September: Day 17: Teaching 1:
Holy Martyrs Faith, Hope, Love and their mother Sophia
(How Ancient Christians Raised and Taught Their Children)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
(How Ancient Christians Raised and Taught Their Children)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
I. The Holy Martyrs Sophia and her three daughters: Faith, Hope and Love suffered in Rome during the reign of Hadrian in the 2nd century. During the persecution of Christians in 137, Sophia, a pious widow, was summoned to trial with her daughters Faith, Hope and Love, the eldest of whom was 12 years old and the youngest only 9.
"Lord! Do not abandon us, but help us not to be afraid of torment, not to be afraid of death! Help us, our Savior, not to turn away from You!" - the Christian mother cried out in prayer, with her three daughters, in whom she had already managed to establish the faith of Christ. And having prayed, they calmly went to court, surrendering themselves to the will of Him Who commanded us to not fear those who kill the body, but rather who kills the soul.
At the trial, when asked what origin and faith Sophia was, she fearlessly answered that she was the servant of Christ, whose inscrutable name all those He created on earth must worship. “And my children,” Sophia added, “I have betrothed to Christ God, so that they would preserve themselves incorruptible for their Bridegroom – the Son of God.”
After the trial, Sophia and her children were taken to a pagan woman named Palladia, who was instructed to persuade Sophia not to sacrifice her children and their happiness for the sake of faith in the crucified Christ. But all three days given to Sophia before the new trial, she spent in prayer and exhorting her children to be ready for the feat of martyrdom.
"My dear children!" said Sophia to her daughters, "behold, the time has now come for our feat for the sake of Jesus Christ. Do not be afraid to suffer for Him! Do not be afraid to lose your temporal life for the sake of eternal life in His kingdom! Do not be afraid that your bodies will be tormented: God will heal your wounds and give you imperishable beauty. Also, do not be tempted if you are promised rich gifts and all kinds of earthly honors. All this disappears like smoke, like dust, everything is scattered by the wind and withers like grass. Only God's gifts are eternal. Do not fear any evil: God will not depart from you, He Himself promised those who believe in Him that a mother will sooner forget her child than He will forget His people. O, children! Remember that in suffering I gave birth to you, in labors I raised you. Remember how I taught you both love and the fear of God, therefore console my old age with a firm confession of God-Christ. Give me the joy of being called the mother of Christ's martyrs! Then my soul will be exalted when I see my children dying for the Lord's sake!"
And these admonitions of their Christian mother deeply penetrated the hearts of the Christian girls, and suddenly the heavenly seeds sown by the mother in the souls of her children blossomed into heavenly fruit.
When they were again called to trial, they fearlessly confessed their faith in Christ, did not renounce this faith for the sake of all kinds of earthly joys promised to them, did not retreat even before cruel torments, and one after another, the eldest - Faith, the second - Hope, the youngest - Love endured both being set on fire on a red-hot iron grate, and burning in boiling resin, and being scraped with a sharp iron, and nailed to a wheel, and beaten with sticks, so that their wounded bodies fell apart in pieces. And remaining unharmed for the sake of the manifestation of the glory of the Lord among all these torments, they were finally beheaded with a sword.
And Sophia endured this most cruel of tortures: the spectacle of the torture and execution of her children. And the Lord soon completely consoled Sophia, who suffered for Him, if not in the flesh, then in her heart. Having buried her children, she remained in constant prayer at their grave, and on the third day after their death she herself was comforted by eternal sleep, uniting her with her children in the kingdom of God with that love with which she herself loved, and taught her children to love, namely Christ God.
II. Who among us, brethren, will not revere the wondrous patience of the holy maidens Faith, Hope and Love, whom no temptations and torments could turn away from the Christian faith? Undoubtedly, only the all-powerful grace of God could strengthen the holy young martyrs in their feat of suffering. But we will not be wrong if we say that their fidelity to Christ also depended in large part on the strictly Christian upbringing which they received under the guidance of their pious mother. Therefore, it is very important and instructive for us to know how the ancient Christians generally brought up their children, who turned out to be so devoted in faith, hope and love for God that no torments could turn them from the true path of life.
So, how did the ancient Christians bring up and teach their children? The first Christians not only cared to come closer to the kingdom of God themselves, but also made every effort to make their children worthy children of it. All the education and upbringing that they tried to give them was directed to this.
a) First of all, the ancient Christians tried to impress upon the child's mind a living knowledge of Jesus Christ. Children drank in the name of the Savior, so to speak, with their mother's milk. Therefore, in their earliest years they fearlessly confessed this holy name before their tormentors. One Christian boy was asked: "Where did you learn the Christian doctrine of the one God?" He answered: "My mother taught me, and she learned it from God; the Holy Spirit guided her to this truth so that she would instill it in me from my cradle; when I was suckling at my mother's breast, then I learned to believe in Christ."
b) Holy Scripture was the first textbook, so that ecclesiastical writers, speaking of Christian schools, call them schools of Holy Scripture, studies in Divine Scripture, and each home and family of Christians was a church. "If you want," said the teachers of the Church to parents, "your children to obey you, then accustom them to the word of God. The soul, destined to be the temple of God, must be accustomed to listen and speak only that which arouses and supports the fear of God."
