Lives of all saints commemorated on June 26

The Sunday following Pentecost is dedicated to All Saints, both those who are known to us, and those who are known only to God. There have been saints at all times, and they have come from every corner of the earth. They were Apostles, Martyrs, Prophets, Hierarchs, Monastics, and Righteous, yet all were perfected by the same Holy Spirit.

The Descent of the Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to rise above our fallen state and to attain sainthood, thereby fulfilling God’s directive to “be holy, for I am holy” (Lev. 11:44, 1 Peter 1:16, etc.). Therefore, it is fitting to commemorate All Saints on the first Sunday after Pentecost.

This feast may have originated at an early date, perhaps as a celebration of all martyrs, then it was broadened to include all men and women who had borne witness to Christ by their virtuous lives, even if they did not shed their blood for Him.

Saint Peter of Damascus, in his “Fourth Stage of Contemplation,” mentions five categories of saints: Apostles, Martyrs, Prophets, Hierarchs, and Monastic Saints (Philokalia [in English] Vol. 3, p.131). He is actually quoting from the Octoechos, Tone 2 for Saturday Matins, kathisma after the first stichology.

Saint Νikόdēmos of the Holy Mountain (July 14) adds the Righteous to Saint Peter’s five categories. The list of Saint Νikόdēmos is found in his book The Fourteen Epistles of Saint Paul (Venice, 1819, p. 384) in his discussion of I Corinthians 12:28.

The hymnology for the feast of All Saints also lists six categories: “Rejoice, assembly of the Apostles, Prophets of the Lord, loyal choirs of the Martyrs, divine Hierarchs, Monastic Fathers, and the Righteous....”

Some of the saints are described as Confessors, a category which does not appear in the above lists. Since they are similar in spirit to the martyrs, they are regarded as belonging to the category of Martyrs. They were not put to death as the Martyrs were, but they boldly confessed Christ and came close to being executed for their faith. Saint Maximus the Confessor (January 21) is such a saint.

The order of these six types of saints seems to be based on their importance to the Church. The Apostles are listed first, because they were the first to spread the Gospel throughout the world.

The Martyrs come next because of their example of courage in professing their faith before the enemies and persecutors of the Church, which encouraged other Christians to remain faithful to Christ even unto death.

Although they come first chronologically, the Prophets are listed after the Apostles and Martyrs. This is because the Old Testament Prophets saw only the shadows of things to come, whereas the Apostles and Martyrs experienced them firsthand. The New Testament also takes precedence over the Old Testament.

The holy Hierarchs comprise the fourth category. They are the leaders of their flocks, teaching them by their word and their example.

The Monastic Saints are those who withdrew from this world to live in monasteries, or in seclusion. They did not do this out of hatred for the world, but in order to devote themselves to unceasing prayer, and to do battle against the power of the demons. Although some people erroneously believe that monks and nuns are useless and unproductive, Saint John Climacus had a high regard for them: “Angels are a light for monks, and the monastic life is a light for all men” (LADDER, Step 26:31).

The last category, the Righteous, are those who attained holiness of life while living “in the world.” Examples include Abraham and his wife Sarah, Job, Saints Joachim and Anna, Saint Joseph the Betrothed, Saint Juliana of Lazarevo, and others.

The feast of All Saints achieved great prominence in the ninth century, in the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI the Wise (886-911). His wife, the Holy Empress Theophano (December 16) lived in the world, but was not attached to worldly things. She was a great benefactor to the poor, and was generous to the monasteries. She was a true mother to her subjects, caring for widows and orphans, and consoling the sorrowful.

Even before the death of Saint Theophano in 893 or 894, her husband started to build a church, intending to dedicate it to Theophano, but she forbade him to do so. It was this emperor who decreed that the Sunday after Pentecost be dedicated to All Saints. Believing that his wife was one of the righteous, he knew that she would also be honored whenever the Feast of All Saints was celebrated.

The “Unbreakable (or “Indestructible”) Wall” Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos is commemorated on the Sunday of All Saints. It is an XI century mosaic icon of the Blachernae type, above the main altar of Kiev's Holy Wisdom Cathedral. The Mother of God is depicted against a golden background, standing with upraised hands on a quadrangular gold platform.

In some Icons of this type [but not in the mosaic Icon], Christ is depicted within a mandorla, an oval or circle, symbolizing the glory of Heaven, or the Divine Light.

The Icon is called the "Unbreakable Wall" because for ten centuries it has remained intact, in spite of the fact that both Kiev's Holy Wisdom Cathedral and the city have been damaged several times. An ancient description of this Icon has been preserved: "A gigantic full-length portrait of the Theotokos.... She stands upon a gold stone, as an unshakable foundation for all who resort to her protection. Her chiton is blue, and she wears a scarlet belt. Hanging from it is an embroidered cloth with which she wipes away so many tears.

There are several possible sources for this Icon's title:

1. The Prophet-King David wrote "God is in the midst of her (i. e. the city of God); she shall not be moved: God shall help her with his countenance" (Psalm 45/46:5).
2. "Thus the Lord showed me; and behold, he stood upon a wall of adamant..." (Amos 7:7, LXX).
3. The Akathist to the Mother of God, Ikos 12. "Rejoice, indestructible wall of kingdoms" - Ikos XII).

According to Kievan tradition, the wall of the church will not perish while the hands of the Mother of God are extended over it.

On the Seven Arrows Icon, the Most Holy Theotokos is depicted without the Divine Infant. She inclines her head toward her right shoulder, and her heart is pierced with seven arrows or swords, of which four are on the left side and three on the right. A similar image of the Mother of God is also found on the icons "Softener of Evil Hearts," and "Simeon's Prophecy," on which the swords are placed somewhat differently: three on the right and left, and the seventh at the bottom.

The "Seven Arrows" Icon is at least 600 years old. For a long time, the holy image was at the landing in the bell tower of the church of the Apostle John the Theologian (near Vologda). The Icon, facing downward, was mistaken for an ordinary board on which people walked, until a paralyzed man in the city of Kadnikov had a vision in which it was revealed that he would receive healing after praying before this Icon. A Moleben was served before the Icon, and the man recovered.

The Icon became especially famous in 1830 during an outbreak of cholera in Vologda.

The real, authentic image (the "Seven Arrows" Icon) is now in the church of Saint Lazarus, in Vologda. The Icon has been in that temple since 1945, after the Great Patriotic War.

Muscovites can pray before the wonderworking copies located in the Moscow region. There are two images of the "Seven Arrows" Mother of God. Both exude an amazing myrrh - an oily liquid which inexplicably appeared on them.

The first copy of the "Seven Arrows" Icon is now in the church dedicated to the Holy Archangel Michael, located in Moscow. The second copy is in the village of Bachurino in the Moscow region.

The Feast Day of this Icon is celebrated on August 13, and on the Sunday of All Saints (First Sunday after Pentecost).

The same Troparion and Kontakion are used for the "Seven Arrows" Icon (August 13), and the "Softener of Evil Hearts" Icon (Sunday of All Saints).

Saint David of Thessalonica pursued asceticism at the monastery of the holy Martyrs Theodore and Mercurius. Inspired by the example of the holy stylites, he lived in an almond tree in constant prayer, keeping strict fast, and enduring heat and cold. He remained there for three years until an angel told him to come down.

Saint David received from God the gift of wonderworking, and he healed many from sickness. The holy ascetic gave spiritual counsel to all who came to him. Having attained to passionlessness, he was like an angel in the flesh, and he was able to take hot coals into his hands without harm. He died the year 540.

Dionysius, Archbishop of Suzdal, in the world David, was tonsured at the Kiev Caves monastery. He arrived at the Volga with an icon of the Mother of God that he had received as a blessing from Saints Anthony and Theodosius. Saint Dionysius dug out a cave not far from Nizhni-Novgorod and struggled in total solitude. Brethren constantly thronged to the holy ascetic and in the year 1335 he founded a monastery in honor of the Ascension of the Lord. Among the students of Saint Dionysius were Saints Euthymius of Suzdal (April 1) and Macarius of Zheltovod and Unzha (July 25). In the year 1352 the holy Elder sent twelve of his brethren to “the upper cities and countryside, whom God would bless” for the spiritual enlightenment of the people and the organizing of new monasteries. The monastery of Saint Dionysius exerted a deep charitable influence on the inhabitants of Nizhni-Novgorod. In the year 1371 the saint tonsured into monasticism the forty-year-old widow of Prince Andrew Constantinovich, an example of how he accepted into monasticism “various dignitaries: women, widowers, and virgins.”

