The Death and Resurrection of a Cart Driver (From the Life of Saint Parthenios of Lampsakos)

The Death and Resurrection of a Cart Driver

(From the Life of Saint Parthenios of Lampsakos)

The demons did not refrain from interfering in the beautiful and good works of Saint Parthenios. For this reason, one day the following event took place:

When Parthenios had completed the construction work of the house of worship built in the name of the Most High Lord, he found a flat stone which he deemed suitable for the altar. He ordered a cart driver named Eutychianos to transport this flat stone to the church that was being built. However, the crafty evil spirit, envying this good work of Parthenios, sought to create an obstacle to his plans. Thus, during the transport of the flat stone, it enraged the oxen, and in their frenzy they threw the poor cart driver between the wheels. As a result, his belly was torn open, his intestines spilled out, and shortly thereafter he died.

Venerable Luke of Steirion in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorborakis

This holy man is an offshoot and delight of Greece. His ancestors were from the island of Aegina, who, unable to endure the continual attacks of the Hagarenes, migrated and arrived in central Greece, where the blessed Luke was born. From early childhood he abstained not only from meat, but also from eggs and cheese. His food and drink were barley bread, water, and legumes. By afflicting his body with every form of ascetic hardship and discipline, he considered it his joy to feed the hungry and to give clothing to the naked, and by these deeds he was satisfied. For this reason, because he often gave away even his own garment, he would return to his dwelling naked. And whenever he lifted up his prayers to God, his feet would rise almost a cubit from the ground and appeared not to touch the earth at all. When he later embraced the monastic life, it is impossible to describe the degree of self-control and hardship the blessed one displayed. As a monk he traveled through all the coastal regions, and through the miracles wrought by him he became a cause of salvation for many. Afterwards he ceased his wanderings and remained at the Monastery. Seven years later, in that very place, he foretold his end to all, and thus departed this life.

The life of Venerable Luke of Greece — known to us as Hosios Loukas of Steirion in Boeotia — constitutes a precise and living commentary on the words of the Lord: “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.” For Venerable Luke indeed, from a very young age, turned with a fervent love toward Christ so strong that it surpassed even his natural love for his parents, especially for his mother, who loved him deeply.

Prologue in Sermons: February 7

Chaste People, By Preserving Chastity Themselves, Take Care That Others Preserve It As Well

February 7

(A Saying from the Lemonarion about a black-robed nun who fled into the desert for the sake of a young man.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

To turn a sinner away from sin and to bring him back from the error of his way is a great work, as the Holy Apostle James also teaches. “Brethren,” he says, “if any of you err from the way of truth, and one convert him; let him know, that he who converts the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:19–20). Thus the Apostle teaches, but does he teach rightly?

One of the desert elders, named John, related the following: There was in Jerusalem a certain maiden, tall in stature, chaste, and of holy life, named Mastridia. The devil, envying her piety, implanted in a certain young man the thought of seducing her into sin. Mastridia learned of this and, in order to turn the young man away from sin and to preserve her virginity, acted thus: she gathered bread-grains into a basket and departed into the desert. By this she drove away from the young man the evil thought that inclined him toward sin and brought peace to his heart.

Hymns to our Venerable Fathers Barsanuphios and John (Venerable Gerasimos Mikragiannanitis)

On the sixth day of the same month [February], the commemoration of Venerable Barsanuphios the Great Elder and of Venerable John, called the Prophet, his disciple.

Verses

From the earth was formed the body of Barsanuphius.
And he returned to the earth, to his own mother.
It is just, O John, at the same time
To place you here, the beloved teacher.
On the sixth, the divine spirit of Barsanuphius was lifted from the earth.

Apolytikion. 
Tone Plagal First. "Ton synanarchon Logon."

Having lived a life equal to the angels, O Father Barsanuphios, together with John, you appeared as radiant stars of asceticism and guides of monastics toward the better path. Being full of divine light, you unceasingly intercede that our souls may be shown mercy.

