Pre-Lenten Triodion, day 8 · 63 days until Pascha
Saints commemorated
-
Ven. Basil the Confessor
Basil the Confessor (†c. 750) was a monk and fellow-ascetic of Procopius of Decapolis, with whom he shared both the ascetic life and the sufferings of a confessor under the first wave of Byzantine iconoclasm. When the emperor Leo III the Isaurian (717–741) forbade the veneration of the holy icons and set out to compel the monks to abandon them, Basil, like his companion Procopius, stood firm in the Orthodox confession; he was seized, imprisoned, and tortured for his defence of the images, but did not die under his torments. Outliving the persecutor, he returned to his monastic labours and reposed in peace about the year 750. Because he suffered for the faith without being put to death, the Church honours him as a confessor, and keeps his memory on February 28, the day after that of Procopius, with whom his name is always joined.
-
Blessed Nicholas of Pskov, fool for Christ (1576)
Nicholas Salos (†1576), remembered by the people of his city as Mikula the Holy, was the fool-for-Christ of Pskov who for more than three decades feigned madness in the streets for the love of God, and to whom the Church attributes the gifts of prophecy and wonderworking. He is above all the man who stood before Ivan the Terrible in the terrible Lent of 1570, when the Tsar — fresh from the massacre of Novgorod — came with his oprichnina to do the same to Pskov. Meeting the Tsar, Nicholas is said to have offered him a piece of raw meat in the fast, and, when Ivan recoiled that he was a Christian who did not eat flesh in Lent, to have answered that Ivan did far worse, for he devoured the flesh and blood of Christian men. His fearless rebuke, and the sudden death of the Tsar's horse foretold as a sign, are credited by the tradition with turning Ivan from his purpose, so that Pskov was spared the fate of Novgorod. He reposed on February 28, 1576, and — an honour reserved for bishops and princes — was buried within the Trinity Cathedral of Pskov, where his relics rest.
-
Kyranna of Thessalonica
Kyranna (†1751) was a young Greek woman of the village of Ossa (in Turkish Vysoka), in the region of Langadas near Thessalonica, who suffered martyrdom under the Ottoman yoke for her refusal to renounce Christ or to marry a Turk. Beautiful, devout, and steadfast, she was pursued by a Janissary — the local tax-collector — who, unable to win her by persuasion or threats, falsely accused her before the Turkish judge at Thessalonica of having promised to embrace Islam. Before the court Kyranna denied the lie and confessed herself a Christian. Cast into prison and cruelly beaten day after day at her persecutor's bidding, she gave up her soul under the torments on the night of February 28, 1751, and a heavenly light was seen to shine over her body. The Church honours her as a new-martyr and a virgin, on the day of her death.
-
Marana and Cyra
Marana and Cyra (†c. 450) were two well-born women of Beroea in Syria — the city that is now Aleppo — who forsook wealth, marriage, and the world to live as enclosed ascetics in a small roofless enclosure outside their city, walled in behind a low door and a single window through which alone they received a little food. Loading themselves with heavy iron chains and crosses, keeping an almost unbroken silence, and enduring fasts of extraordinary length in the open air through the heat and cold of the Syrian seasons, they persevered in this discipline for some forty years. Twice they broke their enclosure to make pilgrimage — to the holy places of Jerusalem and to the shrine of the Protomartyr Thecla at Seleucia — eating nothing on the whole journey until they had worshipped. Their memory is preserved by Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus, who visited them and set down their story in his Religious History.
-
Nestor of Magydos
Nestor (†c. 250) was bishop of Magydos, a city of Pamphylia on the southern coast of Asia Minor, and a hieromartyr of the persecution under the emperor Decius. When the imperial edict of sacrifice went out and the Christians of his region were hunted, Nestor, a good shepherd, gave himself to prayer for his flock and did not flee; he was arrested while praying in his own house, brought before the governor, and — steadfastly refusing to sacrifice to the idols and confessing Christ before the tribunal — was tortured and at last crucified, sharing by his death the manner of his Lord's Passion. The Church keeps his memory on February 28.
-
Nymphas and Eubulus
Nymphas and Eubulus were two of the Seventy Apostles — the wider circle of disciples sent out by the Lord (Luke 10) and, in the tradition, reckoned among the first labourers of the Gospel after the Twelve. Both are known from a single mention in the New Testament epistles: Nymphas, greeted by the Apostle Paul in the Letter to the Colossians as one in whose house a church assembled, and Eubulus, named among those who sent greetings to Timothy from Rome in Paul's last letter. Of their lives beyond these notices little is recorded; the tradition honours them as apostolic men and fellow-workers of Paul, and the Church keeps their joint memory on February 28, as it keeps them, with all their company, in the Synaxis of the Seventy on January 4.
