Homily Three on the Nativity of the Theotokos (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Three on the Nativity of the Theotokos 

By St. John of Kronstadt

(Delivered in 1907 or 1908)

“The universal joy has shone forth for us from the righteous Joachim and Anna, O all-lauded Virgin, through whom, because of her exceeding purity, the temple of God is made a living one, and she alone is truly recognized as the Mother of God.” (Sticheron at the Aposticha, Forefeast Service)

Before beginning my poor word on the Nativity of the Mother of God the Word, I beseech this Pre-eternal Word to grant me understanding to glorify according to my strength, or rather according to the grace of God, this truly great Christian feast, the Nativity of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, who was destined by the Creator of the ages to become the Mother of the Son of God according to the flesh.

In my mind I compare two virgins: the first-created virgin Eve, when she had not yet known conjugal union, and the truly Immaculate and Ever-Virgin Theotokos Mary.

The first virgin became willingly the cause of ancestral sin, the curse, and death, and of all the evils to which we remain subject and from which we suffer terribly to this day; the second, by God, became the cause of righteousness, blessing, and life, with which God the Word, born from her according to the flesh, has benefited us.

Synaxarion of the Venerable Martyr Theodora of Vasta

Synaxarion

By Venerable Gerasimos Mikragiannanitis

On the 11th of the same month, the commemoration of the Holy Venerable Martyr Theodora of the Peloponnese, who lies in the village of Vasta in Megalopolis, Arcadia.

Verses

As a gift, O Mother, you offered to God,
The labors of asceticism and the shedding of blood.
On the eleventh, ruthless men severed Theodora’s neck.

This blessed woman came from the Peloponnese. She flourished in the ninth century and sprang forth from Messenia or Arcadia, the exact locality of her homeland being unknown. Her parents were poor and lived by their own labor, but were pious and faithful toward Christ our Lord, and besides the Saint they also had other children. Raised by them in the education and admonition of the Lord, and having become an example of decorum and good character, she discerned in a divinely-inspired mind that she should be espoused to Christ and came to embrace the monastic life in a monastery for men, not as a woman, but in male attire, as Theodore. The Monastery to which the blessed woman came, and which survives to this day, is called in the local dialect Panagitsa, and is situated in Upper Messenia, on the borders of Messenia and Arcadia, near the village of Monasteraki.

Venerable Theodora of Alexandria in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The life of Venerable Theodora of Alexandria is wondrous. For although she is not the only one in the history of the Church who practiced asceticism disguised as a man in a men’s monastery, she is the only one to follow this paradoxical ascetic path on the basis of two distinct circumstances: first, she chooses the harsh martyrdom of complete exile in order to “make atonement” for the sin of adultery, which, however, is known only to her; second, she accepts the slander of a carnal relationship with a woman (!) from which an infant was also born (!), again interpreting the event herself as a “repayment” for the adultery she had committed against her lawful husband. This is a reality that reveals the sanctity of Theodora, because it shows that her entire course, not only her ascetic life after she donned the monastic habit but also her life before that, was continually before the eyes of the Lord. Indeed, her great fall into sexual sin did occur, “through the envy of the devil,” according to the Synaxarist, but from that moment onward she could not bear this tragic event in her life, even though she could have “overcome” it by following the rule of repentance through the Mystery of Confession.

Homilies from the Menaion for Every Day of the Year: September 11

The Month of September

Day 11

12. On the Reward Awaiting in the Age to Come for Wives Who Patiently Endure Unjust Wrongs in This Life

(From the Life of Venerable Theodora. September Menaion, Sept. 11)

As everyone knows, suffering from slander and enduring undeserved insults and unjust wrongs falls not only upon many men, but equally upon many of you, Christian wives. Yes, so it must be. For example, concerning those who desire to live godly lives, the Apostle says that not merely some of them, but “all,” that is, men and women without distinction, “will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). And the history that tells not only of martyrs but also of women martyrs, not only of confessors but also of women confessors of the name of Christ, fully confirms this truth.

But that is not our point. What we wanted to speak about specifically is the difference between men and women in enduring these things—slander, insults, and wrongs. A man, being generally stronger and more robust by nature than a woman, will naturally endure suffering more easily, whereas a woman, being weaker and more sensitive in heart than a man, will undoubtedly find it more difficult to bear such things. Therefore, a man suffering from slander, insults, and wrongs may, although with difficulty, stand firm more readily; whereas a woman under their yoke may fall more easily and more quickly than a man. From this, then, it naturally follows that if a woman may fall more readily than a man under the yoke of slander and wrongs, then when she suffers beneath this yoke, she is undoubtedly all the more in need of encouragement and consolation. On this basis, then, we now offer you, wives who suffer from slander, insults, and wrongs, this encouragement and consolation, and we give you strengthening for endurance. What do these consist in? You may see from what we shall relate to you below.

