Because the Lord knows his own as he said My sheep hear my

Last updated: 1/22/2024

Because the Lord knows his own as he said My sheep hear my voice and I know them and I call them by name and they follow me and I will give them eternal life He also did this to our family when he raised up this teacher wholenlightened the nation ours stunned by weakness or rather by the devil s trick on the mind did not want to walk in the light of God s commandments His life even if only briefly told shows what he was like so that those who hear him if they want to become like him accept wisdom and reject laziness as the apostle said Be like me as I am like Christ In the city of Sol ne there was a certain man born and rich named Leo He was pious and kept all the commandments of God truthfully like Job once was During the time he lived with his wife he fathered seven children The youngest of them the seventh was Konstantin Philosopher our educator and teacher When the mother gave birth to him she put him to the breast for weaning but the child did not want to latch on to anyone else s breast only the mother s until it was weaned It happened by God s providence that a good branch from a good root was weaned with undefiled milk Then the good parents agreed not to associate to please each other but so they lived in the Lord as brother and sister for fourteen years until death did them part When the child was seven years old he had a dream When told him to his father and mother said Strategist he assembled all the maidens of our city and said to me Choose from among them whom you want as a wife and a helper equal to yourself I when I examined and inspected them all saw one of the most beautiful of all with a radiant face very adorned with gold chains and pearls and all beauty Her name was Sofia that is Wisdom When they put him to study he excelled in learning nad by all the students with a very sharp memory that everyone was surprised One day as is the custom of the rich to amuse themselves by hunting you went out with them into the field and he took his son And as soon as he let go of it the wind rose by God s direction took it from him and carried it away The boy was therefore sad and angry and did not eat for two days Because the gracious God in his love for man did not want him to get used to worldly things Contemplating the futility of this life he envied him and said Is this life such that instead of joy comes sorrow From this day I will go another way And being instructed by this he sat in his house and studied by heart the books of Gregor the Theologian And again the bishops and all the people gathered to see him off with honors and spoke Let s open the coffin and see nobody took anything from him Even with great effort they could not unnail the coffin by God s guidance And so they put him with the coffin in the grave on the right side of the altar in the Church of St Clement where many miracles began to happen And when the Romans seeing this they clung still more to his sanctity and dignity and painted a picture over his tomb and kindled a light over it day and night praising God who so he glorifies those who glorify him probably Kliment transl E Paulina Life Method After all this God is merciful who wants everyone man achieved salvation and came to the knowledge of the truth in our time for our nation which no one ever cared about he awakened our teacher blessed Methodius to a good work and when we compare all his virtues and endeavors one by one with those godly men we shall not be ashamed For he equaled one was somewhat smaller than the others and surpassed some he surpassed the eloquent in zeal and the zealous in eloquence Because he became similar to all he showed the image of all in himself fear of God observance of the commandments bodily cleanliness unceasing prayers and holiness speaking strong and sweet And he came from a family of both parents who were not poor but very good and honest known above all to God and the emperor and the whole region of Thessaloniki and he also excelled in physical appearance That is why even his opponents the Greeks loved him from childhood spoke respectfully of him until the emperor knowing his intelligence gave him the administration of the principality of Slovenia and so to speak as if he had foreseen that he would send him to Slovenia as a teacher and the first archbishop to learn all Slovak customs and slowly got used to them He also had a prophetic grace because many of his predictions came true one or two of which we will tell The pagan prince very powerful resided on the Vistula blasphemed the Christians and troubled them But he sent to him and said It will be good for you son to be baptized of your own free will in your own country so that you a captive will not be baptized by force in a foreign country and you will remember me which happened When his disciples took care of him they paid him dignified honors performed the church service in Latin Greek and Slovene and laid him in the main temple And he was assigned to his fathers and patriarchs and prophets apostles teachers martyrs But the people an innumerable nation that came down accompanied him with candles mourned the good teacher and shepherd mourned men and women the poor and the great the rich and the poor the free and the serf the widow and the orphan the foreigner and the native the sick and the healthy all for he was all things to all that he might win all about Gorazd transl E Paulina