My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
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ON JULY 11th OUR HOLY ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH COMMEMORATES THE GREAT MARTYR EFEMIA (EUPHEMIA) AND THE HOLY ARCHIMANDRITE SOPHRONY OF ESSEX, ENGLAND.
Repose of Archimandrite Sophrony of Essex, England (+1993)
This holy modern-day elder has not been formally glorified by the Church, though many are confident that in time he will be. He was born in Russia in 1896. As a young man, he lived an artist's life, trying to succeed as a painter while engaging in a wide-ranging spiritual search which included the study of the Eastern religions. He fled to Paris during the Russian Revolution. There he rediscovered the Orthodoxy of his childhood and gave his life wholly to repentance and prayer, often spending hours at a time prostrated and weeping on the floor of his Paris apartment. In 1925 he moved to Mt. Athos in Northern Greece, where he lived as a monk for more than twenty years. On the Holy Mountain, he became the spiritual child of the holy Elder Silouan. After Saint Silouan's repose, his own health badly damaged by living in a damp cave, he was granted permission by his Monastery to leave the Holy Mountain and write the life of Saint Silouan. This is Saint Silouan of Mt. Athos, a great spiritual treasure that includes the writings of the Saint as well as Father Sophrony's profound reflections on his life. (It was largely through Father Sophrony's work that Saint Silouan, who lived an almost completely hidden life, was glorified by the Church).
In 1959 Father Sophrony founded the Monastery of Saint John the Baptist in Essex, England, where he lived until his repose. He was a spiritual father to Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos, Greece, one of present-day Orthodoxy's most profound and prolific spiritual writers, who has said this about him: 'I ascertained from almost our first meeting...that Father Sophrony was a theologian of our Church, a God-seer. I realized, that is, that the Elder had seen the Uncreated Light...I had discerned that he was truly a God-seer, because otherwise his whole life, his whole demeanor, the words he said, the counsels, and in any case his whole personality, could not be justified. He was literally altered by the Uncreated Grace of God.' At Essex, he was known as a spiritual and holy father to many and (little publicized) as a wonderworker (miracle-worker) and intercessor; He reposed in peace in 1993.
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Saint Efemia (Euphemia) the Great Martyr
Life
Saint Efemia (Euphemia) lived in the 3rd century A.D. She was the daughter of pious parents. Her father was a Senator named Philophronos and her mother was Theodosia. She was born in Chalcedon, located across the Bosporus from the city of Byzantium or Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul). From her youth, she dedicated her life to Christ and practiced the virtues of prayer, fasting, and chastity.
The governor of Chalcedon, Priscus, had made a decree that all of the inhabitants of the city take part in sacrifices to the pagan god Ares. Efemia was discovered with other Christians who were hiding in a house and worshipping the Christian God, in defiance of the governor's orders. Because of their refusal to sacrifice, they were tortured for a number of days, and handed over to the Emperor for further torture. Efemia, the youngest among them, was separated from her companions in the hope that she betray Christ if she was on her own. She was promised worldly riches but refused to deny Jesus Christ. She was subjected to particularly harsh tortures, including the wheel, in hopes of breaking her spirit but the wheel miraculously stopped and an Angel of the Lord ministered to her wounds.
The governor then ordered that the Saint be cast into a fiery furnace. Two soldiers, Victor and Sosthenes, led her to the furnace, but seeing to fearsome Angels in the flames, refused to carry out the order of the governor and became believers in the God Whom Efemia worshipped. Boldly confessing that they too were Christians, Victor and Sosthenes bravely went to their suffering. They were cast into the arena to be devoured by wild beasts. During their martyrdom, they cried out for mercy to God, asking Him to receive them into the Heavenly Kingdom. A heavenly Voice answered their cries, and they entered into Eternal Life. The beasts, however, did not even touch their holy bodies.
Saint Efemia, cast into the fire by other soldiers, remained unharmed. Ascribing this to sorcery, the governor gave orders to dig out a new pit, and filling it with knives, he had it covered over with earth and grass so that the martyr would not notice the preparation for her execution but here too she remained unhurt.
Finally, they sentenced her to be devoured by wild beasts at the circus. Before her martyrdom, Saint Efemia implored God to deem her worthy to suffer terribly for His Name but when she was cast into the arena, none of the wild beasts attacked her. Finally, one of the she-bears gave her a small wound on the leg, from which flowed the pure blood of the Martyr, and immediately the holy Great Martyr Efemia gave her spirit to the Lord. During this time there was an earthquake, and both the guards and the spectators ran in terror, so that the parents of the Saint were able to take up her holy body and reverently bury it not far from Chalcedon.
Miracle during the Council of Chalcedon
The Fourth Ecumenical Council (Synod) convened in the city of Chalcedon in the year 451 A.D. The 630 delegates gathered in the church of Saint Efemia where her holy relics were housed. The Council repudiated the Eftychian (Eutychian) heretical doctrine of Monophysitism, (one nature), and set forth the Chalcedonian Creed, which describes the "full humanity and full Divinity" (The Two Natures of Jesus Christ), the Second Person of the Holy Trinity.
Both the Monophysite and Orthodox parties were well-represented at the Council so that the meetings were quite contentious, and no decisive consensus could be reached. The holy Patriarch Anatolius of Constantinople proposed that the Council submit the decision of the Church dispute to the Holy Spirit, through His undoubted bearer Saint Efemia the All-Praised. The Orthodox hierarchs and their opponents wrote down their confessions of faith on separate scrolls and sealed them with their seals. The opened the tomb of the Saint and placed both scrolls upon her bosom. Then, in the presence of Emperor Marcian (450-457 A.D.), the participants of the Ecumenical Council sealed the tomb, putting on it the Imperial Seal and setting a guard to watch over it for three days. During these days both sides imposed upon themselves strict fasting and prayer. After three days the Patriarch and the Emperor, in the presence of the Council, opened the tomb and found the scroll with the Orthodox confession was held by Saint Efemia in her right hand, while the scroll of the heretics lay at her feet. Saint Efemia, as though alive, raised her hand and gave the scroll to the Patriarch. As a result of this miracle, many of the heretics accepted the Orthodox Confession of faith, while those remaining obstinate in their heresy were consigned to the Council's condemnation and excommunication.
This miracle is attested by a letter sent by the Council to Pope Leo I:
"For it was God who worked, and the triumphant Efemia who crowned the meeting as for a bridal, and who, taking our definition of the Faith as her own confession, presented it to her Bridegroom (Jesus Christ) by our most religious Emperor and Christ-loving Empress, appealing all the tumult of opponents and established our confession of the Truth as acceptable to Him, and with hand and tongue setting her seal to the votes of us all in proclamation thereof."
Feast Days
The feast-day of Saint Efemia (Euphemia) is September 16 in commemoration of her holy Martyrdom. Her miracle at the Council of Chalcedon is commemorated on July 11th.
The 'Oriental Orthodox churches' as they are known and who continue to adhere to Monophyticism are the following: the Coptic, the Armenian, Ethiopian, and Indian churches. There has not been communion with them from the year 451 A.D. Efforts have been made over the centuries to reach an agreement with the dogma of the Orthodox Church but sadly without any real results thus far.
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DIVINE SERVICES TO BE CONDUCTED ON JULY 11th:
Orthros at 9:00 a.m.
Divine Liturgy at 10:00 a.m.
Please note: All our high risk parishioners are encouraged to attend the Divine Liturgy Saturday since there are only a few people present and have less exposure to others.
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostom
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry)
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George