Dormition Righteous Anna, Mother of Theotokos

Saints commemorated

Saint of the day Antiochian commemoration

Dormition Righteous Anna, Mother of Theotokos

Joachim and Anna were the parents of the Most Holy Theotokos and the grandparents of Christ according to the flesh, honoured by the Church with the unique title "Ancestors of God" (Theopatores). An aged couple childless through fifty years of marriage, they bore the reproach of barrenness with patience and prayer until an angel announced to each of them the conception of a daughter whose name would be spoken of in all the world; their embrace at the Golden Gate of Jerusalem, and the birth of Mary that followed, are the matter of the feast of September 8. They are commemorated together on September 9, the day after the Nativity of the Theotokos, and are invoked by name at the dismissal of every Orthodox service.
Commemoration of the holy 165 Fathers of the Fifth Ecumenical Council (553)
St Olympias the Deaconess (408)

Olympias (c. 361–408) was the greatest of the deaconesses of Constantinople: an orphaned heiress of the senatorial aristocracy, widowed within two years of her marriage, who refused the emperor's pressure to marry again, was ordained deaconess of the Great Church by the patriarch Nectarius while still in her twenties, and spent one of the largest private fortunes in the eastern empire on the poor, the churches and the bishops of her age. Beside Hagia Sophia she built a monastery of some two hundred and fifty women whose enclosure adjoined the cathedral itself. She was the closest friend and the most steadfast supporter of John Chrysostom, and when he fell she fell with him: interrogated over the burning of the cathedral, fined, deprived of her community and driven from the city, she died in exile at Nicomedia on 25 July, probably in 408 — the year of Chrysostom's own death. Seventeen of his letters to her survive, the finest of his exile correspondence, and an anonymous contemporary Life preserves her memory. She is the standing type in the Orthodox tradition of the ordained deaconess of the ancient Church.
Eupraxia of Tabenna

Eupraxia was a child of the senatorial nobility of Constantinople — daughter of Antigonus, a kinsman of the emperor Theodosius the Great — who was taken to Egypt at the age of seven, asked to be left in a women's monastery of the Thebaid near Tabennisi, and never came out again. Betrothed in infancy to a senator's son, she wrote to the emperor at the age of twelve to renounce the match and to ask that her whole inheritance be given to the poor and the churches, saying that she was already the bride of Christ. In the monastery she chose the lowest work of the house — the kitchen, the water, the sweeping — carried her fast from daily food to one meal a week, bore in silence the malice of an envious sister and a series of disfiguring accidents, and received before her death the gift of healing. She died aged about thirty, about the year 410–413, ten days after the abbess had seen her in a vision standing before the throne of God. Her Life is one of the most widely copied of the early Egyptian women's lives, and she is commemorated on July 25 with Olympias the Deaconess.
Macarius of Unzha

Macarius (1349–1444) was the greatest of the colonising monks of the middle Volga: a boy of Nizhny Novgorod who ran away at twelve to be tonsured by Dionysius of Suzdal in the cave monastery above the city, and who spent ninety-five years pushing the frontier of Russian monasticism eastward into country the Church had not held. At Yellow Waters (Zheltye Vody) on the Volga he founded a Trinity monastery about 1435 and preached to the Mari, Chuvash and Mordvin peoples among whom it stood, baptising them in the lake. In 1439 the Kazan Tatars destroyed the house and carried him off; the khan, impressed by what he heard of him, released him with some four hundred captives on condition that he never rebuild there. He led them west through the forests to Unzha — the march on which the tradition places the story of the elk spared because the Apostles' Fast was not yet out — and founded a second monastery fifteen versts from the town, where he died on 25 July 1444. His relics were found incorrupt in 1671; he is a patron of Kostroma and of the Nizhny Novgorod land, and the great Makaryev fair that grew up at Yellow Waters carried his name until 1817.

