St Theophylactus, Bishop of Nicomedia

Thursday of the Third Week of Lent

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Lenten Fast Tone 6

Great Lent, day 18 · 31 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 11.10-12.2

¹⁰And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious. ¹¹And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. ¹²And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. ¹³The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. ¹⁴But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them. ¹⁵And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod. ¹⁶And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. ¹And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. ²Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.

Vespers

Genesis 7.11-8.3

¹¹In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. ¹²And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. ¹³In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; ¹⁴They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. ¹⁵And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. ¹⁶And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in. ¹⁷And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. ¹⁸And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. ¹⁹And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. ²⁰Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. ²¹And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: ²²All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. ²³And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. ²⁴And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days. ¹And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged; ²The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; ³And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.

Proverbs 10.1-22

¹The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. ²Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death. ³The LORD will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked. ⁴He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. ⁵He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame. ⁶Blessings are upon the head of the just: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked. ⁷The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot. ⁸The wise in heart will receive commandments: but a prating fool shall fall. ⁹He that walketh uprightly walketh surely: but he that perverteth his ways shall be known. ¹⁰He that winketh with the eye causeth sorrow: but a prating fool shall fall. ¹¹The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked. ¹²Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins. ¹³In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found: but a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding. ¹⁴Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction. ¹⁵The rich man’s wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty. ¹⁶The labour of the righteous tendeth to life: the fruit of the wicked to sin. ¹⁷He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction: but he that refuseth reproof erreth. ¹⁸He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool. ¹⁹In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise. ²⁰The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth. ²¹The lips of the righteous feed many: but fools die for want of wisdom. ²²The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.

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.