Hieromartyr Babylas, Bishop of Antioch

Saints commemorated

• Saint of the day

  Hieromartyr Babylas, Bishop of Antioch

  Babylas was bishop of Antioch from about 237 until his death in the Decian persecution, c. 253. Celebrated in antiquity for barring an emperor stained with murder from the doors of the church, he confessed Christ under Decius, was loaded with chains — which he asked to have buried with him — and died a martyr together with three boys he had raised in the faith. A century later his relics were carried to the suburb of Daphne to silence the oracle of Apollo there — the first attested translation of relics in Christian history — and their removal on the order of Julian the Apostate, followed at once by the burning of Apollo's temple, made Babylas the emblem of the martyrs' victory over paganism, immortalised in John Chrysostom's writings.

• Holy Prophet Moses, who beheld God.

  Moses, the God-seer and Lawgiver, is the greatest figure of the Old Covenant: the Hebrew child drawn from the Nile who spoke with God in the Burning Bush, led Israel out of Egypt through the Red Sea, received the Law on Sinai, and guided the people forty years in the wilderness before dying within sight of the promised land. The Orthodox Church venerates him as the first and chief of the prophets — the man "whom the Lord knew face to face" — reads his books and sings his odes throughout the liturgical year, sees in the bush that burned unconsumed the great type of the Theotokos, and beholds him standing beside Christ in glory at the Transfiguration. His principal feast is September 4.

• St John Mavropos, Metropolitan of Euchaita (1100)

• St Hermione, daughter of Apostle Philip (1st c.)

  Hermione (†c. 117) was one of the four virgin daughters of Philip the Deacon — the evangelist of the Seven — who "did prophesy" (Acts 21:9). A prophetess and physician of the apostolic generation, she travelled to Ephesus seeking John the Theologian, arriving only after his repose, healed the sick without charge, and founded a house of care for them. Interrogated by the emperor Trajan, to whom she foretold Hadrian's succession, she was released, but under Hadrian was tortured and finally beheaded at Ephesus, where she was buried. Her converted executioners, Theotimus and Theodoulos, are commemorated with her on September 4.

• Venerable Anthimos the Blind, New Ascetic (1782)

• Holy New Martyr Gorazd, Bishop of Slovakia and the Czech Lands (1942) (August 22 OC)

• Joasaph of Belgorod

  Joasaph of Belgorod (1705–1754), born Joachim Gorlenko of a noble Ukrainian family, was a monk and bishop of the Russian Church renowned for the austerity of his personal life and the strictness of his pastoral zeal. Formed at the Kiev Academy and tonsured young, he rose through the monastic offices to be igumen of the Mgarsk monastery and vicar of the Trinity–Sergius Lavra before his consecration as Bishop of Belgorod and Oboyan in 1748. In six years of ascetic and exacting episcopate he laboured for the moral reform of his clergy and people. His body was found incorrupt after his repose, and he was glorified in 1911; he is commemorated on December 10, the day of his death.

British Isles and Ireland

• St. Monessa, disciple of St. Patrick (456)
• St. Ultan of Ardbraccan (657)
• St. Rhuddlad of Llanrhyddlad (7th C)

Troparia & kontakia

Readings