Sunday 10 May 2026

5th Sunday of Pascha

No Fast Tone 4

Paschaltide, day 29 · 28 days since Pascha

Samaritan Woman; Apostle Simon the Zealot

Saints commemorated

  • Holy Martyrs Alphaeus, Philadelphus and Cyprinus of Sicily (251)

    Three brothers of a noble Italian house — Alphius, Philadelphus and Cyprian (called Cyrinus in the Latin books and Kyprinos in the Greek) — were, with a company of some twenty in all, put to death in the persecution of Decius, about the year 251. Sons of a governor named Vitalius from the Salentine country of southern Italy, they were catechised and baptised by the presbyter Onesimus, denounced, and sent as prisoners first to Rome and then, by way of Puteoli, into Sicily, where the governor Tertullus tried them at Lentini (the ancient Leontini). There Alphius had his tongue cut out and was beheaded, Philadelphus was roasted upon a red-hot gridiron, and Cyprian was fried in a great pan. Onesimus their teacher was crushed under a heavy stone at Rome, and Erasmus with fourteen others was beheaded there. The three brothers became the patrons of Lentini and of a wide belt of eastern Sicily, and their relics, long lost, were recovered at Lentini in 1517.

  • St Isidora the Fool of Tabenna (Egypt) (4th c.)

    Isidora is the first fool-for-Christ whose story the Church records — a nun of the great Pachomian women's monastery at Tabennisi in the Egyptian Thebaid in the middle of the fourth century, who deliberately made herself despised. She wore a rag on her head instead of the monastic cowl, never sat at table but lived on the crumbs and the scourings of the pots, served four hundred sisters who mocked, struck and drenched her, and never in all those years spoke an idle or a resentful word. Her secret was disclosed by an angel to the hermit Piteroum, who was sent to the monastery to find "one wearing a crown upon her head" and holier than himself; and when the honour of the community turned upon her, she slipped away and was never found again. Her account, written by Palladius within living memory, is the foundation-text of the whole tradition of holy folly.

  • Blessed Thaïs (Taïsia) of Egypt (4th c.)

    Thais — Taisia in the Slavonic books — was a well-born Egyptian girl left an orphan with a fortune, who spent the whole of it turning her house into a hospice for the monks of Scetis; and when her money was gone and the guests no longer came, she was left destitute, fell into bad company, and became a prostitute. The fathers of the desert sent John the Dwarf (Kolobos) to her. He sat down in her house and wept, and when she asked why, said, "I see Satan playing in your face." She asked whether there was repentance for her; and at his one word she rose and walked out into the desert without even stopping to set her house in order. That night, on a bed of sand which the old man had marked with the sign of the cross, she died — and John saw a shining road let down from heaven and the angels carrying up her soul, and was told that one hour of her repentance, made with the whole heart, had been accepted above the long penance of others. Her memory is kept on May 10.

  • Laurence of Pelion

    The Greek books of May 10 carry, after the Apostle Simon and the martyrs of Lentini, a notice of five words: "Our venerable father Laurence was perfected in peace." Modern Greek usage, and the Metropolis of Demetrias in whose territory his memory is kept, identify this Laurence with the fourteenth-century monk who left the Great Lavra on Athos when teaching he judged heretical spread there, came to Magnesia, and founded on the eastern slope of Mount Pelion above Volos the monastery from which the village of Agios Lavrentios still takes its name — its church completed in 1378 with a chrysobull and money from the emperor Alexios Komnenos — and afterwards a skete of the Transfiguration and the Prophet Elias, which drew learned monks to the mountain. He reposed in peace in great age. Whether the ancient bare notice was originally written of this man is not certain, and the entry says so.

  • Photini the Samaritan Woman

    Photini (first century – c. 66) is the name the Church gives to the Samaritan woman whom Christ met at Jacob's Well near Sychar and to whom, alone among all to whom he spoke, he openly declared himself the Messiah (John 4). Tradition holds that she was baptized with the name Photini, "the enlightened," and became a fearless preacher of the Gospel — carrying it, with her two sons and her five sisters, as far as Carthage and at last to Rome in the days of Nero. There, the tradition relates, the whole company confessed Christ before the emperor, converted his daughter Domnina and the officer Sebastian sent to break them, and after fearful tortures were martyred about the year 66 — Photini herself, it is said, cast at the end into a dry well, the well of her witness answering the well of her calling. She is honoured as Great-Martyr and Equal-to-the-Apostles. Her fixed commemoration is February 26; her principal feast is the movable Sunday of the Samaritan Woman, the fourth Sunday after Pascha, on which the Church reads the Gospel of the Well.

