St Theophylactus, Bishop of Nicomedia

Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent

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Lenten Fast Tone 4

Great Lent, day 10 · 39 days until Pascha

Saints commemorated

Saint of the day

St Theophylactus, Bishop of Nicomedia

Theophylact (mid-8th century – c. 842/845) was bishop of Nicomedia in Bithynia and one of the leading confessors of the second Iconoclasm. A gifted disciple of the Patriarch Tarasius of Constantinople, he was trained in monastic life at a house on the Black Sea coast together with his friend Michael, later bishop of Synada, and was raised by Tarasius to the see of Nicomedia, which he governed with a boundless charity — building hospices, hospitals, and homes for strangers, and tending the lepers with his own hands. When the emperor Leo V the Armenian renewed the war on the holy images, Theophylact stood with the Patriarch Nicephorus against him, and to his face foretold the sudden and violent end that overtook the emperor. For this confession he was banished to the fortress of Strobilos, where he endured some thirty years and reposed still in exile, about the year 842 or 845. After the restoration of the icons his relics were carried back in honour to Nicomedia. The Church keeps him on March 8.
Hieromartyr Theodoretus (362)

Theodoretus (†c. 362) — Theodoret the Presbyter — was a priest of the church of Antioch and keeper of its sacred vessels, martyred under Julian the Apostate. When Julian's uncle, also named Julian, Count of the East, came to Antioch to seize and plunder the treasures of the Christian churches and shut their doors, the priest Theodoret refused to abandon his flock, gathering and strengthening the faithful in secret. Arrested and brought before the Count, he confessed Christ boldly, denounced the emperor's apostasy, and endured the rack, the tearing of his flesh, and burning torches without flinching, foretelling the wretched deaths that soon overtook both the Count and the emperor. He was beheaded about the year 362. An Antiochian martyr of the last pagan persecution, he is commemorated on March 3.
Athanasius of Murom

Athanasius (fifteenth century) was an abbot of the Murom (Muromsky) Monastery on Lake Onega — the house founded in the previous century by the Greek elder Lazarus of Murom — where he laboured in the monastic life and governed the brotherhood. Little is recorded of him beyond his office and his sanctity; he is remembered in the Russian Church together with the founder Lazarus on March 8, the two venerables of Murom kept on one day.
Dometius the Wonderworker

Dometius was a monastic saint of the fourth century, commemorated on March 8 and styled by the tradition a wonderworker. Very little is transmitted of him: the Greek Menaion keeps him among the day's saints as a venerable monk (hosios), and the Slavic reckoning for the day remembers a Dometius of Persia in the same century. Because of the bare notice and the shared name, the tradition itself is uncertain whether the Dometius of March 8 is a distinct ascetic or the same as Dometius the Persian, the venerable-martyr of the reign of Julian the Apostate more fully commemorated on August 7; the question is recorded here rather than resolved.
Euthymius of Sardis

Euthymius (c. 754 – 831) was metropolitan of Sardis in Lydia and one of the most steadfast defenders of the holy icons through the second iconoclast persecution. A confessor at the Seventh Ecumenical Council (Nicaea, 787), he spent the last quarter-century of his life in a succession of exiles under four emperors — Nicephorus I, Leo V, Michael II, and Theophilus — refusing to the end to abandon the veneration of images. Under Theophilus he was scourged so cruelly that he died of the wounds, on December 26, 831, and the Church honours him as both confessor and hieromartyr, reckoning him among the first martyrs of the renewed iconoclasm. His Life was written soon after by Methodius, later patriarch of Constantinople, who had known him.
Hermes of the Seventy

Hermes was one of the Seventy Apostles whom the Lord sent out before his face (Luke 10:1), named by the Apostle Paul in the closing greetings of the Epistle to the Romans — "Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brethren which are with them" (Romans 16:14). The tradition remembers him as a bishop of Dalmatia, a labourer of the apostolic generation who carried the Gospel to the Adriatic coast. The Church keeps his memory on March 8, and again on April 8 among a company of the Seventy, and gathers him with the whole company at the Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles on January 4. Because Romans 16:14 names in one breath both a Hermes and a Hermas, he is constantly confused with Hermas of Philippopolis (kept November 5), and with the shadowy Hermas to whom the second-century work The Shepherd is ascribed; the tradition distinguishes all three.
Lazarus of Murom

Lazarus of Murom (c. 1286 – 1391) was a Greek monk from Constantinople who became one of the first apostles of monasticism in the far Russian North. Sent, by the tradition, from the imperial city into the lands of Novgorod, he received the blessing of the archbishop Basil Kalika and withdrew to a wild, uninhabited island on the eastern shore of Lake Onega, in the Olonets country, where about the middle of the fourteenth century he founded the Murom (Muromsky) Monastery — one of the oldest religious houses of the Russian North. There he endured great hardship among the pagan Lop and Chud of the region, whom he converted to Christ by his patience and his miracles, and he gathered a brotherhood about him. He reposed, the tradition says, at the great age of a hundred and five, on March 8, 1391. The little wooden church of the Raising of Lazarus he is said to have built with his own hands survives to this day — removed to the island of Kizhi — as the most ancient wooden temple of the Russian North.
Paul the Confessor of Plousias

Paul the Confessor (died c. 850) was bishop of Plousias, a city of Bithynia in Asia Minor, and a defender of the holy icons in the second iconoclast persecution of the ninth century. His stand for the images, the tradition notes, was grounded above all in Holy Scripture. For it he was harassed, driven from his see, and — together with the confessor Theophylact, bishop of Nicomedia — sent into exile, where he ended his life as a confessor of the faith, never having yielded the veneration of the icons of Christ and the saints. He is commemorated on March 7.

