The Brides of Christ

[An excerpt from the “Song of Thekla”, in the “Symposium” by St. Methodios of Patara]

Thekla Singing Decorously a Hymn, the Rest of the Virgins Sing with Her; John the Baptist a Martyr to Chastity; The Church the Spouse of God, Pure and Virgin.

Theopatra said that Arete having said these things, commanded them all to rise, and, standing under the Agnos, to send up to the Lord in a becoming manner a hymn of thanksgiving; and that Thekla should begin and should lead the rest. And when they had stood up, she said that Thekla, standing in the midst of the virgins on the right of Arete, decorously sang; but the rest, standing together in a circle after the manner of a chorus, responded to her: "I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I go to meet Thee."

From above, O virgins, the sound of a noise that wakes the dead has come, bidding us all to meet the Bridegroom in white robes, and with torches towards the cast. Arise, before the King enters within the gates.

Chorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Fleeing from the sorrowful happiness of mortals, and having despised the luxuriant delights of life and its love, I desire to be protected under Thy life-giving arms, and to behold Thy beauty for ever, O blessed One.

Chorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Leaving marriage and the beds of mortals and my golden home for Thee, O King, I have come in undefiled robes, in order that I might enter with Thee within Thy happy bridal chamber.

Chorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding alighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Having escaped, O blessed One, from the innumerable enchanting wiles of the serpent, and, moreover, from the flame of fire, and from the mortal-destroying assaults of wild beasts, I await Thee from heaven.

I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding alighted torch I go to meet Thee.

I forget my own country, O Lord, through desire of Thy grace. I forget, also, the company of virgins, my fellows, the desire even of mother and of kindred, for Thou, O Christ, art all things to me.

Chorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding alighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Giver of life art Thou, O Christ. Hail, light that never sets, receive this praise. The company of virgins call upon Thee, Perfect Flower, Love, Joy, Prudence, Wisdom, Word.

Chorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding alighted torch I go to meet Thee.

With open gates, O beauteously adorned Queen, admit us within thy chambers. O spotless, gloriously triumphant Bride, breathing beauty, we stand by Christ, robed as He is, celebrating thy happy nuptials, O youthful maiden.

Chorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding alighted torch I go to meet Thee.

The virgins standing without the chamber, with bitter tears and deep moans, wail and mournfully lament that their lamps are gone out, having failed to enter in due time the chamber of joy.

Chorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding alighted torch I go to meet Thee.

For turning from the sacred way of life, unhappy ones, they have neglected to prepare sufficiency of oil for the path of life; bearing lamps whose bright light is dead, they groan from the inward recesses of their mind.

Chorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding alighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Here are cups full of sweet nectar; let us drink, O virgins, for it is celestial drink, which the Bridegroom hath placed for those duly called to the wedding.
I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding alighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Abel, clearly prefiguring Thy death, O blessed One, with flowing blood, and eyes lifted up to heaven, said, Cruelly slain by a brother's hand, O Word, I pray Thee to receive me.

Chorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding alighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Thy valiant son Joseph,O Word, won the greatest prize of virginity, when I a woman heated with desire forcibly drew him to an unlawful bed; but he giving no heed to her fled stripped, and crying aloud:

Chorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Jephthah offered his fresh slaughtered virgin daughter a sacrifice to God, like a lamb; and she, nobly fulfilling the type of Thy body, O blessed One, bravely cried:-
Chorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding alighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Daring Judith,by clever wiles having cut off the head of the leader of the foreign hosts, whom previously she had allured by her beautiful form, without polluting the limbs of her body, with a victor's shout said:

Chorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding alighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Seeing the great beauty of Susanna, the two Judges, maddened with desire, said, O dear lady, we have come desiring secret intercourse with thee; but she with tremulous cries said:

Chorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

It is far better for me to die than to betray my nuptials to you, O mad for women, and so to suffer the eternal justice of God in fiery vengeance. Save me now, O Christ, from these evils.

Chorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Thy Precursor, washing multitudes of men in flowing lustral water, unjustly by a wicked man, on account of his chastity, was led to slaughter; but as he stained the dust with his life-blood, he cried to Thee, O blessed One:

Chorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I go to meet Thee.

