The Feast of the Three Hierarchs

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Each of these saints have their own feast day. St. Basil the Great, January 1; St. Gregory the Theologian, January 25; and St. John Chrysostom, January 27. This combined feast day, January 30, was instituted in the eleventh century during the reign of Emperor Alexius Comnenus.

At one time a debate arose among the people concerning who of the three is the greatest? Some extolled Basil because of his purity and courage; others extolled Gregory for his unequaled depth and lofty mind in theology; still others extolled Chrysostom because of his eloquence and clarity in expounding the Faith. Thus some were called Basilians, others Gregorians, and the third were called Johannites. This debate was settled by Divine Providence to the benefit of the Church and to an even greater glory of the three saints.

Bishop John of Euchaita (June 14) had a vision in a dream: At first, all three of these saints appeared to him separately in great glory and indescribable beauty, and after that all three appeared together. They said to him, "As you see, we are one in God and there is nothing contradictory in us; neither is there a first or a second among us." The saints also advised Bishop John that he write a common service for them and to order a common feast day of celebration.

Following this wonderful vision, the debate was settled in this manner: January 30 would be designated as the common feast of these three hierarchs. The Greeks consider this feast not only an ecclesiastical feast but their greatest national school holiday.


Read also:

History of the Feast of the Three Hierarchs

The Bogomils and the Three Hierarchs

“Roads to Damascus”: Crisis, Conversion, and Community in the Lives of the Three Hierarchs


HYMN OF PRAISE: THE THREE HIERARCHS: SAINT BASIL, SAINT GREGORY, AND SAINT CHRYSOSTOM

Fasting and Faith - Basil,
Theology - Gregory,
Acts of Charity - Chrysostom,
Golden mouths, mouths of honey!
All laborers of one work;
Three separately - three angels,
The three together as God is one,
No one is the main one, no one is secondary.
In eternity, they all agree,
You invoke one, all three help,
You hymn one, all three hear,
You glorify one, all three rejoice.
Three men, one whole;
Three hierarchs, one deed;
Three names, one glory;
To all three of them, Christ is the Head.


Apolytikion in the First Tone
The three greatest beacons of the Three-sunned Godhead, who lighted the whole inhabited world with the beams of their divine doctrines, the rivers of wisdom flowing with honey, who watered all creation with streams of the knowledge of God, Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian with famous John whose tongue spoke golden words, let all we lovers of their words now assembled honour them in hymns. For they ever intercede with the Trinity on our behalf.

Kontakion in the Second Tone
You have taken, Lord, the sacred, the God-inspired heralds, the high peak of your Teachers, for the enjoyment of your good things and for repose; for you accepted above every offering their toils and their death, you who alone glorify your Saints.

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One Must Be As A Child To Enter God's Kingdom

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

"Amen, I say to you, unless you convert and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 18:3).

Thus speaks the Lord and His word is holy and true. What kind of advantage do children have over adults? They have three advantages: in faith, in obedience and in forgiveness. The child asks the parent about everything and whatever the parent replies, the child believes its parent. The child is obedient to its parent and easily subordinates its will to the will of the parent. The child is forgiving even though he provokes easily, but the child forgives quickly. Our Lord requires these three from all men i.e., Faith, Obedience and Forgiveness. He seeks that men believe in Him unconditionally, as a child believes in its parent. To be unconditionally obedient to Him as a child is to its parent and to be forgiving in relation to one anther, not to remember evil and not to render evil for evil.

Faith, Obedience and Forgiveness are the three main characteristics of a child's soul. In addition to that, comes purity and joy. A child is not greedy; a child is not lustful; and a child is not vain glorious. The child has an eye unspoiled by vices and a joy unspoiled by worries.

O brethren, who can make us over again into children? No one, except the one Christ. He can make us over into children and help us to be born again and, that by His example, by His teaching and by the power of His Holy Spirit.

O Lord Jesus, perfect in obedience and meekness, Eternal Child of the Heavenly Father, help us to become as infants by faith in You, by obedience toward You and by forgiveness one toward the other. Amen.

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Video: Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus

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Discourse to the Greeks Concerning Hades

Though this present work is attributed by many Church Fathers to Josephus, it is now believed to be (at least in its original form) the work of Saint Hippolytus of Rome. See more here.

1. NOW as to Hades, wherein the souls of the unrighteous are detained and rejoice in the righteous and of the good things they see, it is necessary to speak of it. Hades is a place in the world not regularly finished; a subterraneous region, wherein the light of this world does not shine; from which circumstance, that if in this region the light does not shine, it cannot be but there must be in it perpetual darkness. This region is allotted as a place of custody for souls, in which angels are appointed as guardians to them, who distribute to them temporary punishments, agreeable to every one's behavior and manners.

2. In this region there is a certain place set apart, as a lake of unquenchable fire, whereinto we suppose no one hath hitherto been cast; but it is prepared for a day afore-determined by God, in which one righteous sentence shall deservedly be passed upon all men; when the unjust, and those that have been disobedient to God, and have given honor to such idols as have been the vain operations of the hands of men, as to God himself, shall be adjudged to this everlasting punishment, as having been the causes of defilement; while the just shall obtain an incorruptible and never-fading kingdom. These are now indeed confined in Hades, but not in the same place wherein the unjust are confined.

3. For there is one descent into this region, at whose gate we believe there stands an archangel with an host; which gate when those pass through that are conducted down by the angels appointed over souls, they do not go the same way; but the just are guided to the right hand, and are led with hymns, sung by the angels appointed over that place, unto a region of light, in which the just have dwelt from the beginning of the world; not constrained by necessity, but ever enjoying the prospect of the good things they see, and rejoice in the expectation of those new enjoyments which will be peculiar to every one of them, and esteeming those things beyond what we have here; with whom there is no place of toil, no burning heat, no piercing cold, nor are any briers there; but the countenance of the fathers and of the just, which they see always, smiles upon them, while they wait for that rest and eternal new life in heaven, which is to succeed this region. This place we call The Bosom of Abraham.

4. But as to the unjust, they are dragged by force to the left hand by the angels allotted for punishment, no longer going with a good will, but as prisoners driven by violence; to whom are sent the angels appointed over them to reproach them and threaten them with their terrible looks, and to thrust them still downwards. Now those angels that are set over these souls, drag them into the neighborhood of hell itself; who, when they are hard by it, continually hear the noise of it, and do not stand clear of the hot vapor itself; but when they have a near view of this spectacle, as of a terrible and exceeding great prospect of fire, they are struck with a fearful expectation of a future judgment, and in effect punished thereby: and not only so, but where they see the place [or choir] of the fathers and of the just, even hereby are they punished; for a chaos deep and large is fixed between them; insomuch that a just man that hath compassion upon them cannot be admitted, nor can one that is unjust, if he were bold enough to attempt it, pass over it.

5. This is the discourse concerning Hades, wherein the souls of all men are confined until a proper season, which God hath determined, when he will make a resurrection of all men from the dead, not procuring a transmigration of souls from one body to another, but raising again those very bodies, which you Greeks, seeing to be dissolved, do not believe [their resurrection]. But learn not to disbelieve it; for while you believe that the soul is created, and yet is made immortal by God, according to the doctrine of Plato, and this in time, be not incredulous; but believe that God is able, when he hath raised to life that body which was made as a compound of the same elements, to make it immortal; for it must never be said of God, that he is able to do some things, and unable to do others. We have therefore believed that the body will be raised again; for although it be dissolved, it is not perished; for the earth receives its remains, and preserves them; and while they are like seed, and are mixed among the more fruitful soil, they flourish, and what is sown is indeed sown bare grain, but at the mighty sound of God the Creator, it will sprout up, and be raised in a clothed and glorious condition, though not before it has been dissolved, and mixed [with the earth]. So that we have not rashly believed the resurrection of the body; for although it be dissolved for a time on account of the original transgression, it exists still, and is cast into the earth as into a potter's furnace, in order to be formed again, not in order to rise again such as it was before, but in a state of purity, and so as never to be destroyed any more. And to every body shall its own soul be restored. And when it hath clothed itself with that body, it will not be subject to misery, but, being itself pure, it will continue with its pure body, and rejoice with it, with which it having walked righteously now in this world, and never having had it as a snare, it will receive it again with great gladness. But as for the unjust, they will receive their bodies not changed, not freed from diseases or distempers, nor made glorious, but with the same diseases wherein they died; and such as they were in their unbelief, the same shall they be when they shall be faithfully judged.

