Kali

Saint Kali lived before the fifteenth century and came from the East, that is, from Asia Minor. She is commemorated on 22 May, but also on 15 May and on the Saturday of Bright Week.

Life

Her family was wealthy, and Kali spent her fortune on works of mercy and charity. She does not seem to have been a nun, since her service nowhere says so. In her house she received the homeless and the needy, devoting herself to serving the least and the suffering among her brothers and sisters. She lived in moderation, virginity, struggle, fasting and unceasing prayer. The mark of her life was love of mankind, born of her desire to keep the commandments of Christ and to follow divine mercy.

Her service mentions miracles of the saint. Once, when she had kneaded bread to give to the poor, God made the remaining bread not diminish, like the widow of Zarephath's flour in the Old Testament. After her repose, the saint continued to help people, healing the sick through her prayers to the Lord. The healings are so many that the hymnographer speaks of "a sea of miracles" and calls her "wonder-⁠streaming". She heals painful, chronic and hard-⁠to-⁠cure diseases, rheumatism and arthritis, paralysis of the joints and deformities of the limbs.

Her time

The canon of the service bears an acrostic showing that it is the work of "the one of Crete", that is, an archbishop of Crete, and two manuscripts name the hymnographer as Andrew of Crete. If so, Kali lived before 740. Others propose as author Nicephorus Moschopoulos, metropolitan of Crete (between 1285 and 1322); in that case she lived at the latest in the first half of the fourteenth century.