Saint Photios the Great in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The great Father and Teacher of the Church, Photios (9th c.), the Confessor of the Faith and Equal to the Apostles, lived during the reigns of the emperors Michael, son of Theophilos, Basil the Macedonian, and Leo his son. His earthly homeland was the imperial city of Constantinople, being of origin from a pious and distinguished family, while his heavenly homeland was the Jerusalem above. Before entering the priesthood he distinguished himself in high offices, serving as a professor at the University of the Magnaura; and always living a virtuous and God-loving life, he was later entrusted, as Patriarch, with the guidance of the Church of Constantinople.

This took place as follows: when Saint Ignatios was violently deposed from the archiepiscopal throne by the emperor, the vacant throne had to be filled, and so the emperor turned to Photios and compelled him to succeed Saint Ignatios canonically. Thus he was first tonsured a monk and then passed “in rapid succession” through all the ranks of the priesthood.

As Patriarch he struggled greatly on behalf of the Orthodox faith against the Manichaeans, the Iconoclasts, and other heretics, but above all against the papal heresy which appeared for the first time in his era, whose leader was Pope Nicholas, the father of the Latin schism. After reproving Nicholas for his heretical views with proofs from Holy Scripture and the Fathers, and after judging him synodically, he considered him outside the Church and consigned him to anathema. For these actions, he naturally suffered many persecutions and dangers from the supporters of papism, many attacks and acts of violence against him, all of which he endured in a Christ-like manner, he who was distinguished for his long-suffering, patience, and adamantine character — facts well known to anyone who studies Church history.

What must especially be recalled, however, is that the blessed Photios, who ministered the gospel like another Apostle Paul, converted to the faith of Christ the entire nation of the Bulgarians together with their king, after catechizing and baptizing them. Likewise, by his words full of grace, wisdom, and truth, he regenerated and returned to the Catholic Church of Christ many different heretics — Armenians, Iconoclasts, and other heterodox believers. Indeed, when by the firmness of his conviction he astonished the murderous and ungrateful Emperor Basil and uprooted the weeds of every false teaching with his fervent zeal, he appeared more than anyone else as a genuine successor of the Apostles, filled with their Spirit-bearing teaching.

Thus, after shepherding the Church of Christ in a holy and evangelical manner, after ascending twice to the archiepiscopal throne against his will and being twice exiled from it by tyrannical force, and after leaving to the Church and the people of God many and varied writings — excellent and most wise, such as every age can truly admire — and after suffering greatly, as we have said, for his struggles on behalf of truth and justice, the much-contending one finally departed to the Lord, dying in exile at the Monastery of the Armenians, like the divine Chrysostom at Comana. His sacred and most honorable body was laid to rest in the monastery called Eremia or Hiremia. In former times his most holy synaxis was celebrated in the Church of the Honorable Forerunner located in that monastery, but now it is celebrated at the sacred and Patriarchal Monastery of the Holy Trinity on the island of Halki, where the Theological School of the Great Church of Christ is also located.

Saint Boukolos of Smyrna in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Boukolos from a young age sanctified himself and became a vessel of the Holy Spirit. He was found worthy and fit by the all-praised and Christ-beloved divine John the Theologian, who ordained him bishop and good shepherd of the Church of Smyrna. Boukolos, illumined by the Holy Spirit, led those who were in the darkness of error into the light of the faith of Christ, and through holy baptism made them sons of the day, saving them from countless savage beasts. Thus, before departing this life, he ordained and appointed as shepherd and Teacher of the rational sheep in the same city, Smyrna, the blessed Polycarp, and then he fell asleep in the Lord. And when his honorable body was laid beneath the earth, God caused a plant to spring up that provides healings to this day.

