19
November
(02 December)
Prophet
Obadiah (IX Cent BC)
Martyr Varlaam (+c.304)
Monks Varlaam and Joasaph, son of the emperor
of India, and his father the Emperor Avenir (IV)
Monk Varlaam, Hegumen of Pechersk, in the Nearer
Caves (+1065)
Uncovering of Relics of the Monk Adrian of Poshekonsk,
Yaroslavsk (1625)
Martyr Aza and with him 150 Soldiers and others (+284-305)
Martyr Heliodoros (+c.273)
Monk Ilarion the Wonderworker (+875, Gruzia)
Martyrs Anthymos, Thalaleos, Christophoros and Euthymia and their
children with Saint Pancharias (in Nicomedia)
Martyr Akyndinos
Saint Neophytes and his companions
Saint Theodore
Martyrs Uziah (Dasios) and Dionysios (IV)
Icon of the Mother of God named, "In Afflictions and Sorrows the
Comfort" ["V Skorbekh i Pechalekh Uteshenie"]
The
Holy Prophet Obadiah [or Avdi] was from the 12 Minor Prophets,
and he lived during the IX Century BC. He was a native of the village
of Betharam, near Sichem, and he served as house-governor of the
impious Israelite king Ahab. In these times the whole of Israel
had turned away from the True God and had begun to offer sacrifice
to Baal. But Obadiah-Avdi in secret faithfully served the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. When the impious and dissolute Jezebel,
the wife of Ahab, set about the exterminating of all the prophets
of the Lord, Obadiah-Avdi meanwhile in turn gave them shelter and
food (3[1] Kg 18:3ff). Ahab's successor king Okhoziah [Ahaziah]
sent 3 detachments of soldiers to arrest the holy Prophet Elias
[Elijah or Ilias, commemorated 20
July]. One of these detachments was headed by Saint Obadiah-Avdi.
Through the prayer of Saint Elias, two of the detachments were consumed
by Heavenly fire, but Saint Obadiah-Avdi and his detachment were
spared by the Lord (4[2] Kg 1). From this moment Saint Obadiah resigned
military service and became a follower of the Prophet Elias. Afterwards
he himself received the gift of prophecy. The God-inspired work
of Saint Obadiah-Avdi -- the Book of Prophecies under his name,
is the fourth in order of the Books of the Twelve Minor Prophets
in the Bible -- contains predictions about the New Testament Church.
The holy Prophet Obadiah-Avdi was buried in Samaria.
The
Holy Martyr Varlaam lived in Syrian Antioch. During the time
of the persecution against Christians under the emperor Diocletian
(284-305), Saint Varlaam at an advanced age was arrested and brought
to trial, where he confessed himself a Christian. The judge, wanting
to compel the saint to renounce Christ, gave orders to conduct Saint
Varlaam to the pagan altar, pull his right hand over it, and put
into the palm of his hand a red-hot censor burning with incense.
The torturer reckoned, that a physically weak old man could not
hold out and would drop it on the altar, and in such manner would
be offering sacrifice to the idol. But the saint held on to the
censor, until his fingers were burnt. After this the holy Martyr
Varlaam offered up his soul to the Lord (+304).
The
Monks Varlaam the Wilderness-Dweller, Joasaph the son of the
Emperor of India, and his father Avenir: In India, -- once formerly
having received the Christian faith through the evangelisation of
the holy Apostle Thomas, there ruled the emperor Avenir, an idol-worshipper
and fierce persecutor of Christians. For a long time he did not
have any children. Finally, a son was born to the emperor, and named
Joasaph. At the birth of this son the wisest of the emperor's star-gazers
predicted, that the emperor's son would accept the Christian faith
which was persecuted by his father. The emperor, wanting to ward
off the prediction, commanded that there be built for his son a
separate palace and he arranged matters such that his son should
never hear a single word about Christ and His teachings.
Reaching
a youthful age, Joasaph asked permission of his father to go out
beyond the palace, and he saw existing there such things as suffering,
sickness, old age and death. This led him into ponderings over the
vanity and absurdity of life, and he began to engage in some serious
thinking.
At
this time in a far-off wilderness there asceticised a wise hermit,
the Monk Varlaam. By a Divine insight he learned about the youth
agonising in search of truth. Forsaking his wilderness, the Monk
Varlaam in the guise of a merchant set out to India, and having
arrived in the city where Joasaph's palace was situated, he declared
that he had brought with him a precious stone, endowed with wondrous
powers to heal sickness. Being brought in to Joasaph, he began to
present him the Christian faith in the form of parables, and then
also "from the Holy Gospel and the Holy Epistles." From the instructions
of the Monk Varlaam the youth reasoned out that the precious stone
is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he believed in Him and desired
to accept holy Baptism. Having made the sign of the cross over the
youth, the Monk Varlaam bid him to fast and pray, and he went off
into the wilderness.
The
emperor, learning that his son was become a Christian, fell into
a rage and grief. On the advice of one of his counsellors, the emperor
arranged for a debate about faith between the Christians and the
pagans, at which under the guise of Varlaam there appeared the Magi
magician Nakhor. In the debate Nakhor was supposed to acknowledge
himself beaten and in such manner turn the imperial youth away from
Christianity. Through a vision in a dream, Saint Joasaph learned
about the deception and he threatened Nakhor with a fiercesome execution,
if beaten in the debate. Nakhor in terror not only beat the pagans,
but he himself came to believe in Christ, and he repented and accepted
holy Baptism and went off into the wilderness. The emperor tried
to turn his son away from Christianity by other methods also, but
the youth conquered all the temptations. Then on the advice of his
counsellors, Avenir bestowed on his son half the realm. Saint Joasaph,
having become an emperor, restored Christianity in his lands, built
anew the churches, and finally, he converted his own father the
emperor Avenir to Christianity. Soon after Baptism the emperor Avenir
died, and Saint Joasaph abdicated his rule and went off into the
wilderness in search of his teacher, the elder Varlaam. Over the
course of two years he wandered about through the wilderness, suffering
dangers and temptations, until he found the cave of the Monk Varlaam,
asceticising in silence. The elder and the youth began to asceticise
together. When the end for the Monk Varlaam approached, he served
out the Divine Liturgy, partook of the Holy Mysteries and communed
Saint Joasaph, and with this he expired to the Lord, having lived
in the wilderness 70 of his hundred years. Having buried the elder,
Saint Joasaph remained at the cave and continued with the wilderness
efforts. He dwelt in the wilderness for 35 years, and expired to
the Lord at age sixty.
The
successor of Saint Joasaph as emperor, Barachias, with the help
of a certain hermit, found in the cave the undecayed and fragrant
relics of both ascetics, and he conveyed them back to his fatherland
and gave them burial in a church, built by the Monk-Emperor Joasaph.
The
Monk Varlaam, Hegumen of Pechersk, lived during the XI Century
at Kiev, and was the son of an illustrious boyar-noble. From the
time of his youthful years he yearned for the monk's life and he
went off to the Monk Antonii of Pechersk (+1073, commemorated 10
July), who accepted the pious youth so firmly determined to
become a monk, and he bid the Monk Nikon (+1088, commemorated 23
March) to make monastic tonsure over him.
The
father of the Monk Varlaam tried forcefully to return him home,
but finally becoming convinced that his son would never return to
the world, he gave up. When the number of monks at the Caves began
to increase, the Monk Antonii made the Monk Varlaam hegumen, while
he himself resettled to another cave and again began to live in
solitude.
The
Monk Varlaam became the first hegumen of the Kievo-Pechersk monastery.
In the year 1058, having besought the blessing of the Monk Antonii,
the Monk Varlaam built over the cave a wooden church in honor of
the Uspenie-Dormition of the MostHoly Mother of God. Afterwards,
the Monk Varlaam became hegumen of the newly-formed monastery in
honor of the GreatMartyr Demetrios. The Monk Varlaam twice made
pilgrimage to the holy places in Jerusalem and Constantinople. Having
returned from his second journey, he died in the Vladimir Holy-Mountain
monastery at Volynia in 1065 and was buried, in accord with his
final wishes, at the Pechersk monastery in the Nearer Caves. His
memory is likewise 28 September
and on the 2nd Sunday of Great Lent.
The
Uncovering of the Relics of the MonkMartyr Adrian of Peshekhonsk
and Yaroslavsk was on 19 November 1625. On 17 December 1625,
under Patriarch Philaret, his incorrupt relics were transferred
to the monastery founded by him. The account about the MonkMartyr
Adrian is located under the day of his death, 5
March (+1550).
The
Holy Martyr Aza and with him 150 Soldiers suffered at Isauria,
in Asia Minor, under the emperor Diocletian (284-305). For his confession
of the Christian faith the saint was arrested and brought to trial
before the eparch-governor, Aquilinus. There had been sent 150 soldiers
to arrest the saint, but they were converted onto the path of salvation
and they accepted holy Baptism with water that issued forth in a
spring through the prayer of Saint Aza. The martyr persuaded them
to fulfill the commandment about obedience to authorities, and therefore
to bring him before the eparch. The soldiers together with the saint
confessed their Christian faith afront Aquilinus, and for this they
were all beheaded. And together with them the eparch executed his
own wife and daughter, who had come to believe in Christ, seeing
the steadfastness of Saint Aza under torture.
The
Holy Martyr Heliodoros lived during the reign of the emperor
Aurelian (270-275) in the city of Magidum (Pamphylia). The city-governor
Aetius subjected the saint to fierce tortures for his faith in Christ
and had him beheaded (+c.273).
The
Monk Ilarion the Wonderworker was born in 816 in Kakhetia
(Eastern Gruzia-Georgia). He was descended from a line of Gruzian
princes, the Vachnadze (Donauri). In very early childhood he displayed
an inclination towards asceticism. At 9 years of age he knew by
heart the Gospel, and at 12 years of age he was tonsured into monasticism
at a monastery founded by his father. At 16 years of age the youth
transferred over to the Davido-Garedzhe wilderness monastery. Here
the Monk Ilarion spent 10 years as an hermit. By his unceasing prayer,
tears, silence vigil and fasting he became known throughout all
Gruzia. But glory-seeking was alien to the monk. Having accepted
the dignity of priest, he declined the offer to him of a bishop's-seat
in Gruzia at Sagaredzho (in Kakhetia), and he withdrew to the Holy
Land, for worship at the Sepulchre of the Lord.
Saint
Ilarion spent 17 years in the Jordanian desert, living in a cave
of the holy Prophet Elias the Tishbite [Thesvitanin], which once
had serve as an habitation also for Saint John the Baptist. Here
it was that an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and
summoned him to hasten to Gruzia, in order to find his father among
the yet-living. Saint Ilarion set off to his native land, where
after the death of his father he set up at his parental home a monastery,
tonsuring into monasticism both his mother and sister. He remained
by this monastery until the death of his mother. Then he gave off
half of his inheritance to the Davido-Garezhe monastery, and the
other half he distributed amongst impoverished brethren, and then
he set off to Constantinople. Having made reverence at the holy
places in Tsargrad, Saint Ilarion withdrew to the Mount Olympos
in Asia Minor, where in about the year 864 he founded a Gruzian
monastery. Here he dwelt for five years. During this period there
were reported many healings, worked by the monk through the power
of prayer, the sign of the cross and anointing with myrh. Shunning
fame, Saint Ilarion set off to Rome to venerate at the graves of
the holy First-Ranked Apostles Peter and Paul. Along the way he
visited Constantinople and Thessalonika, and worked several healings
(a gardener and a lad, having "withered-up" legs). On his return
journey the Monk Ilarion again stopped off at Thessalonika, where
he spent three years. A miracle is known of, where a deacon (from
the church in name of the GreatMartyr Demetrios of Soluneia/Thessalonika)
was taken captive by Skythians but then was freed of his fetters,
upon prayerfully calling out to Saint Ilarion for help.
Saint
Ilarion knew about his impending death 40 days beforehand, and 3
days before his death he communed the Holy Mysteries, took his leave
of the brethren and secluded himself in his cell. He peacefully
expired to the Lord on 19 November 875.
His
venerable relics were consigned to a stone crypt, and after the
passage of 40 days the relics were glorified by healings of those
that came in faith. On the orders of the emperor Basil the Macedonian
(866-886), the relics of Saint Ilarion were transferred from Thessalonika
to Constantinople in the year 882. The emperor intended to situate
the relics within the imperial palaces, but Saint Ilarion appeared
to him in a dream and directed, that his relics should be placed
in the newly-constructed church built in honor of the holy Apostles,
near the Thracian Bosphorus. The Gruzian-Georgian Church in the
IX Century enumerated the Monk Ilarion to the rank of the Saints
and established his memory to be observed under 19 November.
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