All Saints
About "Seven Arrows" Icon of the Mother of God →
Saints commemorated
-
Trans. Rel. Theodore Stratelates
Theodore Stratelates (†319) — "the Commander," from the Greek stratelates, a general — was a Roman military officer of the early fourth century, governor and garrison-commander of Heraclea on the Thracian coast of the Black Sea, and one of the two great warrior-martyrs named Theodore whom the Church honours. A Christian in the years of Licinius's persecution, he was so loved by the city that the emperor himself came to him; entrusted with idols of gold and silver to offer in sacrifice, Theodore broke them up and distributed the pieces to the poor, then openly confessed Christ. He was scourged, racked, blinded, and — the tradition holds — crucified, and at the last beheaded on February 8, 319. His faithful servant Varus wrote down the acts of his passion. He is closely associated with, and in the calendars and iconography often paired with, Theodore the Recruit (Tyron), commemorated on February 17; the two Theodores are distinct saints. His relics were translated to his estate at Euchaita, kept as a second feast on June 8.
-
St Ephraim, Patriarch of Antioch (545)
Ephraim, a Syrian of Amida, was the imperial Count of the East (comes Orientis) under Anastasius and Justin — a soldier and administrator famous for his charity — when the great earthquake of 526 levelled Antioch and killed its patriarch. Sent back to rebuild the ruined city, he was raised from the lay state to its vacant throne in 527, and governed the see of Peter for eighteen years, until his repose in 545. He was among the firmest defenders of the Council of Chalcedon in the East, touring Syria and Mesopotamia to recover the non-Chalcedonian communities, presiding over the synod that condemned the writings of Severus of Antioch, and subscribing the condemnation of Origen in 543. The synaxarion remembers him above all for the trial by fire in which he met a heretical stylite: the pyre burnt three hours, and the patriarch's omophorion was drawn out of the ashes unharmed.
-
Our Holy Mother Melania the Elder (410)
Melania the Elder (c. 350 – c. 410) was a Roman noblewoman, widowed at twenty-two, who took ship for Egypt in the reign of Valens, spent half a year among the fathers of Nitria, followed the exiled Orthodox monks into Palestine disguised as a slave-girl to serve them, and then settled for twenty-seven years on the Mount of Olives, where with Rufinus of Aquileia she governed a house of fifty virgins and a companion monastery of men and kept open house for every pilgrim who came to Jerusalem. She was the friend of Evagrius of Pontus and Palladius, the teacher of Olympias, and a reader of Origen on a scale that astonished her contemporaries — which drew on her the anger of Jerome and set her at the centre of the first Origenist controversy. Returning to Rome in old age she carried her granddaughter Melania the Younger and half her kindred out of the world before the Gothic sack; she reposed at Jerusalem forty days after her final arrival, about the year 410.
-
St Zosimas, monk, of Phoenicia (Syria) (6th c.)
-
Kalliope
Kalliope was a Christian maiden of the middle of the third century, in the reign of Decius, remarkable — as her name says — for beauty, and no less for the gifts of mind and soul she gave wholly to Christ. She refused every offer of marriage, taught the word of God, and spent herself on the care of the sick and the comforting of the afflicted. Taken in Decius' persecution and brought before the local governor, she met first his flatteries and promises and then his fury: she was scourged without mercy, scored with knives, her wounds burned, and at last beheaded. The Greek synaxarion sums her up in a couplet: overlooking the beauties of things made, she was granted the sight of the beauty of the Maker.
-
Naucratius
Naucratius was the second son of Basil the Elder and Emmelia, and so the brother of Basil the Great, Macrina the Younger, Gregory of Nyssa and Peter of Sebaste. Brilliantly gifted and already launched on a career at the bar, he abandoned it at twenty-one for a hermitage in the forests by the river Iris in Pontus, where he lived five years in extreme austerity with a single servant, Chrysapius, hunting and fishing not for himself but to feed a company of poor and sick old men whom he had taken into his care. He died suddenly, still in his twenties, about the year 357 — the death whose news, in Gregory of Nyssa's telling, became the occasion of his sister Macrina's greatest act of courage. The Greek synaxarion keeps him on June 8, with the note that his identity is not certain.
-
Theodore of Rostov and Suzdal
Theodore, a Greek by birth, was consecrated in 991 or 992 — within a few years of the baptism of Rus' — as the first bishop of Rostov, and so the first hierarch sent into the wholly pagan forest country of the upper Volga and the Kliazma. The Merya and Slav population of Rostov would not receive him and drove him out; he withdrew to Suzdal, where his preaching took root, and there he baptised and taught until his repose in 1023. He is honoured as the founder of the see that Leontius, Isaiah and Ignatius afterwards made famous, as the enlightener of the Suzdal land, and — because his body was found incorrupt — as a wonderworker. His relics rest in the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Theotokos at Suzdal.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Bron, bishop of Cassel-Irra (c.511)
- St. Levan (6th C)
- St. Muirchu (7th C)
- St. Syra (7th C)
Readings
Vespers
Isaiah 43.9-14
9Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth. 10Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. 11I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. 12I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God. 13Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it? 14Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.
Wisdom of Solomon 3.1-9
1But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. 2In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery, 3And their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are in peace. 4For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality. 5And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them, and found them worthy for himself. 6As gold in the furnace hath he tried them, and received them as a burnt offering. 7And in the time of their visitation they shall shine, and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble. 8They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and their Lord shall reign for ever. 9They that put their trust in him shall understand the truth: and such as be faithful in love shall abide with him: for grace and mercy is to his saints, and he hath care for his elect.
