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Wednesday 14 May 2025

Midfeast of Pentecost

Wednesday of the 4th Sunday of Pascha

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Fast — Fish, Wine and Oil are Allowed Tone 3

Paschaltide, day 25 · 24 days since Pascha

Midfeast of Pentecost

Saints commemorated

  • Ven. Isidore, Fool-for-Christ of Rostov

    Isidore of Rostov (†1474), surnamed Tverdislov, "firm of word," is the German-born fool-for-Christ of the Russian north: a rich man's son from the Latin West who gave away his inheritance, embraced Orthodoxy, and walked east as a beggar until he settled in Rostov, where he built himself a brushwood hut on marshy ground and lived in it "in filth and snow and rain and cold," enduring every insult the town could offer. He stood at prayer through the nights and played the fool through the days, and was granted the gift of wonderworking while he lived. He reposed unnoticed in 1474; the townspeople learned of it only when they passed his hut and smelled the fragrance coming from it. Over his grave rose the church of the Ascension, still called by his name, where his relics remain.

  • Martyr Isidore of Chios (251)

    Isidore of Chios (†251) was an Egyptian of Alexandria serving as an officer of the imperial fleet when his squadron put in at Chios in the persecution of Decius. Denounced to his admiral Numerius by the centurion Julius, he confessed Christ, refused to sacrifice, and was scourged, dragged over rock, and had his tongue cut out — yet, the acts relate, he kept speaking, while the admiral who had ordered it was struck dumb. His own father came from Alexandria not to save him but to press for his death. Beheaded and thrown into a well to be devoured, his body was rescued and buried by the virgin Myrope, who paid for it with her own martyrdom. Isidore is the patron of Chios and, across the Mediterranean, of sailors; his well became a healing shrine attested by Gregory of Tours, and local tradition binds his memory to the weeping mastic trees of the island.

  • Our Holy Father Serapion the Sindonite (5th c.)

    Serapion the Sindonite is the Egyptian ascetic who owned nothing at all but a single coarse linen cloth — the sindōn that gave him his name — and who twice sold himself into slavery in order to convert his masters. Known from the Lausiac History of Palladius, he lived without roof or possessions "like the birds of the air," gave away even his cloth and his Gospel-book, walked from Egypt to Rome, and made of destitution an instrument of mission rather than a private discipline. Because his freedom from property extended to his own body and his own reputation, he stands at the head of a line that runs to the fools-for-Christ; and his few recorded sayings — above all his rebuke to a Roman recluse who thought herself dead to the world — are among the sharpest words in the desert literature.

  • Alexander, Barbarus and Acolythus

    Alexander, Barbarus and Acolythus are three martyrs of whom the Synaxarion of Constantinople preserves almost nothing beyond the essentials: that they lived holy lives, that they brought many idolaters to the Christian faith, and that they were martyred together by beheading. Their synaxis — the station at which their memory was kept in the capital — was held in the church of Hagia Eirene by the Sea, which is the one concrete fact anchoring them to a place. The synaxarion couplet plays on their number: "For the severed heads of three fellow-strugglers, the Trinity sets three worthy crowns."

  • John of Shumen

    John — called Raiko in Bulgarian, his lay name — was an eighteen-year-old goldsmith of Shumen in northern Bulgaria who was martyred on 14 May 1802. A Turkish girl from the household opposite his workshop tried to draw him into a liaison; failing, she accused him of attempting to force her. The court gave him the choice that broke or crowned so many of the Balkan new-martyrs: apostatise to Islam and marry the girl, or be beaten to death. He answered that he would rather die than deny Christ, and after prolonged and savage torture was beheaded. His martyrdom was written down by the hieromonk Nikephoros of Chios, the great recorder of the neomartyrs.

  • Leontius of Jerusalem

    Leontios of Jerusalem was a Phrygian monk who became abbot of the great monastery of Saint John the Theologian on Patmos and then, unwillingly, Patriarch of Jerusalem — called to the mother see at the worst moment in its medieval history, when the Holy City was in Latin hands and its Orthodox patriarch could not securely reside there. He had refused a bishopric in Russia and another in Cyprus from the hand of the emperor Manuel Komnenos, and accepted Jerusalem only because he judged that it could not be refused. He governed a church in exile, travelled into Palestine at real risk, fell foul of the tyranny of Andronikos Komnenos and was banished, and reposed in great old age on the fourteenth of May. Patmos, which formed him, and Jerusalem, which he served, keep his memory on that day.

  • Mark of Crete

    Mark the Cretan is a new martyr of the return: a Cretan boy taken to Smyrna after his mother's death, forced into Islam as a child in consequence of his father's violence, who lived four years as a Muslim under the name Mustafa — and then repented, fled home, was received back through the discipline of the Church, studied at Constantinople under the theologian Meletios Syrigos, and deliberately returned to Smyrna, the city of his apostasy, to preach Christ publicly there. He was arrested, refused with great firmness to betray the faith a second time, was cruelly tortured, and beheaded in 1643. His relics were ransomed by the Christians and buried in the church of Hagia Photini at Smyrna, where they became a source of healings.

  • Maximus of Asia

    Maximus was a layman and a merchant who suffered under Decius (249–251). His whole recorded biography turns on two facts: that he used his trade to bring people to Christ, persuading many pagans to believe and to be baptised, and that when he came upon a crowd preparing a human sacrifice to their gods he could not endure the sight, broke in among them, and denounced their impiety aloud, calling their idols the soulless handiwork of men. The crowd, driven to fury, stoned him to death on the spot. He is one of the few martyrs of the synaxarion whose death is a lynching rather than a judicial execution.

  • Nikitas of Novgorod

    Nikitas of Novgorod (†1108) was a monk of the Kiev Caves who became one of the most instructive figures in the Russian ascetic tradition: a young hermit who, shutting himself into reclusion against his abbot's warning and before he was ready, fell into spiritual delusion (prelest) — visited by a demon in the guise of an angel, given a false gift of prophecy, and turned wholly to the Old Testament while unable so much as to bear the name of Christ or the Gospels. The elders of the Caves, discerning the deception, drove out the demon by their prayers, and Nikitas was restored — humbled, unlettered again, and set on the sure path of obedience. He rose to sanctity, was made Bishop of Novgorod about 1096, and governed that see for some thirteen years, remembered for the two miracles by which he saved his city: he brought rain in a drought and quenched a great fire by his prayer. He reposed in 1108; his incorrupt relics were uncovered in 1558.

  • Therapon of Cyprus

    Therapon of Cyprus is the bishop-martyr of Kition (Larnaca) who was cut down upon the holy table while celebrating the Liturgy by raiders from the sea. A monk before he was a bishop, and by tradition a sojourner in Jerusalem before he came to Cyprus, he is honoured as bearing a double crown — the ascetic's and the martyr's — and the Greek proper of his feast turns upon exactly that. His relics were carried to Constantinople, first to the Theotokos at Blachernae and then to a church of his own name where myrrh flowed from his tomb; portions rest today on Mount Athos at Zographou, in Athens, and on Lesbos, where his cult is especially strong. Andrew of Crete (†740) preached an encomium in his honour, which fixes the latest possible date for his life.

  • Tikhon of Zadonsk

    Tikhon of Zadonsk (1724–1783) is the great hierarch and spiritual writer of eighteenth-century Russia, and the one figure of that Westernising age in whom the ascetic tradition of the Fathers and the pastoral scholarship of the new seminaries met without injury to either. Born Timothy, the youngest son of a destitute village cantor of the Novgorod land, so poor that his family nearly gave him away to a coachman for bread, he rose through the seminary to be its teacher, then bishop of Voronezh — and after four and a half years laid down his diocese and spent the last fourteen years of his life as a simple monk at Zadonsk, sleeping on straw under a sheepskin, giving away his whole pension, and writing the two books, On True Christianity and A Spiritual Treasury Gathered from the World, that made him the most widely read Russian spiritual author before the Philokalia. He was glorified in 1861, is called the Russian Chrysostom, and stands behind Dostoevsky's Bishop Tikhon and the elder Zosima.

