Nativity Fast, day 11
Leavetaking of the Entry
Saints commemorated
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Holy Great Martyr and Most Wise Catherine of Alexandria and those with her (305)
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Great Martyr Mercurius (ca. 259)
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Clement of Ohrid
Clement of Ohrid (c. 840 – 916) was the chief of the disciples of Cyril and Methodius, the first bishop of the Slavs to preach, serve and write in the Slavonic tongue, and the founder of the Ohrid Literary School. Driven out of Great Moravia after Methodius's death in 885, he came down into Bulgaria, was set by prince Boris I over the region of Kutmichevitsa in south-western Macedonia, and there in some seven years is said to have taught three and a half thousand pupils, of whom the ablest were ordained. In 893 Tsar Symeon made him bishop of Drembica (Velitsa) — the first Slav to hold a Bulgarian see. He built the monastery of St Panteleimon at Ohrid, wrote the first original body of Slavonic Christian literature — sermons, panegyrics, lives, and hymns — and reposed there on 27 July 916, in a coffin he had made with his own hands. With Naum, Gorazd, Sabbas and Angelar, and with the two brothers themselves, he is one of the Seven Enlighteners of the Slavs, the Sedmochislenitsi.
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Clement of Rome
Clement was bishop of Rome at the end of the first century (episcopate c. 92–101) and one of the Apostolic Fathers — the generation taught directly by the Apostles. The tradition makes him a disciple of the Apostle Peter, who is said to have ordained him, and reckons him the third or fourth bishop of the Roman church. His enduring monument is the Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Clement, c. 96), written in the name of the Roman church to quell a schism at Corinth: the earliest datable Christian writing outside the New Testament, and for centuries read aloud in the churches. A later passio relates that Trajan exiled him to the marble quarries of Chersonesus in the Crimea and had him drowned with an anchor about his neck; his relics, recovered there by Cyril and Methodius in the ninth century, were carried in part to Rome and in part to Kyiv. He is commemorated on November 25.
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Peter of Alexandria
Peter was archbishop of Alexandria from about 300 until his martyrdom in 311, the last of the great bishop-martyrs of the Egyptian church under the Roman persecutions — the tradition names him "the seal and the completion of the martyrs." Trained in and then head of the famous catechetical school of Alexandria, he governed his church through the fiercest years of the Great Persecution, largely from hiding, and left in his Canonical Epistle the Church's classic measure for restoring those who had lapsed under torture. He was the first to condemn and excommunicate the deacon Arius, before the Arian controversy had fully broken; the tradition tells of his vision of Christ as a boy in a torn robe, warning him not to receive the heretic back. Beheaded at Alexandria on November 25, 311, at the very spot of Saint Mark's martyrdom, he is venerated as a champion of Orthodoxy and a theologian whose writings were still cited at the Ecumenical Councils.
Troparia & kontakia
Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)
A rule of faith and an icon of gentleness, a teacher of self-restraint: so did the truth of things show thee to thy flock. Therefore hast thou gained by lowliness the things on high, and riches by poverty. O father and hierarch Clement, intercede with Christ our God, that our souls may be saved.
Kontakion — Tone 2
As a branch of the divine Vine you were shown forth, all-holy Clement, bearing the clusters of true worship and distilling upon us the sweetness of salvation; therefore we honour your all-venerable memory, and we cry to you: intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Kontakion — Tone 4
O unshakeable and God-minded towers of the Church, and truly firm pillars of the true worship, all-praised Clement and Peter: by your intercessions preserve us all.
Troparion — Tone 4
O God of our Fathers, who ever deal with us according to Your forbearance: take not Your mercy from us, but by the supplications of the holy hierarchs Clement and Peter, govern our life in peace.
Troparion — Tone 4
O God of our Fathers, who ever deal with us according to Your forbearance: take not Your mercy from us, but by the supplications of the holy hierarchs Clement and Peter, govern our life in peace.
Readings
Epistle
1 Timothy 1.18-20, 2.8-15
18This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; 19Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: 20Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. 8I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. 9In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; 10But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works. 11Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. 12But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. 13For Adam was first formed, then Eve. 14And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. 15Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
Hebrews 9.1-7 (Theotokos)
1Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. 2For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary. 3And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; 4Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; 5And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly. 6Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. 7But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people:
Gospel
Luke 18.15-17, 26-30
15And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them: but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. 17Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein. 26And they that heard it said, Who then can be saved? 27And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. 28Then Peter said, Lo, we have left all, and followed thee. 29And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God’s sake, 30Who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting.
Luke 10.38-42, 11.27-28 (Theotokos)
38Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. 39And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. 40But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. 41And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: 42But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. 27And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. 28But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.