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Thursday 14 March 2030

Ven. Benedict of Nursia

Thursday of the First Week of Lent

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Lenten Fast — No overrides Tone 8

Great Lent, day 4 · 45 days until Pascha

Saints commemorated

  • Saint of the day

    Ven. Benedict of Nursia

    Benedict of Nursia (c. 480 – c. 547) is honoured as the father of Western monasticism and one of the great ascetic fathers of the undivided Church. Born of a well-born Umbrian family and sent to study at Rome, he fled the corruption of the city while still young and became a hermit in a cave at Subiaco, where he was fed by the monk Romanus and slowly gathered disciples. From twelve small communities at Subiaco he passed to the mountain of Monte Cassino, where he destroyed the last shrine of Apollo, built his great monastery, and composed the Rule that bears his name — a "little rule for beginners," drawn from Scripture and from the Eastern fathers (Basil, Cassian, the anonymous Rule of the Master), which became the charter of monastic life throughout the Latin West. His life is known almost wholly from the second book of the Dialogues of Pope Gregory the Great (the Dialogist), which tells of his miracles, his gift of prophecy, his yearly meetings with his sister Scholastica, and his death standing in prayer before the altar. The Byzantine calendar keeps him on March 14.

  • St Theognostus, Metropolitan of Kiev (1353)

    Theognostus (died 1353) was a Greek of Constantinople who served for twenty-five years as Metropolitan of Kiev and All Russia, the chief hierarch of the Rus' Church, in the age when its centre was passing from Kiev to Moscow. Consecrated at Constantinople and sent north in 1328, he made Moscow his residence, confirmed the union of the metropolitan's see with the rising city, and upheld the Church's unity and its liberties against both the fragmentation of the princes and the demands of the Golden Horde, from whose khan he obtained the confirmation of the Church's ancient privileges — enduring, the tradition says, imprisonment and ill-usage rather than surrender them. He glorified his predecessor Peter as a saint and named Alexis his successor. He reposed in 1353 and is venerated among the holy hierarchs of Russia, kept on March 14.

  • Alexander of Pydna

    Alexander (died c. 305) was a priest of Pydna, a town on the coast of Macedonia south of Thessalonica, and a hieromartyr of the last great persecution. Zealous in preaching Christ and in turning the people from the worship of idols, he was seized in the persecution under the emperor Maximian (Galerius), subjected to cruel tortures which he bore unmoved, and at the last beheaded for his confession. His memory was cherished in Macedonia and on the Holy Mountain, where his skull is venerated among the treasures of the Great Lavra of Athos. The Greek synaxaria, which sometimes style him "of Thessalonica" from the region of his labours, keep him on March 14.

  • Euschemon of Lampsacus

    Euschemon (ninth century) was bishop of Lampsacus on the Hellespont and a confessor of the holy icons in the second iconoclast persecution. Formed from his youth in a virtuous and ascetic life, and honoured in his own day as a wonderworker, he was raised to the see of Lampsacus and, when the emperor Theophilus (829–842) renewed the war on the images, stood firm in their veneration; for this he was seized, ill-treated, and driven into banishment, in which he ended his life, a confessor who suffered for the faith without dying by the sword. He is kept on March 14.

  • Rostislav-Michael of Kiev

    Rostislav Mstislavich (c. 1110 – 1167), called Michael in holy baptism, was Prince of Smolensk and thrice Grand Prince of Kiev, a grandson of Vladimir Monomakh and one of the most respected rulers of the divided Rus' of the twelfth century. Founder of the enduring line of the princes of Smolensk, he raised that city to greatness, established its bishopric, and adorned it with churches; as Grand Prince he laboured to keep peace among the quarrelling princes and to uphold the order of the Church, defending the rights of the metropolitan see of Kiev. Devout from his youth and longing in his last years for the monastic life, he died on his way home from Novgorod, receiving the news of his end with joy and prayer. He is venerated among the right-believing princes of Rus' and kept on March 14.

British Isles and Ireland

  • St. Kyrin, bishop of Ross (660)
  • St. Talmach, disciple of Saint Finbar (7th C)

Troparia & kontakia

Kontakion — Tone 2

Enriched with the grace of God from thy youth, thou didst flee the tumult of the world for the wilderness, and there, having planted the monastic way and raised up a fair company of ascetics, thou wast shown to be a rule of the venerable and a father of monks. Wherefore we cry to thee: Rejoice, O God-blessed Benedict.

Troparion — Tone 4

Thy martyr Alexander, O Lord, in his contest received the crown incorruptible from thee our God; for possessed of thy might, he cast down the tyrants and broke the feeble insolence of the demons. By his intercessions save thou our souls.

Troparion — Tone 8

In thee, O Father, was the divine image faithfully preserved; for taking up thy cross thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul as a thing immortal. Wherefore doth thy spirit, O venerable Benedict, rejoice together with the Angels.

Troparion — Tone 4

O God of our fathers, who dealest ever with us according to thy gentleness, take not thy mercy from us, but by the prayers of thy holy hierarch and confessor Euschemon guide our life in peace.

Troparion — Tone 4

Having lived devoutly in thy royal state, and preserved unshaken the true faith of Christ, thou didst rule thy people in justice and mercy, O right-believing prince Rostislav; and setting thy heart upon the monastic calm, thou didst pass in prayer to thy Lord. Entreat him that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4

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

Readings

6th Hour

Isaiah 2.11-21

11The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. 12For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: 13And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, 14And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, 15And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, 16And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures. 17And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. 18And the idols he shall utterly abolish. 19And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. 20In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; 21To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

Vespers

Genesis 2.4-19

4These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. 6But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 7And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. 8And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 10And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. 11The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 12And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. 13And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. 14And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. 15And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 16And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. 18And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. 19And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

Proverbs 3.1-18

1My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: 2For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. 3Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: 4So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. 5Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. 7Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. 8It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. 9Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: 10So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. 11My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: 12For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. 13Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. 14For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. 15She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. 16Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour. 17Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. 18She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.

Great Canon