Pre-Lenten Triodion, day 12 · 59 days until Pascha
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Martyr Pamphylius and His Companions
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Flavian of Constantinople
Flavian (died 449) was Archbishop of Constantinople from 446, a defender of the apostolic faith against the heresy of the archimandrite Eutyches, who taught that in Christ there was but one nature after the Incarnation. At a synod in Constantinople in 448 Flavian condemned and deposed Eutyches; but at the "Robber Council" (Latrocinium) of Ephesus in 449 — dominated by Dioscorus of Alexandria and the emperor's officials — Eutyches was restored and Flavian himself anathematised, deposed, and so brutally handled that he died of his injuries a few days later, on the road into exile. Two years afterward the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451) vindicated his faith, condemned Eutyches, received the Tome of Pope Leo, and acclaimed Flavian a saint and martyr. The Church keeps him as Flavian the Confessor.
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Maruthas of Martyropolis
Maruthas (died c. 422) was the Syrian bishop of Maiferkat in Mesopotamia — a learned man and, by repute, a physician — who gathered into his episcopal city the relics of the many Christians slain in the great persecution of the Persian king Shapur II, so that his see came to be called Martyropolis, the "city of martyrs." Trusted at the court of the Persian king Yazdegerd I and honoured by the emperors of Constantinople, he served repeatedly as an envoy between Rome and Persia, and used that favour to win peace for the Church of Persia after decades of blood. He presided, with the catholicos Isaac, at the Synod of Seleucia-Ctesiphon (410) that gave the Persian Church its ordered structure and received the Nicene faith. He wrote acts of the Persian martyrs and other works, and is venerated in East and West alike.
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Pamphilus of Caesarea and his Companions
Pamphilus (c. 240 – 309) was the learned priest of Caesarea in Palestine — the keeper and restorer of the great library that Origen had founded there, the teacher and dearest friend of the historian Eusebius (who out of love took the name "Eusebius Pamphili"), and, with him, author of an Apology for Origen composed from prison. Arrested in the persecution of Maximinus and held two years in chains, he was beheaded at Caesarea on February 16 together with a company of eleven: Valens the aged deacon of Jerusalem and Paul of Jamnia, five Egyptian brethren who had taken the names of the prophets — Elias, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Samuel and Daniel — and the youths and confessors Porphyrius, Seleucus, Theodulus and Julian, who were drawn into their crown for honouring the martyrs' bodies. Their acts are told by an eye-witness, Eusebius himself, in his Martyrs of Palestine.
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Romanos of Karpenisi
Romanos (died 1694) was a new venerable-martyr of the Ottoman period, born at Karpenisi in the mountains of central Greece, who took up the monastic life on Mount Athos and, burning to confess Christ before the Turks, went to Constantinople, openly professed the faith, and after imprisonment and suffering was put to death there in the year 1694. He is honoured among the neomartyrs of the Holy Mountain and is commemorated on February 16.
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 8
As a sacred hierarch and unshaken pillar of the true confession, thou didst shepherd the Church of Christ and, condemning the error of Eutyches, didst seal thy witness with thy blood; wherefore, crowned as a confessor, O Father Flavian, intercede for us all.
Kontakion — Tone 2
As a physician of bodies and a shepherd of souls, thou didst gather the martyrs of Persia into thy city and win peace for the Church, O holy Maruthas; wherefore we honour thee, O adornment of hierarchs and companion of the martyrs.
Kontakion — Tone 2
Having loved the divine will of Christ, thou didst keep his law with a ready heart, and shining in the contest, O all-blessed Pamphilus, thou didst prevail together with thy fellow-athletes; with whom cease not to intercede on behalf of us all.
Troparion — Tone 4
O guide of Orthodoxy, teacher of piety and holiness, luminary of the world, God-inspired adornment of hierarchs: by thy teaching thou hast enlightened all, O harp of the Spirit. O Father Flavian, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4
O guide of Orthodoxy, teacher of piety and holiness, luminary of the world, God-inspired adornment of hierarchs: by thy teaching thou hast enlightened all, O harp of the Spirit. O Father Maruthas, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy Martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received crowns of incorruption from thee our God; for possessed of thy might, they cast down the tyrants and broke also the feeble insolence of demons. By their prayers, O Christ our God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy Martyr, O Lord, in his contest received the crown of incorruption from thee our God; for possessed of thy might, he cast down the tyrants and broke also the feeble insolence of demons. By his prayers, O Christ our God, save our souls.
Readings
Epistle
1 John 4.20-5.21
20If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 21And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. 1Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. 2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. 3For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. 4For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 5Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? 6This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. 7For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. 8And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. 9If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. 10He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. 11And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 13These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. 14And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 15And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. 16If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. 17All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death. 18We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. 19And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. 20And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. 21Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
Gospel
Mark 15.1-15
1And straightway in the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and bound Jesus, and carried him away, and delivered him to Pilate. 2And Pilate asked him, Art thou the King of the Jews? And he answering said unto him, Thou sayest it. 3And the chief priests accused him of many things: but he answered nothing. 4And Pilate asked him again, saying, Answerest thou nothing? behold how many things they witness against thee. 5But Jesus yet answered nothing; so that Pilate marvelled. 6Now at that feast he released unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired. 7And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection. 8And the multitude crying aloud began to desire him to do as he had ever done unto them. 9But Pilate answered them, saying, Will ye that I release unto you the King of the Jews? 10For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy. 11But the chief priests moved the people, that he should rather release Barabbas unto them. 12And Pilate answered and said again unto them, What will ye then that I shall do unto him whom ye call the King of the Jews? 13And they cried out again, Crucify him. 14Then Pilate said unto them, Why, what evil hath he done? And they cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify him. 15And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.