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Dec 29th, 2019
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Joined: Jun 2003
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Today is the feast of Saint John Cassian, one of the great monastic Fathers of the West. His writings are well worth reading.
Incognitus
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Joined: Nov 2003
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Father Incognitus, Bless. Thank you for the heads up. Here is a link I found pertaining to St. John Cassian: http://www.osb.org/lectio/cassian/ Michael
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Joined: Nov 2001
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Dear Incognitus, I will refrain from calling you "Father Incognitus" because when I do, Alice always edits that out of (only my) posts!  Was not ST John Cassian a Scythian? It is interesting that he is only a local Saint in the West and his veneration is limited to Marsilius or Marseilles today. His notes on the life of the Fathers of the Desert are excellent reading, especially for the Great Fast. Alex
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Joined: Oct 2002
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Was not his commemoration in the East set for February 29th?
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Joined: Nov 2001
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Dear Andrew,
Incognitus and I are Old Calendarist "sticks-in-the-mud!"
March 13 IS February 29th!
It is also the feast of St Meletius of Kharkiv in Ukraine (to whom St John Maximovitch of San Francisco and Shanghai had a great devotion) and February 28th is the feast of the Holy Hieromartyr St Arsenius Matsievich, Metropolitan of Rostov, glorified in 2000.
Alex
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Joined: Nov 2001
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Dear Friends,
Just a note to add that technically the feast of St John Cassian is formally marked every leap year . . . There is a legendary tale about a bet (?) involving him and another saint - Cassian lost the bet and so the penalty was being commemorated only ever leap year . . .
St Arsenius Matsievich was a former Greek-Catholic who returned to Orthodoxy. He opposed the Russian government's involvement in church affairs and he was defrocked in a ritual fashion from the rank of Metropolitan to that of monk - Arsenius correctly told each hierarch that removed a rank from him how God would punish him!
He was then walled up in a prison where the local Orthodox populace brought him food.
When St Arsenius died, the guards told a doctor to go and see about "that criminal" upstairs . . . they did not tell anyone he was the Metropolitan of Rostov!
When the doctor opened the door, he saw, standing in front of him, a Metropolitan all decked out in his hieratic finery . . . with a light shining about him. . .
He ran back downstairs, yelling "There is a Metropolitan in that cell!"
When they returned, they found Arsenius lying dead on his bed.
More than 200 miracles were formally recorded and acknowledged by the Church through the intercession of St Arsenius, but his canonization didn't occur until the year 2000 (he was supposed to have been canonized in 1918, but the Revolution upset it all).
Russian aristocrats who venerated St Arsenius' memory sometimes had small versions of his prison built in their gardens to commemorate him.
Alex
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