Saint Paul the Apostle

Saint Paul, well known as the Apostle of the Nations, or “Apostle to the Gentiles” (Romans 11,13, Galatians 2,8, 1 Timothy 2,7), has been almost all the time associated with the other big Apostle of the Church, Saint Peter. Except the period that both lived and preached in Rome, about the period of Nero’s reign as emperor, there’s possible that both met only twice in their lives and there may possible, that they hadn’t quite the same ideas about preaching the Gospel among the nations. But until coming to the point about the ideas and the mission of St. Paul, there’s also important to mention that he is the most important writer of the New Testament. If we try to calculate statistically, Paul wrote about one third of the whole canonical corpus of the New Testament, being followed by St. Luke with about one fifth, and the Saints John the Evangelist and Matthew, with some around one tenth each. Of course, the statistics are not very appropriate concerning the Bible, but they may show us about how much important is the teachings of St. Paul for our Church.

There is also to mention the fact that, according to the new scholar researches, St. Paul would be the first to mention about the Last Supper and the words of Our Lord about the bread and the wine as His Holy Body and Holy Blood, in 1 Corinthians 11,23-26.

Paul’s Biography

The main source for historical informations about Saint Paul’s life is the material found in several of his epistles, such as Galatians and Romans and the Book of Acts, written by St. Luke, who may have been a mission-comrade to Paul. Even if the Book of Acts is after its twelfth chapter no more an Acta Apostolorum, but either an Acta Pauli, that writing tells us nothing about the Paul’s life after arriving Rome, or about his supposedly martyrical death.

As there is known, St. Paul is born in Tarsus, the capital city of Cilicia, in the southern Turkey today. Being a roman citizen and a scholar in the Rabbinical School of Gamaliel, we may imagine that he would be born in a rich family, of tent-makers, a trade that Paul practiced in order to support himself throughout his ministry. At his time, only a few people in the East had the privilege of being Roman citizens. This quality helped Paul a lot in his mission and later escaping him from the furious people from Jerusalem, who wanted him dead. On the other side, being “of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee”(Philippians 3,5, but also at Acts 23:6), and a scholar “at the feet of Gamaliel”, it means that he was a very good knower of the Hebrew Law, that being obvious also from his teaching in the Epistles. On the other side, there’s known that Gamaliel gave an advice at the rabbinical council in Acts 5:34-39, to “refrain” from slaying the disciples. That may be interpreted that his teaching was not a fundamentalist one, being somehow in contrast to the rashness of his student Saul, who went on a rampage, after the death of Stephen, persecuting the “saints”.(Acts 9:13; Acts 26:10)

His original name Saul, in Hebrew Shaul, means “asked for, prayed for”, and was a regular name towards Israel. The usage of the name Paul comes first after his conversion, when he begins his first missionary journey into a new territory.

Paul as an Apostle

Before his conversion, Paul may have been living in Jerusalem in the times when Jesus was convicted and crucified. Anyway surely he was among the ones who convicted St. Stephen to death, even if himself didn’t stoned him, but he just guarded the clothes of the ones who killed the first martyr (Acts 7,58 and 8,1). Paul himself confesses in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians that he persecuted the church of God “beyond measure”, prior to his conversion. So his activity was a strong struggle against the ones who confessed that Jesus is Messiah. But even like that, the episode of his conversion makes us to believe that his “persecution” was not only a fight against, but also a personal searching of the Truth. Also his fury and his ambitious character, first exercised against the Church, provd to be changed by Our Lord into good qualities for preaching His Gospel.

On the way to Damascus, where he was sent to imprison the Christians, Paul has a vision and Jesus Himself shows himself to him as a thunder of light (Acts 9,3). Paul hears a voice saying: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (9,4). There is important to mention, that the Latin word persequeris is noted in the Greek version with “διώκεις”. The verb διώκω means in the first understanding, to run swiftly in order to catch a person or thing, to run after someone, but metaphorically means to pursue, to seek after something eagerly. So the Words of our Lord may be understand also as “why are you running after me?”, discovering even to Saul himself that his struggle was in fact a running not against, but on finding Something, the Truth, the true Messiah.

Paul’s conversion can be dated to the years 31 – 36, by the reference to his letters. After being temporarily blinded and cured by Ananias, an apostle in Damascus, Paul may have lived there for a while. Shortly he left in Arabia (Gal. 1,17), which was commented either as the Nabataean Kingdom, or symbolically as Mount Sinai, the mount of the visions. Here went to seek God both Moses and Eliah, the very ones who appear in the Transfiguration episode in the Gospels. There’s possible that here occurred the famous ascension of Paul until the third Heaven, that he mentions in 2 Cor.12,2-5. Also Paul mentions that he went back in Damascus and only three years later he met the Apostles. This information is important, because that says partly, that Paul didn’t take his Apostolate through the Preaching of the 12 Disciples of the Lord but from the Lord Himself (Gal. 1,12), and also, because there should be pass some years, so that the Apostles believe him that he is no more a simple Pharisee, a persecutor, neither a kind of traitor infiltrated inside the Church, but the very Apostle of Christ.

The missionary Journeys

In the same epistle to Galatians, Paul states that he met Peter and stayed together with him for 15 days and he met also St. Jacob, the Lord’s Brother (Gal 1,18-19). Shortly after, he went to Antioch, where the followers of Jesus were first called Christians. From there Paul started together with Barnabas his first missionary journey among the people from Cyprus, Asia Minor, and Greece, which accomplished with a great success, founding new communities in Iconium, Listra and Derbe. Shortly after his coming back in Antioch, the success of his mission had echoes, but the methods applied by Paul, without obliging the new Christians to respect the Jewish Law and customs, such as the circumcision, were quite strange to understand and to accept by the Palestinian community. So it happened the Apostolical Synod in Jerusalem, around the year 50. The decisions taken here were the ones applied already by Paul. The Christians are not obliged to respect the Jewish customs, if they were pagans before, but they must some minimal rules. Paul’s genius was obvious. In his epistles there’s quite clear that he respects the Jewish Law in which concerns its morality, but he refuses to accept the traditions and rituals, as unnatural for the New People of God. In this direction, the old and the new Christians, even if they differ in customs, language, traditions, they are the same: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3,28).

Even if the Council accepted the conversion of the non-Jews, Paul seems to have had a conflict with Peter. There is true, that Peter was an authority in the Church, but Paul doesn’t shy to attention him when he was wrong: being among the Christians in Antioch, Peter didn’t want to take the meal with the one not circumcised. Paul states that “when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel I said unto Peter before them all: If thou being a Jew livest after the manner of Gentiles and not as do the Jews why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?” (Gal. 2,15). This verse shows that Paul became an authority in the Church such as Peter or James or another among the Apostles.

Second missionary journey

Paul leaves from Jerusalem for his second missionary journey, in the autumn after the Council of the Apostles. On their trip, Paul and Barnabas decided to separate, Barnabas taking John Mark with him, while Paul takes Silas. They travel to Tarsus, Derbe and Lystra. Here they meet Timothy, and later go to the western shore of the Lesser Asia. In Troy there’s possible they have taken St. Luke, because after this moment, the Evangelist refers as to the second person plural. Further, they go in Europe. At Philippi, Paul and Silas are put in jail, but after a miraculous earthquake, the gates of the prison fall apart and Paul and Silas are able to escape; this event led to the conversion of the jailor. They continued traveling, went by Berea and Athens where Paul preached to the Jews and Greeks in the Areopague about the “unknown God”, a masterpiece in the technic of oratory. In Corinth, Paul met Aquila and Priscilla who became faithful believers and helped Paul through his other missionary journeys. The couple followed Paul and his companions to Ephesus, and stayed there to start one of the strongest and most faithful Church at that time. In 52, the missionaries sailed to Caesarea to greet the Church there, and traveled down to Antioch to stay there for about one year before leaving again on their third missionary journey.

Third missionary journey

Paul began his third missionary journey by traveling all around the region of Galatia and Phrygia to strengthen, teach and rebuke the believers. When he arrived in Ephesus, he stayed there for a little less than 3 years and performed a lot of miracles, like healing people and casting out demons. Then he went through Macedonia, Greece, and as he was getting ready to leave for Syria, he changed his plans because of the Jews who had planned a plot against him, and had to go back through Macedonia. He finished his trip in Caesarea, intending to go back in Jerusalem, in order to help the community here with supplies.

Journey to Rome and the Martyrdom

In Jerusalem, the community there received him joyfully, but being in the temple for a prayer, Paul is recognized and beaten almost to death before being arrested by the Romans. That was his salvation, because he was a Roman citizen. Being kept as a prisoner in Caesarea for about one year and a half, he was transferred to Rome after his request and was released after the Roman commander realized that he was born a Roman citizen. Paul and his companions went on to Rome, which was probably their last missionary journey, in 60.

In this moment stops all the biblical informations about the Apostle. According to the traditions, Paul continued to preach in Rome and possibly traveled to other countries like Spain and Britain before he died as a martyr, probably also in Rome by beheading. This event has been dated either to the year 64, when Rome was devastated by a fire, or a few years later, in 67. Being a Roman citizen, he wasn’t tortured such as other Christians, and he wasn’t crucified as St. Peter. The tradition states that he might be executed in the same day with St. Peter, on 29^th of June, during the persecutions ordered by the Emperor Nero. The early liturgical solemnity of Peter and Paul, celebrated on June 29, may reflect the day of their martyrdom.

The intense activity of St. Paul is beautifully described by himself. It was a successful one, but not without troubles, beatings and other dangers. He says about himself that:

“… Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool: I am more in labours more abundant in stripes above measure in prisons more frequent in deaths oft; Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one; Thrice was I beaten with rods once was I stoned thrice I suffered shipwreck a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often in perils of waters in perils of robbers in perils by mine own countrymen in perils by the heathen in perils in the city in perils in the wilderness in perils in the sea in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness in watchings often in hunger and thirst in fastings often in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without that which cometh upon me daily the care of all the churches. Who is weak and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not. If I must needs glory I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which is blessed for evermore knoweth that I lie not...” (2 Cor. 11,23-30).

Veneration

Fourteen epistles in the New Testament are attributed to Paul, those being to the Romans, two to the Corinthians, to Gallatians, to Efessians, to Philippians, to Collosenes, two to the Thesalonicenes, two to his disciple Timothy, one to Titus, one to Philemon and one to the Hebrews. The importance of his epistles is unmeasurable and speaking about them, on may write entire libraries without finishing.

The Grave of St. Paul was, according to the tradition, under the altar of The San Paolo alle Tre Fontane church in Rome. Another tradition holds that Paul was interred with Saint Peter at Catacombs by the via Appia until moved to what is now the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome. St. Bede, in his Ecclesiastical History, writes that Pope Vitalian in 665 gave Paul’s relics (including a cross made from his prison chains) from the crypts of Lucina to the King Oswy of Northumbria, from northern Britain. However, Bede's use of the word “relic” was not limited to corporal remains.

In June 2009, Pope Benedict XVI announced the excavation results concerning the tomb of Paul at the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. The sarcophagus itself was not opened, but was examined by means of a probe. It revealed pieces of incense and purple and blue linen as well as small bone fragments. The bone was radiocarbon dated to the 1st to 2nd century. According to the Vatican, this seemed to confirm the tradition of the tomb being Paul's.

Saint Paul is the patron saint of London and of another many cities and Christian Communities around the World. He is almost always celebrated together with St. Peter and millions of Christians bear his name.

Saint Paul is the author of the most beautiful hymn ever dedicated to love, which is to be found in the 1 Corinthians, chapter 13:

“If with the tongues of men and of messengers I speak, and have not love, I have become brass sounding, or a cymbal tinkling; and if I have prophecy, and know all the secrets, and all the knowledge, and if I have all the faith, so as to remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing; and if I give away to feed others all my goods, and if I give up my body that I may be burned, and have not love, I am profited nothing. The love is long-suffering, it is kind, the love doth not envy, the love doth not vaunt itself, is not puffed up, doth not act unseemly, doth not seek its own things, is not provoked, doth not impute evil, rejoiceth not over the unrighteousness, and rejoiceth with the truth; all things it beareth, all it believeth, all it hopeth, all it endureth. The love doth never fail; and whether there be prophecies, they shall become useless; whether tongues, they shall cease; whether knowledge, it shall become useless…”

Troparion of St. Apostles Peter and Paul:

“First-enthroned of the apostles, teachers of the universe: Entreat the Master of all to grant peace to the world, and to our souls great mercy!”

Saint Onuphrius from Egypt

The name Onuphrius or Onoufrios (Greek: Ονούφριος) comes from Egyptian, Wenn-nefer meaning “the always-good being”, an attribute to the Egyptian god Osiris. In Arabic, the saint is known as Abū Nufar, which, besides being a variant of the name Onuphrius, also means “herbivore”, also an hermit.

St. Onuphrius is supposed to be lived as a hermit in the desert of Upper (southern) Egypt of Thebaida, in the 4th or 5th centuries.

The most complete and wide “Life of St. Onuphrius” is written by Paphnutius the Ascetic, an Egyptian monk who encountered him after a long journey in the Egyptian desert. There is uncertain which Paphnutius is this author. He could be Paphnutius of Scetis, a 4^th century abbot in the northern Egypt, named in the Apophtegmata Patrum or Paphnutius the Ascetic, named by St. John Cassian in his Dialogues with the Desert Fathers.

The Life of St. Onuphrius

Much about the early life of the saint is not known. A tradition states that Onuphrius had studied jurisprudence and philosophy before becoming a monk near Thebes, and later a hermit, that thing not being stated in the classical biography mentioned above.

According to Paphnutius, the author of the “Life” undertook a pilgrimage into the desert, to study the hermits’ way of life and to determine whether he must live such a life or not. After 17 days of wandering in the desert, thirsty and tired, Paphnutius came across a wild figure covered in hair, wearing a loincloth of leaves. Paphnutius ran away to a mountain, because he was afraid of the strange vision, possible a demon, but the figure called him back, shouting, “Come down to me, man of God, for I am a man also, dwelling in the desert for the love of God”. This part of the story is quite similar with the Life of St. Mary the Egyptian and St. Zosimas, because the authors of the ascetic lives inspire themselves many from the same type of tradition, so they use the same literary motives (“topoi”).

Turning back, Paphnutius talked to the wild man, who introduced himself as Onuphrius and explained that he had once been a monk at a large monastery in the Thebaida called “Erete”, but he later left it and lived as a hermit for 70 years, enduring the extreme thirst, hunger, and discomforts like heat during the days and coldness during the nights. After a while he was accustomed to this life. A miraculous palm tree grew near his cell, producing fruits 12 times in year (that is a clear account to the Tree of Life mentioned in the last Chapter of the Apocalypse). Also an angel came every Sunday and brought him the Holy Eucharist. Hearing about this story, Paphnutius forgets about hunger, heat, or even about the whole world, because he was symbolically in the “paradise” together with his new teacher.