6. For all men, the just as well as the unjust, shall be brought before God the Word: for to Him hath the Father committed all judgment: and He, in order to fulfill the will of his Father, shall come as Judge, whom we call Christ. For Minos and Rhadamanthus are not the judges, as you Greeks do suppose, but He Whom God even the Father hath glorified: concerning Whom we have elsewhere given a more particular account, for the sake of those who seek after truth. This person, exercising the righteous judgment of the Father towards all men, hath prepared a just sentence for every one, according to His works; at Whose judgment seat when all men, and angels, and demons shall stand, they will send forth one voice, and say, just is Thy judgment; the rejoinder to which will bring a just sentence upon both parties, by giving justly to those that have done well an everlasting fruition; but allotting to the lovers of wicked works eternal punishment. To these belong the unquenchable fire, and that without end, and a certain fiery worm never dying, and not destroying the body, but continuing its eruption out of the body with never-ceasing grief: neither will sleep give ease to these men, nor will the night afford them comfort; death will not free them from their punishment, nor will the interceding prayers of their kindred profit them; for the just are no longer seen by them, nor are they thought worthy of remembrance. But the just shall remember only their righteous actions, whereby they have attained the heavenly kingdom, in which there is no sleep, no sorrow, no corruption, no care, no night, no day measured by time, no sun driven in his course along the circle of heaven by necessity, and measuring out the bounds and conversions of the seasons, for the better illumination of the life of men; no moon decreasing and increasing, or introducing a variety of seasons, nor will she then moisten the earth; no burning sun, no Bear turning round [the pole], no Orion to rise, no wandering of innumerable stars. The earth will not then be difficult to be passed over, nor will it be hard to find out the court of Paradise, nor will there be any fearful roaring of the sea, forbidding the passengers to walk on it; even that will be made easily passable to the just, though it will not be void of moisture. Heaven will not then be uninhabitable by men, and it will not be impossible to discover the way of ascending thither. The earth will not be uncultivated, nor require too much labor of men, but will bring forth its fruits of its own accord, and will be well adorned with them. There will be no more generations of wild beasts, nor will the substance of the rest of the animals shoot out any more; for it will not produce men, but the number of the righteous will continue, and never fail, together with righteous angels, and spirits [of God], and with his word, as a choir of righteous men and women that never grow old, and continue in an incorruptible state, singing hymns to God, who hath advanced them to that happiness, by the means of a regular institution of life; with whom the whole creation also will lift up a perpetual hymn from corruption to incorruption, as glorified by a splendid and pure spirit. It will not then be restrained by a bond of necessity, but with a lively freedom shall offer up a voluntary hymn, and shall praise him that made them, together with the angels, and spirits, and men now freed from all bondage.

7. And now, if you Gentiles will be persuaded by these motives, and leave your vain imaginations about your pedigrees, and gaining of riches, and philosophy, and will not spend your time about subtleties of words, and thereby lead your minds into error, and if you will apply your ears to the hearing of the inspired prophets, the interpreters both of God and of his word, and will believe in God, you shall both be partakers of these things, and obtain the good things that are to come; you shall see the ascent unto the immense heaven plainly, and that kingdom which is there. For what God hath now concealed in silence [will be then made manifest] what neither eye hath seen, nor ear hath heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man, the things that God hath prepared for them that love him.

8. "In whatsoever ways I shall find you, in them shall I judge you entirely;" so cries the End of all things. And he who hath at first lived a virtuous life, but towards the latter end falls into vice, these labors by him before endured shall be altogether vain and unprofitable, even as in a play, brought to an ill catastrophe. Whosoever shall have lived wickedly and luxuriously may repent; however, there will be need of much time to conquer an evil habit, and even after repentance his whole life must be guarded with great care and diligence, after the manner of a body, which, after it hath been a long time afflicted with a distemper, requires a stricter diet and method of living; for though it may be possible, perhaps, to break off the chain of our irregular affections at once,--yet our amendment cannot be secured without the grace of God, the prayers of good men, the help of the brethren, and our own sincere repentance and constant care. It is a good thing not to sin at all; it is also good, having sinned, to repent,--as it is best to have health always, but it is a good thing to recover from a distemper. To God be glory and dominion for ever and ever, Amen.

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“Roads to Damascus”: Crisis, Conversion, and Community in the Lives of the Three Hierarchs

By Monk Maximos of Simonopetra

Lecture Delivered on 30 January 2010

Introduction

In his First Letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul says that we have “many teachers but not many fathers” (1 Cor 4:15). It follows, then, that we are doubly blessed, having both a teacher and a father in the person of His Eminence, Archbishop Demetrios of America. As a hierarch, moreover, His Eminence embodies something from each of the Three Hierarchs, whose memory we have come here to celebrate. He has Chrysostom’s love and knowledge of the Scriptures; he has Gregory the Theologian’s sensitive soul, refined culture, and love of learning; and, not least, St. Basil’s clarity and precision of thought, along with his strengths as a pastor and a teacher.

On the Holy Mountain, we are taught that everything in a saint’s life is worthy of admiration, but not everything in a saint’s life is worthy of imitation. This is certainly true, yet to this rule the lives of the Three Hierarchs are an exception: everything about them is both admirable and worthy of imitation.

Tonight I want to look at the Three Hierarchs in light of the remarkable experiences that changed the course of their lives and transformed them into great teachers, fathers, and saints. As we shall see, each of the three underwent a crisis, a decisive turning point, that led to spiritual transformation. As I hope to show, these critical experiences, which were essentially conversion experiences, are the key to understanding who they were and what their lives can mean for us today.

My remarks are divided into two parts. I begin with what the Three Hierarchs themselves have to say about their experiences, drawing directly on the descriptions of these events found throughout their writings. In the second part, I focus on the significance and implications of these experiences, highlighting their practical relevance for our own lives

St. Basil of Caesarea

St. Basil of Caesarea was born (ca. 329/330) into a large, upper class, Christian family. He attended the best schools and universities of his day, and was groomed for a career in what we would call civic administration. He had a strong personality, a tremendous talent for management and organization, along with an adamantine will for success. Upon returning from his studies in Constantinople and Athens, he embarked upon a promising career in public speaking, which included ceremonial orations, political speeches in the public assemblies, and forensic speeches for litigants in the jury-courts. These were vitally important functions in the ancient world, and Basil proved to be a master of the art. At the age of twenty-five, he was poised to become one of the leading rhetoricians of his day. However, something happened to change all that. He tells us about it in one of his letters:

Having wasted much time on frivolous things, and having sacrificed virtually my entire youth to study the teachings of a wisdom that God had made foolish (cf. 1 Cor 1:20), I woke up, as if from a deep sleep, and beheld the wondrous light of the truth of the Gospel, and I recognized the uselessness of the wisdom “of the princes of this world, whose rule was doomed” (1 Cor 2:6). Shedding a flood of tears over my wretched life, I prayed for a guide who might form in me the principles of piety. Above all, my concern was to make some amendment in my character, which had been corrupted by long association with people of low morals (cf. 1 Cor 15:33). Having read the Gospel, I saw that a great means to attaining perfection was the selling of one’s possessions (cf. Mt 19:21), and the sharing of one’s wealth with those in need; along with the refusal to take any thought for this present life, so that the soul should not be attached to the things of the world; and I prayed that I might find someone who had taken this path, so that with him I could cross the deep and troubled sea of life.

Simply put, Basil saw the light; the wondrous light of the truth of the Gospel, and his life would never again be the same. This was a transforming event, a change in consciousness, like waking up from a deep sleep after a long, disorienting dream. It was a movement from darkness to light, from the reflected, dead light of human logic to the splendor of the truth itself. Moreover, Basil’s call to a new life did not create in him a self-affirming rush to action, but rather the desire, the need, for a guide, a teacher, a longing to find someone who was already on the path, which is a longing for a new mode of relation, and a new kind of community.

Basil doesn’t tell us much more about this event, which was surely one of the most important in his life. However, his younger brother, St. Gregory of Nyssa, provides us with an interesting detail that enables us to expand our frame of reference. In a lengthy comparison of Basil and Moses, Gregory notes that God had called both of them through a vision of divine light, which in the case of Moses was the light of the Burning Bush (Ex 3:2). According to Gregory, something similar happened to Basil: “In the middle of the night, there appeared to Basil an outpouring of immaterial light, and by means of divine power, his entire dwelling was illuminated by a light having no source in anything material.”

In placing emphasis on Basil’s vision of divine light, we must not forget that this experience was preceded and indeed precipitated by a crisis. Before the light there was darkness, before waking there was a deep sleep, and before vision there was spiritual blindness. And what are darkness and night and sleep if not the symbolic counterparts of death? Thus we should not minimize the fact that before spiritual change was possible, a critical point was reached, a struggle had taken place, the anguish of dying to the illusory sustaining hopes of the world, after which Basil was able to embark on a comprehensive reorganization of his plans and priorities, a reconstruction of his life in light of a new allegiance.