In the year 1374 Saint Dionysius was deemed worthy of the office of bishop. His years of service as bishop occurred during a remarkable period, for Russia was rising to cast off the Mongol-Tatar Yoke. On March 31, 1375 the Tatar military-chief, having been shown to the bishop’s court by the enslaved inhabitants of Nizhni-Novgorod, shot an arrow at Saint Dionysius, but the Lord preserved his chosen one, and the arrow struck only the bishop’s mantle. In 1377, through the blessing of Saint Dionysius (who may have edited the document), the Lavrentian Chronicle was compiled by Saint Laurence, inspiring Russia in its struggle for freedom.

In 1379, preserving the integrity of the first hierarch’s cathedra, Saint Dionysius was one of the bishops gathered in Moscow by order of the prince, and he came out against the election of the prince’s protegee, the ill-reputed archimandrite Mityaya as Metropolitan.

In the same year of 1379 Saint Dionysius journeyed to Constantinople with a protest against the choice of Mityaya on grounds of his complicity with the heretical Strigolniki. The saint made a strong impression upon the Greeks by his sublime spiritual frame of mind and his profound knowledge of Holy Scripture. Patriarch Nilus, having termed the saint “a warrior of God and a spiritual man,” wrote that he himself saw him “at fasting and charity, and vigil, and prayers, and tears, and every other virtue.” From Constantinople Saint Dionysius sent two copies of the Hodēgḗtria Icon of the Mother of God to a Council at Suzdal. In 1382 the bishop received the title of archbishop from the patriarch. Returning to Russia, the saint travelled to Pskov and Novgorod to struggle against the heresy of the Strigolniki.

He visited Constantinople a second time in 1383 for discussion with the patriarch on questions about the governance of the Russian metropolitanate. In the year 1384 Saint Dionysius was made “metropolitan for Russia” by Patriarch Nilus. But upon his return to Kiev the saint was arrested on orders of the Kiev prince Vladimir Olgerdovich and subjected to imprisonment, where he died on October 15, 1385. The burial of the saint was in “the Kiev Cave of the Great Anthony.” Saint Dionysius is commemorated on June 26 because it is the Feast of his patron saint, Saint David of Thessalonica, whose name he was given in Baptism. In the Synodikon of the 1552 Nizhni-Novgorod Caves monastery, Saint Dionysius is called a “wonderworking monk”.

In the year 1569 the healing of many sick persons began at the tomb of Saint Tikhon of Lukhov, and his holy relics were found to be incorrupt. However, Igumen Constantine, who uncovered the relics, was struck blind. After repenting and then recovering his sight, he placed Saint Tikhon’s relics back into the ground. The veneration of Saint Tikhon dates from this time. His Life with a description of 70 posthumous miracles was compiled in the year 1649.

Saint Tikhon of Lukhov is also commemorated on June 16 (his blessed repose in 1503).

Saint John, Bishop of the Goths, lived during the eighth century. The future saint was born in answer to the fervent prayer of his parents. From an early age, he lived a life of asceticism.

The saint made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and spent three years visiting all the holy places. Then he returned to his native country. At that time the emperor Constantine Copronymos the Iconoclast (741-775) banished the Gothic bishop, and the Goths fervently entreated Saint John to become their bishop.

Saint John went to Georgia, which was isolated from the Iconoclast heresy. There he was ordained. Upon his return to the Goths he was soon compelled to depart from them. Hidden away from the pursuing Khazars, he settled at Amastridia, where he dwelt for four years.

Hearing about the death of the Khazar kagan (ruler), the saint said, “After forty days I shall go to be judged with him before Christ the Savior.” Indeed, the saint died forty days later. This took place when he returned to his people, in the year 790.

The saint’s body was conveyed to the Parthenit monastery in the Crimea, at the foot of Mount Ayu-Dag, where the saint once lived in the large church he built in honor of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul.

Saint John, Bishop of the Goths is also commemorated on May 19.

