The Lives of Saints

The Life of St Savvas - Celebrated on December 5

A certain way to avoid the glare of publicity, to never achieve a status that earns acclaim, in a word, to virtually assure complete obscurity, is to enter a monastery and shut yourself off from the outside world. While this is not the purpose for becoming a monk, nevertheless the conditions for notoriety remain the same, and for a man to become famous while yet cloistered in a monastery is a tribute not only to the man, but to the noble purpose to which he is committed. Unnumbered thousands of God-fearing men have sequestered themselves in monasteries throughout the world, unheralded and unsung, but now and then one of their number stands out with special contribution to the Christian cause that gives him a renown he had not sought but richly deserves.

One such monk who eventually became a saint was a man named Savvas, who in his lifetime of service to Christ was accorded respect and tribute from not only his fellow monks but from the Christian community as well. He served with such distinction that he was given the title of St. Savvas “the Consecrated” in recognition of the deep respect with which he was regarded.

Born in the sixth century, when Christianity was so frail its existence seemed doomed, Savvas became one of the monks to whom the Christian could look for spiritual uplifting and for support so vital to his cause. A remarkable scholar and profoundly religious figure, he had carved a reputation as a spiritual leader by the time he was twenty-one and stood out as one of Christianity’s most prominent monastic personalities, conditioned to adversity and dedicated to the word of Christ in an eminent degree.

Having served with the highest honors at a monastery in Cappadocia for several years, he was summoned to the holy city of Jerusalem by St. Theoktistos to serve with another of the greatest monks of the day, St. Euthymios. This holy partnership proved itself virtually invincible in the crusade against intolerance, ignorance, and superstition. For Savvas it was to become a period of sixty-five years of unceasing effort in behalf of man and God during which time he founded many monasteries in Palestine and instituted the regimen for monasticism, which though severe by some standards, nevertheless was instrumental in producing the hardy breed of monks who were needed in the face of the open hostility toward Christianity. The structure of the Christian world would have been considerably eroded by the sinister forces about, had it not been for the dedication and courage of the monks of that day.

Savvas was called upon by many of the greatest religious minds to discourse on matters of dogma, and it was he together with other leading figures of the time that staved off the heresies that lurked everywhere, seeking the Achilles heel of the Christian in vain. A master theologian, he was in the vanguard of those who protected the Church in the hour of its most severe trial, right up to the moment of his death at the age of eighty five, in about the year A.D. 540. He was laid to rest within the confines of the monastery of Jerusalem.

After the conquest of the Holy Land by the Muslim leader Saladin, it seemed hardly likely that anyone would recover the precious relics which the fleeing Christians had to leave behind, but in the Crusades that ensued, the remains of St. Savvas were recovered and taken to the city of Venice and there enshrined in a cathedral. There they remained until 10 October 1965, at which time St. Savvas was returned, at the direction of Pope Paul VI, to the proper burial place at the monastery in Jerusalem. The ceremonial acceptance was made by Bishop Vasilios of Jerusalem who had gone to Venice at the direction of Patriarch Benediktos of Jerusalem.

The Life of Saint Joseph - Celebrated on December 16

The Greek Orthodox Church reveres Joseph as a saint, preferring to call him the “Protector of the Virgin Mary,” but scarcely more than that because although he was chosen by God to be the husband of the Virgin Mary, he became a surrogate parent, so to speak, of the Son of God who was born of the Virgin Mary through the will of God. The Eastern and Western Churches are poles apart in their concept of Joseph; and although the role he played is in dispute on minor points, it is the concept of Joseph, the man, which is so divergent that there can be no compromise between Greece and Rome, sad to say.

For one thing, the ancient Greeks, whose language was used as the universal tongue of the apostles and as the language of the original New Testament, have made it a matter of early record that Joseph was not the handsome young man depicted as having married the holy Mother to save her from the embarrassment of bearing a child out of wedlock. There is no disputing that the presence of a husband was part of the divine plan for the universe, and the fact that Joseph was selected by God is enough to place him among the immortals whom we choose to call saints.

On the other hand, Greek theology holds that Joseph was not a young man, but a devout man of advanced years who was appointed by heaven and considered himself to be the protector of the Virgin Mary through marriage. His was not a random choice because he was of lineage in the noblest of tradition with roots going directly back to David, through his father, Jacob, and grandsires Abraham and Solomon. Furthermore, he is seen by Orthodoxy as a widower who had long since become a father, which accounts for the claimants of relationship to Jesus; and he seems to have been the least likely choice for remarriage.

It is to his everlasting credit that Joseph not only obeyed the word of God, but went beyond an unfulfilled marriage to assure compliance with the law and remained at the side of Mary throughout as a protector and keeper.

Matthew refers to Joseph as being a “just man, unwilling to put her (Mary) to shame.” He did consider sending the Mother to be away in secret, according to Matthew who goes on to say: “But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, `Joseph, Son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit’ “ (Matthew 20.25).

