity and the Precious Cross
will be upon you.”
St. Michael lived to an old age, and he was
buried at Parekhi Monastery. Many faithful pilgrims who have visited
his grave have been healed of their infirmities.
According to Basil of Zarzma, St. Michael’s
disciples wrote accounts of his labors, wisdom, and miracles after
his repose, but these works have unfortunately not been preserved.
What we know about the life of St. Michael of Parekhi was preserved
in the hagiographical writings of the 10th and 11th centuries. |