The Prologue from Ochrid

Preface

The Prologue is a centuries-old reader of the Orthodox people, who have been brought up with it throughout the long centuries of difficult temptations, both in bondage and in freedom. Throughout all those long centuries, the Orthodox people, reared on the Prologue, ascribed countless heavenly attributes to the saints and knights of God's justice who, by their example, have shone and guided the people.

"Prologue"-a Preface or Introduction to the profound and wonderful system of Christian knowledge—is a word that our Slavic fathers substituted for another Greek word, Synaxarion.

In its contents, the Prologue is nothing more than an expanded and explained Calendar, and the Calendar represents but one part of the mystical Book of Life (Revelation 3:5). I say only one part, for it does not contain all, but rather only some of the names of those countless blessed souls who zealously followed Christ, fulfilled the Law of Christ, and inherited the Eternal Kingdom of Christ. All of their names, known and unknown to us, are written in the heavenly Book of Life, and our Calendar is but a part, one small part, of that enormous Book of Life, which in its entirety is known only by the Eternal and Omniscient Judge.

The Calendar is the first book that I saw in my childhood and took into my hands. Among those of us in the village, it stood behind the icon, and with reverence it was taken in the hands and again restored to its place. It was a mysterious and—for me at that time- a magical book of names: only names, without visible content and without explanation. I did not even suspect what great content these names concealed. That book fascinated me; I reverenced it without knowledge and loved it without under-standing. The charm of this book lay, it seems, precisely in the names them-selves. What did these names mean? To that, I can now answer- that the person is everything. From the eternal perspective, all that is around and next to and on the person is neither numbered nor counted. The kingdoms and the states, treasures and crowns, embellishments and cultures, honors and glories: all of this is subordinated to the person, in the service of the person, worthless in comparison to the person. The saintly person is the soul of Christ's character, repeated, more or less, in many, many persons. The saints are cleansed mirrors in which the beauty and might of the ma jestic person of Christ is seen. They are the fruit on the Tree of Life; the Tree is Christ and the fruit are the saints. A tree is known by its fruit, for every good tree bringeth forth good fruit (Matthew 7:17). As grapes on the vine, so the saints grew on Christ. What the sun is among the stars and the king is among his nobles, so Christ is among the saints. There are two paths and both are correct: from Christ to the saints, and from the saints to Christ. The saints are explained by Christ and the saints bear witness to Christ. Whoever has this constantly in mind during the reading of this book, such a one will benefit by it the most.

This Prologue is called "of Ohrid" solely to distinguish it from the ancient Slavonic Prologue which—regrettably, because of its language-has become inaccessible to the Slavic people of our time. The difference between these two Prologues is not essential but rather technical, which the most skilled readers will themselves detect. Besides the difference in language and in the arrangement of instructive material, the greatest difference could be said to be the inclusion of many saints from among the various Orthodox peoples during the past two hundred years, who are not found in the ancient Slavonic Prologue.

The purpose of the Prologue of Ohrid is to be a daily religious reading for the people and the clergy. Many parish priests, monks and devout people requested that I compile a religious handbook for the people and the clergy. I must say that Hieromonk Irenaeus [Irinei] Diordjevic¹ and Hiero-monk Justin Popovic,² as professors and instructors of young seminari-ans, urged me to do this. Finally I gave my promise, and labored several winters until, with God's help, I somehow completed the work and fulfilled the promise.

In Gratitude

I wish to express my sincere gratitude to all those who assisted me- in any way and however little in the compilation of this work, especially to:

The Very Reverend Archimandrite Simeon Popovic from Dajbabe, who forwarded me the Life of St. Stefan of Piperi;

Mr. Mirko Jovanovic, Professor of the seminary in Prizren, who provided me scholarly data about St. Peter of Koris;

Mr. Photius Naumovic of Ohrid, who compiled the alphabetical listing of the names in this Prologue;

The Reverend Father Svetomir Stankovic, a priest from Nis, who completed the enormous task of editing with a rare attentiveness and love;

The faithful Theodore, official proprietor of The Holy Emperor Constantine Printing Press, as well as all his honorable assistants and laborers in that print shop who, besides their obligatory work, contributed much good will, cordiality and personal interest, that the publication of this work be given a more perfect form.

From me, thanks to them, and from God, health and salvation!

Footnotes

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