Greatmartyr Theodore Tyro; Hieromartyr Germogen, Patriarch of Moscow

Saints commemorated

• Saint of the day

  

  Greatmartyr Theodore Tyro

  Theodore the Recruit (†c. 306) — Tyron, "the recruit" or "the conscript," from the Latin tiro — was a young soldier newly enrolled in the Roman legion, stationed at Amasea in Pontus during the persecution of Maximian, and one of the two great warrior-martyrs named Theodore whom the Church honours. Refusing to sacrifice to the gods, and given a stay in which the authorities hoped he would relent, he instead set fire by night to the temple of the Mother of the gods (Cybele/Rhea); arrested and racked, comforted in prison by a vision of Christ, he was at the last burned alive, and gave up his soul in the flames. His body was buried at Euchaita by a pious woman, Eusebia, and Gregory of Nyssa preached his praise at the shrine there. He is famous above all for a posthumous wonder: when Julian the Apostate secretly ordered the food of Constantinople defiled with blood offered to idols during the first week of Lent, Theodore appeared to the archbishop and bade the faithful eat boiled wheat (kollyva) instead — for which the Church keeps his memory each year on the First Saturday of Great Lent, besides his fixed feast on February 17.

• Saint of the day

  

  Hieromartyr Germogen, Patriarch of Moscow

  Hermogenes (c. 1530 – 1612) was Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia through the worst years of the Time of Troubles, and a hieromartyr whose steadfastness helped save the Russian state and Church. A priest of Kazan who witnessed and recorded the finding of the wonderworking Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, and afterwards its first metropolitan, he was raised to the patriarchal throne in 1606. When the Polish invaders and their partisans overran Moscow and pressed the Russians to accept a Catholic prince, Władysław, as tsar, Hermogenes refused to bless him unless he became Orthodox, and from his cathedral, and then from prison, sent out letters (gramoty) calling the people to rise in defence of the faith and the fatherland — the summons that kindled the national militia of Minin and Pozharsky. For this the Poles shut him up in the Chudov Monastery in the Kremlin and starved him; he died on February 17, 1612, months before Moscow was freed. He was glorified in 1913, and his relics rest in the Dormition Cathedral of the Kremlin. Not to be confused with the new hieromartyr Hermogenes (Dolganev), Bishop of Tobolsk (June 16, †1918), drowned in the river Tura by the Bolsheviks — a different man of a different century, with whom the patriarch is often confused because both bear the name and both died in the hands of an occupying power.

• Auxibius of Soli

  Auxibius (first century) was an apostolic-age bishop of Soli (Soloi), a city on the northern coast of Cyprus. Born at Rome of a distinguished and wealthy pagan family and well-educated, he fled the marriage his parents had arranged and took ship for the East; coming to Cyprus, he met at Soli the Apostle and Evangelist Mark, who was passing through the island, and was by him baptized and consecrated bishop of the city. Hiding his office at first among the pagans, he won them gradually from the worship of idols, and — assisted by Heraclidius, bishop of Tamassos — established the Church of Soli, which he governed for about fifty years. He ordained a successor and reposed in peace in the first century. He is honoured especially in the Church of Cyprus, commemorated on February 17.

• Mariamne

  Mariamne (first century) was the sister of the holy Apostle Philip, one of the Twelve, and a fellow-labourer in his apostolic mission. A virgin who had consecrated her life to Christ, she travelled with her brother and with the Apostle Bartholomew through the cities of Asia Minor — Lydia, Mysia, and Phrygia — sharing their preaching, tending them in their hardships, and herself proclaiming the Gospel and turning many to the faith. She was with them at Hierapolis in Phrygia, where Philip was crucified and Bartholomew, taken down from the cross, survived; Mariamne too was seized and threatened but was delivered. After her brother's martyrdom she continued to preach — the tradition takes her into Lycaonia — and there she reposed in peace. The Church honours her as a righteous virgin and apostolic helper, commemorated on February 17.

• Theodore the Silent of the Kiev Caves

  Theodore the Silent (thirteenth century) was a monk of the Kiev Caves Lavra, one of the venerable fathers who rest in the Far Caves (the Caves of Saint Theodosius). His surname records his ascetic labour: he kept a strict silence (molchanie), guarding his lips as a discipline of the heart and a means of unceasing inner prayer, and by this and his other struggles was granted, the tradition holds, a gift of wonderworking. Little else of his life is recorded. He is commemorated on February 17, and among the assembly of the venerable fathers of the Far Caves.

• Theodosius of Trnovo

  Theodosius of Trnovo (†1363) was the foremost Bulgarian hesychast of the fourteenth century — a monk and spiritual father, disciple of Gregory of Sinai, who carried the renewal of the Jesus-Prayer into the Bulgarian lands and founded the great monastery of Kilifarevo near the royal city of Trnovo (Tarnovo). Under him Kilifarevo became a school of prayer and learning that gathered hundreds of monks from Bulgaria, Serbia, and the Greek and Romanian lands, and from which came Euthymius, the last Patriarch of Trnovo. A zealous defender of Orthodoxy, Theodosius took a leading part in the councils held at Trnovo against the Bogomils, the followers of Barlaam and Akindynos, and other errors of his day. At the close of his life he went to Constantinople, where, received by his friend the Patriarch Callistus, he reposed in peace; Callistus wrote his Life. He is honoured chiefly by the Bulgarian Church, commemorated on February 17.

British Isles and Ireland

• Venerable Fintan, abbot of Clonenagh (603)
• St. Loman, 1st bishop of Trim (4th C)
• St. Fortchern, 2nd bishop of Trim (5th C)
• St. Finan, bishop of Lindisfarne (661)
• St. Guevrock of Saint-Pol-de-Leon (6th C)

Troparia & kontakia

Readings