Martyr Codratus (Quadratus) and with him Martyrs Cyprian, Dionysius, Anectus, Paul, Crescens, and Dionysius (another), at Corinth (258). St. Paul of Taganrog (1879).
Martyrs Codratus, Saturninus, and Rufinus, of Nicomedia (3rd c.). St. Anastasia the Patrician, of Alexandria (567-568). St. Alexander (Badanin), priest, of Vologda (1913).
Martyrs Victorinus, Victor, Nicephorus, Claudius, Diodorus, Serapion, Papias, and others, at Corinth (251 or 258). St. Kessog of Lennox (520). St. Attalus, abbot, of Bobbio (626). St. John of Khakhuli, Georgia, called Chrysostom (10th c.-11th c.). New Martyr Michael of Agrapha, at Thessalonica (1544).
Commemoration of the desert-dwellers of the Roslavl Forests, near Bryansk.
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.