St. Josaphat archbishop of Polotsk
John Kuntsevych was born in Volodymyr Volynsk, in 1580. As a young boy, he
loved to frequent the holy services and prayed with great fervor. In 1604,
He entered the decadent Monastery of the Holy Trinity in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Upon receiving the monastic tonsure and habit, he took the name Josaphat.
By his example of fidelity and self-denial, he was able to reform the monastery,
together with his friend Joseph Rutsky.
Their loving example spread beyond the monastery walls to the entire Ukrainian
Church. In 1617, Rutsky and Josaphat succeeded in forming a confederation
of monasteries, which became the Order of St. Basil the Great. To his great
dismay, in 1618, Josaphat was appointed Archbishop of Polotsk-Vitebsk. For
five years, he worked diligently to achieve church unity, as the Saviour had
prayed "so that all may be one." Josaphat's humility and zeal won
over many people, but also angered those who did not want to be united with
Rome. Thus, during a pastoral visitation of his cathedral in Vitebsk, on November
12, 1623, Josaphat was brutally martyred; his body stripped
and thrown in the river.
Immediately after his death, many miracles of conversion were attributed
to his intercession, beginning with the conversion of his murderers. One of
the greatest opponents of union with Rome, Bishop Meleti Smotrytsky, attributed
his own conversion to Josaphat.
Josaphat Kuntsevych was beatified by Pope Urban VIII on May 16,1643 and canonized
by Blessed Pope Pius IX, on June 29, 1867. He is the first Ukrainian Saint
to be formally beatified an canonized. To celebrate the three-hundredth anniversary
of the Saint's martyrdom, Pope Pius XI issued an encyclical letter, Ecclesiam
Dei. Since 1963, his incorrupt body lies under the altar of Saint
Basil, in the Vatican Basilica of St. Peter's.
- Our Father among the Saints John the Merciful, Patriarch of Alexandria (619)
- He was the son of a noble family in Cyprus. He married and had
several children, but when his wife and children all died at nearly the
same time, he took his loss as a call to forsake worldly cares, and
committed his life entirely to God. In time he was consecrated
Archbishop of Alexandria, where he became known for his zeal for the
Orthodox faith and his struggles against the various heresies that
prevailed in Egypt at that time. Most of all, though, he was known for
the amazing purity of his generosity and compassion toward all.
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On the day of his elevation to the Patriarchate, he ordered a careful
census of his "masters," as he called the poor and beggars. It was
found that there were 7,500 indigents in the city, and St John ordered
that all of them be clothed and fed every day out of the Church's
wealth. In his prayers he would say "We will see, Lord, which of us
will win this contest: You, who constantly give me good gifts, or I, who
will never stop giving them away to the poor. For I have nothing that
does not come to me by Thy mercy, which upholds my life."
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His lack of judgment in giving to the poor sometimes dismayed those
around him. Once a wily beggar came to John four times in four
different disguises, receiving alms each time. When the holy Patriarch
was told of this, he ordered that the man be given twice as much, saying
"Perhaps he is Jesus my Savior, who has come on purpose to put me to
the test." Still, the more generously he gave, the more generously God
granted gifts to the Church, so that money was never lacking either for
the poor or for the Church's own real needs. One of the clergy once
gave only a third of what the Patriarch instructed to a rich man who had
fallen into poverty, thinking that the Church's treasury could not
afford to give so much. Saint John then revealed to him that a
noblewoman who had planned to give an enormous gift to the Church had,
shortly thereafter, given only a third of what she originally planned.
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Once, when he was serving the Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral, the
Patriarch stopped just before the consecration, instructed the deacon to
repeat the litanies, and sent for one of his clergy who bore a grudge
against him and would not come to church. When the man came, the
Patriarch prostrated himself before him and, with tears, begged his
forgiveness. When they were reconciled, he returned to the altar and
proceeded with the service.
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Though the Patriarch lived in a well-appointed palace befitting his
rank, he owned no property and lived in a humble cell within the
palace. A godly citizen, knowing his poverty, once gave him a fine
blanket. The Saint immediately sold the blanket and gave the proceeds
to the poor. The donor, however, found his gift for sale in a shop,
bought it, and gave it again to the Patriarch. The Patriarch again sold
it, and the donor again found it and gave it. The Synaxarion says, "As
neither of them would give in, the bed-cover passed through their hands
a good many times and was the means whereby John indirectly prevailed
on the rich man to give away a great fortune to the poor."
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Despite his generosity, the Patriarch was firm with the Monophysite heretics. Though he
gave them all that he could whenever they were in need, he instructed the Orthodox faithful
never to worship or pray with them.
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At his own request, the Patriarch returned to Cyprus where, in 619,
he died at the age of
64. In his last hours, he gave thanks to God that nothing remained of
the riches of which he had been given stewardship for the sake of the
poor.
- Our Holy Father Nilus the Ascetic of Sinai (430)
- He served as Prefect of Constantinople during the reign of the
Emperor Theodosius. He was married and had two children, a son and a
daughter. Despising their eminent worldly position, Nilus and his wife
agreed to take up the monastic life in Egypt, she taking their daughter
to a women's monastery, he taking their son to Mount Sinai. Together
Nilus and his son Theodoulos lived in hesychia
on the slopes of the mountain with the other monks, who spent their
lives in solitude, only gathering once a week to partake of the
Mysteries. One day some Saracen raiders attacked the monks, killing
many and capturing others; Nilus' own son Theodoulos was among those
taken. Nilus, to overcome his sorrow at losing his son, redoubled his
prayers and ascetical labors, and became widely-known for his gifts of
prophecy and discernment. He wrote more than a thousand letters and
spiritual treatises, including some defending his spiritual father St
John Chrysostom, who had been unjustly exiled.
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After many years at Mt Sinai, St Nilus found his long-lost son alive.
Father and son together were ordained to the priesthood by the Bishop of
Elusas, who had been caring for Theodoulos. Saint Nilus reposed in
peace around the year 430. His relics were later returned to
Constantinople and venerated at the Church of the Orphanage.
sources:http://www.stnicholaschurch.ca, http://www.abbamoses.com |
