Venerable Isidore of Pelusium
Isidore was an Egyptian by birth and the son of a prominent family and kinsman of the Alexandrian Patriarchs Theophilus and Cyril. Having studied all the secular disciplines, he renounced worldly riches and glories and devoted himself completely to the spiritual life for the love of Christ. He was a great and ardent defender and interpreter of the Orthodox Faith. According to the statements of Nicephorus the historian, St. Isidore wrote more than ten-thousand letters to various individuals in which he reproached some, counseled some, and comforted and instructed others. In one letter St. Isidore writes: "It is more important to teach by a life of doing good than to preach in eloquent terms." In another, he says: "If one desires that his virtues appear great, let him consider them small and they will surely manifest themselves as great." The first and basic rule for St. Isidore was this: "First do, then teach according to the example of our Lord Jesus." At the time of the persecution of St. John Chrysostom when the entire population was divided into two camps; one for and one against, St. Isidore, this great pillar of Orthodoxy, sided with St. John Chrysostom. He wrote to Patriarch Theophilus saying what a great light of the Church Chrysostom is and begged him to avoid hatefulness toward him. Isidore lived long and accomplished much, glorifying Christ the God with his life and his writings. Isidore took up habitation in the kingdom of Christ about the year 436 A.D.
Venerable Nicholas, the Confessor
This saint was from the Island of Crete. He arrived in Constantinople to visit his kinsman, Theodore; the abbot of the Studite Monastery and here he remained and was tonsured a monk. As a monk, Nicholas underwent all mortifications for the sake of the salvation of his soul. During the persecution of the Church by Leo the Armenian, Theodore and Nicholas were cruelly tortured, humiliated and beaten with oxen straps and finally thrown into a dungeon where they were imprisoned for three years. After the death of St. Theodore, Nicholas became abbot of the Studite Monastery. Even during his lifetime, he worked many miracles through the power and grace of God. Nicholas healed Eudocia, the wife of Emperor Basil, as well as Helen, the wife of Manuel, the patrician. To Theophilus Melisenus, a prominent nobleman whose other children did not survive birth, Nicholas blessed the newly born daughter and prophesied that she will live and that she will be very fruitful which occurred, to the joy of the parents. On the very day of his death, Nicholas gathered the monastic brotherhood and asked them what they lacked? "Wheat," answered the monks. Then the dying man said: "He Who fed Israel in the wilderness will send you an ample supply of wheat within three days." And indeed, the third day, a boatload of wheat sent by Emperor Basil sailed below the monastery. Nicholas took up habitation in the heavenly kingdom on February 4, 868 A.D., in the seventy-fifth year of his life.
Holy Neo-Martyr Joseph
Joseph was born in Allepo. He was pressured by the Turks to embrace Islam. Joseph not only rejected this but also began to expose the falsehoods of Islam and to praise the Faith of Christ. For that, Joseph was tortured and beheaded in the year 1686 A.D.