23
July
(05 August)
Pochaev
Icon of the Mother of God
Martyrs Trophymos, Theophilos and 13 Martyrs
with them (IV)
Martyr Apollonios
Seven Martyrs of Cathagena
PriestMartyr Apollonarius, Bishop of Ravenna
(+c.75)
PriestMartyr Vitalius
Nun Anna of Leukadicea
Icon of the Mother of God, named "Joy of All Sorrowing"
("With Coins") (1888)
The
Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God is among the most venerable
sacred items of the Russian Church. It is reknown throughout all
the Slavic world: they venerate it in Russia, in Bosnia, Serbia,
Bulgaria and other places. Christians also of other confessions
come for veneration of the wonderworking image of the MostHoly Mother
of God, alongside the Orthodox. At the Pochaev Lavra, an ancient
rampart of Orthodoxy, the wonderworking icon has resided about 400
years. (The account about the transfer of the icon to the Pochaev
monastery is located under 8 September).
The miracles, which issued forth from the holy icon, are numerous
and are testified to in the monastery books with the inscriptions
of the faithful, who with prayer have met with deliverance from
unclean spirits, liberation from captivity, and sinners brought
to their senses.
The
celebration in honour of the Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God on
23 July was established in memory of the deliverance Uspenie-Dormition
Lavra monastery from a Turkish siege on 20-23 July 1675.
In
the Summer of 1675 during the time of the Zbarazhsk War with the
Turks, during the reign of the Polish king Jan Sobesski (1674-1696),
regiments composed of Tatars under the command of khan Nurredin
via Vishnevets fell upon the Pochaev monastery, surrounding it on
three sides. The weak monastery walls, just like some of the stone
buildings of the monastery, did not offer much defense against a
siege. The hegumen Iosif Dobromirsky urged the brethren and laypeople
to turn themselves to Heavenly intercessors: to the MostHoly Mother
of God and the Monk Job of Pochaev (commemorated 28
October). The monks and the laypeople prayed fervently, prostrating
themselves before the wonderworking image of the Mother of God and
the reliquary with the relics of the Monk Job. On the morning of
23 July with the rising of the sun, as the Tatars were holding a
final meeting about an assault on the monastery, the hegumen ordered
the singing of an akathist to the Mother of God. With the first
words, "O Queen of the Heavenly Hosts," suddenly there appeared
over the church the MostHoly Mother of God Herself, in "an unfurled
gleaming-white omophor," with heavenly angels holding unsheathed
swords. The Monk Job was beside the Mother of God, bowing to Her
and beseeching the defense of the monastery. The Tatars took the
heavenly army for an apparition, and in confusion they began to
shoot arrows at the MostHoly Mother of God and the Monk Job, but
the arrows fell backwards and wounded those who shot them. Terror
seized the enemy. In a flight of panic and without looking, they
trampled upon and killed each other. The defenders of the monastery
attempted pursuit and took many prisoner. Some of the prisoners
afterwards accepted the Christian faith and remained at the monastery
thereafter.
In
the year 1721 Pochaev was occupied by Uniates. But even in this
difficult time for the Lavra, the monastery chronicle notes 539
miracles from the glorified Orthodox sacred image. During the time
of the Uniate rule in the 2nd half of the XVIII Century, for example,
the Uniate nobleman count Nicholas Pototski became a benefactor
of the Pochaev Lavra through the following miraculous circumstance.
Having accused his coachman for overturning the carriage with frenzied
horses, the count took out a pistol to shoot him. The coachman,
turning towards Pochaev Hill, reached his hands upwards and cried
out: "Mother of God, manifest in the Pochaev Icon, save me!" Pototski
several times tried to shoot the pistol, which had never let him
down, but the weapon misfired. The coachman remained alive. Pototski
then immediately set off to the wonderworking icon and decided to
devote himself and all his property to the building-up of the monastery.
From his wealth was built the Uspenie-Dormition cathedral and buildings
for the brethren.
The
return of Pochaev into the bosom of Orthodoxy in 1832 was marked
by the miraculous healing of the blind maiden Anna Akimchukova,
who had come on pilgrimage to the holy things together with her
70 year old grandmother, from Kremenets-Podol'sk 200 versts away.
In memory of this event, the Volynia archbishop and Lavra archimandrite
Innokentii (1832-1840) established weekly on Saturdays the reading
of the cathedral akathist before the wonderworking icon. During
the time of the rule of the Lavra by archimandrite Agathangel, archbishop
of Volynia (1866-1876), there was constructed a separate chapel
in the galleries of the Holy Trinity church in memory of the victory
over the Tatars, which was dedicated on 23 July 1875.
Back
to Top
The
Holy Martyrs Trophymos, Theophilos, and Thirteen Holy Martyrs
with them, suffered during the time of the persecution against Christians
under the emperor Diocletian (284-305). Brought to trial, they bravely
confessed themselves Christians and refused to offer sacrifice to
idols. After fierce tortures, they threw the holy martyrs with broken
legs into a fire. Strengthened by the Lord, they came out of the
fire completely unharmed, and still all the moreso did they glorify
Christ. Then in despair of breaking the will of the holy confessors,
the torturers beheaded them.
