As soon as the tsar was enthroned, he immediately strengthened Orthodoxy, because he believed that there was nothing more necessary. His first act was to restore to the Patriarchal throne Joseph, the unshakable pillar of Orthodoxy, and to expel the fornicator and usurper John the Age, the corrupter of the verbal sheep of Christ. Then the emperor with great honor summoned the saints from prison. Then many of those who did not accept Latinism received high ranks. Neither the emperor, an ardent zealot for piety, nor the archons, could persuade the Monk Meletius to accept the priesthood, because he guarded himself from human glory, considering that it was harmful.

 Already in extreme old age the monk fell ill, he was ill for three years, and all this time he ate only vegetables, and even then with extreme abstinence and strictness. When the time came for him to depart to the Lord, he summoned all the brethren and spoke to them words of consolation for the last time, and gave each one instruction concerning the spiritual life. Then he glorified God together with everyone and, raising his hands to heaven and directing his eyes upward, said: "Lord, in Thy hands I commend my spirit." And at the same hour he fell asleep in the sleep of a righteous man, departing to his beloved Lord.

 The monk, whose name was Gerasim, was sleeping in his cell, and saw in a dream the divine Meletius with his hands raised up, who was joyfully ascending to Heaven. When he came to the cell of the monk, the saint had already died, and his face shone with heavenly light.

 Another hieromonk Theoliptus, who greatly respected and loved the monk, served the Liturgy for forty days from the day of his death. This period ended on the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy. After the service, Theoliptus began to ask God to reveal to him in which monasteries the soul of the divine Meletius rested. Falling asleep after prayer, he saw in a dream that he was in a large and beautiful church, facing east and reaching to heaven. This temple shone with an indescribable light. Inside it, the holy fathers sang a wondrous angelic song to God. There was also a preacher who said that Meletius had built this church in honor of the Holy Trinity during his lifetime. Theoliptus rejoiced greatly at what he heard and saw there. Then, in a dream, he approached the grave of the saint and saw that it was open, and inside it stood two men dressed in white, who were holding censers of amazing beauty in their hands and censing them. Then Theoliptus noticed Meletius himself, who began to reproach: "You, dear Theoliptus, have left my grave without care, and God has sent to me those whom you see." And while Theoliptus was wondering how St. Meletius could say that he was dead, he suddenly heard a voice from Heaven: "He that believeth in Me, though he die, shall live" (John 11:25). That's all.

 And now I want to tell for the glory of the saint about some of the miracles he performed during his lifetime. Once, when the saint was walking along the shore, he met several fishermen who had spread their nets on the sand. When they asked if they had caught anything, they replied that they had been fishing all night, but had not caught anything. Taking pity on them, the saint boldly said: "Children, cast your nets again in the name of our Saviour God." Having listened to the monk, they entered the boat and, sailing a little, read a prayer and cast their nets. O Thy indescribable mercy, O my Christ! So many fish were caught in their nets that the fishermen were able to pull them into the boat with great difficulty. Marveling at the boldness that the monk had before God, they glorified God and thanked Meletius.

 After the saint had built the Church of St. Andrew the First-Called on the island, as we have already said, the cellarer once told him that the builders had nothing to feed with. Then, taking up his staff, the saint commanded him to follow him. They went down to the sea and the monk quietly knocked the water with his staff, saying: "In the name of the Lord Christ, give us today what we need!" - At the same hour, a large fish jumped out of the water to the ground. When the cellar came up to take her, a second one jumped out of the water, no less than the first. Taking both of them, the cellar prepared dinner and fed the workers.

 When the Orthodox emperor Andronicus reigned, he once invited the great Meletius to his palace in order to consult with him on a certain ecclesiastical question, and received the monk with great honor. One of the archons named Sirmurinus, protovestiary by office, began to mentally reproach the saint for loving temporal glory, and therefore he said to one of those sitting next to him: "This monk seems to have left the heavenly glory, which he should have sought, and now seeks human glory and rejoices in it." Returning home in the evening, Sirmurin lay down on the bed and had a dream. He found himself in the royal palace, where sat the terrible Tsar, dressed in both royal and episcopal vestments, and countless troops stood around Him. Very angry with Sirmurin for insulting His servant, the King ordered His bodyguards to take revenge on him. They wanted to bind him hand and foot and throw him into the place of condemnation of blasphemers, but the great Meletius interceded for him before the Emperor and saved the unfortunate nobleman from punishment. Frightened by this terrible dream, Sirmurin, as soon as he woke up, went to the saint. Falling at his feet, he confessed his condemnation, and then told about his dream. Asking with warm tears forgiveness, which he immediately received from the monk, he departed with joy and henceforth spoke of the ascetic deeds of the saint with many praises.

 Such, my beloved brethren, was the life of the Monk Meletius, such was his extraordinary zeal for Orthodoxy, and such were the miracles manifested by him. Having lived seventy-seven years, he left all this, temporary, and departed to God, where he prays for all of us to the Most Holy Trinity, to Whom is due glory, honor and worship forever and ever. Amen.

 (Written by Macarius of Philadelphia Chrysokephalos)

The Life and Deeds of Our Venerable and God-bearing Father Cosmas, Who Asceticized in the Honorable Monastery of Zograf in the Thirteenth Century

 This venerable father Cosmas was a Bulgarian, and was born according to a vow, of pious and noble parents. He received a good upbringing, and at school he learned Greek and Bulgarian literacy. After school, his parents decided to marry him, but the young man, having a strong desire to become a monk, secretly left his homeland and came to the Holy Mountain. On the way to the Holy Mountain, he was tempted by the hater of good, the envious devil, who, wishing not to allow him to reach the Holy Mountain, showed him in a vision the Holy Mountain as an island located in the middle of the ocean. Thinking about how monks get to the Mountain, whether they use ladders or boats, Blessed Cosmas, having no one to ask, turned to God with the following prayer: "Lord, Jesus Christ, through the prayers of the All-Pure Mother, show me the way by which monks come to the Holy Mountain." Immediately the ghostly sea disappeared, and the youth, guessing that these were the snares of the devil, thanked God and the Mother of God.

 Freely entering the Holy Mountain, Cosmas came to the honorable monastery of Zograf. Joyfully received by the hegumen and all the brethren, the youth spent a sufficient time there, after which he was vested in the monastic image by the then hegumen, who appointed him together with others to serve in the church.

 When the feast of the Annunciation approached, the youth received permission from the abbot, and together with other brethren he went to the Vatopedi monastery to venerate the Precious Belt of our Most Holy Lady the Mother of God and the relics of the saints found there. Entering the church, Cosmas saw a certain wife, who served as an altar boy in the church, at a meal, and participated in all the monastic obediences. Not knowing that this was the MostHoly Virgin, the monk was greatly grieved that the monks were allowing women into the monastery, for it was dangerous.

 When he returned to the Zograph monastery, the abbot, seeing his sorrow, asked what was the matter. The monk told him about everything, and the hegumen said: "Know, child, that the Woman Whom thou hast seen was the MostHoly Mother of God, the patroness of that monastery and of all this Mountain." Having learned everything, Cosmas thanked the Most Holy Virgin, Who deigned to appear to him. After some time the monk was ordained a deacon, and then a presbyter, and from that time he asceticized even more, without complaint and with great zeal fulfilling all monastic obediences.