Saint Mary of Alexandria, Also Known As Marinos

By St. Symeon Metaphrastes

A MAN in Bithynia, by the name of Eugene, had a wife who bore an only daughter, whom they named Mary. Upon the death of Mary’s mother, her father raised her through very methodical teaching and a holy life. When the girl had grown up, her father told her:

“Here, my child, I leave all of my possessions in your hands I am departing for a monastery to save my soul.”

His daughter answered:

“Father, you wish to save your own soul and leave mine to be lost? Do you not know that the Lord says: ‘The good shepherd sacrifices his life for his sheep”? And elsewhere: ‘He who saves a soul shall be as the one who created it”?

Hearing her say such things, and seeing her lamenting and crying, her father said to her:

“My child, what can I do for you, since I wish to enter a monastery? And how is it possible for you to remain with me? For the Devil uses you women to vex and trouble the servants of God.”

She replied:

“No, Father, I will not enter the monastery in the way that you imagine, but will cut my hair and dress myself in men’s clothing; this is how I will come with you.”

WHEN her father had distributed all of his possessions to the poor and cut Mary’s hair and dressed her in men’s clothing, he named her “Marinos” and instructed her with these words:

“Be careful, my child, to watch yourself; for you will be passing through fire. Keep yourself pure by the Grace of Christ, that we might fulfill our promise.”

Taking her with him, he entered a coenobion, where his daughter progressed day by day in every virtue and great ascesis. Many of the brothers thought she was a eunuch, since she was beardless and had a high-pitched voice, whereas others supposed that this was the result of great temperance; for she only ate every two days. Now, it so happened that her father died, whereat she added obedience to her ascesis, that she might receive a charism from God against the demons. Thus, by the touch of her hand all of the infirm were immediately healed.

There were forty spiritual men along with her in the coenobion, and each month four of the brothers were sent out to take care of the affairs of the monastery, since they also provided for a number of anchorites. The journey being lengthy, the brothers who came and went would stop to rest at an inn that lay along the way. The innkeeper attended to them and showed them gracious hospitality.

ONE day, then, the Abbot called Abba Marinos and said to him:

“Brother, I am well acquainted with your entire life and your great obedience; that is, that you are perfect in everything. So, I have decided that you should go out in service of the monastery, since the brothers are grieved that you do not. If you do this, you will receive an even greater reward from our God, Who loves mankind.

Hearing these words, Marinos fell at his feet and said:

“Give me your blessing, Father, and wherever you direct me, I shall go.”

When Abba Marinos went one day with the other three brothers on monastery business and stopped to rest at the inn, it so happened that a certain soldier seduced the innkeeper’s daughter, and she conceived. The soldier told her:

“If this becomes known to your father, tell him: ‘It was the young monk from the coenobion — the handsome one, named Marinos — who slept with me.’”

And, having given her compensation for dishonoring her, he took to the road and left. When, after a few days, her father became aware of her condition, he asked: “Who did this to you?” And she threw the blame on
Marinos.

TAKING his daughter, the innkeeper arrived at the monastery, shouting:

“Where is that deceiver, whom they call a Christian?”

The apokrisarios came to see him and asked:

“Why are you shouting, my brother?”

And he replied:

“I am shouting because I curse the hour I encountered you. May I never see another monk again or have anything to do with them.”

He said the same to the Abbot:

“Father, my one and only daughter, on whom I hoped to depend in my old age — well, look and see what that Marinos, whom you call a Christian, has gone and done to her.”

The Abbot replied:

“What can I do for you, brother, since he is not here? When he returns, however, there remains nothing for me to do but to expel him from the monastery.”

When Abba Marinos arrived with the three other brothers, the Abbot said to him:

“Is this your conduct and your asceticism, that while staying at the inn you seduce the innkeeper’s daughter, and then he comes here and makes a scene before the laypeople?”

Hearing these words, Marinos dropped to his feet, saying:

“Forgive me, Father, for the Lord’s sake; for I have erred, being human.”

The Abbot flared up in anger and immediately threw him out of the monastery.

MARINOS went out and sat in the open air, valiantly enduring the cold and the heat. Those who entered and exited asked him: “Why are you sitting here?”

And he would answer: “They expelled me from the monastery because I committed fornication.”

When the innkeeper’s daughter gave birth to a son, the innkeeper took it in his hands and went to the monastery. Finding Marinos sitting outside of the gate, he threw the baby at his feet and said: “Here is the product of your sin. Take it.”

And he departed forthwith. Taking up the child, Marinos felt pity for
it, and said:

“As for me, I am paying for my sins. But why should this hapless child die with me?”

He thus began to ask for milk from the shepherds and to feed it as though he were its father. And as if this distraction were not enough, the crying and wailing baby would soil its clothes.

After three years, when the brothers had seen his great affliction and patience, they went to the Abbot and said:

“He has been punished enough, since he confesses his error before everyone.”

Since the Abbot could not be persuaded to take him back, the brothers said to him:

“If you do not receive him back, we will also leave the monastery. How can we ask forgiveness for our daily sins while he has been sitting outside for three years?”

THE Abbot then accepted him back, saying:

“I accept you back on account of the brothers’ love, though you are the least of all.”

And Marinos made a prostration to him, saying:

“It is more than enough for me, Father, just to live under your roof.”

So the Abbot gave him the most degrading chores, which he performed with zeal, wearing himself out in the process. And all the while he had the child behind him, hollering and clamoring for food. When the child grew up, having been reared with great virtue, he was accounted worthy of receiving the monastic schema.

ONE day, the Abbot asked the brothers:

“Where is Brother Marinos? I have not seen him at the services for three days, though he is always the first to arrive. Go to his cell and see if he has fallen ill.”

They went and found that he had died. When they had informed the Abbot of this, he replied:

“I wonder, how did his wretched soul depart? What defense can he have made for himself?”

He instructed that Marinos be buried. When they went to wash him and discovered that he was a woman, they all cried out “Lord have mercy!”

The Abbot asked: “What has come over you?”

They replied: “Brother Marinos was a woman.”

Entering the cell, the Abbot dropped down with his head on the ground, weeping and saying:

“I will remain here, at his holy feet, until I die, if I do not receive forgiveness.”

And a voice said to him:

“If you had acted in knowledge, your sin would not be forgiven. But since you acted in ignorance, it will be forgiven you.”

WHEN the Abbot stood up, he called for the innkeeper and said to him: “Look, Marinos has died.”

And the innkeeper replied:

“May God forgive him; for he has cast a blight on my house.”

The Abbot answered:

“Repent, my brother; for you have sinned before God and have misled me by your words, because Marinos was a woman.”

When the innkeeper realized this, he was abashed and glorified God. A short while later his daughter arrived, full of remorse, and told the truth: “It was the soldier who dishonored and defiled me.” And immediately she was healed of the affliction that had been sent to her by God.

When the brothers had taken the body of St. Mary, they anointed it with myrrh and laid it in a holy place, giving it a proper burial and praising Christ the Savior of all, Who ever glorifies them who glorify Him. To Him be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Source: Demetrios G. Tsames, Materikon [Lives of the Holy Mothers], Vol. I (Thessalonica: Ekdoseis “He Hagia Makrina,” 1990), pp. 314-319.

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New Martyr Christos the Gardener

St. Christos the Gardner (Feast Day - February 12)

Saint Christos was born in Albania. At forty years old he traveled to Constantinople, where he exercised the profession of gardening. One day while he was selling apples in the town market, a Turk came and wanted to buy all the apples at a humiliating price. Christos resisted and they came to an argument. The Turk became angry and, wanting revenge, he went to the authorities and reported that Christos allegedly had said that he will become a Muslim. Forced to stand before the judge, Christos was asked if this was true. "In the name of God," replied the poor gardener, "I never said such words. I am a Christian and can not change my faith even if I must suffer a thousand evils." Then the judge ordered Christos to be beaten vigorously with sticks. They even gave him a blow on the head and his head was soaked in blood. After that, he was tied up, taken to prison, and his legs were put in stocks.

