11 febbraio feste santi e memorie

Saint CALOCER (CALOCERUS), évêque de Ravenne, confesseur (170). 
Saints FELIX, VICTOR, JANVIER, VITAL, HERENEE, martyrs en Afrique (vers 250).

Saint SIMPLIDE, évêque de Vienne sur l'Isère, martyr sous Dioclétien (297).

Saints SATURNIN, prêtre, DATIF, FELIX, AMPELE, SATURNIN, lecteur, MARIE, HILARION et les ENFANTS de ce dernier, FELIX, EMERITE, AMPELE, ROGATIEN, QUINTUS, MAXIMIEN, THELICA, ROGATIEN, ROGAT, JANVIER, CASSIEN, VICTORIANUS, VINCENT, CECILIANUS, RESTITUTA, PRIMEVERE, ROGATIEN, GIVALIUS, ROGAT, POMPONIA, SECUNDA, JANUARIA, SATURNINA, MARTIN, DANTE, FELIX, MARGUERITE, MAJEUR, HONORATA, REGULA, VICTORIN, PELUSIUS, FAUSTE, DACIEN, MATRONE, CECILE, VICTORIA, BEREDINA,SECUNDA, MATRONA, JANUARIA et d'autres connus de Dieu seul pour un total de quarante-huit, martyrs en Afrique du Nord sous Dioclétien (304). Saints JULES, PAUL, VICTOIRE et leurs compagnons, martyrs en Afrique sous Dioclétien (304).  Commemorazione di molti santi martiri, che in Numidia, nell  odierna Algeria, durante la persecuzione dell imperatore Diocleziano furono arrestati e, essendosi rifiutati contro l editto imperiale di consegnare le divine Scritture, morirono straziati da crudeli supplizi.

Saint BLAISE, évêque de Sébaste en Arménie, martyr sous Licinius (vers 316). On invoque en particulier l'intercession de saint Blaise contre les maux de gorge et l'angoisse. (Office traduit en français par le père Denis Guillaume au tome II des Ménées. Office plus récent traduit en français par le père Denis Guillaume au tome XIII du Supplément aux Ménées.)  martire Biagio è ritenuto dalla tradizione vescovo della comunità di Sebaste in Armenia al tempo della "pax" costantiniana. Il suo martirio, avvenuto intorno al 316, è perciò spiegato dagli storici con una persecuzione locale dovuta ai contrasti tra l'occidentale Costantino e l'orientale Licinio. Nell'VIII secolo alcuni armeni portarono le reliquie a Maratea (Potenza), di cui è patrono e dove è sorta una basilica sul Monte San Biagio. Il suo nome è frequente nella toponomastica italiana - in provincia di Latina, Imperia, Treviso, Agrigento, Frosinone e Chieti - e di molte nazioni, a conferma della diffusione del culto. Avendo guarito miracolosamente un bimbo cui si era conficcata una lisca in gola, è invocato come protettore per i mali di quella parte del corpo. A quell'atto risale il rito della "benedizione della gola", compiuto con due candele incrociate

Les DEUX enfants et les SEPT femmes qui partagèrent le martyre de saint Blaise.

Saint LUCIUS, évêque d'Andrinople, et ses compagnons, martyrs par la main des Ariens (348).

Invention des reliques du prophète Zacharie, le père du Précurseur (Kofar, Palestine, 409).

Saint LAZARE, évêque de Milan, qui fut l'un des premiers à accueillir la prière des Rogations établie par saint Mamert de Vienne (449). 
Saint CASTRENSIS, évêque africain jeté par les Vandales sur une barque avec plusieurs compagnons; ils arrivèrent en Campanie où saint Castrensis fut honoré comme un protecteur des navigateurs en péril (vers 450). È molto venerato a Castel Volturno (Caserta), dove in agosto in suo onore si tiene una processione lungo il fiume. È ricordato nel «calendario marmoreo» di Napoli, ma poco si sa di lui. È incerto se sia stato vescovo di Castel Volturno o di Sessa Aurunca. Una «passio» lo annovera in un gruppo di dodici o tredici vescovi africani, che nel V secolo approdarono in Campania per sfuggire alle persecuzioni dei Vandali. Castrense fu, poi, ritenuto martire poiché il suo nome è stato trovato con quello del martire Prisco in alcune pitture. Le reliquie passarono da Sessa a Capua (che lo festeggia il 29 dicembre e la seconda domenica di maggio, data della traslazione). Guglielmo II il Buono, ultimo re normanno di Sicilia, le portò a Monreale
Sainte GOBNET (GOBNATA), abbesse à Ballyvourney en Irlande (VIème siècle?).

Saint GWENVAËL, frère de sainte Yunna, ermite à Coat-an-Noz en Bretagne (VIème siècle).

Saint SEVERIN, higoumène d'Agaune (aujourd'hui Saint-Maurice) en Valais, qui guérit le roi Clovis d'une maladie, mort à Château-Landon au diocèse de Sens (507).

Saint CONTEST, évêque de Bayeux en Normandie, confesseur (513).

Saint ECHEN, évêque de Clonfert en Irlande (557).

