Spiritual Giants

Being a Christian means being part of a family: a very, very large family.  How many brothers or sisters do you have: 2? 3?  Think again.  You have thousands, if not millions.  Surprised?  Don’t be.  When you were baptized, you became part of the Christian family.  When you click on “Spiritual Giants”, you will learn about a member of you family. 

  A lot of times, we think of the saints as being people who we can’t relate to.  We never think of ourselves as saints or that we can be like St. Peter or St. Phoebe.  In fact, we are called saints every time during the Divine Liturgy when the priest says: “The Holy Gifts for the Holy People of God”.  We are holy, and therefore we have to try and live a holy life.  And yes, we can and must be like St. Paul, or Catherine, or Timothy, or Tabitha.  They’re really not that much different from us.  Okay, so they didn’t have i-pods or TV’s or MySpace.  But you know what?  They had the most important thing of all: a love for Christ.  They are our heroes (or should be at least).  Let us live up to our true calling and be inspired by those that fought the good fight until the end of their lives.  These people are the saints.  They are your brothers and sisters in Christ.  They love you and continue to pray for you.  Here is their story:

St. Cosmas and Damian (November 1st)*

These two were brothers.  We remember them on November 1st.  They were born somewhere in Asia.  Their dad was a pagan but their mom was a Christian.  After their father died their mother Theodota raised them us as Christians.  In our society, it’s definitely not uncommon to find single parent households.  Well, this was a single-parent household and yet with God’s help, Theodota raised her children in the Church.  Her boys ended up studying medicine and ultimately became doctors.  According to our society’s standards, they definitely “made” it.  When you think of successful people in society, you think of think of lawyers, athletes and definitely doctors.  But, these guys weren’t your ordinary doctors.  They didn’t charge for their services!  Can you believe that?  These brothers never took money for healing people!  That’s incredible!  In fact, Cosmas got really upset with his brother Damian when he found out that Damian took three eggs from a woman who was sick.  You’re not the only one who fights with their sibling!  Actually, Damian didn’t take the eggs as a reward but took them because the woman swore by the Holy Trinity that he should have them.  What was he supposed to do?  Say no?

  Most of you will probably plan to go to college after high school.  Whether you study medicine to be doctors like Cosmas and Damian or study another subject, remember to do what Cosmas and Damian did: use your gifts to glorify God.  It’s not about the money—it’s about the Kingdom of God.  These saints weren’t great because they were doctors and smart.  They were great because they served others.  They were great because they had greatest gift of all: love (1 Corinthians 13:13).

  By the way, there are two other sets of brothers named Cosmas and Damian—and yeah, they were doctors too.  Don’t get too confused. 

St. Catherine (November 24th)

  This young woman has an unbelievable story.  She was the daughter of King Constus and lived with her mother in Alexandria after her father’s death.  Her mother was a secret Christian and through her and her spiritual father, Catherine was brought to the Christian faith.  Not only was she beautiful, but she also had brains.  She was educated—very well educated actually.  She knew Greek philosophy, medicine, and rhetoric and logic.  This is the kind of woman that would easily have ended up at Harvard, Cal, Oxford or Cambridge. 

  The Emperor at the time, Maxentius, offered sacrifice to idols and ordered everyone to do the same thing.  Catherine wasn’t too happy about that and actually let the Emperor know her displeasure.  She denounced his idolatrous ways.  The Emperor, realizing that he was outmatched by Catherine, got fifty of his wisest men to try and prove that her belief in Christ was a joke.  Well, she ended up making them look silly.  The Emperor was infuriated and ordered that his wise men be burned.  St. Catherine prayed for these wise men, and they all ended up confessing the name of Christ at the moment of their death and proclaimed themselves Christians.  Catherine was put in prison for her allegiance to Christ.  While in prison, she brought a general and two hundred of his soldiers to the Faith.  If that wasn’t enough, she brought the Emperor’s wife to Christ!  All of them suffered for Christ as a result.  Ultimately, Catherine was martyred for the Faith on November 24th, 310 AD. 

  This is another saint who was very intelligent.  She probably could have been a very powerful woman in her society and in ours if she lived in 2005.  In her time, she also could have been very powerful had she worshipped idols rather than God but she didn’t.  Catherine knew that only God is to be worshipped and that only God could provide her with true happiness, not fame, power or wealth.  All you have to do is watch an episode of Beyond the Glory or E!’s True Hollywood Story to realize that all these things don’t deliver true happiness.  What are our idols today?  What do we worship instead of Christ?  All of us need to ask ourselves what’s the most important thing in the world.  Is it looks, power or popularity?  Nothing should be more important than Christ because with Christ, we have life everlasting and true happiness.  St. Catherine showed us this. 

 *The lives of these saints have been based on those found in The Prologue From Ochrid.  They have been adapted for this webpage.