December: Day 15: Holy Hieromartyr Eleutherios

 

December: Day 15:
Holy Hieromartyr Eleutherios
 
(On the Power of Man Over Animals With Moral Implications For the Life of a Christian:
a. Faith and Piety Serve as the Most Powerful Means For Us to Avert Disasters,
b. The Grateful Feelings of a Christian to God for His Ineffable Blessings, and
c. Christians Must Treat Animals Carefully, Wisely and Meekly)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. There are many examples in the lives of the saints proving that it was safer for Christians to live among the wildest and most bloodthirsty beasts than among the pagans. Thus, when the Holy Hieromartyr Eleutherios, now being glorified by the Church, who lived at the end of the first century, miraculously freed himself from the hands of his tormentors, he withdrew to a deserted place and settled among the lairs of wild beasts and lived with the beasts as with sheep. Lions and bears surrounded him, caressed him, and served him. When the royal hunters reported this to the emperor, he sent soldiers to take Eleutherios, but the beasts tore the messengers to pieces. However, the Saint forbade them to attack people, and he himself went to the emperor. They sentenced him to be given to be devoured by beasts. First they released a lioness upon him, then a lion, but they did not cause the Saint the slightest harm and licked his feet. The angry pagans cut off his head.

II. This instance of the manifestation of man's power over animals points to the royal power of innocent people - our ancestors - over all earthly animals. The saints of God, who by the holiness of life restore in themselves their primeval innocence, thereby acquire dominion over the animals, who recognize them as their king and obey him.

There are many cases of complete obedience to holy people, and especially to saints, of beasts. We will point out only a few.

Righteous Noah was surrounded in the ark for such a long time by the whole kingdom of animals and did not suffer any danger from any of them.

A lion met Saint Dionysios (he was a priest) between the fences, where a man could hardly pass without any burden. The Saint did not run back from the beast, but the beast, due to the narrowness of the place, could not turn back or make room at all. And so the beast stood on its hind legs and made an intense tilt of its body to the side. Then the Saint passed by, touching the beast with his back.

Animals served the saints even after they died, and as a consequence the image of God was no longer so vividly or clearly reflected in them: for example, Anthony the great did not have a shovel or an axe to dig a grave for the Venerable Paul of Thebes, and suddenly two lions passing by came up and dug a grave for the dead man with their claws (Menaion, Jan. 15).

The Holy Martyr Neophytos, distinguished from early childhood by extraordinary piety, in his youth, having come to Mount Olympus, entered a cave there, where he was met by a huge lion. Neophytos said to the lion: "Get out of here and find yourself another cave, but in this one the Lord has commanded me to live." And the lion immediately left the cave. Another time, when Neophytos was given over by the torturer Decius to be torn apart by wild beasts, then they first released a bear on him: the beast, approaching the saint, looked at him and immediately left him. Then they released a she-bear distinguished by unusual ferocity: and she, having caressed herself at the feet of the Saint, went off to her lair. Finally they brought out a fierce lion: and it also only caressed the Saint and licked his feet and did him no harm. (Menaion, Jan. 21).

But this is not the only example.

Animals gathered in whole herds to the Martyr Mamas and remained with him until they received orders to disperse (Menaion, Sept. 2).

Saint Sergius of Radonezh and the pious Seraphim of Sarov fed wild bears that came to them from the forest from their own hands.

Biographers of saints, citing similar examples of the power of saints over animals, reason: “this does not mean that animals had a rational soul, but that they were in complete obedience to Adam.”

From this it is clear that man has not unconditionally lost power over animals and can regain it. Through what? Obviously, through turning to the state in which the first man was before the fall, through turning to purity, truth, piety. How did Adam maintain power over animals while living in Paradise? Of course, through the purity of his soul, his abiding in truth and righteousness. He betrayed the latter, and lost his power. And from this it is clear that if man regained the purity of his soul, be faithful to the truth, his power will return.

a) In the person of the saints, who by righteousness, holiness and truth restore the image of God in themselves and thus approach the state of innocence, we have, firstly, undoubted proof that faith and piety serve for us as the most powerful means of averting disasters caused to us by the action of hostile forces and creatures of nature. Do we not see that in the present time, year after year, the natural enemies of our well-being have begun to multiply? Our fields, forests, gardens, vegetable gardens, our herds have acquired new, previously unknown, predators in the person of various animals and insects, mercilessly destroying the fruits of human labor and economy. Is not this increase in natural disasters a consequence of the increase in our sins? So truly we must look upon these disasters as God's punishments for our iniquities and resistance to God. Therefore, if we wish that the Lord would turn away His wrath from us and send His heavenly blessing upon our fields, gardens, herds, and multiply the fruits of our labors, we must think above all about pleasing God with our faith and pious life. The Psalmist says that “God turns rivers into a desert, and springs of water into dry land, and a fruitful land into barrenness because of the wickedness of those who dwell therein” (Ps. 106:33, 34). How can we not be afraid of sin, which has such a disastrous effect on our earthly well-being, and even more so, leads us to eternal destruction.

b) But remembering the power over nature lost by our first parents through the fall, we cannot, secondly, at the same time fail to feel a grateful feeling towards the merciful God at the thought of His ineffable condescension towards us sinners. Having deprived man of his royal dominion over creatures for sin, the Lord did not remove from his power many useful animals, of which even now some humbly bear the heavy burden of labor required in cultivating the land, in carrying weights and in other household work, while others give man a variety of means to satisfy his daily needs, providing meat, milk, butter, honey, silk, wool and other essentials of life. But do we truly value the gifts of God sent down to us from above for our well-being and contentment?

c) Do we take care of God's creatures given to us for service, do we treat them wisely, meekly, compassionately? Unfortunately, some unreasonable and cruel people, out of unbridledness and self-interest, very often treat creatures that are useful to them cruelly. What does this abuse of power over useful animals given to man for service lead to? By cruelly treating animals, man insults the goodness of the Creator, Who, as it is said in Scripture, preserves man and beast (Ps. 36:7), makes grass grow for them, and does not abandon even the young crows that cry out to Him (Ps. 103:14, 146:9).

III. So, beloved brethren in Christ, using by the grace of the Creator power over many of God’s creations, let us see in their service the providential goodness of God to the human race and let us be compassionate to animals, thanking for them the Lord who is merciful to us and remembering what is said: blessed is he who has mercy on his beasts.

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