Memorial Day of the Prophet Jonah

Every year on October 5, the Orthodox Church remembers the prophet Jonah and all the exploits associated with him The holy prophet was born in the 8th century BC in a small Jewish city located in northern Israel His mother was the widow of Sarepta, who fed the prophet Elijah during a famine and had an inexhaustible amount of flour At a very young age, constantly starving, the future prophet Jonah fell ill and died Grieving from great grief, the widow turned to Elijah with a request to resurrect her son Elijah placed the body of the dead baby in front of him and began to pray, turning to the Lord to revive the child After which a miracle happened, and little Jonah returned to life Jonah grew in love for God, becoming a devout young man The Lord, for his devotion and piety, gave Jonah the gift of providence While still very young, Jonah became a devoted student of Elisha, and after the death of his teacher, he took his place in the service at the royal court However, despite his devotion, Jonah once had the courage to disobey the Almighty and, instead of going to the pagan city of Nineveh, where he was supposed to guide the wicked inhabitants of the city on the true path, he set sail to Spain But already at the beginning of his journey a strong storm began, in which there was no chance of salvation Out of hopelessness, the team of sailors began to cast lots to find out who was to blame for the terrible disaster When the lot fell on Jonah, he said that it was he who aroused the wrath of God with his disobedience and asked to be thrown overboard the ship in order to save everyone Feeling strong fear and realizing the power of the Almighty, the sailors fulfilled the will of Jonah and began to pray for their salvation After the prophet found himself in the water, the storm immediately subsided, and the crew of sailors, having witnessed this miracle, accepted the Christian faith According to legend, the Lord ordered the whale to swallow the saint; finding himself inside the whale, Jonah continually prayed to God for his forgiveness Three days later, the Lord forgave the prophet for his disobedience and now ordered the whale to rescue him ashore Safe and sound, Jonah followed Nineveh with a prophecy that said that if the inhabitants of the city did not repent within forty days and accept faith in the Lord, their city would perish The words of the prophet so impressed all the people that they repented of everything and accepted a strict fast, thereby saving their city and themselves On this day, festive liturgy is read in all churches and the memory of the holy prophet is honored On this holiday, you should never swear or think badly about your loved ones, but rather offer help to those in need, showing all your love for your neighbor According to the folk calendar, this day was considered the beginning of late autumn, when all the leaves from the trees were supposed to fall We watched the wind especially carefully that day, being careful of strong hurricanes Even if a strong wind rose, it was impossible to scold or curse it, as it could bring trouble, especially to fishermen or fish traders Also on this day they wondered about the future weather; if there were few cones hanging on the spruce trees and the fox birch trees had not yet fallen, the winter would be warm and there would be no early snow But if on this day the birds flew south, then this is due to early snow, which will fall on Pokrov