Hellenic Orthodox Mission

The Orthodox Messenger

Vol. I, No. 47 – Sunday, December 8, 2002

“A Pan-Orthodox Christian Community”

Ecumenical Patriarchate + Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America + Diocese of Atlanta

Services Held at St. Nicholas Chapel, 13460 Olympic Village Lane, Brooksville, FL - (352) 796-8482

The Hellenic Orthodox Mission Website: http://worship.nu/hellenicorthodoxmission/index.htm

FR. STANLEY S. HARAKAS, PROTOPRESBYTER - (352) 688-2382 –Email:Rharakas@aol.com

ST. SPYRIDON

his coming week, on December 12, our Church remembers St. Spyridon, Bishop of Trimythous of Cyprus. Spyridon was born around the year 270 on the island of Cyprus. He was a shepherd, caring after the family flocks. He received basic education and loved learning. His main interest was Christ and the Church, and attending Church.

Spyridon often taught the shepherds employed by his family about the Christian faith and way of life. He married a young woman who complemented his love for Christ. Soon, children were born to them, one of whom was named Eleni. Unfortunately, illness took Spyridon's young wife, but Spyridon's faith in God gave him strength to continue.

St. Spyridon was characterized by faith, gentleness, peace, kindness, forgiving spirit, humility, his compulsion to teach the faith to all who would listen, and his love for worship and prayer. His virtue was coupled with stories of healings of sick persons, including a miracle of raising a dead child. He is considered the patron saint of children. The people admired the holy man and persuaded him to accept ordination as a deacon and then a priest, and eventually the bishop of the diocese of Trimythous. He made it a practice to travel around the diocese to inquire about the spiritual condition of the Christian clergy and laity --teaching, admonishing, praying, wor-shipping and healing, in a spirit of humility and love. He was a true and loving shepherd of the "logical sheep" of the Body of Christ, the Church.

When present at the 1st Ecumenical Council in Nicea in 325, St. Spyridon dramatically defended the Orthodox teaching about the Holy Trinity and the Person of Christ. He even healed Emperor Constantius of a serious illness, distributing his reward money to the poor. Even before his death in 348 many considered him a saint.The early Church historian Socrates (380-450) affirmed the widespread fame of the beloved Spyridon.

His sacred body showed signs of sanctity by remaining whole and not decaying. It was transferred to Constantinople in the 7th century and from there to the island of Kerkyra in 1456. There it is preserved in a metal case with glass windows displaying his miraculously preserved body. Thousands annually revere his sacred relics and receive healing.

We honor the memory of St. Spyridon, when we try to follow his example of Christian faith and love and learning, seeking his intercessions at the throne of God.

esus is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

ow he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And there was a woman who had had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years; she was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her and said to her, "Woman, you are freed from your infirmity." And he laid his hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight, and she praised God. But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the sabbath, said to the people, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be healed, and not on the sabbath day." Then the Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger, and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?" As he said this, all his adversaries were put to shame; and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.