May 27 / May 14
The Holy Martyr Isidore of Chios (251)
During the reign of Decius, Isidore was taken by force into military service from the island of Chios. From childhood Isidore adhered to the Christian Faith and spent his entire life in fasting, prayer and good works. But when in the army Isidore declared himself a Christian, the com- mander seized him, demanded an explanation, and urged him to deny Christ and offer sacrifices to the idols. The saint replied: “Even if you kill my body, you have no authority over my soul. I pos- sess the True, Living God, Jesus Christ, Who lives in me now and after my death. He will be with me, and I am in Him and will remain in Him, and I will never cease to confess His holy name as long as my soul is in my body.”
First, the commander ordered that Isidore be whipped with bullwhips, and after that, they cut out his tongue. Even without his tongue, Isidore, by the Spirit of God, spoke and confessed the name of Christ. Meanwhile, the punishment of God came upon the commander, who suddenly became mute. Finally, the mute commander gave the sign to behead Isidore. Isidore was elated at this sentence. After praising God, he went to the scaffold, where he was beheaded in the year 251. His companion, Ammon, buried his body and then also suffered and received the martyr’s wreath.
The Venerable Serapion the Sindonite, monk, of Egypt (5th c.)
Sindon means “linen cloth.” Serapion was called “the Sindonite” be- cause he covered his naked body with a single linen cloth. He carried the Gospels in his hand. Serapion lived like a bird, with neither a roof nor any worries, moving from place to place. He gave his linen cloth to a needy person who was shivering from the frost, and Serapion remained com- pletely naked. When someone asked him, “Serapion, who disrobed you?” he pointed to the Holy Gospels and said, “This!” After that he even gave his copy of the Gospels away as a ransom for a man in debt, whose creditor was threatening him with prison because of the debt. Once, in Athens, he ate nothing for four days, because he had nothing available, and began to cry out from hunger. When the Athenian philosophers asked him why he was crying out so, Serapion replied: “I was indebted to three, two of whom I have satisfied, but the third one is still tormenting me. The first creditor is carnal lust, which tormented me from my youth. The second creditor is avarice, and the third creditor is my stomach. The first two have left me, but the third one still torments me.” The philosophers gave him a gold coin to purchase bread. He went to a baker, purchased only one loaf of bread, left the gold coin and departed. He presented himself peacefully to the Lord in his old age, in the fifth century.
Blessed Isidore the Fool-for-Christ and wonderworker, of Rostov (1474)
Isidore was of German descent. Having come to Rostov, he came to love the Orthodox Faith. He not only became a communicant of the Or- thodox Church but also assumed the difficult life of asceticism as a fool- for-Christ. He walked around clothed only in rags. Pretending insanity, he spent the entire day teaching men, and spent his nights in prayer. He spent these nights in a hut made of branches, which he had built in muddy ter- rain. Great and awesome were the miracles that this saint performed both during his life and after his death. To a merchant, who was thrown from a boat and was drowning in the sea, Isidore appeared walking upon the water and led him to shore. When the servants of the Prince of Rostov refused Isidore a glass of water that he had asked for and drove him away from the door, then all the prince’s vessels of wine dried up. When Isidore died in his hut on May 14, 1484, the whole of Rostov was imbued with a wonderful fragrance. The merchant who had been saved from the sea erect- ed a church in Blessed Isidore’s honor over the spot where his hut had been.
- Martyr Maximus, under Decius (250).
- Aprunculus, bishop of Langres, later of Clermont (ca. 488).
- Hieromartyr Therapontus, bishop of Cyprus (632).
- Nicetas, recluse of the Kiev Caves, bishop of Novgorod (1108).
- Leontius, patriarch of Jerusalem (1184).
- New Martyr Mark of Crete, at Smyrna (1643).
- New Martyr Raiko-John of Shumena, Bulgaria (1802).
- Andrew, abbot of the Holy Trinity–St. Raphael Monastery (Tyumen) (1820).
- Uncovering of the relics (1846) of Tikhon, bishop of Voronezh, wonderworker of Zadonsk (1783).
- New Hiero-confessor Matthew, hieromonk, of Yaransk (1927).
- (Greek : Sts. Alexander, Barbarus, and Acolythus, martyred at the Church of Holy Peace by the Sea, in Constantinople).
HYMN OF PRAISE
Blessed Isidore the Fool-for-Christ
Blessed Isidore wrestled with himself
Until he became as passionless as a withered tree.
But even a withered tree is filled with honey by bees,
And from a dry rock, a spring sometimes gushes forth.
The body of the blessed one was filled with the Spirit;
His heart was sweetened with the honey of grace;
In the body of a “fool” was the fountain of God’s power;
In poor garments was a hidden treasure.
Wonderful Isidore lay on the garbage heap.
Through the streets, he cried out, leapt, and fled,
With neither roof nor bread, without friends,
But under the watchful eye of his Creator.
He was a lesson to vain men;
And to those bound like beasts to the earth, he was a reproach.
By his life, it was as though he wanted to say:
“Men, your cares lead to misfortune.
A fortunate man is not one who steals from God,
But one who possesses God alone as his treasure.”
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