Wednesday 19 December 2029
Martyr Boniface and Righteous Aglaida
Wednesday of the 30th week after Pentecost
Nativity Fast, day 35
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Martyr Boniface and Righteous Aglaida
Boniface of Tarsus (died c. 290) is remembered for one of the most striking conversion stories in the Church's calendar. A dissolute household steward living in sin with his mistress Aglaïa, a wealthy woman of Rome, he was sent east to bring back the relics of a martyr — and, jesting as he set out that he might himself come home a martyr, was so moved by the sufferings of the confessors he found at Tarsus in Cilicia that he confessed Christ on the spot, endured fearful tortures, and was beheaded. His relics, carried back to Rome, brought about the repentance of Aglaïa, who gave away her wealth and ended her days as a nun. The two are commemorated together on December 19, and in Russian piety Boniface is invoked especially against the passion of drunkenness.
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Elias of Murom
Elias of Murom (died c. 1188) was a monk of the Near Caves of the Kiev Caves Lavra, remembered in the Church as a wonderworker and, in Russian popular memory, identified with Ilya Muromets, the greatest of the bogatyrs — the warrior-heroes of the Kievan epic ballads. His incorrupt relics rest in the Near Caves with the fingers of the right hand joined for the sign of the Cross in the three-finger form, a detail that made him a witness in the seventeenth-century disputes with the Old Ritualists. Commemorated on December 19 and among the assembled fathers of the Kiev Caves, he is honoured as a saint in whom the warrior's courage and the monk's humility met.
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Gregory of Omirits
Gregory of Omirits (Greek Gregentios; died c. 552) was, in the tradition, the missionary archbishop sent from Alexandria to organise the Church among the Homerites — the Himyarites of southern Arabia — after the Ethiopian king Elesbaan had overthrown the Jewish persecutor who massacred the Christians of Najran. A deacon of Milan led by visions to Carthage, Rome, and Alexandria, he was consecrated bishop and set over the see of Zafar, where he restored the churches, crowned the Christian king Abraha, and codified laws for the new Christian nation. He is remembered above all for a great public disputation with the Jewish teacher Herban, which the tradition says ended in a vision of Christ, the mass conversion of the Jews, and Herban's own baptism.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Manirus, bishop and Apostle of the north of Scotland
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 4
As an unblemished sacrifice you willingly offered yourself to Him who for your sake was about to be born of the Virgin, O holy and wise crown-bearer Boniface.
Kontakion — Tone 8
As a great luminary of the Russian land you shone forth, an unconquered commander of the Heavenly King and a God-inspired adornment of monastics. And now, standing with the angels before the throne of God, entreat Christ the Master and Creator of all, that those who honour your holy memory may be delivered from every affliction and sorrow, that we may cry to you: Rejoice, O Elias, our venerable father.
Troparion — Tone 1
Having honoured God, by Him you were honoured in return, O beauty of the martyrs, blessed Boniface; for He adorned you with the crown of divine glory. And so, as we today keep your all-holy memory, we entreat you to make intercession for us before the Lord.
Troparion — Tone 3
The Russian land rejoices today, glorifying its warrior and wonderworker Elias of Murom; for abiding in the Church triumphant, he fights together with his kinsmen and with the Church militant, entreating help from the Lord for Holy Rus' against her enemies visible and invisible, that the Russian people may without hindrance glorify and honour Christ God.
Readings
Epistle
Hebrews 10.1-18
1For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 2For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. 3But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 4For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. 5Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: 6In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. 7Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. 8Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; 9Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 14For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. 15Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, 16This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 17And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. 18Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
Gospel
Mark 10.11-16
11And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. 12And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery. 13And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. 14But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. 15Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. 16And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.