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Friday 2 June 2023

Leavetaking of Ascension

Friday of the 7th Sunday of Pascha

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Fast — Wine and Oil are Allowed Tone 6

Ascensiontide, day 9 · 47 days since Pascha

Leavetaking of Ascension

Saints commemorated

  • St Nicephorus the Confessor

    Nicephorus the Confessor (c. 758 – 828) was Patriarch of Constantinople from 806 to 815 and, after Tarasius, the second of the great iconodule patriarchs to lead the Church. Born of a confessing family — his father had suffered exile for the holy icons — he served as imperial secretary, took part in the Seventh Ecumenical Council as a lay commissioner, and was raised from the lay state to the patriarchal throne. When the emperor Leo V the Armenian revived iconoclasm, Nicephorus resisted to his own ruin: refusing to surrender the images, he was deposed in 815 and exiled across the Bosphorus, where for thirteen years he wrote the great refutations of the heresy — and where, with his Breviarium and chronological tables, he left works of history besides. He reposed in exile in 828. After the Triumph of Orthodoxy (843), the Empress Theodora and Patriarch Methodius brought his relics home to the capital on 13 March 846, incorrupt, and laid them among the patriarchs in the Church of the Holy Apostles. He is kept on June 2 (repose) and March 13 (the translation of his relics).

  • Holy New Martyr Constantine (1819)

    Constantine (†2 June 1819) was born a Muslim in the village of Ypsilometopo on Lesbos, and was healed in his blindness as a boy by the holy water of the Christians. Working afterwards as a greengrocer in Smyrna, he came to love the worship of the Church, and made his way to Mount Athos, where he was catechised at the Skete of Kavsokalyvia and baptised by the exiled Ecumenical Patriarch Gregory V, receiving the name Constantine. Not content to be saved alone, he went back among his own people to bring his brothers and sisters to Christ; he was recognised, denounced, tortured with a red-hot iron cap, and sent to Constantinople, where — having invited his judge to become a Christian — he was hanged on 2 June 1819. He is one of the last of the New Martyrs of the Ottoman yoke, and one of the small and precious company of them who came to Christ out of Islam.

  • Hieromartyr Erazmo of Ochrid (303)

  • Erasmus of Formia

    Erasmus (†c. 303), bishop of Formia in Campania, is one of the most widely venerated and least securely documented of the martyrs of the great persecution. The tradition the Orthodox calendars have received makes him a bishop who fled the persecution to Mount Lebanon and lived there seven years in hiding; who was brought at an angel's bidding out of concealment, seized, and tried before Diocletian and afterwards before Maximian; who was scourged, smeared with pitch and set alight, shut in a spiked cask and rolled downhill, and each time preserved; who converted great multitudes — the Slavic and Greek notices say twenty thousand — by his endurance; and who at length was brought to Formia and reposed there. In the West he became Saint Elmo, patron of sailors, and one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers; the Orthodox books keep him on May 4, and the OCA styles him confessor rather than martyr, since the tradition has him die of his sufferings rather than by the sword.

  • John the New of Suceava

    John the New (c. 1300 – c. 1330/1332) was a Greek merchant of Trebizond who was tortured to death at Cetatea Albă — the Asprokastron of the Greeks, the Akkerman of the Turks, the Belgorod of the Slavs, at the mouth of the Dniester — for refusing to abandon Christ for the religion of its Tatar governor. Denounced out of commercial envy by the Western shipmaster who had carried him there, he was beaten with rods until his flesh came away, dragged through the streets tied to a wild horse, and beheaded in the open street; and the pillar of light that stood over his body that night is the first of the wonders reported of him. Some seventy years later Alexander the Good, Voivode of Moldavia, brought his relics to Suceava, where they remain — and where they made a foreign merchant-martyr into the heavenly patron of Moldavia and of Bukovina, "the protector of all the Moldavian land." He is honoured on June 2 for his martyrdom and, in Romanian usage, on June 24 for the bringing of his relics.

