Christmastide, day 5
Sunday after Nativity
Saints commemorated
-
Saint of the day
Holy Innocents Slain by Herod
The Holy Innocents are the male children of Bethlehem and its districts, two years old and under, whom Herod the Great ordered killed after the Magi failed to return and disclose to him the newborn King (Matthew 2:16–18). Deceived and enraged, the tyrant sought to destroy the one Child by destroying many; the Christ-child himself was already borne into Egypt at the angel's warning, and so the slain infants died in his place and for his sake. Though they could not confess Christ in words, the Church honours them as her first martyrs — "baptised in their own blood," the buds of the martyr-host cut down before they could flower. Matthew reads over them the prophecy of Jeremiah, "Rachel weeping for her children." Byzantine tradition numbers them fourteen thousand. They are kept on December 29, within the afterfeast of the Nativity, and in the West on December 28 (Childermas).
-
Our Venerable Father Marcellus, Abbot of the Monastery of the Unsleeping Ones (485)
Marcellus (c. 400 – c. 485) was the third abbot of the Monastery of the Unsleeping Ones (the Akoimetoi), the Constantinopolitan community whose monks, divided into relays of choirs, kept the praise of God ascending day and night without ceasing. A well-born Syrian of Apamea, orphaned young and educated at Antioch and Ephesus, he gave away his inheritance, supported himself as a copyist that he might give the more to the poor, and entered the Akoimetoi under their founder Alexander. Chosen abbot against his will, he governed the community for some sixty years, raised it to its greatest flourishing, and supplied the first monks for the famed Monastery of Stoudios. A staunch upholder of the Chalcedonian faith and a man of attested miracles, he reposed about 485 and is kept on December 29, within the afterfeast of the Nativity.
-
Benjamin of Nitria
Benjamin (†c. 392) was an ascetic of the Nitrian desert in Egypt, one of the desert fathers whose memory is preserved chiefly through the Lausiac History of Palladius. After many years of monastic labour he received from God the gift of healing: by the laying-on of hands or by a little blessed oil he cured those who came to him of every sickness. In his last months he was himself afflicted with a grievous dropsy that swelled his body to an enormous size, yet he continued to heal others and bore his own suffering with such serenity that his brethren marvelled — asking only that they pray his inner man take no hurt. He reposed about the year 392 and is commemorated on December 29, within the afterfeast of the Nativity, together with the ascetic Athenodorus.
-
James the Brother of the Lord
James the Brother of the Lord (died c. 62) — styled by the Greek Church Adelphotheos, "Brother of God," and by the whole tradition "James the Just" — was the first bishop of Jerusalem and head of the mother church of Christendom for some thirty years. The Orthodox tradition knows him as a son of Joseph the Betrothed by an earlier marriage, and so the Lord's brother in the household of Joseph; Paul calls him simply "the Lord's brother" and counts him among the apostles and the "pillars" of the Church. He presided over the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15), gave his name to the most ancient complete eucharistic liturgy still in use, and by his ascetic holiness and ceaseless prayer for his people earned the surname "the Just." According to Hegesippus he was cast down from the pinnacle of the Temple and clubbed to death; according to Josephus he was stoned by order of the high priest Ananus. His feast is October 23. He is distinct from James the son of Zebedee (April 30) and James the son of Alphaeus (October 9).
-
Thaddeus the Confessor
Thaddeus (†818) was a monk of the great Monastery of Stoudios in Constantinople and a disciple of Theodore the Studite, who suffered as a confessor for the holy icons in the second iconoclast persecution under the emperor Leo V the Armenian. Brought to trial and ordered to trample an icon of the Saviour set beneath his feet, he protested that he had been forced upon it against his will and openly cursed the impiety of the iconoclasts; for this he was beaten with cudgels, dragged by the feet, and cast outside the city walls. Cared for by a compassionate Christian, he lived three days more and reposed of his wounds in the year 818. The Church keeps him on December 29, within the afterfeast of the Nativity.
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 4
A star sent the Magi to the newborn Child, and Herod sent forth an unjust army in vain, imagining that he could slay the One who lay within the manger.
Kontakion — Tone 4
The Only-begotten God the Word of the Father, when He came to sojourn among us in these last days, O divinely-eloquent James, declared thee the first shepherd and teacher of Jerusalem, and a faithful steward of the spiritual Mysteries; wherefore we all honour thee, O Apostle.
Troparion — Tone 4
As a disciple of the Lord, O Just one, thou didst receive the Gospel; as a martyr, thou art unturning; as the Brother of God, thou hast boldness; as a hierarch, thou canst intercede. Entreat Christ God to save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O Father, was preserved unfailingly that which is according to the image; for taking up thy cross thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou hast taught us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore, O venerable Marcellus, thy spirit rejoiceth with the angels.
Readings
5th Matins Gospel
Luke 24.12-35
12Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass. 13And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. 14And they talked together of all these things which had happened. 15And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. 16But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. 17And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? 18And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? 19And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: 20And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. 21But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done. 22Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; 23And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. 24And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not. 25Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: 26Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? 27And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. 28And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. 29But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. 30And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. 31And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. 32And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? 33And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, 34Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. 35And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.
Epistle
Galatians 1.11-19 (Sunday after Nativity)
11But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. 12For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. 13For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: 14And profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. 15But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, 16To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: 17Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. 18Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days. 19But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother.
Gospel
Matthew 2.13-23 (Sunday after Nativity and Theotokos)
13And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. 14When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: 15And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. 16Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men. 17Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, 18In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. 19But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child’s life. 21And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. 22But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee: 23And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.