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Our Holy Father Onuphrius the Great This holy ascetic had been living a whole sixty years in the desert when the monk Paphnutius visited him. His hair and beard reached down to the ground, and long hair, as white as snow, had grown all over his body during his years of nakedness. His appearance was cadaverous, unearthly and awe-inspiring. Seeing Paphnutius, he called him by name and then recounted to him his life in the desert. His guardian angel had appeared to him and taken him to that place. He had for a long time only eaten earth, which it was hard to find in the desert, and, after that, when he had survived an intensive struggle with diabolical temptations and when his heart had become utterly established in love for God, an angel had brought him bread to eat. And besides that, through God's gracious providence, a palm tree grew up at one side of his cell, that gave good dates, and a spring of water began to flow there. 'But especially,' said Onuphrius, 'my food and drink are the sweet words of God.' To Paphnutius's question about his receiving of Communion, the hermit answered that the angel of God brought him Communion every Saturday. On the next day, the old man told Paphnutius that it was the day of his departure from this world; then he knelt down, prayed to God and gave his spirit into God's hands. Then Paphnutius saw a heavenly light that illumined the body of the departed saint, and heard a choir of the angelic hosts. He buried Onuphrius's body with honour and returned to his own monastery, there as a living witness to narrate to the brethren, for their edification, the wonderful life of the man of God and the greatness of God's providence towards those who give themselves wholly to His service. Onuphrius died in the year 400.Our Holy Father Peter the Athonite He was a Greek by birth, and a soldier by profession. Being once engaged in battle against the Arabs, he was captured, chained and thrown into prison. Peter spent a long time in imprisonment in the town of Samara on the Euphrates, and prayed God with all his being to free him and take him to some desert place where he could devote himself to prayerful asceticism. St Simeon the Host of God appeared to him in the prison, together with St Nicolas, and touched the iron of his chains which melted like wax. Peter suddenly found himself in the open outside the city. He immediately set out on the road for Rome, where he was tonsured as a monk by the Pope at the tomb of St Peter. He then set out by ship to return to the East. The most holy Mother of God appeared to him in a dream, talking with St Nicolas, and she told St Nicolas that she had set Mount Athos apart for Peter to live on in asceticism. Peter had at that time not heard of Mount Athos. Disembarking, then, at the Holy Mountain, Peter settled in a cave, where he spent fifty-three years in strict asceticism, in struggles with hunger and thirst, with heat and cold and especially with diabolical powers, until he had overcome them all by the help of God. When he had undergone the first temptations and succeeded in the first test before God, an angel of God began to bring him bread every forty days. The tempter appeared to him several times in the guise of an angel of light, but Peter drove him away with the sign of the Cross and the name of the most holy Mother of God. A year before his death, a deer-hunter passed that way and learned of the saint"s life from his lips. He died in 734, and his relics were taken to Macedonia.Our Holy Father Timothy, an Egyptian hermitHe lived the ascetic life first in the Thebaid, then went off into the desert, where he spent thirty years. Being pleasing to God, he died peacefully. Our Holy Fathers Bassian and JonahMonks of the monastery of Solovetz, they were drowned and cast onto the shore in 1651. A sign appeared over their graves, and a church was built there. Later, the monastery of Petrominsk was founded on the site. Once Tsar Peter the Great, sheltering from a storm at sea, spent three days there and made a Cross, which he erected on the shore. Venerable Arsenius, abbot of Konevits (1447) The Monk Arsenii of Konevsk was a native of Novgorod. He was a craftsman and he fashioned various items from copper. The saint accepted tonsure at the Lisich monastery near Novgorod, where he spent 11 years. From there he set off to Athos. And there the Monk Arsenii spent three years, dwelling in prayer and preparing for the Athos brethren vessels of copper...Sts. John, Andrew, Heraclemon, and Theophilus, hermits of Egypt (4th c.) They practiced asceticism in the Egyptian desert in the Sixth Century, simultaneously with the Ven. Onuphrius the Great.St. John the Soldier of Egypt (6th-7th c.)St. John the warrior, an Egyptian ascetic of the end of the Sixth or the beginning of the Seventh Century. Martyr Antonina of Nicaea (284-305) The Holy Martyress Antonina suffered during the III Century under Diocletian (284-305) in the city of Nicea. They tortured her which way – they burnt at her with fire, they put her on a red-hot plate, they bored with red-hot rods into her hands and feet and they threw her in prison, where she languished for two days. The torments did not break the spirit of Saint Antonina, and to her very death she confessed her faith in Christ. The threw the holy martyress into the sea.St. Julian of Dagouta at ConstantinopleVenerable Onuphrius, abbot of Malsk (Pskov) (1492) The Monk Onuphrii of Mal'sk and Pskov (Izborsk) founded a monastery in honour of the Nativity of the Mother of God at Mala, four versts from Izborsk and 56 versts from Pskov. The saint died on 12 June 1592 and was buried in the Nativity church, in a chapel named for him. The memory of the Monk Onuphrii is celebrated likewise on the so-called "Mal'sk Sunday" – the 1st Sunday after the Peter and Paul fast.Venerables Onuphrius and Auxentius, monks, of Vologda (1521) From Vologda, they established the Pertsevoj Hermitage in 1499, about 35 versts (23 miles) from Vologda. They died in 1521. Their relics are in a hidden place in the Trinity Temple in their monastery, now a parish temple.Venerable Stephen of Komel, abbot of Ozersk Monastery, Vologda (1542) The Monk Stephen of Ozersk and Komel'sk was born in the latter half of the XV Century in the Vologda lands. His father served at the prince's court, but the mundane life was not for the soul of the youth. He went off to the Glushitsk monastery of the Monk Dionysii, where he soon accepted monastic tonsure. With the blessing of the Glushitsk hegumen, the Monk Stephen made the rounds of the northern monasteries, in order to discover the spiritual customs. Having returned to the Vologda lands, he settled near the source of the River Komela. The Monk Stephen led a strict life. Once during the time of tearful prayer the monk was granted to see the MostHoly Virgin and Saint Nicholas, who besought the Mother of God to bless Saint Stephen to establish a monastery. In the year 1534 the Monk Stephen built a church in the name of Saint Nicholas. The monk reposed peacefully in the year 1542. Venerables Bassian and Jonah, monks, of Petroma (Solovki) (1561) The Monks Vassian and Jona – were monks of the Solovetsk Transfiguration monastery and disciples of the holy Hegumen Philip, who later became Metropolitan of Moscow (+ 1570, Comm. 9 January).
The holy monks were glorified by the Lord after their death (1561).
Fishermen and sailors came to pray in the chapel, erected in 1599 over the place of their burial by the Trinity-Sergiev monastery elder Mamant. And in 1623 the priestmonk Iakov founded there a monastery, receiving the name Pertominsk.Venerable John (Tornike) of Mt. Athos (998) |
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