SAINT ANNA, THE MOTHER OF THE ALL-HOLY BIRTH-GIVER OF GOD
Today is the commemoration of the falling asleep of St. Anna but her principal feast is celebrated on September 9, on which date is written her service and her hagiography. Anna was from the tribe of Levi and the daughter of Matthan, the priest. After a long and God-pleasing life she died in extreme old age.
SAINT OLYMPIAS, THE DEACONESS
Olympias was born in Constantinople of very distinguished parents. Her father, Anysius Secundus, was a senator and her mother was the daughter of the famous nobleman Eulavius who is mentioned in the hagiography of St. Nicholas the Wonder-worker. When Olympias reached maturity, she was betrothed to a nobleman who died before the marriage took place. The emperor and the other relatives pressured Olympias to marry another, but in vain. However, she refused them this and devoted herself to a god-pleasing life, giving from her inherited estate great offerings to the churches and alms to the needy. She served as a deaconess in the Church, at first during the time of Patriarch Nectarius and, after his death, during the time of St. John Chrysostom. When Chrysostom was exiled, he counseled Olympias to remain in the church and to serve as before regardless who the patriarch after him would be. Immediately after the banishment of this great saint, someone started a fire in the Great Church [The Church of the Divine Wisdom Hagia Sophia] and the fire consumed many prominent buildings in the capital. The enemies of Chrysostom accused this holy woman of initiating this malicious fire. Olympias was banished from Constantinople to Nicomedia where she died in the year 410 A.D., requesting in her testament that her body be placed in a box and cast into the sea and wherever the water tosses it up, there she is to be buried. The coffin was cast ashore in the city of Vrochthoi, where there existed a church dedicated to the Apostle Thomas. From her relics, great healing miracles appeared throughout the centuries. The exiled Chrysostom wrote beautiful letters to the exiled Olympias which, even today, serve as a great comfort to all those who suffer for the sake of God’s justice. Among other things, Chrysostom writes to Olympias: “Now I am very elated not only because you were relieved from infirmity, but more so, that you are nobly enduring all difficulties referring to them as trivialities which is characteristic of a soul full of power and abounding in the rich fruits of courage. For you not only courageously are enduring misfortune rather you do not even notice it when it comes and without exertion, without labor and disturbance not even talking about it to others but rejoicing and triumphing over it. That serves as the greatest wisdom” (Letter VI).
THE VENERABLE FEMALE EUPRAXIA [EUPHRASIA], THE VIRGIN
Eupraxia was the daughter of Antigonus, a nobleman of Constantinople and a relative of Emperor Theodosius the Great. Her mother, a young widow, with Eupraxia settled in Egypt and visited the monasteries there distributing alms and praying to God. By her fervent desire, the seven-year-old Eupraxia was tonsured a nun. The older she got the more she imposed upon herself the heavy burden of mortification. At one time, she fasted for forty days. She reposed in 413 A.D, in her thirtieth year. She possessed the great grace of God and healed the most difficult illnesses.
THE COMMEMORATION OF THE FIFTH ECUMENICAL COUNCIL
The Fifth Ecumenical Council met in Constantinople in 553 and was convoked by Emperor Justinian I. The Monophysite controversy continued unabated even after the condemnation of Eutyches and the issuing of the Chalcedonian Statement of Faith. Personal quarrels among bishops and the interference of the palace in theological and ecclesiastical matters helped to create an unfortunate situation in the Church that even Justinian’s great authority and influence failed to correct. Justinian favoured at first the Monophysites but later sided with the formal Orthodox view against it. However, empress Theodora encouraged the Monophysites to create new problems by stirring up a new controversy regarding the theological positions of three distinguished theologians already dead for a century, these were the three Antiochian bishops and renowned teachers, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyrus, and Ibas of Edessa. The accusation was that the writings of all three, tainted with Nestorianism, had been condemned by the Third Ecumenical Council.The Monophysite-accusers wished all three to be condemned even though they were dead. Justinian was compelled by the fury of the controversy to call this Fifth Ecumenical Council in Constantinople which opened on May 5, 553 and was presided over by the Patriarch of Constantinople Eutychios.One hundred sixty five bishops attended, and the writings of the three famous teachers were condemned and they themselves were anathematised. This decision was not easily accepted in the West. During the Council a quarrel erupted between Eastern and Western bishops as to anathematising the dead, and for a time the name of the Pope was erased from the diptychs. But as a result of Justinian’s efforts, a permanent rupture between East and West was prevented. The Council confirmed the Church’s teaching on the dual nature of Christ, and reaffirmed that He is both Truly God and Truly Man. Emperor Justinian himself confessed his Orthodox faith in a form of the famous Church hymn “Only begotten Son and Word of God” which is sung during the Divine Liturgy.