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Sunday 28 May 2028

7th Sunday of Pascha

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No Fast Tone 6

Ascensiontide, day 4 · 42 days since Pascha

Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council

About Nicaea Icon of the Mother of God →

Saints commemorated

  • St Nicetas, Bishop of Chalcedon

    Nicetas, bishop of Chalcedon on the Asian shore opposite Constantinople, was one of the hierarchs who lost their sees for the holy icons in the second period of Byzantine Iconoclasm, under the emperor Leo V the Armenian (813–820). The synaxarial notice remembers him twice over: for a bishop's charity — he kept an open house for travellers, maintained the poor, took the part of orphans and widows, and made himself the advocate of anyone who had been wronged — and for the plainness with which he told his flock that the images of Christ, of His Mother and of the saints were to be venerated, when the emperor had forbidden it. He was tortured and sent into exile, where he reposed early in the ninth century; healings were reported at his relics. He is one of a crowded family of holy Nicetases and is frequently confused with them.

  • St Ignaty, Bishop of Rostov

    Ignatius (†1288) was bishop of Rostov for twenty-six years, in the second and third generations of the Mongol yoke, and is one of the very few Russian saints whose veneration began at his own funeral. A monk of Rostov who rose through the city's Epiphany monastery to be its archimandrite, he was consecrated bishop in 1262 and spent his episcopate holding together a principality that the Horde and its own princes were pulling apart: he reconciled the feuding brothers Dmitry and Konstantin Borisovich, went himself to the Golden Horde on the Church's business, sat at the reforming council of Vladimir in 1274, and once — notoriously — passed sentence on a dead prince by removing his body from the cathedral. He reposed on 28 May 1288, and at his burial, in the sight of the people, his hand was seen to rise from the bier to take the prayer of absolution; he was never lowered into the ground but laid openly in the Dormition cathedral of Rostov, where his relics have rested ever since. He is one of the three founding hierarchs of Rostov, with Leontius and Isaiah.

  • St Nicetas the Confessor, bishop of Chalcedon (9th c.)

  • Eutychius of Melitene

    Eutychius is remembered in a single line of the synaxarion: a co-worker of the holy apostles who was bishop of Melitene in Armenia Minor and who suffered for Christ there in the first century. Nothing further about him has been transmitted — no passion, no account of his preaching, no name of a persecutor, not even a manner of death. The Church keeps him on May 28 as a hieromartyr of the apostolic generation, and the whole of what can honestly be said about him is that the memory of a bishop-martyr of Melitene from the very first age of the Church was preserved at Constantinople and passed into the Menaion under that description.

  • Germanus of Paris

    Germanus (c. 496–576) was bishop of Paris for the last twenty years of his life and the most respected churchman in the Frankish kingdoms of his generation: a Burgundian of Gallo-Roman family, abbot of St Symphorian at Autun before his elevation, and thereafter a hierarch who spent his episcopate trying to restrain the Merovingian kings from murdering one another and their subjects. He fed and ransomed the poor on a scale that emptied his own house, presided at the councils of Paris and Tours, went so far as to excommunicate a reigning king for his marriages, and was appealed to by St Radegund for protection against her husband. The great abbey he founded beside the Seine, dedicated to the Holy Cross and St Vincent, took his own name after his burial in it and is known to this day as Saint-Germain-des-Prés. He is one of the pre-schism fathers of the West received into Orthodox commemoration, and is kept on May 28 in both the Greek Great Synaxaristes and the OCA calendar.

  • Heliconis of Thessalonica

    Heliconis was a Christian woman of Thessalonica who, in the middle of the third century, went of her own accord to Corinth during a persecution and preached openly in the city against the worship of idols. Arrested and brought before the governor, she endured a long and inventive series of torments — the furnace, the flaying of her scalp, the burning of her head and breasts — and then, feigning consent to sacrifice, had herself led in procession to the temple, where she was left alone and broke every idol in it. Beaten and imprisoned, she was healed in the night by a vision of Christ with the Archangels Michael and Gabriel; thrown to three lions, she was not touched by them; and at last she was beheaded, in the year given by the tradition as 244. She is one of the boldest of the women martyrs of the Greek synaxarion, and among the very few whose passion is built around a deliberate, premeditated destruction of a pagan sanctuary.

  • Helladius the Hieromartyr

    Helladius is remembered in the books as a bishop "in the East" — that is, somewhere in the vast Roman Diocese of Oriens, the territory of the Antiochene patriarchate — who was thrown into a fire for his faith in Christ and came out of it unhurt, and who died afterwards of the beating inflicted on him. His service adds one further detail, and it is the one his commemoration is really built on: that the Lord Jesus Christ came to him in his prison and healed his wounds. Neither his see nor the name of his persecutor has been transmitted, and the sources are divided over his century, some placing him among the Christians who suffered in the Persian invasions of the Roman East, others four centuries later. He is a saint of whom the Church has kept the substance — a bishop, a fire, a scourging, a visitation — and lost every circumstance.

  • Sophronius the Bulgarian

    Sophronius — Stephen before his tonsure — was a Bulgarian hieromonk of the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, from the village of Penkovtsi in the Sofia region, who served in the monastery of Penkovo near Sofia until word came that the Ottoman troops were about to fall on it. He fled north across the Danube into Wallachia, settled in a monastery on the river, and gave the rest of his life to fasting, vigil and prayer in the monastic community of Rusensk — a house associated in the tradition with St Joachim, Patriarch of Trnovo. He was known for almsgiving and for care of the poor, and reposed on 28 May 1510; some accounts say he was murdered by a servant, and that his relics were found incorrupt three years afterwards. He belongs to the small company of Bulgarian monastic saints of the first Ottoman century, whose lives were lived out largely in exile north of the Danube.

