The Shepherd, September 2008
THE COMING MONTH
TWO Great Feasts fall in September, the Nativity of the Virgin (8th / 21st) and the Universal Exaltation of the Cross (14th / 27th), but perhaps in the short space available, as much information is already in circulation about them, we should just note some of the Saints celebrated this month.
The Holy Martyr Babylas of Antioch (4th / 17th September) was an old man when, in A.D. 288, he was slain for his faith in Christ. He had gathered a group of eighty-four young children whom he taught the Christian Faith, and his activity in this regard came to the notice of the imperial authorities under the persecuting Emperor Maximian. Babylas was arrested and persuaded to abandon his Faith. When he would not, he was beaten almost to the point of death despite his old age. He was then thrown into a dungeon, giving thanks to Christ that he had been deemed worthy to suffer for Him. The persecutors then turned their attention to his young pupils, but they also refused to sacrifice to idols and confessed themselves to be Christians, despite being severely beaten. In the end all eighty-five were perfected in martyrdom by being beheaded.
Our Holy Father Sophronius of Achtalea in Georgia (8th / 21st) was a monk in the Monastery of the Forerunner at Vazelon in Pontus. In 1776, he was ordained and sent to Achtalea in Georgia, to minister to the Greek workers in the mines in that region. His kindness, zeal and love so impressed the peoples of that area, that the Georgian governors constrained him to be consecrated as the Bishop. He established his see at the Monastery of the Theotokos, and continued his pastoral labours. However, that region was raided by an Asiatic tribe known as the Lesgs. They broke into the monastery one day as the Saint was celebrating the Divine Liturgy. They massacred most of the congregation and took others captive. Thus the Bishop came to be sold as a slave. Hearing of his plight, a rich lady, who was in fact a Roman Catholic, ransomed him and the Saint escaped to Trebizond. Here the Metropolitan had died, and the people chose Saint Sophronius to succeed him. However, dissensions broke out, and rather than become a cause of upset, the Saint retired and returned to his original monastery. Here his evident virtue was a light to the other fathers, with the single exception of the abbot, who became jealous of him, and so again the Saint was compelled to move on rather than cause hurt. He ended his earthly course, after a life of continual suffering and repeated exiles, in A.D. 1803. When, as is the custom among Greek Christians, his sacred relics were taken up, a beautiful fragrance came forth from them.
The Right-believing Empress Pulcheria (10th / 23rd) was the sister of the Emperor Theodosius II, and on the death of the Emperor Arcadius, she in effect took over the reigns of government when she was but fifteen years old. She saw to it that her brother and two sisters were brought up in godliness, and persuaded the sisters to remain in life-long virginity, as she did herself. However, on the death of her brother, she married one Marcian, so that he could succeed to the throne, while maintaining her vow of virginity. All her life she spent in charitable works, in the founding of churches, monasteries, hospitals and orphanages, and in defending the Orthodox Faith. The Fourth Council, which condemned the teachings of Eutyches and the Monophysites, was held in the reign of Marcian and Pulcheria, and she took her place among the Holy Fathers gathered there. She reposed in peace in the year 453.
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