According to ancient tradition, the wonderworking icon of Tikhvin is one of several painted by Saint Luke the Evangelist. The icon was taken from Jerusalem to Constantinople in the fifth century, where it was enshrined in the Church of Blachernae, which was built especially for this purpose.

In 1383, seventy years before the fall of Constantinople at the hands of the Turks, fishermen on Lake Ladoga in the principality of Novgorod the Great witnessed the icon miraculously hovering over the lake’s waters amidst a radiant light. According to an early sixteenth century Russian manuscript, “The Tale of Miracles of the Icon of the Tikhvin Mother of God,” the Theotokos herself decided that her image should leave Constantinople, perhaps in anticipation of the impending fall of the Byzantine Empire.

Shortly after its miraculous appearance, the icon was discovered in several neighboring towns, including the village of Motchenitsy on the bank of the Tikhvinka River, before it finally appeared near the town of Tikhvin. A wooden church dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos was built on the site of the icon’s final resting place. Miraculously, the icon survived a number of fires.

In the early sixteenth century, through the zeal of Great Prince Basil Ivanovich, a stone church was built to replace the original wooden structure. In 1560, by order of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, a men’s monastery was established near the church and enclosed with a stone wall.

In 1613-1614, the Swedish army, having seized Novgorod, made several attempts to destroy the monastery. The countless prayers offered to the Theotokos before the icon were heard, and the monastery was spared. On one occasion, after monks had been alerted to the approaching Swedish army, they decided to flee and to take the icon with them. But the monks soon discovered that they could not remove the icon from its shrine. Seeing this as a sign of the Theotokos’ protection, the monks decided not to abandon the monastery, begging the Theotokos to spare them and their beloved spiritual home. To their amazement, a large Muscovite army appeared to defend the monastery.

When the Swedes encountered the army, they retreated immediately. Word of this miracle spread rapidly, and imperial emissaries soon visited the monastery. Accompanied by a copy of the wonderworking icon, they set off for the village of Stolbovo, 33 miles from Tikhvin, where they concluded a peace treaty with the Swedes on February 10, 1617. Afterwards, the copy of the icon was taken to Moscow and enshrined in the Kremlin’s Dormition Cathedral. Later, the same icon was placed in the Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) cathedral in Novgorod at the request of the city’s faithful, who also found themselves under attack by the Swedes. Once again, through the intercession of the Theotokos, the city was spared.

Over the centuries, the icon’s fame spread far and wide. Copies of the wonderworking icon began to adorn churches throughout the land. Some of these copies also proved to be sources of miracles, and it was not uncommon to find the faithful praying before the icon to seek healing for children who were ill.

No fewer than 24 processions with the icon were celebrated each year at the Tikhvin Monastery, where the icon was enshrined. A decorative cover, or “riza,” adorned the icon, exposing only the faces and hands of the Holy Virgin and Christ child. Numerous precious stones studded the riza, and many of the faithful, desiring to express thanksgiving for prayers answered through the Theotokos’ intercession, affixed precious jewelry to the riza.

Most miraculous is the fact that the icon was preserved from destruction or sale after the Russian Revolution, which ushered in a 74-year persecution of the Church. During the 1920s, the communist government demanded that the Russian Orthodox Church turn over countless icons and other precious liturgical items, which through the nationalization of private property were considered the property of “the people.” Many of these sacred items were sold, allegedly to raise money to feed the Russian and Ukrainian population which was afflicted by famine.

During the World War II German occupation, the Nazis removed the icon from the Tikhvin Monastery, from where it was taken to Pskov and subsequently to Riga, Latvia. When the city was evacuated, Bishop John [Garklavs] of Riga, in whose care the icon was placed, took the icon to Bavaria, where it was venerated by Orthodox faithful who had been displaced because of the war. While Soviet agents had spotted the icon, Bishop John was permitted to take the icon to the United States in 1949, under the pretext that the icon in his care was a reproduction, the work of a simple monk, and that it was of little historic or monetary value. Shortly after his arrival in the United States, Bishop John, who was later elevated to the rank of Archbishop, was elected to oversee the Diocese of Chicago, and the icon was regularly displayed and venerated in Chicago’s Holy Trinity Cathedral.

