Ven. Basil the Confessor

Saints commemorated

Saint of the day

Ven. Basil the Confessor

Basil the Confessor (†c. 750) was a monk and fellow-ascetic of Procopius of Decapolis, with whom he shared both the ascetic life and the sufferings of a confessor under the first wave of Byzantine iconoclasm. When the emperor Leo III the Isaurian (717–741) forbade the veneration of the holy icons and set out to compel the monks to abandon them, Basil, like his companion Procopius, stood firm in the Orthodox confession; he was seized, imprisoned, and tortured for his defence of the images, but did not die under his torments. Outliving the persecutor, he returned to his monastic labours and reposed in peace about the year 750. Because he suffered for the faith without being put to death, the Church honours him as a confessor, and keeps his memory on February 28, the day after that of Procopius, with whom his name is always joined.
Blessed Nicholas of Pskov, fool for Christ (1576)

Nicholas Salos (†1576), remembered by the people of his city as Mikula the Holy, was the fool-for-Christ of Pskov who for more than three decades feigned madness in the streets for the love of God, and to whom the Church attributes the gifts of prophecy and wonderworking. He is above all the man who stood before Ivan the Terrible in the terrible Lent of 1570, when the Tsar — fresh from the massacre of Novgorod — came with his oprichnina to do the same to Pskov. Meeting the Tsar, Nicholas is said to have offered him a piece of raw meat in the fast, and, when Ivan recoiled that he was a Christian who did not eat flesh in Lent, to have answered that Ivan did far worse, for he devoured the flesh and blood of Christian men. His fearless rebuke, and the sudden death of the Tsar's horse foretold as a sign, are credited by the tradition with turning Ivan from his purpose, so that Pskov was spared the fate of Novgorod. He reposed on February 28, 1576, and — an honour reserved for bishops and princes — was buried within the Trinity Cathedral of Pskov, where his relics rest.
Kyranna of Thessalonica

Kyranna (†1751) was a young Greek woman of the village of Ossa (in Turkish Vysoka), in the region of Langadas near Thessalonica, who suffered martyrdom under the Ottoman yoke for her refusal to renounce Christ or to marry a Turk. Beautiful, devout, and steadfast, she was pursued by a Janissary — the local tax-collector — who, unable to win her by persuasion or threats, falsely accused her before the Turkish judge at Thessalonica of having promised to embrace Islam. Before the court Kyranna denied the lie and confessed herself a Christian. Cast into prison and cruelly beaten day after day at her persecutor's bidding, she gave up her soul under the torments on the night of February 28, 1751, and a heavenly light was seen to shine over her body. The Church honours her as a new-martyr and a virgin, on the day of her death.
Marana and Cyra

Marana and Cyra (†c. 450) were two well-born women of Beroea in Syria — the city that is now Aleppo — who forsook wealth, marriage, and the world to live as enclosed ascetics in a small roofless enclosure outside their city, walled in behind a low door and a single window through which alone they received a little food. Loading themselves with heavy iron chains and crosses, keeping an almost unbroken silence, and enduring fasts of extraordinary length in the open air through the heat and cold of the Syrian seasons, they persevered in this discipline for some forty years. Twice they broke their enclosure to make pilgrimage — to the holy places of Jerusalem and to the shrine of the Protomartyr Thecla at Seleucia — eating nothing on the whole journey until they had worshipped. Their memory is preserved by Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus, who visited them and set down their story in his Religious History.
Nestor of Magydos

Nestor (†c. 250) was bishop of Magydos, a city of Pamphylia on the southern coast of Asia Minor, and a hieromartyr of the persecution under the emperor Decius. When the imperial edict of sacrifice went out and the Christians of his region were hunted, Nestor, a good shepherd, gave himself to prayer for his flock and did not flee; he was arrested while praying in his own house, brought before the governor, and — steadfastly refusing to sacrifice to the idols and confessing Christ before the tribunal — was tortured and at last crucified, sharing by his death the manner of his Lord's Passion. The Church keeps his memory on February 28.
Nymphas and Eubulus

Nymphas and Eubulus were two of the Seventy Apostles — the wider circle of disciples sent out by the Lord (Luke 10) and, in the tradition, reckoned among the first labourers of the Gospel after the Twelve. Both are known from a single mention in the New Testament epistles: Nymphas, greeted by the Apostle Paul in the Letter to the Colossians as one in whose house a church assembled, and Eubulus, named among those who sent greetings to Timothy from Rome in Paul's last letter. Of their lives beyond these notices little is recorded; the tradition honours them as apostolic men and fellow-workers of Paul, and the Church keeps their joint memory on February 28, as it keeps them, with all their company, in the Synaxis of the Seventy on January 4.
Proterius of Alexandria

Proterius (†457) was Patriarch of Alexandria from 451 to his death, and a hieromartyr of the Church. A presbyter of Alexandria under the Monophysite patriarch Dioscorus, he was raised to the see when Dioscorus was deposed by the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon (451) for his defence of the heresiarch Eutyches; and as patriarch he upheld the Chalcedonian confession of the one Christ in two natures against the fierce opposition of the Alexandrian populace, who remained loyal to the deposed Dioscorus and to the party that would become the Coptic Church. After years of tumult, on the death of the emperor Marcian the Monophysites set up the priest Timothy Aelurus as a rival patriarch, and a mob fell upon Proterius; he was murdered in the baptistery of his church, about the feast of Pascha in the year 457, his body dragged through the streets and burned. The Church of Constantinople and Rome venerate him as a martyr for the faith of Chalcedon; the non-Chalcedonian Church of Egypt does not.

