Pre-Lenten Triodion, day 10 · 61 days until Pascha
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
St Porphyrius, Bishop of Gaza
Porphyrius (c. 347 – 420) was bishop of Gaza from 395 to his death, and the man who broke the last great stronghold of organized paganism in Palestine. Born to wealth at Thessalonica, he gave up the world at twenty-five for the monks of the Egyptian desert of Scetis and then a cave above the Jordan; healed of a wasting illness by a vision of Christ at Golgotha, he was made keeper of the Wood of the Cross at Jerusalem, and against his will was consecrated bishop of Gaza — a city where a mere handful of Christians lived surrounded by the temples of Marnas, Aphrodite, Apollo, and the rest. There he waged a long and dangerous struggle against the pagan majority, and at length secured from the Empress Eudoxia and the Emperor Arcadius the imperial order that in 402 razed the eight public temples of Gaza — above all the Marneion, the vast shrine of Marnas — and raised in its place the cruciform church called the Eudoxiana. His deeds are known in extraordinary detail from the Life written by his deacon and companion Mark, one of the most vivid biographies to survive from the Christian antiquity. He reposed on February 26, 420.
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St Photini the Samaritan Woman, and those with her (66)
Photini (first century – c. 66) is the name the Church gives to the Samaritan woman whom Christ met at Jacob's Well near Sychar and to whom, alone among all to whom he spoke, he openly declared himself the Messiah (John 4). Tradition holds that she was baptized with the name Photini, "the enlightened," and became a fearless preacher of the Gospel — carrying it, with her two sons and her five sisters, as far as Carthage and at last to Rome in the days of Nero. There, the tradition relates, the whole company confessed Christ before the emperor, converted his daughter Domnina and the officer Sebastian sent to break them, and after fearful tortures were martyred about the year 66 — Photini herself, it is said, cast at the end into a dry well, the well of her witness answering the well of her calling. She is honoured as Great-Martyr and Equal-to-the-Apostles. Her fixed commemoration is February 26; her principal feast is the movable Sunday of the Samaritan Woman, the fourth Sunday after Pascha, on which the Church reads the Gospel of the Well.
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John Kalfa
John Kalfa (†1575) was a new-martyr of Constantinople under the Ottoman yoke: a Christian woodworker and cabinetmaker — kalfa, the Turkish builders' word for a master-craftsman or foreman, which became his surname — who lived in Galata across the Golden Horn and whose skill won him work for the great officials and even the Sultan's palace. Drawn into a dispute of religion by a former apprentice, he spoke plainly against Muhammad and was denounced. Refusing every inducement to embrace Islam and confessing Christ throughout months of imprisonment, torture, and forced labour, he was beheaded in a crowded square of the city on February 26, 1575. His sufferings were recorded by a cleric of the Patriarchate who attended him in prison, and he is numbered among the new-martyrs of the Church of Constantinople.
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Sebastian of Poshekhonye
Sebastian of Poshekhonye (†c. 1500) was a Russian monastic saint, the founder and first abbot of a hermitage in the forested Poshekhonye country of the upper Volga. On the River Sokhota, some ninety versts from the town of Romanov (now Tutaev) in the region of Yaroslavl, he raised a monastery in honour of the Transfiguration of the Lord, and gathered a brotherhood whom he taught to live by the labour of their own hands, tilling the soil for their bread. He reposed about the year 1500 and was buried at his monastery; his relics rested there, and in later centuries a stone church was built above them. He is commemorated on February 26.
Readings
Epistle
1 John 3.10-20
10In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. 11For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous. 13Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. 14We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. 15Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. 16Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 18My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. 19And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. 20For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
Gospel
Mark 14.10-42
10And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went unto the chief priests, to betray him unto them. 11And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently betray him. 12And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover? 13And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him. 14And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples? 15And he will shew you a large upper room furnished and prepared: there make ready for us. 16And his disciples went forth, and came into the city, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the passover. 17And in the evening he cometh with the twelve. 18And as they sat and did eat, Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, One of you which eateth with me shall betray me. 19And they began to be sorrowful, and to say unto him one by one, Is it I? and another said, Is it I? 20And he answered and said unto them, It is one of the twelve, that dippeth with me in the dish. 21The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him: but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! good were it for that man if he had never been born. 22And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body. 23And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them: and they all drank of it. 24And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many. 25Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God. 26And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives. 27And Jesus saith unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. 28But after that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee. 29But Peter said unto him, Although all shall be offended, yet will not I. 30And Jesus saith unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. 31But he spake the more vehemently, If I should die with thee, I will not deny thee in any wise. Likewise also said they all. 32And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith to his disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray. 33And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy; 34And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch. 35And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt. 37And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour? 38Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak. 39And again he went away, and prayed, and spake the same words. 40And when he returned, he found them asleep again, (for their eyes were heavy,) neither wist they what to answer him. 41And he cometh the third time, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is enough, the hour is come; behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42Rise up, let us go; lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand.
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 2
Adorned with thy most sacred ways of life, thou wast made resplendent in the vestments of the priesthood, O all-blessed and God-minded Porphyrius; thou art radiant in the heights of healings, interceding without ceasing on behalf of us all.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy martyr, O Lord, in his contest received the crown of incorruption from thee our God; for possessed of thy might, he cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of demons. By his supplications, O Christ God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy ewe-lamb, O Jesus, cries out with a great voice: O my Bridegroom, thee I love, and seeking thee I struggle, and I am crucified and buried together with thee in thy baptism; I suffer for thy sake, that I may reign with thee; I die for thee, that I may live in thee. Receive me as a spotless sacrifice, offered to thee with love. By her intercessions save thou our souls, O thou who art merciful.
Troparion — Tone 4
A rule of faith and an image of meekness, a teacher of temperance, the truth of things itself revealed thee to thy flock. Therefore by lowliness thou didst gain the things that are exalted, and by poverty the things that are rich. O Father and Hierarch Porphyrius, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O Father, was preserved unimpaired that which is according to the image; for taking up thy cross thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passes away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Therefore, O venerable Sebastian, thy spirit rejoices together with the Angels.