Great Lent, day 11 · 38 days until Pascha
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
St James the Confessor of Catania
Jacob (James) the Confessor was a monk from his youth who, raised to the episcopate, endured imprisonment, hunger and exile for the veneration of the holy icons during the second period of Byzantine Iconoclasm in the early ninth century. He did not die a martyr's death but is numbered among the confessors, having borne much affliction for the faith and lived out his days in ascetic labour. In the Greek synaxaria he is associated with the church of Catania in Sicily.
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Our Holy Father Serapion (366)
Serapion (c. 300 – after 362) was bishop of Thmuis in the Egyptian Delta, a monk of the Nitrian desert before his consecration, the intimate friend and staunch ally of Athanasius the Great in the struggle against Arianism, and one of the recipients of the letters of Antony the Great. He is remembered above all for the Euchologion (Sacramentary) that bears his name — the earliest substantially surviving collection of Egyptian liturgical prayers — and for his treatise Against the Manichaeans. He is numbered among the confessors of the Nicene faith.
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Serapion the Sindonite
Serapion the Sindonite is the Egyptian ascetic who owned nothing at all but a single coarse linen cloth — the sindōn that gave him his name — and who twice sold himself into slavery in order to convert his masters. Known from the Lausiac History of Palladius, he lived without roof or possessions "like the birds of the air," gave away even his cloth and his Gospel-book, walked from Egypt to Rome, and made of destitution an instrument of mission rather than a private discipline. Because his freedom from property extended to his own body and his own reputation, he stands at the head of a line that runs to the fools-for-Christ; and his few recorded sayings — above all his rebuke to a Roman recluse who thought herself dead to the world — are among the sharpest words in the desert literature.
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Thomas of Constantinople
Thomas (†610) was Patriarch of Constantinople from 607 until his death, holding the see through the troubled last years of the emperor Phocas. A deacon and the sakellarios (treasurer) of the Great Church before his elevation, he was esteemed for gentleness and for his care of the Church's order; the tradition recalls a portent of processional crosses clashing of their own accord, which he took, with the counsel of the holy John the Faster's disciple, as an omen of the divisions and calamities soon to fall upon the empire.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Enda of Inishmore, abbot of Aran (530)
Troparia & kontakia
Apolytikion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)
In thee, O Father, was preserved unfailingly that which is according to the image; for taking up the Cross thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passes away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore, O venerable Serapion, thy spirit rejoices with the angels.
Kontakion — Tone 2 (common of an ascetic)
Having nothing upon the earth, thou didst possess Christ alone; and selling even thy own freedom, thou didst purchase souls for God. Wherefore, O Serapion, teach us to be poor, that we may be rich in Him.
Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable confessor)
In thee, O Father, was preserved unimpaired that which is according to God's image; for taking up the Cross thou didst follow after Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore, O venerable Jacob, thy spirit rejoiceth with the angels.
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)
O God of our fathers, ever dealing with us according to Thy gentleness: take not Thy mercy from us, but by the prayers of Thy hierarch Serapion guide our life in peace.
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)
O God of our fathers, ever dealing with us according to Thy gentleness: take not Thy mercy from us, but by the prayers of Thy hierarch Thomas guide our life in peace.
Readings
6th Hour
Isaiah 6.1-12
1In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 2Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 3And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. 4And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. 5Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. 6Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: 7And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. 8Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. 9And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 10Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. 11Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, 12And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.
Vespers
Genesis 5.1-24
1This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; 2Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created. 3And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth: 4And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters: 5And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died. 6And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos: 7And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters: 8And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died. 9And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan: 10And Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters: 11And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died. 12And Cainan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel: 13And Cainan lived after he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters: 14And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died. 15And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared: 16And Mahalaleel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters: 17And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died. 18And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch: 19And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: 20And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died. 21And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: 22And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: 23And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: 24And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
Proverbs 6.3-20
3Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend. 4Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids. 5Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler. 6Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: 7Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, 8Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. 9How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? 10Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: 11So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man. 12A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth. 13He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers; 14Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord. 15Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy. 16These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: 17A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, 19A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. 20My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: