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Orthodox icon of Saint Joseph the Hycicast, Αγ. Ιωσήφ ο Ησυχαστής.

Commemorated: August 16th.

Born into a poor family on the Greek island of Paros, Francis Kottis was forced to leave school early to work and support his family after his father's death.

While working as a vendor in Athens as a young man, he began reading about the lives of saints and ascetics, feeling a strong call to the monastic life. He prayed ascetically in caves on Mount Penteli before leaving for Mount Athos in 1921. 

Life on Mount Athos

Seeking a spiritual guide, Joseph met another ascetic, Father Arsenios, and the two became companions in their spiritual struggles. They lived in extreme austerity and isolation in the rugged, rocky caves of Little Saint Anne's Skete.

He devoted himself to unceasing prayer, vigils, and fasting, experiencing intense demonic temptations and visions. His relentless pursuit of hesychasm—a state of inner stillness and advanced interior prayer, particularly the Jesus Prayer—led him to profound spiritual heights

Spiritual father and revival of hesychasm

Despite his desire for solitude, Joseph's reputation for holiness and his gifts of prophecy and spiritual wisdom attracted other monks seeking his guidance. He became a spiritual father, or geronda, to a small brotherhood of disciples.

His teachings and ascetic example inspired many, including his most prominent disciple, Elder Ephraim. These spiritual children and grandchildren went on to repopulate and revitalize several Athonite monasteries and found new ones in Greece and North America, including St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Monastery in Arizona.

Today, St. Joseph is credited with reviving the hesychastic tradition on Mount Athos and spreading its spiritual wisdom to a wider audience through his disciples.

St. Joseph the Hesychast died on August 15, 1959, the Feast of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, a date he was told beforehand by the Virgin Mary herself.

His letters, which are filled with divine grace and spiritual counsel, have been published and translated into many languages, continuing to inspire monastics and laypeople alike.

His relics are venerated in several monasteries, including Vatopedi on Mount Athos and St. Anthony's in Arizona. His tomb at New Skete on Mount Athos is a site of pilgrimage.

Orthodox icon of Saint Juliana of Nicomedia.

Commemorated December 21.

The Holy Virgin Martyr Juliana, daughter of an illustrious pagan named Africanus, was born in the city of Nicomedia. As a child, she was betrothed to Elusius, one of the emperor's advisors. St. Juliana was endowed with a profound intellect and goodness of soul. She saw through the delusion and deception of the pagan faith, and secretly accepted holy baptism.

When the time of her wedding approached, Juliana refused to be married. Her father urged her not to break her engagement, but when she refused to obey him, he began to beat her viciously. Africanus then handed his daughter over to the Governor, who happened to be Elusius, Juliana's former fiancé. Elusius fervently asked Juliana to marry him, promising not to require her to abandon her faith.

St. Juliana refused and said that she rather be put to death. They beat Juliana harshly, but after each beating she received healing and new strength from God. Her punishment took place before a large number of people. Of these, 500 men and 150 women came to confess Christ after witnessing the steadfastness and courage of the holy virgin miraculously healed from her wounds. They were all beheaded, and were baptized in their own blood.

Convinced of the futility of attempting to separate the holy virgin from her heavenly Bridegroom, Eleusius sentenced Juliana to death. She accepted the sentence with joy and glorified the Lord for permitting her to receive a martyr's crown. The holy Martyr Juliana was executed in the year 304.

Reference: O.C.A.

Orthodox icon of Saint Justin Popovich. Copy of a contemporary icon

Commemorated June 1.

Saint Justin was born on the Feast of the Annunciation 1894, in Vranje, South Serbia, to a family whose seven previous generations had been headed by priests (Popovich means "family or son of a priest" in Serbian). He began reading the scriptures at a young age, and as an adult carried a New Testament with him, reading three chapters every day. He studied at the Seminary of St Sava in Belgrade while St Nikolai Velimirovich (March 18) was on the faculty. In 1914, Blagoje (as he was called before his tonsure) completed the nine-year seminary program. He desired to become a monk, but postponed entry into the monastic ranks due to the outbreak of war and the poor health of his parents. He spent the war caring for his parents and serving as a student nurse.

