Martyrs Chrysanthius and Daria

Saints commemorated

Saint of the day

Martyrs Chrysanthius and Daria
Chrysanthus and Daria

Chrysanthus and Daria (†c. 283) were a young married couple martyred at Rome in the reign of the emperor Numerian. Chrysanthus was the son of a wealthy Roman senator of Alexandrian descent who, coming upon the writings of the Christians, sought out a teacher and was baptised; when his father tried to break his resolve by marrying him to Daria, a beautiful and learned priestess of Athena, Chrysanthus instead converted her, and the two lived together in unbroken virginity, devoting their marriage to the winning of others to Christ — he among the men, she among the women. Their preaching drew a persecution that only multiplied martyrs: the tribune Claudius sent to torture Chrysanthus was himself converted with his wife Hilaria, their sons Jason and Maurus, and his soldiers, and all were put to death. Daria, sent to a brothel, was guarded by a lion; and at the last the couple were thrown into a sandpit on the Via Salaria and buried alive under earth and stones. When Christians afterward gathered at the pit to keep their memory, the pagans sealed them in too — the Martyrs of the Pit, led by the presbyter Diodorus and the deacon Marianus. They are commemorated on March 19.
Innocent of Komel

Innocent of Komel (mid-15th century – 1521) was a Russian monastic saint of the northern forests, a disciple of Nilus of Sora and one of the chief bearers of his teacher's austere skete tradition of non-acquisition and inner prayer. Descended from the princely Okhlyabinin line, a branch of the Rurikid house, he took monastic vows in the region of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery and attached himself to Nilus, whom he accompanied on pilgrimage to the holy places of the Christian East. After Nilus's repose he withdrew north into the Komel forest of the Vologda land and, on the little river Nurma (Ediza), founded a hermitage under a written rule of his own that carried Nilus's skete discipline into the next generation. He reposed there on March 19, 1521, and is venerated as Innocent of Komel and of Vologda.
Pancharius of Nicomedia

Pancharius (†c. 302) was a Roman of noble birth and a courtier in high favour with the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, who — fearing the emperor's anger and seduced by the honours of the world — denied Christ in the persecution and returned to paganism. His mother and sister, hearing of his fall, wrote to him a letter that recalled him to himself, bidding him fear God and the dread Judgment to come and not lose his soul for the passing glory of the court. Cut to the heart, Pancharius repented, and went before the emperor to confess Christ openly. For this he was stripped of his rank, tortured, and at the last beheaded at Nicomedia, washing away his denial in his own blood. He is commemorated on March 19.

British Isles and Ireland

St. Auxilius, bishop of Killossey (c.460)
St. Lactan, abbot of Achadh-Ur, now Freshford (672)
Holy Martyr Alcmund (c.800)

Troparia & kontakia

Troparion — Tone 4

Your martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received from you, our God, crowns of incorruption; for, armed with your strength, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the powerless insolence of the demons. By their supplications, O Christ our God, save our souls.

Troparion — Tone 8

In thee, O Father, was the divine image kept secure; for, taking up thy cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passes away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Therefore doth thy spirit, venerable Innocent, rejoice together with the Angels.

Troparion — Tone 4

Your martyr, O Lord, in his contest received from you, our God, the crown of incorruption; for, armed with your strength, he cast down the tyrants and shattered the powerless insolence of the demons. By his supplications, O Christ our God, save our souls.

Readings

6th Hour

Isaiah 28.14-22

¹⁴Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. ¹⁵Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: ¹⁶Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. ¹⁷Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. ¹⁸And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. ¹⁹From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report. ²⁰For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it. ²¹For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act. ²²Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.

Vespers

Genesis 10.32-11.9

³²These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood. ¹And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. ²And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. ³And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. ⁴And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. ⁵And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. ⁶And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. ⁷Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. ⁸So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. ⁹Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

Proverbs 13.19-14.6

¹⁹The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul: but it is abomination to fools to depart from evil. ²⁰He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. ²¹Evil pursueth sinners: but to the righteous good shall be repayed. ²²A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. ²³Much food is in the tillage of the poor: but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment. ²⁴He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. ²⁵The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul: but the belly of the wicked shall want. ¹Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands. ²He that walketh in his uprightness feareth the LORD: but he that is perverse in his ways despiseth him. ³In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride: but the lips of the wise shall preserve them. ⁴Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox. ⁵A faithful witness will not lie: but a false witness will utter lies. ⁶A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not: but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth.

Saints commemorated