Taken from HOMILY SIX – TO ENCOURAGE FASTING
by Saint Gregory Palamas
(INCLUDING A BRIEF WORD ON THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD)
THE INVISIBLE SERPENT, the originator of evil, is inventive, versatile and extremely skillful in contriving wickedness. He has means to hinder our good purposes and actions as soon as they begin. But if he fails to prevent them initially, he sets up other devices by which he can render them useless once they are underway. If he is unable to make them worthless when they are half way to completion, he knows other tricks and ways to invalidate them even once they are finished, and makes them a source not of reward but of harm to all but the most careful. First of all he points out how laborious and difficult to accomplish virtue is. In this way he fills us with laziness and despair, as though we were attempting difficult and impossible things and were therefore incapable of putting our intentions into action. Then he engenders disbelief in the rewards which God has promised to those who struggle.
2. But we, brethren, should rise above this trap by our soul’s courage, eagerness and faith. We should bear in mind the fact that just as the earth cannot yield worthwhile fruit without labor, so the soul cannot acquire anything which pleases God or leads to salvation without spiritual struggles. But while it is possible to find earth which is unsuitable for cultivation, every human soul is naturally suited to virtue. As we are all unavoidably condemned, however, by the judgment given against our forefather, to live by labor and toil, let us turn necessity into an honor and willingly offer to God what is ours not by our own will. Let us give up transitory things in exchange for things that endure, and receive what is beneficial in exchange for what is harmful, transforming short-lived toil into a means to gain eternal ease. If we labor here for the sake of virtue we shall certainly attain to the rest promised in the age to come. He who promised is trustworthy and is at hand to help all who readily take on the struggle for virtue. If He who can do all things gives us His help, is anything impossible to achieve?
3. When we remember this and eagerly apply ourselves to virtuous actions, the evil one, knowing that nothing can be good unless it is done in a good way, strives to persuade us not to accomplish any good work with the object of pleasing God or of winning His approval, but to look for other people’s approval. By this means he can deprive us of our reward from God and of all spiritual and heavenly honors. Let us frustrate these efforts of his by considering the great recompense stored up for those who live as God pleases, and how insignificant other people’s approval is. Not only is it not worth mentioning in comparison with the great and holy glory to come, but it is also insufficient reason to neglect and waste our flesh.
4. Even after suffering this defeat, the originator of evil undermined us with pride, the last and worst abyss. He suggests conceited thoughts and persuades us to boast as though we had managed to be virtuous through our own ability and intelligence. But let us remember that the Truth says, “Without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5), and fend off all the evil one’s schemes. Let us do good works in a good way, with appropriate humility. If someone has a jar of precious perfume, whether he pours it out on to dung, or pours dung into the jar, he ruins and destroys the perfume. Be aware that, in the same way, whether someone rejects and discards virtue by his inaction, or mixes evil with his virtuous actions, he equally ruins and destroys virtue.
5. I am speaking to your charity on this subject in this present season of fasting, so that we may observe it together for our own sake unalloyed with anything evil. Fasting was of no benefit to that Pharisee in the Gospel, even though he always fasted two days a Week, because he had adulterated it with pride and condemnation of his neighbor (Luke 18:11-12). Not that this means fasting is unprofitable. Moses, Elijah and the Lord Himself showed how beneficial it is for those who fast properly in a way pleasing to God.
6. Moses fasted for many days. Awaken your minds, I entreat You, and lift them up at this opportune time, in company with Moses when he went up the mountain towards God. In this way may you start off afresh on your ascent, and be lifted up together with Christ, who did not merely go up a mountain but up to heaven, taking us with Him. Moses fasted for forty days on the mountain and according to the Scriptures he saw God, not darkly but face to face (Exod. 24:18). He talked to Him as someone would speak to his friend (Exod. 33:11, Deut. 34:10). He learnt from God and taught everyone about Him: that He is He Who eternally Is (Exod. 3:14) and will never cease to be, that He summoned what did not exist into existence, brought all things out of non-being and will not let them fall back into non-existence. In the beginning He brought the whole visible creation out of nothing all at once, just by a nod and His will. “In the beginning”, it says, “God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen. i:i), not empty of course, nor without all that lies between them. The earth was interspersed with water, and both were full of air, animals and plants of various kinds, whereas the heavens were full of the various lights and fires, from which the universe is formed.
7. So then, “in the beginning God made heaven and earth”, as matter able to endure anything and strong enough to bear everything, rightly thereby dealing a blow from a distance to those who falsely hold that matter existed independently beforehand. Then He developed the world and embellished it. In six days He assigned to each of His creatures which made up His world its own due order. By His command alone He made the distinction between things, as if He were drawing out different kinds of treasure stored up in secret. He disposed and composed all things in complete natural harmony between themselves, each in relation to all, and all in relation to each. He surrounded the motionless earth, as a central point, with the higher circle of the perpetually moving heavens, holding them it, place by means of what lies between, all according to His wisdom, that the universe might stay stable while in motion. When the heavenly bodies all around were moving unceasingly and at great speed, the motionless earth had of necessity to take its place at the centre, its stability counterbalancing the motion, test the sphere of the universe roll off its course.
8. When the great Craftsman had assigned to each of the two boundaries of the universe its place, He made fast and set in motion this whole orderly world. He allotted to everything between heaven and earth its own properties. Some of His works He placed aloft and ordered them to move along a high course, going round at the same time as the upper boundary of the universe with beautiful regularity for ever. Such heavenly bodies are light, highly active and can be turned to the advantage of what lies below. They are wisely set very high above the central point so that, turning all around, they can sufficiently disperse the earth’s excessive coldness, while their own extreme heat is contained in its place. In a way they can also restrain the excessive speed of the upper heavenly limits by themselves moving in the other direction, and they keep these limits in place by their counterbalancing orbit. They provide us with the great benefits of distinct annual seasons, a means of measuring periods of time and, to those who are able to understand, knowledge of God who created, arranged and ordered them.
9. So some of His works He set spinning and dancing round in mid-air in the upper regions, both for the sake of the world’s beauty and to bestow a variety of benefits. Others, those which are heavy and have a passible nature, he put low down round the center. By their nature they come into being and pass away, are distinguishable from, yet comparable with, one another. When they suffer change they become more serviceable. He laid down an order for those creatures and how they relate to each other, that the whole might truly be called a world of perfect order.
