1. The Holy Martyr Isidore During the reign of Decius, Isidore was taken by force into military service from the island of Chios. From childhood Isidore adhered to the Christian Faith and spent his entire life in fasting, prayer and good works. But when in the army Isidore declared himself a Christian, the commander seized him, demanded an explanation, and urged him to deny Christ and offer sacrifices to the idols. The saint replied: “Even if you kill my body, you have no authority over my soul. I possess the True, Living God, Jesus Christ, Who lives in me now and after my death. He will be with me, and I am in Him and will remain in Him, and I will never cease to confess His holy name as long as my soul is in my body.” First, the commander ordered that Isidore be whipped with bullwhips, and after that they cut out his tongue. Even without his tongue, Isidore, by the Spirit of God, spoke and confessed the name of Christ. Meanwhile, the punishment of God came upon the commander, who suddenly became mute. Finally, the mute commander gave the sign to behead Isidore. Isidore was elated at this sentence. After praising God, went to the scaffold, where he was beheaded in the year 251 A.D. His companion, Ammon, buried his body and then also suffered and received the martyr’s wreath.

2. The Venerable Serapion The Sindonite Sindon means “linen cloth.” Serapion was called “the Sindonite” because he covered his naked body with a single linen cloth. He carried the Gospels in his hand. Serapion lived like a bird, with neither a roof nor any worries, moving from place to place. He gave his linen cloth to a needy person who was shivering from the frost, and Serapion remained completely naked. When someone asked him: “Serapion, who disrobed you?” he pointed to the Holy Gospels and said, “This!” After that he even gave his copy of the Gospels away as a ransom for a man in debt, whose creditor was threatening him with prison because of the debt. Once, in Athens, he ate nothing for four days, because he had nothing available, and began to cry out from hunger. When the Athenian philosophers asked him why he was crying out so, Serapion replied: “I was indebted to three, two of whom I have satisfied, but the third one is still tormenting me. The first creditor is carnal lust, which tormented me from my youth. The second creditor is avarice, and the third creditor is my stomach. The first two have left me, but the third one still torments me.” The philosophers gave him a gold coin to purchase bread. He went to a baker, purchased only one loaf of bread, left the gold coin and departed. He presented himself peacefully to the Lord in his old age, in the fifth century.

3. Blessed Isidore The Fool-For-Christ Isidore was of German descent. Having come to Rostov, he came to love the Orthodox Faith. He not only became a communicant of the Orthodox Church but also assumed the difficult life of asceticism as a fool-for-Christ. He walked around clothed only in rags. Pretending insanity, he spent the entire day teaching men, and spent his nights in prayer. He spent these nights in a hut made of branches, which he had built in muddy terrain. Great and awesome were the miracles that this saint performed both during his life and after his 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 shore. When the servants of the Prince of Rostov refused Isidore a glass of water that he had asked for and drove him away from the door, then all the prince’s vessels of wine dried up. When Isidore died in his hut on May 14, 1484 A.D., the whole of Rostov was imbued with a wonderful fragrance. The merchant who had been saved from the sea erected a church in Blessed Isidore’s honor over the spot where his hut had been.

Hymn Of Praise Blessed Isidore The Fool-For-Christ Blessed Isidore wrestled with himself Until he became as passionless as a withered tree. But even a withered tree is filled with honey by bees, And from a dry rock a spring sometimes gushes forth. The body of the blessed one was filled with the Spirit; His heart was sweetened with the honey of grace; In the body of a “fool” was the fountain of God’s power; In poor garments was a hidden treasure. Wonderful Isidore lay on the garbage heap. Through the streets he cried out, leapt and fled, With neither roof nor bread, without friends, But under the watchful eye of his Creator. He was a lesson to vain men; And to those bound like beasts to the earth, he was a reproach. By his life, it was as though he wanted to say: “Men, your cares lead to misfortune. A fortunate man is not one who steals from God, But one who possesses God alone as his treasure.”

Reflection A sin that serves as a scandal to others is a twofold sin. A wise man strives neither to scandalize anyone nor to lead anyone into sin by his sinful example. St. Ambrose praised such sagacity in the Emperor Valentian, who died at an early age, citing these examples from his life: “Hearing that he was spoken of throughout Rome as a passionate hunter and a lover of wild beasts–which in reality he was not–and how this passion was distracting him from his duties of state, the emperor immediately ordered that all the wild beasts in his preserve be slain. Again, upon hearing how certain malicious people spread the rumor that he ate lunch early (wanting by this to make him out to be a glutton), the emperor imposed a strict fast on himself both privately and publicly. At public meals, he was rarely seen to place a morsel of food in his mouth. And again, when his sisters disputed with a certain man over some property, the emperor, even though he had the right to judge the dispute, directed the case to the open court so that he would not be accused of partiality.” Indeed, with great fear, this pious emperor upheld the words of the Lord: Woe to himwho shall offend one of these little ones (Matthew 18:6).

Contemplation Contemplate the action of God the Holy Spirit upon the apostles:

1. How the Holy Spirit led the apostles through all sorrows and tribulations, filling their hearts with consolation and joy;
2. How the Holy Spirit made those seeds of the Gospel that the apostles sowed throughout the world grow and flourish, even where they seemed to have been scattered in vain.

Homily on Christ as the Branch of David “In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land” (Jeremiah 33:15). With these words, the Holy Prophet Jeremiah prophesied the coming of the Holy Savior of the world from the line of David. The Branch of Righteousness is Jesus Christ Himself. These words could not have referred to anyone else, since, at the time of the Lord Jesus’ coming, a prince of the lineage of David no longer sat on the throne at Jerusalem but rather a foreigner, Herod the Idumean. Nor from then until today has there been any other prominent branch of David, either as a worldly ruler or as a spiritual ruler. At the time of the Nativity of Christ, there were but a few people from the tribe of David, and they were unknown and impoverished. Among these were the Most-holy Virgin and the righteous elder, Joseph the carpenter. It is clear, therefore, that for the thousand years after this prophecy was spoken, no other majestic branch from the lineage of David appeared, except the Lord Jesus. This becomes more clear from the following words: As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David My servant, and the Levites that minister to Me (Jeremiah 33:22). These words could only apply to the spiritual descendants of David through Christ the Lord, that is, to Christians. For only the number of Christians (and not the physical descendants of David, of whom there are not any at all) during these twenty centuries can be measured with the stars in the heavens and with the sand in the sea. O my brethren, let us rejoice that we Christians are among this countless number of God’s people, among the greatest people in the history of the world, both as to numbers and as to character. Let us rejoice even more that we belong to that divine Branch of David, Who by His Blood redeemed us from the stranger, adopted us and made us heirs and co-heirs of the Eternal Kingdom. O All-good Lord, Thou hast redeemed us prodigal sons from contemptible humiliation and hunger, and hast made us sons of the Kingdom.

To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.