In 1915 he was tonsured a monk under the name Justin, after St Justin the Philosopher. Shortly thereafter he traveled to Petrograd to study at the seminary; there he acquired a deep, first-hand knowledge of the Russian ascetical tradition and a lifelong love of Russian spirituality, especially that of the common people.

He then attended Oxford University from 1916 to 1919, writing a doctoral dissertation which was rejected. After a brief return to Belgrade, he entered the Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Athens. As in Russia, he used his time there not merely to study but to drink in the Orthodox spirituality of the Greek people.

He was ordained to the diaconate while in Greece, then to the priesthood after returning to Belgrade in 1922. He wept 'as a newborn babe' throughout his ordination service. One of his first labors as a priest was to translate the Divine Liturgy into modern Serbian. During this period he came to know Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky (later first hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad) and St John Maximovich, both of whom were living in Serbia as exiles from the Russian Revolution.

Father Justin's preaching, writing and spiritual counsel became known throughout his country. In 1931 he was sent to Czechoslovakia to help in reorganizing the Church there (then under the jurisdiction of the Serbian Church), which was greatly tried and weakened by Uniatism. Realizing the people's crying need a clear exposition of the Faith in their own language, he began in 1932 his three-volume Dogmas of the Orthodox Church. The first volume was so well-received that Fr Justin was made Professor of Dogmatics at the Seminary of St Sava, where he remained, completing the Dogmas and several other books, until the end of World War II. The new atheistic Communist regime then banned him from the university system, and Fr Justin lived from that time on in various Serbian monasteries.

In 1948 he entered Chelije Monastery, where he remained until his repose in 1979. He became Archimandrite and spiritual head of the Monastery. It was during this period that he emerged as a great light of Orthodoxy: pious believers from all parts of Yugoslavia, from Greece, and from all over the world traveled to Chelije to hear the holy Justin's preaching and seek his counsel.

Saint Justin reposed in peace in 1979 at the age of 85, on the Feast of the Annunciation — the date of his birth (March 25). Since his repose, many miracles have been witnessed at his grave: healings, flashes of unearthly light from his tomb, and conversions of unbelievers by his prayers. His many writings are increasingly recognized as a fount of pure Orthodox teaching in the midst of our dark time.

Reference: MYSTAGOGY

Orthodox icon of Saint Kalliope, Kalliopi, Calliope.

Commemorated June 6th.

It is unknown where the Holy Martyr Kalliope was from, who suffered during the years of the Emperor Decius (249-251 AD). She was known for her bodily and spiritual beauty, and also for her clear and deep piety. During the persecution of Christians of that era, she was arrested and led before the eparch for judgment.

He immediately observed Kalliope's beauty, and was occupied by evil thoughts and desires, and sought with promises and flattery to convince her to fulfill his guilty desires. But Kalliope remained indifferent to his promises and unshakable in her faith. This enraged the eparch, who saw that his hopes were proving false, ordered that she be immediately be tortured terribly until death.

Thus, having been whipped mercilessly, and having had her breasts cut off, they burned her with lit torches, and poured vinegar and salt on her wounds. In the end, they beheaded her, and thus St. Kalliope received the incorrupt crown of glory, and entered into the joy of her Bridegroom Christ.

Reference: G.O.A.A.

Orthodox icon of Saint Kassiane the Hymnographer.

Commemorated September 7.

Saint Kassiani was a Byzantine abbess, poet, composer, and hymnographer especially known as the composer of the Hymn of Kassiani. She was born between 805 and 810 in Constantinople into an wealthy family and grew to be exceptionally beautiful and intelligent. At a yound age she was placed in a contest for bride to Emperor Theophilus. Tradition tells us that when Theophilus, astonished by her beauty, selected her, he said through a woman sin came to the world St Kassiani responded and by a woman, salvation came to the world.

This insulted the emperor and she was rejected and he chose Theodora as his wife. She wrote many hymns for liturgies; the most famous being the eponymous Hymn of Kassiani, sung every Holy Wednesday (liturgically; actually chanted late in the evening of Holy Tuesday). Tradition says that in his later years the Emperor Theophilus, still in love with Kassiani, wished to see her one more time before he died, so he rode to the monastery where she resided.