British Isles and Ireland

  • St. Dyfan, martyr in Wales (2nd C)
  • St. Carthage (Carthach Mochuda) the Younger, abbot of Rathin and Lismore (639)

Troparia & kontakia

Apolytikion — Tone 4

Enlisted as a soldier of the King of the ages, thou didst cast off the warfare of things earthly and didst fearlessly proclaim Christ as God; wherefore, having finished thy good contest, thou wast shown forth as a martyr glorified of God by the Saviour. Entreat Him that we who honour thee may be saved, O all-blessed Isidore.

Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)

A rule of faith and an image of gentleness, a teacher of abstinence, hast thou been shown forth to thy flock by the truth of things; wherefore thou hast gained the heights by humility, and riches by poverty. O father and hierarch Leontios, intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Apolytikion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)

In thee, O Father, was preserved unfailingly that which is according to the image; for taking up the Cross thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passes away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore, O venerable Serapion, thy spirit rejoices with the angels.

Apolytikion — Tone 1

Shining first in the labours of asceticism, O venerable one, thou didst put to rout every phalanx of the demons; and excelling afterwards in the contest of martyrdom, thou didst despise the threatenings of tyrants. Wherefore, having received a twofold crown from God, thou dost rejoice with the choirs of the angels and take thy delight, O Therapon the martyr, together with the venerable and the hieromartyrs. Glory to Christ who glorified thee; glory to Him who crowned thee; glory to Him who through thee worketh healings for all.

Kontakion — Tone 4

Thou hast been shown forth, O holy one, as a great steward of the whole world by thy prayers to God; therefore we hymn thee this day, O martyr wise in God, most glorious Isidore.

Kontakion — Tone 8

To him who is valiant and wondrous among the righteous, who has received from Christ the gift of miracles, let us now bring words of praise; and as thou hast boldness before the Holy Trinity, pray to her that thy servants may be delivered from troubles, that we may cry to thee: Rejoice, O Isidore wise in God.

Kontakion — Tone 2 (common of a hierarch)

Having shone forth as a shepherd upon the throne of the Holy City in the days of its affliction, thou didst keep the flock entrusted to thee and wast not shaken by exile: pray for us who honour thee, O all-blessed hierarch Leontios.

Kontakion — Tone 6

Having cleansed thyself by humility from the deceit of the enemy that once ensnared thee, thou wast made a lamp of the Church of Novgorod, and by thy prayers thou didst bring down rain in the drought and quench the fire of the city; wherefore we cry to thee: Rejoice, O holy hierarch and father Nikitas.

Kontakion — Tone 2 (common of an ascetic)

Having nothing upon the earth, thou didst possess Christ alone; and selling even thy own freedom, thou didst purchase souls for God. Wherefore, O Serapion, teach us to be poor, that we may be rich in Him.

Kontakion — Tone 4 (common of a hieromartyr)

A priest of Christ and a most honoured martyr, thou wast offered upon the holy table as the sacrifice thou didst thyself offer; wherefore, O Therapon, thou pourest out healings upon those who honour thee, and we glorify the Lord who crowned thee.

Kontakion — Tone 8

O successor of the apostles, adornment of hierarchs, teacher of the Orthodox Church, entreat the Master of all to grant peace to the world and to our souls great mercy.

Troparion — Tone 4 (common of several martyrs)

Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest 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 4

Enlightened by divine grace, O thou wise in God, with much chastity and much patience thou didst bring the course of this temporal life to a good end; wherefore after thy death also the brightness of thy life was made manifest, for thou pourest forth the grace of healings upon those who come with faith to thy holy tomb, O blessed Isidore. Pray thou to Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a martyr)

Thy martyr John, O Lord, in his contest received an incorruptible crown from Thee our God; for possessing Thy strength he cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By his intercessions save our souls.

Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a martyr)

Thy martyr Mark, O Lord, in his contest received an incorruptible crown from Thee our God; for possessing Thy strength he cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By his intercessions save our souls.

Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a martyr)

Thy martyr Maximus, O Lord, in his contest received an incorruptible crown from Thee our God; for possessing Thy strength he cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By his intercessions save our souls.

