Stand for the reading of the Synaxarion.
Synaxarion
On April 22 we commemorate our righteous Father Theodore of Sykeon, Bishop of Anastasiopolis, in Galatia, worker of signs and wonders. (613)
On this day we also commemorate the holy Apostle Nathanael, who is also Simon the Zealot. This is the commemoration of when he met Christ.(1st century
On this day we also commemorate the holy Apostles Apelles, Luke (not the Evangelist), and Clement, of the Seventy (1st century)
On this day the holy Martyr Nearchos died by fire. (3rd century)
On this day we also commemorate the holy Hieromartyr Soter, Pope of Rome (c. 174)
On this day we also commemorate the holy Martyrs Epipodius of Lyons, by beheading (c. 177)
Saint Gaius, Pope of Rome, martyred with members of his family (296)
Saint Leo of Sens, Bishop of Sens in France for twenty-three years (541)
On this day we also commemorate the holy Two Brothers Arwald, sons of Arwald, the last Jutish King of the Isle of Wight, put to death by soldiers of King Ceadwalla, then a pagan, on the day after their baptism (686)
On this day we also commemorate our righteous and God-bearing Father Gregory the Gravanos of Nisyros (+ 1812)
On this day we also commemorate our righteous and God-bearing Father Hatzi Ananias of Malles, first monk, renovator and Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Panagia Exakousti in Ierapetra, Crete (1907)
On this day we also commemorate the holy New Hieromartyr Eustathius Malahovsky, Priest (1918)
On this day we also commemorate the holy New Hieromartyr Sabbas (Trlaich), Bishop of Gornji Karlovac who was skinned alive by the Ustashi (+ 1941)
Translation of the relics (1834) of St. Vsevolod (in holy baptism Gabriel), Prince and Wonderworker of Pskov (1138)
Anniversary day of the prisoner breakout from Jasenovac Concentration Camp
On this day, the New Hieromartyr Paul Yazigi, Bishop of Aleppo and Alexandretta, Syria, was kidnapped from Aleppo, Syria (2013)
Saint Theodore Syceote admonishes the bloodthirsty emperor Phokas
and the unfaithful Vunnusos!
133. When Theodore disembarked at the imperial city the most blessed Patriarch, Thomas, received him and they embraced each other with much joy. Theodore also introduced to him his disciple John, whom he wished to be ordained abbot, bearing witness to his virtuous life. The Patriarch immediately agreed thereto, invested him with the pallium and appointed him abbot, escorting him to their own monasteries in the countryside.
The Emperor Phocas heard of the Saint’s visit, and requested to see him (for he was confined to his bed with gout in his hands and feet). Theodore came to him and after he had laid his hand upon him and prayed over him, the Emperor was relieved of his disease. But when the Emperor asked him to pray for him and for his rule, the servant of Christ began to admonish him and said that if he wished to be always held in remembrance by him and wanted the Saint’s prayers on his behalf to be effective, he must cease his killing of men and shedding of blood*. If he were successful in this, ‘then my prayers for you,’ said Theodore, ‘will be answered by God’. But if the Emperor persisted in his murderous ways, he foretold to him the woes that would come upon him through God’s wrath; at these words the Emperor became very incensed against him.
[…]
142. About that time the inhuman consul Bonosus was travelling to the eastern parts of the Empire and as he passed near the monastery he heard tell of the inspired man’s holiness and felt a reverence for it, violent and cruel though he was. So he sent a messenger in advance to him beseeching him, if he could endure the fatigue, to come down to the oratory of the holy martyr Gemellus near the posting-station in order that he might do reverence to him there and be deemed worthy of his prayers, saying that he himself was unable to go up to the monastery owing to the pressure of urgent affairs; so the Saint went down and received him and whilst he was praying for him the consul stood but did not bend his neck, so the Saint took hold of the hair of his forehead and pulled it and in this way bent his head down (virtue is wont to act thus with courage and not fear human authority ‘For the righteous’, it is said, ‘is bold as a lion'[ Prov 28:1]) We who were present were thunderstruck and terrified at the just man’s daring and imagined that the consul would turn insolent and furious, for we knew well by report that his savagery was like that of a wild beast. But he readily accepted the prayer and the rebuke and showed honor to the Saint by kissing his hands, and then putting his hand on his own chest because of a pain which oppressed him he begged the Saint to pray that he might be freed from it. But the Saint gently tapped with his fingers on the consul’s chest and said to him, ‘You must first pray that your inward man may be reformed and grow healthy; for when that is healed, the outward man, too, will be restored to health; therefore I will pray for you and do you devote yourself to the good and fear God in order that my prayers may be effective. But if I pray and you neglect to amend your ways, my prayers will be unavailing. Be merciful then and pitiful to all Christian people and do not use harshly the authority entrusted to you, but while examining your own consciousness of sins, sympathize with those that go astray and never shed innocent blood. For if there is to be punishment for the mere insult of a spoken word-for calling another a “fool”- how much more will blood, shed unjustly, be avenged by God?’ These counsels the Saint gave him like a man sowing seed in unfruitful ground, and the consul fetched out a few coins and offered them to him in token of gratitude. But as the Saint did not deign to accept them, he drew back his hand and took out some ‘trimisia’ begging the Saint at least to accept those and to give one to every brother in the monastery. But before looking at them Theodore said, ‘There are only fifty and not sufficient for giving one to each, however, they can be changed into smaller money and then distributed equally’. But the consul marvelled at his discerning words, as being God-inspired and answered, ‘Yes, reverend father, by thy holy prayers, there are only fifty as your holy mouth has said; however, I will send as many more at once as are needed to make up the number’. This he did, for after being dismissed by the Saint he went to his baggage and sent what he had promised.
