Wednesday October 12 / 25 ns 2023 • Holy Martyrs Próbus, Tárachos, and Andrónicos; St. Symeon the New Theologian ~ Fast day ~ QUOTES FROM THE BELOVED, FOUNTAIN OF FAITH, SAINT SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN ~ STARETZ AMBROSE ON SINFUL THOUGHTS AND ON PRAYER

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Holy Martyrs Próbus, Tárachos, and Andrónicos;

Saint Symeon the New Theologian

~ Fast day ~

Tárachos was born in Syrian Claudiopolis, Próbus was from Perga of Pamphylia, and Andrónicos was the son of an eminent citizen of Ephesus. All three were martyred together by the Proconsul Numerian Maximus, in Emperor Diocletian's time. Tárachos was sixty-five years old when he was tortured. The proconsul asked him for his name, and he answered: ''I am a Christian.'' The proconsul asked thrice, and received the same answer each time. 

These martyrs were beaten with rods, then were cast into prison bloodied and wounded. After this, they were brought out again for torture. When the proconsul advised Próbus to deny Christ, promising him imperial honors and his own friendship, holy Próbus replied: ''Neither the emperor's honors do I desire, nor your friendship do I wish.'' When Andrónicos was threatened with even greater bodily tortures, the young martyr of Christ replied: ''My body is before you, do with it what you will.''

 

After prolonged tortures in various locales, the three holy martyrs were thrown into an arena with wild beasts. Other prisoners in the same arena were torn apart by the beasts, but they would not harm the saints; a bear and a ferocious lioness fawned around them. Seeing this, many believed in Christ the Lord and cried out against the proconsul. Crazed with anger, and more furious than the beasts, the proconsul ordered his soldiers to enter the arena and chop the soldiers of Christ into pieces with their swords. Their bodies were mingled with the dead bodies of other prisoners. Three Christians, Macarius, Felix and Berius, who were present at the slaying of the holy martyrs, came that night to remove their bodies. But as the bodies were heaped in confusion, and the night was very dark, they prayed to God to help them find the saints; and suddenly three candles were manifested over the bodies of the martyrs. Thus, they were able to remove the saints' bodies and honorably bury them.

Colossians 1:18-23 KJV

18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;

20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled

22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

Saint Luke 8:22-25 KJV

22 Now it came to pass on a certain day, that he went into a ship with his disciples: and he said unto them, Let us go over unto the other side of the lake. And they launched forth.

23 But as they sailed he fell asleep: and there came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy.

24 And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm.

25 And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him.

QUOTES FROM THE BELOVED, FOUNTAIN OF FAITH,

SAINT SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN

O grandeur of ineffable glory!

O excess of love!

 

He Who embraces all things makes His home within a mortal corruptible man, He by Whose indwelling might all things are governed, and the man becomes as a woman heavy with child.
O astonishing miracle and incomprehensible deeds and mysteries of the incomprehensible God!
A man carries God consciously within himself as light, carries Him Who has brought all things into being and created them, including the one who carries Him now.
He carries Him within as a treasure inexpressible, unspeakable, without quality, quantity, or form, immaterial, shapeless, yet with form in beauty inexplicable, altogether simple, like light, Him Who transcends all light.
And, clenching his hands at his sides, this man walks in our midst and is ignored by everyone who surrounds him.
Who can then adequately explain the joy of such a man? Will he not be more blessed and more glorious than any emperor? Than whom, or than how many visible worlds, will he not be more wealthy? And in what shall such a man ever be lacking? Truly, in no way shall he lack any of God's good things.

Thou Thyself becamest visible…Thou didst grant me to see the outline of Thy form beyond shape. At that time Thou took me out of the world -- I might even say, out of the body, but Thou didst not grant me to know this exactly. Thou didst shine yet more brightly and it seemed that I saw Thee clearly in Thy entirety. When I said, "O Master, who art Thou?" then, for the first time Thou didst grant me, the prodigal, to hear Thy voice. How gently didst Thou speak to me, who was beside myself, in awe and trembling… Thou saidest, "I am God who have become man for your sake. Because you have sought me with all your soul, behold, from now on you will be My brother, My fellow heir, and My friend.

Although uncommunicable with words from one individual to another, except by the gift of God, the reward of unwavering commitment to the Will of God and the body of His Church, Saint Symeon nevertheless offers us a taste or a fragrance from his own experience of theosis with the Holy Trinity.

As we ascend to that which is more perfect, He who is without form or shape comes no longer without form or without shape. Nor does He cause His light to come to us and be present with us in silence. But how? He comes in a definite form indeed, though it is a divine one. Yet God does not show Himself in a particular pattern or likeness, but in simplicity, and takes the form of an incomprehensible, inaccessible, and formless light. We cannot possibly say or express more than this; still He appears clearly and is consciously known and clearly seen, though He is invisible. He sees and hears invisibly and, just as friend speaks to friend face to face (cf. Ex. 33:11), so He who by nature is God speaks to those whom by grace He has begotten as gods. He loves like a father, and in turn He is fervently loved by His sons.