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The Holy Martyrs Cyrus and JohnThese holy martyrs are commemorated on January 31st, and their lives and sufferings are described under that date. Today we commemorate the translation of their relics from Canopus to Menuthis, and the numerous miracles associated with them. St Cyril, the Patriarch of Alexandria, prayed fervently for the extermination of the abominable idolatrous practices at Menuthis. where there was a temple and where the demonic powers held sway. An angel of God appeared to the Patriarch and told him that Menuthis would be cleansed of its impurity if he brought the relics of Ss Cyrus and John to the town. The Patriarch did this at once. He brought the relics of the holy martyrs to Menuthis and had a church built there in their honour. Ammonius, the son of the governor of Alexandria, Julian, was healed of scrofula through the martyrs" relics. and a certain Theodore was healed of blindness. Isidore of Maium was healed of a wasting disease of the liver, Theodore"s wife of the effects of poison, a certain Eugenia of dropsy and a great many others of various diseases and torments. All this took place in the year 412. Our Holy Father Sennuphius the Standard-BearerA great ascetic and wonderworker of the Egyptian desert, he was a contemporary of Patriarch Theophilus and the Emperor Theodosius the Great. He is called "the Standard-Bearer" because he once helped the Emperor Theodosius to gain a victory over enemy forces by his prayers. When the Emperor summoned him to Constantinople, he replied that he was unable to go, but sent his torn and patched monastic habit and his staff. Going out to battle, the Emperor put on Sennuphius"s habit and carried his staff in his hand, and returned victorious from the battle.
Our Holy Father Paul the PhysicianHe was born in Corinth. After completing his studies, he went to a monastery and became a monk. He had a very difficult struggle with the spirit of fornication and, when he had driven it from himself by the power of the Cross, a malicious spirit was angered at his victory and sent a harlot to say that she had borne a child to Paul. Then some heretics came and took him from the monastery, thrust the child into his arms and drove him around the city for the people to spit upon. The child was only a few days old. St Paul prayed fervently to God, and said to the people: "Here, let the child tell you who its father is!" The child pulled its hand out from the swaddling clothes and pointed to a certain blacksmith, saying: "That man is my father, not Paul the monk!" Paul"s opponents were shamed, and repented. God gave to Paul great power of healing, so that he had merely to place his hands on the sick for them to recover. He entered peacefully into rest in great old age, having been pleasing to God in his life on earth. He lived in the seventh century. Hieromartyr Donatus of Libya
Martyr Pappias
Martyr Macedonius
70 Martyrs of Scythopolis
Three Martyrs of Galatia On this day is done the commemoration of 2 Crucified Lads and 3 Martyrs from Galatia.
Venarable Sergius of CreteThe Monk Sergios the Magister founded a monastery in honour of the MostHoly Mother of God at the Bay of Nicomedia. The monastery was named the Nikitian, since the monk came from the Paphlagonian city of Nikitia. The monk died on the island of Crete in the IX Century. Venerables Sergius and Herman (14th c.), abbots of Valaam The Monks Sergei and German of Valaamo settled on the island of Valaamo in 1329. The brethren gathered by them shone forth the light of Orthodoxy in this frontier land. The Karelian people began to regard Christianity with renewed suspicion, with its authority in the XIII Century being undermined by the Swedes, who sought to spread Catholicism by means of the sword. The Monks Sergei and German died in about the year 1353. A second commemoration of them is on 11 September. Venerable Magnus, monkVenerable Magnus, monk who reposed while praying to the Lord
Venerable Moses the Anchorite
Venerable Xenophon, abbot of Robeika (Novgorod) (1262)The Monk Xenophont of Robeisk was a student of the Monk Varlaam of Khutinsk (+ 1192, Comm. 6 November). He was the head of the Khutinsk monastery after the hegumen Isidor (+ 1243). Resigning as hegumen, the Monk Xenophont founded the Trinity Monastery on the banks of the Robeika River (not far from Novgorod). And here he reposed blessedly on 28 June 1262. Serbian Orthodox New Martyrs of the Second World WarThe twentieth century has seen the crowning of a multitude of martyrs. Holy Russia, from the time of the Bolshevik revolution to the present, has given us millions of new heavenly intercessors, champions of the faith. This is well known to the entire Orthodox Church. Unfortunately, many Orthodox Christians are ignorant of the sufferings of the nearly 750,000 Orthodox Serbian Christians who gave their lives in the defense and confession of the faith during the time of the last world war in the so-called "Independent State of Croatia" and in other parts of German-occupied Yugoslavia at the hands of the Croatian Nationalists and other enemies of the Orthodox Church, at the instigation of and with the open participation of the Latin clergy. This persecution was aimed at the complete elimination of the Orthodox Church in these areas...
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