Today our Church celebrates the memory of St. Paul of Thebes, St. John of Calivita, the Beggar for Christ, St. Pansophius.
St. John, the so-called Calivite, lived in the middle of the 5th century AD. century in Constantinople and was the son of the senator Eutropius and Theodora. Ioannis did not want to follow the path of his two older brothers, who held brilliant positions, but preferred to serve the Christian faith. However, at his parents' insistence, he left his parents' home and went to the Monastery of the Unsleeping, where he became a monk. Later, when he learned of his mother's great bitterness because of his father's worldly life, he decided, with the consent of the abbot of the monastery, to return to his parents.
He introduced himself at his home as an unknown monk. His parents did not recognize him. But the kindness of his face and words was so great that they begged him to visit them every day. He accepted their wish and agreed to build him a hut at the back of the garden of his father's house. There John set up his hermitage and in three years he succeeded, by the grace of God, in guiding his parents to the right path. But the day he revealed to them that he was their son, God took away his blessed soul.
As the service song of the Saint says, John was a treasure clothed in a poor garment, but his inner divine garment was so brilliant that it led him to the highest nymph of the kingdom God.
Another example of mental usefulness and reflection in an age of confusion and disorientation. How many times in our lives do we find that children become the benefactors of their parents who, for various reasons, neglect their salvation?
We pray that the consecration to the throne of God of today's Venerable Saints Paul of Thebes, Ioannis Kalivitou and Panfuti will sustain us in the daily struggles of the postmodern era.
Bishop Grigoriou of Mesaoria.
St. John, the so-called Calivite, lived in the middle of the 5th century AD. century in Constantinople and was the son of the senator Eutropius and Theodora. Ioannis did not want to follow the path of his two older brothers, who held brilliant positions, but preferred to serve the Christian faith. However, at his parents' insistence, he left his parents' home and went to the Monastery of the Unsleeping, where he became a monk. Later, when he learned of his mother's great bitterness because of his father's worldly life, he decided, with the consent of the abbot of the monastery, to return to his parents.
He introduced himself at his home as an unknown monk. His parents did not recognize him. But the kindness of his face and words was so great that they begged him to visit them every day. He accepted their wish and agreed to build him a hut at the back of the garden of his father's house. There John set up his hermitage and in three years he succeeded, by the grace of God, in guiding his parents to the right path. But the day he revealed to them that he was their son, God took away his blessed soul.
As the service song of the Saint says, John was a treasure clothed in a poor garment, but his inner divine garment was so brilliant that it led him to the highest nymph of the kingdom God.
Another example of mental usefulness and reflection in an age of confusion and disorientation. How many times in our lives do we find that children become the benefactors of their parents who, for various reasons, neglect their salvation?
We pray that the consecration to the throne of God of today's Venerable Saints Paul of Thebes, Ioannis Kalivitou and Panfuti will sustain us in the daily struggles of the postmodern era.
Bishop Grigoriou of Mesaoria.
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