January 20translatedThis page has been translated from Serbian to English. It may contain minor phrasing or syntactic issues.
The Lives of the Saints
1. VENERABLE EUTHYMIUS THE GREAT
Born in the Armenian city of Melitene near the river Euphrates around the year 377, of noble and distinguished parents. An only son, born by the prayer of his mother Dionysia, who had a certain heavenly vision concerning Euthymius's birth. From his youth he practiced asceticism, first near his own city, and then, after he visited Jerusalem in the twenty-ninth year of his life, in the desert between Jerusalem and Jericho, called Pharan. He filled all his days and nights with prayer, inner contemplation of God, meditation and bodily labor. Around him gathered many disciples, of whom some were renowned saints, such as: Cyriacus the Hermit, Sabbas the Sanctified, Theoctistus and others. By God's gift he was a great wonderworker: he cast out demons, healed grave illnesses, brought forth water in the desert, multiplied bread, prophesied. He taught the monks industriousness, saying: "If you eat bread without your own labor, it means you are eating another's labor." When certain younger brethren wanted to fast more than the others, he forbade them this and ordered them to come to the common table, lest they become prideful from their excessive fasting. He also said that it is not good for a monk to move from place to place, for, he says: "A tree that is often transplanted does not bear fruit." Whoever wishes to do good can do it in the place where he is. About love he said: "What salt is to bread, that is love to the other virtues." During the first weeks of Great Lent he would withdraw into the desert and remain there in silence and contemplation of God until before Pascha. During his lifetime there was created near his cave an enormous lavra which for centuries afterward was full of monks like a beehive of bees. His last commandment was that hospitality be kept in the monastery, and that the monastery gate never be closed. He reposed in the ninety-seventh year of his life. At his funeral was also Patriarch Anastasius of Jerusalem. The entire day the patriarch waited while an enormous mass of people kissed the saint, and only in the evening did they manage to complete the funeral service. On the seventh day after his death Euthymius appeared to his disciple Dometianus, all radiant and joyful. Venerable Euthymius was truly a true son of light. He reposed in the year 473.
2. HOLY MARTYRS ENEN, NIREN AND PEN
They are considered the first Slavic martyrs mentioned in history. They are called Scythians, and disciples of the holy Apostle Andrew. They suffered for the faith from their pagan neighbors on the right side of the Danube, near Varna. Bound on ice, they froze and reposed in the Lord.
Hymn of Praise
The eye that sees all, the ear that hears all, With all travelers travels everywhere; Not changing place, He is in every place. Where virtue is kneaded, He is the leaven to the dough, Where light is sought, He gives Himself, Where help is cried for, He does not fail. Quietly and silently but always in time He arrives to reap, and to cast seed. He arrives to punish, He arrives to reward, To age the young, to rejuvenate the old, To weed, to prune, and to smooth the fruit— Everywhere He arrives where He wills, everywhere He arrives when He wills Wherever a solitary thinks, behold, He listens, Where two converse, He as the third hears, Where a weaver weaves cloth, He counts her threads, The cosmic fabric in His mind He fashions. O who will know His footsteps and steps? Who can count His paths and lodgings? Eternal and immortal, triune and one, In the pathless web of the cosmic fabric Invisible and visible from wherever viewed He cuts paths and reveals directions. In the pathless web He sees all trails, And does not let even one ant go astray. With thoughts of Him holy Euthymius Consecrated eighty years on earth.
Reflection
The saints of the Church, as much as they were merciful and condescending toward human weaknesses, so much were they terrifyingly uncompromising and inflexible regarding the confession of the true dogmas of the faith. Thus Saint Nicholas of Myra struck Arius with his hand at the First Council. Saint Anthony left his desert and came to Alexandria to publicly expose Arius. Saint Euthymius, being greatly oppressed by Empress Eudocia and the false patriarch Theodosius, and no longer being able to struggle with reason, abandoned the monastery and hid in the desert; his example was followed by all the more notable monks. Euthymius remained in the desert until the false patriarch was deposed and Orthodoxy was established. And when in Jerusalem the greatest agitation was occurring in the emperor's name against the Fourth Council, which was held at Chalcedon, and when all the people were frightened by the heretics, then Saint Theodosius the Great, already burdened by old age, as a fearless soldier of Christ came to Jerusalem, entered the great church, climbed up the steps and waving his hand to the people, said: "If anyone does not honor the four Ecumenical Councils as the four Gospels, let him be accursed!" (Up to that time only four Ecumenical Councils had been held). All the listeners were horrified by those words; and none of the heretics dared say anything against it.
Contemplation
Contemplate the Lord Jesus as light, namely: 1. As light to my life; as light to the human race; as light to every creature. 2. As light especially in the darkness of fear and suffering. 3. As light in the hour of death, and after death—in eternity.
Homily
on the only light in darkness
I am the light of the world (John 8:12)
Since the beginning of the world and time, no one born has dared to speak these words. There have been and are people who say: I bring light!, but never has anyone dared to say: I am light! Only the Lord Jesus could speak these words boldly and confidently. His short life on earth and His long history of nearly 2000 years have completely justified these words. He is the light of truth, righteousness and life.
He is the light of truth, for He manifested by Himself the truth about the true nature of God, and about the true nature of man, and about the relation of man to man, and about the relation of man to God, and about the relation of God to man. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but His words shall not pass away, for both heaven and earth came into being by His word, and His word is from Him and with Him forever, and shall not pass away.
He is the light of righteousness, for He showed the strength of righteousness and the powerlessness of unrighteousness. He manifested this in bright light by what He said, by what He did, and by what He experienced and survived among the unrighteous. He manifested this also through His Church in the course of the past 20 centuries, through countless saints of righteousness and martyrs for righteousness. Righteousness is from God and on the long line of history it can never be defeated; unrighteousness is from powerless beings; it quickly runs forth with its triumphal banner onto the rampart, but just as quickly collapses into the grave.
He is the light of life. His words illuminate life; His deeds illuminate life; His victory illuminates life; especially His resurrection, like the brightest sun, illuminates life with bright light, and disperses death as a weak shadow.
O Lord Jesus, brightest light, Sun of truth, Sun of righteousness, and Sun of life, shine upon us sinful and unworthy! To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.