Lives of all saints commemorated on December 3

The Prophet Zephaniah (Sophonias) was a contemporary of the Prophet Jeremiah and the Prophetess Oldama. He was from the tribe of Simeon, and was the ninth of the Twelve Minor Prophets of the Old Testament. The prophet lived at the royal court, where he preached repentance and helped King Josiah eliminate idol-worship.

He prophesied about the calamities that were to come for the people of Judea and the surrounding regions: Gaza, Ascalon, Crete, and against the Moabites, the Ammonites and the Ninevites.

Saint Savva of Zvenigorod forsook the world in his early youth, and received the monastic tonsure from Saint Sergius of Radonezh (September 25 and July 5), and was his disciple and fellow-ascetic.

Saint Savva loved solitude, and avoided conversing with people. He lived in constant toil, lamenting the poverty of his soul, and trembling before the judgment of God. He was a model of simplicity and humility, and he attained such a depth of spiritual wisdom that “in the Monastery of Saint Sergius he was the Father Confessor to all the brethren, a venerable and most learned Elder.”

When Great Prince Demetrios of the Don built the Monastery of the Dormition of the Mother of God at the Dubenka River, in gratitude for the victory over Mamai, Savva became the Igoumen, with the blessing of Saint Sergius. Maintaining the simple manner of his life of asceticism, he ate plants, wore coarse clothing and slept on the ground.

When their Igoumen Saint Nikon (November 17) left to go into the wilderness in 1392, the brethren of the Trinity-Saint Sergius Lavra asked Saint Savva to become the Igoumen of the Monastery. He shepherded the flock entrusted to him well, to the best of his ability, helped by the prayers of his Spiritual Father, Saint Sergius. According to Tradition, the well outside the Lavra walls was built while he was Igoumen.

Prince Yuri of Zvenigorod, a godson of Saint Sergius, regarded Saint Savva with much love and esteem. He chose Saint Savva as his Spiritual Father and begged him to come and bestow his blessing upon his entire household. The Saint had hoped to return to his Monastery, but the Prince begged him to stay and establish a new monastery in his homeland, near Zvenigorod, at a place called Storozhev.

Saint Savva acceded to Prince Yuri's request, and praying tearfully before an icon of the Mother of God, he entreated her protection for that site in the wilderness. At Storozhev he built a small wooden church in honor of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, and nearby a small cell for himself. Here he established a Monastery in 1399, and with paternal love, he accepted all who came seeking a life of quietude and seclusion.

Saint Savva worked very hard to build up the Monastery. He dug a well at the foot of the hill, from which he carried water on his own shoulders. He encircled the Monastery with a wooden palisade, and in a hollow above it, he dug a cell where he could live in solitude.

In 1399 Saint Savva blessed his spiritual son, Prince Yuri, to go on a military campaign, predicting that he would defeat his enemy. Through the prayers of the holy Elder, the Prince's army won a speedy victory. Through the efforts of Saint Savva, a stone church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos was built to replace the old wooden one.

After appointing his disciple, who was also named Savva, as his successor, Saint Savva went to the Lord at an advanced age on December 3, 1406. News of the holy God-pleaser's repose quickly spread throughout the vicinity, and all the Christ-loving citizens of Zvenigorod, both noble and commoners, gathered for the burial of the departed Saint, bringing with them the infirm and sick. After singing hymns over the deceased, they buried him with honor in the church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, which he himself had built.

Veneration of the holy God-pleaser by the local people began immediately after his death. The miraculous curative power issuing from the Saint's grave and his numerous appearances convinced everyone that Igoumen Savva was a Saint. In a letter of 1539 Saint Savva was described as a wonderworker. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich had a special veneration for him, frequently visiting the Monastery of Saint Savva on foot. Tradition has preserved a remarkable account of how Saint Savva was saved from a ferocious bear.

The Life of Saint Savva, compiled in the XVI century, relates that at the end of the XV century (1480-1490), the Saint appeared to Father Dionysios, the fourth Igoumen of Saint Savva Monastery and said: “Dionysios! Wake up and paint my icon.” When Father Dionysios asked who he was, he replied, “I am Savva, the founder of this abode.”

Father Dionysios had not known the Saint personally, so he summoned Elder Habakkuk, who had known Saint Savva in his youth, hoping to convince himself that his dream was not a delusion. He described the Saint's outward appearance, and Father Habakkuk assured him that the Saint looked exactly as the Igoumen had seen him in his dream. Then Father Dionysios obeyed Saint Savva's order and painted his icon.

Saint Savva was numbered among the Saints at the Moscow Council of 1547. His incorrupt relics were recovered on January 19, 1652.

The first uncovering of the Saint's relics occurred on January 19, 1652; and the second on August 10, 1998.

Saint Theodoulus was an eparch during the reign of Theodosius the Great. He resigned his position because he did not want to be distracted by vain worldly cares.

After his wife’s death, Saint Theodoulus gave his wealth away to the poor and became a monk. He traveled to Edessa and lived on top of a pillar for thirty years, eating only once a week.

Saint Theodoulus the Stylite departed to the Lord around 440.

Saint John the Silent was born around 454 in the city of Nicopolis, Armenia into the family of a military commander named Enkratius and his wife Euphemia. The boy began to study Holy Scripture, and he loved solitude and prayer with all his heart.

With the inheritance his parents left him, John built a church dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos. At eighteen years of age, John became a monk, living an ascetic life of fasting, prayer, and temperance with ten other monks at the church he had founded.

At the request of the citizens of Colonia, the Metropolitan of Sebaste consecrated the twenty-eight-year-old John as Bishop of Colonia. Having assumed the episcopal throne, the saint did not alter his strict ascetic manner of life. Under the influence of the saint his relatives, his brother Pergamios (an associate of the emperors Zeno and Anastasius) and his nephew Theodore (an associate of the emperor Justinian), also lived in a Christian manner.

In John’s tenth year as bishop, the governorship of Armenia was assumed by Pazinikos, the husband of the saint’s sister, Maria. The new governor began to interfere in spiritual and ecclesiastical matters, and there was unrest in the Church. Saint John then went to Constantinople, and through Archbishop Euthymius, he entreated the emperor Zeno to defend the Armenian Church from the evil Governor.

Overwhelmed by worldly quarrels, John secretly left his diocese and sailed to Jerusalem. With tears he besought God to show him a place where he might live and find salvation. A bright star appeared, which led Saint John to the Lavra of Saint Savva.

John, concealing his episcopal rank, was accepted in the community as a simple novice. Under the guidance of the igumen Saint Savva(December 5), Bishop John toiled obediently for more than four years at every task he was assigned. When a guesthouse was built at the Lavra, Saint John served the workers, serving their food and assisting in the construction of the building. When a cenobitic monastery for novices was being built, John was once again assigned to help the workers.

Seeing Saint John’s humility and love of labor, Saint Savva deemed him worthy of ordination to presbyter. Saint John was forced to reveal his rank to Patriarch Elias of Jerusalem (494-517), who told Saint Savva that John could not be ordained. Moreover, he said that John was to live in silence, and that no one should trouble him. Soon the Lord also revealed Saint John’s secret to Saint Savva. Saint John spent four years in his cell, receiving no one and not going out even for church.

Desiring ever greater solitude and increased abstinence, Saint John quit the Lavra and withdrew into the desert, where he spent more than nine years, eating plants and grass. He survived a devastating incursion of the Saracens and did not perish, only because the Lord sent him a defender: a ferocious lion. When the enemy tried to harm the saint, the lion attacked them and they scattered in fright. Tradition speaks of many miracles Saint John performed during this time in the desert.

When Saint Savva returned after an extended stay in Scythopolis, he persuaded Saint John to forsake the wilderness and to live at the monastery. After this, the Lord, in a miraculous way, revealed to everyone at the Lavra that the monk John was actually a bishop.

When Saint John reached age seventy, his holy and God-bearing spiritual Father Saint Savva died. The saint grieved deeply over this, since he was not present at the time. Saint Savva appeared to him in a vision, and having consoled him, he foretold that there would be much toil ahead in the struggle against heresy. Saint John even had to leave his solitude to strengthen the brethren in the struggle with the Origenists.

Saint John the Silent spent sixty-six years at the Lavra of Saint Savva the Sanctified. Through his constant ascetic efforts, by his untiring prayer and humble wisdom, Saint John acquired the grace of the Holy Spirit. At his prayers, many miracles took place, and he was able to discern the secret thoughts of people. He healed the sick and those possessed by demons. Even during his lifetime he saved those who invoked his name from certain destruction. Once, he scattered fig seeds on barren rock, and a beautiful and fruitful tree sprang up. In time, the tree grew so much that it overshadowed the saint’s cell.

Saint John the Silent departed to the Lord in peace at the age of 104.

The Hieromartyr Theodore, Bishop of Alexandria, was born in Egypt in the city of Alexandria. This city was famous for its many martyrs and confessors: from the holy Evangelist Mark, Protomartyr of Alexandria (April 25), to Saint Athanasius the Great (January 18 and May 2), a pillar and confessor of Orthodoxy.

Regrettably, historical records do not give us precise details of Saint Theodore’s life and deeds, but the Church of Christ has preserved the name of the hieromartyr in its diptychs for all time.

A fiery preacher, powerful of word and church activity, Bishop Theodore evoked an angry hatred in the boisterous pagans of Alexandria, who did not like his preaching. During one of his sermons they surrounded and seized the saint. They beat him and jeered at him, but he did not offer resistance. They placed a crown of thorns on his head, and led him through the city.

