Sunday after Theophany
Saints commemorated
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Martyr Polyeuctus of Melitene in Armenia
Polyeuctus (†c. 259) was a Roman soldier of Melitene in Lesser Armenia and the first martyr of that city — one of the most celebrated martyrs of the early Church in both East and West. A pagan of upright life, he was brought to Christ by his fellow-soldier and bosom friend Nearchus and by a vision in which Christ stripped off his soiled military cloak and clothed him in a shining garment. Enkindled with zeal, he tore down the imperial edict commanding sacrifice and smashed the idols carried in procession; neither the pleadings of his father-in-law the magistrate Felix nor the tears of his wife Paulina could move him, and he went to his beheading rejoicing — baptised in his own blood, for he died before receiving the water of Baptism. A great church rose over his tomb under Constantine, and his fame spread so far that the West made him the patron of vows and oaths and Pierre Corneille built his tragedy Polyeucte (1642) upon his memory. He is kept on January 9.
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Hieromartyr Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow
Philip (1507–1569), born Theodore Kolychev of a great Moscow boyar family, was the hierarch-martyr who rebuked Ivan the Terrible to his face and paid for it with his life. Forsaking the court in his thirtieth year, he became a monk and then the renowned builder-abbot of the Solovetsky Monastery on the White Sea before Ivan drew him, against his will, to be Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia (1566). From the cathedral pulpit he denounced the murders of the Oprichnina and refused to bless the Tsar in his blood-guilt; for this he was deposed in the midst of the Liturgy, stripped of his vestments, and exiled to a monastery in Tver, where in December 1569 the oprichnik Malyuta Skuratov strangled him in his cell. His relics were carried to Solovki in 1591 and, in 1652, translated in triumph to the Dormition Cathedral of the Kremlin, the Tsar sending a letter of repentance for his forebear's crime. He is venerated as a hieromartyr and wonderworker, the very type of the pastor who lays down his life against tyranny, and is kept on January 9.
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Saint Peter II, Bishop of Sebaste (4th c.)
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Venerable Eustratius the Wonderworker (9th c.)
Eustratius the Wonderworker (c. 751 – c. 846) was a monastic saint of the ninth century, abbot of the Agauros Monastery on Mount Olympus of Bithynia, the great monastic mountain of Asia Minor. Born in the Bithynian village of Tarsion, he left home at twenty to enter the monastery where his own kinsmen were monks, and there gave himself to a life of extreme asceticism — bread and water, and nights passed in prayer and prostration. Chosen abbot, he ruled as the humblest of the brethren, sharing their labour by day. When the iconoclast persecution was revived under Leo V the Armenian, the community was scattered and Eustratius himself imprisoned; only after the Triumph of Orthodoxy in 842 could he gather his monks again and resume his rule. Renowned for a great abundance of miracles and for a boundless charity, he reposed in deep old age, about ninety-five years old, and is kept on January 9.
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Saint Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow (1569)
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Adrian of Canterbury, abbot and scholar (710)
- St. Berhtwald, 8th archbishop of Canterbury (731)
- St. Foellan of Strathfillan (8th C)
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 3
Let us praise the teacher of Orthodoxy and herald of the truth, the emulator of Chrysostom, the lamp of Russia, Philip the all-wise, who wisely nourished his children with the food of his words; for with his tongue he sang praise and with his lips he uttered hymns, as an initiate of the grace of God.
Kontakion — Tone 4
The Master, bowing his head in the Jordan, crushed the heads of the dragons; and the head of the Prize-winner, being struck off, put the deceiver to shame.
Troparion — Tone 8
With the streams of thy tears thou didst till the barren desert, and by thy sighings from the depths thou didst bear fruit a hundredfold in labours, and thou becamest a luminary, shining upon the world by thy miracles, O Eustratius our father. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 8
O successor of the first-enthroned hierarchs, pillar of Orthodoxy and champion of the truth, new confessor, O holy hierarch Philip, who didst lay down thy life for thy flock: therefore, having boldness before Christ, intercede for our fatherland, and for the city and the people that worthily honour thy holy memory.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy Martyr Polyeuctus, O Lord, in his contest received from thee our God the crown of incorruption; for, possessed of thy strength, he cast down the tyrants and shattered the impotent insolence of the demons. By his intercessions, O Christ our God, save our souls.
Readings
7th Matins Gospel
John 20.1-10
1The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. 2Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. 3Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. 4So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. 5And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. 6Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, 7And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. 8Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. 9For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. 10Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.
Epistle
Ephesians 4.7-13 (Sunday after Theophany)
7But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. 8Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. 9(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 10He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
Gospel
Matthew 4.12-17 (Sunday after Theophany)
12Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee; 13And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: 14That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, 15The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; 16The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. 17From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.