Commemoration of St. Spyridon's Miracle in Corfu against the Turkish invasion of 1716
August 11
The island of Cyprus was the birthplace of this famous Saint and the place in which he spent his life in the service of the Church. He was a simple shepherd and farmer, and remained simple and humble to the end of his days. He married young and had children, but when his wife died, he devoted himself entirely to the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great devotion, he was later chosen as Bishop of Tremithus. This did not change his simple life-style and he continued to take charge of his sheep and cattle himself as well as tilling his own land. He consumed very little of his own produce, giving the greater part to the poor. He performed great wonders by God's power, making rain fall in a drought, stopping the course of a river, raising the dead, healing the Emperor Constans of a grave sickness, seeing and hearing angels, forseeing future events, and penetrating the secrets of the human heart. He turned many to the one true Faith, and worked without ceasing for his Lord. He was present at the First Ecumenical Council in Nicea in 325, and by his simple and clear expositions of the Faith, as well as through miracles, brought back many heretics to Orthodoxy. He dressed so simply that once, when he was invited by the Emperor to the imperial court, a soldier took him for a beggar and slapped him. The meek and guiless Saint turned the other cheek. Throughout his life, he continued to glorify God with many miracles, and was of great aid both to individuals and to the whole Church of God. He entered into rest in the Lord in the year 348. His wonderworking relics now lie incorrupt on the island of Corfu and continue to glorify God with many healings, signs, and wonders. His Feast is celebrated on the 12th of December (which corresponds to the 25th of December on the civil calendar).

A procession is held in 11th of August in remembrance of the Saint's deliverance of the island from the Turkish siege in 1716. The legend of is that St. Spyridon appeared to the enemy holding a flashing sword and pursuing them. After the procession the Saint's body is exposed for general worship for three days and two nights. The procession was first held in 1717.



Maximos the Confessor
August 13
The divine Maximus, who was from Constantinople, sprang from an illustrious family. He was a lover of wisdom and an eminent theologian. At first, he was the chief private secretary of the Emperor Heraclius and his grandson Constans. But when the Monothelite heresy became predominant in the royal court, out of hatred for this error the Saint departed for the Monastery at Chrysopolis (Scutari), of which he later became the abbot. When Constans tried to constrain him either to accept the Monothelite teaching, or to stop speaking and writing against it - neither of which the Saint accepted to do - his tongue was uprooted and his right hand was cut off, and he was sent into exile, where he reposed in 662. At the time only he and his few disciples were Orthodox in the East. See also April 13.
Reading Courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery

Icon Courtesy of St. Isaac Skete



The Dormition of our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos and Ever Virgin Mary
August 15
Concerning the Dormition of the Theotokos, this is what the Church has received from ancient times from the tradition of the Fathers. When the time drew nigh that our Savior was well-pleased to take His Mother to Himself, He declared unto her through an Angel that three days hence, He would translate her from this temporal life to eternity and bliss. On hearing this, she went up with haste to the Mount of Olives, where she prayed continuously. Giving thanks to God, she returned to her house and prepared whatever was necessary for her burial. While these things were taking place, clouds caught up the Apostles from the ends of the earth, where each one happened to be preaching, and brought them at once to the house of the Mother of God, who informed them of the cause of their sudden gathering. As a mother, she consoled them in their affliction as was meet, and then raised her hands to Heaven and prayed for the peace of the world. She blessed the Apostles, and, reclining upon her bed with seemliness, gave up her all-holy spirit into the hands of her Son and God.

With reverence and many lights, and chanting burial hymns, the Apostles took up that God-receiving body and brought it to the sepulchre, while the Angels from Heaven chanted with them, and sent forth her who is higher than the Cherubim. But one Jew, moved by malice, audaciously stretched forth his hand upon the bed and immediately received from divine judgment the wages of his audacity. Those daring hands were severed by an invisible blow. But when he repented and asked forgiveness, his hands were restored. When they had reached the place called Gethsemane, they buried there with honor the all-immaculate body of the Theotokos, which was the source of Life. But on the third day after the burial, when they were eating together, and raised up the artos (bread) in Jesus' Name, as was their custom, the Theotokos appeared in the air, saying "Rejoice" to them. From this they learned concerning the bodily translation of the Theotokos into the Heavens.

These things has the Church received from the traditions of the Fathers, who have composed many hymns out of reverence, to the glory of the Mother of our God (see Oct. 3 and 4).
Reading Courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery