Martyrs Acepsimus, Joseph, Aithalas

Saints commemorated

Saint of the day

Martyrs Acepsimus, Joseph, Aithalas

Akepsimas, Joseph and Aithalas were leaders of the Church in Persia — a bishop, a priest, and a deacon — martyred under the Sassanid king Shapur II around the year 378, near the end of the forty-year persecution he waged against the Christians of his realm. Akepsimas, bishop of the city of Naeson, was arrested an old man of eighty and held three years in prison with the seventy-year-old priest Joseph and the deacon Aithalas; when all three refused to worship the sun and fire, the bishop was beheaded and the priest and deacon stoned to death. They are commemorated together on November 3.
Holy Virgin Martyr Winefride of Treffynnon (Holywell), Wales (7th c.)
George the Great Martyr

George the Trophy-bearer (†303) is the most universally venerated of the martyrs of the East, honoured from Ethiopia to England as Μεγαλομάρτυς and Τροπαιοφόρος — "great-martyr" and "trophy-bearer," the soldier who carried off the prize. Born in Cappadocia of a martyred father and a Palestinian mother from Lydda, he rose young to the rank of comes in the guard of Diocletian, and when the persecuting edict was published at Nicomedia in 303 he gave away his goods, freed his slaves, and denounced the emperor's decree to his face before the council. There followed the long cycle of tortures for which his passion is famous — the spiked wheel, the pit of quicklime, the red-hot iron shoes, the poison of the magician Athanasius — through which the martyr was preserved, so that the sorcerer himself, and the Empress Alexandra, and many of the court confessed Christ. He was beheaded on 23 April 303 and buried at Lydda (Diospolis) in Palestine, where his shrine became one of the great pilgrimage places of Christendom. To him the later tradition attached the celebrated miracle of the dragon, and he is the patron of Georgia, England, Greece, Ethiopia, Portugal and Catalonia, of the city of Beirut and of Christian soldiers everywhere.

British Isles and Ireland

St. Winifred of Treffynon (Holywell) (7th C)
St. Elerius, abbot (6th C)
St. Clodock, hermit (6th C)
St. Wulgan of Canterbury, confessor (8th C)
St. Romwold of Northumbria, confessor (7th C)
St. Cristiolus (7th C) brother of St. Sulian and founder of churches
St. Englatius of Tarves, Aberdeenshire (966)
St. Vulganius hermit in Arras (c.704)

Troparia & kontakia

Apolytikion — Tone 4

As the deliverer of captives and defender of the poor, physician of the sick and champion of kings, O Trophy-bearer and Great-martyr George, intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Kontakion — Tone 2

Wisely and blamelessly didst thou minister the divine Mysteries, and thou wast shown to be a sacrifice acceptable to God, O God-blessed one; for gloriously thou didst drink the cup of Christ, O holy Akepsimas, together with thy fellow-sufferers, praying without ceasing for us all.

Kontakion — Tone 4

Tilled by God, thou wast shown forth as the most honoured husbandman of true religion, gathering for thyself the sheaves of the virtues; for having sown in tears, thou reapest with rejoicing, and having contended even unto blood, thou hast won Christ. By thine intercessions, O holy one, thou grantest to all forgiveness of their offences.

Troparion

As the deliverer of captives and defender of the poor, physician of the sick and champion of kings, O victorious Great-Martyr George, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4 (from the 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 shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their intercessions save our souls.

Readings

Epistle

Philippians 2.24-30

²⁴But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly. ²⁵Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labour, and fellowsoldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants. ²⁶For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick. ²⁷For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. ²⁸I sent him therefore the more carefully, that, when ye see him again, ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful. ²⁹Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness; and hold such in reputation: ³⁰Because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me.

Gospel

Luke 11.42-46

⁴²But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. ⁴³Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets. ⁴⁴Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them. ⁴⁵Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him, Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also. ⁴⁶And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.

Saints commemorated