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Saturday 25 October 2025

Memorial (Demetrius) Saturday

Saturday of the 20th week after Pentecost

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No Fast Tone 2

Memorial (Demetrius) Saturday

Saints commemorated

  • Martyrs Marcian and Martyrius the Notaries

    Marcian and Martyrius were two clergy of the Great Church of Constantinople — Marcian a reader, Martyrius a subdeacon — who served together as notaries, the secretaries and record-keepers, of Paul the Confessor, the Nicene archbishop of the capital repeatedly driven from his see by the Arian party. After Paul was exiled and murdered and the Arian Macedonius seized the throne, the two men continued openly to confess the consubstantiality of the Son and to defend the faith of Nicaea. The Arians tried in vain to buy their silence with gold and the promise of high office; when bribery failed, they had them condemned and beheaded, about the year 355. They are commemorated on October 25, and a martyrium was raised over their relics at Constantinople.

  • St Tabitha of Joppa

    Tabitha — called in Greek Dorcas, both names meaning "gazelle" — was a woman disciple of the earliest Church at Joppa on the coast of Judea, remembered in the Acts of the Apostles as one "full of good works and almsdeeds" who made garments for the widows of the community. When she fell sick and died, the disciples sent for the Apostle Peter, then at nearby Lydda; coming up to the room where she was laid out and the widows wept over the clothes she had made, Peter put them all out, knelt in prayer, and said, "Tabitha, arise." She opened her eyes and sat up, and the miracle, becoming known through all Joppa, brought many to faith. She is venerated among the righteous and commemorated on October 25.

  • Anastasius the Fuller

    Anastasius the Fuller was a craftsman — a fuller, who cleaned and dyed cloth — who lived at Salona in Dalmatia, the great Roman city near the modern Split, at the height of the persecution of Diocletian. Coming (by the tradition) from Aquileia in northern Italy, he settled at Salona and lived his faith so openly that he painted the sign of the Cross on the door of his house and workshop. Arrested and brought to trial for his confession of Christ, he refused to sacrifice, and was condemned to death: a stone was tied about his neck and he was cast into the sea, about the year 304. A Christian noblewoman recovered his body and enshrined it, and his relics became a treasure of the Dalmatian and later the Italian church. He is commemorated on October 25.

  • John of Beverley

    John of Beverley († 7 May 721) was a Northumbrian monk and hierarch, trained at Canterbury under Archbishop Theodore and in the monastery of Whitby under the Abbess Hilda, who became Bishop of Hexham in 687 and Bishop of York in 705, ordained the Venerable Bede both deacon and priest, and ended his life as a simple monk in the house he had founded in the woodland of Deira — the Inderawuda that grew into the town of Beverley. He is known almost entirely from Bede's Ecclesiastical History, which devotes a series of chapters to his healings, gathered from men who had been present at them; those chapters make him one of the best-documented wonderworkers of the Anglo-Saxon Church. His shrine at Beverley became one of the great pilgrimage places of medieval England, and he is kept among the saints of the undivided Church honoured by the Orthodox in the British Isles.

Troparia & kontakia

Kontakion — Tone 4

Having contended nobly from your youth, O Marcian with wise Martyrius, ye cast down the apostate Arius and kept the Orthodox faith unharmed, following Paul the wise teacher; wherefore, together with him, ye have found life, as excellent champions of the Trinity.

Troparion — Tone 4

Thy Martyr, O Lord, in his struggle received an incorruptible crown from Thee, our God; for possessed of Thy might, he cast down the tyrants and shattered the powerless insolence of the demons. By his supplications, O Christ God, save our souls.

Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a hierarch)

O guide of Orthodoxy and teacher of piety and holiness, luminary of the North and divinely inspired adornment of hierarchs, O wise John: by thy teaching thou hast enlightened all, and by thy prayers thou didst loose the tongue of the speechless and raise up the dying; O harp of the Spirit, intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4

Thy Martyrs, O Lord, in their struggle received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for possessed of Thy might, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the powerless insolence of the demons. By their supplications, O Christ God, save our souls.

Readings

Epistle

2 Corinthians 1.8-11

8For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: 9But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: 10Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us; 11Ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf.

1 Thessalonians 4.13-17 (Departed)

13But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Gospel

Luke 7.1-10

1Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum. 2And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die. 3And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant. 4And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this: 5For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue. 6Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof: 7Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed. 8For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. 9When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. 10And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick.

John 5.24-30 (Departed)

24Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. 25Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. 26For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; 27And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. 28Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 29And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. 30I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.