Every effort of learning is in vain without the effort of attaining purity of faith and life. The heavenly world is revealed not to the learned but to the pure. When St. Cecilia [3rd century] was led to the bridal chamber with her bridegroom Valerian on the first night, she said him: "I want to tell you a mystery: standing here is an angel of God, the guardian of my virginity, whom you do not see. He stands ready to protect me, his handmaid, from assault. If you only touch me, he will kill you." Valerian begged Cecilia to show him the angel, so that he could see it, too. The virgin replied: "You are a man who knows not the true God. You cannot see the angel of God until you cleanse yourself of the foulness of your unbelief." When Valerian was baptized, he saw the angel in great light and ineffable beauty. So, too, when Valerian's brother Tiburtius changed his life from impurity to purity in baptism, he saw holy angels and spoke with them. Maximus their fellow sufferer as well, when the two brothers were beheaded, vowed with a great oath before the executioners and the people, saying: "I see angels of God shining like the sun, taking the souls of these martyrs from their bodies like beautiful virgins from the bridal chamber, and leading them to heaven with great glory." But that which he saw, none of the impure unbelievers were able to see.
- From the Prologue of Ohrid
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