Thus the virtue of the righteous knows how to correct the violent and the savage, and by persuasion makes them yield to those who practise it.
From Three Byzantine Saints: Contemporary Biographies of St. Daniel the Stylite, St. Theodore of Sykeon and St. John the Almsgiver, translated by Elizabeth Dawes, notes by Norman H. Baynes
https://www.pallasweb.com/deesis/the-life-of-st-theodore-of-sykeon.html
***
St Anastasius of Sinai
Question 65 – On unworthy governors
Question: The Apostle says that the powers that are in the world are instituted by God (Rom 13: 1). Does it follow that every governor [ἄρχων] and emperor is appointed by God?
Answer: 1. God says in the Law [ἐν τῶ Νόμῳ], I will give you rulers after your own hearts (Jer 3: 15),1 and so we say that some governors and emperors are appointed by God as worthy of such an honour, while others who are unworthy are appointed by God’s permission or will with a view to the people who are wor-thy of such unworthiness. And listen to some stories about these.
2. When the tyrant Phokas became emperor2 and began to perpetrate those bloody massacres through Bonosos3 the ex-ecutioner [τοῦ δημίου], a certain anchorite in Constantinople, a holy and very simple man who had great confidence with God, as if God were like his father or an intimate friend, used to complain to God in all simplicity, “Lord, why have you made such a man emperor?” After several days had gone by and he repeated the same thing to God, “Why have you made such a man emperor?”, a voice came to him from God saying, “Because I have not found anybody worse!”
3. There was another city, one in the Thebaid,4 that was very wicked and where all sorts of evil and irregular deeds were per-formed. One of the most abominable of the faction members [demotes, δημότης] in that city suddenly underwent a pseudo-conversion and went off, received the tonsure, and donned the monastic habit. however he did not cease to practise the same wicked acts as before. The bishop of the city happened to meet his end, and an angel of the Lord appeared to a certain holy man saying, “Go and prepare that city so that so-and-so of the faction members may be elected bishop.” So the man went and did what he had been ordered. And when one of the faction members, or rather that particular faction member, had been elected, he began to conjure up images of himself and became very conceited. Then an angel of the Lord came to stand by him and said, “Why are you so proud and conceited? It is cer-tain that you have not become bishop because you were worthy of the priesthood, but because this particular city deserves to have this sort of bishop!”
4. So, dear friend, when you see that some unworthy and wicked person is either emperor or governor or bishop, do not be surprised, but learn and believe with complete certainty that it is because of our crimes that we are handed over to such tyrants, and not even then do we desist from evil things, but although we are in the middle of such hardships, we continue to practise wicked deeds.5 Believe me when I tell you that if the race of the Saracens were to depart from us today, at once tomorrow the Green and Blue factions would rise up once more and begin killing one another, and <the same with> the Eastern Administrative Area [ἡ Ἀνατολή], Arabia, Palestine and many other countries.
Anastasios of Sinai. Questions and Answers, by M. Richard and J. Munitiz, Page 117
1 Anastasios adapts the quotation which should read: “And I will give you shepherds after my own heart” (see LXX, NETS).
2 Phokas ruled from 602 to 610; he had his predecessor, Maurice (582-602), executed (see Qu. 30, §2) and was himself executed by his successor, heraclius (610-641).
3 Bonosos (spelt Βώνοσος, Βόνωσος, Βονῶσος) was “Comes Orientis” under Phokas, cf. Theophanes, Chronographia, anno 6101 [608/9 A.D.], ed. de Boor, Leipzig, 1883, vol. 1, p. 296 (21-25), transl. C. Mango & R. Scott, Chronicle of Theophanes, Oxford, 1997, pp. 425-427: cf. Vita Theodori Syceotae, ed. A.-J. Fes-tugière [Sh48], Brussels, 1970, vol. 1, cap. 142 (line 1Βουνοῦσσος), vol. 2, p. 256.
