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Sunday 5 July 2026

5th Sunday after Pentecost

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No Fast Tone 4

Unc. Rel. Ven. Sergius of Radonezh; Ven. Athanasius of Athos

Saints commemorated

Martyrdom of St Elizabeth Romanov and Nun Barbara (1918)

Barbara Yakovleva was a nun of the Convent of Saints Martha and Mary in Moscow and the cell-attendant of its foundress, the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna. Arrested with her mistress in May 1918 and carried to the Urals, she was offered her freedom by the Bolshevik authorities on condition that she separate herself from the Grand Duchess. She refused, said that she wished to share whatever came, and was allowed to remain. On the night of 18 July 1918 she was thrown alive with Elizabeth and six others down the shaft of the disused Nizhnyaya Selimskaya mine near Alapaevsk. Her relics lie beside Elizabeth's in the church of Saint Mary Magdalene at Gethsemane in Jerusalem. She was glorified with her by the Church Abroad in 1981 and by the Moscow Patriarchate in 1992.
Our Holy Father the New Martyr Cyprian (1679)

Cyprian the New was a hieromonk of the Holy Mountain, of the cell of Saint George dependent on the monastery of Koutloumousiou, who was beheaded at Constantinople on 5 July 1679. Born at Klitsos in the Agrapha of central Greece, he embraced the monastic life young, was ordained priest, and on Athos was known for a life of strict virtue and for a settled longing for martyrdom. He went down first to Thessalonica and confessed Christ before the judge, exhorting the court itself to abandon Islam; taken for a madman, he was beaten and thrown out. Undeterred, he went on to Constantinople, made his way into the Vizier's presence and preached there the same confession. Handed over to the Mufti, offered honours and threatened with death, he refused to deny Christ and was beheaded at the Phanar.
Athanasius of Athos

Athanasius the Athonite (c. 920 – c. 1000) is the father of organised monastic life on Mount Athos. Born Abraham at Trebizond and educated at Constantinople, where he was a celebrated teacher, he was tonsured at Kyminas in Bithynia under Michael Maleinos and fled thence to the Holy Mountain to hide among its hermits. Sought out by his friend the general Nicephorus Phocas — soon emperor — he founded in 963, with imperial money, the Great Lavra at Melana on the Mountain's south-eastern tip: the first true monastery of Athos, given a written Typikon on the Studite pattern and defended, against the bitter opposition of the older solitaries, by the imperial charter of 972 known as the Tragos. He died beneath the fallen vault of his own church with six of his disciples, and the Lavra he built remains first in rank among the twenty monasteries of the Holy Mountain.
Cyrilla of Cyrene

Cyrilla was a widow of Cyrene in the Libyan Pentapolis who was put to death for Christ in the last of the imperial persecutions, about the years 304–310. The synaxarion remembers her by a single unforgettable scene: brought before the magistrate and ordered to sacrifice, she was not asked to speak but simply had live coals with incense laid in her open hand, so that if she let them fall the smoke would rise from the altar and she would be recorded as having offered. She held them until her hand burned through rather than let one grain of incense fall to the idol. She was then hung up and torn, and died under the torture. Her memory belongs with the martyrs of Cyrene, among whom the bishop Theodore is kept on the preceding day.
Elizabeth the New Martyr

Elizabeth Feodorovna (1864–1918), born a princess of Hesse and by Rhine and a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria, married the Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, received Orthodoxy freely in 1891, and after her husband's assassination by a terrorist bomb in 1905 — she gathered his remains from the Kremlin snow with her own hands, and went to the prison to forgive his murderer — sold everything she had and founded in Moscow the Convent of Saints Martha and Mary, a community of nursing sisters serving the poorest quarters of the city. Arrested by the Bolsheviks in 1918 and deported to the Urals, she was thrown alive with seven others down a disused mine-shaft near Alapaevsk on the night of 18 July 1918, and lived some hours at the bottom, binding the wounds of a fellow victim and singing. Her relics rest at Gethsemane in Jerusalem. She was glorified by the Church Abroad in 1981 and by the Moscow Patriarchate in 1992.
Lampadus of Irenopolis

