April 4th - St. Plato of Sakkudion, Abbot (RM)
Born in Constantinople, c. 734; died on March 19, 813. Saint Plato was
younger than 13 when his parents were killed by a plague afflicting
Constantinople. At that time, his uncle, the high treasurer of the empire,
took over his education and Plato acted as his apprentice. He was
accomplished at taking down business affairs in shorthand, yet even more
advanced in affairs of the spirit.
Because of his high birth, virtue, and skill, he came to be regarded as a
prize catch for those seeking a husband for their daughters. Plato,
however,
was more attracted to prayer and seclusion than marriage. He convinced his
three brothers to devote themselves to God, and live in a state of
celibacy.
Then, seeking to free himself from worldly attachments, he freed all his
slaves and sold his large estates. Before retiring to Symboleon on Mount
Olympus, Bithynia, he used some of the money to obtain spouses for his two
sisters-who became the mothers of saints-and distributed the rest among
the
poor.
Having discharged his duties, Plato bid adieu to his family, friends, and
country and travelled with one servant to Bithynia (now in Turkey). There
he
sent his servant back to Constantinople with all his clothes except the
coarse ones that he was wearing and entered the monastery Symboleon. There
Plato made great progress in his spiritual growth through the practice of
humility, devotion, and obedience under the guidance of the holy abbot
Theoctistus.
Prayer and pious reading were the delight of his soul. In the hours
allotted
to labor he rejoiced to see the meanest employments assigned to him from
making bread to fertilizing the fields with manure, though his skills were
usually employed in copying manuscripts. When Theoctistus died in 770, the
36-year-old Plato was chosen abbot against his will. In order to ensure
that
such power would not corrupt him, he increased the severity of his
penances:
He never drank anything but water (sometimes only once in two days); his
diet was bread, beans, or herbs without oil. He would never eat or wear
anything which was not purchased by the labor of his own hands; by which
he
also maintained several poor.
After the death of the tyrant Constantine Copronymus, Saint Plato went to
Constantinople on business and was received with great honor. He used this
op****tunity to encourage others to grow in holiness and love of virtue.
The
patriarch unsuccessfully tried to convince Plato to receive episcopal
consecration, but Plato escaped back to his refuge at Symboleon.
In 782, his family prevailed upon him to leave Symboleon and take over the
governance of Sakkudion Monastery near Constantinople, which was founded
by
his sister Theoctista. Her whole family embraced the religious state and
it
was fitting that Plato should join them. After directing Sakkudion for 12
years, he resigned in favor of his nephew, Saint Theodore Studites.
Life became difficult for Saint Plato when he opposed the actions of
Emperor
Constantine ****phyrogenitus, who repudiated his empress, Mary, and took to
his bed Theodota, a relative of Saint Plato. Patriarch Saint Tarasius
unsuccessfully threatened and exhorted the emperor against this action;
Plato went further. He published a sentence of excommunication against the
emperor among the monks. Joseph, the treasurer of the church, and several
other mercenary priests and monks, tried to convince Plato to approve the
emperor's divorce; but he resisted their solicitations and the emperor's
own
plea. Instead he suffered imprisonment and other hard****ps till the death
of
Constantine in 797.
When the Saracens invaded Byzantium, the monks of Sakkudion abandoned
their
monastery and moved to the Studium, which had been almost destroyed by the
persecution of Constantine Copronymus. There Saint Plato vowed obedience
to
his nephew Theodore and retired to a narrow cell so that he could engage
in
perpetual prayer and manual labor. He chained one foot to the ground with
a
heavy iron chain that he carefully hid with his cloak when anyone came to
see him.
When Saint Nicephorus, a layman of great virtue, was appointed patriarch
of
Constantinople in 806, Saint Plato opposed it because of the irregularity
of
naming a layman as bishop. Opposition to Plato increased when, in 807,
Emperor Nicephorus appointed Joseph, the priest who had married the
adulteress to the emperor Constantine, was restored his position as
treasurer of the church. Plato loudly condemned the emperor's action as
contrary to the discipline of the church. The emperor retaliated by
placing
him under house arrest for a year, before calling him to account at a
council of court bishops. Then he was unjustly convicted of fictitious
crimes and sentenced to banishment on an island in the Bosphorus for four
years.
Although the repentant emperor died before mitigating Plato's sentence,
his
successor, Michael I, immediately restored the saint to grace and received
him with great respect. Plato retired again to his cell and perceiving
that
he was near death, he asked that his grave to be dug, and himself to be
carried to it and laid down by it. Here he was visited by Constantinople's
dignitaries, including Patriarch Saint Nicephorus, who had been reconciled
to Plato and who performed his funeral rites. Plato's vita was written by
his nephew, Saint Theodore (Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).
From:
http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0404.shtml
Saint Quote:
"Let us rejoice to have lived during that time only which we have passed
in
innocence and humility" ["Let us rejoice only in those times which we
passed
in innocence and humility"]
-St. Gregory the Great (Pope, Doctor, 540-604) - "Instructions On
Christian
Morality"
Bible Quotes:
"All things have their season ... A time to keep, and a time to cast away"
-
Ecclesiastes 3 1,6
"For our time is as the passing of a shadow, and there is no going back of
our end: for it is fast sealed, and no man returneth" - Wisdom 2:5
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A prayer to angels before undertaking a journey:
In the way of peace direct us, O Lord. We praise and
venerate All the heavenly princes, But especially Raphael,
Faithful physician And companion true, Who with Heaven's
power Bindeth fast the demon.
V. God hath given His Angels charge over thee.
R. To keep thee in all thy ways.
Let us pray:
O God, who didst give the blessed Archangel Raphael unto
Thy servant Tobias to be his fellow-traveler; grant unto us,
Thy servants, that the same may ever keep us and ****eld us,
help us and defend us. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Let us go forward in peace, In the name of the Lord. Amen.
Imprimatur: Francis Cardinal Spellmen, Archbishop of New York, May 30,
1951.
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