Today’s Gospel Readings and commemorations of Saints Peter and Febronia remind us of the importance of love and fidelity and how they relate. Fidelity of course involves faith. The Apostle Paul laid out what have been called the three Christian virtues when he said faith, hope, and love abide, but the greatest of these is love (I Cor. 13). The three, culminating in love, interconnect. Faith helps provide the basis for the natural supernatural power of love, as does hope. Marriage as a mystery of the Church, between a man and a woman and also symbolizing the unity of Christ and His Church, combines the Christian virtues in the mystical union (or sobornost) we know in the body of Christ as family for our salvation.
The tradition of Saints Peter and Febronia, special patrons of faithful and hopeful love, illustrates this mystical unity at the heart of Church. It is based in the ancient Russian city of Murom, home to many saints, old monasteries, and warrior-heroes of old Russia. Peter and Febronia became among the most celebrated, and post-communist Russia has a massive summer national holiday honoring family, love and fidelity that is dedicated to them. It is Russia’s answer to the celebration of the sin of Pride and sexual immorality and perversity in Western countries for a month around that same time of year, and we too honor these saints not out of conflict with others but, starting with ourselves, to show the righteous healing power of faith, hope, and love.
Today’s feast for those saints falls on the Sunday before the sixth day of September on the Church calendar and honors the translation of the relics of the two saints. According to tradition they were buried on the same day in 1228, and their bodies miraculously appeared together twice in a single tomb after twice being buried separately. But then in the last century under Communism their relics were treated with blasphemous ridicule in a museum. Thankfully the relics of the saints were transferred to the Holy Trinity Convent in Murom, Russia, in 1992, after the fall of atheistic Communism in Russia, to restore their public veneration.
In 2012 the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church established this September-based feast marking that restoration of the relics, so that weddings also could occur on a feast of Saints Peter and Febronia, since the summer feast and the national holiday on the day of their repose falls during the Apostles Fast when weddings cannot be held. Here in our little country church in America, this year by meaningful coincidence we are hosting a special wedding for our parish in a little more than a week, appropriately. Adding to the meaning of today’s feast this year, today is New Years Eve on the Orthodox Christian calendar. Today is a day for resolutions, among which we can include resolutions about family, love, and fidelity, related to Saints Peter and Febronia, asking their intercession for our new year’s resolve.
It is well known that the Old Testament equates adultery with apostasy and idolatry, schism and heresy, and this is deepened spiritually in the New Testament. The traditions about Saints Peter and Febronia underscore the relation between personal fidelity or chastity and spiritual faithfulness. A traditional account of the saints’ lives goes like this (from: https://www.pravmir.com/life-of-the-saints-peter-and-Febronia-of-murom/):
Murom back in the Middle Ages was ruled by a good prince Paul. The devil sent a serpent that seduced and debased his wife in a case of demonic possession. The prince told her to trick the serpent into telling her how he is destined to die. And when the serpent came, when it began to brag, she asked humbly and with respect: “You certainly know everything, and so you must certainly know to what kind of death you are destined.” And the great deceiver was himself deceived by the faithful wife and unknowingly betrayed his secret, saying “My death will come from Peter’s hand and Agric’s sword.”
Peter was her husband’s brother, whom they asked for help. But they did not know Agric’s sword. Peter praying alone in Church one day was approached by a youth who asked if he would like to see Agric’s sword. He showed a niche in the bricks of the altar where the sword lay. Prince Peter took the sword and began to wait for an opportunity to slay the serpent. One day he spoke with his brother Paul and then shortly afterward saw Paul impossibly again elsewhere with Paul’s wife the princess. He realized the second Paul was a deception of the evil spirit to avoid being slain. He struck it with the sword, and the evil spirit returned to its true form and died in convulsions. Before it died, however, its blood spilled on Prince Peter, who became covered with sores and ulcers from this blood, and gravely ill. Having heard that there were many physicians in the region of Riazan, Prince Peter told his servants to convey him there in his weakened state.
