Saturday of the Akathist to the Most-Holy Theotokos

Saints commemorated

Martyrs Agathopedes, Theodulus and Their Companions
Our Holy Father Mark of Trache (ca. 400)
Agathopodes and Theodulus

Agathopodes, an aged deacon, and Theodulus, a young reader, were clergy of the church of Thessalonica who during the Great Persecution of Diocletian refused to surrender the sacred Scriptures or to deny Christ, and were drowned in the sea with stones about their necks about the year 303. The elder and the youth, united in one confession and one death, are honoured together as martyrs of the Thessalonian church.
Argyra of Prussa

Argyra was a young married woman of Prussa (Bursa) in Bithynia who, having refused the advances of a Turkish official's son and refused with them the invitation to apostatise, was denounced on a false charge, flogged, and shut up in prison at Constantinople, where she spent seventeen years under repeated interrogation, beating and the abuse of her fellow prisoners without yielding, sustained by fasting and prayer. She died in her cell on 5 April 1721, aged about thirty-three. Some years later her body was found whole and incorrupt and fragrant, and on 30 April 1735 her relics were translated with the blessing of the Ecumenical Patriarch to the church of St Paraskeve, where they are still venerated. She is commemorated on April 30, the day of the translation.
Job of Moscow

Job was the first Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, raised to that dignity in 1589 by Patriarch Jeremias II of Constantinople, and the last great churchman of the house of Rurik's Muscovy. Born at Staritsa of a tradesman's family, he rose through the northern monasteries to the metropolitan throne, and as patriarch organised the new Russian patriarchate, canonised a company of Russian saints, and sent missions to Siberia and Georgia. In the Time of Troubles he refused to acknowledge the pretender known as the False Dmitri, and for that refusal was stripped of his patriarchal vesture in the Dormition Cathedral by the pretender's men and driven into exile at Staritsa, where he died blind on 19 June 1607. His relics, found incorrupt, were carried to Moscow in 1652, and he was glorified by the Russian Church in 1989.
Mark the Athenian

Mark, called "the Athenian" from his native city, is honoured as one of the most extreme of the desert solitaries: the tradition tells that he lived ninety-five years utterly alone on a wild mountain beyond the deserts of Egypt (the "Mountain of Thrace" or of Ethiopia), never in all that time seeing the face of a man, until at the very end of his life the monk Serapion was led to him by God to witness his repose. His story, like that of Onuphrius or Paul of Thebes, celebrates the hidden saints known to God alone.

British Isles and Ireland

St. Began, abbot of Kill-Beggan (6th C)
St. Derfel-Gadarn, hermit of Llanderfel (6th C)
SS. Probus and Grace
St. Ethelburga (Æthelburh) abbess of Lyminge (c.647)

Troparia & kontakia

Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a woman martyr)

Thou wast a lamb of Christ, O Argyra, and didst cry aloud in thy contest: I am the bride of my Bridegroom, and Him alone will I confess. Neither flattery nor beating nor the long years of the prison could sever thee from Him; wherefore He hath crowned thee with an incorruptible crown, and hath glorified thy body with incorruption. By thine intercessions save our souls.

Apolytikion — Tone 5

First-enthroned among the patriarchs of the Russian land, and first also in suffering for the truth, thou wast stripped of thy throne but not of thy confession, O holy father Job; and being deprived of the light of thine eyes, thou didst see the more clearly the will of God. Intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4 (common of two martyrs)

Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their sufferings received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for possessing Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their intercessions save our souls.

Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable ascetic)

By a flood of tears thou didst make the barren desert fruitful, and thy longing for God brought forth fruit a hundredfold; thou becamest a shining lamp, illumining the whole world by thy miracles, O Mark our father. Intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Readings

Epistle

Hebrews 9.24-28

²⁴For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: ²⁵Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; ²⁶For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: ²⁸So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

Hebrews 9.1-7 (Theotokos)

¹Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. ²For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary. ³And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; ⁴Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; ⁵And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly. ⁶Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. ⁷But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people:

Gospel

Mark 8.27-31

²⁷And Jesus went out, and his disciples, into the towns of Cæsarea Philippi: and by the way he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am? ²⁸And they answered, John the Baptist: but some say, Elias; and others, One of the prophets. ²⁹And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ. ³⁰And he charged them that they should tell no man of him. ³¹And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

Luke 10.38-42, 11.27-28 (Theotokos)

³⁸Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. ³⁹And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. ⁴⁰But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. ⁴¹And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: ⁴²But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. ²⁷And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. ²⁸But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.