13th Sunday after Pentecost

Saints commemorated

• Greatmartyr Nicetas the Goth

  Nicetas the Goth (†372) was a Christian of the Gothic lands on the lower Danube, converted and formed in the young Gothic church of the fourth century, who laboured to spread the faith among his own people. When the pagan Gothic ruler Athanaric renewed his persecution of the Christians among the Goths, Nicetas denounced him, was seized, tortured, and burned; his body, preserved unconsumed, was carried by his friend Marianus to Mopsuestia in Cilicia, from which his cultus spread through the whole Church. Venerated as a great-martyr, he became one of the most beloved warrior-saints of the Slavic world. His feast is September 15.

• Holy Martyr Porphyrius (361).

  Porphyrius the Actor (†361) was a mime of the reign of Julian the Apostate who, performing at the celebrations of the emperor's birthday, was to mock the mystery of holy Baptism on stage. Immersing himself in the water, he pronounced the baptismal words in earnest — "The servant of God Porphyrius is baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" — and rose from the water confessing himself a Christian before the whole theatre. Grace had made the jest true. Tortured on Julian's orders, he was beheaded; the Slavic tradition places his martyrdom at Ephesus. He is commemorated on September 15.

• 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.

• Philotheus the Presbyter

  Philotheus the Presbyter was a tenth-century parish priest and wonderworker of the village of Myrmex (Slavonic Mravin) in Bithynia, in the Opsikion region of Asia Minor. A married priest with children, he served his village in prayer, fasting and works of mercy, feeding the hungry and helping the needy, and received from God the gift of working miracles. He died in peace, and myrrh flowed from his relics. He is commemorated on September 15.

• Stephen the Protomartyr

  Stephen the Protomartyr (†c. 34) was the first of the seven deacons chosen by the Apostles and the first Christian to die for Christ. "Full of faith and of the Holy Spirit," he worked wonders among the people, confounded the Hellenist synagogues in debate, and, arraigned before the Sanhedrin on a charge of blasphemy, delivered the longest speech in the Acts of the Apostles before beholding "the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." Stoned outside Jerusalem with the young Saul consenting, he died praying for his killers. His relics, hidden for centuries, were uncovered at Kaphar Gamala in 415. His chief feast is December 27; the uncovering of his relics is kept on September 15 and their translation to Constantinople on August 2.

• Theodotus, Asclepiodota and Maximus of Adrianople

  Theodotus, Asclepiodota and Maximus were martyrs of Thrace under the emperor Galerius (305–311). Maximus and Asclepiodota, eminent citizens of Marcianopolis whose Christian life had drawn many to baptism, were arrested by Tiris, governor of Thrace; Theodotus was seized for rebuking the governor's cruelty. Tortured at Marcianopolis and again at Adrianople — where the beasts of the arena refused to touch them — they were beheaded near the village of Saltys on the road to Philippopolis, and the tradition adds that the governor was struck dead by lightning on his judgment seat. They are commemorated together on September 15.

• Hernin of Locarn

  Hernin was one of the many Christians of sixth-century Britain who crossed the sea to Brittany, where he lived as a hermit at the place that still bears his name — Locarn ("Loc-Harn," the loc or hermitage of Hernin), near Maël-Carhaix. He died in obscurity, but miracles at his tomb revealed his sanctity; a church was raised over his grave, his relics were enshrined there, and he became patron of Locarn and of the neighbouring parish of Saint-Hernin. His written Life, once kept in the church of Locarn, was lost at the French Revolution and survives only in the seventeenth-century summary of Albert le Grand. The English menologies commemorate him on September 15.

• Mirin of Paisley

  Mirin (Meadhrán, Merinus — the Merryn of this calendar) was an Irish monk of the sixth and early seventh centuries, given as a child to Comgall to be trained in the great monastery of Bangor on Belfast Lough, where he took the habit and became prior. He crossed to the British kingdom of Strathclyde and ended his days at Paisley, where he slept in the Lord about 620 and where the church — later the great Cluniac abbey of Paisley — was dedicated in his honour. The Aberdeen Breviary preserves his acts and the Aberdeen Martyrology styles him bishop and confessor; he is venerated in both Scotland and Ireland, and his day in the Scottish calendars is September 15.

British Isles and Ireland

• St. Hernan, hermit (6th C)
• St. Merryn, bishop of Bangor (620)

Troparia & kontakia

Readings