Kassiani was alone in her cell, writing her Hymn when she realized that the commotion she heard was because the imperial retinue had arrived. She was still in love with him but was now devoted to God and hid away because she did not want to let her old passion overcome her monastic vow. She left the unfinished hymn on the table. Theophilus found her cell and entered it alone. He looked for her but she was not there; she was hiding in a closet, watching him. Theophilus felt very sad, cried, and regretted that for a moment of pride he rejected such a beautiful and intellectual woman; then he noticed the papers on the table and read them. When he was done reading, he sat and added one line to the hymn; then he left.

The line attributed to the Emperor is the line those very feet whose sound Eve heard at the dusk in Paradise and hid herself in fear Kassiani emerged when the emperor was gone, read what he had written and finished the hymn. Kassiani is one of the first composers whose scores are both extant and able to be interpreted by modern scholars and musicians.

Approximately fifty of her hymns are extant and twenty-three are included in the Orthodox Church liturgical books. The exact number is difficult to assess, as many hymns are ascribed to different authors in different manuscripts and are often identified as anonymous. In addition, some 789 of her non-liturgical verses survive.

Orthodox icon of Saint Kassiane the Hymnographer.

Commemorated September 7.

Saint Kassiani was a Byzantine abbess, poet, composer, and hymnographer especially known as the composer of the Hymn of Kassiani. She was born between 805 and 810 in Constantinople into an wealthy family and grew to be exceptionally beautiful and intelligent. At a yound age she was placed in a contest for bride to Emperor Theophilus. Tradition tells us that when Theophilus, astonished by her beauty, selected her, he said through a woman sin came to the world St Kassiani responded and by a woman, salvation came to the world.

This insulted the emperor and she was rejected and he chose Theodora as his wife. She wrote many hymns for liturgies; the most famous being the eponymous Hymn of Kassiani, sung every Holy Wednesday (liturgically; actually chanted late in the evening of Holy Tuesday). Tradition says that in his later years the Emperor Theophilus, still in love with Kassiani, wished to see her one more time before he died, so he rode to the monastery where she resided.

Kassiani was alone in her cell, writing her Hymn when she realized that the commotion she heard was because the imperial retinue had arrived. She was still in love with him but was now devoted to God and hid away because she did not want to let her old passion overcome her monastic vow. She left the unfinished hymn on the table. Theophilus found her cell and entered it alone. He looked for her but she was not there; she was hiding in a closet, watching him. Theophilus felt very sad, cried, and regretted that for a moment of pride he rejected such a beautiful and intellectual woman; then he noticed the papers on the table and read them. When he was done reading, he sat and added one line to the hymn; then he left.

The line attributed to the Emperor is the line those very feet whose sound Eve heard at the dusk in Paradise and hid herself in fear Kassiani emerged when the emperor was gone, read what he had written and finished the hymn. Kassiani is one of the first composers whose scores are both extant and able to be interpreted by modern scholars and musicians.

Approximately fifty of her hymns are extant and twenty-three are included in the Orthodox Church liturgical books. The exact number is difficult to assess, as many hymns are ascribed to different authors in different manuscripts and are often identified as anonymous. In addition, some 789 of her non-liturgical verses survive.

Orthodox icon of Saint Kenneth (Kyned, Kened, Keneth, Cenydd).

Commemorated August 1.

Saint Kenneth was born in the 6th century, Welsh tradition has it that he was a son of Saint Gildas the Wise. He married and had at least one son. He became a monk under Saint Illtud and was the founder of Llangenydd in the Gower Peninsula in south-west Wales. He later went to Brittany, where the village of Ploumelin is the centre of his cultus. 

Orthodox icon of Saint Klio, Clio the Martyr.

Commemorated September 1st.

Orthodox Icon of Great Virgin Martyr Kyriake, Sunday, Kyriaki of Nicomedia.

Commemorated July 7.

This is the Orthodox icon of Saint Kyriake who was the only child of Dorotheus and Eusebia who live in Anatolia during the "reign of terror" when there were many persecution of the Christians. The couple was childless and petitioned God for a child. Shortly thereafter Evsevia conceived and gave birth on Sunday (Kyriake, in Greek), so she was named Kyriake. Kyriake was a devout child living a sheltered life and desired to live life as a virgin.

One day a wealthy magistrate wished to betroth Kyriake to his son. Not only was she young and beautiful, but her parents were wealthy, and the magistrate wished to control that wealth. The magistrate went to her parents to request her hand, but St Kyriake told him that she wished to remain a virgin, for she had dedicated herself to Christ.