Onuphrius took Paphnutius to his cell, and they spoke until sunset, when bread and water miraculously appeared outside of the hermit’s cell. After the night spent in the prayer, when Onuphrius had completely turned into fire, in the morning Paphnutius knew that Onuphrius was near death, and God sent him here, in order to know such an extraordinary life. Paphnutius asked the hermit if he should remain in this cell after his death, but Onuphrius told him, “That may not be, your work is in Egypt with your brethren”. After blessing him, Onuphrius died, being the 16^th day of the Egyprian month Paone.

Due to the hard and rocky ground, Paphnutius could not dig a hole for a grave, and therefore covered Onuphrius’ body in a cloak, leaving the hermit’s body in a cleft of the rocks. After the burial, Onuphrius’ cell crumbled an the palm tree fell down, which Paphnutius took to be a sign that he should not stay.

Onuphrius’ life is a typical life of the desert hermits or anchorites, in which the wonder-histories and the teaching are mixed in a pedagogical way, in order to help the monks to improve their personal but also comunitary life.

Veneration

Onuphrius’ cult spread across the Western Europe, Middle East, Eastern Europe and Russia. Both the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches traditionally mark his feast day on 12 June (or 25 June for the Churches who respect the Old Calendar), the day of his death.

A part of his relics are situated in the church in Sutera, in Sicily, together with the relics of St. Paul the Hermit.

In Rome, the church of Sant’Onofrio, was built on the Janiculan Hill in the 15th century. Saint Onuphrius is venerated in Munich, Basel, and in the all southern Germany. The Duke Henry the Lion (1129 –1195) of Saxony, and of Bavaria, the traditional grounder of Munchen and a big crusader, held St. Onuphrius as his patron saint. Images of Saint Onuphrius as “wild man" were painted in many churches after the Crusades. Usually he is depicted as a wild man completely covered with hair, wearing a girdle of leaves around his middle.

The archbishop Antony of Novgorod wrote around the year 1200, that Onuphrius’ head was conserved in the church of Saint Akindinos in Constantinople. The Image of the Saint is depicted together with other anchorites at Yilanlı Kilise (or the Snake Church), in Cappadocia, already in the early Middle Ages.

A monastery dedicated to St. Onuphrius is situated in Jerusalem, at the far end of Gai Ben Hinnom, the Gehenna “Valley of hell”, where according to the tradition is the location of Hakeldama, the place bought with the 30 dinaries of Judas Iscariot.

The cult of St. Onuphrius is strongly spread in the Eastern Poland, where a monastery dedicated to him was built at Jableczna, dating from at least 1498. According to the legend, after a big flood, the waters of the River Bug brought, on the place of the actual altar, the icon of the Saint. At the Feast of the saint, celebrated according to the old calendar (25th June), every year come thousands of pilgrims and traditionally the bishops celebrate the Holy Liturgy 4 times during the night, at the 4 churches of the monastery. There are in Poland also other churches and some monasteries dedicated to St. Onuphrius, both catholic (Bircza, 1422) or orthodox (Posada Rybotycka, 1367 and Perehinsk, now in Ukraine, 1400).

Troparion of the Saint

In the flesh you lived the life of an Angel, you were a citizen of the desert and a treasury of grace, O Onuphrios adornment of Egypt. Wherefore we honour your struggles as we sing to you: Glory to Him Who has strengthened you; glory to Him Who has made you wonderful; glory to Him Who through you works healings for all.

The Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist

St. John the Baptist is one of the most important saint in the Christianity, known as the Forerunner Our Lord. The most important informations about him and his teachings are to be found in the Holy Gospels. There are also some other traditions and writings, which may be later dated. But an important accout about him comes from the Jewish historian Josephus Flavius. According to his report from Antiquities 18.116-19, stated also by Mark 6:17-29; Matt. 14:3-12; Luke 9, 7-11, the Jewish tetrarch Herod Antipas, who was from 4 B.C. until his banishment to Lyon in A.D. 39 a “quarter prince” over Galilee and Perea, had executed John the Baptist at Machaerus, his fortress high in the mountains east of the Dead Sea. This fortress lay at the remote southern end of Perea, on the east side of the Jordan, not so far away from the place called Betabara, opposite to Jericho, commonly known until today as the place “in the desert” where John began his work of baptism “across the Jordan” (John 1:28; 10:40). After this event, all his apprentices either went to Jesus and became His disciples, either went back to their homes.

But why is John the Baptist a prophet and why Jesus called him as “bigger than the prophets and the biggest between the born from women” (Mt. 11,7-9; Lc. 7,24-26) ?

Some informations about the importance of this person, who binds the Old and the New Testament, we can know if we study the episode about his birth, which both the Eastern and Western Churches celebrate on 24^th of June, the (approximate) Summer Solstice.

Biblical References about the Event

The biblical texts referring to St. John the Baptist are always situated at the beginning of the Gospels: because John is a Forerunner per excellentia. Of course, some other stories about him come later, until his death, mentioned above.

In the Christian iconography, the Evangelist Luke is symbolized through a lion, and that’s because his Gospel begins with the prophetical text “The voice of the one who cries in the Desert: prepare the way of God…”, the text which is always associated with the ascetical life of St. John in the Desert of Judaea. Matter fact, this text, from Isaiah 40,3-5, comes by Luke only in his third chapter, precisely on 3,4-6. But the echo of John’s speaking is present from the beginning. So, Luke begins his Gospel not with a genealogy, but with the episode about the birth of St. John the Baptist.

In the 1^st chapter Luke tells that Zachariah, a priest from the Aaronite generation went to the temple and there he had a vision. An angel (Gabriel, the angel of the good news) came to him and told that he will have a son. Of course, Zachariah was astonished, firstly because of the vision and secondly because of the fact that he was already old, and his wife, Elisabeth, couldn’t have babies. According to the Jewish traditions, the couple without children was considered as cursed by God.

The angel tells about the future of the baby: “Fear not, Zacharias, for thy supplication was heard, and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear a son to thee, and thou shall call his name John, and there shall be joy to thee, and gladness, and many at his birth shall joy, for he shall be great before the Lord, and wine and strong drink he may not drink, and of the Holy Spirit he shall be full, even from his mother's womb; and many of the sons of Israel he shall turn to the Lord their God, and he shall go before Him, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn hearts of fathers unto children, and disobedient ones to the wisdom of righteous ones, to make ready for the Lord, a people prepared.” (Luke 1,13-18)

The story later is well known: Zachariah doesn’t believe such a thing and asks for a sign, so that the Angel tells him, that he won’t be able to speak until the day when he will put to the child his name. After that, the priest gets out from the temple and the people there understand that he have seen something exceptional, because his face was changed and he couldn’t communicate but through the gestures. So Zachariah goes home, and after a while Elisabeth gets pregnant.

In the meantime the same angel goes to Mary and tells her about the future birth of Jesus Christ, “The Son of God” (Luke 1,35). Later Mary goes to her relative, Elisabeth, and there happens a miracle: “And it came to pass, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe did leap in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke out with a loud voice, and said, 'Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb” (Luke 1, 41-42). The prophecy of the angel is being reality: John is full of Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb, being the first confessor of the divinity of Jesus. Another interpretation of his “leap” in the womb is that, John makes his first reverence in front of the Lord, showing that a prophet is smaller than the Son of God.

After a while, Elisabeth gave birth to the child and the relatives came to see the wonder. The Gospel says that they wanted to name him Zachariah, like his father, but the parents opposed strongly. They chose surprisingly the name John, and then Zachariah could speak again. The name of John, in Hebrew, Johannan, means “God is gracious”: He is Merciful with his people, sending him such a prophet.

