Martyrs Galacteon and Wife Epistemis; Repose St Jonah of Novgorod

Saints commemorated

• Saint of the day

  Martyrs Galacteon and Wife Epistemis

• Saint of the day

  Repose St Jonah of Novgorod

• Holy Martyrs Galaction and Episteme (ca. 250)

  Galacteon and Episteme were a young married couple of Emesa in Syria, martyred around the year 253 in the persecution under the governor Secundus. Betrothed by their parents, they chose after their marriage to live in continence and then to withdraw to the monastic settlements of Mount Publion, Galacteon among the monks and Episteme among the nuns. When persecution reached their mountain, Galacteon was seized while the others fled, and Episteme, unwilling to be parted from her husband and teacher, gave herself up to share his sufferings. Both endured mutilation and beheading together, and the Church keeps their joint memory on November 5 as an image of Christian marriage crowned in martyrdom.

• Holy Apostles Patrobas, Hermas, Linus, Gaius and Philologus

  Hermas, Patrobus, Linus, Gaius and Philologus were five apostles of the Seventy whom the Byzantine calendar commemorates together on November 5. Each is named in the closing greetings of Paul's Epistle to the Romans or in the Second Epistle to Timothy, and each is remembered as a bishop of the apostolic age: Hermas at Philippopolis in Thrace, where he died a martyr; Patrobus at Puteoli and Naples in Italy; Linus at Rome, the successor of the Apostle Peter and the Linus of the Roman episcopal succession named in Second Timothy; Gaius at Ephesus, after Timothy; and Philologus at Sinope on the Black Sea, consecrated by the Apostle Andrew. The Church keeps their joint memory among the Seventy sent out by the Lord.

• Our Holy Father Gregory the Confessor, Patriarch of Alexandria (early 9th c.)

British Isles and Ireland

• St. Kanten, founder of Llanganten, Powys (8th C)
• St. Kea, bishop in Devon (6th C)

Troparia & kontakia

Readings