Eikon
←

Monday 6 March 2028

Forty-two Martyrs of Ammoria

Monday of the Second Week of Lent

→
Lenten Fast Tone 4

Great Lent, day 8 · 41 days until Pascha

Saints commemorated

  • Saint of the day

    Forty-two Martyrs of Ammoria

    The Forty-Two Martyrs of Amorion (†845) were the Byzantine commanders and officers taken captive when the great Phrygian city of Amorion — the cradle of the reigning imperial dynasty — fell to the Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tasim in August 838, the calamity of the reign of the emperor Theophilus. Carried off to the caliphal capital of Samarra on the Tigris, they were held in prison for seven years, courted and threatened by turns to embrace Islam, and drawn into repeated debates on the truth of the two faiths. Steadfast to the end, they were led out on March 6, 845, and beheaded on the river-bank, their bodies cast into the water. Among them the tradition names Theodore (called Krateros, "the Mighty"), Constantine, Aetius, Theophilus, Callistus, Bassoes, and Melissenus, with their companions to the number of forty-two. Celebrated at once in a martyrdom-account written soon after their death, they are among the most honoured witnesses of the long Byzantine–Arab frontier war, hymned as "towers and guardians of the realm of the Romans."

  • Arcadius of Cyprus

    Arcadius (†c. 361) was a monastic ascetic of the island of Cyprus in the age of Constantine the Great and Constantius, remembered above all as the spiritual father and teacher of the holy martyrs Julian the Physician and Eubulos, who suffered on the island under Julian the Apostate. From his youth he gave himself to the ascetic life, and by his teaching and example he formed disciples in the faith for which they went to their death. He is kept on March 6. The record of his life is thin — a synaxarion memory rather than a full biography — but the Church honours him among the venerable fathers of Cyprus, and distinguishes him carefully from the later Arcadius who was archbishop of the island.

  • Conon and his son Conon of Iconium

    Conon and his son, also named Conon, were martyrs of Iconium in Lycaonia (Asia Minor) in the third century, about the years 270–275. Left a widower, the elder Conon withdrew with his young son to a monastery, and there the father was granted the gifts of healing and of power over demons: he is remembered as one who cast out devils, healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, and preached Christ among the pagans. Father and son together confessed the faith in time of persecution and were put to death for it, and the Church keeps them as monk-martyrs on March 6. They are to be carefully distinguished from the two other martyrs named Conon kept the day before, on March 5.

  • Hesychius the Wonderworker

    Hesychius the Wonderworker (eighth century) was a monastic ascetic of Bithynia in Asia Minor, born at the coastal town of Adrineia and glorified for the solitary life he led on Mount Maionis, where he endured the assaults of demons, of wild beasts, and of robbers, and was granted the gift of wonders. The Greek calendar keeps him on March 6, styling him "the Wonderworker" (ὁ Θαυματουργός); the Slavic books and the Orthodox Church in America keep the same Bithynian ascetic on March 5 under the epithet "the Faster." His life is known only in brief from the synaxarion, but he is honoured among the venerable fathers of the Byzantine ascetic tradition.

  • Job of Anzersk

    Job of Anzersk (c. 1635–1720), in the great schema named Jesus (Iisus), was a Russian ascetic of the far North, founder of the Golgotha-Crucifixion Skete on Anzer, an island of the Solovki archipelago in the White Sea. Born at Moscow and long a married parish priest of the capital — the tradition makes him a confessor and spiritual father to the court of Peter the Great — he was slandered and exiled to the Solovetsky Monastery, where he was tonsured a monk as Job. Withdrawing to the greater solitude of Anzer, he became head of its Trinity Skete, received the great schema with the name Jesus, and, after a vision of the Mother of God upon a hill he thereafter called Golgotha, founded there the Skete of the Crucifixion. He reposed on March 6, 1720, and was glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church in the year 2000. He is not to be confused with the Old Testament patriarch Job the Long-suffering (May 6), whose name he received at his tonsure, nor with Job of Pochaev (†1651), nor with Job of Ushchelsk (†1628, August 5) — the confusion likeliest of all, since that Job was also a hieromonk of Solovki and also a saint of the Russian north.

British Isles and Ireland

  • St. Sithney, missionary abbot (529)
  • SS Cyneburgh and Cyneswith, abbesses of Castor and St. Tibba (c.680)
  • St. Billfrith, the Goldsmith, hermit (8th C)
  • St. Baldred, hermit at Tyningham (756)
  • St. Fridolin of Ireland, Enlightener of the Upper Rhine (538)
  • St. Cadroel, monk and bishop (976)
  • St. Sezin of Guic-Sezni (c.529)

Troparia & kontakia

Kontakion — Tone 2

The newly-manifest men-at-arms of the faith, who eagerly gave themselves to the struggle for Christ, let us all worthily crown with wreaths of praise; for they intercede with Christ on our behalf, as towers and as guardians of the realm of the Romans.

Troparion — Tone 8

With the streams of thy tears thou didst cultivate the barrenness of the 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 wonders, O Arcadius our righteous father. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4

Thy Martyrs, O Lord, in their courageous contest have received the imperishable crown of thine, our God; for possessed of thy might, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the powerless boldness of the demons. By their prayers, O Christ our God, save our souls.

Troparion — Tone 5

The achievements of the holy Martyrs the powers of heaven beheld with wonder: how, clothed in a mortal body, by the power of the Cross they contended nobly against the bodiless enemy and unseen overcame him; and now they intercede with the Lord, that our souls may find mercy.

Troparion — Tone 8

With the streams of thy tears thou didst cultivate the barrenness of the 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 wonders, O Hesychius our righteous father. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.

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 thy spirit, O venerable Job, rejoiceth with the Angels.

Readings

6th Hour

Isaiah 4.2-5.7

2In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. 3And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: 4When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. 5And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence. 6And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain. 1Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: 2And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. 3And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. 4What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? 5And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: 6And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. 7For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

Vespers

Genesis 3.21-4.7

21Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them. 22And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. 1And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. 2And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. 4And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: 5But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. 6And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? 7If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

Proverbs 3.34-4.22

34Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly. 35The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools. 1Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding. 2For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. 3For I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. 4He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live. 5Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. 6Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee. 7Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. 8Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. 9She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee. 10Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many. 11I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths. 12When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. 13Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life. 14Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. 15Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away. 16For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall. 17For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence. 18But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. 19The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble. 20My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. 21Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. 22For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.