#forty holy martyrs
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Feast Day:
The Forty Holy Martyrs, Ora Pro Nobis!
#forty#forty holy martyrs#soldiers#ancient christianity#sspx#orthodox#fsspx#novus ordo#catholic art#roman catholic#catholic#catholic church#ora pro nobis#latin mass#martyr#saints#saint quotes#catholic saint quotes
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Saint Edmund Campion
1540-1581
Feast day: December 1
Saint Edmund Campion was an English Roman Catholic Jesuit priest and martyr. While conducting an underground ministry in officially Anglican England, Campion was arrested by priest hunters. Convicted of high treason, he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. He is one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)
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Saints&Reading: Monday, March 4, 2024
february 20_march 4
Week of the prodigal son
ABBOT MACARIUS AND 34 MONKS AND NOVICES OF VALAAM MONASTERY MARTYRED BY THE LUTHERANS
In Memoriam: hieromonk Titus, schemamonk Tikhon, monks Gelasius, Sergius, Varlaam, Sabbas, Conon, Silvester, Cyprian, Pimen, John, Simonas, Jonah, David, Cornelius, Niphon, Athanasius, and Serapion, and novices Varlaam, Athanasius, Anthony, Luke, Leontius, Thomas, Dionysius, Philip, Ignatius, Basil, Pachomius, Basil, Theophilus, John, Theodore, and John (1578).
ST. BESSARION THE GREAT, WONDERWORKER OF EGYPT (466)
Saint Bessarion, Wonderworker of Egypt was an Egyptian. He was baptized while still in his youth, and he led a strict life, striving to preserve the grace given him during Baptism. Seeking to become more closely acquainted with the monastic life, he journeyed to the holy places. He was in Jerusalem, he visited Saint Gerasimus (March 4) in the Jordanian wilderness, he viewed other desert monasteries, and assimilated all the rules of monastic life.
Upon his return, he received monastic tonsure and became a disciple of Saint Isidore of Pelusium (February 4). Saint Bessarion took a vow of silence, and partook of food only once a week. Sometimes he remained without food or drink for forty days. Once, the saint stood motionless for forty days and forty nights without food or sleep, immersed in prayer.
Saint Bessarion received from God the gift of wonderworking. When his disciple was very thirsty, he sweetened bitter water. By his prayer the Lord sent rain upon the earth, and he could cross a river as if on dry land. With a single word he cast out devils, but he did this privately to avoid glory.
His humility was so great that once, when a priest ordered someone from the skete to leave church for having fallen into sin, Bessarion also went with him saying, “I am a sinner, too.” Saint Bessarion slept only while standing or sitting. A large portion of his life was spent under the open sky in prayerful solitude. He peacefully departed to the Lord in his old age.
1 JOHN 2:18-3:10
18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. 20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. 21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. 24 Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that He has promised us-eternal life. 26These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. 27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him. 28 And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. 29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.
1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. 4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. 6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. 8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. 10 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.
MARK 11:1-11
1 Now when they drew near Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples; 2 and He said to them, "Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat. Loose it and bring it. 3 And if anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' say, 'The Lord has need of it,' and immediately he will send it here. 4 So they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street, and they loosed it. 5 But some of those who stood there said to them, "What are you doing, loosing the colt?" 6 And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded. So they let them go. 7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it. 8 And many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:"Hosanna! 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!' 10 Blessed is the kingdom of our father David That comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!" 11 And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.
#orthodoxy#orthodoxchristianity#easternorthodoxchurch#originofchristianity#spirituality#holyscriptures#gospel#bible#wisdom#saints
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Sanctus Deus, Sanctus Fortis, Sanctus Immortalis, miserere nobis.
Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us. Holy Father, Holy Son, Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.
God the Father, Lord of Heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the World, have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit, the Comforter of our Hearts, have mercy on us.
Bear witness, our Lord Jesus Christ, to the destruction of the Holiest of the Holy Lands.
Your holy steps are placed here
Your holy prayers are raised here
Your holy blood is spilled here
Your holy tears are cried here
Bear witness, our Lord Jesus Christ, to the slaughter of the faithful in the Holiest of the Holy Lands.
