Paschaltide, day 6 · 5 days since Pascha
The Life-Giving Spring of the Most-holy Theotokos
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Saints commemorated
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Hieromartyr Januarius and Companions
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Alexius of Bortsurmany
Alexius Gnevushev (1762–1848) was a village priest of the Volga country who served one parish, the church of the Dormition at Bortsurmany in the Kurmysh district of Simbirsk province, for some sixty years and never held any other. Shaken in 1796 by having let a parishioner die without the Mysteries, he took upon himself a rule of life that belonged to the desert rather than to a parish house — daily Liturgy, the full monastic office, fifteen hundred prostrations a day with the Jesus Prayer, one meal, a hair shirt — and became one of the great clairvoyant elders of the Russian nineteenth century, in the same spiritual country as Seraphim of Sarov, who is remembered to have sent pilgrims on to him. He died on Great Thursday, 21 April 1848, in his eighty-sixth year, blessing the people from the window of his cell, and was glorified by the Russian Church in 2000; the uncovering of his relics is kept on August 4.
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Isaac, Apollos and Quadratus
Isaac, Apollos and Quadratus were officials of the court of Diocletian — pagans by upbringing and by office — who were converted by what they saw at the trial of the Great Martyr George: his endurance under torture, the wonders worked through him, and his refusal to be broken. Having believed, they declared themselves Christians before the emperor and reproached him for his impiety and cruelty, and were condemned. Quadratus was beheaded; Isaac and Apollos were left to die of hunger in prison, about the year 303. The Church commemorates the three together on April 21, two days before the feast of the martyr whose witness converted them.
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Januarius of Benevento
Januarius, Bishop of Benevento in Campania, was beheaded near Pozzuoli about the year 305, in the persecution of Diocletian, together with a company of six: his own deacon Festus and his lector Desiderius, the deacons Sossius of Misenum and Proculus of Pozzuoli, and two laymen, Eutychius and Acutius. The Byzantine synaxaria keep the whole company on April 21; the West keeps Januarius on September 19. His relics were carried to Naples, of which he became the great patron; there, from the fourteenth century onward, the periodic liquefaction of a relic of his blood has made him one of the most famous martyrs of the Latin world — though the Orthodox Church honours him, then as now, simply as a hieromartyr who confessed Christ before a magistrate and died for it.
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Maximian of Constantinople
Maximian, a Roman by birth who had lived as an ascetic and spent his own inheritance burying the bodies of holy men, was raised from the presbyterate to the throne of Constantinople on 25 October 431, four months after the Third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus deposed Nestorius. His two and a half years in the see were given almost wholly to peace: he cleared the capital and the neighbouring sees of Nestorian bishops, and he laboured — pressing even St Cyril of Alexandria to set his Twelve Anathemas aside for the sake of concord — for the reconciliation of Alexandria with John of Antioch and the Eastern bishops, which was achieved in the Formula of Reunion of 433. He reposed in peace, on Great and Holy Thursday of 434, and is commemorated on April 21.
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Theodore of Perge
Theodore was a young Christian of Perge in Pamphylia, on the south coast of Asia Minor, who was crucified for refusing to sacrifice to the idols in the reign of the emperor Antoninus Pius (138–161). His passion is one of the very few in the calendar in which the martyr dies on a cross in imitation of his Lord, hanging three days in prayer, and one of the few in which the martyr's mother, Philippa, stands beside him to the end and is crowned with him. Two of the soldiers who guarded him, Socrates and Dionysius, confessed Christ at the sight of his deliverance and were beheaded, and the pagan priest Dioscorus, challenged to prove his own gods, confessed Christ in the fire and perished giving thanks. The company is commemorated on April 21.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Beuno, abbot of Clynnog Fawr (c.640)
- St. Maelruba of Applecross (722)
- St. Eingan (Eneon), Hermit of Llyn, Bangor
Troparia & kontakia
Apolytikion
Sharing the manner of life of the Apostles and seated upon their thrones, thou didst find in the practice of virtue the ascent to divine vision, O inspired one; therefore, having rightly dispensed the word of truth, thou didst contend for the faith even unto blood, O hieromartyr Januarius. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)
The truth of things hath shown thee forth to thy flock as a rule of faith, an image of meekness, and a teacher of temperance; therefore hast thou attained to lofty things by humility, and to riches by poverty. O father and hierarch Maximian, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
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.
Kontakion — Tone 2
Thou didst tend the flock of Christ as a shepherd and didst lay down thy life for the sheep, O wise Januarius; and with thee the deacons and the faithful people were crowned, a sevenfold choir offered to the Trinity. Wherefore we cry to you: cease not to intercede for us who honour your memory.
Kontakion — Tone 2
Called from stillness to the shepherd's throne, thou didst seek not thine own but the peace of the Churches, O all-blessed Maximian; and having gathered the scattered into one confession of the Theotokos, thou didst pass over to the light unwaning. Wherefore we cry: rejoice, O reconciler of the divided.
Kontakion — Tone 2
Nailed upon the tree, thou wast made like unto the Crucified, and for three days didst preach from thy cross to them that stood by, O athlete Theodore; and thy mother rejoiced beside thee as she yielded her neck to the sword. Together with Socrates and Dionysius intercede for us who honour your contest.
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 righteous man)
O righteous father Alexius, thou didst stand before the altar of God with fear and burning love, and offering the bloodless sacrifice day by day thou didst become thyself an offering acceptable unto Him; wherefore, having received the grace of healing and of discernment, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of many martyrs)
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received from Thee, our God, the crowns of incorruption; for having Thy strength, they cast down their persecutors and broke the feeble arrogance of the demons. By their supplications, O Christ God, save our souls.
Troparion
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received from Thee, our God, the crowns of incorruption; for having Thy strength, they cast down their persecutors and broke the feeble arrogance of the demons. By their supplications, O Christ God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a martyr)
Thy martyr Theodore, O Lord, in his contest received from Thee, our God, the crown of incorruption; for having Thy strength, he cast down his persecutors and broke the feeble arrogance of the demons. By his supplications 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.