St Raphael Bishop of Brooklyn

Saints commemorated

• Saint of the day

  

  Raphael of Brooklyn

  Raphael Hawaweeny (1860–1915) was the first Orthodox bishop consecrated on North American soil and the shepherd of the scattered Arab Orthodox faithful of the New World — "the Good Shepherd of the Lost Sheep in America." Born in Beirut to Damascene refugees, formed in Damascus, at Halki, and at the Theological Academy of Kiev, and a priest of the Church of Antioch serving in Russia, he was sent in 1895 to gather the Syrian Orthodox immigrants of the United States and Canada. From his cathedral of Saint Nicholas in Brooklyn he travelled the continent without rest, founding some thirty parishes, printing the first Orthodox service-books in America, and in 1904 receiving episcopal consecration at the hands of the future Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow. He reposed in 1915, worn out in the service of his people, and was glorified in 2000 by the Orthodox Church in America and the Antiochian Archdiocese together. He is kept on February 27, the day of his repose.

• Our Holy Father Procopius of Decapolis (9th c.)

  Prokopius the Confessor of Decapolis (†c. 750) was a monk of the region of the Decapolis, east of the Sea of Galilee, who together with his companion Basil stood firm for the veneration of the holy icons in the first generation of the Byzantine iconoclast persecution. When the emperor Leo III the Isaurian proscribed the icons and turned the power of the state against those who honoured them, Prokopius openly confessed the ancient practice of the Church and taught that the honour paid to the image passes to its prototype. For this he was seized, imprisoned, scourged, and subjected to torments, enduring them without yielding. He outlived the persecuting emperor, was released at Leo's death, and returned to the ascetic life, in which he reposed in peace — a confessor, one who suffered for Christ yet was not slain. He is kept on February 27, on the eve of the commemoration of his fellow-sufferer Basil.

• Our Venerable Father Titus of the Lavra of the Kiev Caves (1190)

  Titus (†1190) was a priest-monk of the Near (Antoniev) Caves of the Kiev Caves Lavra, remembered in the Caves Paterikon for a story of enmity overcome too late and forgiveness won at the edge of death. Bound in close friendship with a deacon named Evagrius, he fell with him into a bitter and lasting quarrel, in which the two served at the same altar without speaking, passing the incense and the peace to each other in silence and hatred. When Titus was struck down by a mortal illness he begged forgiveness of Evagrius, who — dragged to the bedside by the brethren — hardened his heart, refused, and fell dead in the very act of refusing, while Titus rose up healed. The tale became one of the Lavra's enduring lessons on the deadliness of unforgiveness. Titus reposed a monk in peace, and his relics rest in the Near Caves.

• Our Holy Father Leander, Bishop of Seville and Apostle of Spain (600)

• Asclepius and James of Syria

  Asclepius and James (fifth century) were two ascetics of the Syrian countryside, of the region around Cyrrhus, remembered together on February 27 among the solitaries whose lives were gathered by Theodoret of Cyrrhus in his Religious History. Asclepius first pursued the ascetic life in his own village, drawing many after him into the discipline of prayer and fasting, before withdrawing into stricter solitude; James likewise lived the hermit's life in the same country of Syria. Little more is transmitted of them than the fact and the manner of their struggle, and they are honoured as fathers of the great fifth-century flowering of Syrian monasticism.

• Julian, Eunus, Besas and Macarius of Alexandria

  Julian, Eunus, Besas and Macarius were martyrs of Alexandria in the persecution of the emperor Decius (c. 250), whose sufferings are recorded by an eyewitness generation in the letters of Dionysius of Alexandria, preserved by Eusebius. Julian, so crippled with gout that he could neither stand nor walk, was carried to his trial; borne with him was Eunus (Cronion, surnamed Eunus). Confessing Christ and refusing to sacrifice, the two were set on camels, scourged through the whole city, and at last consumed in quicklime before the people. Besas, a soldier who rebuked the crowd for mocking the martyrs, was denounced, and being himself a Christian was beheaded. Macarius, a Libyan, was burned alive. They are commemorated together on February 27.

• Stephen of Constantinople

  Stephen (†c. 614) was a man of the imperial court at Constantinople under the emperor Maurice who renounced rank and wealth for the sake of the poor, founding at Constantinople a home for the aged — an almshouse or gerokomeion — and giving himself to the personal service of the old and destitute who sheltered there. Having exchanged the honours of the palace for the labour of charity, he became a monk in spirit and in deed, and reposed about the year 614, honoured by the Church as a father who made the love of the poor his whole ascetic discipline. He is commemorated on February 27.

• Thalelaeus of Syria

  Thalelaeus the Hermit (†c. 460) was a Syrian solitary of the region near Gabala (Jableh) on the coast of Syria, remembered by his contemporary Theodoret of Cyrrhus for two things above all: the extraordinary austerity of his dwelling, and his ceaseless weeping — whence his surname "Epiklautos," the Ever-Weeping. He confined himself for years in a cramped hanging hut in which he could neither stand upright nor lie down, and wept without pause for his own sins and the judgment to come. From this outpost he overthrew a pagan cult that clung to the place, drew the local people to Christ, and became a source of healings. He is not to be confused with the unmercenary Martyr Thalelaeus of Cilicia (kept May 20). He is commemorated on February 27.

• Titus the Soldier of the Kiev Caves

  Titus the Soldier (14th century) was a warrior who, grievously wounded in battle, turned from the world to the monastic life and became a monk of the Far (Feodosiev) Caves of the Kiev Caves Lavra, where he gave the remainder of his days to prayer and repentance and was healed of the passions as of his wounds. Little is recorded of him beyond this pattern — the brave soldier who exchanged the warfare of the world for the unseen warfare of the ascetic — and his relics rest among the wonderworking fathers of the Far Caves. He is commemorated on February 27, the same day as his namesake, Titus the priest of the Near Caves.

British Isles and Ireland

• St. Comgan, abbot of Glenthsen or Killeshin (c.565)
• Holy Martyr Alnoth of Stowe, nr
• Bugbrooke (c.700)

Troparia & kontakia

Readings