No Fast
6Ali premudrost govorimo koja je u savršenima, a ne premudrost vijeka ovoga ni knezova vijeka ovoga koji prolaze. 7Nego govorimo premudrost Božiju u tajnosti sakrivenu, koju odredi Bog prije svijeta za slavu našu; 8Koje nijedan od knezova vijeka ovoga ne pozna; jer da su je poznali, ne bi Gospoda slave razapeli. 9Nego kao što je pisano: što oko ne vidje, i uho ne èu, i u srce èovjeku ne doðe, ono ugotovi Bog onima, koji ga ljube.
15Tada otidoše fariseji i naèiniše vijeæu kako bi ga uhvatili u rijeèi. 16I poslaše k njemu uèenike svoje s Irodovcima, te rekoše: uèitelju! znamo da si istinit, i putu Božijemu zaista uèiš, i ne mariš ni za koga, jer ne gledaš ko je ko. 17Kaži nam dakle šta misliš ti? treba li dati haraè æesaru ili ne? 18Razumjevši Isus lukavstvo njihovo reèe: što me kušate, licemjeri? 19Pokažite mi novac haraèki. A oni donesoše mu novac. 20I reèe im: èij je obraz ovaj i natpis? 21I rekoše mu: æesarev. Tada reèe im: podajte dakle æesarevo æesaru, i Božije Bogu. 22I èuvši diviše se, i ostavivši ga otidoše.
He was a disciple and friend of St John the Theologian, and worked with the Apostle Paul, and is himself named as an Apostle though he is not one of the Seventy. He travelled widely in the ministry of the Gospel of Christ, suffering many imprisonments and tortures. He died in Sebastia, the place of his birth. The Prologue says that he was beheaded, the Great Horologion that he reposed in peace “in deep old age.”
This recent Equal to the Apostles was born in Mega Dendron (Great Tree) in Aetolia. He became a monk on Mt Athos, where he lived and prayed for many years. But he was troubled by the ignorance of the Gospel that had fallen on many of the Orthodox people, living under the oppression of the Ottoman Turks. He went to Constantinople, where he studied the rhetorical arts and received the blessing of Patriarch Seraphim II to preach the Gospel. He travelled throughout Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Albania, preaching at every town he visited. Often not only Greeks but many Muslims would come to hear him, so great was his reputation for holiness. Though he always sought the blessing of the local bishop and the local Turkish governor before he preached in an area, his strong condemnations of dishonest business practices aroused the enmity of Orthodox Christian and Jewish merchants, who falsely accused him to the authorities. He was strangled by the Turks and thrown into a river in Albania, but his wonderworking relics were preserved. He reposed at the age of sixty-five.
See December 21 for his life.