10. At the creation first one thing was brought into existence, then another, then another and so on in turn. Last of all came man (Gen. 1:26), who was worthy of God’s greater honor and consideration both before and after his creation. All the visible world was made before him for his sake. Immediately after the foundation of the world, before he existed, the kingdom of heaven was made ready for him. A divine Counsel concerning him preceded him, and he was created by God’s hand and in His image. He did not take his whole being from matter or the visible world, like the other living creatures did, but only his body. His soul he took from the heavenly realms, from God Himself when He breathed fife into him in a way that defies description (Gen. 2:7). Man was a great wonder surpassing all else, towering above everything, superior to all. Man was capable of knowing God, as well as receiving Him and declaring Iiim, and was most certainly the highest achievement of the Creator’s sublime majesty. He had paradise for his home, specially planted by God (Gen. 2:8ff). There it was his lot to have sight of God, speak to Him face to face and receive a counsel and commandment from Him concerning the fasting appropriate to that place (Gen. 2:16-17). If he kept and observed this, he would remain free from death, toil and pain for ever.
11. Alas, he chose the treason of the serpent, the originator of evil, in preference to this commandment and counsel, and broke the decreed fast. Instead of eternal life he received death and instead of the place of unsullied joy he received this sinful place full of passions and misfortunes, or rather, he was sentenced to Hades and nether darkness. Our nature would have stayed in the infernal regions below the lurking places of the serpent who initially beguiled it, had not Christ come. He started off by fasting (Matt. 4:2, Luke 4:2, cf. Mark 1: 13) and in the end abolished the serpent’s tyranny, set us free and brought us back to life, as Moses foretold (Deut. 18:15, 18-19, Acts 3:22; 7:37). After fasting on the mountain Moses received tablets, the work of God (Exod. 31:18), and later received again, on a second set of tablets, the law written by the finger of God (Exod. 34:1-4). He instructed the holy nation in the law and by his work he hinted at, and showed a glimpse of, Christ’s future ministry. As Moses appeared as the liberator and savior of Abraham’s race, so later Christ did the same for the whole human race.
12. Elijah, when he too had fasted forty days (I Kgs. 19:8), saw the Lord on the mountain, not in fire, as the elders of Israel had earlier (Exod. 24:9-10, Deut. 5:23), but passing beyond the fiery vision by his God-pleasing fast, he saw the Lord in the sound of a light passing breeze (I Kgs. 19:12 LXX). He had approached more closely to our Lord’s words, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). For the sound prefigured the Truth and the preaching of Him who is Truth Itself, which rang out round all the ends of the earth, and the passing breeze prefigured the Spirit and grace.
13. From this vision while fasting Elijah also received power to anoint a prophet in his stead and bestow upon him a double portion of the grace he possessed, and to mount up above the earth in mid-air (2 Kgs. 2:9-11). This pointed clearly towards Christ’s ascension from earth to heaven which was to happen later (Acts 1:9-11). While Christ Himself was fasting in the wilderness, He defeated our tempter by force and took away his power against mankind (Matt. 4:1-11, Mark 1:13, cf. Luke 4:1-13). Having at last put down his tyranny, he set our nature free and handed him over for sport to all those willing to live according to His Gospel. In this way He fulfilled the words of the prophets and by His works inscribed grace and truth upon the symbolic events which took place in ancient times.
14. You see the benefits of fasting, and how it has made us worthy of so many great gifts? Even from its opposite, unlimited eating and self-indulgence, it is possible to see the advantage of fasting. For the last two weeks our city was given over to gluttony and lack of self-restraint, and straight away we had troubles, shouting, fights, disturbances, shameless songs and obscene laughter. But this week when the fast came it made everything more honorable. It took us away from frivolity’s expensive cares, stopped us tolling for the sake of our useless stomachs, set us instead to works of repentance and persuaded us not to labor for the food which perishes but for the food which endures to eternal life.
15. Where now are the slaughter of animals, the aroma of roasting meat, the variety of sauces and the cooks’ best endeavors? Where are the men who run around the streets and pollute the air with their impure voices? Where are those who beat the drum and make music around houses and tables, and their devotees who join in with applause and eat their fill of the food set before them to the accompaniment of kettledrums and flutes? Where are those who spend their days and nights at parties, who are always looking for places to drink, who keep each other company in drunkenness and the shameful acts that result from it? Once the fast was proclaimed all these evils went away and all things good took their place. Instead of disgusting songs, mouths now sing holy psalms. Instead of obscene laughter, there is salutary sorrow and tears. Instead of undisciplined outings and wanderings, everyone takes one and the same way to Christ’s Holy Church. If unlimited eating produces a dense swarm of sins, fasting is the root of all virtues and the foundation of God’s commandments.
16. Lack of self-control is actually an evil both ancient and modern, though it did not precede its antidote, fasting. By means of our forefathers’ self-indulgence in paradise and their contempt for the fast already in existence there, death entered the world. Sin reigned and brought in the condemnation of our nature from Adam until Christ.
The flood covered the whole earth because of the self-indulgence of Adam’s descendants in this world of ours and their disdain for the chastity which came before. In those days God said to Noah, “My Spirit shall not abide in these men, for they are flesh” (cf. Gen. 6:3 LXX). The deeds of those who are flesh are none other than unlimited eating, drunkenness, sensual pleasure and the evils that spring from them. Because of the abominable depravity and self-indulgence among the men of Sodom, fire fell on them from heaven (Gen. 19:24). “Behold”, says the prophet Ezekiel, “this was the iniquity of the men of Sodom, in fulness of bread they committed abomination” (cf. Ezek. 16:49-50). By means of this abomination, ignoring human nature they fell into unnatural unions. What deprived Esau, Isaac’s firstborn, of his birthright and his father’s blessing? Of course it was lasciviousness and an unreasonable demand for food (Gen. 25:25-34; 26:34-35, Heb. 12:16). Why were Eli’s sons condemned to death, and why did he meet a violent death at the news of the death of his children, whom he had not disciplined with proper care? Surely it was because they took the meat from the cauldrons before the time and used it (1 Sam. 2:12-17; 4:11, 17-18). Also, the whole Hebrew nation, while Moses was fasting on the mountain for their sake, were indulging themselves to their own detriment. They ate and drank and rose up to play, as the Scripture says (Exod. 32:6), and their sport was worshipping an idol, for it was then that the incidents surrounding the fashioning of the calf took place among them.
