Martyr Matrona of Thessalonica

Saints commemorated

Saint of the day

Martyr Matrona of Thessalonica

Matrona was a Christian slave in the household of a Jewish woman of Thessalonica who, secretly keeping the faith of Christ, slipped away to pray in the churches while her mistress went to the synagogue. Discovered and forbidden, she persevered; and when her mistress found her at prayer, Matrona was beaten to death for her confession. She is honoured as a martyr of the early Church and a pattern of the faith of the lowly.
John the Clairvoyant

John of Lycopolis (c. 305 – c. 394), called "the Clairvoyant" or "the Seer" for his gift of prophecy, was one of the most celebrated of the Egyptian desert fathers. Walled up for the last decades of his life in a cell on a mountain above Lycopolis (Asyut) in the Thebaid, he received visitors only through a window, and was consulted by emperors, bishops and pilgrims from across the Christian world. The emperor Theodosius the Great sought his counsel before his campaigns, and John foretold his victories. He is a chief witness of the height of Egyptian monasticism.

British Isles and Ireland

St. Suairlech, 1st bishop of Fore in Westmeath (c.750)
St. Alkeld, Martyr in Yorkshire (10th C)

Troparia & kontakia

Troparion — Tone 1 (common of a venerable)

Thou wast shown to be a citizen of the desert, an angel in the flesh, and a wonderworker, O John our God-bearing father; by fasting, vigil and prayer thou didst receive heavenly gifts, and thou dost heal the sick and the souls of them that run to thee with faith. Glory to Him that gave thee strength; glory to Him that crowned thee; glory to Him that worketh healings for all through thee.

Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a woman-martyr)

Thy lamb, O Jesus, crieth with a loud voice: Thee, O my Bridegroom, do I love, and seeking Thee I pass through many sufferings; I am crucified and buried with Thee in Thy baptism, and I suffer for Thy sake that I may reign with Thee; I die for Thee that I may live in Thee. By her prayers, O merciful One, save our souls.

Readings

6th Hour

Isaiah 10.12-20

¹²Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. ¹³For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man: ¹⁴And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped. ¹⁵Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood. ¹⁶Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. ¹⁷And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day; ¹⁸And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standardbearer fainteth. ¹⁹And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them. ²⁰And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

Vespers

Genesis 7.6-9

⁶And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. ⁷And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. ⁸Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, ⁹There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.

Proverbs 9.12-18 (LXX)

¹²If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it. ¹³A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing. ¹⁴For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, ¹⁵To call passengers who go right on their ways: ¹⁶Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, ¹⁷Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. ¹⁸But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.

Saints commemorated