Orthodox Calendar, March 11

Saint Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem

Saint Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, was born in Damascus around 560. From his youth he was distinguished for his piety and his love for classical studies. He was especially proficient in philosophy, and so he was known as Sophronius the Wise. The future hierarch, however, sought the true philosophy of monasticism, and conversations with the desert-dwellers.

He arrived in Jerusalem at the monastery of Saint Theodosius, and there he became close with the hieromonk John Moschus, becoming his spiritual son and submitting himself to him in obedience. They visited several monasteries, writing down the lives and spiritual wisdom of the ascetics they met. From these notes emerged their renowned book, the LEIMONARION or SPIRITUAL MEADOW, which was highly esteemed at the Seventh Ecumenical Council.

To save themselves from the devastating incursions of the Persians, Saints John and Sophronius left Palestine and went to Antioch, and from there they went to Egypt. In Egypt, Saint Sophronius became seriously ill. During this time he decided to become a monk and was tonsured by Saint John Moschus.

After Saint Sophronius recovered his health, they both decided to remain in Alexandria. There they were received by the holy Patriarch John the Merciful (November 12), to whom they rendered great aid in the struggle against the Monophysite heresy. At Alexandria Saint Sophronius had an affliction of the eyes, and he turned with prayer and faith to the holy Unmercenaries Cyrus and John (January 31), and he received healing in a church named for them. In gratitude, Saint Sophronius then wrote the Lives of these holy Unmercenaries.

When the barbarians began to threaten Alexandria, Patriarch John, accompanied by Saints Sophronius and John Moschus, set out for Constantinople, but he died along the way. Saints John Moschus and Sophronius then set out for Rome with eighteen other monks. Saint John Moschus died at Rome. His body was taken to Jerusalem by Saint Sophronius and buried at the monastery of Saint Theodosius.

In the year 628, Patriarch Zacharias of Jerusalem (609-633) returned from his captivity in Persia. After his death, the patriarchal throne was occupied for two years by Saint Modestus (December 18). After the death of Saint Modestus, Saint Sophronius was chosen Patriarch. Saint Sophronius toiled much for the welfare of the Jerusalem Church as its primate (634-644).

Toward the end of his life, Saint Sophronius and his flock lived through a two-year siege of Jerusalem by the Moslems. Worn down by hunger, the Christians finally agreed to open the city gates, on the condition that the enemy spare the holy places. But this condition was not fulfilled, and Saint Sophronius died in grief over the desecration of the Christian holy places.

Written works by Patriarch Sophronius have come down to us in the area of dogmatics, and likewise his “Excursus on the Liturgy,” the Life of Saint Mary of Egypt (April 1), and also about 950 troparia and stikheras from Pascha to the Ascension.

While still a hieromonk, Saint Sophronius reviewed and made corrections to the Rule of the monastery of Saint Sava the Sanctified (December 5). The saint’s three Odes Canons for the Holy Forty Day Great Fast are included in the contemporary Lenten Triodion.

2. The Third Sunday of Lent is that of the Veneration of the Cross. The cross stands in the midst of the church in the middle of the lenten season not merely to remind men of Christ’s redemption and to keep before them the goal of their efforts, but also to be venerated as that reality by which man must live to be saved.

“He who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (Mt.10:38). For in the Cross of Christ Crucified lies both “the power of God and the wisdom of God” for those being saved (1 Cor.1:24).

Troparion — Tone 5

Patriarch Sophronius, you were glorious in the splendor of sobriety, / and through the radiance of your words you revealed ineffable enlightenment from heaven. / For by your life you attained wisdom / and now you confirm the Church / as an illustrious hierarch and intercessor for us with the Lord.

Saint Sophronius, Bishop of Vratsa

Saint Sophronius was born in a small town in Bulgaria in 1739, during the centuries when Bulgaria was under Turkish Muslim control. He was named Stoiko at his Baptism, and was orphaned while yet an infant. At the age of nine, he entered the seminary, (the customary age at that time), where he studied for thirteen years.

His studies included learning Slavonic and Greek, which he put to good use later on. In 1762 he graduated, married and was ordained priest. For the rest of his life he dedicated himself to serving God and the people whom God put in his care. Fr. Stoiko poured all his energy into preaching the Word of God to the people, and especially, teaching the children at the seminary.

His legacy to his Bulgarian people includes his translation of the Lives of the Saints into Bulgarian from Greek and Church Slavonic. However, his zealous dedication to his pastoral work not only was met with jealousy by some Bulgarian priests, but also brought him trouble from the Turks, who imprisoned and mistreated him. As a result, he had to move to another part of the country.

He took refuge in Vidin, where the bishop assigned him a St. Sophrony, on sanctuary wall of St. Innocent Orthodox Church, Redford, Michigan parish. But once again he put his life at risk by protecting a Christian girl from the advances of a Turk. When his wife died, Father Stoiko was tonsured a monk, and given the monastic name of Sophronius.

After having died to himself and his own will and ego by faithfully serving God for 32 years, without regard for his own safety or well-being, he was then consecrated Bishop of Vratsa in 1794, at the age of 61. But immediately he was faced with overwhelming difficulties caused by bands of Turkish brigands who were devastating the villages in his diocese, forcing the inhabitants to flee elsewhere.

He himself had to flee, and he became a perpetual refugee from the Muslim Turks, fleeing from place to place, and hiding in the woods. At last in 1803 he managed to escape the Turks in Bulgaria and get to Bucharest, Romania, where he could once again serve the Church, now under the Metropolitan of Wallachia.

In his continuing labors on behalf of his people, he wrote books in Bulgarian, including a catechism and sermons for Sundays and feast-days. After ten years of serving the Lord in Bucharest, he peacefully fell asleep in the Lord in 1813, at the age of 74, and was buried in a monastery in Bucharest where he had been the abbot during the last years of his life. The Church of Bulgaria glorified Saint Sophronius on 31 December 1964.

Troparion — Tone 4
In truth you were revealed to your flock as a rule of faith, / an image of humility and a teacher of abstinence; / your humility exalted you; / your poverty enriched you. / Hierarch Father Sophronius, / entreat Christ our God / that our souls may be saved.