Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Ven. Theodora of Alexandria
Theodora of Alexandria (died c. 490) is one of the most celebrated penitents of the Orthodox calendar: a married woman of Alexandria who, having fallen once into adultery, spent the rest of her life in a repentance so complete that the Church numbers her among the great ascetics. Disguising herself as a man, she entered a men's monastery under the name Theodore; falsely accused of fathering a child, she accepted the disgrace in silence and raised the infant in exile for seven years rather than clear herself. Only at her death did the brethren discover that the slandered "monk Theodore" was a woman, and innocent. She is commemorated on September 11.
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St Euphrosynos the Cook of Alexandria (9th c.)
Euphrosynus the Cook (9th century) is the patron of the humble and hidden: an unlettered peasant who served as cook in a monastery kitchen, despised by some of the brethren for his rusticity and enduring their contempt in silence. His sanctity, concealed all his life, was revealed in a single night, when a priest of the monastery who had long prayed to see the good things prepared for those who love God was shown paradise in a vision — and found the monastery cook dwelling there, who gave him three apples from the garden. Waking, the priest found the apples beside him, fragrant and real; and Euphrosynus, his secret out, fled the monastery the same morning and was never found. He is commemorated on September 11.
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St Paphnutius the Confessor (4th c.)
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Canonization of St Xenia of St Petersburg (1978)
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Demetrius, Evanthia and Demetrian of Skepsis
Demetrius, his wife Evanthia, and their son Demetrian were a family of the first century martyred together at Skepsis on the Hellespont. Demetrius, the ruler of the city, sat in judgment on Cornelius the Centurion — the first Gentile baptized by the Apostle Peter, who had come to Skepsis preaching the Gospel — and was instead converted by the preaching and the miracles of his prisoner, receiving baptism with his whole household. For this the pagans of the city shut the newly-converted family in prison, where they were starved to death. They are commemorated together on September 11.
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Diodorus, Didymus and Diomedes of Laodicea
Diodorus, Didymus and Diomedes were martyrs of Laodicea, natives of the city in which they suffered, put to death for Christ by scourging — flogged until they died under the blows. Their commemoration, preserved in a single synaxarion line with its distich on the scourges that "flogged the error" of paganism even as they tore the martyrs' flesh, is kept on September 11.
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Ia of Persia
Ia was a Christian woman — the Greek synaxarion remembers her as aged in years — who was seized with nine thousand fellow-Christians in the great fourth-century persecution of Shapur II of Persia and brought to the city of Bisada. Commanded by the chief of the magi to renounce Christ, she refused through repeated tortures and imprisonment, and was at last beheaded, around the year 363. The tradition relates that the sun was darkened at her death and the air filled with a sweet fragrance. She and the nine thousand with her are commemorated on September 11.
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Sergius and Herman of Valaam
Sergius and Herman are venerated as the founders of the Monastery of the Transfiguration on Valaam, the great island house in the northern reaches of Lake Ladoga that became the mother of monasticism for the whole Karelian north and, through its children, for Solovki, Konevets, Ondrusov and at last Alaska. Tradition makes Sergius a Greek monk who came northward as a missionary among the pagan Karelians and Herman his companion, sometimes named as a Karelian convert; they settled on the rocky archipelago, gathered a brotherhood under a rule of fasting, vigil and manual labour, and reposed there — the service books say about the year 1353. No Life of them survives, and the dating of their coming is one of the vexed questions of Russian church history, ranging from the tenth century to the end of the fourteenth. Their relics lie hidden beneath the floor of the monastery cathedral, twice carried to Novgorod for safety from Swedish raids and twice brought home. The Church keeps their memory on June 28, and on September 11 the return of their relics to the island.
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Deiniol of Bangor
Deiniol (Daniel) was the founder, abbot and first bishop of Bangor in Gwynedd, north Wales, in the sixth century. The Welsh genealogies make him a son of Dunawd Fwr, founder of the other great Bangor, Bangor Iscoed on the Dee; Deiniol himself founded Bangor Fawr yn Arfon under the patronage of Maelgwn Gwynedd, and its cathedral bears his name to this day. His earliest literary appearance is in Rhygyfarch's Life of St David, where he and Dyfrig (Dubricius) are the two who persuade David to attend the Synod of Brefi. The Annales Cambriae record his death in 584, and tradition buries him on Bardsey Island. His feast, September 11, stands in the Welsh calendars from the fifteenth century onward.
Readings
Epistle
Galatians 2.6-10
6But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man’s person:) for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me: 7But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter; 8(For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:) 9And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision. 10Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.
Gospel
Mark 5.22-24, 35-6.1
22And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at his feet, 23And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live. 24And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him. 35While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further? 36As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe. 37And he suffered no man to follow him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James. 38And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly. 39And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. 40And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying. 41And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. 42And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment. 43And he charged them straitly that no man should know it; and commanded that something should be given her to eat. 1And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him.
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 4
Ye left the tumult of the world and came to the isle of Ladoga, and there upon the bare rock ye planted a garden of monastics, watering it with your tears; and now, standing before the Transfigured Lord, ye keep unharmed the habitation ye founded. Wherefore we cry: rejoice, Sergius and Herman, boast of the northern land.
Kontakion — Tone 1
Fleeing the night of the passions, O godly-minded one, thou didst draw near in spirit to the Sun of glory, mortifying by asceticism the leapings of the flesh; wherefore thou wast shown forth a pattern for monastics and a raising-up of those fallen in life: therefore we honour thee.
Kontakion — Tone 2 (Slavic books)
Having worn out thy body with fasting, with unsleeping prayers thou didst entreat the Creator concerning thy sin, that thou mightest receive complete forgiveness; and thou didst receive remission, having shown the way of repentance.
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)
The truth of thy deeds revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, an image of meekness and a teacher of temperance; therefore by humility thou didst attain the heights, and by poverty, riches. O Father and hierarch Deiniol, intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4 (from the common of martyrs)
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for possessing Thy strength they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their intercessions save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4 (from the common of martyrs)
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for possessing Thy strength they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their intercessions save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 5
In humility of heart thou didst offer thy service in the kitchen, O father Euphrosynus, and wast filled in truth with the Holy Spirit; wherefore God revealed thy glory to us through a venerable priest. Show us also partakers of that glory, O God-bearing one, by thy prayers.
Troparion — Tone 4 (from the common of a woman martyr)
Thy ewe-lamb Ia crieth to Thee with a great voice, O Jesus: Thee, my Bridegroom, do I love, and seeking Thee I contest, and am crucified and buried with Thee in Thy baptism, and suffer for Thee, that I may reign with Thee, and die for Thee, that I may live in Thee. Receive me then as a spotless sacrifice, slain for Thee with love. By her intercessions, O Merciful One, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4
Having become true hearers of the Gospel of Christ, O venerable ones, ye counted the world and all that is in the world as a perishing thing, and made your dwelling upon an island of the lake of Ladoga; and there, wounded with the love of Christ and taking His Cross upon your shoulders, ye lived in the flesh as angels, in prayers and labours, in fastings and vigils. Wherefore ye received from God the gift of healings, to heal the sicknesses of soul and body in them that run to you with faith. Therefore do we now cry unto you: O venerable fathers Sergius and Herman, entreat Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 8 (from the common of a venerable woman)
In thee, O mother, that which is according to the image was preserved with exactness; for taking up the cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to disregard the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal: wherefore thy spirit, O venerable Theodora, rejoiceth with the angels.