Hieromartyr Phocas, Bishop of Sinope

Saints commemorated

Saint of the day

Hieromartyr Phocas, Bishop of Sinope

Phocas was bishop of Sinope, the great harbour city of the southern Black Sea coast, and died a martyr there in the year 117, in the persecution at the end of Trajan's reign: refusing to renounce Christ, he was tortured and shut into a bath-house heated to fury, where he gave up his spirit. Styled "the Wonderworker" in the synaxaria, he became one of the most beloved saints of the Black Sea world — the patron of seafarers, invoked daily by those in peril on the waters, and a defender against fire and drowning. His relics were translated to Constantinople in 404, and his feast is kept on September 22.
Venerable Cosmas, desert-dweller of Zographou, Mt Athos (1323)

The Twenty-six Martyrs of Zographou — twenty-two monks of the Bulgarian monastery of Zographou on Mount Athos, led by their abbot Thomas, together with four laymen — were burned alive in the monastery's tower in 1276, in the persecution that followed the Union of Lyons. Refusing the command of the emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos and the unionist patriarch John Bekkos to accept the union with Rome, they shut themselves in the tower, denounced the Latinizers from its height as lawless men and heretics, and were given to the flames. They are commemorated on September 22, and at Zographou and in the Bulgarian Church on October 10, the anniversary of the burning.
Isaac and Martin

Isaac and Martin were martyrs known only from the brief notice of the Greek synaxarion for September 22, which transmits their names and their martyrdom and nothing more: neither place, nor year, nor persecutor. The verses appointed over them witness that Martin died by the sword: "With Christ breathing courage into him from on high, Martin hastened to breathe out his life against the blade." Their memory is kept on September 22, the day of the hieromartyr Phocas.
Peter the Tax-Collector

Peter the Tax-Collector was the chief collector of taxes of the province of Africa under the emperor Justinian (527–565), a hard and merciless man whom God converted through a morsel of bread: a loaf flung in irritation at a beggar was shown him in a vision as the one deed weighed in his favour at the judgement. He gave away his wealth, saw Christ in a dream wearing the garment he had given a poor man, had himself sold into slavery for the poor's sake, and served humbly for years until he was recognised — when he fled, healing a deaf-mute doorkeeper by his word as he went, and remained hidden until his death. The Slavic calendars and the OCA commemorate him on September 22; the Greek books keep January 20.

Troparia & kontakia

Kontakion — Tone 6

As a hierarch offering sacrifices, O father, at the end thou didst offer thyself a living sacrifice; having borne witness lawfully to Christ God, strengthened by angels and choosing death, thou art with them that cry to thee: Come, O Phocas, be with us, and none shall be against us.

Stichera

From infancy thou becamest a lover of the Lord, O all-blessed Phocas, hieromartyr of Christ; taking up the weapon of the Cross upon thy shoulders, thou didst walk unswervingly the way of salvation; wherefore thou becamest a companion of the angels, an adversary of the demons, and wast shown a fervent intercessor for the world.

Troparion — Tone 4

As a sharer of the ways of the Apostles and a successor to their throne, thou didst find thy practice, O God-inspired one, to be a passage unto contemplation; wherefore, rightly dividing the word of truth, thou didst suffer for the faith even unto blood, O Hieromartyr Phocas: intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4

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

Readings

Epistle

2 Corinthians 13.3-14

³Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you. ⁴For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you. ⁵Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? ⁶But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates. ⁷Now I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates. ⁸For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. ⁹For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection. ¹⁰Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification, and not to destruction. ¹¹Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you. ¹²Greet one another with an holy kiss. ¹³All the saints salute you. ¹⁴The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

Gospel

Luke 4.1-15

¹And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, ²Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. ³And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. ⁴And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. ⁵And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. ⁶And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. ⁷If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. ⁸And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. ⁹And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: ¹⁰For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: ¹¹And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. ¹²And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. ¹³And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. ¹⁴And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. ¹⁵And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.

Saints commemorated