Repose of St Jacob Netsvetov, Enlightener of the Peoples of Alaska

Saturday of the 7th week after Pentecost

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No Fast Tone 5

Saints commemorated

Saint of the day

Jacob Netsvetov

Jacob Netsvetov (1802–1864) was the first native Alaskan ordained to the Orthodox priesthood — the son of a Russian company worker from Tobolsk and an Unangan (Aleut) mother of Atka — and for thirty-five years the missionary priest of the western and interior reaches of Russian America. From Atka he served a parish that ran some two thousand miles through the Aleutians and the Pribilofs, built a school, and worked out with St Innocent (Veniaminov) the written form of the Unangan language and the translation of the Scriptures and services into it. Widowed, burnt out of his house and bereaved of his father within eighteen months, he asked for harder work, and in 1844 was sent to found the Kvikhpak (Yukon) Mission among the Yup'ik and Athabascan peoples, where he devised another alphabet, translated again, and baptised some 1,320 people in twenty years. He died at Sitka on 26 July 1864 and was glorified by the Orthodox Church in America in 1994.
Antiochian commemoration

Holy Righteous Martyr Paraskeve (140)

Parasceva was a Roman-born Christian of the second century, the only child of Greek Christian parents, Agathon and Politia, who named her for the day of her birth — the Preparation, Friday, the day of the Cross. Left an orphan while still young, she sold her inheritance, gave it to the poor, consecrated her virginity, and then did the thing that makes her unusual among women saints of her age: she went out and preached, city by city, as the Apostles had. She was arrested under Antoninus Pius (138–161), survived a red-hot helmet and a cauldron of boiling oil and pitch, and — by the most famous episode of her passion — healed the emperor of the blindness that came upon him, so that he set her free and stayed his hand against the Christians. Taken again in another province, she was tortured and beheaded. She is the great Agia Paraskevi of the Greek world, invoked above all for diseases of the eyes. She must not be confused with two later saints of the same name (see Disputed questions).
Holy Hieromartyrs Hermolaus (305), Hermippus, and Hermocrates at Nicomedia

Three priests of Nicomedia who survived the great burning of the Christians of that city in the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian, lived on in hiding, and continued to serve and to teach. The eldest of them, Hermolaus, met in the street a promising young physician-in-training named Pantoleon, drew him into his lodging, unpicked for him the emptiness of the gods, and at last baptised him — so making the great-martyr and unmercenary Panteleimon, whose feast the Church keeps on the very next day. When Panteleimon was denounced, his teacher was sought out with him; Hermolaus, together with Hermippus and Hermocrates, was arrested, refused to sacrifice, and was beheaded at Nicomedia about the year 305. Their commemoration on July 26 stands immediately before their disciple's on July 27, and the two feasts are read together.
Gerontios of Saint Anna's Skete

Gerontios was the abbot of Bouleuteria, one of the small ancient monasteries of the Holy Mountain, which stood exposed on the coast and was raided repeatedly by pirates. When the community was at last driven out, he withdrew with a disciple to the steep and waterless slopes above the sea on the south-west face of Athos, at the foot of the peak, and there built a hesychasterion and a church of St Panteleimon. Shown a spring in a place where no water was, he opened it, and it still runs. Around his cell grew the settlement that became the Skete of St Anna, the oldest and largest of the Athonite sketes, which has given the Church some fifteen canonised saints. He was a friend of Maximus Kavsokalyvites, and died at a great age. He is commemorated on July 26.
Moses the Hungarian

Moses was a Hungarian in the service of the Kievan prince Boris — one of three brothers, with George, who was killed at his master's side in 1015, and Ephraim, who became the founder of the monastery at Novy Torg. Moses escaped the murder on the Alta, was carried off to Poland as a prisoner of war when Bolesław the Brave took Kiev in 1018, and there was bought by a rich Polish widow who wanted him for a husband. He refused her for five years and more; she had him flogged a hundred strokes a day and at last mutilated. When her protector died and Poland rose in revolt she was killed, and Moses came at last to Kiev, to the caves of St Anthony, where he lived about ten years in silence and reposed about 1043. His relics lie in the Near Caves. The Kievan Church keeps him as the confessor of chastity, and those troubled by the passions of the flesh have been sent to his relics for a thousand years.
Oraiozele of Byzantium

