Pre-Lenten Triodion, day 16 · 55 days until Pascha
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
St Leo, Bishop of Catania
Leo the Wonderworker (c. 703 – c. 780) was bishop of Catania in Sicily, an island then still within the Byzantine Empire. Born at Ravenna of noble and pious parents and renowned from youth for his charity to the poor and to strangers, he was ordained at Ravenna, served as archdeacon at Reggio in Calabria, and was called to the see of Catania, which he governed with such gentleness and generosity that the whole island honoured him. The tradition remembers him above all as a wonderworker who healed the sick, and for his victory over the sorcerer Heliodorus — a baptized Catanian turned magician, whose public bewitchments had long defied and mocked the Church. When at last Heliodorus disrupted the very Liturgy, Leo bound him with his omophorion, led him into a great fire, and stood praying within the flames unharmed while the sorcerer was reduced to ashes, so that all glorified God. He reposed in peace on February 20 and was buried in a church he had built at Catania, where his relics gave healing. He is not to be confused with Leo the Great of Rome (February 18).
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St Bessarion the Great, wonder-worker of Egypt (466)
Bessarion the Great (died c. 466) was one of the great desert fathers of fifth-century Egypt, a wonderworker of Scetis and disciple, the tradition holds, of Anthony the Great and of Macarius the Great. He is known above all from the Apophthegmata Patrum, the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, where a chapter of his sayings and a memoir by his disciple Doulas preserve both his teaching and his miracles: how on a waterless shore he prayed and the salt sea grew sweet to drink; how, to reach an elder before nightfall, he prayed and the sun stood still in its course; how he crossed a river dry-shod. He owned nothing and stayed nowhere, passing his life homeless "like a bird," sleeping in the open among the rocks and thorns, so poised in unceasing prayer and self-denial that his brethren likened him to the bodiless powers. He reposed in extreme old age. The day of his memory is not agreed: the Greek Menaion keeps him on February 20, the Slavonic books and the OCA on June 6, where he heads the day together with Hilarion the New of Dalmatia.
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Thirty-four Holy Martyrs of the Monastery of Valaam (1578)
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Agathon of Rome
Agathon (c. 577 – 681) was Pope of Rome from 678 to 681, under whom the Sixth Ecumenical Council — Constantinople III (680–681) — condemned the heresy of Monotheletism, the teaching of a single will in Christ. A Sicilian of Greek origin, born about Palermo, he gave away his inheritance to the poor, became a monk, and served long as treasurer of the Roman church before his election. When the Emperor Constantine IV summoned a council to end the long controversy over the wills of Christ, Agathon gathered the Western bishops in synod and sent to Constantinople a celebrated dogmatic letter confessing the two natural wills and two energies of the incarnate Word, which the Council received with acclamation as the voice of Peter, and upon which it framed its definition. Renowned besides for the multitude of his miracles — whence the Greeks style him Thaumaturgus, the Wonderworker — he reposed in 681. The East keeps his memory on February 20; the West on January 10, the day of his repose.
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Cornelius of the Pskov Caves
Cornelius (1501–1570) was the great abbot of the Pskov Caves (Pskovo-Pechersky) Monastery, under whom that border-house rose to be one of the foremost monasteries of Russia. Born of a noble Pskov family and schooled at the Mirozh monastery, he became a monk at the Caves and was made abbot at twenty-eight; for forty years he built and adorned the monastery, ringed it with a stone fortress-wall, expanded the God-hewn caves and their church, gathered a great library, wrote and continued the Pskov chronicle, and carried the Gospel to the Estonian and Setu peoples of the borderland, founding churches among them. In 1570, during Ivan the Terrible's terror against Pskov and Novgorod, the Tsar, persuaded that Cornelius was a traitor, struck off his head at the monastery gate as the abbot came out to bless him — then, seized with remorse, took up the body in his own arms and bore it into the church, so that the way is called the Bloody Path to this day. Venerated at once as a martyr, Cornelius is commemorated on February 20.
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Sadoth of Persia
Sadoth (Syriac Shahdost, "friend of the king"; Slavic Sadoc) was the second bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the royal city of Persia, succeeding Symeon Barsabae when that first great martyr of the Persian church was slain at the outbreak of Shapur II's persecution. Warned in a vision of a ladder — Symeon calling from its summit, "I climbed yesterday; do thou climb today" — he was arrested in the persecution's second year with his clergy, monks and consecrated virgins, held five months in chains, tortured, and commanded to worship the sun; refusing, he was taken to Beth Lapat and beheaded, about the year 342, and his company — 128 in the Slavic count, 120 in the Greek — died by the sword. He is commemorated on October 19 and again on February 20.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Bolcan, bishop of Derkan (480)
- St. Colgan, abbot of Clonmacnoise (c.796)
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 6
Him who from infancy was dedicated to the Lord, and from his swaddling-clothes received grace, let us all crown with hymns — Leo, the luminary and champion of the Church; for he is her firm support.
Kontakion — Tone 4
Eagerly and in his very likeness didst thou follow the word of the Master: as a good shepherd thou didst lay down thy life for the sheep of Christ, O hieromartyr Sadoth. We entreat thee, much-suffering one: pray to Christ, the Chief Shepherd, that we too be numbered among the sheep that stand at his right hand, that we may sing to thee: Rejoice, holy father Sadoth, who didst shed thy blood for Christ.
Troparion — Tone 4
The truth of thy deeds revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, an image of meekness, and a teacher of temperance; therefore by humility thou hast gained the heights, and by poverty riches. O Father and Hierarch Agathon, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O Father, that which is according to the image was preserved with exactness; for taking up thy cross thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Therefore doth thy spirit, O venerable Bessarion, rejoice together with the angels.
Troparion — Tone 4
The truth of thy deeds revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, an image of meekness, and a teacher of temperance; therefore by humility thou hast gained the heights, and by poverty riches. O Father and Hierarch Leo, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Readings
Epistle
3 John 1.1-14
1The elder unto the wellbeloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. 2Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. 3For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. 4I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. 5Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers; 6Which have borne witness of thy charity before the church: whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well: 7Because that for his name’s sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles. 8We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth. 9I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. 10Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church. 11Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. 12Demetrius hath good report of all men, and of the truth itself: yea, and we also bear record; and ye know that our record is true. 13I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee: 14But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. Our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name.
Gospel
Luke 19.29-40, 22.7-39
29And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called the mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, 30Saying, Go ye into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither. 31And if any man ask you, Why do ye loose him? thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him. 32And they that were sent went their way, and found even as he had said unto them. 33And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt? 34And they said, The Lord hath need of him. 35And they brought him to Jesus: and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon. 36And as he went, they spread their clothes in the way. 37And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; 38Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. 39And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. 40And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. 7Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the passover must be killed. 8And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the passover, that we may eat. 9And they said unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare? 10And he said unto them, Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you, bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he entereth in. 11And ye shall say unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto thee, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples? 12And he shall shew you a large upper room furnished: there make ready. 13And they went, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the passover. 14And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him. 15And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: 16For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. 17And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves: 18For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come. 19And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. 20Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you. 21But, behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table. 22And truly the Son of man goeth, as it was determined: but woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed! 23And they began to enquire among themselves, which of them it was that should do this thing. 24And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest. 25And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. 26But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. 27For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth. 28Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. 29And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; 30That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 31And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: 32But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. 33And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death. 34And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me. 35And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing. 36Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one. 37For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end. 38And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough. 39And he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him.