At that time, it happened that the famous scholar Monk Kaisarios Dapontes was also in prison. He felt pity for Christos and asked the guardians to release his legs from the stocks, and they released him. Monk Kaisarios Dapontes even managed to find some food and took it to him. "Thank you Father", said Christos, "but why should I eat? Will I even live? Let me then die for my Lord Jesus Christ hungry and thirsty." And he took out and gave Monk Kaisarios a metal file, which he was carrying on him. "Sell it," he said, "and make some Divine Liturgies and Memorial services for my soul."

That same day, the guards came and took the Martyr from prison and led him outside the city. He peacefully put his neck down and gave himself to Jesus Christ. So, the gardener of Constantinople left the gardens of the Bosporus to become a gardener of the heavenly Paradise. He was decapitated on the twelfth of February 1748. The monk Kaisarios Dapontes wrote about the life and suffering of the Martyr, and in turn it was recorded by St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite.

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Saint Meletius, Archbishop of Antioch

St. Meletios of Antioch (Feast Day - February 12)

This holy Father, who was from Meletine of Armenia, was a blameless man, just, reverent, sincere, and most gentle. Consecrated Bishop of Sebaste in 357, he was later banished from his throne and departed for Beroea of Syria (this is the present-day Aleppo). After the Arian bishop of Antioch had been deposed, the Orthodox and the Arians each strove to have a man of like mind with themselves become the next Bishop of Antioch. Meletius was highly esteemed by all, and since the Arians believed him to share their own opinion, they had him raised to the throne of Antioch. As soon as he had taken the helm of the Church of Antioch, however, he began preaching the Son's consubstantiality with the Father. At this, the archdeacon, an Arian, put his hand over the bishop's mouth; Meletius then extended three fingers towards the people, closed them, and extended one only, showing by signs the equality and unity of the Trinity. The embarrassed archdeacon then seized his hand, but released his mouth, and Meletius spoke out even more forcibly in defense of the Council of Nicea. Shortly after, he was banished by the Arian Emperor Constantius, son of Saint Constantine the Great. After the passage of time, he was recalled to his throne, but was banished again the third time by Valens. It was Saint Meletius who ordained Saint John Chrysostom reader and deacon in Antioch (see Nov. 13). He lived until the Second Ecumenical Council in 381 (which was convoked against Macedonius, Patriarch of Constantinople, the enemy of the Holy Spirit), over which he presided, being held in great honor as a zealot of the Faith and a venerable elder hierarch.

Some time before, when the Emperor Gratian had made the Spanish General Theodosius commander-in-chief of his armies in the war against the barbarians, Theodosius had a dream in which he saw Meletius, whom he had never met, putting upon him the imperial robe and crown. Because of Theodosius's victories, Gratian made him Emperor of the East in Valens's stead in 379. When, as Emperor, Saint Theodosius the Great convoked the Second Ecumenical Council in Constantinople two years later, he forbade that anyone should tell him who Meletius was; and as soon as he saw him, he recognized him, ran to him with joy, embraced him before all the other bishops, and told him of his dream.

While at the Council, Saint Meletius fell ill and reposed a short while after. Saint Gregory of Nyssa, among others, gave a moving oration at his funeral; bewailing the loss of him whom all loved as a father, he said, "Where is that sweet serenity of his eyes? Where that bright smile upon his lips? Where that kind right hand, with fingers outstretched to accompany the benediction of the mouth?" (PG 46:8-6). And he lamented, "Our Elias has been caught up, and no Elisseus is left behind in his place." (ibid., 860). The holy relics of Saint Meletius were returned to Antioch and were buried beside Saint Babylas the Martyr (see Sept. 4), in the Church dedicated to the Martyr which Meletius, in his zeal for the Martyr's glory, had helped build with his own hands.

From The Synaxarion of Holy Transfiguration Monastery

Funeral Oration To St. Meletius

By St. Gregory of Nyssa

The number of the Apostles has been enlarged for us by this our late Apostle being reckoned among their company. These Holy ones have drawn to themselves one of like conversation; those athletes a fellow athlete; those crowned ones another crowned like them; the pure in heart one chaste in soul: those ministers of the Word another herald of that Word. Most blessed, indeed, is our Father for this his joining the Apostolic band and his departure to Christ. Most pitiable we! For the unseasonableness of our orphaned condition does not permit us to congratulate ourselves on our Father's happy lot. For him, indeed, better it was by his departure hence to be with Christ, but it was a grievous thing for us to be severed from his fatherly guidance.

Behold, it is a time of need for counsel; and our counsellor is silent. War, the war of heresy, encompasses us, and our Leader is no more. The general body of the Church labours under disease, and we find not the physician. See in what a strait we are. Oh! That it were possible I could nerve my weakness, and rising to the full proportions of our loss, burst out with a voice of lamentation adequate to the greatness of the distress, as these excellent preachers of yours have done, who have bewailed with loud voice the misfortune that has befallen them in this loss of their father. But what can I do? How can I force my tongue to the service of the theme, thus heavily weighted, and shackled, as it were, by this calamity? How shall I open my mouth thus subdued to speechlessness? How shall I give free utterance to a voice now habitually sinking to the pathetic tone of lamentations? How can I lift up the eyes of my soul, veiled as I am with this darkness of misfortune? Who will pierce for me this deep dark cloud of grief, and light up again, as out of a clear sky, the bright ray of peace? From what quarter will that ray shine forth, now that our star has set? Oh! evil moonless night that gives no hope of any star! With what an opposite meaning, as compared with those of late, are our words uttered in this place now! Then we rejoiced with the song of marriage, now we give way to piteous lamentation for the sorrow that has befallen us! Then we chanted an epithalamium, but now a funeral dirge! You remember the day when we entertained you at the feast of that spiritual marriage, and brought home the virgin bride to the house of her noble bridegroom; when to the best of our ability we proffered the wedding gifts of our praises, both giving and receiving joy in turn. But now our delight has been changed to lamentation, and our festal garb become sackcloth.

It were better, maybe, to suppress our woe, and to hide our grief in silent seclusion, so as not to disturb the children of the bride-chamber, divested as we are of the bright marriage garment, and clothed instead with the black robe of the preacher. For since that noble bridegroom has been taken from us, sorrow has all at once clothed us in the garb of black; nor is it possible for us to indulge in the usual cheerfulness of our conversation, since Envy has stripped us of our proper and becoming dress. Rich in blessings we came to you; now we leave you bare and poor. The lamp we held right above our head, shining with the rich fullness of light, we now carry away quenched, its bright flame all dissolved into smoke and dust. We held our great treasure in an earthen vessel. Vanished is the treasure, and the earthen vessel, emptied of its wealth, is restored to them who gave it. What shall we say who have consigned it? What answer will they make by whom it is demanded back? Oh! Miserable shipwreck! How, even with the harbour around us, have we gone to pieces with our hopes! How has the vessel, fraught with a thousand bales of goods, sunk with all its cargo, and left us destitute who were once so rich! Where is that bright sail which was ever filled by the Holy Ghost? Where is that safe helm of our souls which steered us while we sailed unhurt over the swelling waves of heresy? Where that immovable anchor of intelligence which held us in absolute security and repose after our toils? Where that excellent pilot who steered our bark to its heavenly goal? Is, then, what has happened of small moment, and is my passionate grief unreasoning? Is it not rather that I reach not the full extent of our loss, though I exceed in the loudness of my expression of grief? Lend me, oh lend me, my brethren, the tear of sympathy. When you were glad we shared your gladness. Repay us, therefore, this sad recompense. “Rejoice with them that do rejoice" (Romans 12:15). This we have done. It is for you to return it by “weeping with them that weep.”

It happened once that a strange people bewailed the loss of the patriarch Jacob, and made the misfortune of another people their own, when his united family transported their father out of Egypt, and lamented in another land the loss that had befallen them. They all prolonged their mourning over him for thirty days and as many nights. You, therefore, that are brethren, and of the same kindred, do as they who were of another kindred did. On that occasion the tear of strangers was shed in common with that of countrymen; be it shed in common now, for common is the grief. Behold these your patriarchs. All these are children of our Jacob. All these are children of the free-woman (cf. Galatians 4:31). No one is base born, no one supposititious. Nor indeed would it have become that Saint to introduce into the nobility of the family of Faith a bond-woman's kindred. Therefore is he our father because he was the father of our father. You have just heard what and how great things an Ephraim and a Manasses related of their father, and how the wonders of the story surpassed description. Give me also leave to speak on them. For this beatification of him from henceforth incurs no risk. Neither fear I Envy; for what worse evil can it do me? Know, then, what the man was; one of the nobility of the East, blameless, just, genuine, devout, innocent of any evil deed. Indeed the great Job will not be jealous if he who imitated him be decked with the like testimonials of praise. But Envy, that has an eye for all things fair, cast a bitter glance upon our blessedness; and one who stalks up and down the world also stalked in our midst, and broadly stamped the foot-mark of affliction on our happy state. It is not herds of oxen or sheep that he has maltreated, unless in a mystical sense one transfers the idea of a flock to the Church. It is not in these that we have received injury from Envy; it is not in asses or camels that he has wrought us loss, neither has he excruciated our bodily feelings by a wound in the flesh; no, but he has robbed us of our very head. And with that head have gone away from us the precious organs of our senses. That eye which beheld the things of heaven is no longer ours, nor that ear which listened to the Divine voice, nor that tongue with its pure devotion to truth. Where is that sweet serenity of his eyes? Where that bright smile upon his lips? Where that courteous right hand with fingers outstretched to accompany the benediction of the mouth.

I feel an impulse, as if I were on the stage, to shout aloud for our calamity. Oh! Church, I pity you. To you, the city of Antioch, I address my words. I pity you for this sudden reversal. How has your beauty been despoiled! How have you been robbed of your ornaments! How suddenly has the flower faded! “Verily the grass withers and the flower thereof falls away" (1 Peter 1:24; Isaiah 40:8). What evil eye, what witchery of drunken malice has intruded on that distant Church? What is there to compensate her loss? The fountain has failed. The stream has dried up. Again has water been turned into blood (cf. Exodus 7:17). Oh! The sad tidings which tell the Church of her calamity! Who shall say to the children that they have no more a father? Who shall tell the Bride she is a widow? Alas for their woes! What did they send out? What do they receive back? They sent forth an ark, they receive back a coffin. The ark, my brethren, was that man of God; an ark containing in itself the Divine and mystic things. There was the golden vessel full of Divine manna, that celestial food. In it were the Tables of the Covenant written on the tablets of the heart, not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God. For on that pure heart no gloomy or inky thought was imprinted. In it, too, were the pillars, the steps, the chapters, the lamps, the mercy-seat, the baths, the veils of the entrances. In it was the rod of the priesthood, which budded in the hands of our Saint; and whatever else we have heard the Ark contained was all held in the soul of that man. But in their stead what is there now? Let description cease. Cloths of pure white linen scarves of silk, abundance of perfumes and spices; the loving munificence of a modest and beautiful lady. For it must be told, so as to be for a memorial of her , what she did for that Priest when, without stint, she poured the alabaster box of ointment on his head. But the treasure preserved within, what is it? Bones, now dead, and which even before dissolution had rehearsed their dying, the sad memorials of our affliction. Oh! What a cry like that of old will be heard in Rama, Rachel weeping (cf. Jeremiah 31:15), not for her children but for a husband, and admitting not of consolation. Let alone, you that would console; let alone; force not on us your consolation. Let the widow indulge the deepness of her grief. Let her feel the loss that has been inflicted on her. Yet she is not without previous practice in separation. In those contests in which our athlete was engaged she had before been trained to bear to be left.

Certainly you must remember how a previous sermon to ours related to you the contests of the man; how throughout, even in the very number of his contests, he had maintained the glory of the Holy Trinity, which he ever glorified; for there were three trying attacks that he had to repel. You have heard the whole series of his labours, what he was in the first, what in the middle, and what in the last. I deem it superfluous to repeat what has been so well described. Yet it may not be out of place to add just so much as this. When that Church, so sound in the faith, at the first beheld the man, she saw features truly formed after the image of God, she saw love welling forth, she saw grace poured around his lips, a consummate perfection of humility beyond which it is impossible to conceive any thing further, a gentleness like that of David, the understanding of Solomon, a goodness like that of Moses, a strictness as of Samuel, a chastity as of Joseph, the skill of a Daniel, a zeal for the faith such as was in the great Elijah, a purity of body like that of the lofty-minded John , an unsurpassable love as of Paul. She saw the concurrence of so many excellences in one soul, and, thrilled with a blessed affection, she loved him, her own bridegroom, with a pure and virtuous passion. But ere she could accomplish her desire, ere she could satisfy her longing, while still in the fervour of her passion, she was left desolate, when those trying times called the athlete to his contests. While, then, he was engaged in these toilsome struggles for religion, she remained chaste and kept the marriage vow. A long time intervened, during which one, with adulterous intent , made an attempt upon the immaculate bridal-chamber. But the Bride remained undefiled; and again there was a return, and again an exile. And thus it happened thrice, until the Lord dispelled the gloom of that heresy, and sending forth a ray of peace gave us the hope of some respite from these lengthened troubles. But when at length they had seen each other, when there was a renewal of those chaste joys and spiritual desires, when the flame of love had again been lit, all at once his last departure breaks off the enjoyment. He came to adorn you as his bride, he failed not in the eagerness of his zeal, he placed on this fair union the chaplets of blessing, in imitation of his Master. As did the Lord at Cana of Galilee , so here did this imitator of Christ. The Jewish waterpots, which were filled with the water of heresy, he filled with genuine wine, changing its nature by the power of his faith. How often did he set before you a chalice, but not of wine, when with that sweet voice he poured out in rich abundance the wine of Grace, and presented to you the full and varied feast of reason! He went first with the blessing of his words, and then his illustrious disciples were employed in distributing his teaching to the multitude.

We, too, were glad, and made our own the glory of your nation. Up to this point how bright and happy is our narrative. What a blessed thing it were with this to bring our sermon to an end. But after these things what follows? “Call for the mourning women" (Jeremiah 9:17), as says the prophet Jeremiah. In no other way can the burning heart cool down, swelling as it is with its affliction, unless it relieves itself by sobs and tears. Formerly the hope of his return consoled us for the pang of separation, but now he has been torn from us by that final separation. A huge intervening chasm is fixed between the Church and him. He rests indeed in the bosom of Abraham, but there exists not one who might bring the drop of water to cool the tongue of the agonized. Gone is that beauty, silent is that voice, closed are those lips, fled that grace. Our happy state has become a tale that is told. Elijah of old time caused grief to the people of Israel when he soared from earth to God. But Elisha (cf. 2 Kings 2) consoled them for the loss by being adorned with the mantle of his master. But now our wound is beyond healing; our Elijah has been caught up, and no Elisha left behind in his place. You have heard certain mournful and lamenting words of Jeremiah, with which he bewailed Jerusalem as a deserted city, and how among other expressions of passionate grief he added this, “The ways of Zion do mourn." These words were uttered then, but now they have been realized. For when the news of our calamity shall have been spread abroad, then will the ways be full of mourning crowds, and the sheep of his flock will pour themselves forth, and like the Ninevites utter the voice of lamentation (cf. Jonah 3:5), or, rather, will lament more bitterly than they. For in their case their mourning released them from the cause of their fear, but with these no hope of release from their distress removes their need of mourning. I know, too, of another utterance of Jeremiah, which is reckoned among the books of the Psalms ; it is that which he made over the captivity of Israel. The words run thus: “We hung our harps upon the willows, and condemned ourselves as well as our harps to silence.” I make this song my own. For when I see the confusion of heresy, this confusion is Babylon (cf. Genesis 11:9). And when I see the flood of trials that pours in upon us from this confusion, I say that these are “the waters of Babylon by which we sit down, and weep” because there is no one to guide us over them. Even if you mention the willows, and the harps that hung thereon, that part also of the figure shall be mine. For in truth our life is among willows , the willow being a fruitless tree, and the sweet fruit of our life having all withered away. Therefore have we become fruitless willows, and the harps of love we hung upon those trees are idle and unvibrating. “If I forget you, oh Jerusalem,” he adds, “may my right hand be forgotten.” Allow me to make a slight alteration in that text. It is not we who have forgotten the right hand, but the right hand that has forgotten us: and the “tongue has cleaved to the roof of” his own “mouth,” and barred the passage of his words, so that we can never again hear that sweet voice. But let me have all tears wiped away, for I feel that I am indulging more than is right in this womanish sorrow for our loss.

Our Bridegroom has not been taken from us. He stands in our midst, though we see him not. The Priest is within the holy place. He is entered into that within the veil, whither our forerunner Christ has entered for us (cf. Hebrews 6:20). He has left behind him the curtain of the flesh. No longer does he pray to the type or shadow of the things in heaven, but he looks upon the very embodiment of these realities. No longer through a glass darkly does he intercede with God, but face to face he intercedes with Him: and he intercedes for us , and for the “negligences and ignorances” of the people. He has put away the coats of skin (cf. Genesis 3:21); no need is there now for the dwellers in paradise of such garments as these; but he wears the raiment which the purity of his life has woven into a glorious dress. “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death” of such a man, or rather it is not death, but the breaking of bonds, as it is said, “You have broken my bonds asunder.” Simeon has been let depart. He has been freed from the bondage of the body. The “snare is broken and the bird has flown away. ”He has left Egypt behind, this material life. He has crossed , not this Red Sea of ours, but the black gloomy sea of life. He has entered upon the land of promise, and holds high converse with God upon the mount. He has loosed the sandal of his soul, that with the pure step of thought he may set foot upon that holy land where there is the Vision of God. Having therefore, brethren, this consolation, do ye, who are conveying the bones of our Joseph to the place of blessing, listen to the exhortation of Paul: “Sorrow not as others who have no hope" (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Speak to the people there; relate the glorious tale; speak of the incredible wonder, how the people in their myriads, so densely crowded together as to look like a sea of heads, became all one continuous body, and like some watery flood surged around the procession bearing his remains. Tell them how the fair David distributed himself, in various ways and manners, among innumerable ranks of people, and danced before that ark in the midst of men of the same and of different language. Tell them how the streams of fire, from the succession of the lamps, flowed along in an unbroken track of light, and extended so far that the eye could not reach them. Tell them of the eager zeal of all the people, of his joining “the company of Apostles,” and how the napkins that bound his face were plucked away to make amulets for the faithful. Let it be added to your narration how the Emperor showed in his countenance his sorrow for this misfortune, and rose from his throne, and how the whole city joined the funeral procession of the Saint. Moreover console each other with the following words; it is a good medicine that Solomon has for sorrow; for he bids wine be given to the sorrowful; saying this to us, the labourers in the vineyard: “Give,” therefore, “your wine to those that are in sorrow ,” not that wine which produces drunkenness, plots against the senses, and destroys the body, but such as gladdens the heart, the wine which the Prophet recommends when he says: “Wine makes glad the heart of man. ”Pledge each other in that liquor undiluted and with the unstinted goblets of the word, that thus our grief may be turned to joy and gladness, by the grace of the Only-begotten Son of God, through Whom be glory to God, even the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.

Source

To read the text with extensive footnotes, read here.

Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
The truth of things hath revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, an icon of meekness, and a teacher of temperance; for this cause, thou hast achieved the heights by humility, riches by poverty. O Father and Hierarch Meletios, intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.

Kontakion in the Plagal of the Second Tone
Fearing thy spiritual boldness, the apostate Macedonius doth flee; and as we accomplish the service wherein we seek thine intercessions, we, thy servants, hasten to thee with longing, O Meletius, thou equal of the Angels, thou fiery sword of Christ our God which doth utterly slay all the godless. We praise thee, the luminary which doth illumine all.

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Bishop Fighting Religious Sects In Arctic Russia

February 11, 2011
BarentsObserver

The newly appointed Bishop Daniil of Arkhangelsk is likely to make the fight against new religious groups and sects a top priority.

The new bishop who previously served in Russia’s far eastern Sakhalin island, has extensive experience in fighting “totalitarian sects”, Arcticway.ru reports. During his nine years of service in Sakhalin, Daniil is reported to have initiated a major missionary campaign and successfully put a stop to the quickly expanding new religious organizations in the region.

That experience could be efficiently applied also in Arkhangelsk Oblast, analysts believe.

The Russian Orthodox Church is reportedly not content with the situation in Arkhangelsk Oblast and believe the regional administration is being too soft on the new groups. The number of non-Orthodox groups is said to be most significant in the towns of Severodvinsk and Plesetsk.

The biggest number of new religious groups, however, is found in the neighboring Nenets Autonomous Okrug, where as many as 20 non-Orthodox congregations are registered.

Daniil was appointed new Bishop in Arkhangelsk on 24 December last year. He took over the position from Bishop Tikhon who passed away in October.

Read also: Arkhangelsk Welcomed Its New Bishop

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Metropolitan Hilarion: Music Can Lead People To Christ

Metropolitan Alfeyev Speaks at Catholic University

February 11, 2011
Zenit

Music can lead people to discover the astonishing appeal of the Man behind Christianity -- that is, of Jesus Christ himself, according to Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev.

The chairman of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate affirmed this Wednesday when he spoke at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C..

Metropolitan Alfeyev is himself an accomplished composer and he spoke on "Music and Faith in My Life and Vision."

The prelate acknowledged that he is "well aware of the insignificant number of young people who listen to classical music, whereas almost everyone listens to popular music."

"This," he said, "I consider to be a real tragedy."

But, he affirmed that "secular musical art is possible within Christianity, including that which exceeds the limits of classical music which I love so much."

Sacred messages

The metropolitan called Christianity "inclusive," saying, "it does not set strict canonical limits to art. Christianity can even inspire a secular artist who, using the means available and known to him and his milieu, will be able to convey certain sacred messages equally in the language of modern musical culture."

By way of example, Metropolitan Alfeyev cited "Jesus Christ Superstar."

"No doubt," he said, "this composition is not in keeping with church criteria, but the author did not purport to present the canonical image of Christ. He achieved his objective outstandingly well by telling the story of Christ’s passion in a language understandable to the youth and through the medium of contemporary music."

"I appreciate this music more emphatically than I do the works of many avant-garde composers, since the latter sometimes eschew melody, harmony, and inner content," the metropolitan reflected.

"The image of Christ can inspire not only church people, but also those who are still far from her," he added. "One should not forbid them to think, speak and write about Christ, unless they are moved by a desire deliberately to distort Christianity and to insult the Church and the faithful.

"If a composition is bright, impressive and grips the listeners, if it makes them empathize emotionally with the Gospel events and even weep, if it arouses profound feelings in them, then it deserves high praise."

Metropolitan Alfeyev observed that the path to Christianity "often begins with a discovery of the living Christ, rather than a recognition of the church’s dogmatic truths."

"Christianity is a religion focused on the living Man, a historic person," he said. "The person of this Man appeals astonishingly. It may well be the case that a composition on a Gospel subject, though written by a non-Churchman, is imbued by a veneration of Christ. Many may begin their way to Christ and to the Church through such a composition, even if it were not altogether 'canonical.'"

Read the full text of lecture here.

Read also here.

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What the Bible Doesn't Say About Sex

Katherine T. Phan
February 12, 2011
Christian Post

Reputable Christian scholars are outright rejecting one author's message that the Bible gives mixed and contradictory teachings on sex and sexuality.

Earlier this week, a Newsweek article entitled, "What the Bible Really Says About Sex", brought attention to the work of Jennifer Wright Knust, author of Unprotected Texts: The Bible’s Surprising Contradictions About Sex and Desire.

Knust, a religion professor at Boston University, argues that there are cases in the Bible where premarital sex, homosexuality and prostitution is permissible, according to her book and the Newsweek piece.

Evangelical scholars say she fails to demonstrate authentic scholarship and correct biblical interpretation despite teaching religion and being an ordained American Baptist pastor.

"Jennifer Knuts offers a revisionist interpretation of the biblical texts. Her interpretation departs, not only from the traditional ways those texts are interpreted, but also from the true meaning of what the texts actually say," Dr. Claude Mariottini, professor of Old Testament at Northern Baptist Seminary, told The Christian Post.

In his blog post responding to the Newsweek piece, Dr. Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said the Bible already presents a "clear and consistent sexual ethic" and that the issue at hand is not lack of clarity.

