Venerable Martin of the Thebaid

St. Martin of the Thebaid (Feast Day - March 24)

Verses

You were reared well fair old man Martin,
Dying you died and were delivered to your forefathers.

Venerable Martin of the Thebaid met his end in peace.

St. Gregory Palamas: The Wonder of Noetic Prayer

By Archimandrite Dionisios Karagiannis

During the Second Sunday of Great Lent, the Church celebrates the memory of the epitome of faith and life, St. Gregory Palamas, later Archbishop of Thessaloniki, who, according to the hymns, is the great teacher of the Church and the preacher of divine light.

The distinction of essence and energies of God involves all of those things God can share and those He cannot share. The essence of God is inaccessible and unknown to creation, including people. However, one can come into relationship and communion with God through His uncreated energies, and the grace offered generously.

Holy New Hieromartyr Macarius Kvitkin, Protopresbyter of Orenburg (+ 1931)

By Vladimir Kvitkin-Pawlenko

(Son of Saint Macarius Kvitkin)

Archpriest Macarius Kvitkin was glorified as one of the New Martyrs for Christ in 1981 by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and in 2000 by the Moscow Patriarchate. On February 9, the Russian Church triumphantly celebrates the memory of the Synaxis of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. Fr. Makary's son, Vladimir Kvitkin-Pawlenko set down the account of his life. In 1995 it was published in Orthodox Life.

New Martyr Fr. Makary was born in 1882 in the town of Orsk, Orenburg Province. He was the son of the pious Fyodor and Evdokia Kvitkin. At a very early age, he came to love Christ and the Church, and was a deeply religious youth, often attending church, and reading and singing in the choir. As a young man, he first completed a course of studies at a teachers' college, and taught in a school. In 1904 Makary married Evfrosinia Kondratievna Beznosovaya, a pious maiden from a prosperous family. One year later, their first son, Sergei, was born.

Holy Martyrs Victorian, Frumentius and Companions (+ 484)

Sts. Victorian, Frumentius and Companions (Feast Day - March 23)

Victorian, proconsul of Carthage, a native of Hadrumetum, was one of the wealthiest men in North Africa, and had held several important offices under Hunneric, the Vandal king, son of Genseric. Hunneric, being resolved to trample out the faith in the Godhead of Christ, and establish the Arian heresy throughout his dominion, offered Victorian the highest honors, and his own special favor, if he would regard Christ as a creature.

Victorian replied, "Nothing can separate me from the faith and love of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the confidence that I have in so mighty a master, I am ready to suffer all kinds of torments rather than to consent to Arian impiety. You may burn me or expose me to wild beasts, or kill me by other tortures; but never will you prevail on me to desert the Church in which I was baptized." This reply so exasperated the tyrant that he made the Saint undergo the worst and most protracted torments his ingenuity could devise. Victorian endured them all with a good courage, and gained the martyr's crown.

On the Veneration of Icons (2 of 2)

By St. Nektarios of Aegina

The use of icons in the Church dates back to ancient times.... The monuments with the engravings and the murals found in the chambers-cemeteries of the catacombs as well as the martyria where worship took place, testify to the use of icons and certify that in the second and third century icons were used in the Church.

The enemies of icons claim that Christians coming from the Jews as well as the nations could not have icons. The Jews because even when they became Christians did not alienate themselves from the Mosaic law, while Christians from the nations were afraid they might turn to idolatry.