Nativity Fast, day 6
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Ven. Gregory Decapolites
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Our Holy Father Proclus, Archbishop of Constantinople (447)
Proclus (died 446 or 447) was Archbishop of Constantinople from 434, a disciple and secretary of John Chrysostom whose gifts as a preacher placed him at the centre of the greatest doctrinal crisis of the fifth century. His homily on the Mother of God, delivered in the great church before the patriarch Nestorius, became a public defence of the title Theotokos and helped open the controversy that the Council of Ephesus (431) would settle. As archbishop he brought the relics of his master Chrysostom home to Constantinople in triumph, governed with a gentleness that quieted the divided city, and left a body of homilies and doctrinal letters — above all the Tome to the Armenians — that made him a teacher of the Church. He is commemorated on November 20.
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Dasius of Dorostorum
Dasius was a Christian of Dorostorum on the lower Danube who was beheaded for Christ, by tradition on November 20 of about the year 303, in the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian. His Passion tells that he was chosen by lot to play the mock-king of a pagan Saturn-festival — a youth honoured and indulged for a month and then sacrificed to the god — and that he refused the whole blasphemous rite, declaring that if he must die he would die as a Christian for Christ rather than as a victim for an idol. He confessed his faith openly, was tortured, and was put to the sword. His Passion is a document of unusual interest for the light it throws on the survival of the Roman Saturnalia among the soldiers of the Danube frontier. He is commemorated on November 20.
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Gregory of Decapolis
Gregory the Decapolite (c. 780–c. 842) was one of the great wandering ascetics of the age of the second iconoclasm, a monk of the Decapolis of Isauria who spent his life on the roads of the Byzantine world — Ephesus and Constantinople, Rome and Corinth, Sicily and Thessalonica — preaching the veneration of the holy icons and confirming the persecuted Orthodox. Gifted, his Life relates, with prophecy and healing, he reposed at Constantinople shortly before the Triumph of Orthodoxy. His incorrupt relics, carried out of the fallen capital and bought in 1498 by the Ban of Wallachia, rest to this day at the Bistrița Monastery in Romania, where he is among the most beloved of saints. He is commemorated on November 20.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Edmund, King of East Anglia and Martyr (869)
- St. Eval, bishop of Cornwall (6th C)
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 3
As a radiant sun the Church knoweth thee, O favourite of Christ, who enlightenest all by the beauty of thy virtues and the rays of thy healings. Therefore we keep thy honoured memory and venerate thy struggles, O all-blessed and most-wise father Gregory.
Kontakion — Tone 4
Worthily this day doth the most honoured of all cities keep high festival at thy precious repose, O father of fathers, wise Proclus.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy martyr Dasius, O Lord, in his contest received the crown of incorruption from Thee our God; for, possessed of Thy strength, he cast down the tyrants and shattered the powerless boldness of the demons. By his intercessions, O Christ God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4
O God of our Fathers, who ever dealest with us according to Thy forbearance: take not Thy mercy from us, but by their supplications govern our life in peace.
Troparion — Tone 4
O God of our Fathers, who ever dealest with us according to Thy forbearance: take not Thy mercy from us, but by their supplications govern our life in peace.
Readings
Epistle
Colossians 3.17-4.1
17And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. 18Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. 19Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. 20Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. 21Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. 22Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: 23And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; 24Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. 25But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons. 1Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.
Gospel
Luke 18.15-17, 26-30
15And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them: but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. 17Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein. 26And they that heard it said, Who then can be saved? 27And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. 28Then Peter said, Lo, we have left all, and followed thee. 29And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God’s sake, 30Who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting.