St. Photini

QUENCHING THE THIRST OF A PARCHED SOUL
It was a long, rugged journey from Judea to Galilee -a journey that necessitated traveling through the region of Samaria. It is no wonder that our Lord, weary from such a grueling trip, paused to rest in the heat of the noonday sun at a well in the village of Sychar. His Divine Body was in need of water, but as this morning's lengthy Gospel lesson relates, Christ encounters someone with a far greater "thirst." A Samaritan Woman comes to draw water from the well, and Jesus strikes up a conversation with her. If only the Pharisees could see Him now! Not only was Christ talking to a Samaritan - bitter enemies of the Jews - but a woman no less! This just wasn't something that would have been deemed as "politically correct" at this point in time. Our Lord, however, cared little for the norms of society - He was much more concerned with changing the direction of the life of a soul that had gone astray.

As this fascinating dialogue between them unfolds at the well, we soon understand that the Samaritan Woman has had a troubled past. She has had five husbands, and currently is living with another man. But rather than judge her for her moral shortcomings, Christ sees her as someone who is searching for something. He knows what that "something" is: it is the "living water" that only He could offer and provide. It didn't matter if she were a woman or if she were a Samaritan. Jesus saw her as a child of God seeking the Messiah. By the end of their conversation, the woman knew, indeed, that she was speaking to the One for Whom the world had been waiting.

The Samaritan Woman would one day be known as St. Photini, which means "the enlightened one." She would go on to be a great missionary, proclaiming to the world the Gospel of Jesus Christ which she learned at the town well in Sychar one fateful day.

THE FIRST EVANGELIST
The story of the Samaritan Woman is one that is familiar to all of us. While passing through the town of Sychar, Christ is weary from His journey and sits at the town well while His Apostles go into the city to buy food. He strikes up a conversation with a woman and before their verbal exchange is completed, she fully understands that she is speaking to the Messiah: the One Who can offer her “living water.”

The tradition of the Holy Orthodox Church is that this Samaritan Woman, later baptized and given the name “Photini” meaning “the enlightened one”, was the first person to evangelize, or spread the news about Christ. This is based on the words of John 4:39, “And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified: ‘He told me all that I had ever done.’” Along with her two sons and five daughters, Photini went to Carthage, where she preached the Good News of Christ’s Resurrection. They were soon arrested and taken to Rome, where the Emperor Nero placed the men in prison and had Photini and her daughters enslaved in his imperial court. Photini and her family were tortured relentlessly by the ruthless ruler. Still, their faith never wavered, and their examples caused others to convert to Christianity as well. Eventually, Photini and her children were all martyred. Ironically, Photini met her end by being thrown down a well, refusing until her dying breath to renounce the Saviour she had met at a well many years before.

Orthodox Weekly Bulletin ......... Vestal, Cliffwood, New Jersey ......... Litho in U.S.A.

Hieromartyr Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna

He was born at Ephesus around the year 70. St Irenaeus of Lyons, his disciple, says that St Polycarp was “a disciple of the Apostles and acquainted with those who had seen the Lord.” His parents died as martyrs, and he was given into the care of a devout lady named Callista. As a child, the Saint was so eager to follow the commandments of Christ that he repeatedly emptied his foster-mother's pantry to feed the poor. Since her supplies were always miracu­lously renewed, Callista changed his name from Pancratius to Polykarpos, meaning “Much fruit.”

When grown, Polycarp became a disciple of St John the Theologian, and in time became Bishop of Smyrna; it is told that the messages to the Church at Smyrna in the Book of Revelation are addressed to St Polycarp and his flock. He knew St Ignatius of Antioch person­ally, and some of their correspondence is preserved.

Polycarp led his Church in holiness for more than fifty years, and became known throughout the Christian world as a true shepherd and standard-bearer of the Faith. About the year 154 he traveled to Rome and consulted with Pope Anacletus on the defense of the Faith.

Not long after he returned to Smyrna, a fierce persecution was unleashed against Christians in Asia Minor; along with many others, St Polycarp was arrested, having predicted his immi­nent martyrdom. (The account of his martyrdom that follows is based on eyewitness accounts gathered immediately after his death.)

