Ascensiontide, day 4 · 42 days since Pascha
Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council
Saints commemorated
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Martyr Aquilina of Byblos
Aquilina of Byblos (c. 281–293) is the girl-martyr of Phoenicia: a Christian child of Byblos, the ancient coastal city that is the modern Jbeil in Lebanon, who at the age of twelve was denounced for having persuaded a pagan schoolfellow to believe in Christ. Brought before the governor Volusian, she refused every flattery and every threat, answering that the more she suffered the more strength the Lord invisibly gave her; she was beaten and had heated iron rods driven through her ears, and was cast out of the city for dead. Raised by an angel and returning to confess Christ a second time before the same tribunal, she was sentenced to beheading and gave up her soul in prayer before the sword could fall, in the year 293. Her tomb outside Byblos became a place of healings, and her relics were afterwards carried to Constantinople.
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Saint Triphyllius, bishop of Leucosia (Nicosia) in Cyprus (370)
Triphyllius (†c. 370) was Bishop of Leucosia — ancient Ledra, the modern Nicosia — in Cyprus, and the best-known disciple of Spyridon of Trimythous. Born at Constantinople and trained in law and rhetoric at Berytus (Beirut), he was by St Jerome's reckoning the most eloquent writer of his generation and the author of a commentary on the Song of Songs, now lost; yet he attached himself for a master not to a scholar but to the unlettered shepherd-bishop Spyridon, and the two stories the tradition tells best about him are both stories of Spyridon correcting his learning — the healing of the sick emperor, at which Triphyllius was recognised together with his teacher, and the rebuke in synod when he improved the Gospel's plain word for a sick man's bed. He founded a monastery at Leucosia out of his mother's inheritance, is counted among the Cypriot bishops at the Council of Sardica, and reposed in old age about the year 370.
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St Anna and her son John (5h c.)
Anna and her son John were ninth-century ascetics of Constantinople and Bithynia. Anna was the daughter of a deacon of the church of the Blachernae in the capital; widowed young, she cut her hair, put on a man's habit, took the name Euthymianus, and went with her son to live the monastic life in one of the monasteries on Mount Olympus in Bithynia, where the two of them were received as father and son. She belongs to the small and much-loved company of Byzantine holy women who lived hidden in men's monasteries under a man's name. She returned at length to Constantinople, and there reposed in the year 826. Her memory — and her son's with hers — is kept twice in the year, principally on June 13 and again on October 29.
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Andronicus of Moscow
Andronicus (†1404) was a native of Rostov, a disciple of Sergius of Radonezh, and the first abbot of the Monastery of the Saviour on the Yauza at Moscow — the house that took his own name and is known to this day as the Andronikov Monastery. It was founded by St Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow, in fulfilment of a vow made when he was delivered from a storm at sea on the voyage home from Constantinople, and completed about 1361; Alexis set Andronicus over it, and Sergius came to see his disciple there. Under Andronicus the monastery became a place of severe fasting and of unusual humility, and — as it proved — the nursery of the greatest school of icon-painting in Russia: his own disciples Sabbas and Alexander were remembered a century later for their skill, and it was in this house that Andrei Rublev and Daniel the Black were monks. In extreme old age Andronicus resigned the abbacy to Sabbas and withdrew into silence, and he reposed in 1404 and was buried in the monastery church, where his relics were identified again in 1993. The Church keeps him on June 13.
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Antipater of Bostra
Antipater was Bishop — properly Metropolitan — of Bostra, the capital of the Roman province of Arabia and one of the great metropolitan sees of the Patriarchate of Antioch, in the second half of the fifth century. He is one of the very few saints of the calendar who is remembered for a book: his Refutation of the Apology for Origen answered the defence of Origen composed by Pamphilus and Eusebius of Caesarea, and set out against the Origenist system — the pre-existence of souls, the final restoration of all things, the allegorising away of the Genesis creation — with a precision that later generations found useful. The work was ordered to be read in the Eastern churches during the Origenist crisis of Justinian's reign, and the Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787 cited him as an authority; it is now lost apart from the fragments preserved in those conciliar acts. He also wrote against the Apollinarians, and a small body of his homilies survives. His life is not recounted in the Synaxaristes: what the Church keeps of him on June 13 is a name, a see, and a body of teaching.
