عبرانیان ۷.۱۸-۲۵ (رساله)

۱۸حکم پیشین منسوخ شد، چون سست و بی‌فایده بود، ۱۹زیرا شریعت هیچ چیز را کامل نکرد. در مقابل، امیدی بهتر ارائه شد که از طریق آن به خدا نزدیک می‌شویم. ۲۰و این بدون سوگند نبود! دیگران بدون هیچ سوگندی کاهن شدند، ۲۱امّا کاهن شدن او با سوگند همراه بود، آنگاه که خدا به وی گفت: «خداوند سوگند خورده و نظرش را تغییر نخواهد داد که: ”تو جاودانه کاهن هستی“.» ۲۲به‌خاطر این سوگند، عیسی ضامن عهدی بهتر شده است. ۲۳شمار کاهنان پیشین بس زیاد بود، زیرا مرگ مانع از ادامۀ خدمت آنها می‌شد. ۲۴حال آنکه عیسی چون تا ابد زنده است، کهانت بی‌پایان دارد. ۲۵پس او قادر است آنان را که از طریق وی نزد خدا می‌آیند، جاودانه نجات بخشد، زیرا همیشه زنده است تا برایشان شفاعت کند.

مرقس ۹.۳۳-۴۱ (انجیل)

۳۳سپس به کَفَرناحوم آمدند. هنگامی که در خانه بودند، عیسی از شاگردان پرسید: «بین راه دربارۀ چه چیز بحث می‌کردید؟» ۳۴ایشان خاموش ماندند، زیرا در راه در این باره بحث می‌کردند که کدام‌یک از آنها بزرگتر است. ۳۵عیسی بنشست و آن دوازده تن را فرا خواند و گفت: «هر که می‌خواهد نخستین باشد، باید آخرین و خادم همه باشد.» ۳۶سپس کودکی را برگرفته، در میان ایشان قرار داد و در آغوشش کشیده، به آنها گفت: ۳۷«هر که چنین کودکی را به نام من بپذیرد، مرا پذیرفته است؛ و هر که مرا بپذیرد، نه مرا، بلکه فرستنده مرا پذیرفته است.» ۳۸یوحنا گفت: «استاد، شخصی را دیدیم که به نام تو دیو اخراج می‌کرد، امّا چون از ما نبود، او را بازداشتیم.» ۳۹عیسی گفت: «بازش مدارید، زیرا کسی نمی‌تواند به نام من معجزه کند و دمی بعد، در حق من بد بگوید. ۴۰زیرا هر که بر ضد ما نیست، با ماست. ۴۱آمین، به شما می‌گویم، هر که از آن سبب که به مسیح تعلّق دارید حتی جامی آب به نام من به شما بدهد، بی‌گمان بی‌پاداش نخواهد ماند.

شهید سباستیان و همراهان در روم (۲۸۷)

He grew up in Milan and became an army officer, where he distinguished himself so well that the Emperor Diocletian made him captain of the Praetorian Guard not suspecting that Sebastian was a Christian. In Rome, while fulfilling the duties of a courtier, he used his position to comfort and encourage his imprisoned fellow-Christians. By his labors and example he brought many to faith in Christ, including Chromatius, the Prefect in charge of persecuting the Roman Christians.

Sebastian had upheld two brothers, Mark and Marcellinus, who were awaiting execution for their faith. When the day of execution came, their father Tranquillinus, who had been a pagan but through Sebastian’s example had converted, presented himself to Chromatius and announced that he too was a Christian. His testimony was so powerful that the hard heart of the Prefect was melted, and he himself resolved to become a Christian.

Caius, Bishop of Rome, gathered the new brethren (both men and women — not all of Sebastian’s converts have been mentioned here) to embrace them and baptize them, but also to warn them of their coming Martyrdom. He instructed some to flee the city and others, headed by Sebastian, to remain in Rome, devoting their days to fasting, prayer and thanksgiving as they awaited their death. As the “company of Martyrs” did this, many came to them and were healed of ailments, and many joined them in confessing Christ.

When the time of martyrdom came, each member of the company was subjected to imaginatively cruel tortures before his execution. Sebastian himself was made to witness the deaths of all his companions, then to endure his own trial. He serenely confessed his unshaken faith before Diocletian himself before being taken to the place of execution. There he was tied to a post and made the target of a band of archers until his body bristled with arrows like the quills of a porcupine. He was left for dead, but when Irene, widow of St Castulus, came to bury him, she found him alive and tended his wounds. Amazingly, he recovered, and presented himself once again to the Emperor. Astonished and outraged, the tyrant ordered that Sebastian be beaten to death with clubs and thrown into the city’s sewer. That evening, a pious Christian woman was told in a vision to retrieve his body and bury it in the catacombs. After St Constantine brought peace to the Church, Pope Damasus built a church over the site in the Saint’s honor. For hundreds of years, many miracles were worked there through St Sebastian’s intercessions.

کشیش‌شهید مقدس مودستوس I, اسقف اعظم اورشلیم (۶۳۴)

His parents were pious Christians from Sebaste in Asia Minor, who died in prison while Modestus was still an infant. The child was raised by pagans, but when he learned that his parents had died for Christ, he secretly became a Christian also. When his adoptive parents died, he traveled to Athens, where he was taken in by a Christian goldsmith and his wife, and became a Christian at the age of thirteen. Modestus’ almsgiving and love for the poor soon earned him renown, but aroused the envy of the goldsmith’s sons, who sold Modestus into slavery during a trip to Egypt. But Modestus was able to bring his new master to faith in Christ and regain his freedom.

Some time later he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The doors of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre opened at his prayers, and the people, taking this as a sign from God, chose Modestus as Archbishop of Jerusalem. (Accounts of his life do not mention his having been anything but a layman before this.) He served his flock tenderly and zealously, encouraging all to abound in spiritual gifts, and working many miracles. His prayers were effective not only in healing the faithful, but even in curing the ailments of their cattle and other animals. For this reason, it is still customary on this day to sprinkle animals pens and stables, and even houses in which pets dwell, with holy water, asking the Saint’s protection.

Saint Modestus served his flock faithfully into old age. According to some accounts he reposed in peace. According to others, in his old age he was delivered up to the pagans by his enemies, and beheaded by them after many torments.