"The real problem here is not that the Bible is misunderstood and in need of revision," he wrote Wednesday. "To the contrary, the real problem is that the ethic revealed in the Bible is both rejected and reviled."

In an interview posted Thursday on the Huffington Post, Knust contended to Stephen Prothero, author of Religious Literacy, that the story of Ruth is an example of how premarital sex is "a source of God's blessing" in the Bible. She claimed that the Bible's record of Ruth "uncovering the feet" of Boaz and lying down at his feet is actually a scene of the great grandparents of King David having sex. "Feet" can be a euphemism for male genitals, according to Knust.

Dr. Paul Copan, a philosophy professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Fla., told The Christian Post that he believes Ruth's uncovering of Boaz's feet was just that and that nothing sexual took place.

"The Bible doesn't shy away from recording sexual encounters and would have recorded it if one took place," he said.

President of the Evangelical Philosophical Society, Copan also pointed out that the grammar in the Bible doesn’t support a sexual act. The word "lie" can be used in a sexual way, such as Potiphar's wife telling Joseph "lie with me," he noted. But in the story of Ruth, "the word is used here without sexual connotations," said Copan.

Mariottini acknowledged that "feet" can refer to "genitals" in a few passages of the Old Testament, but to say that "Ruth exposed Boaz’s genitals, is to read a sexual meaning into the text that may or may not be there," he said.

"Even if Ruth exposed Boaz’s genitals, it does not mean that they had sexual intercourse. It is possible that Ruth was tricking Boaz into thinking they had sex," offered the Old Testament professor.

Bottom line: "The case of Ruth cannot be used to give approval to premarital sex," said Mariottini.

Both Copan and Mariottini referred to Deuteronomy 22:28-29 to explain that the Bible is against premarital sex. According to the passage, sex consummates the marriage so if a man has violated a virgin woman, he must pay her father 50 pieces of silver and also take her as his wife, the scholars said.

They also cited the passage in Genesis 2:24, which states, "This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh."

Scripture affirms God's creation order of marriage between a man and a woman and sexual pleasure as taking place in the context of marriage, they said.

In another controversial claim, Knust also argues that the Bible justifies prostitution, pointing to the story of Tamar.

Tamar was left a widow after the Lord punished Er, Judah's eldest son, with death for his wickedness. Judah then asks his second eldest son, Onan, to marry Tamar and give her an offspring but he, too, is slain by the Lord after he intentionally withheld his seed from Tamar. When the third son Shelah was grown but was given to wed Tamar, she posed as a prostitute and had sex with her father-in-law.

"The Bible does not approve prostitution, but like in our society today, prostitution was very common," said Mariottini.

"The reason Tamar dressed like a prostitute was because Judah violated a societal rule and refused to provide an heir for his dead son. So, she was forcing him to fulfill his obligation," he said.

In a commentary to CNN this week, Knust takes another stab at the Bible's claims on sexuality by arguing that Scripture supports homosexuality. Again using Old Testament characters to make her point, she sets her sights on David and Jonathan, alleging that the two were same-sex partners.

"There is no evidence that David and Jonathan were gay partners," stated Mariottini. "Both of them were married and had children. They were just friends who had the kind of friendship that was common in the Ancient Near East. This type of friendship is unknown today. This is the reason people mistake this kind of friendship with a gay relationship."

Mohler had this to say about Knust's claim on homosexuality, "No Jewish or Christian interpreter of the Bible had ever suggested that the relationship between David and Jonathan was homosexual – at least not until recent decades."

"The revisionist case is equally ludicrous across the board. We are only now able to understand what Paul was talking about in Romans 1? The church was wrong for two millennia?" he asked rhetorically.

Knust acknowledged in her CNN commentary that same-sex intimacy is condemned in a "few" biblical passages, but claims that "these passages, which I can count on one hand, are addressed to specific sex acts and specific persons, not to all humanity forever, and they can be interpreted in any number of ways."

Not so, according to Copan.

Copan, who addresses the topics of homosexuality and gay marriage in his book When God Goes to Starbucks, said that homosexuality is strictly prohibited by the Bible in Leviticus 18:22 and again by Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 6.

Homosexuality "goes against the very design that God intended: marriage is between husband and wife," said Copan, reaffirming the passage in Genesis.

"Paul speaks very strongly against homosexuality," he said. "He says that these sorts of things are not to be approved in the Kingdom of God. He is also saying that people can be redeemed against this."

In his book, Copan cited the work of Richard Hays, dean of Duke Divinity School, who calls such attempts to label Ruth and Naomi as lesbians or David and Jonathan as gays "exegetical curiosities” that just aren’t taken seriously by biblical scholars.

"The Scriptures offer no indications – no stories, no metaphors – that homosexual relationships are acceptable before God," concluded Copan in When God Goes to Starbucks.

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America's God Is Dying

Stanley Hauerwas
July 20, 2010
ABC Religion and Ethics

America is the first great experiment in Protestant social formation. Protestantism in Europe always assumed and depended on the cultural habits that had been created by Catholic Christianity. America is the first place Protestantism did not have to define itself over against a previous Catholic culture. So America is the exemplification of constructive Protestant social thought.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer thus got it right when he characterized American Protestantism as "Protestantism without Reformation."

That is why it has been possible for Americans to synthesize three seemingly antithetical traditions: evangelical Protestantism, republican political ideology and commonsense moral reasoning. For Americans, faith in God is indistinguishable from loyalty to their country.

American Protestants do not have to believe in God because they believe in belief. That is why we have never been able to produce an interesting atheist in America. The god most Americans say they believe in is just not interesting enough to deny. Thus the only kind of atheism that counts in America is to call into question the proposition that everyone has a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Consequently, America did not need to have an established church because it was assumed that the church was virtually established by the everyday habits of public life.

Just take, for example, the 1833 amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution that did away with church establishment, which nonetheless affirmed "the public worship of God, and the instructions in piety, religion, and morality, promote the happiness and prosperity of a people, and the security of republican government."

In his important book America's God, Mark Noll points out that these words were written at the same time that Alexis de Tocqueville had just returned to France from his tour of North America. Tocqueville confirmed the point made in the Massachusetts Constitution by observing, "I do not know if all Americans have faith in their religion - for who can read to the bottom of hearts? - but I am sure that they believe it necessary to the maintenance of republican institutions. This opinion does not belong only to one class of citizens or to one party, but to the entire nation; one finds it in all ranks."

Protestantism came to America to make America Protestant. It was assumed that was to be done through faith in the reasonableness of the common man and the establishment of a democratic republic. But in the process the church in America became American - or, as Noll puts it, "because the churches had done so much to make America, they could not escape living with what they had made."

As a result Americans continue to maintain a stubborn belief in a god, but the god they believe in turns out to be the American god. To know or worship that god does not require that a church exist because that god is known through the providential establishment of a free people.

This is a presumption shared by the religious right as well as the religious left in America. Both assume that America is the church.

But now we are beginning to see the loss of confidence by Protestants in their ability to sustain themselves in America just to the extent that the inevitable conflict between the church, republicanism and commonsense morality has worked its way through the system of our national life.

America is the great experiment in Protestant social thought, but the society Protestants created now threatens to make Protestantism unintelligible to itself. Put as directly as I can, I believe we may be living at a time when we are watching Protestantism, at least the kind of Protestantism we have in America, come to an end. It is dying of its own success.

Protestantism became identified with the republican presumption in liberty as an end in itself. This presumption was then reinforced by an unassailable belief in the commonsense of the individual. As a result, Protestant churches in America lost the ability to maintain those disciplines that are necessary to sustain a truly free people - people who are capable of being a genuine alternative to the rest of the world.

The great irony is that the almost pathological fervency with which the religious right in America tries to sustain faith as a necessary condition for democracy is the surest formula for insuring that the faith that is sustained is not the Christian faith.

More Americans may go to church than their counterparts in Europe, but the churches to which they go do little to challenge the secular presumptions that form their lives or the lives of the churches to which they go. For the church is assumed to exist to reinforce the presumption that those that go to church have done so freely.

The church's primary function, therefore, is to legitimate and sustain the presumption that America represents what all people would want to be if they had the benefit of American education and money. That is what Americans mean by "freedom." Thus the presumption that if you get to choose between a Sony or Panasonic television you have had a "free choice." The same presumption works for choosing a President. Once you have made your choice you have to learn to live with it. So there is a kind of resignation that freedom requires.

But this is where the entire "freedom" edifice begins to crumble. Just consider this question: "Do you think that people ought to be held accountable for decisions they made when they did not know what they were doing?" Most Americans would say no. They do not believe you should be held accountable because it is assumed that you should only be held accountable when you acted freely, and that means you had to know what you were doing.

This is what I mean when I say, in a rather convoluted way, that most Americans tell themselves the story that you should have no story except the story you choose when you had no story. That we are, in other words, people of our own making, constituted by a free choice. And that free choice is the only thing we are responsible for.

But the problem with such an account of responsibility is that it makes marriage, among other things, completely unintelligible. How could you ever know what you were doing when you promised life-long monogamous fidelity? That is why the church insists that your vows be witnessed by the church, because the church believes it has the duty to hold you responsible to promises you made when you did not know what you were doing.

This obviously has profound implications for how faith is understood. The idea that you should have no story except the story you choose when you had no story produces people who can say things such as, "I believe Jesus is Lord - but that's just my personal opinion." This kind of statement obviously suggests a superficial person, but such are the people that many believe are crucial to sustain democracy. For such a people are necessary in order to avoid the conflicts that otherwise might undermine the order, which is confused with peace, necessary to sustain a society that shares no goods in common other than the belief that there are no goods in common.

If I am right about the story that shapes the American self-understanding, I think we are in a position to better understand why 11 September 2001 had such a profound effect on the self-proclaimed "most powerful nation in the world." The fear of death is necessary to insure a level of cooperation between people who otherwise share nothing in common. In other words, they share nothing in common other than the presumption that death is to be avoided at all costs.

That is why in America hospitals have become our cathedrals and physicians are our priests. I'd even argue that America's almost pathological reliance on medicine is but a domestic manifestation of its foreign policy. America is a culture of death because Americans cannot conceive of how life is possible in the face of death. And thus "freedom" comes to stand for the attempt to live as though we will not die.

It is impossible to avoid the fact that American Christianity is far less than it should have been just to the extent that the church has failed to make clear that America's god is not the God that Christians worship.

We are now facing the end of Protestantism. America's god is dying. Hopefully, that will leave the church in America in a position where it has nothing to lose. And when you have nothing to lose, all you have left is the truth. So I am hopeful that God may yet make the church faithful - even in America.

Stanley Hauerwas is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke University. In 2001 he was named "America's Best Theologian" by Time magazine.

Read also: Religion is Evolving Before Our Eyes

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Documentary: “Most Evil – Cult Leaders”

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Video: X-ray Device That Zaps Deep Cancers

Read more here.

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The Inkpot of Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite

Inkpot of St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite

Late 18th century

Vatopaidi Monastery, Mount Athos

Ceramic with painted decoration

Height 4 cm

Diam. upper surface 10 cm

Diam. Base 7.5 cm

Clay is red. Small box with eight concave edges for secure grip. On the upside, wide circular opening, which may have been shut with a lid. On the edge of one side stand two spouts to accommodate the pen. White slip and transparent colorless glaze covers the surface. Polychrome painted decoration. Floral themes with black outlines: the upper surface of the ink bottle is adorned with eight trifoliate flowers of blue and yellow alternately, and on the sides are polypetala flowers and green leaves.

The inkpot is regarded as the inkpot of St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite (1749-1809), eminent monk and prolific author of theological works. He went to Mount Athos in 1775, where he resided and wrote until his death.

Source: ΘΗΣΑΥΡΟΙ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΟΡΟΥΣ (Θεσσαλονίκη Πολιτιστική Πρωτεύουσα της Ευρώπης, 1997)

Translated by John Sanidopoulos

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Empress Theodora's Codex - Minuscule 565

Empress Theodora's Codex, or Minuscule 565, is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the Four Gospels (Tetraevangelion), on purple parchment, dated palaeographically to the 9th century. According to tradition, the manuscript was written by the hand of the 9th century pious Roman empress Theodora herself (read here).

The codex is one of only two known purple minuscules (Minuscule 1143 is the other) written with gold ink. It contains the text of the four Gospels on 392 purple parchment leaves. The text is written in one column per page, 17 lines per page.

The manuscript comes from the area of the Black Sea. In 1829 it was brought to Petersburg. The codex now is located at the Russian National Library (Gr. 53) at Saint Petersburg.

For more details, read here and here.

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Saint Haralambos, Patron Saint of Pyrgos in Ilia

Saint Haralambos is the protector of Pyrgos and of its Metropolis of Ilia and Oleni. On the feast of the saint on February 10th the people honor their patron not only through the church services, but also through organized cultural and folk events which create a festive atmosphere. The main event is the procession with the miraculous icon of the saint through the streets of Pyrgos after the celebratory Divine Liturgy in the Church of Saint Kyriaki. St. Haralambos officially became the patron saint of Pyrgos in 1946.

The small church dedicated to St. Haralambos is just down the street from St. Kyriaki Church and was built during Ottoman times by the Vilayet family, on the spot where the plague had ceased through the saints' intercessions. The icon of St. Haralambos inside this church was donated by the same family in 1687 which they had brought with them from Vela.

Currently a much larger church is being built to honor St. Haralambos in Pyrgos (see here).


The reason Pyrgos has St. Haralambos as its patron saint is because of the many miracles he has worked for the faithful in the area. Below is a list of the more famous ones.

1. In 1687 the Turks with their terrible leader, Ahmet Efendi, besieged Pyrgos. After supplications of the inhabitants to St. Haralambos, a pestiferous sickness struck the army of the Efendi and many of his soldiers died, with the result being their withdrawal from the siege and the city being saved.

2. In 1821 the Turks entered the port and besieged Pyrgos in an attempt to head towards Tripolitsa and wipe out the revolutionary soldiers from the area. After they burned part of the city, they tried to head towards the center road with carriages and their weapons. However, outside of the small Church of St. Haralambos, a small number of committed Greek soldiers were camped, who, with the help of the Saint, drove away the large number of Turks. Because of this the Turks would have to take other paths which would take weeks to reach Tripolitsa. The only pass that remained was the heroic Pousi, where the Greeks had organized, and as a result of the delay of the Turks at Pyrgou, the Greeks gave a fatal blow to the enemy.

3. In 1860 St. Haralambos saved the inhabitants of Pyrgou from the terrible threat of plague. This sickness was disbanded by St. Haralambos after fervent prayer and supplication towards him. In fact the people of Pyrgos saw an astounding sight. The Saint with a staff drove away a white cloud like cotton into the sky until he threw it into the sea; this was the sickness which the Saint banished. And in other places also St. Haralambos appeared driving away the plague, such as in Thessaly, in Savalia, and Demetsana, where they renamed the Church of the Entrance of the Theotokos after St. Haralambos because of the wonderworking intervention of the Saint.

4. To St. Haralambos is attributed the deliverance from the deadly threat of influenza in 1918, from Ilia and in all Greece, from which thousands of people were dying for months in Greece.

5. In the Italian bombing of 1941, a few hours before it occurred, a dense fog covered Pyrgos which resulted in the delay and eventually cancellation of the mission, and hence the salvation of the city. Before the Germans understood this, Pyrgos had prepared for the bombing. However, none of inhabitants suffered anything, because the bombs fell in uninhabited places and many didn't go off. This miracle was attributed to St. Haralambos.

6. On March 26th 1993, a great earthquake hit Pyrgou at 2:10 p.m., divided into two quakes of 5.5 and 5.8 on the Richter scale, separated by a three minute gap, so the damage was not terrible. This dividing of the quake was a noteworthy scientific phenomenon. For a while before there were small vibrations at night, as a forewarning to the inhabitants to prepare for the time of the earthquake. At the hour of the quake, many small children with innocent eyes saw the “Pappou” ["Grandpa"], as they called St. Haralambos, holding the homes of Pyrgos with extended hands so that they wouldn't fall. After the earthquake many inhabitants saw St. Haralambos in their sleep relating that with his intervention the great earthquake was separated into two smaller ones, and because of this there was a procession of the icon of the Saint in the city.