Oraiozele — the name means something like "beautiful in zeal" — belongs to the small group of saints attached to the first preaching of the Apostle Andrew at Byzantium, before that town was Constantinople. A pagan by birth and, the notice says, an educated woman, she was converted and baptised by St Andrew himself, who authorised her to teach the faith to other women. She attached herself to the church of the Archangel Michael at Rheuma on the European shore of the Bosphorus, gathered disciples, and brought many of the town's pagans to Christ. In the persecution of Domitian she was arrested, beaten — and, the account notes, seemed not to feel the blows, as though another were bearing them — and at last beheaded, her body being burned. She is invoked by mothers who cannot conceive or cannot nurse. Her feast is July 26.
Sava III of Serbia

Sava the Third was Archbishop of Serbia from 1309 to 1316, the seventh successor of Sava the First on the throne of the autocephalous Serbian Church. He rose through the classic Serbian cursus — igoumen of Hilandar on the Holy Mountain, then Bishop of Prizren, then archbishop — and his archiepiscopate coincided with the most lavish building programme in medieval Serbian history, that of King Stefan Uroš II Milutin. He was closely involved in it: he had a hand in the rebuilding of the great church of Our Lady of Ljeviš at Prizren while he was its bishop, rebuilt St George at Staro Nagoričane, and was consulted by the king over Banjska, which he did not live to see finished. In the charters he signs himself "Archbishop of all the Serbian and Maritime Lands." He died on 16 July 1316 and was buried at Peć. The Serbian Church numbers him among its holy archbishops and keeps him on July 26.
Sergius Strelnikov

Sergius Strelnikov was a village priest of the Vyatka country who served the church of St John the Forerunner at Orshanka, in what is now the Republic of Mari El, for more than twenty years. Deprived of civil rights and crushed with punitive taxation through the 1920s and 1930s, he kept serving; when the church was closed in 1936 he continued the services in his own house and organised the parish's petitions to have it reopened. He was arrested on 26 July 1937 on the standard charge of counter-revolutionary agitation, sentenced by an NKVD troika on 8 August, and shot the same day at three in the afternoon, his body thrown into a mass grave outside Yoshkar-Ola. He was numbered among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia by the Holy Synod in 2005, and his relics were recovered later that year. His feast falls on the church date 26 July, which is the civil 8 August on which he died.

British Isles and Ireland

St. Docco (6th C)

Troparia & kontakia

Apolytikion — Tone 8

In thee, O father, was the divine image surely preserved: for taking up the cross thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, which passeth away, and to care for the soul, which is immortal. Wherefore, O venerable Gerontios, thy spirit rejoiceth with the angels.

Apolytikion — Tone 4

Sharers in the ways of the Apostles and successors upon their thrones, ye found in the practice of virtue the ascent to contemplation, O inspired of God; wherefore, rightly dividing the word of truth, ye contended for the faith even unto blood, O hieromartyrs Hermolaus, Hermippus and Hermocrates: intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.

Apolytikion — Tone 4

Thy lamb, O Jesus, crieth out with a loud voice: thee, my Bridegroom, I love, and seeking thee I contend, and am crucified and buried with thy baptism; I suffer for thy sake that I may reign with thee, I die for thee that I may live in thee. Receive as a spotless sacrifice her that was slain in love for thee. At her entreaties, O merciful One, save our souls.

Apolytikion — Tone 1

O Christ our God, thou hast granted us thy venerable-martyr Parasceva as a physician of our ills: for named for the day of thy Cross, she took up the Cross and followed thee, and by the shedding of her blood she opened the eyes of the blind. By her prayers, O merciful One, grant to our souls also the light that never sets.

Apolytikion — Tone 8

A guide of Orthodoxy, a teacher of piety and purity, a lamp to thy people and a God-inspired adornment of hierarchs wast thou, O wise Sava; by thy teaching thou hast enlightened all, O harp of the Spirit: intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.