  • Juliana of Vyazma

    Juliana (†21 December 1406) was the wife of Prince Simeon Mstislavich of Vyazma, and died at Torzhok defending her marriage and her chastity against Yuri Svyatoslavich, the dispossessed Prince of Smolensk. Sheltering in the same town as his exiled kinsmen, Yuri conceived a passion for her; when she refused him he killed her husband at table and turned on her, and when she wounded him with a knife he cut off her hands and feet with his sword and had her body thrown into the frozen Tvertsa. In the spring her body was found — the tradition says floating against the current — and was buried at the Transfiguration Cathedral of Torzhok, where healings were reported at her tomb through four centuries until the Church uncovered her relics and glorified her on 2 June 1819. She is honoured among the Wonderworkers of Novy Torg and is one of the Russian Church's patrons of the sanctity of marriage.

  • Pothinus, Blandina and the Martyrs of Lyons

    In the year 177, in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the Christians of Lugdunum (Lyons) and Vienne in Gaul were seized by the mob and the magistrates and destroyed in the amphitheatre at the annual provincial games. Their bishop, the aged Pothinus — a Greek of Asia, and by tradition a hearer of Polycarp — was beaten and died in prison; the slave-girl Blandina, whose own mistress had feared she would prove too weak to confess, outlasted every torturer in the city and was killed last of all; and with them suffered Sanctus the deacon of Vienne, Maturus the newly baptised, Attalus of Pergamum, Alexander the Phrygian physician, Biblis who denied and then recovered her confession, the boy Ponticus, the nobleman Vettius Epagathus and the ascetic Alcibiades. Their bodies were burnt and the ashes swept into the Rhône. The letter in which the surviving Christians of Vienne and Lyons told the story to the churches of Asia — preserved by Eusebius — is one of the greatest documents of the early Church, and the company is kept on June 2 in East and West alike.

British Isles and Ireland

  • St. Odo the Good, 22nd archbishop of Canterbury (959)
  • St. Adalgis (c.686)
  • St. Bodfan (7th C)

Troparia & kontakia

Kontakion — Tone 2

Neither fire nor pitch nor the iron teeth of the cask could turn thee from the confession, O hierarch Erasmus, but by thy patience thou didst draw a countless people to Christ; wherefore the sea and them that sail upon it cry out to thee: deliver us, O father, from the tempest.

Kontakion — Tone 4

The Church of Moldavia keepeth thee as her crown and her defence, O great martyr John: for thy blood, poured out in a stranger's city, hath watered our land, and thy relics, borne home in glory, pour forth healing upon all that draw near. Wherefore we cry unto thee: rejoice, O boast of Trebizond and guardian of Suceava.

Kontakion — Tone 1

O initiate of heaven's mysteries and unshaken herald of Orthodoxy, thou didst shine upon the Church as her radiant star, and for the icon of Christ didst gladly bear thine exile; and now thy sacred relics, returning in glory to thy city, pour forth sanctification on them that cry: Rejoice, O Father Nicephorus, boast of the faithful.

Kontakion — Tone 2

They were cast into the fire and their dust into the waters, that no memorial might remain of them; but their names are written in heaven and read in every church, and the letter of their brethren proclaims them still. Wherefore we honour the martyrs of Lyons, the boast of the West and the harvest of the East.

Troparion — Tone 4

Out of the darkness of Hagar's tents thou wast called into the marvellous light of Christ, and having washed thine eyes and thy soul in the water of grace, thou wouldst not be saved alone, O Constantine, but wentest back to thy kindred bearing the Gospel. Wherefore, when the tyrant bade thee deny, thou didst summon him to be baptised, and receivedst the noose as a crown: intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4 (from the common of a hieromartyr)

As a sharer in the ways and a successor to the thrones of the Apostles, O divinely-inspired one, thou didst find in contemplation the means to ascend to divine heights; rightly dividing the word of truth, thou didst struggle for the faith even unto blood, O hieromartyr Erasmus: intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4

Thou didst trade for the pearl of great price, O martyr John, and having found it thou didst gladly sell all that thou hadst: for setting at nought the threats of the tyrant and the fire he bade thee worship, thou didst confess the Light that no darkness overtakes, and wast beaten and dragged and beheaded for His name. Wherefore Christ hath given thee to Suceava as a treasure that fadeth not: intercede with Him, O athlete of the Lord, that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4

