Holy Martyr Barlaam of Caesarea in Cappadocia
Saint Barlaam was an aged peasant of Caesarea in Cappadocia, of the country and not of the city, simple and unlettered but firm in the faith, who was arrested in the persecution of Diocletian about the year 304. The governor, mocking his age and his rusticity, sought to force him to offer sacrifice; and when neither cajolery nor torture could shake him, he commanded that the old man's right hand should be held forth over the altar of the idols, and that a burning coal with frankincense upon it should be laid in his open palm, supposing that the involuntary recoil of nature would cause him to drop the coal and so be reckoned to have offered the incense. But the saint, holding his hand unmoved until the flesh and sinews were burnt away, suffered the coal to fall only when his hand fell with it, and so confounded the impiety of his judges, dying soon after of his wounds. His martyrdom was extolled in celebrated homilies by Saint Basil the Great and by Saint John Chrysostom, both of whom drew from his example the lesson that strength of soul comes not from learning but from love of Christ.
Holy Martyr Heliodorus the Persian
Saint Heliodorus suffered for Christ in Persia under the king Sapor II about the year 350, in the great forty-year persecution that was raised against the Christians of his realm. Born in the region of Mesopotamia of pious Christian parents and brought up in the Scriptures, he was apprehended for the faith and brought before the king's officer, who pressed him by every art to worship the sun and the fire, the chief deities of the Persians. Heliodorus answered that he served the Sun of Righteousness and the unquenchable Fire of the Holy Spirit, and could in no wise turn back to the worship of creatures. After being scourged with thongs, his flesh torn with iron combs, his sides burned with torches and his bones broken upon the rack, he received from the Lord a vision of consolation and was at last beheaded with the sword. His martyrdom is preserved in the ancient Greek menaia and in the Acts of the Persian Martyrs published from the Syriac.
Holy Prophet Obadiah
Saint Obadiah, whose name means servant of the Lord, is the fourth of the Twelve Minor Prophets, and the author of the shortest book of the Old Testament, consisting of a single chapter of one and twenty verses. According to the tradition received by the Church from the writings of Saint Epiphanius and from the Synaxaria of Constantinople, he was a native of the village of Bethacharam beyond the Jordan, and lived in the days of King Ahab of Israel and the prophets Elijah and Elisha, having been the steward and chief of the household of Ahab who is mentioned in the eighteenth chapter of the Third Book of Kings, who feared the Lord exceedingly and hid a hundred prophets, fifty in each of two caves, and fed them with bread and water against the persecution of the queen Jezebel. Forsaking the king's service and following the prophet Elijah, he received from him the gift of prophecy, and afterwards spoke against the Edomites for their cruelty against the children of Israel at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, and foretold the day of the Lord upon all the nations and the salvation that should come forth from Mount Zion. He reposed in peace and was buried in the country of his fathers; the Church honours him as the prophet who first announced that the kingdom of the Lord shall encompass all the earth.
Saint Hilary, Pope of Rome
Saint Hilary, sometimes written Hilarius, was born in Sardinia and served as archdeacon of the Roman church under Pope Saint Leo the Great, who sent him as one of his legates to the so-called Robber Council of Ephesus in 449. There, when the patriarch Dioscorus of Alexandria, supported by armed soldiery, deposed Saint Flavian of Constantinople and forced through the rehabilitation of the heretic Eutyches, Hilary alone among the western legates dared to cry out against the proceedings the single Latin word Contradicitur, by which the unjust acts were never confirmed at Rome. Escaping with great difficulty he made his way back to Italy and gave thanks for his deliverance by building an oratory of Saint John the Evangelist at the Lateran. Elected pope in 461 in succession to Leo, he ruled the see of Saint Peter for some six years and seven months, confirming the canons of the Council of Chalcedon, ordering the affairs of the churches of Gaul and Spain, restraining unlawful ordinations and enriching the basilicas of Rome. Reposing in peace on 29 February 468, he is honoured by the Orthodox Church among the holy fathers of the West who upheld the Chalcedonian faith.
Our Holy Father Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow
1867
Born of a priestly family near Moscow in 1782, he entered seminary at a young age and soon distinguished himself for his piety and his scholarship of ancient languages. He was tonsured a monk, but was made a professor at the seminary in Moscow, where his expositions of the Faith, spoken and written, caused him to be regarded as a Father of the Church in his own time; many called him “the new Chrysostom.”
