Martyr Quadratus and Companions

Saints commemorated

Saint of the day

Martyr Quadratus and Companions

Quadratus of Corinth (third century) was a physician and confessor of Christ whose life began with a wonder: his mother Rufina, fleeing the persecution while great with child, gave birth to him on a lonely mountain and died there, and the infant — the tradition holds — was preserved and nourished by the providence of God, sheltered by a cloud and fed with a sweet dew, until Christians found and raised him. Grown to be a physician who healed body and soul, he gathered about him a company of the faithful — chief among them Cyprian, Dionysius, Anectus, Paul, Crescens and Victorinus — and led them in the confession of Christ when the persecution under Decius and Valerian came upon Corinth. Seized by the governor Jason and cruelly tortured, they were at the last beheaded together, about the middle of the third century. The Church keeps them on March 10.
Saint of the day

Quadratus of Nicomedia and Companions

Quadratus of Nicomedia (third century) was a Christian of an illustrious and wealthy family of Bithynia who, during the persecutions under the emperors Decius and Valerian, used his freedom and his means to sustain the confessors in prison — bringing them food and comfort and encouraging them to stand firm. When his own faith was discovered he confessed Christ openly, and was carried by his persecutors through a succession of the cities of Asia Minor to be displayed and tortured, that his sufferings might frighten others from the faith; but he endured all and, with his companions Saturninus and Rufinus and others, was at the last beheaded. The Church keeps them on March 10, the same day as the martyrs of Corinth of the same name, from whom they are to be distinguished.
Our Holy Mother Anastasia (563)

Anastasia the Patrician (c. 510 – c. 567) was a noblewoman of Constantinople, of patrician rank and great beauty, esteemed at the court of the emperor Justinian. When the emperor's marked favour toward her stirred the jealousy of the empress Theodora, Anastasia — desiring neither the court nor its perils to her soul — secretly left the capital, sailed to Alexandria, and founded a monastery outside the city, where she lived in ascesis. After Theodora's death, learning that Justinian was again seeking her, she fled to the desert of Scetis and cast herself on the great elder Abba Daniel, who clothed her in a monk's habit, gave her the name Anastasius the eunuch, and enclosed her in a distant cave. There, unknown to all as a woman, she lived twenty-eight years in silence and prayer, a disciple leaving water at her door once a week, until her death revealed her secret to none but Daniel. She is commemorated on March 10.

British Isles and Ireland

St. Kessog the Wonderworker (560)
St. Emilian, abbot of Lagny (675)
St. Failbhe the Little, abbot of Iona (754)
St. Sedna, bishop of Ossory (c.570)
St. Silvester, companion of St. Palladius (c.420)
St. Himelin of Vissenaeken (c.750)

Troparia & kontakia

Kontakion — Tone 3

As bright stars did ye enlighten all creation, O athletes who cannot be vanquished; ye brought the deceit of the idols to nothing and, contending lawfully, ye were crowned. Wherefore, unceasingly intercede with Christ for us all.

Troparion — Tone 8

In thee, O Mother, was the image faithfully preserved; for taking up thy cross thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, which passes away, and to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Therefore doth thy spirit, O venerable Anastasia, rejoice together with the angels.

Troparion — Tone 4

Thy Martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received from Thee our God crowns of incorruption; for armed with Thy might, they cast down the tyrants and broke the powerless insolence of demons. By their supplications, O Christ our God, save our souls.

Troparion — Tone 4

Thy Martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received from Thee our God crowns of incorruption; for armed with Thy might, they cast down the tyrants and broke the powerless insolence of demons. By their supplications, O Christ our God, save our souls.

Readings

6th Hour

Isaiah 5.7-16

⁷For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry. ⁸Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! ⁹In mine ears said the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant. ¹⁰Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah. ¹¹Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! ¹²And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands. ¹³Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. ¹⁴Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. ¹⁵And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled: ¹⁶But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.

Vespers

Genesis 4.8-15

⁸And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. ⁹And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper? ¹⁰And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. ¹¹And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand; ¹²When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. ¹³And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear. ¹⁴Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. ¹⁵And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

Proverbs 5.1-15

¹My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding: ²That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge. ³For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: ⁴But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword. ⁵Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. ⁶Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them. ⁷Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. ⁸Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: ⁹Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel: ¹⁰Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; ¹¹And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, ¹²And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; ¹³And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! ¹⁴I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. ¹⁵Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.

Saints commemorated