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Saturday 24 July 2027

Martyrs Boris and Gleb, Passionbearers

Saturday of the 5th week after Pentecost

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No Fast Tone 3

Martyrs Boris and Gleb, Passionbearers

Saints commemorated

  • Saint of the day

    Boris and Gleb

    Boris and Gleb, sons of Vladimir the Baptizer of Rus' and named Roman and David at the font, were killed in the succession war of 1015 on the orders — so the tradition holds — of their elder brother Svyatopolk, and are honoured as the first canonised saints of the Christian Rus'. Neither died confessing Christ before pagans: both refused to lift a hand against an elder brother and accepted an unjust death in the meekness of the Lord, and for this the Slavic Church gave them a title of its own — passion-bearers (strastoterptsy). Their bodies were gathered at Vyshgorod beside the church of St Basil, where miracles began at once; the translations of their relics into new churches in 1072 and 1115 are kept on May 2, and their murder on July 24. Around them grew the earliest cycle of Russian hagiography — the Chronicle tale, the anonymous Tale and Passion and Encomium, and Nestor's Lesson — and with it the ideal of the innocent, non-resisting prince that shaped the sanctity of Rus' for six centuries.

  • Martyr Christina of Tyre (200)

    Christina was, the Greek passion says, the daughter of Urban, the Roman governor of Tyre in Phoenicia, and was shut up by him at the age of eleven in a tower full of gold and silver idols so that she might be reared as a pagan priestess. Alone among the images, looking out at the stars, she reasoned her way to the one Creator who had made them; an angel came to her, taught her the faith and named her a bride of Christ, and she broke every idol in the tower and threw the pieces from the window. Her father tortured her and died in the night; two more governors, Dion and Julian, took up the case and used the wheel, the sea, the furnace, the serpents and the sword, and were defeated in turn — some three hundred of the onlookers are said to have believed. She was killed at last by the sword about the year 300, still a girl. The Greek Church honours her as a Great Martyr; the Latin West keeps the same day for Christina of Bolsena, and whether these are one saint or two is the oldest question in her dossier.

  • Athenagoras of Athens

    Athenagoras was a philosopher of Athens of the second century who, having studied the Platonism of his city, came to the faith and wrote in its defence — by his own account after setting out to write against it. His Embassy on behalf of the Christians, addressed about the year 177 to the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, answers the three standing charges against the Church — atheism, cannibalism and incest — with a lawyer's order and a rhetorician's polish, and in doing so gives one of the earliest clear statements of the relation of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the earliest sustained Christian argument against abortion, the exposure of infants, and the gladiatorial shows. A second treatise, On the Resurrection of the Dead, is transmitted under his name. He was not a martyr and left no cult in antiquity; his memory has been taken up in the modern Greek and American calendars on July 24, among the apologists whose books the Church has never ceased to read.

  • Capito and Hymenaeus

    Capito and Hymenaeus are a pair of martyrs whom the Synaxarion of Constantinople enters under July 24, after the great martyr Christina of Tyre and alongside the martyr Hermogenes, and of whom nothing has come down but their names and the manner of their death: they were beheaded. No city, no emperor, no persecutor, no year and no relics are recorded. They are kept in Greek usage only, and are absent from the Slavonic books and the OCA calendar for the day. This entry records what is transmitted and does not invent what is not.

  • Hermogenes the Martyr

    Hermogenes is one of the bare names of the Synaxarion of Constantinople, entered under July 24 after the great martyr Christina of Tyre and beside the martyrs Capito and Hymenaeus. The single thing transmitted about him is the manner of his death, which is unusual enough to have kept him in the calendar when his story was lost: his teeth were drawn out, and he died of it. No city, no persecutor, no year and no relics are recorded, and no office is appointed to him. He is kept in Greek usage only.

  • Hilarion of Tvali

    Hilarion, called Tvaleli from the monastery of Tvali, was one of the learned Georgian monks of the first half of the eleventh century, in whom the two poles of Georgian monastic life — the great houses of Tao-Klarjeti in the Georgian south-west and the Georgian colony on the Black Mountain above Antioch — are joined in a single career. He was abbot of Khakhuli, the chief school of the Georgian church, and there taught the boy who became George the Hagiorite, the greatest of the Georgian translators; the eleventh-century biographer known as George the Lesser says of him that he was outstanding in virtue and famous for his preaching and his ascetic labours, and elsewhere he is called a celebrated translator, writer and theologian. In his later years he left Khakhuli for Tvali, one of the Georgian monasteries of the Black Mountain in the territory of the patriarchate of Antioch, and died there, according to the historian Mikhail Sabinin, in 1041. He is commemorated on July 24.

