Holy Hieromartyr Clement of Ancyra in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The note in the Synaxarion of Saint Clement, that his entire life was a single path of martyrdom, is also the central point emphasized by the Holy Hymnographer Theophanes, the poet of the Saint’s Canon.

“You traversed extended struggles upon the earth, O venerable one, and were thus deemed worthy to receive the crown of the Kingdom of Heaven.” 

“You endured, O most wise one, the wounds of tortures, long-lasting and drawn out over many years; therefore you were shown to be greatly victorious.” 

Indeed, one cannot but marvel at the multitude and the length of the tortures the Saint endured, with steadfast resolve, always fixing his gaze upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He did not collapse under the first blows. His executioners were methodical and cruel toward him: they knew how to torture him without delivering the decisive blow. Yet, of course, they remained on the surface of their torments. They did not know — and could not see — that these blows, transformed by the Saint’s faith and by the grace of God, became for him, and for the whole world, “achievements and a festival.”

Saint Clement of Ancyra Resource Page

St. Clement of Ancyra (Feast Day - January 23)

 Verses

The blood of Agathangelos and Clement,
Approached the mouth of the sword thirsty for blood.
On the twenty-third Agathangelos and Clement were beheaded.

 

Holy Hieromartyr Clement of Ancyra and His Disciple Agathangelos the Martyr

 

Saints Clement of Ancyra and His Disciple Agathangelos as Models for our Lives

 

January: Day 23: Teaching 1: Holy Hieromartyr Clement of Ancyra

 

January: Day 23: Teaching 2: Holy Hieromartyr Clement of Ancyra

 

Holy Hieromartyr Clement of Ancyra in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church 

 

Children Should Be Raised To Be Faithful To the End No Matter What: The Example of the Mother of St. Clement of Ancyra

 

The Last Legacy of the Byzantine Period in the Turkish Capital: The Church of Saint Clement of Ancyra

 

January: Day 23: Teaching 2: Holy Hieromartyr Clement of Ancyra

January: Day 23: Teaching 2:
Holy Hieromartyr Clement of Ancyra
 
(Edifying Lessons From the Life of the Holy Martyr Clement: 
a. Mothers Should Take Care of the Upbringing of Children; 
b. Children Should Obey Their Parents; 
c. We All Should Be Faithful to Jesus Christ)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. On this day the Holy Church celebrates the memory of one of the great and holy men of the ancient Church of Christ — Clement, Bishop of Ancyra. He was one of those great martyrs with whom the first centuries of Christianity are so richly adorned. For our age of weak faith and moral laxity, it is extremely beneficial to recall the feats of the true followers of Christ, who sealed their faith with the crown of martyrdom. Let us therefore, brethren, honor the memory of the martyr Clement with reverent remembrance of him.

Saint Clement was the son of a pious Christian woman and was himself raised in the rules of the Christian faith. The upbringing of her son in the faith of Christ was the sole task of the mother of Saint Clement. Saint Dimitri of Rostov thus describes the deathbed speech of this Christian mother of the third century to her twelve-year-old son:

Prologue in Sermons: January 23

The Crown of Love for One’s Neighbors

January 23

(Commemoration of Paulinus the Bishop, who gave away all his possessions in alms, and afterward even gave himself to be sold to the pagans.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The crown of love for one’s neighbors is to lay down one’s life for them. “Greater love than this,” says the Savior, “no one has, than to lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). But what does it mean to lay down one’s life for one’s friends? It means that, in time of need, one must be ready for every kind of feat of self-denial. If life is required—give your life; freedom—give your freedom; property—be deprived of your property. In a word, be ready to sacrifice everything, not excluding even yourself.

Does this amaze you, brethren? Do not be amazed. True, perhaps such people are not found today, but in former times they did exist. And behold how far their love for their neighbors sometimes extended.

Saint Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, in order to ransom his fellow countrymen from captivity by the Vandals, distributed all his possessions and was left with absolutely nothing. At that time a widow came to him and asked that he give her money to ransom her son from captivity. The servant of God searched all the corners of his cell, hoping to find something, but found nothing. Coming out to the petitioner, he said: “Believe me, I have nothing with which to ransom your son except myself. Therefore, if you wish, sell me as a slave in exchange for your son, and let him return.”

