Saint Demetrius, Metropolitan of Rostov.
Saint Demetrius [Dimitry] of Rostov was born of Cossack stock in 1651 in Makarovo near Kiev. Named Daniel by his parents, he received the name Demetrius upon becoming a monk at the age of seventeen. Because of his piety, his education, and his literary gifts, he was charged with the task of preaching and in his early thirties was bidden by Barlaam, Abbot of the Kiev Caves, to compile the lives of the Saints. He spent the next two decades of his life laboring with all his heart and strength on this task, collecting the Saints’ lives, researching them, and editing them into one great collection for the spiritual life of the faithful. His labors were pleasing to God and His Saints, who appeared to him occasionally to encourage or rebuke him. Once, after he had finished work on the martyrdom of Saint Orestes, whose feast is kept on November 10, the Saint appeared to him, showed him various wounds on his body, and told him that he had suffered far more than the written martyrdom of him recorded.
Saint Demetrius did not merely translate the work of others, but diligently and it would seem exhaustively searched the writings of the Church historians, the Church Fathers, and many ecclesiastical writers, in addition to the lives of the Saints themselves, to make his accounts as full and correct as possible, and he often notes which source informs us of this and which of that.
He was made Metropolitan of Rostov in 1702, at about the same time he finished his collection of the Saint’s lives, and spent the rest of his life visiting and caring for his flock, fighting schism, and writing further spiritual works for the edification of his flock. He reposed in peace while kneeling at prayer on October 28, 1709. In 1752, his holy relics were found to be incorrupt.
An English translation of the months of September through April is available at Chrysostom Press.
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