SAINT THEODORE

July 9

From the Prologue

At age twenty, Theodore was tonsured a monk and spent thirty-six years as a monk. During the reign of Emperor Michael and Empress Theodora, Theodore was elected as bishop of Edessa. He died in the year 848 A.D. Along with him is also mentioned his teacher, St. Theodosius the Syrian Stylite, his brother St. John the Hermit and St. Ader, a wealthy nobleman who left his wife and was tonsured a monk.

HYMN OF PRAISE

SAINT PANCRATIUS [PANCRAS]

Pancratius holy, during his childhood,

Warmed himself in the sun of the face of Christ,

And summer after summer flies and flew away

But, in his mind, that face remained,

Day and night, magnificently before him to glow,

Therefore, everything that darkens that image, he rejected:

And the home of his parents and property, he left,

And left every deceptive desire,

And the pleasures of the world that pleases men,

In solitude he departed into a certain wilderness

That to the last day of his earthly course

Becomes intoxicated with the sweetness of the Divine Countenance.

Pancratius in such a way and the Lord otherwise

A glowing beacon does not easily conceal.

Sicily, a pagan land was,

To her [Sicily], the light of St. Pancratius was needed,

To her [Sicily], a witness of Christ's face was needed,

To her [Sicily], the blood of the martyr was needed,

All that she [Sicily] required, Pancratius gave,

As a martyr fell and immortal remained

And above Sicily, remained a light

The light of that face to forever warm it [Sicily].