The Prologue from Ohrid: June 12
1. THE VENERABLE ONUPHRIUS THE GREAT
For sixty full years, this saintly hermit had lived in the desert when the
monk Paphnutius visited him. His hair and beard reached to the ground and his
body, due to a long period of nakedness, was covered with long hair. All the
hairs on him were as white as snow and his entire appearance glistened, sublime
and awesome. Seeing Paphnutius, Onuphrius called him by name and related to him
his life in the wilderness. His guardian angel appeared to him and brought him
to this place in the wilderness. For a long time he fed only on vegetables which
could rarely be found in the wilderness and after that, when he endured violent
combat by the temptations of the demons and when his heart was completely
strengthened in the love of God, an angel of God brought him bread for
nourishment. Besides that, by the good Providence of God, a palm tree grew next
to his cell which brought forth an abundant fruit of dates and a spring of
living water began to flow there. However, Onuphrius said: "I mostly feed
and quench my thirst on the sweet words of God." To Paphnutius' question: "How
do you receive Communion?" The hermit answered that an angel of God brings
him Holy Communion every Saturday and communicates him. The next day, the elder
said to Paphnutius that this is the day of his departure from this world; he
knelt on his knees, prayed to God and gave up his spirit to God. At that
moment, Paphnutius saw a heavenly light as it illumined the body of the deceased
saint and heard the singing of angelic hosts. Having honorably buried the body
of Onuphrius, Paphnutius returned to his monastery that, as a living witness he
narrate to others, for their benefit, the wondrous life of this man and the
greatness of God's Providence about those who have completely given themselves
over to the service of God. Onuphrius died in the year 400 A.D.
2. VENERABLE PETER THE ATHONITE
Peter was a Greek by birth and a soldier by profession. Once, in battle
against the Arabs, Peter was captured, bound by chains and cast into prison.
Peter remained imprisoned a long time in the town of Samara on the Euphrates
river and he constantly prayed that God free him from prison and take him to
some wilderness where he would dedicate himself completely to a life of
prayerful asceticism. St. Simeon, the Receiver of God, with St. Nicholas
appeared to him in prison, touched his iron chains with his staff and they
melted like wax and Peter suddenly found himself in a field outside the town.
He immediately set out for Rome where he was tonsured a monk by the pope himself
at the tomb of St. Peter. After this he again departed by boat for the east.
The All-Holy Birth-giver of God along with St. Nicholas appeared to him in a
dream and the Birth-giver of God said to St. Nicholas that she designated Mt.
Athos for a life of asceticism for Peter. Up to this time, Peter had never
heard of the Holy Mt. Athos. Disembarking, therefore, on the Holy Mountain,
Peter settled in a cave where he remained for fifty-three years in difficult
mortifications, in a struggle with hunger and thirst, with heat and cold and
mostly with the powers of the demons until he overcame all with the help of God.
After he endured the first temptations and successfully passed the first
difficult tests before God, an angel of God began to bring him bread every forty
days. On several occasions, the tempting devil appeared to him under the guise
of an angel of light but Peter repelled him with the sign of the cross and the
name of the All-Holy Birth-giver of God. About a year before his death he was
discovered by a deer hunter around Athos and from the mouth of the saint heard
his life story. He died in the year 734 A.D. His relics were translated to
Macedonia.
3. VENERABLE TIMOTHY, THE EGYPTIAN HERMIT
Timothy first lived a life of asceticism in Thebaid and then withdrew into
the wilderness where he lived for thirty years. Pleasing God, he died
peacefully.
4. THE VENERABLE BASSIAN AND JONAH
Bassian and Jonah were monks of the Solovetz Monastery. They drowned and
were washed ashore in the year 1651 A.D. Over their graves a sign appeared and
because of that a church was built. Later on, Petrominsk Monastery was
established there. Once when Emperor Peter the Great was saved from a tempest,
he remained there for three days and made a cross and implanted it on the shore.
HYMN OF PRAISE
SAINT PETER OF ATHOS
Saint Peter in the awesome wilderness,
Of all earthly riches, deprived
And the rich illusions of the devil,
Through tearful prayers, overcame all,
The heart he harnessed and to God raised it,
The mind he straightened and to heaven uplifted it,
Immobile as a rock among the cliffs,
Wearied by hunger and all-night vigils,
Directed himself toward every good
As bodiless in an earthly body.
