Paschaltide, day 25 · 24 days since Pascha
Midfeast of Pentecost
Saints commemorated
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Virgin Martyr Glyceria
Glyceria was a young noblewoman of Trajanopolis in Thrace, daughter of a man named Macarius who had held the rank of consul, who came to the public sacrifice with the sign of the Cross traced upon her forehead instead of a garland, and at whose prayer the statue of Zeus fell from its pedestal and shattered. Stoned, hung up and flayed at the head, sealed alive into a prison and fed there by an angel, cast into a furnace and left unhurt, she was carried at last to Heraclea and thrown to the beasts, and died about the year 177 when a lioness laid her down without tearing her. Her jailer Laodicius was converted by the miracle of her healing and beheaded with her. Her tomb at Heraclea streamed healing myrrh, and her memory is kept throughout the Orthodox world on May 13.
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Holy Martyr Alexander of Rome (298)
Alexander was a young soldier of the regiment of the Tiberiani at Rome, brought up a Christian by his mother Pimenia, who at the age of eighteen refused to take part in the sacrifices commanded by Maximian Herculius (285–305). Denounced by his tribune, he was arrested, and instead of being executed at Rome was carried under guard on a long journey through the provinces to Thrace, tortured at each halt and confessing Christ at each, until at Drizipera he was condemned and beheaded — the executioner, the passion says, holding back his hand at the sight of angels standing by the martyr. His mother followed him the whole way, encouraged him in his torments, and took up his body by the river Ergina for burial; healings were worked at his grave. Whether he was a soldier or a bishop is an old textual question, discussed below.
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Euthymius the Iberian
Euthymius the Iberian (c. 955 – 1028) was a Georgian nobleman's son given as a hostage to Byzantium, who was recovered by his monk father John the Iberian and brought to Mount Athos, and who there became the second and greatest builder of the Monastery of the Iberians (Iviron) and one of the supreme translators in the history of Christian letters. He governed Iviron some fourteen years, then laid down the abbacy in favour of George the Iberian in order to translate: he rendered the Holy Scriptures and more than fifty other works from Greek into Georgian — and, going the other way, put the Georgian Wisdom of Balahvari into Greek, from which it passed into every language of medieval Europe as Barlaam and Josaphat. Fluent in Greek and Georgian both, he was ordained priest and served as epitropos of the Great Lavra. He died at Constantinople on 13 May 1028 after a fall from a startled mule, and his relics were carried back to Iviron. He is not the ninth-century Euthymius the New of Thessalonica, with whom his English epithet is constantly confused.
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Gabriel the Iberian
Gabriel was a Georgian ascetic of Mount Athos, a monk of great simplicity who lived in a cave in the high ground above the boundary between Xeropotamou and the monastery of Saint Panteleimon. At the word of a divine voice he came down to the shore and, walking upon the sea, received from the waves the icon of the Mother of God afterwards called Portaitissa, the "Keeper of the Gate" — the Iveron icon, which of its own will took its place over the monastery gate and has remained the great treasure and the guardian of Iviron ever since. The Church honours him with the other Georgian fathers of the Holy Mountain on May 13. Almost nothing else of his life is recorded: he is known by one act, and it is one of the most famous acts in the history of Athos.
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George the Iberian
George the Iberian was the Georgian monk who was elected abbot of the Monastery of the Iberians (Iviron) on Mount Athos after Euthymius the Iberian resigned the governance in order to devote himself to translation, and who reposed in peace. That single sentence is the whole of the Greek synaxarion notice for him, and this entry is accordingly short. He is commemorated on May 13 with the other Georgian fathers of Iviron. English calendars frequently identify him with George the Hagiorite (†1065), the abbot and translator who wrote the Life of John and Euthymius and whose principal feast is June 27; the question is treated below and is not resolved here.
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Glykeria of Novgorod
Glykeria was a maiden of Great Novgorod, daughter of Panteleimon, an official of Legoshcha Street, who reposed about the year 1522 and was buried by the stone church of the Holy Martyrs Florus and Laurus. Fifty years later, on 14 July 1572, her body was found incorrupt behind that church, and the Second Novgorod Chronicle records that Archbishop Leonid of Novgorod, informed by an old woman named Nastasia of a healing received fifty years before, had the relics taken up and laid in the church. Healings followed at the burial, among them the recovery of the small son of one Bogdan Suvorov, and these miracles were the ground of her glorification. She is one of the righteous laywomen of the Novgorod calendar, and she is kept on May 13, the day of her patron the ancient martyr Glyceria of Heraclea.
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John the Iberian
John the Iberian — called in the Greek notices Varasvatse, in Georgian Ioane Mtatsmindeli, "John of the Holy Mountain" — was a Georgian magnate of the tenth century, counsellor of David III Kuropalates of Tao, toparch of Iberian Meskhia and holder of a Byzantine dignity, who abandoned rank, house and family for the monastic life on Mount Olympus of Mysia. Having become a monk he recovered from Constantinople his young son Euthymius, whom his prince had given to the emperor as a hostage, and brought him to Mount Athos, where the two entered the Great Lavra of Saint Athanasius. Around John the Georgians of the Mountain gathered, and out of that gathering came the Monastery of the Iberians (Iviron), of which he is honoured as spiritual father and first abbot. He reposed at Iviron about 1002–1005, and is commemorated on May 13 with his son and the other Georgian fathers of the Holy Mountain.
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Laodicius the Jailer
Laodicius was the keeper of the prison at Trajanopolis in Thrace during the imprisonment of the virgin-martyr Glyceria, about the year 177. Set to watch a door sealed with the governor's own ring, he found his prisoner alive and her wounds healed, and — believing himself ruined and about to take his own life — was stopped by the saint, catechised by her, and brought to faith in Christ. He put on the chains he had used to bind her, confessed Christ before the tribunal as the true God, and was beheaded with the sword. The Christians took up his body secretly and buried it. His whole story is a single episode of another saint's passion, and the Church keeps him on Glyceria's day.
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Martyrs of Iviron
The Iberite venerable-martyrs are the Georgian and Greek monks of the Monastery of Iviron on Mount Athos who were put to death for refusing the Union of Lyons — the submission to Rome accepted by the emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos and proclaimed on 6 June 1274 — and the papal and imperial pressure that followed it. Required to accept the Latin doctrine and the pope's obedience, the brotherhood anathematised it instead. Nearly two hundred of the elder monks were driven aboard a ship like cattle and the ship was sunk with them in the deep; the younger and stronger were deported to Italy and sold as slaves. The sources give the date as 1259, or as a persecution running over four years from 1276 to 1280. They are commemorated on May 13 with the Georgian fathers of Iviron, and belong with the Twenty-six Martyrs of Zographou, burned in their tower in the same persecution.
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Nicephorus of Ephapsis
Nicephorus is one of the genuinely unknown saints of the fixed calendar. The whole of his transmitted memory is a single short notice in a Athonite manuscript of the Great Lavra: that on account of his virtuous and God-pleasing manner of life he was raised up as abbot of the populous monastery of Ephapsis, that he was a presbyter, and that he reposed in peace. Neither his century, nor his birthplace, nor the location of his monastery is recorded. He is commemorated on May 13, and this entry is deliberately as short as the record that produced it.
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Pausikakos of Synnada
Pausikakos — whose name means "he who makes evil to cease" — was a physician who became a monk, went about the cities of Asia Minor healing the sick without payment while preaching the Gospel, and was ordained Bishop of Synnada in Phrygia by the Patriarch Cyriacus of Constantinople (595–606). The Church remembers him for the double gift of healing "sicknesses of soul and of body": he was a strict shepherd of his flock, is said to have healed the emperor Maurice on a visit to the capital, and to have brought water out of the ground by prayer for his thirsting companions on the road. He reposed in peace in the year 606, and is counted among the unmercenary healers of the Church.
