Nativity Fast, day 1
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Begin Nativity Fast
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Our Venerable Father Paisius Velichkovsky (1794)
Paisius Velichkovsky (1722–1794) was the Ukrainian-born, Athonite and Moldavian elder who, more than any other single figure, revived Orthodox hesychasm and the tradition of eldership (starchestvo) on the eve of the modern age. Born Peter Velichkovsky at Poltava and formed on Mount Athos and in the sketes of Moldavia and Wallachia, he gathered a great multilingual brotherhood at the monasteries of Dragomirna, Secu and Neamț, where he restored obedience to a spiritual father, unceasing practice of the Jesus Prayer, and the disciplined copying and correcting of the patristic texts of prayer. His crowning labour was the translation of the Greek Philokalia into Church Slavonic — the Dobrotolyubie, printed at Moscow in 1793 — whose diffusion through Russia seeded the Optina eldership and the whole nineteenth-century spiritual renewal.
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Gurias, Samonas and Abibus
Gurias, Samonas and Abibus are the three great martyr-confessors of Edessa in Syria (Mesopotamia), venerated together though they died sixteen years apart: the laymen Gurias and Samonas, preachers of the word, were tortured and beheaded about 306 in the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian, while Abibus, a deacon of the same city, was burned alive about 322 under Licinius. Buried in one tomb, they became the patrons of Edessa. The most famous of their posthumous wonders — the deliverance of the maiden Euphemia, betrayed by a Gothic soldier who had sworn faithfulness to her over their graves — made the three the guardians of oaths and the heavenly patrons of honourable marriage, under which title they are invoked to this day.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Machell, founder of the monastery of Llanfechell (7th C)
- St. Fintan, monk and hermit (879)
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 2
Having received grace from on high, O all-praised and wise ones, ye stand by those who are in trials; wherefore ye delivered a maiden from a bitter death. For ye are in truth the glory of Edessa and the joy of the world.
Troparion — Tone 5
Having granted us the wonders of Thy holy Martyrs as an unassailable wall, O Christ God, by their entreaties scatter the counsels of the heathen and strengthen Thy holy Church, for Thou alone art good and the Lover of mankind.
Readings
Epistle
1 Thessalonians 4.1-12
1Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. 2For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. 3For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: 4That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; 5Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: 6That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. 7For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. 8He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit. 9But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. 10And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more; 11And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; 12That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.
Gospel
Luke 15.1-10
1Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. 2And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. 3And he spake this parable unto them, saying, 4What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? 5And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. 7I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. 8Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? 9And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost. 10Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.