Holy Martyr Thalelaeus the Unmercenary
Saint Thalelaeus was born in Lebanon to a Christian family, his father Berucius being an army officer and his mother Romila a pious Christian. From his youth he applied himself to the study of medicine under the physician Macarius, but, in the spirit of the unmercenary saints, he treated the sick freely without payment, for which the Church reckons him among the holy unmercenary physicians. He was eighteen years of age and living in Aegae in Cilicia at the time when the prefect Theodore was sent thither by the emperor Numerian, in the years 283 to 284, to root out the Christians.
Thalelaeus was sought out and seized. Brought before the prefect, he confessed Christ openly. He was bound and the executioners Alexander and Asterius were ordered to cut him in pieces with axes; but, by the grace of God, when they raised their tools they found themselves unable to harm him. Confessing Christ themselves and rebuking the prefect for cruelty, the two were at once beheaded and so received their crowns. Saint Thalelaeus was then cast to wild beasts, but they came up and licked his feet; he was thrown into the sea, but stepped out unharmed; he was tied to a board and tortured, yet remained joyful. At last he was beheaded and so completed his course about the year 284. His relics were enshrined in the church of Saint Agathonicus in Constantinople, where many miracles took place.
Martyr Thalelaeus at Aegae in Cilicia and those with him
327
The holy Thalelaeus is counted as one of the Unmercenary Physicians. He was a physician, born in Lebanon to a Berucius (a bishop) and Romylia. During the persecutions by the Emperor Numerian, he fled to Cilicia, but was captured and brought before Theodore, the governor. When Thalelaeus boldly confessed Christ, the cruel governor ordered two soldiers, Alexander and Asterius, to bore holes through his leg-bones, pass a rope through them, and hang him from a tree. But the executioners, by the power of God, were momentarily deprived of their wits and bored through a wooden plank instead, which they hung in the tree. The governor angrily ordered that the soldiers be flogged; during their flogging they cried out: ‘The Lord is alive to us; from now on, we are become Christians. We believe in Christ, and suffer for Him.’ Hearing these words, the governor ordered that both be beheaded. He then seized their awl and attempted to bore through Thalelaeus’ legs himself; but his hand suddenly became paralyzed. The compassionate physician prayed to Christ and healed his persecutor’ hand. His heart still hardened, the governor next ordered that the Saint be thrown into water and drowned; but he survived. Next he was thrown to wild beasts, but they licked his feet and rubbed tamely against him. Finally the holy Martyr was beheaded.
Uncovering of the relics of Saint Alexis, metropolitan of Moscow and wonderworker of all Russia
Saint Alexis, metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia, was born about the year 1304 to the boyar Bingo of Chernigov family who had moved to Moscow. He was tonsured a monk in his early manhood, became metropolitan of all Russia in 1354, and for nearly a quarter of a century guided the Russian Church through the difficult years of the Tatar yoke, also playing the part of regent during the minority of Saint Demetrius of the Don. Famous for his healing of the Khan's mother Taidula, the founder of monasteries and a reformer of liturgical books, he reposed on 12 February 1378 and was buried in the Chudov Monastery within the Moscow Kremlin which he had founded.
Sixty years after his repose, on 20 May 1431, the wooden floor of the church in which he lay collapsed from age, and during the rebuilding of the church his holy relics were uncovered, found incorrupt with even his vestments preserved. A council of Russian hierarchs established that henceforth Saint Alexis should be commemorated both on the day of his repose, 12 February, and on the day of the uncovering of his relics, 20 May. In 1485 the relics were translated into a new church dedicated to him, and after various removals in the twentieth century they now rest in the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Theophany at Yelokhovo in Moscow, where countless miracles have been wrought through them.
Venerable Stephen of Piperi
Saint Stephen was born in the village of Kuti in the region of Zupa, in the lands of the Niksic clan, to poor but devout parents named Radoje and Jacima Krulanovic. From his youth he was drawn to the monastic life and entered the great Serbian monastery of Moraca, founded in the thirteenth century, where he was tonsured, served as deacon and priest, and in due course became hegumen of the brotherhood. The Turkish authorities, in their hostility to Orthodox monasticism, drove him out of Moraca, and he settled for a time at Turmanj in the region of Rovca, in the place still called Celiste.
In 1660 he withdrew further into the mountains and built himself a small cell at Piperi in present-day Montenegro, where he laboured in fasting, vigil and unceasing prayer until his repose in 1697. The Lord glorified him both in his lifetime and after his death with the gift of working miracles, and his relics, which remain incorrupt, became a source of healing. In June 2010 they were enclosed by the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral in a new silver-clad reliquary for the veneration of the faithful. He is honoured among the more recent saints of Serbia and Montenegro.
Our Father among the Saints Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow
1378
He was born in Moscow in 1292. In 1354 he was ordained Metropolitan of Moscow by Philotheus, Patriarch of Constantinople. He founded several monasteries, including the first women’s monastery in Moscow. He translated the Holy Gospel from Greek into Slavonic. At that time Russia was under the rule of the Tartars, and St Alexis twice visited the Tartar Khan to plead with him to ease the oppression of the Russian people. On one of these visits he healed Taidula, the Khan’s wife. He founded the Chudov Monastery in Moscow on land given him by the Khan and his wife in thanksgiving for this miraculous healing; the Saint’s relics are enshrined at this same monastery. This is the feast of the uncovering of his holy relics in 1431.