December 2 / November 19

1.  The Holy Prophet Obadiah (Abdias)

Obadiah was born in the village of Betharam in the region of Shechem. He lived at the court of King Ahab, but when the king turned away from true worship and bowed down to idols, Obadiah did not follow the king but continued to serve the one, true God. When the evil Queen Jezebel, in her hatred of Elias, raised persecution against all the prophets of God, Obadiah gathered a hundred of them, hid them in two caves, and fed them to the end of the persecution (I Kings 18:4). A contemporary of the great Prophet Elias, Obadiah revered him greatly and served him in all things, as his follower and disciple. He lived nine hundred years before Christ and entered peacefully into rest.

2.  The Holy Martyr Barlaam of Caesarea in Cappadocia (304)

Barlaam was born in Antioch. Because of his faith in Christ the Lord, the impious judge tortured him harshly. Finally, the judge decided to mock him by forcing him to offer sacrifice to the idols. For this he took him to the pagan temple and set burning coal on his palm and incense on the coal. The judge thought that the pain would cause the martyr to shake the coal and incense off his hand before the idols, and thus involuntarily cense them. However, the soldier of Christ heroically held the burning coal on his palm with no thought of casting it before the idols, until his fingers were burned through and fell off and his palm was completely burnt. St. Basil the Great said: “He had a right hand more powerful than fire: al-though the coal burned his hand, his hand still held the fire as if it were ash.” Chrysostom writes: “The angels looked from the heights. The archangels beheld—the scene was majestic, in truth transcending human nature. Behold, who would not wish to see a man who made such an ascetic endeavor, yet did not feel that which is characteristic of men to feel; a man who was himself both the altar of oblation and the sacrifice and the priest?”

When his hand burned off, elder Barlaam’s whole body fell to the ground dead and his soul went to the eternal rest of our Lord the Savior. This glorious, heroic elder suffered in the year 304.

3. The Venerable Barlaam and Ioasaph the Heir

Barlaam and Ioasaph were Indian ascetics. Ioasaph was son and heir to King Abenner. By God’s providence, elder Barlaam visited him, taught him the Christian Faith and baptized him. After that, the elder withdrew to a mountain to live a life of asceticism, but Ioasaph remained to struggle with many temptations in the world, and by God’s grace, to overcome them. Ioasaph finally succeeded in bringing his father to Christ. After he was baptized, King Abenner lived four years in deep repentance—for he had committed grave sins in persecuting Christians—and then ended his earthly existence and went to the better life. The young Ioasaph turned over the rule of the kingdom to his friend Barachias, and entered the wilderness to live a life of asceticism for the sake of Christ. His one desire on earth was to see his spiritual father, elder Barlaam, once again. The merciful God fulfilled his desire, and one day Ioasaph stood before Barlaam’s cave and cried out: “Bless me, father!” Elder Barlaam labored in asceticism in the wilderness for seventy years and lived one hundred years in all. St. Ioasaph himself left his kingdom at the age of twenty-five, and went into the wilderness where he lived for thirty-five years. They both had great love for the Lord Jesus, brought many to the true Faith and entered into the eternal joy of their Lord.

4.  The Holy Martyr Heliodorus, in Pamphylia (273)

Heliodorus was from the town of Maggido in Pamphylia and suffered for the Christian Faith in the time of Emperor Aurelian. During his harsh tortures, he heard a voice from heaven: “Be not afraid, I am with thee!” Thrown into a glowing-hot brazen ox, he fervently prayed to God and God saved him. All at once, the glowing ox cooled, and Heliodorus emerged alive. The judge cried out to him that he had performed some magic. To this, the martyr replied: “My magic is Christ!” He was beheaded and went to the Lord.

• Martyrs Azes of Isauria and 150 soldiers (284).
• Martyr Agapius of Gaza (306).
• Patroclus of Bourges (577).
• Egbert, archbishop of York (766).
• Hilarion of Georgia, wonderworker of Thessalonica (875).
• Simon, wonderworker of Calabria (10th c.).
• Barlaam, first abbot of the Kiev Caves (1065).
• Uncovering of the relics (1626) of Hieromartyr Adrian, founder of Poshekhonye Monastery (Rostov) (1550).
• Philaret, metropolitan of Moscow (1867).
• Ioannicius, schema-archimandrite, of Glinsk Hermitage (1914).
• New Hieromartyrs Porphyrius, bishop of Simferopol, Ioasaph, bishop of Chisto- pol, Michael, archimandrite, of Moscow, Gregory, archimandrite, of Odessa, and Gerasim, hieromonk, of Kazakhstan (1937).

. New Hieromartyrs Ioasaph, abbot, and Peter, hieromonk, both of the Holy Transfiguration Guslitsky Monastery (Moscow) (1937).

• New Hiero-confessor Alexis, schema-archimandrite, of Khust (Carpatho-Russia) (1947).
• Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia and Kalisa (1991).

HYMN OF PRAISE

The Venerable Barlaam and Ioasaph the Heir

When Ioasaph witnessed illness, old age and death,
He was sincerely ashamed of this life.
“Behold, even I can be ill like that,
And old age can make me stooped like this,
And death may come when I least expect it!
In the suffering of others I bitterly suffer.|
Is there anyone living who knows the secret of the mystery
And can reveal a better life?”
Then, from the dense mountain,
Barlaam descended,
And spoke truth to the young heir.
And the elder told him of the One God—
Of the Father Who reigns with the Spirit and the Son—
Of the creation of the world, and Paradise, most beautiful;
Of the first Adam, in the effulgence of Paradise;
Of cursed sin that brought us death;
Of Christ Who bore the heavy Cross for us;
Of life eternal, better than this;
Of the infinite glory of the Kingdom of Christ.
When Ioasaph had heard the all-wise Barlaam,
A bright day dawned for him, and the darkness of night passed away.

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