Thursday 11 September 2031
Ven. Theodora of Alexandria
Thursday of the 15th week after Pentecost
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Ven. Theodora of Alexandria
Theodora of Alexandria (died c. 490) is one of the most celebrated penitents of the Orthodox calendar: a married woman of Alexandria who, having fallen once into adultery, spent the rest of her life in a repentance so complete that the Church numbers her among the great ascetics. Disguising herself as a man, she entered a men's monastery under the name Theodore; falsely accused of fathering a child, she accepted the disgrace in silence and raised the infant in exile for seven years rather than clear herself. Only at her death did the brethren discover that the slandered "monk Theodore" was a woman, and innocent. She is commemorated on September 11.
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St Euphrosynos the Cook of Alexandria (9th c.)
Euphrosynus the Cook (9th century) is the patron of the humble and hidden: an unlettered peasant who served as cook in a monastery kitchen, despised by some of the brethren for his rusticity and enduring their contempt in silence. His sanctity, concealed all his life, was revealed in a single night, when a priest of the monastery who had long prayed to see the good things prepared for those who love God was shown paradise in a vision — and found the monastery cook dwelling there, who gave him three apples from the garden. Waking, the priest found the apples beside him, fragrant and real; and Euphrosynus, his secret out, fled the monastery the same morning and was never found. He is commemorated on September 11.
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St Paphnutius the Confessor (4th c.)
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Canonization of St Xenia of St Petersburg (1978)
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Demetrius, Evanthia and Demetrian of Skepsis
Demetrius, his wife Evanthia, and their son Demetrian were a family of the first century martyred together at Skepsis on the Hellespont. Demetrius, the ruler of the city, sat in judgment on Cornelius the Centurion — the first Gentile baptized by the Apostle Peter, who had come to Skepsis preaching the Gospel — and was instead converted by the preaching and the miracles of his prisoner, receiving baptism with his whole household. For this the pagans of the city shut the newly-converted family in prison, where they were starved to death. They are commemorated together on September 11.
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Diodorus, Didymus and Diomedes of Laodicea
Diodorus, Didymus and Diomedes were martyrs of Laodicea, natives of the city in which they suffered, put to death for Christ by scourging — flogged until they died under the blows. Their commemoration, preserved in a single synaxarion line with its distich on the scourges that "flogged the error" of paganism even as they tore the martyrs' flesh, is kept on September 11.
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Ia of Persia
Ia was a Christian woman — the Greek synaxarion remembers her as aged in years — who was seized with nine thousand fellow-Christians in the great fourth-century persecution of Shapur II of Persia and brought to the city of Bisada. Commanded by the chief of the magi to renounce Christ, she refused through repeated tortures and imprisonment, and was at last beheaded, around the year 363. The tradition relates that the sun was darkened at her death and the air filled with a sweet fragrance. She and the nine thousand with her are commemorated on September 11.
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Sergius and Herman of Valaam
Sergius and Herman are venerated as the founders of the Monastery of the Transfiguration on Valaam, the great island house in the northern reaches of Lake Ladoga that became the mother of monasticism for the whole Karelian north and, through its children, for Solovki, Konevets, Ondrusov and at last Alaska. Tradition makes Sergius a Greek monk who came northward as a missionary among the pagan Karelians and Herman his companion, sometimes named as a Karelian convert; they settled on the rocky archipelago, gathered a brotherhood under a rule of fasting, vigil and manual labour, and reposed there — the service books say about the year 1353. No Life of them survives, and the dating of their coming is one of the vexed questions of Russian church history, ranging from the tenth century to the end of the fourteenth. Their relics lie hidden beneath the floor of the monastery cathedral, twice carried to Novgorod for safety from Swedish raids and twice brought home. The Church keeps their memory on June 28, and on September 11 the return of their relics to the island.
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Deiniol of Bangor
Deiniol (Daniel) was the founder, abbot and first bishop of Bangor in Gwynedd, north Wales, in the sixth century. The Welsh genealogies make him a son of Dunawd Fwr, founder of the other great Bangor, Bangor Iscoed on the Dee; Deiniol himself founded Bangor Fawr yn Arfon under the patronage of Maelgwn Gwynedd, and its cathedral bears his name to this day. His earliest literary appearance is in Rhygyfarch's Life of St David, where he and Dyfrig (Dubricius) are the two who persuade David to attend the Synod of Brefi. The Annales Cambriae record his death in 584, and tradition buries him on Bardsey Island. His feast, September 11, stands in the Welsh calendars from the fifteenth century onward.
Readings
Epistle
Galatians 3.23-4.5
23But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. 26For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. 27For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. 1Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; 2But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. 3Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: 4But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
Gospel
Mark 6.30-45
30And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught. 31And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. 32And they departed into a desert place by ship privately. 33And the people saw them departing, and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them, and came together unto him. 34And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things. 35And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed: 36Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat. 37He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat? 38He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes. 39And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. 40And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties. 41And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. 42And they did all eat, and were filled. 43And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes. 44And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men. 45And straightway he constrained his disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the people.
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 4
Ye left the tumult of the world and came to the isle of Ladoga, and there upon the bare rock ye planted a garden of monastics, watering it with your tears; and now, standing before the Transfigured Lord, ye keep unharmed the habitation ye founded. Wherefore we cry: rejoice, Sergius and Herman, boast of the northern land.
Kontakion — Tone 1
Fleeing the night of the passions, O godly-minded one, thou didst draw near in spirit to the Sun of glory, mortifying by asceticism the leapings of the flesh; wherefore thou wast shown forth a pattern for monastics and a raising-up of those fallen in life: therefore we honour thee.
Kontakion — Tone 2 (Slavic books)
Having worn out thy body with fasting, with unsleeping prayers thou didst entreat the Creator concerning thy sin, that thou mightest receive complete forgiveness; and thou didst receive remission, having shown the way of repentance.
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)
The truth of thy deeds revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, an image of meekness and a teacher of temperance; therefore by humility thou didst attain the heights, and by poverty, riches. O Father and hierarch Deiniol, intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4 (from the common of martyrs)
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for possessing Thy strength they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their intercessions save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4 (from the common of martyrs)
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for possessing Thy strength they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their intercessions save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 5
In humility of heart thou didst offer thy service in the kitchen, O father Euphrosynus, and wast filled in truth with the Holy Spirit; wherefore God revealed thy glory to us through a venerable priest. Show us also partakers of that glory, O God-bearing one, by thy prayers.
Troparion — Tone 4 (from the common of a woman martyr)
Thy ewe-lamb Ia crieth to Thee with a great voice, O Jesus: Thee, my Bridegroom, do I love, and seeking Thee I contest, and am crucified and buried with Thee in Thy baptism, and suffer for Thee, that I may reign with Thee, and die for Thee, that I may live in Thee. Receive me then as a spotless sacrifice, slain for Thee with love. By her intercessions, O Merciful One, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4
Having become true hearers of the Gospel of Christ, O venerable ones, ye counted the world and all that is in the world as a perishing thing, and made your dwelling upon an island of the lake of Ladoga; and there, wounded with the love of Christ and taking His Cross upon your shoulders, ye lived in the flesh as angels, in prayers and labours, in fastings and vigils. Wherefore ye received from God the gift of healings, to heal the sicknesses of soul and body in them that run to you with faith. Therefore do we now cry unto you: O venerable fathers Sergius and Herman, entreat Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 8 (from the common of a venerable woman)
In thee, O mother, that which is according to the image was preserved with exactness; for taking up the cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to disregard the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal: wherefore thy spirit, O venerable Theodora, rejoiceth with the angels.