Venerable Methodia of Cimola (1908)
Commemorated October 5
She was born in 1865 on the island of Cimola. Against her own wishes, her parents married her to a sailor, but he drowned soon after their wedding. Though she grieved for him, she also took his loss as a sign that she was to follow the path that she had always most deeply desired — so she entered monastic life, receiving the name Methodia. She then shut herself in a small cell where she gave herself to prayer without reservation, hardly ever leaving. She prayed virtually around the clock, and kept strict fast every day but Saturday and Sunday, on which days she would leave her cell to partake of the Mysteries. She received no visitors at all during Lent; at other times, she would receive only women. She became known throughout her region as a counselor and healer. She reposed in peace at the age of forty-two, in 1908.
Troparion
In thee, O mother, was manifestly preserved what is in the image of God; for, having taken up the 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 religious Methodia, spirit.
Kontakion
For the love of God thou didst, O religious one, detest the device for rest, having by fasting made thy spirit luminous, for thou didst inflict a severe defeat on the beasts; but through thine intercessions destroy the plots of the enemies.
Source: Crkveni Kalendar