St. Gregory the Theologian

The life of St. Basil finds many parallels in the life of St. Gregory the Theologian (b. ca. 329/330), and this is not surprising, since they were friends, fellow countrymen, and members of the same social class. But whereas Basil was disinclined to publicize his personal experiences, Gregory is the first Church Father to have written an autobiography. During his retirement, Gregory wrote a lengthy poem reviewing his entire life, beginning with the events of his infancy and childhood. He describes the poem as “the history of his calamities,” and among the many vivid vignettes is the botched attempt to assassinate him when he was archbishop of Constantinople. Yet the principal crisis was surely the terrifying event that led to his conversion.

After his initial schooling in Caesarea, where he first met Basil, Gregory studied in Caesarea Maritima in Palestine – at the time a cosmopolitan cultural center – and afterwards in Alexandria, Egypt. But Gregory was a great Hellenist, and was determined to study in Athens, the heart of classical civilization. However, it was already winter, and the sailing season had ended, but he found a ship heading to Piraeus and recklessly got on board. As the ship sailed past the island of Pharos and its famous lighthouse, Gregory mused on his plans for the future: should he marry, assume control of his father’s estates, pursue a career in politics, or devote his life to literature and philosophy? For this wealthy and intellectually gifted young aristocrat, there seemed to be no limit to the possibilities. He was twenty years old, and his “youthful spirits,” as he tells us, “were ready to be swayed by chaotic impulses, like a young horse anxious to begin the race.”

However, the voyage would change everything, and prove to be decisive for the subsequent course of his life. While at sea, his ship was caught in the midst of a massive storm, and the experience frightened him so profoundly that it left him a changed man. For Gregory, the road to Damascus was the sea route to Athens. Gregory gives us two accounts of this episode, both of which are literary masterpieces worthy of Conrad or Melville; I quote from the lengthier of the two versions (which scholars call the De vita sua) :

I chose to leave Alexandria at a moment outside the sailing season, before the sea had settled down. This was an act of rashness and not good sense. I was making my way to Greece when the ship was struck by a squall. Everything became a great blackness; deafening thunderclaps resounded amidst flashes of lightning; the sails were in shreds, the mainmast was bent, and the rudder was useless, being torn forcibly from the helmsman’s hands. Mountainous seas swamped the vessel. A confused clamor arose, cries of sailors, officers, and passengers. And we were without water, since the moment the ship began to roll, the barrels containing that precious treasure were smashed and scattered to the depths. The sea continued to rage, and we were harassed for many days. The question was whether the sea, or the lack of water, would make an end of us. Driven this way and that, we had no notion of where we were sailing, and we could see no hope of being rescued by God. All of us feared a common death, but more terrifying for me was the hidden death, for those murderous waters were keeping me away from the purifying waters that divinize us. That was the cause of my lament and misfortune. For this I kept sending up cries and stretching out my hands, and my cries drowned out the pounding of the waves. My clothing was in tatters and I lay, miserable and prostrate, in the prow. There was not a shred of hope, no island, no mainland, no mountaintop on the horizon, no beacon light, no guiding star. What was I to do? Was there any way out of these dangers? Despairing of all hope here below, I turned to God, my life and my light, the source of terror and affliction but the gentle healer too, ever weaving good into the dark pattern. It was at that moment that I gave myself to God, and the sacred promises I made delivered me from the raging ocean.

As soon as Gregory had finished praying, the winds ceased, the sea grew calm, the ship found itself on course, and in a short time he was in Athens. True to his promises, he “tore himself away from the spirit of the world”, and devoted the rest of his life to the service of the Church.

If Basil had seen the wondrous light of the Gospel, Gregory experienced all the fury of the sea. It’s hard to imagine enduring even a few minutes of such overwhelming terror, yet Gregory was caught in the storm for an excruciating twenty days and nights. The real fear, however, was not the prospect of death by drowning, but the prospect of dying unbaptized. Like many fourth-century aristocrats, Gregory had postponed his baptism, and so along with his plans for the future, his eternal salvation was about to be destroyed. It’s probably safe to say that, while onboard the ship, he suffered some kind of breakdown, and his condition became so severe that the sailors found his cries more upsetting than the storm.

The experience left a permanent mark on him, and the motif of the “storm” appears constantly throughout his writings. Over time he came to see his whole life as a storm-tossed journey, which is to say that he continued to live in that definitive moment. Gregory’s conversion experience is surely the experiential source of his celebrated dialectical thinking, an example of which we saw in the poem, where God is described as both “the source of affliction” and “the gentle healer, ever weaving good into the dark pattern.”

St. John Chrysostom

The last of our Three Hierarchs, St. John Chrysostom, was born in the city of Antioch, sometime around the middle of the fourth century. Antioch is about two hundred miles to the south of Caesarea, and when Chrysostom was born, Basil and Gregory were young students memorizing passages from the Iliad. Like them, Chrysostom was born into a prominent Christian family, his father being the military governor of Antioch. Also like them, he had a keen mind, received the best education available, and was groomed to be a leading figure in the life of his native city.

Here, however, the similarity seems to end, since Chrysostom does not seem to have experienced the kind of crisis and conversion that we saw in the other two hierarchs. The comparative stability of his early years; the absence of a disruptive, disorienting event, is probably due to the influence of his mother. When Chrysostom was still an infant, his father died, leaving his mother a widow at the age of twenty. Refusing to remarry, she became emotionally dependent on the child, who bore a strong likeness to her deceased husband. When John was still fairly young, she made him promise that he would not leave home until after she died. She took a strong interest in his education, and spared no expense in seeing that John would be raised as a gentleman. She did not permit him to go abroad for his studies, but placed him at the feet of the greatest teachers in Antioch (the “Athens of Syria”).

Thus it was that Chrysostom became the student of Libaniοs, an upper class pagan rhetorician renowned throughout the Greek world. Among Libanios’ students were many distinguished men, yet it was the nimble-tongued John whom he designated as his successor. After he completed his studies, we know that Chrysostom pursued a career as a successful young lawyer. Despite the fact that his mother had pushed him into law school, there is no evidence that John was unhappy with his career. On the contrary, for a while he seems to have lived to the hilt the lifestyle of a rich young man enjoying his growing fame as a brilliant attorney.

Chrysostom tells us that in those days he was “still fettered with worldly desires and vanities,” and “had upset the balance of his life by an excess of youthful fantasies.” He says that he was “spending all his time in the law courts, frequenting the theater, and being passionately excited by the pleasures of the stage” (τόν ἐν τῷ δικαστηρίῳ προσεδρεύοντα καί περί τάς ἐν τῇ σκηνῇ τέρψεις ἐπτοημένον) (SC 272:64). Similar to what Basil says in his letter, Chrysostom likewise admits that he had “wasted his youth in the vanity of secular studies” (SC 272:132). It was only at some later stage that he “emerged from the billows of life,” and “renounced the cares of the world” (SC 272:64, 138)

And lest we think this is mere rhetoric, it was widely believed throughout Antioch that Chrysostom had initially declined priestly ordination, not out of humility, but because he was prideful, arrogant, ambitious, and enamored of worldly glory.

Needless to say, this is not the John Chrysostom we know, and thus some sort of change must have taken place prompting the young lawyer to abandon his career and place his talents in the service of the Church. It seems safe to say that beneath the surface, various cross pressures were at work, and the balance of John’s life would yet again be shifting. According to Archbishop Chrysostomos Papadopoulos: “It was at this time that John found himself confronting the problem that was his life, the solution to which was not going to come about easily.” So, on closer inspection, Chrysostom does seem to have passed through a kind of crisis, and eventually enacted a critical volte-face very similar to Basil.

It would be interesting to know more about this critical period in Chrysostom’s life, but we don’t. Chrysostom’s chief biographer, Palladios, tells us only that Chrysostom “abandoned the sophists” (ἀφηνίασεν τούς σοφιστάς), which some English translations (e.g., H. Moore, 1921, p. 37) render as “revolted against.” Theodore of Trimithous and Cosmas Vestitor, writing in the seventh and ninth centuries, respectively, both say that Chrysostom abandoned his career because he had been “wounded by divine grace.”

Another way to approach this question would be to look at what Chrysostom says about the different conversion experiences described in Scripture, especially the conversion of his great hero, St. Paul. Had we the time to consider this in detail, we would find that Chrysostom’s extraordinary interest in St. Paul was motivated by his ability to identify with the great Apostle, for just like himself, Paul was an educated lawyer with a delayed vocation.

Part Two: Crisis, Conversion, and Community

What we see in the lives of the Three Hierarchs is a basic element of the spiritual life: the experience of a crisis that leads to spiritual growth. This may be a dramatic, once-in-a-lifetime event; a disordering, disrupting experience that calls into question our taken-for-granted world, resulting in a change of values and interests. The specific form that such an experience takes will vary according to the circumstances of our lives. Not too many of us are at risk of shipwreck on the high seas, but there are other kinds of storms, such as a crisis in adolescence or mid-life; and there are other kinds of shipwrecks, such as the perception that one’s life is not what it should be, that one has reached a dead end, is trapped in a pattern of self-destructive behavior, and that some sort of change is necessary.