After the birth, Zachariah sang a Hymn which is partly a prophecy about the future coming of the Messiah (Luke 1,67-75), and partly about the child John himself: “And thou, child, Prophet of the Highest shall thou be called; For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord, To prepare His ways. To give knowledge of salvation to His people in remission of their sins, Through the tender mercies of our God, In which the rising from on high did look upon us, To give light to those sitting in darkness and death-shade, To guide our feet to a way of peace” (Luke 1,76-79).

Already the prophecy of Zachariah tells us the role and the importance of John. He is called for the first time as a prophet of the Highest, the one who goes before the face of the Lord. Those things tell even John about himself: “'I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord, as said Isaiah the prophet. And those sent were of the Pharisees, and they questioned him and said to him, Why, then, dost thou baptize, if thou art not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet? John answered them, saying, 'I baptize with water, but in midst of you he hath stood whom ye have not known, this one it is who is coming after me, who hath been before me, of whom I am not worthy that I may loose the cord of his sandal.'” (John 1,23-27, Mt. 3,11; Lc. 3,16; cf. Mc. 1,7-8). He is only the one who prepares the people for the coming of the Lord. His baptism is only a symbol of the repentance for the ones who were waiting for Messiah.

Some other things about St. John the Baptist

Finally, about the childhood of John we don’t know much, only that “the child grew, and was strengthened in spirit, and he was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel” (Luke 1, 80).

The Christian tradition says that shortly after the event of his birth, Herod began his persecutions against the children around Jerusalem and Bethlehem and so Elisabeth and the child ran in the desert. In some circumstances Zachariah was killed. Shortly after, Elisabeth dies and John remains alone in the desert, being cared only by God Himself and His angels. So, being about 30 years old, he comes near the river of Jordan and begins his preaching about the shortcoming Kingdom of God.

Some other implications of his baptism and his teaching we will leave for another article concerning the Saint Prophet. Here we will stop only about another thing, and that is the confession made by Jesus about John. That happens in an episode, when John sends to Jesus some of his disciples to ask if he is Messiah, or if they must wait for another. This question is quite strange, after the miraculous events occurred earlier in the river of Jordan (The Epiphany). Anyway, Jesus answers indirectly, showing him the wonders happened: “Having gone on, report to John what ye saw and heard, that blind men do see again, lame do walk, lepers are cleansed, deaf do hear, dead are raised, poor have good news proclaimed; and happy is he whoever may not be stumbled in me” (Luke 7,22-23). Immediately after, Jesus speaks about John: “What have ye gone forth to the wilderness to look on? a reed by the wind shaken? but what have ye gone forth to see? a man in soft garments clothed? lo, they in splendid apparellings, and living in luxury, are in the houses of kings! 'But what have ye gone forth to see? a prophet? Yes, I say to you, and much more than a prophet: this is he concerning whom it hath been written, Lo, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee; for I say to you, a greater prophet, among those born of women, than John the Baptist there is not; but the least in the reign of God is greater than he.' And all the people having heard, and the tax-gatherers, declared God righteous, having been baptized with the baptism of John” (Luke 7,24-29).

In this confession Jesus states clearly, that John is neither a zealote (“reed shaken by the wind”), nor an essenian (“a man in soft clothes”). Even from here we understand that John is not politically engaged. He doesn’t wait for a political Messia, who will free the Jews from the Roman occupation. John is neither an essenian, even if until today some scholars make lots of parallels between his baptism and the ritual bathes from Qumran. Even living in the desert, John is a prophet, in the way that Eliah was. During those time were already a lot of people who believed that John isin fact Eliah who came back in the World. That happened because John was preaching and baptizing at Betabara, the place where, according the tradition, Eliah went to heaven. Jesus says more about John, that he is the greater born among the women, a one who prepares the Ways.

One more thing is to say. St. John the Evangelist mentions in his third chapter, that even Jesus started to baptize, not him directly, but his disciples. So happened that the people around started to question about that and went to John, saying about someone “stealing his practice”. Apparently Jesus took John’s “copyright” without permission. “…And they came unto John, and said to him, 'Rabbi, he who was with thee beyond the Jordan, to whom thou didst testify, lo, this one is baptizing, and all are coming unto him.” But John, being aware of his mission says: “ no man is not able to receive anything, if it may not have been given him from the heaven; ye yourselves do testify to me that I said, I am not the Christ, but, that I am having been sent before him; he who is having the bride is bridegroom, and the friend of the bridegroom, who is standing and hearing him, with joy doth rejoice because of the voice of the bridegroom; this, then, my joy hath been fulfilled. 'Him it behoveth to increase, and me to become less; he who from above is coming is above all; he who is from the earth, from the earth he is, and from the earth he speaketh; he who from the heaven is coming is above all…” (John 3,26-31).

John is aware of his mission. He knows that he is only a man, the one who prepares the way. From the moment of the Theophany, Jesus must increase, and John must become less, because the history of the Salvation is written so. Nothing human can put God in shadow.

The Feast of St. John, between the Christianity and Paganism

In a mysterious way God fix the historical fact with the very astral things. If the Natalis Domini is celebrated on 25^th December, around the Winter Solstice, the smallest day of the year, the Birth of St. John the Baptist is celebrated on 24^th June, around the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. After this Feast, the days are becoming less, exactly like St. John himself. The very Nature becomes lesser and lesser, waiting for the Rise of the Sun of Justice, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

There are some opinions that the both Feasts of Natalis Domini and Natalis Iohanni are in fact not the very days of their birth. The Church fixed those dates around the 4^th century, in order to overlap two big feasts in the Graeco-Roman pagan calendar, that is Dies Solis (25^th December), respectively, Dies Dianae (midsummer), a Feast of the vegetation and fertility. That may be true. In the popular Romanian calendar, the Feast of St. John is known as Sânziana (Sancta Diana), or Drăgaica (from the Slavic root drag, meaning love), a statement that there were mixed two popular traditions, the Roman and the Slavic, both stating the importance of the Middle of the Year. This feast has an important role in prophecing the future of the year and even the future of the members of the comunity. Only the plants collected in that day have the best curative qualities.

There are hundreds of traditions and practices with a clear pagan connotation. But that mustn’t be a scandal for the Christians. The very nature works together with God for our own salvation and Christ had prophets also among the pagan nationalities.

St. Gregory Dascălul (“the Teacher”), the Metropolitan of Wallachia (1822-1833)

St. Gregory “the Teacher”, a recently canonized saint in Romania, lived a monastic exemplary life and at the same time he was a loving man of culture. Due his activity, the movement of the revival of monasticism (known as the “philokalic” movement, or “neo-patristic”) was spread in the south of Romania, through the translations of patristic works into the local language, which is Romanian. Moreover, he revived the Romanian elements in the Church worship, supporting the printing of the liturgical books in Romanian.

Early Life

He was born in Bucharest, in 1765. His parents have supported his high education in the classical and spiritual sciences. Gregory showed an extraordinary intelligence, being the best student of the College of Saint Sava, the best Romanian school of his time. There he studied Latin and Greek, Theology, Grammar and other sciences.

During his studies at the College of Saint Sava, he met the monks Gherontie and Dorotheos, two of the disciples of St. Paisie from Neamţ, the Abbot who started the revival of the monasticism in Romania and Russia in the late eighteenth century. At that time, Moldova and Wallachia were two romanian separate states, under the Turkish rule, Gregory being Wallachian.

In 1790, St. Gregory came by himself at Neamţ Monastery, situated in the northern part of Moldova, where he was a direct apprentice of Paisie Velichkovsky, who tonsured him as a monk and taught him the rules of monastic life. In the monastery of Paisie lived at that time several hundred of translators and copyists, who influenced the spiritual life in Moldova, Wallachia and Russia for more than a century. Among them, being well acquainted with Greek, St. Gregory has translated various works of the Church Fathers, encouraged by Paisie.

