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The Martyrs Adrian and Natalia were married in their youth for one year prior to their martyrdom and lived in Nicomedia during the time of the emperor Maximian (305-311). The emperor promised a reward to whoever would inform on Christians to bring them to trial. Then the denunciations began, and twenty-three Christians were captured in a cave near Nicomedia.
They were tortured, urged to worship idols, and then brought before the Praetor, in order to record their names and responses. Adrian, the head of the praetorium, watched as these people suffered with such courage for their faith. Seeing how firmly and fearlessly they confessed Christ, he asked: “What rewards do you expect from your God for your suffering?” The martyrs replied: “Such rewards as we are not able to describe, nor can your mind comprehend.” Saint Adrian told the scribes, “Write my name down also, for I am a Christian and I die gladly for Christ God.”
The scribes reported this to the emperor, who summoned Saint Adrian and asked: “Really, have you gone mad, that you want to die? Come, cross out your name from the lists and offer sacrifice to the gods, asking their forgiveness.”
Saint Adrian answered: “I have not lost my mind, but rather have I found it.” Maximian then ordered Adrian to be thrown into prison. His wife, Saint Natalia, knowing that her husband was to suffer for Christ, rejoiced, since she herself was secretly a Christian.
She hastened to the prison and encouraged her husband saying: “You are blessed, my lord, because you have believed in Christ. You have obtained a great treasure. Do not regret anything earthly, neither beauty, nor youth (Adrian was then 28 years of age), nor riches. Everything worldly is dust and ashes. Only faith and good deeds are pleasing to God.”
On the pledge of the other martyrs, they released Saint Adrian from prison to tell his wife about the day of his execution. At first, Saint Natalia thought that he had renounced Christ and thus had been set free, and she did not want to let him into the house. The saint persuaded his wife that he had not fled from martyrdom, but rather had come to give her the news of the day of his execution.
They tortured Saint Adrian cruelly. The emperor advised the saint to have pity on himself and call on the gods, but the martyr answered: “Let your gods say what blessings they promise me, and then I shall worship them, but if they cannot do this, then why should I worship them?” Saint Natalia did not cease to encourage her husband. She asked him also to pray to God for her, that they would not force her into marriage with a pagan after his death.
The executioner ordered the hands and the legs of the saints to be broken on the anvil. Saint Natalia, fearing that her husband would hesitate on seeing the sufferings of the other martyrs, asked the executioner to begin with him, and permit her to put his hands and legs on the anvil herself.
They wanted to burn the bodies of the saints, but a storm arose and the fire went out. Many of the executioners were even struck by lightning. Saint Natalia took the hand of her husband and kept it at home. Soon an army commander asked the emperor’s approval to wed Saint Natalia, who was both young and rich. But she hid herself away in Byzantium. Saint Adrian appeared to her in a dream and said that she would soon be at rest in the Lord. The martyr, worn out by her former sufferings, in fact soon fell asleep in the Lord.
Troparion — Tone 4
Your holy martyrs Adrian and Natalia, O Lord, / through their sufferings have received incorruptible crowns from You, our God. / For having Your strength, they laid low their adversaries, / and shattered the powerless boldness of demons. / Through their intercessions, save our souls!
Kontakion — Tone 4
Martyr of Christ, Adrian, / you kept the words of your godly and devoted wife Natalia in your heart. / With her you accepted every kind of suffering and obtained the crown of victory!
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The Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was painted by the Evangelist Luke on a board from the table at which the Savior ate together with His All-Pure Mother and Righteous Joseph. The Mother of God, upon seeing this image, exclaimed, “Henceforth, all generations shall call Me blessed. The grace of both My Son and Me shall be with this icon.”
In the year 1131, the icon was sent from Constantinople to Rus to holy Prince Mstislav (April 15) and was installed in the Devichi monastery in Vyshgorod, the ancient appanage city of the holy Equal of the Apostles Princess Olga.
The son of George Dolgoruky, Saint Andrew Bogoliubsky, brought the icon to the city of Vladimir in 1155 and installed it in the renowned Dormition cathedral which he built. At this time the icon received its name of “the Vladimir Icon.” The icon was first brought to Moscow in the year 1395. Thus, the blessing of the Mother of God established the spiritual bonds of Byzantium and Rus via Kiev, Vladimir and Moscow.
The festal celebration of the Vladimir Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos occurs several times during the year (21 May, 23 June and 26 August). The most solemn celebration occurs on August 26, the Feast established in honour of the Meeting of the Vladimir Icon upon its Transfer from Vladimir to Moscow.
In the year 1395, the fearsome conqueror Khan Tamerlane (Temir-Aksak) reached the Ryazan frontier, took the city of Elets and advancing towards Moscow he came near the banks of the River Don. Great Prince Basil Dimitrievich went with an army to Kolomna and halted at the banks of the River Oka. He prayed to the Holy Hierarchs of Moscow and Saint Sergius for the deliverance of the Fatherland, and he wrote to the Metropolitan of Moscow Saint Cyprian (September 16), that the pending Dormition Fast should be devoted to zealous prayers for mercy and repentance.
Clergy were sent to Vladimir, where the famed wonderworking Vladimir Icon was. After Divine Liturgy and a Molieben on the feast of the Dormition, the clergy took the icon and brought it to Moscow. Along the way, on both sides of the road, countless people prayed kneeling: “O Mother of God, save the land of Russia!” At that same hour, when the people of Moscow were meeting the Vladimir Icon on Kuchkov Field, Tamerlane was sleeping in his tent. Suddenly, he saw in a dream a great mountain, at the summit of which were the holy hierarchs with golden staffs coming towards him. Above them, in a brilliant radiance, was a Majestic Woman. She commanded him to leave the domains of Russia.
Awakening in fright, Tamerlane asked the meaning of the vision. The experts answered that the Radiant Lady was the Mother of God, the great Protectress of Christians. Tamerlane then gave the order for his troops to retreat. In memory of this miraculous deliverance of the Russian Land from Tamerlane, they built the monastery of the Meeting on Kuchkov Field, where the Meeting of the Vladimir Icon took place. On August 26, the all-Russian celebration in honour of the Meeting of the Vladimir Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God was established.
The historical days of 21 May, 23 June and 26 August, connected with this holy icon, have become memorable days for the Russian Catholic Church.
Troparion — Tone 4
Today the most glorious city of Moscow rejoices resplendently, / perceiving your wonderworking Icon as the radiance of the sun, O Sovereign Lady. / Now, having come to it, we pray to you and cry: “O most wondrous Lady Theotokos, / pray to Christ our God, Who was incarnate of you, / that He may deliver this city and all Christian cities and countries, preserving them unharmed from every intrigue of the enemy, / and that He may save our souls, for He is merciful.”
Kontakion — Tone 8
(Podoben: “O Victorious Leader...”)
O victorious Leader of triumphant hosts, / to you we sing a song of victory, / for you have delivered us from troubles by the arrival of your revered Icon, O Sovereign Lady Theotokos, / and joyously we celebrate the festival of your meeting, / and, as is customary, we cry to you: “Hail, Unwedded Bride.”
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