Venerable Mârûn the Hermit of Kyrrhos

Saint Mârûn of Syria
القديس مار مارون

The feast day of Saint Mârûn [L. Maron, Gk. Μάρων, Ar. Mârûn مارون‎], the venerable fourth-century hermit of the region of Kyrrhos (now Nabî Hûrî نبي حوري) in Syria, falls on the fourteenth of February in the Holy Orthodox Church. He reposed in the Year of the Lord 410. I say here with regret that I passed over the occasion of his feast-day nearly in silence this year, and that unjustly. He was not so misprised by Blessed Theodoret, the Bishop of Kyrrhos who writes of him in his Religious History. Here I undertake to relate what Theodoret has to say about the holy Mârûn:

After him I shall recall Maron, for he too adorned the godly choir of the saints. Embracing the open-air life, he repaired to a hill-top formerly honoured by the impious. Consecrating to God the precinct of demons on it, he lived there, pitching a small tent which he seldom used. He practised not only the usual labours, but devised others as well, heaping up the wealth of philosophy.

The Umpire measured out grace according to his labours: so the munificent one gave in abundance the gift of healing, with the result that his fame circulated everywhere, attracted everyone from every side and taught by experience the truth of the report. One could see fevers quenched by the dew of his blessing, shivering quieted, demons put to flight, and varied diseases of every kind cured by a single remedy; the progeny of physicians apply to each disease the appropriate remedy, but the prayer of the saint is a common antidote for every distress.

He cured not only infirmities of the body, but applied suitable treatment to souls as well, healing this man’s greed and that man’s anger, to this man supplying teaching in self-control and to that providing lessons in justice, correcting this man’s intemperance and shaking up another man’s sloth. Applying this mode of cultivation, he produced many plants of philosophy, and it was he who planted for God the garden that now flourishes in the region of Cyrrhus. A product of his planting was the great James, to whom one could reasonably apply the prophetic utterance, ‘the righteous man will flower as the palm tree, and be multiplied like the cedar of Lebanon’, and also all the others whom, with God’s help, I shall recall individually.

Attending in this way to the divine cultivation and treating bodies and souls alike, he himself underwent a short illness, so that we might learn the weakness of nature and the manliness of resolution, and departed from life. A bitter war over his body arose between his neighbours. One of the adjacent villages that was well-populated came out in mass, drove off the others and seized this thrice-desired treasure; building a great shrine, they reap benefit therefrom even to this day, honouring this victor with a public festival. We ourselves reap his blessing even at a distance; for sufficient for us instead of his tomb is his memory.

I confess that one reason I was reluctant to post this hagiography on the day of his commemoration – which was indeed a wrong and unworthy oversight on my part – was precisely this crass behaviour of his followers, which is no adequate reflection at all on his own spiritual practice which was open to all. Why on earth would one wish to honour a peaceful and long-suffering saint and hermit, who taught patience and virtue to all the various people both Christian and pagan who came to him, by fighting a literal war over his body against other Christians? But, alas, this is what his first followers did, and at that for their own glory rather than his or Christ’s.

Here I must take a leaf out of Blessed Theodoret’s book and learn to honour the saint for his own sake, and not measure him by the standards that his followers prised him by. Theodoret said that his memory was worth the honour, not merely his tomb, and this is indeed the right attitude to take. Even so, what happened after the death of Saint Mârûn is testament to the fact that these places are indeed holy even if they are misused by those who hold them so. Holy and righteous hermit Mârûn, teacher of virtue and worker of many wonders, pray unto Christ our God for us sinners!

Kalota, Aleppo Governorate, Syria
the village where Saint Mârûn reposed

Venerable Eusebios, Hermit of Syria

Saint Eusebios of Asikhan

Today in the Holy Orthodox Church, the fifteenth of February, we commemorate the eremitical Saint Eusebios. His Life is also narrated by Blessed Theodoret of Kyrrhos’s Religious History. Saint Eusebios approached God in solitude in the desert, and his way of life is marked by ascetical extremes.

Theodoret does not inform us about the early life of Saint Eusebios [Gk. Εὐσέβιος, Ar. Yûsâbiyyûs يوسابيوس]; neither his parentage nor his birthplace are known. He was probably born around the year 350. He was apparently raised in the company of holy men and educated in a monastery, and desired for himself to become an ascetic and solitary in the wilderness when he came of age. He settled on a mountain ridge near a Syrian village called Asikhan [Gr. Ἀσιχᾶν], and built for himself a dwelling made of piled stones without mortar, which was also unroofed and open to the sky.

