August 7 / July 25
1. Saint Anna, Mother of the All-holy Theotokos
Today is the commemoration of the falling asleep of St. Anna, but her principal feast is celebrated on September 9, on which date her life is written. Anna was from the tribe of Levi, and was the daughter of Mat- than the priest. After a long and God-pleasing life, she died in extreme old age.
2. Saint Olympias (Olympiada) the Deaconess, of Constantinople (409)
Olympias was born in Constantinople of very distinguished parents. Her father, Anysius Secundus, was a senator, and her mother was the daughter of the famous nobleman Eulavius, who is mentioned in the life of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. When Olympias reached maturity she was betrothed to a nobleman who died before the marriage took place. The emperor and her other relatives pressured Olympias to marry another, but in vain. She in no way desired this, and devoted herself to a God-pleasing life, giving great offerings to the churches and alms to the needy from her inherited estate. She served as a deaconess in the Church during the time of Patriarch Nectarius and, after his death, during the time of St. John Chrysostom. When Chrysostom was exiled, he counseled Olympias to remain in the church and to serve as before, regardless of who the patriarch after him would be. Immediately after the banishment of this great saint, someone started a fire in the Great Church, and the fire consumed many prominent buildings in the capital. The enemies of St. John Chrysostom accused this holy woman of maliciously starting the fire. Olympias was banished from Constantinople to Nicomedia, where she died in the year 410. She had requested in her last testament that her body be placed in a box and cast into the sea and that she was to be buried wherever the waves brought it ashore. The coffin was cast ashore in the city of Vrochthoi, where there was a church dedicated to the Apostle Thomas. Throughout the centuries, her relics have had the power of great healing miracles. The exiled Chrysostom wrote beautiful letters to the exiled Olympias, which even today serve as a great comfort to all those who suffer for the sake of God’s justice. Among other things, Chrysostom wrote to Olympias: “Now I am very happy, not only because you have been delivered from infirmity, but even more because you are nobly enduring all difficulties, referring to them as trivialities, which is characteristic of a soul full of strength and abounding in the rich fruits of courage. For not only are you courageously enduring misfortune, but you do not even notice it when it comes and, without exertion, without labor and disturbance, do not even inform others, but rejoice and triumph over it. This serves as proof of the greatest wisdom” (Letter VI).
3. The Venerable Eupraxia the Virgin of Tabennisi (413)
Eupraxia was the daughter of Antigonus, a nobleman of Constantinople and a relative of Emperor Theodosius the Great. She and her mother, a young widow, settled in Egypt. There they visited the monasteries, Seventeen of St. John Chrysostom’s letters to Olympias have come down to us distributed alms and prayed to God. In accordance with her fervent desire, the seven-year-old Eupraxia was tonsured a nun. The older she became, the more she imposed heavy ascetic burdens on herself. She once fasted for forty days. She reposed in 413, in her thirtieth year. She possessed great grace from God, and healed the most serious illnesses.
4. Commemoration of the Holy 165 Fathers of the Fifth Ecumenical Council (553)
This Council was convened in Constantinople during the reign of Emperor Justinian the Great in the year 553. All the various heresies of Monophysitism were condemned at this Council, as well the heretical writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia and Theodoret of Cyrrhus and Ori- gen’s teaching (against the resurrection of the dead).
- Martyrs Sanctus, Maturus, Attalus, Blandina, Biblis, Ponticus, Alexander, and others, at Lyons (ca. 177).
- Macarius of Zheltovod and Unzha, monastic founder (1444).
- Christopher, abbot of Solvychegodsk (Vologda) (1572).
- Gregory, metropolitan of Thessalonica and Heraclea (1925).
- New Hieromartyrs Vukosav and Rodoljub, of Kulen Vakuf, Serbia (1941-1945).
- New Hieromartyr Theodore, priest, of Lovets (Pskov) (1942).
HYMN OF PRAISE
Saint Eupraxia
Eupraxia, the young virgin,
Became a hermitess for the sake of Christ,
And though of proud and royal birth,
She bore God in her soul.
Avoiding all honors as burdens,
As well as riches and her royal family,
She prayed day and night to God,
Exhausting herself in fasts and vigils.
God hearkened to His servant—
Eupraxia, the tearful virgin
Who had shed many tears,
And by tears inflamed her prayers.
God bestowed wondrous gifts on her:
To help the young and the old,
To cast out wicked demons,
To heal the sick of every infirmity.
She went to God with a most pure soul,
And in heaven found herself a home
Built of faith and deeds,
And purchased with much patience.
A home radiant with God Himself:
There, St. Eupraxia went to dwell—
In joy, amidst eternal good—
To reign with the Immortal Christ.
To read the Reflection, Contemplation, and Homily for this day,
you can purchase your copy of the Prologue of Ohrid at our St. Sebastian Bookstore
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