Icon, Saints&Reading: Monday, August 5, 2024
july _august 5
ICON: POCHAEV OF THE MOTHER OF GOD
The miraculous Pochaev (Ukr. Pochaiv) Icon of the Mother of God is one of the most renowned relics in the Christian world. It holds a special place of veneration in Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, as well as in Eastern Poland, Slovakia, Bosnia, Serbia, and Bulgaria.
This sacred icon is commemorated on 5 August (23 July Old Style), 24 April (11 April Old Style), 21 September (8 September Old Style), and on the Friday of Holy Week.
For over four centuries, the Pochaev Icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been enshrined at the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra, situated in the western region of modern Ukraine. Pochaev is a small town in the Ternopol region, located 22 kilometres southeast of Kremenets and 67 kilometres north of Ternopol.
Monastic life on Pochaev Mountain traces its roots back to the 13th and 14th centuries. At that time, these lands were part of the principality of Galicia-Volhynia, one of the appanage principalities of ancient Rus’.
While historical records first mention the Monastery in 1527, monastic activities on Pochaev Mountain began around 1240, according to some sources, or 1340, according to others.
According to tradition, monks from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, fleeing the Mongol-Tatar invasion led by Khan Batyi between 1237-1240, sought refuge in the Volyn lands. They settled in the rocky caves of an uninhabited hill covered in impenetrable forests, which would later become known as Pochaev Mountain.
Another version suggests that an hermitage was founded on Pochaev Mountain by the Athonite monk Methodius in 1228, predating the Tatar invasion.
One day, an extraordinary event occurred atop Pochaev Mountain. The Most Holy Theotokos Herself appeared to one of the two monks who were leading an ascetic life in the caves. She stood on a rock, enveloped in a pillar of flame, reminiscent of the Old Testament burning bush. Overwhelmed by this divine sight, the hermit called his companion to witness this miraculous event.
A local resident named Ivan Bosoy (Barefooted), who was tending to his sheep nearby, also witnessed this divine apparition. He saw the Most Holy Mother of God in a pillar of fire on a rock, alongside a monk in prayer. The shepherd hurried to the monks and inquired about the vision. They explained that the Mother of God had appeared at this sacred spot, and where Her right foot had touched, a spring of water had miraculously welled up.
This holy spring, stemming from the pure feet of the Holy Mother of God, flowed ceaselessly, never running dry regardless of how much water was drawn from it. In time, the Church of the Assumption was constructed at this hallowed site, giving birth to a thriving monastic community.
The miracle-working Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God made its appearance in Pochaev Monastery during the mid-16th century. This sacred icon was gifted to Anna Hojska, a local landowner, by the Greek Metropolitan Neophytos. Metropolitan Neophytos, who later became the Patriarch of Constantinople, was passing through the Volyn lands at the time. While there is indirect evidence suggesting the Metropolitan had Slavic origins, possibly Serbian or Bulgarian, his precise lineage remains uncertain.
Anna Tikhonovna Erofeyeva Hojska hailed from the esteemed Russian noble family of Kozinski. Metropolitan Neophytos, during his journey to Moscow to seek material assistance from the Russian sovereign (or on his return journey, according to some sources), paused at Anna's estate near Pochaev. In gratitude for her hospitality, he bestowed upon the devout widow a small image of the Mother of God, also known as "Eleusa" or "Tenderness" (from the Greek "Ελεούσα," meaning merciful or gracious).
For a period, this sacred relic remained within Anna's house chapel. During this time, those who prayed before the icon began to notice an extraordinary radiance emanating from it. In 1597, a miraculous event occurred: Anna's brother, Philip Kozinski, who had been blind (or, according to other sources, lame), was miraculously healed after praying before the icon. Overwhelmed by the sanctity of this image, Anna felt it improper to retain it solely for herself and decided to entrust it to the monks of the Pochaev Monastery.
It's noteworthy that this miracle transpired a year following the Brest Church Union of 1596. This union was an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile the Western and Eastern branches of Christianity, with grave consequences. The Pochaev Monastery's brethren firmly adhered to Orthodoxy and did not accept the Union...Continue reading St Elizabeth Convent
PROPHETESS HANNAH, MOTHER OF THE PROPHET SAMUEL.
The Holy Prophetess Hannah dwelt in marriage with Elkanah, but she was childless. Elkanah took to himself another wife, Phennena, who bore him children. Hannah grieved strongly over her misfortune, and every day she prayed for an end to her barrenness, and vowed to dedicate her child to God.
Once, as she prayed fervently in the Temple, the priest Heli thought that she was drunk, and he began to reproach her. But the saint poured out her grief, and after she received a blessing, she returned home. After this Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son, whom she named Samuel (which means “Asked from God”).
When the child reached the age of boyhood, the mother herself presented him to the priest Heli, and Samuel remained with him to serve before the Tabernacle (1 Kings/1 Samuel 2: 1-21).
1 CORINTHIANS 5:9-6:11
9 I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. 10 Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner-not even to eat with such a person. 12 For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? 13 But those who are outside God judges. Therefore "put away from yourselves the evil person."
1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? 2 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 3 Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? 4 If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge? 5 I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? 6 But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers! 7 Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? 8 No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren! 9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
MATTHEW 13:54-58
54 When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, "Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 55 Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? 56 And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things? 57 So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house." 58 Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
