No Fast
3We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 4Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints, 5For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; 6Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth:
10He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. 11If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? 12And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?
13No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. 14And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him. 15And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.
For his life, see December 20.
After his martyrdom, devoured by wild beasts in the amphitheater in Rome, only a few bones remained. These precious relics were gathered by the faithful, who took them back to Antioch, where they were received with joy by his former flock.
Many consider him the greatest iconographer of all time, and his “Holy Trinity” the finest icon. Very little is known of his life. He was born around 1360, and probably studied with the Byzantine iconographer Theophanes the Greek. He is known to have created icons for the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Moscow and the Cathedral of the Dormition at Vladimir. He created a highly spiritual and distinctively Russian iconographic style that set the standard for Russian iconography for centuries thereafter. It is said that he knew St Sergius of Radonezh (July 5). In his later years he became a monk.
He was from the pagan Persian aristocracy, but came to faith in Christ and left his home for the Christian city of Edessa, where he was baptized. He later moved to Antioch, where he lived in prayer and asceticism a short distance from the city. He ate nothing but a small amount of bread until he was extremely old, when he added some greens to his diet. Though he knew very little Greek, he was empowered by the Holy Spirit to win many converts to Christ and to confound the learned Arian heretics who were disturbing the Church in Antioch.
When Aphrahat learned that the Arian Emperor Valens was persecuting Christ’s Church, he moved to the city to support the true Faith. One day the Emperor himself met Aphrahat in the city square and asked him why he had left his solitude and come to Antioch. The Saint answered ‘Tell me this: if I were a maiden at home in my secluded apartment and saw someone setting fire to my father’s house, would you not advise me to put out the blaze as soon as possible? That is what I am doing now, because the Church, the heavenly Father’s house, is burning down inthe fire that you have set!’ One of the Emperor’s attendants threatened Aphrahat with death for this impertinence; but the attendant himself later perished, drowned as he was heating water for the Emperor’s bath. This made the Emperor afraid to persecute the holy one, who continued to preach the true Faith and to perform many miracles. He reposed in peace.
Though not yet officially a Saint of the Church, Papa Dimitrios is widely revered in Greece and abroad. His life is an inspiring example of the possibility of great holiness for those living in the world: a simple married parish priest, he spent forty-two years serving his childhood parish, and had nine daughters. He was a spiritual child of Elder Amphilochios of Patmos, and in turn became a spiritual father to many. His biography describes his last years thus: “On October 1, 1973, he resigned for reasons of health. Since then, he remained confined at home, living as a saint with incessant prayer, glorifying and thanking God for the trial of his illness. He delivered his holy soul to the hands of the living God on January 29, 1975, in peace.”
For more on Papa-dimitri, read this biographical sketch.