On January 8, everyone who bears the name Julian, Vasilisa, Emilian celebrates their name day
Saint Julian was born in the Egyptian city of Antinoia into the family of noble and wealthy parents. The young man loved the purity of childhood and wished to preserve it until the end of his days. He laid it as the foundation of all other virtues and, diligently reading and studying the Divine books, lived in the fear of God. Julian studied both Hellenic wisdom and Christian doctrine, became acquainted with secular philosophy, and mastered the Divine Scriptures well.
When he turned eighteen, his parents began to force him to marry, since he was an only child and wanted to continue their lineage. Julian refused under any pretext. When his parents and relatives completely bored him with their advice and requests, forcing him to marry, the chaste young man asked for a week to reflect. He spent it in fasting, prayer, and tears, praying day and night to God "in whatever way it pleases Him" to preserve the childhood that He had promised Him immaculate. On the seventh day, exhausted from fasting and prayer, he lay down at night and fell asleep.
And behold, the Lord appeared to him in a dream, Who comforted and encouraged him with the words:
Fulfill without fear the will and advice of your parents, for you will take a wife who will not violate your chastity and will not separate you from Me. Moreover, for your sake, she will also want to remain a virgin, and I will accept both of you as virgins in My heavenly abodes, for by your example many a young man and a maiden will preserve their chastity and inherit the kingdom of heaven. I will be inseparable with you, I will dwell in you and I will conquer all your bodily desires and carnal passions. I will make the virgin to whom I will marry such as I wish. I will make her also wish to follow your good intention, and you two will see Me in the palace prepared for you, together with the angelic faces and with countless virgins of both sexes, whom nature has separated, but faith in Me has united, and whose imitator you will be.
Having said this, the Lord touched Julian with the words:
Do not be afraid, and let your heart be strong!
Thus encouraged and comforted by the divine vision, the noble youth awoke from sleep and said:
I thank You, Lord God, Who tests hearts, that You have driven away from me the sweetness and comforts of the world and promise to be the guardian of my purity and my helper. I firmly believe that You will give me what "eye has not seen, ear has not heard, and it has not entered the mind of man," what You have prepared for those who love You. And so, having made me worthy to walk in Your path, I pray that You Yourself will be the good path for me, as for all who love purity. You know, Lord, that from the day of my birth until this hour in which You have deigned to call me, I have loved and desired only You. Therefore, confirm the promises I have made and put them into action. "
The young man came out of the bedroom and announced to his parents that he agreed to fulfill their desire and get married. They were delighted and immediately began to look for a virgin suitable in nobility and wealth. Finally, they found one in the person of Vasilisa, who was distinguished by beauty and virtues and was the only child of her parents.
The two of them and Julian were married. After the wedding feast, when the bride and groom were led into the bedroom and they were left alone, the maiden smelled an extraordinary fragrance, as if from a garden of lilies, roses and other fragrant flowers. Amazed, she said to the bridegroom:
What is this, my lord? It is winter now, and I smell the fragrance of flowers, as if it were spring, and I feel such delight that I do not want to think of anything else.
Then the blessed Julian said:
The fragrance that you smell is not ordinary, it comes from Christ, Who loves purity and grants eternal life to those who preserve their virginity. And so, if you want us to keep the commandments of Christ and please the Lord, love Him with all our souls and remain for His sake in immaculate chastity. We will be His chosen vessels in this age, so that we may reign with Him in the age to come and never be separated.
The blessed bride answered him:
Is there anything more important than salvation, which, if we preserve our chastity, we will receive, together with eternal life? I believe in you and will live with you in chaste virginity until my death, so that I may receive the reward from Christ, my Lord.
When she had said this, blessed Julian fell facedown to the ground, worshiped God and raised his voice to Him:
Confirm, Lord, Your work in us!
Seeing that her husband was praying, Vasilisa also began to pray. Then suddenly the floor of the bedroom shook and such an extraordinary light shone in it that the candles burning inside were dimmed before the rays of heaven. And a great divine vision was revealed: on one side was seen the King of Glory, Christ, with an innumerable multitude of virgins, and on the other the Most Pure Lady, the Theotokos, with a host of virgins. From both sides came heavenly hymns, filled with inexpressible sweetness, such as no human ear had ever heard.
Two radiant men with golden belts approached Julian and Vasilisa, lifted them from the ground and pointed to a large and beautiful book on the bed. Near her stood four venerable and handsome old men with golden cups in their hands, from which a wonderful fragrance emanated and filled the room.
