SAINT MAXIM

January 18

From the Prologue

Maxim was the son of the Serbian Despot [Prince] Stephen and Despotica [Princess] Angelina. He was tonsured a monk in the Monastery Manasija. Pressured by the Turks, he fled to Romania, where he was consecrated to the vacated throne of the Archbishop of Wallachia. He brokered a truce between the warring commanders Radul and Bogdan and averted a war between them. In his later years, he returned to Krusedol where he built a monastery and, after a lengthy ascetical life, died there on January 18, 1546 A.D. His incorrupt and miracle-working relics repose, even now, in this monastery.

HYMN OF PRAISE

CHRIST IS WISDOM

Through Athanasius, wisdom shown,

And the truth of God enlightened men.

Wisdom is not bitter, the people recognized;

But, to everyone who drinks of it to the bottom, it is sweet,

To everyone who suffered for it, it is dear.

To whomever, in the world, all hope is first extinguished,

Who walks throughout the world as over an old cemetery,

Who thinks about men as about weak slavery,

Who thinks about five earthly dry lands [continents] as about five threshing floors,

Who thinks about five puddles, as about five oceans -

To him, Christ is the measure by which eternity is measured'

Adhere to that measure, confirmed in faith;

Whoever recognizes this measure [Christ] will never abandon it,

For the mysteries of the world, he will find no other;

Every other measure, inspite of exertion

Does not reach to the Alpha nor the Omega,

But is as deceiving as the moon which crawls over the water.

But appears that it reaches to the bottom of the water.

Christ surpasses both ends of the world,

Where the drama ends and where it began.

Of all the mysteries, the greatest mystery is He.

From His Nativity to His Crucifixion on the Cross,

From His Crucifixion on the Cross to His Resurrection -

He is the true measure of all God's creation.

By Him, measuring sufferings in the midst of worldly rumbling

The saints of God suffered -- without pain.