Eusebios lived a life of strict fasting and constant prayer under the open sky. He was at all times exposed to the elements. He covered himself in animal skins, and ate for his food chickpeas and beans soaked in water, as well as a few dried figs in an attempt to keep up the strength of his meagre body. Even when he was a very old man and had lost most of his teeth, he did not vary in his diet. Nor did he exchange his wonted dwelling-place for one more comfortable, but endured freezing winters and baking summers and exhaustive labours until he was quite shrivelled and wasted in body. He had trouble even keeping his girdle up about his waist, and sewed it into the cloth of his tunic to keep it from falling.

Eusebios led a life of contemplation of God; and he tended to avoid discourse with other people. At first he extended his hospitality to a few who came to him for advice and guidance on both spiritual and mundane matters. He would discourse with them on the divine oracles and thus leave them satisfied. However, upon their leaving, he asked them to seal his doorway with mud. When even these conversations became too taxing for him, Saint Eusebios rolled a heavy stone in front of the doorway of his cell. He communicated with others only through a hole in the stone wall, such that his face could not be seen, and took his food also through that hole. At last he refused to converse with anyone save Theodoret himself, through the same aperture. He would have long conversations with Bishop Theodoret on heavenly matters, and sometimes would detain him longer to speak. Theodoret remembered the sweetness of these long discourses fondly.

However, people kept visiting his cell on the mountain ridge, and causing him great vexation of spirit. With an effort that would have taxed even a young person in the full bloom of health, he clambered out of his enclosure and fled to a nearby cœnobitic community. He did not join the community, but continued his usual eremitical labours by the corner of one wall of the monastery enclosure, with the permission and blessing of the abbot. This abbot had a high opinion of Saint Eusebios, and said that during Great Lent he would take only fifteen dried figs for his sustenance throughout the seven weeks of the fast. Saint Eusebios lived past ninety years, even though his ascetic exertions had worn and wasted his flesh. At last he reposed in the Lord within the walls of his adoptive monastery, around the year 444. Holy hermit Eusebios, pray to God for us!

Mâr ’Ibrâhîm al-Hûrûsi, Bishop of Harrân, Apostle of Lebanon

Saint ’Ibrâhîm al-Hûrûsi
القدّيس إبراهيم الحوروسي

According to the Orthodox Church in America website, today is not only the day of the repose of Saint Cyril, but it is also the feast-day of two Arabic saints, Saint Marûn the Hermit and Saint ’Ibrâhîm the Bishop of Harrân in Mesopotamia. The Orthodox feast-day of Saint Valentine is actually the thirtieth of July.

Today I will focus on the life of Venerable ’Ibrâhîm [or Abraham, also called the Apostle of Lebanon]. His Life is related in the works of the Syrian religious historian and bishop, Blessed Theodoret of Kyrrhos. He was born in the Year of our Lord 350. Like Saint Marcian and indeed like Theodoret himself, ’Ibrâhîm was born in the Seleucid city of Kyrrhos, which is the modern-day archæological site of Nabî Hûrî نبي حوري on the Turkish-Syrian border, seventy miles northwest of Aleppo. Mâr ’Ibrâhîm embarked on a celibate, ascetic life in his youth, while he still lived in Kyrrhos. Theodoret describes the extremities to which the young ’Ibrâhîm subjected his body and spirit:

This man too was a fruit of the region of Cyrrhus, for it was born and reared there that he gathered the wealth of ascetic virtue. Those who were with him say that he tamed his body with such vigils, standing and fasting that for a long time he remained without movement, quite unable to walk.

After this, ’Ibrâhîm heard about a certain village in Lebanon which was then still a centre for worship of the pagan gods. There he went, taking with him several disciples. He disguised himself as a merchant and told his disciples to carry empty sacks and behave as though they were to buy nuts, which were the main export of this village. He rented a house in the village, and there with his disciples he began quietly to pray and to perform the Divine Liturgy. The town crier heard them at their prayers, and the young men, women and children of the village came out and started to wall up the house with earth, to bury and suffocate the servants of God alive within. However, the village elders came to know of it. Berating the young people for their inhospitality, the elders bade them unbury the house and allow ’Ibrâhîm and his disciples to depart – which the elders insisted they do.

But that very day, officials from Constantinople arrived to collect taxes from this Lebanese village. The taxes levied being insufficient, they hauled forth the delinquents and bound them, spat on them and beat them. Mâr ’Ibrâhîm, however, upon seeing this, repaid the evil that had been done to him with good. He went up to the tax collectors and asked them for a few days’ reprieve. The tax collectors agreed to do so only if ’Ibrâhîm was able to put up collateral worth 100 gold solidi within a few days.

