Hebrews 12.25-26, 13.22-25 (Epistle)

25Ali gledajte da se ne odreèete onoga koji govori; jer kad oni ne utekoše koji se odrekoše onoga koji prorokovaše na zemlji, akamoli mi koji se odrièemo nebeskoga, 26Kojega glas potrese onda zemlju, a sad obeæa govoreæi: još jednom ja æu potresti ne samo zemlju nego i nebo. 22Molim vas pak, braæo, primite rijeè pouèenja; jer ukratko napisah i poslah vam. 23Znajte da je otišao naš brat Timotije, s kojijem, ako skoro doðe, vidjeæu vas. 24Pozdravite sve uèitelje svoje i sve svete. Pozdravljaju vas braæa, koja su iz Talijanske. 25Blagodat sa svima vama. Amin.

Mark 10.2-12 (Gospel)

2I pristupivši fariseji upitaše ga kušajuæi: može li èovjek pustiti ženu? 3A on odgovarajuæi reèe im: šta vam zapovijeda Mojsije? 4A oni rekoše: Mojsije dopusti da joj se da raspusna knjiga i da se pusti. 5I odgovarajuæi Isus reèe im: po tvrði vašega srca napisa vam on zapovijest ovu. 6A u poèetku stvorenja muža i ženu stvorio ih je Bog. 7Zato ostavi èovjek oca svojega i mater i prilijepi se k ženi svojoj, 8I budu dvoje jedno tijelo. Tako nijesu više dvoje nego jedno tijelo. 9A što je Bog sastavio èovjek da ne rastavlja. 10I u kuæi opet zapitaše ga za to uèenici njegovi. 11I reèe im: koji pusti ženu i oženi se drugom, èini preljubu na njoj. 12I ako žena ostavi muža svojega i poðe za drugoga, èini preljubu.

Our Holy Fathers Athanasius the Great (373) and Cyril (444), Patriarchs of Alexandria

Saint Athanasius, pillar of Orthodoxy and Father of the Church, was born in Alexandria in 275, to pious Christian parents. Even as a child, his piety and devotion to the Faith were so notable that Alexander, the Patriarch of the city, took Athanasius under his protection. As a student, he acquired a thorough education, but was more interested in the things of God than in secular learning, and withdrew for a time into the desert to sit at the feet of Saint Anthony (January 17), whose disciple he became and whose biography he later wrote. On returning to Alexandria, he was ordained to the diaconate and began his public labors for the Church. He wrote his treatise On the Incarnation, when he was only twenty. (It contains a phrase, still often quoted today, that express in a few words some of the depths of the Mystery of the Incarnation: God became man that man might become god.)

Just at this time Arius, a priest in Alexandria, was promoting his enticing view that the Son and Word of God is not of one essence with the Father, but a divine creation of the Father. This view, which (as Athanasius realized) strikes at the very possibility of mankind’s salvation, gained wide acceptance and seemed for a time to threaten the Christian Faith itself. In 325, the Emperor Constantine the Great convoked a Council of the Church at Nicaea to settle the turmoil that the Arian teaching had spread through the Church. Athanasius attended the Council, and defended the Orthodox view so powerfully that he won the admiration of the Orthodox and the undying enmity of the Arians. From that time forth his life was founded on the defense of the true consubstantiality (homoousia) of the Son with the Father.

In 326, not long before his death, Patriarch Alexander appointed Athanasius to be his successor, and Athanasius was duly elevated to the patriarchal throne. He was active in his pastoral role, traveling throughout Egypt, visiting churches and monasteries, and working tirelessly not only to put down the Arian heresy, but to resolve various schisms and moral declines that affected his territory.

Though the Arian heresy had apparently been condemned once and for all at Nicea, Arius had many powerful allies throughout the Empire, even in the Imperial court, and Athanasius was soon subjected to many kinds of persecution, some local, some coming from the Imperial throne itself. Though he was Patriarch of Alexandria for more than forty years, a large amount of that time was spent in hiding from powerful enemies who threatened him with imprisonment or death. Twice he fled to Rome for protection by the Pope, who in the early centuries of the Church was a consistent champion of Orthodoxy against its various enemies. From his various hiding places, Athanasius issued tracts, treatises and epistles which helped to rally the faithful throughout Christendom to the Orthodox cause.

In 366, the Emperor Valens, fearing a revolt of the Egyptians on behalf of their beloved Archbishop, officially restored Athanasius to favor, and he was able to spend the last seven years of his life in peace. Of his forty-seven years as Patriarch, about seventeen were spent in hiding or exile. He reposed in peace in 373, having given his entire adult life, at great suffering, to the defense of the Faith of Christ.

With St Athanasius, the Church commemorates St Cyril (Kyrillos), also Archbishop of Alexandria (412-44). His lot was to defend the Faith against the heretic Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, who denied that Christ in his Incarnation truly united the divine with the human nature. Cyril attempted in private correspondence to restore Nestorius to the Christian faith, and when this failed he, along with Pope Celestine of Rome, led the defense of Orthodoxy against Nestorius’ teaching. Saint Cyril presided at the Third Ecumenical Council in 431, at which the Nestorian error was officially overthrown. After guiding his flock for thirty-two years, he reposed in 444.