5 January 2025 (MIA)

Macedonian Orthodox Church Calendar

Saint Naum, the Wonderworker of Ohrid

He was a disciple of SS. Cyril and Methodius and one of the Five Followers – those zealous fellow-workers with these apostles of the Slavs. St. Naum traveled to Rome, where he was renowned both for his wonderworking power and his great learning. He knew many languages. At the time of his return from Rome, he settled, with the help of the Emperor Boris Michael of Bulgaria, on the shores of Lake Ohrid. While St. Clement was working in Ohrid as bishop, St. Naum built a monastery on the southern shore of the lake, a monastery that adorns that shore till this day as the name of St. Naum adorns the history of Slav Christianity, and has been through the ages a fount of strength and recourse for the sick and the wretched. Many monks from all over the Balkans gathered round St. Naum, who was a wise teacher, a strict ascetic, a wonderworker and a man of prayer. A tireless worker, St. Naum laboured especially to translate the Holy Scriptures from Greek into Slavonic. He worked wonders both during his lifetime and after his death, and his wonderworking relics to this day perform many marvels, particularly healing from grave illness and from madness. He entered into rest in the first half of the tenth century, and went to the joy of his beloved Christ.

Catholic Calendar

Saint Gerlac

St. Gerlac was born in the 12th century, of noble parents, at Houthem, Netherlands. He was an officer in the army of the German emperor. He had led a life of dissipation and sin until the grace of God touched him at a tournament of nobles at Julich, where he hoped to carry off again the prize for military skill and bravery. When all were assembled and the tournament was about to begin, a messenger brought him sad news of the sudden death of his beloved wife. This sorrowful message overwhelmed him with almost uncontrollable grief, but it conveyed at the same time a salutary lesson. It unveiled to him the vanities of the world. He made a general confession to the Holy Father and asked for a severe penance in expiation of his sinful life. The pope ordered him to go to Jerusalem and there to serve the sick and the poor in the hospitals for a period of seven years. After this time of severe penance combined with works of charity, Gerlac returned to Rome where he gave an account of his activities to the Sovereign Pontiff Adrian IV, who was educated in one of the schools of the Order and, according to some historians, was a member of the Norbertine family. By the pope’s advice he returned to Houthem to lead a hermit’s life. Not far from the castle in which he was born there stood a hollow oak tree of large dimensions in which he made his dwelling place, a little matting being his bed and a stone his pillow. Under the white habit of St. Norbert, which he had received, he carried various instruments of penance. Each day he visited the tomb of St. Servatius of Maastricht, and each Saturday he made a pilgrimage to the shrine of our Lady at Aix-la-chapelle. His favorite saying was “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Like St. Benedict Labre, he had much to endure from ill-disposed people who misunderstood his penances and pilgrimages. When he was at the point of death, his biographer narrates that St. Servatius appeared to him and gave him the consolations of our holy religion. He died on Jan. 5, 1171.