The villagers, seeing ’Ibrâhîm do this, went to him and begged his forgiveness for their attempt to bury him alive – and he gave his forgiveness freely. Because the village had no headman, the villagers asked him to become their patron. ’Ibrâhîm then travelled to Homs, where apparently he had several well-to-do friends. These friends loaned ’Ibrâhîm the money and sent him back to the Lebanese village, where he used the gold as collateral on the village’s taxes.

The villagers, beneficiaries of the saint’s generosity whom they had lately thus mistreated, redoubled their entreaties to him that he stay on as their patron. He agreed to their request on the condition that they build a church in which to honour Christ properly. They did so at once, with a bit of haggling over the site on which to build it. Once it was completed, the Lebanese villagers felt the want of a priest, and with no one else suitable nearby, they applied to Mâr ’Ibrâhîm to serve as their priest. ’Ibrâhîm took holy orders as a priest and served that village in the new church they had built for three years, before one of his disciples was fit to take on the duties of a priest. Mâr ’Ibrâhîm abdicated the church to this disciple and went back to his monastic dwelling.

Mâr ’Ibrâhîm worked many wonders in this village and was deeply beloved of them. Blessed Theodoret neglects to mention the name of this village in his History, though it is thought to be ’Afqâ أفقا on Mount Lebanon – which in antiquity had indeed been a pagan cult centre for Adonis, the consort of the goddess Aphroditē. At length, however, Mâr ’Ibrâhîm was recalled to the Mesopotamian city of Carrhæ or Ellenópolis – now the village of Harrân حران on the Syrian-Turkish border. There, too, the people were hard of heart, given to the worship of idols, and were haughty and cruel in their treatment of one another; it was thought by the hierarchs in Antioch that they would benefit by Saint ’Ibrâhîm’s example. He was consecrated as a bishop and sent as an archpastor to Harrân.

As the Antiochian churchmen hoped, so it proved. Mâr ’Ibrâhîm gently tilled the ground, speaking words of mild encouragement and tender reproof to water the seeds of faith in the hearts of the people of Harrân. He first gave them milk for their spiritual food, and only furnished them with the meat of theology when they had grown enough to digest it. But his teaching was like a burning, raging fire to the hæresies and the worship of idols. Theodoret makes much of Mâr ’Ibrâhîm’s labours as a bishop, and likens him to a wise doctor and healer: changing his prescription and his surgery to suit each patient who came before him. And he also taught from the example of his own life, which illumined many and caused them in their own hearts to catch fire for the faith.

Blessed Theodoret marvels repeatedly at the fact that Mâr ’Ibrâhîm did all that was expected of him as a bishop and an archpastor in Harrân, but did not lighten for himself one iota the ascetic burdens he had practised as a simple monk. Indeed, for this reason, Theodoret lists Mâr ’Ibrâhîm not among the hierarchs of the Church, but instead among the venerable monks and ascetics. He does this not to belittle ’Ibrâhîm, but instead to celebrate his ascetic feats, and to place him where he believed Mâr ’Ibrâhîm would feel himself most strongly belonging. As bishop he wore a shirt woven from goat hair beneath his robes. He did not avail himself of fine meats or choice breads, instead dining on simple uncooked herbs and fruit, and at that only once per day after the Liturgy. He did not sleep on a bed, nor warm himself by means of a fire. At night he kept his discipline of chanting from the Psalter and doubled the length of his own prayers between, and he rested himself briefly in a chair.

But to his guests he practised the hospitality of his namesake Abraham the Patriarch, and his wife Sarah. He would offer to his guests, particularly if they were poor, a fine bed, freshly-baked rolls of bread, fine and fragrant wine, choice meats, fish and vegetables. He would also serve them all, and sit and converse with them so that they would never leave his table unsatisfied either in body or in spirit.

He applied himself as bishop to the mediation of conflict, and dealt with suits at law often. As we see from the example of the short bishopric of Mâr ’Ishâq, dealing with disputants at law was often a thankless task, particularly among the hard of heart. Wherever he was able, he affected a reconciliation between the two parties. He would only apply compulsion to those who would not listen to his gentle entreaties. As Theodoret states, he was a just judge – he did not leave a wronged party still aggrieved or slighted; and no wrongdoer who came before him was able to prevail against him through bribery or threats or verbal trickery.

