November: Day 25: Teaching 1: Holy Great Martyr Katherine

November: Day 25:* Teaching 1:
Holy Great Martyr Katherine
 
(Lessons From Her Life:
a. External Merits Do Not Matter, and
b. The Need for Patience)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Great Martyr Katherine, whose memory is celebrated today, came from a royal family and lived in Alexandria; she was distinguished by her wisdom and beauty. When the time came for her to marry and many wished to marry her, she said to her relatives: "If you find me a young man who would be equal to me in nobility, wealth, beauty and learning, then I will marry him." But such a young man was not found. One day her mother brought her to a hermit, a Christian priest, her spiritual father, asking him to give her good advice. The hermit, seeing her wisdom, said to her: "I know a young man who surpasses you in everything: His beauty is brighter than the sun, His wisdom governs the whole world, His wealth is inexhaustible, His nobility is ineffable. He has no earthly father; He was born miraculously from the Most Holy Virgin, Who, being immortal in soul, was taken up after Her death and resurrection from the dead with soul and body to heaven, where the angels worship Her as the Queen. If you want to see this Youth, then fulfill my commands." The hermit gave Katherine an icon of the Most Holy Theotokos with the Eternal Infant and told her to spend the whole night in prayer before the icon: "Pray with faith," he added, "and you will see the face of the Son of this Most Holy Mother." When she came home and spent the whole night in prayer, fell asleep from fatigue, she dreamed that the Queen of Heaven was standing before her and holding the Infant, from Whom the sun's rays emanated. But Katherine could not see the face of the Infant - He turned His bright face away from her. When the Mother asked the Son to look at the maiden, praising her beauty, the Child said that she was ugly, crazy and wretched, that she should go to the elder who would teach her what she should do to see the face of the Child. In the morning, Katherine went to the elder and asked for his help and advice. The elder enlightened her with the true faith and granted her Holy Baptism. Returning home and standing in prayer before the icon, she fell asleep and saw that the Child looked at her mercifully and said to the Mother: "Now she is as rich and wise as she was poor and foolish before. I want her to be My incorruptible and eternal bride." Then the Child placed a wondrous ring on her hand. Waking up, Katherine saw the ring on her hand and was inflamed with love for the heavenly Bridegroom.

At this time, the Emperor Maxentius, a cruel persecutor of the Church, arrived in Alexandria and organized a national pagan celebration. Saint Katherine, appearing at this celebration, denounced the emperor for serving lifeless idols and exhorted him to know the true God. The emperor called philosophers to defend paganism. Katherine defeated them in the debate, convincingly proving the superiority of Christianity over paganism. The enraged emperor ordered the philosophers to be executed and Katherine to be subjected to the most severe tortures, which she endured with marvelous patience, and imprisoned. Here the Lord Himself appeared to her with holy angels and said: "I am always with you! With your patience you will convert many to Me." In the absence of Maxentius, his wife Augusta (Basilissa), accompanied by the general Porphyrios and 200 soldiers, visited Katherine in prison, and the Martyr converted them all to Christ with her conversation. The returning emperor ordered the execution of first those converted by Katherine and then of herself. She was beheaded in 310.

II. a) From the story of the life of the Holy Great Martyr Katherine, you, brethren, see, first of all, that our external virtues, such as intelligence, beauty, wealth, without internal virtues - firm Christian faith and love, have little meaning with God. Learn from this, brethren, to value the virtues of a person not by appearance, beauty, wealth and other distinctions, but by internal ones - faith, love and piety. Learn from this, too, you, Christian maidens, to adorn yourselves with firm faith, devotion to God and love for Him. Let modesty and chastity always be with you. The Holy Apostle says: "Let your adornment not be the braiding of the hair, or the wearing of gold ornaments, or the putting on of fine clothing, but the hidden man of the heart in the imperishable beauty of a meek and quiet spirit, which is of great price in the sight of God" (1 Peter 3:3-4). "Women ought to adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works" (1 Tim. 2:9-10). Your external adornments, as well as your beauty, will only be valuable to the Lord God when you adorn yourselves with firm faith in God, love and fear of God. Without this, you will never gain the mercy and blessing of God, and your adornments and your beauty, through which many souls can be seduced into sin, will serve you for even greater condemnation.

b) From the history of the sufferings of the Holy Great Martyr Katherine, who endured with amazing patience the most terrible and varied forms of inhuman torture and was therefore honored by the Church with the name of "Great Martyr", you, brethren, see further the whole necessity of Christian patience, without which it is impossible to endure even the slightest suffering. "Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him" (James 1:12). "Abraham, having patiently endured, received the promise" (Hebrews 6:15); thus all the holy martyrs, hermits, and other ascetics of piety pleased God.