On Mt. Athos, half a century
In prayer speaks only with God,
From age he turned as white as snow,
Neither man he saw, neither wanted he to.
To him, God revealed the window of heaven,
Countless miracles, Peter saw,
The Mother of God, God's angels.
And the all-wonderful saints of God.
To him the Lord an angel sent,
To him, gave Holy Communion from heaven,
Until, a spiritual giant Peter of himself created
As a certain city on a high mountain.
To be a teacher throughout the ages,
To the holy monks, a wonderful example.
REFLECTION
Great and wonderful is the Mystery [Sacrament] of Holy Communion. Even the
anchorites [recluses] and hermits craved for nothing else as much as to be given
the possibility to receive Holy Communion. St. Mary the Egyptian begged St.
Zosimus to bring her the Holy Mystery on the Jordan and to communicate her.
Returning from visiting St. Onuphrius, Venerable Paphnutius found a humble
community of four young ascetics in the desert. When Paphnutius asked them
whether and how do you receive Holy Communion, they replied that an angel of God
visits them every Saturday and Sunday and administers them Holy Communion.
Paphnutius remained until the first following Saturday and was personally
convinced. When Saturday dawned, the entire community was filled with an
indescribable wonderful fragrance and while they were at prayer, an angel of God
in the form of a handsome young man, as bright as lightning, appeared with the
All-pure Mysteries. Paphnutius became frightened and out of fear fell to the
ground. But they raised him up and brought him to the angel that he, along with
them, receive Communion from the hand of the angel. According to his own
testimony, St. Onuphrius received Holy Communion from the hand of an angel as
did many other anchorites and hermits. Therefore, it is completely erroneous to
think that solitaries and hermits did not receive Holy Communion. God Who
provided for their bodily nourishment did not leave them without the Life-giving
nourishment of the Body and Blood of Christ the Lord.
CONTEMPLATION
To contemplate the miraculous multiplying of the bread in the wilderness: "And
when it was evening, his disciples came to Him saying: This is a desert place,
and the time is not past; send the multitude away that they may go into the
villages and buy themselves victuals" (St. Matthew 14:15):
1. How the Lord fed five thousand people with the five blessed loaves;
2. How He is that Living Bread who alone can miraculously feed my hungry
soul, which the whole of the rest of the world together cannot feed.
HOMILY
About the palace and the hut
"The house of the wicked shall be overthrown but the hut of the
righteous shall flourish" (Proverbs 14:11).
The palace of Herod lay in ruins and the cave of the Child of Bethlehem
remains. The crowns of the Casesars have been lost but the bones of the martyrs
have been preserved. The palaces of the pagan kings have been transformed into
piles of stone and dust but the caves of the ascetics have grown into most
beautiful churches. The golden idols have been scattered into nothing and the
chains of the Apostle Peter are preserved as a holy relic. The powerful Roman
Empire is now only a tale of the dead, while the hut of Christianity, the Holy
Church is today the most powerful empire in the world. Where are the Jews, the
murders of God? They are dispersed throughout the world. Where are the
powerful Romans? In the grave. Where is the power of bloody Nero? Where is the
power of the evil Diocletian and the depraved Maximian? Where is the success of
Julian the Apostate? Where are those high towers? They are where the tower of
Babel is - beneath the dust and ashes, beneath shame and damnation.
Go about your own city and inquire how many homes of the godless are
excavated? How many huts of the righteous grew into beautiful houses?
Brethren, heaven and earth are founded on justice, on God's steadfast justice.
That is why every pagan creation is as arrogant air bubbles, which burst and are
trampled on by passers-by. The palaces of the pharaohs and Babylonians are as
trampled bubbles and the tent of the righteous Abraham flourishes and blossoms
in eternity. O my brethren, how all-powerful and long lasting is justice and
how rumbling and transient is injustice like a storm on a summer's day!
O Righteous Lord, how magnificent and consistent are You in the exercising
of Your justice.
To You be glory and thanks always. Amen.