Bishop John frequently took the icon on pilgrimage to various places throughout the United States and Canada. After his retirement in the late 1970s and death on Palm Sunday in 1982, Archpriest Sergei Garklavs, Bishop John’s adopted son, became the caretaker of the icon. In 2003, over a decade after the fall of communism and the resurrection of the Russian Orthodox Church, the decision was made to return the precious icon to its original home.

The icon began its year-long journey to Russia at the 99th annual Pilgrimage to Saint Tikhon Monastery, South Canaan, Pennsylvania, May 23-26, 2003. His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, together with members of the Holy Synod of Bishops and guest hierarchs, greeted the icon, which was available for veneration by the faithful.

The icon follows the “Hodegetria” (Hodēgḗtria) model and is similar in style to the ancient Ivḗron icon of Our Lady. It differs in that the Christ child’s legs are crossed, while the sole of His foot is turned to the viewer. Several historic sources note that several other Hodēgḗtria icons of the Theotokos had been brought to Russia in the 1380s, during the rule of the saintly prince Demetrius Donskoy.

-- Archpriest John Matusiak

The Seven Lakes Icon is one of the icons which enjoy extraordinary veneration in the places where it is located. The day of celebration in her honor is a celebration not only for the Seven Lakes Hermitage and Kazan, but also for the entire Prikama Volga region.

At the end of the XVI century, in the city of Ústiug, Vologda province, the monk Euthymios was born into a poor family. From a young age, he felt within himself a striving for spiritual feats (podvigs). Early he left his father's house and then withdrew to a monastery. After burying his parents, he moved with his only inheritance – the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God – to Kazan, where his brother also moved. 17 versts from the city, he chose a secluded place surrounded by seven lakes, which later merged into one. From these seven lakes, the Hermitage he founded and his cell Icon were named the Seven Lakes (Smolensk) Icon of the Mother of God.

After choosing this place, Euthymios fervently prayed to God and fell asleep at nightfall. In a dream, he saw fire rising into the sky from the place where he slept. Father Euthymios considered the dream a good sign and set up a cross there, and he made a cell for himself beside it.

Not far from it was an oak, which was revered by the surrounding cheremis as sacred. Here they made sacrifices — they slaughtered horses and oxen and hung skins on a tree. Father Euthymios prayed to God to put an end to this abomination, and a storm destroyed the oak.

Rumors about the devout life of the monk Euthymios drew the brethren to him. Father Euthymios himself was taken to the residence of the Metropolitan of Kazan, and he took the Icon with him. The brethren continued to turn to him for advice, so that he, not living in the wilderness, was still the ruler and guardian of their needs.

No matter how much Father Euthymios treasured the Smolensk Icon, a blessing from his parents, out of love for the brethren, he decided to part with it and to bless the Hermitage with it. At the request of Metropolitan Matthew, the Kazan clergy gathered to escort the Icon. When a Moleben was served, the Metropolitan, kneeling, exclaimed: "You are departing from us, our Lady!" Bless the wilderness into which Thou goest, and save those who dwell in it. But look upon us mercifully with them, for our whole country, O Sovereign Lady, trusts in Thy name!"

The Metropolitan ordered a priest and two deacons to accompany the Icon to the wilderness, and many citizens followed them, both out of zeal for the Queen of Heaven and out of a desire to see the newly emerging monastery. During the journey, some got tired, but as soon as they began to carry the Icon, their fatigue disappeared. The Icon was greeted joyously by the brethren of the Monastery. After that, people began to go to venerate the Icon and bring donations to the Hermitage. The wooden church was replaced by a stone one, an Igoumen was appointed, and another church was built and dedicated to the Smolensk Icon, which was placed there to the left of the royal doors, where it is located to this day.