Troparion — Tone 4

Rejoicing, thou didst enter upon the ascetic life from thy youth, O blessed Nikitas, and manfully overcoming the assaults of the enemy, thou wast shown forth a chosen vessel of God and a shepherd of the Church of Novgorod. Pray thou to Christ our God that our souls be saved.

Troparion — Tone 8

From thy youth thou didst love Christ, O blessed one, and wast shown forth as an example to all in word and life, in love, in spirit and in faith, in purity and in humility of mind. Wherefore thou dwellest now in the mansions on high, where thou standest before the throne of the All-holy Trinity: holy hierarch Tikhon, pray thou that our souls be saved.

Readings

Vespers

Composite 19 - Micah 4.2-3, 5; 6.2-5, 8; 5.4, 5

1Thus says the Lord: From Sion will come forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he will judge among many peoples and rebuke mighty nations in a distant land. For all the peoples will walk, each its own way, while we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever. Thus says the Lord Almighty: Listen hills and valleys, foundations of the earth, because the Lord has a controversy with his people; for he will dispute with Israel, saying, ‘My people, what have I done to you? Or how have I grieved you? Or how have I troubled you? Answer me. For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and rescued you from the house of slavery, and sent Moses and Aaron before your face. My people, what have your enemies planned against you? Was it not told you, O man, what is good? And what does the Lord seek from you, except to execute judgement, and to love mercy and to be ready to walk with the Lord your God?’ Therefore the Lord will be magnified in strength, and will shepherd his flock in peace, to the extremities of the earth.

Composite 20 - Isaiah 55.1; 12.3-4; 55.2-13

1Thus says the Lord: You who thirst, go to the water; and all who have no money, go, buy and eat and drink wine and fat without money or price. For thus says the Lord Almighty to you: My people, draw water with joy from the springs of salvation. And you will say in that day: Praise the Lord, cry his name aloud, declare his glory among the nations, call to mind that his name has been exalted. My people, hear me, and eat good things, and your soul will delight in good things. Attend with your ears and follow my ways. Listen to me and your soul will live among good things. And I will make an eternal covenant with you, and you will call upon me. And when you draw near me, let the impious abandon his ways, and the lawless man his plans; and turn back to me and I will have mercy on you and forgive your sins. For your plans are not as my plans, says the Lord; but as heaven is distant from the earth, so is my way distant from your ways, and your thoughts from my mind. For as rain or snow would come down from heaven and not return there, until it had soaked the earth, and it bring forth and bud and give seed to the sower, and bread for food, so shall my word be, which once it has come from my mouth will not return there until it has accomplished all that I willed; and I will make my ways and my commands succeed. For you will go out with joy, and be taught with gladness; for the mountains and hills will exult as they receive you with joy; and all the trees of the field will clap with their branches; and instead of the briar shall come up the cypress; instead of the nettle shall come up the myrtle; and the Lord shall be for a name and for an eternal sign, says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel.

Proverbs 9.1-11

1Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars: 2She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table. 3She hath sent forth her maidens: she crieth upon the highest places of the city, 4Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, 5Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled. 6Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding. 7He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame: and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot. 8Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. 9Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. 10The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. 11For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased.

Epistle

Acts 14.6-18

6They were ware of it, and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about: 7And there they preached the gospel. 8And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked: 9The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, 10Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked. 11And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. 12And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker. 13Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people. 14Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, 15And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: 16Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. 17Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. 18And with these sayings scarce restrained they the people, that they had not done sacrifice unto them.

Hebrews 2.11-18 (Blessing of Waters)

11For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, 12Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. 13And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me. 14Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 16For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. 17Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. 18For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

Gospel

John 7.14-30

14Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught. 15And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? 16Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. 17If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. 18He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. 19Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me? 20The people answered and said, Thou hast a devil: who goeth about to kill thee? 21Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one work, and ye all marvel. 22Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man. 23If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day? 24Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. 25Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he, whom they seek to kill? 26But, lo, he speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ? 27Howbeit we know this man whence he is: but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is. 28Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not. 29But I know him: for I am from him, and he hath sent me. 30Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.

John 5.1-4 (Blessing of Waters)

1After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. 3In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. 4For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.