16 December 2024 (MIA)

Macedonian Orthodox Church Calendar

The Holy Prophet Zephaniah

Born on the mountain of Savarat and of the tribe of Simeon, he lived and prophesied in the seventh century before Christ, in the time of Josiah the pious King of Judah, and was a contemporary of the Prophet Jeremiah. With his great humility, pure mind and constant striving after God, he was found worthy of seeing into the future. He foretold the day of the wrath of God and the punishment of Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, Nineveh, Jerusalem, and Egypt. He looked upon Jerusalem as a filthy, polluted and oppressing city … her princes within her are like roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves … her prophets are light and treacherous persons; her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the Law (Zeph. 3:1- 4). Foreseeing the coming of the Messiah, he cried out with rapture: ‘Sing, O daughter of Sion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all thy heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!’ (3:14). This seer of secrets and mysteries went to his rest in the place where he was born, there to await the general Resurrection and his reward from God.

Catholic calendar

St. Eusebius

Bishop of Vercelli, b. in Sardinia c. 283; d. at Vercelli, Piedmont, 1 August, 371. He was made lector in Rome, where he lived some time, probably as a member or head of a religious community. Later he came to Vercelle, the present Vercelli, and in 340 was unanimously elected bishop of that city by the clergy and the people. He received episcopal consecration at the hands of Pope Julius I on 15 December, of the same year. According to the testimony of St. Ambrose, he was the first bishop of the West who united monastic with clerical life. He led with the clergy of his city a common life modeled upon that of the Eastern cenobites. For this reason the Canons Regular of St. Augustine honor him along with St. Augustine as their founder.