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Saturday 3 June 2023

Memorial Saturday

Saturday of the 7th Sunday of Pascha

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No Fast Tone 6

Ascensiontide, day 10 · 48 days since Pascha

Memorial Saturday

Saints commemorated

  • Martyr Lucillian and His Companions

    On June 3 the Church keeps six martyrs of a single passion: Lucillian, an aged pagan priest of Nicomedia who in his old age was persuaded of the emptiness of the idols and confessed Christ; the four young boys Claudius, Hypatius, Paul and Dionysius, whom he found already imprisoned for the faith and who were beheaded before his eyes; and the virgin Paula, who had made her whole life the service of the confessors in prison — feeding them, dressing their wounds, burying their bodies — and who, having taken up Lucillian's body from his cross, was seized in her turn and beheaded. They suffered under Aurelian (270–275), first at Nicomedia and then at Byzantium, on the ground where Constantinople would rise within two generations, and their memory is among the oldest local commemorations of that city.

  • Hieromartyr Lucian (2nd c.)

    Lucian, first bishop of Beauvais (Bellovacum) in northern Gaul, is one of the apostolic missionaries of the Gallo-Belgic country and the only Western martyr of June 3 whom the Byzantine calendar has taken into its own books. The tradition makes him a Roman named Lucius, converted and baptised by the Apostle Peter, sent west by Pope Clement in the company of Dionysius the Areopagite to evangelise Gaul, and, with the presbyter Maximian and the deacon Julian, the apostle of the Beauvaisis, where nearly the whole country is said to have been baptised at his preaching. Under a persecution the notices place in the reign of Domitian (81–96), Maximian and Julian were beheaded, and Lucian after them; a cephalophore legend has him rise, carry his own head across a river, and lie down at the place he chose for burial, at which some five hundred pagans believed. He is commemorated on June 3, and the martyrs Marcellinus and Saturninus are named with him.

  • Holy Martyr Dimitri, Tsarevich of Russia (1591)

    Demetrius (Dimitry) Ivanovich, youngest son of Ivan IV the Terrible, was born at Moscow in 1582 and died at Uglich on 15 May 1591, aged eight, of a knife-wound in the throat: his mother's family cried murder, the government's commission of inquiry found that he had fallen on his own knife in an epileptic fit, and the question has never been settled. The consequences were enormous — his name was taken up by a succession of impostors who carried the Time of Troubles to the walls of Moscow — and the Church's answer was to glorify him. On 3 June 1606, three weeks after the first false Demetrius was killed, his body was raised at Uglich and carried to the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael in the Kremlin, where it remains. He is honoured not as a martyr for the faith but as a passion-bearer, an innocent child who suffered a violent death without guilt, and as a wonderworker at whose shrine healings were recorded from the day of the translation onward.

  • Athanasius the Wonderworker

    Athanasius the Wonderworker is a monastic saint of the Greek synaxaria, commemorated on June 3 and known from a single short synaxarion notice: a man who gave himself from boyhood to the preaching and the practice of the Gospel, received from God the gift of healing bodies and souls so that people came to him and fetched him to their houses, entered a monastery on the river Sangarios whose abbot had been a senator in the world, was asked by that abbot to recover a community grown slack, and did it by preaching, by his own blameless example, by brotherly entreaty and by praying all night; afterwards he went to the monastery of Traianos, where he was ordained priest and lived by copying books, selling them and giving the money to the poor, and where he reposed in peace at a great age. Nothing further is transmitted — not his country, not his century.

  • Hieria of Mesopotamia

    Hieria was a wealthy young widow of noble family in Mesopotamia who, in the last persecution, fell into conversation with the nun Febronia at the convent of the abbess Bryaine near Nisibis, and was so shaken by it that she wept the night through, brought her parents and her whole household to the faith, and was baptised. When the prefect Selenus came against the convent and Febronia was tortured to death before the people, Hieria came out of the crowd and rebuked him to his face for his cruelty, and was threatened with arrest; but she was not put to death. She gave her whole fortune to the convent, asked the abbess to receive her in Febronia's place, was clothed as a nun, and reposed in peace beside the relics of the martyr whose death had made her. She is therefore hosia, venerable, and not a martyr, and her memory is kept on June 3, three weeks before Febronia's own feast on June 25.

  • Pappos

    Pappos is a venerable father of the Greek synaxaria commemorated on June 3, of whom the record preserves exactly one clause: Ὁ Ὅσιος Πάππος ἀπεβίωσεν εἰρηνικά — "the venerable Pappos departed this life peacefully." The synaxarion adds only a distich playing on his name, which means "grandfather": that he died not the grandfather of grandchildren but rather the father of daughters that are the virtues. Neither his country, his century, his monastery nor any act of his life has come down. He is entered here because the calendar keeps him, and at the length the sources allow.