Printing activity

In 1796, Dositei Filitti, the Metropolitan of Wallachia (Walachia) has specifically requested two translators from Neamt Monastery. The monks Gherontie and Gregory were chosen by their Abbot for this mission and so they began printing in Bucharest, in 1799 the “Useful book for the Soul”, which is popular even today in the Orthodox space, being a kind of catechism. In 1801 the two monks were printed “the Kiriacodromion” of the Greek Scholar Nikiforos Theotokis, which explains the text of the Evangelical readings in the Sundays throughout the whole year.

In the meantime, the Metropolitan of Moldova, Veniamin Costachi urged them to translate “The pious mystery of our orthodox faith”, printed in 1803, and “Interpretation of the Gospels” of St. Theophylact of Bulgaria, published in 1805. In 1806 it was printed the translation of the “Dogmatica” (“Teaching of the true Faith”) of St. John Damascene, an essential book of theology from the 8^th century. In addition, the monk Gregory has translated and published some other books in Romanian.

In 1812, St. Gregory and Gherontie went together to the Holy Mountain (Mount Athos), to “worship God in the holy monasteries there and to meet with parents for the benefit of the pious soul”. On their return, near the city of Plovdiv in Bulgaria, they were attacked by robbers, and Gherontie died due the cruel beating. Gregory retired to Căldăruşani, near Bucharest, for five years between 1818 and 1823, until his election as Metropolitan of Wallachia. Here he translated in Romanian some very important books for the candidates for the priesthood, namely: “Treatise on the priesthood” of St. John Chrysostom and “Word for the priesthood” of St. Gregory the Theologian.

Metropolitan

In 1822, after 110 years, it was elected a Romanian of Wallachia, namely Grigore Ghica. He supported the election of a new Metropolitan in Bucharest, in a time when there was no bishop in Wallachia and after a difficult war with the Turks.

Elected as metropolitan, Gregory took firm balanced and full of wisdom decisions concerning the revival of the spiritual life of his country. He managed to ban the Greek bishops in the south of the Danube to ordain priests outside their diocese. That practice was quite “normal” in the Middle Ages, so that many priests knew almost nothing about their own faith. After a complaint addressed to the Patriarch in Constantinople, this practice stopped.

At the decision of Metropolitan Gregory, many schools were provided with books and the best teachers were brought in to teach. Gregory knew that cultural and spiritual progress are mutually reinforcing, so he helped many poor students to study and tried to build theological seminaries, for the good preparation of the future priests and teachers. Above all, he tidied up the monastic life, trying to reestablish the rules of the Church Fathers in Romanian monasteries.

After the outbreak of new conflict between Russia and Turkey in 1828, Gregory was forced to flee to Chisinau. In 1831 the Government in Bucharest required his resignation, but Gregory refused, saying: “God gave me a soul and a diocese, then I will leave the diocese when the soul will get out of my body, because these are things that concern the salvation of the souls”. It was only on 22 August 1833 he returned to Bucharest, but he lived only one year more, passing into eternity on June 22, 1834. He was buried sitting in a chair, in a vaulted tomb near the Metropolitan Cathedral in Bucharest. Over seven years, his bones were moved to Căldăruşani Monastery. His will may be found in the preface to the translation of the book “the Wheat-Sharing” of Saint John Chrysostom: “Only so much I desire to live, in order to help the Orthodoxy, my people and my brothers, so that they can easily acquire the eternal goodness through the teachings of the saints”.

The Veneration of Saint Gregory the Teacher

Gregory “The Teacher”, venerated already for a long time in Bucharest and around, was officially canonized on May 21, 2006, his feast day being on June 22, the day of his passing away. The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church has approved this decision in the October 2005 work session, at the proposal of the Metropolitan Synod of of Muntenia and Dobrogea (which is the Metropolis of Wallachia).
The relics of St. Gregory are currently in the Căldăruşani Monastery, where he himself spent five years between 1818 and 1823, until he was elected metropolitan.

Troparion

The Hymn of the saint is the same for the Holy Hierarchs (e.g. St. Nicholas of Myra has the same hymn in the Church Cult):

“In truth you were revealed to your flock as a rule of faith, an image of humility and a teacher of abstinence; your humility exalted you; your poverty enriched you. Hierarch Father Gregory, entreat Christ our God that our souls may be saved!”

Kontakion (Specifical hymn of the Saint)

”The Romanian Church had you as Fearless defender of the right faith and compassionate facilitator for the oppressed people, o, Holy Hierarch Gregory, because you have advised the priests and the faithful people, you’ve taught the youth and protected the orphans and your wise writings and teachings remained priceless treasure of our Orthodox Church!”

The Holy Martyrs Zotikos, Attalos, Kamasis, Philippos from Niculiţel and other Martyrs from Scythia Minor

The Land of Scythia Minor, the actual Romanian region of Dobrogea, situated between the Danube and the Black Sea was one of the first Christianized regions in the world.

The popular traditions say that St. Andrew the Apostle, in his way from Greece to Scytia (the today Ukraine) went through this region, where he would have stayed a few years, preaching the Gospel to the Dacians, Scythians and the Greek colonists from the cities here.

The attestation of the early Christianity here is also recognized through the archeological discoveries. A few dozens of churches from the 2^nd-4^th century show the intensity of the Christian activity here. Beyond the rich traditions about the Andrew’s preaching here, there is not much known. It is possible, that the Christianity would be preached here peacefully, also because the Dacians, the ancestors of the Romanians, the dwellers here were already monotheists.

Anyway, at the end of the 3^rd century and the beginning of the 4^th there are registered some strong actions of persecutions in the area, in the periods of the Emperors Diocletianus (284/305), Licinius (319-324) and later in the times of Julian the Apostate (361-363), respectively of the King Athanaric of Gothia (about 370-372). More than a dozen of soldiers, priests or simple citizens were killed because they confessed their faith in Jesus Christ.

About those saints martyrs there was not very much to know, only a few notes in some Synaxaries. At 4^th of June, the Syriac Martyrologium indicates only the Feast of St. Philip, but the “hieronimian” Martirologium, adds here the names Zoticus, Atalus, Eutichius, Camasis, Quirinus and other 28, unnamed.

These saints were almost forgotten, but they came one more time in the attention after an event which passed about 40 years ago.

In the summer of 1971, after some rich rainfalls, some locals from the small village of Niculitel, known much more because of its vineyards, discovered in a landslide some ruins. After more digging, it was obvious that there are not only some ruins, but an entire crypt built like a small chapel. Inside of it were the bones of 4 men, put into a wooden coffin, and above it were on the walls 2 inscriptions in Greek, painted in red colour: “Martyrs of Christ”, respectively “Martyrs Zotikos, Attalos, Kamasis, Philippos”. Both inscriptions were accompanied by the sign of Chrismon (XP), an old Christian symbol.

Even if the discovery occurred in the middle of the communist era, it made sensation between the archaeologists, historians and theologians. The crypt confirms the notation about some martyrs with those names, included in the synaxaries mentioned above and into an extended Greek synaxarion, together with other 32 more Christians who died in Scythia Minor, in the Old Noviodunum, a port at the Danube, not far away from the Danube Delta (the actual Isaccea). The historians believe that they died during the persecution of Licinius (319-324), or Julian the Apostate (361-363).

About the other 32 there is no more informations. Only the 4 Saints Zotikos, Attalos, Kamasis, Philippos were buried here. Because of the barbarian migration that occurred beginning with the 4^th century, probably the church, which was initially built over the crypt, was destroyed, and the crypt itself, situated under the altar, was covered with rests which protected it for more than 1500 years.

