Prologue

February 25 / February 12

Saint Meletius, Archbishop of Antioch

Meletius, this great and holy man, was an exceptional interpreter and defender of Orthodoxy. His entire life was dedicated to a struggle against the Arian heresy, which did not recognize the Son of God as God and blasphemed the Holy Trinity. On three occasions, Meletius was banished and exiled from his archiepiscopal throne to Armenia. The struggle be- tween the Orthodox and the heretics was waged so bitterly that, on one occasion, when St. Meletius was preaching to the people in church con- cerning the Holy Trinity in unity, his own deacon, a heretic, ran over to him and covered his mouth with his hand. Not being able to speak with his mouth covered, Meletius spoke in signs. He raised his clenched hand in the air, opening at first his three fingers and showing them to the people. After that, he closed his hand and raised up one finger. He participated in the Second Ecumenical Council [Constantinople, 381], where Emperor Theodosius showed him special honor. At this Council, God revealed a miracle through His hierarch. When Meletius was propounding the dogma of the Holy Trinity to Arius, at first he only raised three fingers, separately one by one, and after that folded them into one. At that moment, before all those present, a light shone like light- ning from his hand. At this Council, Meletius confirmed Gregory the Theologian on the patriarchal throne in Constantinople. Earlier Meletius had ordained Basil the Great to the diaconate and baptized John Chrysostom. After the close of the Council, St. Meletius completed his earthly life in Constantinople. His relics were translated to Antioch.

Saint Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow (1378)

Alexis was a great hierarch of the Russian Church during the burden- some bondage of the Russian people under the Tartars. Once, as a child, while he was hunting birds, he fell asleep. In a dream he heard a voice: “Alexis, why do you labor in vain? I will make you a fisher of men.” At age twenty he was tonsured a monk and in time became Metropolitan of Moscow. Twice he went among the “Golden Horde” of the Tartars: the first time to mitigate the wrath of Khan Verdevir against the Russian people, and the second time, at the invitation of Khan Amurat, to heal the khan’s wife of blindness. She had been blind for three years, but her sight was restored when Alexis prayed over her and anointed her with holy water. Following great labors and a fruitful life, Alexis died in the year 1378, at the age of eighty-five, and took up his habitation in the courts of the Lord.

The Venerable Mary (who was called Marinus), and her father, Eugene, of Alexandria (6th c.)

Maria was a young woman with indomitable courage. After the death of her mother, her father desired the monastic tonsure. Maria did not wish to be separated from her father, and they both agreed to journey to a men’s monastery. Maria, with cropped hair and in masculine attire, looked like a young man. Her father died, and Maria was tonsured a monk, receiving the name Marius. In the proximity of the monastery there was an inn. The daughter of the innkeeper was attracted to Marius, the supposed monk. After unsuccessfully pursuing Marius, the innkeeper’s daughter accused Marius of illicit carnal relations with her, for she had become pregnant by someone else and had given birth to a son. Maria did not defend herself and was banished from the monastery with ridicule. With someone else’s child in her arms, Maria lived for three years in a grove belonging to the monastery, enduring hunger, frost and every difficulty and deprivation. Meanwhile, the innkeeper’s daughter went insane. Soon after, Maria died. Only after her death was it discovered that the “monk Marius” was a woman. The deranged daughter of the innkeeper was healed as soon as she touched the body of St. Maria, and after that she acknowledged her terrible sin. St. Maria took up her habitation in eternal joy in the year 508.

Saint Anthony, Patriarch of Constantinople (895)

Anthony was at first a great ascetic of exceptional charity, and later he became Patriarch during the reign of Emperor Leo the Wise (889-912). He tonsured his father a monk and founded a monastery over the relics of St. Callia.

Saint Callia

Callia was generous toward the poor out of pure Christian charity, both as a maiden and later as a married woman. Callia’s husband was a wealthy but miserly man. Once, when he returned from a business trip, he saw that his wife had distributed his wealth to the poor, so he killed her. But God glorified this charitable soul in this manner: many who were ill were healed by her relics. Convinced by this, the holy Patriarch Anthony built a monastery over her relics.

• Hieromartyr Urbanus, pope of Rome (223-230).
• Ethilwald of Lindisfarne (740).
• St. Prochorus of Georgia, builder of Holy Cross Monastery near Jerusalem (1066).
• New Monk-martyrs Luke (Mukhaidze) (1277) and Nicholas (Dvali) (1314), of Jerusalem, and the holy fathers of the Georgian monasteries in Jerusalem.
• Bassian, founder of Ryabovsk Monastery (Uglich) (1509).
• New Martyr Christos the Gardener, of Albania, at Constantinople (1748).
• Meletius, archbishop of Kharkov (1840).
• Appearance of the Iveron Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos (Mt. Athos) (late 10th ).

HYMN OF PRAISE

The Holy Trinity

The Divine and Human Natures of Christ

Oneness and Threeness, One and Three.
Christ: He is God and He is Man, One and Two.
Great and most wonderful are these two mysteries—
The key of life and being is concealed in them.
Holy Threeness and Oneness, the eternal flame.
Flame eternal: Three torches but One flame.
Oneness and Threeness, One and Three.
Christ: He is God and He is Man, One and Two.

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