On the evening of Holy Friday, soldiers burst into the farmhouse where he was staying. The Bishop welcomed them cheerfully, and ordered that a meal be prepared for them. He was granted some time to pray, and for two hours stood commemorating everyone that he had known and praying for the Church throughout the world. His captors sorrowed that they had come to take such a venerable man, and reluctantly took him to the Proconsul. When urged to deny Christ and save his life, the aged Saint replied, “For eighty-six years I have been his ser­vant, and he has wronged me in nothing; how can I blaspheme my King and Savior?” Told that he would die by fire if he did not apostatize, Polycarp replied “You threaten me with a fire that burns for a short time and then goes out, while you know nothing of the fire of the judgment to come and of the everlasting torment awaiting the wicked. Why wait any longer? Do what you will!”

Placed on the pyre, Polycarp lifted his eyes heavenward and gave thanks to God for finding him worthy to share with the holy Martyrs of the cup of Christ. When he had said his Amen, the executioners lit the fire. The eyewitnesses write that the fire sprang up around him like a curtain, and that he stood in its midst glowing like gold and sending forth a delightful scent of incense. Seeing that the fire was not harming him, the executioners stabbed him with a sword. His blood flowed so copiously that it put out the fire, and he gave back his soul to God. His rel­ics were burned by the persecutors, but Christians rescued a few fragments of bone, which were venerated for many generations on the anniversary of his repose.

A Slave Becomes an Apostle

We see the image of a man who experienced a tremendous SPIRITUAL and SOCIAL transformation. ONESIMUS was the personal slave of a distinguished citizen of Colossae named Philemon in the days of the early Church. After stealing from his master’s treasury, it is said that Onesimus fled to Rome. It was in this ancient capital of the Empire that his life would be changed forever!

While in Rome, Onesimus first heard about Jesus Christ through the preaching of the Apostle Paul, who was imprisoned there. Soon he was baptized into Christianity and became a companion of the famous “Apostle to the Gentiles.”

Knowing of Onesimus’ background, Paul was faced with a moral dilemma. He himself preached that “… in Christ, there is neither slave nor free man.” (Gal 3:28) According to Roman law, however, Onesimus still belonged to Philemon! Scriptures tell us that St. Paul sent Onesimus back to Colossae with a special letter to Philemon, which would later become a part of the canonical books of the New Testament. In his epistle, Paul urges Philemon to receive Onesimus with forgiveness as a brother of in the Lord. “Perhaps he departed for awhile for this purpose,” Paul writes, “that you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave – A beloved brother.” Deeply moved by Paul’s words, Philemon gave freedom to his former slave.

According to Church tradition, Onesimus later became Bishop of Ephesus. He suffered martyrdom in Rome, like his mentor St. Paul, in 109AD.

The orthodox Weekly Bulletin …… Vestal, Cliffwood, Neew Jersey …… Litho in USA

He Took our Flesh

Dear Son,
Gregory Nazianzen (Gregory the Theologian) talks about Christ who took our flesh.

He took our flesh and our flesh became God, since it is united with God and forms a single entity with Him. For the higher perfection dominated, resulting in my becoming God as fully as he became man … Here below he is without a father; on high he is without a mother: both these states belong to divinity … He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, but when he rose from the tomb he laid aside the shroud … “He had no form or comeliness” (Isaiah 53:2) but on the mountain he shone with a splendour more dazzling than the sun – the foretaste of his future glory.

As man he was baptized, but as God he washed away our sins. He had no need of purification, but he wished to sanctify the waters. As man he was tempted, but as God he triumphed, and he exhorts us to be confident because he has “overcome the world” (John 16:33), He was hungry but he fed thousands and he is “The living bread which came down from heaven” (John 6:51). He was thirsty, but he cried, “If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink,” and he promised that believers should become springs of living water (John 7:37). He knew weariness, but he is rest for ‘All who labour and are heavy laden” (Matt. 11:28). He prays, but he answers prayers. He weeps, but he wipes away tears. He asked where Lazarus has been laid, for he is man: but he raised him to life, for he is God. He is sold, dirt cheap, for thirty pieces of silver, but he redeems the world, at great cost, with his own blood … He was weak and wounded, but he cures all infirmity, and all weakness. He was nailed to the wood and lifted up, but he restores us by the tree of life … He dies but he brings to life, and by his own death destroys death. He is buried, but he rises again. He descends into hell, but rescues the souls imprisoned there.

For your meditation,
Dad