Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Martyr Nestor of Thessalonica
Nestor (†c. 306) was a young Christian of Thessalonica who, blessed and emboldened in his prison cell by the great-martyr Demetrius, went up against the emperor's champion gladiator Lyaeus in the arena and overthrew him, crying "O God of Demetrius, help me!" For this public humiliation of the imperial spectacle he was beheaded, and Demetrius, who had strengthened him, was speared to death — the two deaths bound together in the passion of Thessalonica's patron. Nestor is commemorated on 27 October, the day after Demetrius, whose feast his own scarcely leaves; the Church remembers him as the type of the believer who ventures all in the confidence that "the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do to me."
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St Procla, the wife of Pontius Pilate.
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Our Venerable Father Demetrius of Basarabov (Romania) (13th c.)
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Capitolina and Eroteis of Cappadocia
Capitolina and Eroteis (Eroteida) were a Cappadocian mistress and her servant martyred about the year 304, in the persecution of Diocletian. Capitolina, a noblewoman of wealth who despised riches, freed her slaves and gave her substance to the poor before her arrest; brought before the magistrate Zilikinthios and confessing Christ, she was imprisoned and beheaded the next day. Her servant Eroteis, in grief and indignation, hurled stones at the magistrate; beaten and, the tradition says, kept unharmed by grace, she was at last beheaded by the sword — so that mistress and servant died the same death and won the same crown. They are commemorated together on 27 October.
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Nestor the Chronicler
Nestor the Chronicler (c. 1050 – c. 1114) was a monk and hierodeacon of the Kiev Caves monastery, the first great historian of the Christian East Slavs and, by tradition, the compiler of the Russian Primary Chronicle (the Tale of Bygone Years), which opens "Whence came the Russian land." A disciple of the successors of Theodosius of the Caves, he wrote the earliest lives of the passion-bearers Boris and Gleb and of Theodosius himself, helped uncover Theodosius's relics, and gathered the memory of the young Rus' into a theological history of its baptism and salvation. He reposed in the monastery about 1114 and rests incorrupt in the Near Caves; the Russian Church honours him as the father of its written history and the patron of chroniclers and scholars.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Otteran (Odran) of Iona, bishop of Meath (563)
- St. Abban of Wexford (6th C)
- St. Colman, abbot of Senboth-Fola (632)
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 2
Having contested well, thou hast now inherited immortal glory, and hast become a most excellent soldier of the Master through the prayers of Demetrius the martyr; therefore, O wise Nestor, together with him cease not to intercede for us all.
Kontakion — Tone 2
As a disciple of the God-bearing Theodosius and a true imitator of his life, thou wast counted worthy to be the first to behold his precious relics, which with the others thou didst reverently translate, and so didst inherit with them the Kingdom of Heaven; pray to the Lord that we who honour thee may obtain it also.
Troparion — Tone 4 (from the common of martyrs)
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their courageous contest for Thee received as a prize the crowns of incorruption and life from Thee, our immortal God. For since they possessed Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and wholly destroyed the demons' strengthless presumption. By their intercessions, O Christ our God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4 (from the common of a martyr)
Thy martyr, O Lord, in his courageous contest for Thee received as a prize the crown of incorruption and life from Thee, our immortal God. For since he possessed Thy strength, he cast down the tyrants and wholly destroyed the demons' strengthless presumption. By his intercessions, O Christ our God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4
Having written the deeds of the great princes of Rus' and the lives and miracles of the venerable Fathers of the Caves, and having thyself, O God-wise Nestor, gained through thy many virtues a name written in heaven, pray that we too may be inscribed in the Books of Life.
Readings
Epistle
Colossians 2.20-3.3
20Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, 21(Touch not; taste not; handle not; 22Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? 23Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh. 1If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Gospel
Luke 11.1-10
1And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. 2And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. 3Give us day by day our daily bread. 4And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. 5And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; 6For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? 7And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. 8I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. 9And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.