Saint Photios the Great
Orthodox Christians believe that, next to the Holy Scripture, the most valuable and spiritually strengthening material that a Christian can read are the Lives of the Saints. Following is a list of works that I find particularly valuable. This list is still growing so please, if you have any suggestions, e-mail me using the link at the bottom of the menu frame to your left, and I will read the material and consider including it. Documents may include Lives of Saints as well as other important documents that may be buried in one of the libraries listed above. Many of these come from the St. Pachomius Library of the Orthodox Christian Foundation. I certainly encourage everyone to go there and examine these materials for themselves. I have simply listed here the documents that I particularly liked and found valuable. This list is still young and therefore necessarily incomplete. I will be continually adding to it.
1. The Martyrdom of Polycarp of Smyrna is the exceptionally beautiful report of the martyrdom of that very great early Christian Saint by eyewitnesses to the event and is of great spiritual value to the reader.
2. Here is an ancient and very beautiful Life of our Holy Mother Mary of Egypt by St. Sophronius.
3. Another beautiful Life of a Saint that is sadly less known in the Greek Archdiocese is St. John of Rila, who is particularly venerated in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. His life is available at the web site of the Patriarchate of Bulgaria. Click here to see his icon.
4. Of great value are the sayings of the Athonite Elder Paisios. These are in the same monastic spirit as The Philokalia. Elder Paisios was known and loved by many who still keep photographs of him displayed with their icons of the Saints. These sayings seem simple to understand, but a person would do well to mediate on them, recalling them frequently to mind. Some of them may be surprising. For me, these are a "must read". Elder Paisios was gathered to the Lord on July 12 th, 1994.
5. The source material for The Martyrdom of Habib, also known as The Acts of the Martyr Habib (Feast Day Nov. 15), was drawn from the official transcripts of the event as recorded by the notaries present. In addition, material from the records of the Sharirs, who wrote down what they heard outside the door of the judgement-hall, is included. While many of the records of the martyrdoms of the Saints are difficult for the heterodox to believe because they include the occurrence of miracles, this one does not. It is a three-dimensional, realistic recording of the events, and as a result is quite powerful. Further, this is a Saint that many of us in the Greek Archdiocese do not know much about. I strongly recommend this to everyone.
6. A Life and Martyrdom that does include a record of miracles is that of St. Januarius, Bishop of Benevento during the time of Diocletian. St Constantine was in his fifth consulate at that time. An editor's note at the end of the document tells of a "scientifically verified" miracle. (Quotes because Orthodox Christians do not need scientific verification of miracles to justify the veneration of a Saint or to believe that a miracle occurred if the Church says it occurred. Of course it is nice to have scientific verification if you can get it).
7. Here is The Confession of St Patrick. He wrote this as an old man, near the end of his life. It is a rare and wonderful work. Also, we have Hymn on the Life of St Patrick written by a fifth century poet named Fiacc. Once again we have a Saint whose name is familiar to almost everyone, but whose Life is almost completely unknown. We would do well to learn from him and venerate him as we do more well known saints.
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Sts Ioakeim and Anna |
St Michael the Archangel |
8. Saint Spyridon is a saint whose name is well known in Orthodoxy, but many do not really know much of his life. He is mentioned in two ancient histories of the Christian Church. These histories were written when the Church was one. The Ecclesiastical History by Salaminius Hermias Sozomenus and The Ecclesiastical History by Socrates Scholasticus were each written only a short time after the reign of Saint Constantine. The text of the History of Socrates is unfortunately damaged but it still makes good reading. It is the second of the two offered here. It is said that St Photios the Great preferred the style of the History of Sozomenus. Although it is the most recent of the two (Sozomen seems to have begun working on this history during the year A.D. 443), it is the first of the two presented here. It to has suffered mutilations and alteration, but the portion presented here is intact.
I am always looking for more material on the Internet so that I may make enlarge my list of particularly important documents. By important I mean important for the spiritual edification and development of Christians. As is stands now, this material consists entirely of the Lives of Saints. I make no apology for this. Orthodox Christians have since the time of St. Paul the Apostle regarded the study of Lives of Saints to be nearly as important as the study of the Holy Scriptures. In the future I may add other types of material, but Lives of Saints will always be predominant. We may all take it as given that the study of the Holy Scripture is the most valuable of all study. If you have any suggestions for addition to the list, please e-mail me with the URL and tell me about it.