  • Simon of Vladimir

    Simon (†1226) was a monk of the Kiev Caves who became abbot of the Nativity monastery at Vladimir and, in 1214, the first bishop of the newly separated see of Vladimir-on-the- Klyazma and Suzdal, appointed by the Grand Prince George Vsevolodovich and consecrated by the Metropolitan Matthew of Kiev. He governed the young diocese for twelve years, consecrating its churches, and is remembered above all as one of the authors of the Kiev Caves Paterikon: his narratives of the wonders of the Caves fathers, and the long epistle to the monk Polycarp which stands at the head of the collection, gave the Russian Church one of its classic monastic books and its most famous protest against ambition for office. He took the great schema before his death, and though buried at Vladimir his relics were carried, according to his own wish, to the Near (Antoniev) Caves at Kiev, where they rest. His memory is kept on May 10.

  • Simon the Zealot

    Simon the Zealot is the eleventh name in every apostolic list of the New Testament and one of the Twelve of whom the Gospels record nothing but the name. Matthew and Mark call him Σίμων ὁ Καναναῖος, the Cananaean; Luke and Acts call him Σίμων ὁ ζηλωτής, the Zealot — the same epithet, once in Aramaic and once in Greek. Byzantine tradition, reading "Cananaean" as "of Cana in Galilee," made him the bridegroom of the wedding at Cana who, seeing the water made wine, left his own marriage-feast to follow Christ, and derived his surname from the burning zeal with which he afterwards preached. The Greek synaxaria send him through Egypt, Cyrene, Libya and Mauretania and at last to Britain, where idolaters crucified him; the Latin books martyr him in Persia with Jude, sawn asunder; and the Abkhazians keep his grave on the Black Sea coast at Nikopsia. His feast is May 10, and he is numbered again in the Synaxis of the Twelve on June 30.

British Isles and Ireland

  • St. Comgall, abbot of Bangor, ‘Father of Monks’ (c.601)
  • St. Conleth, monk and hermit (520)
  • St. Cathal, bishop of Taranto (7th C)

Troparia & kontakia

Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of several martyrs)

Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee our God; for possessing Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their intercessions, O Christ God, save our souls.

Apolytikion — Tone 3

Holy Apostle Simon, intercede with the merciful God, that He grant unto our souls forgiveness of offences.

Kontakion — Tone 2

Let us praise in hymns the great Simon, who set the sure teachings of wisdom in the souls of the pious; for he stands now before the throne of glory and rejoices with all the bodiless hosts, unceasingly interceding for our souls.

Synaxarion

Philadelphus, brother-loving, by the sword found with his brothers the divine crown.

Synaxarion

Well may Simon say this to Thee, O Christ: zealous for Thy Passion, I endure the passion of the Cross. On the tenth, great-souled Simon was stretched upon the tree.

Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable woman)

In thee, O Mother, 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 passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Therefore doth thy spirit, O venerable Isidora, rejoice together with the angels.

Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)

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 passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Therefore doth thy spirit, O venerable Laurence, rejoice together with the angels.

Troparion — Tone 4

Thy ewe-lamb, O Jesus, cries out with a great voice: O my Bridegroom, thee I love, and seeking thee I struggle, and I am crucified and buried together with thee in thy baptism; I suffer for thy sake, that I may reign with thee; I die for thee, that I may live in thee. Receive me as a spotless sacrifice, offered to thee with love. By her intercessions save thou our souls, O thou who art merciful.

Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)

O God of our fathers, who dealest with us ever according to Thy gentleness: take not Thy mercy from us, but by the prayers of Thy hierarch Simon guide our life in peace.

Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable woman)

In thee, O Mother, 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 passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Therefore doth thy spirit, O blessed Thais, rejoice together with the angels.

Readings

Vespers

1 John 3.21-4.6

21Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. 22And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. 23And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. 24And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us. 1Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 2Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. 4Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. 5They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. 6We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

1 John 4.11-16

11Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 12No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. 15Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. 16And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

1 John 4.20-5.5

20If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 21And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. 1Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. 2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. 3For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. 4For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 5Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

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

Acts 11.19-26, 29-30

19Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only. 20And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord. 22Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem: and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch. 23Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. 24For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith: and much people was added unto the Lord. 25Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul: 26And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. 29Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judæa: 30Which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.

1 Corinthians 4.9-16 (St Simeon)

9For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. 10We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised. 11Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace; 12And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: 13Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day. 14I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. 15For though ye have ten thousand instructers in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. 16Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.

Gospel

John 4.5-42

5Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. 7There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. 8(For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) 9Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. 10Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. 11The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? 12Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? 13Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. 15The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. 16Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. 17The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: 18For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. 19The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. 20Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. 21Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. 23But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. 25The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. 26Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. 27And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? 28The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, 29Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? 30Then they went out of the city, and came unto him. 31In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. 32But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. 33Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? 34Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. 35Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. 36And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. 37And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. 38I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours. 39And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. 40So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. 41And many more believed because of his own word; 42And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.

Matthew 13.54-58 (St Simeon)

54And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? 55Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? 56And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things? 57And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house. 58And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.