  • Polycarp of the Kiev Caves

    Polycarp was archimandrite of the Caves monastery at Kiev in the second half of the twelfth century, in the generation after the founders, and reposed there on 24 July 1182. He had been formed in the monastery under the guidance of his kinsman Simon, afterwards bishop of Vladimir and Suzdal, and was chosen superior by the brotherhood on the death of the igumen Akindinus. Under him the Caves house stood at the height of its authority: he was confessor and adviser to the princes of Kiev as well as to his monks, and it was to him that the Great Prince Rostislav confided his desire to lay down the crown and be tonsured — a desire Polycarp discouraged, telling him that God had set him where he was to do justice, and which death overtook before it could be fulfilled. His name means "much fruit," and the tradition has always played upon it: he is remembered as the archimandrite under whom the memory of the Caves fathers was gathered and written down, and the printed Paterikon shows him at his desk composing their lives.

British Isles and Ireland

  • St. Declan, bishop of Ardmore (5th C)
  • Virgin-martyr Lewina of Seaford, Sussex (5th C)
  • St. Menefrida, Patron-saint of Tredresick, Cornwall (5th C)
  • Holy Martyrs Wulfhad and Ruffin of Mercia, (7th C)
  • St. Christiana of Termonde (7th C)

Troparia & kontakia

Apolytikion — Tone 4

Trained in the wisdom of the Greeks, thou didst find the Wisdom that was before them, O Athenagoras; and standing as an ambassador before the rulers of the earth, thou didst plead the cause of the Church and confess the Father, the Word and the Spirit. Entreat Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of martyrs)

Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee our God; for possessing Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and broke also the feeble insolence of demons. By their prayers, O Christ our God, save our souls.

Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a virgin-martyr)

Thine ewe-lamb, O Jesus, crieth aloud with a great voice: I love Thee, O my Bridegroom, and in seeking Thee I contend, and I am crucified and buried 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 as a spotless sacrifice her who was slain for love of Thee. By her intercessions, since Thou art merciful, save our souls.

Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a martyr)

Thy martyr, O Lord, in his contest received an incorruptible crown from Thee our God; for possessing Thy strength, he cast down the tyrants and broke also the feeble insolence of demons. By his prayers, O Christ our God, save our souls.

Apolytikion — Tone 4

Trained in the wisdom of the Greeks, thou didst find the Wisdom that was before them, O Athenagoras; and standing as an ambassador before the rulers of the earth, thou didst plead the cause of the Church and confess the Father, the Word and the Spirit. Entreat Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of martyrs)

Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee our God; for possessing Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and broke also the feeble insolence of demons. By their prayers, O Christ our God, save our souls.

Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a virgin-martyr)

Thine ewe-lamb, O Jesus, crieth aloud with a great voice: I love Thee, O my Bridegroom, and in seeking Thee I contend, and I am crucified and buried 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 as a spotless sacrifice her who was slain for love of Thee. By her intercessions, since Thou art merciful, save our souls.

Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a martyr)

Thy martyr, O Lord, in his contest received an incorruptible crown from Thee our God; for possessing Thy strength, he cast down the tyrants and broke also the feeble insolence of demons. By his prayers, O Christ our God, save our souls.

Kontakion — Tone 3

Today hath your most glorious memory shone forth, O noble passion-bearers of Christ, Roman and David, and it calleth us together to the praise of Christ our God. Therefore, running to the shrine of your relics, we receive the gift of healing by your prayers, O holy ones; for ye are physicians indeed.

Kontakion — Tone 4

Shut up among the idols of gold, thou didst look out upon the works of God and find their Maker; and being taught by an angel, thou didst break the images in pieces and cast them down, O all-praised Christina. Wherefore, having passed unhurt through the wheel and the sea and the fire, and having given thy tongue and thy blood for the Word, thou dost speak still, and dost intercede for them that keep thy memory.

Kontakion — Tone 2

Bearing in thy very name the promise of much fruit, thou didst bring it forth in the caves of Kiev, O father Polycarp: ruling the brotherhood in meekness, counselling princes in righteousness, and setting down in writing the labours of the fathers before thee. Wherefore, having finished thy course in the house thou didst serve, thou dost pray for us who honour thee.