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Antonina of Nicaea
Antonina of Nicaea (†c. 302) was a Christian woman of Nicaea in Bithynia who suffered martyrdom in the persecutions of the late third and early fourth centuries. Arrested for her confession of Christ and brought before the governor, she refused every inducement and threat to sacrifice to the idols; she was subjected to a succession of savage tortures — the rack, fire, and imprisonment — which she endured with unshaken constancy, and at last was put to death. The Church honours her among the martyrs of Nicaea and keeps her memory on March 1.
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Sabbas of Moscow
Sabbas (†1410) was the disciple of Andronicus of Moscow and the second abbot of the Monastery of the Saviour on the Yauza — the Andronikov monastery — succeeding his teacher in 1395, when Andronicus in extreme old age laid down the government of the house and withdrew into silence. He is one of the two disciples named by St Joseph of Volokolamsk — Sabbas and Alexander — for the virtue and the skill in icon-painting for which that monastery became famous, and he governed it through the years in which Andrei Rublev and Daniel the Black were its monks. He reposed in 1410 and was buried in the monastery church beside Andronicus; the two burials were identified together in the excavations of 1993. The Church keeps him on June 13, with his teacher.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Damhnade of Cavan
Troparia & kontakia
Apolytikion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)
By a flood of tears thou didst make the barren desert fruitful, and thy longing for God brought forth fruit in abundance by the labour of thy sighs a hundredfold; and thou didst become a shining lamp, illumining the world by thy miracles, O Andronicus our father. Intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Apolytikion — Tone 8 (common of a woman monastic-saint)
In thee, O mother, was preserved unimpaired that which is according to the image of God; for taking up the cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou hast taught us to despise the flesh, which passeth away, and to care rather for the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore, O venerable Anna, thy spirit rejoiceth with the angels.
Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)
O God of our fathers, who dealest with us ever according to Thy gentleness: take not Thy mercy from us, but by the prayers of Thy hierarch Antipater, guide our life in peace.
Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a woman martyr)
Thy lamb Aquilina crieth out to Thee with a great voice, O Jesus: I love Thee, O my Bridegroom, 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. Receive me as a spotless sacrifice, offered to Thee in love. By her intercessions, O merciful One, save our souls.
Apolytikion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)
By a flood of tears thou didst make the barren desert fruitful, and thy longing for God brought forth fruit in abundance by the labour of thy sighs a hundredfold; and thou didst become a shining lamp, illumining the world by thy miracles, O Sabbas our father. Intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)
O God of our fathers, who dealest with us ever according to Thy gentleness: take not Thy mercy from us, but by the prayers of Thy hierarch Triphyllius, guide our life in peace.
Kontakion — Tone 2 (common of a virgin martyr)
Thou didst offer to Christ the first-fruits of thy years, O maiden, and the purity of a body untouched; and being a child in age thou wast found perfect in confession, and didst tread down the pride of the tyrant. Wherefore we cry to thee: rejoice, O Aquilina, bride of the Lord.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy ewe-lamb, O Jesus, crieth out with a loud voice: "Thee, my Bridegroom, do I long for, and seeking Thee I contend; I am crucified and buried with Thee, and I suffer for Thy sake, that I may reign with Thee; I die for Thee, that I may live in Thee: receive me as an unblemished sacrifice offered to Thee with love." At her intercessions, O Merciful One, save our souls.
Readings
Vespers
Genesis 14.14-20
14And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan. 15And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus. 16And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people. 17And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king’s dale. 18And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. 19And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: 20And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.
Deuteronomy 1.8-11, 15-17
8Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them. 9And I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone: 10The LORD your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude. 11(The LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as he hath promised you!) 15So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes. 16And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. 17Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.
Deuteronomy 10.14-21
14Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD’s thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is. 15Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day. 16Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked. 17For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward: 18He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. 19Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. 20Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name. 21He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen.
10th Matins Gospel
John 21.1-14
1After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise shewed he himself. 2There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. 3Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing. 4But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. 5Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No. 6And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. 7Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea. 8And the other disciples came in a little ship; (for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits,) dragging the net with fishes. 9As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. 10Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. 11Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. 12Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord. 13Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. 14This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead.
Epistle
Acts 20.16-18, 28-36
16For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia: for he hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost. 17And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church. 18And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, 28Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. 29For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. 30Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. 31Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. 32And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. 33I have coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel. 34Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. 35I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. 36And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all.
Gospel
John 17.1-13
1These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: 2As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. 3And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. 4I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. 5And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. 6I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. 7Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. 8For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. 9I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. 10And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. 11And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. 12While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. 13And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.