In 1817, at the age of thirty-five, he was consecrated bishop, and in only a few years rose to the rank of Metropolitan of Moscow, the highest office in the Russian Church since Peter the Great abolished the Patriarchate. He remained Metropolitan for the rest of his life. Saint Philaret seemed literally tireless in his labors for the Church: no-one knew when he slept, and his servant, no matter when he came to the Metropolitan’s quarters, would always find him working at his desk. He worked to restore moral standards among the clergy, which had fallen into laxity. Whenever he was forced to depose a cleric, he would secretly contribute to the family’s needs out of his own resources. Similarly, he used up all of his financial resources in charitable works, always taking care that his donations were kept secret. He funded the building of a large hospice for orphans and children of poor clergy families.
St Philaret gave his full support to the fifty-year project of translating the Bible into Russian, and translated several Old Testament books himself, though the project was opposed by the Tsar and by some powerful groups in the Church. He supported the work of the fathers of Optina Monastery to publish translations of the Fathers of the Church; these translations, when they appeared, contributed to a great spiritual awakening in Russia.
He reposed in peace in 1867 at the age of eighty-five.
The well-loved “Morning Prayer of Philaret of Moscow” which begins “Lord, grant me to greet the coming day in peace…” was brought into Orthodox piety by St Philaret but seems originally to have been written by Francois Fenelon, the French Quietist writer. The prayer also came to be used by the Optina Elders and is sometimes referred to as the “Morning Prayer of the Optina Elders.” The prayer appears in several similar versions.
O Lord, grant me to greet the coming day in peace. Help me in all things to rely upon Your holy will. In every hour of the day reveal Your will to me. Bless my dealings with all who surround me. Teach me to treat all that comes to me throughout the day with peace of soul, and with the firm conviction that Your will governs all. In all my deeds and words guide my thoughts and feelings. In unforseen events let me not forget that all are sent by You. Teach me to act firmly and wisely, without embittering or embarrassing others. Give me strength to bear the fatigue of this coming day with all that it will bring. Direct my will, teach me to pray, pray You Yourself in me. Amen.
Holy Martyr Barlaam of Antioch
304
Saint Barlaam was an old man, living in Antioch during the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian. When he confessed Christ before the Governor and refused to sacrifice to the idols, he was tortured for days: his flesh was torn by iron claws and he was stretched on the rack. When these conventional tortures failed, the Governor invented a new torment: Barlaam’s hand was stretched over an altar to the idols, and a burning coal with incense was put in his palm. The torturers reasoned that when pain forced him to drop the coal, they would be able to say that he had offered sacrifice to the gods. But the holy Barlaam held his hand steady and watched calmly as his hand was burnt up by the coal. At last his hand fell to the ground and the Martyr gave up his soul to God.
In some accounts, St Barlaam survived his torments and reposed in peace. Some have held that he came from Cappadocia rather than Antioch, but this is probably incorrect. Saint John Chrysostom once delivered a homily at St Barlaam’s tomb in Antioch on his feast day.
Our Holy Fathers Barlaam and Joasaph of India
4th c.
“They were Indian ascetics. Joasaph was son and heir to King Abenner. By God’s providence, he was visited by the elder Barlaam, who taught him the Christian faith and baptised him. After that, the elder went off into the mountains to live in asceticism, and Joasaph remained to wrestle with many temptations in the world and to overcome them by the grace of God. Joasaph finally succeeded in bringing his father to Christ. When he had been baptised, King Abenner lived a further four years in deep repentance (for he had committed grave sins in his persecution of Christians) and then finished his earthly course and went to the better life. The young Joasaph entrusted the kingdom to his friend Barachias, and himself went off into the desert to live in asceticism for the sake of Christ. His one desire on earth was to see his spiritual father, Barlaam, once more. God, in his mercy, fulfilled his desire, and, one day, Joasaph stood before Barlaam’s cave, and called: ‘Bless me, Father!’ The elder Barlaam lived in asceticism in the desert for seventy years, living a hundred years in all. St Joasaph handed over his kingdom at the age of twenty-five and went into the desert, where he lived a further thirty-five years. They both had great love for the Lord Jesus, brought many to the true Faith and entered into the eternal joy of their Lord.” (Prologue)
They are commemorated on August 26 on the Greek calendar.