Your faithful Children are murdered here
Your faithful Mothers are murdered here
Your faithful Fathers are murdered here
Your faithful Christians are murdered here
Bear witness, our Lord Jesus Christ, to the martyrs that is buried here in the Holiest of the Holy Lands.
Your righteous martyrs buried in Gaza and the West Bank
Your righteous martyrs buried in Jerusalem and Bethlehem
Your righteous martyrs buried in the entire State of Palestine
Bear witness, our Lord Jesus Christ, to the innocents who is hurt and suffering in the Holiest of the Holy Lands.
The suffering Jews in Palestine
The suffering Muslims in Palestine
The suffering Christians in Palestine
The suffering People in Palestine
Bear witness, our Lord Jesus Christ, to your Holiest of Holy Lands being desecrated and destroyed by the occupational israeli forces, they have defiled your holy places of worship, they have defiled your faithfuls, they defiled your martyrs, and they defiled the innocent people who live here in your Holy Palestine.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us
Jesus Christ the Savior, have mercy on Palestine
Our Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us
Jesus Christ the Refuge, have mercy on Palestine
Our Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us
Jesus Christ the Redeemer, have mercy on Palestine
Our Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us
Jesus Christ, Son of Mary, have mercy on Palestine
Our Lord Jesus Christ
Have mercy on us
Have mercy on Palestine
Have mercy on the Faithful
Have mercy on the Innocents
Protect them with your mercy
Heal them with your mercy
Aid them with your mercy
Have mercy on us all
Jesus Christ
Our Lord
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SAINT OF THE DAY (December 11)
Saint Damasus was born in Rome at the beginning of the fourth century.
His father, a widower, had received Holy Orders there and served as parish priest in the church of St. Laurence.
Damasus was archdeacon of the Roman Church in 355 when Pope Saint Liberius was banished to Berda.
Damasus followed him into exile but returned to Rome afterwards.
On the death of Saint Liberius in 366, our saint was chosen to succeed him, at the age of sixty-two.
A certain Ursinus, jealous of his election and desiring for himself that high office, had himself proclaimed pope by his followers, inciting a revolt against Damasus in Rome in which 137 people died.
The holy Pope did not choose to resort to armed defense, but the Emperor Valentinian, to defend him, drove the usurper from Rome for a time.
Later he returned, and finding accomplices for his evil intentions, accused the holy Pontiff of adultery.
Saint Damasus took only such action as was becoming to the common father of the faithful.
He assembled a synod of forty-four bishops in which he justified himself so well that the calumniators were excommunicated and banished.
Having freed the Church of this new schism, Saint Damasus turned his attention to the extirpation of Arianism in the West and of Apollinarianism in the East. He convened several councils for this purpose.
He sent Saint Zenobius, later bishop of Florence, to Constantinople in 381 to console the faithful, cruelly persecuted by the Emperor Valens.
He commanded Saint Jerome to prepare a correct Latin version of the Bible, since known as the Vulgate, and he ordered the Psalms to be sung accordingly.
He rebuilt and adorned the Church of Saint Laurence, still called Saint Laurence in Damaso.
He caused all the springs of the Vatican to be drained, which were inundating the tombs of the holy persons buried there.
He decorated the sepulchers of a great number of martyrs in the cemeteries, adorning them with epitaphs in verse.
Saint Damasus is praised by Theodoret as head of the famous doctors of divine grace of the Latin church.
The General Council of Chalcedon calls him the "honor and glory of Rome."
Having reigned for eighteen years and two months, he died on 10 December 384, when he was nearly eighty years old.
In the eighth century, his relics were definitively placed in the church of Saint Laurence in Damaso, except for his head, which was conserved in the Basilica of Saint Peter.
He presided over the Council of Rome of 382 that determined the canon or official list of Sacred Scripture.
Throughout his papacy, St. Damasus spoke out against major heresies in the church and encouraged production of the Vulgate Bible with his support for St. Jerome.
He helped reconcile the relations between the Church of Rome and the Church of Antioch. He also encouraged the veneration of martyrs.
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Today we celebrate the Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. These forty soldiers who had openly confessed themselves Christians were condemned by the prefect to be exposed naked upon a frozen pond near Sebaste on a bitterly cold night, that they might freeze to death. Among the confessors, one yielded and, leaving his companions, sought the warm baths near the lake which had been prepared for any who might prove inconstant. One of the guards set to keep watch over the martyrs beheld a supernatural brilliancy overshadowing them and at once proclaimed himself a Christian, threw off his garments, and placed himself beside the thirty-nine soldiers of Christ. Thus the number of forty remained complete. At daybreak, the stiffened bodies of the confessors, which still showed signs of life, were burned and the charred bones were cast into a river so that Christians would not gather them up. Three days later the martyrs appeared in a dream to St. Peter, Bishop of Sebaste, and commanded him to bury their remains. The bishop, together with several clergy, gathered up the relics of the glorious martyrs by night and buried them with honor. May they intercede for us always + Source: https://orthodoxwiki.org/Forty_Martyrs_of_Sebaste (at Şarkışla, Sivas, Türkiye) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpiwMYpr6_Q/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
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Holidays 12.10
Holidays
Bob Dylan Day (Minnesota)
Chief Red Cloud Day
Constitution Day (Thailand)
Dewey Decimal System Day
Flag Day (Guinea)
Flipadelphia (from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”)
Grub-Hoe Day (French Republic)
International Animal Rights Day
International Aszu Day
Jane Addams Day
Merlinpeen (Festival of Mouth Pleasure from Secret Santa; Verdkianism; on “30 Rock”)
National Cancel Caillou Day
National Corey Day
National Day of the Clown
National Derek Day
Nobeldagen (a.k.a. Alfred Nobel Day; Sweden)
Nobel Prize Day
Sister-Friend Day
Victory Day (Iraq)
Whirling Dervishes Festival begins [thru 17th]
Women’s Day (Namibia)
Women’s Rights Day (Wyoming)
World Digital Detox Day
World Football Day
World Human Rights Day (UN)
World TRAP Awareness Day
Food & Drink Celebrations
Do Something Wild and Crazy with Velveeta Day
National Lager Day
National Pancetta Day
Suspended Coffee Day
Terra Madre Day (Slow Food)
2nd Sunday in December
International Children’s Day [2nd Sunday]
Jashan-e Sadeh (a.k.a. Adar-Jashen; Zoroastrian/Parsi)
Lager Beer Week begins [Sunday of 2nd full week]
National Children’s Memorial Day [2nd Sunday]
2nd Sunday in Advent [3rd Sunday before Xmas] (a.k.a. ...
Advent Sunday
Love Sunday
Transfiguration Sunday
Waiting Sunday
World Choral Day [2nd Sunday]
Worldwide Candle Lighting Day (7 PM) [2nd Sunday]
Independence Days
Mississippi Statehood Day (#20; 1817)
Tortuga (Declared; 2021) [unrecognized]
Feast Days
Adriaen van Ostade (Artology)
Behnam, Sarah, and the Forty Martyrs (Syriac Orthodox Church)
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)
Eulalia of Mérida (Christian; Saint)
Festival for the Souls of Dead Whales (Inuit)
Greta Kempton (Artology)
Hanukkah Day #3 (Judaism) [thru Dec. 15th]
International Human Rights Day (Pastafarian)
Karl Barth (Episcopal Church USA)
Lux Mundi (Light of the World; Roman Goddess of Liberty)
Melchiades, Pope (Christian; Saint)
Miltiades (Christian; Saint)
Sedna’s Day (Pagan)
Thomas Merton (Episcopal Church USA)
The Toves (Muppetism)
Translation of the Holy House of Loreto (Christian)
Vieta (Positivist; Saint)
Zinaida Serebriakova (Artology)
Lucky & Unlucky Days
Fatal Day (Pagan) [24 of 24]
Sensho (先勝 Japan) [Good luck in the morning, bad luck in the afternoon.]
