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Renewal Friday: Theotokos of the Life-giving Spring Outside of Constantinople, towards the district of the Seven Towers, there was in ancient times a very large and most beautiful church named in honour of the Theotokos; it had been built about the middle of the fifth century by the Emperor Leo the Great (also called "Leo of Thrace," he is commemorated on Jan. 20). Before he became Emperor, he had encountered there a blind man, who being tormented with thirst asked him to help him find water. Leo felt compassion for him and went in search of a source of water but found none. As he became downcast, he heard a voice telling him there was water nearby. He looked again, and found none...The Holy Aposties Jasonand Sosipater, and the Virgin Cercyra The first two were among the Seventy Apostles, and the last was the daughter of the king of the island of Corfu. The Apostle Paul mentions Jason and Sosipater (Rom. 16:21), and calls them his kinsmen. Jason was born in Tarsus, as was the Apostle Paul himself, and Sosipater in Achaea. The first was nominated by the apostles as Bishop of Tarsus and the second as Bishop of Iconium. Travelling and preaching the Gospel, these two apostles came to the island of Corfu, where they succeeded in building a church dedicated to St Stephen the Protomartyr and in bringing some unbelievers to the Church. The king of the island threw them into prison, where there were seven robbers already imprisoned: Satorninus, Jakischolus, Faustian, Januarius, Marsalus, Euphrasius and Mamminus. The apostles brought all seven of them to the Christian faith, making wolves into lambs. The king commanded that these seven be put to death in boiling pitch, and they thus received the wreath of martyrdom. When, after this, the king was in process of questioning the apostles, his daughter Cercyra, looking through a window, saw the torture of these men of God and, discovering the reason for it, proclaimed herself a Christian and gave all her jewels away to the poor. The king was filled with wrath against his daughter and shut her up in a separate prison, then, failing to turn her from Christ, ordered that the prison be burned down. The prison burned to the ground, but the maiden remained alive. Seeing this wonder, many of the people were baptised. The furious king ordered that his daughter be bound to a tree and killed with arrows. Those who had come to believe in Christ fled from the terrible king to a nearby island and hid themselves. The king set off in a boat to arrest them, but his boat overturned in the sea and thus the unrighteous perished, as Pharaoh aforetime. The new king accepted the Christian faith and was baptised, receiving the name Sebastian. Jason and Sosipater freely preached the Gospel and strengthened the Church of God in Corfu to great old age, and there finished their earthly course and went to the courts of the Lord. The Holy Martyrs Maximus, Dada and Quintillian Suffering in the time of Diocletian, they were condemned and tortured by the commander Tarquinius. After imprisonment and torture, they were beheaded. The Holy Martyr TibaidA Slav from Pannonia, he was terribly tortured for the Faith in the time of Diocletian, and suffered in Tsibal. Martyrs Saturninus, Jakischolus (Inischolus), Faustianus, Januarius, Marsalius, Euphrasius, MammiusSeven thieves imprisoned on he island of Kerkyra (Korfu) who were converted by Sts Jason and Sosipater. For their confession of Christ, the seven prisoners died as martyrs in a cauldron of molten tar, wax and sulfur around the year 63 A.D. Martyrs Zeno, Eusebius, Neon, and Vitalis,After the death of St Kerkyra, the Christian daughter of the governor, he decided to execute all the Christians on the island of Kerkyra. The Martyrs Zeno, Eusebius, Neon and Vitalis, after being enlightened by Sts Jason and Sosipater, were burned alive. St. Cyril, bishop of Turov (1183) Sainted Kirill (Cyril), Bishop of Turov, was born of rich parents in the 30's of the XII Century in the city of Turov at the River Pripyat. From his early years Saint Kirill eagerly read the sacred books and attained to profound understanding of them. He studied not only in Russian, but also in Greek. At the age of maturity Saint Kirill refused his inheritance and took vows in the Turov Borisoglebsk monastery. He asceticised much in fasting and prayer and drilled the monks for full obedience to the hegumen: a monk, who is not found in obedience to the hegumen would not fulfill his vow and therefore is not able to be saved...Venerable Cyriacus, abbot of Kargopol (Vologda) (1462) |
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