10th January: Fifth Day of the Feast of the Holy Theophany of Our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ Memory of our Father among the Saints, Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa (ca. 335-394) The venerable Dometian, Bishop of Melitene (+ca. 600) The venerable Marcian, Priest and Econome of the Great Church (+ca. 472) Saint Gregory was the younger brother of Saint Basil the Great. He was born around 335, and received his primary education in his paternal home. Ordained a lector, in the beginning he neglected the service of God in order to teach rhetoric, but changing his conduct before long, he embraced monastic life and, toward the end of 371, was named Bishop of Nyssa in Cappadocia by his brother Basil. An ardent defender of the Orthodox faith, he was deposed, in his absence, by a synod of Arian bishops gathered in 376; but, after the death of the Arian Emperor Valens, he was recalled to his see by Theodosius the Great in 378. He attended the local Council of Antioch in 379, where he received the mission to overseer the Churches of Arabia and Palestine, devastated and torn by Arianism. He was also present at the Second Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 381, and at the local council held in that came city in 394, under Archbishop Nectarius. He probably died shortly after it. Saint Marcian lived during the reign of Emperor Marcian and Empress Pulcheria (450-457). At first affiliated with the heresy of the Carthares or Novatians, he returned to the true Church and was named Econome by Patriarch Gennadius (458-471). He established that the offerings to be made in each church must be provided by the clergy of the place, for until then the Great Church assumed the whole burden of it. He constructed the Church of Saint Irene near the sea and the Church of the Resurrection which he preserved from a fire. The flames having spread to the whole neighborhood of the Church of the Resurrection, Marcian, on the churchs roof, raised his arms toward heaven and prayed. Saint Dometian lived during the reign of Justin II the Younger (565-578). He was instructed in secular learning and in the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. He was married for a time. After his wifes death, he was named Bishop of Melitene, at the age of thirty. Evagrius said that he was a prudent man with a remarkable readiness of mind, as powerful in word as in action, and a far-seeing expert in the most grave affairs. He saved his subjects and even the entire nation. More than once he was summoned by Emperor Maurice (582-602), who was his relative. In consequence of the Emperor and Empress generosity, he was put in possession of great riches which he spent to construct churches and homes for the poor. Having come one last time to the capital of the empire, he fell asleep in the Lord. (Source: rongolini) Apolytikion: Ἦχος γ’. Θείας πίστεως. Θεῖον γρήγορσιν, ἐνδεδειγμένος, στόμα σύντονον, τῆς εὐσέβειας, ἀνεδείχθης Ἱεράρχα Γρηγόριε τὴ γὰρ σοφία τῶν θείων δογμάτων σου, τῆς Ἐκκλησίας εὐφραίνεις τὸ πλήρωμα. Πάτερ ὅσιε, Χριστὸν τὸν Θεὸν ἱκέτευε, δωρήσασθαι ἠμὶν τὸ μέγα ἔλεος. https://youtube/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vXjSJFgLjYs#t=2
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 19:54:37 +0000
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