Then one of the old men said:
The cups symbolize your perfection. You are blessed, because, having overcome the temporary comforts of this life, you have striven for the eternal, which is unattainable for the human mind. Julian, read what is written in the book of life!
Then Saint Julian looked into the book and saw his name and the name of his wife. In golden letters it was written: “Julian, who renounced the world for love of Me, will be counted among those “who did not defile themselves with women”. For her purity and immaculate chastity, Vasilisa will be counted among the virgins who accompany the True Virgin Mary, My Most Pure Mother.” As soon as he read these words, the book closed and the bright men and virgins present exclaimed in one voice: “Amen!”
The elder again turned to Julian and Vasilisa and said:
In the book that you see are written the pure, the sober, the truthful, the merciful, the humble, the meek, those who have unhypocritical love, who have endured all sorts of severe trials, sorrows and calamities; people who have loved Christ so much that for the love of Him they have left father and mother, wife and children, property and wealth, and have not been afraid to give their lives for the Lord. You are now joined to their image. As soon as the venerable elder said this, the divine vision ended, and the blessed spouses, filled with extraordinary joy, spent the rest of the night in psalm singing.
When day came, the parents, relatives, and all the guests invited to the wedding continued to feast, celebrating the carnal union of the newlyweds, without suspecting their wonderful spiritual union. Thus, Julian and Vasilisa lived together in perfect purity and chastity, preserving the color of their immaculate virginity. However, they hid their secret from others, so that no one knew about their virgin life, not even their parents and relatives, until the Lord Himself revealed it for the benefit of many.
Not long after the marriage of Julian and Vasilisa, their parents died, leaving them a large inheritance. Once they were given freedom for spiritual life, they decided to help save other people. That is why they built two monasteries - one male and one female, separated and took monastic vows - he in the male monastery, she in the female monastery. They gathered those who wanted to serve God and took charge of them.
Up to ten thousand brothers lived in the monastery of Saint Julian, who diligently served God, because the Lord gave him such grace that people flocked to him from all sides who wanted to save their souls. Leaving home, wife, parents, relatives, property and worldly joys, they handed over their souls to him so that he could lead them to the kingdom of heaven. And Saint Vasilisa gathered about a thousand pure virgins in her monastery and made them brides of Christ, as well as many women. In both monasteries, as in two gardens of paradise, angelic purity flourished and virginity triumphed over the lustful rage of impurity.
However, it is time to tell about the death of the saints, how together with their children, gathered in God, they passed into the heavenly realms, raising their voices to Christ: here I am and the children whom the Lord has given me.
During the time of the wicked emperors Diocletian and Maximian, a great persecution began against Christians, which spread from one country to another, testing the Church of Christ, and approached the country where Saints Julian and Vasilisa lived. Many of the believers were troubled and frightened. Blessed Julian and Vasilisa, in fasting and prayer, with tears in their eyes, prayed to God to strengthen those who believed in Him and the monks and nuns they had gathered, preserving them from fall and destruction, so that they would all enter the Heavenly Fatherland. The Lord heard the prayer and appeared to Saint Vasilisa in a vision. He said that she would soon go to eternal rest, but before her, all the holy virgins who had been entrusted to her care would depart from life, so that none of them would fall away from the faith for fear of torture and be excluded from the ranks of the saints. Therefore, Vasilisa will remain on earth for another half a year, until all the holy virgins entrusted to her pass to God.
After her death, her spiritual brother Julian with many of his brothers will perform a martyr's feat and, having defeated the enemy with his courage, will depart from this life to receive a double crown of chastity and martyrdom in the joy of her Lord. And so it happened. In half a year, death took the virgins gathered by Saint Vasilisa, and they entered the heavenly palace of their immortal Bridegroom. Only Vasilisa remained. Not long after, they appeared to her in a dream, dressed in bright royal robes and said:
We are waiting for you, our mother, so that we may worship our King and Lord together. Come and give us to Christ, to whom He has betrothed us!
When she woke up, the venerable Vasilisa rejoiced greatly that all the virgins she had gathered had entered into the joy of her Lord, and that a heavenly abode had also been prepared for her. She told this to her spiritual brother, Saint Julian, and a few days later, during fervent prayer, she gave up her spirit into the hands of her immortal Bridegroom - God. The venerable Julian buried her holy body with due honor.
Soon after this, Marcian, together with his wife and son, arrived as governor of these lands and began to fiercely persecute the Christians, handing them over to torture and death. He learned that Julian was a man of noble birth and believed in Christ, and that many brothers lived and professed the faith with him. He sent prominent citizens to persuade him to offer sacrifices to idols, as the emperor had ordered. At that time, from the surrounding cities, a multitude of priests, deacons, clerics, and bishops gathered at the monastery of the Monk Julian, and all of them, out of ardent love for the Lord, were ready to surrender themselves to martyrdom. When Marcian's messengers arrived, the assembled people replied that they had one King - the Lord Jesus Christ, who dwells in heaven - and He commands them not to worship idols and the demons that hide in them, but only the One True God. And that they obey Christ and are ready at that very hour to die for Him. The messengers returned to the governor and brought him what they had heard. Marcian became angry and sent a detachment of soldiers to bring the Monk Julian, and to burn the monastery with the people in it. And so, they took the blessed one and threw him bound into prison, and the brothers who were in the monastery, about ten thousand people, together with the bishops and clerics, burned him as a fragrant offering to God. And long after that, the sweet-voiced chants of a large choir were carried in his place at the hours when the Divine Service was usually performed - the first, third, sixth and ninth. Many healings from various diseases took place in the place - and these sick people were deigned to hear the chants.
In the morning, Saint Julian was brought to trial before Marcian. For a long time they persuaded the saint, sometimes with cunning and kindness, sometimes under the fear of punishment, but he remained unyielding both in the face of threats and exhortations. Then they began to beat him mercilessly with rods. While he was being tortured in this way, one of the rods broke and a piece of it fell into the eye of a relative of the governor and injured him, which caused the governor to become even more furious. The holy sufferer said to him:
Hear me, Marcian, order your most experienced priests to gather and let them call upon their gods and goddesses and ask them to heal your relative. If they cannot do so, I, in the name of My Lord Jesus Christ, will not only restore his lost physical eye, but I will also make the eyes of his mind see the truth.
The governor agreed, gathered the priests, ordered them to go to the nearest idol temple, offer sacrifices and ask the gods and goddesses to heal the injured person's eye. The priests went and did as they were ordered, but after offering many sacrifices, they heard the following from their gods:
Leave us alone, for we have been delivered into eternal fire and are in darkness. How can we give sight to the blind, when we ourselves see nothing? And Julian's prayer to the Most High God is so strong that since you have tormented him, our torments in hell have become a hundred times more severe.
After these words, all the idols, which numbered about fifty, fell and crumbled to dust. The governor began to shout at Saint Julian:
You sorcerer! With your powerful magic you have crushed even our gods! But let us see if you will restore the sight of the blind man, as you promised.
And he ordered them to pour filth over the naked martyr, so that, as Marcian said, his power to enchant and work miracles would depart from him. But the stench of the filth suddenly turned into a wondrous fragrance that filled everything around, so that everyone was stunned with amazement. Saint Julian crossed the eye of the wounded man, called on the name of the Lord, and the sick man was healed at that very moment, and the eye began to see as before. Blinded by malice, Marcian attributed the healing to magic, not to the power of Christ, but the healed man cried out loudly:
Truly Jesus Christ is the True God, and Him alone we must honor and worship.
Then the governor ordered the beheading of the healed man, who, having regained his sight both bodily and spiritually, received baptism in his own blood and was deigned to contemplate the invisible God in spirit. The wicked torturer ordered that Saint Julian's hands and feet be bound with heavy chains and that he be led through the city for public humiliation, subjecting him to various tortures in the streets. During the torture and humiliation, a herald cried out:
This is what awaits those who do not worship the gods and despise the royal commands!
When the torturers and the saint reached the house where the only son of the governor named Celsus was studying, the boy saw the saint and told his companions that he had seen something amazing. They began to question him, and Celsus said:
I see a multitude of radiant youths surrounding the condemned Christian: some help and serve him, others hold on his head such a brilliant crown that its radiance surpasses the light of the sun. It seems to me that it is good to believe and serve such a God, Who thus protects those who serve Him and adorns them with such glory. Believe me, friends, that I also want to serve Him, if the God of this Christian deigns to become my God!
