St. Simeon of the Seventy

Righteous Simeon the God-Receiver was, according to the testimony of the holy Evangelist Luke, a just and devout man waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him (Luke 2:25). God promised him that he would not die until the promised Messiah, Christ the Lord, came into the world.

Ancient historians tell us that the Egyptian pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-247 B.C.) wished to include texts of Holy Scripture in the famous Library at Alexandria. He invited scholars from Jerusalem, and the Sanhedrin sent their wise men. The Righteous Simeon was one of the seventy scholars who came to Alexandria to translate the Holy Scriptures into Greek. The completed work was called “The Septuagint,” and is the version of the Old Testament used by the Orthodox Church.

St Simeon was translating a book of the Prophet Isaiah, and read the words: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a Son” (Is 7:14). He thought that “virgin” was inaccurate, and he wanted to correct the text to read “woman.” At that moment an angel appeared to him and held back his hand saying, “You shall see these words fulfilled. You shall not die until you behold Christ the Lord born of a pure and spotless Virgin.”

From this day, St Simeon lived in expectation of the Promised Messiah.

~ from the OCA web site

Today is the Synaxis of St. Simeon and St. Anna the Prophetess. I didn’t know he was one of the seventy who translated the Septuagint!

Most Blessed Father Basil

O great and all-glorious holy hierarch of Christ, divinely wise teacher of the whole universal Church, steadfast confessor and champion of Orthodoxy, most blessed father Basil! Look down from the heights of heaven upon us who humbly fall down before thee, and entreat the Lord Who ruleth over all, Whose faithful servant thou wast on earth, that He grant us a steadfast and immutable preservation of the true Faith, obedience to the Holy Church, correction of our life, ready help in all our needs, tribulations and temptations, patience and fortitude. Grant us thy holy blessing, that, overshadowed thereby, we may live all our days in peace and repentance, in a manner pleasing unto God, and, together with thee and all the saints, may be accounted worthy to hymn and glorify the Trinity, the Origen of life: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in the kingdom of heaven, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Prayer to St. Basil, from the Akathist to St. Basil

St. Stephen the Proto-Martyr

St. Stephen is one of my favorite biblical saints. I have a framed print of a young man, praying, that I bought years ago when we purchased our first home. The work looks like a detail from some classic Renaissance painting, maybe a Raphael or Michelangelo. The youth is dressed in light blue and has an Italianate face and hair, complete with halo. The peace on his face is striking. I have no idea that the young man depicted is St. Stephen, but from the very first moment I saw the painting, I have always fancied him to be so.

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The Third Great St. Gregory of Cappadocia

When St. Gregory first ascended his cathedra, there were only seventeen Christians in Neocaesarea. At his death, only seventeen pagans remained in the city.

From the Life of St. Gregory the Wonderworker

This is the third great St. Gregory to come from Cappadocia in a matter of a couple generations. Actually he lived before St. Gregory of Nazianzus and St. Gregory of Nyssa, and he had a large influence on them via St. Gregory of Nyssa’s grandmother, St. Macrina the Elder. Also styled Thaumaturgus, St. Gregory studied under Origen. He was bishop in Neocaesarea when St. Macrina the Elder was a girl. She knew him personally and was able to pass his teaching on to St. Basil, St. Gregory of Nyssa (St. Basil’s brother), and St. Gregory of Nazianzus (St. Basil’s best friend).