May 26 / May 3

The Holy Martyr Glyceria and her jailer Martyr Laodicius, at Heraclea (138)

Glyceria was the daughter of a Roman governor. Becoming impoverished after her father’s death, Glyceria settled in Trajanopolis in Thrace. During the reign of the wicked Emperor Antoninus, Glyceria was taken to offer sacrifices to the idol of Zeus. She traced the sign of the Cross on her forehead, and when the Prefect Sabinus asked where her lamp was (for all of them carried lamps in their hands), Glyceria pointed to the Cross on her forehead and said: “This is my lamp.” As a result of her prayer, lightning struck the idol and smashed it to pieces. The prefect became angry and ordered her flogged and thrown into prison. He sealed the doors to the prison, determined to starve the virgin to death. However, an angel of God appeared to Glyceria and supplied heavenly food to her. After some time, when the prefect thought that the virgin must have died from hunger, he opened the doors of the prison and was astonished to see her healthy, radiant and joyful. Witnessing this miracle, Laodicius the jailer confessed to Christ the Lord and was immediately beheaded.

After that, Glyceria was thrown into a fiery furnace but remained unharmed by the fire. Standing in the midst of the fire and remembering the miracle of the three youths in the Babylonian furnace, Glyceria praised the Lord. Finally, she was thrown to the lions. While praying to God, this holy virgin gave up her soul to the Lord, for Whom she had bravely endured many tortures. She suffered honorably in the year 177. Healing myrrh flowed from her relics, which healed the sick of the gravest diseases.

The Holy Martyr Alexander of Rome (298)

Alexander was a Slav. As an eighteen-year-old soldier in the army of Emperor Maximilian, he refused the order of the emperor to give honor to the Roman idols. For this, he was handed over to Captain Tiberian, who was to either convince Alexander to deny Christ or else torture and kill him. Since all counseling was in vain, Tiberian took Alexander with him across Macedonia to Constantinople, whither he himself had an errand.  In every town along the way the young Alexander was cruelly tortured, but also in every town, Christians came out before him, begged him for a blessing, and encouraged him in his sufferings. Pimenia, his mother, followed him. During the course of Alexander’s travels, an angel of God appeared to him many times, assuaging his pain and encouraging him. In one place named Carasura, the martyr performed a miracle through his prayers: when thirst overcame him and the soldiers who escorted him, he brought forth a well of cold water from an arid place. On the shore of the Ergina River, Tiberian ordered the executioner to behead Alexander and cast his body into the water. When the executioner swung at the martyr’s head, he saw radiant angels of God around Alexander. Terrified, he dropped his hand. Alexander asked him why his hand had dropped, and the executioner replied that he saw some radiant young men surrounding him. Yearn- ing for death and union with the Lord, Alexander prayed to God to withdraw the angels from him so that the executioner would not be frightened. Thus, the executioner carried out his work in the year 298. Pimenia removed the body of her son and honorably buried him. Many healings occurred at the grave of the martyr. After his death, the martyr appeared to his mother and informed her of her imminent departure to the other world.

The Venerable John, Euthymius, George, and Gabriel of Iveron Monastery [Mount Athos]

These four Holy Fathers were the founders of the famous Iveron (Georgian) Monastery on the Holy Mountain. At first, St. John lived a life of asceticism in the Lavra of Athanasius, and after that, he founded his monastery, Iveron. John reposed in the year 998. Euthymius and George translated the Holy Scripture into the Georgian language. Euthymius reposed in the year 1029, and George in 1066. Gabriel was found worthy of receiving the miracle-working Icon of the Mother of God, which arrived at the monastery by way of the sea.

• Servatius, first bishop of Maastricht (384).
• Pausicacius, bishop of Synnada (606).
• Sergius the Confessor, his wife Irene and children, of Constantinople (ca. 842).
• Euthymius, patriarch of Jerusalem (1084).
• Commemoration of the monks of Iveron Monastery martyred by the Latins in the 13th
• Macarius, abbot, of Glushitsa Monastery (Vologda) (1480).
• Righteous Virgin Glyceria of Novgorod (1522).
• Translation of the relics (1688) of Hieromartyr Macarius of Kanev, archimandrite, of Obruch and Pinsk (1678).
• Euphrosynus of Iveron (18th c.).
• New Hieromartyrs Basil Sokolov, Christopher Nadezhdin, and Alexander Zaoz- ersky, archpriests, and Macarius (Telegin), hieromonk, and Martyr Sergius Tik- homirov, of Moscow (1922).
• Synaxis of the 103 New Martyrs of Cherkassy (1930).
• (Greek : St. Nicephorus, priest, of the monastery of Ephapsios).

HYMN OF PRAISE

Saint Glyceria

“Glyceria—sacrifice to the gods!”
Thus orders the mindless judge.
“Or you shall be thrown into the fire, to be consumed.”
Glyceria mocks the judge:
“God is one; the ‘gods’ are demons
Who confuse your mind.
What kind of sacrifice,
O mindless man?
Was there not one Sacrifice on Golgotha,
An awesome sacrifice, divine and bloody,
That abolished all bloody sacrifices?
One sacrifice after that Sacrifice,
One sacrifice the Lord seeks from us:
A pure heart, as an altar of prayer;
Clean hands, performing works of mercy;
Faith, hope, love and piety.
Such a sacrifice I endeavor to offer
To the Living God, my Creator.
God, the All-holy, desires such a sacrifice,
Not a corpse, bloody and dead.”

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