THE HOLY PRIESTLY

February 20

From the Prologue

Sadok was a bishop in Persia, following St. Simeon. At one time, St. Simeon appeared to him in a dream and said: "Yesterday, I - today, you!" Sadok interpreted these words to his flock as meaning: Last year I [St. Simeon] suffered, this year you [Sadok] will suffer. Indeed that year the Emperor Sapor arrested him with many of the clergy and people and brought them to trial. Sapor first ordered them to worship fire and sun as divinity. Sadok replied: "We are eagerly prepared to die for our God, but we cannot worship the sun nor fire." After that, they were tortured and sentenced to death by beheading. Before being beheaded, Sadok uplifted a prayer to God: "Wash us, O Lord, from our sins in our blood!" Sadok, with his priests and faithful gloriously gave up their bodies to death and their souls to the immortal God. They suffered in the year 342 A.D. or 344 A.D.

HYMN OF PRAISE

SAINT SADOK

What is the sun? the eye that does not see.

What is fire? a servant without reason.

Emperor Sapor, to Sadok speaks:

Worship the sun and the flame,

The gods which rule the world,

According to the teaching of Zoroaster the wise.

Sadok to the Emperor, gently replied:

To you O Emperor, be health and joy,

But where does the sensible before the senseless, bow down?

Where does the corporeal, the incorporeal glorify?

The sun - beautiful as a thing of God,

The flame - wonderful as a servant of men;

But, can the created, the Creator replace?

Can the dead, a replacement for the living be?

Than the artist, is a painting better?

Than the plower, is the plow more costly?

In the heavens O Emperor, there is only one God,

Omnipotent, Intelligent, Beautiful, and Good,

Of the visible and invisible world, the Creator,

Of everything created, the Designer,

Of all good gifts, He is the giver,

A lover of mankind and Almighty,

Him, the Only-begotten Son revealed.

From the Persian errors, He saved us,

On top of nature, He taught us to stand

And toward the Creator, to turn our face,

To uplift to heaven, our entire soul

There, where our homeland is,

Of angels and men; the homeland -

Sadok spoke - and Sapor beheaded him.