In addition to these extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime experiences, there’s also a sense in which every moment of life is a kind of crisis, or at least has the potential to be one, in the sense of being a turning point in which we are called on to make a critical choice. xxvii In his Letter to the Young, On How they Might Derive Profit from Greek Literature, St. Basil compares this situation to the famous story of “Herakles standing at the Crossroads”: one road leads to virtue, the other to vice, and Herakles must decide which way to go. And this, Basil says, is an image of each and every one of us, since we are called on continually to make a choice between God and the selfish desires of our ego.

In this way, Basil aligns Greek letters with the spirit of Christ, who said: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross every day and follow me, for whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it” (Lk 9:23-24). This means that in order to follow Christ, we must experience a kind of death. For something new to be born, something old has to die, but no one dies right away; it takes a long time to die, and so our whole life should be an ongoing conversion, an ongoing taking up of the cross, an ongoing surrender to God.

We often think that God is going to come into our life by means of some pleasant experience that will require little or no change on our part. However, God is more likely to enter our lives through a crisis, like a serious illness, or some other affliction, for these are the signs, not of God’s absence but of His active presence. As we saw in the lives of the Three Hierarchs, God comes to us in the eye of the storm, in the midst of our difficulties, in the midst of our confusion, our pain, and our suffering. Recall the words of Gregory, who learned by experience that God is both “the source of affliction” and “the gentle healer.” Affliction alone can tear us away from our isolated, individual existence and transform us into something much more whole and open. The self-consoling dreams and delusions of the ego make it hard for us to perceive the reality of God. But when all the illusions are swept away by some affliction, then I begin to call and cry out to God, like the psalmist who said: “In my affliction I cried out to the Lord, and He heard me” (Ps 18:5).

We see this very clearly in the case of St. Gregory: Gregory’s life was changed not by any mystical experience, not by any sublime meditation on the nature of reality, but because he confronted his death. For twenty days and nights, Gregory sat face to face with the prospect of his own annihilation. During that time he was forced to think of himself as non-existent, to see himself as dead already, and with the image of himself completely wiped out, he was able to see what was left without him. And what was left was everything else, all that was not himself, which he had never before seen and which now opened itself up to him and filled him to overflowing, so that through death he found life, and discovered that with the death of the self all things become the object of God’s perfect love.

So the crisis that engulfs me, the pain that I feel, is a kind of birth pang, for it is the initial movement of my soul longing to be united to God. And my longing for God is met by God’s longing for me, for it is God Who is seeking me in and through my sufferings, so that, in the end, a spiritual crisis is not the agony of man struggling to find God, but the agony of God struggling to find man. And so the pain that I feel is the pain of God searching for those who are lost, running after those that are far away, and until they are found and in His embrace, God will be in agony.

Conversion and Community

Another common element in the lives of the Three Hierarchs is their response to the crisis that brought God into their lives. In the wake of that experience, each of them was overcome by the desire to flee from the world and live exclusively with God. And so each of them spent a period of time in the desert, in the wilderness, in some kind of monastic retreat. Yet what’s so fascinating about the Three Hierarchs is that they didn’t remain in the desert. At a critical point, God called them back to the world in order to serve the Church. Consequently their flight to the desert is only part of the story, being a transitional stage in their journey back to community.

The pattern is well known. Christ retreated into the desert for forty days, after which he returned to the world to embark on His public ministry. St. Paul also spent a period of time in the desert, before beginning his apostolic work (cf. Gal 1:17-18; 2:1; 2 Cor 12:2). This pattern, with its crucial middle stage of flight and exile, has all the marks of a classic rite of passage, in which one is segregated from society before returning to it, armed with new knowledge and better prepared to rejoin the life of the community.

This is an ancient practice, and was very much part of the cultural world of the Three Hierarchs. Since St. Basil has taught us to “derive profit from Greek literature,” we might profitably illustrate this practice by turning to what is surely Plato’s most famous dialogue. Most of Plato’s dialogues are carefully constructed, beginning with the first word. One of these dialogues is the Republic, the first word of which is «κατέβην» (“I went down”) which is to be understood in various ways: the “going down from Athens to Piraeus” with which the dialogue begins; the going down from the exterior world of so-called reality to an interior world of transformation; ultimately it is the going down into death, in order to learn if death is the end of mortality or a way to immortality. The movement culminates in the “Myth of the Cave,” in the going down into that cave with the intention to rise from it. The dialogue closes with the vision of “Judgment in the Underworld,” from which one returns bearing an important message – what Socrates calls the “saving tale, that must be brought back from that other world,” making the one who returns from such a “crisis” (κρίσις /crisis) a “messenger to mankind.” Thus, the Republic does not give us a simple story of linear progress, but a dramatic construction of departure and return, and this is the existential core around which the dialogue is built, and which in a Christian context was enacted by the Three Hierarchs.

However, leaving the desert did not mean leaving behind the lessons of the desert. And so what we see in the Three Hierarchs is a synthesis of monastic ideals and practice with active service to the Church. Gregory articulates this very clearly in his Funeral Oration for Basil. Far from being opposed to the active life of pastoral care, the life of prayer and contemplation is a requirement for effective priestly service. To accept a position of priestly authority without the lessons of the desert is both foolish and dangerous, and thus the active life of love and service must be complemented by the life of prayer and contemplation. According to Gregory, the bishop is someone who joins to his performance of episcopal duties a commitment to ascetic ideals, two modes of life that Gregory saw united in Basil, whose experience of God in the desert was the source and foundation of his entire ministry.

After they renounced the world, Basil and Gregory became monks. After he “abandoned the sophists,” Chrysostom spent four years as an ascetic living in obedience under an elder, and then two years living in a cave. But having fallen ill, he was unable to care for himself, and so returned to the world, where his life was filled with troubles. Yet he tells us that if he “had to choose between the difficulties of working in the world and the tranquility of monastic life, he would prefer pastoral service a thousand times.”

* * *

Every crisis is an opportunity for spiritual growth, and it was the experience of crisis and conversion that enabled the Three Hierarchs to become instruments of God’s grace. In finding God, in allowing God to find them, they found themselves. In finding their own voice, we find in them a universal voice. In fulfilling the task of their own time, they produced work valid for all time, and though they lived more than a thousand years ago, we continue to honor their life and work. But in the midst of our celebrations, we ought not to forget the words of St. John Chrysostom: «ἡ τιμή τοῦ ἁγίου εἶναι ἡ μίμησις τοῦ ἁγίου» .

God speaks to all of us, but we don’t always listen, and if we do listen we don’t always do what He says, or if we do, we get tired easily and give up. But the Three Hierarchs, like all the saints, heard, acted, and never wavered in their resolution to live for God. And in giving their lives to God, they lost nothing; on the contrary, in losing their life they found it (cf. Mt 10:39), and whatever they gave to God was returned to them a hundredfold and they have inherited eternal life (cf. Mt 19:29).

The “memory of the righteous is not without praise,” and so I will close with words of praise taken from the hymnology of today’s feast:

Δεῦτε τῆς οὐρανίου Τριάδος οἱ λατρευταί,
τήν ἐπίγειον τριάδα, τῶν θείων Ἱεραρχῶν εὐφημήσωμεν:
τόν Γρηγόριον, τῆς θεολογίας τόν ἐπώνυμον,
τόν Βασίλειον, τῆς βασιλείας τόν φερώνυμον,
καί Ἰωάννην, τόν ὄντως χαριτώνυμον,
τούς σοφιάς βυθούς,
τοῦ Πνεύματος τά ρεῖθρα τά ὠκεάνεια,
τάς πηγάς τάς ἀεί βλυζούσας τό ὕδωρ τό ζῶν τό ἁλλόμενον,
τούς διαυγεῖς μαργαρίτας,
τούς ἐπιγείους φωστῆρας,
τῆς Ἐκκλησίας τούς οἴακας,
τά ἀγλαόκαρπα δένδρα,
τούς οἰκονόμους τῆς χάριτος,
Χριστοῦ μου τό στόμα,
καί τῆς Τριάδος τούς ὑπερμάχους,
τούς ἐξ αὐτῆς ἀμέσως ἐλλαμπομένους,
καί πρεσβεύοντας ἀπαύστως ὑπέρ τῶν ψυχῶν ἡμῶν

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New Martyr Dimiter of Sliven, Bulgaria

St. Demetrius the New Martyr of Sliven (Feast Day - January 30)

The Holy New Martyr Demetrius was born on October 9, 1818 in Sliven, Bulgaria. His parents had no children for the first eight years of their marriage. Their prayers to God were answered, and their sons Stephen and Demetrius were born.

