Rt. Blv. Great Prince Alexander Nevsky

Saints commemorated

• Saint of the day

  Alexander Nevsky

  Alexander Nevsky (1220–1263) was Prince of Novgorod and Great Prince of Vladimir, the pre-eminent prince-saint of medieval Russia. In an age when the Russian lands were crushed between the Mongol Horde from the east and the Catholic military orders from the west, he won two celebrated victories in defence of Orthodox Rus — over the Swedes on the River Neva in 1240 (whence his surname) and over the Teutonic Knights on the ice of Lake Peipus (Chudskoe) in 1242 — while by patient, self-abasing diplomacy with the khans he shielded his people from annihilation and preserved the freedom of the Church. Refusing union with Rome, he held Russia to Orthodoxy. He died returning from the Horde, having received the monastic schema as Alexis, and was glorified by the Church in 1547. He is commemorated on November 23.

• Our Holy Father Amphilocus, Bishop of Iconium (395)

• St Columban, Abbot of Luxeuil (615)

• Amphilochius of Iconium

  Amphilochius of Iconium (c. 340–c. 394) was a bishop of the Cappadocian circle, kinsman of Gregory the Theologian and intimate friend of Basil the Great, who from about 373 governed the church of Iconium as the first metropolitan of the new province of Lycaonia. A trained rhetorician turned pastor, he took a leading part at the Second Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 381 and was among the foremost defenders of the full divinity of the Holy Spirit against the Pneumatomachi (Macedonians); he also convened the Council of Side against the Messalians. Basil dedicated his treatise On the Holy Spirit to him. He is commemorated on November 23.

• Gregory of Agrigentum

  Gregory of Agrigentum (Akragas) was a Sicilian-born bishop and biblical exegete of the sixth century, venerated as a hierarch and wonderworker. Born near Agrigentum of pious parents, he was drawn as a youth to Jerusalem, was tonsured a monk, and after years in Palestine, Constantinople and Rome was appointed by the Pope to the vacant see of his native city. There malicious clergy conspired against him, bribing a woman to accuse him of fornication; imprisoned and tried at Rome, he was vindicated when his prayer cast the demon out of his accuser, who confessed the plot. He governed his flock in peace to a serene old age and is commemorated on November 23.

• Metrophanes of Voronezh

  Metrophanes of Voronezh (1623–1703), in the world Michael and in the schema Macarius, was the first bishop of the newly erected see of Voronezh and one of the most venerated Russian hierarchs of the age of Peter the Great. A parish priest until his widowhood, he became a monk at forty, rose through the abbacies of two monasteries, and in 1682 was consecrated for Voronezh, which he governed for twenty years — building churches, reforming his clergy, caring for the poor, and supporting Peter's shipbuilding at Voronezh for the Azov campaign, while fearlessly rebuking the tsar over the pagan statues at his court. He died in 1703, having taken the schema; Peter himself bore his coffin. His relics were found incorrupt and he was glorified in 1832. He is commemorated on November 23.

• Sisinius of Cyzicus

  Sisinius of Cyzicus was a confessor and bishop of the early fourth century. During the persecution of Diocletian he was condemned to be dragged to death behind a horse through the streets, but survived the torture and lived on to shepherd the church of Cyzicus in Asia Minor; he reposed in peace about the year 325. He is commemorated on November 23.

• Theodore of Antioch

  Theodore of Antioch was a young confessor of the reign of Julian the Apostate (361–363). A youth of about fifteen, he took part in returning the relics of the hieromartyr Babylas of Antioch from the grove of Daphne to the city, and for this he was arrested and cruelly tortured. Rejoicing under the torments and feeling no pain — an angel, he later said, stood by and eased his suffering — he so astonished his executioners that the emperor ordered him released. He lived on to a peaceful old age. Though the calendars style him "martyr," he did not die of his sufferings and is properly a confessor. He is commemorated on November 23.

British Isles and Ireland

• St. Columbanus of Bobbio, abbot and missionary (615)
• St. Polin, abbot of Whitland (6th C)

Troparia & kontakia

Readings