Apolytikion — Tone 4

Sharer in the ways of the Apostles and successor upon their thrones, thou didst find in the practice of virtue the ascent to contemplation, O inspired of God; wherefore, rightly dividing the word of truth, thou didst contend for the faith even unto blood, O hieromartyr Sergius: intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.

Kontakion — Tone 2

Priests of the Most High and teachers of the truth, ye hid yourselves from the fury of the tyrant but not from the light of Christ; and having brought the physician Panteleimon to the healing waters of baptism, ye were beheaded with him for the faith. Wherefore we cry to you: cease not to intercede for us all.

Kontakion — Tone 2

A captive in body, thou wast free in soul, O Moses; for gold could not buy thee, nor the scourge bend thee, nor the knife take from thee the chastity thou hadst vowed. Wherefore the caves received thee as a confessor, and thou dost loose from the bonds of the passions all that call upon thee.

Kontakion — Tone 3

Consecrating thy virginity to the Bridegroom and thy tongue to the preaching of the truth, thou wast tried in fire and in the seething cauldron, and wast not consumed, O all-praised Parasceva; wherefore, receiving thy crown by the sword, thou dost pour out healings upon them that honour thee.

Troparion — Tone 4

Born of the islands and returning to them as a shepherd, thou didst carry the Gospel in the tongues of thy people, O righteous father Jacob; through storm and ice and sorrow thou didst not turn back, but didst bring whole nations to the waters of baptism. Enlightener of Alaska, pray to Christ our God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 8

Readings

Vespers

Wisdom of Solomon 5.15-6.3

¹⁵But the righteous live for evermore; their reward also is with the Lord, and the care of them is with the most High. ¹⁶Therefore shall they receive a glorious kingdom, and a beautiful crown from the Lord’s hand: for with his right hand shall he cover them, and with his arm shall he protect them. ¹⁷He shall take to him his jealousy for complete armour, and make the creature his weapon for the revenge of his enemies. ¹⁸He shall put on righteousness as a breastplate, and true judgment instead of an helmet. ¹⁹He shall take holiness for an invincible shield. ²⁰His severe wrath shall he sharpen for a sword, and the world shall fight with him against the unwise. ²¹Then shall the right aiming thunderbolts go abroad; and from the clouds, as from a well drawn bow, shall they fly to the mark. ²²And hailstones full of wrath shall be cast as out of a stone bow, and the water of the sea shall rage against them, and the floods shall cruelly drown them. ²³Yea, a mighty wind shall stand up against them, and like a storm shall blow them away: thus iniquity shall lay waste the whole earth, and ill dealing shall overthrow the thrones of the mighty. ¹Hear therefore, O ye kings, and understand; learn, ye that be judges of the ends of the earth. ²Give ear, ye that rule the people, and glory in the multitude of nations. ³For power is given you of the Lord, and sovereignty from the Highest, who shall try your works, and search out your counsels.

1 John 4.1-6

¹Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. ²Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: ³And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. ⁴Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. ⁵They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. ⁶We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

1 John 4.20-5.5

²⁰If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? ²¹And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. ¹Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. ²By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. ³For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. ⁴For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. ⁵Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

Matins Gospel

John 10.9-16

⁹I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. ¹⁰The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. ¹¹I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. ¹²But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. ¹³The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. ¹⁴I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. ¹⁵As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

Epistle

Romans 12.1-3

¹I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. ²And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. ³For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

Philippians 3.7-14 (St Jacob)

⁷But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. ⁸Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, ⁹And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: ¹⁰That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; ¹¹If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. ¹²Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. ¹³Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, ¹⁴I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Gospel

Matthew 10.37-11.1

³⁷He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. ³⁹He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. ⁴⁰He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. ⁴¹He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. ⁴²And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. ¹And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.

Mark 10.29-31, 42-45 (St Jacob)

²⁹And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, ³⁰But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life. ³¹But many that are first shall be last; and the last first. ⁴²But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. ⁴³But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: ⁴⁴And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. ⁴⁵For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.