November 30translatedThis page has been translated from Serbian to English. It may contain minor phrasing or syntactic issues.
Lives of the Saints
1. HOLY APOSTLE ANDREW THE FIRST-CALLED
Andrew was the son of Jonah and brother of Peter, from Bethsaida, and a fisherman by occupation. At first he was a disciple of Saint John the Baptist, but when Saint John pointed with his finger to the Lord Jesus, saying: Behold the Lamb of God! (John 1:36), then Saint Andrew left his first teacher and followed Jesus. After that Andrew brought his brother Peter to the Lord. After the descent of the Holy Spirit it fell to the lot of this first apostle of Christ, Saint Andrew, to preach the Gospel in Byzantium and Thrace, then in the Danube lands, then in Russia and around the Black Sea, and finally in Epirus, Greece, and the Peloponnese, where he also suffered. In Byzantium he appointed the first bishop in the person of Saint Stachys; in Kiev he erected a cross on the heights and prophesied a brilliant Christian future for the Russian people; throughout Thrace, Epirus, Greece, and the Peloponnese he converted multitudes to the faith and appointed bishops and priests for them. In the city of Patras he worked many miracles by the name of Christ and won many for the Lord, among whom were the brother and wife of the imperial governor Aegeates. Aegeates, enraged because of this, put holy Andrew to tortures and then crucified him on a cross. As long as he was alive on the cross, the apostle of Christ spoke profitable instructions to the Christians who had gathered around his cross. The people wanted to take him down from the cross, but he opposed this. Finally the Apostle began to pray to God, and at that moment a certain extraordinary light illumined him completely. This luminous illumination lasted half an hour, and when it disappeared the Apostle gave up his holy soul to God. Thus reposed his earthly age the First-Called Apostle, who first of the twelve great apostles came to know the Lord and followed Him. Saint Andrew suffered for his Lord in 62. His relics were transferred to Constantinople. Later his head was transferred to Rome, and one hand to Moscow.
2. SAINT FRUMENTIUS, ENLIGHTENER OF ABYSSINIA
In the time of Emperor Constantine the Great, a certain learned man from Tyre named Meropius was traveling to India. He had taken with him two young Christian brothers, Aedesius and Frumentius. On that journey their ship was wrecked by a storm on the shores of Abyssinia, and the wild Abyssinians killed all the people from the ship except these two brothers, Aedesius and Frumentius. In Abyssinia they lived several years and succeeded in entering court service with the Abyssinian emperor. Frumentius began to preach the Christian Faith, but quite cautiously, and became convinced that the ground for such preaching was suitable and fruitful. Then both brothers boarded a ship and departed: Aedesius to Tyre to his parents, and Frumentius to Alexandria to the holy Athanasius the Great, Patriarch. Frumentius set forth to the Patriarch the situation in Abyssinia and requested pastors for the newly converted to the faith. Saint Athanasius ordained Frumentius as bishop. Saint Frumentius returned to Abyssinia, where by his zeal and miracles he succeeded during his lifetime in converting all Abyssinia to the Christian Faith. This great pastor of Christ's flock and enlightener of Abyssinia reposed peacefully in 370 and passed to the kingdom of his Lord.
Hymn of Praise
Holy Andrew illumined by Spirit, And apostle of Christ, First-Called, Day by day proclaimed the Lord; And baptized peoples with the cross, Like a gardener in his garden, He went about through village and city, Skillfully grafting wild trees, Sprinkling the grafts with living water, Until he reached the end of his age, And saw the cross that awaited him. Joyfully Andrew addressed the cross: "Hail, O cross, God has sanctified thee, Christ sanctified thee with His body, Be, O cross, my resting place, Take me from earthly dust, Lift me up to God on high, May Christ from thee take me up Who for my sake was crucified upon thee" Disciple of the holy Baptist, Apostle of Christ the Savior O Andrew, First-Called star, Help us with thy prayers.
Reflection
"To the apostles was given all," says Saint Chrysostom. That is: all gifts, all power, all fullness of grace that is given at all from God to believers. We see this also from the life of the great Apostle Andrew the First-Called, how he is apostle and evangelist and prophet and pastor and teacher (Eph. 4:11). As evangelist he carried the good news of the Gospel to the four corners of the world; as prophet he prophesied the baptism of the Russian people and the greatness of Kiev as a city and as a Christian center; as pastor he created and organized many churches; as teacher he tirelessly taught people all the way to the cross and even from the cross, to his last breath. He was also a martyr. And this too is by the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is not given to everyone. And thus we see in this apostle, as in all the others, the complete fullness of the grace of God's Spirit. And that to grace must be attributed every great deed that a follower of Christ accomplishes, to this Saint Frumentius testifies to us. When he returned from Alexandria to Abyssinia as an ordained bishop, he began to work exceedingly great miracles, and thus to convert the people in great masses to the faith. Then the amazed emperor asked him: "You lived with us so many years before, and we never saw you work any miracle? Whence comes this to you now?" To which blessed Frumentius answered the emperor: "This is not my work but the work of the grace of the priesthood." And then the saint explained to the emperor how for Christ's sake he had forsaken both parents and marriage and all the world, and how by ordination from Saint Athanasius he had received the grace of the priesthood, the wonder-working grace.
Contemplation
Contemplate the spiritual fall of Adam and Eve, namely:
1. How the serpent aroused in Eve greed and pride; 2. How the woman, having become greedy and proud, transgressed God's commandment and ate from the tree of knowledge; 3. How Eve sinned not in poverty and need but in abundance of everything.
Homily
on the ignorance and hardness of pagans
The Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart (Eph. 4:17–18)
What is vanity, my brethren? Everything viewed apart from God, cut off from God, used without the fear of God. What is vanity of mind, my brethren? To live and interpret life not according to God's law but according to one's momentary thoughts and desires. From what, brethren, does this evil come to men? First from hardness of heart, and thereafter from the ignorance that is in them. What does hardness of heart mean, brethren? It means a heart emptied of the love of God and the fear of God, and filled with lustfulness and fear of everything for the sake of the body. What is born, brethren, from hardness of heart? Ignorance, complete ignorance of divine things, divine ways and laws – complete dullness to spiritual life and spiritual thought. What is the ultimate consequence, brethren, of hardness of heart and ignorance of divine truths? Darkening of understanding and alienation from the life of God. Darkening of understanding – that is: man's mind becomes dark like the body, the light that is in man becomes darkness. O how great the darkness! Darkened in understanding is darkened in mind. Darkened in mind knows no meaning in anything or denies meaning to everything. Such a one is alienated from the life of God, and withers and perishes like a part of the body cut off from the body. Such are pagans, such are atheists, and such, finally, are also the little-faithful or false Christians. – But even a dry tree when watered with the life-giving water of Christ revives and turns green. And the withered pagan world was resurrected and brought to life by Christ the Lord. How much more so penitent Christian sinners.
Let us make an inspection of ourselves, my brethren. Let us do it every day. Let us ask ourselves every day, whether we too have not become darkened because of vanity and alienated from God's life. Soon comes death, and the end, and judgment. Withered trees will be cast into the unquenchable fire.
O Lord Jesus, our mind and our life, help us to think by Thee and live with Thee. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.