Nativity Fast, day 4
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Martyrs Platon and Roman
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Holy New Martyr Anastasius of Epirus (1750), and Daniel, whom he converted
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Plato of Ancyra
Plato of Ancyra (†c. 306) was a young confessor of Galatia who was martyred in his native city during the Great Persecution. Still in his youth, he travelled the cities preaching Christ with a persuasiveness and command of Greek learning that astonished his hearers, until he was arrested and tried before the governor Agrippinus. Flattery, the offer of a noble marriage, threats, and prolonged torture and starvation all failed to move him, and he was beheaded for refusing to sacrifice to the idols. The tradition remembers him as the brother of the Martyr Antiochus the Physician, and his memory was kept with a proper hymn at Ancyra. He is commemorated on November 18.
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Romanus of Antioch and Barulas
Romanus (†303) was a deacon of the church of Caesarea in Palestine who, during the Great Persecution, was staying at Antioch and there boldly resisted the demolition of the churches and denounced the pagan sacrifices before the prefect. Tortured, condemned to the fire, saved from it by a sudden rain, and finally deprived of his tongue and strangled in prison, he became one of the most celebrated martyrs of the age, honoured by a homily of John Chrysostom and a long hymn of Prudentius. His memory is inseparable from that of Barulas, a small child who, brought forward in the trial, confessed the one true God, shamed the idolaters, and was beheaded while his mother urged him on. The two are commemorated together on November 18.
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Zacchaeus and Alphaeus
Zacchaeus and Alphaeus were among the first martyrs of the Great Persecution in Palestine, put to death at Caesarea in the year 303. Zacchaeus was a deacon of the church of Gadara who confessed Christ openly and would not renounce him under torture; Alphaeus, a reader of the church of Caesarea, seeing crowds of the lapsed on their way to sacrifice, publicly begged them not to defile themselves with the idols and was seized for it. Shackled together and thrown into prison, where they spent the night in prayer, the two were beheaded the next morning. They are commemorated together on November 18.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Mawes, bishop in Cornwall and Brittany (5th C)
- St. Constant, priest-hermit at Lough Erne (777)
- St. Keverne, friend of St. Kieran (6th C)
- St. Mummolus companion of St Fursey (c.690)
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 3
Thy holy memory gladdens the whole world, summoning all the faithful to thy most honourable temple, where now, gathered together in joy, we sing thy praise in hymns and splendour. Wherefore, O Plato, we cry to thee: deliver thy city from the invasion of the heathen, O holy one.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for, possessed of Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their prayers, O Christ God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for, possessed of Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their prayers, O Christ God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for, possessed of Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their prayers, O Christ God, save our souls.
Readings
Epistle
1 Thessalonians 3.9-13
9For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God; 10Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith? 11Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you. 12And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: 13To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.
Gospel
Luke 14.25-35
25And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, 26If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. 27And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. 28For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? 29Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, 30Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. 31Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? 32Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. 33So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. 34Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? 35It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.