British Isles and Ireland

St. Nessan, abbot of Murgret (551)

Troparia & kontakia

Apolytikion

Most glorified art Thou, O Christ our God, who hast set our Fathers as beacons upon the earth, and by them hast guided us all into the true faith: O greatly merciful One, glory to Thee.

Kontakion

The preaching of the Apostles and the definitions of the Fathers have sealed the one faith of the Church; and she, wearing the garment of truth woven from the theology that comes from above, rightly divides and glorifies the great mystery of godliness.

Kontakion — Tone 2

Despising the bridal chamber of earth and the wealth of thy fathers, thou wast betrothed to Christ alone, O all-blessed Eupraxia; and serving thy sisters in the lowest labours thou wast raised on high, and dost intercede unceasingly for us all.

Kontakion — Tone 2

Anna now rejoiceth, loosed from the bonds of barrenness, and nourisheth the all-pure one, calling all together to hymn Him who from her womb hath given to mortals the only Mother who knew not man.

Kontakion — Tone 2

Having left thy father's house while yet a child, thou didst seek the Father who is in heaven; and dwelling in the wilderness of the Volga thou didst enlighten the nations that sat in darkness, and didst lead the captives home. Wherefore we cry to thee: rejoice, O Macarius, adornment of the northern land.

Kontakion — Tone 2

Having poured out thy riches upon the poor as water upon the earth, thou wast found rich toward God, O Olympias; and ministering in the courts of the Great Church thou didst not forsake thy shepherd in his affliction. Wherefore thou hast received in exile the crown of them that endure.

Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable woman)

In thee, O mother, was the divine image preserved unimpaired: for taking up the cross thou didst follow after Christ, and by thy deeds thou hast taught us to despise the flesh, which passeth away, and to care rather for the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore, O venerable Eupraxia, thy spirit rejoiceth with the angels.

Troparion — Tone 2

Celebrating the memory of Thy righteous Ancestors of God, O Lord, through them we entreat Thee: save our souls.

Troparion — Tone 5 (common of a venerable father)

With the streams of thy tears thou didst make the barren wilderness to bloom, and by thy sighings from the depths thou didst bring thy labours to a hundredfold harvest; and thou wast made a beacon for the world, shining forth with miracles, O Macarius our father. Intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable woman)

In thee, O mother, was the divine image preserved unimpaired: for taking up the cross thou didst follow after Christ, and by thy deeds thou hast taught us to despise the flesh, which passeth away, and to care rather for the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore, O venerable Olympias, thy spirit rejoiceth with the angels.

Readings

Epistle

1 Corinthians 7.35-8.7

³⁵And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction. ³⁶But if any man think that he behaveth himself uncomely toward his virgin, if she pass the flower of her age, and need so require, let him do what he will, he sinneth not: let them marry. ³⁷Nevertheless he that standeth stedfast in his heart, having no necessity, but hath power over his own will, and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin, doeth well. ³⁸So then he that giveth her in marriage doeth well; but he that giveth her not in marriage doeth better. ³⁹The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord. ⁴⁰But she is happier if she so abide, after my judgment: and I think also that I have the Spirit of God. ¹Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. ²And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. ³But if any man love God, the same is known of him. ⁴As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. ⁵For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) ⁶But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. ⁷Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.

Galatians 4.22-31 (St Anna)

²²For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. ²³But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. ²⁴Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. ²⁵For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. ²⁶But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. ²⁷For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. ²⁸Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. ²⁹But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. ³⁰Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. ³¹So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Gospel

Matthew 15.29-31

²⁹And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee; and went up into a mountain, and sat down there. ³⁰And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus’ feet; and he healed them: ³¹Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel.

Luke 8.16-21 (St Anna)

¹⁶No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light. ¹⁷For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad. ¹⁸Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have. ¹⁹Then came to him his mother and his brethren, and could not come at him for the press. ²⁰And it was told him by certain which said, Thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to see thee. ²¹And he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it.

Saints commemorated