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Cheesefare Sunday The last Sunday before the Great Lent, Cheesefare Sunday, is also the last day of preparation. St Parthenius, Bishop of Lampsacus He was the son of a deacon from the city of Melitopolis. He knew the words of the Gospel by heart from his early youth, and strove to fulfill them. Settling beside a lake, he caught fish, sold them and shared the proceeds with the poor. By God"s providence, he was chosen as bishop of Lampsacus. He cleansed the city of paganism, closed the temples dedicated to idol-worship, built many churches and strengthened the faithful. He healed all manner of sickness through prayer, and was especially powerful over spirits. At one time when he was about to drive the evil spirit out of a madman, the evil spirit begged him not to. "I will give you another man, into whom you can enter and in whom you can dwell", Parthenius told him. "And who is that man?" I am he", replied the saint, "come and make your abode in me". Hearing this, the evil spirit fled as though burned by fire, crying out: "How can I enter into the house of God?" St Parthenius lived long and showed in his deeds the greatness of his love for God and man. He entered into the eternal peace of Christ in the 4th century.Our Holy Father Luke of Hellas Luke was born in Castorius. Even as a child, he had no desire to taste meat, and spent the whole of his life in purity and prayer. One day he went to sow his field with wheat. On the way, he gave the greater part of the wheat to a poor man and the lesser part, which remained to him, he sowed. God provided that, from this small amount of seed, there came a greater harvest than had previously come from the whole amount. After that, Luke ran away from his mother and entered a monastery. His widowed mother prayed ardently to God to reveal to her where her son was to be found. And God heard her prayer. The abbot of that monastery dreamed three times in succession that a woman was vehemently accusing him of having taken her only son. The abbot then ordered Luke to return at once to his mother. Luke went and saw his mother, but once again left her, this time for good. He atoned for this sin on a mountain called `John"s Mountain". He prayed at night and worked in the gardens and fields by day, not for himself but for the poor and the visitors, himself living only on barley bread. He was endowed by God with wonder-working gifts, and entered peacefully into rest in the year 94From time to time, myrrh flowed from his relics.Our Holy Mother Mastridia She lived a life of great asceticism in Jerusalem. A young man who saw her began to pester her, so to save them both from sin she took some soaked beans in a basket and went off into the desert. There she spent seventeen years, during which time, by the power of God, the beans did not come to an end nor her clothing wear out. She entered peacefully into rest in about 580.The Thousand and Three Martyrs of Nicomedia They suffered in the reign of Diocletian.Saint Aprionus bishop of Cyprus
Saint Peter of MonovatiaMartyr George of CreteSix martires
Martyr Theopemptus
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