Midfeast of Pentecost; Trans. Rel. Boris and Gleb

Saints commemorated

Saint of the day

Translation of the Relics (1072 and 1115) of the Holy Passion-bearers Boris and Gleb, princes of Russia (1015)

Boris and Gleb, sons of Vladimir the Baptizer of Rus' and named Roman and David at the font, were killed in the succession war of 1015 on the orders — so the tradition holds — of their elder brother Svyatopolk, and are honoured as the first canonised saints of the Christian Rus'. Neither died confessing Christ before pagans: both refused to lift a hand against an elder brother and accepted an unjust death in the meekness of the Lord, and for this the Slavic Church gave them a title of its own — passion-bearers (strastoterptsy). Their bodies were gathered at Vyshgorod beside the church of St Basil, where miracles began at once; the translations of their relics into new churches in 1072 and 1115 are kept on May 2, and their murder on July 24. Around them grew the earliest cycle of Russian hagiography — the Chronicle tale, the anonymous Tale and Passion and Encomium, and Nestor's Lesson — and with it the ideal of the innocent, non-resisting prince that shaped the sanctity of Rus' for six centuries.
Saint of the day

St Athanasius the Great, Patr. of Alexandria

Athanasius the Great (c. 296 – 373) was Archbishop of Alexandria, the champion of the Nicene faith and, with Basil the Great, one of only two Eastern fathers whom the Church styles by universal consent "the Great." Present at the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325) as a young deacon, he became through a long episcopate the tireless defender of the Council's confession that the Son is homoousios — "of one essence" — with the Father, against the Arianism that for two generations captured emperors, courts, and councils. Five times driven from his see and some seventeen years an exile, he held the faith when almost the whole world had gone over to Arius, so that his name became a proverb — Athanasius contra mundum, "Athanasius against the world." He wrote the classic statement of the Incarnation, On the Incarnation of the Word; the Life of Antony, which carried the monastic ideal through the whole Church, East and West; and, in his thirty-ninth Festal Letter of 367, the first listing of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament exactly as the Church now receives them. He died in peace at Alexandria on May 2, 373, having outlived his persecutors and secured the triumph of Orthodoxy. He is kept on January 18 together with Cyril of Alexandria, and on May 2, the day of his repose.
Saint Matrona (the Blind) of Moscow (1952)
Holy Martyrs Hesperus, his wife Zoë, and their sons Cyriac and Theodulus (2nd c.)

A whole household of slaves perfected together: Hesperus and his wife Zoe, with their two sons Cyriacus and Theodulus, servants of a rich pagan named Catullus at Attalia in Pamphylia, who suffered about the year 135, in the reign of Hadrian. They had been Christians from childhood and kept themselves from the meat and wine of the idol-sacrifices; when at a birthday feast in their master's house such food was sent down to the slaves, Zoe poured out the wine and threw away the flesh rather than be defiled. The sons were hung upon a tree and torn with iron claws while their parents stood by and encouraged them, and all four were then cast into a heated furnace, where they gave up their souls. Their bodies, the account says, were found untouched by the fire, and singing was heard over them. They are commemorated on May 2.
Holy Tsar Boris-Michael of Bulgaria (907)

Boris, prince (knyaz) of the Bulgarians from 852 to 889 and called Michael at his baptism about 864, is the Baptizer of Bulgaria: the ruler who brought a pagan Turkic-Slavic state into the Church, secured for it a church of its own under Constantinople, received the exiled disciples of Cyril and Methodius in 886, and by that act made Bulgaria the nursery of Slavonic letters and the Slavonic liturgy for the whole Orthodox Slavic world. He laid down his power in 889 to become a monk, came out of the monastery once — to depose and blind his own eldest son for attempting to restore paganism — and having set his son Symeon on the throne returned to his cell, where he died on 2 May 907. The Church honours him as equal-to-the-apostles, and his commemoration on May 2 is kept by the Bulgarian, Russian and other Slavic Churches.
Athanasius Patelarios

Athanasius III Patelarios, a Cretan of the noble Greek house of Patelarios, was three times Patriarch of Constantinople in the harried decades of the mid-seventeenth century, never for long: forty days at his first accession in 1634, fifteen at his last in 1652. Learned in many tongues, a preacher and a translator, he spent most of his life travelling — Athos, Palestine, Thessalonica, Italy, the Danubian principalities — and came at last to Moscow in April 1653, where Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich and Patriarch Nikon received him with honour and where he wrote for the Russians an account of the episcopal Liturgy as it was served in the East. On the journey home he fell ill and died at the Transfiguration monastery of Mgar near Lubny in the Ukrainian land, in 1654. He was buried, in the Greek manner, seated in his chair; in 1662 the grave was opened and the body was found incorrupt and still seated, and he was glorified with his feast on May 2. Russian piety knows him as "Athanasius the Sitting" and as the Wonderworker of Lubny, and his relics rested latterly in the Annunciation Cathedral at Kharkov.

British Isles and Ireland

St. Neachtain (5th C)
Hieromartyr St. Germanus (460)
St. Gluvias, brother of St. Cadoc (6th C)
St. Ultan, missionary in East Anglia (686)

Troparia & kontakia

Apolytikion

Shining forth in the works of Orthodoxy and quenching every false belief, ye became victors crowned with triumph; enriching all things by your piety and greatly adorning the Church, ye worthily found Christ God, who grants great mercy unto all.

Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)

O God of our fathers, who ever dealest with us according to Thy gentleness: take not away Thy mercy from us, but by the prayers of Thy hierarch Athanasius guide our life in peace.

Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of one equal-to-the-apostles)

Having become a partaker of the ways of the Apostles and a teacher of thy people, O Boris named Michael, thou didst lead a whole nation from the darkness of idols to the light of Christ; and laying down thy princely power, thou didst take up the yoke of the monks. Wherefore, O equal of the Apostles, intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of several martyrs)

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

Kontakion — Tone 2

Having planted the doctrines of Orthodoxy, thou didst cut away the thorns of false belief, and didst multiply the seed of the faith by the rain-shower of the Spirit, O venerable one; therefore we hymn thee, O Athanasius.

Kontakion — Tone 3

Today hath your most glorious memory shone forth, O noble passion-bearers of Christ, Roman and David, and it calleth us together to the praise of Christ our God. Therefore, running to the shrine of your relics, we receive the gift of healing by your prayers, O holy ones; for ye are physicians indeed.

Magnification

We magnify you, O holy passion-bearers Boris and Gleb, who loved your brother more than your own life.

Troparion — Tone 3

Thou wast made a pillar of Orthodoxy, upholding the Church with divine doctrines, O Hierarch Athanasius; for proclaiming the Son to be of one essence with the Father, thou didst put Arius to shame. O venerable Father, entreat Christ God to grant us great mercy.

Troparion — Tone 2

O true passion-bearers and faithful hearers of the Gospel of Christ, chaste Roman with the most blessed David: ye did not withstand the brother who set himself against you when he slew your bodies, yet had no power to touch your souls. Let the wicked lover of power therefore mourn, while ye rejoice with the angelic choirs; and standing before the Holy Trinity, pray for the sovereign kinsmen of your race, that they may be well-pleasing to God, and for the sons of Rus', that they may be saved.

Readings

Vespers

Composite 19 - Micah 4.2-3, 5; 6.2-5, 8; 5.4, 5

¹Thus says the Lord: From Sion will come forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he will judge among many peoples and rebuke mighty nations in a distant land. For all the peoples will walk, each its own way, while we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever. Thus says the Lord Almighty: Listen hills and valleys, foundations of the earth, because the Lord has a controversy with his people; for he will dispute with Israel, saying, ‘My people, what have I done to you? Or how have I grieved you? Or how have I troubled you? Answer me. For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and rescued you from the house of slavery, and sent Moses and Aaron before your face. My people, what have your enemies planned against you? Was it not told you, O man, what is good? And what does the Lord seek from you, except to execute judgement, and to love mercy and to be ready to walk with the Lord your God?’ Therefore the Lord will be magnified in strength, and will shepherd his flock in peace, to the extremities of the earth.

Composite 20 - Isaiah 55.1; 12.3-4; 55.2-13

¹Thus says the Lord: You who thirst, go to the water; and all who have no money, go, buy and eat and drink wine and fat without money or price. For thus says the Lord Almighty to you: My people, draw water with joy from the springs of salvation. And you will say in that day: Praise the Lord, cry his name aloud, declare his glory among the nations, call to mind that his name has been exalted. My people, hear me, and eat good things, and your soul will delight in good things. Attend with your ears and follow my ways. Listen to me and your soul will live among good things. And I will make an eternal covenant with you, and you will call upon me. And when you draw near me, let the impious abandon his ways, and the lawless man his plans; and turn back to me and I will have mercy on you and forgive your sins. For your plans are not as my plans, says the Lord; but as heaven is distant from the earth, so is my way distant from your ways, and your thoughts from my mind. For as rain or snow would come down from heaven and not return there, until it had soaked the earth, and it bring forth and bud and give seed to the sower, and bread for food, so shall my word be, which once it has come from my mouth will not return there until it has accomplished all that I willed; and I will make my ways and my commands succeed. For you will go out with joy, and be taught with gladness; for the mountains and hills will exult as they receive you with joy; and all the trees of the field will clap with their branches; and instead of the briar shall come up the cypress; instead of the nettle shall come up the myrtle; and the Lord shall be for a name and for an eternal sign, says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel.

Proverbs 9.1-11

¹Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars: ²She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table. ³She hath sent forth her maidens: she crieth upon the highest places of the city, ⁴Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, ⁵Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled. ⁶Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding. ⁷He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame: and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot. ⁸Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. ⁹Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. ¹⁰The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. ¹¹For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased.

Epistle

Acts 14.6-18

⁶They were ware of it, and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about: ⁷And there they preached the gospel. ⁸And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked: ⁹The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, ¹⁰Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked. ¹¹And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. ¹²And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker. ¹³Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people. ¹⁴Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, ¹⁵And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: ¹⁶Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. ¹⁷Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. ¹⁸And with these sayings scarce restrained they the people, that they had not done sacrifice unto them.

Hebrews 2.11-18 (Blessing of Waters)

¹¹For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, ¹²Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. ¹³And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me. ¹⁴Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; ¹⁵And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. ¹⁶For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. ¹⁷Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. ¹⁸For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

Gospel

John 7.14-30

¹⁴Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught. ¹⁵And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? ¹⁶Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. ¹⁷If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. ¹⁸He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. ¹⁹Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me? ²⁰The people answered and said, Thou hast a devil: who goeth about to kill thee? ²¹Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one work, and ye all marvel. ²²Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man. ²³If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day? ²⁴Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. ²⁵Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he, whom they seek to kill? ²⁶But, lo, he speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ? ²⁷Howbeit we know this man whence he is: but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is. ²⁸Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not. ²⁹But I know him: for I am from him, and he hath sent me. ³⁰Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.

John 5.1-4 (Blessing of Waters)

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.