British Isles and Ireland

St. Felix of Burgundy, bishop of Dunwich and Enlightener of East Anglia (c.648)
St. Senan, abbot of Scattery (544)
St. Beoadh, bishop of Ardcane (c.518)
St. Duthac of Ross (1065)
St. Rhian of Llanrhian

Troparia & kontakia

Kontakion — Tone 4

The Church knoweth thee for a shining star, O Euthymius, made radiant by the confession of the icons; contending unto blood against the ranks of the impious, thou didst receive the crown of martyrdom from Christ our God, whom thou dost entreat for us all.

Kontakion — Tone 2

Guarding the treasure of the true faith, O wise Theodoretus, you counted the wealth of the world as nothing; and when the apostate stretched out his hand against the Church, you were revealed a fearless priest and martyr, laying down your head for Christ. Wherefore we honour your holy memory.

Troparion — Tone 8

In thee, O Father, was the divine image kept secure; for taking up the Cross thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, which passeth away, and to care rather for the soul, a thing immortal; wherefore thy spirit, O venerable Athanasius, rejoiceth with the Angels.

Troparion — Tone 8

Troparion — Tone 4

Partaker of the ways of the Apostles and successor to their throne, thou didst find in action, O God-inspired, the ascent to contemplation; wherefore, rightly dividing the word of truth, thou didst contend for the faith even unto blood, O Hieromartyr Euthymius. Entreat Christ our God to save our souls.

Troparion — Tone 3

O holy Apostle Hermes, intercede with the merciful God, that he may grant to our souls the forgiveness of transgressions.

Troparion — Tone 8

Troparion — Tone 4

O God of our Fathers, who dealest ever with us according to thy gentleness, take not thy mercy from us, but by the prayers of thy hierarch Paul guide our life in peace.

Troparion — Tone 4

Your martyr Theodoretus, O Lord, in his contest received from you, our God, the crown of incorruption; for, armed with your strength, he cast down the persecutors and shattered the powerless insolence of the demons. By his supplications, O Christ God, save our souls.

Troparion — Tone 3

A sleepless guardian of the Church and a caster-down of impiety hast thou been shown to be, O hierarch Theophylact; for in venerating the Icon of Christ thou didst endure banishment and afflictions. O venerable Father, entreat Christ our God to grant us great mercy.

Readings

6th Hour

Isaiah 5.16-25

¹⁶But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. ¹⁷Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat. ¹⁸Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope: ¹⁹That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it! ²⁰Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! ²¹Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! ²²Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: ²³Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! ²⁴Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. ²⁵Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

Vespers

Genesis 4.16-26

¹⁶And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. ¹⁷And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch. ¹⁸And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech. ¹⁹And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. ²⁰And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle. ²¹And his brother’s name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. ²²And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah. ²³And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. ²⁴If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold. ²⁵And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. ²⁶And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.

Proverbs 5.15-6.3

¹⁵Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. ¹⁶Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. ¹⁷Let them be only thine own, and not strangers’ with thee. ¹⁸Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. ¹⁹Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love. ²⁰And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? ²¹For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings. ²²His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. ²³He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray. ¹My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger, ²Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth. ³Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend.

Isaiah 43.9-14 (Martyrs)

⁹Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth. ¹⁰Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. ¹¹I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. ¹²I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God. ¹³Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it? ¹⁴Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.

Wisdom of Solomon 3.1-9 (Martyrs)

¹But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. ²In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery, ³And their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are in peace. ⁴For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality. ⁵And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them, and found them worthy for himself. ⁶As gold in the furnace hath he tried them, and received them as a burnt offering. ⁷And in the time of their visitation they shall shine, and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble. ⁸They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and their Lord shall reign for ever. ⁹They that put their trust in him shall understand the truth: and such as be faithful in love shall abide with him: for grace and mercy is to his saints, and he hath care for his elect.

Wisdom of Solomon 5.15-6.3 (Martyrs)

¹⁵But the righteous live for evermore; their reward also is with the Lord, and the care of them is with the most High. ¹⁶Therefore shall they receive a glorious kingdom, and a beautiful crown from the Lord’s hand: for with his right hand shall he cover them, and with his arm shall he protect them. ¹⁷He shall take to him his jealousy for complete armour, and make the creature his weapon for the revenge of his enemies. ¹⁸He shall put on righteousness as a breastplate, and true judgment instead of an helmet. ¹⁹He shall take holiness for an invincible shield. ²⁰His severe wrath shall he sharpen for a sword, and the world shall fight with him against the unwise. ²¹Then shall the right aiming thunderbolts go abroad; and from the clouds, as from a well drawn bow, shall they fly to the mark. ²²And hailstones full of wrath shall be cast as out of a stone bow, and the water of the sea shall rage against them, and the floods shall cruelly drown them. ²³Yea, a mighty wind shall stand up against them, and like a storm shall blow them away: thus iniquity shall lay waste the whole earth, and ill dealing shall overthrow the thrones of the mighty. ¹Hear therefore, O ye kings, and understand; learn, ye that be judges of the ends of the earth. ²Give ear, ye that rule the people, and glory in the multitude of nations. ³For power is given you of the Lord, and sovereignty from the Highest, who shall try your works, and search out your counsels.

Presanctified Liturgy