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Commemorated on April 20
Sainted Anastasias
I the Sinaite, Patriarch of Antioch, began his monastic deeds on Mount
Sinai, wherefore he was called the Sinaite. He entered upon the Patriarchal
throne in the year 562 during the reign of the emperor Justinian (527-565).
The Monophysite
heresy was spreading about during this time. The emperor himself inclined
towards the side of the heretics. Sainted Anastasias was outspoken against the
heresy. He distributed a missive throughout all the churches and daily
elucidated in his own temple the Orthodox teaching about the two natures of the
Lord Jesus Christ. All those questioning or wavering in the faith awaited with
hope the words of the holy Patriarch Anastasias.
Justinian, angering
upon learning of this, wanted to depose Sainted Anastasias from the Antioch
throne, but suddenly he became grievously ill. Before his death he made Church
penance and composed the beautiful prayer "Only-begotten Son Word of God",
which has entered into the order of the Divine Liturgy. In it he expressed the
Orthodox teaching about the two natures of the Lord Jesus Christ.
After Justinian,
there came upon the throne emperor Justin the Younger (565-578), who resumed
the persecution against Sainted Anastasias and in 572 sent him into
imprisonment. Returning from exile in 593, Sainted Anastasias governed the
Church for six years and died peacefully (+ 21 April 599).
In exile, Saint
Anastasias wrote several dogmatic and moral works, and even rendered into the
Greek language the work of Sainted Gregory Dialogus (+ 604, Comm. 12 March)
"About Pastoral Service".
© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.
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