Pre-Lenten Triodion, day 8 · 63 days until Pascha
About Iveron Icon of the Mother of God →
Saints commemorated
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St Meletius, Archbishop of Antioch
Meletius (early 4th century – 381) was Archbishop of Antioch and one of the most beloved and most tried of the Church's hierarchs. Raised to the great Syrian see about the year 360, he confessed the Nicene faith so plainly at his enthronement that within a month the Arians procured his exile; three times he was driven from his city under the Arian emperors, and three times he returned, always in the same gentleness that made his name a byword. Under him the young John Chrysostom was catechised, baptised, and ordained reader. His episcopate was shadowed by the long Meletian schism — a division of the Nicene party at Antioch itself, over the legitimacy of his election rather than over the faith. Vindicated at last, he presided over the opening of the Second Ecumenical Council at Constantinople in 381 and reposed while it sat; Gregory of Nyssa preached his funeral, and his relics were carried home to Antioch and laid beside the martyr Babylas.
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St Aleksy, Metr. of All Russia
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St Meletios, archbishop of Antioch (381)
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Alexis of Moscow
Alexis (c. 1292/1305 – 1378) was Metropolitan of Kiev and All Russia and one of the great architects of Muscovite Russia — a saint remembered equally as a wonderworking hierarch and as a statesman who held the Russian land together in a perilous age. Born Eleutherius, of a boyar family of Chernigov settled at Moscow, he was a monk of the Theophany monastery for over twenty years before his elevation, and Metropolitan from 1354. Twice he journeyed to the Golden Horde; there, at the Khan's summons, he healed Taidula, the mother of the Khan, of blindness, and won by it protection and privileges for the Church. As guardian and regent for the boy-prince Demetrius Donskoy, he steadied the throne of Moscow and reconciled its warring princes. He founded the Chudov (Miracle) Monastery in the Kremlin and other houses, and reposed on February 12, 1378. His relics, uncovered incorrupt in 1431, made him one of the beloved wonderworkers of Russia and one of the Hierarchs of Moscow.
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Antony II Kauleas
Antony Kauleas (c. 829 – 901), called "the Younger" to distinguish him from an earlier patriarch of the name, was Patriarch of Constantinople from 893 until his death, and a peacemaker of the Church. Of a Phrygian family settled in the capital, he was drawn from childhood to the monastic life, entering a monastery at twelve and becoming in time its abbot; he even brought his own widowed father into the brotherhood. Renowned for austere prayer through the night and for great mercy to the poor, he was raised to the patriarchal throne under the emperor Leo VI the Wise, and laboured to compose the divisions left by the long strife between the followers of Photius and of Ignatius, convening a synod that restored peace to the Church. He reposed on February 12; his memory was honoured with encomia by the learned men of his own generation, and the monastery of Kauleas long kept his name.
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Christos the Gardener
Christos (Kristo) the Gardener (c. 1708 – 1748) was a new martyr of the Ottoman period — a simple Albanian market-gardener who died at Constantinople rather than deny Christ. Come to the great city about the age of forty to earn his living by his trade, he fell into a dispute over the price of apples with a Turk, who in his anger denounced him to the authorities with the false claim that Christos had said he wished to become a Muslim. Arrested on the word of Muslim witnesses, Christos steadfastly refused to apostatise, endured imprisonment and torture, and was beheaded on February 12, 1748. His memory was recorded by the monk and writer Kaisarios Dapontes, who ministered to him in prison, and he is numbered among the Neomartyrs of the Faith.
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Mary (called Marinos)
Mary, called Marinos (fifth-to-sixth century), is the ascetic woman who lived out her whole monastic life disguised as a man, and bore in silence a slander that would have crushed a lesser soul. Left motherless, she would not be parted from her father Eugene when he resolved to become a monk; cutting her hair and putting on man's clothing, she entered the monastery with him as the young "monk Marinos," and so excelled in humility and obedience that none suspected her. Falsely accused by an innkeeper's daughter of having fathered her child, "Marinos" made no defence, accepted expulsion, and for years lived outside the gate, raising the child as her own. Restored at last to the monastery and set to the hardest labours, she bore all without complaint; only when she died was her secret revealed, to the confusion and repentance of her accusers. She is a beloved image of humility, patience, and unjust blame borne for Christ.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Ethelwold, monk and bishop of Lindisfarne (740)
- St. Siadhal (Sedulius) (5th C)
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 8
Though thy holy icon was cast into the sea, O Theotokos, by a widow who could not save it from the enemies, yet hast thou been shown forth as the Guardian of Athos and the Keeper of the Gate of the Iveron monastery, striking terror into the foes, and delivering from all afflictions and calamities, in the Orthodox land of Russia, them that honour thee.
Kontakion — Tone 8
Let us all the faithful people faithfully hymn, and with love call blessed, the divine and most honoured hierarch of Christ, the new wonderworker Alexis, as a great shepherd, a servant, and a most wise teacher of the land of Russia. Today, running together to his memory, let us joyfully cry out a song to the God-bearer: since thou hast boldness before God, deliver us from manifold afflictions, that we may cry to thee: Rejoice, O confirmation of our city.
Kontakion — Tone 2
Adorned with the ways of Orthodoxy, thou wast shown to be the protector and champion of the Church, O all-blessed Meletius, setting the ends of the earth ablaze with the true doctrines: O most radiant lamp of the Church.
Troparion — Tone 1
The insolence of them that hate the image of the Lord, and the power of the ungodly, came godlessly upon Nicaea, and those sent thither cruelly tormented a widow who piously honoured the icon of the Mother of God; but she by night, together with her son, sent the icon forth upon the sea, crying aloud: Glory to Thee, O Pure One, for the untrodden sea hath lent Thee its shoulders; glory to Thy straight voyaging, O only Incorrupt One.
Troparion — Tone 8
As one enthroned together with the Apostles, a most excellent physician and a well-pleasing servant, we run to thy precious shrine, O God-wise hierarch Alexis, O wonderworker; gathered together in love, we keep thy memory in brightness, rejoicing in psalms and hymns and glorifying Christ, who hath given thee such grace of healings, and to thy city a great confirmation.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy Martyr Christos, O Lord, in his contest received from Thee our God the crown of incorruption; for having Thy strength, he cast down the persecutors and broke the feeble boldness of the tormentors. By his prayers, O Christ God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O Mother, was the image of God preserved unshaken; for taking up the Cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou hast taught us to despise the flesh, which passes away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore thy spirit, O venerable Mary, rejoices with the angels.
Troparion — Tone 4
A rule of faith and an image of gentleness, a teacher of temperance, the truth of things revealed thee to thy flock; therefore by humility thou didst gain the heights, and by poverty riches. O Father and Hierarch Meletius, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Readings
2nd Matins Gospel
Mark 16.1-8
1And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. 2And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. 3And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? 4And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great. 5And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted. 6And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him. 7But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you. 8And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid.
Epistle
1 Corinthians 6.12-20
12All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. 13Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. 14And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power. 15Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. 16What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. 17But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 18Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 19What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Gospel
Luke 15.11-32
11And he said, A certain man had two sons: 12And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. 13And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. 14And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. 15And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. 17And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, 19And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. 20And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. 21And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. 22But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: 23And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: 24For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. 25Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing. 26And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. 27And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. 28And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him. 29And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: 30But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. 31And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. 32It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.