Our Holy Father Apolionius
Commemorated March 31
Saint Apollonius, when he was a fifteen-year-old youth, withdrew into the inner Thebaid desert (Lower Egypt), where he spent forty years in monastic struggles. Directed by God, he founded a monastery near Hermopolis, where eventually about five hundred monks gathered. St Apollonius was strict in fasting, only on Sundays did he eat cooked food, and on other days he ate wild plants.
All the monks followed the example of St Apollonius, engaging in spiritual struggles at the monastery. The holy ascetic died in the fourth century.
Troparion
In thee, O father, was manifestly preserved what is in the image of God, for having taken up thy cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by thine own example hast taught that the flesh is to be despised as transient, but that particular care should be bestowed on the soul, as a thing immortal; wherefore, together with the angels, rejoiceth also thine, O holy Apolionius, spirit.
Kontakion
Having divinely armed thyself with the purity of thy soul and unceasing prayers firmly grasping as a spear, thou, our father Apolionius, hast pierced the armies of the demon; supplicate unceasingly for us all.
Source: Crkveni Kalendar
