Saint Meletius, Arhchbishop of Antioch
This great and holy martyr was an excellent interpreter and defender of Orthodoxy. His entire life was devoted to the fight against the Arian heresy, which denied the Son of God and blasphemed against the Holy Trinity. Three times the heretics deposed him from his episcopal throne and drove him out to Armenia. The fight between the orthodox and the heretics was so fierce that once, when Saint Meletius was speaking to the people in the church about the Divine Trinity in unity, his own deacon, a heretic, ran up to the bishop and closed his mouth with his hand. Unable to talk aloud, Meletius started talking by signs. He raised his arm and opened three fingers, showing them to the people. Then he closed his hand and raised one finger. He participated in the Second Ecumenical Council where Emperor Theodosius paid special honour to him. At this Council God worked a miracle through his holy hierarch. Namely, when he was convincing the arians of the dogma of Holy Trinity, Meletius first raised three fingers apart, one by one, and then joined them together. At that moment a lightning flashed from his fingers at the amazement of all the present. At this Council Meletius confirmed Gregory the Theologian at the Constantinople throne. Earlier he had made Basil the Great a deacon and had baptised John Chrysostom. After the close of the Council, Saint Meletius ended his earthly life in Constantinople. His relics were transferred to Antioch.
Saint Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow
A great hierarch of the Russian Church during the heavy times of the slavery of Russian people under the Tartars. Once, as a child, while he was hunting birds he fell asleep and in dreams he heard a voice: "Alexis, why are you bothering in vain? I'll make you a hunter of men". In his twentieth year he entered monastic order and later became the metropolitan of Moscow. Two times he visited the "Golden Horde"; once to mitigate the rage of khan Verdevir against the Russian people and the other time he was invited by khan Amurat to heal his wife of blindness. For three years she had been blind, but regained sight when Alexis recited a prayer to her and anointed her with holy water. After a fruitful life of many labors he died in 1378 in his eightyfifth year and went to the heavenly Kingdom.
Venerable Maria
A maiden of manly bravery. After the death of her mother, her father wished to enter monastic order. Maria did not want to be separated from her father so they both went to a monastery for men, Maria with clipped hair and in men's attire like a young man. Soon her father died and Maria was tonsured as a man and was named Marinus. In the vicinity of the monastery there was an inn and the innkeeper's daugther fell in love with the alleged monk Marinus. After unsuccessful courting and after she had conceived and begotten a son with another man, she accused Marinus of unlawful relations with her. Maria did not defend herself and was banished from the monastery with ridicule. With alien child in her arms, she spent three years in the forests of the monastery enduring hunger, biting cold and all kinds of torment and hardships. In the meantime the innkeeper's daughter went insane and soon after that Maria died. Only after her death did it come to be known that "monk Martinus" was in reality a woman. The insane daugther of the innkeeper, however, having become healed as soon as she touched the relics of Saint Maira, admitted her terrible sin. Saint Maria died and took up habitation in eternal joy in 508 A.D.
Saint Antony, Patriarch of Constantinople
At first a great ascetic of unusual compassion and then a patriarch at the time of Emperor Leo the Wise (889 - 912). He tonsured even his own father and built a monastery over the relics of Saint Kalia.
Saint Kalia
She was full of charity for the poor, with pure Christian love both as a maiden and later as a married woman. Her husband was rich but parsimonious. Coming back from one of his trade journeys he realized that Kalia had poured off his wealth to the poor and he killed her. But God made this charitable soul famous by working wonders through her relics which brought cure to many diseased. Aware of this power of Kalia, Patriarch Antonius erected a monastery over her relics.