October: Day 28: Teaching 3: Saint Dimitri, Metropolitan of Rostov

October: Day 28: Teaching 3:
Saint Dimitri, Metropolitan of Rostov
 
(On the Benefits of Reading the Lives of Saints)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Saint Dimitri, Metropolitan of Rostov, whose blessed repose is now celebrated, was born in 1651 in the town of Makarov, near Kiev, and was named Daniel. His father, Savvas, nicknamed Tuptalo, was a regimental centurion. From his youth, Daniel showed both ability and zeal for learning. Having completed his studies at the Kiev school, at the age of 17 he entered the Monastery of Saint Cyril in Kiev as a monk and was named Dimitri. Distinguished by his gift of speech and zeal for pastoral service, Dimitri served as a preacher in various cities and was abbot in various monasteries. His lot fell to him to accomplish a great deed for the enlightenment of the Russian people – to compile the lives of the saints. The collection of the lives of the saints, known as the Chetiikh-Minei, was begun by Makarios, the Metropolitan of Moscow, who lived in the sixteenth century. Then the Metropolitan Peter Mogila of Kiev wanted to publish the lives of the saints in a more understandable language, but he died without fulfilling his intention. After his death, this work was entrusted to Saint Dimitri, who was then the abbot of the Baturinsky Monastery. He was engaged in this work for 20 years, in the rank of Archimandrite in Chernigov and Novgorod-Seversky and Metropolitan of Rostov. The lives of the saints he collected, in 12 large volumes, represent a great edifying reading for the Orthodox Russian people. Peter the Great appointed Dimitri the Metropolitan of Rostov and Yaroslavl. In the rank of Metropolitan, Dimitri showed great zeal as an archshepherd. He founded a school in Rostov, supported it with his own income, zealously preached the word of God, set an example of holy life and helped those in need. Since there were many schismatics in his diocese, Saint Dimitri wrote "Investigation of the Schismatic Brynsk (Old Believer) Faith" to denounce them. The Saint died at the age of 58. Before his death, he called the singers to him and listened to the singing of the hymns he had composed. Then, having dismissed the singers, he kept one who had been a copyist of his works, talked with him for a long time, and, dismissing him, humbly bowed to the ground to him. The singer, touched by the Saint's humility, said: "Are you bowing so low to me, the least servant, holy master?" The Metropolitan bowed again and then, kneeling, began to pray. The next day they found him, already dead, in a prayerful position. This was in Rostov, in 1709. 43 years after the death of Dimitri, his honorable relics were found incorrupt and in 1763 Empress Catherine II transferred them to a new reliquary.

II. We said that Saint Dimitri compiled the lives of the saints under the name of Chetiikh-Minei, i.e. Monthly Readings, on which he labored for about 20 years, sparing neither his health nor his means. The lives of the saints he compiled are a precious gift to the Russian Church. “All Orthodox should read them with great love and zeal.”

a) That we should read these soul-saving books is already evident from the fact that the stories contained in them are taken from reliable sources.

In compiling his books, the Saint used not only the usual written ancient tales of saints in various languages, but sometimes also used revelation from above, as he himself testifies. For example, the Holy Great Martyr Barbara once appeared to him in a dream with a comforting word; the Holy Martyr Orestes also appeared to him in a dream at the time when he was working on compiling his life. “One night,” the Saint writes at the end of the Life of the Holy Martyr Orestes, on the 10th of November, “having finished the sufferings of the Holy Martyr Orestes with a letter, an hour or less before Matins, I lay down to rest without undressing, and in a dream I saw the Holy Martyr Orestes, with a cheerful face speaking to me with these words: 'I have suffered more torments for Jesus Christ than you have written.' He said this, opening his chest to me and showing me a great wound in his left side, passing through his insides, saying: 'This was burned into me with iron;' then, opening his right arm to the elbow, he showed the wound in the very opposite place and said: 'This was cut into me.' Then, bending down, he opened his leg to the knee and showed the wound at the bend of the knee, and likewise opened the other leg to the knee, showed the same wound in the same place and said: 'And this was cut into me with a scythe.' And standing up straight, looking me in the face, he said: 'Do you see: I have suffered more for Jesus Christ than you have written!' I, not daring to say anything against this, was silent and thought to myself: who is this Orestes? Is he not one of the number of the five? To this thought of mine, the Holy Martyr answered: 'I am not that Orestes, who is one of the five, but he whose life you have just written. I saw,' the Saint then adds, 'another important man standing behind him, and it seemed to me that he was also a martyr, but he said nothing. And that I, unworthy and sinful, truly saw this vision, as I wrote, and not otherwise, I confess under my priestly oath; for as then, so now I remember."