Kontakion — Tone 3

Today hath your most glorious memory shone forth, O noble passion-bearers of Christ, Roman and David, and it calleth us together to the praise of Christ our God. Therefore, running to the shrine of your relics, we receive the gift of healing by your prayers, O holy ones; for ye are physicians indeed.

Kontakion — Tone 4

Shut up among the idols of gold, thou didst look out upon the works of God and find their Maker; and being taught by an angel, thou didst break the images in pieces and cast them down, O all-praised Christina. Wherefore, having passed unhurt through the wheel and the sea and the fire, and having given thy tongue and thy blood for the Word, thou dost speak still, and dost intercede for them that keep thy memory.

Kontakion — Tone 2

Bearing in thy very name the promise of much fruit, thou didst bring it forth in the caves of Kiev, O father Polycarp: ruling the brotherhood in meekness, counselling princes in righteousness, and setting down in writing the labours of the fathers before thee. Wherefore, having finished thy course in the house thou didst serve, thou dost pray for us who honour thee.

Magnification

We magnify you, O holy passion-bearers Boris and Gleb, who loved your brother more than your own life.

Magnification

We magnify you, O holy passion-bearers Boris and Gleb, who loved your brother more than your own life.

Troparion — Tone 2

O true passion-bearers and faithful hearers of the Gospel of Christ, chaste Roman with the most blessed David: ye did not withstand the brother who set himself against you when he slew your bodies, yet had no power to touch your souls. Let the wicked lover of power therefore mourn, while ye rejoice with the angelic choirs; and standing before the Holy Trinity, pray for the sovereign kinsmen of your race, that they may be well-pleasing to God, and for the sons of Rus', that they may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)

By a flood of tears thou didst make the barren desert fruitful, and by thy sighing from the depths thou didst bear fruit a hundredfold in labours; and thou didst become a luminary, shining upon the world by thy miracles, O Hilarion our father. Intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)

In thee, O father, was preserved undistorted that which is according to the image; for taking up the cross thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore, O venerable Polycarp, thy spirit rejoiceth with the angels.

Troparion — Tone 2

O true passion-bearers and faithful hearers of the Gospel of Christ, chaste Roman with the most blessed David: ye did not withstand the brother who set himself against you when he slew your bodies, yet had no power to touch your souls. Let the wicked lover of power therefore mourn, while ye rejoice with the angelic choirs; and standing before the Holy Trinity, pray for the sovereign kinsmen of your race, that they may be well-pleasing to God, and for the sons of Rus', that they may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)

By a flood of tears thou didst make the barren desert fruitful, and by thy sighing from the depths thou didst bear fruit a hundredfold in labours; and thou didst become a luminary, shining upon the world by thy miracles, O Hilarion our father. Intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)

In thee, O father, was preserved undistorted that which is according to the image; for taking up the cross thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore, O venerable Polycarp, thy spirit rejoiceth with the angels.

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 4.7-15

7But though the righteous be prevented with death, yet shall he be in rest. 8For honourable age is not that which standeth in length of time, nor that is measured by number of years. 9But wisdom is the gray hair unto men, and an unspotted life is old age. 10He pleased God, and was beloved of him: so that living among sinners he was translated. 11Yea speedily was he taken away, lest that wickedness should alter his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul. 12For the bewitching of naughtiness doth obscure things that are honest; and the wandering of concupiscence doth undermine the simple mind. 13He, being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled a long time: 14For his soul pleased the Lord: therefore hasted he to take him away from among the wicked. 15This the people saw, and understood it not, neither laid they up this in their minds, That his grace and mercy is with his saints, and that he hath respect unto his chosen.

Matins Gospel

Luke 21.12-19

12But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake. 13And it shall turn to you for a testimony. 14Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: 15For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. 16And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. 17And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake. 18But there shall not an hair of your head perish. 19In your patience possess ye your souls.

Epistle

Romans 8.14-21

14For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. 18For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 20For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 21Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Romans 8.28-39 (Boris and Gleb)

28And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. 31What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 33Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. 34Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Gospel

Matthew 9.9-13

9And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him. 10And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. 11And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? 12But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. 13But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

John 15.17-16.2 (Boris and Gleb)

17These things I command you, that ye love one another. 18If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. 19If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. 20Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. 21But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me. 22If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. 23He that hateth me hateth my Father also. 24If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. 25But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause. 26But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: 27And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning. 1These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. 2They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.