Saint IGNEUC, ermite près de Jugon en Bretagne (VIème/VIIème siècles).

Saint DESIRE, évêque de Clermont en Auvergne (602).

Saint DIDIER, évêque de Vienne en Dauphiné, martyr pour avoir défendu la pureté des moeurs (608).

Saint CEDMON, moine et chantre au couvent de Whitby en Angleterre (vers 680).

Saint GAUDIN, évêque de Soissons en Picardie, martyrisé pour son zèle à défendre l'intégrité de la discipline et la pureté des moeurs (vers 707).

 

Sainte THEODORA, impératrice de la Nouvelle Rome, restauratrice de l'Orthodoxie en 843, puis moniale (867). Santa Teodora di COstantinopoli, imperatrice d Oriente, non è da confondere con l omonima santa moglie dell imperatore Giustiniano I. La santa oggi in questione fu invece sposa del imperatore Teofilo l Iconoclasta. Come ricorda l appellativo tributatogli, egli fu intransigente contro la venerazione delle icone, ma alla sua morte, nell 842, Teodora divenne reggente per il figlio Michele III e l anno seguente condannò ufficialmente l iconoclastia, sancendo così la vittoria dell ortodossia. Proseguì la lotta contro Arabi e Bulgari, ma al raggiungimento della maggiore età da parte del figlio lasciò il governo per ritirarsi nel monastero di Santa Eufrosina, dove trascorse gli ultimi otto anni della sua vita, dedita all’ascesi

Saint BLAISE, higoumène à Kiafa-Sklavéna en Acarnanie, martyr avec DEUX hiéromoines, TROIS moines et de NOMBREUX fidèles par la main des pirates musulmans (1006).

 

Saint VSEVOLOD, appelé Gabriel au saint baptême, prince de Pskov (Russie 1138). (Office traduit en français par le père Denis Guillaume au tome XIII du Supplément aux Ménées.)

Holy Prince Vsevolod of Pskov, in Baptism Gabriel, a grandson of Vladimir Monomakh, was born at Novgorod, where in the years 1088-1093 and 1095-1117 his father ruled as prince. His father was the holy prince St Mstislav-Theodore the Great (April 15). In the year 1117, when Great Prince Vladimir Monomakh gave Mstislav Kievan Belgorod as his "udel" (land-holding), practically making him co-ruler, young Vsevolod remained as his father's vicar in the Novgorod principality.

Holy Prince Vsevolod did much good for Novgorod. Together with the Archbishop of Novgorod, St Niphon (April 8), he raised up many churches, among which were the cathedral of the Great Martyr George at the Yuriev monastery, and the church of St John the Forerunner at Opokakh, built in honor of the "angel" (i.e. patron saint) of his first-born son John, who had died in infancy (+ 1128).

In his Ustav (Law code) the prince granted a special charter of lands and privileges to the cathedral of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) and other churches. During a terrible famine, he exhausted his entire treasury to save people from perishing. Prince Vsevolod was a valiant warrior, he marched victoriously against the Yam and Chud peoples, but he never took up the sword for lucre or power.

In 1132, upon the death of holy Great Prince Mstislav, Vsevolod's uncle Prince Yaropolk of Kiev fulfilled the last wishes of his brother and transferred Vsevolod to Pereyaslavl, then regarded as the eldest city after Kiev itself. But the younger sons of Monomakh, Yuri Dolgoruky and Andrew Dobry, were apprehensive lest Yaropolk make Vsevolod his successor at Kiev, and so they marched out against their nephew. Hoping to avoid internecine strife, St Vsevolod returned to Novgorod, but was received there with disaffection. The Novgorodians felt that the prince had been "raised" by them and should not have left them earlier. "Vsevolod went to Rus, to Pereslavl," noted the Novgorod chronicler, "and kissed the cross against the Novgorodians, saying, 'I will kill you.'"

Striving to restore good relations with Novgorod, the prince undertook a victorious campaign against the Chud people in 1133, and he annexed Yuriev to the Novgorod domain. But a harsh winter campaign in 1135-1136 against Suzdal was unsuccessful. The stubborn people of Novgorod would not heed their chastisement by God, and they could not forgive the prince for their defeat. The assembly decided to summon a prince from the hostile Monomakh line of the Olgovichi, and they condemned St Vsevolod to banishment. "You suffered exile at the hands of your own people," we sing in the troparion to the saint. For a month and a half they held the prince and his family under guard at the archbishop's palace. When Prince Svyatoslav Olgovich arrived on July 15, 1136, Vsevolod was released from his captivity.

Vsevolod went again to Kiev, and his uncle Yaropolk gave him the Vyshgorod district near Kiev, the place where St Olga (July 11) had lived in the tenth century during the rule of her son Svyatoslav, "preferring the cities of Kiev and Pskov." St Olga came to the defense of her descendant in 1137 when the people of Pskov, recalling the campaigns of the Novgorod-Pskov army led by the prince, invited him to the Pskov principality, the native region of St Olga. He was the first Pskov prince, chosen by the will of the Pskov people.

Among the glorious works of St Vsevolod-Gabriel at Pskov was the construction of the first stone church dedicated to the Life-Creating Trinity, replacing a wooden church from the time of St Olga. On the icons of the saint, he is often depicted holding the church of the Holy Trinity.

St Vsevolod ruled as prince at Pskov for only a year. He died on February 11, 1138 at the age of forty-six. All of Pskov gathered at the funeral of the beloved prince, and the chanting of the choir could scarcely be heard over the people's wailing.

The people of Novgorod sent an archpriest from the Sophia cathedral to take his holy relics back to Novgorod. The prince, however, did not want his body to rest in Novgorod. He would not allow Novgorod to be deprived of his relics by the people of Pskov, who had driven him out, and the coffin would not move from the spot. The Novgorod people wept bitterly and repented in their misfortune. Then they asked to be given just a small piece of his relics "for the protection of their city." Through their prayers a fingernail fell from the saint's hand. The Pskov people put St Vsevolod into the temple of the holy Great Martyr Demetrius. Beside the grave they placed the military armaments of the prince, a shield and sword, in the shape of a cross, with the Latin inscription, "I will yield my honor to no one."

On November 27, 1192, the relics of holy Prince Vsevolod were uncovered and transferred into the Trinity cathedral, in which a chapel was consecrated in his honor.

The deep spiritual bond of the city of St Olga with the holy Prince Vsevolod was never broken. He always remained a Pskov wonderworker. At the siege of Pskov by Stephen Bathory in 1581, when the walls of the fortress were already breached and the Poles were ready to rush into the city, they brought the holy relics of Prince Vsevolod from the Trinity cathedral to the place of battle, and the enemy withdrew.

On April 22, 1834, on the first day of Pascha, the saint's holy relics were solemnly transferred to a new shrine in the main church of the cathedral.

At the appearance of the wonderworking Pskov-Protection Icon (October 1), holy Prince Vsevolod-Gabriel stood among the heavenly defenders of Pskov.

Saint DEMETRE de Prilouki, hiéromoine et thaumaturge au territoire de Vologda (Russie 1392). (Office traduit en français par le père Denis Guillaume au tome II du Supplément aux Ménées. Acathiste traduit en français par le père Denis Guillaume au tome XIII du Supplément aux Ménées.)

Saint Demetrius of Priluki, Wonderworker, was born into a rich merchant's family in Pereyaslavl-Zalessk. From his youth the saint was uncommonly handsome. Receiving monastic tonsure at one of the Pereyaslavl monasteries, the saint later founded the St Nicholas cenobitic monastery on the Sts Boris and Gleb Hill at the shore of Lake Plescheevo near the city, and became its igumen. 

In 1534 St Demetrius first met with St Sergius of Radonezh, who had come to Pereyaslavl to see Metropolitan Athanasius. From that time, he frequently conversed with St Sergius and became close with him. The fame of the Pereyaslavl igumen was so widespread that he became godfather to the children of Great Prince Demetrius Ioannovich. Under the influence of the Radonezh wonderworker, St Demetrius decided to withdraw to a remote place, and went north with his disciple Pachomius. 

In the Vologda forests, at the River Velika, near the Avnezh settlement, they built a church of the Resurrection of Christ and they prepared to lay the foundations for a monastery. The local inhabitants were fearful that if a monastery were built there, their village would become monastery property. They demanded that the monks leave their territory, and wishing to be a burden to no one, they moved farther away. 

Not far from Vologda, at the bend of a river in an isolated spot, St Demetrius decided to form the first of the cenobitic monasteries of the Russian North. The people of Vologda and the surrounding gladly consented to help the saint. The owners of the land intended for the monastery, Elias and Isidore, even trampled down a grain field, so that a temple might be built immediately. In 1371 the wooden Savior cathedral was built, and brethren began to gather. 

Many disciples of the monk came there from Pereyaslavl. St Demetrius combined prayer and strict asceticism with kindliness. He fed the poor and hungry, he took in strangers, he conversed with those in need of consolation, and he gave counsel. He loved to pray in solitude. His Lenten food consisted of prosphora with warm water. Even on feastdays, he would not partake of the wine and fish permitted by the Rule. Both winter and summer he wore an old sheepskin coat, and even in his old age he went with the brethren on common tasks. The saint accepted contributions to the monastery cautiously, so that the welfare of the monastery would not be detrimental to those living nearby. 

The Lord granted His servant the gift of clairvoyance, and he attained a high degree of spiritual perfection. St Demetrius died at an advanced age on February 11, 1392. The brethren approaching found him as though asleep, and his cell was filled with a wondrous fragrance. 

Miracles from the relics of St Demetrius began in the year 1409, and during the fifteenth century his veneration spread throughout all Rus. And no later than the year 1440, the Priluki monk Macarius recorded his Life (Great Reading Menaion, February 11) based on the narratives of St Demetrius's disciple Igumen Pachomius.

Saint GEORGES le Serbe, orfèvre, martyr par la main des Musulmans à Sofia en Bulgarie (1515).

Mémoire du miracle de l'icône de la Mère de Dieu à Parga de Nicopolis (1603).