April: Day 14:
Holy Lithuanian Martyrs: John, Anthony and Eustathius
(On the Renunciation of Christ)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
Holy Lithuanian Martyrs: John, Anthony and Eustathius
(On the Renunciation of Christ)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
I. During the reign of the Lithuanian prince Algirdas, a zealous pagan, two Lithuanian youths, brothers Nezhila and Kumetis, accepted Christianity and were named John and Anthony. Algirdas, having learned that they were Christians, began to turn them away from the faith, but seeing their steadfastness, imprisoned them.
The elder brother John, out of fear of torture, renounced Christ. Algirdas, thinking that the other brother would follow the example of the elder, ordered both to be returned to their former positions. John outwardly performed pagan rites, but, remaining a Christian in secret, asked God to forgive him the sin of hypocrisy. Anthony often persuaded his brother to abandon this course of action and openly declare himself a Christian. Algirdas, having learned that Anthony remained faithful to Christ, again imprisoned him, and kept John with him. But John had no peace. Christians saw him as an apostate, pagans despised him for his cowardice. Tormented by his conscience, he came to the Christian priest Nestor, sincerely confessed his hypocrisy and asked to reconcile him with his brother. When Nestor conveyed this to Anthony, he said: "I cannot have anything in common with my brother until he openly confesses his faith. If he sincerely repents, let him declare that he is a Christian." These words were conveyed to John and he, once left alone with Algirdas, said that he was a Christian, and then revealed the same thing to the whole assembly of pagans. Algirdas gave him over to torture, and then locked him in prison. Here the brothers met and reconciled. Algirdas condemned them to execution and first ordered the execution of Anthony, thinking that the execution of his brother would force John to renounce Christ. Anthony, awaiting execution, spent the whole night in prayer and urged his brother to firmly keep the faith. On April 14, 1347, Anthony was hanged on a tall oak tree. After this, the pagans began to persuade John to renounce Christ, but when he remained firm in the faith, he was hanged on the same tree on which his brother died.
The firmness of the martyrs influenced one of Algirdas's servants and he, believing in Christ, accepted baptism from the priest Nestor and was named Eustathius. He became a strict executor of the church's regulations. When, once during the Nativity Fast, he did not want to participate in the prince's meal and eat meat, he was subjected to torture, and then hung on the same oak tree and left to be eaten by birds and animals. Christians took his body, untouched by animals, and buried it. Subsequently, a church in the name of the Holy Trinity was built on the site of the torture and the bodies of the Martyrs were brought into it. Saint Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow, having arrived in Kiev, established the celebration of the memory of the three Lithuanian Martyrs on April 14.
II. On the day of commemoration of the Holy Lithuanian Martyrs, one of whom almost renounced Christ the Savior, it would be appropriate to talk with you, brethren, about the renunciation of Jesus Christ as a sin that forever and irrevocably deprives the renouncer of heaven and eternal blessedness.
Previously, people renounced Christ under duress, terrified by unbearable tortures and torments. In our time, many fall into the same sin voluntarily, not fearing either ecclesiastical punishment or the fact that Jesus Christ will renounce them at His Last Judgment.
a) Those who renounce Christianity should first of all include those who have lost faith in the divine dignity and redemptive merits of Jesus Christ, who reject His teaching about His consubstantiality with God the Father and about the redemptive significance of His suffering and death on the cross; who do not believe in the dogmatic teaching of the Christian faith, and from the moral teaching of Christ they recognize only a few of His instructions, and even those they interpret incorrectly.
b) Those who believe in Christ as the God-man and Redeemer, but do not believe in His Holy Church, are further guilty of the sin of denying Christ. They dream of being saved by direct communion with Christ outside the Church established by Him. Imagining that they have direct communion with Christ, they do not recognize the Mysteries of the Church as necessary for themselves, and therefore are alien to the grace of Christ imparted in them. They do not submit to the Church hierarchy, and therefore to Christ Himself, acting through them, paying no attention to the words of Christ Himself, spoken to the apostles and, in their person, to the successors of their ministry, the shepherds of the Church: “He who hears you hears Me, and he who rejects you rejects Me” (Luke 10:16). This is how the sectarians themselves relate to the Church. Unfortunately, many Orthodox Christians imitate them when, without breaking off communion with the Church, they do not participate or very rarely participate in public worship, do not partake in the Mysteries of Confession and Communion, do not observe fasts, avoid communication with church pastors, turning to them only in cases of urgent need.
c) Those Christians who are close to the sin of denying Christ are those about whom the same thing must be said as the Apostle said about the false worshipers of God: "They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him" (Titus 1:16). These are Christians only in words. If we believe their words, they wholeheartedly believe in Christ and His Holy Church, and would be offended if someone called them non-Christians. But in fact they are truly non-Christians, for they neglect to fulfill the commandments of Christ. They call Christ Lord, but do not submit to His will, expressed in His commandments. They call themselves His slaves, but live according to their own will, following the promptings of self-love and passions. They renounce Christ in deed, Whom they confess in word. The habit of non-Christian life has killed in them Christian shame and fear of God and makes them impudent violators of the commandments of Christ.
III. Grant no one, O Lord, to die without repentance for renouncing Christ, for those who renounce Christ here are in danger of being rejected by Him in the next world.
Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
