Pre-Lenten Triodion, day 13 · 58 days until Pascha
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
St Tarasius, Abp. of Constantinople
Tarasius (c. 730 – 806) was Patriarch of Constantinople from 784 to his death — a layman and imperial secretary raised in a single week through all the grades of the priesthood to the patriarchal throne, on the one condition that an ecumenical council be summoned to heal the Church of the iconoclast heresy. With the Empress Irene he convened and presided over the Seventh Ecumenical Council (Nicaea II, 787), which condemned iconoclasm and restored the veneration of the holy icons, teaching that the honour paid to the image passes to its prototype. A gentle and moderate shepherd who received repentant iconoclasts back into communion, he governed the Church for twenty-two years under three sovereigns, resisted the emperor Constantine VI in the "adulterous marriage" affair, and was renowned as a great almsgiver who spent his fortune on the poor, the aged, widows and orphans, serving them at table with his own hands. He reposed in peace on 25 February 806 and was buried in the monastery he had founded on the Bosphorus, where miracles were worked at his tomb.
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Reginos of Skopelos
Reginos (late 3rd century – 362) was Bishop of Skopelos, the island of the Northern Sporades in the Aegean, and a hieromartyr of the reign of Julian the Apostate. Born at Livadeia in Boeotia of Christian parents, he was a defender of the Nicene faith who, the tradition holds, distinguished himself at the Council of Sardica (343) by his skill in refuting the Arians, and was afterwards acclaimed bishop of Skopelos by its people. When the emperor Julian set out to restore paganism and turned against the confessors of Christ, Reginos was arrested and, on 25 February 362, beheaded — with, the synaxarion adds, some forty others. He is the patron saint of Skopelos, where a monastery bears his name and guards his relics, and where his feast is kept as the island's own holiday; a portion of his relics is venerated at the church of the Archangel Michael Trypiotis in Nicosia, Cyprus.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Ethelbert, King of Kent (616)
- St. Walburga the Myrrh-Giver, abbess of Heidenheim (779)
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 4
Like a great sun, by the radiance of thy doctrines and thy wonders, thou dost forever give light to the whole fullness of the inhabited earth, O initiate of heaven's mysteries, all-blessed Tarasius.
Troparion — Tone 4
O God of our fathers, who ever dealest with us according to thy gentleness: take not thy mercy from us, but by the prayers of the Hieromartyr Reginos direct our lives in peace.
Troparion — Tone 4
A rule of faith and an image of meekness, a teacher of temperance, the truth of things revealed thee to thy flock; therefore by lowliness thou didst win the things on high, and by poverty the things of wealth. O Father and Hierarch Tarasius, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Readings
Epistle
2 John 1.1-13
1The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth; 2For the truth’s sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever. 3Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. 4I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father. 5And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another. 6And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it. 7For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. 8Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. 9Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. 10If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: 11For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds. 12Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full. 13The children of thy elect sister greet thee. Amen.
Gospel
Mark 15.22, 25, 33-41
22And they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull. 25And it was the third hour, and they crucified him. 33And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? 35And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias. 36And one ran and filled a spunge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down. 37And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. 38And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. 39And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God. 40There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome; 41(Who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him;) and many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem.