Lives of all saints commemorated on April 16

THURSDAY: The Last Supper

Two events shape the liturgy of Great and Holy Thursday: the Last Supper of Christ with His disciples, and the betrayal of Judas. The meaning of both is in love. The Last Supper is the ultimate revelation of God’s redeeming love for man, of love as the very essence of salvation. And the betrayal of Judas reveals that sin, death and self-destruction are also due to love, but to deviated and distorted love, love directed at that which does not deserve love. Here is the mystery of this unique day, and its liturgy, where light and darkness, joy and sorrow are so strangely mixed, challenges us with the choice on which depends the eternal destiny of each one of us. “Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come... having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end...” (John 13:1). To understand the meaning of the Last Supper we must see it as the very end of the great movement of Divine Love which began with the creation of the world and is now to be consummated in the death and resurrection of Christ.

God is Love (1 John 4:8). And the first gift of Love was life. The meaning, the content of life was communion. To be alive man was to eat and to drink, to partake of the world. The world was thus Divine love made food, made Body of man. And being alive, i.e. partaking of the world, man was to be in communion with God, to have God as the meaning, the content and the end of his life. Communion with the God-given world was indeed communion with God. Man received his food from God and making it his body and his life, he offered the whole world to God, transformed it into life in God and with God. The love of God gave life to man, the love of man for God transformed this life into communion with God. This was paradise. Life in it was, indeed, eucharistic. Through man and his love for God the whole creation was to be sanctified and transformed into one all-embracing sacrament of Divine Presence and man was the priest of this sacrament.

But in sin man lost this eucharistic life. He lost it because he ceased to see the world as a means of Communion with God and his life as eucharist, as adoration and thanksgiving. . . He loves himself and the world for their own sake; he made himself the content and the end of his life. He thought that his hunger and thirst, i.e. his dependence of his life on the world—can be satisfied by the world as such, by food as such. But world and food, once they are deprived of their initial sacramental meaning—as means of communion with God, once they are not received for God’s sake and filled with hunger and thirst for God, once, in other words, God is no longer their real “content,” can give no life, satisfy no hunger, for they have no life in themselves... And thus by putting his love in them, man deviated his love from the only object of all love, of all hunger, of all desires. And he died. For death is the inescapable “decomposition” of life cut from its only source and content. Man thought to find life in the world and in food, but he found death. His life became communion with death, for instead of transforming the world by faith, love, and adoration into communion with God, he submitted himself entirely to the world, he ceased to be its priest and became its slave. And by his sin the whole world was made a cemetery, where people condemned to death partook of death and “sat in the region and shadow of death” (Matt. 4:16).

But if man betrayed, God remained faithful to man. He did not “turn Himself away forever from His creature whom He had made, neither did He forget the works of His hands, but He visited him in diverse manners, through the tender compassion of His mercy” (Liturgy of Saint Basil). A new Divine work began, that of redemption and salvation. And it was fulfilled in Christ, the Son of God Who in order to restore man to his pristine beauty and to restore life as communion with God, became Man, took upon Himself our nature, with its thirst and hunger, with its desire for and love of, life. And in Him life was revealed, given, accepted and fulfilled as total and perfect Eucharist, as total and perfect communion with God. He rejected the basic human temptation: to live “by bread alone”; He revealed that God and His kingdom are the real food, the real life of man. And this perfect eucharistic Life, filled with God, and, therefore Divine and immortal, He gave to all those who would believe in Him, i,e. find in Him the meaning and the content of their lives. Such is the wonderful meaning of the Last Supper. He offered Himself as the true food of man, because the Life revealed in Him is the true Life. And thus the movement of Divine Love which began in paradise with a Divine “take, eat. ..” (for eating is life for man) comes now “unto the end” with the Divine “take, eat, this is My Body...” (for God is life of man). The Last Supper is the restoration of the paradise of bliss, of life as Eucharist and Communion.