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Sergius the Confessor
Sergius was a patrician of Constantinople, of one of the great families of the city, and the father of Photius the Great; he was closely akin to the holy Patriarch Tarasius, who had presided at the Seventh Ecumenical Council. In the second iconoclasm, under the emperor Theophilus (829–842), he and his wife Irene refused to give up the veneration of the holy images. He was anathematised by the iconoclast synod, stripped of his whole estate, dragged with a rope about his neck through the streets of the capital as a public spectacle, imprisoned, and then sent with his wife and children into exile in a waterless place, where he died of his hardships before the restoration of the icons in 843. The Slavic calendars keep the same confessor under the name George. The Church honours him on May 13 with Irene and their children.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Mael, the Hermit of Bardsey (6th C)
Readings
Vespers
Composite 19 - Micah 4.2-3, 5; 6.2-5, 8; 5.4, 5
1Thus says the Lord: From Sion will come forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he will judge among many peoples and rebuke mighty nations in a distant land. For all the peoples will walk, each its own way, while we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever. Thus says the Lord Almighty: Listen hills and valleys, foundations of the earth, because the Lord has a controversy with his people; for he will dispute with Israel, saying, ‘My people, what have I done to you? Or how have I grieved you? Or how have I troubled you? Answer me. For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and rescued you from the house of slavery, and sent Moses and Aaron before your face. My people, what have your enemies planned against you? Was it not told you, O man, what is good? And what does the Lord seek from you, except to execute judgement, and to love mercy and to be ready to walk with the Lord your God?’ Therefore the Lord will be magnified in strength, and will shepherd his flock in peace, to the extremities of the earth.
Composite 20 - Isaiah 55.1; 12.3-4; 55.2-13
1Thus says the Lord: You who thirst, go to the water; and all who have no money, go, buy and eat and drink wine and fat without money or price. For thus says the Lord Almighty to you: My people, draw water with joy from the springs of salvation. And you will say in that day: Praise the Lord, cry his name aloud, declare his glory among the nations, call to mind that his name has been exalted. My people, hear me, and eat good things, and your soul will delight in good things. Attend with your ears and follow my ways. Listen to me and your soul will live among good things. And I will make an eternal covenant with you, and you will call upon me. And when you draw near me, let the impious abandon his ways, and the lawless man his plans; and turn back to me and I will have mercy on you and forgive your sins. For your plans are not as my plans, says the Lord; but as heaven is distant from the earth, so is my way distant from your ways, and your thoughts from my mind. For as rain or snow would come down from heaven and not return there, until it had soaked the earth, and it bring forth and bud and give seed to the sower, and bread for food, so shall my word be, which once it has come from my mouth will not return there until it has accomplished all that I willed; and I will make my ways and my commands succeed. For you will go out with joy, and be taught with gladness; for the mountains and hills will exult as they receive you with joy; and all the trees of the field will clap with their branches; and instead of the briar shall come up the cypress; instead of the nettle shall come up the myrtle; and the Lord shall be for a name and for an eternal sign, says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel.
Proverbs 9.1-11
1Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars: 2She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table. 3She hath sent forth her maidens: she crieth upon the highest places of the city, 4Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, 5Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled. 6Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding. 7He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame: and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot. 8Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. 9Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. 10The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. 11For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased.
Epistle
Acts 14.6-18
6They were ware of it, and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about: 7And there they preached the gospel. 8And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked: 9The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, 10Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked. 11And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. 12And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker. 13Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people. 14Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, 15And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: 16Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. 17Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. 18And with these sayings scarce restrained they the people, that they had not done sacrifice unto them.
Hebrews 2.11-18 (Blessing of Waters)
11For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, 12Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. 13And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me. 14Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 16For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. 17Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. 18For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.
Gospel
John 7.14-30
14Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught. 15And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? 16Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. 17If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. 18He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. 19Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me? 20The people answered and said, Thou hast a devil: who goeth about to kill thee? 21Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one work, and ye all marvel. 22Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man. 23If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day? 24Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. 25Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he, whom they seek to kill? 26But, lo, he speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ? 27Howbeit we know this man whence he is: but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is. 28Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not. 29But I know him: for I am from him, and he hath sent me. 30Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.
John 5.1-4 (Blessing of Waters)
1After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. 3In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. 4For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.
Troparia & kontakia
Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a martyr)
Thy martyr Alexander, 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.
