The memory of the holy martyrs Faith, Hope, Love and their mother Sophia was honoured on 30 September 2020 at the Dormition Cathedral. On this day Metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and Uzbekistan, head of the Central Asian Metropolitan District, celebrated the Divine Liturgy, and on the eve a polyeleos service.
Concelebrating with His Eminence were Archpriest Sergiy Nikolaev and Priest Vitaly Golban.
At the end of the Liturgy a hymn of glorification was sung to the holy martyrs, after which the archpastor addressed his flock with a sermon.
"We have a special love for these martyrs and venerate them," Metropolitan Vikenty said. "They showed their faith and hope in God, their love for God, and the wisdom we need in this life in order to serve God. We marvel at how Sophia, a very young mother, was able to bring up her little girls so that they loved Christ so much and came to love the Kingdom of Heaven. This is very instructive for us in today's world, in our life, when we think more about earthly things than about heavenly ones. We speak little of heavenly things and strive little towards them. Yet these girls, who were offered all the glory of the earth and all earthly goods, understood that this glory is temporary, fleeting, perishable and full of every kind of sin and vice. They preferred the glory of God, heavenly glory, the comforts and delights of the eternal kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven.
This is very instructive for us, when we teach our children to live well on earth and to be materially well off, while in their spiritual life they are starving. That is, we feed them with all the good things of the earth, but they suffer spiritual hunger; they have no spiritual food. They seek this food in material goods, sinful pleasures and earthly comforts, and in this they go astray. And afterwards, of course, eternal torment awaits them. That is what mothers and fathers wish for their children: eternal torment.
Sophia, however, wished her children eternal joy, eternal delight and gladness. And they received it. For more than a thousand years the Holy Church has glorified these martyrs and treats them with special reverence and love because they showed such love for Christ and for eternal life, and now they rejoice in the Kingdom of Heaven. They lost nothing, even though they endured much suffering in their earthly life. Inspired by love for Christ and for the Kingdom of Heaven, they endured everything with joy, thanking God that for God's sake, for Christ's sake, they were counted worthy to endure torments in this earthly life in order to prepare for eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven."