In June 1654, a pestilence or plague began in Russia, devastating entire villages. The corpses remained unburied and were devoured by dogs. In Kazan, a pestilence was also raging. The citizens decided to bring the Seven Lakes Icon to the city, and on June 24 they arrived at the Hermitage with the Igoumen Pakhomios. The next day, after the celebration of the Liturgy, the Icon was taken up and they went to Kazan. On the night of that day, an Elder appeared in a dream to the nun Maura of the Kazan Monastery in the vestments of a Hierarch, similar in all respects to Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, and, touching her hand, he said: "Arise quickly and tell the clerk Michael Patrikeev what you see, and he will tell the city officials to order the inhabitants to fast for a week, repent of their sins and call upon God and His Most-Pure Mother for help. Having said this, the man who appeared became invisible. The nun Maura, awakening from her sleep, was horrified and could not tell anyone about her vision, because it was night then. The next day, having stood for Matins, she did not fulfill the commission given to her, but, after praying, she lay down calmed down a little and fell asleep. And then again in a dream the same Elder appeared to her and said to her angrily: "Should you have slept, Maura?" Or do you not know that hail can perish from a fierce plague? Get up quickly, and go to him whom I have shown you, and say to him, 'Someone appeared to me twice in the past night, and said that the Queen of all is coming to deliver the city from the Seven Lake Wilderness.' Let the city governors and all the inhabitants of Kazan go out to meet her Icon. The Lord, for the sake of the prayers of His Most Pure Mother, wants to show mercy upon this city.

The nun Maura then hastened to tell the city officials about her dream. After announcing this, the inhabitants of Kazan, taking the wonderworking Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, with a Cross Procession, everyone, young and old, left the city to meet the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God, and two versts from Kazan they met it at the place where the Kizichesky Monastery now stands. Kneeling down, they prayed with tears, saying: "O Sovereign Lady of the world, save us, we perish from the multitude of our sins; we have angered your Son, Christ our God, with the multitude of our iniquities."

It was a touching sight when the clergy and people, kneeling, wept and prayed before the Icon of the Mother of God. On the same day, a chapel was built at this place in remembrance of the meeting of the Icon, and a cross was set up, and later the Kizichesky Monastery was founded. The Icon of the Mother of God was brought by the inhabitants to the city at the Resurrection Gate and surrounded the entire stone city. People came to venerate the holy Icon, and at the consecration they bowed their heads so that the holy Icon would be carried over them. During the Cross Procession all the bells in Kazan did not stop ringing. After they went around the city with the holy Icon, they brought it to the Annunciation Cathedral.

Through the prayers of the Most Pure Virgin, the deadly disease in the city subsided. Seeing their deliverance from death, the people gave thanks to the Queen of Heaven, their Deliverer.

In the evening of that day, an All-night Vigil was served. The next day, in the morning, they took the wonderworking icon of the Mother of God with a Cross Procession and walked around the wooden city. During the Cross Procession they saw that gloomy clouds had gathered outside the city, and it was quite clear over the city. This was seen as an omen of God's mercy through the intercession of the Sovereign Lady, the Mother of God. Then they began to carry the Icon of the Mother of God from house to house, offering prayers, and wherever there were sick people, when the holy Icon was brought to their homes, they received complete healing. When the Smolensk Icon was carried throughout the city and into all the houses, the plague ceased completely.

From that time, the citizens of Kazan have had a special faith and love for the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God, which is kept in the Seven Lakes Hermitage.

The holy Icon remained in the city for seven days. After this time, the monks of Seven Lakes Hermitage asked the city officials to return the holy Icon to the Hermitage. The city officials consulted with the clergy and citizens, although they did not wish to part with the wonderworking Icon of the Mother of God, by the grace of which they were delivered from a deadly disease, nevertheless, taking into account that this wonderworking Icon was destined by Divine providence to dwell in the Seven Lakes Hermitage, they decided to let it go from Kazan.

On the eve of the departure of the Icon of the Mother of God, an All-night vigil was served in the cathedral and in all the churches of the city; and in the morning the inhabitants of Kazan gathered in great numbers to see their Protectress off. As soon as they lifted the holy Icon after the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, a terrible storm broke out over the city, darkness fell, and it began to rain and snow, so that it was impossible to leave the cathedral. This extraordinary phenomenon lasted for not one, but three days.

From this they all drew the conclusion that the Most Holy Virgin did not wish to leave the city, so they decided to keep the, Icon for a little longer, then the Icon was returned to the Hermitage. There people began to flock to it with even greater zeal.

Metropolitan Cornelius, who arrived in Kazan at the end of 1654, seeing his flock preserved from a deadly disease by the intercession of the Mother of God , thanked the Lord and His Most Pure Mother, and approved of the citizen's intention to bring him the wonderworking Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God, and left it in Kazan for a whole year, after which, on his return from the Moscow Council, he solemnly escorted it to the Seven Lakes Hermitage.

