Pre-Lenten Triodion, day 8 · 63 days until Pascha
Saints commemorated
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Ven. Isidore of Pelusium
Isidore of Pelusium (c. 360 – c. 449) was an Egyptian ascetic, priest, and abbot of a monastery on the mountain near Pelusium, at the eastern mouth of the Nile, and one of the most learned spiritual fathers of the fifth century. Formed in the exegetical and moral spirit of John Chrysostom, whose memory he revered and defended, he governed his community by word and example and poured out his teaching in an immense correspondence: some two thousand letters survive, brief and pointed answers on Scripture, doctrine, and the moral life, addressed to bishops, clergy, monks, officials, and laymen high and low. A fearless rebuker of laxity and ambition in the hierarchy — not sparing the powerful — he was also a clear voice against the Nestorian denial of the one Christ, and pressed Cyril of Alexandria, his own kinsman, to hold the faith without the vindictiveness that had wronged Chrysostom. His letters remain a treasury of patristic exegesis. He is kept universally on February 4.
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Venerable Cyril of New Lake (Novoezezrsk) (1532)
Cyril of Novoezersk (c. 1450s – 1532) was a Russian monastic founder and wonderworker of the northern forests, disciple of Cornelius of Komel and heir of the tradition of Cyril of White Lake. Marked out for God from the womb — the tradition says the infant cried out in his mother's womb during the Liturgy — he left home as a boy, was tonsured under Cornelius, and after long years of wandering the north as a homeless ascetic was led by a vision to a little island in New Lake (Novoye Ozero, Novoezersk) near Belozersk. There he raised a cross, built a church of the Resurrection, and gathered a brotherhood, governing it in poverty and prayer and being granted gifts of prophecy and healing. He reposed in 1532; his relics were found incorrupt, and his monastery became a celebrated shrine of the Russian north. He is commemorated on February 4.
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Abramius of Arbela
Abramius (Abraham) of Arbela was a bishop in the Persian province of Adiabene, around the city of Arbela (modern Erbil), and a martyr of the great persecution of Christians under the Sasanian king Shapur II in the mid-fourth century. Commanded to abandon Christ and to worship the sun, he answered that it was folly to forsake the Creator and adore a creature; steadfast under torture, he was put to death for the confession of the faith about the year 345. He belongs to the vast company of the Persian martyrs whose sufferings under Shapur are recorded in the Syriac Acts, and he is honoured in the Byzantine calendar on February 4, within the afterfeast of the Meeting.
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George of Vladimir
George (Yuri) Vsevolodovich (1189–1238) was Great Prince of Vladimir and the central figure of the Russian resistance to the Mongol invasion of 1237–1238. Son of Vsevolod "Big Nest," he governed the leading principality of northern Rus, founded the city of Nizhny Novgorod, and was renowned, the chronicles say, for both his valour and his piety. When the Horde of Batu Khan overran the land, George gathered an army on the Sit River to meet it; there, on the fourth of March 1238, his forces were destroyed and the prince himself was slain. The tradition holds that his severed head was afterward reunited with his body, found incorrupt, and that his relics, enshrined in the Dormition Cathedral of Vladimir, worked wonders. The Church honours him as a right-believing prince who gave his life for the Christian land; he is commemorated on February 4.
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Nicholas the Studite
Nicholas the Studite (c. 793 – 868) was a monk, confessor, and twice abbot of the great Studion monastery at Constantinople in the age of the second iconoclasm. Born in Crete and sent as a boy to Constantinople under the care of his uncle, he entered the Studion and became a disciple of its renowned abbot Theodore the Studite, whom he served as secretary and followed into exile when the veneration of the holy icons was again outlawed. Beaten and imprisoned for the icons, he confessed the faith without dying for it, and after the Triumph of Orthodoxy in 843 he governed the Studion in his old age. When the deposition of the patriarch Ignatius divided the Church, Nicholas withdrew rather than commune with the intruded Photius, sharing Ignatius's disgrace, and reposed on February 4, 868. He is kept universally on that day, within the afterfeast of the Meeting.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Aldate of Gloucester, hieromartyr (577)
- St. Modan of Dunbarton, hermit (6th C)
- St. Liephard, hieromartyr and companion to King Cadwall (690)
Troparia & kontakia
Troparion — Tone 4
O God of our fathers, who ever dealest with us according to thy gentleness: take not thy mercy from us, but through the prayers of thy hieromartyr Abramius direct our lives in peace.
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O Father, was the divine image kept secure; for taking up the cross thou didst follow after 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, O venerable Cyril, thy spirit rejoiceth together with the Angels.
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O Father, was the divine image kept secure; for taking up the cross thou didst follow after 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, O venerable Isidore, thy spirit rejoiceth together with the Angels.
Troparion — Tone 8
O dweller of the wilderness and angel in the body, thou wast shown to be a wonderworker, O Nicholas our God-bearing father; by fasting, vigil, and prayer receiving heavenly gifts, thou dost heal the sick and the souls of them that run to thee with faith. Glory to him that gave thee strength; glory to him that crowned thee; glory to him that worketh healings for all through thee.
Readings
2nd Matins Gospel
Mark 16.1-8
1And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. 2And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. 3And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? 4And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great. 5And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted. 6And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him. 7But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you. 8And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid.
Epistle
1 Corinthians 6.12-20
12All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. 13Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. 14And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power. 15Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. 16What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. 17But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 18Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 19What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Gospel
Luke 15.11-32
11And he said, A certain man had two sons: 12And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. 13And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. 14And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. 15And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. 17And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, 19And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. 20And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. 21And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. 22But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: 23And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: 24For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. 25Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing. 26And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. 27And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. 28And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him. 29And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: 30But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. 31And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. 32It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.