Demetrius was the younger son, and was brought up in a pious manner. He did not go to school, but he attended church frequently and memorized many prayers and services.

After their parents died, Stephen left home and went to Wallachia. Demetrius remained in the family home, which soon collapsed because of its age. The Muslims used this excuse to seize the surrounding property, and Demetrius became a servant to one of them. The family tried to convert him to their religion, but Demetrius resisted such attempts. "Our Orthodox Christian religion was given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ," he said, "while yours was given to you by Muhammad, a mere man."

They threw Demetrius out of the house when they heard this, and he later became a baker. Even while selling his bread in the marketplace, Demetrius proclaimed the Orthodox Faith and pointed out the deficiencies of Islam. Naturally, this outraged the Muslims, and they began to plan their revenge.

A new kadi came to Sliven, and Demetrius was chosen to prepare the food. The local beys chose him because they knew he had insulted Islam. The kadi offered him tobacco and liquor, but Demetrius said that he did not smoke or drink. When he tried to leave, the kadi said, "Let me make you a Muslim. You see what a good life we have. If you convert, I will tell your master to give you his daughter in marriage, and half of his riches."

Demetrius answered sarcastically, "Oh, sure."

Mistaking this for a serious reply, one of the Muslims began wrapping cloth around the young man's head in the form of a turban. Demetrius threw the turban to the ground and ran from the house. Some of the Hagarenes chased him, but were unable to catch him. For three days he hid in the village of Ichera without food or water.

Demetrius went to a bishop and told him his story. The bishop encouraged him to remain Orthodox, then sent him away with a gold coin and a wooden cross.

Exchanging the coin for change, Demetrius gave half the money to the poor. Then he went up to a Muslim guard and said that he was the one they were seeking. He was escorted back to Sliven with his hands tied behind him. When he met an Orthodox Christian Demetrius said, "Forgive me, brethren. I gave myself up to these ungodly people for the glory of our Faith."

When St Demetrius was thrown into prison, he asked for the priest Stephen to visit him. His request was refused, but Fr Stephen learned that Demetrius was incarcerated and tried to have him freed. The kadi ordered Demetrius to be brought to him while he was dining with other officials.

The kadi asked Demetrius if he was willing to accept Islam. Christ's holy martyr informed him that he had never promised to become a Muslim, and he had no intention of doing so. "If you took my irony for truth, I am sorry for you." He went on to call Muhammad a false prophet, and his followers sons of Satan.

The kadi told Demetrius that if he did not become a Muslim, he would be put to death. Then he sent him back to prison for three days to consider this. When he was brought before the kadi again, Demetrius refused to convert. Then he was ordered to be executed.

When the other Christians heard of Demetrius's fearless confession of faith and his impending death, they brought Father Stephen to him. Demetrius told the priest he was afraid that he would not be able to endure the tortures. Fr Stephen urged him to remain strong and bear witness to Christ.

St Demetrius remained in prison for a whole year. His tortures continued, and no one was able to help him. At the beginning of the year, many Muslims gathered and shouted for the kadi to execute Demetrius. Therefore, he summoned Demetrius before him. The fearless martyr remained unshaken in his resolve, and mocked their faith.

For the last time Demetrius was offered the choice of converting to Islam or being put to death. He said he would remain a Christian whatever they did to him. Father Stephen came to the prison to hear the saint's confession and give him Communion.

On the morning of January 30, 1841 Demetrius was brought to the place of execution. He asked forgiveness of the Christians he met, entreating them to pray for him. Then they ordered him to kneel on the ground for beheading. The first stroke did not sever his head, and he remained motionless. With the second stroke, the martyr's head fell to the ground. The Christians soaked cloths in his blood, and Fr Stephen collected some of the blood-soaked earth in a box.

The holy relics remained unburied all night. The kadi ordered the body to be thrown into the river the next day, because Muslims believe that the bodies of those who insult Muhammad should not be received by the earth. After a sufficient bribe had been paid, the kadi released the body for burial in the garden of the monastery. St Demetrius now lives in the heavenly Kingdom, glorifying most holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit throughout all ages.

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Papa Dimitri Gagastathis: Life and Teachings

Fr. Dimitrios was born in the village of Platanos in the prefecture of Trikala, Greece, on August 1, 1902. His parents Chrerstos and Catherine Gagastathis were pious men. On April 10, 1921, he was drafted into the army in Asia Minor. He also served in several places in Macedonia. On June 18, 1924, he was discharged from the army. In February 1928, he married Elisabeth Koutsimpiris from Platanos. The same year he was ordained reader by the Bishop of Trikki Polycarp. On Mary 24, 1931, he was ordained deacon, and on the 26th of the same month he was ordained priest by the same bishop.

From his marriage he had nine daughters. Five of the six that live today are married, while the youngest one became a nun, consecrated to the worship of God. For forty-two whole consecutive years, he served as the parish priest of his village. On October 1, 1973, he resigned for reasons of health. Since then, he remained confined at home, living as a saint with incessant prayer, glorifying and thanking God for the trial of his illness. He delivered his holy soul to the hands of the living God on January 29, 1975, in peace.

Throughout his life, he was pious, just, simple, humble, merciful, industrious, full of faith and love for God and for his neighbor, praying incessantly for the sake of the whole world. He tended his rational sheep as a good shepherd and became a teacher to everyone, instructing by his words, his letters and, above all, by his holy life.

The ever memorable Fr. Dimitrios worked for the Holy Church of Christ with all his strength. We believe that the Good God, Whom he unselfishly loved and self-denyingly served, and Whose infinite mercy he constantly begged for, has already taken him in the joyous dwellings of Paradise, to rejoice eternally in the blessedness of His Kingdom, through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Queen of all the Holy Archangels, his protectors, and of all the Saints.


Gleanings From Papa Dimitri's Writings

On Prayer

I'm definitely not educated, but I can empirically tell you - that's what life has taught me - that it's at night and on en empty stomach that one can pray better.

We haven't placed Christ inside us and that's why we don't know what's love, peace, concord, etc.

Since I can't preach, let me at least weep for my sins and for those who have gone astray.

Prayer is a telephone, a wireless, by which one communicates directly with God. You dial the number on the telephone of prayer to speak with God and He answers. You hear Him clearly, you feel Him very close.

Prayer comes first in the larynx, then goes up to the brain and then down to the heart. And then well, theaters come to the eyes. From that point on there's nothing more to be said. It's true that in the beginning, you'll have difficulties. You'll try to pray and at time so you won't be able to, at times you'll have wandering thoughts and temptations, and at other times you won't be able to wake up at night. But you must insist. The Lord, seeing your disposition, will uphold you and deliver you from all temptations. We must not waste the whole night sleeping, because then Satan does whatever he wants with us.

Nightly prayer is of great value. The people sleep and God listens.

No matter where I go, I stick to my program, which was been called "According to the order of Melchisedek" and has been countersigned by many spiritual Fathers.

Vespers, Supplication prayers, preaching, Compline with the Salutations of the Theotokos - a most blessed job...

I have seen many things in my life, one of them being that prayers, supplications and Divine Liturgies have caused many to return to the Church's fold.

I entreat God and His Saints to enlighten all those astray so that may believe and come back to the bosom of the Church, which always keeps her arms open and waits for them. This is all I know to say and keep bothering God, the Most Holy Theotokos, the Archangels and all the Saints. If they don't like this, may they forgive me, as I'm unlearned and don't know what I should be asking for.

We must not with too much boldness to God and to the Most Holy Theotokos. We are all sinners and God doesn't hear a sinner's voice.

Despite that I'm a sinner, I kept asking persistently based on "Ask, and it shall be given you, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Matt. 7:7). This is what I understood in my life: What is impossible with men, is possible with God (Luke 18:27).

Fasting

Fasting is a great thing. Adam was expelled for not keeping it. We must love fasting, because through it the passions go away, the heart and body are purified, and once we are made thus free, we can pray better. Our fasting must be accompanied with a lot of obedience and humility. We must do whatever God wants. We must have a lot of humility. We are nothing in the sea of God's love and goodness. What does God say? "Upon whom shall I look, except upon the meek and the humble and the one who fears my words?"

Humility And Obedience

The great vitures are three: humility, obedience, and love.

When there is no love and obedience to the local bishop, everything is ruined.

We cannot have boldness before God when we are not obedient, humble. Our heart must be simple in order to receive the word of God. No selfishness or hard-heartedness. Simplicity of heart makes us similar to God and to the saints. Everything is simple. The simple man is neither wicked nor can he think something wicked. He is resettles. He is like a child. His prayer is readily received. He prays for the others and for his sins.

How can you not weep when you see how much you've grieved God, the Angels and the Saints, who wait for you in Heaven and benefit you while on earth?

