Nativity Fast, day 4
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Martyrs Platon and Roman
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Holy New Martyr Anastasius of Epirus (1750), and Daniel, whom he converted
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Plato of Ancyra
Plato of Ancyra (†c. 306) was a young confessor of Galatia who was martyred in his native city during the Great Persecution. Still in his youth, he travelled the cities preaching Christ with a persuasiveness and command of Greek learning that astonished his hearers, until he was arrested and tried before the governor Agrippinus. Flattery, the offer of a noble marriage, threats, and prolonged torture and starvation all failed to move him, and he was beheaded for refusing to sacrifice to the idols. The tradition remembers him as the brother of the Martyr Antiochus the Physician, and his memory was kept with a proper hymn at Ancyra. He is commemorated on November 18.
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Romanus of Antioch and Barulas
Romanus (†303) was a deacon of the church of Caesarea in Palestine who, during the Great Persecution, was staying at Antioch and there boldly resisted the demolition of the churches and denounced the pagan sacrifices before the prefect. Tortured, condemned to the fire, saved from it by a sudden rain, and finally deprived of his tongue and strangled in prison, he became one of the most celebrated martyrs of the age, honoured by a homily of John Chrysostom and a long hymn of Prudentius. His memory is inseparable from that of Barulas, a small child who, brought forward in the trial, confessed the one true God, shamed the idolaters, and was beheaded while his mother urged him on. The two are commemorated together on November 18.
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Zacchaeus and Alphaeus
Zacchaeus and Alphaeus were among the first martyrs of the Great Persecution in Palestine, put to death at Caesarea in the year 303. Zacchaeus was a deacon of the church of Gadara who confessed Christ openly and would not renounce him under torture; Alphaeus, a reader of the church of Caesarea, seeing crowds of the lapsed on their way to sacrifice, publicly begged them not to defile themselves with the idols and was seized for it. Shackled together and thrown into prison, where they spent the night in prayer, the two were beheaded the next morning. They are commemorated together on November 18.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Mawes, bishop in Cornwall and Brittany (5th C)
- St. Constant, priest-hermit at Lough Erne (777)
- St. Keverne, friend of St. Kieran (6th C)
- St. Mummolus companion of St Fursey (c.690)
Readings
Epistle
1 Thessalonians 4.1-12
1Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. 2For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. 3For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: 4That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; 5Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: 6That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. 7For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. 8He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit. 9But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. 10And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more; 11And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; 12That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.
Gospel
Luke 15.1-10
1Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. 2And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. 3And he spake this parable unto them, saying, 4What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? 5And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. 7I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. 8Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? 9And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost. 10Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 3
Thy holy memory gladdens the whole world, summoning all the faithful to thy most honourable temple, where now, gathered together in joy, we sing thy praise in hymns and splendour. Wherefore, O Plato, we cry to thee: deliver thy city from the invasion of the heathen, O holy one.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for, possessed of Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their prayers, O Christ God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for, possessed of Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their prayers, O Christ God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for, possessed of Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their prayers, O Christ God, save our souls.