Homily on the Name Day of the Most Pious Empress Alexandra Feodorovna - 1905 (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily on the Name Day of the Most Pious Empress Alexandra Feodorovna

By St. John of Kronstadt

(Delivered on April 23, 1905)

“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul” (Matthew 10:28; Luke 12:4).

Today the Church celebrates the glorious memory of the Holy Great Martyr George and the Martyr Empress Alexandra, the former wife of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, and all of Imperial Russia celebrates the name day of the royal wife, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. The Holy Empress Alexandra suffered for her firm confession of Christ as the true God when she looked at the inhuman cruel torture of the Great Martyr George by the executioners. The emperor condemned her to death. This was during the persecution of Christians in the 3rd century. The whole pagan and Jewish world then took up arms with ferocity against the confessors of the name of Christ. To incline them to the pagan faith, the most cunning ingratiations and promises of earthly benefits and the most terrible tortures and torments were invented and used. There seemed to be no more terrible torment left than those that, in multitudes, up to a thousand types, were newly invented specifically for Christians. Today's throwing of deadly, explosive projectiles would then be considered a mercy for the martyrs if they were used against them - compared with the torture and torment of that time.

Homily on the Name Day of the Most Pious Empress Alexandra Feodorovna - 1904 (St. John of Kronstadt)

 

Homily on the Name Day of the Most Pious Empress Alexandra Feodorovna

By St. John of Kronstadt

(Delivered on April 23, 1904)

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: 'For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (Rom. 8:35–36; Psalm 43:23).

The Holy Church now commemorates the Great Martyr George the Trophy-Bearer and the Martyr Empress Alexandra, wife of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who lived and suffered for the confession of the faith of Christ at the beginning of the third century after the Nativity of Christ; and today the Church and State celebrate the name day of the Most Pious Empress Alexandra Feodorovna with common prayer.

Saint George was a brave commander of a detachment of Roman troops. The pagan emperor Diocletian at first loved and respected him; but, having learned that George was a Christian, he ordered him to be imprisoned.

Homily on Holy Pascha -1904 (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily on Holy Pascha

By St. John of Kronstadt

(Delivered on March 28, 1904)

“I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death” (Rev. 1:17–18).

“Thus says He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens” (Rev. 3:7).

Christ is Risen!

On the bright Resurrection of Christ, I greet you all and on such a great and holy day I want to speak with you, dear brothers and sisters, about the above words of Holy Scripture; and I call you dear because you are very dear to our Lord Jesus Christ, who redeemed us all at an immeasurably dear price - with His most pure Blood, shed on the cross for our salvation. Remember this, and do not forget, do not forget what you were redeemed from at a great price: from sin, the curse and death, temporary and eternal death. Beware with all your might of sin, which has caused so many troubles in the world, and is even now creating all sorts of troubles, even the real Japanese war: - may the Risen and almighty King of creation, the Lord Jesus Christ, end it, and may He break the weapons of our adversaries, and with His omnipotent power establish peace on earth, which our Tsar together with Russia so much desired and desires. So I repeat again: Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

Homily One for the Feast of Saint George (St. Luke of Simferopol)

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on April 23, 1947)

"The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them." (Wisdom of Solomon 3:1)

How was this torment not felt by the Holy Great Martyr George the Trophy-Bearer? How were the torments not felt of multitudes of martyrs?

From the lives of the saints it is known that there were many martyrs, including Saint George the Trophy-Bearer, who did not feel their torments.

This may seem paradoxical, impossible to you, but it is a fact that does not only concern the martyrs. This fact is quite well known in history: when in the Middle Ages they subjected to torture the unfortunate women, whom they considered to be witches, then it was often observed that during the torture these unfortunate women fell into a state of bliss. At first they cried out, they were tortured, they suffered, then when the tortures intensified, when they became unbearable, their faces lit up with the feeling of bliss, they did not feel the tortures.

Homily on Holy Pascha (Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov)

Homily on Holy Pascha

By Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov)

 

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is Risen!

I congratulate you, dear brothers and sisters, on the great, joyful feast, the worldwide joy of the Bright Resurrection of Christ! In the language of church hymns, the feast of the Holy Resurrection of Christ is called the feast of all feasts and the celebration of all celebrations. The bright Resurrection of Christ is the triumph and affirmation of our Christian faith, the triumph of our Christian hope and the affirmation of Christian love. The triumph and affirmation of all that is good, bright, holy and dear to us.

We said that the Holy Resurrection of Christ is the confirmation, the triumph of our Christian faith. Our Lord Jesus Christ, having incarnated on earth, taking upon Himself our human nature, taught the human race the true teaching about everything that exists: about God, about His being, His nature and His works; and about the origin of man, his nature, purpose, present state and future destiny; and about the world, the origin of the world, its nature, the purpose and future fate of the world. But what can be a firm guarantee that the true teaching about everything that exists, taught to us by our Lord Jesus Christ, is Divine teaching, the true revelation of God? He who taught it is the true God. And that is why the very teaching of Christ bears the stamp of Divine origin both in its character and in its content and dignity, and it is, of course, more sublime and holier, and differs radically from the teaching of the sages of this world. There is no foreign admixture of truth, lies and delusion in it, which we notice in the works of people with a limited human mind.