Mâr ’Ibrâhîm, a Syrian of Kyrrhos who (as Theodoret informs us) did not speak Greek, was nonetheless sought out by Emperor Theodosios II, the grandson of Emperor Saint Theodosius I of Rome. The emperor, who was then only twenty-one years of age, went in awe of the Syrian holy man, and thought his goat-hair shirt a greater honour than his own purple robe. Blessed Theodoret makes mention that the ‘choir of empresses’ around Theodosios – including, presumably, Theodosios’s new bride Athēnaïs or Saint Eudokía, and his sister Saint Poulchería – ‘clasped his hands and knees’ and made supplication to him despite his lack of Greek learning.

Mâr ’Ibrâhîm reposed in the Lord during his stay in Emperor Theodosios’s court in 422. The young emperor was grief-stricken, as was his entire court, at the death of the beloved holy man. Emperor Theodosios wanted to have ’Ibrâhîm buried in one of the holy shrines in Constantinople so that he might venerate him, but being a fair-minded youngster he understood readily that the holy man himself would have wanted to be buried among his flock. Emperor Theodosios personally escorted the procession that bore Mâr ’Ibrâhîm’s relics back to Antioch, and from there to the shores of the River Euphrates in Mesopotamia. Venerable ’Ibrâhîm, right-believing monk, mighty ascetic athlete and loving archpastor, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!

Classical ruins of Carrhæ, Harrân, Turkey

Holy Hierarch Æþelgár, Archbishop of Canterbury

Hyde Abbey, Winchester, England

Today in the Orthodox Church we commemorate Æþelgár, the holy Archbishop of Canterbury who succeeded Saint Dúnstán in that office. Saint Æþelgár was of the generation of saints directly subsequent to the English Benedictine Reform inaugurated by Dúnstán, Æþelwold and Ósweald. He may thus be considered among the first of the spiritual fruits of this reform, and one of the worthy workmen also in the vineyard planted by his predecessors.

Of Saint Æþelgár’s early life we know little. He was born in the first half of the tenth century. He was a monk first at Glastonbury under Dúnstán, and then at Abingdon under Æþelwold to assist in its rebuilding after having been destroyed by the Danes. In this task Æþelgár acquitted himself admirably.

Having been raised from his youth under the Benedictine Rule in its strictness under Dúnstán, Æþelgár subordinated his will to that of his abbot without question. His hagiographer surmises that Æþelgár shared his master Æþelwold’s passion for aggressive generosity and solidarity with the poor of Winchester. He was almost certainly at the abbot’s hand when Æþelwold broke up and sold the entirety of his abbey’s silver plate to alleviate a famine that was then ravaging the countryside. Æþelwold reasoned that the Church, if reduced to poverty, would again be enriched; but that it was not in the power of man to restore the life of even one of God’s beloved poor, and thus it was the job of the Church to ensure their survival.

Æþelgár’s rigorous mode of asceticism and his upright life endeared him particularly to his abbot, whose severe and meticulous personality he shared. Such was the impression he made upon Saint Æþelwold, that the holy hierarch appointed Æþelgár to become abbot of the newly-reformed Benedictine house of Newminster (or Hyde) in Winchester – an institution mentioned in An Excellent Mystery by Edith Pargeter as having been burned in the civil war between Stephen and Maud.

There, Æþelwold had pursued a ruthless and even quite cruel policy of evicting the sæcular canons from the house – often turning them out without ceremony and without support – and replacing them with Benedictine monks from Abingdon. Æþelgár was not only one of these. He was appointed their abbot. There he undertook with great zeal to restore, rebuild and embellish the house, as well as open it radically to the poor of Winchester. With the support of his bishop, Abbot Æþelgár restored the roof of Hyde Abbey and built it into a fine tower ‘of great height and beauty, with a richly-carved ceiling’.

Æþelgár served as abbot of Newminster for 16 years before he was consecrated as Bishop of Selsey in 980, where he continued working vigorously for the reform of the Church. However, it appears that he did not take the extreme measures his former master had taken against sæcular canons and married priests in his see; he allowed them to continue serving the Church. In 988, on the occasion of the blessed repose of Archbishop Dúnstán, Æþelgár was chosen to be consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury in his place; his hagiographer assumes that his appointment was political and an attempt to appease a newly-ascendant Benedictine Order by the appointment to high office of one of their own. His tenure as Archbishop was short – ‘no more than a year and three months’ before his own repose in the Lord on the thirteenth of February, 990.

During his time as Archbishop of Canterbury, Saint Æþelgár received two letters from Benedictine houses in France – the houses of Saint-Vaast and Saint-Bertin there. Both letters congratulated him on his elevation to the archpastoral see. In the case of the first, Saint-Vaast requested that the relations between the Abbey and the English archbishopric would remain friendly; and in the case of the second, there was a request for financial aid from England. Saint Æþelgár was interred with his predecessors at Canterbury. Holy hierarch Æþelgár, pray to God for us sinners!