But this hour of ultimate love is also that of the ultimate betrayal. Judas leaves the light of the Upper Room and goes into darkness. “And it was night” (John 13:30). Why does he leave? Because he loves, answers the Gospel, and his fateful love is stressed again and again in the hymns of Holy Thursday. It does not matter indeed, that he loves the “silver.” Money stands here for all the deviated and distorted love which leads man into betraying God. It is, indeed, love stolen from God and Judas, therefore, is the Thief. When he does not love God and in God, man still loves and desires, for he was created to love and love is his nature, but it is then a dark and self-destroying passion and death is at its end. And each year, as we immerse ourselves into the unfathomable light and depth of Holy Thursday, the same decisive question is addressed to each one of us: do I respond to Christ’s love and accept it as my life, do I follow Judas into the darkness of his night?

The liturgy of Holy Thursday includes: a) Matins, b) Vespers and, following Vespers, the Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great. In the Cathedral Churches the special service of the Washing of Feet takes place after the Liturgy; while the deacon reads the Gospel, the Bishop washes the feet of twelve priests, reminding us that Christ’s love is the foundation of life in the Church and shapes all relations within it. It is also on Holy Thursday that Holy Chrism is consecrated by the primates of autocephalous Churches, and this also means that the new love of Christ is the gift we receive from the Holy Spirit on the day of our entrance into the Church.

At Matins the Troparion sets the theme of the day: the opposition between the love of Christ and the “insatiable desire” of Judas.

“When the glorious disciples were illumined by washing at the Supper,
Then was the impious Judas darkened with the love of silver
And to the unjust judges does he betray Thee, the just Judge.
Consider, 0 Lover of money, him who hanged himself because of it.
Do not follow the insatiable desire which dared this against the Master,
0 Lord, good to all, glory to Thee.”

After the Gospel reading (Luke 12:1-40) we are given the contemplation, the mystical and eternal meaning of the Last Supper in the beautiful canon of Saint Cosmas. Its last “irmos,” (Ninth Ode) invites us to share in the hospitality of the Lord’s banquet:

“Come, 0 ye faithful
Let us enjoy the hospitality of the Lord and the banquet of immortality
In the upper chamber with minds uplifted....”

At Vespers, the stichira on “Lord, I have cried” stress the spiritual anticlimax of Holy Thursday, the betrayal of Judas:

“Judas the slave and Knave,
The disciple and traitor,
The friend and fiend,
Was proved by his deeds,
For, as he followed the Master,
Within himself he contemplated His betrayal....”

After the Entrance, three lessons from the Old Testament:

1) Exodus 19: 10-19. God’s descent from Mount Sinai to His people as the image of God’s coming in the Eucharist.

2) Job 38:1-23, 42:1-5, God’s conversation with Job and Job’s answer: “who will utter to me what I understand not? Things too great and wonderful for me, which I knew not...”—and these “great and wonderful things” are fulfilled in the gift of Christ’s Body and Blood.

3) Isaiah 50:4-11. The beginning of the prophecies on the suffering servant of God,

The Epistle reading is from I Corinthians 11:23-32: Saint Paul’s account of the Last Supper and the meaning of communion.

The Gospel reading (the longest of the year is taken from all four Gospels and is the full story of the Last Supper, the betrayal of Judas and Christ’s arrest in the garden.

The Cherubic hymn and the hymn of Communion are replaced by the words of the prayer before Communion:

“Of Thy Mystical Supper, O Son of God, accept me today as a communicant,
For I will not speak of Thy Mystery to Thine enemies,
Neither like Judas will I give Thee a kiss;
But like the thief will I confess Thee:
Remember me, O Lord, in Thy Kingdom.”

by The Very Rev. Alexander Schmemann, S.T.D.
Professor of Liturgical Theology, Saint Vladimir’s Seminary

The Holy Martyrs Agape, Irene, and Chionia were sisters who lived at the end of the third century to the beginning of the fourth century, near the Italian city of Aquilea. They were left orphaned at an early age.

The young women led a pious Christian life and they turned down many offers of marriage. Their spiritual guide was the priest Xeno. It was revealed to him in a vision that he would die very soon, and that the holy virgins would suffer martyrdom. Also at Aquilea and having a similar vision was the Great Martyr Anastasia (December 22), who is called “Deliverer from Potions,” because she fearlessly visited Christians in prison, encouraging them and healing them from potions, poisons, and other harmful things. The Great Martyr Anastasia visited the sisters and urged them to endure all things for Christ. Soon what was predicted in the vision came to pass. The priest Zeno died, and the three virgins were arrested and brought to trial before the emperor Diocletian (284-305).