17. Sensual pleasure causes ungodliness as well as sin, but fasting and self-control result in the fear of God as well as virtue. Fasting must be accompanied by self-control. Why? Because eating our fill, even of humble foods, is a hindrance to the purifying mourning, godly sorrow and contrition in our souls, which bring about unswerving repentance leading to salvation. For without a contrite heart we cannot really lay hold of repentance. It is the restriction of self-indulgence, sleep and the senses according to God’s will that crushes our hearts and makes us mourn for our sins.
18. When that rich man in the Gospel said to himself, “Eat, drink and be merry” (Luke 12:19), the wretch made himself fit for the eternal flames and unfit for this present life. Let us, on the contrary, brethren, tell ourselves to be temperate, to fast, to keep watch, to be restrained, to be humble and to suffer hardship for our salvation. Then we shall finish this present life in a good way pleasing to God and inherit the blessed life without end.
19. May we all attain to this by the grace and love towards mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom belong glory, might, honor and worship, together with I lis Father without beginning and the life-giving Spirit, now and for ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
(From: Saint Gregory Palamas: The Homilies, trans. Christopher Veniamin, Mount Thabor Publishing, Waymart PA, 2009, pp 42-48)
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November 15, 2010 at 6:04 AM
Orthopraxis
New Martyrs of Our Times – Evgeny Rodionov the Warrior 1977-1996
Shoulders back, chest out, the young soldier stands as if on parade in his camouflage fatigues – his boots polished his rifle at his shoulder, a halo around his head. His face is the blank mask of a man for whom duty is life. It is not easy being a soldier. Portraits of this young man, Evgeny (Eugene in English) Rodionov, are spreading around Russia – sometimes in uniform, sometimes in a robe, sometimes armed, sometimes holding a cross, but always with his halo. The portraits are iconographic, venerated in homes and churches where Private Evgeny Rodionov has become the focus of popular veneration in post-Soviet Russia and beyond. He is Russia’s new unofficial saint, a casualty of the war in Chechnya and of Christianity’s continued defence against the false religion of the Muslims, who has been glorified not by the Russian Orthodox Church but by a groundswell of popular devotion.
Evgeny Rodionov was born on the 23rd of May 1977. He was baptised as a child – not because of any strong faith on the part of his parents, but because his mother was afraid for his health. A common superstition was to have a child baptised to ensure good health. His parents were typical Soviet citizens and thought rarely about God.
In 1989 when he was 10 years old Evgeny put on his baptismal cross and never took it off again. His mother said to him “Maybe you should take it off in public so that no one should see you wearing a cross.” Evgeny responded, “Never say such things mother.”
In his childhood years and youth he was strong and healthy, finishing his ninth year at High School. He was interested for a while in boxing, even winning second place in a competition, but later quit after having doubts about such a sport, saying, “I cannot hit a person in the face.”
After finishing his schooling, he found work at a furniture factory, where he made more money than his mother who was forced by their modest circumstances to work three jobs.
Evgeny attended church services in an outlying Moscow suburb called Podolsk but it is not known to whom he confessed.
In 1994 the family moved into a small 2-bedroom apartment.
In 1995 Evgeny was called up to serve in the army. The Russian armed forces require all young men to serve a period of time in the armed forces. He followed an ancient pious Russian custom of wearing a belt embroidered with Psalm 90, and wore this when he entered the army.
His mother, Lubov Vasilievna, recalled that Evgeny did not want to go, but felt that it was his duty to serve his country. He and his friends understood that there are things in this life that you do not want to do but have to do, and they had no thought of evading their military duty. His letters home were affectionate, filled with love and poetry.
Upon induction into the army, Evgeny was allocated to the Border Guards whose main responsibility was border security, and found himself, with other young conscripts, sent to serve in the Russian republic of Chechnya where the Russian Army was fighting a long running war against Moslem separatists. The conduct of the leadership of the Russian armed forces in this conflict has been severely criticised for its ineptitude, lack of planning and failure to provide even basic equipment for their troops.
On the night of the 13th of January 1996, Evgeny and some other young soldiers were posted, unarmed, to a checkpoint 200 metres from their base near the mountainous border between the republics of Chechnya and Ingushetia. The checkpoint, a control and registration post, was a small hut with no electricity and no method of communication back to their headquarters. It was situated on a road which was frequently used by terrorists and criminals for smuggling weapons, ammunition, captives, drugs and so on between the two republics. They disappeared.
Officers at the base later reported at an official investigation that they heard the young soldiers screaming, but did not investigate, and later falsely reported to the divisional commander that the missing men had deserted and this lie was repeated in letters to the missing soldier’s families. Chechen rebels had in fact forcibly abducted Evgeny and his comrades from the checkpoint. They had commandeered an ambulance, which they drove up to the unsuspecting young soldiers, and then the armed rebels had leapt out, forced the conscripts into the ambulance and drove them off into captivity.
A later army investigation revealed signs of a struggle and blood stains at the checkpoint, and as a result it was decided to upgrade security by moving the post away from the roadside and issuing weapons to the soldiers who manned it.
Upon capture the young conscripts were held in the cellar of an abandoned house for 100 days as ransom demands were sent to their families. Kidnapping and demanding ransom was almost a cottage industry in Chechnya during that time. They kept Evgeny hanging by his wrists in a basement, starved and beat him. Rodionov’s ransom was reported to be 50 million roubles (1.6 million US dollars) – at the time an impossible sum. Another report says it may have been in the US$10,000 range. Whatever it was, the ransom was not met, his parents did not have that kind of money.
Evgeny was held captive for three and a half months. The Chechens demanded that he remove the cross that he wore around his neck, deny his Christian faith and agree to become a Muslim to stay alive. Evgeny refused to renounce his faith. Having suffered indescribable tortures and torments, he did not betray his Orthodox faith, but confirmed it with his blood. Finally, on his 19th birthday, May the 23rd 1996 (new style), they sawed off his head. He proved that Russian Orthodoxy is still alive and that today, after many years of atheism, Russia still has the potential as it did before to beget martyrs for Christ.
