Hymns to Saint Methodia of Kimolos

 

By Monk Gerasimos Mikragiannanitis

 

Apolytikion
1st Tone. Tis Erimou Politis.
The offspring of Kimolos, the treasure of virtue, and truly the co-dweller of the Venerables from past ages, the revered Venerable Methodia, let us faithful honor with hymns, imitating the God-loving deeds of her life, crying out: glory to Him Who gave you might, glory to Him Who crowned you, glory to Him Who has numbered you, O Mother, in the choir of the Saints.

Kontakion
Tone 4. Epephanis Simeron.
Your blameless conduct, made the light of your virtue, run throughout the island of Kimolos, mystically making it bright, O Methodia, God-possessed Venerable One.

Oikos
Brought forth from pious roots, as a beautiful offspring yielding for Christ fruits of righteousness, faith, hope, affection and the rest O Venerable One, by your virtuous life, holy excellence, study of the divinely enlightening Scriptures, the life in Christ, you chose above all else to fall to the ground and blossom forth in prudence; wherefore you were delivered from the bonds of marriage, and were more perfectly bound to Christ, following Him with all your heart. Now therefore intercede on behalf of the island that brought you forth and those who honor you, O Methodia, God-possessed Venerable One.

Synaxarion
On the fifth of this month, we commemorate the Venerable Methodia of Kimolos.

Verses
Pursuing a venerable life of asceticism,
You venerably attracted Christ O Methodia.
On the fifth of October the heart of Methodia was thereupon joined.

Through her holy intercessions, Christ God, have mercy upon and save us. Amen.

Megalynarion
Rejoice godlike Methodia, who did imitate, the life of the Venerables; rejoice the offspring and boast of Kimolos, from every affliction, she does keep from harm.

 

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

 

Homily on the Commemoration of the Saints of Moscow Peter, Alexy, Jonah, Philip and Hermogenes (Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov)

Homily on the Commemoration of the Saints of Moscow 

Peter, Alexy, Jonah, Philip and Hermogenes

By Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov

(Delivered in 1962)

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

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Holy Church blesses the memory of the first hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church, who shone with deeds of piety and wise management of the flock of Christ – Peter, Alexy, Jonah, Philip and Hermogenes. These hierarchs ruled the Church at different times, but all of them, thanks to their zeal for the salvation of the souls entrusted to them, had one and the same spirit of Christ's love for their neighbors, the readiness to lay down their very souls for their neighbors.

The first to rule the Church was the Holy Metropolitan Peter – from 1308 to 1326. He came from pious parents and was originally from the Volyn region. Having felt a strong attraction to monastic life since childhood, the future saint entered a monastery at the age of twelve, where he devoted himself to the feats of fasting and prayer, for which he deservedly enjoyed universal respect and love. For his pious life and ascetic zeal, he was soon elevated to the rank of abbot, and he became the head of the monastery he founded on the banks of the Rata River. Subsequently, Saint Peter was elevated to the rank of Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus' and governed the Church well until the day of his death.

October: Day 5: Teaching 1: Saints Peter, Alexy and Jonah, Metropolitans of Moscow and Wonderworkers of All Russia

October: Day 5: Teaching 1:
Saints Peter, Alexy and Jonah, Metropolitans of Moscow and Wonderworkers of All Russia
 
(On the True Teachers of Faith, Whom Christians Must Obey According to the Apostolic Commandment)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. We celebrate today the memory of three Russian saints: Peter, Alexy and Jonah, the Metropolitans of Moscow and All Russia and Wonderworkers, who during their lives taught faith and piety to their vast flock and contributed to the prosperity of their fatherland, not fearing for this purpose either labors, or dangers, or even death itself, and after death praying unceasingly for it, we must say that these were true teachers of faith and piety, true shepherds, ready to lay down (and some of them, such as Saint Philip, did lay down) their souls for their flock.

October: Day 4: Teaching 1: Discovery of the Relics of Saints Gurias and Barsanuphius of Kazan

October: Day 4: Teaching 1:
Discovery of the Relics of Saints Gurias and Barsanuphius of Kazan
 
(A Christian is a Wanderer on the Way to Heaven)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Today we celebrate the Discovery of the Holy Relics of our Holy Fathers Gurias and Barsanuphius of Kazan.

Saint Gurias was the Archbishop of Kazan. He came from a boyar family from the city of Radonezh, the birthplace of Saint Sergius, and served Prince Penkov. He was very modest and pious, for which the prince and princess loved him. His comrades, out of envy, slandered him for a grave and vile crime concerning the honor of the princess. The prince, without investigating the case and believing the slander, imprisoned him in an underground dungeon. While in prison, the Saint glorified God, saying: "Without punishment my soul could have remained unhealed," and wrote small, very useful books for children. Two years later, the Lord Himself freed him, and he retired to the Volokolamsk Monastery, where he became the abbot. Tsar Ivan the Terrible respected Gurias, and in 1555 appointed him Archbishop of the newly conquered Kazan kingdom. Here Saint Gurias served as bishop for nine years and converted many Mohammedans and pagans to Christ. Two years before his death, due to his health being ruined by prison life, he retired and took the schema.

Divine Justice According to Saint Dionysius the Areopagite

 

This speech was delivered on October 3, 2022 in the Senate Hall of the Old Parliament in Athens, to the members of the Association of Judges and Prosecutors.

The Metropolitan structured his speech into three sections. The first section referred to laws and justice according to Aristotle and Plato. The second section analyzed the theological system of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, and the third section made a special statement about divine justice in Saint Dionysius the Areopagite.

The whole theological system of Saint Dionysius is that God as Light sends His rays to creation, then all creation is attracted by God in different ways and this is how divine justice is expressed, according to God's will.

