Nativity Fast, day 4
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Martyrs Platon and Roman
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Holy New Martyr Anastasius of Epirus (1750), and Daniel, whom he converted
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Plato of Ancyra
Plato of Ancyra (†c. 306) was a young confessor of Galatia who was martyred in his native city during the Great Persecution. Still in his youth, he travelled the cities preaching Christ with a persuasiveness and command of Greek learning that astonished his hearers, until he was arrested and tried before the governor Agrippinus. Flattery, the offer of a noble marriage, threats, and prolonged torture and starvation all failed to move him, and he was beheaded for refusing to sacrifice to the idols. The tradition remembers him as the brother of the Martyr Antiochus the Physician, and his memory was kept with a proper hymn at Ancyra. He is commemorated on November 18.
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Romanus of Antioch and Barulas
Romanus (†303) was a deacon of the church of Caesarea in Palestine who, during the Great Persecution, was staying at Antioch and there boldly resisted the demolition of the churches and denounced the pagan sacrifices before the prefect. Tortured, condemned to the fire, saved from it by a sudden rain, and finally deprived of his tongue and strangled in prison, he became one of the most celebrated martyrs of the age, honoured by a homily of John Chrysostom and a long hymn of Prudentius. His memory is inseparable from that of Barulas, a small child who, brought forward in the trial, confessed the one true God, shamed the idolaters, and was beheaded while his mother urged him on. The two are commemorated together on November 18.
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Zacchaeus and Alphaeus
Zacchaeus and Alphaeus were among the first martyrs of the Great Persecution in Palestine, put to death at Caesarea in the year 303. Zacchaeus was a deacon of the church of Gadara who confessed Christ openly and would not renounce him under torture; Alphaeus, a reader of the church of Caesarea, seeing crowds of the lapsed on their way to sacrifice, publicly begged them not to defile themselves with the idols and was seized for it. Shackled together and thrown into prison, where they spent the night in prayer, the two were beheaded the next morning. They are commemorated together on November 18.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Mawes, bishop in Cornwall and Brittany (5th C)
- St. Constant, priest-hermit at Lough Erne (777)
- St. Keverne, friend of St. Kieran (6th C)
- St. Mummolus companion of St Fursey (c.690)
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 3
Thy holy memory gladdens the whole world, summoning all the faithful to thy most honourable temple, where now, gathered together in joy, we sing thy praise in hymns and splendour. Wherefore, O Plato, we cry to thee: deliver thy city from the invasion of the heathen, O holy one.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for, possessed of Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their prayers, O Christ God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for, possessed of Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their prayers, O Christ God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for, possessed of Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their prayers, O Christ God, save our souls.
Readings
Epistle
Colossians 4.2-9
2Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; 3Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: 4That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak. 5Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. 6Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. 7All my state shall Tychicus declare unto you, who is a beloved brother, and a faithful minister and fellowservant in the Lord: 8Whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that he might know your estate, and comfort your hearts; 9With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They shall make known unto you all things which are done here.
Gospel
Luke 16.1-9
1And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. 2And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward. 3Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed. 4I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. 5So he called every one of his lord’s debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord? 6And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. 7Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore. 8And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. 9And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.