All Saints
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Saints commemorated
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Ven. Sampson the Hospitable of Constantinople
Sampson the Hospitable was a Roman-born physician who gave away a great inheritance, settled at Constantinople, and turned his own house into a free surgery for the poor of the City, treating the sick without payment and lodging those who had nowhere to go. Ordained priest by the patriarch, he cured the emperor Justinian of an illness his physicians had given up, and asked in return not gold but the founding of a xenon — a hospital and hostel — which was built beside the Great Church and bore his name for six hundred years. He reposed in peace about 530 and was buried in the church of the Martyr Mokios, where a fragrant myrrh flowed from his tomb and the sick were healed. He is numbered among the unmercenary physicians, and is one of the very few saints whose memorial is a working institution.
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St Severus the Priest (6th c.)
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St Joanna the Myrrh-bearer (1st c.)
Joanna was the wife of Chuza, the steward of Herod Antipas, and one of the women who followed Christ from Galilee, supported His ministry out of their own means, and came to the sepulchre on the morning of the Resurrection. Saint Luke names her twice and only twice — among the women healed of infirmities who "ministered unto them of their substance" (Luke 8:3), and among those who brought the news of the empty tomb to the apostles and were not believed (Luke 24:10). The tradition adds one act to the Gospel record: that when Herodias had the head of the Forerunner thrown away in an unclean place, it was Joanna who recovered it and buried it in a vessel on the Mount of Olives, where it lay until the First Finding. She reposed in peace in the first century. Her fixed commemoration is June 27; her great commemoration, the Sunday of the Myrrhbearers, is movable.
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Ambrose of Optina
Ambrose of Optina (1812–1891) is the most celebrated of the elders of the Optina hermitage and one of the best-loved saints of nineteenth-century Russia. A Tambov priest's-family son who entered Optina in 1839 after a sickbed vow, he was formed by the elders Leonid and Macarius, and from 1860 until his death was the spiritual father to whom all Russia came — peasants, merchants, bishops, and writers, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy among them. Bedridden for much of his life, he received the stream of visitors daily for three decades, answered thousands of letters, helped prepare Optina's famous patristic translations, and founded the Shamordino convent for women whom no other monastery would take. He reposed at Shamordino on October 10, 1891, and was glorified in 1988, the first of the Optina elders to be canonised.
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George the Hagiorite
George the Hagiorite — Giorgi Mtatsmindeli, "George of the Holy Mountain" — was the greatest of the Georgian translators, abbot of the Monastery of the Iberians (Iviron) on Mount Athos from 1044, and the man to whom the Georgian Church owes the received text of its Scriptures, its Menaion, its Triodion and its Synaxarion. Born about 1009 in Trialeti and educated for twelve years at Constantinople, he was tonsured at Khakhuli, sought out the recluse George on the Black Mountain above Antioch, and came to Athos in 1040 to take up the unfinished work of Euthymius the Iberian. He wrote the Life of John and Euthymius on which nearly all knowledge of Iviron's founders depends, defended the apostolic standing of the Georgian Church at Antioch, and died at Constantinople on 29 June 1065 while bringing eighty Georgian orphans home to Athos to be trained. He is kept on June 27. He is not the George of the May 13 Greek notice, who was Euthymius' immediate successor.
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Martin of Turov
Martin was the cook of the bishops of Turov, on the Pripyat in the Turov–Pinsk country of what is now southern Belarus, and served four of them in succession — Simeon, Ignatius, Joachim (attested 1114–1146) and George. The last of these released him from the kitchen on account of his age; rather than leave, the old man took the monastic habit and lived alone in the bishop's monastery of Saints Boris and Gleb. Years of heavy work had left him chronically ill, and in one attack he lay three days unable to move, with no one to bring him water. He called on the passion-bearers Boris and Gleb, and on the third day they came to him "as they are painted in their icon," gave him to drink, and healed him. He lived another year, told the story to his spiritual father, and reposed after 1146. It is one of the smallest and most domestic of the Russian miracle-narratives, and one of the most affecting.
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Serapion of Kozheozero
Serapion was a Tatar prince of Kazan, born Turtas Gravirovich, who was taken to Moscow after the campaigns of the 1550s, was baptised there with the name Sergius, and became — in one of the more remarkable conversions in the Russian record — a monk of the far northern forests. About 1560 he found the hermit Niphon living alone on a peninsula in Lake Kozhe, in the Kargopol country beyond the Onega, joined him, was tonsured Serapion, and after Niphon's death in Moscow held the little community together through famine, obtained from Tsar Theodore Ioannovich in 1584 the charter that gave it land, and from Patriarch Job the antimensia for its two churches. He governed nearly thirty years, resigned in 1608, and reposed on 27 June 1611, leaving forty monks where he had found one hermit.
