The importance of reading the lives of the saints

The talk strongly encourages reading the Lives of the Saints, highlighting their spiritual and practical benefits. The Church emphasizes saints’ lives through the Synaxarion, Acts readings, feasts, icons, hymns, and even naming children after saints. Saints are diverse—martyrs, confessors, church teachers, monastics, clergy, laity, youth, women, and children—each modeling specific virtues.

Key benefits:

• Revives spiritual life and proves biblical ideals are livable (unceasing prayer, humility, endurance, charity…).

• Teaches virtues concretely (charity, repentance, wisdom, silence, edifying speech, struggle).

• Strengthens faith via martyrs’ stories; fosters love for saints and seeking their intercession.

• Emphasizes gradual imitation suited to one’s context, with spiritual guidance—avoid blind, literal copying; take the spirit of virtue, act with wisdom.

Practical tips:

• Don’t start where saints ended; progress step-by-step.

• Ensure the life/virtue fits your health, duties, and context.

• Seek spiritual direction; avoid rash “leaps.”

• Keep a steady reading plan beyond the Synaxarion, using full, detailed biographies