Sunday of All Saints
Hebrews 11:З3-40; 12:1-2; Matthew 10:32-33; 37-38; 19:27-30

In the capital of our country, as in many other countries, there are monuments to unknown soldiers whose names have not been established. Thereby, those nameless persons seem to be the ones most honoured by the people.

The Church of Christ also has a monument in honour of those saints whose names are unknown to us. The number of those unknown saints includes, first of all, martyrs for the faith - whose names have not been determined by the people; they are unknown to people because of their virtues in the confession of their faith in Christ.

Here it is worth mentioning that the very idea of having a monument to unknown soldiers belongs to the Church of Christ. In 614, the Persians captured Palestine, Jerusalem and took from there the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified - the Lord's cross, as we say.

Eight years later, Christians, led by the Byzantine emperor Heraclius, embarked on a military campaign to liberate Palestine from the rule of non-Christian Persians, and to return the Lord's cross.

During the battle with the Persians, a young Christian soldier was killed, among many others. No one knew his name. The soldiers who were by his side buried him, and later a chapel-church was built over his grave. On the floor of the chapel, above his grave, a mosaic of multi-colored stones and an inscription was laid out stating:

"In memory of a soldier whose name is known only to God."

Later there were many wars and battles in that area, the chapel was destroyed, but the very idea of erecting a monument to an unknown (nameless) soldier remained in the world and spread everywhere.

More than 100 years ago, archaeologists excavated in and around Jerusalem. They found that mosaic inscription, dedicated to an unknown soldier, surprisingly - completely undamaged, expressive, and read it, as previously mentioned above: "In memory of a soldier whose name is known only to God."

As we know, the Church Calendar has a saint for each day, usually several saints. We well remember the days dedicated to the memory of Saints Nicholas, George, Demetrius, John the Baptist, and so on.

For each saint mentioned in the calendar, there are certain recognized facts from his/her life. The saints mentioned in the calendar are known saints. But not all the names of the saints are written down, recorded in the calendar, in the history of the Church.

Over the centuries, thousands of martyrs have died for the faith of Christ in the first centuries of Christianity. The example of their firm recognition of Christ's faith was widely imitated by people who saw their confession of faith in severe trials, torture, and torment.

Persecutors of Christians, punishers did not leave records of those whom they tortured and killed. Persecution of Christians took place in many places, in different countries; and only in a few cases were there friends, comrades, martyrs who were able to somehow clearly honour those who died martyrs and transfer their names to the official records of the Church; while the names of the majority of martyrs remained unknown to the Church. But God knows their names.

No one is forgotten by God. The Lord Jesus Christ affirmed: “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32)

Thus, all sincere confessors of Christ's faith, or martyrs, or those who led a virtuous life in God, served as an example for others, encouraged them with their actions and their lives to confess Christ's faith - all of them are glorified by God.

The Lord declared not only to his immediate disciples-apostles, but also to all those who believe in Him, according to the word of the Apostles, believe in His Gospel (John 17:20): Where He is, there will also be his faithful followers.

Therefore, the Church of Christ proclaimed the first Sunday after Pentecost as the Sunday of all saints, especially those whose names are not recorded in the church calendar, but who are glorified by God for their deeds and virtues.

We, Ukrainians, must be aware of our brothers and sisters who gave their lives on the altar of the confession of Christ during the attacks and the rule of non-Christian Tatars. Countless thousands suffered severe suffering because of the advocacy and defence of their faith in Christ. How many of our brothers and sisters were tortured in Tatar and Turkish captivity, and what their names are, we do not know. But with God they are all known and glorified. Today, we glorify them on All Saints' Day.

And we glorify all those Orthodox Christians who were tortured during the domination of our people, for centuries, during the rule of Polish nobility, during the rule of Tsarist Russia, which officially and ritually professed Orthodoxy, but destroyed all sincere confessors of the truth of Christ, who defended the truth of God and the dignity of their people.

Among all the saints, we mention dozens of bishops, hundreds of priests and thousands of faithful of our Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who were martyred for professing the faith of Christ in their native Church. We know very few by name (Metropolitan Vasyl Lypkivs’kyi, Metropolitan Mykola Boretskyi) even of those most recent martyrs. Access to research is limited; however, nothing is closed to God, and, thus, we are confident that He glorifies His faithful servants.

We know Christ's affirmation that "he who loses his life for My sake will find it." (Matthew 10:39)

There are no dead in [with] God, consequently, all the souls of the martyrs and all the saints of our people are alive in Him. That is why we can pray:

"All the saints of our people, pray to God for us, for our Mother Ukraine."

Amen.

Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko

Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.

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