November 11translatedThis page has been translated from Serbian to English. It may contain minor phrasing or syntactic issues.
Lives of the Saints
1. HOLY GREAT MARTYR MENAS
An Egyptian by birth and a soldier by profession, Saint Menas, as a true Christian, could not behold the abhorrent sacrifice to idols, so he left both the army and the city and the people and everything, and went into a barren mountain. For it was easier for Saint Menas to live with wild beasts than with godless men. One day Saint Menas saw from afar a pagan festival in the city of Cotyaeum, so he descended into the city and before all proclaimed his faith in Christ the Living God, and denounced idolatry and paganism as falsehood and darkness. The governor of that city, a certain Pyrrhus, asked Menas who and what he was. The saint answered him: "My homeland is Egypt, my name is Menas, I was an officer, but seeing idolatry I renounced your honors. Now I have come to proclaim before all my Christ as the true God, so that He also might proclaim me as His servant in the Heavenly Kingdom." Hearing this, Pyrrhus subjected holy Menas to great tortures. They flogged him, scraped him with iron combs, burned him with candles, and tortured him with various other torments, and finally they beheaded him with a sword. They threw his body into the fire so that Christians would not take it, but Christians nevertheless saved some parts from the fire. These remains they reverently buried, and later they were transferred to Alexandria and buried there, and a church was built over them. Saint Menas suffered around the year 304 and departed to the Kingdom of Christ. Yet he was and remains a great wonderworker in both lives, on earth and in heaven. Whoever glorified Saint Menas and invoked him with faith for help in distress, to him he gave aid. Many times he appeared as a warrior on horseback to help the faithful or to punish the unfaithful.
2. HOLY MARTYR STEPHEN DECHANSKI, KING OF SERBIA
Stephen was the son of King Milutin and father of Emperor Dušan. By the command of his uninformed father he was blinded, and by the command of his thoughtless son he was strangled in his old age. At the blinding, Saint Nicholas appeared to him in the church at Ovche Field and showed him his eyes, saying: "Stephen, fear not, behold thy eyes upon my palm; in due time I shall restore them to thee." He spent five years in Constantinople as a prisoner in the monastery of the All-Sustainer (Pantokrator). By his wisdom and ascetic struggle, meekness and piety, patience and gentleness, Stephen surpassed not only all the monks in the monastery but all of Constantinople. When five years were fulfilled, Saint Nicholas appeared to him again and said to him: "I have come to fulfill my promise." And he made the sign of the Cross over the blind king, and the king received his sight. Out of gratitude to God he built the church at Dečani, one of the rarely magnificent works of Byzantine art and one of the most significant monuments of Serbian piety of old. Holy King Stephen with Saint Sava and holy Prince Lazar forms a beautiful triad of holiness, nobility, and self-sacrifice which the Serbian people gave. As a martyr he lived out his earthly days, and as a martyr he ended his life in the year 1336, receiving the crown of immortal glory from the All-Sustainer, Whom he faithfully served.
3. HOLY MARTYRS VICTOR AND STEPHANIDA
Victor was a Roman by birth and a soldier by profession. He was tortured for Christ in the time of Emperor Antoninus. During his torture a certain young woman, Stephanida, declared that she too was a Christian. Victor was beheaded, and Stephanida was torn apart, being bound with one leg to the top of one palm tree and with the other to the top of another palm tree.
4. HOLY MARTYR VINCENT THE DEACON
Vincent was from the diocese of Zaragoza in Spain. Terribly tortured for Christ the Lord, and finally roasted on an iron grate. He gave up his spirit to God in the year 304. His body reposes in Rome in the church bearing his name.
5. VENERABLE THEODORE THE STUDITE
Theodore was the renowned abbot of the Studion Monastery, great sufferer for the icons, wise organizer of monastic life, divinely inspired teacher of Orthodoxy, and wondrous ascetic. He reposed in Constantinople in the year 826, in the sixty-eighth year of his life.
6. HOLY UROŠICA, SERBIAN PRINCE
He was the son of King Dragutin. Even in marriage he preserved purity and chastity. From his tomb myrrh flowed.