British Isles and Ireland

St. Llibio of Anglesey (6th C)
St. Madoc, bishop of Llanmadog (6th C)
St. Sillan, abbot of Bangor (610)
Holy Hieromartyr Herefrith, bishop of Lindsey (869)
Oswald of Worcester and York (t/f from Feb 29th)

Troparia & kontakia

Kontakion — Tone 8

A wonderworker wast thou revealed, O Nicholas, when thou didst turn the sovereign's might and the fierceness of his mind unto mercy; and therefore wast thou shown a fervent supplicant for thine own fatherland. And now we entreat thee, O holy one: abide with us still, and defend us from the wiles of the enemy; for thou art unto the city of Pskov and to all Christ-loving people a praise and a confirmation.

Troparion — Tone 8

By the streams of thy tears thou didst cultivate the barren desert, and by thy sighing from the deep thou didst bear fruit a hundredfold in labours; and thou becamest a beacon shining upon the world with miracles, O Basil our righteous father. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4

Thy ewe-lamb, O Jesus, crieth out with a loud voice: Thee, O my Bridegroom, do I love, and seeking Thee I contend, and I am crucified and buried together with Thee in Thy baptism; I suffer for Thy sake, that I may reign with Thee; I die for Thee, that I may live in Thee: accept me, offered unto Thee in longing as a spotless sacrifice. At her prayers, O Merciful One, save our souls.

Troparion — Tone 8

In you, O mothers, the divine image was preserved unto perfection; for taking up the cross, and iron with it, ye followed after Christ, and by your deeds ye taught the despising of the flesh, which passes away, and the care of the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore, O venerable Marana and Cyra, your spirits rejoice together with the angels.

Troparion — Tone 4

As one who shared in the ways of the Apostles and succeeded to their thrones, thou didst find in thy labours, O God-inspired one, an ascent to divine vision; wherefore, rightly dividing the word of truth, thou didst contend for the faith even unto blood, O Hieromartyr Nestor. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4

O thou of the Slavic tongue and of the land of Pskov, being in the flesh a fool for Christ, by the feigning of folly thou wast shown a citizen of the Jerusalem on high. O glorious one, thou dost rejoice together with the angels, having taken up the name of the myrrh-flowing hierarch Nicholas: with him do thou ever entreat Christ our God to grant us great mercy.

Troparion — Tone 3

O holy Apostles Nymphas and Eubulus, entreat the merciful God to grant our souls the forgiveness of our transgressions.

Troparion — Tone 4

As one who shared in the ways of the Apostles and succeeded to their thrones, thou didst find in thy labours, O God-inspired one, an ascent to divine vision; wherefore, rightly dividing the word of truth, thou didst contend for the faith even unto blood, O Hieromartyr Proterius. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.

Readings

6th Hour

Isaiah 3.1-14

¹For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water, ²The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, ³The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator. ⁴And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. ⁵And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable. ⁶When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand: ⁷In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be an healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people. ⁸For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory. ⁹The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves. ¹⁰Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. ¹¹Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him. ¹²As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths. ¹³The LORD standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people. ¹⁴The LORD will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.

Vespers

Genesis 2.20-3.20

²⁰And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. ²¹And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; ²²And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. ²³And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. ²⁴Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. ²⁵And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. ¹Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? ²And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: ³But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. ⁴And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: ⁵For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. ⁶And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. ⁷And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. ⁸And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. ⁹And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? ¹⁰And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. ¹¹And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? ¹²And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. ¹³And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. ¹⁴And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: ¹⁵And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. ¹⁶Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. ¹⁷And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; ¹⁸Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; ¹⁹In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. ²⁰And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

Proverbs 3.19-34

¹⁹The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens. ²⁰By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew. ²¹My son, let not them depart from thine eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion: ²²So shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck. ²³Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble. ²⁴When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet. ²⁵Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. ²⁶For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken. ²⁷Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. ²⁸Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee. ²⁹Devise not evil against thy neighbour, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee. ³⁰Strive not with a man without cause, if he have done thee no harm. ³¹Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways. ³²For the froward is abomination to the LORD: but his secret is with the righteous. ³³The curse of the LORD is in the house of the wicked: but he blesseth the habitation of the just. ³⁴Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly.

Saints commemorated