The Holy Priest-Martyr Hermolaus and His Companions.
Hermolaus was a priest in Nicomedia
during the reign of Emperor Maximian. He was among the two thousand
martyrs whom the emperor condemned to be burned together with the
church (December 28). Somehow Hermolaus, on that occasion, escaped
death with two other priests, Hermippas and Thermocrates. Hermolaus
baptized Saint Pantaleon with whom he was brought to trial, tortured
and finally beheaded. Hermippas and Thermocrates suffered with them
and all were crowned with the wreaths of victory and glory in the
Kingdom of Christ. They honorably suffered about the year 304 A.D.The Holy Venerable Martyr Paraskevia.
Parasceva was born in Rome of Christian
parents and from her youth was instructed in the Faith of Christ.
With great fervence, St. Parasceva endeavored to fulfill all the
commandments of God in her life. Believing strongly and living
according to her faith, Parasceva directed others on the path [of
salvation] with the help of the True Faith and pious living. When her
parents died Parasceva distributed all of her property to the poor
and was tonsured a nun. As a nun she preached the Faith of Christ
with an even greater zeal, not hiding from anyone, even though at
that time the Roman authorities bloodily persecuted the Faith of
Christ. First the pernicious Jews accused St. Parasceva of preaching
the prohibited Faith. She was brought to trial before Emperor
Antoninus. All the flatteries of the emperor did not help in the
least to cause her to waver in the Faith. They then subjected her to
fiery torments and placed a red-hot helmet on her head. The Lord
miraculously saved her and Parasceva was delivered and left Rome. She
again traveled from city to city to convert the pagan people there to
the True Faith. In two more cities she was brought before princes and
judges and was tortured for her Lord, at the same time working great
miracles and by the power of God quickly recuperated from her pains
and wounds. The pagans, as always, ascribed her miracles to magic and
her power of recovery to the mercy of their gods. St. Parasceva once
said to the prince who tortured her: "It is not your gods, O
prince, who healed me but my Christ the True God." Finally
Prince Tarasius beheaded her. Thus this saint gloriously ended her
fruitful life. Her relics were later translated to Constantinople.
She suffered honorably for Christ in the second century.
Our Venerable Father Moses the Carpathian of the Monastery of the Caves.
He was at the court of the young
Russian Prince Boris. When the godless Svyatopolk murdered Boris,
Moses escaped and fled to Kiev. A little later he was taken to Poland
as a slave by the Polish King Boleslav and there was sold for a
thousand gold coins to a young and depraved widow, the wife of one of
Boleslav's commanders who was slain. This wicked woman tempted Moses
to commit adultery but Moses would not be tempted for he vowed to
live chastely before the Lord. She then suggested marriage to him but
he rejected that also. Moses secretly received the monastic tonsure
from an Athonite monk and he appeared before the lady in the monastic
habit. She bound him, ordered that he be flogged and to have his
private organ severed. This unsuccessful seduction by this shameful
woman lasted for five years - five years of pain and torture!
However, King Boleslav was slain unexpectedly in an uprising during
which this woman was also killed. Then Moses was free to go to Kiev
where, at the monastery of St. Anthony, he devoted his life to prayer
and silence. Completely conquering the shameful vice in himself,
Moses assisted many to also be saved from it. His holy relics helped
many (St. John, the much suffering July 8). After ten years of
silence in the Monastery of the Caves, St. Moses found rest on July
26, 1043 A.D. and took up habitation in the eternal virginal Kingdom
of Christ.
Respectably Taken From the:
"The Prologue of Ohrid"
by St. Nikolai of Zica, Serbia(Velimirovic)
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