The magistrate was angered by her words, so he went to the emperor Diocletian to denounce the saint and her parents as Christians who mocked the idols, and refused to offer sacrifice to them. Diocletian, angered, sent soldiers to arrest the family and have them brought before him. He asked them why they would not honor the gods which he himself honored. They told him that these were false gods, and that Christ was the one true God. Dorotheus was beaten until the soldiers grew tired and were unable to continue.

Since neither flattery nor torment had any effect, Diocletian sent Dorotheus and Eusebia to Melitene on the eastern border between Cappadocia and Armenia where they were tortured. Then he sent St Kyriake to be interrogated by his son-in-law and co-ruler Maximian at Nicomedia. Maximian promised her wealth and marriage to one of Diocletian's relatives if she would worship the pagan gods. St Kyriake replied that she would never renounce Christ, nor did she desire worldly riches.

Enraged by her bold answer, Maximian had her flogged to no avail. Maximian then sent St Kyriake to Hilarion, the eparch of Bithynia, at Chalcedon. He told Hilarion to either convert Kyriake to paganism, or send her back to him. Hilarion was no more successful than they were. The saint was suspended by her hair for several hours, while soldiers burned her body with torches. Not only did she endure all this, she also seemed to become more courageous under torture. Finally, she was taken down and put into a prison cell.

That night Christ appeared to her and healed her wounds. When Hilarion saw her the next day, he declared that she had been healed by the gods because they pitied her. Then Hilarion urged her to go to the temple to give thanks to the gods. She told him that she had been healed by Christ, but agreed to go to the temple. The eparch rejoiced, thinking that he had defeated her. In the temple, St Kyriake prayed that God would destroy the soulless idols. Suddenly, there was a great earthquake which toppled the idols, shattering them to pieces.

Everyone fled the temple in fear, leaving Hilarion behind. Instead of recognizing the power of Christ, the eparch blasphemed the true God as the destroyer of his pagan gods. He was struck by a bolt of lightning and died on the spot. St Kyriake was tortured again by Apollonius, who succeeded Hilarion as eparch. When she was cast into a fire, the flames were extinguished. When she was thrown to wild beasts, they became tame and gentle.

Therefore, Apollonius finally sentenced her to death by the sword. She was permitted time to pray, so she offered herself as a sacrifice and asked God to receive her soul, and to remember those who honored her martyrdom. After this prayer God took her soul and bystanders marveled at how she voluntarily gave over her soul to God.u00a0Pious Christians took her relics and buried them in a place of honor.

Reference: O.C.A.

Orthodox icon of Saint Lawrence, Lavrendios.

Commemorated March 7th.

Orthodox icon of Saint Lazarus. Icon of the 12 cent.

Commemorated October 17.

The Transfer of the relics of Righteous Lazarus of the Four Days, Bishop of Kiteia on Cyprus, took place in the ninth century. The Righteous St Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary (Magdalene), lived in the village of Bethany, not far from Jerusalem. During His earthly life the Lord Jesus Christ often visited the house of Lazarus, whom He much loved and called His friend (John 11:3,11), and when Lazarus had died and lain four days already in the grave, the Lord raised him from the dead (John 11:1-44).

The Church remembers St Lazarus on the Saturday of the Sixth Week of Great Lent, Lazarus Saturday. Many of the Jews, when they heard about this, came to Bethany. Being persuaded of the reality of this most remarkable wonder, they became followers of Christ. Because of this the High Priests also wanted to kill Lazarus. Righteous Lazarus is mentioned in the Holy Gospel once more: when the Lord had come again to Bethany six days before the Passover, Lazarus was also there (John 12:1-2, 12:9-11).

After his raising, St Lazarus lived another thirty years as a bishop on the island of Cyprus, where he spread Christianity and peacefully fell asleep in the Lord. The holy relics of St Lazarus were discovered in Kiteia. They were within a marble coffin, upon which was inscribed: Lazarus of the Four-Days, the friend of Christ. The Byzantine emperor Leo the Wise (886-911) gave orders to transfer the relics of St Lazarus to Constantinople in the year 898 and place them within the church of the Righteous Lazarus.

