Χριστός ανέστη! Αληθώς ανέστη!
Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!
ХристосВоскрес! Воистину Воскрес!
ქრისტეაღსდგა! ჭეშმარიტადაღსდგა!
Martyr Isidore of Chios (251)
Hieromartyr Therapont, Bishop of Cyprus (3rd century)
Venerable Serapion the Sindonite, monk of Egypt (5th century)
Saint Isidore of Rostov, Fool-for-Christ and Wonderworker (1474)
Commemorated May 14
Saint Isidore the Fool-For-Christ and Wonderworker of Rostov
Isidore was a German by descent. Having come to Rostov, he fell in love with the Orthodox Faith and, not only became a communicant of the Orthodox Church, but assumed the difficult life of asceticism as a “Fool for Christ.” He walked around completely in rags. Pretending insanity through his madness, he spent the entire day teaching men and at night, he spent in prayer. He spent nights in a hut made of branches which he had built in a muddy terrain. Great and awesome were the miracles which this saint performed both during life and after death. To a merchant, who was thrown from a boat and was drowning in the sea, Isidore appeared walking upon the water and led him to the shore. When the servants of the Prince of Rostov refused Isidore a glass of water that he asked for and drove him away from the door, then all the vessels with wine dried up. When Isidore died in his hut on May 14, 1484 A.D., the whole of Rostov smelled from a wonderful aroma. The merchant whom the Blessed Isidore saved from the sea, erected a church in his honor over the spot where his hut was located.
The Prologue from Ohrid: Lives of Saints by Saint Nikolai Velimirovič . http://livingorthodoxfaith.blogspot.gr/2010/04/prologue-may-14-may-27.html
They live the Holiness of nonexistence, and with their prayers they take the whole world…
From the life of Saint Nephon of Constantiane
There was also another poor and old negro, who lived in a city called Ysia. He used to wander about aimlessly, here and there, silently muttering words that nobody could understand. Because of this, many people had believed he was not in his right mind.
There came a time when a severe drought had fallen on the land….The animals were dying of thirst, the scorched earth had cracked open and the crops had all dried up…. The clergy and the faithful, with their bishop at the lead, made continuous entreaties and night-vigils with prayers for this plague to stop, but they were of no avail.
One night, the bishop saw in his dream an angel, who said to him: “This is what God commands you: Take your priests and go, first thing in the morning, and wait at the southern gate of the city; the first man that you see entering the city, approach him, stop him, and ask him to pray to the Lord to send you rain.”
Indeed, at the break of dawn the very next day, right after Matins. The Bishop took his ministers and went to the southern gate, just like the angel had instructed him. They didn’t have to wait for very long; shortly afterwards, a old negro man appeared, who seemed to be walking towards the city gate. He was extremely old, and was carrying on his hunched back a bundle of wood.
The bishop stopped him, and helped him to set down the bundle of wood.
“Old man”, begged the bishop, “please pray to God so that He might show His mercy and send rain, both for us and for this earth!”
Without any objection whatsoever, the old negro immediately raised his thin, bony arms towards the heavens and prayed.
In a matter of minutes, to everyone’s amazement, lightning and thunder began to manifest out of nowhere! Heavy black clouds started to gather rapidly, the sky darkened, and a torrential rain began to pour down from the sky. But oh, what a rainfall that was! A proper deluge! Houses began to be flooded and the surrounding fields soon resembled an expanse of sea!
The bishop was now forced to beseech the old man to pray again, for the rain to stop. The old man humbly and obediently raised up his arms once again to the heavens….and the downpour ceased immediately!
Amazed at this double miracle, the bishop then persistently asked the old stranger to reveal his life story and to tell them what his spiritual labours were, that had endowed him with such a closeness to God.
But the old man bashfully refused to reply to the bishop.
“Your eminence, as you can see, I am nothing more than an old, negro nobody… Why are you bothering to look for virtues in me?” he replied, without raising his head.
“In the name of the Lord of the heavens and the earth!” the bishop cried out imperatively. “You must reveal the whole truth, so that the name of our Lord may be praised accordingly!”
“Forgive me, your eminence! You see, I haven’t done anything worth mentioning. The only thing that I have strived to keep since the day that I was baptized a Christian, was to never eat my bread without deserving it, and to never become a burden to anyone. So, every day I go into the hills and collect a bundle of wood, I load it on my back and go down to the city to sell it. From the money I get, I only keep two small coins – just enough for the day’s meal. The rest of the money I give to poor people like me. Whenever the weather is bad and I can’t go up to the hills, I fast until the weather improves and then I go back up there again to bring my load of wood to the city, to sell it and provide for myself and my other poor townsfolk….
With these words, the elderly negro respectfully bade the bishop and the other clergymen farewell, hoisted the bundle of wood onto his back once again, and walked into the city to sell it….
***
“My child, these are the accomplishments of the blacks,” Nephon said as he finished. “That’s why you must not think that they are rejected by God. But just as the grapevine gives both black and white grapes, man was created the same way by God: some are black, some are yellow, and some white. Let’s say, like the earth, because there is a great variety there, too.”
This is what the servant of God told me and got up to pray. He lifted up his hands to Heaven and began to supplicate…..
When he finished this prayer, suddenly an extraordinary light flashed around him and in it the Lord Jesus Christ appeared filling his heart with delight, because He embraced him three times with a holy kiss, while the saint with each kiss joyfully cried out, “Amen! Amen! Amen!” Then the Lord spoke to him:
“Good and faithful servant! I heard your supplication and I will grant liberally what you ask for the salvation of Christians! To anyone who commemorates your name, in his prayer or in church, I shall stand by him a helper in all his temptations, dangers and sorrows, particularly in the last moments of his life. I shall have bountiful mercy on all those who will glorify Me by your name, I shall strengthen and fortify all those who call upon Me in your name, and with My divine authority I shall crush every demonic battalion under their feet.”
“And when the hour will come for you to abandon this life, too, I, Myself shall come to you with My holy army of angels. I shall receive your spirit in My hands and give you ‘rest in peace’ in the bosom of Abraham.”
With these words the Lord blessed him flooding all his senses with His Truth and divine Grace.
Filled with joy and delight, Nephon began to glorify God, saying:
“Sweet and beautiful Jesus, You came to the least of Your creatures! The life, joy, and fragrance of the immaculate angels, You came to delight Your vile servant. Welcome, You Who fill all things and transcend every delight! Blessed and glorified be He Who comes. Remember me in Your glory, in the beauty of Paradise. Remember me in heaven, in the songs of the angels. Remember me, O blessed by the Cherubim and the Seraphim, full of grandeur and light, divine reflection and perfect imprint of the Father. Remember me, O endless sea of immortal philanthropy. My Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me as long as I breathe. Never depart from my side. Shield me and show me the way to eternity.”
When the saint finished this outburst of doxology, the Lord looked at him with divine affection and bid him farewell: “Peace be to you, Nephon, My child!” and ascended into heaven.
From the book: “AN ASCETIC BISHOP” (the life of Saint Nephon)
Troparion. Tone 5.
Christ has risen from the dead, by death he has trampled on death, and to those in the graves given life.
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