The Melancholy of the Palaiologoi (Photios Kontoglou)

The Melancholy of the Palaiologoi 

By Photios Kontoglou

When I was working in Mystras, it often happened that I found myself alone inside the Peribleptos Church. In the late afternoon the church would grow dark and forbidding. From above, on the scaffolding, I would hear footsteps.

“Some ghost must be walking about,” I would think to myself, and I would always turn my head toward the place where the soldiers and commanders were painted.

They stood in a circle, one after another, a little above the ground. Most of them had their eyes gouged out; their chests had been pierced. Many had been slashed to pieces by swords. On many faces only a single eye remained intact, but that one eye looked as though it were ten living eyes.

“Remember me, O Lord!”

Synaxarion of the Holy Twenty-Three Hagarane New Martrys of Thyateira

 

Synaxarion

By Haralambos M. Bousias

On the same day [May 30], the commemoration of the Holy and Glorious Twenty-Three New Martyrs from among the Hagarenes, who contested in Thyateira.

Verses

Three together with twenty Martyrs of Thyateira,
You have now magnified Christ by your contests.

The glorious New Martyrs of Thyateira, who came from among the Hagarenes, recently [1649] contended for the faith of Christ, the faith that brings salvation. As obedient students sitting at the feet of the Sheikh of Thyateira, the most wise teacher of the Mohammedan law, they followed him into the knowledge of the truth, which the grace of the All-Holy Spirit had taught him. When the twenty-three young men came to know the truth of the gospel, they abandoned the error of their fathers and enlisted themselves under Christ, remaining faithful to Him even unto martyrdom. Having therefore all struggled lawfully, they endured their sufferings with steadfastness. The Sheikh suffered death by strangulation, while his blessed martyr-disciples endured impalements, the burning of their limbs, and suspension upon the gallows. After their martyric consummation, they became workers of miracles by their own agency through the grace of God.

Venerable Isaac of Dalmatoi in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The Synaxarion of Venerable Isaac may focus exclusively on his gift of foresight, the courage of his heart, and his Orthodox faith even unto sacrifice, as seen in the incident involving the heretical emperor Valens. Yet his liturgical service does not concern itself with these matters at all. The Hymnographer of our Church prefers instead to present the foundation of the Venerable One’s stance: namely, his venerable life manifested through his ascetic struggles for the purification of his heart and, consequently, his being filled with the virtues and the radiant illuminations of the Holy Spirit.

And this is understandable. No one can possess courage of heart, an Orthodox phronema (mindset), or the gifts of foresight and spiritual discernment unless he has first made himself a fitting vessel for the indwelling of the Triune God Himself. In other words, the Hymnographer approaches the Venerable One at the most fundamental level, in order to show us that what is truly noteworthy in the life of a saint is not some miraculous event, but rather the saint’s purified heart itself. This is the constant goal set before us by our faith, according to the words of the Lord Himself: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” God always seeks from us a pure heart, not miraculous powers, which are entirely His own gift.

A Reflection on the Saturday of Souls for the Eve of Pentecost

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

It is well known that, for our Church, although every Saturday is dedicated to the holy martyrs and to her departed faithful, there are two principal Soul Saturdays: the one on the eve of Meatfare Sunday and the one on the eve of Holy Pentecost. For this reason, on both of these days we hear the Synaxarion note: “On this same day, the most divine Fathers decreed that remembrance be made of all who from the ages have fallen asleep in piety, in the hope of the resurrection unto eternal life.”

For the Church, the departed do not constitute a part of the world that has “ended and passed away” — as many believe, those who have confined their existence within the suffocating boundaries of this present world because they have erased God and Christ from their lives. The departed are an organic part of the Church, that is, a part of the Body of Christ, because death is not the gate leading to nonexistence, but the gate opening into the embrace of Christ. Just as we faithful live within that embrace in this present world, so too — and even more so — at the hour of our death and thereafter. The Apostle Paul tells us this directly, basing his words upon the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself: “Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” In other words, whether we remain in this life or depart from it, we belong to the Lord.

Prologue in Sermons: May 30

On Honesty

May 30

(A Story from the Paterikon.)
 