After the divine books, the fathers and teachers of the Church advised parents to give their children the works of the Holy Fathers to read.
c) The ancient Christians spent most of their time in prayer, teaching their children to do the same. It can be said that their whole life was unceasing prayer, or, as Clement of Alexandria says, “a solemn holy feast.”
All their activities, from the most important to the most insignificant, began and ended with prayer, so that when they put on shoes, put on clothes, undressed, taught children, lit a fire, sat down or rose from their place, walked and rested, took up needlework, sat down at the table, ate food and left the table, entered the house, left the house - in general, in every action and state, even in the silence of the night, rising from sleep, they protected themselves with the sign of the cross and spoke prayer. And not only the elderly remained in this unceasing prayer, but they called upon children to participate in both public worship, performed by ecclesiastical ministers, and domestic, performed by the head of the family in the presence of all the inhabitants of the house; they made them memorize certain prayers, sing hymns and psalms during their usual activities, get up for prayer at night.
d) The first Christians removed children from everything that could arouse in them unchaste thoughts and movements.
Thus, they did not allow children under any circumstances to be present at wedding feasts, public spectacles and games. They hid from them the seductive works of pagan poets, tragedies, comedies, operas and other similar ones. They protected them from acquaintance with secular songs and lascivious music, removed them from the company of persons of the opposite sex, with people of shameful behavior. In relation to the body, they accustomed children to modesty in clothing and other external adornments, to moderation, abstinence and simplicity in food and drink.
e) Having protected the child’s heart from all external and internal temptations, pious educators at the same time used means that directly served to instill and root Christian piety in them.
The first of these means, after oral and written instruction in the rules of Christian activity, was the example of piety that educators showed in their lives, and which they obliged their students to imitate. "Remember," wrote Blessed Jerome to parents, "remember that it is better to teach a child by example than by words." Children, being under the protection of their father's house, heard and saw an example of all the virtues: unceasing prayer, actions of deep humility, contempt for the world, moderation and modesty in clothing and external adornment, abstinence in food and drink, chastity, constant study in the word of God, justice, love, philanthropy, etc.
f) Parents for the most part were themselves engaged in the upbringing and education of their children. Primarily, this duty was taken upon themselves by the mothers of families, since nature had placed in their hearts more tenderness for children, and external activities did not distract them from family duties, and consequently, they had more means for successful upbringing. Blessed Jerome wrote to one pious mother: “You yourself should be your daughter’s teacher; her inexperienced youth should imitate you. She should not see anything wicked either in you or in her father.”
The first Christians were keenly aware that the example of a pious mother is especially powerful. Anyone who has experienced true maternal care cannot hear without heartfelt emotion the words spoken by a pious teacher to his mother, who had already passed into the land of eternity: “I thank you, dearest mother! I will forever remain your debtor. Whenever I noticed your gaze, your movements, your walk before God, your sufferings, your silence, your gifts, your labors, your blessing hand, your quiet, constant prayer; then, from my earliest years, every time, as it were, the life of the spirit was reborn in me - the feeling of piety, and this feeling could not be destroyed by any concepts, any doubts, any temptations, any harmful examples, any suffering, any oppression, even any sins. This life of the spirit still lives in me, although more than forty years have already passed since you left this temporal life.”
g) In raising children, the ancient Christians especially treasured the first years of their childhood, so that, having anticipated the time of full development of reason and freedom, which do not always easily submit to the obedience of faith and virtue, the very nature of children could be used as a weapon for achieving good goals, and the truths of faith and a disposition to virtue could be more deeply imprinted on the child's soul. When children were still in their mother's womb, mothers already then took care of their bodies, fearing to harm them with their immoderate life, and of their souls, dedicating it to the Lord and asking His blessing for the child being born. As soon as consciousness began to manifest itself in children, parents first of all tried to instill in them faith in God and love for piety, so as to prevent the influence of other harmful impressions that take hold of the young soul for life, and to give it a pious direction from the very first minutes of life. "It is difficult for the soul," the teachers of the Church told parents, "that from their first years receives the impressions of the word of God, to forget the fear of God. Tender age easily accepts and, like a seal on wax, imprints on the soul what it hears, and from this time on the life of children is primarily inclined towards good or evil. If, beginning from the very doors of life, they are led away from evil and guided onto the right path, then goodness becomes their dominant quality and nature, therefore it is not so easy for them to go over to the side of evil, when habit itself will draw them to good."
III. Through the prayers of the Holy Martyr Sophia, the wondrous and beautiful educator of her three daughters: Faith, Hope and Love, for the Kingdom of God, may the Lord awaken in our souls the desire and zeal to follow the ancient pious rules of Christian education, which brought forth such wondrous fruits.
Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
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