St Demetrios, Bishop Alexei

to the point that in Thessaloniki, the city where

he was martyred, that they have an entire holy

week leading up to the celebration. And yet if

we look at his martyrdom, he doesn't have the

peeling of the flesh, he doesn't have the wheel

of torment and the things that we see in the

martyrdom of, say, St. George the Trophy Bearer

or that we see in the martyrdoms of other great

martyrs. But what we have in, of course, St.

Demetrius is really a perfect patience and trust

in God until the very end. Actually, in the Madden's

Gospel, it says, By your patience acquire ye

your souls. And for the fathers, of course, when

we hear patience, that doesn't mean just resignation.

That doesn't mean inactivity. Because patience,

you know, of course, in Revelations, Apostle

John, the theologian, teaches that the saints,

of course, run the race with patience, and their

patience is, of course, keeping the commandments.

So being patient doesn't mean giving up, but

it means keeping one's eye always on the goal,

always on the goal, which is, of course, union

with Christ. St. Demetrius, above all in his

life, he always had the face of Christ before

him in all of his actions. And in Thessaloniki,

where he, of course, was a great, in the military,

he had attained to significant rank. But what

everyone noticed was, of course, that he was

peaceful, that he was loving, and that somehow

he had heard the preaching of the apostles. In

other words, the teaching of the apostles. And

that became like a flame in his heart. And he

simply... would tell the good news over and over

again of Christ God incarnate for our sakes,

born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius

Pilate, died crucified, and rose from the dead.

And Thessaloniki, which was itself a pagan city,

suddenly became the name of Christ was heard

everywhere in the streets because of, of course,

Saint Demetri. head Roman ruler came through

and he heard of this. He brought St. Demetrius

before him and St. Demetrius was calm, patient,

kind, loving, but he didn't move an inch from

his, of course, confession that Christ is God

and Christ is absolutely everything. Everything

for him, everything for the faithful, and there

was no way that he could tempt him either through

promise of earthly honors and earthly wealth

or even from the promise of torment and he was

thrown into of course the sewers in Thessaloniki

where he simply continued to pray Nestor came

to get his blessing and after getting his blessing

he went to fight the chief gladiator of the of

the ruler of the time. And there he cried out

by the prayers of St. Demetrius, he says, I will

defeat you. And of course, this young Nestor

was not particularly of the same size as the

great gladiator. He was completely victorious.

The emperor, he went, and the leader, and he

sent someone to, of course, kill St. Demetrius

with a spear, which the writers of the Lives

of the Saints never fail to mention, very much

like, of course, our Lord, who they pierced him

with a spear. But what we see above all in that

life is simply looking... always towards Christ,

looking with patience, and just keeping one's

focus on that. You know, often in the writings

of the fathers, they talk about the proper honor

of the saint is the imitation of the saint. And

how do we imitate him? It's not that we, of course,

look for suffering, because the saints, the martyrs,

didn't look for suffering. But we imitate them

above all by always looking to Christ. No matter

what comes our way, what temptation, what difficulty,

we look to Christ. And we imitate them above

all by their love for Christ. Because it's their

love for Christ that enables them to be patient.

It's their love for Christ that enables them

to fight any kind of temptation or torment that

the devil would, of course, unleash upon them.

And so, on this day in which we celebrate the

great martyr, St. Demetrius, let's make a commitment

to be patient, but to be patient with love. Patient,

looking towards Christ, doing what we can, fulfilling

the commandments, and so be accounted worthy

of that kingdom which St. Demetrius has inherited

and all the saints with Christ our Lord. Amen.