Wisdom of Solomon 5.15-6.3
15But the righteous live for evermore; their reward also is with the Lord, and the care of them is with the most High. 16Therefore shall they receive a glorious kingdom, and a beautiful crown from the Lord’s hand: for with his right hand shall he cover them, and with his arm shall he protect them. 17He shall take to him his jealousy for complete armour, and make the creature his weapon for the revenge of his enemies. 18He shall put on righteousness as a breastplate, and true judgment instead of an helmet. 19He shall take holiness for an invincible shield. 20His severe wrath shall he sharpen for a sword, and the world shall fight with him against the unwise. 21Then shall the right aiming thunderbolts go abroad; and from the clouds, as from a well drawn bow, shall they fly to the mark. 22And hailstones full of wrath shall be cast as out of a stone bow, and the water of the sea shall rage against them, and the floods shall cruelly drown them. 23Yea, a mighty wind shall stand up against them, and like a storm shall blow them away: thus iniquity shall lay waste the whole earth, and ill dealing shall overthrow the thrones of the mighty. 1Hear therefore, O ye kings, and understand; learn, ye that be judges of the ends of the earth. 2Give ear, ye that rule the people, and glory in the multitude of nations. 3For power is given you of the Lord, and sovereignty from the Highest, who shall try your works, and search out your counsels.
1st Matins Gospel
Matthew 28.16-20
16Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. 17And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Epistle
Hebrews 11.33-12.2
33Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 35Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: 36And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: 37They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; 38(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 39And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 40God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. 1Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Gospel
Matthew 10.32-33, 37-38, 19.27-30
32Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. 33But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. 37He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. 27Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore? 28And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. 30But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 8
Seven swords pierced thy soul, O Virgin, when thou didst stand beneath the Cross of thy Son; and now thou standest for us before him, healing by thy wounds the hardness of our hearts. Wherefore we cry: rejoice, thou that art wounded for our sake.
Kontakion — Tone 4
Raised from the ranks of the world to the throne of Antioch, thou didst rebuild the fallen city and the fallen faith together, O wise Ephraim; and laying thy omophorion in the fire thou didst put the pride of heresy to shame. Wherefore we honour thy holy memory, and glorify the Lord who glorified thee.
Kontakion — Tone 4
The judge desired thy beauty and offered thee the world, but thou didst pour out thy blood for the Bridegroom whom thou hadst loved from thy youth, O Kalliope; and cut with knives and burned with fire, thou wast beheaded rejoicing. Wherefore we keep thy holy memory, and glorify the Lord who crowned thee.
Kontakion — Tone 4
Forsaking the wealth and the glory of Rome as a burden, thou didst put on the dress of a slave to serve the confessors in their exile, and upon the Mount of Olives thou didst gather a lamp-stand of virgins; O Mother Melania, thou didst keep open house for the whole Church, entreat Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Kontakion — Tone 2
Leaving the courts and the honours of the world in thy youth, thou didst hide thyself in the forests of the Iris, and what thy hands took from the waters thou gavest to the aged poor, O blessed Naucratius; wherefore, taken swiftly to God, thou didst leave to thy house an example of mercy.
Kontakion — Tone 4
Sent as the first shepherd into a land that knew not Christ, thou wast driven from Rostov and didst not turn back, but at Suzdal thou didst raise up a people to God; wherefore thy body was kept incorrupt, O hierarch Theodore, and we bless thy first labours in the north.
Kontakion — Tone 2
Having armed thy soul with faith through courage, and wielding the word of God as a spear, thou didst strike down the enemy, O Theodore, glory of the martyrs. With them cease thou never to intercede with Christ our God on behalf of us all.
Magnification
We magnify thee, O passion-bearer and holy Great-Martyr Theodore, and we honour thy precious sufferings, which thou didst endure for Christ.
Synaxarion
Overlooking the beauties of the things that are made, thou lookest, O Kalliope, on the beauties of the Maker.
Troparion — Tone 4
Soften our evil hearts, O Mother of God, and quench the assaults of those that hate us, and loose every straitness of our soul; for beholding thy holy image we are pierced with compunction at thy suffering and thy tender mercy toward us, and we kiss thy wounds, and are afraid of the arrows of our own sins. Suffer us not, O Mother of compassion, to perish in our cruelty and from the cruelty of our neighbours.
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)
O guide of Orthodoxy, teacher of piety and holiness, luminary of the whole world, God-inspired adornment of hierarchs: by thy teachings thou hast enlightened all, O harp of the Spirit. O righteous father Ephraim, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a woman martyr)
Thy lamb Kalliope crieth out to Thee with a great voice, O Jesus: I love Thee, O my Bridegroom, and seeking Thee I contend; 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. Receive me as an unblemished sacrifice, offered to Thee in love. By her intercessions, as Thou art merciful, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable woman)
In thee, O Mother, was the image of God preserved with exactness; for thou didst take up the Cross and follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Therefore doth thy spirit, O venerable Melania, rejoice together with the Angels.
Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable ascetic)
In thee, O Father, was the image of God preserved with exactness; for thou didst take up the Cross and follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Therefore doth thy spirit, O venerable Naucratius, rejoice together with the Angels.
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)
O guide of Orthodoxy, teacher of piety and holiness, luminary of the whole world, God-inspired adornment of hierarchs: by thy teachings thou hast enlightened all, O harp of the Spirit. O righteous father Theodore, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4
By true enlistment in the army of the heavenly King thou didst become his most comely commander, O Theodore; for with the weapons of faith thou didst wisely array thyself for battle and didst utterly rout the hordes of the demons, and wast shown to be a victory-bearing champion. Wherefore with faith we ever call thee blessed.