Thursday 13 January 2028
Martyrs Hermylus and Stratonicus
Thursday of the 30th week after Pentecost
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Martyrs Hermylus and Stratonicus
Hermylus and Stratonicus (†c. 315) were martyred at Singidunum — the Roman fortress-town on the Danube that is now Belgrade — during the persecution of the emperor Licinius. Hermylus was a deacon of the city, arrested and cruelly scourged for refusing to sacrifice to the idols, which he called deaf and blind things of wood; Stratonicus was his friend, a keeper of the prison who had secretly held the faith and could not hide his grief as he watched his companion tortured, and so confessed Christ and shared his fate. Bound together in a net — in some accounts a wicker basket — the two were cast into the Danube and drowned; their bodies were recovered downstream after three days and buried near the city. Their heads were later treasured at Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. They are kept together on January 13, within the afterfeast of the Theophany.
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Our Holy Father Maximos Kavsokalybites (the Hut-burner) (1365)
Maximus the Hut-burner (c. 1270 – c. 1365) was one of the great hesychast fathers of Mount Athos in the fourteenth century. Born Manuel at Lampsakos on the Hellespont, he became a monk in his youth, and after years of wandering ascesis came to the Holy Mountain, where for a long time he lived as a fool-for-Christ, feigning madness to hide his sanctity and roaming the wilderness without a fixed dwelling: whenever he built himself a hut of branches he would burn it and move on, whence his surname Kavsokalyvites, "the Hut-burner." Granted, at the summit of Athos, a vision of the Mother of God, he received the gift of unceasing prayer and of clairvoyance. When Gregory of Sinai came to the Mountain he saw through the pretence and called Maximus "an earthly angel," and persuaded him to give up his wandering and to teach; thereafter emperors and monks sought his counsel. He reposed about 1365, and is kept on January 13.
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Our Holy Father Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers (369)
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Irenarchus of Rostov
Irenarchus the Recluse (1548–1616) was a Russian ascetic of the Borisoglebsky (Saints Boris and Gleb) Monastery near Rostov, remembered for an extreme struggle in chains and for the part his prophetic word played in Russia's deliverance during the Time of Troubles. Born a peasant in the village of Kondakovo and baptised Elias, he was tonsured a monk in his thirtieth year and took up a life of enclosed asceticism, loading himself with iron crosses, chains, and fetters — the "bonds" of Christ he wore for some twenty-five years. Foreseeing the Polish-Lithuanian invasion and the desolation of Moscow, he wept and warned Tsar Vasily Shuisky; and in the darkest hour of the interregnum he blessed the liberators Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin, sending them his own cross for the campaign that freed Moscow. He reposed in 1616 and is commemorated on January 13.
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James of Nisibis
James of Nisibis (†c. 350) was the first known bishop of Nisibis, the great Roman frontier-city on the edge of the Persian empire, and one of the most revered fathers of the fourth-century Syrian Church. An ascetic from his youth, he lived as a hermit in the mountains around the city — under the open sky, clothed in goatskins, feeding on wild plants — before his fame drew the people of Nisibis to make him their bishop. He was numbered among the 318 Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325, a firm opponent of Arius; he founded and taught in the school of Nisibis, where his most famous pupil was Ephrem the Syrian, who revered him as father and teacher; and he was celebrated as a wonderworker whose prayers were believed to have delivered Nisibis from the armies of the Persian king Shapur II. He reposed in peace about the year 350, and is kept on January 13.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Kentigern (Mungo), 1st bishop of Glasgow and Strathclyde (603)
- St. Erbin of Cornwall (6th C)
- St. Elian (6th C)
Readings
Epistle
Hebrews 10.35-11.7
35Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. 36For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. 37For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. 38Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. 39But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. 1Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2For by it the elders obtained a good report. 3Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. 4By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. 5By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. 6But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. 7By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
Gospel
Mark 9.10-16
10And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean. 11And they asked him, saying, Why say the scribes that Elias must first come? 12And he answered and told them, Elias verily cometh first, and restoreth all things; and how it is written of the Son of man, that he must suffer many things, and be set at nought. 13But I say unto you, That Elias is indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of him. 14And when he came to his disciples, he saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning with them. 15And straightway all the people, when they beheld him, were greatly amazed, and running to him saluted him. 16And he asked the scribes, What question ye with them?
Troparia & kontakia
Apolytikion — Tone 5 (plagal of the first)
From thy mother's womb, O venerable Maximus, thou wast set apart unto God as a vessel of election; thou wast counted worthy, as Moses, of the divine darkness, and to foresee things far off, as the great Samuel. O divine wonder of Athos, initiate of the Mother of God, intercede thou, O Father, on our behalf.
Kontakion — Tone 1
Having drowned in the deep of your struggles the enemy and persecutor, O valiant prize-bearers, ye met your end amid the streams of the river, and were guided to the water of incorruption, O divine Hermylus together with the renowned Stratonicus, magnifying Christ.
Troparion — Tone 3
A God-filled pair, confessing with faith the supra-divine Trinity, ye were shown forth as all-praised Martyrs: the glorious and unconquered Hermylus, and the steadfast and God-minded Stratonicus. Wherefore, as sharers together in the glory that surpasseth understanding, entreat for us the great mercy.
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O Father, was preserved with exactness that which is according to the image; for taking up thy cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore, O venerable Irenarchus, thy spirit rejoiceth together with the angels.
Troparion — Tone 4
A rule of faith and an image of meekness, a teacher of temperance, the truth of things did reveal thee to thy flock; therefore hast thou gained by humility the things that are exalted, and by poverty the things that are rich. O Father and Hierarch James, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.