Our Venerable Father Macarius of Zhabin (22nd January / 4th February) undertook the restoration of the Monastery at Zhabin in the Tula district of Russia, after the devastation caused during the Time of Troubles (1603-1615) by the incursions of Poles and Tartars, which had left the monastery in a ruinous state.  One day he came upon a Polish soldier who was dying of thirst, he struck the ground with his staff and a spring of fresh water welled up for this poor man, who, in fallen human terms, would have been accounted his enemy.  Years later, St Macarius resigned as abbot of the monastery, and built a cell near this spring where he lived in solitude.  He departed tis life in A.D. 1623.  Over the years his memory was completely forgotten, until in A.D. 1814, his incorrupt relics were discovered.  In the early years of the last century, a child with an incurable illness was moved by God to request that he be dipped in the Saint’s spring, and thus he was cured. 

On 30th January (12th February) along with the festival of the Three Great Hierarchs, we also commemorate one of the most remarkable lives of a Saint from our own country.  Saint Bathildis was in turn a slave, a Queen and a nun.   She was born in Anglo-Saxon England and was taken captive by pirates and sold as a slave in what is now France to Erchinoald, the Mayor of the Palace of King Clovis of Neustria.  Admiring her beauty and her modest demeanour, when he was widowed Erchinoald asked her to marry him.  However, the future Saint refused him. Some time later she came to the attention of King Clovis and in A.D. 655, she did agree to marry him.  She filled the royal court with the fragrance of her piety and devotion, and she bore the King three sons, who themselves became kings in turn.  However her husband died while his heir, Clothar, was still a minor and therefore Bathildis, the former slave, became regent.  She restored peace among the three kingdoms which then made up what is now France; with the support of the Bishops she opposed simony within the Church.  She furthered the work of the Church, especially by founding and endowing monasteries and convents, and, as was evidently close to her heart, she worked to suppress the trading in slaves.  On resigning her regency, she entered the convent at Chelles, which had been founded by St Clothilde, and which she herself had benefacted.  Although she had been Queen, she placed herself in full obedience to the Abbess and worked among the humblest of the sisters.  In her last days, the Lord permitted that her patient endurance be put to the test in two ways.  She suffered a painful illness, and she heard that a feud had broken out between her three sons, which news caused great distress and sorrow to her peace-loving soul.  However, she remained in good hope, and shortly before her death she was comforted by a vision.  She saw a ladder set up to Heaven, and herself accompanied by the Angels ascending upon it.  She fell asleep on 30th January, A.D. 680, and many miracles were recorded at her tomb, although her precious relics were not uncovered until A.D. 833, when they were found to be incorrupt.