By Archpriest Victor Guryev

All of us, brethren, ought to be honest, that is, to act according to justice. How should this be understood?

Once, three brothers went out for the harvest and hired themselves out to reap sixty fields. On the very first day of labor, one of them became ill and returned to his hut. One of the remaining brothers said to the other:

“See, our brother has fallen sick. Let us stand in prayer and ask God to help us reap both our own share and the portion that fell to him.”

They stood in prayer, and the Lord helped them successfully complete not only their own work but also the work of their sick brother.

29 May 1453: The City Has Fallen! A Lamenting Synaxarion of Constantine Palaiologos (Photios Kontoglou)

29 May 1453: The City Has Fallen! 

A Lamenting Synaxarion of Constantine Palaiologos 

By Photios Kontoglou

(Excerpts from a manuscript text by Photios Kontoglou, 1949)

This King Constantine Palaiologos, whom I wish to recount, was not one who was fortunate, long-lived, and glorified in his life, but rather a man afflicted and sorrowful. As many days as he lived in this world, he never ate bread in peace. The water he drank was bitter as poison. He came into the world in a storm-tossed age, to become king over a nation that was in anguish and unceasing struggle from the time the inhabited world was formed, and which by then had become utterly exhausted, poor, and struck from both East and West. And he was the last of his line, a true Palaiologos, and he took upon himself the sins of his people and, instead of a crown, wore a crown of thorns. Worn and old was his royal mantle; humbled was his scepter. Sorrowful was his face, humble his appearance. His words were like hymns. He was raised among weapons, yet he seemed like a saint. Therefore, a synaxarion would be fitting for him rather than a royal history.

Homily on the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ (St. Diadochos of Photiki)

Prologue

This is the Latin editorial introduction from Migne before the text of Diadochos of Photiki's homily:

Diadochos, Bishop of Photiki in Epirus, became renowned both through the ascetical writings that survive and through his distinguished disciple, Victor of Vita, who, at his master's urging, wrote the History of the Vandal Persecution in Africa and honored his teacher with this praise in the prologue:

“Having been instructed by so great a bishop, the blessed Diadochos, worthy of every kind of praise, whose many monuments of orthodox teaching shine forth like brilliant stars.”

Moreover, this brief homily On the Ascension of the Lord, which we have brought forth from Vatican Manuscript 455, was known to Lucas Holstenius, as is evident from one of his letters (Boissonade edition, pp. 209–210). However, Holstenius, prevented by his many occupations and then by his death, was unable to publish it, just as happened with other homilies of various authors that he had prepared for publication.

Therefore, we have judged that this homily, being entirely genuine and containing doctrinal teaching toward its conclusion, ought to be deposited in the public treasury of the Church before it might perhaps perish through some accident.

Homily on the Ascension of Christ (Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Mani)

Homily on the Ascension of Christ

By Metropolitan Chrysostomos III of Mani

The Ascension of Christ is a supernatural event. The testimony of this historical event is found in Holy Scripture.

Specifically, the description of the Lord's Ascension is found in the Gospel according to Luke and in the Acts of the Apostles. The Gospel writes: “And He led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands He blessed them. And it came to pass, while He was blessing them, that He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they, having worshiped Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen” (Luke 24:50–53).

The Acts describe: “And He said to them (the Lord): ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set by His own authority; but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’ And when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was lifted up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into heaven while He was going, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said: ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same manner as you saw Him going into heaven.’ Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away” (Acts 1:7–12).

“The City Has Fallen": But Why?

Fr. George Dorbarakis

May 29 is the anniversary of the tragic day for Ecumenical Hellenism - the Fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453. The thousand-year-old Empire fell at that time and was delivered as prey to the barbarous hordes of the Ottomans, who filled most parts of the Great City with the corpses of Christians. “And in some places the ground could not be seen because of the multitude of the dead,” the well-known historian of the Fall, George Phrantzes, tells us in his Chronicle. He continues:

“It was a dreadful sight, and one heard many and varied lamentations, and saw countless enslaved noblemen, noblewomen, virgins, and monks, whom the Turks mercilessly dragged by their clothes, hair, and braids out of the churches, while they wept and wailed... One saw the divine Blood and Body of Christ being poured upon the ground and cast away...”