It wasn’t until a month after the abduction, on the 16th of February 1996, that his mother received an official telegram notifying that her son had absconded from his military post – in fact while she was reading this telegram his captors were torturing her son.
Lubov, knowing her son, felt affronted by such an accusation, and wrote a number of letters in reply to the Border Guard division trying to convince them that her son would never desert the army. She was not believed, and so she decided to journey to Chechnya to find out the truth of her sons disappearance. Upon meeting Evgeny’s Lieutenant and the Commander she felt that they were indifferent to her anguish and the fate of her son. They recommended that she return home and not get involved.
Instead, she ended up in the Russian region of Ingushetia, attending an Orthodox Church where the priest, Father Basil, offered her accommodation near the parish church. Here she received Holy Communion as a believer for the first time. Lubov then set off travelling throughout Chechnya searching for her son, showing his photograph, asking questions and continually praying to God for help. Her journey, which lasted for ten months as she chased down leads and questioned anyone who would talk to her, led through minefields, aerial bombing, and the threat of bandits. She met other Russian mothers searching for sons who had been reported missing in action or having deserted, or been captured by the Chechen rebels, and she met mothers of sons who had been murdered by beheading.
Lubov related “I think that God was watching over me. I was walking along mined roads, but I did not step on a bomb. He protected me from bombings, He did not let me die, because my duty was to find my son, to bury him on his native land, according to Christian traditions. I have realized that recently. When I was walking along those military roads, I just kept silence, praying to God in my heart.”
In one region of Chechnya with a group of Russian mothers, Lubov came across 55 Russian soldiers surviving out of a group of 150 held captive. But only two of them had become Muslim to save their lives and they were now guarding their former comrades and beating them cruelly. One of the converted soldiers, surrounded by Chechens told his mother, “I have no mother. I have only Allah. I am not Kostya, I am Kozbek!” The man’s mother quietly replied, “It is better for you to die rather than be like this.”
Lubov found the breakdown of normal society in Chechnya had led to such a levels of corruption, that everything was decided on the amount of money one was willing to spend. In September 1996 she finally met a Chechen rebel field commander named Rusland Haihoroev (also spelled Khaikhoroyev in some sources) who claimed to have knowledge of Evgeny. On first meeting him, Haihoroev told Lubov that her son had been killed during a Russian bombing raid. Lubov felt that he was lying, the man seemed very uneasy at her questioning, and he then told her that unless the Russians stopped their bombing, all Russian captives would be killed.
Haihoroev later admitted that Evgeny had tried to escape but was unsuccessful, and that he had been given the choice – change his faith and take of his cross, or die – but Evgeny had refused to remove his cross. Haihoroev eventually beheaded Evgeny with a rusted saw, an horrific task that took over an hour to complete on May the 23rd, 1996 (his 19th birthday) near the settlement of Bamut. His body, along with those of three other young Russian prisoners, was placed in a bomb crater outside the village of Alexeevskaya and covered up with lime and dirt.
The Chechens preferred this atrocious method of execution because they followed a local superstition believing that a decapitated victim would not come for the murderer after death. Such is their barbarity that the Chechens would often record the executions. There are at least over 400 hours of such recordings on the internet of Russians being beheaded by Muslim Chechens.
Russian troops occupied the village where Evgeny was murdered the day following the execution, too late to have prevented the deaths.
Rusland Haihoroev told Lubov seventeen times over the course of seventeen separate meetings, that she had born a bad son who refused to adopt Islam and join the separatists in their fight against Russia. “Your son had a choice to stay alive. He could convert to Islam, but he did not agree to take his cross off. He also tried to escape once,” said Haihoroev to Evgeny’s mother. She finally agreed to pay Haihoroev some 100,000 roubles (about US$4000) to take her to his gravesite in the forests outside of Alexeevskaya. This was money she did not have, so she had to sell her apartment to finance the deal.
Chechens in Moscow handled the deal and when all was done Haihoroev showed her where his body was. There, late at night, with the assistance of the Russian military, she was able to exhume his body. She found her son’s headless body together with the cross he wore and died for among his bones and stained with small drops of blood. The head was discarded in another place. According to Evgeny’s mother, this event took place in the following way:
“When I came to Chechnya in the middle of February, a living private cost ten million roubles. This price was 50 million in August. A friend of mine was told to pay 250 million roubles for her son, since he was an officer. It was night-time when I and some sappers began digging into the pit in which the bodies of four Russian soldiers were thrown. I was praying all the time, hoping that my Evgeny was not going to be there. I could not and did not want to believe that he was murdered. When we were taking out the remnants, I recognized his boots. However, I still refused to accept the fact of his death, until someone found his cross. Then I fainted.”
Lubov took Evgeny’s body away, along with the bodies of his murdered friends. She returned to Moscow with the aid of the Russian Orthodox Church and buried him. Sadly her grief was compounded because when Lubov Rodionova came back home, Evgeny’s father died five days after the funeral. He could not stand the loss of his son.
Evgeny was posthumously awarded the Order of Courage by the Army. Lubov later returned to Chechnya on a second trip and recovered her son’s head.
Haihoroev himself and his bodyguards were killed on August the 23rd, 1999 in a fire fight between his group and a rival Chechen band.
The young soldier’s fate would have probably been forgotten, like countless others who lost their lives fighting the Muslim terrorists if a Central TV film crew had not come to the village where Evgeny’s relics now lie six years later to shoot a short report on a cross being raised to grace a cupola on a restored church. Parishioners told the reporters about the heroic deed of the son and the courage of the mother, who had buried him in his homeland. They filed the story as a separate report which was broadcast and received wide coverage. A year later a huge devotion to Evgeny had spread throughout Russia and the entire world.
As his story has spread, pilgrims have begun appearing in the small village just west of Moscow, where his mother, Lubov, tends his grave on an icy hillside beside an old whitewashed church. Some military veterans have laid their medals by his graveside in a gesture of homage. People in distress have left handwritten notes asking for his intercession.
Aleksandr Makeyev, a paratroop officer who heads a foundation to assist soldiers, said he had seen soldiers kneeling in prayer before an image of Evgeny. “The kids in Chechnya feel they’ve been abandoned by the state and abandoned by their commanders,” he told the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets. “They don’t know who to appeal to for help, but they understand that Zhenya is one of them,” he said, using Evgeny’s nickname. “You can say he is the first soldier-saint.”
Icons and pictures of this young man Evgeny spread around Russia very quickly and he was hailed as a New Martyr for Christ. In these icons sometimes he wears a uniform, sometimes a red robe (which is a way he appears in visions to the faithful, especially soldiers and children), sometimes armed, sometimes holding a Cross of martyrdom, but always with his halo. The picture distributed of him shows Evgeny wearing the cross around his neck for which he died. Miracles have been occurring in connection with Evgeny’s relics as well. During a religious procession in commemoration of the New Martyr Evgeny on November the 20th, 2002 an icon of the brave young soldier started secreting sweet-scented myrrh.
Laminated cards bearing Evgeny’s image have been mass produced and many soldiers carry them with them when they are deployed on active duty. The cards bear the words of a prayer, the troparion for a martyr:
“In his sufferings, O Lord, Thy martyr Evgeny received an imperishable crown from Thee, our God; for possessed of Thy might, he set at naught the tormentors and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. By his supplications save Thou our souls.”
A sign in memory of the brave Evgeny was put at the entrance to the school where he studied. There was also a documentary released about him. People’s donations made it possible to erect a two-meter high Orthodox Cross on his grave which is located in the village of Satino-Russkoye, near Podolsk, in the Moscow region. This was later replaced by a more substantial memorial. People come to visit his grave from the most distant parts of Russia. A WWII veteran once came to visit Evgeny’s grave and he took off his military decoration – the Bravery Medal – and put in on the tombstone. The writings on Evgeny’s grave cross read: “The Russian soldier Evgeny Rodionov is buried here. He defended his Fatherland and did not disavow Christ. He was executed on May the 23rd, 1996, on the outskirts of Bamut.”
His own neck cross, the one that he refused to give up, his mother has donated to St. Nicholas Church in Ordinka, Moscow.
Because of the huge devotion to the New Martyr Evgeny, the pious faithful have sought official recognition from the Moscow Patriarchal authorities but thus far no official glorification has been authorised.
Evgeny’s biography, entitled The New Martyr of Christ, Warrior Evgeny, written by the priest Alexander Shargunov, was published in a booklet in 2002. The fifth edition was blessed by His Holiness the late Patriarch Alexey.
In pamphlets, songs and poems, in sermons and on Web sites, the young soldier Evgeny Rodionov’s story has become a parable of religious devotion and Russian identity.
“Nineteen-year-old Evgeny Rodionov went through unthinkable suffering,” reads an encomium on one Russian Web site, “but he did not renounce the Orthodox faith but confirmed it with his martyr’s death. He proved that now, after so many decades of raging atheism, after so many years of unrestrained nihilism, Russia is capable, as in earlier times, of giving birth to a martyr for Christ, which means it is unconquerable.”
Readers of “The Voice” are requested to add the name of this new martyr, this brave young soldier, the warrior Evgeny (Eugene) to their commemoration books, and to request their parish priest to serve an annual panikhida (memorial service) for the repose of his soul on the anniversary of his death each 10th/23rd of May.
May we, dear brothers and sisters, learn from Evgeny’s constancy, dignity and bravery to face and overcome our own daily temptations to betray Christ. May we bear our cross daily and NEVER, EVER be ashamed to wear our baptismal cross and be ready at all times to defend our holy Orthodox Christian Faith by living a holy life in accordance with the commands of Christ.
Holy New Martyr Evgeny and all the Saints who have shone forth in the land of Russia, pray to God for us!
Akathist Hymn
To the New-Martyr Eugene the Warrior
Whose Memory the Holy Church Doth Celebrate on the 10th of May
FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY
Kontakion I
O ye faithful, let us glorify Christ God, the High Commander and Lord, the Author of life and Vanquisher of death, for He chose the martyr Eugene, the glorious warrior, to be among His witnesses. And do thou, O holy passion-bearer, who at the behest of God and by His unapproachable providence wast translated from the field of battle and affliction to the mansions of paradise, never cease to pray for us who remain on earth, that we may cry out to thee:
Rejoice, O martyr Eugene, invincible warrior of Christ!
Ikos I
The Creator of the angels and Author of the whole visible world assigned to thee a guardian angel at the baptismal font; and, guided by him, thou didst crown thy life with the shedding of thy blood in imitation of Christ. Wherefore, unto thee who didst defend the glory and veneration of the sign of the Cross in the face of thy slayers, we cry out thus:
Rejoice, precious ornament of the army of Russia; rejoice, glorious addition to the kingdom of God!
Rejoice, thou who wast fully obedient to thine
Earthly commanders; rejoice, faithful servant of Christ the Commander!
Rejoice, tender branch sprung forth on the tree of Russia; rejoice, tree newly planted in the paradise of the Lord!
Rejoice, thou who from childhood didst hasten toward the baptismal font; rejoice, thou who in the years of thy youth didst come to dwell in the Garden of Eden!
Rejoice, O martyr Eugene, invincible warrior of Christ!
Kontakion II
Seeing how certain of thy fellow soldiers were, out of fear of death, betraying the Faith of their fathers to mollify those who had captured them during their rebellion, thou didst not cease to pray to the crucified Christ, Whose sign thou didst constantly bear upon thy breast like a mighty shield against all wickedness and evil circumstance; and thou didst cry out to Him: Alleluia!
Ikos II
From childhood thou didst in thine understanding recognize the true God, and in thy heart was the Benefactor well-pleased to make a splendid habitation for Himself. Wherefore, we marvel at the wisdom of God which dwelt in this abode, raised amid the thorns and thistles of the temptations of this world; and we cry out to thee thus:
Rejoice, young dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit; rejoice, new receptacle of grace divine!
Rejoice, tree with branches bearing all manner of fruits; rejoice, fertile offshoot of an unsown land!
Rejoice, fellow citizen most beloved of thy kinsmen and friends; rejoice, cherished dweller with the angels and all the saints!
Rejoice, thou who didst amaze those on earth by thy struggle of faith; rejoice, thou who didst gladden the inhabitants of heaven with thy courage!
Rejoice, O martyr Eugene, invincible warrior of Christ!
