Pre-Lenten Triodion, day 11 · 60 days until Pascha
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Martyr Pamphylius and His Companions
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Flavian of Constantinople
Flavian (died 449) was Archbishop of Constantinople from 446, a defender of the apostolic faith against the heresy of the archimandrite Eutyches, who taught that in Christ there was but one nature after the Incarnation. At a synod in Constantinople in 448 Flavian condemned and deposed Eutyches; but at the "Robber Council" (Latrocinium) of Ephesus in 449 — dominated by Dioscorus of Alexandria and the emperor's officials — Eutyches was restored and Flavian himself anathematised, deposed, and so brutally handled that he died of his injuries a few days later, on the road into exile. Two years afterward the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451) vindicated his faith, condemned Eutyches, received the Tome of Pope Leo, and acclaimed Flavian a saint and martyr. The Church keeps him as Flavian the Confessor.
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Maruthas of Martyropolis
Maruthas (died c. 422) was the Syrian bishop of Maiferkat in Mesopotamia — a learned man and, by repute, a physician — who gathered into his episcopal city the relics of the many Christians slain in the great persecution of the Persian king Shapur II, so that his see came to be called Martyropolis, the "city of martyrs." Trusted at the court of the Persian king Yazdegerd I and honoured by the emperors of Constantinople, he served repeatedly as an envoy between Rome and Persia, and used that favour to win peace for the Church of Persia after decades of blood. He presided, with the catholicos Isaac, at the Synod of Seleucia-Ctesiphon (410) that gave the Persian Church its ordered structure and received the Nicene faith. He wrote acts of the Persian martyrs and other works, and is venerated in East and West alike.
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Pamphilus of Caesarea and his Companions
Pamphilus (c. 240 – 309) was the learned priest of Caesarea in Palestine — the keeper and restorer of the great library that Origen had founded there, the teacher and dearest friend of the historian Eusebius (who out of love took the name "Eusebius Pamphili"), and, with him, author of an Apology for Origen composed from prison. Arrested in the persecution of Maximinus and held two years in chains, he was beheaded at Caesarea on February 16 together with a company of eleven: Valens the aged deacon of Jerusalem and Paul of Jamnia, five Egyptian brethren who had taken the names of the prophets — Elias, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Samuel and Daniel — and the youths and confessors Porphyrius, Seleucus, Theodulus and Julian, who were drawn into their crown for honouring the martyrs' bodies. Their acts are told by an eye-witness, Eusebius himself, in his Martyrs of Palestine.
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Romanos of Karpenisi
Romanos (died 1694) was a new venerable-martyr of the Ottoman period, born at Karpenisi in the mountains of central Greece, who took up the monastic life on Mount Athos and, burning to confess Christ before the Turks, went to Constantinople, openly professed the faith, and after imprisonment and suffering was put to death there in the year 1694. He is honoured among the neomartyrs of the Holy Mountain and is commemorated on February 16.
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 8
As a sacred hierarch and unshaken pillar of the true confession, thou didst shepherd the Church of Christ and, condemning the error of Eutyches, didst seal thy witness with thy blood; wherefore, crowned as a confessor, O Father Flavian, intercede for us all.
Kontakion — Tone 2
As a physician of bodies and a shepherd of souls, thou didst gather the martyrs of Persia into thy city and win peace for the Church, O holy Maruthas; wherefore we honour thee, O adornment of hierarchs and companion of the martyrs.
Kontakion — Tone 2
Having loved the divine will of Christ, thou didst keep his law with a ready heart, and shining in the contest, O all-blessed Pamphilus, thou didst prevail together with thy fellow-athletes; with whom cease not to intercede on behalf of us all.
Troparion — Tone 4
O guide of Orthodoxy, teacher of piety and holiness, luminary of the world, God-inspired adornment of hierarchs: by thy teaching thou hast enlightened all, O harp of the Spirit. O Father Flavian, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4
O guide of Orthodoxy, teacher of piety and holiness, luminary of the world, God-inspired adornment of hierarchs: by thy teaching thou hast enlightened all, O harp of the Spirit. O Father Maruthas, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy Martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received crowns of incorruption from thee our God; for possessed of thy might, they cast down the tyrants and broke also the feeble insolence of demons. By their prayers, O Christ our God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy Martyr, O Lord, in his contest received the crown of incorruption from thee our God; for possessed of thy might, he cast down the tyrants and broke also the feeble insolence of demons. By his prayers, O Christ our God, save our souls.
Readings
Epistle
1 John 3.21-4.6
21Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. 22And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. 23And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. 24And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us. 1Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 2Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. 4Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. 5They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. 6We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
Gospel
Mark 14.43-15.1
43And immediately, while he yet spake, cometh Judas, one of the twelve, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. 44And he that betrayed him had given them a token, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he; take him, and lead him away safely. 45And as soon as he was come, he goeth straightway to him, and saith, Master, master; and kissed him. 46And they laid their hands on him, and took him. 47And one of them that stood by drew a sword, and smote a servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear. 48And Jesus answered and said unto them, Are ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and with staves to take me? 49I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and ye took me not: but the scriptures must be fulfilled. 50And they all forsook him, and fled. 51And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him: 52And he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked. 53And they led Jesus away to the high priest: and with him were assembled all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes. 54And Peter followed him afar off, even into the palace of the high priest: and he sat with the servants, and warmed himself at the fire. 55And the chief priests and all the council sought for witness against Jesus to put him to death; and found none. 56For many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together. 57And there arose certain, and bare false witness against him, saying, 58We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands. 59But neither so did their witness agree together. 60And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee? 61But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? 62And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. 63Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses? 64Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death. 65And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to say unto him, Prophesy: and the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands. 66And as Peter was beneath in the palace, there cometh one of the maids of the high priest: 67And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked upon him, and said, And thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth. 68But he denied, saying, I know not, neither understand I what thou sayest. And he went out into the porch; and the cock crew. 69And a maid saw him again, and began to say to them that stood by, This is one of them. 70And he denied it again. And a little after, they that stood by said again to Peter, Surely thou art one of them: for thou art a Galilaean, and thy speech agreeth thereto. 71But he began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not this man of whom ye speak. 72And the second time the cock crew. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon, he wept. 1And straightway in the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and bound Jesus, and carried him away, and delivered him to Pilate.