With these words, Celsus threw away his books and beautiful robes, leaving to the world what belonged to him, and hastened to catch up with the saint. He fell at his feet and exclaimed:
I want you to be my second father. From the wicked Marcian, my father by the flesh, the enemy of the righteous and the tormentor, I renounce. I join you and want to suffer like you for the Lord Christ, my Savior, Whom I did not know before!
The soldiers who tortured Julian were amazed. The whole city gathered at the unusual spectacle and marveled at how the governor's son embraced the martyr and kissed his wounds. The boy said to the people:
You should know that I am the governor's son. Until now, together with my wicked father, I have persecuted the innocent saints. I acted thus out of ignorance. Now, having known God and been known by Him, I renounce false gods, I renounce my father and mother, and despise my wealth. I confess Christ, I believe in Him, and declare that I am a follower of blessed Julian. Why are you delaying, servants and soldiers? Go and tell my parents that I have recognized the True God and want to be with His faithful servant.
When they brought his parents the unexpected news, they fell into deep sorrow and immediately sent to take the boy from Julian and bring him home. But God, who protects infants, made it so that no one could touch him. Whoever touched him felt a great pain in his arm and shoulder, so they did not dare to take him from the martyr. When the governor realized this, he ordered both of them to be brought to him and said to blessed Julian:
You are trying to deprive me of my hope with cunning and are seducing an unsteady heart with your treacherous words, uprooting from it the love for parents!
While he was speaking, Celsus' mother rushed in with a crowd of relatives of both sexes. She tore her hair, tore her robe from her chest, and her cries were so terrifying that the governor also tore his robe and said to the martyr:
Cruel-hearted Julian, see the torture of the parents, the sobs of the relatives, and free the innocent child from the action of your sorcery! Give us our only son and return the heir and master of our house. Then I will also ask the kings to forgive you your guilt, and you will be released unharmed. Saint Julian replied:
I do not need your help and I do not seek forgiveness from your kings, but I only ask the Lord Jesus Christ to count us, together with the lamb born from the womb of the wolf, and with all believers, among the faces of the burned, when we complete our martyrdom. Before you stands the one who was born in the flesh of you, and now was born in the spirit, having believed with me in Christ. He is not small, let him answer you himself, let him have mercy on his mother's tears and pity the breasts from which he sucked.
Then the noble and prudent youth said:
A rosehip blossoms on a thorn, but neither does it lose its fragrance from having come from a thorn, nor do the thorns on which it blooms lose their sharp thorns. And so, my parents, you, according to your custom, continue, like thorns, to torment the innocent, but leave me, like a rose flower, to spread a fragrance for the faithful. Let those who are on the path of destruction obey you, and let those who strive to pass from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light follow me. For the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, I renounce you, parents. You, for the sake of reverence for the gods, torture your son, because through temporary death I want to enter eternal life. I cannot be good for you, and bad for myself, and I will not put love for you above eternal joy. Why do you delay, father? Do with me as Abraham did with his son! Take the sword and offer me, your son, as a sacrifice for Christ. If natural parental love prevents you from doing so, then give me to the most cruel torturers, so that I may suffer for my Lord, Jesus Christ. Do not weep and weep in vain, for this will not make me change my confession.
When the governor heard this, he ordered Julian and Celsus to be taken to a stinking and dark dungeon, but as soon as they entered, the darkness turned into light and the stench into a fragrance. The twenty soldiers who saw this believed in Christ, but since the blessed Julian was not a presbyter and could not baptize them, he was filled with sorrow. But God, who fulfills the desires of those who fear Him, sent them a presbyter.
In the city there lived a very distinguished man whom the kings Diocletian and Maximian greatly respected, as a relative of Carinus, one of the previous emperors. He and his entire family professed the Christian faith. When his two wives passed away in faith and piety, they left seven sons, who, although young in age, had a mature mind. Out of respect for their parents, the kings allowed them to profess their father's faith and fearlessly glorify their Christ. They had their own presbyter, whose name was Anthony, and through whom they were endowed with the Holy Sacraments. It was to them that God commanded in a special revelation to go with their presbyter to the dungeon and visit Julian and Celsus. At night, when they set out there, an angel preceded them, who, as soon as he touched the door of the dungeon, opened it. They entered inside, kissed the holy prisoners and stood with them in prayer. The presbyter baptized the blessed youth Celsus, the son of the governor, and the twenty soldiers, and the seven brothers were inflamed with a desire to share their sufferings for Christ and decided to stay with them. When the hegemon heard this, he was astonished that those whom the kings had permitted to freely profess the Christian faith had themselves desired chains and torture. He invited the brothers to him and for a long time exhorted them to go home and glorify their Christ as they pleased, since the kings had permitted them. But they strove for chains and imprisonment and did not want freedom.