But soon afterward, on June 25, 1656, the deadly disease reappeared in Kazan and began to rage more intensely than before. The citizens brought the holy Icon from the Hermitage to Kazan once again, believing in the speedy help and intercession of the Most Pure Sovereign Lady. Indeed, after the Icon was brought, the illness stopped. Since 1658, it was decided to bring the holy Icon to Kazan each year on June 26, which still takes place.

A multitude of people flocked for the celebration of the transfer of the Seven Lakes Icon from the Hermitage to Kazan, not just from the surrounding provinces, but also from distant places. The Icon is taken from the Hermitage on June 25 after Liturgy; they stopped for the night at the Kizichesk Monastery and perform further in the morning after church. In Kazan, another Cross Procession with icons and banners and a multitude of people, leaders and clergy await the arrival of the Icon beyond the Kazanka River. The fortress wall, the boulevard and both banks of the Kazanka River were covered by the crowds. Upon meeting the Icon, a Moleben was served, and the hierarch blessed the east and west, south and north with it, and then, with the ringing of bells in all the churches of the city, the beating of drums and military music at the Ivanovskaya Mountain, the procession goes to the cathedral, and on the same day in a certain sequence the icon begins to be carried around the city. On July 27, the Icon is solemnly returned to the Seven Lakes Hermitage.

In addition to the cessation of the plague, the Seven Lakes Icon was also famous for healing the sick with various diseases, and the blind.The Kazan commandant, General Kastelliy suffered from pains in his legs, so that he could not walk without the help of four people. After trying medical remedies in vain, he decided to seek help from the Queen of Heaven. In his position, he could leave the city only with a special permission from the Highest Authority (The Tsar), which he received on January 24, 1804. That same day he was brought to the Hermitage. Four people carried him to the Icon, which he venerated.

In his room at the monastery, where he spent the night, the Igoumen suggested that he anoint his feet with oil from the "Unsleeping" lampadas before the wonderworking Icon. The next day, he was in church for Matins, Liturgy, and an Akathist, standing on his feet. His condition improved more and more, and in a few days he had the same use of his legs as before his illness.

The Seven Lakes Icon is commemorated on June 26; July 28; October 13 (XVII century).

The Seven Lakes Icon differs from the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God in that the Theotokos is depicted blessing with the fingers of her right hand. The size of the Icon is 71.4 × 61.4 cm.

Unfortunately, the original icon was lost during the years of persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Soviet period.

The Neamts Icon of the Mother of God was given as a gift by the Byzantine emperor Andronicus Paleologos to the Moldavian ruler Alexander the Voevod in 1399, and then placed into the Moldavian Neamts Ascension monastery.

One of the Moldavian princes gave a copy of the icon to a Russian landowner by the name of Chertkov. One of Chertkov’s descendants presented this copy to his village church in 1846. An inscription on the icon says that this is a faithful copy of the icon sent by the Byzantine Emperor Andronicus. However, the Emperor in 1399 was Manuel II Paleologos. One of his sons was named Andronicus, and perhaps he sent the icon to Moldavia.

At the Ascension monastery, many ascetics of the Russian Church became saints under the holy Elder, schema-archimandrite Paisius Velichkovsky (November 15), and also through the guidance of the Mother of God.

The wonderworking Lydda Icon is mentioned in the service for the Kazan Icon (July 8 & October 22) in the third Ode of the Canon.

According to Tradition, the Apostles Peter and John were preaching in Lydda (later called Diospolis) near Jerusalem. There they built a church dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos, then went to Jerusalem and asked her to come and sanctify the church by her presence. She sent them back to Lydda and said, “Go in peace, and I shall be there with you.”

Arriving at Lydda, they found an icon of the Virgin imprinted in color on the wall of the church (some sources say the image was on a pillar). Then the Mother of God appeared and rejoiced at the number of people who had gathered there. She blessed the icon and gave it the power to work miracles. This icon was not made by the hand of man, but by a divine power.

Julian the Apostate (reigned 361-363) heard about the icon and tried to eradicate it. Masons with sharp tools chipped away at the image, but the paint and lines just seemed to penetrate deeper into the stone. Those whom the emperor had sent were unable to destroy the icon. As word of this miracle spread, millions of people came to venerate the icon.

