All Saints; Holy Apostle Jude, Brother of the Lord
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Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Jude the Apostle
Jude — called also Thaddaeus and Lebbaeus, and in the Gospel lists simply "Jude of James" — is one of the Twelve, and in the Eastern tradition one of the "brethren of the Lord," a son of Joseph the Betrothed. He speaks once in the Gospels, at the Mystical Supper, where the Evangelist takes care to identify him as "Judas, not Iscariot" (John 14:22); he is the author of the short catholic Epistle of Jude, in which he calls himself not the Lord's brother but "the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James." After Pentecost he preached in Judea, Samaria, Idumea, Syria, Mesopotamia and Persia, and came at length to Armenia, where about the year 80 he was crucified and shot through with arrows near Mount Ararat. He is not to be confused with Thaddaeus of the Seventy (August 21), the apostle of Edessa, with whom the tradition has conflated him since antiquity.
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Our Holy Father Païsius the Great of Egypt (400)
Paisius the Great was an Egyptian ascetic of the Nitrian desert, a disciple of the elder Pambo, and one of the fathers whose austerity the desert itself thought extraordinary: he is said to have gone three years with his eyes fixed on the ground, to have fasted for weeks and at last for seventy days together, and to have received in his cell a vision of Christ promising that the wilderness he had chosen would be peopled with monks. He is remembered above all as the physician of the fallen — for the two disciples whom he won back, one from doubt of Christ's divinity and one from open apostasy, by taking their sin upon himself in prayer. He reposed in extreme old age, and his relics were laid by Isidore of Pelusium beside those of his friend Paul. He is honoured in the Coptic Church as Anba Bishoy, "the beloved of our good Saviour."
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Barlaam of Shenkursk
Barlaam — Vasily Stepanovich Svoezemtsev in the world — was a Novgorod boyar and posadnik of the city who owned great estates on the northern river Vaga, in the country around what is now Shenkursk. In 1426 he founded there a monastery dedicated to St John the Theologian, endowing it from his own lands; thirty years later, at the end of a long public life, he was tonsured in it himself, taking the name Barlaam, and lived as a monk for six years. He reposed on 19 June 1462 and was buried beside the church he had built. His relics were found incorrupt in the next century and became the centre of a strong local veneration in the Russian North.
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Job of Moscow
Job was the first Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, raised to that dignity in 1589 by Patriarch Jeremias II of Constantinople, and the last great churchman of the house of Rurik's Muscovy. Born at Staritsa of a tradesman's family, he rose through the northern monasteries to the metropolitan throne, and as patriarch organised the new Russian patriarchate, canonised a company of Russian saints, and sent missions to Siberia and Georgia. In the Time of Troubles he refused to acknowledge the pretender known as the False Dmitri, and for that refusal was stripped of his patriarchal vesture in the Dormition Cathedral by the pretender's men and driven into exile at Staritsa, where he died blind on 19 June 1607. His relics, found incorrupt, were carried to Moscow in 1652, and he was glorified by the Russian Church in 1989.
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John the Solitary of Jerusalem
John the Solitary was a hermit of the sixth century who lived in a cave in the wilderness near Jerusalem, owning nothing but an icon of the Mother of God and the lamp that burned before it. His memory has come down as a single sustained image rather than a biography: that whenever he went off on pilgrimage — to the holy places of Jerusalem, to the tombs of the martyrs, to Sinai — he left the lamp burning, and returned weeks or months later to find it still alight and still full of oil. He is remembered also for the lion that reared up and stood aside to let him pass on a narrow track, and for the answer he gave a visitor who pitied his poverty: that the cave held riches greater than any on earth.
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Paisius of Hilendar
Paisius was a hieromonk of the Bulgarian brotherhood at the monastery of Hilendar on Mount Athos who, in 1762, finished writing a small book called the Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya — the Slavo-Bulgarian History — and then carried it on foot through the Bulgarian lands to be copied. It was not a work of scholarship so much as a summons: an account of the Bulgarian kings, patriarchs and saints, written for a people who had lived under Ottoman rule for three and a half centuries and under Greek ecclesiastical administration for one, addressed to those who were ashamed of their own name. The book circulated for eighty years in manuscript, was the seed of the Bulgarian National Revival, and made its author, in the judgement of his nation, the man who began modern Bulgaria. He reposed on the road in 1773, and was glorified by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in 1962.
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Zosimas the Soldier
Zosimas was a soldier of the Roman army, a native of Apollonia in Thrace, who in the persecution under Trajan laid down his arms, was baptised, and gave himself to prayer and the care of the poor. Brought to trial at Antioch of Pisidia, he refused to sacrifice and was tortured with a deliberate cruelty aimed at a soldier's body — laid on a bed of heated copper, shod in iron sandals driven through with nails, and starved in prison — and was at last beheaded, about the year 116. His memory is a synaxarion notice of a few lines, kept on June 19 under the office of the Apostle Jude.
Readings
Vespers
Isaiah 43.9-14
9Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth. 10Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. 11I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. 12I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God. 13Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it? 14Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.
Wisdom of Solomon 3.1-9
1But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. 2In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery, 3And their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are in peace. 4For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality. 5And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them, and found them worthy for himself. 6As gold in the furnace hath he tried them, and received them as a burnt offering. 7And in the time of their visitation they shall shine, and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble. 8They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and their Lord shall reign for ever. 9They that put their trust in him shall understand the truth: and such as be faithful in love shall abide with him: for grace and mercy is to his saints, and he hath care for his elect.
