Martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, and those with them at Rome: Claudius the Tribune, his wife Hilaria, their sons Jason and Maurus, the priest Diodorus, and the deacon Marianus (283). St. Sophia of Slutsk and Minsk (1612).
Martyr Pancharius, at Nicomedia (ca. 302). St. Bassa, nun, of Pskov Caves (ca. 1473). St. Innocent, founder of Komel Monastery (Vologda) (1511-1522).
Smolensk “Umileniye” (“Tender Feeling”) Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos (1103).
Righteous Maria, wife of Vsevelod III (1206). New Martyr Demetrius, at Constantinople (1564). New Martyr Nicholas Karamanos of Smyrna (1657). St. Symeon (Popovic), archimandrite, of Dajbabe, Montenegro (1941).
Monday (the fourth week of Lent).
The Apostle Paul says that the Israelites, crossing the
sea, were baptized in it (I Cor. 10:2).[1]
Such a baptism served for them as a division between
Egypt and themselves. Peter the Apostle adds: The
like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save
us (I Pet. 3:21). Our baptism saves us and serves
as a dividing wall between the dark, satanic realm of
sin and the world, and the brightness of life in
Christ. One who is baptized cuts himself off from all
earthly hopes and supports, and lives in this age as if
in a desert, not tied to anything. His heart is not on
the earth, it is totally in that age. All that is here
touches him in passing, so that having a wife he is as
though he has none; buying, he is as though possessing
nothing. In general, he uses the world, as though he
uses it not (cf. I Cor. 7:30).
[1]The
Slavonic for I Pet. 3:21 reads: So in like manner
baptism doth also now save us.