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Elder Porphyrios' Esteem For Elders Iakovos of Evia and Paisios the Athonite

In an excerpt from a lecture delivered at this link concerning the Blessed Elder Iakovos of Evia, Bishop Neophytos of Morfou speaks of a meeting he had with Elder Porphyrios in Athens before he had met Elder Iakovos in Evia.

Bishop Neophytos, when he was younger and a student, had just finished his first year of law school, yet was unsatisfied with it. He decided to visit the famed Elder Porphyrios in Athens to get his advice. Elder Porphyrios however encouraged him to go see Elder Iakovos, with whom he would have more in common. The bishop had heard of Elder Iakovos as the man who would communicate with the saint of his monastery (Righteous David). Then Elder Porphyrios told him that Elder Iakovos is the humblest man in all of Greece. He then spoke of how he and Elder Paisios the Athonite share similar fame among the people, whom he called a man of God on Mount Athos. However, he said that Elder Iakovos was very private and very humble. Elder Porphyrios went on to tell him how his special gift is to heal people and drive demons out of the possessed. The reason Elder Porphyrios wanted the young student to see Elder Iakovos is because the young student wanted people to understand him, and since he was orphaned as a child Elder Iakovos would be able to be more paternal to his situation since he also was orphaned.

What amazed Bishop Neophytos was how Elder Porphyrios looked deeply inside his soul to see what he truly needed. This is the great value of our contemporary spiritual guides - their sensitivity not only to our spiritual needs, but also psychological.

To listen to the entire lecture of the bishop's experiences with Elder Iakovos (in Greek), visit here.

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‘New Yorker’ Exposé of Scientology Summarized

By Adam Wilson
February 09, 2011
BlackBook

There's a really fascinating and incredibly long article in this weeks New Yorker about the cult of Scientology, and writer/director Paul Haggis's brave escape back into the world of secular sanity. In the piece, Haggis and other defectors speak with shocking candor on an institution whose inner workings have always been shrouded in secrecy. Before reading it, I'd considered Scientology stupid, creepy, amusing, and mostly harmless. After reading the piece, I now understand that this institution is all those things, but also evil, violent, and incredibly powerful. Read the piece for free in its entirety on The New Yorker website. But for those of you who don't have the time or energy to devote a couple hours to Scientology, I've provided a synopsis after the jump.

-Paul Haggis — writer of Million Dollar Baby and Director of Crash —recently quit Scientology after thirty-five years of involvement.

-Haggis quit because he was upset about the church’s support of California Proposition 8. Two of Haggis’s daughters are lesbians, and he believes strongly in gay rights.

-Scientology is anti-gay, although they deny this. A lot of people think Scientologists like Tom Cruise and John Travolta are gay. They also deny this. They deny pretty much all accusations about anything.

-Haggis’s frustration over Prop 8 led him to do some outside research on Scientology, something he’d mysteriously never thought to do once during the thirty-five preceding years.

-His research showed that Scientology was totally whack.

-Haggis had gotten into Scientology because a big part of the religion involves special forms of therapy and marriage counseling. Also, Scientology connections did wonders for his career.

-Nonetheless, he never knew Tom Cruise. Apparently Scientology celebs aren’t all buds with each other. The one time Haggis met Cruise, Cruise was a total humorless dick. Even though Haggis estimates he donated over $500,000 to the church over the years, they were still constantly asking him for money, and pretty much treated him like crap.

-Josh Brolin once saw Tom Cruise try to heal a wound in Marlon Brando’s leg with is bare hands.

-Haggis got to level VII on the spirituality ladder in the church. This is some hardcore shit. Haggis doesn’t think any of it worked. At level three you have to read this totally wild sci-fish thing about the beginning of humanity occurring 75 million years ago, and how dead souls are deposited in alcohol and then seep into your bodies. You must accept this document as truth. Haggis never fully bought it in his heart, but he’d spent so much time and money that he become afraid of asking himself honestly about his belief system.

-There is something called Sea Org that is kind of like a traveling monastery/jail where people as young as twelve are forced to sign contracts offering their dedication to Scientology for “billions” of years. They then are treated like slaves, paid $50 a week, and forced to do all kinds of manual labor like building airports for Tom Cruise.

-Sometimes these people are beaten and tortured and locked up for extended periods of time. Scientology denies this.

-Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard supposedly healed his own war injuries — lameness and blindness among them — by using Scientology methods. There is evidence supporting the fact that Hubbard was never lame or blind in the first place.

-There is this guy called David Miscavige, who runs Scientology, is totally evil, and allegedly beats the crap out of people on a regular basis. He’s also BFF’s with Tom Cruise. They have matching motorcycles.

-The piece ends with Haggis saying, “My bet is that, within two years, you’re going to read something about me in a scandal that looks like it has nothing to do with the church.” He thought for a moment, then said, “I was in a cult for thirty-four years. Everyone else could see it. I don’t know why I couldn’t.”

Read the whole article here.

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The Exact Meaning of Matthew 10:32, 33

"Whosoever therefore shall confess in Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father Who is in the heavens. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father Who is in the heavens." - Matthew 10:32, 33

St. John Chrysostom commenting on this passage writes:

"Mark Christ's exact care; He did not say that before men whosoever shall 'confess Me', but 'confess in Me' (εν Eμοι), showing how the confessor, not by a power of his own but by the help of grace from above, makes his confession. But of him who denies Christ before men, Christ said not 'whosoever shall deny in Me', but, 'deny Me'; for having become destitute of the gift, his denial ensues." ("Homily 34 On Matthew", PG 57:392)

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A Poem On the Orthodox Veneration of Icons

HYMN OF PRAISE: THE VENERATION OF ICONS

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

To what, in such a manner, do you my Christian bow,
When you, O my Christian, venerate the icons?
Before the Living God the Creator, I am bowing down,
With all my soul, heart and mind, I bow down to Him.
Mortal am I and, am unable upon Him to gaze,
Therefore, before His image I bow;
What, my Christian, do you so fervently reverence,
When, the icon O my Christian, you kiss?
Christ the God and Savior, I am kissing,
The choirs of angels, the saints and the Mother of God.
Mortal am I and, therefore am unable them to touch,
But when their images I kiss, my heart is at ease.

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8 Modern Miracles Of Saint Haralambos

Saint Haralambos was a priest of the Christians in Magnesia, the foremost city of Thessaly, in the diocese having the same name. He contested during the reign of Alexander Severus (222-235), when Lucian was Proconsul of Magnesia. At the time of his martyrdom the Saint was 103 years of age.

The following miracles are told by the nuns of St. Stephen's Monastery at Meteora of Thessaly, which houses the holy skull of St. Haralambos.

1. Epidemic On Mount Athos

Saint Haralambos has a special gift of healing pestilential diseases, and has often halted epidemics of typhus, cholera and the plague. In 1908 a deadly epidemic reached Mt. Athos, and the holy skull of the saint was taken from St. Stephen's on Meteora to the Protaton on Mt. Athos, where an all-night vigil was served. The epidemic halted immediately, and since then, each year, the monasteries celebrate an all-night vigil honoring St. Haralambos - the only saint besides the Mother of God to be so honored by the entire population of the Holy Mountain.

2. Maria's Child

In 1950, Maria Nairi's four-year-old daughter became paralyzed. Unable to help her, the doctors could do nothing for the child and sent her home to die. After many nights of prayer, Maria saw St. Haralambos in a dream, and borrowing an icon of him from her church, kept it in her home for forty days with a lamp lit before it. On the eve of the Feast of the Holy Apostles (June 30), the saint appeared to the child and healed her. The room was filled with an indescribable fragrance and sweet-smelling myrrh flowed from the icon.

3. A Year Without Speech

On the west coast of Greece there is a church dedicated to the saint in thanksgiving for saving the town from a typhoid epidemic. One year St. Haralambos' feast fell in the week before Great Lent. In Greece, as in other parts of the world, this week is often celebrated with a secular carnival. A couple, who were passing by the church on the eve of the saint's feast, heard the singing for the vigil. The wife wanted to go in for the service, but the husband blasphemed the saint and said that he would go to the carnival instead. He was immediately stricken dumb. His wife took him into the church where he knelt and repented, and he regained his speech exactly a year later, on the feast of St. Haralambos.