It is not fitting for a royal crown they said gold that has not been melted and purified in fire. So we will not be worthy of Christ if our faith in Him is not tested like gold. A tree adorned with leaves but without fruit is not worth much. So we will not be pleasing to our Christ if we do not offer Him the beautiful fruits of our faith.
Then the governor ordered their wish to be fulfilled and promised to bring it to the king for them. So, the blessed youths did not return home, but to the prison, to the saints Julian, Celsus and the twenty soldiers, and the presbyter Anthony remained with them. Marcian sent a report about Julian, his son Celsus, the soldiers and the seven brothers. Not long after, an order came from the kings to burn all who remained adamant. If through magic they remained unharmed by the action of the fire, then the governor was to kill them as he saw fit. As soon as he received the order, he ordered a court to be set up in the city square and before the assembled people ordered that Saint Julian and the others with him be brought to him.
He began to exhort them to worship idols, referring to the king's order that if they did not repent, he would punish them with death. But they boldly defended the true faith, saying that the heavenly King had decreed eternal destruction for unrepentant idolaters. A long time passed while they argued like this.
Meanwhile, a funeral procession passed by the court. When Marcian saw the dead man, he ordered him to be brought and laid before him. The people were puzzled as to what he had planned. And he said to Saint Julian:
They say that before he was crucified, your teacher Christ raised the dead. Raise this dead man, as He did, and then it will become clear whether he is truly God. In response, Saint Julian replied:
What good is it to a blind man when they tell him that the sun is rising? Leave these sayings and if you and your God have the power, raise the dead man, as I told you. Although you are unworthy of such a miracle from the Lord because of your unbelief, the time has come for His Divine power to be revealed, so that you may see and understand that God can work miracles. I believe that the Lord will send me everything that I ask of Him with faith, and He will not put me to shame before you.
Having said this, Saint Julian raised his eyes and heart to heaven and began to pray to all, and his face shone with light. And he prayed thus:
Lord Jesus Christ, True Son of God, You who were born of the Father before the ages, and when the appointed time was fulfilled, You assumed human flesh without seed from the Most Pure Virgin Mary, look down now from the height of heaven, to put Your enemies to shame and to strengthen those who believe in You! Hear me from Your heavenly throne and resurrect the dead, so that the living may not perish in spirit, but the dead may come to life in spirit, seeing Your omnipotence.
So he prayed for some time longer, and then he turned to the dead man and said:
I speak to you, dry land, in the name of Him who resurrected the four-day-old Lazarus: arise and stand on your feet.
As soon as the saint said this, the dead man immediately came to life and stood up, and the people were terrified. The resurrected man cried out loudly:
Oh, how almighty are the prayers of the servant of God and his immaculate virginity! For where was I being carried and from where was I being brought back?
The governor Marcian watched with attention what was happening and was amazed, but because the demon blinded his eyes, he did not see in this the action of Christ's power, but attributed everything to witchcraft. In order to mock him, he asked the resurrected one:
Where did you come back from?
And he began to tell him in detail:
I was in the hands of Ethiopians unknown to me, of gigantic stature, terrible in appearance, with fiery eyes, lion's teeth, with hawk's claws, from whom I clearly could not expect mercy. They were dragging me joyfully towards hell, but when I was already at the entrance to the abyss, the Ethiopians stopped waiting for my body, which, as if taken from the earth, had to be handed over to the earth. Suddenly, however, there was a commotion in hell, and a voice was heard from the throne of God:
For the sake of My beloved Julian, let this soul return to its body!
And immediately two came, dressed in white robes, took me from the hands of the unclean and brought me back to this world, so that through the one who resurrected me, I could know after death the True God, Whom I denied while I was alive.