Premieres
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain (Novel; 1884)
Bedazzled (Film; 1967)
Bedknob and Broomstick, by Mary Norton (Novel; 1943)
Being the Ricardos (Film; 2021)
Big Fish (Film; 2003)
Boris Bashes a Box or The Flat Chest (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S5, Ep. 237; 1963)
The Cider House Rules (Film; 1999)
A Day at the Races, by Queen (Album; 1976)
Donald’s Ostrich (Disney Cartoon; 1937)
The Ethics of Ambiguity, by Simone de Beauvoir (Philosophy Book; 1947)
The Fellowship of the Ring (Film; 2001) [Lord of the Rings #1]
Fernando, by ABBA (Song; 1975)
The Fighter (Film; 2010)
48 Hrs. (Film; 1982)
Gandhi (Film; 1982)
The Glenn Miller Story (Film; 1953)
The Green Mile (Film; 1999)
Guided Muscle (WB LT Cartoon; 1955)
Guys and Dolls, by Damon Runyon (Short Stories; 1932)
Islands in the Stream, by Ernest Hemingway (Novel; 1970)
The Last Detail (Film; 1973)
Lawrence of Arabia (Film; 1962)
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (Film; 2004)
Mood Indigo, recorded by Duke Ellington and His Orchestra (Song; 1930)
Ocean’s Twelve (Film; 2004)
One, Two, Three, Gone! Or I’ve Got Plenty of Nothing (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S5, Ep. 238; 1963)
Santa’s Workshop (Disney Cartoon; 1932)
Shoah (Documentary Film; 2010)
The Silver Sword, by Ian Serraillier (Novel; 1956)
Sleuth (Film; 1972)
Sophie’s Choice (Film; 1982)
Swiss Family Robinson (Film; 1960)
The Tempest (Film; 2010)
Three’s a Crowd (WB MM Cartoon; 1932)
The Tourist (Film; 2010)
Wayne’s World 2 (Film; 1993)
West Side Story (Film; 2021)
Wings Over America (Live Album; 1976)
The Year Without a Santa Claus (Animated TV Special; 1974)
Today’s Name Days
Angelina, Bruno, Emma, Herbert (Austria)
Edmund, Gregor, Mauro (Croatia)
Julie (Czech Republic)
Judith (Denmark)
Juta, Juudit (Estonia)
Jutta (Finland)
Eulaire, Romaric (France)
Emma, Imma, Loretta (Germany)
Judit (Hungary)
Loreto (Italy)
Cera, Guna, Judīte, Sniedze (Latvia)
Eidimtas, Eularija, Ilma, Loreta (Lithuania)
Judit, Jytte (Norway)
Andrzej, Daniel, Judyta, Julia, Maria, Radzisława (Poland)
Ermoghen, Eugraf, Mina (Romania)
Radúz (Slovakia)
Eulalia, Loreto (Spain)
Malena, Malin (Sweden)
Angeline, Marian (Ukraine)
Emely, Emilee, Emilia, Emilie, Emily, Eula, Eulalia, Ula (USA)
Today is Also…
Day of Year: Day 344 of 2024; 21 days remaining in the year
ISO: Day 7 of week 49 of 2023
Celtic Tree Calendar: Ruis (Elder) [Day 13 of 28]
Chinese: Month 10 (Gui-Hai), Day 28 (Ren-Yin)
Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)
Hebrew: 27 Kislev 5784
Islamic: 27 Jumada I 1445
J Cal: 14 Zima; Sevenday [14 of 30]
Julian: 27 November 2023
Moon: 6%: Waning Crescent
Positivist: 8 Bichat (12th Month) [Vieta]
Runic Half Month: Is (Stasis) [Day 15 of 15]
Season: Autumn (Day 78 of 89)
Zodiac: Sagittarius (Day 19 of 30)
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Holy Forty Women Martyrs and Martyr Ammon the Deacon, their teacher, at Heraclea in Thrace
Commemorated on September 1
The 40 Holy Virgins and Saint Ammoun the Deacon, were from Adrianopolis in Macedonia. Deacon Ammoun was their guide in Christian Faith. They were captured by Baudos the governor, and were tortured because they would not offer sacrifice to idols.
