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THE
ELEVENTH
MONTH IN THE NAME
OF THE FATHER AND THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT, On this day, the seventeenth day of the month of Hamle, Jonah went forth from the belly of the whale. On is day the holy and righteous woman Euphemia became a martyr. One of the governors of Diocletian, whose name was Barsiros, tortured this saint. He was passing down the road, and there were with him certain holy men with iron chains round their necks, and his soldiers were dragging them along like dogs. And when this saint saw him, her heart waxed hot, because of her love of God, and she was sorry for the men. And she cursed the Emperor Diocletian and his unclean idols, and she also cursed that governor, saying, “O thou whose heart is like a stone, and who art merciless, wilt thou not have compassion on these holy men? Art thou not afraid that their God will destroy thee?” When Diocletian heard of this he commanded his soldiers to fetch her, and he questioned her about her Faith, and she denied not, but confessed before him that she was a Christian. And he tortured her severely with every king of torture, with beatings, and with fire, and with hanging, and after this he threw her into a red-hot furnace, but no injury whatsoever came to her through these tortures. Thereupon she stood up before all the people, and she prayed, and made the sign of the Cross over all the people, and she delivered up her soul into the hand of God. Salutation to Euphemia. And on this day also are commemorated Abba Bedel the martyr, and Zacharias the priest, and Aulenius, and Marat the bishop, and Isidore, and Ayna Sahay, and Neron the martyr, and Gida, and ‘Awa, and Aa, and also the finding of the bones of Justus, the martyr. And on this day took place the death of the glorious and exalted father, the man of fair remembrance, whose deeds were excellent, Abba Andreas, Archimandrite of the great city Debre Libanos. This blessed man was reared from his childhood on the milk of wisdom, and he grew up in knowledge, and he assumed the garb of the monastic life under the direction of ‘Abuna Abba John Kama. And having walked well, and fought a very great spiritual fight, he was set upon the throne of ‘Abuna Abba Takla Haymanot; and in the number of the learned fathers he was the eighth. And when the day drew nigh wherein he must depart from this world, at the end his death took place with violence, so that his soul might be great before God. And many of [his] sayings are written in the book of his strife, which is read on the seventeenth day of the month of Hamle. Salutation to Andreas.
Glory
be to God Who is glorified in His Saints.
Amen. |
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