Kontakion III
The power of the Most High, which healeth the infirm and with abundant grace filleth those who are lacking, hath manifested itself in thy finite body through the image of God, a thing immortal contained therein. Wherefore, thou didst account the comfort and mortality of thy flesh as nought, so as to save thy soul, that thou mightest rejoice eternally and chant unto our King and God: Alleluia!
Ikos III
Facing a choice between temporal and impermanent prosperity and everlasting and certain blessedness in the kingdom of God, O Eugene, thou didst confront thy tormentors, bearing on thy body the sign of the Cross as protection against evils for thy soul and body. For this cause, we also, reverently honouring the most precious Cross of the Lord, whereby we vanquish the enemy, cry out to thee thus:
Rejoice, thou who didst love Christ, Who gave His flesh over to be slain for our salvation; rejoice, thou who didst not deny God, the Saviour of the world, Who shed His own blood for the remission of our sins!
Rejoice, thou who didst strictly follow the teaching of the Gospel of Christ; rejoice, thou who didst not submit thy mind to the false teachings of thy tormentors!
Rejoice, thou who by thy good works didst confirm the true Faith; rejoice, thou who by thy living example didst put the unbelief of thy slayers to shame!
Rejoice, for thy mighty faith proclaims Christ, Who is God, unto us; rejoice, for thou didst set at nought the malice of the iniquitous murderers, and their religion itself, as in vain.
Rejoice, O martyr Eugene, invincible warrior of Christ!
Kontakion IV
Hearing the words of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, which call each man to confess Him as the true God Who bestoweth life everlasting, and to follow Him, O Eugene, with a pure and childlike heart, but with the wisdom of a grown man, thou didst lay up these words in the depths of thy heart, with joy and humility chanting praise unto Him Who summoned thee: Alleluia!
Ikos IV
The mindlessness and the blind cupidity of the rebels, who desire to disturb the peace and tranquillity of our land, moved our military authorities to summon thee and a multitude of thy friends and fellows to the south of the country, to put down those who rise up against our laws and slay our people, abducting them and making them slaves. Wherefore, unto thee, who gavest thy life over to death for the sake of the Christian Faith and thy compatriots, do we cry out with joy and thanksgiving:
Rejoice, most worthy citizen of the land of Russia; rejoice, thou who didst not shame the honour of thy homeland before the world and the people!
Rejoice, thou who by the nobility whose namesake thou art didst establish the rightness of our military’s action; rejoice, thou who didst foil the counsels of those who violate the peace in the land of Chechnya and encroach upon the Orthodox Faith!
Rejoice, for through thee were the truths of the Orthodox Faith confirmed; rejoice, for the unbelief of the demoniac murderers and their very being, which is worse than paganism, is denounced!
Rejoice, for by thy struggle is the Orthodox army strengthened; rejoice, for the bestial rage of those who advance upon us is vanquished by thy courage and steadfastness!
Rejoice, O martyr Eugene, invincible warrior of Christ!
Kontakion V
Thy divinely guided life and military service, O Eugene chosen by God, was not hidden from our people, who with faith honour the struggles of thy long-suffering and thy steadfast confession of the Faith, which was sealed with thy blood when thou didst reject the mindless dictates of thine accursed tormentors – to reject Christ thy God for the sake of an alien prophet, to cease making the sign of everlasting life with thy fingers, and to leave off chanting in praise to thy Master and Lord: Alleluia!
Ikos V
Seeing that neither the promise of good things nor the threat of a martyr’s death succeeded in turning thee away from thy mighty faith, even though certain of thy fellow prisoners, out of fear of death and because of bodily pain had forsaken our Faith and confessed one that is alien, thy bestial tormentors subjected thee to a cruel death, O honourable athlete Eugene. We who share thy Faith are horrified by the hard-heartedness of the ungodly haters of peace, the brigands and robbers, and with one mouth and heart we chant to thee these solemn things:
Rejoice, thou who on earth didst keep the Faith of thy fathers; rejoice, thou who in heaven hast received from Christ a rich reward!
Rejoice, thou who from thy youth didst recognize the vanity of an earthly life; rejoice, thou who from childhood didst desire the blessedness of abiding with God forever!
Rejoice, thou who by knowledge divine didst illumine dark unbelief; rejoice, thou who with thy godly understanding didst triumph over pernicious ignorance!
Rejoice, thou who through the font of baptism in the name of the all-holy Trinity – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – didst shed the ancestral sin; rejoice, thou who by thine inclination toward spiritual ascent didst by the loving-kindness of God receive the remission of thy sins.
Rejoice, O martyr Eugene, invincible warrior of Christ!
Kontakion VI
Thou wast shown to be a God-bearing preacher, O wondrous Eugene, for true faith, which doth triumph over corruption and death, is able to accomplish much, calling the whole army of Russia and its people to cry out to God with thee: Alleluia!
Ikos VI
In our land, O Eugene, right wondrous warrior and favourite of Christ, thou didst shine forth like a radiant star lit at the command of the Creator of angels and men in the heaven of the Church of Christ when the Lord enlightened us to replace our prayers for the repose of thy soul with supplications addressed to thee thyself, as to a newly revealed saint glorified by God, and a dependable and faithful intercessor for us at a time more suitable than any other time. And thanking God’s providential oversight for us and this much valued gift, with compunction we sing thus unto thee, our unexpected, and therefore doubly acceptable, friend:
Rejoice, thou who wast strengthened in thy sufferings by the company of all-glorious martyrs; rejoice, thou who wast inspired for the contest of suffering by their bold example!
Rejoice, thou who straightway after thy departure from thy body of clay didst taste victory over death and hades; rejoice, thou who through thy martyric struggle didst acquire the crown of immortality!
Rejoice, thou who healest souls wounded by unbelief and doubting; rejoice, thou who directest many of thy friends to walk in thy footsteps!
Rejoice, living and salvific witness to the Faith of Christ; rejoice, irrefutable proof of the redemptive sacrifice of the Lord!
Rejoice, O martyr Eugene, invincible warrior of Christ!
