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Righteous John, Wonderworker of Kronstadt
1908
“Saint John of Kronstadt was a married priest, who lived with his wife in virginity. Through his untiring labours in his priestly duties and love for the poor and sinners, he was granted by our Lord great gifts of clairvoyance and miracle-working, to such a degree that in the last years of his life miracles of healings — both of body and of soul — were performed countless times each day through his prayers, often for people who had only written to him asking his help. During his lifetime he was known throughout Russia, as well as in the Western world. He has left us his diary My Life in Christ as a spiritual treasure for Christians of every age; simple in language, it expounds the deepest mysteries of our Faith with that wisdom which is given only to a heart purified by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Foreseeing as a true prophet the Revolution of 1917, he unsparingly rebuked the growing apostasy among the people; he foretold that the very name of Russia would be changed. As the darkness of unbelief grew thicker, he shone forth as a beacon of unquenchable piety, comforting the faithful through the many miracles that he worked and the fatherly love and simplicity with which he received all. Saint John reposed in peace in 1908.” (Great Horologion)
Blessed Cleopatra and her son John
The blessed Cleopatra was a devout widow of the village of Edra near Mount Tabor in Galilee, who in the days of Maximian Galerius had loved and venerated the holy martyr Varus. Hearing that he had been put to death in Egypt and his body cast forth upon a dunghill, she begged the body from the soldiers and bore it secretly to her home, where she preserved it among her treasures together with prayer and fasting. After the peace of the Church she returned with her only son John to her native village and there built a church in honour of the holy martyr, intending to devote her son, who had attained the rank of an officer of the Roman army, to the service of God within its walls. On the very day of the consecration the youth was suddenly taken with a fever and died; and the mother, in unutterable grief, cast herself before the relics of Saint Varus and reproached him as one who had deceived her, saying she had hoped to see her son a soldier of Christ. There appeared to her in a vision Saint Varus together with John, both clothed in shining garments and crowned, and Varus said that the Lord had received her son into the angelic ranks. Comforted, Cleopatra distributed her property among the poor and lived for seven years more beside the church in fasting and prayer, and so reposed in peace and was buried beside her son.
Holy Martyr Varus and his companions
307
Saint Varus was a Roman officer in Egypt during the persecution of Maximian Galerius, a Christian in his heart but outwardly conforming to his duties in the army. Coming to know seven holy ascetics imprisoned for the faith and condemned to death, he visited them by night, brought them food and bound up their wounds, and was so kindled by their courage that one of their number having died in prison, he begged to take that man's place. By day he stood beside the confessors, openly professed himself a Christian, and was beaten with such fury that his flesh was torn in pieces and he died hanging upon a tree, in the year 307. The remaining six monks were beheaded after his repose, and their bodies were taken in secret by the devout widow Cleopatra of Edra in Galilee, who had often supplied his needs and now received his relics into her own house. Some years later she carried the body of Saint Varus to her native village and built a church in his honour, where through his intercessions her own son John, who had died suddenly upon the day of dedication, appeared to her in a vision crowned together with the martyr in the kingdom of God; for which cause Varus is invoked also for the souls of those who have departed this life unbaptised or unbelieving.
Holy Prophet Joel
The holy prophet Joel, the second of the twelve minor prophets, was the son of Pethuel and according to tradition belonged to the tribe of Reuben, dwelling in the village of Bethom beyond Jordan. He prophesied in the kingdom of Judah, probably in the ninth century before Christ, in the days when the land was wasted by a great plague of locusts and by drought, which he interpreted as a sign of the divine wrath calling the people to repentance. In his short book of three chapters he summoned all, from elder to suckling child, to fasting and prayer, promising that the Lord would have pity upon his people, drive away the destroyer, and pour out upon all flesh his Holy Spirit, so that "your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions". This prophecy was fulfilled at Pentecost, when the Apostle Peter, standing up in the midst of the assembled multitude, declared that what they beheld was that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. Joel also foretold the day of the Lord, the gathering of the nations to the valley of Jehoshaphat for judgement, and the future blessings of the Church under the figure of mountains dropping down sweet wine and the hills flowing with milk. After a long life of prophecy he reposed in peace and was buried in his own land.
