Tuesday 28 November 2028
Monk Martyr and Confessor Stephen the New
Tuesday of the 26th week after Pentecost
Nativity Fast, day 14
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Monk Martyr and Confessor Stephen the New
Stephen the New (c. 715–764) was the foremost martyr of the second period of iconoclasm and the great monastic witness against the emperor Constantine V Copronymus. An ascetic and abbot of Mount Saint Auxentius near Chalcedon, he became the acknowledged leader of the defenders of the holy icons after the iconoclast Council of Hieria (754), refusing every bribe and threat to make him subscribe to it. Imprisoned, exiled, and at last handed to a mob, he was dragged through the streets of Constantinople and beaten to death on 28 November 764. Because his confession joined the ascetic and the martyric crowns, the Church styles him "monastic-martyr and confessor," and his Life became one of the principal documents of the whole iconoclast controversy.
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Irenarchus of Sebaste and the Seven Women
Irenarchus was a young man of Sebaste in Armenia who, during the persecution of Diocletian, served the imprisoned and tortured Christians and was moved to confess Christ himself when he saw seven women endure their torments without flinching. Baptised and made bold by grace, he passed through trials of fire and water and was beheaded together with the seven holy women about the year 303. He is commemorated on November 28 with the seven women who won him to the faith, and shares the day with the great iconodule Stephen the New.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Fionnchu, successor of St. Comgall (6th C)
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 4
Today the Church keeps a joyful feast in your memory, and faithfully extolling you cries aloud: O divine Stephen, boast of the venerable.
Troparion — Tone 4
Your martyr Irenarchus, O Lord, in his contest received the crown of incorruption from you, our God; for possessed of your strength, he cast down the tyrants and broke the feeble insolence of the demons. By his prayers save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4
Having trained yourself beforehand in asceticism on the mountain, with the whole armour of the Cross you laid low the invisible battle-lines of the enemy, O all-blessed one; and again you stripped for the contest manfully, slaying Copronymus with the sword of faith. For both crowns you were crowned by God, O monastic-martyr Stephen of everlasting memory.
Readings
Epistle
1 Timothy 1.8-14
8But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; 9Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine; 11According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. 12And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; 13Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. 14And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
Gospel
Luke 19.45-48
45And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; 46Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves. 47And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him, 48And could not find what they might do: for all the people were very attentive to hear him.