Kontakion VII
Desiring to strengthen the faith of those who are His own, which was weakened by the threats of the ungodly, and to rescue them from the pit of pernicious unbelief, the Lord of loving-kindness stretched forth His right hand over our land and deigned to subject His people to trials during battle therein, that we might come to understand that our misfortunes have their origin within us, so that we might turn our gaze within our hearts, which are infected with unbelief, and find again the Lord and Saviour of the world, Who granteth peace, crying out to Him with the assembly of all the saints: Alleluia!
Ikos VII
We know thee to be a lamp illumining the path of youth which is not enlightened by the knowledge of God, O blessed Eugene: for the manner of thy life and ending on earth became the most powerful means to move to understanding the infidels who were infected with multifarious heresies; while the image of thine afflictions and thine eternal sojourn in Christ with the saints moveth us, who truly believe in the Holy Trinity, to chant unto thee these praises:
Rejoice, thou who wast born on earth in corruptible flesh; rejoice, thou who hast been translated to the heavens in an immortal soul!
Rejoice, thou who didst fittingly preserve the image of thy Creator within thyself; rejoice, thou who in thyself didst show forth the fullness of the likeness of thy Redeemer!
Rejoice, thou who didst place thyself wholly in the hands of the heavenly Father; rejoice, thou who didst joyfully entrust thy spirit to the Son of God!
Rejoice, thou who in fidelity to the Spirit of God didst not blaspheme thy baptismal vows; rejoice, thou who in thy sacrificial end didst solemnly honour the Holy Trinity!
Rejoice, O martyr Eugene, invincible warrior of Christ!
Kontakion VIII
Strange is it, O divinely wise Eugene, to see how thy soul, abiding in thy youthful flesh, showed forth the courage and determination which belong to mature age and an experience characteristic of life, when, confronting thy captors, who were blinded by the enemy of the human race, thou didst not permit thy strength in the Faith do be broken. And celebrating thy victory over time and corruption, we offer up hymnody unto God in the heights which are beyond time, where thou now chantest unto Him: Alleluia!
Ikos VIII
Thou didst commit thyself wholly to the will of God, O humble-minded Eugene, athlete of Christ, in no-wise trusting thy human will when thou didst reject the path of Judas Iscariot, desiring with all thy heart never to cease making the sign of the Cross. Wherefore, entreating thee to be for us, who are weak in spirit, a mediator before the crucified Redeemer Who rose from the dead and hath resurrected us, we chant to thee thus:
Rejoice, thou who didst love God from thy youth; rejoice, thou who didst amaze thy tormentors with the power of God which was in thee!
Rejoice, thou who didst guard thy flesh with the sign of the Cross against multifarious temptations; rejoice, thou who didst defend thy soul with the power of the Cross against the assaults of the demons!
Rejoice, for through thee hath the Lord drawn nigh to mortal men; rejoice, for for thy sake hath the deicidal spirit of betrayal been uprooted from among the faithful!
Rejoice, for after thy departure the angels of God prepared for thee a ladder from earth to the throne of the dread Godhead; rejoice, for the holy martyrs presented thee before the all-seeing eye of the Unapproachable One as a soldier who shared in their ways and was of equal value!
Rejoice, O martyr Eugene, invincible warrior of Christ!
Kontakion IX
Deliver us from every ailment of soul and body, from every misfortune and need of our flesh and spirit, O most lauded Eugene, that, having seen thy faith in the Bestower of life everlasting, we may be strengthened to chant, boldly and without hesitation, unto God Who granteth might: Alleluia!
Ikos IX
The eloquence of those who held thee captive, who urged thee to convert to their vain religion, was broken, as a stone breaketh water; for thou, O valiant servant of Christ, didst know that no religion, if it is true, resorteth to murder and violence. Wherefore, marvelling at thy strength in the face of thy hypocritical and prideful slayers, we chant such hymns to thee:
Rejoice, thou who didst reprove the falsehood of thy tormentors with thy truth; rejoice, thou who didst entrust thy works and intentions to the judgment of God!
Rejoice, thou who didst denounce the hypocrisy of those who blaspheme thy God; rejoice, thou who hast shown the true path unto all who have departed from God!
Rejoice, thou who hast drenched the land of Russia with thy blood; rejoice, thou who hast hallowed that land with thy flesh!
Rejoice, eternal memory in the hearts and minds of mortal men; rejoice, blessed repose among the inhabitants of heaven!
Rejoice, O martyr Eugene, invincible warrior of Christ!
Kontakion X
Salvific for thy soul was the death of thy flesh, O glorious Eugene, when thou didst finish thy course of life on earth, which is full of wrath, malice and all unrighteousness. And now thy standest, and shalt ever stand, before the Sun of righteousness, Christ, the God of loving-kindness, Who is full of love, chanting to Him the hymn of praise: Alleluia!
Ikos X
Thy faith was shown to be an unassailable bulwark against which no weapon availeth, O holy martyr and confessor Eugene; for bearing on thy breast the sign of the Cross, the weapon of faith, thou didst conquer the hordes and legions of the enemy, according to the word once given by the Lord to the right-believing Emperor Constantine. And glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave thee strength and crowned thee with the martyr’s crown of victory, and kissing thy mighty sign as a great and holy thing, we chant unto thee these praises:
Rejoice, thou who didst pass with honour through the sea of life and the tempest of perils; rejoice, thou who hast entered the calm haven and garden of paradise!
Rejoice, thou who hast been led up from the corruption of death by Christ, the Vanquisher of death;
rejoice, thou who wast been crowned with the crown of glory by the King of kings!
Rejoice, thou who hast been adopted by the all-pure Theotokos, the Queen of heaven and earth; rejoice, thou who hast been joyously welcomed to heaven by the assembly of all the saints!
Rejoice, thou who wast caught up by thy guardian angel, away from all pain, grief and sighing; rejoice, thou who wast presented before the Bestower of life everlasting by the whole army of heaven!
Rejoice, O martyr Eugene, invincible warrior of Christ!
Kontakion XI
We offer hymnody to thy triumph over death and eternal damnation, marvelling at the unapproachable providence of God, Who in a time of disorder hath given us assured hope in the easing of our greatly toilsome life through thy supplications, O Eugene, witness of Christ, who didst offer thyself as a sacrifice for us who cry out to God in thanksgiving for thee: Alleluia!