The archaeological researches discovered 2 more rooms, under this crypt, where there were found the bones of 2 more martyrs. The way those bones were found, made the specialists to believe that also these were martyrs. In the earth found, there were 2 offering vessels and a piece of sandstone with the inscription: “here and there the blood of the martyrs”. The 2 martyrs may be some earlier, maybe from the persecution under Decius (249-251).

On 17 January 1973, the Archbishop Antim Nica of the Lower Danube (from Galaţi) decided the holy relics to be moved in the Monastery of Cocoş from nearby. They are still in this monastery, being venerated by the all Orthodox Romanians. Over the martyrikon ther it has been later in the ‘80s a building which covers both the crypt itself and the ruins of the church, together with some findings from here.

Together with the 4 Holy Martyrs of Niculitel, celebrated in the Romanian Orthodox Church on 4^th of June, we mention some other Saints from the same period in the region between Danube and the Sea:

Bishop Ephrem of Tomis (the province’s metropolis), killed in on March 7, 304, was the first Christian martyr of this region, persecuted and killed during the repression ordered by emperor Diocletian. His feast is made on 7^th March, together with the Martyrs in Chersones, where all died as martyrs.

Deacon Ermil and his friend Stratonic, drowned in Danube during the persecution of Licinius (307-324). Feast on 13^th January

Saint Sava from Buzău, even if he died in the region occupied at this time by the Goths, in the actual central-eastern Romania, may be mentioned here. He was drowned in the waters of the Mousaios river (Buzău) by the orders of the gothic king Athanaric. His relics were asked by St. Basil the Great through a letter from St. Bretanion, the bishop of Tomis. He is celebrated in the Eastern Churches on 12^th April, and in the West, on 28^th April. He is important also because of the attestation of the Christian faith in the “pagan” regions beyond the Danube, so not in the Roman Empire.

Soldiers Pasicratus and Valentinus, died by beheading during the persecution of Diocletian in the city of Durostorum (today Silistra, in Bulgaria), in 298. Their Feast is on 24^th April.

Soldiers Cyril († 20 nov. 303), Kindeas /Candea (20 nov. 303) and Tasios/Dasius (20 nov. 303) from Durostorum (today Silistra), are together celebrated on 26^th April. About Dasius we know that he died during the feast of the Roman Saturnalia, because he refused to play the role of Saturn at the feast celebrated here by the Legion XI Claudia.

Maximus, Quintilianus and Dadas from the village of Ozovia (Ozobia) were probably Romans by name, only Dadas maybe Dacian. Maximus was lecturer in the Church. They were brought to Durostorum, beaten and finally beheaded on 28^th April 204.

Iulius the Veteran was contemporary with Pasicratus and Valentinus and died by beheading during the same persecution on 27 May 304, also in Durostorum.

Nicander and Marcianus, also soldiers in Durostorum, were strongly tortured and finally beheaded on 8 June 298

Epictetus, the priest and his apprentice, Astion the hermit, originals from the Small Asia, are celebrated on 8 July. They died as martyrs about in 290 BC, being from several years missionaries in Scythia Minor, in the City of Halmyris (today the village Dunavăţul de Jos), on the shore of Danubius. The Governor Latronianus tortured them terribly and finally ordered the beheading of them. They may be the first martyrs in Scythia Minor known today. In the Martyric Act of them (which is today to be found only in a copy from the 15th century in the Church of the Saviour from Utrecht), there are described the bodies of the two beheaded saints, as snow-white. The sick people used to kiss their relics and were sometimes healed. The Basilica from Halmyris was discovered in 2001 and also the Holy Relics of the Saints here, which are today in the monastery built here. Part of their relics can be found also in the Cathedral Church of the Archdiocese of Tomis, in Constanţa.

Emilianus from Durostorum, son of the Roman prefect Sabbatianus, was killed because he destroyed with a hammer the idols that he found in the city. Finally he died being threown in the fire, on 18 July 362.

St. Bede the Venerable, the Churchfather of England

In the way that St. Patrick is the emblem of the Christianity in Ireland, St. Bede, also known as “The Venerable” could be considered the symbol of the Christian treasure of England.

The anglo-saxon Christianity have always had some particularities which made it special among the whole Church of Christ. The insularity of Great Britain and of Ireland made the customs here to be somehow distinct and conservative, if we compare them whether to the Eastern or to the Western Church. The Conversion of England itself is special, being the result of two distinct groups of missionaries, first among them being the ones who came from the Celtic-speaking lands (such as Bretagne or Ireland) and the second from Rome. For a long time the priests and the bishops remained here as married men, the the monks lived an ascetic individual life, approximately like the ones in the Egyptian Desert, the churches were emptier as we may imagine, and the baptism occurred often on the shores of the rivers. The Easter’s date was established independently from the rest of the Church for many years.

Like in Egypt or Cappadocia, the monasteries represent for Britain the beginnings of the new culture. Even before the Danish and later the Norman invasions, the monks were writing in Latin or Celtic some original pieces of Christian Works. Between those literate ascetics could be counted also Bede “the Venerable”, who lived in the 7th-8th centuries in northern England.

Bede (Old English: Bæda or Bēda, translated as “prayer”) was a Benedictine monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, (today Sunderland) and later at the monastery of Saint Paul (the modern Jarrow). The kingdom of Northumbria, in which he lived, was a native angle-speaking country which covered the north-eastern part of the actual England, which resisted to the Danish invasion, but it was conquered by the Normans in 954.

Among the convents in the area, Bede's monastery had a big library which included works by Eusebius and Orosius, which were used by Bede in writing his own historical works. Because of his historical preoccupations, he is well known as the “Father of the English History” both ecclesiastical and civil.

The life of Bede

Bede is born probably in 672 or 673 in Wearside or Tyneside, somewhere near the monastery of St. Peter in Wearmouth, where h went as a young child, at 7 years old. His education was putted under the care of St. Benedict Biscop (in calendars on 12 January), meaning that he would came from a high-class family. St. Benedict came from the French monastery in Lerins, bringing a lot of books which represent the first sources of the later Bede’s writings. After a while Bede went to the new monastery in Jarrow in 682, together with his new teacher, St. abbot Celofrith (25 sept.). He remained here until his death, which occurred in 735 BC.

From an anonymous writing about the life of St. Ceolfrith it might be possible to know something more about Bede’s youth. The plague in 686 caused the death of the majority of the monks in the monastery. Only the abbot and a young boy remained alive, trying to follow further the monastical rules and to continue the holy services. With this occasion the young boy is made priest. With this occasion we know that the ritual in the monastery insisted on the antiphonic type of singing, which means the monks were separated in 2 groups which sang alternatively, making the service more active. On some other source, Beda was made deacon when he was 19 and later priest with 30 years old, being ordained by St. John of Beverley (celebrated on 7 may), bishop of Hexham and York.

Scholar

Before writing the historical book which made him famous, that is the Ecclesiastic History, Bede started with some other minor works, intended as manuals for the classrooms, De Arte Metrica and De Schematibus et Tropis (both about the poetic art, written about in 701). Totally, he wrote approximately 60 books, the later being a letter addressed to his student, Ecgbert of York, from 734.

In 708, some monks at Hexham accused Bede of having committed heresy in his work De Temporibus, because he contradicted the standard theological view of world history as the six ages of the world, after the opinion of Isidore of Seville. In contrast, in his book, Bede calculated the age of the world for himself, rather than accepting the authority of Isidore, and came to the conclusion that Christ had been born 3,952 years after the creation of the world, rather than the figure of over 5,000 years that was commonly accepted by theologians. Bede wrote a letter to Wilfrid, the bishop of Hexham in which he replied, defending successfully himself.