Wisdom of Solomon 5.15-6.3
15But the righteous live for evermore; their reward also is with the Lord, and the care of them is with the most High. 16Therefore shall they receive a glorious kingdom, and a beautiful crown from the Lord’s hand: for with his right hand shall he cover them, and with his arm shall he protect them. 17He shall take to him his jealousy for complete armour, and make the creature his weapon for the revenge of his enemies. 18He shall put on righteousness as a breastplate, and true judgment instead of an helmet. 19He shall take holiness for an invincible shield. 20His severe wrath shall he sharpen for a sword, and the world shall fight with him against the unwise. 21Then shall the right aiming thunderbolts go abroad; and from the clouds, as from a well drawn bow, shall they fly to the mark. 22And hailstones full of wrath shall be cast as out of a stone bow, and the water of the sea shall rage against them, and the floods shall cruelly drown them. 23Yea, a mighty wind shall stand up against them, and like a storm shall blow them away: thus iniquity shall lay waste the whole earth, and ill dealing shall overthrow the thrones of the mighty. 1Hear therefore, O ye kings, and understand; learn, ye that be judges of the ends of the earth. 2Give ear, ye that rule the people, and glory in the multitude of nations. 3For power is given you of the Lord, and sovereignty from the Highest, who shall try your works, and search out your counsels.
Jude 1-10
1Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called: 2Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied. 3Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. 4For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. 5I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. 6And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. 7Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. 8Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. 9Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. 10But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
Jude 11-16
11Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. 12These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; 13Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. 14And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, 15To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. 16These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.
Jude 17-25
17But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; 18How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. 19These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. 20But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, 21Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 22And of some have compassion, making a difference: 23And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. 24Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, 25To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
1st Matins Gospel
Matthew 28.16-20
16Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. 17And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Epistle
Hebrews 11.33-12.2
33Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 35Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: 36And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: 37They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; 38(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 39And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 40God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. 1Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Jude 1-10 (St Jude)
1Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called: 2Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied. 3Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. 4For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. 5I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. 6And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. 7Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. 8Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. 9Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. 10But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
Gospel
Matthew 10.32-33, 37-38, 19.27-30
32Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. 33But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. 37He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. 27Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore? 28And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. 30But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.
John 14.21-24 (St Jude)
21He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. 22Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? 23Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. 24He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.
Troparia & kontakia
Apolytikion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)
By a flood of tears thou didst make the barren desert to bring forth; with sighs from the depths thou didst make thy labours bear fruit a hundredfold; and thou wast made a beacon for the whole world, shining with miracles, O Barlaam our father. Intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Apolytikion — Tone 5
First-enthroned among the patriarchs of the Russian land, and first also in suffering for the truth, thou wast stripped of thy throne but not of thy confession, O holy father Job; and being deprived of the light of thine eyes, thou didst see the more clearly the will of God. Intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Apolytikion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)
By a flood of tears thou didst make the barren desert to bring forth; with sighs from the depths thou didst make thy labours bear fruit a hundredfold; and thou wast made a beacon for the whole world, shining with miracles, O John our father. Intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Apolytikion — Tone 1
Knowing thee to be a kinsman of Christ, O Jude, and a steadfast martyr, we praise thee with sacred hymns: for thou didst trample down error and keep the faith. Wherefore, as we celebrate today thy most holy memory, we receive by thy prayers the loosing of our sins.
Apolytikion — Tone 4
Adorned with the monastic life on the Holy Mountain, thou didst take up the pen as a weapon, O father Paisius, and didst call a forgetful people back to the knowledge of itself and of God; wherefore Bulgaria honoureth thee as her awakener and boast, and we cry: intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Apolytikion — Tone 8
By a flood of tears thou didst make the barren desert to bring forth; with sighs from the depths thou didst make thy labours bear fruit a hundredfold; and thou wast made a beacon for the whole world, shining with miracles, O Paisius our father. Intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a martyr)
Thy martyr Zosimas, O Lord, in his contest received an incorruptible crown from Thee, our God; for possessing Thy strength, he cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By his intercessions save our souls.
Kontakion — Tone 8
Seven swords pierced thy soul, O Virgin, when thou didst stand beneath the Cross of thy Son; and now thou standest for us before him, healing by thy wounds the hardness of our hearts. Wherefore we cry: rejoice, thou that art wounded for our sake.
Kontakion — Tone 1
Out of a glorious root thou didst spring up for us, a branch given of God, O eyewitness of the Lord, apostle and brother of God, all-wise herald of Christ; thou dost feed the whole world with the fruits of thy words, teaching the Orthodox faith of the Lord, as one initiated into grace.
Kontakion — Tone 2
Thou didst dwell in the wilderness as in a paradise, O all-blessed one, and didst tame the passions by long fasting; and taking upon thyself the sin of thy brother, thou wast shown to be a true father. Wherefore we cry to thee: cease not to pray for us who honour thy memory, O Paisius, glory of the ascetics.
Troparion — Tone 4
Soften our evil hearts, O Mother of God, and quench the assaults of those that hate us, and loose every straitness of our soul; for beholding thy holy image we are pierced with compunction at thy suffering and thy tender mercy toward us, and we kiss thy wounds, and are afraid of the arrows of our own sins. Suffer us not, O Mother of compassion, to perish in our cruelty and from the cruelty of our neighbours.