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Tuesday 12 March 2030

Ven. Theophanes the Confessor

Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

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Lenten Fast — No overrides Tone 8

Great Lent, day 2 · 47 days until Pascha

Saints commemorated

  • Saint of the day

    Ven. Theophanes the Confessor

    Theophanes the Confessor (c. 759/760 – 817/818) was a wealthy Byzantine noble of Constantinople who renounced rank and riches to become a monk, and who is remembered on three counts above all: as founder and abbot of the great monastery of the Great Field (Megas Agros) on the peninsula of Sigriane by the Sea of Marmara; as author of the Chronographia, the annalistic chronicle of the years 284–813 that is one of the primary sources for Byzantine, Persian, and early Islamic history; and as a confessor of the holy icons in the second iconoclasm. Married in youth but living with his wife in continence until both took the monastic habit, he distributed his fortune, built monasteries, and signed the decrees of the Seventh Ecumenical Council (787). When Leo V the Armenian revived iconoclasm, Theophanes, already broken by a painful illness, refused to condemn the icons, was imprisoned some two years, and was exiled to the island of Samothrace, where he died of his sufferings a few days after arrival, on March 12. His relics were returned to Megas Agros, and he is venerated throughout the Orthodox world.

  • St Gregory the Great (the Dialogist), Pope of Rome (604)

    Gregory the Dialogist (c. 540 – 604), known in the West as Gregory the Great, was Pope of Rome from 590 to 604 and is honoured by East and West alike as a Father of the whole undivided Church and one of the four great Latin Doctors. Born to a Roman senatorial family, he rose to be Prefect of the City, then renounced the world, turned his houses into monasteries, and became a monk; drawn back into service as papal legate at Constantinople and then, against his will, as pope, he governed Rome through plague and Lombard war with wisdom and charity. He is remembered for the Dialogues — from which the East names him "the Dialogist" — for the Pastoral Rule, the classic manual of the shepherd's office, and the Moralia on Job; for sending the mission of Augustine to convert the Anglo-Saxons; for the reform of the Roman chant that bears his name; and, in Orthodox tradition, as the compiler to whom the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts of Great Lent is ascribed. He reposed at Rome on March 12, a day kept in Lent, and is one of the few Western fathers venerated without interruption in the Orthodox East.

  • Repose of St Symeon the New Theologian (1021)

    Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022) is the great mystical theologian of Byzantium: monk of Stoudios, abbot of St. Mamas in Constantinople, spiritual son of Symeon the Pious, and the poet of the Hymns of Divine Love. He taught, against the polite religion of his age, that the conscious experience of God — the vision of the divine light, the felt presence of the Holy Spirit — is not the privilege of a vanished apostolic past but the birthright and calling of every baptised Christian now; for this he was tried, exiled, and finally vindicated. Of all the saints, only he, John the Theologian, and Gregory of Nazianzus bear the title "Theologian."

  • Phineas the High Priest

    Phineas (Hebrew Pinchas) was the son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron, and the third high priest of Israel, remembered in Scripture for the burning zeal by which he turned away the wrath of God from his people. When Israel, encamped at Shittim, was drawn into the idolatry and licence of Baal-Peor and a plague broke out among them, Phineas rose up and struck through an Israelite man and the Midianite woman with him, and the plague was stayed. For this the Lord granted him and his descendants a covenant of peace and an everlasting priesthood (Numbers 25). He led Israel in later crises, kept the priesthood after Eleazar, and his name became in the tradition of Israel and the Church a byword for righteous zeal for God. The Orthodox Church commemorates him among the holy righteous of the Old Covenant on March 12.

British Isles and Ireland

  • St. Paul Aurelian of Wales, bishop of Ouismor (575)
  • St. Alphege the Elder, bishop of Winchester (951)
  • St. Mura McFerednach of Donegal (645)

Troparia & kontakia

Kontakion — Tone 3

Thou wast likened to the great Shepherd, O Gregory, leading the ranks of monks to the heavenly sheepfold; and from thence thou didst teach to all men the way. Wherefore now thou dost rejoice and art glad together with them in the dwelling-places of heaven.

Kontakion — Tone 3

Enlightened by the light three-sunned, O God-wise one, thou wast shown a theologian of the all-divine Trinity. Enriched from on high with the wisdom of words, thou didst pour forth the divine streams of the wisdom of God; drinking of them, we cry: Rejoice, thrice-blessed Symeon, taught of God.

Kontakion — Tone 2

Having received revelation from on high, thou didst hasten forth from the midst of the world's tumults; and taking up the monastic life, O righteous one, thou wast granted the working of wonders and the gift of foretelling things to come. For having scattered thy riches and thy possessions and thy wedded life, thou wast made a kinsman of Christ, O Theophanes.

Troparion — Tone 4

Receiving divine grace from God on high, O glorious Gregory, and strengthened by its power, thou didst choose to walk according to the Gospel. Wherefore thou hast received from Christ the reward of thy labours, O all-blessed one. Entreat him that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 3

Having received the divine illumination within thy soul, O father Symeon, thou wast shown to the world a most radiant light, dispelling its deep darkness and persuading all to seek the grace of the Spirit which they had lost. Entreat him fervently, that he grant us great mercy.

Troparion — Tone 8

O guide of Orthodoxy, teacher of piety and holiness, luminary of the world, God-inspired adornment of monastics, O wise Theophanes: by thy teachings thou hast enlightened all, thou lyre of the Spirit. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.

Readings

6th Hour

Isaiah 1.19-2.3

19If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 20But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. 21How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. 22Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water: 23Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them. 24Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies: 25And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin: 26And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city. 27Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness. 28And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed. 29For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen. 30For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water. 31And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them. 1The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. 3And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

Vespers

Genesis 1.14-23

14And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 17And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. 19And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. 20And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. 21And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 22And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. 23And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

Proverbs 1.20-33

20Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: 21She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, 22How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? 23Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. 24Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; 25But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: 26I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 27When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. 28Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: 29For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: 30They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. 31Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. 32For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. 33But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

Great Canon