Eastern Rite - Feasts of 17 July AM 7530

Today is the Feasts of the Holy Fathers of the First Six Œcumenical Councils, of the Holy Great Martyr Marina, and of the Passing into Eternal Life (1944) of Blessed Tarsykia (Matskiv) of the Sister Servants of Mary Immaculate, Martyr.

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This feast seems unusual to our modern sensibilities. It makes little sense until we listen to the Troparion which proclaims the Council Fathers as “as lights upon the earth, / and through them, You have guided all of us to the true Faith!” The kontakion continues in a similar vein: “The preaching of the Apostles and the dog­mas of the Fathers sealed the one Faith of the Church.” The early history of the church is developed through synodal and conciliar structures. By these means our Christian faith grows. An explanatory passage is found in the fifth council, Constantinople II in 553:

The holy fathers – dealt with heresies and current problems by debate in common, since it was established as certain that when the disputed question is set out by each side in communal discussions the light of truth drives out the shadows of lying.

The truth cannot be made clear in any other way when there are debates about questions of faith, since everyone requires the assistance of his neighbour.”

Hence the importance of discussion and consent within the church.

The first two councils: Nicea I in 325 and Constantinople I in 381 resolved a good deal of the Arian controversy regarding the nature of Jesus Christ in relation to God the Father. The Nicene Creed also emerged from these councils. Ephesus in 431 defended Mary as Theotokos or God Bearer thus laying down the foundation of Christian devotion to Mary and emphasised the divinity of Christ. Chalcedon in 431 asserted Christ’s humanity. The following two councils, Constantinople II and III extended the work of Chalcedon by exploring further the relationship between the humanity and divinity of Christ.

Councils, usually of a more local nature have continued to be held in the churches of the East and the West. It is an irony that the Roman Catholic Church has held historic councils from the medieval period until the present. The great Roman Catholic Councils of the modern period included the sixteenth century Council of Trent, the First Vatican Council of 1869-70 and the Second Vatican Council of 1962 – 1964 which re-established collegiality in Roman Catholic ecclesiology. There were other important councils such as those held in Latin America at Medellin, Puebla and Aparecida. The irony is that more than fifty years after Vatican II there is still dispute over its teaching, most especially over collegiality.

Perhaps that is the reason why today’s feast has been assigned the gospel reading from John 17. It is known as the priestly prayer of Jesus. It takes the form of a meditation on the Lord’s Prayer. In it Jesus prays for himself as he is about to return to his heavenly father. He also prays for his disciples who now inherit the mission of Jesus to the world in which we live. He prays for the unity of all which we so much need.

Troparion — Tone 8

You are most glorious, O Christ our God, / You have established the Fathers as lights upon the earth, / and through them, You have guided all of us to the true Faith! / O greatly compassionate one, glory to You.

Kontakion — Tone 8

(Podoben: “As the first fruits...”)
The preaching of the Apostles and the dog­mas of the Fathers sealed the one Faith of the Church; / and clad in the garment of truth woven of theology from on high, / it teaches aright and glorifies the great mystery of piety.

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The Holy Great Martyr Marina was born in Asia Minor, in the city of Antioch of Pisidia (southern Asia Minor), into the family of a pagan priest. In infancy, she lost her mother, and her father gave her into the care of a nursemaid, who raised Marina in the Catholic Faith. Upon learning that his daughter had become a Christian, the father angrily disowned her. During the time of the persecution against Christians under the emperor Diocletian (284-305), when she was fifteen years old, Saint Marina was arrested and locked up in prison. With firm trust in the will of God and His help, the young prisoner prepared for her impending fate.

The governor Olymbrios, charmed with the beautiful girl, tried to persuade her to renounce the Christian Faith and become his wife. But the saint, unswayed, refused his offers. The vexed governor gave the holy martyr over to torture. Having beaten her fiercely, they fastened the saint with nails to a board and tore at her body with tridents. The governor himself, unable to bear the horror of these tortures, hid his face in his hands. But the holy martyr remained unyielding. Thrown for the night into prison, she was granted heavenly aid and healed of her wounds. They stripped her and tied her to a tree, then burned the martyr with fire. Barely alive, the martyr prayed: “Lord, You have granted me to go through fire for Your Name, grant me also to go through the water of holy Baptism.”

Hearing the word “water”, the governor gave orders to drown the saint in a large cauldron. The martyr besought the Lord that this manner of execution should become for her holy Baptism. When they plunged her into the water, there suddenly shone a light, and a snow-white dove came down from Heaven, bearing in its beak a golden crown. The fetters put upon Saint Marina came apart by themselves. The martyr stood up in the fount of Baptism glorifying the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Saint Marina emerged from the fount completely healed, without any trace of burns. Amazed at this miracle, the people glorified the True God, and many came to believe. This brought the governor into a rage, and he gave orders to kill anyone who might confess the Name of Christ. 15,000 Christians perished there, and the holy Martyr Marina was beheaded. The sufferings of the Great Martyr Marina were described by an eyewitness of the event, named Theotimos.

Up until the taking of Constantinople by Western crusaders in the year 1204, the relics of the Great Martyr Marina were in the Panteponteia monastery. According to other sources, they were located in Antioch until the year 908 and from there transferred to Italy. Now they are in Athens, in a church dedicated to the holy Virgin Martyr. Her venerable hand was transferred to Mount Athos, to the Batopedi monastery.