Back
to Top
The
PriestMartyr Apollinarius, Bishop of Ravenna: During
the reign of the Roman emperor Claudius (41-54), the holy Apostle
Peter came to Rome from Antioch, and he ordained the Antiochene
Apollinarius, who had come with him, to be bishop of Ravenna. Arriving
in Ravenna as a stranger, Saint Apollinarius asked shelter of a
local inhabitant, the soldier Ireneius, and in conversation with
him revealed also for what purpose he had come. Ireneius had a blind
son, whom Saint Apollinarius healed, having turned to the Lord with
prayer. The soldier Ireneius and his family were the first in Ravenna
to believe in Christ. The saint stayed at the house of Ireneius
and preached about Christ to everyone wanting to hear what he said.
One of the miracles of healing, done by Saint Apollinarius, was
the healing of the incurably sick wife of the Ravenna tribune, Thecla.
After she stood up from her bed completely healthy -- through the
prayers of the saint, not only did she believe in Christ, but so
also did the tribune. At the house of the tribune Saint Apollinarius
constructed a small church, where he made Divine Liturgy. For the
newly-baptised people of Ravenna Saint Apollinarius ordained two
presbyters -- Aderetus and Calocyrus -- and also two deacons.
Saint
Apollinarius preached the Gospel at Ravenna for twelve years, and
the number of Christians steadily increased. Pagan priests made
complaint against the bishop to the governor Saturninus. Saint Apollinarius
was brought to trial and subjected to grievous tortures. Thinking
that he had died, the torturers took him out of the city to the
sea-coast and threw him in. But the saint was alive. A certain pious
Christian widow rendered him aid and gave him shelter in her home.
Saint Apollinarius stayed at her home for six months and continued
secretly to preach about Christ. The whereabouts of the saint became
known, when he healed the loss of speech of an illustrious resident
of the city named Boniface, at the request of his wife, who besought
the help of the saint for her husband. After this miracle many pagans
were converted to Christ, and they again brought Saint Apollinarius
to trial and tortured him, setting his bared-feet on red-hot coals.
They removed him from the city a second time, but the Lord again
kept him alive. The saint did not cease preaching until they expelled
him from the city. For a certain while Saint Apollinarius found
himself elsewhere in Italy, where as before he continued to preach
the Gospel. And again having returned to Ravenna to his flock, Saint
Apollinarius again went on trial and was sentenced to banishment.
In heavy fetters he was put on a ship sailing to Illyrica to the
River Dunaj-Danube. Two soldiers were responsible to convey him
to his place of exile. Three of the clergy voluntarily followed
their bishop into exile. Along the way the vessel suffered shipwreck
and all drowned, except for the rescued Saint Apollinarius, his
acompanying clergy and the two soldiers. The soldiers, listening
to Saint Apollinarius, believed in the Lord and accepted Baptism.
Nowhere having found shelter, the travellers came to Mycea, where
Saint Apollinarius healed a certain illustrious inhabitant from
leprosy, and for which both he and his companions received shelter
at his home. In this land Saint Apollinarius likewise preached tirelessly
about Christ and he converted many of the pagans to Christianity,
for which he was subjected to persecution on the part of unbelievers.
They beat up the saint mercilessly, and boarding him on a ship sailing
for Italy, they sent him back. After a three year absence, Saint
Apollinarius returned to Ravenna and was joyfully received by his
flock. The pagans, however, having fallen upon the church where
the saint made Divine Liturgy, scattered those at prayer, and dragged
the saint to the idolatrous priests in the pagan temple of Apollo,
where the idol fell just as they brought in the saint, and it shattered.
The pagan priests brought Saint Apollinarius for trial to the new
governor of the district, named Taurus. Apollinarius worked here
a new miracle -- he healed the son of the governor, who had been
blind from birth. In gratitude for the healing of his son, Taurus
strove to shelter Saint Apollinarius from the angry crowd. He dispatched
him to his own estate outside the city, where the son and wife of
Taurus were baptised, but he himself fearing the anger of the emperor
did not accept Baptism, but conducted himself with gratitude and
love towards his benefactor. Saint Apollinarius lived for five years
at the estate of Taurus and preached without hindrance about salvation.
During this time pagan priests dispatched letters of denunciation
to the emperor Vespasian with a request for a sentence of death
or exile of the Christian "sorcerer" Apollinarius. But the emperor
answered the pagan priests, that the gods were sufficiently powerful
to take revenge for themselves, if they reckoned themselves insulted.
All the wrath of the pagans fell upon Saint Apollinarius: they caught
hold of him when the saint left the city setting out for a nearby
settlement, and they beat him fiercely. Christians found him barely
alive and took him to the settlement, where he survived for seven
days. During the time of his pre-death illness the saint did not
cease to teach his flock and he predicted, that after persecution
Christians would enter upon better times, when they could openly
and freely confess their faith. Having given those present his archpastoral
blessing, the PriestMartyr Apollinarius expired to the Lord. Saint
Apollinarius was bishop of Ravenna for 28 years and he died in the
year 75.
Back
to Top
The
Icon of the Mother of God "Joy of All Sorrowing" ("With Coins")
was glorified in the year 1888 in Peterburg, when during the time
of a terrible thunderstorm lightning struck in a chapel, but the
icon of the Queen of Heaven situated in it remained unharmed; to
it however was melted small metal coins (half-kopeck pieces), laying
before the icon. A church was built in 1898 on the spot of the chapel.
Back
to Top
|