Holy Hierarch Meletios, Archbishop of Antioch

Saint Meletios of Antioch
القديس ملاتيوس بطريرك أنطاكية‎

Today is the feast in the Holy Orthodox Church of Saint Meletios, an archbishop of Antioch who reigned during the late fourth century. He was notable for his struggles against the Arian hæresy, struggles which did not endear him to the reigning powers in Constantinople. He was deposed and exiled from Antioch three times on account of his criticisms of emperors and on account of his firm adherence to the Orthodox doctrine.

Saint Meletios [Gk. Μελέτιος, Ar. Malâtiyyûs ملاتيوس] was an Armenian of Melitēnē, who lived a life which was ‘blameless, just, reverent, sincere and most gentle’. His parents were of the nobility. In the year 357 he was consecrated bishop of Armenian Sebasteía (now Sivas in Turkey), from which his enemies managed to get him deposed before 360. He took refuge in the Syrian deserts, and then moved to Berœa (now Aleppo, Syria). It happened that the previous (Arian) archbishop in Antioch, Eudoxos, was something of a social climber: his ambitions to be elected Patriarch of Constantinople alienated him from his flock, who expelled him. from which he was invited at the behest of both the Orthodox (then a minority in Antioch, and somewhat disparagingly called ‘Eustathians’ after Saint Eustathios of Antioch) and Arian populations of Antioch to serve as their bishop. Because of his prior support for the ‘moderate’ Arian bishop Ákákios Monóphthalmos of Cæsarea, the Arian party was amenable to his election. In fact, so fervently well-wished was the new archbishop in Antioch, that the citizens contended with each other to offer him their hospitality. Even the Jews and the pagans turned out to welcome Saint Meletios and watch his procession enter the city!

At first, Saint Meletios did not speak to the people about Christology. He dealt with them gently, admonishing and encouraging them toward a less selfish, less quarrelsome and more humble way of life. It was Saint Meletios who at this time ordained Saint Basil a deacon, and who oversaw the baptism of Saint John Chrysostom, who was then still a youth. Indeed Chrysostom had been among those who had come out into the streets upon Meletios’s entry into Antioch. But the saint dealt with the people of Antioch the same way he dealt with young people in general: with meekness and patience and painstaking care. His methods and his admonishing words were gentle. But he was nonetheless insistent on instructing the folk of Antioch – not least by his own mild and meek example – in the Christian temperament and a Christlike way of living.

It was a full three years after his installation as Archbishop there, that he wisely chose to begin to speak and write on theological matters. He was expelled from Antioch in 361 and 362 after some conflicts with the Arian hierarchs, and went back to his homeland in western Armenia. There is a hagiographical legend that he was expelled after he preached a homily on Proverbs 8 before the Arian Emperor Constantius II, in which he espoused Nicene Trinitarian views and which caused the Arians present with him to attempt in vain to hush him – being hushed by one Arian archdeacon he expounded the doctrine of the Trinity with the gestures of his hands and fingers. However, this legend appears to be a pious fiction as primary-source accounts of the homily in question have nothing to do with Christology. Saint Meletios did, however, write an Exposition of the Faith that was explicitly Nicene in its Christology – in 363, after his return to his see at Antioch during the reign of Emperor Julian. Owing to both his conflicts with the Arian hierarchs and his quiet but marked espousal of Trinitarian theology, the gentle Saint Meletios both enlarged and was embraced by the ‘Eustathian’ community in Antioch.

Saint Meletios was sadly a bit too ‘late’ and a bit too mild in his embrace of the Council of Nicæa for some of the ‘Eustathians’, however. There was a schism in Antioch. In Meletios’s absence during his first exile, a cleric named Paulinus was consecrated bishop in absentia by a Western hierarch, Lucifer Calaritanus. Paulinus’s followers were strict legalists, who held the following objections to Meletios: had been consecrated by both Arian and Orthodox hierarchs, that he had been ‘soft’ on the Arians of Antioch at first, and that he had received former Arians into Orthodox communion by œconomia, without rebaptism. For his part, Saint Meletios behaved with the same meekness toward Paulinus that he had toward the Antiochenes at first, and in all things sought to heal the schism. Saint Meletios also hosted a local council in Antioch in 364 which affirmed the Nicene teachings.

Saint Meletios was expelled again from Antioch in 365, after Emperor Valens came by his laurels. The Arians, then in the ascendency, concocted and disseminated a great variety of absurd and malicious libels against the holy Meletios – including that he was a follower of Sabellius. Emperor Valens, who sympathised with the Arian party, listened to these libels and cast Saint Meletios out of Antioch twice: the first time in 365, and the second time in 371.

