A faithful and dutiful wife, when her husband was away on business for the Tzar, Saint Juliana worked with her household staff to give of their bounties to those in their such that multiple families had their needs met by her generosity. When famine struck the land, her compassion and giving abounded even more. For those who, despite her best efforts, did not survive, she paid for their Christian burial if their family could not afford it. Compassion was as if a natural reflex for her developed by nightly shared metanias with her husband and early morning prayer on her own. When she lost two of her children unexpectedly, she asked her husband to allow her to retire to a monastery. Although he did not grant his blessing because of the care she owed to their remaining children, he did allow her to live a monastic life in their domestic Church. The Saint took up the ascetic life with a vigor only matched by her generosity. She kept vigil at night, only allowing herself moments of sleep on the ground with a log for a pillow; she fasted severely so she had more to give others, and she kept the Jesus Prayer ever on her lips. Unable to bear her humility which was as a scourge to them, she was attacked one night by demons, but she drove them out by calling on the intercessions of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker who appeared with a stick that reminded those rebellious ones of their defeat by the wood of cross. At her death a visible halo of light formed around her head, and years later her body was found to incorrupt and emitting a heavenly fragrance.
Category: 17th Century (+)
Indicates saints who died in the 17th Century.
Nicodemus of Lake Kozha
Called to be a monastic by an audible voice at his baptism, Saint Nicodemus held off taking up the veil to be in obedience to his parents who shared a well-intentioned concern for his well being. After their death, he forgot his earlier intention and became blacksmith in Moscow. But when he was delivered from the effects of a pernicious poison by the intercessions of Saint Basil the Fool for Christ, he remembered his calling, sold all his possessions, and became a monk. Always longing for a deeper hesychia, the Saint joined a community in the far north of the country that was overseen by Saint Serapion. After a few years, he received a blessing to become a hermit and settled along the Kozhyug River. There he submerged himself in a life of extreme asceticism, fasting to his absolute limit and standing in prayer for long hours without being aware of the passage of time. He was granted the gift of compunction and the constant stream of tears carved deep furrows in his face. Furious by his display and threatened by the grace that God visited on him as a result, the demons hurled themselves at Nicodemus hoping to intimidate him, cause him to despair, and drive him off. But the Saint treated them with disdain and casually drove them away by his prayer. Utterly defeated, the demons thought they would try to turn this to their advantage, tempting him to pride by withdrawing their attacks for a time. Their hope was that their absence would cause him to glory in his ability to banish them. So, when they thought he least expected it, they threw themselves against him again with all their might, but found the Saint as immoveable as before, grounded as he was in humility and watchfulness. As a result, Saint Nicodemus lived out the rest of his days in peace.
Stephen of Piper
Zealous for fasting and prayer from his youth, Saint Stephen became a monk in a Montenegrin monastery dedicated to the mother of God. Eventually made a priest and then abbot, he was the true image of the Good Shepherd, guiding and watching over both his monks and the faithful of the region. When the relentless threatening and pillaging of the Turks made life their impossible, the monks fled into the wilderness. The saint determined to make solitude his consolation, and so, entering into a small cave, he invested himself in the ascetic life. There he battled the demons for seven years, beating back their assaults and putting them to flight. Like Moses when he fought off the Amalekites held up by Aaron and Hur, he was supported in this effort by locals who guarded the cave by day and by a miraculous cloud of mist that concealed his presence by night. With the victory secured, he departed to some land given him by the Piperi family where he established a new monastery, directing the life of the community for 37 years before his blessed falling asleep.
Seraphim of Dombos
Fleeing his reputation as a wonderworker and physician of souls that brought him endless streams of visitors, Saint Seraphim moved constantly establishing new communities of monastics wherever he went. After having resolved to stay in a specific place, the Mother of God appeared to him explaining that his current location was ill-suited to his purposes and instructing him to return to one of his previous stops to establish a permanent settlement. He obeyed immediately, a virtue he had consciously cultivated since he entered the monastery, and set to work. When the crowds returned, he was granted the particular gift of helping those possessed by demons, freeing them through prayer and fasting.