Pre-Lenten Triodion, day 8 · 63 days until Pascha
Saints commemorated
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Ven. Martinian of Caesarea
Martinian (c. 397 – c. 422) was a hermit of Caesarea in Palestine, one of the best-loved of the ascetic saints for the story of the temptations he fled. From the age of eighteen he lived twenty-five years alone on a mountain near the city, gifted with the healing of the sick and the casting-out of demons. When a courtesan named Zoe, wagering to seduce him, came to his hut feigning a lost and storm-caught traveller, Martinian mastered the temptation by standing barefoot in the fire he had kindled, that the pain of earthly flame might remind him of the eternal — and the sight so pierced Zoe that she repented and became a nun. Fleeing thereafter to a lonely rock in the sea, he was tempted again by a shipwrecked woman, Photina, cast up on his island; he saved her, gave her his provisions, and threw himself into the waves rather than sin, leaving her the rock for her own hermitage. From then he would not settle anywhere, but wandered from city to city "for the love of God," owning nothing and fleeing every occasion of sin, until he reposed at Athens about the year 422. Zoe and Photina, whom his flight turned to God, are commemorated with him on February 13.
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Holy Apostles and Martyrs Priscilla and Aquila
Aquila and Priscilla were a married couple of the apostolic age, Jewish Christians and tentmakers by trade, who became among the closest and most faithful of the co-workers of the Apostle Paul. Aquila, a Jew of Pontus, and his wife Priscilla (Prisca) had been expelled from Rome by the emperor Claudius; they met Paul at Corinth, shared his craft and his household, and travelled with him to Ephesus, where in their own home they instructed the eloquent Apollos "more perfectly in the way of God" (Acts 18:26). Paul names them with singular warmth in his letters — "my fellow-workers in Christ Jesus, who laid down their own necks for my life" (Romans 16:3–4) — and greets "the church that is in their house." Aquila is numbered among the Seventy Apostles; the tradition holds that both were martyred for the faith. They are commemorated together on February 13, and Aquila among the Seventy on July 14.
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St Symeon the Myrrh-streamer, founder of the Chilandar Monastery (1200)
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Eulogius of Alexandria
Eulogius (died c. 607/608) was Patriarch of Alexandria for some seven-and-twenty years, one of the learned and vigorous hierarchs of the age of the emperor Maurice. A Syrian by origin, he had been abbot of the monastery of the Mother of God at Antioch before he was raised, about the year 580, to the ancient throne of Saint Mark. He gave his long patriarchate to the defence of the Orthodox faith against the heresies that divided Egypt — above all the Monophysite confusion of the two natures of Christ and the various sects it had spawned — writing many treatises in refutation, of which the learned Patriarch Photius, three centuries later, still read and summarised a great number. He was the close friend and correspondent of Saint Gregory the Great of Rome, whose letters to him survive as a monument of their friendship across the Churches. Honoured as a teacher, an ascetic hierarch, and a pillar of Orthodoxy, he is commemorated on February 13.
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Simeon the Myrrh-gusher of Serbia
Simeon the Myrrh-gusher (c. 1113 – 1199), born Stefan Nemanja, was the Grand Župan (grand prince) who gathered the scattered Serbian lands into a single state, won their independence from Byzantium, rooted out the Bogomil heresy, and founded the Nemanjić dynasty that ruled Serbia for two centuries and gave it a line of saints. A great builder of churches — Đurđevi Stupovi, and above all his burial-church of Studenica — he abdicated his throne in 1196 in favour of his son Stefan, was tonsured a monk under the name Simeon, and went to end his days on Mount Athos beside his youngest son, the monk Sava. There father and son together refounded the ruined monastery of Hilandar as the great Serbian house of the Holy Mountain. Simeon reposed at Hilandar on 13 February 1199; from his relics there flowed a fragrant, healing myrrh, and when Sava translated them home to Studenica they streamed myrrh again and reconciled his warring sons. He is the first-glorified saint of the Nemanjić house — the root of the "holy vine" of Serbian sovereign-saints — and is kept on February 13.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Modomnoc, bishop of Ossory (550)
- St. Huna of Ely, priest and hermit (690)
- St. Dyfnog of Clwyd (7th C)
- St. Ermenhild, abbess of Ely (c.700)
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 4
The Church ever possesseth you, O wise Aquila and Priscilla, as luminaries shining upon the world, adorning her with the beams of your teaching; wherefore, holy fellow-workers of Paul, entreat Christ God that his great mercy be granted unto us.
Kontakion — Tone 2
As a divinely-eloquent teacher of the Orthodox faith and a defender of the two natures of Christ, O holy Eulogius, thou didst shepherd the throne of Mark; wherefore, entreat the Lord unceasingly on behalf of us all.
Kontakion — Tone 2
Let us who love the virtues worthily praise in hymns the ever-venerable Martinian, the tried and noble ascetic and willing martyr, the dweller of the wilderness who trampled the serpent beneath his feet; for having conquered the flame of the passions, he now entreateth the Lord that we may be delivered from corruption.
Kontakion — Tone 6
Having embraced the angelic life upon the earth, and put away the cares and sweetness of the world, thou didst follow after Christ in fasting and in prayer, O God-bearing Simeon, and didst guide thy people into the knowledge of God; wherefore Christ hath glorified thee with the gift of myrrh, that we who honour thee may cry: Rejoice, O founder and father of thy land.
Troparion — Tone 3
O holy apostles Aquila and Priscilla, intercede with the merciful God, that he grant to our souls the forgiveness of our transgressions.
Troparion — Tone 4
A rule of faith and an image of meekness, a teacher of temperance, hath the truth of things revealed thee to thy flock, O Father and Hierarch Eulogius; therefore hast thou gained by humility the things on high, and by poverty the things of wealth. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 8
The flame of temptation thou didst quench with the streams of thy tears, O blessed Martinian; and thou didst still the surging of the sea and bridle the assaults of the beasts, crying aloud: Glory to thee, O Almighty, who hast saved me from the fire and from the storm. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 3
Enlightened from on high by the grace of God, O our venerable father Simeon, thou didst forsake an earthly rule and its passing glory, and taking up the yoke of Christ in the monastic life didst shine yet more brightly than before; where- fore, after thy repose, thou pourest forth a sweet-smelling myrrh of healing upon all who draw near with faith to thy holy shrine. Glory to him that gave thee strength; glory to him that crowned thee; glory to him that worketh through thee healings for all.
Readings
1st Matins Gospel
Matthew 28.16-20
16Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. 17And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Epistle
1 Corinthians 6.12-20
12All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. 13Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. 14And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power. 15Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. 16What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. 17But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 18Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 19What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Gospel
Luke 15.11-32
11And he said, A certain man had two sons: 12And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. 13And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. 14And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. 15And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. 17And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, 19And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. 20And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. 21And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. 22But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: 23And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: 24For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. 25Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing. 26And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. 27And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. 28And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him. 29And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: 30But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. 31And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. 32It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.