The parent of Thy life, that unspotted Grace and undefiled Virgin, bearing in her womb without the ministry of man, by an immaculate conception,10 and who thus became suspected of having betrayed the marriage-bed, she, O blessed One, when pregnant, thus spoke:

Chorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding alighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Wishing to see Thy nuptial day, O blessed One, as many angels as Thou, O King, calledst from above, bearing the best gifts to Thee, came in unsullied robes:

Chorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding alighted torch I go to meet Thee.

In hymns, O blessed spouse of God, we attendants of the Bride honour Thee, O undefiled virgin Church of snow-white form, dark haired, chaste, spotless, beloved.

Chorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding alighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Corruption has fled, and the tearful pains of diseases; death has been taken away, all folly has perished, consuming mental grief is no more; for again the grace of the God-Christ has suddenly shone upon mortals.

Chorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding alighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Paradise is no longer bereft of mortals, for by divine decree he no longer dwells there as formerly, thrust out from thence when he was free from corruption, and from fear by the various wiles of the serpents, O blessed One.

Chorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding alighted torch I go to meet Thee.

Singing the new song, now the company of virgins attends thee towards the heavens, O Queen, all manifestly crowned with white lilies, and bearing in their hands bright lights.

Chorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding alighted torch I go to meet Thee.

O blessed One, who inhabited the undefiled seats of heaven without beginning, who governed all things by everlasting power, O Father, with Thy Son, we are here, receive us also within the gates of life.

Chorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding alighted torch I go to meet Thee.

The Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple

[Excerpted from "St. Gregory Palamas as a Hagiorite"
by Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos]

According to the tradition of the Church, the Theotokos spent three years in the Temple and only she entered the holy of holies, just as once a year the High Priest did, and there she stayed until the year of her betrothal to Joseph.

St. Gregory Palamas devoted two sermons to the feast of the Entry, in which he describes her stay in the Temple and the way which she followed in order to attain deification by Grace. These homilies are excellent, and the second in particular is very theological and constitutes the basis of the hesychastic life.

The significance of this sermon lies in the following points. First, it presents the whole majesty of our Panagia, for whom all races of men were waiting. Secondly, it expresses the great love which St. Gregory Palamas had for the Panagia. Thirdly, the means of deification is described, and this is the hesychastic way of life. Thus the Panagia is a type of a genuine hesychast. Fourthly, along with the description of hesychasm, at the same time the life of the true Hagiorite who practises hesychasm is described, as well as the personal experience of St. Gregory Palamas. It is very striking to say that the method used by our Panagia to attain deification is still preserved to this day on the Holy Mountain by the genuine Hagiorites. It seems, then, that hesychasm is the true orthodox life, which differs from the way of conjecture and is the essence of the Orthodox Tradition.

At the beginning of his homily St. Gregory Palamas explains why he wrote it. He could not do otherwise in order to satisfy his longing for her, in order to fill his need, and also to confess his joy at the gifts which he has received from her. This is why he extols her. He confesses that the gifts which he received from God, he received through her.

The Panagia lived in the holy of holies as in paradise. And not only was she living outwardly as in a blessed place, but also her way of life was free of any slavery. For certainly it is not enough to live in hesychastic places, but one must live the inner hesychastic life. He writes: "She lived an ascetic, carefree, unbusied life, devoid of sorrow, having no part in base passions, above the pleasure that is not without pain, living only by God, seen only by God, nourished by God, upheld only by God... and she was looking only at God, making God her noursihment, constantly devoted to God".

Anyone who has visited the Holy Mountain, and especially the Fathers who live in desert and hesychastic places, can understand that in describing the life of the Theotokos in the Temple, St. Gregory Palamas is essentially describing his own life. Moreover this is natural, because the hesychast Hagiorite Fathers are aware that they are imitating the Panagia and are living in accordance with her own way of life. The saints have a common relationship in the way which they use in order to attain deification, union with the Triune God.