4. Life Savings

In 1966, a Mr. Nikolaou was returning to his native village where he planned to retire, carrying with him his life savings. Reaching his village, he was horrified to discover he had lost the money. The next morning he set off again for Piraeus, hoping somehow to trace it. When he reached the village of Paligoyrgos, he saw a small chapel dedicated to St. Haralambos and went in to beseech his aid. Immediately he heard a voice telling him to look under the seat of the car in which he had ridden part way home the day before. He traced the car and found that the money had indeed fallen under the seat.

5. Endurance For Christ

A man with an incurable and extremely painful disease prayed to St. Haralambos frequently and fervently to heal him. Finally one night the saint appeared and told him that his sufferings were much less than those endured by Christ and that it would be better for him to bear his illness patiently than to have it cured, because it had been sent by God to help him work out his salvation.

6. The Novice's Sister

In 1978, a young woman came to St. Stephen's Monastery to be a monastic. She was clothed as a novice, but suffered terribly during her first few months because she was torn by her separation from her family. Her older sister came to visit, but only made the novice's sorrow greater by begging her to leave the monastery. In vivid colors she painted a picture of their parents sitting, night after night, heavy-hearted with grief at the absence of their youngest daughter. That night the elder sister slept in the monastery, and towards dawn she had a dream of St. Haralambos, who sternly reprimanded her for trying to make her sister leave, saying that it would greatly harm the young girl if she gave up the monastic path. As he scolded her, he slapped her hard across the cheek and she woke up feeling the sting of his hand. Needless to say, she obeyed, and one of the sisters who knows her says that, to this day, her cheek tingles from the sting of the slap.

7. The Twins

In January 1995, a woman came to visit the monastery from the town of Trikala and told the sisters that she had been childless for the first nineteen years of her marriage, and that doctors had told her she would never conceive. At the beginning of 1994, she began praying to St. Haralambos, who appeared to her one night in a dream and said not "You will have a child," but "You will have children." Two months later the woman conceived and at the end of the year gave birth to twin boys. She comes often now to visit the monastery with her little sons.

8. The "Monastery Priest"

In the early 1990's, a young man from the village in the area came to St. Stephen's Monastery with the intent to commit suicide by throwing himself off the bridge that connects the pinnacle of the rock to the road. He was standing on the bridge looking down into the chasm and preparing to jump, when an old priest came up and introduced himself as the spiritual father of the monastery. Although they had never met before, he began speaking to the young man about his life and trials, and encouraged him not to despair, promising him that God would help him. The young man felt an inner joy and peace. Going back to his home he began to attend Divine Liturgy regularly. A few weeks later he went to the monastery again and asked to speak to the old priest. The sister whom he met at the door told him there was no priest living there, that priests only came occasionally from the outside to serve Divine Liturgy, nor had there been any priest there on the day he mentioned. She asked him what the old priest had looked like, and he described in detail - St. Haralambos.


Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
O wise Haralambos, you were proven an unshakable pillar of the Church of Christ; an ever-shining lamp of the universe. You shone in the world by your martyrdom. You delivered us from the moonless night of idolatry O blessed one. Wherefore, boldly intercede to Christ that we may be saved.

Kontakion in the Fourth Tone
O Priest-martyr, athlete, champion Haralambos, your relics are a priceless treasure of the Church. Wherefore she rejoices, glorifying the Creator.

From Evlogeite! A Pilgrim's Guide To Greece by Mother Nectaria McLees, pp. 438-441.

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Miracle of St. Haralambos At the Polyclinic of Athens

The following miracle occurred to Constantine Livadan, an official of the Election Council, when he was young. He himself relates:

January 1931 I was hospitalized in the Polyclinic of Athens with a liver abscess. For four weeks I was tortured by a fever. Day and night I had a 38-40 degree (celsius) fever and terrible pains. It was decided that I should have surgery.

It was the day before the feast of St. Haralambos: February 9th 1931. That night, as I was in a terrible condition with a great fever and lethargy, I saw a magnificent priest come to me with a long beard. He approached me, and not the sick person across from me, who was at death’s door with peritonitis. He touched my head and said:

"Don’t be afraid. Tomorrow you will be completely well. You are a good boy."

I asked my nearby nurse, Nun Evanthia: "Who was that Priest who came?"

"There was no Priest," she responded.

I related to her what occurred. She crossed herself and told me: "Tomorrow is the feast of St. Haralambos; you will be well."

I then fell into a deep sleep. The fever began to decline from that instant. In the morning I was afebrile, totally well and without pains in the liver. In the morning the surgeon-professor N. Alivizatos and his brother Andreas (a pathologist) tested me, to get ready for the surgery. They studied and searched to find the liver abscess, but they couldn’t find it, neither did they find sclerosis or other disease of the liver (eight finger). The liver was normal!

The Nun related to the Professor what happened at night. She also showed me the Icon of St. Haralambos, whom I recognized. It was he that I saw. The professors related in astonishment:

"We raise our hands, and put down our knives. Today a miracle of St. Haralambos occurred at the Polyclinic!"

Later I learned that St. Haralambos is especially a physician of infectious diseases, which is what I had.

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Miracles of the Skull of Saint Haralambos

"If it please Thy goodness to ask a gift of Thee, I beseech Thy majesty and dominon to grant this favor: to whomsoever should find or possess a portion of my relics, and in whichsoever land he may be celebrating the memory of my martyrdom, may he never suffer from hunger or plague or pestilence or an untimely death or destruction from an evil man, or injury to crops. I pray that he may be firm in peace, salvation of soul, and health of body. I entreat that he enjoy plenty of wheat, oil, and wine, together with an abundance of livestock and other good and useful possessions...."

- Final Prayer of St. Haralambos

The most holy relics of Saint Haralambos have been distributed, for the sake of reverence, everywhere to Orthodox Christians. The relics have the grace and power to help, heal and defend believers with countless miracles which prove this to be true. The Saint is particularly acclaimed as the protector and guardian against all types of plagues and virus strains. Those who trust in him neither become carriers nor are infected.

The Holy Skull of St. Haralambos is found today at the Holy Monastery of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr, a convent at Meteora in Thessaly. In it's history, the faithful who have had unhesitating faith in St. Haralambos have brought the Holy Skull into their homes and cities to save them from danger. With reverence and piety, they have performed a service of sanctification for holy water as well. With the help of God, through His great martyr, He has preserved the faithful sound and untroubled during epidemics. Many of these miracles are recorded in publications produced by the Monastery of Saint Stephen.

One such miracle occurred in 1812 when a devastation of dengue plague made many ill throughout Epirus. Then someone named Molossus, the father of Zotou Molossou, who wrote a dictionary of Saints, went to Meteora and brought to Epirus the skull of Saint Haralambos and ended the plague and many deaths.

The Greco-Turkish War took place in 1897. The Turks managed at that time to steal the Holy Skull, yet after hitting the silver reliquary a thousand different ways to bust it open to take only the expensive reliquary, their efforts failed. Instead a great sickness befell the Turks. 35,000 Turks died of typhoid in Thessaly by a miracle of the Saint.

When the Sultan heard how great a number in his army died in Thessaly, he wrote the Commander of the Turkish army in Thessaly, Edem, the following question in a letter:

"How did we lose so many soldiers in Thessaly if we have not yet gone to battle with the Greeks?"

Edem responded: "As many Turks who ruined churches and monasteries died of typhoid. I could not prevent the hand of God. All the evil Turks died horribly!"

Though the largest portion of the Holy Skull of St. Haralambos is at Meteora, a smaller portion (pictured above) rests in New Iraklitsa. It was housed in the Church of St. George in old Iraklitsa in Asia Minor. Then in 1922, together with the Greek refugees, it came to New Iraklitsa in Kavala and is now housed in the Church of Panagia Faneromeni.

Doxastikon of the Praises in the Plagal of the First Tone
Your precious skull, O divine Saint, is like an alabaster box that is full and pouring out cures, like very costly fragrant oil. It wondrously perfumes the faithful, and it delivers from every evil those who approach it with faith. It exterminates foul‐smelling delusion, diseases of every kind, and the pandemic plague, and it grants good health to all, as well as peace and great mercy.

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