Sunday of Meatfare

Saints commemorated

Apostle Onesimus of the Seventy

Onesimus (Greek Ὀνήσιμος, "useful, profitable") is the runaway slave of the Epistle to Philemon: a servant of Philemon of Colossae who fled his master, reached the imprisoned Apostle Paul at Rome, was there converted and baptized, and was sent back to Colossae bearing Paul's tender letter of intercession — the New Testament's shortest and most personal epistle, in which the Apostle plays on the slave's name and begs that he be received "not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved" (Philemon 16). Freed and returned to Paul's service, Onesimus became in time a preacher of the Gospel and a bishop — by the received tradition the successor of Timothy at Ephesus — and is numbered among the Seventy Apostles. Under the emperor Trajan he was seized, brought to Rome, and tried before the eparch Tertyllus; there, about the year 109, his legs were crushed with clubs and he received the crown of martyrdom. He is kept on February 15, and with the Colossian household on November 22.
Our Venerable Father Dalmatius of Siberia (1697)
Our Venerable Father Anthimos of Chios (1960)

Anthimus of Chios (1869–1960), born Argyrios Vagianos, was a Greek priest-monk, healer and spiritual father of the island of Chios, one of the best-loved elders of the twentieth-century Greek Church. Of poor and pious parents, he became a monk of the island's monasteries, served long years as chaplain to the lepers of the Chios leprosarium — among whom his prayers wrought many healings — and in 1930 founded the convent of Panagia Voithia ("Our Lady the Helper") to shelter nuns made refugees by the Asia Minor catastrophe. Renowned in his own lifetime for the gift of healing, the casting-out of demons, and clairvoyant counsel, he reposed on February 15, 1960, and was glorified by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1992. He is a recently canonised saint, and this entry is authored accordingly (see the notes on his icon and hymns).
Eusebius the Hermit of Syria

Eusebius was a Syrian ascetic of the region of Antioch, remembered as one of the mountain-hermits whose lives the bishop Theodoret of Cyrrhus gathered in his Religious History. On a bare hilltop near the village of Asicha he lived under the open sky, without roof or cell, enduring the summer's heat and the winter's cold, clothed in skins and nourished on soaked pulse, and — the detail the tradition holds fast — bound with heavy iron chains that bent his body toward the ground, so that his prayer was made in a labour of the flesh as well as the spirit. His holiness drew disciples, and a monastic brotherhood grew about him. He is commemorated on February 15.
Major of Gaza

Major (Greek Μαΐωρ) was a martyr of Gaza in Palestine, put to death under scourging in one of the persecutions of the early fourth century. The synaxaria remember him for the manner of his confession: as the lash tore his flesh he answered his tormentors with the words of the Psalmist — "I am ready for scourges" — and so gave up his soul under the blows. His memory is kept on February 15; of his life beyond this the record transmits little.
Paphnutius the Recluse of the Kiev Caves

Paphnutius was a monk of the Kiev Caves who lived as a recluse in the caverns of the great monastery and is remembered above all for the gift of tears: by the unbroken remembrance of death he wept continually for his sins, and when the hour of his own death came he departed in peace, the tradition says, in the sight of angels who came to receive his soul. Nothing of his origin or of the year of his repose is securely transmitted; he is counted among the venerable fathers who rest in the Far (Theodosius) Caves, where his relics lie, and is generally placed in the thirteenth century. He is commemorated on February 15 and with the whole company of the Far Caves on August 28.

British Isles and Ireland

St. Berach of Connaught (5th C)
St. Dochow (473)
St. Farannan of Allernan (590)
St. Oswy, King of Northumbria (670)
St. Sigfrid of Glastonbury, Apostle of Sweden (c.1045)
SS. Winaman, Unaman & Sunaman, Monk Martyrs (1040)

Troparia & kontakia

Kontakion — Tone 4

As a ray of light thou didst shine forth upon the world, O blessed one, made bright by the beams of the all-radiant sun — of Paul, who gave light to the world; wherefore we all honour thee, O Onesimus.

Synaxarion

Onesimus stretched forth his legs to be crushed — the legs that had run the noble courses of Paul. On the fifteenth they broke the legs of Onesimus.

Troparion — Tone 3

O holy Apostle Onesimus, intercede with the merciful God, that he may grant to our souls the forgiveness of transgressions.

Troparion — Tone 8 (general of a venerable)

In thee, O Father, was the image of God preserved with exactness; for taking up the Cross, thou didst follow after Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal; wherefore thy spirit, O venerable Paphnutius, rejoiceth with the angels.

Readings

3rd Matins Gospel

Mark 16.9-20

⁹Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. ¹⁰And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept. ¹¹And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not. ¹²After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. ¹³And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them. ¹⁴Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. ¹⁵And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. ¹⁶He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. ¹⁷And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; ¹⁸They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. ¹⁹So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. ²⁰And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.

Epistle

1 Corinthians 8.8-9.2

⁸But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse. ⁹But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak. ¹⁰For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols; ¹¹And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? ¹²But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. ¹³Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend. ¹Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are not ye my work in the Lord? ²If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.

Gospel

Matthew 25.31-46

³¹When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: ³²And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: ³³And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. ³⁴Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: ³⁵For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: ³⁶Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. ³⁷Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? ³⁸When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? ³⁹Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? ⁴⁰And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. ⁴¹Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: ⁴²For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: ⁴³I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. ⁴⁴Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? ⁴⁵Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. ⁴⁶And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.