Saint Theodora of Alexandria Resource Page

St. Theodora of Alexandria (Feast Day - September 11)

Verses

Theodora, in form and in mind, makes herself manlike,
And brings the great mind to shame before the end.
On the eleventh, Theodora sleeps the final sleep
(that is, she sleeps the final sleep of death).

 

Synaxarion of Venerable Theodora of Alexandria

 

September: Day 11: Teaching 1: Venerable Theodora of Alexandria

 

September: Day 11: Teaching 2: Venerable Theodora of Alexandria 

 

Venerable Theodora of Alexandria in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church 

 

Homilies from the Menaion for Every Day of the Year: September 11 

 

Prologue in Sermons: September 11 (b) 

  

The "Secret" Sin of Saint Theodora of Alexandria

 

The Only Orthodox Church Dedicated to Saint Theodora of Alexandria

The Panagia of Old Trikeri: The Discovery of Her Wonderworking Icon and Her Miracles

By Ioannis Fourtounas 

Every year on September 10, the feast of the Most Holy Theotokos of the island of Old Trikeri is celebrated, commemorating the day on which Her wonderworking Icon was discovered.

Old Trikeri is a small island near the entrance to the Pagasetic Gulf in the regional unit of Magnesia, where every year, on the eve of the feast, a multitude of the faithful gathers. There was once a Byzantine settlement on the island, but in the eighth century the Monastery of the Annunciation was burned by the iconoclasts, while in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the island was plundered by pirates. From that time onward, the inhabitants abandoned the island and settled on the opposite shore, at the end of the peninsula of Mount Pelion, leaving the island completely deserted.

The discovery of the Icon, the founding of the Monastery of the Annunciation, Her miracles, as well as the presence of the “Evangelistria” as a religious center, came about as follows.

Holy Martyrs Menodora, Metrodora and Nymphodora in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. These holy women were sisters and came from Bithynia. From a young age they loved the Lord Jesus, whom they continually had as the delight of their souls. Thus, their sole concern was how to adorn themselves with the virtues. Desiring greater asceticism and dedication to God, they left their homeland and withdrew to a hill near the hot baths of Pythia. Through their continual prayer and asceticism in Christ, they attained great heights of virtue, so much so that they healed various illnesses of people who came to them. The governor Fronto, however, who learned of them, sent men to arrest them, and because they refused to abandon their faith in Christ, he began to subject them to harsh tortures: the twisting of their limbs, casting them into the fire, the flaying of their bodies with iron claws, hanging them upon a wooden frame, and finally death by the sword. In all these things the holy women endured steadfastly, keeping their minds fixed on the love of Christ and being strengthened by His grace. After they had surrendered their spirits to God, the governor wanted to burn their holy bodies, but the flames turned against him, while a torrential rain immediately extinguished the fire. The Christians gathered up their relics and buried them with great reverence.

Homilies from the Menaion for Every Day of the Year: September 10

The Month of September

Day 10

11. To Orphan Girls Who Are Wronged

(From the Life of Saint Pulcheria the Empress. September Menaion, Sept. 10)

It is difficult, and for the most part very difficult, for all those who are underage and have been left orphaned by the premature death of their father and mother—both young men and maidens—to live. But it goes without saying that it is harder for orphans who are not young men but girls to live. A young man, after all, will now and then speak up for himself and stand up for what is his; but what is an orphaned girl to do? By her innate maidenly modesty, she for the most part remains silent, and she does not even dare to say anything against anyone who may sometimes act unlawfully toward her. And dishonest people often take advantage of this and wrong an orphan girl as they please, however and whenever they see fit. Yes, at times it is bitter for such orphaned girls; at times it is so bitter that it is difficult even to speak of it! How, then, shall we comfort and encourage such girls?

“At the Little Panagia at Pyrgi” (A Poem by Alexandros Papadiamantis)

The Church of the Dormition of the Theotokos, also known as Panagia Kardasi, inspired the poem by Papadiamantis "At the Little Panagia at Pyrgi".

Introduction

Alexandros Papadiamantis’s “At the Little Panagia at Pyrgi” (Στὴν Παναγίτσα στὸ Πυργί) is one of the poet’s late Theometoric poems, composed in 1910, during the final months of his life on his native island of Skiathos. The poem was published posthumously in 1923. Papadiamantis, who was born on Skiathos in 1851 and died there on January 3, 1911, devoted a number of his later poems to particular churches and shrines of the Panagia on the island, joining the familiar landscape of his homeland to the devotional world that permeates his writing.

The title refers to a small church of the Panagia at Pyrgi, and the poem is deeply rooted in the physical landscape surrounding it. Papadiamantis evokes the deserted seashore, the rock and precipice facing the sea, the little fragrant church on the ridge, the wild tree bending over the rocks, and the shepherd with his pipe and animals. Yet this is not merely landscape poetry. At the Nativity of the Theotokos, the entire landscape participates in the feast: the shore, the rock, the tree, the shepherd, the goat, and the kid all rejoice, and finally all creation itself exults. The concrete world of Skiathos thus becomes the setting in which the cosmic significance of the birth of the Mother of God is revealed.