Saint Meletios returned to Antioch in 378 after the death of Valens and the crowning of Emperor Gratian. Again at that time he tried to heal the schism between himself and Paulinus by making the proposal that they rule as co-bishops as long as they both remained alive, but that if one of them should repose in blessedness before the other, that the other should have sole sway in the archbishopric. Paulinus would not accept the saint’s proposal. However, Saint Meletios was afterward recognised as the sole valid bishop among the Orthodox by Emperor Gratian’s governor.

Toward the end of his earthly life, Saint Meletios ordained the young Saint John Chrysostom first a reader, then a deacon, in Antioch. He came to Constantinople at the invitation of Saint Theodosius, who desired especially to see him. Saint Theodosius – then fighting the Goths on Gratian’s behalf – called the Second Œcumenical Council in the City, and of course Saint Meletios was one of those in attendance. Without being assisted by any of his attendants, Theodosius recognised the holy man at once, leapt up and ran to him, knelt at his feet and gave him a kiss the way a loving son would do for a father he had long missed.

Theodosius said afterward that he had recognised Meletios, because he had seen the holy man in a dream, in which the holy man had anointed and crowned him Emperor, and vested him with the robe of purple and the other seals of his office. And this dream thereupon came to pass. At the Œcumenical Council which Theodosius had convoked, Saint Meletios of Antioch in stentorian tones declared, ‘We understand three Hypostases and we speak of a single Essence!’ As this happened, he seemed to be surrounded by a holy fire that flashed like lightning. The Antiochian bishop, so renowned for his meekness and self-beshedding humility, astounded the whole synod of bishops by the forcefulness and forthrightness of his teaching. Here again the hagiographers insert the story of his teaching the doctrine of the Trinity with his fingers as well as his voice.

Saint Meletios also gave his blessing to Gregory of Nazianzus as Patriarch of Constantinople. However, before the Second Œcumenical Council could officially begin, the holy man took ill and reposed in the Lord. This was a cause of great mourning for the Emperor and for the bishops there present, and Saint Gregory of Nyssa delivered the eulogy for this humble servant of servants. Saint Meletios’s relics were conveyed in state to Antioch, and interred with the honours due to a saint of God in the church he himself had consecrated to house the relics of Saint Babylas. Meletios has been the namesake and inspiration of many other holy men of the Antiochian Church, including the great Arab patriot Patriarch Meletios II. Holy hierarch Meletios, sweet and meek archpastor of Christ’s holy Church, pray unto Him who loves mankind to save our souls!

Apolytikion of Saint Meletios, Tone 4:

A model of faith and the image of gentleness,
The example of your life has shown you forth
To your sheep-fold to be a master of temperance.
You obtained thus through being lowly, gifts from on high,
And riches through poverty.
Meletios, our father and priest of priests,
Intercede with Christ our God that He may save our souls.

Venerable Peter the Monk of Damascus

Saint Peter of Damascus

The ninth of February in the Orthodox Church is the feast-day of Saint Peter of Damascus. There is some confusion, unfortunately, between several Syrian saints named Peter. One of them is the Bishop of Buṣrâ who was beheaded for speaking out against Islâmic doctrines during the eighth century. This Saint Peter, of Kapitōlias, suffered for the Lord in 715. His feast-day is the fourth of October. Another Saint Peter, a bishop of Damascus, was sent to southern Arabia for preaching Christianity during the reign of the same caliph, where he was tortured, mutilated and finally beheaded as well. But he reposed in 750, after the death of al-Walîd. Some accounts of this Saint Peter exist, but there appears to be some confusion between him and the Saint Peter of Damascus whom we celebrate today. This Saint Peter was not a martyr, but was a Syrian monk and spiritual writer who lived in the eleventh century. His writings make up a significant portion of the Philokalia.

