Saturday 18 January 2025
Ss Athanasius the Great and Cyril of Alexandria
Saturday of the 30th week after Pentecost
Saints commemorated
-
Saint of the day
Ss Athanasius the Great and Cyril of Alexandria
Athanasius the Great (c. 296 – 373) was Archbishop of Alexandria, the champion of the Nicene faith and, with Basil the Great, one of only two Eastern fathers whom the Church styles by universal consent "the Great." Present at the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325) as a young deacon, he became through a long episcopate the tireless defender of the Council's confession that the Son is homoousios — "of one essence" — with the Father, against the Arianism that for two generations captured emperors, courts, and councils. Five times driven from his see and some seventeen years an exile, he held the faith when almost the whole world had gone over to Arius, so that his name became a proverb — Athanasius contra mundum, "Athanasius against the world." He wrote the classic statement of the Incarnation, On the Incarnation of the Word; the Life of Antony, which carried the monastic ideal through the whole Church, East and West; and, in his thirty-ninth Festal Letter of 367, the first listing of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament exactly as the Church now receives them. He died in peace at Alexandria on May 2, 373, having outlived his persecutors and secured the triumph of Orthodoxy. He is kept on January 18 together with Cyril of Alexandria, and on May 2, the day of his repose.
-
Saint of the day
Cyril of Alexandria
Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376 – 444) was Archbishop of Alexandria and the greatest of the Church's Christological doctors — the "Seal of the Fathers," whose defence of the unity of the person of Christ gave the Church her language for the mystery of God made man. As president of the Third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus in 431, he led the condemnation of Nestorius, Archbishop of Constantinople, who by dividing Christ into two subjects had refused to the Virgin the title Theotokos, "she who gave birth to God." Against him Cyril taught the hypostatic union: that the eternal Word of God, without ceasing to be God, truly made human flesh and a human soul his own, so that the one who was born of Mary, suffered, and rose is one and the same Son — God the Word incarnate — and Mary is therefore in all truth the Mother of God. His writings — the letters to Nestorius, the treatise On the Unity of Christ, the commentaries on John and Luke — became the charter of Orthodox Christology, honoured at Chalcedon and by the whole Church, Eastern and Oriental alike. He reposed at Alexandria on June 27, 444. His own feast is June 9; he is kept again on January 18 with Athanasius the Great, the two hierarchs of Alexandria, and on June 9.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Deicola of Bangor (6th C)
- St. Wilfrid (Ulfrid), missionary and martyr in Sweden (1028)
Troparia & kontakia
Apolytikion
Shining forth in the works of Orthodoxy and quenching every false belief, ye became victors crowned with triumph; enriching all things by your piety and greatly adorning the Church, ye worthily found Christ God, who grants great mercy unto all.
Apolytikion
Shining forth in the works of Orthodoxy and quenching every false belief, ye became victors crowned with triumph; enriching all things by your piety and greatly adorning the Church, ye worthily found Christ God, who grants great mercy unto all.
Kontakion — Tone 2
Having planted the doctrines of Orthodoxy, thou didst cut away the thorns of false belief, and didst multiply the seed of the faith by the rain-shower of the Spirit, O venerable one; therefore we hymn thee, O Athanasius.
Kontakion — Tone 4
Rending asunder the snares of the heresies by the power of Christ through thy divine words, thou didst enrich the Church, O Cyril, cutting down all the tares of Nestorius; wherefore thou standest with the choirs of Angels, fervently interceding with Christ, O blessed one, that forgiveness of sins be granted unto all.
Kontakion — Tone 2
Having planted the doctrines of Orthodoxy, thou didst cut away the thorns of false belief, and didst multiply the seed of the faith by the rain-shower of the Spirit, O venerable one; therefore we hymn thee, O Athanasius.
Kontakion — Tone 4
Rending asunder the snares of the heresies by the power of Christ through thy divine words, thou didst enrich the Church, O Cyril, cutting down all the tares of Nestorius; wherefore thou standest with the choirs of Angels, fervently interceding with Christ, O blessed one, that forgiveness of sins be granted unto all.
Troparion — Tone 3
Thou wast made a pillar of Orthodoxy, upholding the Church with divine doctrines, O Hierarch Athanasius; for proclaiming the Son to be of one essence with the Father, thou didst put Arius to shame. O venerable Father, entreat Christ God to grant us great mercy.
Troparion — Tone 5
Adorned with divine wisdom, thou wast shown forth as leader of the Third Council, and didst cast down the terrible Nestorius, O Father, and didst brightly proclaim the pure Virgin to be Theotokos, O Cyril the Hierarch, glory of the Alexandrians and teacher of the Church.
Troparion — Tone 3
Thou wast made a pillar of Orthodoxy, upholding the Church with divine doctrines, O Hierarch Athanasius; for proclaiming the Son to be of one essence with the Father, thou didst put Arius to shame. O venerable Father, entreat Christ God to grant us great mercy.
Troparion — Tone 5
Adorned with divine wisdom, thou wast shown forth as leader of the Third Council, and didst cast down the terrible Nestorius, O Father, and didst brightly proclaim the pure Virgin to be Theotokos, O Cyril the Hierarch, glory of the Alexandrians and teacher of the Church.
Readings
Epistle
Ephesians 5.1-8
1Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; 2And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. 3But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; 4Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. 5For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 6Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. 7Be not ye therefore partakers with them. 8For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
Gospel
Luke 14.1-11
1And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him. 2And, behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy. 3And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? 4And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go; 5And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day? 6And they could not answer him again to these things. 7And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them, 8When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; 9And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. 10But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. 11For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.