Holy Hieromartyr Dometius the Persian
363
Saint Dometius was a Persian by birth and was raised in the religion of the Magi during the reign of the Emperor Constantine the Great. As a young man he became acquainted with a Christian named Uaros, by whose teaching he was led to abandon the worship of fire and was baptised. To escape the persecution of his kinsmen and to give himself wholly to Christ, Dometius left Persia and entered a monastery near the frontier city of Nisibis in Mesopotamia, where he received the monastic tonsure. The Lord granted him such gifts of asceticism that the elder of the house, Urbel, ordained him deacon and wished to advance him to the priesthood, but Dometius, judging himself unworthy of so great a dignity, withdrew from the monastery to a more solitary place. Eventually he settled with two disciples in a cave on a mountain in Cyrrhus in Syria, where he laboured in fasting and unceasing prayer and was vouchsafed gifts of healing for the sick who came to him. The fame of his miracles spread widely and many were converted to Christ through him. When Julian the Apostate (361 to 363) was marching against the Persians, his soldiers came upon Saint Dometius and his disciples chanting the Sixth Hour at the entrance to the cave. Hearing of the saint's influence, Julian commanded that they should be stoned to death where they stood. So, in the year 363, having confessed Christ to the last verse of the Psalter, the saint and his disciples received the crown of martyrdom.
Martyr Dometius of Persia and two disciples
363
“Born a pagan in Persia in the time of the Emperor Constantine, he came to know the Christian faith as a young man, forsook his paganism and received baptism. He was so enchanted with the true Faith that he left all worldly things and became a monk in a monastery near the town of Nisibis. He lived among the brethren for some time, then withdrew into silence, going to Archimandrite Urbel, of whom it is said that, for sixty years, he never ate anything cooked. Urbel made him a deacon, but, when he wanted to make him a priest, Dometius fled to a distant mountain and settled in a cave there. He attained such perfection through fasting, prayer, vigils and meditation that he was able to heal the sick. When Julian the Apostate came to that place, he heard of Dometius and sent men to wall him up alive in the came, with two of his disciples. Thus died this saint of God, in 363, and went to the Kingdom of God.” (Prologue). The Great Horologion says that Dometius and his disciples were stoned to death.
Saint Macarius the Confessor, Igumen of Pelekete
Saint Macarius, in the world Christophoros, was born at Constantinople about the year 750. While still a child he lost both of his parents, and being committed to the care of an uncle who was a priest, he received from him an early instruction in the Holy Scriptures. Having attained to manhood, he renounced the world and entered the monastery of Pelekete in Bithynia, on the southern shore of the Sea of Marmara, where the great ascetic Saint Hilarion was at that time igumen. There he was tonsured and given the name Macarius. He devoted himself to extreme labours of fasting, prayer and obedience, attaining a hidden life of contemplation that brought him the gift of working miracles. After the death of Saint Hilarion, the brethren chose him with one voice as their igumen, and the Patriarch Tarasius of Constantinople ordained him priest. Under his rule the monastery of Pelekete flourished. When the Emperor Leo V the Armenian (813 to 820) renewed the war against the holy icons, Saint Macarius confessed openly the veneration due to the images of Christ and his saints. He was arrested, scourged, and confined in a foul prison, where he remained until the death of Leo. The next emperor, Michael II the Stammerer, released him from prison but sought by flattery to win him over to the iconoclast cause. Saint Macarius rebuked the emperor's heresy to his face and was again banished, this time to the island of Aphousia in the Propontis, where he gathered around him a body of monks and continued his ascetic labours. There he reposed in peace about the year 830, having struggled steadfastly for the truth of the holy icons.
Saint Pimen the Much-Suffering of the Kiev Caves
Saint Pimen the Much-Suffering, called also Pimen the Much-Ailing, lived in the eleventh and early twelfth centuries in Kievan Rus. He was both born and grew up in continual sickness, but his bodily afflictions, far from harming him, preserved him from the diseases of the soul. From his earliest years he longed for the angelic life, and he begged his parents to bring him to the Kiev Caves monastery. They finally consented and brought him to the holy fathers Antony and Theodosius. There, when his condition worsened to the point of death, the brethren prepared to tonsure him, but in the night angels appeared to him in the likeness of monks and clothed him in the great schema, leaving on his bed the marks and the prayers of the rite. The next morning, when the elders entered, they found everything performed in a manner that surpassed human power, and the brethren marvelled. Saint Pimen lay grievously ill upon his bed for twenty years, suffering with patience and unceasing thanksgiving. He was so afflicted that his closest fellow-monks could scarcely endure to nurse him, but the saint accepted his pains as instruments of his salvation. As the angels had foretold, his health was given back to him only at the very end of his life. On the day of his repose he rose, took leave of all the brethren in the church, partook of the holy mysteries, and bowed before the tomb of Saint Antony. Pointing to certain places where his fellow-monks lay, he made prophecies concerning their state at the resurrection, and indicated where his own body should rest. Then, lying down on his bed, he gave up his spirit to the Lord, about the year 1110. His relics rest incorrupt in the Near Caves of the Lavra, and the Russian Church keeps his memory on this day, on which from antiquity his repose has been honoured.
Venerable Hor of the Thebaid
390
Saint Hor, known also as Or or Horus, was one of the great fathers of the Egyptian desert in the fourth century. While still a young man he withdrew to the wilderness of the Thebaid in Upper Egypt and lived there for many years in complete solitude, eating only roots and the wild herbs of the desert and never tasting bread. As he grew old an angel was sent to him with the message that the Lord had appointed him to be the guide of many souls. Saint Hor obeyed, came down to the inhabited parts of the desert near Nitria, and gathered around himself a great number of disciples, founding several monastic communities. According to the testimony of Saint Jerome and of Palladius in the Lausiac History, in his old age the saint was at the head of about a thousand monks, who looked to him as their teacher and father. He was distinguished by humility, by an extraordinary love for mankind and by a generous hospitality, washing the feet of every visitor with his own hands. The Lord granted him gifts of healing and of insight into the thoughts of others. Even in extreme old age the saint kept the rule he had received in his youth, devoting himself to the recitation of the Psalter and to manual work. He fell asleep in the Lord about the year 390, leaving behind him a host of monks formed in the spirit of the great fathers and an example of obedience to the call of God among the perfect of the desert.
Holy Martyrs Marinus the Soldier and Asterius the Senator
260
Marinus was a soldier in the Roman army, serving in Caesarea in Palestine. During a persecution under the Emperor Gallienus, he was arrested and beheaded for his Christian faith. The senator Asterius, also a Christian, was present at his execution. Asterius took off his senatorial toga, wrapped the martyr’s body in it, and carried the holy body away to bury it. For this he too was beheaded.
Our Holy Father Pimen the Much-Ailing
1110
“He was sickly from his youth, and from his youth desired monasticism. Brought to the Monastery of the Caves for healing, he remained there till his death. He prayed more for sickness than for health. One night, angels appeared to him and tonsured him as a monk, telling him at the same time that he would be sick until his death, and would be healed at that moment. And so it was; he lay sick for twenty years, working wonders even during his lifetime and being possessed of a rare gift of discernment. At the time of his death, he got up from his bed completely healed, immediately prepared his grave and entered into rest in the Lord, in the year 1110.” (Prologue)