The Ten Lepers (Archimandrite Joel Yiannakopoulos)

The Ten Lepers

Luke 17:12-19

By Archimandrite Joel Yiannakopoulos

We have seen that Christ withdrew from Jerusalem after the raising of Lazarus, in order to avoid the envy of the Pharisees. He went to Ephraim, near Bethel. From there He proceeded farther north and came to the borders of Samaria and Galilee. From there He intended to return to Jerusalem by way of Perea. As Luke says: “It came to pass, as He went to Jerusalem, that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.”

Thus the Lord, intending to go up to Jerusalem to be crucified, found Himself on the borders of Samaria and Galilee.

There, “as Jesus entered a certain village, ten leprous men met Him, who stood afar off.” They remained at a distance, for such was required by the tradition. Since they were far away, “they lifted up their voices and cried out, saying, 'Jesus, Master, have mercy on us'.”

As lepers, legally unclean, they lived outside the cities. Yet instead of crying out, as they were required, “Unclean, unclean,” they cried out asking to be cleansed from their leprosy and healed by Jesus.

Saint Athanasios of Alexandria in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Gregory the Theologian, in his funeral oration for Saint Athanasios the Great, wrote these memorable words: “In praising Athanasios, I praise virtue itself.” To honor Athanasios, he means, is nothing less than to honor virtue in its fullness. This same truth is echoed today in the hymnography of our Church through Saint Theophanes the Hymnographer, who slightly rephrases Saint Gregory’s saying: “As I offer praise to Athanasios, as though extolling virtue, I bring my hymn of praise rather to God Himself.” For indeed, such praise ultimately ascends to God, the Giver of all holiness. But why does the Church speak with such exalted language?

First, because Saint Athanasios truly was "the greatest figure of the ancient Church. He bore upon his shoulders the burden of a deep and multifaceted crisis and gave the definitive theological foundation to Orthodox Trinitarian doctrine. For more than four decades (328–373), he stood as a symbol and a leader toward whom all eyes were turned — both Orthodox and heterodox alike. The few faithful, whenever they saw this sacred eagle standing firm upon his episcopal throne or remaining unyielding in exile, knew with certainty that Orthodoxy lived, and their courage was renewed. The many who opposed the truth, as long as they saw this indomitable man still standing, realized that despite persecutions Orthodoxy endured — and this realization filled them with fury" (Stylianos Papadopoulos).

Homily Two on the Twelfth Sunday of Luke (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Two on the Twelfth Sunday of Luke
(29th Sunday After Pentecost)

(About Jesus Christ's healing of ten lepers, of whom only one gave thanks to God for his healing. About spiritual leprosy, which is sin, and especially about the modern leprosy of socialism and nihilism.)

By St. John of Kronstadt

Today, beloved brethren, the Holy Gospel according to Luke was read to us, concerning the healing by our Lord Jesus Christ of ten leprous men.

Not daring to approach Him closely, they stood at a distance and cried out with a loud voice: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” The Lord said to them: “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And they went. And as they were going, they were indeed all cleansed. Then one of them, seeing that he had been healed, immediately returned to the Savior, fell down before Him on the ground, and with all his soul gave thanks to Him, loudly glorifying God. He was a Samaritan, that is, a resident of the city of Samaria, who professed a mixed religion of Judaism and paganism. Jesus Christ, not seeing the other nine who had been healed, said—reproaching their ingratitude: “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? How is it that they did not return to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” And turning to the grateful Samaritan, He said: “Rise, go your way; your faith has saved you” (Luke 17:12–19).

Prologue in Sermons: January 18

A Lesson for Monks

January 18

(Teaching of Blessed Hilarion)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

We will speak to you, monks, today, and this is what we will say. The Prologue for today contains a sermon by Blessed Hilarion, which, in its content, pertains primarily to your monastic life. Since this sermon, in our opinion, contains many important, beneficial, and salutary lessons for you, we ask you to pay particular attention to its contents.

The New Martyr George of Ioannina and His Canonization by the Ecumenical Patriarchate

The New Martyr Saint George of Ioannina and his martyrdom, a popular icon of the 19th century,
Benaki Museum

By Archimandrite Michael Stathakis

“1838: January: 17: a certain young man in Ioannina, named George, was slandered by the Turks of Ioannina that he had changed his religion and become a Turk. They brought him before the Kadi and before the Vizier Mustafa Pasha, examined him, and tortured him greatly. In the end he was not persuaded to become a Turk; he stood firm and did not change his Christianity. They hanged him at Kouramargio, and he remained hanging for two days. They then took him down and buried him at the Metropolis on January 19, and he became a martyr and works miracles for those who approach with faith. This is most true. The Saint had a wife and a child fifteen days old, who are alive in Ioannina.”

