25 May 2024 (MIA)

Macedonian Orthodox Church Calendar

St Epiphanius, Bishop of Cyprus

Born a Jew, but, seeing the power of the Christian faith, was baptized together with his sister, Callithrope. He became a monk at the age of twenty-six, in the monastery of St. Hilarion. He later founded a monastery of his own and became famed throughout Palestine and Egypt for his asceticism, his spiritual wisdom and the wonders he worked. Fleeing the praise of men, he went off to Egypt. On the way, he met Paphnutius the Great, who prophesied that he would be a hierarch on the island of Cyprus. And indeed, many years later, Epiphanius came to Cyprus, where he was unexpectedly chosen as Bishop. He became Bishop of the town of Salamis at the age of 50 and governed the Church of God for thirty-six years. He lived for nearly 90 years and died in 403.

Catholic Calendar

Pope Gregory VII

One of the greatest of the Roman pontiffs; born between the years 1020 and 1025, at Soana, or Ravacum, in Tuscany; died 25 May 1085, at Salerno. Gregory was chaplain to Gregory VI and accompanied him into exile in Cologne in 1046. He returned to Rome with Leo IX and became administrator of the Patrimony of Peter. Hildebrand quickly became an important figure in reforming circles. He recovered much of the ecclesiastical property held by Italian nobles and restored the papal finances. As Pope Gregory VII (from 1073) he convoked reform synods and issued decrees that forbade, under pain of excommunication, clerical marriage (and concubinage) and simony. Gregory appointed legates, many from among the reforming Cluniac order, to travel throughout Europe and enforce the new laws. They met with opposition and violence almost everywhere. Gregory’s ensuing struggles with the royal houses of Europe, who opposed the decree, dominated the remaining years of his pontificate. In Germany, Henry IV joined with the nobles against the reform, and in a dispute with Gregory, he was excommunicated (1076). Henry answered by setting up an imperial antipope, Guibert of Ravenna (Clement III). When the civil war ended in Henry’s favor, he marched (1081) into Italy. Gregory led the defense of Rome, but when Henry returned a second time (1083) the Romans, beguiled by Henry’s generosity, betrayed Gregory. He fortified himself in the Castel Sant’Angelo until rescued by his Norman ally, Robert Guiscard. He died a year later at Salerno, shorn of nearly all support but that of the Normans.