Troparion — Tone 4

Your lamb Marina calls out to You, O Jesus, in a loud voice: / “I love You, my Bridegroom, and in seeking You I endure suffering. / In baptism I was crucified so that I might reign in You, / and I died so that I might live with You. / Accept me as a pure sacrifice, / for I have offered myself in love.” / Through her prayers save our souls, since You are merciful.

Kontakion — Tone 3

Adorned with the beauty of virginity, / you have been crowned with unfading crowns, O Marina. / Having shed your blood in holy martyrdom, / and radiant with the miracles of healing, / you have received from the hand of your Creator the prize of victory.

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Olha Matskiv was born on March 23, 1919 in Khodoriv, Ukraine. She was the eldest of Roman and Maria Matskiv’s four children. Her father had a supervisory position at the railway, and the family moved to Ravy-Ruska when his job required it. As a child, Olha developed a love for nature, all living things, church and prayer. Her niece, Olha Kudlyk, describes Olha’s childhood in her memoirs, as she heard from family stories: “She was obedient, thoughtful, and loving towards her parents and siblings.” Similarly, another sister recalls: “She would gather flowers from the field to decorate the roadside chapel on her way to baba’s. She would save injured creatures and mend their wounds.” Olha’s mother taught her to see the world as God’s gift. No wonder she began to feel called to monastic life, after finishing high school in Lviv.

Olha’s mother, however, was so against her entering a convent that she forbade her from attending daily liturgies. Undeterred, Olha secretly left for church in the early mornings and returned in time to make breakfast for the waking family. In time, Olha asked for her parents’ blessing and despite her mother’s objection, Olha joined the SSMIs in Krystynopil. So began a new chapter of her life which ended at the “Golgotha” of the second descent of Bolsheviks on Lviv. From the start, with her joyful nature and dedicated service, Olha embraced the monastic life. On the 4th of November, 1938, she accepted her habit, took the monastic name of Tarsykia, and made her first vows. Her responsibilities included overseeing the convent workshop, teaching sewing, and being the gatekeeper. In September, 1939, Soviet armies came to Krystynopil. The front line of battle was close to the monastery. In a letter to her parents, dated September 2nd, 1941, Sr. Tarsykia writes: “We have experienced much: war, bombs, bullets, and the front line. We have lived through horrendous waves of endless bombing by the Bolsheviks. At times we were more certain of death than survival.”

In 1943-44, when the Soviet armies advanced through Western Ukraine, the sisters were given the option to leave the community and go home, but according to Sr. Daria Hradiuk, not one of them left.

On the morning of July 17, 1944 you could sense that military action would begin again and that evening the bombing started. . . The next morning combat lessened and the sisters prepared for the Divine Liturgy with Fr. Josyf Zahvijskyj.

. . . An eyewitness states: “It was already early morning, we were waiting for Father to come for the service; we heard the bell; someone was at the gate. Sister went to it . . . the Bolshevik fired and one of our sisters was shot . . . she hadn’t even made it to the gate.”

Sr. Demyana Chepil writes in her memoirs, that all the sisters were in the basement, “the only ones in the house were myself, Sr. Maria Borodijevych and Sr. Tarsykia. Unexpectedly the soldiers rang the bell. We jumped at the sound, Sr. Tarsykia ran out ahead of me. She noticed that she hadn’t brought the key and turned to ask Sr. Maria to get it. In that moment the soldier shot his automatic rifle through the opening in the gate. He shot Sr. Tarsykia in the head. I saw her fall immediately.”

. . . On entering the Bolsheviks saw Sr. Tarsykia’s body. “The officer asked in amazement: ‘Who did this?’ One of them admitted, ‘I killed her.’ Our superior Sr. Monica Bolesta asked why. He answered, “Because she’s a nun.”

. . . Not far from the monastery was the cemetery, but because of the combat nearby we couldn’t bury her there. So, she was buried in the monastery garden near the statue of the Mother of God. Even those who killed her attended her funeral. . . . Subsequently her remains were moved from Krystynopil to Lviv where she was interred in the Sisters’ gravesite at Lychakiv monastery.

Thus the events of the Second World War destroyed the regular monastery life. . . . In early spring of 1946 it was clear that the Soviet authorities would not allow our monastery to continue, inasmuch as the preparations for the destruction of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church were well underway. . . . After the so-called “Lviv Sobor” and the arrest of our hierarchy, the authorities went after the monasteries. . . . A similar fate awaited other, both men’s and women’s, monasteries. The life of blessed Tarsykia and her fate foresaw the period of persecution of our Church and her death was as if a sign of the Soviet intent for the death of our defiant Church.

The life of Blessed Tarsykia witnessed complete faithfulness to Christ and His Church. . . In her death, she gave witness to her love, as her life witnessed holiness. She demonstrated that holiness is not limited to a small circle of the early Christians, but also is possible in our world.

Her life should be an example for our life; her service should be continued by our service, and her death and holiness should call us all to holiness. May Sr. Tarsykia’s intercession grant us all the gift of sacrificial love and a passion for holiness lived out in our world. This is something we all need. (R. Syrotych)