Thus simply — very simply — a monk of the Sacred Monastery of Panagia Eleousa on the island of Ioannina describes, on a page of the Great Horologion, the martyrdom of Saint George the New Martyr of Ioannina. He recounts the events as simply as George’s own life was simple. A young man, only twenty-eight years old, a horse groomer by profession, he had only recently married his wife Helen and had a son with her, whom he baptized just a few days before his martyric end.

Saint Anthony the Great in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Athanasios the Great, that ecumenical Father and Teacher of our Church, who also wrote the Life of Saint Anthony — in reality an extended letter — says that it is “great profit for a person even to remember Anthony alone.” Saint Augustine, that great Saint of the Church, made the definitive decision to convert to the Christian faith and to be baptized, under the guidance of course of the Bishop of Milan, Saint Ambrose, when he studied the Life of Saint Anthony. The great ascetic of the Gerontikon, who asked God to reveal to him all the great saints of his time, saw his request fulfilled — except for Anthony. And when he asked the Lord why this had happened, he received the answer: “Anthony is very close to Me, and you cannot see him.” Therefore, when we speak about Saint Anthony, we are not speaking of a simple saint of the Church. His spiritual stature is exceedingly great, reaching even to those “borders” of the Trinitarian Godhead.

The Hymnography of our Church compares him to the Prophet Elijah and to Saint John the Baptist. Whatever Saint Anthony himself saw as a way of life in the earlier ascetic Saint Paul of Thebes (“a companion of Paul the Theban”), the same he struggled to practice. Saint Paul the Theban was a new Prophet Elijah and a new John the Forerunner; likewise also Saint Anthony. As his Apolytikion says: “Imitating the zealous Elijah in your ways, and following the straight paths of the Baptist, O Father Anthony.” Furthermore, the Church also likens him to Moses, calling him a “new Moses,” because “in the desert you set up the trophy against enemies and adversaries, leading the people.” It is therefore no surprise at the titles our Church bestows on him through her hymns: “Father of Fathers,” “luminary of luminaries,” “the glory of the inhabited world,” “an angel on earth and a man of God in heaven.”

Homily for the Commemoration of Saint Anthony the Great (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

Homily for the Commemoration of Saint Anthony the Great

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!

Today is the feast day of Saint Anthony the Great, the father of monasticism, the first holy monk to found a monastery in the desert. On this day, we remember the very place to which he was led by the Spirit of God. Anthony the Great exemplifies true hope and complete, absolute trust in the Creator. He was a fairly wealthy Egyptian, a Copt, who owned his own farmland.

But one day, while going to work in the field, he decided to stop by the temple on the way, where the Gospel was being read at that moment, and he heard: “Whoever wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24).

Anthony went out and said: “The Lord says to me: follow Me, how can I now go and cultivate the field?” He immediately went and sold the field, and decided to leave part of the money for the food of his sister.

Prologue in Sermons: January 17

The State of the Soul After Separation From the Body

January 17

(Commemoration of our Venerable Father Anthony the Great)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

In the Prologue, in the brief account of the life of Saint Anthony the Great, it is mentioned, among other things, that he received from God the gift of seeing what happens to the soul of a person after it is separated from the body. This is expressed in the account as follows:

“Anthony, while yet in the mortal body, beheld, when a soul departed from the body, the very ascents of the soul and the demons who oppose them, which is proper to the noetic and bodiless nature.”

What does this mean, brethren? What happens to the soul of a person after it is separated from the body? And what are the “ascents of the soul”? And how should we understand the expression “demons opposing”? Let us speak about this for our edification.

The Veneration of the Honorable Chain of the Holy Apostle Peter in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

On this day we celebrate the Veneration of the Honorable Chain of Saint Peter, which the tetrarch Herod put upon him when he imprisoned him, as the Apostle Luke relates in the Acts of the Apostles. This Chain, which was loosed by the appearance of an Angel, was found by some of the faithful and preserved in succession. It was later transferred by the pious to Constantinople and placed in the temple of Saint Peter within the Great Church.

On the occasion of the Honorable Chain of the Apostle Peter, the hymnography of the Church today sets forth two things: first, the very existence of the chain itself and the interpretation of its veneration; and second, the honor shown by the Church to the sacred person of the Apostle Peter. And this is natural: this Chain of the Apostle is understood in the same way as icons in the Church — as means of reference to the saints. “The honor passes to the prototype.” The same is true of the Chain: through it we are led to him who was the first among the Apostles, “he who, being wholly united to the most pure light, Christ, through divine participation in Him, appeared as a second light, illuminating also our souls.”