In the eighth century, Saint Germanus, the future Patriarch of Constantinople (May 12) passed through Lydda. He had a copy of the icon made, and sent it to Rome during the iconoclastic controversy. It was placed in the church of Saint Peter, and was the source of many healings. In 842, the reproduction was returned to Constantinople and was known as the Roman Icon (June 26).

The oldest sources of information for the Lydda Icon are a document attributed to Saint Andrew of Crete in 726, a letter written by three eastern Patriarchs to the iconoclast emperor Theophilus in 839, and a work of George the Monk in 886.

The icon still existed as late as the ninth century.

The Lydda Icon of the Mother of God is also commemorated on March 12.

Having examined the history of Georgia and the hagiographical treasures attesting to the faith of the Georgian nation, we become convinced that Heavenly Georgia— the legion of Georgian saints, extolling the Lord in the Heavenly Kingdom with a single voice—is infinitely glorious. It is unknown how many cleansed themselves of their earthly sins in merciless warfare with the enemy of Christ, or how many purified their souls in unheated cells through prayer, fasting, and ascetic labors.

To God alone are known the names of those ascetics, forgotten by history, who by their humble labors tirelessly forged the future of the Georgian Church and people.

St. George of the Holy Mountain wrote: “From the time we recognized the one true God, we have never renounced Him, nor have our people ever yielded to heresy.”

A decree of the Church Council of Ruisi-Urbnisi states: “We will not depart from thee, the Catholic Church which bore us in holiness, nor will we betray thee, our pride—Orthodoxy—to which we have always been faithful, for we have been granted the honor to know thee, the witness of the Truth Itself!” This relationship to Orthodoxy is the cornerstone of the life of every Georgian believer.

It is impossible to count the names of all those Christians who have been raised up from the earthly Church in Georgia to the heavens, let alone to describe all the godly deeds they have performed. For this reason December 11 has been set aside for the commemoration not only of the saints whose Lives are known to us but also of the nearly three hundred more whose names, but not stories, have been preserved as well.

Most Georgian people bear the name of a saint who is commemorated on this day, and they entreat the saint to intercede before the Lord in their behalf.

The Holy Monastic Martyr David was descended from the Kydonians of the town of Aivali (Αϊβαλί) in Asia Minor. The inhabitants of the town had a special relationship with Mount Athos, because there were two Athonite embassy churches in their city, one belonging to Ivḗron Monastery, and the other to Pantokrator Monastery. When Saint David left his hometown, he went to Mount Athos and lived near a fellow countryman, a brother of Saint Anne’s Skete, who later became a monk.

During his monastic life, Saint David was moved by divine zeal. He took the initiative, after receiving the blessing of his Elder, and visited Smyrna in order to collect money for the reconstruction of the ruined churches of the Transfiguration of the Savior and that of the Theotokos on Mount Athos. After completing the work on the two temples, he built two water tanks as well as a number of cells for the worshipers. He did not remain on Mount Athos, for he burned with the desire for martyrdom. He went to Magnesia in Asia Minor, where he bore witness to Christ, and mocked the Turks for their religion. They arrested him and beat him severely, and then he was expelled from their city.

Thus, without fulfilling his desire, he returned to the Holy Skete of Saint Anne, where he confessed to his Elder his earnest desire for martyrdom. His Spiritual Father, fearing the outcome of such an act, tried to dissuade him, but he did not succeed. Saint David went to Karyes and saw Metropolitan Pankratios, the former Bishop of Christopoulos, from whom he received a blessing to seek martyrdom.

Saint David traveled to Thessaloniki, where he was told of a monk from the Vatopaidi embassy church of Saint Demetrios, who had converted to Islam. Saint David attempted to confront this monk, but somehow the Turks had learned of his intention. The Turks arrested the Saint, and after they had beaten him, they handed him over to the judge for trial. The judge, fearing that Saint David might persuade the monk to abandon Islam and to confess Christ, ordered the Saint to be executed at once. That same night, June 26, 1813, Saint David suffered a martyric death by hanging.

The Monastic Martyr David is particularly honored at the Skete of Saint Anne on the Holy Mountain.