Paschaltide, day 5 · 4 days since Pascha
Saints commemorated
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Martyr Sabbas Stratelates
Sabbas the Stratelates — "the General" — was a Goth by birth who rose by his courage to high command in the Roman army under the emperor Aurelian (270–275). A Christian from his youth, he spent his pay on the poor and his liberty on visiting confessors in prison, and received from God the gift of healing the sick and driving out demons. Denounced to the emperor, he unbuckled and threw down the soldier's belt that was the badge of his rank rather than deny Christ; and when torture — the scourge, the lighted torches, the cauldron of pitch — left him unharmed, seventy soldiers of his own command confessed Christ and were beheaded where they stood. Comforted in prison by a vision of Christ, Sabbas was tortured again the next morning and then drowned in a river, about the year 272.
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Elizabeth the Wonderworker
Elizabeth the Wonderworker was an ascetic and abbess of the convent of the Holy Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian at Constantinople, born at Heraclea in Thrace of wealthy and long-childless parents who obtained her by prayer and gave her back to God. She kept virginity and an austerity that astonished the capital: a single coarse garment winter and summer, bare feet, no bath, no bread, wine or oil, whole Lents without food, and three years in which she would not so much as raise her eyes to look at the sky. To this life God joined the gift of wonders — she killed a great serpent by her prayer, healed a woman with an issue of blood, and cast out unclean spirits — and after her repose on April 24 both her incorrupt relics and the earth of her grave became a standing remedy for the sick.
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Thomas the Fool-for-Christ of Syria
Thomas was a monk of Coele-Syria who used to come down to Antioch to collect his monastery's annual allowance from the revenues of the great church, and who bore in that city the feigned madness of the fool-for-Christ. Struck on the head by Anastasius, the oikonomos of the church of Antioch, who had grown tired of him, he answered that neither would he ever receive the money again nor Anastasius pay it — and both came true, Anastasius dying within a day and Thomas himself the following night, in the hospice at Daphne. Buried in the plot kept for strangers, his body was found lying above the two corpses afterwards laid in the same grave; the marvel was reported to the patriarch, his relics were carried into Antioch in festal procession, and the plague then wasting the city ceased at their translation. The Antiochenes kept his feast with great splendour for generations afterwards, and Evagrius Scholasticus, an Antiochene writing within living memory, is the source for all of it.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Mellitus, 3rd archbishop of Canterbury (624)
- St. Egbert of Lindisfarne (729)
- St. Dyfnan, son of King Brychan
- St. Ivo, hermit of Huntingdonshire (1001)
Troparia & kontakia
Apolytikion
In thee, O Mother, was that which is according to the image preserved with exactness; for taking up the Cross thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Therefore doth thy spirit, O venerable Elizabeth, rejoice together with the Angels.
Apolytikion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)
In thee, O Father, was that which is according to the image preserved with exactness; for taking up the Cross thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Therefore doth thy spirit, O venerable Thomas, rejoice together with the Angels.
Kontakion — Tone 4
Shown forth unconquerable, O commander, thou didst overthrow the cunning of the barbarians; and contending most steadfastly, O glorious one, thou didst put to flight a multitude of invisible foes, and so didst weave for thyself the crown of victory. Pray thou to Christ for us who honour thee with faith, O all-blessed Sabbas.
Troparion — Tone 5
Leaving behind the belt and the honours of earthly rank, O sufferer, thou didst confess before the tyrant, the deceitful emperor, that Christ is truly God; and for His sake thou didst endure many torments, O glorious one. Therefore wast thou wreathed with the surpassing crown of victory by the King of all who reign, and wast made radiant among the heavenly hosts. Standing now before Him, O Sabbas, pray that our souls may be saved.
Readings
Epistle
Acts 2.38-43
38Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 39For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. 40And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. 41Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. 42And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
Gospel
John 3.1-15
1There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: 2The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. 3Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? 5Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 8The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. 9Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? 10Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? 11Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. 12If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? 13And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. 14And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.