Saint Peter of Damascus [Gk. Πέτρος, Syr. Peṭros ܦܛܪܘܣ, Ar. Buṭrus بطرس] was born probably in the year 1027. Peter was probably fairly poor, and did not have any formal education nor did he own any books, which makes the depth and clarity of his writing in the Philokalia all the more stunning. He lived in a small cœnobitic community, a skete, in the Syrian desert together with other monks. His writings, which are preserved in the Philokalia, are primarily concerned with the hesychastic method: silence, combined with the inward prayer of the heart. For this reason, Saint Peter’s writings were of key, indispensable importance to the mediæval ‘rediscovery’ of the way of inward prayer – of the sort popularised by Saint Grēgorios of Sinai, Saint Teodosii of Tărnovo, and later Saint Paisii of Neamț. But his writings have an importance also to the œcological witness of the Orthodox Church, particularly in their wonder on the beauty and harmony of God’s creation. Here is the brief biographical sketch provided by the Orthodox Fellowship of the Transfiguration:

A Syrian monk who writes primarily for other monks. St. Peter lived in a small skete (a monastic village) in the Syrian desert. He tells us that he does not know what he will write until he picks up his writing implement and it is actually touching paper…. He never owned any books. His writings depict a cosmos infused with the presence of God and he finds everywhere the love of God dwelling in all things. St. Peter of Damascus is important for ecological awareness because he reflects a cosmological vision in which “God’s providence embraces the whole of creation.” This becomes accessible to us, he writes, as we mold ourselves into the likeness of God through the acquisition of the virtues and contemplation. From St. Peter of Damascus we learn that the world is a manifestation of divinity; that through creation we can discern the Word which sustains every creature; that through examination of both the little things and the large, we find the continuing work of our Lord Jesus Christ while still in this world. In accordance with the monastic style of his time, his writing is deliberately asystematic which requires the reader to restore the original internal harmony to arrive at his or her own view of their place in spiritual formation.

Saint Peter reposed in the Lord at the age of eighty, probably in the year 1107. Holy and venerable Peter, blessed tutor in inward prayer and wonder at the outward glory of God, pray unto Christ our Lord for us sinners!

Holy Martyr Nicephorus of Antioch

Saint Nicephorus of Antioch
القدّيس الشهيد نقفور الأنطاكي

Today is the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee in the Orthodox Church – the opening of the Lenten Triodion and the beginning of the preparation for Great Lent. As we open the Triodion we are reminded, among other things, that fasting and tithing and praying are simply not enough to assure us of salvation. The only acceptable sacrifice to God is a broken and contrite heart. This is why the Pharisee – who upheld every letter of the Law, who fasted twice a week, who prayed daily to God, who tithed of his own goods, and who enjoyed the respect and admiration of the community – went down from the Temple without God’s favour. He was so full of love for himself, that he had no love to give to anyone else, or for that matter, to God. This is also why the tax collector – a man shunned and spat upon by the Jewish community, whose occupation was synonymous with unctuousness and greed and collaboration with hated Rome – enjoyed God’s favour as he left the Temple. The only prayer he offered to God was the prayer of the heart – ‘God be merciful to me a sinner!’

It therefore seems all too fitting that we should remember also on this day a martyr for Christ whose life and deeds exemplify this same dynamic of the repentant Publican. We have on the calendar today an Antiochene Syrian, whose martyrdom is characterised by humility and self-giving love for a man who hated him. Saint Nicephorus [Gk. Nikēphóros Νικηφόρος, Ar. Naqfûr نقفور] of Antioch lived in the third century, and suffered under the anti-Christian persecutions of Emperors Valerianus and Gallienus around the year 260.

Nicephorus grew up alongside another young man named Sabricius. Sabricius was educated and attained to the priesthood; while Nicephorus remained a simple layman. And yet the two were inseparable, fast in friendship, and so close to one another that they thought with one mind, felt with one heart, acted with one will. Nicephorus and Fr Sabricius were steadfast in this friendship as adults, and their friendship attracted the jealousy of devils, who sowed seeds of dissension between them. Their differences erupted into a quarrel, which ended with the two of them bitterly refusing to speak to each other or even meet each other in the street.

Nicephorus continued in his hatred for Fr Sabricius for some time, before at last he came to himself and realised how it was poisoning his soul. He remembered the sweetness of their former friendship, and repented how he had cast it aside. He sent word to Sabricius by way of a mutual friend of theirs, to beg his pardon for the injury he had done to Sabricius. However, Sabricius refused to listen. Nicephorus gave the same message again by another friend, with no better result – and a third time, again fruitless. Fr Sabricius had forgotten the Gospel entreaty of Christ:

Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

At length, Nicephorus went himself to the home of Fr Sabricius, and waited outside his gate. When Sabricius emerged, Nicephorus threw himself at the feet of the priest, with his face down in the dust, owned his fault and begged him with tears, ‘Father, for Christ’s sake, forgive me, a sinner!’ Yet Fr Sabricius in his hardness of heart would not forgive, not even for the sake of that Christ in Whom he professed belief. Sabricius shook Nicephorus roughly off of his robe, and strode over and past him without even once glancing down at him. Nicephorus went home thus rejected.

