Great Lent, day 20 · 29 days until Pascha
Memorial Saturday
Saints commemorated
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Ven. Nicetas the Confessor
Nicetas (c. 760–824) was abbot of the great monastery of Medikion in Bithynia and one of the foremost confessors of the second period of Byzantine Iconoclasm. Under his governance Medikion became a school of holiness numbering hundreds of monks; and when the emperor Leo V the Armenian renewed the war on the holy icons, Nicetas — with the Patriarch Nicephorus and Theodore the Studite — refused all compromise, and for it endured imprisonment, exile and years of hardship, ending his days a confessor. His Life, written soon after his death by his disciple Theosteriktos, is one of the fullest and most valuable accounts of the iconoclast persecution seen from within.
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Saint Joseph the Hymnographer (886)
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Saint Seraphim of Vyritsa (1949) (March 21 OC)
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Theodosia of Tyre
Theodosia was a young maiden of Tyre, about eighteen years old, who during the persecution of Maximinus Daza went up to the confessors awaiting trial at Caesarea in Palestine to greet them and ask their prayers, and was for this seized and put to a cruel death — her sides and breasts torn, and at last cast into the sea (or, in the Greek synaxarion, beheaded). Her martyrdom is recorded by Eusebius of Caesarea, who was an eyewitness of the persecution.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Comman (c.7th C)
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 2
Celebrating thy holy memory, O all-blessed Nicetas, we glorify the Lord who gave thee strength to confess Him; for standing firm for the honour of the holy icons, thou didst endure exile and affliction, and now thou dost intercede for us all.
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a venerable confessor)
O God of our fathers, ever dealing with us according to Thy gentleness: take not Thy mercy from us, but by the prayers of Thy venerable one Nicetas guide our life in peace.
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a woman-martyr)
Thy lamb, O Jesus, crieth with a loud voice: Thee, O my Bridegroom, do I love, and seeking Thee I pass through many sufferings; I am crucified and buried with Thee in Thy baptism, and I suffer for Thy sake that I may reign with Thee; I die for Thee that I may live in Thee. Accept me as a spotless sacrifice offered in love. By her prayers, O merciful One, save our souls.
Readings
Epistle
Hebrews 10.32-38
32But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; 33Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. 34For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. 35Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. 36For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. 37For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. 38Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
1 Thessalonians 4.13-17 (Departed)
13But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Gospel
Mark 2.14-17
14And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphæus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him. 15And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many, and they followed him. 16And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? 17When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
John 5.24-30 (Departed)
24Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. 25Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. 26For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; 27And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. 28Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 29And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. 30I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.