Love

Love cannot be limited to one person alone nor can the fruits of one's work be confined in a single environment. The lamp that is put on the table enlightens the whole house and everyone in it Matt. 5:15).

I can't find rest. I want to help everyone who asks me for help, even the whole world.

When you love God and all men with your heart, then you are in God's law. We shall be judged because we don't love.

I don't pray for myself. I love men so much that I pray only for the others.

How can you not pray for the afflicted, the sick, the poor?

Never be afraid for a man who loves. In him God dwells.

You ask me to make a Liturgy for you so that God may enlighten you to do well in the exam. I'm serving Forty Liturgies for you and you ask for one?

Have love among you, humility and obedience. God and the Angels rejoice in these... Love all the Most Holy Theotokos, Her who so much helps out human and sinful race.

The purpose of whatever prayers and services we do is to come closer to God and get to love Him more.

Demons

Satan doesn't know our thoughts. He knows only whatever he himself puts in our minds, as well as whatever he figures out from our movements, and whatever he hears from our words... Satan opposes every Christian who strives sincerely. However, no one must be afraid of the demons. They are smoke, dust and stench. They don't have power over men. God allows the temptations to try men's faith. They can be found even in the church, even during the time of Divine Liturgy. The put bad thoughts in the minds of the people and distract them from prayer and attention to the divine mystery. However, at the time of the Cherubic Hymn and of the Great Entrance, they depart. Only Lucifer, their leader, can enter in the sanctuary. No one else. I was once serving liturgy at night, when they came into the church and started overturning the chairs. The archdemon came into the sanctuary, shut the window and grabbed me by the throat to strangle me. I asked help from the Archangels, and when they roosters crowed in the morning, they all went away. "This generation goes away only through prayer and fasting" (Mark 9:29). Satan must not find any cowards, because he does whatever he wants with them. Satan is afraid of the pure and sincere confession, of humility and love. Where these exist, he just cannot enter.

On The Calendar Issue

How do the old-calendarists say that our Sacraments are invalid? In 1947, while I was doing the service of Sanctification and chanting "Great art Thou, O Lord, and Great art Thy works," a smoke came out of the cup and the water was heated up. Even in the cups that pious Christians held, the water was heated up. How then can you tell me that the Sacraments are invalid?

How can God work miracles with the new calendar, if it is not right? How did the miracle of Saint Bessarion happen in the village of Dousiko? This is enough to show to us that the right faith, love and the keeping of the commandments play an important role in the sanctification of man. I take account of nothing else. I wrote about this matter to Fr. Philotheos Zervakos (St. Nectarios' disciple) and he responded to me rightly - and so also I believe, the unlearned one, from my life's experience - that thirteen days can neither take you out from or put you into the Kingdom of Heaven... I also asked the Archangels about it and they told me "Stay where you are."

Contemporary World

We find it impossible in this day and age to work well in this life according to God's will, because we lack the two wings of love and humility.

God saved us from communism, but Satan delivered us to materialism.

Now it's time to weep and pray for the condition of today's world. We must pray that God may enlighten them to see the way of God, the way of truth and of righteousness.

Both clergy and people today have lost their spirituality. They constantly talk only about material and political things.

Through her weeping icon, the Theotokos shows that she's sad, because she sees what Russia suffers by the atheists, and because she's blasphemed by many.

Living Faith

Our Faith is alive, but we abandoned it because selfishness and materialism drew us away.

Indeed our Faith is alive, but we don't want to follow it, because it's a bit heavy and requires some commitments from our part. People want freedom and a depending slope so that they don't get tired and sweat, buy they don't know that this descent leads to a bad end. The way of perdition looks initially good, happy and easy. It offers artificial delights and pleasures, but all this vanishes quickly. We must pray incessantly on their behalf. Perhaps some soul might be save. In particular, we - the priests - have a tremendous responsibility before God and men.

Miracles happen every minute, but we don't perceive them because we are stone hearted. Soft-heartedness and simplicity are what's needed...

Church Services

The good chanter and the priest play a great role in good church services.

When chanting, you must understand and feel what you say. Don't get proud that you supposedly chant beautifully. You must live what you say. Once I was chanting a hymn of Apostle Peter that was about his denial. When I said "...and he cried bitterly," I saw tears coming out from his icon. The saint must have been pleased...

The priest's cassock is superior to trousers. It's got double grace...

Retribution

God will definitely give whatever He owes to us; we'll get paid according to our work. It must not strike us bad...

In my wallet I carry Christ's icon. He takes care of every human need. I always have the wallet open, and it's always full. Whatever one may give, God gives back double. ONe one hand man gives away, and on the other hand God brings in.

Sickness And Suffering

We patch up the body. But what is more important and we should always keep healthy is the soul. As we run to doctors and to spas and spend a lot of money for the body, so also we must turn to the spiritual father for the soul - which, moreover, is free-of-charge...

We must be glad in our trials and take special care lest we become indignant at the last minute and be punished in hell. Our life is a meal. Whether the meal is prepared well or not depends on us. But even if the meal is prepared well, we may not partake of it, should we kick over the table at the last minute. "Taste and see" (Ps. 34:8) that Christ is the Lord of eternal life.

Monasticism

Monasticism is Christ's army and Satan's enemy. The monasteries are the outposts of the Church. Without outposts, the enemy will capture us. Prayer in monasteries reaches God like a bullet. As a foreign army fears the aircraft and hides, so also Satan fear the prayer of the monastics and goes away.

Heresies

When the dignitaries of the foreign churches came to Trikala, I went at first to see them, but then I said to myself: "Papa Dimitri, get out of here fast and don't even look back..." We must not accept them. I've been following this principle many hears now. It was somewhat rude of me. But better be on good terms with God, rather than with the people...

We've been encircled by Free-Masonry and many fight our Church, but I believe that they try in vain, as the chief of the Church is Christ Himself, and she's not going to perish.

We must all pray, both old and young, that God and the Most Holy Theotokos enlighten the high-ranking men of the Church so that they may love one another and work for the Church which is being under attack by the foreign heresies.

Truth

I think I've grieved then a little, but truth is bitter and must needs be revealed for the benefit and salvation of their souls.

Youth

The young, male and female, have take the way downhill and they will neither see nor hear, while no one goes out there to stop them. But how could he, anyway, as the adults are worse?...

Daily Life Problems

I never worried anxiously about anything. I cared for my children without weariness and anxiety. God Who gave them to me took also care of everything.

The one who runs to magicians and fortune-tellers is called a rascal and loses protection even from God.

Self appraisal

I don't remember anything from this life; only heavy load of my sins.

If you learn that I left this world, don't get sad, but rather be happy because the Church will have gotten rid of the most sinful and unlearned priest of the era.

Prayers Composed by Papa Dimitri

Prayer Of A Priest

Jesus, the good Shepherd, I thank You, because you gave even to me, the small and weak one, the same command that You gave to Your apostles, when You told him: Feed my lambs, feed my sheep" (John 21:17).

Never would I dare, O Lord, to accept such a heavy mission, if I didn't believe that Your grace remedies what is weak and makes up for what is lacking.

Therefore, in this moment, in which I feel my shortcomings so intensely, I, your priest, Your sacrificer, the small shepherd of Your flock, implore You.

Uphold me, O Lord, keep my heart pure, whole, free from money and attached to Your commandments.

Take away from Your servants selfishness, ostentation and worldliness.

Keep him from anger, rancor, envy and jealously.

Make me a man of prayer, so that not only with my lips, but also with my heart I may praise and glorify Your Holy Name.

Help me not forget the holy feelings of my first liturgy, and by them to chase away the germ of habit, which every so often comes into me.

Help Your priest, O Lord, be always an angel of comfort for the afflicted, a source of spiritual invigoration for the disheartened, a guide towards Your peace, and a source of joy for the wounded.

Help me, my Savior, combine in my life and work tenderness with firmness, tact with strength, sensitivity with strictness.

Reduce my faults, so that no one may fall because of my weakness.

Teach me, Lord, how to instruct the children, inspire the youth, advise the adults, turn back the sinners, encourage those who are about to die.

Teach me, O Lord who know the hearts of men, how to perform the Mysteries of Your Church and especially the Mystery of Holy Confession. During that time, make me be a perfect psychologist and an affectionate father.

Help me in my parish an inspiration of good works and a leader in God pleasing endeavors, so that all may be won over for their own happiness and for the glory of Your Name. Amen.