Lampadus was a hermit of Irenopolis in Isauria, in the mountainous interior of southern Asia Minor, who is placed by the synaxaria in the tenth century. The record of him is short and entirely moral rather than narrative: he is remembered for a life of Christian virtue lived first in the world — self-control of the tongue, forbearance, gentleness, and a great love for the poor and the suffering — and then, in the desert, for a gift of spiritual direction so exact that those who sought him out went away healed in conscience. He worked miracles in his lifetime and, the synaxarion adds, after his repose; the Greek calendars call him simply Ὅσιος Λαμπαδὸς ὁ θαυματουργός, "the venerable Lampadus the Wonderworker."
Martyrs of Alapaevsk

On the night of 18 July 1918 — the night after the shooting of the imperial family at Ekaterinburg — eight prisoners held at the Urals factory town of Alapaevsk were driven into the forest, beaten, and thrown alive down the shaft of the abandoned Nizhnyaya Selimskaya iron-mine, with grenades flung after them. Two of the eight, the Grand Duchess Elizabeth and the nun Barbara, have their own entries. This entry is of the other six: the Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich; the Princes John, Constantine and Igor Konstantinovich, sons of the poet Grand Duke Constantine; the young poet Prince Vladimir Paley; and Theodore Remez, secretary to the Grand Duke, a layman of no rank who was killed because he would not leave his employer. They were glorified as new martyrs by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in 1981.
Sergius of Radonezh

Sergius of Radonezh (1314–1392) is the greatest monastic saint of Russia and one of the most beloved figures of all Orthodoxy. Born Bartholomew near Rostov, he withdrew as a young man to the forested hill of Makovets, where his hermitage dedicated to the Holy Trinity grew into the Trinity Lavra, the spiritual heart of the Russian Church to this day. Restorer of the common life, teacher of a whole generation of monastic founders who filled the northern forests — the "Northern Thebaid" — counsellor of princes and peacemaker of a fractured land, he is remembered above all as a man of the Holy Trinity, in whose honour Andrei Rublev painted his famous icon. He reposed on September 25, 1392; his relics were uncovered in 1422.
Stephen of Reggio

Stephen is commemorated on July 5 as bishop (in later Greek usage, metropolitan) of Reggio in Calabria — Byzantine Rhegium, the see at the toe of Italy which faces Messina across the strait and which belonged for centuries to the jurisdiction of Constantinople. Of his life nothing is transmitted. His memory rests on the bare entry in the Synaxarion of Constantinople as edited by Delehaye, and the Greek calendars that print his name for this day add no notice to it. A local Calabrian tradition, of much later date, makes him the first bishop of Rhegium and a disciple of the Apostle Paul, martyred under Nero; that tradition is recorded here but not asserted.

British Isles and Ireland

St. Fragan and his wife St. Gwen (5th C)
St. Modwenna of Burton, anchoress (7th C)
St. Edana, anchoress of the Boyle and Shannon
St. Erfyl of Llanerfyl
SS Probus and Grace of Tressilian

Troparia & kontakia

Apolytikion — Tone 3

The ranks of the angels were amazed at thy life in the flesh: how, clothed in a body, thou didst go out to the invisible warfare, O ever-memorable one, and didst wound the phalanxes of the demons. Wherefore Christ hath rewarded thee, O Athanasius, with abundant gifts. Therefore, O Father, intercede that our souls may be saved.

Apolytikion — Tone 4

The divine love of thy Master and thy longing for the martyr's contest set thee aflame, O Cyprian; and going forth into the midst of the ungodly thou didst confess Christ with a boldness at which angels and men marvelled, and didst redden the monastic habit with thy blood. O new venerable-martyr, intercede that our souls may be saved.

Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a woman martyr)

Thy lamb, O Jesus, crieth out with a loud voice: Thee, my Bridegroom, do I love, and seeking Thee I contend, and I am crucified and buried with Thy baptism; I suffer for Thy sake, that I may reign with Thee; I die for Thee, that I may live in Thee. Accept me as an unblemished sacrifice, offered to Thee with love. By her intercessions, as Thou art merciful, save our souls.

Apolytikion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)

By a flood of tears thou didst make the barren desert fruitful, and by thy sighing from the depths thou didst bring forth increase a hundredfold from thy labours; and thou wast a luminary for the whole world, shining with miracles, O Lampadus our Father. Intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Apolytikion — 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 intercessions of Thy hierarch Stephen, guide our life in peace.