Apolytikion — Tone 4
Thy lamb, O Jesus, crieth with a loud voice: Thee, my Bridegroom, do I love, and seeking Thee I strive in contest; I am crucified and buried together with Thee in Thy baptism, and I suffer for Thy sake that I may reign with Thee; I die for Thee that I may also live in Thee. Receive me as a spotless sacrifice, offered unto Thee in love. By her intercessions, as Thou art merciful, save our souls.
Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a martyr)
Thy martyr Laodicius, 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.
Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a company of martyrs)
O holy martyrs, who fought the good fight and received your crowns, entreat the Lord that He have mercy on our souls.
Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)
O God of our fathers, who dealest ever with us according to Thy gentleness, take not Thy mercy from us, but by the prayers of Thy hierarch Pausikakos, guide our life in peace.
Kontakion — Tone 2
A soldier of the earthly king, thou wast found a soldier of the King of heaven, O Alexander; and being led from land to land in bonds, thou didst preach Christ in every place, and wast crowned by the sword at Drizipera; wherefore we honour thee with thy mother.
Kontakion — Tone 2
Thou didst turn the tongue of the Greeks into the speech of thine own people, and didst give the Scriptures and the Fathers to Iberia, O wise Euthymius; builder of the house of the Iberians and lamp of the Holy Mountain, cease not to intercede for those who honour thee.
Kontakion — Tone 2
Simple in heart and rich in faith, thou didst tread the waves as dry land at the word of the Mother of God, O Gabriel, and didst receive her holy image into thine arms; wherefore the Gate she keeps is thy crown, and the Holy Mountain calls thee blessed.
Kontakion — Tone 2
A virgin of noble birth, thou didst cast down the graven image by thy prayer, and being torn, sealed up and given to the beasts, thou wast not overcome; wherefore, O all-praised Glyceria, thou pourest forth myrrh and healing upon them that honour thee.
Kontakion — Tone 2
Leaving rank and rule and the counsels of princes, thou didst take the yoke of Christ upon thy shoulders, O John; and gathering thy countrymen upon the Holy Mountain, thou wast made the father of the house of the Iberians. With thy son Euthymius, pray for us who honour thee.
Kontakion — Tone 2
Two hundred elders were given to the deep, and the young were sold into a strange land, yet the house of the Iberians did not bow to the errors of the Latins; wherefore, O venerable martyrs, the Holy Mountain glorifies you, and Christ has crowned you.
Kontakion — Tone 2
Thou didst heal the bodies of the poor without silver, and their souls with the word of God, O Pausikakos, physician and shepherd; wherefore, having made evil to cease according to thy name, thou dost pour out healing upon all who honour thee.
Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)
In thee, O Father, that which is according to the image was preserved exactly: for taking up the cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal; wherefore thy spirit rejoiceth with the angels, O venerable Euthymius.
Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)
In thee, O Father, that which is according to the image was preserved exactly: for taking up the cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal; wherefore thy spirit rejoiceth with the angels, O venerable Gabriel.
Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)
In thee, O Father, that which is according to the image was preserved exactly: for taking up the cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal; wherefore thy spirit rejoiceth with the angels, O venerable George.
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a righteous woman)
Adorned with virginity and shining with the beauty of a hidden life, thou wast pleasing to God in the midst of the city, O righteous Glykeria; and God, who glorifies those who glorify Him, made thy body incorrupt and thy grave a fountain of healing. Pray for us who honour thy memory.
Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)
In thee, O Father, that which is according to the image was preserved exactly: for taking up the cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal; wherefore thy spirit rejoiceth with the angels, O venerable John.
Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)
In thee, O Father, that which is according to the image was preserved exactly: for taking up the cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal; wherefore thy spirit rejoiceth with the angels, O venerable Nicephorus.
Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable confessor)
A guide of Orthodoxy, a teacher of piety and purity, thou wast shown forth by the constancy of thy confession, O Father Sergius: bearing the loss of all thy goods, the rope and the shame of the streets, and the desert of thine exile, thou didst not deny the image of Christ. Wherefore, with Irene thy companion, intercede that our souls may be saved.