Today we celebrate two saints, they are very important for the Serbian people and the church.

Saint Eutychius, Photo: Serigraph

Today, September 6, the Serbian Orthodox Church celebrates the Holy Hieromartyr Eutychius and the Holy Martyr Syra.

Holy Hieromartyr Eutychius

Saint Eutychius was a native of the city of Sevastopol. Hearing the Gospel of Christ, he left his parents and friends and joined Christ’s beloved disciple, the Apostle John the Theologian. Following the holy apostle everywhere and imitating his life, Saint Eutychius learned from him heavenly wisdom and drew from him, as from a source, the grace of God. Full of apostolic zeal, Saint Eutychius heroically eradicated idolatrous deception. Also meeting the holy apostle Paul, Saint Eutychius followed him like a star in the sun and worked hard with him, preaching the Gospel and heroically enduring all troubles. Today, that unity and harmony can be the guiding star of the Serbian people and support the famous saying that only unity saves Serbs. That is why Saint Eutychius is considered a disciple of both, both of the holy evangelist John the Theologian and of the holy apostle Paul.

Saint Eutychius is called the Apostle of the Minors, although he is not among the seventy apostles. And he was honored with the title of apostle because he worked with the most ancient apostles in the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, and for them he was consecrated bishop to serve the word and offer a bloodless sacrifice, and because he traveled through many countries preaching Christ not only with them but with himself. In fact, he did not travel alone, he was always accompanied by an angel of God who gave him strength and told him in advance everything that was going to happen to him. This apostle of Christ patiently endured imprisonment and torture everywhere, heroically suffering for his Lord.

Once Saint Eutychius starved in the dungeon for a long time, God would send him bread from heaven, which was brought to him by an invisible hand. With this bread, he became so strong that he did not consider the torments in which he was subjected to anything. On another occasion, when he was hung naked in the torture chamber and scraped with a hyacinth, blood gushed from his clean body with a fragrant peace and filled the air with a wonderful scent. And when then the holy apostle was thrown into the blazing fire, suddenly there came thunder from heaven and a great rain of snow fell, and the fire went out, and the saint remained alive and unharmed by the fire, praising God. Then Saint Eutychius would be delivered to the beasts to be eaten, but before his face the beasts became meek as sheep; And what is even more miraculous: the lion, released on him, spoke with a human voice, preaching aloud the greatness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and astonished and terrified all who saw him.

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– But what’s so strange about that? He who in ancient times could open the mouth of Balaam’s ass to speak like a man, could he not make the mouths of lions speak in a humane way to the distortion and shame of the heathen, and to the glorification of his almighty power? The Lord Himself was present and miraculous here and there

As for how the holy apostle Eutychius finished his feat, it is known that Sevastopol was taken bound from Ephesus to his native land and ended there: his holy head would be cut off with a sword, which the Lord Jesus crowned with a beautiful crown of victory.

Holy Martyr Sira, Photo: Printskrin

Holy Martyr Lord

In the time of the Persian Emperor Khozro the Elder, in the twenty-eight year of his reign, the holy girl Syra appeared in Persia as the purest pearl of the sea, shining with the beauty of the Christian faith and glorifying herself with great deeds. of suffering for Christ. Saint Syrah was born in the city of Hirhaselevkos to pagan parents. Her father was an idol priest, a famous magician; for a long time he was judge and elder of the society of Persian priests and magicians; he was well acquainted with the teachings of the ancient archivist Zoroaster, the first connoisseur of astrology in Persia. This magician, the father of the holy virgin Sire, strongly hated Christians and was very afraid that his daughter would not get to know the Christian faith and would not know Christian girls.

Because then there were many Christians in Persia, regardless of whether they were oppressed and persecuted. For that reason, when she was a child, her father gave Sir after her mother’s death to the city of Fars, where the science of sorcery flourished, to one of her relatives, a sorceress, to be raised in her pagan ways.

When the girl grew up, she would be trained in sorcery and given over to pagan priestly service, and she dedicated herself to performing some secret sacrifices to demons, which the pagans call “Jast”, and considered them the purest sacrifices.

All this is said about the virgin Siri, to find out what kind of eclipse and illusion she was in, and from what darkness she came to the light of truth and escaped the traps of the devil.

When Syra came of age and had already studied all the magician’s magic, and diligently served the Persian pagan gods in the rank of priestess, by the providence of God she met some poor Christian women and heard from them for the first time about of Christ the Lord, the true God. And she began to ask them seriously about the Christian faith, its dogmas and about the whole structure and the Christian life. And everything she heard from them, she judged it mentally, comparing the Christian faith with the Persian, and they saw that there was a great difference between them in everything. Because everything that made up the Persian faith, she began to consider false and disgusting, and everything that made up the Christian faith, just and pure. And she made a decision for herself, to leave the piety of the pagans and join the Christians. Wanting to become better acquainted with Christian piety, she began to secretly go to the Christian church, to listen to the readings, songs, and teachings of the church, and to carefully follow the orderly and pious performance of the church services. Little by little, she became very fond of the Christian faith and its entire structure, and began to cautiously imitate the life of Christians by honoring and killing her body. She was already eighteen years old since she was born and she was more afraid of getting married, and that way her mind was loaded with the worries of life.

Therefore, he did not appear among the people of the world, nor did he associate with respectable and wealthy Persian girls, but he avoided them, avoiding their company and conversations. However, he often met secretly with Christian girls and women and spoke to them about the birth of Christ of the Immaculate Virgin, about all his miracles, about his voluntary suffering and death, about his resurrection and ascension with the body to heaven, on the future terrible judgment, on the reward of the righteous and the torments of sinners. She steadfastly believed everything she heard from Christian girls, wrote it all in her heart, drenched her soul for miles, and burned with love for Christ God. She locked herself in her room, read Christian books, got used to prayers and psalms, and prayed to the only true Christian God, sprinkling her head with ashes. Therefore, she spent a lot of time keeping the Christian faith secret, because she was afraid of her father and other magicians. In addition, she thought it was enough for salvation: secretly believe in Christ, because she still did not understand that apostolic word: with the heart one believes for righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses for salvation (Rom. 10:10).