Ven. Timothy of Symbola

Saints commemorated

Saint of the day

Ven. Timothy of Symbola

Timothy (died c. 795) was a monk and ascetic of the monastery called Symbola on Mount Olympus in Bithynia — the "holy mountain" of Asia Minor, thick in that age with monasteries and hermits. Of Italian descent, he entered the monastic life young and gave himself so wholly to fasting, vigil, and unceasing prayer under the guidance of the archimandrite Theoctistus that he attained a great purity and dispassion of soul, and with it the grace of wonderworking: he healed diseases of body and soul and drove out unclean spirits, so that the Church remembers him as a healer and a "star of many lights risen from the East." He reposed in peace in extreme old age about the year 795 and is commemorated on February 21, the day on which his office leads the Menaion.
St Eustathius, archbishop of Antioch (337)

Eustathius (c. 270 – c. 337) was Archbishop of Antioch and one of the chief defenders of the Nicene faith at the First Ecumenical Council of 325, where he stood in the front rank of the fathers who confessed the Son to be consubstantial (homoousios) with the Father against the teaching of Arius. A native of Side in Pamphylia, he was bishop of Beroea before the council raised him to the great Syrian see. His unyielding opposition to Arianism made him the first casualty of the Arian reaction: about the year 330 a synod at Antioch, packed by the party of Eusebius of Nicomedia, deposed him on a fabricated charge of immorality and the pretext of Sabellianism, and the emperor Constantine exiled him to Thrace, where he died. His fall did not silence his flock: the Nicene Christians loyal to his memory — the Eustathians — refused communion with the Arianising bishops set over Antioch, and their separation grew into the long Antiochene schism that troubled the Church for the better part of a century. The tradition honours him as a confessor and pillar of Orthodoxy; his relics were carried home to Antioch in 482.
St John the Scholastic, patriarch of Constantinople (577)

John Scholasticus (early sixth century – 577) was Patriarch of Constantinople from 565 to 577 and one of the founders of Byzantine canon law. Born at Sirimis near Antioch and trained as an advocate — whence his surname Scholasticus, "the lawyer" — he was ordained priest at Antioch and sent as its representative (apocrisiarius) to the imperial capital, where the emperor Justin II raised him to the patriarchal throne on the death of Eutychius. As a presbyter he had compiled the first systematic Greek collection of the Church's canons, the Synagoge in fifty titles, and afterward a Nomocanon, joining the sacred canons to the relevant civil laws — works that shaped the whole later tradition of Eastern church law. His patriarchate fell in the reign of Justin II and Tiberius; the introduction of the hymn of the Cherubikon into the Divine Liturgy is associated with these years. He reposed in 577 and is commemorated on February 21.
Saint Zachariah, Patriarch of Jerusalem (632)

Zacharias (sixth century – c. 632) was Patriarch of Jerusalem through the catastrophe of the Persian conquest of the Holy City. Raised to the throne of James about the year 609, he saw Jerusalem stormed and sacked in 614 by the armies of the Persian king Chosroes II, its churches burned, its people slaughtered, and the Precious and Life-giving Cross carried off into Persia — and he himself was taken captive with it, and led away into a long exile of some fourteen years, from which he wrote letters of consolation and exhortation to his bereaved flock. When the emperor Heraclius at last broke the Persian power, the Cross and the captive patriarch were restored; Zacharias returned to Jerusalem and lived to see the holy Cross set up again in the city, before reposing about the year 632. The Church keeps him as a confessor for all that he endured for Christ, and commemorates him on February 21.
George of Amastris

George (c. 750 – c. 807) was Bishop of Amastris, the port-city of Paphlagonia on the southern shore of the Black Sea, and one of the shepherd-wonderworkers of the Byzantine East on the eve of the second Iconoclasm. Born at Kromna near Amastris of pious parents, he spent his youth as a hermit on a mountain and then in a monastery before he was drawn, against his will, to the episcopate and consecrated by the Patriarch Tarasius of Constantinople. As bishop he was a tireless pastor — teaching his people, adorning the churches, defending the widow and the orphan, feeding the poor — and a worker of wonders, who by his prayer turned away the raids of the Saracens and other barbarians from his coast and delivered innocent men from death. He reposed in peace in the reign of Nicephorus I and is commemorated on February 21; his ancient Life is a document of note both for his sanctity and for its report of an early raid of the Rhōs upon his city.

British Isles and Ireland

St. Erkengota, Princess of Kent (660)

Troparia & kontakia

Kontakion — Tone 4

Enthroned upon the summit of the true confession, thou didst shepherd the flock of Antioch in the faith of Nicaea; and driven out for the sake of the consubstantial Word, thou didst endure thy long exile as a confessor. O steadfast Eustathius, entreat Christ God to grant us his great mercy.

Kontakion — Tone 4

Risen like a many-lighted star out of the East, thou hast shone into the hearts of the faithful the excellences of thy wonders, O God-minded Timothy, bearer of miracles.

Stichera

O God-minded father Timothy, by much abstinence and by strained and constant prayer thou didst utterly still the leapings of the passions, and being made pure wast filled with the gifts of the Spirit — to heal the sick and to drive out unclean spirits from those who ran to thee with faith.

Synaxarion

George, having left behind the little body, cultivates for many the salvation of souls.

Troparion — Tone 4

O guide of Orthodoxy, teacher of piety and holiness, luminary of the whole world, God-inspired adornment of hierarchs: by thy teachings thou hast enlightened all, O harp of the Spirit. O righteous father Eustathius, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4

A rule of faith and an image of gentleness, a teacher of temperance, the truth of things showed thee to thy flock; therefore by humility thou didst gain the heights, and by poverty riches. O Father and Hierarch George, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4

A rule of faith and an image of gentleness, a teacher of temperance, the truth of things showed thee to thy flock; therefore by humility thou didst gain the heights, and by poverty riches. O Father and Hierarch John, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4

O God of our fathers, who dealest ever with us according to thy gentleness: withdraw not thy mercy from us, but by their supplications guide our life in peace.

Troparion — Tone 4

O God of our fathers, thou didst make thy patriarch Zacharias a confessor of thy Cross: for when the enemy carried away the Wood of our salvation, he too was led into bonds, and shepherded his flock from exile; and thou didst bring back both the Cross and thy servant with rejoicing. By his intercessions, O Christ God, save our souls.

Readings

6th Hour

Isaiah 2.3-11

³And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. ⁴And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. ⁵O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD. ⁶Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers. ⁷Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots: ⁸Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made: ⁹And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not. ¹⁰Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty. ¹¹The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.

Vespers

Genesis 1.24-2.3

²⁴And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. ²⁵And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. ²⁶And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. ²⁷So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. ²⁸And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. ²⁹And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. ³⁰And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. ³¹And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. ¹Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. ²And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. ³And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Proverbs 2.1-22

¹My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; ²So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; ³Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; ⁴If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; ⁵Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. ⁶For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. ⁷He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. ⁸He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints. ⁹Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path. ¹⁰When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; ¹¹Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: ¹²To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things; ¹³Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; ¹⁴Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked; ¹⁵Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths: ¹⁶To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words; ¹⁷Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God. ¹⁸For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead. ¹⁹None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life. ²⁰That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous. ²¹For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it. ²²But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.

Saints commemorated