The holy martyrs endured many cruel torments, which were intended to force them to renounce Christ and worship idols. Later, they were sent to Heraclea in Thrace to appear before the tyrant Licinius. The valiant martyrs remained unshakeable, however.
Saint Ammoun and eight of the virgins were beheaded, ten virgins were burned, six of them died after heated metal balls were put into their mouths, six were stabbed with knives, and the rest were struck in the mouth and stabbed in the heart with swords.
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THE TENTH DAY OF JULY
‡ On this day we celebrate the FORTY-FIVE Martyrs of NICOPOLIS in Armenia
In about 316, during the rule of Lycinius, who renewed the persecution in the whole of the Eastern Empire, the prefect Lysias arrived in Nicopolis in Armenia, avid to shed the blood of any who resisted the imperial decrees. Leontius, Maurice and Daniel, the leading men of the city, and forty other Christians, presented themselves before him of their own free will and bravely confessed that they were disciples of Christ, urging him to carry out his intent. Lysias summoned them to appear before his tribunal, where Leontius declared that they refused to worship idols, in obedience to the commandments of Christ who had been crucified and had risen for the salvation of all.
Enraged by their boldness, the prefect commanded that their iaws be broken with blows from stones. As their companions cursed the magistrate, that servant of Satan, Leontius spoke these words to them: 'Brothers, do not curse those who earn damnation for themselves, but bless those who persecute you' (Matt.S:44). Lysias then tried to win them over by promises, but when the saints replied by mocking his empty words, he had them thrown into prison and forbade their gaolers to give them any food or drink, despite the torrid heat. They entered the prison glorifying God, who had found them worthy to suffer for His Name, and Leontius encouraged them to persevere to the end, reminding them of the glorious deeds of the martyrs who had gone before them. A woman called Basilla (or Bassienna), succeeded in escaping the watchfulness of the guards and brought them water for their thirst. The next morning, they appeared again before Lysias, who submitted them to terrible tortures: he had their bodies torched and then the soldiers scraped their wounds with potsherds.
The holy martyrs bravely endured these tortures until the sixth hour, when they were taken back to the prison and Basilla came again to minister to them.
That night a resplendent angel appeared to them, announcing that the end of their struggle was at hand and that their names had been written in heaven. The gaolers, Meneas and Biriladus (or Biliradus) were witnesses of this vision and rushed to throw themselves at the feet of the saints, confessing their faith in Christ.
The martyrs embraced these eleventh-hour labourers (Mt 20:6) as brothers, promising that they should not be deprived of the trophies that they had been promised. News of the conversion of the guards was transmitted to the governor who, roaring like a raging lion, had the forty-five martyrs brought before him and commanded his soldiers to cut off their hands and feet with axes, and then to cast them all into a furnace. Their remains, thrown into the River Lykos, were recovered by devout Christians They took them to Nicopolis, where they were thenceforth venerated as the city's holy protectors.'
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Today the Church remembers Epictetus and Astion, Martyrs.
Orate pro nobis.
The monastic martyrs Epictetus and Astion lived in Bithynia on the southwest coast of the Black Sea during the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian (284-305 AD). From his youth, Saint Epictetus had dedicated his life to God, and studied to acquire knowledge of the Gospel. He entered a monastery, and later was found worthy to be ordained to the holy priesthood. Proclaiming the Gospel of Christ, the saint converted many people to Christianity. God granted Epictetus the gift of wonderworking, and he healed many people troubled by unclean spirits, or afflicted with other maladies.
One day while out for a stroll, the illustrious youth Astion met Saint Epictetus. During a long conversation Saint Epictetus enlightened Astion, sowing the seed of God’s Word in the young man’s soul. He spoke to him about the only true God, about the great value of the immortal human soul, and about fleeting worldly pleasures.
