Saturday after Elevation
Saints commemorated
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Greatmartyr Eustathius and Martyr Theopistes
Eustathius, named Placidas before his baptism, was by tradition a celebrated Roman general under Titus and Trajan who was converted while hunting by a vision of Christ — a radiant Cross shining between the antlers of the stag he pursued. Baptised with his wife Theopiste and their sons Agapius and Theopistus, he was tried like Job: stripped of wealth, parted from wife and children, and reduced to a hired labourer, until God restored his family and his command. Refusing to sacrifice to the idols after his triumph, he was martyred with his whole family in a bronze bull under Hadrian, around 118. His passio became one of the most beloved legends of the Christian world, East and West, and the Vision of Eustathius a classic subject of iconography.
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Martyrs Michael and Theodore of Chernigov
Michael Vsevolodovich, Prince of Chernigov and for a time Grand Prince of Kiev, and Theodore, his boyar and faithful counsellor, were put to death at the camp of Batu Khan in 1245/6, in the first generation of the Mongol yoke over Rus'. Summoned to the Horde to receive the khan's charter for his principality, Michael was willing to bow to the khan as an earthly ruler but refused the pagan rites demanded of arriving princes — passage between the purification fires and veneration of the Mongols' idols and elements — and was beaten and beheaded; Theodore, offered his master's principality if he would conform, followed him in the same confession and death. The protomartyrs of the Horde, glorified as wonderworkers of Chernigov, their relics have rested since the sixteenth century in the Moscow Kremlin.
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Holy Martyrs Hypatius and Andrew, Confessors of the Holy Icons (8th c.)
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Sts Anastasius, Theodore, Euprepius and Anastasius the Younger, confessors and disciples of St Maximos the Confessor (7th c.)
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Hilarion of Saint Anne's
Hilarion (†1804), in the world John of Heraklion in Crete, is one of the Athonite-prepared new-martyrs: a merchant's clerk in Constantinople who, falsely accused of theft and abandoned in his trouble, denied Christ under pressure of the Sultan's court — and within twelve days was fleeing his denial. Ten months in the Crimea, the counsel of elders, and the long school of Athos followed: at Iviron, then at the Skete of Saint Anne under the elder Bessarion, he was tonsured Hilarion and formed by a rule of strict fasting for the purpose the skete's fathers knew well — the return to the place of denial. On 20 September 1804, at Constantinople, he publicly renounced Islam and confessed Christ; tortured until, the account says, all his bones were broken, he was beheaded, receiving — as the Athonite tradition writes of his company — two crowns, of ascesis and of martyrdom.
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Oleg of Briansk
Oleg Romanovich (†c. 1285), prince of Briansk — Leontius in baptism, Basil in the schema — was the grandson of the martyred Michael of Chernigov, and chose the opposite crown: after campaigning with his father against Lithuania in 1274, he laid down the principality at the height of his strength, entered the monastery of Saints Peter and Paul at Briansk which he had himself endowed, and finished his life there as the monk Basil in strict ascesis. He was buried in the monastery church, and the Church keeps him on September 20 with his grandfather — the martyr and the monk of one house, the two renunciations answering each other across a generation.
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 2
Having clearly imitated the Passion of Christ, and drunk His cup with faith, thou becamest a partaker, O Eustathius, and joint heir of His glory, receiving from the God of all divine remission from on high.
Kontakion — Tone 8
Accounting the kingdom of the earth as nothing, thou didst forsake its glory as a passing thing, coming of thine own accord to the contest; thou didst proclaim the Trinity before the impious tormentor, O passion-bearer Michael, with the valiant Theodore: standing before the King of hosts, pray that your fatherland, the city and the people be preserved unharmed, that we may honour you unceasingly.
Stichera
O adamant of soul, how shall we praise thee as thou deservest? For thou didst surpass nature: bereft of riches, of children and of wife, thou didst cry out that blessed and ever-memorable word of Job, "The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; as it seemed good to the Lord, so it came to pass." But the God whom thou didst love and fervently desire gave thee back again those dearest to thee, providing that they should be thy fellow contestants; with whom, through manifold torments, thou didst accomplish thy blessed end. Taking them as ambassadors together with thee, O Eustathius of steadfast soul, importune Him that we be delivered from our iniquities.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy Martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received crowns of incorruption from Thee our God; for possessing Thy strength they cast down the tyrants and shattered the powerless insolence of the demons: by their intercessions, O Christ God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4
Having accomplished your lives in martyrdom and been adorned with the crowns of confession, ye ascended to the things of heaven, O most wise Michael with the valiant Theodore: pray Christ God to preserve your fatherland, and the city and the people, according to His great mercy.
Readings
Epistle
1 Corinthians 1.26-29 (Saturday after Elevation)
26For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: 27But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: 29That no flesh should glory in his presence.
1 Corinthians 4.17-5.5
17For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church. 18Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you. 19But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power. 20For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. 21What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness? 1It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. 2And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. 3For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, 4In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Gospel
John 8.21-30 (Saturday after Elevation)
21Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come. 22Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come. 23And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. 24I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. 25Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. 26I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him. 27They understood not that he spake to them of the Father. 28Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. 29And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him. 30As he spake these words, many believed on him.
Matthew 24.1-13
1And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. 2And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. 3And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? 4And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. 5For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 6And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. 8All these are the beginning of sorrows. 9Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. 10And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 11And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.