Friday 4 April year 2015

Friday 17 April year 2015

Zitije/Hagiographics

Venerable Joseph the Hymnographer
Joseph was born in Sicily of pious and virtuous parents, Plotinus and Agatha. After the death of his parents, Joseph moved to Thessalonica where he was tonsured a monk. As a monk, he was a model to all in fasting, extreme restraint, ceaseless prayer, chanting of the Psalms, vigils and labor. The bishop of Thessalonica ordained him a priest (Heiromonk). While visiting Thessalonica the distinguished Gregory Decapolis was so impressed with Joseph, because of his rare character, that he invited him to his monastery in Constantinople. When the flame of the Iconoclastic heresy erupted again under Leo V, the Armenian, Joseph was sent to Rome to call upon the Pope and the Roman Church to battle for Orthodoxy. While enroute, Joseph was captured by pirates and taken to Crete where the heretics detained him in prison for six years. Joseph rejoiced that he was made worthy to suffer for Christ and, for that, he continually praised God, considering the iron chains on him as an adornment of gold. Early in the morning on Christmas day, in the sixth year of Joseph's imprisonment, the wicked Emperor Leo was slain in church while attending Matins. At that same moment, St. Nicholas appeared to Joseph in prison and said to him:"Arise and follow me!" Joseph felt himself being elevated in the air and, all at once, found himself before the gates of Constantinople. All true believers rejoiced at his coming. He composed canons and hymns for many saints. He possessed the "gift of discernment" for which Patriarch Photius appointed him the spiritual father and confessor for priests recommending him as, "A man of God, an angel in the flesh and father of fathers." In extreme old age, Joseph gave up his soul to the Lord Whom he faithfully served both in words and in hymns. He died peacefully on the eve of Holy and Great Thursday in the year 883 A.D.

Holy Martyr Pherbutha, Her Widowed Sister and Their Slave
During the reign of the Persian Emperor Saborius, St. Simeon, the bishop, was slain. At the wish of the empress, Pherbutha, the sister of Bishop Simeon, was taken to the palace. Pherbutha was exceptionally beautiful and because of that many suitors thronged to her among whom were many pagan priests and soothsayers. Pherbutha rejected them all and provoked much anger against herself. At that time, the empress became ill and all the pagan priests explained to the emperor that the empress was poisoned by Pherbutha and, as a cure for the ailing empress, they recommended the following: that Pherbutha, her sister and their slave, as Christians, be sawn and that three parts of their bodies be placed on one side and three parts on the other side and that the empress should be borne between them. The emperor agreed to the recommendation of these blood-thirsty pagan priests. Pherbutha, together with her sister and their slave, suffered for Christ in the year 343 A.D., thereby earning the incorruptible wreath in the eternal kingdom of their Lord.

Venerable Zosimus
Zosimus was a monk of the Jordanian monastic community during the reign of Emperor Theodosius the Younger. It was he who discovered, administered Holy Communion to and buried the body of St. Mary the Egyptian. He died in the Lord in his hundredth year in the sixth century.

Venerable Martyr Nicetas
Nicetas was a Slav from Albania. As a monk of the Holy Mountain (Mt. Athos), he went to Serres where he debated with the Mullahs about religion. Being that they could not overcome him with reason, the Turks subjected him to torture under which Nicetas, the holy one, died and gave up his soul to his God in the year 1808 A.D.

April 2015

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Припремили Зоран Милановић, Чедо Кучинар и Милица Опачић.
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