Thou didst love thy husband and thy God more than thine own life, O right-believing Juliana, and wouldst not yield thy purity to a prince's violence; wherefore, mutilated by the sword and cast into the waters, thou wast borne up by God against the stream, and thy grave at Novy Torg became a fountain of healings. O passion-bearer, guard the marriages of the faithful, and pray that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 3

Thou didst bear in very deed the victory thy name foretells, O all-blessed Nicephorus: a teacher of the Orthodox faith, a defender of the sacred images, and a pillar unshaken of the Church of Christ. For the honour of the icon of the Lord thou didst endure deposition and long exile; wherefore, crowned as a confessor, intercede that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4

The Church of Gaul, planted by the hands of Asia, brought forth a first harvest of martyrs: an aged bishop beaten in prison, a deacon burned with plates of brass, a boy and a slave-woman who wearied out their tormentors. O Photinus and Blandina and all the athletes of Lugdunum, whose ashes the river bore away and whose crowns no river can quench, intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Readings

Epistle

Acts 27.1-44

1And when it was determined that we should sail into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners unto one named Julius, a centurion of Augustus’ band. 2And entering into a ship of Adramyttium, we launched, meaning to sail by the coasts of Asia; one Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us. 3And the next day we touched at Sidon. And Julius courteously entreated Paul, and gave him liberty to go unto his friends to refresh himself. 4And when we had launched from thence, we sailed under Cyprus, because the winds were contrary. 5And when we had sailed over the sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia. 6And there the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing into Italy; and he put us therein. 7And when we had sailed slowly many days, and scarce were come over against Cnidus, the wind not suffering us, we sailed under Crete, over against Salmone; 8And, hardly passing it, came unto a place which is called The fair havens; nigh whereunto was the city of Lasea. 9Now when much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now already past, Paul admonished them, 10And said unto them, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives. 11Nevertheless the centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship, more than those things which were spoken by Paul. 12And because the haven was not commodious to winter in, the more part advised to depart thence also, if by any means they might attain to Phenice, and there to winter; which is an haven of Crete, and lieth toward the south west and north west. 13And when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, loosing thence, they sailed close by Crete. 14But not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon. 15And when the ship was caught, and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive. 16And running under a certain island which is called Clauda, we had much work to come by the boat: 17Which when they had taken up, they used helps, undergirding the ship; and, fearing lest they should fall into the quicksands, strake sail, and so were driven. 18And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they lightened the ship; 19And the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship. 20And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away. 21But after long abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss. 22And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship. 23For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, 24Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Cæsar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. 25Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me. 26Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island. 27But when the fourteenth night was come, as we were driven up and down in Adria, about midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country; 28And sounded, and found it twenty fathoms: and when they had gone a little further, they sounded again, and found it fifteen fathoms. 29Then fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern, and wished for the day. 30And as the shipmen were about to flee out of the ship, when they had let down the boat into the sea, under colour as though they would have cast anchors out of the foreship, 31Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved. 32Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat, and let her fall off. 33And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take meat, saying, This day is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing. 34Wherefore I pray you to take some meat: for this is for your health: for there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you. 35And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, and gave thanks to God in presence of them all: and when he had broken it, he began to eat. 36Then were they all of good cheer, and they also took some meat. 37And we were in all in the ship two hundred threescore and sixteen souls. 38And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, and cast out the wheat into the sea. 39And when it was day, they knew not the land: but they discovered a certain creek with a shore, into the which they were minded, if it were possible, to thrust in the ship. 40And when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves unto the sea, and loosed the rudder bands, and hoised up the mainsail to the wind, and made toward shore. 41And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the forepart stuck fast, and remained unmoveable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves. 42And the soldiers’ counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out, and escape. 43But the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them from their purpose; and commanded that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea, and get to land: 44And the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land.

Gospel

John 17.18-26

18As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. 19And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. 20Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 21That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 22And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 23I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. 24Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. 25O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. 26And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.