Orthodox Calendar, October 23

Holy Apostle James the Brother of the Lord

Holy Apostle James, the Brother of God (Adelphotheos) was the son of Righteous Joseph the Betrothed of the Most Holy Theotokos (December 26). From his early years James was a Nazarene, a man especially dedicated to God.

The Nazarenes vowed to preserve their virginity, to abstain from wine, to refrain from eating meat, and not to cut their hair. The vow of the Nazarenes symbolized a life of holiness and purity, commanded formerly by the Lord for all Israel.

When the Savior began to teach the nation about the Kingdom of God, Saint James believed in Christ and became His apostle. He was chosen as the first Bishop of Jerusalem.

Saint James presided over the Council of Jerusalem and his word was decisive (Acts 15). In his thirty years as bishop, Saint James converted many of the Jews to Christianity. Annoyed by this, the Pharisees and the Scribes plotted together to kill Saint James.

They led the saint up on the pinnacle of the Jerusalem Temple and asked what he thought of Jesus. The holy Apostle began to bear witness that Christ is the Messiah, which was not the response the Pharisees were expecting. Greatly angered, the Jewish teachers threw him off the roof.

The saint did not die immediately, but gathering his final strength, he prayed to the Lord for his enemies while they were stoning him. Saint James’ martyrdom occurred about 63 A.D.

The holy Apostle James composed a Divine Liturgy, which formed the basis of the Liturgies of Saints Basil the Great and John Chrysostom. The Church has preserved an Epistle of Saint James, one of the books of the New Testament.

In 1853, Patriarch Hierotheus of Alexandria sent to Moscow a portion of the relics of Saint James. The Church distinguishes between the holy Apostle James the Brother of God, and Saint James the son of Zebedee (April 30) and Saint James the son of Alphaeus (October 9).

Troparion – Tone 4:
As the Lord’s disciple you received the Gospel, O righteous James; as a martyr you have unfailing courage; as God’s brother, you have boldness; as a hierarch, you have the power to intercede. Pray to Christ God that our souls may be saved.

St. Macarius the Roman of Mesopotamia

One day, the cave where holy ascetic Makarios lived was found by three monks from the Monastery of Saint Asclepius in Mesopotamia. Sergius, Hyginos and Theophilos had left the monastery in order to wander through the world, seeking a sign from God which would be beneficial for their salvation.

Suddenly, as they approached the cave, they noticed a marvelous fragrance issuing forth from it. Then they saw an old man walking toward them, covered only by his hair and a beard which reached his knees.

He threw himself to the ground and remained there for several minutes, until he was sure the three strangers were not really demons. When he was satisfied that he was not experiencing some sort of delusion, he invited them into his cave. The oldest monk asked him to relate his story, which he did.

Saint Makarios told them that he was born in Rome and was the son of a wealthy Senator named John. When he was old enough to be married, his parents betrothed him against his will.

There was a celebration following the wedding, but instead of entering the bridal chamber, he fled to the home of a pious widow, where he spent seven days secretly weeping and entreating God to help him. When he left her house, Makarios met a well-dressed old man of noble demeanor.

This man ordered Makarios to accompany him. Makarios did follow him for three years, until one day they came to a cave, and then the old man vanished. He appeared to Makarios in a dream soon afterward and revealed that he was the Archangel Raphael, who had guided Tobias in his travels. Before he vanished, the Archangel entrusted him to God’s mercy.

Soon after he first moved into the cave, Makarios saw a most beautiful young woman standing before him, who said that she also had fled from an unwanted marriage in Rome.

In spite of his caution, Saint Makarios did not have sufficient discernment to escape the devil’s snare, and so he allowed the girl to spend the night in his cave. For the first time in his life, he was assaulted by the fiery darts of carnal desire, and he sinned with the girl. Suddenly she disappeared, and the devil rejoiced because he had tempted the ascetic to sin.

At that moment Saint Makarios realized the seriousness of his fall. Weeping bitterly, he decided to leave the cave and find another place where he might do penance. Along the way, the Archangel Raphael appeared to him once again and urged him to return.

He told him that God would hear his prayers if he remained in the cave. So he went back and subjected his flesh to severe fasting, vigils and absolute self-denial for many years, so that he might recover the purity of his soul in order to contemplate God.

After he had edified the three brethren with the story of his struggles, Saint Makarios sent them on their way in peace. His sin was very great, but so was his repentance; therefore, he fell asleep in the Lord in the presence of the angels and the saints.

The precise date of the saint’s repose is not known, but it was probably at the end of the fourth century, or the beginning of the fifth.

Troparion – Tone 8:
By a flood of tears you made the desert fertile, and your longing for God brought forth fruits in abundance. By the radiance of miracles you illumined the whole universe! O our holy father Macarius, pray to Christ our God to save our souls!

Holy Priest-Martyr Constantine Sârbu

Hieromaryr Constantine Sârbu was born in a poor peasant family on January 10, 1905, in Cavadinești, Galați county. His mother passed away when he was one year old while trying to give birth to her second child. The father, following an accident, was no longer able to take care of himself or the child. Then, little Constantine was taken and raised by his grandmother, Ioana. At the age of six, he learned the truth about his mother, being very sad. With much love, the grandmother told him that his mother lives in heaven with God, where she watches over him and helps him. When they went to church, the grandmother showed him the icon of the Mother of God, saying: “This is your truest Mother; she will take care of you; pray to her!”

