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THE FIFTH MONTH IN THE NAME
OF THE FATHER AND THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT, On this day Stephen, the Apostle, Archdeacon and Protomartyr,
became a martyr. This holy
man, as the Book of the Acts of the Apostles testifieth, was full of
grace, and of the Holy Spirit, and of power, and he used to perform signs
and miracles among the people. And the Jews were envious of him, and they
seized him and brought him into their synagogue, and they said, “We
found him blaspheming God and Moses, and saying that Jesus shall change
the Law of Moses, and shall overthrow this holy place.”
And those who were sitting round in the Sanhedrin looked at the
face of the blessed Stephen, and saw that it was like unto the face of an
angel of God. And they said
unto him, “Is this thing true which is said concerning thee?”
And the saint answered and said unto them in a loud voice, “Hear
ye, O our fathers and brethren. The
God of praise appeared unto our father Abraham in the country between the
rivers (Mesopotamia), before he had left Harran, and He said unto him, Get
thee out from thy country and from thy kindred, and come into the land
which I will show thee; and he went forth from Harran as God commanded.”
And again God commanded him to speak, and then Stephen talked to
them about the birth of Isaac, and concerning Jacob and his sons, how they
sold Joseph, and how Joseph knew his brethren when he was chief.
And Saint Stephen talked with them until [he came to] the building
of the sanctuary. And then he
lifted up his voice and said unto them, “O ye stiff-necked men, ye dense
of heart, at all time do ye resist the Holy Spirit, even as did your
fathers who persecuted the prophets who prophesied, and who preached
concerning Christ, Whom ye killed, and Who hath risen from the dead.”
And when they heard this they gnashed their teeth upon him.
And Saint Stephen being full of faith, and of the Holy Spirit,
looked up to heaven, and he saw the glory of god, and Jesus Christ at the
right hand of God His Father, and he said unto them, “Behold, I see
heaven open, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God His Father.”
And when they heard [this] they shut their ears, and took him that
they might stone him with stones, and they deposited their apparel with
Saul, that is to say Paul. And
they took Stephen outside the city, and stoned him, and he prayed to God
on their behalf, and he knelt down on his knees and said, “Receive my
soul unto Thyself, O God.” And
he said, “Let not this sin be reckoned unto them”; and he was like
unto his Lord. And when he
had said this he died, and certain believing men came and carried away the
body of the saint, and they lamented for him with a great lamentation, and
buried him. Salutation to
Stephen. And on this day also Saint Lavendius (Leontius) became a martyr.
This saint lived in the days of the Emperor Maximianus, the
infidel, in the country of Syria. When
the Emperor heard about him, and knew that he was a fighter of the
spiritual fight, and that he worshipped God, he sent and had him brought
before him. And he offered
him very much money, and tried to persuade him to forsake the worship of
God, and to serve his idols. And
Saint Lavendius (Leontius) laughed at him and spurned his gifts, and his
money, and his honors, and despised his punishments, and cursed his
unclean gods. And straightway
the Emperor was wroth exceedingly, and he commanded his soldiers to hang
him up on the wheel, and to torture him severely; and they did to him as
the emperor commanded, but God brought him out sound and uninjured.
Then the emperor commanded them to beat him with clubs, and to boil
oil and fat in a large cauldron, and to cast the saint into it; and they
did this to him. And the
saint endured all these tortures, for our Lord Christ make him strong, and
enabled him to endure, and He raised him up whole and uninjured.
When the emperor was tired of torturing him, he commanded them to
cut off his head with the sword, and thus he received a crown of martyrdom
in the kingdom of the heavens. And
many signs and wonders were made manifest through his body, and the fame
of him was heard throughout Syria; and they built churches and monasteries
in his honor. In one of his
monasteries Saint Severus, Archbishop of the city of Antioch, was baptized
when he was a child. Salutation
to Lavendius (Leontius). And on this day also died Saint Macarius, the sixty-first
Archbishop of the city of Alexandria.
When Abba Michael, the Archbishop, his predecessor, died, the
bishops, and chief priests, and elders of Egypt, gathered together, and
they all went up to the desert of Scete, and they took up their abode in
the monastery of Saint Abba Macarius, and they enquired carefully of the
desert monks, and the righteous men who dwelt in cells and caves, and
asked them who was fit for the honorable office of archbishop; and one of
the righteous men told them about this saint.