Without speaking more about his minor works, we come directly to his Historia ecclesiastica gentis anglorum (The church history of the English people), a work of ecclesiastical and political history in 5 books and about 400 pages. It referes to the period from the Republic in the Caesar’s ages (about 55 BC) to 731 AD, when the work was written. The first 21 chapters covers the history of the English church before the mission of St. Augustine of Canterbury, that means, the “celtic” period, before the official Roman mission.

The Church History of Bede refers to different passages from earlier writers, such as Orosius, Gildas, Prosper de Aquitanie or Pope Gregorius I, mixing legends with historical facts. The speciality of Bede is using the new era’s year counting, that means he calculates the years in the way that the Scythian monk Dionysius Exiguus made in 525 BC. That means, he doesn’t use anymore the old calendars, based whether on the Foundation of Rome, whether of the Greek Olympiads, but he refers to the year 1 as the Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Even if the later scholars found a mistake of about 4-7 years in the calculation of Dionysius, the new era represents a revolution in the modern thinking, placing Jesus Christ in the middle of the history and in meantime at the beginning of the Time of Healing.

If Dionysius is the author of the new calculation, Bede is the one who popularized the new calendar in Western Europe, with some expressions as “anno ab incarnatione Domine”, for the years before Christ and “anno incarnationis dominicae”, for the years and events before the Incarnation of Our Lord. In his time, the new year began with the day of the Annunciation, on 25th March.

At the end of his Ecclesiastic History Bede wrote some lines about himself, saying that he is spending his life in the monastery, being interested in the study of the Holy Scriptures.

Other Works

Bede was moreover a skilled linguist and translator, and his work with the Latin and Greek writings of the early Church Fathers contributed significantly to English Christianity, making the writings much more accessible to his fellow Anglo-Saxons.

Bede is also known for some chronicles and an adaptation of the Roman Martyrology.

He translated some works of the Church Fathers, wrote homilies, commentaries to books from the Bibles, of astronomy and time calculation (such as De Temporibus, mentioned above), educational works and some vernacular poetry.

Bede’s passing away

In 735 Sf. Beda got sick (of some breathing disease) but tried to teach further to the scholars and dictated his works further. On the Tuesday before Acension Day (26 May) his breathing became worse, and his feet swelled. He continued to dictate to a scribe, however, and despite spending the night awake in prayer he dictated again the following day. In the last night, he prayed the monks to remember him in their prayers. He said that “The time of my departure has come and my heart longs to see the beauty of Christ, my King”. He died exactly after finishing dictating his last work, a translation to the Gospel of St. John, singing “Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost!”

A work known as “Cuthbert's letter” relates a five-line poem in the vernacular that Bede would have composed on his deathbed, known as “Bede's Death Song”. It is the most widely copied Old English poem, and appears in 45 manuscripts, but its attribution to Bede is not absolutely certain.

The text of the poem (adapted to modern English) is this:

“Facing that enforced journey, no man can be

More prudent than he has good call to be,

If he consider, before his going hence,

What for his spirit of good hap or of evil

After his day of death shall be determined”

A well-known saying of St. Bede is this: “Better a stupid and unlettered brother who, working the good things he knows, merits life in Heaven than one who though being distinguished for his learning in the Scriptures, or even holding the place of a doctor, lacks the bread of love.”

Veneration

Bede died on 25th of May 735 in the Monastery in Jarrow. His body was moved from Jarrow and transferred to Durham Cathedral around 1020, where it was placed in the same tomb with Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne. Later they were moved to a shrine in Galilee Chapel at Durham Cathedral in 1370. During the English Reformation, this shrine was destroyed, but the bones were reburied in the chapel. In 1831 the bones were dug up and then reburied in a new tomb, which is still there.

Other relics were claimed to be in the Cathedrals in York, Glastonbury, or even in the German town of Fulda.

As the author of Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum he gained him the title of “The Father of English History”. In 1899, Bede was made a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII, a position of theological significance; he is the only native of Great Britain to achieve this designation, only Anselm of Canterbury being also a Doctor of the Church, but he is originally from Italy. He is also the only Englishman in Dante’s Paradise (Paradiso X,130), mentioned among theologians and doctors of the church in the same canto with Isidore of Seville and Richard of St. Victor.

Bede became known as “Venerable Bede” (Latin: Beda Venerabilis) by the 9th century, but this was not linked to consideration for sainthood by the Roman Catholic Church. According to a legend the epithet was miraculously supplied by angels, thus completing his unfinished epitaph. It is first utilised in in the 9th century, where Bede was grouped with others who were called “venerable” at two ecclesiastical councils held at Aix in 816 and 836. Paul the Deacon then referred to him as “venerable” consistently. By the 11th and 12th century, it had become commonplace.

There is no evidence for cult being paid to Bede in England immediately after his death. One reason for this may be that he died on the feast day of Augustine of Canterbury (25th May). Later, when he was venerated in England, he was either commemorated after Augustine on 26th May, or his feast was moved to 27th May. He was first venerated outside England, mainly through the efforts of Saint Boniface and Alcuin. Bede’s cult became prominent in England during the 10th century revival of monasticism. Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester (c. 1008–1095) was a particular devotee of Bede, dedicating a church to him in 1062, which was Wulfstan’s first undertaking after his consecration as bishop.

His feast day was included in the General Roman Calendar in 1899, on 27 May rather than on his date of death, 25/26 May which was then the feast day of Pope Saint Gregory VII. After the 1969 calendar reform, Bede’s feast day moved to its proper day, on 25 May. He is also present in the Orthodox Calendar on 27th May.

Hymn (Troparion)

“Throughout the dark years of thy times, O Bede, thou didst water the English lands and all the West with outpourings of grace, and like a skilled sower thou didst cast the seed of divine knowledge far and wide over the fields of thy Master, where, springing forth, it hath borne fruit for Him an hundredfold. Wherefore, having thus acquired boldness before Him, O venerable one, pray thou unceasingly that our souls be saved!”

The Holy Hierarch Calinic from Cernica

The Holy Hierarch Calinic from Cernica Monastery was one of the great spiritual fathers of the 19th century in Romania. His importance remains about his own life like a monk dedicated to the ascetic life, as a bishop, dedicated to the life as shepherd of his sheeps and as political man, who could stand in front of the secularization politics in his times.

His life was described in detail by Archimandrite Athanasius Baldovin, one of his disciples, monk in the Monastery of Cernica, only a few kilometers far from Bucharest.

Early life

He was born in Bucharest, on 7th October 1787, from the the noble family of the very believer Christians Anthony and Floarea (translated as: Flower; his mother became also a nun as Filothea, at her old age, at the Monastery Pasărea (=bird), near Bucharest). He had a good education in one of the schools that existed then in Bucharest, near a church, maybe at St. George church or Colţea. The atmosphere of prayer and Christian living in the family, have influenced the inner life of the young Constantine, as he was called after his baptism.

Therefore, in March 1807, so before he was 20, came to Cernica Monastery near Bucharest, where he maybe have already often came to attend services and listen to the sermon of the abbot George († 1806), also a big saint and scholar of St. Paisius Velichicovski, the renewer of the monastical life in Romania, in the 18th Century, the one who brought the athmosphere from Mount Athos in the all Eastern Space.

The following year, his confessor, Pimen, asked the abbot Timothy to give to the young Constantine the "angelic face of monasticism." Thus, on 12th November 1808, the young monk is named Calinic (the Romanian form for the greek Calinikos – the good victorious).

After a month at St. Nicholas Church of Cernica, the Bishop Sofronie from Vratsa (Bulgarian), refugee in Bucharest because of the Turks, ordained him as hierodeacon. Guided by its spiritual father, began a life of harsh religious endeavors, with fasting, prayer, work, readings from Scripture or from the works of the Fathers and ecclesiastical writers.