According to the teaching of St. Gregory Palamas, the Panagia, full of wisdom as she was, "searched the powers of her soul if she might discover the means for being one with God. St. Gregory calls this oneness a holy and divine eros. In her attempt the Theotokos herself understood that union with God cannot be attained through sensation, imagination, doctrine and reason. These constitute the so-called irrational powers of the soul and do not lead a person to God. This communion takes place only through the nous. If one turns wholly to God through the nous, one can reach the longed-for union.

When the nous withdraws from God and wanders in search of sensory things, it is ill, and this in reality is man's illness. The nous needs to be cured first: to be freed from all its slavery to created things, and to be liberated from all the sensations of created things. There must be forgetfulness of things below, laying aside of all concepts, and then initiation into the things above. This is called hesychia of the nous and is also called "the way of hesychia" and "holy hesychia". In attaining health of his soul through holy hesychia a person attains the vision of God, by which he is "deified". Using this method" we are relieved of lower things and turn towards God". Our Panagia used precisely the same method, according to St. Gregory Palamas, and in the holy of holies she attained deification by Grace and became a borderline between uncreated and created.

Naturally this did not happen in an abstract way. It is not a matter of an abstract ascent which happened in a philosophical and buddhistic way, but of the method used by all the saints, those of the Old as well as the New Testament. The Panagia freed herself first from every material tie and relationship, raised herself above sympathy for the body, that is riddance of any material object and every pleasure, and then "annexed her nous by turning towards herself and by attention and unceasing divine prayer". In this way the Panagia was blessed with the vision of God and therefore "saw the glory of God and kept an eye on divine grace". And naturally this did not happen simply by her own struggle alone, but also by the energy of divine Grace. For no one can arrive at union with God only by his own human effort. Therefore we are not dealing with an abstract state, with conjecture and meditation of an oriental type, but with a healthy state, since there is prayer, the coming of Grace, union with the Personal God.

It is clear from this analysis of the feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos and the way used by the Panagia to attain deification by Grace, that this is essentailly a description of the orthodox way of life toward salvation, but also the Hagioritic hesychastic way of life. And today the true Hagiorites live in the same way and therefore feel themselves to be children of the Panagia. It is not only a matter of their staying in one place, but of the use of the same mode of life.

The All-Lauded Bride of Christ

Fourth Tone

O Lord Jesus, unto Thee Thy lamb doth cry with a great voice:
O my Bridegroom, Thee I love;
and seeking Thee, I now contest,
and with Thy baptism am crucified and buried.
I suffer for Thy sake, that I may reign with Thee;
For Thy sake I die, that I may live in Thee:
accept me offered out of longing
to Thee as a spotless sacrifice
Lord save our souls through her intercessions,
since Thou art the great in mercy.

Apolytikion Plagal of the First Tone

Let us praise the all-lauded and noble bride of Christ,
the godly Catherine, the guardian of Sinai and its defense,
who is also our support and succor and our help,
for with the Holy Spirit's sword,
she hath silenced brilliantly the clever among the godless,
and being crowned as a Martyr, she now doth ask great mercy for us all.

Kontakion Second Tone

Rouse up now a choir
O ye that love the martyred Saints,
august and inspired
acclaiming the supremely-wise
Martyr Catherine, who hath proclaimed and preached of Christ in the stadium,
and hath trampled the serpent down,
and spat on the knowledge of the eloquent.

The Holy Great Martyr Catherine

The Holy Great Martyr Catherine was the daughter of Constus, the governor of Alexandrian Egypt during the reign of the emperor Maximian (305-313). Living in the capital, the center of Hellenistic knowledge, and possessed of a rare beauty and intellect, Catherine received an excellent education, studying the works of the greatest philosophers and teachers of antiquity. Young men from the most worthy families of the empire sought the hand of the beautiful Catherine, but she was not interested in any of them. She told her parents that she would enter into marriage only with someone who surpassed her in nobility, wealth, comeliness and wisdom.

Catherine's mother, a secret Christian, sent her to her own spiritual Father, a saintly Elder living in a cave outside the city, for advice. After listening to Catherine, the Elder said that he knew of a Youth who surpassed her in everything. "His countenance is more radiant than the shining of the sun, and all of creation is governed by His wisdom. His riches are given to all the nations of the world, yet they never diminish. His compassion is unequaled."