Hymn of Praise
Tortured and persecuted, holy King Dechanski Bore tortures and persecutions in Christian manner, And when it seemed by all he was defeated He was the victor, mighty, unharmed. His father he conquered with long-suffering, And Kantakuzen with profound wisdom. Wicked Simonida he conquered with silence, And Emperor Shishman with trust in God. More powerful than his Mighty son was he — For mightier always are those who sin not. Earthly power ends without glory, But heavenly power nowhere has an end. Stephen, King Dechanski, meek and gentle, By heavenly power he was mighty, From Christ came both his power and glory, From Christ his life, his throne and realm. This Stephen perceived, and this confessed, Therefore all enemies at last he vanquished. Pray for us, O wondrous king, That God may send us salvation and mercy.
Reflection
If ever a saintly emperor sat upon the throne of an earthly kingdom, it was holy King Stephen Dechanski. The Greeks, who otherwise considered the Slavs barbarians, marveled at the beauty of Saint Stephen's soul as one of the rarest wonders of that time. When Emperor Kantakuzen sent the abbot of the Pantokrator Monastery to Milutin on some matter of state, among other things King Milutin also inquired about his son Stephen. "Thou askest me, O king, about another Job?" said the abbot to him. "Be assured that his poverty stands higher than thy royal majesty." The Greek emperor at first dealt very harshly with the blind Stephen: first he confined him in a chamber of the palace and forbade anyone access to him; and then he handed him over to the Pantokrator Monastery, with the intent that there, under the heavy monastic ascetic struggle, he would weaken and perish. But God preserved blessed Stephen, and he endured the struggles of fasting and prayer like the best monk. Of his wisdom they began to speak throughout all Constantinople. And the emperor began to respect him and more frequently to seek his counsel. Thus for example Saint Stephen contributed to the overthrow of the famous heresy of Barlaam, against which Saint Gregory Palamas struggled (see the Synaxarion for the Second Sunday of Great Lent). Barlaam at that time was in Constantinople, and by skillful intrigue had won over to his opinion many noblemen in the Church and at court. In perplexity the emperor summoned Stephen and asked what he should do with Barlaam. Wise Stephen answered him with the words of the Psalmist: I have hated them, O Lord, that hate Thee! And he also said: "Dangerous men must be driven out from society." Hearing this, Emperor Kantakuzen immediately expelled Barlaam with dishonor from the capital.
Contemplation
Contemplate the miraculous power of healing in the Apostle Paul (Acts 28), namely:
1. How Paul prayed and laid his hands on the father of Publius and healed him of dysentery; 2. How he also healed many others in that place in the same manner.
Homily
on the Creator of the new man
That He might reconcile both unto God in one body... making peace (Eph. 2:15)
Coming to earth, the man-loving Lord came to all men and not only to some. The Jews awaited the Messiah; He came as the Messiah. The Gentiles awaited the Redeemer; He came as the Redeemer. He came with equal love both to Jews and to Gentiles. There was no third group on earth besides Jews and Gentiles. The Jews alone in the world believed in one God; the Gentiles bowed down to idols. But the Jews also had darkened their faith with their lawlessness, so that they knew nothing. And thus in ignorance both Jews and Gentiles had become equal. And indeed in the sinful curse which from Adam had burdened the dark earth. Just as the Old Adam did not belong only to the Jews but also to the Gentiles, for both the one and the other descended from him, so neither did the New Adam belong only to one of them but to both, for He saved both. The Lord Jesus could not be won over either to the Jewish kingdom, that is, the kingdom of empty legal formalism, nor to the Hellenic kingdom (that is, the Gentile kingdom in general), that is, the kingdom of naturalistic fables and demonic enchantments and sorceries. But He took both sick ones and healed both. He healed both and built them into a new man. And that is the Church of God. Thus the Lord abolished and cast aside both Judaism and Hellenism, and built His holy Church.
O Lord Jesus, all-good and all-wise, all is good and all is wise beyond words that Thou hast done. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.