Astion came to believe in Christ and was baptized. Soon after this, he also became a monk. Since Christians were being persecuted in Bithynia, he asked Saint Epictetus if they might travel together to some distant land where they could dedicate their lives completely to God. Boarding a ship, Saints Epictetus and Astion journeyed to Scythia and settled among the pagan Slavs near the Roman outpost of Halmyris in the province of Histria south of the mouth of the Danube. The city was the site of a military fort and a base for the Roman fleet which patrolled the Danube and the Black Sea.
When they arrived at Halmyris in 273 AD, Saint Epictetus was forty-seven years old, and Saint Astion was only eighteen. During the next seventeen years, the saints spent their lives in prayer and fasting, and performed many miracles.
The God-pleasing lives of the monks could not remain hidden from others for very long. People afflicted by various illnesses or oppressed by evil spirits came to the saints seeking relief. Even pagans asked the holy ascetics for help, and after being healed of their afflictions, they embraced Christianity.
Saint Epictetus once healed a fifteen-year-old deaf and dumb boy by praying and breathing on him three times. More than a thousand people became Christians after witnessing this miracle. Saint Astion once cured a man whose legs and toes were crushed when he fell from a building.
Latronianus, the military commander of the district, arrived in Halmyris in 290 AD on an official visit of inspection. The pagan priests wasted no time in complaining to him about Saints Epictetus and Astion. They denounced the two men from Bithynia, accusing them of converting people to Christianity through sorcery, and persuading them not to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods.
The saints were arrested and interrogated by Latronianus, who tried to find out their names and where they were from. Their only reply was, “We are Christians.” Latronianus had them tortured in an effort to make them abandon their Christian beliefs.
After thirty days in prison without food and water, the holy martyrs Epictetus and Astion were once again brought before Latronianus. They remained steadfast and ready to endure even more suffering for Christ. The commander declared that Epictetus and Astion were traitors, and ordered them to be beheaded on July 8, 290 AD. At first, they were buried in an unknown spot. Later, their holy relics were transferred into the basilica built in the fourth century by Saint Constantine the Great at Halmyris.
Archaeologists discovered the holy relics of Saints Epictetus and Astion at Halmyris in 2001. The bones were scattered about in two rooms of a burial crypt, indicating that the tomb had been vandalized, perhaps in the sixth century. Scientific tests on the bones revealed that one of the men was approximately sixty-four years old, and the other about thirty-five. This is consistent with the ages of the two saints as given in the written accounts of their martyrdom. The bones also indicate that the two had been beheaded.
The holy relics of Saints Epictetus and Astion were reburied in 2001 by Archbishop Theodosius of Tomis (Romania).
Almighty God, who gave to your servants Epictetus and Astion boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
Amen.
#father troy beecham#christianity#jesus#saints#god#salvation#peace#martyrs#faith#early church#christian persecution
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Feast Day:
The Forty Holy Martyrs, Ora Pro Nobis
#The Fourty Martyrs#Forty#Feast day#fourty#ora pro nobis#oremus#God#honor#testimony#early christianity#catholic saints#catholic saint quotes
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St. Anne Line
1567 - 1601
Feast day: February 27
Patronage: converts, widows, childless people
Saint Anne Higham/Line was one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. After losing her husband she became very active in sheltering Catholic priests. Finally arrested she was condemned to death and executed during the reign of Elizabeth I for harboring a priest.
Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)
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Saints&Reading: Monday, September 25, 2023
september 12-september 25
leavetaking ( apodosis) of the Nativity of the Mother of God
youtube
Troparion of the feast in Tone IV
Thy nativity, O Virgin Theotokos,/ hath proclaimed joy to all the world;/ for from thee hath shone forth Christ our God,/ the Sun of righteousness,/ Who having annulled the curse,/ hath given His blessing,// and having abolished death, hath granted us life everlasting
Kontakion of the Feast in Tone IV
In thy holy nativity, O all-pure one, / Joachim and Anna are freed from the reproach of childlessness, / and Adam and Eve from mortal corruption. / And, delivered from sin, thy people celebrate it, crying out to thee:// A barren woman giveth birth to the Theotokos, the nourisher of our Life!
GodWe'll sing this two hymns for the last time until next year...