Saint Chionia (“snow” in Greek) preserved the purity of her baptism according to the words of the Prophet-King David, “You will wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Ps. 50/51:7).

Saint Irene (“peace” in Greek) preserved the peace of Christ within herself and manifested it to others, according to the Savior’s word, “My peace I give you” (John 14:27).

Saint Agape (“love” in Greek) loved God with all her heart, and her neighbor as herself (Mt.22:37-39).

Seeing the youthful beauty of the sisters, the emperor urged them to deny Christ and he promised to find them illustrious bridegrooms from his entourage. The holy sisters replied that their only Bridegroom was Christ, for Whom they were ready to suffer. The emperor demanded they renounce Christ, but neither the elder sisters, nor the youngest, would consent. They called the pagan gods mere idols made by human hands, and they preached faith in the true God.

By order of Diocletian, who was leaving for Macedonia, the holy sisters were also to be brought there. And they brought them to the court of the governor Dulcititus.

When he saw the beauty of the holy martyrs, he was aroused with impure passion. He put the sisters under guard, and he told them that they would receive their freedom if they agreed to fulfill his desires. But the holy martyrs replied that they were prepared to die for their Heavenly Bridegroom, Christ.

Then Dulcititus decided to have his way by force. When the holy sisters arose at night to glorify the Lord in prayer, Dulcititus came to the door and tried to enter, but an invisible force prevented him. He staggered about, unable to find his way out. Then he fell down in the kitchen among the cooking utensils, the pots and pans, and he was covered all over with soot. The servants and the soldiers recognized him only with difficulty. When he saw himself in a mirror, he then realized that the holy martyrs had made a fool of him, and he decided to take his revenge on them.

At his court, Dulcititus gave orders to strip the holy martyrs. But the soldiers were not able to do this, no matter how much they tried. Their clothing seemed to be stuck to the bodies of the holy virgins. During the trial Dulcititus suddenly fell asleep, and no one could rouse him. Just as they carried him into his house, he immediately awoke.

When they reported to the emperor Diocletian everything that had happened, he became angry with Dulcititus and he gave the holy virgins over to Sisinius for trial. He began with the youngest sister, Irene. Seeing that she remained unyielding, he sent her to prison and then attempted to sway Saints Chionia and Agape. He also failed to make them renounce Christ, and Sisinius ordered that Saints Agape and Chionia be burned. On hearing the sentence, the sisters gave thanks to the Lord for their crowns of martyrdom. In the fire, Agape and Chionia surrendered their pure souls to the Lord.

When the fire went out, everyone saw that the bodies of the holy martyrs and their clothing had not been scorched by the fire, and their faces were beautiful and peaceful, as if they were asleep. On the day following, Sisinius gave orders to bring Saint Irene to court. He threatened her with the fate of her older sisters and he urged her to renounce Christ. Then he threatened to hand her over for defilement in a brothel. But the holy martyr answered, “Even if my body is defiled by force, my soul will never be defiled by renouncing Christ.”

When the soldiers of Sisinius led Saint Irene to the brothel, two luminous soldiers overtook them and said, “Your master Sisinius commands you to take this virgin to a high mountain and leave her there, and then return to him and report to him that you have fulfilled his command.” And the soldiers did so.

When they reported back to Sisinius, he flew into a rage, since he had given no such orders. The luminous soldiers were angels of God, saving the holy martyr from defilement. Sisinius went to the mountain with a detachment of soldiers and saw Saint Irene on the summit. For a long while they searched for the way to the top, but they could not find it. Then one of the soldiers wounded Saint Irene with an arrow. The martyr cried out to Sisinius, “I mock your impotent malice, and I go my Lord Jesus Christ pure and undefiled.” Having given thanks to the Lord, she lay down upon the ground and surrendered her soul to God on the very day of Holy Pascha (+ 304).

The Great Martyr Anastasia heard about the end of the holy sisters, and she buried their bodies with reverence.

The Holy Martyr Leonidas and the Holy Martyrs Charissa, Nike (Nika, Victoria), Galina, Kalista (Kalida), Nunekhia, Basilissa, Irene, and Theodora suffered at Corinth in the year 258. They threw them into the sea, but they did not drown. Instead, they walked upon the water as if on dry land, singing spiritual hymns. The torturers overtook them in a ship, tied stones around their necks and drowned them.

