Eikon
←

Thursday 5 November 2026

Martyrs Galacteon and Wife Epistemis; Repose St Jonah of Novgorod

Thursday of the 23rd week after Pentecost

→
No Fast Tone 5

Saints commemorated

  • Saint of the day

    Martyrs Galacteon and Wife Epistemis

  • Saint of the day

    Repose St Jonah of Novgorod

  • Holy Martyrs Galaction and Episteme (ca. 250)

    Galacteon and Episteme were a young married couple of Emesa in Syria, martyred around the year 253 in the persecution under the governor Secundus. Betrothed by their parents, they chose after their marriage to live in continence and then to withdraw to the monastic settlements of Mount Publion, Galacteon among the monks and Episteme among the nuns. When persecution reached their mountain, Galacteon was seized while the others fled, and Episteme, unwilling to be parted from her husband and teacher, gave herself up to share his sufferings. Both endured mutilation and beheading together, and the Church keeps their joint memory on November 5 as an image of Christian marriage crowned in martyrdom.

  • Holy Apostles Patrobas, Hermas, Linus, Gaius and Philologus

    Hermas, Patrobus, Linus, Gaius and Philologus were five apostles of the Seventy whom the Byzantine calendar commemorates together on November 5. Each is named in the closing greetings of Paul's Epistle to the Romans or in the Second Epistle to Timothy, and each is remembered as a bishop of the apostolic age: Hermas at Philippopolis in Thrace, where he died a martyr; Patrobus at Puteoli and Naples in Italy; Linus at Rome, the successor of the Apostle Peter and the Linus of the Roman episcopal succession named in Second Timothy; Gaius at Ephesus, after Timothy; and Philologus at Sinope on the Black Sea, consecrated by the Apostle Andrew. The Church keeps their joint memory among the Seventy sent out by the Lord.

  • Our Holy Father Gregory the Confessor, Patriarch of Alexandria (early 9th c.)

British Isles and Ireland

  • St. Kanten, founder of Llanganten, Powys (8th C)
  • St. Kea, bishop in Devon (6th C)

Troparia & kontakia

Kontakion — Tone 2

You were numbered among the companies of the Martyrs of Christ, having contended in splendour through steadfast struggles, O glorious Galacteon, together with Episteme, your honoured wife and fellow-athlete; and together you both make intercession to the only God on behalf of us all.

Oikos

Let us praise in songs and hymns Galacteon, the valiant one among the Martyrs, together with his all-glorious wife, the aptly-named Episteme; for these two cast down the arrogance of the enemy, refuted the godlessness of the idols, and proclaimed the faith of Christ. Wherefore, having received from him in splendour the crowns of incorruption, they intercede unceasingly on behalf of us all.

Troparion — Tone 4

Your Martyrs, O Lord, in their struggle received crowns of incorruption from you, our God; for possessing your strength, they cast down their persecutors and shattered the powerless boldness of the demons. By their intercessions, O Christ God, save our souls.

Troparion — Tone 3

Holy apostles, intercede with the merciful God, that he may grant our souls forgiveness of offences.

Readings

Epistle

1 Thessalonians 2.9-14

9For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. 10Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe: 11As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, 12That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory. 13For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. 14For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews:

Gospel

Luke 11.47-12.1

47Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. 48Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres. 49Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: 50That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; 51From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation. 52Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. 53And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things: 54Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him. 1In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.