THE HOLY MARTYR JULIAN OF GALATIA AND 40 MARTYRS WITH HIM ( 4TH.C.)
The Holy Martyr Julian lived during the fourth century not far from the ancient city of Ancyra. A report was made to the governor of the district of Galatia that the Presbyter Julian was hiding in a certain cave with forty others of the same persuasion, and that he was celebrating divine services there. They arrested Saint Julian and demanded that he reveal where the remaining Christians were hidden, but he refused.
The pagans ordered the holy priest to offer sacrifice to their gods, but he would not consent to this, either. Then they stripped him and placed him on a red-hot iron grate. The martyr signed himself with the Sign of the Cross, and an angel of the Lord cooled the flame. Saint Julian remained unharmed.
When the governor asked who he was and how he had quenched the fire, the martyr said: “I am a servant of God.” The torturers brought forth an old woman, the mother of the saint, and they threatened her that if she did not persuade her son to offer sacrifice to idols, then they would torture her. The brave woman answered that if they defiled her body against her will, this would not make her guilty of sin before God. On the contrary, it would constitute an act of martyrdom.
The humiliated torturers sent the old woman away, but they condemned Saint Julian to death. In his prayer the saint gave fervent thanks to God and asked that he be given strength to endure the sufferings. Saint Julian also asked a special grace from God: that those who take earth from the place of his burial be granted forgiveness of sins and deliverance from passions, and that harmful insects and birds might not descend upon their fields.
Commending himself to God with the words: “Lord, accept my spirit in peace!” the martyr bent his neck beneath the sword, and a Voice summoned the martyr to the Heavenly Kingdom. This Voice was heard also by the forty Christians who had hidden themselves in the cave. Emboldened, they come forth to the place of Saint Julian’s sufferings, but they found him already dead. They all confessed themselves to be Christians, and they were arrested and brought to the governor, who ordered them beheaded.
EPHESIANS 1:22-2:3
22And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
MARK 10:46-52
46 Now they came to Jericho. As He went out of Jericho with His disciples and a great multitude, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the road begging. 47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" 48 Then many warned him to be quiet; but he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" 49 So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. Then they called the blind man, saying to him, "Be of good cheer. Rise, He is calling you." 50 And throwing aside his garment, he rose and came to Jesus. 51 So Jesus answered and said to him, "What do you want Me to do for you?" The blind man said to Him, "Rabboni, that I may receive my sight." 52 Then Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your faith has made you well." And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road.
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SAINT OF THE DAY (January 14)
Originally Prince Rastko Nemanjic, he was the first Patriarch of Serbia (1219-1233) and is an important Saint in the Serbian Orthodox Church.
In his youth (around 1192), St. Sava escaped from home to join the Orthodox monastic colony on Mount Athos.
He was given the name Sava. He first traveled to a Russian monastery and then moved to a Greek monastery, Vatoped.
At the end of 1197, his father, King Stefan Nemanja, joined him.
In 1198, the former prince and king restored the abandoned monastery Hilandar, which was the center of Serbian Christian monastic life at that time.
St. Sava's father took the monastic vows under the name Simeon. He died in Hilandar on 13 February 1200. He was also canonized as Saint Simeon.
After his father's death, Sava retreated to an ascetic monastery in Kareya, which he built himself in 1199. He also wrote the Kareya typicon both for Hilandar and for the monastery of ascetism.
St. Sava managed to persuade the Patriarch of the Greek/Byzantine Orthodox Church to elevate him to the position of the first Serbian archbishop, thereby establishing the independence of the archbishopic of the serbian church in the year of 1219.
St. Sava is celebrated as the founder of the independent Serbian Orthodox Church. He is also the patron saint of education and medicine among Serbs.
Since the 1830s, St. Sava has become the patron saint of Serbian schools and students.
He is also regarded as the father of Serbian education and literature. He authored the Life of St. Simeon (Stefan Nemanja, his father), the first Serbian hagiography.
After participating in a ceremony called "blessing of the waters," he developed a cough that progressed into pneumonia.