In 1812 he was sent to Neamt monastery together with his spiritual father, to collect aid for rebuilding St. Nicholas church, destroyed by an earthquake. In 1813, he was consecrated hieromonk by the Bishop Dionysius Lupu the future of the metropolitan of Wallachia, and after two years he was ordained and appointed confessor of his convent, than big Ecclesiarch (the responsible with the good making of the holy services).

In 1817 he went to Mount Athos, where he spent nearly a year, succeeding to know closely the religious life there, and to collect teachings that will be useful in the later labors.

Abbot

After the death of abbot Dorotheos, at 14 December 1818, the congregation of Cernica elected Calinic in this function, in age of 31, and 2 years later he was ordained archimandrite, the biggest monastical function. He remained abbot at Cernica abbey for 32 years, where he coordinated the religious life, being a good administrator also: he built a new church, new houses for the monks and a school for the young monks. Between 1832-1836 he built the new church dedicated to Saint George at the island of the monastery. As soon destroyed by an earthquake, the abbot began rebuilding it, finishing it again in 1842. He built a new infirmary for sick monks, and in 1846 he began (with money and donations of believers) to build a new church dedicated to the Holy Trinity at Pasărea monastery, under the protection of Cernica. He established also some workshops for monastical clothes. He dealt also with copying of manuscripts, especially the writings of the Fathers, because in this times in Wallachia was no more typographies.

The monastic community grows and among them came several future personalities of the church: the bishop Ioanichie Stratonichias, originally from Transylvania, the Protosingelos Naum Ramniceanu, a prominent composer, Archimandrite Veniamin Cătulescu, Professor of Religion at the College of “St. Sava” in Bucharest, Anastasius Baldovin his disciple and biographer, Nicander, his successor as abbot.

St. Calinic was a good mentor also for the believers who came to the monastery. For several months in 1821, he fed a large numbers of people refugeed because of the turks, in his monastery. For the children in the village of Cernica he founded a school and paid a teacher. With the testamentary gift of a faithful, he built the church of Assumption in Câmpina, and found a school near it. From the money of the monastery, and from his own donations, he built also some other churches in the villages around, at Bueşti Sohatu, and some others and aided other monasteries, from Poiana Mărului Ghighiu and the Icon skete of Bucharest.

Bishop

In 1850, after 43 years in the monastery, of which 32 years of rule of the monastic community, the abbot was summoned to the high Calinic hierarchal service. Since 1834, after the death of the st. Metropolitan of Wallachia, Gregory the Teacher, the Prince Alexandru Ghica advised him to receive the ordination as Metropolitan, but he refused, considering himself unworthy of such a high honor. In 1850, when all four bishopric seats in Wallachia were vacant, the new Prince Barbu Ştirbei persuaded him to accept the ruling of a diocese. At 14 September 1850 he was elected bishop in the ancient seat of Râmnicu-Valcea. He was ordained a bishop in the metropolitan cathedral in Bucharest on 26 October 1850, at the feast of St. Demetrius.

Called to this high service, the new bishop found the diocese in a difficult legacy faces. For 10 years the it had only deputies, the bishop's residence and cathedral were destroyed by a fire, the number of priests was insufficient, poorly prepared and the seminary was closed after the Revolution of 1848, such as also some places of worship. The new bishop to visit the diocese and ordained new priests. In 1851 opened the seminary in Craiova, then in 1854 moved it back to Ramnic, and he opened some schools to prepare church singers.

In 1854, after moving to Ramnic residence, he began raising a new Episcopal cathedral and rebuilt inside the Episcopal residence an infirmary. Between the years 1859-1864 has raised from his money from a new church in hermitage Frasinei. He introduced here the harsh rules of living from Mount Athos, which he himself respected as he entered in the monastery.

In his years, the first prince of the reunited Romania, Alexandru Ioan Cuza proceded to the secularization of the church’s properties. Almost 25 % of the whole surface of the country was in the property of different dioceses and monasteries, mostly subordinated to some other “mother-monasteries” in Greece or Palestine. So, the measure of Cuza was good, taking back in the property of the Romanian state a big territory and giving after to more than 1.000.000 peasants. But, Cuza made also bad things. He restricted the possibility of entering in the monasteries, he closed some churches and seminaries, and ordained that the election of the new bishops to be approved officially by himself, establishing in this way a kind of caesaro-papism. In this harsh times, Calinc was the only bishop remained as titular. He intervened to Cuza, to save the monastery fromsecularization. The prince responded positively to his request, and the hermitage is the only one left with all the goods it had before.

As a book-lover and supporter of culture, the bishop Calinic opened a typography and printed a few books in Bucharest. By 1860, “with borrowed money”, as he himself confessed, established a new printing press at his diocese, for printing church and teaching books. A year before his death, he donated the printing machine to the city of Râmnic, providing that the printing press to bear his name and that half of its revenue to be used for the maintenance of city schools and poor students and the seminarians, and another

Political man

The Bishop was also an animated patriot. As an hierarch, he took part in public work of the Assembly of the country, then was elected deputy in the new parliament of the united Romanian. He was also part of the country elective Assembly which elected the first ruler, Alexandru Ioan Cuza. Since the spring of 1857 he sent a circular to the Deans and superiors, demanding that all churches to make prayers “for the union of the Romanians in one will and conscience”.

His personal life

Especially we must search about his particular life as a life of sanctity. Everyone who knew him were impressed by his many charity, the simplicity of dress, his kindness and gentleness, his healer prayers, his fastings and vigils. Athanasius Baldovin, his biographer, wrote that Calinic had a list of people who helped. Always when he ordained priests, he gave them books and even money for the trip. “He was so gracious that if he didn’t have to give something, he gave his own clothes and, weeping, prayed me the unworthy to look for money wherever I know, that he may have to giveto his brothers in Christ, because so called the poor and powerless”.

Contemporary witnesses recount several cases of the disease healed by prayers of St. Calinic, such as was a young daughter of a worker from Muiereasca, who worked then at the construction of the Episcopal cathedral in Râmnic.

The life full of restraint he had (he never ate meat, he was resting only on a wooden chair), and the old age, urged him to write his will. Among other things, he wrote that he leaves no money for his own burial or memorial, because everything he had, he split to the poor and offered to restore buildings. Old and sick, he retired at Cernica Monastery in 1867. Since then the government refused his withdrawal from the seat, he remained officially bishop until the end of life, sending the Archimandrite Gregory from Cernica to rule the affairs of the Diocese. He lived almost a year as a simple monk, until 11th April 1868, when God called him to Himself. He was buried in the church of St. George, his foundation.

Canonization and Relics

His holy life, demonstated by his acts, but also by the faith of the believers in Wallachia, made the Holy Synod of our Church to decide, on 28 February 1950, to put bishop Calinic among the saints. His solemn canonization was made at Cernica Convent on 23 October 1955, in the middle years of harsh communism, in the presence of many Romanian and foreign bishops, of many monks, priests and faithful. The relics have been placed to honor and worship in the church of St. George. Thus, the humble abbot and bishop Calinic became one of the greatest saints of the Romanian Orthodox calendar. His feast day is on 11 April. His image is portrayed in many parish churches and monasteries, and his name is held by many believers who enter into the monasteries as monks.

Hymn of the saint

“Your light-bearee memory, Hierarch Calinic, gladdens the hearts of believers and the reach the holy shrine of your holy relics, sanctifies the feelings and gives healing; for this, as debt, we honor you and sing your joy: Hail, Holy Hierarch Calinic, the wise of God!” (The Holy Akathist of St. Calinic, Kontakion 1).