  • William of Gellone

    William (c. 755–812) was a Frankish count and duke of Toulouse, a kinsman of Charlemagne and one of the commanders who held the Pyrenean frontier of Christendom against the emirate of Córdoba — he was in the field at the disaster on the Orbieu in 793 and at the capture of Barcelona in 801 — who then laid down his arms, founded the monastery of Gellone in the wild gorge of the Hérault in 804, enriched it with a relic of the True Cross given him by the emperor, and in 806 entered it himself as a simple monk. He died there on 28 May 812 and was formally canonised at Rome in 1066; the abbey and the village that grew around it are called Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert to this day. He is among the pre-schism saints of the West received into Orthodox commemoration, and he is the historical seed of an enormous cycle of medieval French epic, the Geste de Guillaume d'Orange, which buried the real man under a legendary one.

Troparia & kontakia

Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a hieromartyr)

As a sharer in the ways and a successor to the thrones of the Apostles, thou didst find in action the means to ascend to divine contemplation, O divinely-inspired one; wherefore, rightly dividing the word of truth, thou didst also contend for the faith even unto blood, O hieromartyr Eutychius: intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)

O holy hierarch Germanus, shepherd of the Church of Paris, thou didst feed the poor with thine own bread and ransom the captive with thine own goods, and thou didst rebuke kings without fear of their swords: intercede with Christ God that peace be given to the nations and great mercy to our souls.

Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a woman martyr)

Thy lamb Heliconis, O Jesus, cries out with a great voice: Thee, my Bridegroom, do I love, and seeking Thee I contend; I am crucified with Thee and buried in Thy baptism; I suffer for Thy sake, that I may reign with Thee; I die for Thee, that I may live in Thee. Accept me as a spotless offering, sacrificed to Thee in love. By her intercessions, as Thou art merciful, save our souls.

Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a hieromartyr)

As a sharer in the ways and a successor to the thrones of the Apostles, thou didst find in action the means to ascend to divine contemplation, O divinely-inspired one; wherefore, rightly dividing the word of truth, thou didst also contend for the faith even unto blood, O hieromartyr Helladius: intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Apolytikion — Tone 4

O God of our fathers, who dealest with us ever according to Thy gentleness: take not away Thy mercy from us, but by the prayers of Thy holy confessor Nicetas guide our lives in peace.

Apolytikion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)

Driven from thy monastery by the sword of the ungodly, thou didst carry the monastic rule across the river and there didst labour the more in fasting and in vigil, giving to the poor what thine own hands had earned. O venerable father Sophronius, glory of the Bulgarian land, intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Apolytikion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)

Having guarded the borders of the Christian people with the sword, thou didst lay the sword aside for the Cross, O William, and didst enter the desert of Gellone as the least of the brethren; and where thou hadst commanded armies thou didst learn to obey. O venerable father, intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Kontakion — Tone 2

Entering alone among the idols of Corinth, thou didst break them all in pieces, O bride of Christ; and the fire did not burn thee, and the lions lay down before thee. Wherefore, O Heliconis, healed in prison by the hands of thy Bridegroom and crowned by the sword, pray for those who honour thee.

Kontakion — Tone 8

Rostov rejoices in thee, O father, holding thy relics unburied as a treasure and a fountain of healings; for the earth did not receive thee whom the heavens had already glorified. Wherefore we cry to thee: rejoice, O wonderworker Ignatius, boast of the hierarchs of the Russian land.

Kontakion — Tone 2

The star of Chalcedon, the herald of the venerable image of Christ, the father of orphans and the shelter of strangers, let us praise with hymns: for having endured the tyrant's chastisement and exile, Nicetas the confessor now intercedes unceasingly for our souls.

Theotokion

Thy womb has become a holy table, holding the heavenly Bread, Christ; of which whoever eats does not die, as the Nourisher of all has said, O Theotokos.

Troparion — Tone 4 (common of an icon of the Theotokos)

O Lady, we thy servants have thine icon as a rampart and a shield, and by it we are delivered from every affliction; for thou dost swiftly avenge the honour of thy image and swiftly hear those who honour it. Wherefore we cry to thee: O Mother of God, save thy people.

Troparion — Tone 4

Enlightened from thy youth by the grace of God, thou wast shown to be a shepherd of the flock of Rostov, and a peacemaker among warring princes; and after thy repose thou didst stretch out thy hand to receive the word of forgiveness, and didst bless thy city from on high. O holy hierarch Ignatius, pray to Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Readings

Vespers

Genesis 14.14-20

14And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan. 15And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus. 16And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people. 17And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king’s dale. 18And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. 19And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: 20And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.

Deuteronomy 1.8-11, 15-17

8Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them. 9And I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone: 10The LORD your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude. 11(The LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as he hath promised you!) 15So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes. 16And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. 17Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.

Deuteronomy 10.14-21

14Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD’s thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is. 15Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day. 16Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked. 17For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward: 18He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. 19Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. 20Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name. 21He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen.

10th Matins Gospel

John 21.1-14

1After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise shewed he himself. 2There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. 3Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing. 4But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. 5Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No. 6And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. 7Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea. 8And the other disciples came in a little ship; (for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits,) dragging the net with fishes. 9As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. 10Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. 11Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. 12Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord. 13Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. 14This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead.

Epistle

Acts 20.16-18, 28-36

16For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia: for he hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost. 17And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church. 18And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, 28Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. 29For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. 30Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. 31Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. 32And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. 33I have coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel. 34Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. 35I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. 36And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all.

Gospel

John 17.1-13

1These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: 2As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. 3And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. 4I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. 5And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. 6I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. 7Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. 8For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. 9I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. 10And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. 11And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. 12While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. 13And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.