He died from pneumonia on 14 January 1235. He was buried at the Cathedral of the Holy Forty Martyrs in Trnovo.
He remained in Trnovo until 6 May 1237, when his sacred bones were moved to Mileseva monastery in southern Serbia.
Three-hundred and sixty years later, the Ottoman Turks dug out his bones and burnt them on the main square in Belgrade.
The temple of St. Sava in Belgrade, whose construction was planned in 1939 and began in 1985, was built on the place where his holy bones were burned.
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Today we also celebrate the Holy Right-Believing Empress Pulcheria. Saint Pulcheria was the daughter of the Byzantine emperor Arcadius (395-408), was coregent and adviser of her brother Theodosius the Younger (408-450). She received a broad and well-rounded education, and distinguished herself by her wisdom and piety, firmly adhering to Orthodox teaching. Through her efforts the church of the Most Holy Theotokos was built at Blachernae, and also other churches and monasteries. Through the intrigues of enemies and of Eudokia, the wife of the emperor Theodosius the Younger, Saint Pulcheria was removed from power. She withdrew into seclusion, and lived a pious life. Without her benificent influence, conditions in the capital deteriorated. She returned after a while, following the urgent request of her brother. Then the unrest provoked by emerging heresies was quelled. After the death of Theodosius the Younger, Marcian (450-457) was chosen emperor. Saint Pulcheria again wanted to withdraw into her seclusion, but both the emperor and officials entreated her not to refuse the throne, but to marry the emperor Marcian. For the common good she consented to become Marcian’s wife if she were allowed to preserve her virginity within the marriage. They were married, but lived in purity as brother and sister. Through the efforts of Saint Pulcheria, the Third Ecumenical Council was held at Ephesus in 431 to address the heresy of Nestorius; and also the Fourth Ecumenical Council which was convened at Chalcedon in the year 451, to deal with the heresy of Eutychius. Saint Pulcheria built the church of the Mother of God at Blachernae at Constantinople, and also found the relics of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (March 9). Throughout her life Saint Pulcheria defended the Orthodox Faith against various heresies. After giving away her wealth to the poor and to the Church, she died peacefully at the age of fifty-four in the year 453. May she intercede for us always + Source: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2019/09/10/102566-right-believing-pulcheria-byzantine-empress (at Constantinople - Κωνσταντινούπολη) https://www.instagram.com/p/CovNOtirf2-/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
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Parrots have the distinction—or misfortune, depending on how you look at it—of being the first animal to be exported from the New World to the Old. According to Peter Martyr, Columbus on his first voyage carried back to Spain “fortie” parrots “of moste liuely and delectable coloures” (A3v); on his second voyage he returned with even more. Other explorers followed suit, electrifying European spectators with a parade of strange, colorful birds from far away. The Florentine banker Bartolomeo Marchioni found himself in Lisbon in 1501, when Cabral returned in triumph from his discovery of Brazil. That June, he wrote back excitedly to Florence with news of the voyage, remarking, among other things, that Cabral had “brought back two parrots which are an arm [gomito] and a half long which are more than an arm and a half of ours. They are marvellous things” (Cabral 148). And marvelous they were. As late as 1578 the great naturalist Ulysse Aldrovandi (1522–1605) could respond with wonder and delight when he first saw live macaws at the court of Duke William of Mantua (Stresemann 25).
[...]
Ironically, the aristocratic bird collections of Renaissance Europe may have drawn some of their energy from Native American precedent. Bernal Díaz (1492–1584) writes that when Cortés entered Tenochtitlan, he found a royal zoo containing birds that defied enumeration, including “parrots of many different colours, and … so many of them that I forget their names” (212).
Cortés himself, in a letter to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, declared of the Aztec zoo that “there is nothing comparable with [it] in Spain” (1:265). In his brutal campaign to subdue the Aztecs and surrounding tribes, Cortés destroyed this collection, regarding it as a key to demoralizing the native peoples.
At the same time, the menageries of European rulers were on the increase.
from Parrot Culture: Our 2500-Year-Long Fascination with the World’s Most Talkative Bird by Bruce Thomas Boehrer.
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