Saint Boukolos is not very well known to most of our Christians, although he belongs to the Apostolic Fathers, who shone by their life and preaching. Perhaps this is because he stood between two most eminent men, great stars of our Church, who overshadowed him with their brilliance: Saint John the Theologian and Saint Polycarp of Smyrna. And on the other hand, he is also commemorated together with another star, a universal father and teacher, equal to the apostles and confessor, great in his very title — Saint Photios, Patriarch of Constantinople. Yet despite all the radiance of these great and eminent figures, Saint Boukolos, according to our Church, never ceases “to flash forth with the light of his God-working virtues, being set as a light on the lampstand of the divine Church and making it radiant with his sacred teachings” (“Shining with the light of God-working virtues, most holy one, you were mystically set as a light on the lampstand of the divine Church, making it radiant, Father, by your sacred teachings” - Vespers sticheron). He is the man who, as Saint Joseph the Hymnographer notes elsewhere in his Canon, “shone as light, as radiance, as a great sun, as lightning in the Church of Christ, and illumined the minds of the faithful” (“As light, as radiance, as a great sun, as lightning you shone forth in the Church of Christ and illumined the minds of the faithful” - Ode 9).

Prologue in Sermons: February 6

On What is Necessary in Order to Meet Death Not With Terror, But With Joy

February 6*

(Commemoration of the Holy Martyr Martha and her niece Mary, and of the Koly Martyr Karion the Black Robe Wearer)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

When we draw near to death, for the most part we meet it with terror rather than with joy. Why is this so? Because then we feel hemmed in on all sides. If we look back, we are met by unpaid sin and unforgiven evil; if we direct our gaze forward, we meet God, the impartial Judge, eternal blessedness — which we have lost for the fleeting sweetness of sin — and the torments of hell, ready to swallow us up forever. In short, we fear death because we are sinners. Were we righteous, it would be otherwise. We would meet death not with terror, but with joy.

The Reasons for the Anger of Westerners Against Photios (An Article by St. Nektarios of Aegina)

Introduction

By John Sanidopoulos

The following article titled The Reasons for the Anger of Westerners Against Photios was written in 1897 and published in the Thracian Yearbook by Metropolitan Nektarios Kephalas of Pentapolis (later Saint Nektarios of Aegina), at a time when he was Director of the Rizarios Ecclesiastical School in Athens and actively engaged in the formation of Orthodox clergy. The work belongs to the genre of Orthodox theological–historical apologetics and was composed as a systematic exposition of Orthodox ecclesiology through the lens of the Photian controversy.

Nektarios wrote in a period marked by intensified Roman Catholic missionary and apologetic activity in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans, as well as renewed debates over papal primacy, synodal authority, and the legitimacy of the filioque. In response, Greek Orthodox theology of the late nineteenth century sought to articulate its identity with clarity and historical grounding. Saint Photios the Great emerged in this context as a paradigmatic figure: defender of synodal governance, guardian of the unchanged Creed, and representative of the Eastern understanding of primacy as one of honor rather than universal jurisdiction.

The Reception of the Lord (Archimandrite Joel Yiannakopoulos)

The Reception of the Lord 

(Luke 2:22-38)

By Archimandrite Joel Yiannakopoulos

After the birth of Christ, the Theotokos, as a Jewess, was obliged for two reasons to go to the Temple: first, for her own sake, and second, for the sake of her firstborn Son.

Her obligation toward herself was her lawful purification, her “forty-day purification,” as we would say today. According to the Law, that is, every Jewish woman who had given birth, on the fortieth day after the birth of her male child, had to appear in the Temple in order to be purified. During this purification she was required — if she was poor — “to offer a sacrifice according to what was prescribed: a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” This purification was not a bodily cleansing for reasons of hygiene, but a legal one. By it there was recalled, in general, the sinfulness of humanity, and more specifically the transmission of ancestral sin through birth. This is evident from the fact that if a Jewish woman gave birth to a daughter, she was considered unclean not for forty days but for eighty, in remembrance that Eve was the first cause of the fall of the first-created humans. The sacrifice of the offered turtledoves and pigeons, which did not cleanse but merely reminded one of impurity, indicated the need for the coming of a Redeemer, Christ.