-
Proterius of Alexandria
Proterius (†457) was Patriarch of Alexandria from 451 to his death, and a hieromartyr of the Church. A presbyter of Alexandria under the Monophysite patriarch Dioscorus, he was raised to the see when Dioscorus was deposed by the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon (451) for his defence of the heresiarch Eutyches; and as patriarch he upheld the Chalcedonian confession of the one Christ in two natures against the fierce opposition of the Alexandrian populace, who remained loyal to the deposed Dioscorus and to the party that would become the Coptic Church. After years of tumult, on the death of the emperor Marcian the Monophysites set up the priest Timothy Aelurus as a rival patriarch, and a mob fell upon Proterius; he was murdered in the baptistery of his church, about the feast of Pascha in the year 457, his body dragged through the streets and burned. The Church of Constantinople and Rome venerate him as a martyr for the faith of Chalcedon; the non-Chalcedonian Church of Egypt does not.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Llibio of Anglesey (6th C)
- St. Madoc, bishop of Llanmadog (6th C)
- St. Sillan, abbot of Bangor (610)
- Holy Hieromartyr Herefrith, bishop of Lindsey (869)
- Oswald of Worcester and York (t/f from Feb 29th)
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 8
A wonderworker wast thou revealed, O Nicholas, when thou didst turn the sovereign's might and the fierceness of his mind unto mercy; and therefore wast thou shown a fervent supplicant for thine own fatherland. And now we entreat thee, O holy one: abide with us still, and defend us from the wiles of the enemy; for thou art unto the city of Pskov and to all Christ-loving people a praise and a confirmation.
Troparion — Tone 8
By the streams of thy tears thou didst cultivate the barren desert, and by thy sighing from the deep thou didst bear fruit a hundredfold in labours; and thou becamest a beacon shining upon the world with miracles, O Basil our righteous father. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy ewe-lamb, O Jesus, crieth out with a loud voice: Thee, O my Bridegroom, do I love, and seeking Thee I contend, and I am crucified and buried together with Thee in Thy baptism; I suffer for Thy sake, that I may reign with Thee; I die for Thee, that I may live in Thee: accept me, offered unto Thee in longing as a spotless sacrifice. At her prayers, O Merciful One, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 8
In you, O mothers, the divine image was preserved unto perfection; for taking up the cross, and iron with it, ye followed after Christ, and by your deeds ye taught the despising of the flesh, which passes away, and the care of the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore, O venerable Marana and Cyra, your spirits rejoice together with the angels.
Troparion — Tone 4
As one who shared in the ways of the Apostles and succeeded to their thrones, thou didst find in thy labours, O God-inspired one, an ascent to divine vision; wherefore, rightly dividing the word of truth, thou didst contend for the faith even unto blood, O Hieromartyr Nestor. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4
O thou of the Slavic tongue and of the land of Pskov, being in the flesh a fool for Christ, by the feigning of folly thou wast shown a citizen of the Jerusalem on high. O glorious one, thou dost rejoice together with the angels, having taken up the name of the myrrh-flowing hierarch Nicholas: with him do thou ever entreat Christ our God to grant us great mercy.
Troparion — Tone 3
O holy Apostles Nymphas and Eubulus, entreat the merciful God to grant our souls the forgiveness of our transgressions.
Troparion — Tone 4
As one who shared in the ways of the Apostles and succeeded to their thrones, thou didst find in thy labours, O God-inspired one, an ascent to divine vision; wherefore, rightly dividing the word of truth, thou didst contend for the faith even unto blood, O Hieromartyr Proterius. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Readings
6th Matins Gospel
Luke 24.36-53
36And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 37But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. 38And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? 39Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. 40And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet. 41And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? 42And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. 43And he took it, and did eat before them. 44And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. 45Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, 46And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: 47And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48And ye are witnesses of these things. 49And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. 50And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. 51And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. 52And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: 53And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.
Epistle
1 Corinthians 6.12-20
12All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. 13Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. 14And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power. 15Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. 16What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. 17But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 18Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 19What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Gospel
Luke 15.11-32
11And he said, A certain man had two sons: 12And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. 13And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. 14And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. 15And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. 17And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, 19And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. 20And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. 21And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. 22But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: 23And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: 24For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. 25Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing. 26And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. 27And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. 28And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him. 29And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: 30But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. 31And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. 32It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.