4th Sunday of Pascha

Saints commemorated

Nine Martyrs at Cyzicus

Nine Christians of differing rank and trade — Theognis, Rufus, Antipater, Theostichus, Artemas, Magnus, Theodotus, Thaumasius and Philemon — were arrested together at Cyzicus in Mysia, on the southern shore of the Propontis, in the persecutions of the later third century, and after imprisonment and torture were beheaded with a single sentence when none of them would consent to sacrifice. Their bodies, buried outside the walls, were taken up when the Church gained peace under Constantine and laid in a church built for them in the city, where the healing of the sick and of the mentally afflicted made the martyrs' company famous. In Russia they became the patrons invoked against fever and pestilence, and a monastery was raised in their honour near Kazan to house particles of their relics.
St Basil, bishop of Ostrog in Montenegro (Serbia) (1671)

Basil of Ostrog (Sveti Vasilije Ostroški, born Stojan Jovanović, c. 1610–1671) was the Serbian hierarch of Zahumlje and Skenderija who shepherded the Orthodox of Herzegovina and Montenegro under Ottoman rule and Venetian-Latin pressure, and who, after the Turks destroyed his monastery of Tvrdoš near Trebinje, withdrew to the cliff-face hermitage of Ostrog above the valley of the Zeta, where he lived out his last years in prayer and died on 29 April 1671. Seven years later his body was found incorrupt and fragrant and was enshrined in the little rock-cut church of the Presentation in the Upper Monastery. He is one of the most fervently venerated saints of the Serbian lands: Ostrog is the greatest pilgrimage place of the western Balkans, and Orthodox, Catholics and Muslims alike come to his relics for healing.
Diodorus and Rhodopianus

Diodorus and Rhodopianus were deacons of the church of Aphrodisias in Caria, on the south-western coastlands of Asia Minor, who were stoned to death by their own townspeople in the persecution of Diocletian, about the year 302. The synaxarion notice is short and gives no dialogue and no magistrate: the two were known in the city as Christians and as preachers of Christ among the pagans, were seized by the soldiery, endured insults and scourging, and were finally killed with stones — the mob's death rather than the executioner's, and one of the few martyrdoms by stoning in the Byzantine calendar after the age of the Apostles. The Greek books keep them on May 3 and the Slavonic books and the OCA on April 29; this entry, following the Greek placement, is primary on May 3 and secondary on April 29.
Memnon the Wonderworker

Memnon was an ascetic of the Egyptian desert who from his youth gave himself to the monastic life, was set over one of the Egyptian monasteries as abbot, and became famous for the gifts that followed his labours: clairvoyance, and a wonderworking power over the calamities of the countryside. The synaxarion remembers three of his miracles in particular — a spring of water opened in the waterless wilderness at his prayer, a plague of locusts destroyed as it stripped the harvest, and shipwrecked men saved who called on his name at sea — and adds that after his death the mere invocation of his name drove away locusts and broke the deceits of the demons. He is commemorated as "Memnon the Wonderworker," and no fuller Life of him has come down.

British Isles and Ireland

St. Dictinus the Swineherd, of Ulster (5th C)
St. Endellion, Virgin recluse in Cornwall (6th C)
St. Fiachan of Munster (7th C)
St. Senan, hermit of North Wales (7th C)
St. Swithbert the Younger, bishop and missionary (807)
St. Wilfrid the Younger, archbishop of York (744)

Troparia & kontakia

Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)

Thou wast shown to thy flock as a rule of faith, an image of gentleness and a teacher of abstinence; therefore by lowliness thou hast gained the heights, and by poverty riches. O father and hierarch Basil, intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4 (common of two martyrs)

Thy martyrs Diodorus and Rhodopianus, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for possessing Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their intercessions save our souls.

Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)

With the streams of thy tears thou didst make the barren wilderness bring forth, and by thy sighing from the depths thou didst bear fruit an hundredfold in thy labours; thou becamest a light shining upon the world with miracles, O Memnon our father. Intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4 (common of several martyrs)

Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received from Thee, our God, the crowns of incorruption; for armed with Thy might they overthrew the tyrants and broke the feeble insolence of the demons. At their supplications, O Christ God, save our souls.

Readings

4th Matins Gospel

Luke 24.1-12

¹Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. ²And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. ³And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: ⁵And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? ⁶He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, ⁷Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. ⁸And they remembered his words, ⁹And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest. ¹⁰It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. ¹¹And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. ¹²Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.

Epistle

Acts 9.32-42

³²And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda. ³³And there he found a certain man named Æneas, which had kept his bed eight years, and was sick of the palsy. ³⁴And Peter said unto him, Æneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole: arise, and make thy bed. And he arose immediately. ³⁵And all that dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him, and turned to the Lord. ³⁶Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did. ³⁷And it came to pass in those days, that she was sick, and died: whom when they had washed, they laid her in an upper chamber. ³⁸And forasmuch as Lydda was nigh to Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent unto him two men, desiring him that he would not delay to come to them. ³⁹Then Peter arose and went with them. When he was come, they brought him into the upper chamber: and all the widows stood by him weeping, and shewing the coats and garments which Dorcas made, while she was with them. ⁴⁰But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down, and prayed; and turning him to the body said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up. ⁴¹And he gave her his hand, and lifted her up, and when he had called the saints and widows, presented her alive. ⁴²And it was known throughout all Joppa; and many believed in the Lord.

Gospel

John 5.1-15

¹After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ²Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. ³In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. ⁴For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. ⁵And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. ⁶When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? ⁷The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. ⁸Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. ⁹And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath. ¹⁰The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. ¹¹He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk. ¹²Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk? ¹³And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place. ¹⁴Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. ¹⁵The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole.