January: Day 8: Teaching 2: Holy Martyrs Julian and Basilissa

January: Day 8: Teaching 2:
Holy Martyrs Julian and Basilissa
 
(On Marital Chastity)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Today the Holy Church celebrates the memory of the holy martyrs Juliana and Basilissa.

Saint Julian, who loved Christ with all his heart from an early age, wanted to remain a virgin for the rest of his life. But his parents were determined for their son to be married, and they urged him to enter into married life. The Saint asked them for seven days to think it over, and he spent these seven days in fasting and prayer, begging the Lord to preserve him in virginity and purity. The Lord heeded his prayer, appeared to him in a dream and said that He would send him a bride who would fully sympathize with him in his good intentions. After this vision, Julian expressed his desire to marry to his parents. The parents were very happy and found him a bride, a kind and exemplary Christian woman named Basilissa. The wedding feast ended, and the newlyweds were taken to their room. But as soon as the bride entered it, she felt a wondrous, unusual fragrance. "What does this mean?" said the bride to her groom, "now it is winter, and here in the room I sense with delight the sweet smell of fragrant spring flowers." - "This is the fragrance of heavenly paradise," answered Julian, "it occurs through the action of the Lord Himself. If we love God and preserve our virginity, then we too will be worthy of the blessedness of paradise." - "What could be more precious than eternal salvation?" said Basilissa, and she decided to remain a virgin. Then Julian fell to the ground to pray, and they saw a wondrous vision: on one side the Lord Himself with a multitude of virgins in white robes, and on the other the Most Holy Theotokos with a multitude of virgins, and from both sides marvelous singing was heard. Then the holy elders showed them a book in which the names of Julian and Basilissa were written between the names of the virgins. When Julian’s parents died, they used the rich funds they left behind to build two monasteries – one for men and one for women – and separated from each other for the Lord forever, each struggling in his own monastery in the hope of eternal heavenly joys prepared for those who love the Lord.

II. Happy are the Holy Julian and Basilissa, who loved the incorruptible more than the corruptible, the eternal more than the fleeting, Christ more than all the pleasures of this life. But not all can be imitators of these holy spouses. This is the work of God's chosen ones alone. All spouses should think above all about being chaste, abstinent, God-fearing and God-loving, as befits Christian spouses. The marital union is a God-blessed union. God Himself, while still in paradise, having created a woman, brought her to her husband. Christ the Savior at the wedding in Cana of Galilee sanctified the marital union with His presence, and Himself, being the most holy virgin, taught about virginity thus: "Not all can accept this word, but only to them to whom it is given." And the Apostle, praising virginity, did not oblige anyone to it, as did Christ. “Marriage is honorable and the bed is undefiled,” he said about Christian, God-blessed marriage.

a) Virginity is not obligatory, but chastity should be an adornment and an indispensable attribute of married life - chastity in mutual relations, in all actions, chastity in conversations, in words, and finally in looks and thoughts. Christian spouses are chaste and modest. They will not allow a single empty word, no ambiguous expression, not the slightest freedom in communication in private, much less in front of others. The fear of God protects them - the thought of the omnipresence of God accompanies them everywhere. Such spouses, even being in marriage, are more united in spirit than in body. They have the same thoughts, feelings, desires. Their predominant desire is for the good things of the heavenly world. They are more wise in the heavenly than in the earthly. They seek spiritual consolations, and not carnal. Marital relations exist for them as an inevitable condition for the birth of children, which many spouses so strongly and rightly desire. In a word: for them the flesh does not rule over the spirit, but the spirit over the flesh. Abstinence is the main property of their soul.

b) Being abstinent and chaste, Christian spouses are at the same time unfailingly faithful to each other. Unfailing fidelity to the end of days is an indispensable companion of marital chastity. Let them somewhat disagree in their views, let them have differences in their characters, let them even notice many shortcomings in each other; they will not allow the thought of breaking off their marital union because of these dissimilarities, because of these shortcomings, in order to enter into unlawful cohabitation with another person. On the contrary, they will cover their mutual weaknesses with love, and will endure them with patience. They will try to influence each other with meekness to correct them. With tearful supplication the wife turns to her husband, and with fervent prayer stands before the icons, asking the Lord to save him, to enlighten him, to convert him - and the prayer of the wife does not remain ineffective. A drunken husband often becomes sober, an irritable husband becomes meek. The mother of Blessed Augustine had a very hot-tempered and harsh-tempered husband, but she lived with him in harmony and calmly. “When I see my husband angry,” she said to her friends, “I am silent and only pray to God in my soul that peace may return to his heart. His irascibility passes by itself, and I am always calm. Imitate me, dear friends, and you will also be calm.” How desirable it is that all spouses in their relations with each other were not so much demanding as accommodating, that they would seek out each other’s good sides more than their bad, that they would pray for each other more than they would take offense at each other. Oh, then nothing in the world could separate them. No change of circumstances, no poverty, no need, and finally no temptations from seducers will separate them - nothing will force them to become traitors and to be violators of marital fidelity and the vows they have made. And the blessing of God will rest upon them, and they will spend their lives in peace and joy.

III. Husbands and wives! Keep your marriage bed pure, love abstinence, chastity; do not look on marriage as a means to please your flesh - this is not a Christian, but a pagan view. Prefer pleasing God to pleasing the flesh. Do not break off your union because of dissimilarity of character. Remember, wife, that your husband is a husband given by God; reason, husband, likewise about your wife. Bear with each other's weaknesses and shortcomings for the sake of the Lord, and if you cannot correct each other, then bear your lot as a cross sent by God. And if you meet with temptation, flee from them as from fire, beg the Lord to deliver you and turn you away from them. The Lord is omnipotent, He will send grace, and the storm will subside.

Lord! Help us to be saved in marriage, as others are saved in virginity, so that we may all come, some for purity and innocence, others for chastity and unfailing fidelity, so that we may all come to the eternal kingdom of love, where all the pure in heart praise and contemplate You.

 

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