Great Lent, day 38 · 11 days until Pascha
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Ven. Zosima of Solovetsk
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Hieromartyr Simeon, Bishop in Persia, and those with him (343)
Simeon bar Sabbae (Shemʿon), Bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the capital of the Persian empire, was the head of the Church of Persia and the great hieromartyr of the fierce persecution under Shapur II. On Great and Holy Friday of the year 344, with a company of clergy and faithful — a hundred and more priests, deacons and others, whom later tradition swelled to a thousand and more martyrs — he was beheaded for refusing to worship the sun and to betray his flock to the tax laid on the Christians. With him is remembered the aged eunuch Usthazanes, his own foster-father, who had lapsed and, recalled to repentance by Simeon's reproach, confessed Christ and died before him.
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Acacius the Confessor
Acacius the Confessor was bishop of Melitene in Armenia in the middle of the third century. Arrested in the persecution of Decius (249–251) and brought before the governor Marcianus, he confessed Christ boldly under torture but was not put to death; released, he bore the marks of his sufferings for the rest of his life and died in peace. His memory is kept on March 31, and the uncovering of his relic — whose year is not transmitted — on September 15.
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Alexander of Svir
Alexander of Svir (1448–1533) is the great luminary of monasticism in the forests of the Russian north-east, and the one saint of the Russian Church to whom the tradition ascribes an appearance of the Holy Trinity in three Persons, as to Abraham at the oak of Mamre. Born of peasants on the river Oyat and named Amos at baptism, he fled a marriage arranged for him and made his way at nineteen to Valaam; after some twenty years there he withdrew into the wilderness by the Svir, where he lived seven years alone before disciples found him. Out of that solitude grew the Trinity monastery on the Svir, a mother-house of the whole Olonets and Karelian north, and a company of disciples — Athanasius of Syandem, Gennadius and Nicephorus of Vasheozero, Macarius of Oredezh, Adrian of Ondrusov, Gennadius of Kostroma — who carried his rule outward. His incorrupt relics, uncovered in 1641, were seized by the Bolsheviks in 1918 and held for eighty years in a Petrograd medical academy before being identified and returned in 1998.
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Zosimas of Solovki
Zosimas (†17 April 1478) is the founder of the great monastery of Solovki in the White Sea and the father of coenobitic monasticism in the Russian far north. Born at Tolvui by Lake Onega, he gave away his inheritance, was tonsured, and went looking for a desert; at the mouth of the Suma he met Herman, who told him of an uninhabited island where he had spent six years with Sabbatius. About 1436 the two crossed the sea to the Solovetsky islands, and Zosimas, seeing in the air a vision of a shining church, built there the wooden Transfiguration church that became the Lavra of the north. He brought Sabbatius's relics from the Vyg in 1465, was made abbot by the brethren when the igumens sent from Novgorod could not endure the climate, foretold at Martha Boretskaya's table the beheading of six Novgorod boyars, and is honoured as the patron of beekeepers. His relics were translated with Sabbatius's on August 8, 1566, which is his second commemoration.
British Isles and Ireland
- Hieromartyr Donnan of Eigg and fifty-two monks with him (c.616)
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 8
Thou didst flee the marriage of this world and find the wilderness of the Svir a bridal chamber; and there, in the light that has no evening, the Three came in to thee as of old to Abraham. Wherefore thy monastery calls thee father, and we cry to thee: Rejoice, Alexander, lamp of the northern forests.
Troparion — Tone 4 (from the common of a hierarch)
A rule of faith and an image of meekness, a teacher of temperance did the truth of things show thee to thy flock; therefore thou didst gain by humility the things on high, by poverty the things that are rich: O Father and hierarch Acacius, intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4
From thy youth thou didst love Christ, O blessed one, and taking upon thee His easy yoke thou didst show thyself a dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit; wherefore the Trinity, whom thou didst serve, was pleased to appear unto thee. Entreat, O venerable Alexander, that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a hieromartyr and companions)
Having shared in the ways of the apostles and sat upon their thrones, thou didst find the path to divine contemplation, O inspired Simeon; and, contending for the faith even unto blood with thy holy company, thou didst enter into the joy of thy Lord. Entreat Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4
Having left the world and its cares, thou didst seek out an island in the cold sea, and there, where the vision of the church was shown thee, thou didst raise up a house of the Transfiguration of Christ; and gathering a brotherhood, thou wast a father to them in labour and in want. O venerable Zosimas, entreat the Saviour that our souls may be saved.
Readings
6th Hour
Isaiah 58.1-11
1Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. 2Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God. 3Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours. 4Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. 5Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD? 6Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? 7Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? 8Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward. 9Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; 10And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: 11And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
Vespers
Genesis 43.26-31, 45.1-16
26And when Joseph came home, they brought him the present which was in their hand into the house, and bowed themselves to him to the earth. 27And he asked them of their welfare, and said, Is your father well, the old man of whom ye spake? Is he yet alive? 28And they answered, Thy servant our father is in good health, he is yet alive. And they bowed down their heads, and made obeisance. 29And he lifted up his eyes, and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, and said, Is this your younger brother, of whom ye spake unto me? And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son. 30And Joseph made haste; for his bowels did yearn upon his brother: and he sought where to weep; and he entered into his chamber, and wept there. 31And he washed his face, and went out, and refrained himself, and said, Set on bread. 1Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. 2And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. 3And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence. 4And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. 5Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. 6For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. 7And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. 9Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt: come down unto me, tarry not: 10And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy children’s children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast: 11And there will I nourish thee; for yet there are five years of famine; lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty. 12And, behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you. 13And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen; and ye shall haste and bring down my father hither. 14And he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck, and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck. 15Moreover he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them: and after that his brethren talked with him. 16And the fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh’s house, saying, Joseph’s brethren are come: and it pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants.
Proverbs 21.23-22.4
23Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles. 24Proud and haughty scorner is his name, who dealeth in proud wrath. 25The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour. 26He coveteth greedily all the day long: but the righteous giveth and spareth not. 27The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more, when he bringeth it with a wicked mind? 28A false witness shall perish: but the man that heareth speaketh constantly. 29A wicked man hardeneth his face: but as for the upright, he directeth his way. 30There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the LORD. 31The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. 1A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold. 2The rich and poor meet together: the LORD is the maker of them all. 3A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished. 4By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, and honour, and life.
Presanctified Liturgy