Venerable Xenophon and Mary, and Their Sons John and Arcadius

Life

Distinguished and wealthy citizens of Constantinople, Xenophon and Mary lived a God-pleasing life and devoted all their attention to the Christian upbringing of their sons. When their sons had grown, they sent them for studies to Berytus (Beirut); but it happened that a storm sank the ship. By God's providence, however, John and Arcadius were somehow saved and cast by the waves onto the shore, but onto two different places, so that each thought the other had drowned. From grief for one another they both became monks in two different monasteries. After two years their grieving parents came to Jerusalem on pilgrimage to the holy places. There, with the help of the clairvoyance of a certain spiritual father, brother met with brother first, and then the parents with their children. Out of gratitude toward God, Xenophon and Mary distributed all their property to the poor, and they both became monastics. The touching history of these four holy souls clearly shows how the Lord wondrously guides the destiny of those who believe in Him; how He permits suffering and sorrow to come upon them, that He might afterward, having strengthened them even more in faith, lead them into greater joy. They lived and reposed in the Lord in the fifth century.

From the Hymn of Praise

This world is foreign, and we are exiles,With royal dreams, captives in a dungeon,Lost children seeking the Father with sorrow,Strangers call them and soothe them with delights.