No information available at this time.

No information available at this time.

The Il'insk (Prophet Elias)-Chernigov Icon of the Mother of God was painted in 1658 by the iconographer Gregory Dubensky (Gennadios in monasticism). The history of the Icon's creation and its miracles are described by a witness of these events, Saint Demetrios, Metropolitan of Rostov, in the works "A Miracle of the Most Holy and Most Blessed Virgin Mary," and "The Bedewed Fleece" (Руно орошенное). Some miracles are also mentioned by Saint John (Maximovich), Metropolitan of Tobolsk (June 10) in a poem "To the Virgin Theotokos." In 1662 there was a miraculous flow of tears from the Il'insk-Chernigov Icon, which continued from April 16-24, in connection with which a Feast Day was appointed for the Icon. In the same year, Chernigov was attacked by the Tatars, who ravaged the city and its environs, including the Holy Trinity-Il'insk Monastery, but, as Saint Demetrios testifies, the Icon and its precious oklad remained unharmed. The brethren who had taken refuge in the underground caves were also spared.

From the XVII century, cases of miracles from the Il'insk-Chernigov Icon were recorded with particular care. In "The Bedewed Fleece," Saint Demetrios described in detail 24 miraculous healings (one every hour) from all sorts of ailments of the residents of Chernigov and its environs. The list of miracles was augmented when the book was reprinted. Thus, by 1696, there were 56 cases of healing (5 from blindness, 3 from a disease of the legs, 3 from "gostza" (rheumatism). 1 from paralysis, 15 from demonic possession, 14 from clouding of the mind, 15 from various chronic diseases, and 1 instance of a boy raised from the dead. In the XIX century, several healings were observed: a Romny bourgeois from a fever (1865), a Chernigov girl from a mental disorder (on the Icon's Feast Day in 1874), and an infant from a high fever (1887 or 1888), the son of a Poltava landowner from diphtheria (until 1898), and a staff captain from Sveaborg from a chronic illness (until 1898), and several others.

Before HolyTrinity Cathedral was built in the Monastery (1679-1695), the Icon was kept in the church of the Prophet Elias near the caves, to the right near the pillar closest to the iconostasis. In 1786-1794, in connection with the planned opening of the University of Holy Trinity-Il'insk Monastery at Chernigov, but this did not occur, so the Icon was placed in the Dormition Cathedral of the Yelets Chernigov Convent, which was dedicated to the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos. In the XIX century, the Icon was in the cathedral, but only during the summertime. In winter, the Icon was transferred to the heated church of the Nativity of Christ, and placed in a special case behind the right kliros. At the beginning of the XX century, in winter, the Il'insk-Chernigov Icon of the Mother of God was kept in the Sretensky church in the Bishop's residence, and a substitute icon was left in the cathedral. The wonderworking Icon disappeared after the closure of Holy Trinity-Il'insk Monastery in 1924.

At the end of the XVII century, by the initiative of Archbishop Lazarus (Baranovich) and at the expense of Hetman I. S. Mazepa (whose initials and coat of arms were on the case), a silver oklad and a kiot were made (these have not been preserved). A crown with precious stones was donated by the Chernigov Colonel V. Dunin-Borkovsky, who received healing from the Icon in 1687 The dimensions of the Icon (1 arshin, 5 vershkas by 14.5 vershts – 93.37×64.45 cm) were increased when placed in the kiot because it was overlaid with a frame covered with silver plates with additional images engraved on them (2 arshins 2 vershkas by 1 arshin 6 vershks (151.24×97.8 cm) together with the frame). Attached to the case were plaques with inscriptions: "This holy image of the Mother of God, called Il'insk-Chernigov, was painted in 1658" and "The miraculous flow of tears from the Icon apparently occurred in 1662, from the 16th to the 24th day of the month of April." "In 1662 the Tatars invaded the city of Chernigov, but the hands of the impious Saracens could not touch this wonderworking Icon." In 1897 the oklad was replaced by a new one, made in Moscow by M. N. Ryndin with donations from the residents of Chernigov. There was an inscription on it: "This silver riza was made to replace the old one, which had fallen into disrepair, with the blessing of Bishop Anthony of Chernigov and Nizhyn, with the zeal of the benevolent donors of Chernigov. Hierodeacon Varlaam was sent to Moscow to order this riza from the master M. N. Ryndin, 1897, the weight of this riza is 33 ф. 29 з."