Daily Prayer

O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of those far off in the sea, the Good Shepherd, Who gave Your soul as ransom for Your rational sheep, Who do not desire the death of a sinner, but that he may turn back and live, the Forbearing, the All merciful, the All compassionate, Who gave us repentance for the remission of sins, Who are full of mercy and love for mankind, forgive all our sins that we have committed since our childhood, in words, in ignorance, in mind, voluntarily and involuntarily; forgive also all sinners and blasphemers and give to us, to those, and to all men, true repentance, pure and sincere one, to enlighten, guide instruct, uphold, strengthen and confirm us on the unshakable rock of the Faith, the rock of Your divine commandments, so that having put off the old man of sin and put on the new man in Christ, we may live the remaining time of our life in chastity, holiness, justice, piety and in God pleasing manner and be made worthy of Your Heavenly Kingdom; may that we all attain this through the prayers of YOur most pure Mother and of all Your saints. Amen.

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God and the Devil

By Fr. John Romanides

God also loves the devil. There is no chance the devil will be saved however. God loves everyone. The issue is not about if God loves me, then I will be saved. The issue is if one undergoes therapy, which is necessary in order to be found in a state of illumination, so that, when found before the vision of the glory of God, we will see the glory of God as light and not as eternal fire and outer darkness.

The devil had no law in his sight. He is not one who makes war, as we today make war, when we say things like "you know the Treaty of Lausanne says...." The devil does not recognize any regulation of good conduct in his battle against people. For this reason it is very difficult for anyone to become an Orthodox theologian. The first concern of the devil is for us not to hear the name of Christ, nothing about the name of Christ. If by a mistake of the devil, we hear of Christ and begin to take interest, well, then he changes tactics. As long as he loses that battle, he has other strongholds. He makes war elsewhere.

There are people who think that when they have noble intentions, such as when they see a poor person and have compassion, these are human sympathies that exist. And when we have good feelings, we say that they are inspired by God. Yes, but good feelings can be inspired from the devil also. Inspirations are many. In the patristic tradition, the only nondelusional feeling that can exist in humans, is when the very Holy Spirit prays within man.

Source: From the new book of Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos titled Emperical Dogmatics.

Translated by John Sanidopoulos

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Hegumen Filaret Bulekov: France Respects Orthodoxy

January 28, 2011
Voice of Russia

Russian Orthodoxy has been arousing great interest and respect in France in the past few decades. The head of the Orthodox community in Strasbourg Hegumen Filaret Bulekov, in a Voice of Russia interview, said that plans were being made to build new Orthodox churches in Strasbourg and Paris.

The first Orthodox parishes in France appeared in the 19th century and have gradually evolved into what is now the world’s largest Russian-speaking Orthodox community outside Russia, Hegumen Filaret said.

Historically, France has a very large Russian diaspora, which is owed to special relations between our countries. Hundreds of thousands of Russians fled their homeland to France in the post-revolutionary years of the past century. They took care to organize their church life and opened numerous parishes. Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, it’s a different situation. Relationships between our countries have grown simpler. Lots of people come here to take temporary or permanent jobs, or to spend a weekend or vacations. There are lots of Russians in France now. And the existing number of churches is certainly insufficient to cater for their spiritual needs.

Last year, Russia won a land purchase tender for the construction of a cathedral not far from the Eiffel Tower in Paris. And just a couple of weeks ago, Strasbourg authorities allotted a plot of land to the local All Saints Orthodox parish to build what will be the city’s first Orthodox church.

The Strasbourg Orthodox parish is relatively young. It was founded in 2005, Hegumen Filaret says. Immediately, we sought a premise we could use as a church or permission to build our own church. Things started to move along in 2007 when His Holiness, the late Patriarch Alexi II, visited Strasbourg. Meeting with the city mayor, he emphasized the urgency of organizing spiritual life for our compatriots in Strasbourg.

The design project for the future church in Strasbourg has been completed and approved by Patriarch Kirill. This will be a pyramid-domed church, an organic blend of Russian and European architecture.

The church was designed by Yuri Kirs, a talented architect from St. Petersburg, well experienced in designing and building Russian churches in a way that would make them fit harmoniously into the surrounding environment, Hegumen Filaret says. The idea of his Strasbourg church is that its Orthodox features should be easy to recognize, while at the same time it should not look like something entirely alien to the local architecture.

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The Relationship of St. Ephraim the Syrian and St. Basil the Great

When Saint Ephraim visited Caesarea, he desired to meet the great Basil, the fountain of Orthodox dogmas and the champion of piety. Saint Ephraim, who was a clairvoyant, greatly commended the Archbishop of Ceasarea, whom he beheld with the eyes of his soul. In his vision he beheld the great Basil with a dove, flashing forth light as brilliant as the sun on the hierarch's right and speaking in his ear. Ephraim then observed Saint Basil teaching the people whatever he heard being uttered by the divine dove. This same dove also illumine the mind of the venerable Ephraim that what was taking place was through the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, and he rejoiced in spirit.

Saint Ephraim's vision was also confirmed by the good report of the wonders of Saint Basil. Thereupon, Ephraim supplicated God to reveal to him of what sort was the saint. Then Ephraim was vouchsafed to behold a pillar of fire, which rose up into the heaven; and he heard a voice saying: "Ephraim, Ephraim, even as this pillar of fire, so is the great Basil!"Then, without the least anxiety, Ephraim took along with him an interpreter who knew both the Greek and Syriac tongues, and went to Ceasarea. It was then the Feast of Theophany. He entered the church and observed Saint Basil clothed in splendid and costly vestments, celebrating the sacred Liturgy with great boldness. Ephraim then reproached himself and said to his interpreter: "In vain have we labored, brother, because this man, though he is found in such glory, is not as I saw."

The holy hierarch, having been informed in the Spirit of these words which were uttered by Saint Ephraim, called one of his deacons to him, and instructed him: "Go to the western door of the church, and you will see two monks standing there: the one is beardless, tall, and thin; and the other has a black beard. Address the beardless monk, saying, 'You are to come to the holy bema, for thy father, the archbishop calls you.'" Thereupon, the deacon went; and with force he managed to make his way through the multitude. He announced the words of Saint Basil to the righteous Ephraim who, through the interpreter, answered: "You are in error, brother, because we are strangers and unknown. How then does the archbishop know us?" Unable to answer, the deacon returned to the archbishop. He related the words of Saint Ephraim to the sacred hierarch, who again sent him forth, instructing him: "Go and say, 'Lord Ephraim, come into the holy bema, because the archbishop calls you." Therefore, the deacon went a second time. Greeting Ephraim with a prostration, he reported the message of the hierarch to the venerable monk. In turn, the righteous Ephraim made a prostration to the deacon, declaring: "Truly, the great Basil is a pillar of fire, for I beseech him that I may speak alone with him in the sacristy." When Saint Basil finished celebrating the Divine Liturgy, he summoned Saint Ephraim. After he greeted him with a holy kiss, he conversed with the desert father on spiritual matters and divine purposes and design. He then encouraged Ephraim that if there were any hidden matter in the heart to tell him of it.


The righteous Ephraim spoke through the interpreter, saying: "I ask one favor of your prelacy, slave of God." Basil interjected: "Whatever you desire, ask; for I am greatly obliged to you on account of your labor which you endeavored for the sake of my lowliness." Saint Ephraim continued: "I know, holy master, that if you should make supplication for something to God, He would bestow it. Well, I desire that you would supplicate God that I might speak Greek, for I dot at all know this language of yours." Saint Basil responded: "Your request, holy father, is beyond my power. But inasmuch as you have asked this with faith, let us both entreat God, even as the One is able to make your request a reality; for even the Prophet David uttered, 'The will of them who fear Him shall He do, and their supplication shall He hear, and He shall save them'" (Ps. 144:20). After Saint Basil said this, he stood together with Saint Ephraim for a long while in entreaty. And when they finished their prayer, the saint cried with a loud voice: "The grace of the Holy Spirit be with you, and speak Greek!" Straightway, as Saint Basil uttered this command - O the wonder! - Saint Ephraim opened his mouth and was speaking Greek, even as Saint Basil and the Christians of that place.

Afterward, they say that the holy hierarch ordained the venerable Ephraim to the diaconate and his translator to the priesthood. Now Saint Ephraim remained with Saint Basil for three days and greatly profited by his teaching. Afterward, he departed again for the wilderness, glorifying and blessing God....

Now Saint Basil had been a great admirer of the holy Ephraim and was amazed at his erudition, though Ephraim had received no formal instruction. About this time Saint Basil desired for the holy hymnographer to return to Ceasarea with the intention of elevating him in clerical rank, but Ephraim was resolved not to accept such a dignity, and decided to feign madness. He went about the streets indecorously, dragging multicolored clothes, chewing on bread while drooling. Saint Basil's messengers were appalled at such conduct, and reported to him that they found his candidate to be a madman. Saint Basil exclaimed: "O hidden pearl of great price, whom the world knows not! You are the madmen, and he the sane one!"

From The Great Synaxarion of the Orthodox Church (January), translated by Holy Apostle Convent, pp. 1101-1107.

