Nativity Fast, day 39
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Holy Ten Martyrs of Crete
The Ten Martyrs of Crete — Theodulus, Saturninus, Euporus, Gelasius, Eunician, Zoticus, Pompeius, Agathopus, Basilides and Evaristus — were Cretans of several towns who confessed Christ together at Gortyna, the Roman capital of the island, and were beheaded there around the year 250 in the persecution of the emperor Decius. Interrogated and tortured over some thirty days by a governor of Crete who also bore the name Decius, they held firm and died as one company. They are the patron-martyrs of the whole island — its foundational Christian witnesses, whose memory is preserved in the village near Gortyna still called Agioi Deka, "the Holy Ten" — and their feast on December 23 falls within the Forefeast of the Nativity, so that the hymns of the day join their contest to the coming of Christ.
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Our Venerable Father Paul, Archbishop of Neocaesarea (4th c.)
Paul, bishop of Neocaesarea on the Euphrates, was a confessor of the last great persecution — that of the emperor Licinius (reigned 308–324) in the Christian East. Arrested and tried for the faith, he confessed Christ firmly, was scourged and starved, and finally had both his hands scorched and crippled with red-hot iron before being imprisoned in a fortress on the Euphrates. Released when Constantine's victory brought the persecution to an end, he took his place among the 318 Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325, his maimed hands a living testimony to the faith the Council defined. He is commemorated on December 23, within the Forefeast of the Nativity.
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Our Holy Father Nahum of Ochrid, Wonderworker and Enlightener of the Slavs (ca. 900)
Naum of Ohrid (c. 830–910) was one of the seven Apostles of the Slavs — the Sedmochislenitsi — a direct disciple and co-worker of Cyril and Methodius who, after their mission in Great Moravia was broken up by the Latin clergy, carried the Slavonic letters and liturgy south into Bulgaria. There, with his companion Clement of Ohrid, he became a founder of Slavonic learning: a teacher at Pliska and Preslav under the princes Boris and Symeon, and then head of the school at Ohrid, where he built a monastery on the southern shore of the lake and reposed in 910. Venerated across the Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian lands as an enlightener and wonderworker, he is commemorated on December 23, and his monastery and relics at the springs of Lake Ohrid remain one of the great pilgrimage shrines of the Balkans.
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Victoria, Anatolia and Audax
Victoria and Anatolia were sisters, Christian maidens of noble family in the Sabine country north-east of Rome, who refused the pagan husbands to whom they had been betrothed, gave away their property, and were put to death in the persecution of Decius about the year 250. Anatolia was held at Thora and Victoria at Trebula Mutuesca. To Anatolia's passion belongs the third name: Audax, the man sent to kill her, who was bitten — or, as the legend has it, seized — by the serpent shut up with her, was delivered by her prayer, confessed Christ, and died with her. The Byzantine calendar keeps the two sisters on December 23; the Roman Martyrology keeps Anatolia and Audax on July 10, which is why they stand in this collection's July 10 file as well.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Frithebert, bishop of Hexham (766)
- St. Mazota of Abernethy (8th C)
Troparia & kontakia
Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of several martyrs)
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for possessing Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their intercessions save our souls.
Kontakion — Tone 4
The morning star has shone forth — the honoured contest of the martyrs — foreshowing to us the One born in the cave, whom the Virgin bore without seed.
Troparion — Tone 3
Let us honour Crete, rich in wonders, that put forth precious flowers, the pearls of Christ — martyrs grown together into one, ten in number, O blessed ones — who put to shame the whole idolatrous nation, and therefore received their crowns, O valiant of soul.
Readings
Epistle
Hebrews 10.1-18
1For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 2For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. 3But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 4For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. 5Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: 6In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. 7Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. 8Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; 9Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 14For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. 15Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, 16This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 17And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. 18Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
Gospel
Mark 10.11-16
11And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. 12And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery. 13And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. 14But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. 15Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. 16And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.