Troparia & kontakia
Apolytikion — Tone 4
In thy patience thou didst gain thy reward, O venerable father, persevering unceasingly in prayer, loving the poor and supplying their need. Wherefore intercede with Christ our God, O blessed and godly-minded Sampson, that our souls may be saved.
Kontakion — Tone 8
Seven swords pierced thy soul, O Virgin, when thou didst stand beneath the Cross of thy Son; and now thou standest for us before him, healing by thy wounds the hardness of our hearts. Wherefore we cry: rejoice, thou that art wounded for our sake.
Kontakion — Tone 4
Running together to thy divine coffin, O godly-minded and venerable Sampson, as to a physician most excellent and a minister well-pleasing to God, we hymn thee with psalms and songs, and we glorify Christ, who bestowed upon thee such grace of healings.
Synaxarion
The Sampson of old drew drink out of a jawbone; this Sampson makes myrrh well up out of a tomb. On the twenty-seventh Sampson died, and myrrh gushed forth.
Troparion — Tone 4
Soften our evil hearts, O Mother of God, and quench the assaults of those that hate us, and loose every straitness of our soul; for beholding thy holy image we are pierced with compunction at thy suffering and thy tender mercy toward us, and we kiss thy wounds, and are afraid of the arrows of our own sins. Suffer us not, O Mother of compassion, to perish in our cruelty and from the cruelty of our neighbours.
Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)
In thee, O Father, that which is according to the image was preserved exactly: for taking up the cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal; wherefore thy spirit rejoiceth with the angels, O venerable George.
Troparion
The noble Joseph, taking down Thy most pure body from the tree, wrapped it in clean linen with sweet spices, and laid it in a new tomb; but on the third day Thou didst rise, O Lord, granting to the world great mercy. Unto the myrrhbearing women standing by the grave the angel cried out: Myrrh is fitting for the dead, but Christ hath been shown a stranger to corruption.
Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)
In thee, O Father, that which is according to the image was preserved exactly: for taking up the cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal; wherefore thy spirit rejoiceth with the angels, O venerable Martin.
Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)
In thee, O Father, that which is according to the image was preserved exactly: for taking up the cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal; wherefore thy spirit rejoiceth with the angels, O venerable Serapion.
Readings
Vespers
Isaiah 43.9-14
9Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth. 10Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. 11I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. 12I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God. 13Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it? 14Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.
Wisdom of Solomon 3.1-9
1But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. 2In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery, 3And their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are in peace. 4For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality. 5And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them, and found them worthy for himself. 6As gold in the furnace hath he tried them, and received them as a burnt offering. 7And in the time of their visitation they shall shine, and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble. 8They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and their Lord shall reign for ever. 9They that put their trust in him shall understand the truth: and such as be faithful in love shall abide with him: for grace and mercy is to his saints, and he hath care for his elect.
Wisdom of Solomon 5.15-6.3
15But the righteous live for evermore; their reward also is with the Lord, and the care of them is with the most High. 16Therefore shall they receive a glorious kingdom, and a beautiful crown from the Lord’s hand: for with his right hand shall he cover them, and with his arm shall he protect them. 17He shall take to him his jealousy for complete armour, and make the creature his weapon for the revenge of his enemies. 18He shall put on righteousness as a breastplate, and true judgment instead of an helmet. 19He shall take holiness for an invincible shield. 20His severe wrath shall he sharpen for a sword, and the world shall fight with him against the unwise. 21Then shall the right aiming thunderbolts go abroad; and from the clouds, as from a well drawn bow, shall they fly to the mark. 22And hailstones full of wrath shall be cast as out of a stone bow, and the water of the sea shall rage against them, and the floods shall cruelly drown them. 23Yea, a mighty wind shall stand up against them, and like a storm shall blow them away: thus iniquity shall lay waste the whole earth, and ill dealing shall overthrow the thrones of the mighty. 1Hear therefore, O ye kings, and understand; learn, ye that be judges of the ends of the earth. 2Give ear, ye that rule the people, and glory in the multitude of nations. 3For power is given you of the Lord, and sovereignty from the Highest, who shall try your works, and search out your counsels.
1st Matins Gospel
Matthew 28.16-20
16Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. 17And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Epistle
Hebrews 11.33-12.2
33Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 35Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: 36And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: 37They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; 38(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 39And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 40God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. 1Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Gospel
Matthew 10.32-33, 37-38, 19.27-30
32Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. 33But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. 37He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. 27Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore? 28And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. 30But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.