THE COMING MONTH, 1  

PASCHA fell very early this year, on the day after the Annunciation, but still April begins within Bright Week. The five Sundays that fall within the month are all within the Paschal period, and they each have specially appointed commemorations which proclaim the events surrounding the Resurrection of Christ, or reveal it’s significance for us. About each of these you will doubtless hear week by week in the sermons at Sunday Liturgies, and so here we will not add more except to note that on the Fifth Sunday (23rd April / 6th May), that which is dedicated to the Samaritan Woman, we also celebrate the festival of the Holy Great Martyr and Trophy-Bearer George. Saint George is, as most of our readers will know, the patron saint of England. The devotion to him in this country is very probably one of the very few beneficial legacies of the Crusades, and therefore post-schism, nonetheless it is worthy. St George is greatly loved in the East, and particularly so in the Holy Land. His mother, St Polychronia, was a Palestinian, and St George’s mortal remains were laid to rest in Lydda. St George bore witness during the persecution raised by the Emperor Diocletian, and so he lived and died generations before England existed. He spent the whole of his life in the East, and so there are no direct links with this country, but as the late Bishop Gregory of Washington remarked, “Saints have no need of passports!” His virtues, his faithfulness to Christ, and the love that he has shown generations of Christians through the miracles wrought for them are reason enough for us to respond with our love to our country’s heavenly protector, without seeking for earthly ties. The saint is often depicted on icons riding a white horse and slaying a dragon, while protecting a princess. Most commentators see this as an allegorical depiction because in the earliest records of the saint, no such event is described. The princess is seen as a figure of the Church, and the dragon as an embodiment of the powers of evil. In our own times, when the Church is surrounded by so many enemies and so many deceits, we should have fervent recourse to his prayers and intercessions and call upon him in prayer.

Among other saints in April, we have:-

Venerable Mothers Theodora and Theopiste (5th/18th April): St Theodora was born near the beginning of the ninth century on the Greek island of Aegina. Her mother died shortly after her birth, and her father, a priest, entrusted the young girl to her godmother and himself became a monk. When she came of age, she was betrothed to a suitable young man, but soon thereafter the island was raided by Saracen pirates, and the family fled to Thessalonica. There she was married and subsequently bore three children. Sadly two of these died in infancy, leaving only the daughter, Theopiste. The parents, rather than grieving beyond measure over the loss of their two babies, resolved instead to dedicate Theopiste, when she was six years old, to the Monastery of St Luke. Then another blow struck, Theodora was widowed. She then also dedicated her life to God in the monastic discipline, and joined a community dedicated to St Stephen, which was directed by one of her relatives, the Eldress Anna, who had been a confessor during the iconoclastic persecutions of the Orthodox. Anna was at first reluctant to receive her, thinking that the young widow might slacken in her resolve, but she tested her severely and at last received her into the convent. She was given all those most unpleasant tasks, but she was a daughter of obedience and struggled well. When the abbess of Theopiste’s convent reposed, Theopiste joined the community in which her mother was struggling, and this proved a temptation for her mother. The devil revived in her the impulses of a worldly maternal love. One day Abbess Anna found her fussing over Theopiste’s clothing, and realised the temptation. She addressed her severely: “Theodora, what is this girl to you?” And reminding her of the Lord’s injunction, “He that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me,” she forbade the two even to speak to each other. Living together in the same convent and even in the same cell, both nuns kept this obedience scrupulously for fifteen years. At that time Theodora fell very gravely ill, and the Abbess relaxed her obedience. By now, the two, mother and daughter, no longer had any regard for their relationship in the flesh but loved each others as sisters in Christ. When Abbess Anna became old, the Archbishop appointed Theopiste as the Abbess of the convent, and so Theodora became the spiritual daughter of her own daughter, but she showed her the same true obedience as she had always shown Anna. She fell asleep in 892 A.D, and at her death her old and wrinkled face was suddenly irradiated and was filled with the bloom and beauty of her youth. A vigil lamp placed in her room began to overflow with oil, and miracles were worked for those who anointed themselves with this oil. Also an icon of the saint became myron-streaming, and so St Theodora is sometimes herself remembered, like the Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica, as a myron-streamer. In 1430 A.D., the Turks took the city and the sarcophagus of the saint was desecrated, but her incorrupt relics, although broken by the assault, were saved and are still venerated by the faithful in a convent which now bears her name.