Pre-Lenten Triodion, day 8 · 63 days until Pascha
Saints commemorated
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Martyr Pamphylius and His Companions
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Flavian of Constantinople
Flavian (died 449) was Archbishop of Constantinople from 446, a defender of the apostolic faith against the heresy of the archimandrite Eutyches, who taught that in Christ there was but one nature after the Incarnation. At a synod in Constantinople in 448 Flavian condemned and deposed Eutyches; but at the "Robber Council" (Latrocinium) of Ephesus in 449 — dominated by Dioscorus of Alexandria and the emperor's officials — Eutyches was restored and Flavian himself anathematised, deposed, and so brutally handled that he died of his injuries a few days later, on the road into exile. Two years afterward the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451) vindicated his faith, condemned Eutyches, received the Tome of Pope Leo, and acclaimed Flavian a saint and martyr. The Church keeps him as Flavian the Confessor.
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Maruthas of Martyropolis
Maruthas (died c. 422) was the Syrian bishop of Maiferkat in Mesopotamia — a learned man and, by repute, a physician — who gathered into his episcopal city the relics of the many Christians slain in the great persecution of the Persian king Shapur II, so that his see came to be called Martyropolis, the "city of martyrs." Trusted at the court of the Persian king Yazdegerd I and honoured by the emperors of Constantinople, he served repeatedly as an envoy between Rome and Persia, and used that favour to win peace for the Church of Persia after decades of blood. He presided, with the catholicos Isaac, at the Synod of Seleucia-Ctesiphon (410) that gave the Persian Church its ordered structure and received the Nicene faith. He wrote acts of the Persian martyrs and other works, and is venerated in East and West alike.
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Pamphilus of Caesarea and his Companions
Pamphilus (c. 240 – 309) was the learned priest of Caesarea in Palestine — the keeper and restorer of the great library that Origen had founded there, the teacher and dearest friend of the historian Eusebius (who out of love took the name "Eusebius Pamphili"), and, with him, author of an Apology for Origen composed from prison. Arrested in the persecution of Maximinus and held two years in chains, he was beheaded at Caesarea on February 16 together with a company of eleven: Valens the aged deacon of Jerusalem and Paul of Jamnia, five Egyptian brethren who had taken the names of the prophets — Elias, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Samuel and Daniel — and the youths and confessors Porphyrius, Seleucus, Theodulus and Julian, who were drawn into their crown for honouring the martyrs' bodies. Their acts are told by an eye-witness, Eusebius himself, in his Martyrs of Palestine.
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Romanos of Karpenisi
Romanos (died 1694) was a new venerable-martyr of the Ottoman period, born at Karpenisi in the mountains of central Greece, who took up the monastic life on Mount Athos and, burning to confess Christ before the Turks, went to Constantinople, openly professed the faith, and after imprisonment and suffering was put to death there in the year 1694. He is honoured among the neomartyrs of the Holy Mountain and is commemorated on February 16.
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 8
As a sacred hierarch and unshaken pillar of the true confession, thou didst shepherd the Church of Christ and, condemning the error of Eutyches, didst seal thy witness with thy blood; wherefore, crowned as a confessor, O Father Flavian, intercede for us all.
Kontakion — Tone 2
As a physician of bodies and a shepherd of souls, thou didst gather the martyrs of Persia into thy city and win peace for the Church, O holy Maruthas; wherefore we honour thee, O adornment of hierarchs and companion of the martyrs.
Kontakion — Tone 2
Having loved the divine will of Christ, thou didst keep his law with a ready heart, and shining in the contest, O all-blessed Pamphilus, thou didst prevail together with thy fellow-athletes; with whom cease not to intercede on behalf of us all.
Troparion — Tone 4
O guide of Orthodoxy, teacher of piety and holiness, luminary of the world, God-inspired adornment of hierarchs: by thy teaching thou hast enlightened all, O harp of the Spirit. O Father Flavian, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4
O guide of Orthodoxy, teacher of piety and holiness, luminary of the world, God-inspired adornment of hierarchs: by thy teaching thou hast enlightened all, O harp of the Spirit. O Father Maruthas, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy Martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received crowns of incorruption from thee our God; for possessed of thy might, they cast down the tyrants and broke also the feeble insolence of demons. By their prayers, O Christ our God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy Martyr, O Lord, in his contest received the crown of incorruption from thee our God; for possessed of thy might, he cast down the tyrants and broke also the feeble insolence of demons. By his prayers, O Christ our God, save our souls.
Readings
1st Matins Gospel
Matthew 28.16-20
16Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. 17And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Epistle
1 Corinthians 6.12-20
12All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. 13Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. 14And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power. 15Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. 16What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. 17But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 18Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 19What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Gospel
Luke 15.11-32
11And he said, A certain man had two sons: 12And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. 13And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. 14And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. 15And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. 17And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, 19And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. 20And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. 21And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. 22But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: 23And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: 24For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. 25Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing. 26And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. 27And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. 28And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him. 29And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: 30But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. 31And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. 32It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.