June 3 / May 21
The Holy Equals-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine (337) and Empress Helen, his mother (327)
Constantine’s parents were Emperor Constantius Chlorus and Empress Helena. Chlorus had other children by another wife, but from Helena he had only Constantine. After his coronation, Constantine fought three great battles: the first against Maxentius, a Roman tyrant; the second against the Scythians on the Danube; and the third against the Byzantines. Before the battle with Maxentius, while Constantine was greatly concerned and doubtful of his success, a brilliant Cross appeared to him in the sky during the day, adorned with stars. Written on the Cross were the words: “By this Sign Conquer.” Astonished, the emperor ordered a large cross to be forged, like the one that had appeared, and that it be carried before the army into battle. By the power of the Cross, he achieved a glorious victory over the enemy, which was greatly superior in number. Maxentius drowned in the Tiber River. Immediately after this, in the year 313, Constantine issued the famous Edict of Milan to halt the persecution of Christians. Defeating the Byzantines, Constantine built a beautiful capital on the Bosphorus, which from that time was called Constantinople. Before this, however, Constantine fell ill with the dreaded disease of leprosy. As a cure, the pagan priests and physicians counseled him to bathe in the blood of slaughtered children. However, he rejected that. Then the Apostles Peter and Paul appeared to him and told him to seek out Bishop Sylvester, who would cure him of this dreaded disease. The bishop instructed him in the Chris- tian Faith and baptized him, and the disease of leprosy vanished from the emperor’s body. When a discord began in the Church because of the mutinous heretic Arius, the emperor convened the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea in 325, at which the Arian heresy was condemned and Orthodoxy confirmed. St. Helena, the pious mother of the emperor, was very zealous for the Faith of Christ. She visited Jerusalem, discovered the Honorable Cross of the Lord, and built the Church of the Resurrection on Golgotha, as well as many other churches throughout the Holy Land. This holy woman presented herself to the Lord in her eightieth year, in 327. Emperor Constantine outlived his mother by ten years. He reposed in Nicomedia in his sixty-fifth year, in 337. His body was interred in the Church of the Twelve Apostles in Constantinople.
The Venerable Martyr Pachomius
Pachomius was born in Little Russia. The Tartars captured him in his youth and sold him to a Turkish tanner as a slave. He spent twenty-seven years in slavery in the town of Usaki in Asia Minor. He was forced to become a Moslem. Then, he went to Mount Athos, was tonsured a monk, and spent twelve years in the Monastery of St. Paul. He decided to suffer for Christ. His spiritual father, Elder Joseph, accompanied him to Usaki, where Pachomius presented himself to his former master as a Christian in the monastic habit. The Turks subjected him to torture, threw him into prison, and beheaded him on the Feast Day of the Ascension, May 8, 1730. Many miracles were wrought by his blood and relics. Pachomius was buried on the island of Patmos in the Church of St. John the Theologian. Thus this Little Russian peasant became a martyr and wreath-bearer in the Kingdom of Christ.
- Hieromartyr Secundus and those with him, in Alexandria (356).
- Hospicius of Trier (581).
- Constantine (Yaroslav) (1129) and his children Sts. Michael and Theodore (12th c.), wonderworkers of Murom.
- Cyril, bishop of Rostov (1262).
- Basil, bishop of Ryazan (1295).
- Helen of Decani, Serbia (ca. 1350).
- Cassian the Greek, monk, of Uglich (1504).
- Monk-martyr Agapitus, founder of Markushev Monastery (Vologda) (1584).
- Uncovering of the relics (1998) of Andrew Ogorodnikov, fool-for-Christ, of Simbirsk (1841).
- Synaxis of the Saints of Synaxis of the Saints of Ufa. Synaxis of the Saints of Karelia.
- Meeting of the Vladimir Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos (1521).
HYMN OF PRAISE
Saint Constantine
To Constantine, the shining Cross appeared;
Constantine saw it and glorified God.
It was a sign from the Son of God;
There is nothing more beautiful than this sign:
The sign of suffering and temporal trouble,
But also the sign of final victory.
By this sign which worked wonders,
Constantine set out and conquered everywhere.
In the midst of pagan Rome, which persecuted the Cross,
He raised the Cross on high, to the glory of the Savior.
That which for three centuries had been broken and cursed,
Now, for Rome, became great and holy!
For three centuries the Cross had been spat upon;
The earth had been bathed in the blood of the saints.
Empires and emperors, arrogant and odious,
Were destroyed one by one, like weak reeds,
But the sign of the Cross remained upright;
Miraculously and gloriously it shone on the world.
Constantine recognized it and raised it even higher;
That is why, in the calendar, his name is written.
To read the Reflection, Contemplation, and Homily for this day,
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