June 7 / May 25
The Third Finding of the Precious Head of St. John the Baptist
In the eighth century, during the bitter violence of iconoclasm, the head of St. John was brought to Co- mana, the place of exile of St. John Chrysostom. When iconoclasm ended in the year 850 during the time of Emperor Michael and the Patriarch Ignatius, the honorable head of St. John was translated to Constantinople and there was placed in the chapel of the imperial court.
The Hieromartyr Therapontus, Bishop of Cyprus (300-305)
Therapontus was a monk and an ascetic on the island of Cyprus. He was found worthy of the episcopal rank, but during the time of the persecution of Christians, he was found worthy of an even greater wreath, the crown of martyrdom. His body reposed in a church in Cyprus. During the reign of Emperor Nicephorus in the year 806, when the island of Cyprus was attacked by the Hagarenes, the saint appeared to the sexton of that church, told him that the infidels would attack Cyprus, and ordered him to remove his relics to Constantinople. The sexton did this immediately. While the boat with the reliquary was sailing on the sea, a great storm arose, but the sea was calm around the boat and a sweet-smelling fragrance was emitted around the whole boat in all directions. The sexton opened the reliquary and everyone witnessed that it was filled with myrrh, which flowed from the saint’s relics. By anointing themselves with this oil, many of the sick were healed. A church was built in Constantinople over the relics of this miracle-worker, who continued to grant healing to all those who with faith touched them. By the grace of God, the grave illnesses of possession, cancer, hemorrhaging, insanity, blindness, barrenness, as well as various other maladies, were cured by the relics of St. Therapontus.
The Holy Martyrs Pasicrates, Valentian, Julius and others
They were all Roman soldiers. They all suffered for Christ in Macedonian Dorostol in about the year 302. When Pasicrates’s brother Papian, who apostatized from Christ because of fear, began to urge him to deny Christ and remain alive, St. Pasicrates answered him: “Depart from me; you are not my brother!” Pasicrates and Valentian were beheaded together. At the trial, St. Julius said: “I am a veteran; for twenty-six years I have faithfully served the emperor and, since I was faithful to a lesser one, how can I not be faithful to a greater One?”—that is, to the Heavenly King. After that, Nicander was brought before the prefect Maximus. Nicander’s wife encouraged her husband to die for Christ. “Foolish old woman,” Maximus said to her angrily: “You just want a better husband.” The woman answered him: “If you think that about me, give the order and let them kill me now, before my husband!” Marcian was also slain with Nicander. Marcian’s wife approached the scaffold carrying her son in her arms. Marcian kissed his son and prayed to God: “O All-powerful Lord, take care of him!” Following this, they were beheaded and were translated to the Kingdom of Christ.
- Bede the Venerable, hieromonk and chronicler, of Wearmouth and Jarrow (735).
- Gennadius, bishop of Astorga (ca. 936).
- Thaddeus, archimandrite, of Svatogorsk Monastery (1758).
- Commemoration of the reunion of three million Uniates with the
Orthodox Church at Vilnius in 1831. - Innocent (Borisov), archbishop of Kherson (1857).
HYMN OF PRAISE
Saint Therapontus
Blessed Therapontus suffered for Christ.
He received two heavenly wreaths:
As a hierarch of the Church, and as a courageous martyr;
His body remained like a flower unfaded,
To heal the sick, to make fragrant the world,
To comfort the unfortunate, and to bring joy to the faithful.
Thus the Lord glorified His glorifier,
A wonderful shepherd of His rational flock.
And thus the Lord made known and voiced abroad,
That a violent death does not kill a saint,
But crowns him with a wreath and proclaimed his name,
Eternally glorifying him in both churches.
O God’s glorifier, holy Therapontus,
Wonderful martyr for the holy Faith—
Help us also, for the love of God,
By your prayers before the throne most high!
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