My beloved brothers and sisters in Our Risen Lord, God and Savior JESUS CHRIST,
CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN! ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! ΑΛΗΘΩΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ!
On the 15th of Mary, the Holy Orthodox Church Commemorates
Our Holy Father PACHOMIUS THE GREAT.
He was an Egyptian by birth and was a pagan in his youth. As a soldier, he took part in the Emperor’s Constantine’s war against Maxentius. After that, learning from Christians about the One God and seeing their devout life, Pachomius was baptized and went to the Tebennisiot desert, to the famous ascetic Father Palamon, with whom he lived in asceticism for ten years. Then an Angel appeared to him in the robes of a monk of the Great Habit at the place called Tebennisi and gave him a tablet on which was written the rule of a Cenobitic Monastery, commanding him to found such a monastery in that place and prohesying to him that many monks would come to it seeking the salvation of their souls. Obeying the Angel of God, Pachomius begna building many cells, although there was no-one in that place but himself and his brother John. When his brother grumbled at him for doing this unnecessary building, Pachomius simply told him that he was following God’s command, without explaining who would live there, or when. But many men soon assembled in that place, moved by the Spirit of God, and began to live in asceticism under the rule that Pachomius had received from the Angel. When the number of monks had increased greatly, Pachomius, step by step, founded six further monasteries. The number of his disciples grew to seven thousand. Saint Anthony is regarded as the found of the Eremite Life, and Saint Pachomius of the Monastic, Communal life. The humility, love and toil and abstinence of this holy Father were and remain a rare example fo the imitation of monks. Saint Pachomius performed innumerable miracles, and also endured innumerable temptations from demons and men. And he served men as both Father and brother. He roused many to se tout on the way of salvation, and brought many inito the way of truth. He was and remains a great light in the Church and a great witness to the Truth and Righteousness of Christ. He entered peacefully into rest in 346 A.D., at the age of 60. The Church has raised many of his followers to the ranks of the Saints: Theodore, Job, Paphnutius, Pecusius, Athenodorus, Eponichus, Soutus, Psois, Dionysius, Petronius, and others. [Resources: The Prologue from Ochrid]
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"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in Christ’s Glorious and Life-Giving Resurrection,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 