December 30 / December 17

1. The Holy Prophet Daniel and the Three Holy Youths: Ananias, Azarias, and Misael

All four were of the royal tribe of Judah. When Nebuchadnezzar de- stroyed and plundered Jerusalem, Daniel, as a boy, was carried away into slavery together with the Jewish King Jehoiachim and countless other Is- raelites. An account of his life, sufferings and prophecies can be found in detail in his book. Completely devoted to God, St. Daniel from his early youth received from God the gift of great discernment. His fame among the Jews in Babylon began when he denounced two lecherous and unrighteous elders, Jewish judges, and saved the chaste Susanna from an unjust death. But his fame among the Babylonians began from the day he deciphered and interpreted the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar. For this, the king made him a prince at his court. When the king made a golden idol on the Plain of Dura, the Three Children refused to worship it, and for this they were cast into a fiery furnace. But an angel of God appeared in the furnace and cooled the fire so that the children walked around the furnace unharmed by the fire, singing: Blessed art Thou, Lord God of our fathers (Daniel 3:26). The king saw this miracle and was amazed. He then brought the children out of the furnace and bestowed upon them great honors.

In the time of King Belshazzar, when the king was eating and drinking with his guests at a banquet from consecrated vessels taken from the Temple in Jerusalem, an invisible hand wrote three words on the wall: Mene, Tekel, Upharsin (Dan 5:25–28). No one was able to in- interpret these words except Daniel. That night, King Belshazzar was killed. Daniel was twice thrown into the lions’ den because of his faith in the One, Living God, and both times the Lord saved him and he remained alive. Daniel beheld God on a throne with the heavenly hosts; saw angels; discerned the future of certain people, of kingdoms, and of the whole human race; and prophesied the time of the coming of the Savior on earth. According to St. Cyril of Alexandria, Daniel and the three children lived to old age in Babylon and were beheaded for the true Faith. When they beheaded Ananias, Azarias stretched out his cloak and caught his head; following this, Misael caught Azarias’s head and Daniel caught Misael’s head. An angel of God translated their bodies to Judea, to Mount Gebal, and placed them under a rock. According to tradition, these four God-pleasers arose at the time of the death of the Lord Christ, appeared to many, and again fell asleep. Daniel is numbered among the four great prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel). He lived and prophesied five hundred years before Christ.

2.  The Venerable Daniel (Dunale) the Confessor, of Spain and Egypt (10th )

Daniel was a nobleman and governor of the island of Nivertum near Cadiz in Spain. Realizing the vanity of this world, he renounced both honors and riches and went to Rome, where he was tonsured a monk. After this, he went to Constantinople, where he spoke with the Emperors Con- Constantine and Romanus Porphyrogenitus, and then he set off for Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, he received the great schema at the hands of Patriarch Christodoulus, who gave him the name Stephen. Mistreated by the Saracens, who forced him to shave off his beard, he withdrew to Egypt, where he endured much suffering and finally died for the name of Christ. He took up his habitation in the Kingdom of Christ toward the end of the tenth century.

3. The Venerable New Martyrs Paisius (1814) and Habakkuk, at Belgrade (1815)

Paisius was abbot of the Travna Monastery near Čačak in Serbia, and Habakkuk was his companion and deacon. As Christians, both were im- paled on stakes by the Turks on Kalemegdan in Belgrade on December 17, 1814. Carrying his stake through the streets of Belgrade, the courageous Habakkuk sang. When his mother begged him with tears to embrace Islam in order to save his life, this wonderful soldier of Christ replied to her: My mother, thank you for your milk, But for your counsel I thank you not: A Serb is Christ’s; he rejoices in death.

• Monk-martyrs Patermuthius and Coprius and Martyr Alexander the Soldier, of Egypt (361-363).
• The 47 Martyrs of Gaza, at Heraclion (638).
• Sturm, abbot and founder of Fulda Monastery (Germany) (779)
• Athanasius, Nicholas, and Anthony, founders of Vatopedi Monastery, Mt. Athos (10th c.).
• New Martyr Nicetas of Nyssa (ca. 1300).
• Dionysius of Zakynthos, archbishop of Aegina (1622).
• Misael, hieromonk of Abalak Monastery (Irkutsk) (1852).
• New Hieromartyr Sergius, priest, of Rakvere, Estonia (1918).

HYMN OF PRAISE

The Holy Prophet Daniel and the Three Children

Whoever fears the true God
Is not afraid of men or demons.
The Lord rewards faithful servants
And guards them from every evil.
Among the lions,
Holy Daniel remained unharmed;
In the fiery furnace,
The Three Children remained alive;
In the midst of the fire, they glorified God,
With an angel, God’s messenger.
Like Noah in the evil world,
Like holy Lot in wild Sodom,
And like Joseph in decadent Egypt,
So Daniel in the middle of Babylon
Remained faithful and righteous
With three of his young friends:
Ananias and Azarias
And the faithful young Misael.
The tortures came and the tortures passed.
The martyred were gloriously glorified
In the Immortal Kingdom of Christ.

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