Translation of the Relics of the Holy Proto-Martyr and Archdeacon Stephen.
When the wicked Jews slew St. Stephen
by stoning, they left his body for the dogs to consume. However,
God's Providence intended otherwise. The martyr's body lay in an open
place at the foothill of the city for one night and two days. The
second night Gamaliel, Paul's teacher and secretly a disciple of
Christ, came and removed the body and took it to Caphargamala on his
estate and there he honorably buried it in a cave. Gamaliel also
buried his friend Nicodemus who died weeping over the grave of
Stephen in the same cave. Gamaliel also buried his baptized son
Abibus there and according to his will, was buried there also. Since
that time, many centuries passed and no one living knew where the
body of St. Stephen was buried. However, in the year 415 A.D. during
the reign of John, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Gamaliel appeared
three times in a dream to Lucian, the priest at Caphargamala and, at
length, related everything to him concerning the burial of all the
afore-mentioned showing him the exact spot of their forgotten graves.
Excited by this dream Lucian informed the patriarch and with his
blessing went with a group of men and exhumed the four graves.
Gamaliel had already told him in the dream whose grave was which. A
strong sweet-smelling fragrance from the relics of the saints
permeated the entire cave. The relics of St. Stephen were then
solemnly translated to Zion and honorably buried there and the relics
of the remaining three were moved to a hill above the cave and were
placed in a church. That day, many healings of the sick occurred by
the relics of St. Stephen. Later on, St. Stephen's relics were
translated to Constantinople. Thus the Lord crowned him with much
glory who, for His Name, shed his blood.
Our Venerable Father Basil, Fool for Christ.
Basil's father was named Jacob and his
mother Anna. At age sixteen, he dedicated himself to a life of
asceticism as a "Fool for Christ" and in this difficult
mortification persevered for seventy-two years. Altogether, he lived
to be eighty-eight years old. He traveled barefooted, bareheaded and
in rags. He did not have any permanent dwelling place. He admonished
sinners, reprimanded the noblemen, prophesied the truth and had
visions of distant places. Having suffered greatly from hunger, frost
and from the insults of men, Blessed Basil presented his holy soul to
God. Tsar Ivan, with the Metropolitan, attended his funeral. He is
buried in Moscow in the Church of the Most-holy Birth-giver of God,
later named after him.
Respectfully Taken From the:
"The Prologue of Ohrid"
by St. Nikolai of Zica, Serbia(Velimirovic)
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