Greatmartyr Anastasia and Companions

Saints commemorated

Saint of the day

Greatmartyr Anastasia and Companions
Anastasia the Deliverer-from-Bonds

Anastasia the Deliverer-from-Bonds (†c. 304) is one of the great virgin-martyrs of the Church, a noble Roman woman of the persecution of Diocletian who gave her wealth and her freedom to the service of the confessors filling the prisons of the empire. Disguised as a beggar, she went from city to city feeding, tending, ransoming and burying imprisoned Christians, and was herself at last seized, starved, and burned alive. Because her intercession heals the effects of poisons, potions and every noxious thing, the Greek Church surnames her Pharmakolytria, "deliverer from potions"; the Slavs, remembering her ministry to prisoners, call her Uzoreshitelnitsa, "loosener of bonds." Her relics were translated to Constantinople in the fifth century. She is commemorated on December 22, within the forefeast of the Nativity.
Chrysogonus of Aquileia

Chrysogonus (†c. 304) was a learned and devout Roman Christian, the teacher and lifelong spiritual guide of the great-martyr Anastasia the Deliverer-from-Bonds, who sustained her by his counsel through the persecution of Diocletian. Himself imprisoned for the faith, he was brought before the emperor at Aquileia, refused to sacrifice, and was beheaded, his body cast into the sea and recovered by the presbyter Zoilus. He is commemorated on December 22, together with Anastasia, whose passion is bound up with his own.
Theodota of Bithynia

Theodota (†c. 304) was a young Christian widow of Nicaea in Bithynia, a friend and helper of the great-martyr Anastasia the Deliverer-from-Bonds, who with her three small sons suffered martyrdom in the persecution of Diocletian. Refusing a pagan official who sought to marry her and preserving her purity, she was sent for judgment to Bithynia; her eldest son Evodus confessed Christ boldly under beating, and mother and children together were cast into a burning furnace. She is commemorated on July 29 and, with Anastasia and her companions, on December 22.
Zoilus of Aquileia

Zoilus (†c. 304) was a Christian presbyter near Aquileia who reverently recovered from the sea the body and severed head of the martyr Chrysogonus and hid the relics in his house. Granted a vision in which Chrysogonus foretold the martyrdom of three holy sisters and the presbyter's own approaching repose, Zoilus fell asleep in the Lord nine days later, as had been foretold. He is numbered among the martyrs commemorated with the great-martyr Anastasia the Deliverer-from-Bonds on December 22.

Troparia & kontakia

Kontakion — Tone 2

They that are in trials and afflictions, fleeing for refuge to thy temple, receive the sacred gifts of healing from the divine grace that dwelleth in thee; for thou, O Anastasia, dost ever pour forth healings upon the world.

Troparion — Tone 4

Named truly after the victorious Resurrection, O martyr of Christ, thou didst raise up trophies of victory over the enemy by thine endurance of torments, for the sake of Christ thy Bridegroom, whom thou didst love. Entreat him, then, to save our souls.

Troparion — Tone 4 (from the common of a martyr)

Thy martyr Chrysogonus, O Lord, in his sufferings hath received an incorruptible crown from thee our God; for, possessed of thy might, he cast down the tyrants and broke in pieces the powerless boldness of the demons. By his intercessions save thou our souls.

Troparion — Tone 4 (from the common of a woman martyr)

Thy lamb Theodota, O Jesus, crieth out with a great voice: Thee, my Bridegroom, do I love, and seeking Thee I contend, and am crucified and buried with Thee in Thy baptism; I suffer for Thy sake, that I may reign with Thee, and I die for Thee, that I may live in Thee. As a spotless sacrifice receive her who with longing is slain for Thee. By her intercessions, as Thou art merciful, save our souls.

Troparion — Tone 4 (from the common of a martyr)

Thy martyr Zoilus, O Lord, in his contest hath received an incorruptible crown from thee our God; for, possessed of thy might, he cast down the tyrants and broke in pieces the powerless boldness of the demons. By his intercessions save thou our souls.

Readings

Epistle

Hebrews 3.5-11, 17-19

⁵And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; ⁶But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. ⁷Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, ⁸Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: ⁹When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. ¹⁰Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. ¹¹So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) ¹⁷But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? ¹⁸And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? ¹⁹So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Gospel

Mark 9.42-10.1

⁴²And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea. ⁴³And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: ⁴⁴Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. ⁴⁵And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: ⁴⁶Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. ⁴⁷And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: ⁴⁸Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. ⁴⁹For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. ⁵⁰Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another. ¹And he arose from thence, and cometh into the coasts of Judæa by the farther side of Jordan: and the people resort unto him again; and, as he was wont, he taught them again.

Saints commemorated