Saints Of The Eastern Orthodox Church

"“And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write,"

"Greet Andronicus and Junia, my countrymen and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me."

"There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. In a vision, the Lord said to him, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the Street called Straight, to the house of Judas, and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying, and in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he may regain his sight.”"

"Greet Andronicus and Junia, my countrymen and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me."

"‘Brother Saul, regain your sight.’ Instantly, I saw him."

"Greet Apelles, approved in Christ. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus."

"And so Ananias went forth and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on your way has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit."

"Indeed I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God."

"Yet I considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, but your messenger and the one who ministered to my need; 26 since he was longing for you all, and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick. For indeed he was sick almost unto death; but God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore I sent him the more eagerly, that when you see him again you may rejoice, and I may be less sorrowful. Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such men in esteem; because for the work of Christ he came close to death, not regarding his life, to supply what was lacking in your service toward me."

"Together we run to gather the beloved flowers of the meadow that belongs to the Mother of God."

"Every divine feast, when celebrated, fills the faithful with spiritual joy, drawing from treasures and sources that come from God."

"(About Mary, mother of Jesus) The heavenly drop generated by her – an immense sea – revealed her greatness."

"Everyone can be satisfied in all things; but in the songs and feasts in her honour, the banquet is inexhaustible in its sweetness."

"O Lady, all-chaste, all-good, rich in mercy, comfort of Christians, tender consoler of the afflicted, the ever-open refuge of the sinners, do not leave us destitute of thy assistance...Shelter us under the wings of thy goodness. By thy intercession watch over us. O unfailing hope of Christians, hold forth us to eternal life...For no one, Lady all-holy, is saved except through thee, all-holy one...No one, Lady most chaste, is favored with any gift except through thee. No one, Lady most venerable, is given the merciful gift of grace except through thee... After thy Son, who more than thee has the interest of mankind at heart? Who more than thee protects and sustains us in our bitter sorrow?...Who like to thee excels as suppliannt for sinners?...At the very invocation of thy holy name, thou dost turn aside from thy servants the attacks of that most evil enemy, and keep them safe and unharmed."

"I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius..."

"Georges Gharib (editor), Testi mariani del primo millennio. Volume 2: Padri e altri autori bizantini, Città Nuova, Roma, 1989. ISBN 88-311-9216-7 (in Italian)."

"Then Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household. And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized."

"The Holy Spirit descends upon you, who are the Immaculate, to make you purer and give you the virtue of fertility."

"When Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat, 13 saying, “This fellow persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.”"

"(To the ever Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus) You have made the nature of men beautiful; you have surpassed the hosts of angels; you have overshadowed the dazzling splendour of the archangels; you have shown the seats of thrones to be inferior to you; you have lowered the height of dominions; you have surpassed the commands of the principalities; you have weakened the power of the powers; you have gone forth as a virtue more powerful than the virtues themselves; you, with earthly eyes, have surpassed the keenest sight of the cherubim; you, with divinely moved wings, have flown beyond the flights of the soul of the seraphim."

"Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,"

"And surely what joy, what delight can ever be found that far surpasses the announcement made to that blessed Virgin and Mother of joy? Rejoice, O mother of supernatural joy! Rejoice, O nurturer of sublime joy! Rejoice, capital seat of the joy of salvation! Rejoice, co-operator of immortal joy! Rejoice, O mystical dwelling place of ineffable joy! Rejoice, O most blessed source of inexhaustible joy! Rejoice, O treasure of eternal joy who bears God! Rejoice, O most luxuriant tree of life-giving joy!"

"Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying:"

"[July 20] In Antioch in Pisidia (Asia Minor), commemoration of St. Marina (or Margaret), who is said to have consecrated her body to Christ in virginity and martyrdom."

"(To the governor who asked for her hand in marriage) Can you expect me to renounce heaven and choose instead the dust of the earth?"

"Her husband had slipped a gold ring set with a fine ruby onto her finger, and her mother-in-law had given her a birth bag which, in her time, she herself had tied to her thigh for the duration of her pregnancy. “It contains a parchment recounting the birth of Margaret of Antioch. It will protect you from a brutal death, just as it protected me.” Swallowed by a dragon, Margaret of Antioch had escaped from the beast's bowels by piercing its spine with her cross. My son, Hades had thought, will not have to resort to violence to come into the world. At the right moment, I will open wide and he will slide out without pain. He will be born with rosy skin and a healthy complexion."

"(To the Roman emperor) Why do you want to lose this crowd with the worship of gods? Learn about God, Creator of the world, and His only Son Jesus Christ, who freed humanity from hell with the cross!"

"Agnese, a young woman full of wisdom, as Ambrogio tells us in his “Passione,” left death behind and found life at the age of thirteen. Her young age was evident, but the maturity of her mind was extraordinary: young in body, but mature in soul, beautiful in appearance but even more beautiful in faith. It happened that while she was returning from school, the prefect's son fell in love with her. He promised her endless jewels and riches if she agreed to marry him. Agnes replied: "Stay away from me, get out of sin, food of evil deeds, nourishment of death! Another loved me before you."

"Almachio then had her taken back to his house and ordered that she be burned by keeping her in a boiling bath night and day. Cecilia remained there as if it were a cold place, and did not even break a sweat. When this was reported to Almachio, he ordered that her head be cut off in the bath. The executioner struck her three times, but failed to sever her head; however, since the law forbade the condemned person from being struck four times, the executioner, covered in blood, left her dying. She lived for three more days, during which she gave all her possessions to the poor and entrusted to Urban all those she had converted to the faith, saying to him: “I have obtained a three-day reprieve for myself, so that I may entrust myself to your blessedness and so that you may consecrate my house as a church.”"

"Then the prefect had her stripped and taken to the brothel. But the Lord made Agnes' hair so thick that it covered her better than a dress, and when she entered that vile place, she found the angel of the Lord waiting for her, who illuminated the room with a shining light and prepared a pure white stole for her. Thus the place of sin became a place of prayer, so much so that Agnes came out purer than when she had entered, when that great light had honored her."

"Then, when she was beheaded, milk flowed from her body instead of blood. The angels took her body and carried it from that place to Mount Sinai, a journey of more than twenty days, and there they buried her with full honors. From her bones flows an oil that heals the limbs of all the sick. Her passion took place under the tyrant Maxentius or Maximinus, who ascended the throne around 310. How Maximinus was punished for this crime, and for many others, can be read in the story of the Invention of the Holy Cross."

"Saint Lucy is, from a strictly historical point of view, the place where the city of Naples was born."

"[13 December] Memorial of Saint Lucy, virgin and martyr, who, while she lived, kept the lamp lit for her coming Bridegroom, and once she was put to death for Christ, she merited to be wedded to Him, thus possessing the Light that never goes out."

"“May Saint Lucy preserve your sight”, the Neapolitan beggar has been repeating for centuries, holding out his hand on street corners, and with that phrase he gives the exact measure of the importance attached in Naples to the “faculty of sight”, a primary good that constitutes the extreme wealth of the poor and the ultimate health of the sick."

"‘However bad things may go for you, at least may your eyes be spared,’ the beggar wishes, invoking Saint Lucy, patron saint of the eyes."

"[January 21] Memorial of St. Agnes, virgin and martyr, who, while still a girl in Rome, offered the supreme testimony of faith and consecrated the virtue of chastity with martyrdom; in fact, she overcame both her young age and the tyranny of the tyrant and thus acquired great admiration among the people, obtaining even greater glory with God. On this day, we celebrate the deposition of her mortal remains."

"Lucia, a noble maiden from Syracuse, hearing talk throughout Sicily of the fame of Saint Agatha, went to her tomb with her mother Euticia, who had been suffering from blood loss for four years and whom the doctors had been unable to cure. It so happened that during the celebration of Mass that day, the passage from the Gospel was read in which it is said that the Lord healed a woman from that same illness. Lucia then said to her mother: ‘If you believe what has been read, believe that Agatha always has beside her the one for whom she suffered martyrdom. Therefore, if you touch her tomb with faith, you will immediately regain your health.’"