Kontakion — Tone 8

Thee that wast a beholder of the immaterial powers and a true teacher of the things that must be done, the company of monastics honoureth as its guide; for having received the gift of wonders, thou pourest forth healings upon them that run to thee. Wherefore we cry unto thee: Rejoice, O Father Athanasius.

Kontakion — Tone 2

Forgiveness thou didst carry to thy husband's murderer, and thy jewels thou didst give to the poor; and when the hour of thy passion came thou didst bind up thy neighbour's wounds in the darkness of the shaft. Wherefore, O Elizabeth, the Church that is in Russia honoureth thee as a lamp of mercy shining in a night of blood.

Kontakion — Tone 8

Wounded with the love of Christ, O venerable one, and following Him with a desire that turned not back, thou didst hate every fleshly pleasure and didst shine forth upon thy fatherland like the sun; wherefore Christ has enriched thee with the gift of miracles. Remember us who honour thy most radiant memory, that we may cry to thee: Rejoice, O Sergius, wise in God.

Magnification

We call thee blessed, O venerable father Sergius, and we honour thy holy memory, instructor of monks and converser with angels.

Troparion — Tone 1

Offered thy freedom, thou didst choose the pit; and refusing to be parted from her whom thou didst serve, thou didst go down with her into the darkness singing. O holy Martyr Barbara, entreat Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 1

Having taken up the humility of Christ, thou didst put off the purple of an earthly princess and clothe thyself in the habit of mercy; and having served the poor and the suffering with thine own hands, thou didst descend as into a tomb into the pit of the ungodly, singing there the hymn of the Cherubim. O holy Martyr Elizabeth, with Barbara thy companion, entreat Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4 (common of the New Martyrs of Russia)

Today the Church that is in Russia danceth in choir, honouring her new martyrs: the noble and the lowly, the prince and the servant, who together were cast into the pit and together received the crown. O holy martyrs of Alapaevsk, entreat Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4

From thy youth thou didst receive Christ in thy soul, O venerable one, and above all things didst long to withdraw from the turmoil of the world. Manfully didst thou settle in the wilderness, and there didst raise up children of obedience, the fruits of humility. Wherefore, having become a dwelling-place of the Trinity, thou didst enlighten with thy miracles all who come to thee with faith, granting healings abundantly to all. O our father Sergius, pray to Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Readings

Vespers

Wisdom of Solomon 3.1-9 (Athanasius)

¹But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. ²In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery, ³And their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are in peace. ⁴For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality. ⁵And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them, and found them worthy for himself. ⁶As gold in the furnace hath he tried them, and received them as a burnt offering. ⁷And in the time of their visitation they shall shine, and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble. ⁸They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and their Lord shall reign for ever. ⁹They that put their trust in him shall understand the truth: and such as be faithful in love shall abide with him: for grace and mercy is to his saints, and he hath care for his elect.

Wisdom of Solomon 5.15-6.3 (Athanasius)

¹⁵But the righteous live for evermore; their reward also is with the Lord, and the care of them is with the most High. ¹⁶Therefore shall they receive a glorious kingdom, and a beautiful crown from the Lord’s hand: for with his right hand shall he cover them, and with his arm shall he protect them. ¹⁷He shall take to him his jealousy for complete armour, and make the creature his weapon for the revenge of his enemies. ¹⁸He shall put on righteousness as a breastplate, and true judgment instead of an helmet. ¹⁹He shall take holiness for an invincible shield. ²⁰His severe wrath shall he sharpen for a sword, and the world shall fight with him against the unwise. ²¹Then shall the right aiming thunderbolts go abroad; and from the clouds, as from a well drawn bow, shall they fly to the mark. ²²And hailstones full of wrath shall be cast as out of a stone bow, and the water of the sea shall rage against them, and the floods shall cruelly drown them. ²³Yea, a mighty wind shall stand up against them, and like a storm shall blow them away: thus iniquity shall lay waste the whole earth, and ill dealing shall overthrow the thrones of the mighty. ¹Hear therefore, O ye kings, and understand; learn, ye that be judges of the ends of the earth. ²Give ear, ye that rule the people, and glory in the multitude of nations. ³For power is given you of the Lord, and sovereignty from the Highest, who shall try your works, and search out your counsels.

