Through the parable of today's Gospel, our Saviour has set forth three things for us: the condition of the sinner, the rule of repentance, and the greatness of God's compassion. The divine Fathers have put this reading the week after the parable of the Publican and Pharisee so that, seeing in the person of the Prodigal Son our own wretched condition -- inasmuch as we are sunken in sin, far from God and His Mysteries -- we might at last come to our senses and make haste to return to Him by repentance during these holy days of the Fast.

Furthermore, those who have wrought many great iniquities, and have persisted in them for a long time, oftentimes fall into despair, thinking that there can no longer be any forgiveness for them; and so being without hope, they fall every day into the same and even worse iniquities. Therefore, the divine Fathers, that they might root out the passion of despair from the hearts of such people, and rouse them to the deeds of virtue, have set the present parable at the forecourts of the Fast, to show them the surpassing goodness of God's compassion, and to teach them that there is no sin -- no matter how great it may be -- that can overcome at any time His love for man.

Saint Christos the Arvanid was an Albanian born in Përmet and lived in the early 18th century during the Ottoman rule of the Balkans. Little is known of his early life, besides that he lived as a gardener and sought out further business opportunities in Constantinople, leaving Albania behind.

In 1748 he began working in the Sultan's garden in Constantinople. This is commonly exemplified in iconography showing Saint Christos holding apples. While negotiating a price for his apples with a Muslim, he was accused of desiring to become a Muslim by his customer after they were unable to agree on the value of his apples. As was the custom in the Ottoman period, Christos was brought before Islamic authorities, where those bearing false witness testified that he indeed declared he wanted to convert. Christos persisted that he would not become a Muslim and since he was a Christian, his testimony was not equal to that of a Muslim

After being imprisoned for two years and tortured to renounce Christianity he continued to hold onto his Christian faith. A monk by the name of Kaisarios Dapontes visited him while he was in Ottoman custody, bringing him food. Christos rejected the food, stating "Why should I eat? I do not expect to live, so I may as well die hungering and thirsting for Christ."Christos was then sentenced to be beheaded for apostasy for refusing to follow through with his alleged conversion to Islam. In order to have money to provide a memorial service, Kristo asked Dapontes to sell a metal file he had.

Christos was beheaded on February 12, 1748. He was then canonized as a neo-martyr and granted the crown of glory from Christ

He was born in the village of Lardos, on Rhodes, towards the end of the 18th century. His baptismal name was Emmanouil, and from childhood he received ‘the discipline and instruction of the Lord’ from his parents (as was also the case with Saint Porfyrios). He was taught to read and write by the parish priest of his home village. From an early age, he also demonstrated an intensely charitable and philanthropic spirit, despite his parents’ admonitions.

Another feature of his childhood was that he liked to go off alone to pray in a completely calm atmosphere. In fact, he used to find refuge for his prayer in a cave close to the ancient but abandoned monastery of Ypsos, which had been dedicated to Our Lady. According to tradition, one evening, at the time of prayer, he saw a light shining on a particular spot where there was an icon of the Mother of God which no-one had known was there.

In the following days, in a new vision, Our Lady asked him to build a church in her name and to rebuild the monastery. Young Emmanouil complied with her wishes and immediately set about taking the steps necessary to rebuild the monastery. At this same time, he was tonsured a monk, taking the name Meletios.

He quickly acquired a considerable reputation for his very ascetic life. So the local bishop ordained him a deacon and, thereafter, a priest, spiritual guide and abbot of the monastery he’d reconstituted. Meletios was an important spiritual figure on the island, since he strengthened the Orthodox outlook of its inhabitants. He confessed people at the monastery and also in the villages he visited to instruct the faithful. He also performed cures, and protected fugitives (particularly from the Ottoman rulers). He was also distinguished for his charity and hospitality.

His activities began to upset the Turkish occupiers and their displeasure intensified when they learned that he recommended that Greek girls should have nothing to do with them. Indeed, some of the Turks attempted to assassinate him, but he learned of the plot and hid in a cave they didn’t know about. Local traditions relate a host of miraculous events through which divine Grace protected him from the dangers that were threatening him.

Towards the end of his life on earth, he fell victim to the most vicious slander. A girl with mental health problems became pregnant by a Turk, but reported that Meletios, who was elderly and much weakened by his ascetic life, was the father. In fact, the pure priest breathed his last before the Metropolitan of Rhodes as he was defending his innocence. The truth was soon revealed and he was buried with honours. When his grave was opened, an intense fragrance filled the surrounding area, demonstrating divine pleasure at the course of his life.

His precious relics have been sources of healing and miracles to this day. His blessed memory is honoured on February 12.

This holy Father, who was from Melitene of Armenia, was a blameless man, just, reverent, sincere, and most gentle. Consecrated Bishop of Sebastia in 357, he was later banished from his throne and departed for Beroea of Syria (this is the present-day Aleppo). After the Arian bishop of Antioch had been deposed, the Orthodox and the Arians each strove to have a man of like mind with themselves become the next Bishop of Antioch. Meletius was highly esteemed by all, and since the Arians believed him to share their own opinion, they had him raised to the throne of Antioch. As soon as he had taken the helm of the Church of Antioch, however, he began preaching the Son's consubstantiality with the Father. At this, the archdeacon, an Arian, put his hand over the bishop's mouth; Meletius then extended three fingers towards the people, closed them, and extended one only, showing by signs the equality and unity of the Trinity. The embarrassed archdeacon then seized his hand, but released his mouth, and Meletius spoke out even more forcibly in defense of the Council of Nicaea. Shortly after, he was banished by the Arian Emperor Constantius, son of Saint Constantine the Great. After the passage of time, he was recalled to his throne, but was banished again the third time by Valens. It was Saint Meletius who ordained Saint John Chrysostom reader and deacon in Antioch (see Nov. 13). He lived until the Second Ecumenical Council in 381 (which was convoked against Macedonius, Patriarch of Constantinople, the enemy of the Holy Spirit), over which he presided, being held in great honor as a zealot of the Faith and a venerable elder hierarch.

Some time before, when the Emperor Gratian had made the Spanish General Theodosius commander-in-chief of his armies in the war against the barbarians, Theodosius had a dream in which he saw Meletius, whom he had never met, putting upon him the imperial robe and crown. Because of Theodosius's victories, Gratian made him Emperor of the East in Valens' stead in 379. When, as Emperor, Saint Theodosius the Great convoked the Second Ecumenical Council in Constantinople two years later, he forbade that anyone should tell him who Meletius was; and as soon as he saw him, he recognized him, ran to him with joy, embraced him before all the other bishops, and told him of his dream.

While at the Council, Saint Meletius fell ill and reposed a short while after. Saint Gregory of Nyssa, among others, gave a moving oration at his funeral; bewailing the loss of him whom all loved as a father, he said, "Where is that sweet serenity of his eyes? Where that bright smile upon his lips? Where that kind right hand, with fingers outstretched to accompany the benediction of the mouth?" (PG 46:8-6). And he lamented, "Our Elias has been caught up, and no Elisseus is left behind in his place." (ibid., 860). The holy relics of Saint Meletius were returned to Antioch and were buried beside Saint Babylas the Martyr (see Sept. 4), in the Church dedicated to the Martyr which Meletius, in his zeal for the Martyr's glory, had helped build with his own hands.