Orthodox icon of Saint Lazarus of the Four Days (2). Copy of a contemporary icon.

Commemorated October 17.

Orthodox icon of Saint Leo the Great, Pope of Rome.

Commemorated February 18th.

Saint Leo I the Great, Pope of Rome (440-461), received a fine and diverse education, which opened for him the possibility of an excellent worldly career. He yearned for the spiritual life, however, and so he chose the path of becoming an archdeacon under holy Pope Sixtus III (432-440), after whose death St Leo was chosen as Bishop of Rome in September 440. These were difficult times for the Church, when heretics assaulted Orthodoxy with their false teachings. St Leo combined pastoral solicitude and goodness with an unshakable firmness in the confession of the Faith.

He was in particular one of the basic defenders of Orthodoxy against the heresies of Eutyches and Dioscorus, who taught that there was only one nature in the Lord Jesus Christ. He was also a defender against the heresy of Nestorius. He exerted all his influence to put an end to the unrest by the heretics in the Church, and by his letters to the holy emperors Theodosius II (408-450) and Marcian (450-457), he actively promoted the convening of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, at Chalcedon in 451, to condemn the heresy of the Monophysites.

At the Council at Chalcedon, at which 630 bishops were present, a letter of St Leo to the deceased St Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople (447-449) was read. St Flavian had suffered for Orthodoxy under the Robber Council of Ephesus in the year 449. In the letter of St Leo the Orthodox teaching about the two natures [the divine and the human] in the Lord Jesus Christ was set forth. All the bishops present at the Council were in agreement with this teaching, and so the heretics Eutyches and Dioscorus were excommunicated from the Church.

St Leo was also a defender of his country against the incursions of barbarians. In 452, by the persuasive power of his words, he stopped Attila the Hun from pillaging Italy. Again in the year 455, when the leader of the Vandals [a Germanic tribe], Henzerich, turned towards Rome, he persuaded him not to pillage the city, burn buildings, nor to spill blood. He knew the time of his death beforehand, and he prepared himself, with forty days of fasting and prayer, to pass from this world into eternity. He died in the year 461 and was buried at Rome.

His literary and theological legacy is comprised of 96 sermons and 143 letters, of which the best known is his Epistleto St Flavian.

Reference: O.C.A.

Orthodox icon of Saint Leo, Bishop of Catania, Sicily.

Commemorated February 20th

Saint Leo was born in Ravenna, Italy, of pious and noble parents. He was famed for his benevolence and charity, as well as his Christian love for the poor and wanderers. After completing his studies, he was ordained as a priest at Ravenna, and later, because of his purity and his most spiritual life, he was consecrated as Bishop of Catania in Sicily. He became the protector of orphans and widows, teaching and shepherding his flock.

The Saint was also distinguished for his struggles against heretics, whom he defeated and shamed, not only by his words, but also through his writings. The Lord honored him with the charisms of healing people from various diseases, and of working miracles.

During Saint Leo's episcopate, there was a sorcerer named Heliódoros who lived in Catania and deceived people with his fraudulent miracles. He was once a Christian, but then he denied the Savior and became a servant of the devil. Saint Leo urged Heliódoros to refrain from his evil deeds and return to God, but all in vain. One day Heliódoros audaciously entered the church where the bishop was performing the Divine Services, and tried to create a disturbance, sowing confusion and temptation with his sorcery.

Seeing the people beset by demons under the sorcerer's spell, Saint Leo knew that the time for meek exhortation had passed. He came out of the altar and tied his omophorion around the sorcerer's neck, leading him out of the church and into the city square. There he forced Heliódoros to confess all his wicked deeds. Then he commanded that a fire be lit, and jumped into the flames with the sorcerer. There they stood until Heliódoros was consumed by the fire. Saint Leo, by God's grace, remained unharmed. This miracle brought the Hierarch great renown during his lifetime, therefore, the Saint was invited to visit Constantinople by Emperors Leo IV (775 - 780) and Constantine VI (780 - 798), where he received many honors. Saint Leo reposed peacefully in 785.

After his death, a woman with an issue of blood received healing at his grave. The Saint's body was placed in the church of the holy Martyr Lucy (December 13), which he himself had built. Later on, his relics were transferred to the church of Saint Martin, the Bishop of Tours (November 11) in Rome.

Reference: O.C.A.