Bright Friday

Saints commemorated

Nine Martyrs at Cyzicus

Nine Christians of differing rank and trade — Theognis, Rufus, Antipater, Theostichus, Artemas, Magnus, Theodotus, Thaumasius and Philemon — were arrested together at Cyzicus in Mysia, on the southern shore of the Propontis, in the persecutions of the later third century, and after imprisonment and torture were beheaded with a single sentence when none of them would consent to sacrifice. Their bodies, buried outside the walls, were taken up when the Church gained peace under Constantine and laid in a church built for them in the city, where the healing of the sick and of the mentally afflicted made the martyrs' company famous. In Russia they became the patrons invoked against fever and pestilence, and a monastery was raised in their honour near Kazan to house particles of their relics.
St Basil, bishop of Ostrog in Montenegro (Serbia) (1671)

Basil of Ostrog (Sveti Vasilije Ostroški, born Stojan Jovanović, c. 1610–1671) was the Serbian hierarch of Zahumlje and Skenderija who shepherded the Orthodox of Herzegovina and Montenegro under Ottoman rule and Venetian-Latin pressure, and who, after the Turks destroyed his monastery of Tvrdoš near Trebinje, withdrew to the cliff-face hermitage of Ostrog above the valley of the Zeta, where he lived out his last years in prayer and died on 29 April 1671. Seven years later his body was found incorrupt and fragrant and was enshrined in the little rock-cut church of the Presentation in the Upper Monastery. He is one of the most fervently venerated saints of the Serbian lands: Ostrog is the greatest pilgrimage place of the western Balkans, and Orthodox, Catholics and Muslims alike come to his relics for healing.
Diodorus and Rhodopianus

Diodorus and Rhodopianus were deacons of the church of Aphrodisias in Caria, on the south-western coastlands of Asia Minor, who were stoned to death by their own townspeople in the persecution of Diocletian, about the year 302. The synaxarion notice is short and gives no dialogue and no magistrate: the two were known in the city as Christians and as preachers of Christ among the pagans, were seized by the soldiery, endured insults and scourging, and were finally killed with stones — the mob's death rather than the executioner's, and one of the few martyrdoms by stoning in the Byzantine calendar after the age of the Apostles. The Greek books keep them on May 3 and the Slavonic books and the OCA on April 29; this entry, following the Greek placement, is primary on May 3 and secondary on April 29.
Memnon the Wonderworker

Memnon was an ascetic of the Egyptian desert who from his youth gave himself to the monastic life, was set over one of the Egyptian monasteries as abbot, and became famous for the gifts that followed his labours: clairvoyance, and a wonderworking power over the calamities of the countryside. The synaxarion remembers three of his miracles in particular — a spring of water opened in the waterless wilderness at his prayer, a plague of locusts destroyed as it stripped the harvest, and shipwrecked men saved who called on his name at sea — and adds that after his death the mere invocation of his name drove away locusts and broke the deceits of the demons. He is commemorated as "Memnon the Wonderworker," and no fuller Life of him has come down.

British Isles and Ireland

St. Dictinus the Swineherd, of Ulster (5th C)
St. Endellion, Virgin recluse in Cornwall (6th C)
St. Fiachan of Munster (7th C)
St. Senan, hermit of North Wales (7th C)
St. Swithbert the Younger, bishop and missionary (807)
St. Wilfrid the Younger, archbishop of York (744)

Troparia & kontakia

Exapostilarion

Thou art in very truth the fount of living water, O Lady; therefore thou dost wash away the grievous sicknesses of souls and of bodies by thy touch alone, who pourest forth Christ, the water of salvation.

Kontakion — Tone 8 (to the automelon Τῇ ὑπερμάχῳ)

Out of thine inexhaustible Fountain, O thou who art graced of God, thou bestowest upon me the waters of thy grace, which stream forth unfailingly and beyond all speech; for as thou didst bear the Word past all understanding, I entreat thee to bedew me with thy grace, that I may cry to thee: Rejoice, O water of salvation.

Megalynarion

Let us honour with faith the life-flowing water of the Fountain, which poureth out the immortal dew, the manna, the divine nectar, the strange ambrosia, the honey out of the rock.

Oikos — Tone 8

O immaculate Theotokos, who ineffably didst bear the pre-eternal Word of the Father, enlarge my mouth, O pure one, and take me with thee unto thy praise, that I may sing thy Fountain and cry aloud: Rejoice, fount of unceasing gladness; rejoice, stream of beauty past telling. Rejoice, undoing of every sickness; rejoice, flood that drowns the manifold passions. Rejoice, clearest current, that makest the faithful whole; rejoice, most gracious water, to them that are many times diseased.

Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)

Thou wast shown to thy flock as a rule of faith, an image of gentleness and a teacher of abstinence; therefore by lowliness thou hast gained the heights, and by poverty riches. O father and hierarch Basil, intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4 (common of two martyrs)

Thy martyrs Diodorus and Rhodopianus, 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 8 (common of a venerable father)

With the streams of thy tears thou didst make the barren wilderness bring forth, and by thy sighing from the depths thou didst bear fruit an hundredfold in thy labours; thou becamest a light shining upon the world with miracles, O Memnon our father. Intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4 (common of several martyrs)

Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received from Thee, our God, the crowns of incorruption; for armed with Thy might they overthrew the tyrants and broke the feeble insolence of the demons. At their supplications, O Christ God, save our souls.

Readings

Epistle

Acts 3.1-8

¹Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. ²And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; ³Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. ⁴And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. ⁵And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. ⁶Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. ⁷And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ancle bones received strength. ⁸And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.

Philippians 2.5-11 (Theotokos)

⁵Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: ⁶Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: ⁷But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: ⁸And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. ⁹Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: ¹⁰That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; ¹¹And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Gospel

John 2.12-22

¹²After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and they continued there not many days. ¹³And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, ¹⁴And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: ¹⁵And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; ¹⁶And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise. ¹⁷And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. ¹⁸Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? ¹⁹Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. ²⁰Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? ²¹But he spake of the temple of his body. ²²When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.

Luke 10.38-42, 11.27-28 (Theotokos)

³⁸Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. ³⁹And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. ⁴⁰But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. ⁴¹And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: ⁴²But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. ²⁷And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. ²⁸But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.