This description of the Heavenly Bridegroom produced in the soul of the holy maiden an ardent desire to see Him. "If you do as I tell you," said the monk, "you will gaze upon the countenance of this illustrious man." In parting, the Elder handed Catherine an icon of the Theotokos with the divine Child Jesus on Her arm and told her to pray with faith to the Queen of Heaven, the Mother of the Heavenly Bridegroom, and She would hear Catherine and grant her heart's desire.

Catherine prayed all night and was permitted to see the Most Holy Virgin, Who said Her Divine Son, "Behold Thy handmaiden Catherine, how fair and virtuous she is." But the Child turned His face away from her saying, "No, she is ugly and unbelieving. She is a foolish pauper, and I cannot bear to look at her until she forsakes her impiety."

Catherine returned again to the Elder deeply saddened, and told him what she had seen in the dream. He lovingly received her, instructed her in the faith of Christ, admonished her to preserve her purity and integrity and to pray unceasingly. She then received the Mystery of holy Baptism from him. Again St Catherine had a vision of the Most Holy Theotokos with Her Child. Now the Lord looked tenderly at her and gave her a beautiful ring, a wondrous token of her betrothal to the Heavenly Bridegroom (This ring is still on her hand).

At that time the emperor Maximian was in Alexandria for a pagan festival. Therefore, the celebration was especially splendid and crowded. The cries of the sacrificial animals, the smoke and the smell of the sacrifices, the endless blazing of fires, and the bustling crowds at the arenas defiled the city of Alexandria. Human victims also were brought, the confessors of Christ, those who would not deny Him under torture. They were condemned to death in the fire. The saint's love for the Christian martyrs and her fervent desire to ease their sufferings compelled Catherine to speak to the pagan priest and to the emperor Maximian.

Introducing herself, the saint confessed her faith in the One True God and with wisdom exposed the errors of the pagans. The beauty of the maiden captivated the emperor. In order to convince her and to show the superiority of pagan wisdom, the emperor ordered fifty of the most learned philosophers and rhetoricians of the Empire to dispute with her, but the saint got the better of the wise men, so that they came to believe in Christ themselves. St Catherine made the Sign of the Cross over the martyrs, and they bravely accepted death for Christ and were burned alive by order of the emperor.

Maximian, no longer hoping to convince the saint, tried to entice her with the promise of riches and fame. Receiving an angry refusal, the emperor gave orders to subject the saint to terrible tortures and then throw her in prison. The Empress Augusta, who had heard much about the saint, wanted to see her. She prevailed upon the military commander Porphyrius to accompany her to the prison with a detachment of soldiers. The empress was impressed by the strong spirit of St Catherine, whose face was radiant with divine grace. The holy martyr explained the Christian teaching to them, and they were converted to Christ.

On the following day they again brought the martyr to the judgment court where, under the threat of being broken on the wheel, they urged that she renounce the Christian Faith and offer sacrifice to the gods. The saint steadfastly confessed Christ and she herself approached the wheels; but an angel smashed the instruments of execution, which shattered into pieces with many pagans standing nearby.

Having beheld this wonder, the Empress Augusta and the imperial courtier Porphyrius with 200 soldiers confessed their faith in Christ in front of everyone, and they were beheaded. Maximian again tried to entice the holy martyr, proposing marriage to her, and again he was refused. St Catherine firmly confessed her fidelity to the heavenly Bridegroom Christ, and with a prayer to Him she herself lay her head on the block beneath the executioner's sword.

The relics of St Catherine were taken by the angels to Mount Sinai. In the sixth century, the venerable head and left hand of the holy martyr were found through a revelation and transferred with honor to a newly-constructed church of the Sinai monastery, built by the holy Emperor Justinian (November 14).

St Catherine is called upon for relief and assistance during a difficult childbirth. Pilgrims to her monastery on Mt Sinai are given souvenir rings as a remembrance of their visit.

[This biography of St. Catherine of Alexandria is from the website of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA):
http://www.oca.org/FSlives.asp?SID=4]