He concluded that there is a difference between human and divine justice, that those of us who judge cannot absolutely approach divine justice, but we should move between human and divine justice, that is, to be a little above human justice and to seek divine justice.

October: Day 3: Teaching 1: Holy Martyr Dionysius the Areopagite

 

October: Day 3: Teaching 1:
Holy Martyr Dionysius the Areopagite
 
(Who Will Inherit Eternal Life?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, whose memory is celebrated today, was born in the city of Athens. Having received an education in the best Athenian school, Dionysius was not satisfied with the knowledge he had acquired and went to Egypt to study the wisdom of their priests and especially astronomy. While there, he saw an unusual eclipse of the sun that accompanied the death of the Savior and said: "God Himself is probably suffering." Upon returning to Athens, he was elected to the highest judicial seat - the Areopagus, which is why he is called "Areopagite." When the Apostle Paul visited Athens, he appeared before the Areopagus and began to preach Christ crucified, and told Dionysius about the God unknown to him, the Savior of the world. Dionysius was baptized, quickly began to succeed in the knowledge of the true God and was appointed Bishop of Athens. He was honored to be at the death of the Mother of God, and then went to preach in different countries. Having entered Gaul, he was beheaded with the sword in the city of Paris.

The Great Dionysios (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

Since the works of Saint Dionysios the Areopagite appeared in the 6th century AD until today, Orthodox Tradition has adopted them completely and has integrated them into her entire tradition. She believes that these famous writings were written by Saint Dionysios the Areopagite and somehow, as similarly happened with other texts, they were found later and presented to the Church after many years.

Since then they made a great impression. Saint Dionysios was considered a very great theologian. Leontios of Byzantium used them. Saint Maximos the Confessor interpreted them, he also refuted the first arguments that were formulated then against their authorship. They were accepted by the later Fathers, such as Saint Anastasios the Sinaite, Saint John the Damascene, Saint Theodore the Studite, Saint Niketas Stethatos, all the Philokalic Fathers, especially Saint Gregory Palamas. Saint Symeon the New Theologian was influenced by them, even if he makes no mention of it. Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite used them, etc.

Venerable Christophoros Papoulakos in the Hagiologion of the Church

 

Venerable Christophoros Papoulakos in the Hagiologion of the Church

August 30, 2024

By Dr. Haralambos M. Bousias

Saint Christophoros, the wandering preacher of piety, was a modern missionary, a preacher of the gospel of love with an unenslaved phronema, who fought to the death for the truth, for Orthodoxy, for the ancestral traditions. He was a spiritual revolutionary, who participated in the great preparation of the nation for the overthrow of the long-standing Ottoman tyranny and then reacted strongly both to the effects of the Bavarian rule on the Greek Orthodox spirit and on the ancestrally received way of life, as well as against agnosticism and secularization, plagues that threaten to this day to change the spirit of our Orthodox Tradition.

October: Day 1: Teaching 6: Venerable Romanos the Melodist

October: Day 1: Teaching 6:
Venerable Romanos the Melodist
 
(Where Does True Enlightenment Come From?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Remembered today by the Church, Venerable Romanos was a clergyman of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople and lived in the 5th century. Distinguished by his deep piety, Romanos observed strict fasts, prayed often, and led a most austere life. Romanos's ascetic life and obedience endeared him to Patriarch Euthymios; but other clergymen did not like the Patriarch's love and affection for Romanos and envied him. Moreover, Romanos was not as skilled in reading and singing as the other clergy of Hagia Sophia. Once, on the eve of the Nativity of Christ, Emperor Anastasios was listening to the service in Hagia Sophia; the clergy, wanting to mock Romanos, forced him to go out onto the pulpit and sing in the presence of the emperor, which Romanos could not do. After the service, the Venerable One wept for a long time and prayed before the icon of the Mother of God. That same night the Mother of God appeared to him in a vision and gave him a scroll with the command to eat it; having done so, he received the gift of skillful reading and singing. The next time he came to the temple, he went up to the ambo and, when it was his turn, he chanted the hymn: “Today, the Virgin bears Him who is transcendent, and the earth presents the cave to Him who is beyond reach. Angels, along with shepherds glorify Him. The Magi make their way to Him by a star. For a new child has been born for us, the God before all ages.” All those present in the temple listened to Romanos’s singing with amazement, and the Patriarch asked him where he had learned this wondrous hymn. Romanos related how the Mother of God had appeared to him in a miraculous vision and imparted to him the gift of singing. Then the clergy were ashamed of their previous behavior toward the Venerable One and asked his forgiveness for all the offenses and insults they had caused him.

October: Day 1: Teaching 1: Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos

 

October: Day 1: Teaching 1:
Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos
 
(To What Should This Truth Encourage Us, That the Most Holy Mother of God Is Our Glorious Intercessor and Advocate Before God?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Today, brethren, we celebrate the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos. The beginning of this celebration is undoubtedly known to you. Once upon a time, the Saracens, a strong and warlike people, invaded the Greek Empire and threatened its very capital. The inhabitants of Constantinople, terrified by the imminent danger and seeing their own impotence to repel the adversaries, turned to God with prayers for help, and the Lord showed it to them. Once, when the all-night vigil was being held in the Blachernae Church of the Most Holy Theotokos, blessed Andrew and his holy disciple Epiphanios were honored with a miraculous vision. They saw the vault of the church open and they saw in the air that the Mother of God with a host of prophets, apostles and other saints, kneeling before God praying for the Christian world and overshadowing it with her honorable omophorion. This vision filled the people of Constantinople with joy, inspired their warriors with courage, and was accompanied by a victory over the Saracens. In memory of this event and to constantly remind Christians of the protection of the Mother of God, the Holy Church established the annual celebration of Her honorable protection on this day.