Saint John of Rila of Bulgaria
946
Saint John of Rila, the heavenly protector of the Bulgarian people, was born about the year 876 in the village of Skrino in the region of Sredets, the modern Sofia, of poor and pious parents. Left an orphan in his youth, he tended sheep, and after distributing his small inheritance among the poor he received the monastic tonsure in a nearby monastery and withdrew to live in solitude upon the slopes of the Rila mountains. There for many years he laboured in the most severe asceticism, dwelling first in a simple hut, then in a cave for twelve years, and afterwards upon a high rocky crag in the open air for seven years more, sustaining himself on wild herbs and the water of the springs. Disciples gathered to him in spite of his desire for hiddenness, and at their entreaty he founded about the year 930 the great monastery of Rila in a deep valley of the mountains, giving them a rule of common life. The Bulgarian king Peter sought to visit him and could not, for the saint refused to leave his solitude, but exchanged with him letters of admonition. Foreseeing his repose, John blessed his disciples and gave them his testament concerning the keeping of the monastic life and the love of the fatherland; and he reposed in peace on the eighteenth of August in the year 946. The nineteenth of October is celebrated as the day of the translation of his relics from Sredets to Trnovo in 1238, and his shrine in the monastery of Rila has remained for more than a thousand years the chief sanctuary of the Bulgarian land.
Holy Martyr Varus and those with him
304
“He was a Roman officer in Egypt and a secret Christian. When seven Christian teachers were thrown into prison, Varus kept visiting them there, supplying their needs and serving them with great devotion. He marvelled at the martyrs, and grieved that fear would not let him stand up as a martyr for Christ. These men of God gave him courage, and Varus made up his mind to go and be tortured with them. One of these godly men died in prison, and, when the wicked governor had the martyrs brought before him and saw that there were only six of them, he asked where the seventh was. ‘I am the seventh!’, cried Varus. The furious governor had him tortured first. He ordered that he be flogged with dry thongs, then that he be tied to a tree and hacked to pieces bit by bit with knives until he gave his holy soul to God. His body was then thrown onto a dung-heap. A woman of Palestinian birth, Cleopatra, the widow of an officer, was there with her son John. She secretly took the relics of the holy martyr off the dung-heap and buried them in her house. She then asked the governor’s permission to take the body of her dead husband back from Egypt to Palestine. As she was an officer’s widow, the governor at once gave her permission. This blessed Christian woman, Cleopatra, however, took the body, not of her husband but of the holy martyr Varus, taking it to her village of Edra, near Tabor, and burying it there. She then built a church dedicated to St Varus, and he appeared to her often from the other world, resplendent as an angel of God.” (Prologue)
Holy Hieromartyr Sadoth and his 128 companions
342
During the fierce persecution of Christians by the Persian King Shapur II, Saint Sadoth succeeded the Martyr Symeon (April 17) as Bishop of Seleucia. His name in Persian, Shah-dost, means ‘Friend of the King’; but the earthly Shah saw him as no friend, and the holy bishop knew that his days on earth were numbered. One night in a dream, Sadoth saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven. At the top stood Bishop Symeon, who called joyfully to him: ‘Climb up, Sadoth, and do not be afraid! I climbed up yesterday; you will climb up today.’ Waking, Sadoth knew that he would soon be called to martyrdom. He immediately set out to encourage his flock and to exhort them to stand firm for Christ in the coming day of persecution.
A few days later the persecutors came in the King’s name to arrest the holy Bishop; with him they seized 128 priests, deacons, monks and simple believers. All were held in prison for five months, being brought forth repeatedly and tortured in ways too cruel to describe; but not a single one could be brought to worship the sun. Finally, all were condemned to die by the sword. The 128 martyrs, chained together, sang joyous hymns as they went to the place of execution. They did not cease to sing until the death of the last Martyr. Sadoth himself, however, was taken in chains to the city of Beit Lapat, where he was beheaded a few days later.