Patriarchal Auxiliary Bishop Varlaam of Ploiești on Monday urged believers to follow the example of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste while presiding at the patronal feast of Antim Monastery in Bucharest.
“Looking with admiration at the example of the Forty Martyrs, let us follow their faith,” the bishop said during the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts celebrated at the monastery.
He highlighted the spiritual support offered by the mother of the youngest of the martyrs, who remained on the frozen lake’s shore throughout the night, praying that her son would not renounce his faith.
“She prayed all night that her son would remain with his 39 companions, so that together they might receive the unfading crown offered by Christ to the martyrs,” the bishop said.
A martyr at the final hour
The bishop also recalled the last-minute decision of one of the guards who, according to the tradition of the Church, saw in a vision a heavenly crown left without a martyr after one of the forty gave up under torture.
“He saw a light warming the water of the lake so that it could be endured by the 39 Christians who remained, and he saw 40 crowns,” the bishop said. “But one of them had no martyr upon whose head it could rest.”
Encouraged by the vision, the soldier guarding the martyrs removed his military uniform, confessed that he too was a Christian and threw himself into the frozen lake, thus completing the number of martyrs.
Working for salvation
Bishop Varlaam linked this episode to the Gospel reading proclaimed during the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts – the parable of the labourers in the vineyard, where workers are paid equally regardless of when they began their work.
“Why was this Gospel chosen? To show us that God is generous and remains indebted to no one, even if someone begins to work for God at the sunset of his life,” he said.
The bishop compared the guard who received the final martyr’s crown to the thief on the cross. “In the eleventh hour, he was counted together with the other martyrs,” he said.
He urged believers to remain vigilant in their spiritual life.
“Looking at the age of each of us – from the young children in the choir to those with white hair or beard – we are each at a certain hour of our life, whether the first or the eleventh. Let us not delay in working with fear and trembling for our salvation, because night will come, that is death, when no one can work any longer.”
Gratitude
The Liturgy was followed by a memorial service for the founders, benefactors and members of the monastic community who had passed away, but also for all Anti-Communist Political Prisoners from the period 1944–1989. The abbot of Antim Monastery, Protosyncellus Vicențiu Oboroceanu, thanked the bishop for presiding at the celebration.
At the end of the service, the bishop received as a gift an icon of St Basil the Great, painted by Archimandrite Antipa Burghelea, a member of the monastery’s brotherhood.
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Photo: Basilica.ro / Raluca Ene
