Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Ven. Isidore of Pelusium
Isidore of Pelusium (c. 360 – c. 449) was an Egyptian ascetic, priest, and abbot of a monastery on the mountain near Pelusium, at the eastern mouth of the Nile, and one of the most learned spiritual fathers of the fifth century. Formed in the exegetical and moral spirit of John Chrysostom, whose memory he revered and defended, he governed his community by word and example and poured out his teaching in an immense correspondence: some two thousand letters survive, brief and pointed answers on Scripture, doctrine, and the moral life, addressed to bishops, clergy, monks, officials, and laymen high and low. A fearless rebuker of laxity and ambition in the hierarchy — not sparing the powerful — he was also a clear voice against the Nestorian denial of the one Christ, and pressed Cyril of Alexandria, his own kinsman, to hold the faith without the vindictiveness that had wronged Chrysostom. His letters remain a treasury of patristic exegesis. He is kept universally on February 4.
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Venerable Cyril of New Lake (Novoezezrsk) (1532)
Cyril of Novoezersk (c. 1450s – 1532) was a Russian monastic founder and wonderworker of the northern forests, disciple of Cornelius of Komel and heir of the tradition of Cyril of White Lake. Marked out for God from the womb — the tradition says the infant cried out in his mother's womb during the Liturgy — he left home as a boy, was tonsured under Cornelius, and after long years of wandering the north as a homeless ascetic was led by a vision to a little island in New Lake (Novoye Ozero, Novoezersk) near Belozersk. There he raised a cross, built a church of the Resurrection, and gathered a brotherhood, governing it in poverty and prayer and being granted gifts of prophecy and healing. He reposed in 1532; his relics were found incorrupt, and his monastery became a celebrated shrine of the Russian north. He is commemorated on February 4.
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Abramius of Arbela
Abramius (Abraham) of Arbela was a bishop in the Persian province of Adiabene, around the city of Arbela (modern Erbil), and a martyr of the great persecution of Christians under the Sasanian king Shapur II in the mid-fourth century. Commanded to abandon Christ and to worship the sun, he answered that it was folly to forsake the Creator and adore a creature; steadfast under torture, he was put to death for the confession of the faith about the year 345. He belongs to the vast company of the Persian martyrs whose sufferings under Shapur are recorded in the Syriac Acts, and he is honoured in the Byzantine calendar on February 4, within the afterfeast of the Meeting.
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George of Vladimir
George (Yuri) Vsevolodovich (1189–1238) was Great Prince of Vladimir and the central figure of the Russian resistance to the Mongol invasion of 1237–1238. Son of Vsevolod "Big Nest," he governed the leading principality of northern Rus, founded the city of Nizhny Novgorod, and was renowned, the chronicles say, for both his valour and his piety. When the Horde of Batu Khan overran the land, George gathered an army on the Sit River to meet it; there, on the fourth of March 1238, his forces were destroyed and the prince himself was slain. The tradition holds that his severed head was afterward reunited with his body, found incorrupt, and that his relics, enshrined in the Dormition Cathedral of Vladimir, worked wonders. The Church honours him as a right-believing prince who gave his life for the Christian land; he is commemorated on February 4.
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Nicholas the Studite
Nicholas the Studite (c. 793 – 868) was a monk, confessor, and twice abbot of the great Studion monastery at Constantinople in the age of the second iconoclasm. Born in Crete and sent as a boy to Constantinople under the care of his uncle, he entered the Studion and became a disciple of its renowned abbot Theodore the Studite, whom he served as secretary and followed into exile when the veneration of the holy icons was again outlawed. Beaten and imprisoned for the icons, he confessed the faith without dying for it, and after the Triumph of Orthodoxy in 843 he governed the Studion in his old age. When the deposition of the patriarch Ignatius divided the Church, Nicholas withdrew rather than commune with the intruded Photius, sharing Ignatius's disgrace, and reposed on February 4, 868. He is kept universally on that day, within the afterfeast of the Meeting.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Aldate of Gloucester, hieromartyr (577)
- St. Modan of Dunbarton, hermit (6th C)
- St. Liephard, hieromartyr and companion to King Cadwall (690)
Readings
Epistle
James 2.14-26
14What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? 15If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, 16And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? 17Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. 18Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. 19Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. 20But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? 21Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? 22Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? 23And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. 24Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. 25Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? 26For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Gospel
Mark 10.46-52
46And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimæus, the son of Timæus, sat by the highway side begging. 47And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. 48And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. 49And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee. 50And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus. 51And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. 52And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.
Troparia & kontakia
Troparion — Tone 4
O God of our fathers, who ever dealest with us according to thy gentleness: take not thy mercy from us, but through the prayers of thy hieromartyr Abramius direct our lives in peace.
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O Father, was the divine image kept secure; for taking up the cross thou didst follow after Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore, O venerable Cyril, thy spirit rejoiceth together with the Angels.
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O Father, was the divine image kept secure; for taking up the cross thou didst follow after Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore, O venerable Isidore, thy spirit rejoiceth together with the Angels.
Troparion — Tone 8
O dweller of the wilderness and angel in the body, thou wast shown to be a wonderworker, O Nicholas our God-bearing father; by fasting, vigil, and prayer receiving heavenly gifts, thou dost heal the sick and the souls of them that run to thee with faith. Glory to him that gave thee strength; glory to him that crowned thee; glory to him that worketh healings for all through thee.