After the death of his grandfather, young Constantine moved with his grandmother to Galati. He finished primary school with very good results. All his childhood, he suffered because he had nothing to eat. At almost 12, he was enrolled in the school for church chanters. Although he learned well, he withdrew after the first term as he could not afford the school fees. Then, his grandmother decided to introduce the child to her other son, a priest in a village near Galati, asking him to take him as a chanter in his church so that the boy would not be alienated from the holy things and could make a living.

But young Constantine ended up as an unpaid herdsman, having to shepherd the cattle, clean the stable and do all the household chores for two years without a murmur, although his soul yearned for books and prayer. Seeing the situation with great sorrow, the grandmother took the boy to Galati. She asked his former teacher to help her prepare her grandson for admission to the Theological Seminary. Since the tutor had to be paid, the grandmother sold the calf she had to pay off her obligations.

In 1919, at 15, Saint Constantine was admitted to the Theological Seminary in Galaţi, where he entered receiving scholarship, being third among the 500 candidates. He had such a thirst for books that he completed two years in one at the seminary, although he worked at night at a sawmill.

In 1925, he became a student in Bucharest at the Faculty of Theology and the Academy of Music. Just as poor, for two years, he slept on the floor, in an attic in Piața Amzei, and then in the waiting room of the North Railway Station.

He also didn’t have enough food, as he was eating leftovers from the canteen left by the other students. Between 1929 and 1934, after obtaining his degree in theology, he was a chanter at the Lucaci Church in Bucharest.

God appointed a faithful wife, Maria Constantinescu, with a degree in letters and philosophy. Her family did not want Constantine. He was too poor and too devoted to service. They let her marry only after she fought for it for four years, and from the pain, she got sick with liver disease. They married and went to the Diocesan Cathedral in Huși because the young theologian Constantine could not find any parish in Bucharest.

He was ordained a priest on behalf of the Cathedral of Huși at the Adam Monastery by Bishop Nifon Criveanu of Huși. The same year, he was appointed director and teacher of the School of Church Chanters and later appointed dean of Fălciu.

In Huși, Saint Constantine stayed until November 1, 1938, when he transferred to Bucharest, to the newly established parish “Călărași Park”, because his wife had received a position as a teacher of German and French at the “Nicolae Băl¬cescu” High School. The new parish in the Vergului neighbourhood had no church, no parish house, and no monthly income for the parish priest, being located in a neighbourhood of very poor workers.

To begin with, through the kindness of Dr. Victor Gomoiu, the founder and director of the “Regina Elena” Settlements, Saint Constantine organized a small chapel in the hospital’s basement. After obtaining the place for the church from the authorities, in seven years, between 1942 and 1949, he built it, which had the dimensions of a cathedral. In parallel, he mobilized the believers not to remain indifferent to the problems of those around them and to help those in distress. All in wartime and at a time when he had lost his wife because the presbytera Maria, being sick with cancer, passed away to the Lord in 1941, leaving him a widower with two little girls.

With the establishment of the communist regime in Romania, great persecution was unleashed, both on the servants of the Holy Altar and on the Orthodox believers.

Saint Constantine also received this heavy cross of the confession of Christ in the communist prisons. On January 12, 1954, he was arrested, passing through the penitentiaries at Jilava (1954-1955), Gherla (1956-1962) and Dej (1955) and the labour camps at Poarta Albă (1955-1956) and Salcia ( 1959).

Many were the torments that the martyr of Christ endured in prison. He was burned with a red iron on his soles; his beard was pulled out, and he was beaten and humiliated to deny Christ. However, blessed Constantine with spiritual manliness answered them: “You can torture me as much as you want, but I do not renounce Christ.”

Released on January 10, 1962, he received two years of compulsory residence in Bărăgan, in the village of Viișoara. He returned to Bucharest in 1964, and Patriarch Justinian Marina entrusted him with the Sapientei Church. Alone, sick, hungry, in rags, with broken shoes, but full of confidence, Saint Constantine arrived, on June 1, 1965, in the courtyard of Sapienței Church, which was in ruins.

The saint rebuilt the church and gathered a Eucharistic community involved in philanthropic activities around him. However, the church became insufficient for the large number of believers coming from all corners of Bucharest and even from the province, and this fact worried the Securitate.

After countless pressures to collaborate with the atheists and betray the Mystery of the Holy Confession, Saint Constantine, who was seriously ill and required surgery, was threatened that if he did not kill himself, he would anyway be the victim of an unsuccessful operation, which would cause his death.

Then, the servant of Christ bravely undertook the operation. He prepared everything beforehand, celebrated the Divine Liturgy on the feast of St. Paraskeva, and then bid farewell to the faithful, willingly going to the hospital.

After the operation, the doctor who operated on him, a tool of the criminal communist regime, said to him: “How, you’re not dead yet?!”. Saint Constantine, gathering his last strength, asked to be confessed and received communion, then he entrusted his soul into the hands of God, on October 23, 1975, at the age of 70, being adorned with a glorious martyr’s crown. His holy relics were discovered in October 2023, spreading good fragrance. He was canonized by the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church during its working session in July 2024.

Troparion, tone 5

From infancy, O Father, living in poverty, you purified yourself for the service ordained from above so that you could also bear the burden of your neighbour. Thus, O sanctified Martyr of Christ, Constantine, you were shown as comfort to everyone by Him Who saved the world through His crucifixion.