Ikos XI
Thy struggle hath shone forth in the land of Russia like a luminous torch, O martyr Eugene glorified by God. And we, thy compatriots, born with thee in the same land, give thanks unto God with one mouth and one heart, chanting thus unto thee:
Rejoice, reconciliation of men with God; rejoice, mollifying of the just Judge for them!
Rejoice, thou who wast caught up from this material world in thy youth; rejoice, thou who wast taken to abide in everlasting youth at the side of God!
Rejoice, strength and confirmation of the land of Russia; rejoice, victory of the army of our realm over the enemy!
Rejoice, thou who wast delivered from the disorders and troubles of this transitory life; rejoice, thou who hast been restored to our pristine majesty and untroubled blessedness!
Rejoice, O martyr Eugene, invincible warrior of Christ!
Kontakion XII
O glorious martyr Eugene, who during thine earthly life wast counted worthy of the gifts of the grace of God, ask thou of our Saviour that we sinners may, without condemnation, also share in His grace, that we may chant unto Christ God, the Truth of our Faith, Who hath glorified thee: Alleluia!
Ikos XII
Hymning the glory of the unfathomable abyss of the wisdom of God, which hath been revealed to us in thee, O holy and glorious martyr and athlete Eugene, we transform into great joy the sorrows we feel for soldiers who have perished on the field of the battle, which the enemy of the human race and father of damnation wageth against us because of our spiritual weakness. For this joy is joy in the Lord, Who visiteth us with afflictions for the sake of our sins and granteth us time to repent and to turn to the splendours of His commandments, that all the actions which the devil directeth against us may be confounded, that we may chant unto thee, the mighty witness of God, who hast been glorified by Him:
Rejoice, tree of the longed-for fruit of paradise; rejoice, right fragrant flower planted in Eden!
Rejoice, ripe grapes of the vine of Christ; rejoice, fatted lamb of the flock of Jesus!
Rejoice, spacious container of the wisdom of God; rejoice, deep well of spiritual virtues!
Rejoice, precious stone from the eternal treasuries; rejoice, abundant store of God-given riches!
Rejoice, O martyr Eugene, invincible warrior of Christ!
Kontakion XIII
O our all-glorious and all-wondrous compatriot, warrior and witness of Christ, martyr Eugene! Accepting the hymnody we now offer thee with love and thanksgiving, entreat the Lord of glory Who hath glorified thee, that He grant peace to our souls and our homeland, and remove conflict and dissension from our life, that, having thee as a mediator before the throne of the great Godhead, we sinners may cry out to our Master and Creator, Who is in three Hypostases: Alleluia!
This Kontakion is recited thrice, whereupon Ikos I and Kontakion I are repeated and then the prayer on the page following is read to conclude the Akathist:
Prayer to the Holy New-Martyr
Eugene the Warrior
O holy and most laudable martyr Eugene, who at the right acceptable time hast been given us, thy compatriots, by the inscrutable providence and unapproachable mind of the tri-hypostatic God, Who hath visited upon our land the trial of civil strife, which the ancient enemy of the human race and of our Redeemer Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, hath raised against us! We know that to do battle with this enemy, who infesteth the minds of benighted rebels, corrupters of men’s minds, slayers of the elderly and the young, of women and children, Thou hast sent unto the land of Chechnya our military forces, that the iniquitous in the midst of our land might be scattered like dust in the face of the wind, as of old our every enemy was scattered by the blessing of God and the valour of our warriors. We know that because of our sins the Lord hath permitted such a trial for us who are lacking in all good; yet our loving Creator and Father hath not left us in despair and confusion, choosing thee, O glorious warrior, that by thy blood thou mightest sanctify our warfare against the enemy, mightest strengthen the faith of the people and our army, and by thine example mightest teach us to cleave unto the peace and goodness commanded us by God, and may turn away from the evil whereof life is full and wherewith our actions in these times are vexed. For by thy way of life and blessed end thou didst show that the summit of all dignities and virtues is life on earth with God. Having loved the life-creating Cross from thy youth, O thou who didst suffer even to cruel execution for thy mighty confession of the Faith and righteousness, thou hast been reckoned among the great martyrs of old and witnesses to the glory of God in the infant Church of Christ, who fought the good fight of martyrdom. Likewise, O glorious Eugene, thou didst not reject the sign of the Cross, which thou didst bear upon thy breast, and didst prefer a grievous and undeserved death for the honour and glory of thy God, than to live with a conscience wounded and accursed. And now, we who joyously celebrate thy glorification believe that all the hosts of heaven rejoice with us and greet thee, O sapling newly planted in the paradise of Jesus! And we believe all the more that thou hast also won the love of the very Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, our all-holy Mistress, the Theotokos and Ever-virgin Mary, and dost hear from her: “This one is of our generation!” And kissing thy sign of the Cross as a great and holy thing, unto thee, in that thou hast acquired boldness before the Lord for the courage of thy struggle, we now cry out and pray: By thy supplications may the Lord enlighten our hearts and souls, which have been darkened by evil and sin (for our sins are warfare against the will of our Creator, and no-one will stand if the Lord will regard the iniquities of His people); may He remit our sins and transgressions; as He accepted the shedding of thy blood, so may He accept the repentance which each of us offereth up, that the Lord of the ages and of our greatly toilsome life may grant us time for sincere repentance, that we may make our hearts worthy habitations for Christ the Saviour, Who hath come down unto us, lest our guardian angel flee from us, who are hard-hearted and callous, abandoning us to the violence of the devil. O holy passion-bearer and confessor, beg eternal rest in blessed repose for all our soldiers who have suffered with thee, and by thy holy mediation and entreaties ease the sufferings and grief of their parents and kinfolk; bring unto the merciful God, the Master of life and death, all who have laid down their life on fields of battle and have been tortured by the enemy while in captivity, that the Lord may cause them to dwell in the eternity of His Being, with all the saints who have been pleasing unto Him from ages past; and for us who are still on earth ask of Him that we may complete the remaining time of our life in peace, and after our departure may worthily stand with all the saints before the throne of our Judge, Who rewardeth each according to his merits and hath been moved to pity by the bold entreaties of thee and of all who have been pleasing unto Him, and that we may not be cast down into a place of torment because of our sins, but may dwell in the radiant effulgence of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Lord, for all the ages. Amen.
Translated from the Church Slavonic by the reader Isaac E. Lambertsen. Copyright © 2003. All rights reserved.