Saturday, 6 June 2026

“As pure and virginal nuns, they lived the ascetic life in an unknown monastery near Rome. When a persecution of Christians arose under the wicked Emperor Diocletian, they fled to Campania and settled near the town of Nola. Their holy life could not be concealed, and people from nearby began to come to them for counsel, instruction and help in various trials and sicknesses, and they were finally seized by the pagans and taken for trial. They publicly and freely confessed their faith in Christ. When the judge, Leontius, questioned the holy Archelaïs about the Christian faith, she replied: ‘It is by the power of Christ that I overcome the power of the devil and teach the people understanding and knowledge of the one, true God. By the name of my Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, it is given that, through me His servant, the sick find healing.’ All three maidens were whipped, flogged with heavy staves, left to languish in prison and finally beheaded. When they were led out to the scaffold, angels appeared to them, which were seen by some of the executioners and inspired such fear in them that they dared not lift up their swords against the holy maidens. They, however, urged the executioners to finish their task. And thus, as lambs, were they beheaded in the year 293, and went to the Kingdom of Christ to rest in eternity and delight in beholding the face of God.” (Prologue)

Saint Hilarion the New was born of pious parents Peter and Theodosia. At the age of twelve he was tonsured at the Hesychius monastery near Constantinople, and afterwards transferred to the Dalmaton monastery in the capital, where he received the great schema and became a disciple of Saint Gregory the Decapolite. After the death of his abbot he was chosen, against his will, to take charge of the monastery. During the second wave of iconoclasm under the emperor Leo V the Armenian (813 to 820) he refused to dishonour the holy icons and openly accused the emperor of heresy, for which he was deposed, imprisoned and tortured. He continued to suffer under Michael II and Theophilus, spending nearly twenty years in various dungeons and places of exile. With the restoration of the icons under the empress Theodora in 843 he returned to his monastery, governed it for a few more years, and reposed in peace in 845. He was called "the New" to distinguish him from the elder Hilarion the Great of Palestine.

Saint Bessarion was an Egyptian who was baptised in his youth and from his earliest years strove to preserve the grace given him in the laver of regeneration. He visited Saint Anthony the Great and Saint Macarius of Egypt, then placed himself under the guidance of Saint Isidore of Pelusium, by whom he was tonsured a monk. Receiving from his elder a vow of silence, he tasted food only once a week. Through unceasing prayer he obtained from the Lord the gift of wonderworking. He once made the salt water of the sea fresh for a thirsty disciple, called down rain in time of drought, walked across the river Chrysoroas dryshod, and stopped the sun in its course until he had reached his destination. His humility was no less than his power: when a brother was put out of the church for a fault, Bessarion rose and went out with him, saying, "I too am a sinner." He spent his long life as a wandering ascetic in the deserts of Egypt without a fixed dwelling, and reposed in peace in the fifth century.