British Isles and Ireland

  • St. Kevin, abbot of Glendalough (618)
  • St. Glunshallaich (7th C)
  • St. Cronan (617)

Troparia & kontakia

Apolytikion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)

By a flood of tears thou didst make the desert fruitful, and by thy sighing from the depths thou didst bear fruit a hundredfold in labours; thou becamest a beacon, shining upon the world by miracles, O Athanasius our father. Intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Apolytikion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable woman)

In thee, O mother, the image of God was preserved unimpaired: for taking up the Cross thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou hast taught us to despise the flesh, which passeth away, and to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore with the angels thy spirit rejoiceth, O venerable Hieria.

Apolytikion — Tone 4 (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 Lucian: intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of several martyrs)

Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for possessing Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their prayers, O Christ God, save our souls.

Apolytikion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)

By a flood of tears thou didst make the desert fruitful, and by thy sighing from the depths thou didst bear fruit a hundredfold in labours; thou becamest a beacon, shining upon the world by miracles, O Pappos our father. Intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Kontakion

Uglich gave thee to the grave, and Moscow received thee living: for thy holy body was borne from the one city to the other, whole after many years, that the mouths of liars might be stopped and the eyes of unbelievers opened. Rejoicing, we keep the feast of thy coming, and cry unto thee: rejoice, O Demetrius, wonderworker of Moscow.

Kontakion — Tone 2 (common of martyrs)

The aged priest of the idols became the herald of Christ, and the four children were perfected by the sword, and the virgin who served the prisoners was crowned with them: wherefore, O six-fold company of the martyrs, ye stand now before the throne, entreating forgiveness for us who honour your memory.

Synaxarion

Pappos hath died, no grandfather of grandchildren, but rather a father whose daughters are the virtues.

Troparion — Tone 2

The bright star of the Russian land hath risen, the right-believing Tsarevich Demetrius, slain in his childhood without guilt: as a lamb undefiled thou wast offered unto Christ, and He hath glorified thy body with incorruption and thy tomb with healings. Wherefore, O passion-bearer, entreat Him for the children of thy people, and for the peace of the land that honoureth thee.

Readings

Epistle

Acts 28.1-31

1And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita. 2And the barbarous people shewed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold. 3And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand. 4And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. 5And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm. 6Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god. 7In the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius; who received us, and lodged us three days courteously. 8And it came to pass, that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux: to whom Paul entered in, and prayed, and laid his hands on him, and healed him. 9So when this was done, others also, which had diseases in the island, came, and were healed: 10Who also honoured us with many honours; and when we departed, they laded us with such things as were necessary. 11And after three months we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux. 12And landing at Syracuse, we tarried there three days. 13And from thence we fetched a compass, and came to Rhegium: and after one day the south wind blew, and we came the next day to Puteoli: 14Where we found brethren, and were desired to tarry with them seven days: and so we went toward Rome. 15And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Appii forum, and The three taverns: whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage. 16And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard: but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him. 17And it came to pass, that after three days Paul called the chief of the Jews together: and when they were come together, he said unto them, Men and brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people, or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. 18Who, when they had examined me, would have let me go, because there was no cause of death in me. 19But when the Jews spake against it, I was constrained to appeal unto Cæsar; not that I had ought to accuse my nation of. 20For this cause therefore have I called for you, to see you, and to speak with you: because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain. 21And they said unto him, We neither received letters out of Judæa concerning thee, neither any of the brethren that came shewed or spake any harm of thee. 22But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest: for as concerning this sect, we know that every where it is spoken against. 23And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening. 24And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not. 25And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, 26Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: 27For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. 28Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. 29And when he had said these words, the Jews departed, and had great reasoning among themselves. 30And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, 31Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.

1 Thessalonians 4.13-17 (Departed)

13But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

1 Corinthians 15.47-57 (Departed, variant)

47The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. 48As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 49And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 50Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. 51Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 55O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 56The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Gospel

John 21.15-25

15So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. 16He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. 17He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. 18Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. 19This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me. 20Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? 21Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? 22Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me. 23Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? 24This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true. 25And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.

John 5.24-30 (Departed)

24Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. 25Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. 26For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; 27And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. 28Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 29And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. 30I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

John 6.35-39 (Departed, variant)

35And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. 36But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not. 37All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. 38For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 39And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.