One of the young men of his retinue there accidentally met in a village a beautiful maiden, Febronia, known for her wisdom, although of modest background. She said she could cure the prince if he proved kind of heart and not proud. Prince Peter offered the maiden great wealth for curing him, but she said she did not want worldly riches, but only to marry him. Peter agreed while not taking her seriously because of her low birth. She prepared an ointment for his healing. He was cured except in one place that she had ordered be left uncovered, where there was still a scab. He tried giving her great gifts and then left, but the rash returned from the remaining scab. He had to return to Febronia again for healing. She said she would only fully treat him if he became her wife, and this time he agreed sincerely. He then was wholly healed under her care.
They married and after Prince Paul’s death Prince Peter became ruler of Murom. He and Febronia lived very pious lives, closely obeying the commandments of God, and doing great works of charity among the common people, which Febronia led. But this aroused jealousy among the nobles. They tried to force Prince Peter to give up the commoner Febronia, but he would not do so, citing Jesus’ commandment on marriage. So they were exiled and sent down river by boat from the city. But the royal and pious husband and wife kept their faith that God would care for them even so.
A married courtier helping to oversee their exile sinfully was attracted to Febronia. She ordered the lustful courtier to scoop up water from the river one side of the boat and drink it, and then from the other side. Then Febronia approached him, and asked: “Tell me, did you find that the water tastes the same on both sides of the ship, or was it perhaps sweeter on one side than on the other?” The man answered: “No, my lady. The water tasted the same on both sides.” Then she replied: “And so is the nature of all women. Why then do you want to leave your wife and think about another woman?” The courtier then realized that the princess possessed the gift of reading the minds of men. Becoming afraid, he gave up his evil intentions.
It was not long before a party from the city overtook them as they were camping in the wilds. A lord from the city told them that it had been decimated after their departure by feuds among the nobles seeking to take power, and that many of them and their wives who had forced the exile were dead. “Those lords who have survived and all the rest of the people beg you to come back, my lord, and rule over us. And we will neither anger nor irritate you again…. Those of us who remain alive do love [Febronia], and we beg you not to leave us alone, your humble servants.”
Thus, Prince Peter and Princess Febronia returned to the city of Murom, and they ruled according to the commandments of God. Peter and Febronia always helped their people with alms and prayers. They treated all as if they were their own children. They loved everyone equally, and disliked only those who were proud or who exploited the people. Peter and Febronia lay up their treasures, not on earth, but in heaven. They were real pastors of their city. They always ruled with truth and humility, and never with anger. They gave shelter to pilgrims, fed the hungry, and clothed the naked. And they helped the poor in their misfortune.
When death was nearing, Peter and Febronia prayed to God that they both might die in the same hour. And they requested that they be buried in the same tomb and in a common coffin in which their bodies would be separated only by a partition. And as many pious elderly Orthodox Christians have done throughout history, together they took monastic vows, Prince Peter becoming Brother David, and Princess Febronia, Sister Euphrosinia. Shortly before death, Princess Febronia was embroidering a cover for the chalice of the cathedral. And a messenger came from Prince Peter, now Brother David, saying: “Sister Euphrosinia, I am ready to die, and wait only for you, so that we may die together.” But she asked him to wait until she finished embroidering, but as he neared death, she put it aside and they died together.
Some of the people insisted that they should be buried separately since they had taken monastic vows. But when this was done, the next morning the people went to the caskets of Peter and Febronia and found them empty. The bodies of the holy prince and princess were found together in the tomb that earlier they had ordered prepared to share. The people, not understanding, once more placed the bodies in separate caskets. On the following day the bodies of Prince Peter and Princess Febronia were once again found together in the tomb. Since that time no man has dared to disturb their holy bodies until the Communists disparaged them but today the relics again are honored, as we do in our little Church today. And whoever touches with contrition the tomb wherein lie the holy relics of Peter and Febronia always received comfort and healing.
Brothers and sisters, faith, hope, and love are not a legal checklist. They are gifts of the Holy Spirit through Christ. Let us open our hearts to their grace, that the spark of God’s love in our heart may fan them with His uncreated energies, so that we may lose ourselves in our love for Him, and through Him with one another help brighten the land. Let us have holy righteous Prince Peter and Febronia be our models and intercessors. May they pray for us in the new year to hold this resolution firm, to live with faith, hope, and most of all love, as they did, in Christ. Glory to God for all things!