Great Lent, day 5 · 44 days until Pascha
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Forty-two Martyrs of Ammoria
The Forty-Two Martyrs of Amorion (†845) were the Byzantine commanders and officers taken captive when the great Phrygian city of Amorion — the cradle of the reigning imperial dynasty — fell to the Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tasim in August 838, the calamity of the reign of the emperor Theophilus. Carried off to the caliphal capital of Samarra on the Tigris, they were held in prison for seven years, courted and threatened by turns to embrace Islam, and drawn into repeated debates on the truth of the two faiths. Steadfast to the end, they were led out on March 6, 845, and beheaded on the river-bank, their bodies cast into the water. Among them the tradition names Theodore (called Krateros, "the Mighty"), Constantine, Aetius, Theophilus, Callistus, Bassoes, and Melissenus, with their companions to the number of forty-two. Celebrated at once in a martyrdom-account written soon after their death, they are among the most honoured witnesses of the long Byzantine–Arab frontier war, hymned as "towers and guardians of the realm of the Romans."
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Arcadius of Cyprus
Arcadius (†c. 361) was a monastic ascetic of the island of Cyprus in the age of Constantine the Great and Constantius, remembered above all as the spiritual father and teacher of the holy martyrs Julian the Physician and Eubulos, who suffered on the island under Julian the Apostate. From his youth he gave himself to the ascetic life, and by his teaching and example he formed disciples in the faith for which they went to their death. He is kept on March 6. The record of his life is thin — a synaxarion memory rather than a full biography — but the Church honours him among the venerable fathers of Cyprus, and distinguishes him carefully from the later Arcadius who was archbishop of the island.
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Conon and his son Conon of Iconium
Conon and his son, also named Conon, were martyrs of Iconium in Lycaonia (Asia Minor) in the third century, about the years 270–275. Left a widower, the elder Conon withdrew with his young son to a monastery, and there the father was granted the gifts of healing and of power over demons: he is remembered as one who cast out devils, healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, and preached Christ among the pagans. Father and son together confessed the faith in time of persecution and were put to death for it, and the Church keeps them as monk-martyrs on March 6. They are to be carefully distinguished from the two other martyrs named Conon kept the day before, on March 5.
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Hesychius the Wonderworker
Hesychius the Wonderworker (eighth century) was a monastic ascetic of Bithynia in Asia Minor, born at the coastal town of Adrineia and glorified for the solitary life he led on Mount Maionis, where he endured the assaults of demons, of wild beasts, and of robbers, and was granted the gift of wonders. The Greek calendar keeps him on March 6, styling him "the Wonderworker" (ὁ Θαυματουργός); the Slavic books and the Orthodox Church in America keep the same Bithynian ascetic on March 5 under the epithet "the Faster." His life is known only in brief from the synaxarion, but he is honoured among the venerable fathers of the Byzantine ascetic tradition.
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Job of Anzersk
Job of Anzersk (c. 1635–1720), in the great schema named Jesus (Iisus), was a Russian ascetic of the far North, founder of the Golgotha-Crucifixion Skete on Anzer, an island of the Solovki archipelago in the White Sea. Born at Moscow and long a married parish priest of the capital — the tradition makes him a confessor and spiritual father to the court of Peter the Great — he was slandered and exiled to the Solovetsky Monastery, where he was tonsured a monk as Job. Withdrawing to the greater solitude of Anzer, he became head of its Trinity Skete, received the great schema with the name Jesus, and, after a vision of the Mother of God upon a hill he thereafter called Golgotha, founded there the Skete of the Crucifixion. He reposed on March 6, 1720, and was glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church in the year 2000. He is not to be confused with the Old Testament patriarch Job the Long-suffering (May 6), whose name he received at his tonsure, nor with Job of Pochaev (†1651), nor with Job of Ushchelsk (†1628, August 5) — the confusion likeliest of all, since that Job was also a hieromonk of Solovki and also a saint of the Russian north.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Sithney, missionary abbot (529)
- SS Cyneburgh and Cyneswith, abbesses of Castor and St. Tibba (c.680)
- St. Billfrith, the Goldsmith, hermit (8th C)
- St. Baldred, hermit at Tyningham (756)
- St. Fridolin of Ireland, Enlightener of the Upper Rhine (538)
- St. Cadroel, monk and bishop (976)
- St. Sezin of Guic-Sezni (c.529)
Readings
6th Hour
Isaiah 3.1-14
1For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water, 2The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, 3The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator. 4And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. 5And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable. 6When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand: 7In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be an healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people. 8For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory. 9The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves. 10Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. 11Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him. 12As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths. 13The LORD standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people. 14The LORD will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.
Vespers
Genesis 2.20-3.20
20And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. 21And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 24Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. 25And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. 1Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 6And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. 9And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 12And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 13And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. 14And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: 15And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 16Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. 17And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. 20And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
Proverbs 3.19-34
19The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens. 20By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew. 21My son, let not them depart from thine eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion: 22So shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck. 23Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble. 24When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet. 25Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. 26For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken. 27Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. 28Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee. 29Devise not evil against thy neighbour, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee. 30Strive not with a man without cause, if he have done thee no harm. 31Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways. 32For the froward is abomination to the LORD: but his secret is with the righteous. 33The curse of the LORD is in the house of the wicked: but he blesseth the habitation of the just. 34Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly.
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 2
The newly-manifest men-at-arms of the faith, who eagerly gave themselves to the struggle for Christ, let us all worthily crown with wreaths of praise; for they intercede with Christ on our behalf, as towers and as guardians of the realm of the Romans.
Troparion — Tone 8
With the streams of thy tears thou didst cultivate the barrenness of the desert, and by thy sighings from the depths thou didst bear fruit a hundredfold in labours; and thou becamest a luminary, shining upon the world by thy wonders, O Arcadius our righteous father. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy Martyrs, O Lord, in their courageous contest have received the imperishable crown of thine, our God; for possessed of thy might, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the powerless boldness of the demons. By their prayers, O Christ our God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 5
The achievements of the holy Martyrs the powers of heaven beheld with wonder: how, clothed in a mortal body, by the power of the Cross they contended nobly against the bodiless enemy and unseen overcame him; and now they intercede with the Lord, that our souls may find mercy.
Troparion — Tone 8
With the streams of thy tears thou didst cultivate the barrenness of the desert, and by thy sighings from the depths thou didst bear fruit a hundredfold in labours; and thou becamest a luminary, shining upon the world by thy wonders, O Hesychius our righteous father. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O father, was preserved with exactness 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 passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal; wherefore thy spirit, O venerable Job, rejoiceth with the Angels.
Presanctified Liturgy