In the year 260, a letter was sent to Rome by Valerianus as he was on expedition with his armies against Persia, that Christians in the Empire were to be taken and interrogated, and forced to offer sacrifices to the Roman gods to prove their loyalty. If they refused to offer sacrifices, they were to be stripped of all public honours, their property was to be confiscated, and they were to be put to death. This order reached Antioch soonest, as Antioch was then on the front lines of the Roman-Persian Wars, from which Valerianus would never return, but die a prisoner of war in Persia.

The Roman prætorian præfect of Antioch had Fr Sabricius seized and brought before him. At his interrogation by the præfect, this exchange took place between them:

‘What is your name?’

‘It is Sabricius.’

‘Of what profession are you?’

‘I am a Christian.’

‘Are you of the clergy?’

‘I have the honour to be a priest. We Christians acknowledge one Lord and Master, Christ Jesus, who is God – the true and only God who created heaven and earth. The gods of the nations are devils.’

The præfect then ordered Sabricius to be placed in a vice and tortured à peine forte et dure. Though the pain of this torment was excruciating, Sabricius would not relent, but continued to profess Christ throughout. The executioners were flummoxed by this priest’s strength of will, and Sabricius explained to them that although his body was in their power, his soul could not be touched – this being under the sole sway of Christ. The Roman præfect then passed sentence upon him, saying: ‘Sapricius, priest of the Christians, who is ridiculously persuaded that he shall rise again, shall be delivered over to the executioner of public justice to have his head severed from his body, because he has flouted the edict of the emperors.’

Sabricius was not fazed. Indeed, he even seemed to be joyful as he was led to the place of execution, for it seemed to him that he was about to be given a martyr’s crown. Nicephorus ran out to meet him as he was led out under guard, and again flung himself at his feet, asking of him, ‘O Martyr of Jesus Christ, forgive me the wrong I have done to you!’

But Fr Sabricius would not even look at him. Nicephorus rose and ran ahead of the procession to another street which he knew they had to pass through, and knelt there so that the guards had to stop in the road. Nicephorus began again begging Sabricius for pardon. The Roman guards mocked him and began to kick him and beat him with whips, saying: ‘What manner of fool are you, begging pardon from a condemned man? He is about to die under the sword. What harm can he do to you then?’

They proceeded to the place of execution, and once more Nicephorus flung himself down at Sabricius’s feet and begged his forgiveness, but Sabricius would not listen to him, his heart having been hardened by hatred. When it became clear that the end was nigh upon him, the courage of Sabricius faltered, and he cried out to the executioners to spare him, that he would even sacrifice to the gods of the Romans if they would spare his life. Nicephorus, when he heard this from the midst of the crowd, was mortified, and he cried out to Fr Sabricius not to forsake Christ, not at the end after all of his struggles and sufferings. And then Nicephorus went up to the guards and proclaimed himself a Christian who believed in Jesus Christ, and offered himself up to die in Sabricius’s place.

The soldiers, bewildered at this sudden reversal, hesitated. They did not kill Sabricius; instead they sent back a lector to apply to the præfect, and told him that Sabricius was ready to profess his loyalty to the Emperor with sacrifices, but that there was this other man Nicephorus who proclaimed himself a Christian and was ready to die in his place. The præfect then passed down the judgement, that Sabricius was to be released, but that Nicephorus was to be beheaded in his place if he would not recant Christ. The order went down to the killing-ground, and Nicephorus was beheaded as commanded.

Observe. The hagiography of Nicephorus says nothing but that the priest Sabricius was pure and blameless of life, that he prayed and fasted, that he was ready even to die for the sake of his faith. So too had done the Pharisee in Christ’s parable! The faith of Fr Sabricius was perfect in every single way but one: he would not forgive his brother who had wronged him. And so the favour of God turned instead upon the wretched Nicephorus, the unforgiven layman who the whole time had prayed only the prayer of the Publican: ‘be merciful to me, a sinner!’ Holy martyr Nicephorus, pray to Christ our God for us sinners!

Troparion for Saint Nicephorus, Tone 4:

Thy Martyr, O Lord, in his courageous contest for Thee
Received the prize of the crowns of incorruption and life
From Thee, our immortal God.
For since he possessed Thy strength, he cast down the tyrants
And wholly destroyed the demons’ strengthless presumption.
O Christ God, by his prayers, save our souls, since Thou art merciful!

Icon of the Publican and the Pharisee

Kontakion of the Publican and the Pharisee, Tone 4:

Let us flee from the pride of the Pharisee!
And learn humility from the Publican’s tears!
Let us cry to our Saviour,
Have mercy on us,
Only merciful One!