After giving away all of the possessions he inherited from his wealthy parents, Saint Abraham became a monk and gave himself over the strictest of ascesis. Along with his body, his passions also withered as a result of night-long vigils and constant pleas for the Lord to have mercy on the world. His disciple, Saint Ephrem, described his appearance as that of a living relic. After being made a priest, his knowledge of the Holy Scriptures and His insightful sermons brought him fame and renown with the faithful. Stoking the jealousy of his enemies, the demons inspired them to accuse him of heresy to the Bishop. The Bishop was deceived for a time, but the inherent disorder of the sinful decision infected the land and resulted in a drought and an epidemic. Made aware of his error, the Bishop repented and restored Saint Abraham. As a result, God delivered them via a miraculous heavy rain. Thus, the machinations of the Evil One came to nothing.
Category: Priest
Indicates saints who were priests.
Theodoretus of Kola, the Enlightener of the Lapps
Numbered for a time among the supporters of Saint Nilus of Sora, Saint Theodoretus was always in search of a more perfect hesychia. This search drove him to a region in the far north near the River Kola which was inhabited by the Lapps people. Though he was summoned for a time to Novogorod by the Archbishop Macarius, he never abandoned a desire to illumine the region with the light of the Gospel. So, after spending two years in Novogorod where he was ordained priest and received the grace to heal diseases and to cast out demons, he returned to the north where he established church and monastery dedicated to the Holy Trinity. Having learned their language, he preached to the native population in their own tongue, and the grace of the Holy Spirit shinning in him imbued his message with power. As a result, the Lapps came to him for baptism, even as many as 2,000 people in one day.
Stephen of Mar Sabas
Orphaned at a young age and raised by his uncle who was a monastic, St. Stephen began living the ascetic life near the Monastery of St. Sabas even before he took the veil. As such, when he did become a monk the brethren were so impressed by his obedience and renunciation that they began to treat him with a reverence that threatened his peace. In an attempt to preserve it, he asked to live as a hermit till the celebration of Pascha that year. Receiving a blessing, he withdrew into the wilderness where he engaged in continuous battle through prayer with the demons and his passions until Great and Holy Thursday when he returned to the monastery. Having returned, the monks treated him with an even greater awe, regarding his as an angel sent to them by God. At the same time, the demons suggested that, having advanced so far beyond his fellows, he ought to lessen his ascetic efforts. When he resisted, they attempted to crush him bodily under a large boulder. Hoping to avoid the shifting sands of prelest, he fled back to his hermitage where lived in solitude for 15 years. He continued the battle by standing in prayer for long hours, then making countless prostrations all built on the spiritual foundation of perpetually increasing fasting. By such labors he was given the grace to withstand that fierce assaults of the demons. He would never let himself be idle, always busying himself with the labor necessary for his survival. Eventually, he was discovered by a small group of men whom he allowed to become his disciples. Having been ordained a priest, he was regularly filled and surrounded by the uncreated light as he served. It radiated outwards from him, burning up the demons in the area. Having become a precious vessel of the Holy Spirit purged from all passions, he was given the gift of true prophecy and clear sight which he used to recognize and drive off a demon that had a possessed a young woman. Yet, for all of this, it was his humility and love for his disciples that shown through. When one of them came to confess that he was harboring blasphemous thoughts suggested by a demon, the Saint simply caused the man to place his hand on the back of his next as the High Priest did with the goat for Azazel on the Day of Atonement, and announced that he would answer for that sin on the Day of Judgment. After that, and by Saint Stephen’s prayer, the disciple was completely freed from all such temptation.
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.
Archpriest Jonah of Odessa
A married priest noted for his piety from childhood, Saint Jonah struggled for years as a missionary fighting against the proselytization of a particularly aggressive Protestant group. Having helped many to see the errors of their teachings and return to the faith of their fathers, the saint was assigned to be the parish priest of the Church of the Dormition in Odessa. He was the image of an attentive and loving father, and he had a particular love for orphans as he himself has also suffered the same misfortune. Saint Jonah was eventually elevated to the dignity of archpriest for his faithful service. He was always to be found in the Divine Services, he kept all the prescribed fasts strictly, and he emphasized the importance of participation in the Mystery of the Holy Eucharist. In his later years, he stood against the pressure of communist-backed Church reformers and stood in solidarity with Saint Tikhon, the Metropolitan of Moscow. For all of this, God healed many of those who had been possessed by demons through his holy prayers.