Joseph was more than just, as evidenced by his subsequent piety and reverence for both the Virgin Mary and the Son of God. Nevertheless, Orthodoxy does not place Joseph on the same level of sainthood that would give him stature with the highest; nor does it appear that, after nearly 2000 years, there will be a council in the future to make any changes. For that matter, it was not until 1621 that Pope Gregory XV declared a feast day of obligation for Joseph after which the name of Joseph became popular, which is hardly the case in Orthodoxy. With all due respect for a man chosen by God, a man who was rightfully “just” in the holy Bible, there is a paucity of Greeks bearing the name of Joseph; and a church of St. Joseph is non existent.

There are prophets of the Old Testament who have been categorized as “major” and “minor,” just as there are major and minor saints, according to man’s concept of interpretation; but when it comes to Joseph, church members prefer to fall back of that truism that all are equal in the sight of God. The Church itself, however, must take a stand, one way or the other; and the stance is clear. Although the name Joseph is scarce among Greeks, it is well to remember that the Christmas Vesper hymn contains the words, “Verily, Joseph the betrothed, saw clearly in his old age that the foresays of the prophets had been fulfilled openly ....”

The reference to Joseph `in his old age’ implies that he may have outlived the Savior, which is the Western belief; but since Orthodoxy considers Joseph to have been well advanced in years when he heard the voice of the angel, the Eastern belief is that Joseph died at about the time Jesus Christ was thirteen years of age. His absence during the missionary days of the Messiah and the fact that he was not a companion of the Virgin Mary at the site of the Crucifixion indicate that Joseph had long since departed this earth. Joseph’s memory is commemorated on December 16, together with his famous ancestor King David and kinsmen of Joseph.

The Holy Infants - Celebrated on December 29

Although St. Stephen is generally recognized as the first martyr, he was preceded by a host of innocent babes slaughtered by the infamous Herod whose fearful uncertainty drove him in panic to commit the most heinous of crimes. The Yultide spirit which precedes and extends beyond the birth of the Messiah is cast over by a shadow of infamy for which Christians pause on December 29 in memory of the host of innocent babes who collectively, albeit innocently died in place of the infant Jesus.

It is not generally known that the barbarous Herod, who reigned over the Jews at the time when Christ was born, was not by descent a Jew himself, but a member of a tribe that had been absorbed into Judaism. Hence, he zealously relished his role as king of the Jews under the Roman Empire. The news of the coming of a Messiah, so alarmed Herod that he hastily assembled about him his close associates, including priest and scribes from whom it was ascertained that the newborn king was coming into the world in the obscure village of Bethlehem. Still skeptical, he consulted the three wise men and asked them to seek out this Christ child. However, these Magi, from various countries, not only venerated the Messiah and bestowed gifts upon Him, but returned to their homelands rather than betray Him who was to become the King of Kings.

Up to this point Herod had been guilty of atrocities of such vile nature that it came as no surprise that, in order to protect his position, he ordered the massacre of every Jewish infant under the age of two not only in Bethlehem but for miles around. The estimates of male infants put to the sword in the cruelest bloodletting in history varies all the way from the Byzantine count of 14,000 to the astonishing total of 144,000 according to Revelation 14.1-5. There is no evidence to support either of these accounts.

But it matters little that history is lacking in the grisly body account. Even if the death of the innocents were reduced to one, it would have been one too many. The horror of the death of these innocents is not lessened by the fact that the mad Herod ordered the execution, reportedly on his death bed, of his son Antipater, who was far from being a child and whose demise had no impact on Christianity. The butchering of babes can be viewed by even the most calloused of pagans as an unexceeded horror in a history of mankind that has known too many horrors.

The abject anguish of parents of these Holy Innocents, or Holy Children, as they are sometimes called, was that assuaged by the few who looked upon this loss as having laid a costly sacrifice upon the altar of Jesus Christ who had managed to escape to Egypt with his holy mother Mary and Joseph after having been warned by an angel of God. It was small comfort to mothers and fathers that such a tragedy might have befallen them even though it had been prophesied by Jeremiah who mentioned the Lamentation and great mourning of Rachel bewailing her children and would not be comforted, because they were not' as it said in Matthew in the New Testament.

However, if not martyrs, these holy innocents were certainly the first victims of a persecution that proved itself relentless for centuries. As horrible as this chapter in history might be, its commemorative observance is not one of gloom and despair because it falls only four days after the birth of Jesus Christ. The after glow of the Christmas spirit serves to prevent this lamentable occasion from falling into a funeral pit, allowing it to be observed with a sweet solemnity. Although the spirit of Christ is with us the year round to the end of our days, humans become acutely aware of this spirit at Christmas when hearts are lifted and the Christian world embraces. For the Innocents it is rather like the darkest days of Easter season which culminates the extreme joy of the Risen Christ.

Pilgrims to the Holy Land discover that entombed deep in the grotto of the Church of the Nativity are many of these Innocents, appropriately enough beneath the now vanished stable where Christ was born. At this sacred spot the patriarch of Jerusalem conducts special commemorative services each year on the 29th of December, a day in which Christians of all denominations cannot fail to pause in respect, in whatever part of the world they might be.