Thursday 9 April 2020

Martyr Eupsychius of Caesarea in Cappadocia

Thursday of the Sixth Week of Lent

Great Lent, day 39 · 10 days until Pascha

Saints commemorated

  • Saint of the day

    Martyr Eupsychius of Caesarea in Cappadocia

    This Eupsychius was a young Christian of noble family in Caesarea of Cappadocia who, newly married, took part in the pulling-down of the temple of Fortune (Tychaion) in his city, and for this — when Julian the Apostate came to the throne and sought to avenge the pagan cult — was seized and beheaded about the year 362. His memory was especially dear to the Cappadocian church, and St Basil the Great kept his feast and mentioned it in his letters. He is commemorated on April 9, and is closely bound up with (and by many scholars identified as a doublet of) the Eupsychius of Caesarea kept September 7.

    Read their life →

  • Bademus of Persia

    Bademus (Vadim) was a wealthy nobleman of the city of Beth-Lapat in Persia who gave away his riches, founded a monastery, and lived as its abbot in great austerity. During the persecution of the Christians under the Sassanid king Shapur II he was imprisoned with seven of his disciples, and after four months of daily beatings was put to death about the year 376 — beheaded, the account says, by the hand of a Christian who had apostatized under torture, and whose miserable end afterward showed the ruin of one who denies Christ.

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British Isles and Ireland

  • St. Madrun (5th C)
  • St. Dotto of Orkney (6th C)
  • Holy Martyr Hedda, abbot of Peterborough and those monks with him (869)
  • Holy Martyr Theodore, abbot of Crowland and those monks with him including SS. Askega and Swethin, Elfgete, a deacon, Sabinus, a subdeacon, Egdred and Ulric, and Grimkeld and Agamund (869)

Readings

6th Hour

Isaiah 65.8-16

8Thus saith the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all. 9And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there. 10And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me. 11But ye are they that forsake the LORD, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink offering unto that number. 12Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not. 13Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed: 14Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit. 15And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen: for the Lord GOD shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name: 16That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes.

Vespers

Genesis 46.1-7

1And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beer-sheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac. 2And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I. 3And he said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation: 4I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes. 5And Jacob rose up from Beer-sheba: and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. 6And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with him: 7His sons, and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters, and his sons’ daughters, and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt.

Proverbs 23.15-24.5

15My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. 16Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things. 17Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long. 18For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off. 19Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way. 20Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: 21For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. 22Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old. 23Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. 24The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him. 25Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice. 26My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. 27For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit. 28She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men. 29Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? 30They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. 31Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. 32At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. 33Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. 34Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. 35They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again. 1Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them. 2For their heart studieth destruction, and their lips talk of mischief. 3Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established: 4And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches. 5A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.

Troparia & kontakia

Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a venerable-martyr)

Thy martyr Bademus, O Lord, in his contest received an incorruptible crown from Thee, our God; for possessing Thy strength, he cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By his intercessions save our souls.

Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a martyr)

Thy martyr Eupsychius, O Lord, in his contest received an incorruptible crown from Thee, our God; for possessing Thy strength, he cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By his intercessions save our souls.