And the priest Macarius, who dwelt in the monastery of Saint Abba
Macarius, said, “He is better than all others for this office”; and
they searched for him, and seized him against his will, and as they bound
him, he cried out “I am a sinner and am not fit for this work”; but
they did not hearken to his words, and they made him archbishop against
his will. And he
appointed bishops and priests in every district of Egypt, and he restored
many churches, and in his days all Christians lived in peace and safety,
for twenty-seven years and thirty-one days, and he was well pleasing to
God, and died in peace. Salutation
to Macarius. And on this day the saints of Akmim became martyrs, and their
history is as follows: There
was a certain man of the men of Akmim who was a judge, and he was rich in
gold and silver, and his name was El-Sidmalyos, and he begot two sons
whose names were Dioscurus and Saklabius (Aesculapius), and they were
reared in the fear of God, with fasting and prayer.
And when their father died they wished to adopt the monastic life;
and the angel of God appeared unto them and [commanded] them to go to the
monastery of Abba Moses, the desert monk; and having gone to him they put
on the garb of the monk, and they fought the spiritual fight strenuously,
and performed signs and wonders. And
after a few [days] Dioscurus was made a deacon [and] priest, and Saklabius
a deacon, and then it happened that Diocletian denied the God of heaven,
and commanded Arianus, the governor of Ensena (Esneh) to slay [all] the
Christians who would not sacrifice to his gods.
And Arianus arrived in Akmim and he seized Peter, the bishop, Abba
Bunudyas, and he bound him, and came into his city.
And Michael, the angel of God, appeared unto Dioscurus and
Saklabius, and told them that they were to receive the crown of martyrdom
in the kingdom of the heavens, and on the twenty-eighth day of the month
of Tahsas they and twenty-four monks went to Arianus.
And when they arrived in the city of ‘Akmim they found the
Christians, together with their wives and children, in the church of
Christ our Redeemer, ready to celebrate the festival of the Glorious Birth
and to die for His Name; and Abba Benudyas (sic) the bishop came with
them. And on the following
morning Abba Benudyas read the Liturgy, and when he came to the passage
wherein is said “Holy,” the angels cried out, saying, “Holy, Holy,
Holy, Lord God of Hosts, Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory.” And the saints saw our Redeemer sitting upon the Tabot
(tabernacle) and the angels standing round Him raising the Offering, and
He placed the Offering in the hand of the priest that he might present it
to those assembled there. When
Arianus heard [this] he was filled with great wrath, and he came into the
church, and seized the two elders of the city whose names were Behwafa and
Wenin, and cut off their heads with the sword.
And after that he killed the deacons, and the sub deacons, and the
singers, and the steward of the church, and he left neither woman nor
child alive; and at length their blood ran out of the door of the church,
and flowed down the road for a distance of twenty cubits.
Then [the officer] took Abba Bunudyas (sic) the bishop, and
Dioscurus and Saklabius, and the brethren who were with them, and carried
them before Arianus, who persuaded them to worship idols.
And when they refused to do so, he commanded soldiers to beat
Dioscurus and Saklabius until their bones were shattered, [and they did
so], but the angel of God appeared unto the saints, and healed them.
And Karyon and Philemon, the chief officers of the guard of Arianus,
and the forty soldiers who were with them, saw this miracle, and they
believed on Jesus Christ. And the governor commanded his soldiers to cast them into a
red-hot oven, and they finished their martyrdom on the thirtieth day of
the month of Tahsas. And
several of those who were gathered together there cast themselves into the
oven, without any man compelling them to do so, and they finished their
martyrdom. And on the first
day of the month Ter, whilst Dioscurus and Saklabius were shut up in
prison, Michael the Archangel appeared unto them and made them strong to
finish their martyrdom. And
on the following day Arianus held converse with them concerning their
worshipping idols, and when they refused to do so, he commanded the
soldiers to gouge out the eyes of Dioscurus, and the saint took up his
eyes and put them back in their sockets, and they were as they had been
before [they were gouged out]. And
Lucius, an officer, and his company of soldiers believed in Christ, and
the governor cast them into a pit, and they completed their martyrdom.
And then Arianus commanded the soldiers to kill the saints, and
whilst they were praying the Lord Jesus Christ appeared unto them and gave
them the covenant that whosoever invoked their names, and commemorated
them, and wrote a history of their strife should be numbered with the
company of the righteous. Then
the soldiers came and cut off the head of Saint Dioscurus with the sword,
and Saklabius they cut in halves, and the four and twenty monks they split
in twain, from their heads to their feet, and they were crowned on the
first day of the month Ter. And
Samuel, who was a kinsman of theirs, swathed their bodies for burial, and
he buried them in the church, which was consecrated in the Name of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.
And the number of the martyrs who were slain is eight thousand one
hundred and forty. Salutation
to Dioscurus and Saklabius. Glory
be to God Who is glorified in His Saints.
Amen. |
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