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The Feast Day of St. Isaac the Syrian on September 28th

St. Isaac the Syrian (Feast Day - January 28 and September 28)

In the Greek Orthodox calendar there is no official feast day of St. Isaac the Syrian. Traditionally, however, he has been celebrated on January 28th together with the other great Syriac father of the Church, St. Ephraim the Syrian. The Slavic Churches celebrate St. Isaac officially on January 28th.

Not too many years ago Elder Paisios (+1993) sought to change this fact due to his great veneration for St. Isaac. He commissioned a Service to be written in his honor and chose to celebrate his feast on September 28th. The Service was written by the eminent hymnographer Fr. Gerasimos Mikragiannanites (+ 2002). Today the feast of St. Isaac is celebrated on Mount Athos on September 28th.

Furthermore, the first church dedicated to St. Isaac was built on Mount Athos, in the cell of a monk of the brotherhood of Elder Paisios in Kapsala.

Elder Paisios, who would read the Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac beneath the icon of the Saint, would say of St. Isaac: "If anyone went to a psychiatric hospital and read to the patients Abba Isaac, all those who believed in God would get well, because they would recognize the deeper meaning of life."

He also said:

"First you must read the Gerontikon, Philotheos History, and Evergetinos. All these books are practical not theoretical. Their simple patristic spirit and holiness will help you remove secular logic from your mind. Next, you should read Abba Isaac, and this way you will not see him as a philosopher, but as a man illumined by God."

It should also be noted that before the establishment of September 28th as the feast of St. Isaac by Elder Paisios, when he heard rumors that scholars accused St. Isaac of being a Nestorian, he prayed about this situation. Through divine revelation it was revealed to him that in fact St. Isaac was Orthodox and he wrote in his Menaion for January 28th the following words after the description of the feast of St. Ephraim the Syrian: "...and Isaac the Great Hesychast and much unjustly accused."

Below is the text of the Service in honor of St. Isaac commissioned by Elder Paisios. It is distributed by the Kalyva of the Resurrection of Christ in Kapsala on Mount Athos, where lived Fr. Isaac of Lebanon, a spiritual child of Elder Paisios. His ascetical tradition is maintained by Fr. Euthymios and his brotherhood.

isaak syrian

Read also: Ὁ Ἀββᾶς Ἰσαάκ ὁ Σύρος, στό στόχαστρο τοῦ Οἰκουμενισμοῦ (pdf)

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Saint Isaak of Syria and the Responsibility of Each for All

Scott Cairns
August 21, 2010
The Huffington Post

While it may not seem a purely spiritual practice, I've made a habit of re-reading Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov every summer for the past 15 years.

Early on, I wasn't sure why this novel held so much power for me; I only knew that it did. It wasn't until I got some four years into my habit that I finally noticed how powerfully Saint Isaak of Syria (seventh century) figures in Dostoevsky's work. The author kept a copy of Saint Isaak's Ascetical Homilies readily at hand, poring over its pages throughout his life. As it happens, many years ago, as I was making my own slow way toward the Eastern Orthodox Church, Saint Isaak's Homilies helped tug my heart home.

One passage from the recently discovered "second part" of Saint Isaak's text proved especially helpful:

"[Both] the Kingdom and Gehenna are matters belonging to mercy. ... That we should say or think that the matter [of Gehenna] is not full of love and mingled with compassion would be an opinion full of blasphemy and insult to our Lord God. ... Among all His actions there is none which is not entirely a matter of mercy, love, and compassion: this constitutes the beginning and the end of His dealings with us."

All of the God's actions, the saint insists, have to do with our recovery, our healing, our becoming whole. None is unrelated to the overarching mercy, love, and compassion He bears for us.

The psalmist says, "The Lord has chastened me sorely, but he has not given me over to death."

The Psalmist says, "He will not maintain His anger, nor will He forever keep His wrath."

Such figures as "His anger" and "His wrath" finally come to be seen as provisional metaphors, garments He will one day discard.

"He did not deal with us according to our sins,
Nor reward us according to our transgressions;
For according to the height of heaven from earth,
So the Lord reigns in mercy over those who fear Him;
As far as the East is from the West,
So He removes our transgressions from us."

For Isaak, then -- and now also for me -- all suffering is understood to be remedial; it is understood as a means to our recovery -- and no end in itself.

In The Brothers Karamazov, Saint Isaak is mentioned by name several times, and his Ascetical Homilies acknowledged twice. While both old Grigory and odd Smerdyakov are shown to have held these homilies in hand, it is the Elder Zosimas who carries Saint Isaak's words written upon his heart; Elder Zosimas is the one who receives the saint's words, incorporates them into his own speech, and -- more to our point of the moment -- he is the one who has found a way to embody them, to perform them.

During his one and only meeting with Dmitri Karamazov, the elder surprises all present with evidence of this:

"[Zosimas] stepped towards Dmitri Fyodorovich and, having come close to him, knelt before him. Alyosha thought for a moment that he had fallen from weakness, but it was something else. Kneeling in front of Dmitri Fyodorovich, the elder bowed down at his feet with a full, distinct, conscious bow, and even touched the floor with his forehead. Alyosha was so amazed that he failed to support him as he got to his feet. A weak smile barely glimmered on his lips.

'Forgive me! Forgive me, all of you!' he said, bowing on all sides to his guests."

Thereafter, preparing to die, the elder counsels his brothers. "Love animals, love plants, love each thing," he says. "If you love each thing, you will perceive the mystery of God in things. Once you have perceived it, you will begin tirelessly to perceive more and more of it every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an entire, universal love."

Elsewhere -- paraphrasing Saint Isaak -- he avers:

"Every day and whenever you can, repeat within yourself: "Lord, have mercy upon all who come before you today." For every hour and every moment thousands of people leave their life on this earth, and their souls come before the Lord -- and so many of them part this earth in isolation, unknown to anyone, in sadness and sorrow that no one will mourn for them, or even know whether they had lived or not. And so, perhaps from the other end of the earth, your prayer for his repose will rise up to the Lord, though you did not know him at all, nor he you. How moving it is for his soul, coming in fear before the Lord, to feel at that moment that someone is praying for him, too, that there is still a human being on earth who loves him."

Radical as it appears to us in the habitual isolations of the twenty-first century, this is not as uncommon a disposition as we might suppose. Even today, the monks of Mount Athos -- and holy men and women throughout the world -- are intentional in living this mystery of our unity and of our mutual responsibility, keen on living into it. With wholehearted struggle, they bear one another's afflictions; they carry one another in prayer; they ask forgiveness for their personal sins, for those of their brothers, and -- puzzling as this may seem to us -- they ask God to forgive them and us for our sins as well.

One of the continuing misconceptions about monastics past and present is that these people have rejected the world altogether, and that by withdrawing from it they are primarily concerned with their own spiritual well-being. That may be how their choice appears to us outside their enclaves. From the inside, however, one can witness something else. Imitating Christ, they are -- in daily and deliberate acts -- performing the greatest love of all, that of giving their lives for their friends.

Granted, these men and women are apprehending their own salvation, but -- as their ascetic lives develop -- their labors and their most earnest prayers are for the salvation of the entire world, for all of creation, for each and every one of us; that is to say, their salvation and our salvation are in their hearts bound together.

Virtually every monk of Mount Athos struggles to acquire this understanding, as do increasing numbers of Christians worldwide who have worked to recover what has been for the most part a lost -- one might even say a squandered -- tradition. These men and women act upon the knowledge that, as members of the Body of Christ, each of us is utterly responsible for every other member, and, as human persons, each is responsible for all.

For all of their apparent separation from "the world" and its madding crowd, these monastics are more attentive to its troubles than many of us who remain distractedly within it. While many of us live in heart-numbing isolation even in the midst of a teeming city, certain of these ascetics, in distant enclaves or in solitary caves, live in deliberate communion with each other, and with all of humankind. Unlike the great majority of us, they are actively laboring toward our common recovery from our long illness.

About the fruits of this compassion, Saint Isaak of Syria has written a great deal, including this:

"And what is a merciful heart? It is the heart's burning for the sake of the entire creation, for men, for birds, for animals, for demons, and for every created thing; and by the recollection and sight of them the eyes of a merciful man pour forth abundant tears. From the strong and vehement mercy that grips his heart and from his great compassion, his heart is humbled and he cannot bear to hear of or to see any injury or the slight suffering of anything in creation. For this reason he offers up tearful prayer continually even for irrational beasts, for the enemies of truth, for those who harm him, that they be protected and receive mercy. And in like manner he even prays for the lowest as a result of the great compassion which -- after the likeness of God -- is poured out beyond measure within his heart."

The consensus of scriptural witness and of the broader tradition agrees that by the fact of our humanity, we are all of us already dwelling in "the image of God"; the trick lies in our proceeding into His likeness, wedding our hearts to His all-compassionate heart.

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