Incidents from the Life of Saint Bessarion of Agathonos

The life of Saint Bessarion is filled with incidents that reveal his profound humility and his absolute love for humanity. He was often called “the Saint of the poor” or “the Merciful One,” since whatever came into his hands he immediately distributed to others.

Below are some of the most striking true accounts:

Holy Apostle Timothy in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Timothy was from the city of Lystra. His father was a pagan, and his mother was a Jewess named Eunice. He became a disciple of the Apostle Paul and became his co-worker and a preacher of the divine gospel. He also went with Saint John, the especially beloved disciple of the Lord, and was appointed by the Apostle Paul himself as Bishop of Ephesus.

When Saint John was cast ashore by the sea (as Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, also recounts in his writings) and returned to Ephesus, and later was led by Emperor Domitian into exile on the island of Patmos, the blessed Timothy took his place in the episcopacy of the Ephesians.

Now at one time, when the pagans, during a certain ancestral festival of theirs called the “Katagogion,” in the city of the Ephesians, were holding idols in their hands, placing some of them upon themselves as masks, singing with them, and attacking men and women in a robber-like manner and committing murders, the blessed Timothy could not bear to witness the impropriety of their actions. Instead, he rebuked their vain delusion and exhorted them to abandon their shameful deeds. As a result, they killed him, attacking him with clubs. Afterward, his holy relic was transferred to Constantinople and placed in the Church of the Holy Apostles, where his Synaxis was celebrated.

Saint Joseph Samakos and the Liturgical Offering Bread

 

Saint Joseph Samakos, also known as Saint Joseph the Sanctified, was a revered 16th-century Orthodox hieromonk from Crete, celebrated for his sanctity. He was a monk in the Monastery of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian or Dermatanos, as many called it, which was located in a seaside location in Heraklion, Crete. He reposed around 1511, and his relics, found incorrupt and fragrant, led to his veneration, with churches built in his honor in Crete and Zakynthos. He is celebrated annually on January 22nd.

It happened at one time on the feast of Saint John the Theologian that the Christians offered candles and incense and many other things in the temple, but no offering bread (or prosphoron) for the Divine Eucharist; therefore, when the time for the Divine Liturgy arrived, the appointed servant, seeing that they had no offering bread with which to perform the Divine Mystagogy, went to Saint Joseph Samakos and said to him:

“Honorable Father, the time for the service has arrived and there is no offering; therefore, order me what I should do.”

Prologue in Sermons: January 22

On Love for God

January 22

(Commemoration of the Venerable Martyr Anastasios the Persian)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Strong, fervent, and wondrous was the love for God among the true servants of God. Thus the Apostle Paul desires to depart and be with Christ. The Venerable Martyr Anastasios the Persian, having passed through every path that leads to virtue, was finally inflamed with such love for God that he asked Him to help him end his life in blood and in sufferings. And of all the saints one may say, as if in their own words: "Who shall separate us from the love of God: tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: For Your sake we are killed all the day long" (Rom. 8:35–36).

Such was the love for God among God’s saints, and by it they left us a beautiful example for imitation. For we too must love God as they did. We too must strive toward Him with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind. Therefore we must all learn from the saints how we ought to love God and in what true love for Him consists.

In what, then, should it consist?

A Significant Doctoral Dissertation on “The Interpretive Framework of the Christology of Saint Maximus the Confessor”

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

On June 25, 2013, I attended, in the Conference Hall of the Theological School of Thessaloniki, the defense of the dissertation of Mr. Georgios Siskos, which was submitted to the Department of Pastoral and Social Theology, on the topic “The Interpretive Framework of the Christology of Saint Maximus the Confessor,” following a request by the doctoral candidate.

The truth is that I myself also showed interest in this dissertation, because I had discussed it with its author during the course of its preparation and had discerned its exceptional importance for the Church, theology, and our time.

The seven-member committee consisted of Professors Despo Lialiou, Demetrios Tselengidis, Konstantinos Christou, His Eminence Metropolitan Elpidophoros of Prousa, Vasilios Tsigos, Symeon Paschalidis, and Fr. Christos Filiotis-Vlachavas. During the defense of the dissertation, statements and questions were posed by the professors, and the candidate under evaluation responded thoroughly, as an excellent connoisseur of the subject — both from the perspective of the teaching of Saint Maximus in relation to Chalcedonian and anti-Chalcedonian Christology, and from the perspective of contemporary theological bibliography on this topic.