Thursday 4 December 2025
Hieromartyr Alexander Hotovitzky
Thursday of the 26th week after Pentecost
Nativity Fast, day 20
Hieromartyr Alexander Hotovitzky
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Alexander Hotovitzky
Alexander Hotovitzky (1872 – autumn 1937), protopresbyter, was the builder-priest of Orthodox New York and, in his last years, the right hand of Patriarch Tikhon at the cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow — a double service, American and Russian, sealed with a martyr's end in the Terror of 1937. For nineteen years he served the New York parish that became Saint Nicholas Cathedral, which he built; he founded parishes across the eastern states, edited the mission's journal, and was wounded by a fanatic's knife for his preaching. Recalled at last to Moscow, he stood by the Patriarch through the confiscations, was imprisoned and exiled repeatedly, and after a final arrest in the autumn of 1937 disappeared — presumed shot, on a date God alone keeps. The Church of Russia glorified him on 4 December 1994.
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Antiochian commemoration
Holy Great Martyr Barbara (290)
Barbara the Great-martyr (†c. 306) is one of the most beloved of the virgin-martyrs of the early Church, honoured throughout East and West. The daughter of a wealthy pagan, Dioscorus, who shut her in a tower to guard her beauty and her idolatry, she reasoned her way from the created world to the one God, was secretly baptised, and confessed the Holy Trinity by having a third window cut into the bathhouse her father was building. Denounced by Dioscorus himself, she was tortured under the prefect Martianus at Heliopolis; the martyr Juliana, a bystander moved to confess Christ, suffered with her. At the last her own father struck off her head — and was consumed by lightning as he came down from the mountain. From this Barbara is invoked against sudden and unprovided death, and is the patroness of miners, gunners, and artillerymen. She is commemorated on December 4.
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Our Righteous Father John of Damascus (760)
John of Damascus (c. 675/676–c. 749) is the last of the Greek Fathers of the Church and her greatest theologian-hymnographer: an Arab Christian of Damascus, born into the family of the Mansur that administered the finances of the Umayyad caliphate, who left a high court office to become a monk of the Great Lavra of Saint Sabbas in the Judean desert. From beyond the reach of the iconoclast emperors he wrote the three Orations Against Those Who Attack the Holy Images — the classic Orthodox defence of the veneration of icons, grounded in the Incarnation — for which the tradition tells that his severed right hand was restored by the Mother of God, the origin of the "Three-handed" icon. His Fountain of Knowledge, whose third part, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, is the first systematic summa of Christian theology, shaped the dogmatic teaching of both East and West. Called Chrysorrhoas, the "Golden Stream," for the grace of his eloquence, he is the master of Byzantine hymnography — the Paschal Canon "The Day of Resurrection," the funeral idiomela, and, by tradition, the ordering of the Octoechos are his. He reposed at Mar Saba about 749 and is commemorated on December 4.
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Saint Gennadius, Archbishop of Novgorod (1505)
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 4
Following after Him who is devoutly hymned in Trinity, thou didst forsake the worship of idols, O venerable prize-winner; and contending in the midst of the arena, O Barbara, thou wast not dismayed by the threats of the tyrants, but, valiant of soul, didst cry aloud without ceasing with a great voice: I worship the Trinity, the one Godhead.
Kontakion — Tone 4
Let us all sing the praise of John, the venerable hymnographer and revealer of God, the teacher and luminary of the Church who withstood her every foe: for by the might of the Cross he cast down the heresies of the heretics, and was shown to be an unassailable rampart of the Orthodox.
Troparion — Tone 4
As a wise builder of churches beyond the sea and a faithful fellow-labourer of the confessor-patriarch, thou wast found worthy at the last of the martyrs' hidden crown, O hieromartyr Alexander: pray to Christ God, whose cathedral thou didst serve and whose cup thou didst drink, that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 8
Let us honour the holy Barbara, for she broke the snares of the enemy, and like a sparrow was delivered out of them by the help and the weapon of the Cross, she who is all-revered.
Troparion — Tone 8
Guide of Orthodoxy, teacher of piety and holiness, luminary of the world, God-inspired adornment of monastics, O wise John: by thy teachings thou hast enlightened all, O lyre of the Spirit. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Readings
Epistle
1 Timothy 3.1-13
1This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. 2A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; 3Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; 4One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; 5(For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) 6Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. 7Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. 8Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; 9Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. 10And let these also first be proved; then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless. 11Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. 12Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. 13For they that have used the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.
Hebrews 13.7-16 (St Alexander)
7Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. 8Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. 9Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. 10We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. 11For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. 12Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. 13Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. 14For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. 15By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. 16But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Gospel
Luke 20.9-18
9Then began he to speak to the people this parable; A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it forth to husbandmen, and went into a far country for a long time. 10And at the season he sent a servant to the husbandmen, that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard: but the husbandmen beat him, and sent him away empty. 11And again he sent another servant: and they beat him also, and entreated him shamefully, and sent him away empty. 12And again he sent a third: and they wounded him also, and cast him out. 13Then said the lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son: it may be they will reverence him when they see him. 14But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours. 15So they cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard do unto them? 16He shall come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others. And when they heard it, they said, God forbid. 17And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? 18Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
Luke 12.32-40 (St Alexander)
32Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. 34For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 35Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; 36And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. 37Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. 38And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. 39And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. 40Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.