Hearing this, the governor was troubled and did not know what to do. Then, however, because he feared unrest among the people, he ordered that the resurrected one be taken to prison together with Saint Julian and the rest of the saints, and that the prison door be sealed with the seal of his ring. In the dungeon, Saint Julian told the blessed Anthony the presbyter to baptize the resurrected one, and he received in holy baptism the name Anastasius, which in Greek means resurrected. In the morning, Marcian ordered to prepare thirty-one barrels, as many as there were holy martyrs, to fill them halfway with pitch and sulfur, and to gather wood and twigs for the burning of the saints. When they had prepared everything, they brought out the bound sufferers of Christ, with Julian and Celsus tied together. Many of the people began to shed tears and lament that such young and beautiful people were going to death without being guilty of anything. Saint Julian said to them:
Do not prevent the gold from passing through the fire, so that it may become even purer!
Because he did not want to see his son, for whom his heart ached, burned to death, the governor left his deputy to carry out the king's command and departed, filled with sorrow. The saints entered the barrels of pitch. They piled wood, rubbish and twigs around them and set them on fire. The flame rose thirty cubits high, but the saints stood in the middle of the fire, singing and praising God. When the barrels burned and the fire went out, it turned out that they remained alive and unharmed, and their faces shone with joy. The people, seeing this, were amazed, and when they brought it to the governor, he hurried to see for himself and was astonished. However, he again ordered them to be taken to prison, where his wife, the mother of Celsus, hurried to go when she learned that her son remained alive and unharmed. When she saw him, she believed in Christ and the presbyter Anthony baptized her. She was given the name Marionilla. When he learned that his wife had accepted Christian baptism, Marcian also imprisoned her in prison. Then he sentenced the twenty soldiers and the seven brothers to be beheaded with the sword. Julian, Celsus, the presbyter Anthony, Anastasius and his wife Marionilla decided to try them again and left them in chains.
When the day came for them to be tried, they pretended that they would obey the will of the king and the advice of the governor and that they wanted to worship the idols. Therefore, they were led with joy to the idol temple. As the procession approached, Saint Julian turned to God with prayer, and immediately the temple collapsed and buried the priests and about a thousand people who were in it. The earth beneath the temple cracked, fire came out of the cracks and consumed the pagans who were around. They returned the saints to the dungeon again, where during prayer a huge crowd of martyrs who had suffered before them appeared to them in glory. They were dressed in white clothes and sang heavenly hymns. Among them were the twenty soldiers and the seven brothers who had been cut down with a sword. Saint Vasilisa, an image of the holy virgins, also appeared to them and informed Saint Julian that he would soon accomplish a feat with his companions, end his life, and solemnly enter the heavenly realms.
The Kingdom of Heaven is open before you, and our Lord Jesus Christ will take you to Himself, as well as those who are with you. The images of patriarchs, prophets, apostles and martyrs will come out to greet you solemnly, and you will be with them forever.
Having said this, she became invisible. All the other saints also left with her, leaving the prisoners in unspeakable joy and spiritual joy.
The torturer again brought them to court and handed them over to various tortures. First, he ordered their fingers and toes to be wrapped in yarn dipped in oil and set on fire. The yarn burned without harming them. Then he ordered the skin to be peeled from the heads of Saints Julian and Celsus, and the eyes of the blessed presbyter Anthony and Anastasius to be gouged out. When they tried to torture Saint Marionilla, the hands of the executioners became as if insensitive and they did not dare to touch her. Then they threw the saints to be eaten by wild beasts, but the power of God, which closed the mouths of the animals, saved them from them. Finally, the governor ordered that the criminals condemned to death be gathered from all the dungeons, with whom the holy martyrs should also be killed. When they were brought, he ordered them all to be killed, not sparing his son and wife. Thus the holy martyrs perished by the sword along with the criminals. As soon as they were cut down, an earthquake began, which destroyed a third of the buildings in the city, and not a single place where there was an idol survived. The earthquake was accompanied by hail, lightning fell, thunder broke out, and many pagans died in the storm. Marcian was about to die of fear. Not long after, he fell ill and died from the worms that had formed in his body and were eating it.
At night, after the killing of the saints, priests and pious men came to take the bodies of the martyrs. But since the holy bodies were among many other corpses, they could not recognize them. Then they knelt down and began to pray. And the souls of the saints appeared to them in the form of virgins, each soul standing next to its own body. Then they took the bodies and buried them in the temple, under the altar. God, Who glorifies His saints, commanded that at the place where their bodies were buried, a spring of life-giving and healing water should gush forth, which healed all diseases because of the prayers of the saints and by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
© Lives of the Saints, translated into Bulgarian from the Church Slavonic text of the Cheti-Mineites ("Chet'i-Minei") of St. Demetrius of Rostov.