• December 27th - Saints Theodore and Theophanes

    From rich@1:396/4 to All on Wed Dec 26 08:00:15 2018
    From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

    December 27th - Saints Theodore and Theophanes

    Two brothers who endured persecution because of their resistance to
    the Iconoclasts of the Byzantine Empire. Both were monks in the
    monastery of St. Sabas in Jerusalem at the time when Byzantine
    officials demanded that the icons be destroyed. When the brothers
    opposed the action, they were beaten and had their faces cruelly
    disfigured by having verses carved into them.

    Theodore died in prison. Theophanes may have survived him long enough
    to become bishop of Nicaea.

    Saint Theodore the Confessor, and his brother Theophanes (October 11)
    were born in Jerusalem of Christian parents. From early childhood
    Theodore shunned childish amusements and loved to attend church
    services. With his younger brother Theophanes, he was sent to the
    Laura of St. Sava to be educated by a pious priest. Both brothers
    became monks, and St. Theodore was ordained to the holy priesthood.

    The iconoclast emperor Leo V the Armenian (813-820) expelled and
    replaced the pious ruler Michael I Rhangabe (811-813). In the
    beginning, Leo concealed his heretical views, but later declared
    himself an iconoclast. The Patriarch of Jerusalem sent the two
    brothers to Constantinople to defend the holy icons. Theodore refuted
    Leo's arguments, proving the falseness of his beliefs. Leo ordered
    that both brothers be beaten mercilessly, and then had them sent into
    exile, forbidding anyone to help them in any way.

    Under the subsequent emperors, Michael II (820-829), and particularly
    under the iconoclast Theophilus (829-842), both brothers returned from
    exile. Again they were urged to accept iconoclasm, but they bravely
    endured all the tortures. They were sent into exile once more, but
    later returned. This time they were subjected to fierce torture, and
    finally, their faces were branded with the verses of a poem which
    mocked the holy confessors. Therefore, the brothers were called "the
    Branded."

    The city prefect asked St. Theodore to take communion with the
    iconoclasts just once, promising him freedom if he did. But the holy
    martyr replied, "Your proposal is the same as saying: 'Let me cut off
    your head once, and then you may go wherever you wish.'"

    After torture the holy brothers were banished to Apamea in Bithynia,
    where St. Theodore died around the year 840. St. Theophanes survived
    until the end of the iconoclast heresy, and died as Bishop of Nicea.
    St. Theophanes was author of many writings in defense of Orthodoxy.
    The relics of St. Theodore were transferred to Chalcedon, where they
    worked many healings.


    Saint Quote:
    "One of the most excellent allotments of the gift of faith, is for a
    man to be certain of the petition of his prayer through his trust in
    God. Certainty of faith in God is not the soundness of a man's
    confession (although this is the mother of faith), but a soul that
    beholds the truth of God by the power of her disciplines."
    --St. Isaac the Syrian


    <><><><>
    27=C2 The Holy Mother

    By the side of the manger where the Infant lies. His Mother is
    watching. Who is she?

    A poor and humble maiden, but nevertheless the Mother of God, The
    Mother of God! How can this be? How can the Eternal, Infinite God have
    a human Mother? Yet so it is; Mary has a privilege which raises her immeasurably above the highest of the Seraphim. It makes her more
    perfect in her likeness to God than is possible to any other creature.
    If, then, we honor the Saints and Angels, how much more should we
    honor God's own Mother!

    Yet Mary has a still greater claim to our homage, a more fruitful
    source of blessedness even than the Divine Maternity. Her unswerving
    obedience to the inspirations of God is declared by our Lord Himself
    to be a still higher privilege --"Yea, rather, blessed are they who
    hear the Word of God and keep it." If only we realized the blessedness
    of unswerving obedience, how different our lots would be!

    What are Mary's thoughts, as she sits watching there? She has no
    thought save of God. She is absorbed in Him. The hours pass like
    minutes, they are a sort of anticipation of Paradise. She sees her God
    face to face, and though His glory is veiled under the robe of flesh,
    yet Mary can pierce through it as none else ever could, and can bask
    in the Divine which it conceals. O God, help me to realize now Thy
    presence, when Thou art veiled under the Sacramental species.

    --- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
    * Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)