March 17 / March 4
March 17 / March 4
1. The Venerable Gerasimus of the Jordan (475)
This remarkable and renowned saint first learned about the ascetic life while he was in the Egyptian Thebaid. He then went to the Jordan and founded a community in which there were seventy monks. This community still exists today. He instituted a special rule for his monastery. According to this rule, the monks spent five days a week in their cells weaving baskets and rush mats. They were never allowed to light a fire in their cells. Five days a week they ate only a little dry bread and a few dates. The monks were required to keep their cells open so that, when they went out, anyone could enter and remove whatever he needed from their cells. On Saturdays and Sundays, they gathered in the monastery church. They had a common meal with a few vegetables and a little wine to the glory of God. Each monk would then bring in and place before the feet of the abbot that which he had made during the past five days. Each monk had only one robe. St. Gerasimus was an example to all. During Great Lent he did not eat anything except what he received in Holy Communion. On one occasion, he saw a lion roaring from pain because of a thorn in his paw. Gerasimus drew near to the lion, crossed himself, and removed the thorn from the animal’s paw. The lion became so tame that he returned with Gerasimus to the monastery and remained there until the elder’s death. When Gerasimus reposed, the lion succumbed to sorrow for him and died. Gerasimus attended the Fourth Ecumenical Council [Chalcedon, 451] during the reign of Marcian and Pulcheria. Although at the beginning Gerasimus leaned toward the Monophysite heresy of Eutyches and Dioscorus (St. Euthymius dissuaded him from this heresy), he was a great defender and champion of Orthodoxy at the Council. Of all the disciples of Gerasimus, the most famous was St. Cyriacus the Recluse. St. Gerasimus died in the year 475 and passed on to the eternal joy of his Lord.
2. The Holy Martyrs Paul and his sister Juliana, and Quadratus, Acacius, and Stratonicus, at Ptolemais in Syria (273)
Paul and Juliana were brother and sister from Ptolemais in Phoenicia. They were brutally tortured for the sake of Christ by the Emperor Aurelius and were finally beheaded. Before their martyrdom, they manifested many miracles, which were witnessed by a multitude of pagans. Through these miracles, many of the pagans were converted to the Faith. Several of these were beheaded and received their wreaths in the year 273.
- Saint James the Faster, of Phoenicia (Syria) (6th )
He lived in the sixth century. He was so perfected in pleasing God that he cured the most gravely ill through his prayers. But the enemy of mankind lured him into great temptations. Once an immoral woman was sent to him by some mockers. She misrepresented herself to James, pretending to weep yet all the while luring him into sin. Seeing that he was going to yield to sin, James placed his left hand into the fire and held it there for some time until it was scorched. Seeing this, the woman was filled with fear and terror, repented, and amended her life. On another occasion, James did not flee from his temptation, but rather he fell with a maiden who had been brought by her parents to be cured of her insanity. He in- deed healed her, but afterward sinned with her. Then in order to conceal his sin, he killed her and threw her into a river. As is common, the steps from fornication to murder are not very far. After this, James lived for ten years as a penitent in an open grave. At that time there was a great drought which caused both people and livestock to suffer. As a result of his prayers, rain fell, and James knew that God had forgiven him. Here is an example, similar to that of David, of how wicked the evil demon is; how by God’s permission the greatest spiritual giants can be overthrown; and how, through sincere and contrite repentance, God, according to His mercy, forgives even the greatest sins and does not punish those who punish themselves.
- Julian, bishop of Alexandria (189).
- Gregory, bishop of Constantia on Cyprus.
- Translation of the relics (938) of Martyr Wenceslaus (Vyacheslav), prince of the Czechs (935).
- Gregory, bishop of Assos near Ephesus (1150).
- Gerasimus of Vologda, founder of the Holy Trinity Monastery (1178).
- Blessed Basil (Vasilko), prince of Rostov (1238).
- Saints of Pskov martyred by the Latins: Ioasaph of Snetogorsk Monastery and St. Basil of Mirozh Monastery (1299).
- Daniel, great prince of Moscow (1303).
- New Hieromartyrs Archpriest Dimitry Ivanov of Kiev (1933) and Priest Vyacheslav Leontiev of Nizhegorod (1937).
- New Martyr John of al-Sindiyana (Palestine) (1937).
HYMN OF PRAISE
Saint James the Faster
He who falls from the greater height is injured more.
Whoever is lifted to the heights, let him cautiously shield himself.
The holy Apostle writes: “Whoever thinks that he is standing secure
Should take care lest he fall”; let him fear God.
James the Faster was a giant according to the height of his soul,
But he slipped from the heights, and the devil toppled him.
One sin hastens to the other: fornication rushes to murder.
James the Faster punished himself, and God comforted him.
One sin is able to erode all the virtues;
Through one hole in the granary, all the wheat pours out.
A house filled with fragrances: one handful of filth
Empties it of redolence and fills it with stench.
One hundred victories and one hundred celebrations do not help
When in the final battle the head is lost.
The spiritual life is a struggle against the hordes of the devil;
In this battle, the proud are defeated from the beginning.
Whoever invokes the name of God with profound humility
Will, in battle, be protected by God’s mercy.
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