"Lucia, nimica di ciascun crudele"

"Cecilia, an illustrious virgin, born of noble Roman lineage, was raised from the cradle in the faith of Christ. She always carried the image of Christ hidden in her bosom, and never ceased to pray day or night, asking God to preserve her virginity. Having been promised in marriage to a young man named Valeriano, and the wedding day having already been set, Cecilia wore a hair shirt next to her skin, while above it she wore her gold-woven garments. While the choirs sang, she sang alone, to herself, only for the Lord, saying: “Lord, may my heart and my body remain immaculate, so that I may not be confused at the Judgment.”"

"In Rome, in the cemetery of Callixtus on the Appian Way, memory of St. Cecilia, virgin and martyr, who, as tradition has it, achieved this double palm for the love of Christ, and to whose name the ancient church of Trastevere is dedicated."

"Saint Lucy, condemned to work in a brothel, preferred to face the stake, which left her unharmed; and in Naples, more than one Filumena Marturano, who took to the streets to escape the oppressive heat of a basement flat, imagines harmless blackmailing flames. It is almost surprising that such a saint was born in Syracuse and not at the foot of Vesuvius."

"(To those who advised him, in order to avoid martyrdom, to pretend to eat the pork imposed by the king) At this stage of my life it would be terribly wrong to be a party to such a pretense,” he said, “for many young people would be led to believe that at the age of ninety Eleazar had conformed to a foreign practice. If I should engage in deceit for the sake of living a brief moment longer, they would be led astray by me, while I would bring defilement and disgrace on my old age. For the moment I would avoid the punishment of mortals, but alive or dead I shall never escape the hands of the Almighty. Therefore, by bravely forfeiting my life now, I shall prove myself worthy of my old age."

"(Last words) The Lord in his holy knowledge clearly realizes that although I could have escaped death, not only am I enduring terrible sufferings in my body from this scourging, but in my soul I am gladly accepting these torments because of my awe of him."

"Eleazar, one of the foremost teachers of the law, a man of advanced age and distinguished appearance, was being forced to open his mouth to eat pork. But he, preferring death with honor rather than a life marked by defilement, spat it out and voluntarily went up to the torture rack..."

"Hadji-Georgis had had profuse, guileless love for everyone. He had always been peaceful, long-suffering, and forgiving. He had had a big heart, which is why it had been able to hold all things and all people exactly as they were. He had somehow become incorporeal. By having lived the Angelic life, he had become an angel and flown to the Heavens because he had not held onto anything, neither passions of the soul, nor material items. He had cast them all aside, which is also why he had soared to great heights."

"God is infinite Nous and man, through his nous, is both related to God, and also approaches Him. God is infinite Love, and man, with a purified heart, experiences God. God is simple, and man believes with simplicity, and struggles humbly and in a philotimo-filled way, and experiences the mysteries of God."

"The greatest memorial service for both the people in the world and our ancestors is our spiritual progress, because then they are entitled to divine help. This is apart from our prayer, which is bold before God, and the joy which our grandparents feel over us, their pride and joy. But if we lead a bad life, they suffer threefold."

"A hesychast missionary in the spirit of St Gregory the Sinaite, whom he had known in his youth, St Nicodemus established his rule of life in the many communities founded by himself or his disciples in the three Romanian lands. Romanian monasticism thus owes to him its hesychastic orientation in the 14th century. The resulting cultural and spiritual blossoming was to continue, more or less without interruption, for the next three centuries."

"Considered in its entirety, the work of Nikodimos represents an original synthesis between the hesychast movement imported from Mount Athos and the artistic and literary influences coming from Serbia. Contrary to the currents that supply the first literary school in Moldavia established at the monastery of Neamț by the monk Gabriel (1424–49), it stands apart from the Bulgarian tradition of the fourteenth century. Nikodimos’s relations with Patriarch Euthymius of Trnovo merely assume the character of an episode without profound implications for the life of his foundations."

"God is everywhere. There is no place where God is not. The more you pay attention to Him, the more He pays attention to you. You cry out to Him, “Where art Thou, my God?” And He answers, “I am present, my child! I am always beside you.” Both inside and outside, above and below, wherever you turn, everything shouts, “God!” In Him we live and move. We breathe God, we eat God, we clothe ourselves with God. Everything praises and blesses God. All of creation shouts His praise. Everything animate and inanimate speaks wondrously and glorifies the Creator. Let every breath praise the Lord!"