Holy Pascha

Saints commemorated

Beginning of the Pentecostarion
St Basil the Confessor, Bishop of Parium

Basil, Bishop of Parium on the Hellespont, was a confessor of the eighth century who suffered greatly for the holy icons in the first iconoclast persecution. Chosen bishop by his people for his virtue, he refused to sign the imperial decree against the veneration of images; for this he was harried, driven from his see and persecuted by the iconoclasts, yet he never yielded, and after a life of hardship endured for the true faith he reposed in peace, confessing Orthodoxy to the end.
St Isaac the Syrian, abbot of Spoleto, Italy (ca. 550)
Our Holy Mother Athanasia (860)
Sabbas the Goth

Sabbas was a Gothic Christian, a reader and singer of the church among his people north of the Danube, who was drowned in the river Mousaios (Buzău, in what is now Romania) about the year 372, in the persecution of the Gothic king Athanaric. His Passion, sent from the Goths to the church of Cappadocia at the request of St Basil the Great, is one of the earliest and most vivid documents of Christianity among the Goths, and Sabbas stands among the first martyrs of the lands of the lower Danube.

British Isles and Ireland

St. Wigbert, Monk and Missionary (690)

Troparia & kontakia

Exapostilarion — Tone 2

Having fallen asleep in the flesh as a mortal man, O King and Lord, on the third day thou didst rise again, raising Adam from corruption and abolishing death: O Pascha of incorruption, O salvation of the world.

Kontakion — Tone 4

Though thou didst descend into the tomb, O Immortal, yet didst thou bring down the power of Hades, and didst rise again as victor, O Christ God, saying to the myrrhbearing women, Rejoice!, and granting peace to thine apostles — thou who dost bestow resurrection on the fallen.

Oikos

The maidens bearing myrrh came before the dawn, seeking as men seek the daylight the Sun that was before the sun, who for a while had set within a tomb; and they cried out to one another: O friends, come, let us anoint with spices the life-bearing and buried Body, the flesh that raises up fallen Adam, lying now in the grave. Let us go, let us make haste like the Magi, and worship, and offer our myrrh as gifts to him who is wrapped not in swaddling bands but in a linen shroud; and let us weep and cry aloud: O Master, arise, thou who dost bestow resurrection on the fallen.

The

Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and to those in the tombs bestowing life.

The

The women who were with Mary, having come before the dawn and having found the stone rolled away from the tomb, heard from the angel: Why do you seek among the dead, as though he were a man, him who dwells in everlasting light? Behold the grave-clothes! Run and proclaim to the world that the Lord is risen, having put death to death; for he is the Son of God who saves the race of men.

The

It is the day of Resurrection! Let us be radiant, O peoples: Pascha, the Lord's Pascha! For from death to life and from earth to heaven Christ our God has brought us over, as we sing the hymn of victory. Now all is filled with light — heaven, and earth, and the places beneath the earth. Let all creation therefore keep the feast of the rising of Christ, in whom it is made firm. We keep the feast of the putting to death of death, the pulling down of Hades, and the firstfruits of another life, the eternal one; and leaping for joy we hymn the Cause of it, the only blessed and exceedingly glorious God of our fathers. This is the chosen and holy day, the one and first of the sabbaths, the queen and the lady, the feast of feasts and the festival of festivals, on which we bless Christ unto the ages. Shine, shine, O new Jerusalem, for the glory of the Lord has risen upon thee! Dance now and be glad, O Sion; and do thou rejoice, O pure Theotokos, in the rising of him whom thou didst bear. O Pascha, great and most holy, O Christ! O Wisdom and Word and Power of God! Grant us to partake of thee more perfectly in the day of thy kingdom that knows no evening.

The

Today a sacred Pascha has been shown to us: a Pascha new and holy, a Pascha mystical, a Pascha all-venerable, a Pascha that is Christ the Redeemer; a Pascha unblemished, a Pascha great, the Pascha of the faithful, the Pascha that has opened to us the gates of Paradise, the Pascha that sanctifies all the faithful. It is the day of Resurrection! Let us be radiant for the festival, and let us embrace one another. Let us say, O brethren, even to those that hate us: Let us forgive all things for the Resurrection's sake. And so let us cry aloud: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and to those in the tombs bestowing life.

The

Christ, having gone down alone to wrestle with Hades, came up again bearing many spoils of victory.

Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a bishop-confessor)

O God of our fathers, ever dealing with us according to Thy gentleness: take not Thy mercy from us, but by the prayers of Thy holy confessor Basil the bishop, direct our lives in peace.

Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a martyr)

Thy martyr Sabbas, O Lord, in his contest received an incorruptible crown from Thee, our God; for possessing Thy strength, he cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By his intercessions save our souls.

Readings

Epistle

Acts 1.1-8

¹The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, ²Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: ³To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: ⁴And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. ⁵For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. ⁶When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? ⁷And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. ⁸But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Gospel

John 1.1-17

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²The same was in the beginning with God. ³All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. ⁴In him was life; and the life was the light of men. ⁵And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. ⁶There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. ⁸He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. ⁹That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. ¹¹He came unto his own, and his own received him not. ¹²But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: ¹³Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. ¹⁴And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. ¹⁵John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. ¹⁶And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. ¹⁷For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.