Saints commemorated
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Ven. Anthony and Theodosius of Kiev Caves
Antony of the Kiev Caves (983–1073) is the father of monasticism in the land of Rus'. Born at Liubech near Chernigov and baptised Antipas, he went as a young man to Mount Athos, was tonsured there, and was sent back by his abbot with the word that he should carry the Holy Mountain's way of life to his own people. Settling in a cave dug in the wooded hill above the Dnieper at Berestovo, he lived on bread and water and drew disciples he had not sought; from that hole in the earth grew the Monastery of the Caves, the mother-house of Russian and Ukrainian monasticism, whose second founder and organiser was his disciple Theodosius. Antony himself never governed it: he appointed abbots and withdrew again into seclusion, and to the end preferred the cave to the church he had caused to be built. He reposed in 1073, and by a providence the tradition has never tried to explain away, his relics have never been uncovered.
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Martyr Mamas of Caesarea in Cappadocia (275), and his parents, Martyrs Theodotus and Rufina
Mamas of Caesarea (c. 260–c. 275) is one of the great-martyrs of the early Church: born in prison to the martyred confessors Theodotus and Rufina, raised in Caesarea of Cappadocia by the pious widow Ammia, and put to death as a youth of about fifteen in the reign of Aurelian, pierced with a trident after fire, the sea and the wild beasts had failed to harm him. The tradition remembers him as a shepherd-hermit of the mountain near Caesarea who milked the wild deer and fed the poor with their cheese; Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian preached in his honour. Venerated from Cappadocia to Cyprus, Lebanon, Georgia and Gaul, he is a patron of shepherds and their flocks.
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St John IV, Patriarch of Constantinople, known as John the Faster (595)
John IV the Faster (†595) was Patriarch of Constantinople from 582 to 595: a goldsmith of the capital who rose through the diaconate of Hagia Sophia to the patriarchal throne, and whose fasting, vigil and almsgiving earned him the surname Nesteutes, "the Faster." Under him the title "Ecumenical Patriarch" came into formal synodal use, provoking the celebrated protest of Gregory the Great; yet when John died he was found to own nothing but a wooden bed, a linen shirt and a worn cloak. The penitential canons that shaped later Orthodox confessional practice are transmitted under his name. He is commemorated on September 2.
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Righteous Eleazar, son of Aaron and second High Priest of Israel
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Repose of Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose) of Platina (1982). (August 20 OC)
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3,628 Martyrs of Nicomedia
The 3,628 Martyrs of Nicomedia were Christians of Alexandria — men together with their wives and children — who, according to the account transmitted in the menologia, came to faith through the witness and martyrdom of Peter, Archbishop of Alexandria, in the last great persecution, and travelled to Nicomedia, the imperial residence, to confess Christ openly before the persecutors; the whole company was put to the sword. They are commemorated together on September 2.
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Hieu of Tadcaster
Hieu (Bede's Heiu, †657 in the received Orthodox calendars) is remembered as the first woman in Northumbria to take the vows and habit of a nun, consecrated by Aidan of Lindisfarne himself. She founded the monastery of Heruteu — Hartlepool — the house in which Hilda of Whitby would afterwards begin her rule, and then withdrew to the city of Calcaria, called Kaelcacaestir by the English, identified since antiquarian times with Tadcaster in Yorkshire, where she fixed her dwelling. That single notice of Bede is the whole of her ancient record; the rest — her Irish origin, the year of her death — belongs to later and modern tradition, and is marked as such below.
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Lolan of Kincardine
Lolan (Lolanus, †c. 1034 in the calendar tradition) is a saint of Scotland honoured at Kincardine-in-Menteith, near Stirling, where the old parish church bears his name and where the Aberdeen Martyrology says he was buried. The pre-Reformation Scottish books commemorate him on September 22 as a bishop and confessor; his bell and pastoral staff survived as heritable relics attached to lands there into the seventeenth century. His written legend, preserved only in the Aberdeen Breviary of 1510, is late and extravagant — a nephew of St Serf, born in Galilee, keeper of the keys of St Peter's in Rome — and stands in flat contradiction with the calendar notices that place him under King Duncan I (†1040). The contradiction is recorded here, not resolved.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Lolanus (c.1034)
Readings
3rd Matins Gospel
Mark 16.9-20
9Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. 10And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept. 11And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not. 12After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. 13And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them. 14Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. 15And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 16He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. 17And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 18They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. 19So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. 20And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.
Epistle
2 Corinthians 1.21-2.4
21Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; 22Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. 23Moreover I call God for a record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth. 24Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand. 1But I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in heaviness. 2For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me? 3And I wrote this same unto you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all. 4For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.
Gospel
Matthew 22.1-14
2The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, 3And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. 4Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. 5But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: 6And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. 7But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. 8Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. 9Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. 10So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. 11And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: 12And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. 13Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 14For many are called, but few are chosen.
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 8
Having offered thyself to God, whom thou didst love above all from thy youth, O venerable one, thou didst choose to follow Him with thy whole soul before all things else, and counting the beauties of the world as nothing, thou didst make thee a cave in the earth, and struggling well therein against the devices of the unseen enemies, thou didst shine upon all the land of Rus' like the sun in its splendour. Wherefore, standing now with boldness before Christ God, pray for thy flock, O father, and for all who come to thee, that we may cry to thee: Rejoice, O Antony our father.
Kontakion — Tone 3
With the staff given thee from God, O holy one, shepherd thy people in life-bearing pastures, and crush the invisible and savage beasts beneath the feet of them that hymn thee; for all we who are in perils have gained thee, O Mamas, as a fervent protector.
Troparion — Tone 4
Having gone forth from the tumult of the world, and having followed Christ after the manner of the Gospel by the renunciation of all things, thou didst live a life like the angels' and didst come to the quiet haven of the Holy Mountain of Athos; and thence, with the blessing of the fathers, thou camest to the hill of Kiev, and finishing thy course there in labour, thou didst enlighten thy fatherland, and having shown to a multitude of monastics the path that leads to the Kingdom of heaven, thou didst bring them to Christ. Him do thou entreat, O venerable Antony, that He may save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4
A rule of faith and an image of meekness, a teacher of temperance — so did the truth of things reveal thee to thy flock. Therefore by humility thou didst acquire the things that are high, by poverty the things that are rich. O Father John, venerable one, intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy martyr, O Lord, in his contest received an incorruptible crown from Thee, our God; for possessing Thy strength he cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By his intercessions save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4 (from the common of martyrs)
Thy martyrs, 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.