Saturday Feb 26 / March 11 ns 2023 • St. Porphýrios, Bishop of Gaza; St. Photiné the Samaritan Woman, Equal-to-the-Apostles • Animals in Orthodox Icons from St. Edward Brotherhood G.O.C.

Saint Porphýrios, Bishop of Gaza;

Saint Photiné the Samaritan Woman,

Equal-to-the-Apostles

This great Arch-shepherd was born of wealthy parents in Thessalonica. From his youth, until age twenty-five, Porphýrios remained in Thessalonica, the town of his birth. After that, he took leave of his parents and worldly life and withdrew to the wilderness of Egypt. Under the guidance of an experienced spiritual father, the young Porphýrios  was tonsured a monk and remained there for five years. He then visited the Holy Land in the company of the monk Mark, his faithful companion. In the proximity of Jerusalem, he lived an ascetical life in a cave, again for five years. But then the legs of Porphýrios became weak and he was unable to walk. Nevertheless, crawling on his knees, he continually attended the Divine Services of God. 

One night, our Lord appeared to him of a vision and cured him of the infirmity in his legs and he became completely whole. When he was elected Bishop of Gaza, Porphýrios accepted this obligation with a heavy heart. In Gaza, he found only two-hundred eighty Christians. All other inhabitants were very fanatical idolaters. Only by his great faith and patience did Porphýrios succeed to convert the inhabitants of Gaza to the Faith of Christ. He personally traveled to Constantinople to see Emperor Arcadius and Patriarch John Chrysostomos to seek their support in this unequal struggle with the idolaters. He received the desired support. The idolatrous temples were closed and the idols destroyed and he built a beautiful church with thirty marble columns. Empress Eudoxia especially assisted in the building of this church. Porphýrios lived long enough to see the entire town of Gaza converted to the Christian Faith, but only after his many efforts, sufferings and prayerful tears to God. 

Porphýrios died peacefully in the year 421 A.D. He was a miracle-worker both during his life and after his death, even yet today.

His relics repose in Gaza.

Saint Photini the Samaritan Woman,
Equal-to-the-Apostles

Epistle

Hebrews 3:12-16

12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end;

15 While it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.

16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.

Gospel

Saint Mark 1:35-44

35 And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.

36 And Simon and they that were with him followed after him.

37 And when they had found him, they said unto him, All men seek for thee.

38 And he said unto them, Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth.

39 And he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and cast out devils.

40 And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

41 And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean.

42 And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.

43 And he straitly charged him, and forthwith sent him away;

44 And saith unto him, See thou say nothing to any man: but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

Animals in Orthodox Icons

from St. Edward Brotherhood G.O.C.

Brookwood, Surrey, United Kingdom

Animals are often depicted together with saints in Orthodox iconography. These animals are either mentioned in the saint's life or, as in the case of St. George, refer to miraculous appearances of the saint. Saint Gerásimos (right) is often painted together with his lion ‘Jordan’, and St. Seraphim of Sarov, more rarely, with his bear ‘Misha’.

Below, Metropolitan Peter of Krutitsk is depicted next to a bear illustrating an actual event in his life. St. Peter was imprisoned and then exiled by the atheistic Communists for his refusal to compromise the Orthodox faith by submitting to the new ‘Soviet’ Church. He died in December 1936 after ten years of  persecution.

 

In the case of martyred soldier saints, animals often illustrate rank rather than a particular incident in the saint’s life. Saints Sergius and Bacchus, for example, are often depicted on horseback as a representation of their status in the army. All these representations of animals occur in traditional Orthodox iconography. We will now discuss briefly two representations of animals that are not Orthodox. 

The Holy Martyr Christopher was martyred in the reign of the Roman Emperor Decius. The life of St. Christopher refers to him being ‘dog faced’ – in other words, he was frightening to look at! This reference has led some iconographers to paint St. Christopher with an actual head of a dog! This practice is not Orthodox because icons depict men, women and children glorified by the Holy Spirit. This glorification can never be represented by representing human nature as animal nature. 

Fortunately, these icons of St. Christopher are now rare, but it is common to see in Christ depicted as an actual lamb (right) in Roman Catholic and Anglican religious art. This practice is based on the Old Testament prefiguring of Christ as the Passover Lamb.

The Passover Lamb mentioned in Exodus was sacrificed so that by painting their door-posts with the blood, the houses of the Israelites might be ‘passed over’ and that their first-born might be saved (cf. Exodus 12:12). This lamb was the Passover for the Hebrews, but Christ is our Passover Lamb sacrificed for us (cf. 1 Cor. 5:7). We celebrate this our Passover every year at Pascha.

The Old Testament Passover Lamb is therefore a foreshadowing or ‘type’ of Christ. All these Old Testament prefigurings were, as St. Paul teaches, merely ‘a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things’ (Heb. 10:1). Christ is indeed the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), but He did this by becoming man. It is for this reason, that we do not depict Christ as His shadow (an actual Lamb), but as He actually appeared to us: as God and Man. We represent in icons the image of grace and truth which we received as a fulfilment of the law rather than the Old Testament foreshadowing.

Also, in depicting Christ in human form, rather than as a Lamb, we come to an understanding of the extreme humility of Christ in becoming a Lamb to the slaughter (Is. 53:7) and remember His life in the flesh, His passion, saving death and the redemption which He wrought for the world.