2 March 2025 (MIA)

Macedonian Orthodox Church Calendar

Our Holy Mother, the Martyr Eudocia – Forgiveness Day (Prochka)

Living in Heliopolis, a city of Phoenicia, during the reign of Trajan, she was at first a great harlot, then a penitent, a nun and finally a martyr. She gained great wealth from her harlotry. The reversal of her life was brought about, through the providence of God, by an elderly monk, Germanus, and that unintentionally. Coming to Heliopolis in the course of his work, he stayed at the house of a Christian woman whose home abutted onto Eudocia’s. When at night he began, as was his monastic custom, to read the Psalter and a book on the Dreadful Judgement, Eudocia heard him and stood listening attentively to his every word until the end. Fear and dread took such hold on her that she remained awake until daybreak. As soon as it was dawn, she sent a servant to beg that monk to come to her. Germanus came, and they began a long conversation on that which the old monk had been reading the previous night, and especially on faith and salvation. The result of these discussions was that Eudocia asked the local bishop to baptise her. After her baptism, she gave all her goods to the church, to be distributed to the poor, dismissed her servants and slaves and retired to a woman’s monastery. She so devoted herself to the monastic life – to obedience, patience, vigils, prayer and fasting-that after thirteen months she was chosen as abbess. She lived fifty-six years in the monastery and was worthy in the eyes of God to be given the gift of raising the dead. When a persecution of Christians arose under the governor, Vin-cent, holy Eudocia was beheaded. Here is a wonderful example of how a vessel of uncleanness can be purified, sanctified and filled with a precious, heavenly fragrance by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy and Great Martyr Theodore the Tyro

`Tyro’ means `Recruit’. No sooner had St. Theodore entered the Marmarite regiment of the army in the town of Amasea than a persecution of Christians broke out under the Emperors Maximian and Maximinus. Theodore did not attempt to conceal that he was a Christian, and was brought to trial and imprisoned in a prison that was then locked and sealed. The wicked judge intended him to die of hunger, but the Lord Christ Himself appeared to Theodore in the prison and encouraged His martyr with these words: `Fear not, Theodore; I am with thee. Take no more earthly food and drink, for thou shalt be in the other life, eternal and unending, with Me in heaven.’ Then a multitude of angels appeared in the prison, and the whole place shone with light. The warders on duty saw the angels in white apparel and were filled with fear. Then St. Theodore was taken out, tortured and condemned to death. He was thrown into fire, and gave his soul to the most high God. He suffered in 306.

Catholic Calendar

St. Simplicius

Saint Simplicius was the ornament of the Roman clergy under Popes Saint Leo and Saint Hilarius, and succeeded the latter as Supreme Pontiff in 468. He was raised up by God to comfort and support his Church amid the greatest tribulations, occasioned by the fall of Rome in the eighth year of his reign. Saint Simplicius, after dedicating four major churches of Rome and establishing many useful regulations for the Roman Church during his reign of nearly sixteen years, went to receive the reward of his labors in 483.