August 21 / August 8
1. Saint Emilian the Confessor, Bishop of Cyzicus (820)
Emilian served as bishop in Cyzicus, during the reign of the nefarious Emperor Leo the Armenian, the iconoclast. Since he did not want to submit to the decrees of the emperor, which demanded the removal of icons from the churches, Emilian and other Orthodox bishops were sent into exile. He spent five years in exile, enduring much pain and humiliation for the sake of Christ. Emilian died in the year 820 and took up his habitation among the citizens of heaven.
2. Saint Myron, Miracle-worker and Archbishop of Crete (350)
Myron, a married farmer, joyfully and abundantly distributed the fruits of his land to needy people. Once he encountered strangers and thieves stealing wheat from his threshing floor. Not telling them who he was, St. Myron helped the thieves fill the sacks, lift them on their backs, and escape. Because of his exceptional virtue, Myron has ordained a presbyter and afterward consecrated a bishop. He was a great miracle-worker and performed many good and mighty works in the name of the Lord Jesus. Myron died sometime close to the year 350, in the hundredth year of his life.
3. The Venerable Gregory the Sinaite (1346)
Gregory is called “the Sinaite” because he received the monastic tonsure on Mount Sinai. During the reign of Emperor Andronicus Palaeologus (about the year 1330), he arrived on Mount Athos to visit the monasteries and to learn more, if possible, about the practice of mental prayer and contemplation. At the time, however, these two forms of spiritual practice were almost unknown among the holy Athonites. The only one who knew about them—and practiced them to perfection—was St. Maximus of Kapsokalyvia. Gregory spread his understanding about mental prayer through all the cells and monasteries on Mount Athos. His most distinguished disciple there was Kallistos, Patriarch of Constantinople, who would later write Gregory’s biography. After this, Gregory crossed over to Macedonia and to other Balkan regions, and established communities in which the monks practiced mental prayer. Thus he assisted many in the deepening of their prayer, to their salvation. His writings about mental prayer and asceticism can be found in the Philokalia. Among other things, he wrote the hymn to the Holy Trinity “It Is Meet and Right,” which is sung at the Sunday Midnight Service. Gregory was one of the most eminent ascetics and spiritual teachers of the Balkans. He died peacefully after a long and laborious life, and took up his habitation in the Kingdom of God.
4. The Holy New Martyrs Triandaphyllos and Anastasius (Spaso)
Triandaphyllos was born in Zagora, and Anastasius (Spaso) was born in Radoviste, in the Diocese of Strumica. They were both Slavs, and both were young, simple men—but their love for Christ was more precious to them than this world or this life. They gave their lives and did not betray Christ. They suffered at the hands of the Turks for the Christian Faith: Triandaphyllos, in Constantinople, in 1680; and Spaso, in Thessalonica, in 1794.
5. The Holy Martyr Gormizdas of Persia (418)
Gormizdas was a nobleman at the court of the Persian Emperor Yezdegeherd. The emperor confiscated his rank and property and sent him to tend livestock because he would not deny his Christian Faith. The emperor hoped that Gormizdas would pine so badly for his rank and property that he would soon worship the idols. However, Gormizdas peace- fully tended the livestock and kept his faith. For that, the emperor subjected him to cruel tortures that exhausted the body of Christ’s martyr but could not alter his spirit.
Finally, Gormizdas was slain, in the year 418, immediately after the martyrdom of St. Abdus the bishop (March 31). Gormizdas was martyred on earth, and glorified in heaven.
- Martyrs Eleutherius and Leonides, of Constantinople, and many infants with them (4th ).
- Gregory, iconographer, of the Kiev Caves (11-13th c.).
- Zosimas the Sinaite, of Tuman Monastery, Serbia (14th c.).
- Gregory, wonderworker, of the Kiev Caves (14th c.).
- First (1566) and second (1992) translations of the relics of Zosimas (1478) and Sabbatius (1435), of Solovki.
- Monk-martyr Euthymius, abbot, of the Monastery of John the Baptist, at Gareji, Georgia (1804).
- Philaret of Ichalka, Ivanovo (1913).
- New Hieromartyrs Joseph, hieromonk of the Tolga Monastery (Yaroslavl) (1918), Nicholas, priest, of Pokrovskoye (1930), and Nicodemus, archbishop of Kostroma (1938).
- Translation of the relics (1992) of Herman of Solovki (1479).
- Uncovering of the relics (2002) of St. Barlaamof Chikoisk Monastery (Siberia) (1846).
- “Tolga” Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos (1314).
HYMN OF PRAISE
Saint Gregory the Sinaite
The wise Sinaite taught the monks,
And, by his own example, confirmed his teachings:
“Passionlessness is the Promised Land,
And the passionless soul is illumined by the Spirit.
A man will be devoid of thoughts
When his mind rests in the heart through prayer.
Sinful thoughts are the forerunners of all passions,
Which hold the soul in the power of demons.
We are all sick, and the Physician’s medicine is ready,
For our healing, and our health.
Speak the name of Jesus in your heart,
And it will consume the passions like fire!
Let that powerful name, with heavenly brightness,
Move in your heart with every breath.
If you do not have the Lord Jesus in your heart,
All other ascesis remains like water.
Only Jesus is able, within me,
To turn the water of my being into true wine.
Rest your whole mind in your heart as in a nest,
And glorify Jesus by ceaseless prayer.
‘Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner!’
Let the prayer be slow, not hurried,
Until, from prayer,
the heart bursts into flame;
Then the mind will gaze upon heaven,
and forget about the earth.”
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