St Marcian.

Commemorated January 10 in the Orthodox Christian Menaion

From the Prologue

He was born in Rome, but lived as a priest in Constantinople to the end of his life, during the greater part of the reign of Marcian and Pulcheria. The inheritor of great wealth from his parents, he spent it unstintingly on two objects: the building or restoring of churches, and charity to the poor. He built two new churches in Constantinople, dedicated to St Anastasia and St Irene and famed as beautiful and holy places. When asked why he spent so much of his wealth on churches, he re lied- "If I had a daughter and was-giving her in marriage to some nobleman, would I not expend much gold to adorn her as a worthy bride? Here, I am adorning the Church, the Bride of Christ." This great man, while being so generous to the churches and the poor, was very hard towards himself, following the evangelical counsel:"Having food and raiment, let us therewith becontent"(ITim. 6:8). It was written of him: "He was utterly in God and God in him", and he went to God, full of years and good works, in the year 471.

From The Prologue From Ochrid by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich
©1985 Lazarica Press, Birmingham UK