Christmastide, day 4
Sunday after Nativity
Saints commemorated
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Antiochian commemoration
The Twenty Thousand Martyrs burned to death in their church in Nicomedia (ca. 304).
The Twenty Thousand Martyrs of Nicomedia were the great company of Christians who perished in the imperial capital of Bithynia at the opening of the Great Persecution, when — on the feast of the Nativity of Christ, about the year 302 — the emperor's soldiers surrounded the city's church while the faithful were gathered for the Liturgy, heaped it with fuel, and set it ablaze, so that the whole assembly was consumed by fire. Their bishop, Anthimus of Nicomedia, had first baptised the catechumens and given all Communion; he escaped the flames to be beheaded later, on September 3. The synaxaria join to the anonymous multitude a company of named sufferers of the same city and persecution — the priest Glycerius, the deacons Theophilus and Migdonius, Zeno, Dorotheus, Mardonius, Peter, Indes, Gorgonius, Euthymius, the abbess Agapia, and the women Domna and Theophila among them. The Church keeps them together on December 28, within the afterfeast of the Nativity.
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20,000 Martyrs of Nicomedia
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Our Holy Father Simon the Outpourer of Myrrh, Founder of Simonopetra Monastery, Mt Athos (1287)
Simon the Myrrh-gusher (†c. 1287) was a hermit of Mount Athos and the founder of the monastery of Simonopetra — "Simon's Rock" — one of the great houses of the Holy Mountain, built upon a sheer pinnacle of rock above the sea. After years of solitary struggle in a cave, he was granted, on the eve of the Nativity, the vision of a star that came to rest over a neighbouring crag, and the voice of the Mother of God bidding him raise a monastery there; he named it New Bethlehem, and dedicated its church to the Nativity of Christ. His masons faltered before the terrifying site until a miracle — a workman who fell from the cliff yet rose unhurt — confirmed the Mother of God's protection. Renowned as a wonderworker in life, Simon after his repose was glorified by the myrrh that flowed from his tomb, whence his surname. He is commemorated on December 28.
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Ignatius of Lomsk
Ignatius of Lomsk (†1591) was a Russian ascetic of the Vologda–Yaroslavl wilderness who, after monastic struggle in two of the great northern monasteries, withdrew into the forests to live in silence and founded a hermitage on the Lom river, from which he is named. Of his origins nothing is transmitted; the tradition places him first at the Priluki monastery near Vologda and then at the monastery of Saint Cyril of White Lake, before he sought the deeper solitude of the wilds. He reposed at his hermitage on December 28, 1591, and is numbered among the saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl.
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James the Brother of the Lord
James the Brother of the Lord (died c. 62) — styled by the Greek Church Adelphotheos, "Brother of God," and by the whole tradition "James the Just" — was the first bishop of Jerusalem and head of the mother church of Christendom for some thirty years. The Orthodox tradition knows him as a son of Joseph the Betrothed by an earlier marriage, and so the Lord's brother in the household of Joseph; Paul calls him simply "the Lord's brother" and counts him among the apostles and the "pillars" of the Church. He presided over the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15), gave his name to the most ancient complete eucharistic liturgy still in use, and by his ascetic holiness and ceaseless prayer for his people earned the surname "the Just." According to Hegesippus he was cast down from the pinnacle of the Temple and clubbed to death; according to Josephus he was stoned by order of the high priest Ananus. His feast is October 23. He is distinct from James the son of Zebedee (April 30) and James the son of Alphaeus (October 9).
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Nicanor the Deacon
Nicanor was one of the seven deacons chosen by the Apostles in the first days of the Church at Jerusalem — the "seven men of good repute, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom" set over the daily ministry to the widows (Acts 6:1–6) — and is numbered by the tradition among the Seventy Apostles. The received account holds that he was among the great company of Christians put to death in the persecution that broke out at the stoning of the Protomartyr Stephen, his fellow deacon, and so won a martyr's crown about the year 34. He is commemorated on December 28, and again on July 28 in the joint feast of the deacons Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, and Parmenas.
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 4
The Only-begotten God the Word of the Father, when He came to sojourn among us in these last days, O divinely-eloquent James, declared thee the first shepherd and teacher of Jerusalem, and a faithful steward of the spiritual Mysteries; wherefore we all honour thee, O Apostle.
Kontakion — Tone 1
An army twenty thousand strong of martyrs rises like a sun that never sets, enlightening with the faith the hearts and minds of the devout; therefore we honour you, who were crowned in the fire for Christ.
Kontakion — Tone 8
As a chosen branch of the venerable fathers and a follower of the Apostles, equal to them in honour, we hymn thee, O Simon; for thou wast shown a citizen of heaven and a founder upon the rock, pouring forth myrrh and healings. Wherefore we cry to thee: Rejoice, O father Simon, boast of the Holy Mountain.
Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable)
By a flood of tears thou didst make the barren wilderness fruitful, and by thy deep sighing thou didst bring forth fruit a hundredfold in labours; and thou becamest a luminary, shining by thy wonders upon the world, O Ignatius our father. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4
As a disciple of the Lord, O Just one, thou didst receive the Gospel; as a martyr, thou art unturning; as the Brother of God, thou hast boldness; as a hierarch, thou canst intercede. Entreat Christ God to save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 3
A holy army, a consecrated city, a people set apart for the Lord: such were you shown to be, O Twenty Thousand Martyrs; for having finished your contest in the fire, you were led as an offering to him who was born of the Virgin. Entreat him to grant us his great mercy.
Troparion — Tone 3 (common of an apostle)
O holy Apostle Nicanor, intercede with the merciful God that he may grant to our souls the forgiveness of our sins.
Troparion — Tone 4
Let us the faithful praise the far-renowned Myrrh-gusher, the all-precious pearl of Christ and glory of monastics, Simon our God-bearing father, who upon the rock founded a house to the honour of the Master's Nativity; for he pours out healings and streams of myrrh on those who cry: Glory to Christ who glorified thee; glory to him who made thee wondrous; glory to him who through thee works healings for all.
Readings
7th Matins Gospel
John 20.1-10
1The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. 2Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. 3Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. 4So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. 5And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. 6Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, 7And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. 8Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. 9For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. 10Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.
Epistle
Galatians 1.11-19 (Sunday after Nativity)
11But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. 12For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. 13For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: 14And profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. 15But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, 16To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: 17Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. 18Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days. 19But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother.
Gospel
Matthew 2.13-23 (Sunday after Nativity and Theotokos)
13And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. 14When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: 15And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. 16Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men. 17Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, 18In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. 19But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child’s life. 21And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. 22But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee: 23And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.