Nativity Fast, day 6
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Ven. Gregory Decapolites
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Our Holy Father Proclus, Archbishop of Constantinople (447)
Proclus (died 446 or 447) was Archbishop of Constantinople from 434, a disciple and secretary of John Chrysostom whose gifts as a preacher placed him at the centre of the greatest doctrinal crisis of the fifth century. His homily on the Mother of God, delivered in the great church before the patriarch Nestorius, became a public defence of the title Theotokos and helped open the controversy that the Council of Ephesus (431) would settle. As archbishop he brought the relics of his master Chrysostom home to Constantinople in triumph, governed with a gentleness that quieted the divided city, and left a body of homilies and doctrinal letters — above all the Tome to the Armenians — that made him a teacher of the Church. He is commemorated on November 20.
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Dasius of Dorostorum
Dasius was a Christian of Dorostorum on the lower Danube who was beheaded for Christ, by tradition on November 20 of about the year 303, in the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian. His Passion tells that he was chosen by lot to play the mock-king of a pagan Saturn-festival — a youth honoured and indulged for a month and then sacrificed to the god — and that he refused the whole blasphemous rite, declaring that if he must die he would die as a Christian for Christ rather than as a victim for an idol. He confessed his faith openly, was tortured, and was put to the sword. His Passion is a document of unusual interest for the light it throws on the survival of the Roman Saturnalia among the soldiers of the Danube frontier. He is commemorated on November 20.
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Gregory of Decapolis
Gregory the Decapolite (c. 780–c. 842) was one of the great wandering ascetics of the age of the second iconoclasm, a monk of the Decapolis of Isauria who spent his life on the roads of the Byzantine world — Ephesus and Constantinople, Rome and Corinth, Sicily and Thessalonica — preaching the veneration of the holy icons and confirming the persecuted Orthodox. Gifted, his Life relates, with prophecy and healing, he reposed at Constantinople shortly before the Triumph of Orthodoxy. His incorrupt relics, carried out of the fallen capital and bought in 1498 by the Ban of Wallachia, rest to this day at the Bistrița Monastery in Romania, where he is among the most beloved of saints. He is commemorated on November 20.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Edmund, King of East Anglia and Martyr (869)
- St. Eval, bishop of Cornwall (6th C)
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 3
As a radiant sun the Church knoweth thee, O favourite of Christ, who enlightenest all by the beauty of thy virtues and the rays of thy healings. Therefore we keep thy honoured memory and venerate thy struggles, O all-blessed and most-wise father Gregory.
Kontakion — Tone 4
Worthily this day doth the most honoured of all cities keep high festival at thy precious repose, O father of fathers, wise Proclus.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy martyr Dasius, O Lord, in his contest received the crown of incorruption from Thee our God; for, possessed of Thy strength, he cast down the tyrants and shattered the powerless boldness of the demons. By his intercessions, O Christ God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4
O God of our Fathers, who ever dealest with us according to Thy forbearance: take not Thy mercy from us, but by their supplications govern our life in peace.
Troparion — Tone 4
O God of our Fathers, who ever dealest with us according to Thy forbearance: take not Thy mercy from us, but by their supplications govern our life in peace.
Readings
Epistle
1 Thessalonians 5.9-13, 24-28
9For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 10Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. 11Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do. 12And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; 13And to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. And be at peace among yourselves. 24Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. 25Brethren, pray for us. 26Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss. 27I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. 28The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
Gospel
Luke 16.15-18, 17.1-4
15And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. 16The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it. 17And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail. 18Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery. 1Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! 2It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. 3Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. 4And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.