4 The capital of the southern Egyptian province of Upper and Lower The-baid was Antinoöpolis, but several other important civic centres are to be found in this heartland of Egyptian monasticism.116VARIED DEVOTIONAL-ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS, QQ-
5 The idea that the Arab invasions were a punishment is found elsewhere in the works of Anastasios, e.g. Homilia III de creatione hominis (CPG 7749), III, 1, 84-112, ed. K.-h. Uthemann [CCSG 12], pp. 59-61, and cf. J. L. van Dieten, Ge-schichte der Patriarchen von Sergios I. bis Johannes VI. (610-715), [Enzyklopädie der Byzantinistik 24], Amsterdam, 1972, p. 181.
God bestowed upon St Theodore the Sykeote great power over evil spirits and over all diseases and afflictions of mankind.
https://iconandlight.wordpress.com/2020/04/21/god-bestowed-upon-st-theodore-the-sykeote-great-power-over-evil-spirits-and-over-all-diseases-and-afflictions-of-mankind/
St Theodore the Sykeote wanted to imitate David in his holy hymnwriting and began to learn the psalter and he felt a sweetness more pleasant than honey poured into his mouth.
https://iconandlight.wordpress.com/2021/04/21/st-theodore-the-sykeote-wanted-to-imitate-david-in-his-holy-hymnwriting-and-began-to-learn-the-psalter-and-he-felt-a-sweetness-more-pleasant-than-honey-poured-into-his-mouth/
Troparion of St Theodore the Sykeote Tone 4
Sanctified from thy swaddling bands,/ thou wast full of the grace of God./ O Theodore, minister of the Sacred Mysteries,/ thou didst enlighten the world by thy miracles and dispel the demon hordes./ Pray for us to Christ our God.
Apolytikion in the Second Tone
You were known to be sanctified from your earliest infancy. You were revealed to be filled with grace. You enlightened the world with miracles and drove away a multitude of demons, holy hierarch Theodore. Therefore, pray to the Lord for us.
Apolytikion of Theodore of Sykeon
Fourth Tone
Since thou hadst been known from thy swaddling bands to be sanctified, and hadst been shown to be filled with graces, thou didst illuminate the world with miracles, and dist drive off the swarms of demons, O sacred minister Theodore; wherefore do thou beseech the Lord in our behalf.
Troparion of St Theodore the Sykeote Tone 2
Known to be sanctified from thine earliest infancy,/ and shown to be full of grace,/ thou didst illumine the world with miracles,/ and didst drive away a multitude of the demons,/ O sacred minister Theodore:// wherefore, pray thou to the Lord in our behalf.
Apolytikion in the First Tone
Offspring of Nisyros, and adornment of Patmos, known among the monks, as being distinguished in these latter days, let us the faithful sing hymns to Gregory, the divine guide of virtues, and inspired teacher of piety, to you we cry with compunction: Glory to Christ Who glorified you, glory to Him Who made you wondrous, glory to Him Who grants us through you, grace and mercy.
Apolytikion of St George the Trophy-bearer in the Fourth Tone
Liberator of captives, defender of the poor, physician of the sick, and champion of kings, O trophy-bearer, Great Martyr George, intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.
Kontakion of St Theodore the Sykeote Tone 3 “Today the Virgin…”
Mounting upon the virtues as upon a fiery chariot,/ O God-bearer,/ thou didst ascend to the heavenly abodes./ Thou didst dwell like an angel with men,/ and as a man thou joinest chorus with the angels./ Wherefore, thou hast been shown to be a divine receptacle of miracles,// O venerable Theodore.
Tone V: Spec. Mel.: “O venerable father…”—
O venerable father, sacred Theodore, thou wast sanctified from thy mother’s womb, and like Jeremiah of old wast known to God. A star heralded thy nativity, the whole world hath truly been enlightened by the splendor of thy life, and the darkness of the demons hath vanished. Infirmities have been driven away from men of every age, and grace hath poured forth all manner of healings. Wherefore, we cry out to thee: Do thou ever entreat Christ, that He grant unto the world great mercy.
Ode V
Irmos: Shine forth upon me the light of Thy precepts, O Lord, for my spirit riseth early unto Thee and hymneth Thee: for Thou art our God, and I flee to Thee, O King of peace.
The timeless Light hath shown thee to be an ever-burning candle and an inextinguishable lamp for those stuck fast in the gloom of the passions and the darkness of many sins, O Theodore.
From earliest childhood thou didst have the martyr George guiding thee to the path of good, and thou didst emulate him with all zeal and love for the Lord, O venerable father.
Thou didst have immaculate abstinence, impeccable patience, faith, hope and humility, love and superhuman endurance; wherefore, thou hast acquired surpassing grace from God.
Theotokion: With the sprinkling of thy mercy, O all-pure one, give drink to my mind, which hath withered away through the flame of sin, and light thou the lamp of my heart, which hath gone out, O portal of the Light.
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