b) Distinguished, in addition, by their deeply edifying content, clear, lively and visual presentation, the lives of the saints, in their simple and entertaining form (narrative form), are accessible to the most unprepared readers, even from the common people, who have long been accustomed to them, have come to love them dearly for the spiritual benefit, edification and consolation that they always receive from them, and consider them the best spiritual food for themselves.

Living and deeply instructive examples of Christian faith, hope and love for God and people, irresistibly affecting the entire spiritual being of the reader, especially his heart - the source of the spiritual and moral life of man, without labor and strain of thought, to which not everyone is inclined and capable, will quickly and firmly teach him all the most important truths of Christian faith and piety.

The Chetiikh-Minei of Saint Dimitri of Rostov has not lost its importance to this day, and it can be said that it will never lose it: in its completeness, in the elegance of its presentation in Church Slavonic speech, in the pious spirit that breathes in all the stories of the Saint, who was famous for his great piety and glorified by God for the holiness of his life by the incorruptibility of his relics. The Chetiikh-Minei is an irreplaceable book for those who honor the memories of saints, for those who want to know and study their holy lives every day.

III. Christians brethren! Let us read the lives of the saints and imitate them, and we will thus fulfill the commandment of the apostles: “Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct” (Heb . 13:7). Yet how many of us have any idea even of those saints whose names they bear? How many of us have any idea of those saints to whom their parish churches are dedicated, and whose memory has therefore been and is constantly celebrated for hundreds of years and with special solemnity in one locality or another? And when this is so, when we do not know the lives of the saints, can we imitate them? Is it surprising after this that when someone tells us that we should try to imitate the saints in life, we accept such instructions for the most part without due attention, and sometimes with obvious disinclination? But we are invited to imitate the saints not in being like them, hermits from the world, pillar-dwellers, recluses, fools for Christ, martyrs, etc., but in learning like them, to remove certain impure desires, to tame the movements of anger, to guard ourselves from being carried away by earthly interests and pleasures, to strengthen in ourselves the spirit of chastity, meekness, love for God and neighbor, faith in the afterlife, from which the most severe torments could not turn the holy martyrs away, etc. This is how each of God's saints can be an example for us, and this is how we should imitate the saints. Saint Athanasius of Alexandria tells about Saint Anthony the Great, that this great ascetic, collecting information about zealots of virtue, in each of them “studied what distinguished him over others: in one he observed his affability, in another his tirelessness in prayer; in one he noticed his lack of anger, in another his love for mankind; in one he marveled at his patience, in another at his fasts, and thus, combining into one what he borrowed from others, he strove to show in himself alone the advantages of all.” And who among us does not need such lessons and who is not capable of them? So, listen to the Venerable One, it is a pure lie to say that the examples of the saints are inapplicable to our way of life and our time. They are completely inapplicable, that is true; but there is much in them that is easily applicable: this is what we should imitate. And for this, obviously, it is necessary that we be more closely acquainted with the way of life of the holy saints, so that we know, more or less thoroughly, their lives and writings. Here the entire Christian teaching of faith and morality is reflected and embodied in the lives of the holy righteous and martyrs; here we cannot find anything incomprehensible or difficult to assimilate. Everything is simple, clear, convincing, edifying and in the highest degree necessary for obtaining the eternal salvation of our soul.

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.