17 heudar 2012
The Ethiopian Synaxarium
IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER AND THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT, ONE GOD. AMEN.
On this day is commemorated the translation of the body of the saint who is honored in all the ends of the world, John the Mouth of Gold (Chrysostom), Archbishop of the city of Constantinia (Constantinople). Now Saint John excommunicated the Empress Eudoxia because of the property of a widow, which she had taken from her by violence. And the empress made an excuse for herself, saying, “Kings have always been in the habit, if when they have been going about among estates they have seen any property which they wanted, of taking it, and giving the owner the value thereof, and I will give this widow the value of her estate”; now the widow did not wish to part with her estate. For this reason Saint John excommunicated the Empress Eudoxia, and he forbade her to enter the church, because she had not obeyed his command and let the property of the widow alone. And Satan came upon her, and she swelled with pride, and became furiously angry, and she gathered together to her the bishops whom Saint John had excommunicated because of their evil works and wicked faith. And they conspired together against him, and the empress drove him into exile to the island of the mountains ‘Adrakes. After a few years (days?) he returned to his office, and then the bishops gathered together and drove him into exile in the country of Armenia; and from there [he went] to a far city in the desert where he died. When Theodosius the Less, the son of Arcadius, reigned, he sent messengers and had the body of Saint John the Mouth of Gold (Chrysostom) brought to the city of Constantinia with great honor, and much singing, and music, five and thirty years after he was exiled, and it arrived on the twenty-second day of the month Genbot (May-June), according to what is said in the second volume of the Coptic Synopsis, and on the twenty-second day of the month Yakatit (Feb-March), according to the Greek books. And it is said that they laid the body in a coffer of afras stone, that is to say, marble, in the sanctuary, and great signs and wonders were made manifest through his body. Salutation to the translation of thy body, O John the Mouth of Gold (Chrysostom).
Now the Book of the Exposition of Alexandria, and the Exposition which Abba John, Bishop of the city of Keft, wrote, and the Exposition of the Melchites agree together in stating that the death of John the Mouth of Gold (Chrysostom) took place on the seventeenth day of the month Khedar. The Exposition of the Jacobites saith that he died on the fourteenth day of the month Elul, that is to say, the seventeenth day of the month of Maskaram, and that, because of the festival of the Cross they changed it to the seventeenth day of Khedar. The old books record that his death took place on the twelfth day of the month Genbot, but I think that it was the carrying of his body up to the city of Constantinia
which took place on that day, and behold it is [here] written on the seventeenth day of the month of Khedar.
And on this day also are commemorated that blessed Abraham and his wife Harik, and the righteous men [who suffered martyrdom in the desert of] Wasif, and Abba Sinoda the abbot. Salutation to Abraham, and his wife Harik, and their child Kedus ‘Amlak.
Salutation to the martyrs of the desert of Wasif. Salutation to Abba Sinoda the abbot. [And on this day is commemorated Walatta Petros the Ethiopian woman.]
Glory be to God Who is glorified in His Saints. Amen.
James the apostle
ሐዋርያውያዕቆብ ወልደ ዘብዲዮስ
Apôtre Jacques fils de Zébédée
Abba Gerima
Abba Gerima (one of the Nine saints)
አባ ገሪማ
Saint Stefanos
ቅዱስ እስጢፋኖስ
(Stephen the Martyr) - the First Martyr and Archdeacon