Let no one think, however, that we need patience only in rare, exceptional cases, as a medicine and a weapon, or for the struggle with carnal passions, or for the endurance of sorrows and sufferings, or for the conquest of temptations. Of course, its use is especially necessary and salutary in these cases, indeed, in special times it is especially needed; but in the sense of a Christian virtue obligatory for all, it is necessary in all walks of life, from morning until night, in all circumstances, both joyful and sad. "The realm of patience," in the words of a wise teacher of the Russian Church (Metropolitan Philaret), "must extend to the whole life of a person and to all the destinies of humanity throughout the world... A minute of impatience can upset years and centuries."

Only with patience is success possible in any kind of activity.

Let's take the field of scientific discoveries and inventions? What can be achieved here without patience? "Genius is patience," said one famous scientist.**

Let us take the sphere of everyday activities? And here, what can be achieved without patience? “To know how to wait is the great secret of success,” said another scientist,*** meaning by this patience.

If in everyday affairs a certain endurance is valued, a slow but sure way of acting, an unflagging desire to achieve a certain goal, in a word – patience, then it is equally or even more required in application to all Christian virtues. “Patience is that fertile soil on which every virtue grows,” says Saint Dimitri of Rostov. “Without patience,” says another Teacher of the Church (Metropolitan Philaret) closer to our time, “there is no feat: and without feat there is no virtue, no spiritual gift, no salvation. For 'the kingdom of heaven suffers violence'" (Matthew 11:12).

Would you like to see countless examples of this?

Who will have success in prayer without patience? The Lord Himself commanded "pray and not lose heart" (Luke 18:1). The Holy Prophet David assures us of the effectiveness of such prayer by his own experience, saying: "I was patient with the Lord, and He listened to me and heard my prayer" (Psalm 39:1).

Who can perfect himself in love for his neighbors and in the feats of true philanthropy without patience? To deal with needy, weak brothers, sometimes vicious, difficult to correct, ungrateful, repaying evil for good - for all this, as everyone will agree, a large reserve of patience is needed.

Is it possible to learn perfect obedience without patience? In vain, however, would we begin to list the various Christian virtues in order to show their close union with patience: not one of them is possible without patience. The holy people of God knew this well and not only did they strive in this virtue all their lives, but also humbly prayed to God to grant them the spirit of patience, so that it would constantly and persistently abide in them and guide them on the path to salvation.

Is it possible, without patience, to endure in a Christian manner, finally, the various kinds of illnesses that often befall each of us, with spiritual benefit for the sick person? Without a doubt, it is impossible.

Here are some examples of true Christian patience with which the saints endured their illnesses - examples that should teach us this necessary and saving virtue.

Theodore, a disciple of Abba Pachomios the Great, suffered greatly from a headache, and asked Abba Pachomios to ease his illness with his prayers. Abba Pachomios said to him: “Do you really think, my son, that illness or suffering befalls anyone without God’s permission? Therefore, endure illness, and have patience in humility. When God wishes, He will grant you health; and if He wishes to test you further, be grateful, as Job blessed God, and you will receive great comfort from Christ. Good is abstinence and prayer; but he who is sick will receive a great reward if he remains generous and patient; and do not rely on medicines more than on God, as if He could not grant health."

Saint Athanasius the Great, having come to Saint Nephon, who was lying on his deathbed, and sitting down next to him, asked him: "Father! Is there any benefit to a man from illness?" Saint Nephon answered: "As gold, kindled by fire, is cleansed from rust, so a man who suffers illness is cleansed from his sins" ("Chet.-Min." December 23).

Saint John Climacus says: "Sometimes illness is sent to cleanse sins, and sometimes to humble arrogance. The good Lord, seeing that someone is very lazy in asceticism, humbles his flesh with illness, as the most joyful asceticism; and sometimes He cleanses the soul from evil passions and thoughts" ("Ladder," Step 26:55).

The lay brother of the great elder Barsanuphios, being himself already old, came to him in the monastery, renounced the world and, falling into dropsy, asked the great elder to pray for his illness. Saint Barsanuphios answered him thus: “This illness has befallen you so that you would not depart to God fruitless. So, if you endure and thank God, then it will be imputed to you instead of ascetic labors, since you did not remain long in the monastic schema. In part, this sorrow has befallen you because you considered me insignificant and yourself to be of some importance – me, as a great man, yourself, as a brother to such a man, and do not know that we are children of Adam’s transgression, earth and ashes. Thank God, then, who has brought you to such a state” (Answer 345).

Yes, all of us, beloved brethren, are called to acquire the God-loving virtue of patience, and the more salutary its effect on us will be, the sooner we take care to learn it. “It is good for a man,” says the Prophet Jeremiah, “to bear the yoke in his youth” (Lamentations 3:27).

III. There, “let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:1, 2), and may patience serve us for the salvation of our souls! Amen.

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
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* Because in the Slavic calendar St. Katherine is commemorated on November 24th, I switched the date from the original text to conform to the Greek calendar where St. Katherine is commemorated on November 25th.

** Isaac Newton.

*** Joseph de Maistre.