St. Euphrosynus of Blue Jay Lake

Another selection pulled from "the Northern Thebaid." This was an exhortation to one of the brother's of the Saint's monastery shortly before his martyrdom by the Catholic Poles. Yet again, this is directed at a monastic but shows the fortitude that all Orthodox Christians are expected to show in the face of adversity. I thought a great deal about the suffering Coptic Christians when I read this.

"Brother Jonah," said the Saint, "why do you allow faint-hearted fear into your soul? When there is to be a battle, then is the time when one must show manliness. If God is with us, who is against us? And who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?...Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature (Romans 8:35, 38-39). None of these things can do this. Why have you become frightened, brother? There is nothing frightful in that which threatens us. Death? But it is not frightful, since by its means we are departing for the harbor. Robbery? But naked I came, naked I will depart (Job 1:21). Confinement? But the earth is the Lord's, and all the fulness thereof (Psalm 23:1). Should we fear slander? But when mean shall say all manner of evil against you... great is your reward in heaven (Matt. 5:11, 12). I saw a sword, and the heaven covered with lightning; I expected death, and thought on what was mortal; I contemplated the sufferings of earth, and thought of the honors above and the crown on high as the end of labors, and for me this is sufficient consolation and contrition. May the will of God be done! Let us not be afraid of some passing fear, for the sake of Christ's love. It is for this that we are called and offered our vows to the Lord, in order to die in this place for the sake of His Holy Name."

Shortly after this was spoken, both the Saint and the Brother Jonah were martyred. The Saint was killed in the Great Schema, before the monastery's Cross.