(January 4th)

Fasting is one of the most misunderstood aspects of Orthodox Christian life and one of the most difficult to master in our food-obsessed culture today. Fasting, more than anything else, forces us to recall that all nourishment is a gift from God and it is ultimately He who sustains us. Saint Monk Akhila knew this very well and never ate filling or sweet food. He, like all Orthodox monastics was a strict vegetarian throughout the year, and during fasts he would be sustained only by prosphora!

We ask Monk Akhila’s intercessions for us when dealing with gluttonous passions and intemperance.

St. Elias of Murom died in Kiev in 1188 and was an elder in the Monastery of the Kievan Caves. He was both nicknamed "cobbler" and possibly a soldier for Prince Vladimir, before his time at the monastery. Little else is known about his life, but a curious fact of his death is noteworthy:

"St Elias died with the fingers of his right hand formed to make the Sign of the Cross in the position accepted even today in the Orthodox Church: the first three fingers together and the two outermost fingers folded onto the palm. During the struggle with the Old Ritualist Schism (seventeenth-nineteenth centuries) this information about the saint served as a powerful proof in favor of the present positioning of the fingers."

As so often is the case in the Orthodox Faith, the lives of the saints point the way to true orthopraxis (correct worship). To this day, Orthodox Christians cross themselves with this hand position. The three fingers joined in unity to represent the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity and the two fingers in the palm of the hand to represent the Dual Natures of Christ. We cross ourselves very often during the liturgies, and each time we invoke the central Truths of the Orthodox Faith, even down to our fingertips.

Saint Elias is commemorated on December 19th on the new calendar, and January 1st on the old calendar.