Holy Prophet Samuel — August 20 / September 2 (Julian Calendar)

On this day, August 20 according to the Julian Calendar (September 2 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates the Holy Prophet Samuel.

The Prophet Samuel, the fifteenth and last Judge of Israel, lived more than eleven hundred and forty-six years before the Nativity of Christ. He was of the tribe of Levi. His mother, Hannah, long suffered on account of her barrenness. At last the Lord heard the fervent entreaty of His handmaid and granted her a son, whom she named Samuel, that is, “asked of God.” When the boy reached the age of three, his parents brought him to Shiloh and entrusted him to the high priest Eli, who was at the same time the Judge of Israel. “And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli the priest” (1 Kings [1 Samuel] 2:11). At the age of twelve it was revealed to him from on high that God intended to punish the whole household of the high priest “for the iniquity of his sons, because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not” (1 Kings [1 Samuel] 3:13).

The prophecy was fulfilled when the Philistines, invading the inheritance of the chosen people, slew thirty thousand Israelites in a single day, among them the sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, and carried off the Ark of the Covenant. When Eli heard this, he fell backward in horror, broke his back and died. The wife of Phinehas, shaken by the fall of Israel, also gave up her soul in childbirth.

After Eli, Samuel became Judge of Israel. For forty years he judged and led the Israelites strictly and impartially, and then, in his old age, he appointed his sons Joel and Abijah as judges. The sons proved to be unworthy heirs of their father: enslaved to greed, they often decided cases in favour of the guilty. For this reason the elders of Israel demanded that Samuel appoint a king over them, as the other nations had. In this the prophet foresaw the terrible fall of the people whom until then the Lord Himself had led through His chosen ones. The first king whom the prophet anointed was Saul; after rebuking him for his disobedience to God, he anointed David. David, persecuted by Saul, often found refuge with Samuel. The holy prophet reposed in deep old age. His life is described in the Bible (1 Kings [1 Samuel]; Sirach 46:16–23). In the year 406 the incorrupt relics of this servant of God were translated from Judea to Constantinople.