About "Joy of All Who Sorrow" Icon of the Mother of God →
.jpg){kind=link}
Saints commemorated
-
Saint of the day
Martyr Arethas and Companions
-
Arethas and the Martyrs of Najran
Arethas (al-Harith) and the martyrs of Najran suffered around the year 523 in the Christian city of Najran in Himyar (South Arabia), when the Jewish Himyarite king Yusuf, called Dhu Nuwas — Dunaan in the Greek and Slavonic service books — set out to destroy Christianity in his realm. After the city surrendered on a sworn promise of safety, the king broke his oath and demanded that its Christians renounce Christ. Arethas, the aged chief of Najran, was beheaded with the leading men, and the whole confessing community — the tradition numbers them 4,299 — perished by the sword and by fire, among them the noblewoman Syncletica (Ruhm) with her daughters. Their massacre, uniquely well documented for so early a martyrdom, resounded through the Christian world and moved the Ethiopian king Elesbaan to cross the sea and overthrow the persecutor.
-
Athanasius I of Constantinople
Athanasius I, Patriarch of Constantinople, was a rigorous ascetic and reforming hierarch of the early Palaiologan age, twice occupying the patriarchal throne (1289–1293 and 1303–c. 1310) under the emperor Andronikos II. Born at Adrianople and named Alexius in the world, he was tonsured young and spent decades in the strictest monastic labour on Athos and elsewhere before being raised, against his will, to the patriarchate. As patriarch he waged an uncompromising campaign for the discipline of clergy and monks, drove idle bishops back to their sees, and made himself the tireless advocate of the poor, the refugees, and the famine-stricken of the capital — a severity that twice cost him his throne. He died in retirement in the monastery he had founded, and his relics were found incorrupt. He is not to be confused with Athanasius the Great, the fourth-century Archbishop of Alexandria and champion of Nicaea (kept January 18 and May 2) — a wholly different saint of a far earlier age; nor with Athanasius the Confessor of Paulopetrion (†821; kept February 22), the Bithynian abbot-confessor of the iconoclast age whom the OCA synaxarion styles "Athanasius the Confessor of Constantinople" — the title most easily confused with this patriarch's, though the two are five centuries apart.
-
Elesbaan, King of Ethiopia
Elesbaan (Kaleb Ella Asbeha), king of Aksum in Ethiopia in the early sixth century, is venerated as a righteous ruler for his defence of the Christians of South Arabia. When the Jewish Himyarite king Dhu Nuwas massacred the Christian city of Najran — the martyrdom of Arethas and his companions — Elesbaan, urged by Byzantium and the Church, crossed the Red Sea about the year 525, overthrew and killed the persecutor, and restored the Christian faith in Himyar. The tradition relates that in the evening of his life he laid aside his crown, sent it to be hung above the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and ended his days as an ascetic recluse. The Church keeps his memory on October 24, the day of the martyrs he avenged.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Cadfarch, disciple of Iltyd (6th C)
- St. Maelor of Sark (586)
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 6
We have no other help, we have no other hope, but thee, O Lady. Do thou help us: in thee we hope, and of thee we make our boast, for we are thy servants; let us not be put to shame.
Kontakion — Tone 4
The light-bearing feast of the passion-bearers hath dawned this day as the herald of our gladness; keeping which, let us glorify the Lord who dwelleth in the highest.
Kontakion — Tone 2
Clothed in the shining garment of the priesthood, thou hast joyfully attained in spirit to the heavenly Kingdom; therefore the dwellings of the righteous received thee, where is unspeakable gladness, and the Word, and the choirs of all the saints, O hierarch Athanasius: pray without ceasing for us all.
Kontakion — Tone 4
Him who for the love of Christ the King laid aside the height of an earthly kingdom, and the shining crown of crowns, and the purple, and who was gloriously crowned by Him in the heavens — Elesbaan the wise king, who exchanged a corruptible and fleeting kingdom for the Kingdom Eternal — let us praise in songs of hymnody, as a great intercessor for the world.
Magnification
We magnify you, O holy passion-bearers, Arethas and those who suffered with thee, and we honour your precious sufferings which ye endured for Christ.
Troparion — Tone 4
To the Theotokos let us sinners and lowly ones now diligently hasten, and let us fall down in repentance, crying from the depths of our soul: O Lady, help us, take pity upon us; make haste, for we perish under the multitude of our transgressions; turn not thy servants away empty, for thee alone do we have as our hope.
Troparion — Tone 1
Having shown yourselves valiant in Christ against the godless king, O holy martyrs, and having convicted his Jewish unbelief in Christ, ye endured the torment of tortures and the severing of your heads; therefore the angels praised you, and the generations of the faithful glorify thee, O Arethas, and those who suffered with thee, as ye ever pray for our souls.
Troparion — Tone 1
By the light of a pure life thou didst burn away the thorns of passion, and with streams of tears thou didst water the barren earth, making of thy soul a field of much fruit, O most blessed Athanasius, luminary of Constantinople, adornment of patriarchs: entreat Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4
Moved by divine zeal to avenge the shed blood of the righteous — as David was anointed by Samuel, so wast thou by the most wondrous Zeno, who prophetically foretold what should come to pass for thee, and by whose blessing, at thy vow to him, thou wast granted victory and triumph over the enemies — and thereafter, laying aside thy kingdom, thou didst finish thy life in the ascetic dwellings of the mountain, O king Elesbaan: entreat Christ the heavenly King to save our souls.
Readings
Epistle
Philippians 3.8-19
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. 15Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. 16Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. 17Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. 18(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
Gospel
Luke 10.1-15
1After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. 2Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. 3Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. 4Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way. 5And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house. 6And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again. 7And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house. 8And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you: 9And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. 10But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, 11Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. 12But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city. 13Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you. 15And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell.