Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Apostle Philip of the Seventy
Philip the Deacon (first century), counted among the Seventy Apostles, was one of the Seven chosen by the apostles to serve tables in Jerusalem (Acts 6). When persecution scattered the Church he became its first great missionary: he evangelised Samaria, where even Simon Magus believed and was baptised, and on the Gaza road he baptised the Ethiopian eunuch — the first Gentile fruit of Africa. Settled at Caesarea, he was called "the evangelist" and had four virgin daughters who prophesied, among them Hermione of Ephesus. The tradition makes him at last bishop of Tralles in Asia Minor, where he reposed in old age. He is not to be confused with Philip the Apostle, of the Twelve (November 14).
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Synaxis of the Holy Startsi of Optina Monastery
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Saint Theophanes the Hymnographer (the Branded) (847)
Theophanes the Branded (Graptos, c. 778–845) was a Palestinian monk of the Lavra of St. Sabbas, hymnographer, and confessor of the holy icons under the second iconoclasm. With his elder brother Theodore he carried the protest of the Church of Jerusalem to Constantinople, and under three iconoclast emperors endured imprisonment, exile, and torture; the emperor Theophilus had twelve mocking iambic verses branded onto the brothers' faces with hot irons, whence their surname "the Branded." Theodore died of his sufferings in prison; Theophanes lived to see Orthodoxy restored in 843 and was made Metropolitan of Nicaea, dying in 845. The Church sings his own words back to him: he wrote some 150 canons, which fill the service books to this day.
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Our Holy Father Philotheos Kokkinos,Patriarch of Constantinople (1379)
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Anthony of Optina
Anthony (in the world Alexander Ivanovich Putilov) was born at Romanov on the Volga in 1795, the younger brother of Moses of Optina, and followed him into the Roslavl forests as a novice in 1816. In 1821 the two brothers came at the bishop's invitation to Optina and cut out of the pine wood the skete of Saint John the Forerunner, the cell-and-garden hermitage that would become the seedbed of the whole Optina eldership. Anthony was its superior for fourteen years (1825–1839), then for fourteen more the abbot of the monastery of Saint Nicholas at Maloyaroslavets; and through all of it he bore an ulcerated affliction of the legs so severe that he stood through services in agony and told almost no one. He was released from the abbacy in 1853, returned to Optina, took the great schema in March 1865, and died on 7 August of that year. He was glorified locally with the Optina elders in 1996 and for general veneration in 2000.
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Zenaida and Philonilla
Zenaida (Zenais) and Philonilla (first century) were sisters of Tarsus in Cilicia, kinswomen of the Apostle Paul and among the earliest women physicians the Church remembers. Leaving home and property, they settled in a cave near Demetrias and practised medicine without payment, healing bodies freely and bringing souls to Christ — the pattern the Church would later name "unmercenary." The traditions of their end diverge: the Russian and OCA account has pagans stone them to death in their cave by night, while the Greek synaxarion's verse says the two "friends of peace fell asleep in peace." They are commemorated together on October 11.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Ethelburga, abbess of Barking (c.676)
- St. Kenneth (Cainnech), abbot of Aghaboe (7th C)
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 4
Thou didst dawn upon the Church as another sun, O venerable one, enlightening her with the lightning-flashes of thy teachings, O Theophanes, as a sacred minister of Christ our God.
Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)
From the forests of Roslavl thou camest with thy brother to plant a garden of stillness in the pine wood of Optina, and there, bearing thy sickness in silence for fifty years, thou didst become a physician of souls. O venerable father Anthony, entreat Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 3
O holy Apostle Philip, intercede with the merciful God, that He may grant unto our souls the forgiveness of offences.
Troparion — Tone 8
Guide of Orthodoxy, teacher of piety and holiness, luminary of the whole world, God-inspired adornment of hierarchs, O wise Theophanes, by thy teachings thou hast enlightened all, O harp of the Spirit: intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Readings
Epistle
Ephesians 1.22-2.3
22And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, 23Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. 1And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
Gospel
Luke 7.36-50
36And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to meat. 37And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, 38And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. 39Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner. 40And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. 41There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. 42And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? 43Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. 44And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. 45Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. 46My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. 47Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. 48And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. 49And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also? 50And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.