Paschaltide, day 5 · 4 days since Pascha
Saints commemorated
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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)
Readings
Epistle
Acts 2.38-43
38Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 39For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. 40And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. 41Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. 42And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
Gospel
John 3.1-15
1There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: 2The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. 3Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? 5Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 8The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. 9Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? 10Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? 11Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. 12If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? 13And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. 14And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
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.