Equals-to-the-Apostles Clement of Ohrid, Nahum, Sabbas, Gorazd, and Angelar — July 27 / August 9 (Julian Calendar)

On this day, July 27 according to the Julian Calendar (August 9 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates the holy Equals-to-the-Apostles Clement, Bishop of Ohrid, together with Nahum, Sabbas, Gorazd, and Angelar.

The holy Equals-to-the-Apostles Clement of Ohrid, Nahum, Sabbas, Gorazd, and Angelar were Slavs, disciples of Saints Cyril and Methodius (commemorated May 11). At first they labored for the enlightenment of Moravia. After the repose of Saint Methodius, Gorazd was appointed to his episcopal see, while Saints Clement, Nahum, Angelar, and Sabbas served as priests.

Against the Slavic enlighteners rose a powerful party of Latin-German missionaries, strengthened by the support of the pope and the patronage of the Moravian prince Svyatopolk. Pope Stephen VI forbade the celebration of divine services in the Slavonic tongue. Through the power of the prince, the disciples of Saint Methodius — among them blessed Clement — were handed over for judgment. The holy fathers were cruelly tortured: they were stripped and dragged over thorn bushes, and then long tormented in prison, just as their spiritual father Saint Methodius had been.

In the year 886 some of the captives — the younger among them — were sold to Jewish slave traders and ended up in the market of Venice. Saints Gorazd, Sabbas, Nahum, and Angelar, together with the older captives, were driven into exile. Nahum and Angelar made their way to Bulgaria, where the holy fathers immediately set about studying the Slavonic books gathered by the Bulgarian nobles.

Soon Saint Angelar reposed, and Saint Clement was appointed teacher in Kutmichevitsa, a region in southwestern Macedonia. In the Eastern Church this office was entrusted to worthy men of pious life who possessed the gift of eloquence. Saint Clement took up this new ministry, and in 893 he was consecrated Bishop of Dremvitsa, or Velitsa, while his place as teacher was taken by Nahum.

Bishop Clement was the first of the Bulgarian hierarchs to serve, preach, and write in the Slavonic language. In addition, he tirelessly sought out gifted men from among his Slavic-speaking flock and prepared them for the sacred ministry. The holy hierarch labored for the glory of the Lord until deep old age. When his strength failed, the saint withdrew to Ohrid, to the monastery he himself had founded, and there continued his work of translation, rendering into Slavonic a significant part of the Pentecostarion. Soon the bishop fell gravely ill, and in the year 916 he committed his soul to the Lord. The body of the blessed father was laid in the coffin he had prepared with his own hands and was buried in the Monastery of Saint Panteleimon in Ohrid.

Saint Clement is counted as the first Slavic writer: he not only continued the work of translation begun by Saints Cyril and Methodius, but also left behind original writings — the first works of Slavonic spiritual literature.

The holy relics of blessed Gorazd and Angelar rest near Berat in Albania, and the remains of Saint Nahum in the monastery bearing his name beside Lake Ohrid.