Homily for the Sunday of the Veneration of the Honorable Cross (St. Damaskinos the Studite)

 By St. Damaskinos the Studite, 

Bishop of Liti and Rentini (+ 1577)

This present Sunday of the Holy Cross is a day of preparation, similar to the one that takes place when a nation prepares to welcome back its king who is  returning  victorious  from  war.  Just  as  a  king  who  has vanquished his enemies sends heralds to inform his people and announce to them the joyous news of his victory, prior to returning to his homeland, similarly our Lord Jesus Christ,  the Great King, has sent us the Honorable Cross today as a herald instructing us to prepare to receive Him — because shortly He will come to show us how  He  conquered the  devil through His death and His Holy Resurrection.

Saint Damaskinos the Studite, Bishop of Liti and Rentini (+ 1577)

St. Damaskinos the Studite (Feast Day - November 27)

Damaskinos, the Bishop of Liti and Rentini, was a prominent figure and holy hierarch not only of the 16th century, but throughout all the years of bondage under the Turks, and therefore is a spiritual lighthouse that illumined then the spiritual darkness of Orthodox Christians, glorifying as well the renowned Diocese of Liti and Rentini, which because of him became famous throughout the world.

He was born around the year 1520 in Thessaloniki where he received an excellent education. Damaskinos, known as Demetrios at this time, went to Constantinople as a young man, and prior to 1546 became a Monk in the Monastery of Stoudios, where he received the name Damaskinos and the nickname "the Studite". As a Deacon he studied at the famous Patriarchal Academy under Thomas (Theophanes) Eleavoulkos Notaras, and also became a renowned preacher in Constantinople, where he spread beneficial words like seeds, and these later became material for his popular book titled Thesauros (Treasure).