Revered copies of the Il'insk-Chernigov Icon, made at the end of the XVII-XVIII centuries, were in all the churches of Chernigov. At present, two copies are venerated in the Yelets Dormition Monastery in Chernigov.

The wonderworking copy of the Chernigov Icon of the Mother of God, which was kept in the Gethsemane Skete of Holy Trinity-Saint Sergius Lavra, became famous in 1869.

The Icon belongs to the traditional Hodegetria type. The Child blesses with His right hand, and a scroll in his left. He sits on the left hand of His Mother. The heads of the Mother of God and the Child are slightly inclined toward each other, the Child's legs are tightly together. The figure of the Mother of God has an almost generational edge, characteristic of the southern and western Russian iconography of the Mother of God of the XVII century. The Child is dressed in a white shirt with a collar. A distinctive feature of Il'insk-Chernigov iconography. The Icon is a gesture of the Infant's hand stretched forward. Identical or fairly similar compositional solutions are present in a number of other wonderworking Icons of the Mother of God associated with Belarus and Ukraine (Borkolabovskaya, Trigorskaya, Poddubetska, Gerbovetskaya Icons of the Mother of God).

In copies of the wonderworking Icon, crowns were often depicted on the heads of the Mother of God and her Child, which were absent on the Icon itself, but were present on its oklad. For the first time, crowns were depicted in an engraving of 1683 in Saint Demetrios of Rostov's book "The Bedewed Fleece." Obviously, this engraving became a model for Ukrainian and Russian icons, and on such copies the identifying inscription at the bottom was usually repeated (icon of 1778, Chernigov State Icon, Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve).

In 1686, Saint Pitirim (July 28) came to Tambov and, along with other relics, he brought with him a copy of the Il'insk-Chernigov Icon of the Mother of God, considered to be the patroness of the southwestern region. For this reason, the Icon was placed at the southwestern gate of the city. Over time, the Icon began to be called Tambov, especially since there were some differences between it and the Il'insk-Chernigov Icon of the Mother of God.

On the borders of the Icon, on the right and on the left, were depicted: Saint Alexei, the Man of God, and Saint Eudoxia. It is assumed that these were the heavenly patrons of Bishop Pitirim's parents, and it is quite possible that he himself painted the images of those Saints.

Later, on the site of the southwestern city gate, a small wooden church was built and dedicated to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. It was in this church that the Icon was kept. And when the merchant Ivan Utkin built the stone church of the Holy Protomartyr Stephen at his own expense in 1771-1778, the Tambov Icon was transferred there and placed in the altar above the altar. People began to call the church by the name of the builder Utkinskaya, and the Icon was later completely forgotten.

But the Queen of Heaven reminded people of herself. At the beginning of the XIX century, a priest in Kaluga, was suffering from a malady of his legs and could not walk. He saw this Icon of the Mother of God in a dream. She told him: "Find this icon. Pray before it and you shall be healed." After the dream, the priest received some relief from his illness, so that he was able to walk, and immediately he began to search for the Icon he had seen in the dream. After visiting various villages and towns, he finally reached Tambov, where, after inspecting all the churches, he found the Icon he had seen in his dream in the altar of the Utkin church. After praying before it, he received complete healing. This incident became widely known in the city, and afterward there were several more miraculous healings of the townspeople.

The Tambov Icon became famous again, and when in 1835 the old Utkin church was severely damaged. At the request of the townspeople, the right side altar was consecrated in honor of the Tambov Icon of the Mother of God. With the passage of time, the grateful Tambov residents adorned the Icon with a luxurious silver-gilt riza with many precious stones. There were so many cures from the Icon that there was no time to record all of them. In 1888, by decree of the Holy Synod, a Cross Procession took place in all the churches of the city on April 16 in honor of the Tambov Icon, and in 1900 the church was once again called the church of the Theotokos.

After the 1917 revolution, Tambov's churches were devastated, and the wonderworking Icon also suffered. The riza was removed and the stones were pried out, and then it disappeared without a trace. There are revered copies of the wonderworking Icon in the city.

The Tambov Icon is commemorated on April 16, and again on July 28 (the repose of Bishop Pitirim).