Wisdom of Solomon 4.7-15 (Athanasius)

⁷But though the righteous be prevented with death, yet shall he be in rest. ⁸For honourable age is not that which standeth in length of time, nor that is measured by number of years. ⁹But wisdom is the gray hair unto men, and an unspotted life is old age. ¹⁰He pleased God, and was beloved of him: so that living among sinners he was translated. ¹¹Yea speedily was he taken away, lest that wickedness should alter his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul. ¹²For the bewitching of naughtiness doth obscure things that are honest; and the wandering of concupiscence doth undermine the simple mind. ¹³He, being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled a long time: ¹⁴For his soul pleased the Lord: therefore hasted he to take him away from among the wicked. ¹⁵This the people saw, and understood it not, neither laid they up this in their minds, That his grace and mercy is with his saints, and that he hath respect unto his chosen.

Composite 2 - Proverbs 10, 3, 8 (Sergius)

¹The memory of a just man is praised, and the Lord’s blessing is upon his head. Blessed is one who has found wisdom; a mortal who knows understanding. To import her is better than treasures of gold and silver. She is more valuable than precious stones; nothing of value equals her worth. Justice proceeds from her mouth; she bears law and mercy on her tongue. Therefore, my children, listen to me, for I speak weighty things. And blessed is the one who keeps my ways. For my goings out are the goings out of life, and favour is prepared from the Lord. Therefore I exhort you, and utter my voice to the children of humankind. Because I, Wisdom, have prepared counsel, knowledge and understanding. I have called on them. Counsel and sureness are mine; prudence is mine, strength is mine. I love those who are my friends, while those who seek me will find grace. You innocent, then, understand cunning; you untaught, take it to heart. Listen to me, for I will speak weighty things, and I will open right things from my lips. Because my throat will meditate truth; lying lips are abominable before me. All the words of my mouth are with justice, there is nothing crooked in them nor twisted. They are all straight for those who understand, and right for those who find knowledge. For I teach you what is true, that your hope may be in the Lord and that you may be filled with spirit.

Proverbs 10.31-11.12 (Sergius)

³¹The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom: but the froward tongue shall be cut out. ³²The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable: but the mouth of the wicked speaketh frowardness. ¹A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight. ²When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom. ³The integrity of the upright shall guide them: but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them. ⁴Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death. ⁵The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way: but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness. ⁶The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them: but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness. ⁷When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish: and the hope of unjust men perisheth. ⁸The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead. ⁹An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour: but through knowledge shall the just be delivered. ¹⁰When it goeth well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth: and when the wicked perish, there is shouting. ¹¹By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted: but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked. ¹²He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbour: but a man of understanding holdeth his peace.

Wisdom of Solomon 3.1-9 (Sergius)

5th Matins Gospel

Luke 24.12-35

¹²Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass. ¹³And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. ¹⁴And they talked together of all these things which had happened. ¹⁵And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. ¹⁶But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. ¹⁷And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? ¹⁸And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? ¹⁹And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: ²⁰And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. ²¹But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done. ²²Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; ²³And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. ²⁴And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not. ²⁵Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ²⁶Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? ²⁷And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. ²⁸And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. ²⁹But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. ³⁰And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. ³¹And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. ³²And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? ³³And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, ³⁴Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. ³⁵And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.

Epistle

Romans 10.1-10

¹Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. ²For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. ³For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. ⁴For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. ⁵For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. ⁶But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) ⁷Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) ⁸But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; ⁹That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. ¹⁰For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Galatians 5.22-6.2 (either Saint)

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, ²³Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. ²⁴And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. ²⁵If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. ²⁶Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. ¹Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. ²Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

Gospel

Matthew 8.28-9.1

²⁸And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. ²⁹And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time? ³⁰And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding. ³¹So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. ³²And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters. ³³And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils. ³⁴And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts. ¹And he entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city.

Luke 6.17-23 (either Saint)

¹⁷And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judæa and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases; ¹⁸And they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed. ¹⁹And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all. ²⁰And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. ²¹Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. ²²Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. ²³Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.