Saints commemorated
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Martyrs Marcian and Martyrius the Notaries
Marcian and Martyrius were two clergy of the Great Church of Constantinople — Marcian a reader, Martyrius a subdeacon — who served together as notaries, the secretaries and record-keepers, of Paul the Confessor, the Nicene archbishop of the capital repeatedly driven from his see by the Arian party. After Paul was exiled and murdered and the Arian Macedonius seized the throne, the two men continued openly to confess the consubstantiality of the Son and to defend the faith of Nicaea. The Arians tried in vain to buy their silence with gold and the promise of high office; when bribery failed, they had them condemned and beheaded, about the year 355. They are commemorated on October 25, and a martyrium was raised over their relics at Constantinople.
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St Tabitha of Joppa
Tabitha — called in Greek Dorcas, both names meaning "gazelle" — was a woman disciple of the earliest Church at Joppa on the coast of Judea, remembered in the Acts of the Apostles as one "full of good works and almsdeeds" who made garments for the widows of the community. When she fell sick and died, the disciples sent for the Apostle Peter, then at nearby Lydda; coming up to the room where she was laid out and the widows wept over the clothes she had made, Peter put them all out, knelt in prayer, and said, "Tabitha, arise." She opened her eyes and sat up, and the miracle, becoming known through all Joppa, brought many to faith. She is venerated among the righteous and commemorated on October 25.
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Anastasius the Fuller
Anastasius the Fuller was a craftsman — a fuller, who cleaned and dyed cloth — who lived at Salona in Dalmatia, the great Roman city near the modern Split, at the height of the persecution of Diocletian. Coming (by the tradition) from Aquileia in northern Italy, he settled at Salona and lived his faith so openly that he painted the sign of the Cross on the door of his house and workshop. Arrested and brought to trial for his confession of Christ, he refused to sacrifice, and was condemned to death: a stone was tied about his neck and he was cast into the sea, about the year 304. A Christian noblewoman recovered his body and enshrined it, and his relics became a treasure of the Dalmatian and later the Italian church. He is commemorated on October 25.
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John of Beverley
John of Beverley († 7 May 721) was a Northumbrian monk and hierarch, trained at Canterbury under Archbishop Theodore and in the monastery of Whitby under the Abbess Hilda, who became Bishop of Hexham in 687 and Bishop of York in 705, ordained the Venerable Bede both deacon and priest, and ended his life as a simple monk in the house he had founded in the woodland of Deira — the Inderawuda that grew into the town of Beverley. He is known almost entirely from Bede's Ecclesiastical History, which devotes a series of chapters to his healings, gathered from men who had been present at them; those chapters make him one of the best-documented wonderworkers of the Anglo-Saxon Church. His shrine at Beverley became one of the great pilgrimage places of medieval England, and he is kept among the saints of the undivided Church honoured by the Orthodox in the British Isles.
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 4
Having contended nobly from your youth, O Marcian with wise Martyrius, ye cast down the apostate Arius and kept the Orthodox faith unharmed, following Paul the wise teacher; wherefore, together with him, ye have found life, as excellent champions of the Trinity.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy Martyr, O Lord, in his struggle received an incorruptible crown from Thee, our God; for possessed of Thy might, he cast down the tyrants and shattered the powerless insolence of the demons. By his supplications, O Christ God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a hierarch)
O guide of Orthodoxy and teacher of piety and holiness, luminary of the North and divinely inspired adornment of hierarchs, O wise John: by thy teaching thou hast enlightened all, and by thy prayers thou didst loose the tongue of the speechless and raise up the dying; O harp of the Spirit, intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy Martyrs, O Lord, in their struggle received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for possessed of Thy might, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the powerless insolence of the demons. By their supplications, O Christ God, save our souls.
Readings
10th Matins Gospel
John 21.1-14
1After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise shewed he himself. 2There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. 3Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing. 4But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. 5Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No. 6And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. 7Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea. 8And the other disciples came in a little ship; (for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits,) dragging the net with fishes. 9As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. 10Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. 11Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. 12Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord. 13Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. 14This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead.
Epistle
Galatians 2.16-20
16Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. 17But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. 18For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. 19For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. 20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Gospel
Luke 16.19-31
19There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: 20And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, 21And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 22And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; 23And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. 25But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. 26And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. 27Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: 28For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. 29Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. 30And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. 31And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.