Pre-Lenten Triodion, day 20 · 51 days until Pascha
Saints commemorated
-
Saint of the day
St Tarasius, Abp. of Constantinople
Tarasius (c. 730 – 806) was Patriarch of Constantinople from 784 to his death — a layman and imperial secretary raised in a single week through all the grades of the priesthood to the patriarchal throne, on the one condition that an ecumenical council be summoned to heal the Church of the iconoclast heresy. With the Empress Irene he convened and presided over the Seventh Ecumenical Council (Nicaea II, 787), which condemned iconoclasm and restored the veneration of the holy icons, teaching that the honour paid to the image passes to its prototype. A gentle and moderate shepherd who received repentant iconoclasts back into communion, he governed the Church for twenty-two years under three sovereigns, resisted the emperor Constantine VI in the "adulterous marriage" affair, and was renowned as a great almsgiver who spent his fortune on the poor, the aged, widows and orphans, serving them at table with his own hands. He reposed in peace on 25 February 806 and was buried in the monastery he had founded on the Bosphorus, where miracles were worked at his tomb.
-
Reginos of Skopelos
Reginos (late 3rd century – 362) was Bishop of Skopelos, the island of the Northern Sporades in the Aegean, and a hieromartyr of the reign of Julian the Apostate. Born at Livadeia in Boeotia of Christian parents, he was a defender of the Nicene faith who, the tradition holds, distinguished himself at the Council of Sardica (343) by his skill in refuting the Arians, and was afterwards acclaimed bishop of Skopelos by its people. When the emperor Julian set out to restore paganism and turned against the confessors of Christ, Reginos was arrested and, on 25 February 362, beheaded — with, the synaxarion adds, some forty others. He is the patron saint of Skopelos, where a monastery bears his name and guards his relics, and where his feast is kept as the island's own holiday; a portion of his relics is venerated at the church of the Archangel Michael Trypiotis in Nicosia, Cyprus.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Ethelbert, King of Kent (616)
- St. Walburga the Myrrh-Giver, abbess of Heidenheim (779)
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 4
Like a great sun, by the radiance of thy doctrines and thy wonders, thou dost forever give light to the whole fullness of the inhabited earth, O initiate of heaven's mysteries, all-blessed Tarasius.
Troparion — Tone 4
O God of our fathers, who ever dealest with us according to thy gentleness: take not thy mercy from us, but by the prayers of the Hieromartyr Reginos direct our lives in peace.
Troparion — Tone 4
A rule of faith and an image of meekness, a teacher of temperance, the truth of things revealed thee to thy flock; therefore by lowliness thou didst win the things on high, and by poverty the things of wealth. O Father and Hierarch Tarasius, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Readings
6th Hour
Zechariah 8.7-17
7Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country; 8And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness. 9Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, which were in the day that the foundation of the house of the LORD of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built. 10For before these days there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in because of the affliction: for I set all men every one against his neighbour. 11But now I will not be unto the residue of this people as in the former days, saith the LORD of hosts. 12For the seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things. 13And it shall come to pass, that as ye were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah, and house of Israel; so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing: fear not, but let your hands be strong. 14For thus saith the LORD of hosts; As I thought to punish you, when your fathers provoked me to wrath, saith the LORD of hosts, and I repented not: 15So again have I thought in these days to do well unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah: fear ye not. 16These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates: 17And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the LORD.
Vespers
Zechariah 8.19-23
19Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts; therefore love the truth and peace. 20Thus saith the LORD of hosts; It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities: 21And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts: I will go also. 22Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD. 23Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.
No Liturgy