Christmastide, day 5
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day Antiochian commemoration
Holy Innocents Slain by Herod
The Holy Innocents are the male children of Bethlehem and its districts, two years old and under, whom Herod the Great ordered killed after the Magi failed to return and disclose to him the newborn King (Matthew 2:16–18). Deceived and enraged, the tyrant sought to destroy the one Child by destroying many; the Christ-child himself was already borne into Egypt at the angel's warning, and so the slain infants died in his place and for his sake. Though they could not confess Christ in words, the Church honours them as her first martyrs — "baptised in their own blood," the buds of the martyr-host cut down before they could flower. Matthew reads over them the prophecy of Jeremiah, "Rachel weeping for her children." Byzantine tradition numbers them fourteen thousand. They are kept on December 29, within the afterfeast of the Nativity, and in the West on December 28 (Childermas).
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Our Venerable Father Marcellus, Abbot of the Monastery of the Unsleeping Ones (485)
Marcellus (c. 400 – c. 485) was the third abbot of the Monastery of the Unsleeping Ones (the Akoimetoi), the Constantinopolitan community whose monks, divided into relays of choirs, kept the praise of God ascending day and night without ceasing. A well-born Syrian of Apamea, orphaned young and educated at Antioch and Ephesus, he gave away his inheritance, supported himself as a copyist that he might give the more to the poor, and entered the Akoimetoi under their founder Alexander. Chosen abbot against his will, he governed the community for some sixty years, raised it to its greatest flourishing, and supplied the first monks for the famed Monastery of Stoudios. A staunch upholder of the Chalcedonian faith and a man of attested miracles, he reposed about 485 and is kept on December 29, within the afterfeast of the Nativity.
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Benjamin of Nitria
Benjamin (†c. 392) was an ascetic of the Nitrian desert in Egypt, one of the desert fathers whose memory is preserved chiefly through the Lausiac History of Palladius. After many years of monastic labour he received from God the gift of healing: by the laying-on of hands or by a little blessed oil he cured those who came to him of every sickness. In his last months he was himself afflicted with a grievous dropsy that swelled his body to an enormous size, yet he continued to heal others and bore his own suffering with such serenity that his brethren marvelled — asking only that they pray his inner man take no hurt. He reposed about the year 392 and is commemorated on December 29, within the afterfeast of the Nativity, together with the ascetic Athenodorus.
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Thaddeus the Confessor
Thaddeus (†818) was a monk of the great Monastery of Stoudios in Constantinople and a disciple of Theodore the Studite, who suffered as a confessor for the holy icons in the second iconoclast persecution under the emperor Leo V the Armenian. Brought to trial and ordered to trample an icon of the Saviour set beneath his feet, he protested that he had been forced upon it against his will and openly cursed the impiety of the iconoclasts; for this he was beaten with cudgels, dragged by the feet, and cast outside the city walls. Cared for by a compassionate Christian, he lived three days more and reposed of his wounds in the year 818. The Church keeps him on December 29, within the afterfeast of the Nativity.
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 4
A star sent the Magi to the newborn Child, and Herod sent forth an unjust army in vain, imagining that he could slay the One who lay within the manger.
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O Father, was preserved unfailingly that which is according to the image; for taking up thy cross thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou hast taught us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore, O venerable Marcellus, thy spirit rejoiceth with the angels.
Readings
Epistle
Hebrews 12.25-26, 13.22-25
25See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: 26Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. 22And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation: for I have written a letter unto you in few words. 23Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty; with whom, if he come shortly, I will see you. 24Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints. They of Italy salute you. 25Grace be with you all. Amen.
Gospel
Mark 11.11-23
11And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve. 12And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: 13And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. 14And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it. 15And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; 16And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. 17And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves. 18And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine. 19And when even was come, he went out of the city. 20And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. 21And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away. 22And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. 23For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.