Nativity Fast, day 39
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Holy Ten Martyrs of Crete
The Ten Martyrs of Crete — Theodulus, Saturninus, Euporus, Gelasius, Eunician, Zoticus, Pompeius, Agathopus, Basilides and Evaristus — were Cretans of several towns who confessed Christ together at Gortyna, the Roman capital of the island, and were beheaded there around the year 250 in the persecution of the emperor Decius. Interrogated and tortured over some thirty days by a governor of Crete who also bore the name Decius, they held firm and died as one company. They are the patron-martyrs of the whole island — its foundational Christian witnesses, whose memory is preserved in the village near Gortyna still called Agioi Deka, "the Holy Ten" — and their feast on December 23 falls within the Forefeast of the Nativity, so that the hymns of the day join their contest to the coming of Christ.
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Our Venerable Father Paul, Archbishop of Neocaesarea (4th c.)
Paul, bishop of Neocaesarea on the Euphrates, was a confessor of the last great persecution — that of the emperor Licinius (reigned 308–324) in the Christian East. Arrested and tried for the faith, he confessed Christ firmly, was scourged and starved, and finally had both his hands scorched and crippled with red-hot iron before being imprisoned in a fortress on the Euphrates. Released when Constantine's victory brought the persecution to an end, he took his place among the 318 Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325, his maimed hands a living testimony to the faith the Council defined. He is commemorated on December 23, within the Forefeast of the Nativity.
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Our Holy Father Nahum of Ochrid, Wonderworker and Enlightener of the Slavs (ca. 900)
Naum of Ohrid (c. 830–910) was one of the seven Apostles of the Slavs — the Sedmochislenitsi — a direct disciple and co-worker of Cyril and Methodius who, after their mission in Great Moravia was broken up by the Latin clergy, carried the Slavonic letters and liturgy south into Bulgaria. There, with his companion Clement of Ohrid, he became a founder of Slavonic learning: a teacher at Pliska and Preslav under the princes Boris and Symeon, and then head of the school at Ohrid, where he built a monastery on the southern shore of the lake and reposed in 910. Venerated across the Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian lands as an enlightener and wonderworker, he is commemorated on December 23, and his monastery and relics at the springs of Lake Ohrid remain one of the great pilgrimage shrines of the Balkans.
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Victoria, Anatolia and Audax
Victoria and Anatolia were sisters, Christian maidens of noble family in the Sabine country north-east of Rome, who refused the pagan husbands to whom they had been betrothed, gave away their property, and were put to death in the persecution of Decius about the year 250. Anatolia was held at Thora and Victoria at Trebula Mutuesca. To Anatolia's passion belongs the third name: Audax, the man sent to kill her, who was bitten — or, as the legend has it, seized — by the serpent shut up with her, was delivered by her prayer, confessed Christ, and died with her. The Byzantine calendar keeps the two sisters on December 23; the Roman Martyrology keeps Anatolia and Audax on July 10, which is why they stand in this collection's July 10 file as well.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Frithebert, bishop of Hexham (766)
- St. Mazota of Abernethy (8th C)
Troparia & kontakia
Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of several 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.
Kontakion — Tone 4
The morning star has shone forth — the honoured contest of the martyrs — foreshowing to us the One born in the cave, whom the Virgin bore without seed.
Troparion — Tone 3
Let us honour Crete, rich in wonders, that put forth precious flowers, the pearls of Christ — martyrs grown together into one, ten in number, O blessed ones — who put to shame the whole idolatrous nation, and therefore received their crowns, O valiant of soul.
Readings
Epistle
Hebrews 9.8-10, 15-23
8The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: 9Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; 10Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. 15And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. 16For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. 17For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. 18Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. 19For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, 20Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. 21Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. 22And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. 23It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
Gospel
Mark 10.2-12
2And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him. 3And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you? 4And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away. 5And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. 6But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. 7For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; 8And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. 9What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. 10And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter. 11And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. 12And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.