Then they led him to the seacoast and threw him from a cliff into the sea, but the wind and the waves carried him back to dry land. The astonished pagans brought Saint Theodore to the prefect of the city, who commanded that he be subjected to harsh tortures. Not a word did the torturers hear from the tortured confessor, except his prayer to the Lord. Then the holy martyr was handed over to Roman soldiers and executed in the manner of the Apostle Paul, he was beheaded with a sword.

Saint Cosmas was a monk of Saint Anne’s Skete on Mount Athos. He was executed in Constantinople on December 3, 1760 when he refused to convert to Islam. The specific details of his martyrdom are not known.

Venerable George was born in 1730 to pious Orthodox parents in the town of Sălişte, near Sibiu in Romania. From his youth he was inclined toward the monastic life. However, at that time the Roman Catholic Austrian rulers of Transylvania tried to suppress Orthodoxy, especially Orthodox monasticism, in order to make the faithful unite with them. Therefore, at the age of nineteen, the young man went to Wallachia and came to the Greek Metropolitan Rosca, who was in Bucharest at that time. He became George's Spiritual Father.

Shortly thereafter, in 1750, he accompanied his Spiritual Father to Constantinople, and then to Mount Athos. There he settled at Vatopaidi Monastery, and was tonsured as a monk, and later he was ordained as a deacon. After the repose of his Elder, he became a disciple of Saint Paϊsios Velichkovsky at the Prophet Elias Skete. There, in 1752, Saint Paϊsios tonsured Father George into the Great Schema. Two years later he was ordained as a Hieroschema-monk for the Romanian community at Saint Elias Skete.

During his stay on Mount Athos he advanced with great zeal and much spiritual benefit, on the ladder of spiritual perfection, In 1763, together with sixty-four other disciples, he followed Saint Paϊsios to Dragomirna Monastery in Moldavia. For the next twelve years, he served this Monastery as a Hieromonk, Confessor, and steward.

When Bukovina fell under the power of Roman Catholic Austria in 1775, the Dragomirna brethren, led by Elder Paϊsios, moved to Secu Monastery. In 1779, he followed Saint Paϊsios to Neamț Monastery, where he lived for another two years. In 1781, with the blessing of his Elder he went to Mount Athos again.

On his return to Bucharest, he met Metropolitan Gregory II of Wallachia, who was a disciple of Saint Paϊsios, and his old friend Hieromonk Makarios. After their persistent persuasion, followed by prayer and fasting, and a vision of Saint Nicholas, he agreed to undertake the revival of monastic life at Cernίca Monastery, which was dedicated to Saint Nicholas, and which had been in ruins for more than thirty years. His task was to establish a monastery in this region of Wallachia with a cenobitic Rule, similar to the Athonite and Paisian monasteries.

With the help of the Wallachian ruler Nicholas Mavrogenes and other Christians, Father George began to restore the main church and the cells. He devoted a lot of time to perfecting the spiritual life of the monks. In the monastery the Services were performed every day, along with reading the Holy Scriptures and the works of the Holy Fathers of the Church, and work which was carried out in numerous obediences: including copying manuscripts and physical labor. With his sacrificial and gifted shepherding, he revived the spiritual life at Cernίca Monastery. After just five years, the community grew to 103 monks.

In 1785, Saint George became gravely ill and, expecting his imminent demise, made his will in which he prescribed the proper order of life of the monastic community. However, he soon recovered and continued his pastoral labors.

In view of his successes, in 1793, Metropolitan Philaret II of Wallachia also assigned him to Căldărușani Monastery. From April 1794, Father George lived in both monasteries alternately, appointing Igoumens in them, especially during his absence. In both monasteries he introduced the Athonite-Paisian cenobitic Rule, which included worship seven times a day, frequent Confession, obedience, constant prayer, and a common meal.

Saint George continued to manage both monasteries until the very end of his earthly life. He reposed on December 3, 1806, lamented by the numerous brethren of the two monasteries. He was buried at Cernica Monastery, in front of the church of Saint Lazarus.

After Saint George's repose, he was venerated as a pastor of high spiritual life, the leader of the two great monastic centers of Wallachia, a renewer of the true monastic life of the Athos and Paisian hesychastic tradition. The Elder had many disciples and followers, such as Saint Kallinikos of Cernίca, Hieromonk Makarios and others.

At the meeting of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church on October 20-21, 2005, Elder George was glorified and numbered among the Saints. The formal announcement of his canonization took place at Cernίca Monastery on the day of his commemoration December 3, 2005, with Patriarch Theoktistos of Romania presiding at the Service.

By the decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church of August 21, 2007, Saint George's name was included in the Synaxarion of the Russian Orthodox Church.

No information available at this time.