Greatmartyr Barbara at Heliopolis, in Syria

Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE. Ο ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΕΝ ΤΩ ΜΕΣΩ ΗΜΩΝ! ΚΑΙ ΗΝ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΙ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΑΙ.

"Can the lover of the Martyrs ever have enough of their memory? The honor give to the righteous, our fellow servants, is a testimony of the good will of our Common Master. Bless the Martyrs heartily, that you may be a martyr by intention. Thus, even though you depart this life without persecutor, fire or lash, you will still be found worthy of the reward". Saint Basil the Great.

The Holy Great Martyr Barbara and Our Righteous Father John of Damascus.

Saint Barbara was from Heliopolis of Phoenicia and lived during the reign of the pagan Roman emperor Maximian. She was the daughter of a certain idolater named Dioscorus. When Barbara came of age, she was enlightened in her pure heart and secretly believed in the Holy Trinity. About this time Dioscorus began building a bath-house; before it was finished he was required to go away to attend to certain matters, and in his absence Barbara directed the workmen to build a third window in addition to the two her father had commanded. She also inscribed the sign of the Cross with her finger upon the marble of the bath-house, leaving the saving sign cut as deeply into the marble as if it had been done with an iron tool. When the Synaxarion of Saint Barbara was written, the marble of the bath-house and the cross inscribed by Saint Barbara were still preserved, and many healings were worked there. When Dioscorus returned, he asked why the third window had been added; Barbara began to declare to him the mystery of the Holy Trinity. Because she refused to renounce her faith, Dioscorus tortured Saint Barbara inhumanly, and after subjecting her to many sufferings he beheaded her with his own hands, in the year of our Lord 290.

Saint John of Damascus was born in Damascus about the year 675 A.D., the son of wealthy and pious parents, of the family of Mansur. He was reared together with Saint Cosmas (see Oct. 14th), who had been adopted by John's father Sergius, a man of high rank in the service of the Caliph of Damascus. Both of these young men were instructed by a certain monk, also named Cosmas, who had been taken captive in Italy by the Arabs and later ransomed by St. John's father. Saint John became a great philosopher and enlightener of the age in which he lived, and was honored by the Caliph with the dignity of Counselor.

When Emperor Leo the Isaurian (reigned 717-741 A.D.) began his war on the Holy Icons, Saint John wrote epistles defending their veneration. Since the Saint, begin under the Caliph of Damascus, was beyond Leo's power, the Iconoclast Emperor had a letter forged in St. John's handwriting which invited Leo to attack Damascus, saying the city guard was then weak; Leo then sent this letter to the Caliph, who in his fury punished Saint John's supposed treason with the severing of his right hand. The Saint obtained the Caliph's permission to have his severed hand again, and that night prayed fervently to the Most Holy Theotokos before her icon. She appeared to him in a dream and healed his hand, which, when he awoke, he found to be healed in truth. This miracle convinced the Caliph of his innocence, and he restored St. John to his office as Counselor. The Saint, however, with many pleasings obtained his permission to withdraw from the world to become a monk. He assumed the monastic habit in the Monastery of Saint Savvas. There he had as elder a very simple and austere monk who commanded him neither to write to anyone, nor to speak of the worldly knowledge he had acquired, and St. John faithfully obeyed. A monk grieving over his brother's death, however, after insisting vehemently, prevailed upon Saint John to write a funeral hymn to console him for his brother's death. When St. John's elder learned of his transgression of the rule he had given him, he cast him out of his cell, and would only accept him back after St. John had humbly, with much self-condemnation and without murmuring, consented to clean all the latrines in the Lavra. After his elder had received him back, our Lady Theotokos appeared to the elder and sternly charged him not to hinder John any longer from his writings and compositions of hymns.

In his writings he fought courageously against the Iconoclasts Leo the Isaurian and his son Constantine Copronymus. He was also the first to write a refutation of Islam. The time he had spent as a Counselor in the courts of the Moslems of Damascus had given him opportunity to learn their teachings at first hand, and he wrote against their errors with a sound understanding of their essence. Saint John was surnamed Chrysorroas ("Golden-stream") because of the eloquence of his rhetorical style and the great abundance of his writings; this name--Chrysorroas--was also the name of the river that flows by Damascus. In his writings he set forth the Orthodox Faith with exactness and order. In his old age, after his foster-brother Cosmas had been made Bishop of Maiuma, St. John also was ordained presbyter by the Patriarch of Jerusalem. Having lived eighty-four years, he reposed in peace in 760 A.D. In addition to his theological writings, he adorned the Church of Christ with metrical and prose hymns and composed many of the prosomia used as the models for the melodies of the Church's liturgical chant; he also composed many of the sacred hymns for the feasts of the Lord Savior and the Theotokos. The life of Saint of Damascus was written by John, Patriarch of Jerusalem.

Apolytikion (Dismissal) Hymn of the Great Martyr Barbara. Fourth Tone

Let us honor Saint Barbara, for she hath broken the snares of the enemy; and like a sparrow, she, the all-modest maiden, was delivered out of them by the help and weapon of the Cross.

Apolytikion (Dismissal) Hymn of the Righteous One. Plagal of Fourth Tone

Guide of Orthodoxy, teacher of piety and holiness, luminary of the world, God-inspired adornment of monastics, O wise John, by thy teachings thou hast enlightened all, O harp of the Spirit. Intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.

TODAY'S HOLY SCRIPTURAL READINGS ARE THE FOLLOWING:

Holy Epistle Lesson: Galatians 3:23-29; 4:1-5
Holy Gospel Lesson: St. Mark 5:24-34

FROM THE HOLY ASCETICS AND HOLY FATHERS OF THE CHURCH:

"Abraham took for the burnt offering and placed it upon Isaac his son, he took fire and a sword in his hands; together they went off. Isaac himself carries the wood for his own holocaust: this is a figure of Christ. For He bore the burden of the Cross; yet to carry the wood for the holocaust is really the duty of the priest. He is then both victim and Priest." (Origen)

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BLESSINGS

"May the Lord God strengthen the Holy and Pure faith of devout Orthodox Christians, and of His Holy Church, this city and parish, to the endless ages. Amen" [Great Vespers]

"The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all."

With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George