THE HOLY GREAT MARTYR SAINT PROCOPIUS
Theodosia, the fanatical pagan mother of Prokopios, who loathed Christians, did all in her power to raise her son a pagan, and she was successful.In his youth, Prokopios was a typical pagan. Yet, God had other plans for this young man. His daily contact with Christians, from whom he heard many astonishingly beautiful things about Christ and His Holy Apostles, slowly interested him in the faith he up to then had despised. He began to see that the Christians, though lacking beautiful temples embellished with statues and decorous splendour, possessed another kind of beauty not to be found in any other religion or philosophical system. They possessed the truth, indeed, the ultimate truth about God, man, salvation, and eternal life. With the passing of time, he was baptised to live ever after as a very devout Christian. Thus, by the grace of Almighty God, a former typical pagan had now been transformed to an ideal Christian. In fact, this is how Eusebios, a noted church historian and contemporary of Prokopios, described the saint and his martyrdom.”He was a man so filled with divine grace that he had devoted himself to chastity and the practice of all virtues. He had reduced his body until he had given it, so speak, the appearance of a corpse, but his soul drew from the word of God so great a vigour that the body itself was refreshed by it”. Studying on the Divine Word so filled his being that he remained absorbed in it day and night without fatigue. Filled with goodness and gentleness, regarding himself as the least of men, he edified everyone by his discourses. The Word of God was his sole study, and he had but little knowledge of profane science, Born at Aelia (the pagan name of Jerusalem), he had taken up his residence at Scythopolis to Caesarea. He had scarcely passed the city gates when he was conducted into the presence of the governor, and even before he had had a taste of chains or prison walls, he was urged by the judge, Flavian, to sacrifice to the gods. But he, in a loud voice, proclaimed that there were not several gods, but one alone, the creator and author of all things. This answer made a vivid impression on the judge. Finding nothing to say in reply, he tried to persuade Prokopios, at least, to sacrifice to the emperors. This martyr of God spurned his entreaties. ‘Listen,” he said, ‘it is not good to have several masters; let there be one chief, one king”‘. At these words, as though he had uttered insults against the emperors, the judge ordered him to be executed. They cut off his head, and he passed happily to eternal life on the eighth day in the month of July. This was the first martyrdom that took place in Caesarea. And so a beautiful soul, that for years served as an ideal example of Christian virtue, through a tragic death, inherited the Kingdom of God’s elect in A.D. 303.
SAINT PROCOPIUS, FOOL FOR CHRIST
Procopius was a miracle-worker of Ustiug who died in the year 1303 A.D. Procopius was of Varangian (Norse) descent and a merchant by profession. Coming to Novgorod on business, he was awed by the beauty of Orthodoxy and embraced the Orthodox Faith. Desiring to be a perfect Christian he distributed his estate to the poor and began to practice all the other virtues. He pretended insanity so that men would not praise him and discerned the hearts and destinies of men as well as natural events which, afterwards, indeed occurred. By his tearful prayer before the icon of the Birth-giver of God, Procopius averted a terrible hailstorm over the town of Ustiug and thus brought the sinful town to repentance. His body was found dead on the street completely covered with snow. A church was built over his miracle-working relics.
VENERABLE THEOPHILUS THE MYRRH-EMITTING [MIROTOCIVI]
Theophilus was born in Serbia the village of Ziki. He was a very educated man and a great ascetic. By order of Patriarch Niphon of Constantinople, he traveled to Alexandria to inquire whether it is true or not that Patriarch Joachim moved a mountain and that he drank poison without harmful effects being forced to do this by the Jews and Muslims. Convinced of the truthfulness of these miracles, Theophilus returned to Holy Mt. Athos where he lived a life of asceticism, at first in Vatopedi, then in Iveron and finally in the cell of St. Basil near Karyes. They offered the Archbishopric of Thessalonica to this holy man, but he refused. Through profound silence and meditation he succeeded to purify his mind of all passionate thoughts and became a pure vessel of the Holy Spirit in which Christ dwelled. Before his death, he ordered Isaac his disciple not to bury him when he dies but to tie a rope around his legs, drag him and then toss him into the river. With great fear, the disciple carried this out. However, the Divine Providence of God revealed the remains of St. Theophilus and when they translated his body to his cell, it began to emit miraculous myrrh. He entered into rest on July 8, 1548.