Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Ven. George the Chozebite
George the Chozebite (mid-sixth century – c. 625) was one of the great ascetics of the Judean desert, abbot of the Monastery of Choziba in the gorge of the Wadi Qelt between Jerusalem and Jericho. Born on Cyprus and orphaned young, he followed his elder brother Heraclides into the monasteries of Palestine, passing from the lavra of Calamon by the Jordan to the coenobium of Choziba, where he spent the rest of his long life in humility, obedience, and unsparing labour, and where he became the community's revered elder and head. He lived through the catastrophe of the Persian invasion of 614, when Jerusalem fell and the desert monasteries were sacked, surviving to gather again the scattered brethren and to die in peace amid the ruins. His life is known in unusual detail because his own disciple, Antony of Choziba, wrote it down soon after his repose — a first-hand portrait of Palestinian monasticism in its last age before the Arab conquest. He is commemorated on January 8, within the afterfeast of the Theophany.
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Our Venerable Mother Domnica (Domnina) (ca. 474)
Domnica of Constantinople (fourth century – c. 474) was a venerable amma of the imperial city, remembered as a foundress of monastic life for women and a saint of extraordinary spiritual gifts. According to the tradition she came from Carthage in Roman Africa to Constantinople in the reign of Theodosius the Great, was baptised by the Patriarch Nectarius, and gave herself wholly to the ascetic life, gathering a community of women and reaching a rare height of prayer. The synaxaria credit her with healings, with power over the elements — stilling fires and storms that threatened the capital — and with foreknowledge of things to come, gifts by which she turned the citizens of Constantinople toward the care of their souls. She lived to a very great age and reposed a virgin about the year 474. She is commemorated on January 8, within the afterfeast of the Theophany.
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Saint Atticus, Patriarch of Constantinople (425)
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Saint Severinus (482)
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Abo of Tiflis
Abo of Tiflis (c. 756 – 786) was an Arab perfumer of Baghdad who embraced the Christian faith in Georgia and died a martyr for it — the patron saint of Tbilisi and one of the most beloved saints of the Georgian Church. Brought to Kartli in the household of the Georgian prince Nerse, Abo was drawn to the piety of the Georgian people, learned their language and worship, and was baptised. Returning to Tiflis (Tbilisi), then under Muslim rule, he openly confessed Christ and preached him, refusing every inducement to return to Islam; he was imprisoned and, in January 786, beheaded. His body was burned and his ashes cast into the Kura (Mtkvari) River beside the Metekhi cliff, over which a shining light was seen. His Passion, written soon after by Ioane Sabanisdze, is a monument of early Georgian literature. He is commemorated on January 8.
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Elias the Hermit of Egypt
Elias the Hermit was an Egyptian ascetic of the fourth century who spent seventy-five years in solitary struggle in a cave on a desolate mountain, and reposed in extreme old age at about a hundred and ten years. He belongs to the company of the great anchorites of the Egyptian desert, and is commemorated on January 8, within the afterfeast of the Theophany.
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Emilian of Cyzicus
Emilian the Confessor (died c. 820) was bishop of Cyzicus, on the Sea of Marmara, and a bold defender of the holy icons in the second iconoclast persecution under the emperor Leo V the Armenian. Summoned with the other bishops before the emperor when Leo moved to revive iconoclasm, Emilian refused to yield the veneration of the images and answered the emperor to his face, for which he was deposed, ill-treated, and sent into exile, where he died a confessor of the faith. He is numbered among the company of confessor-hierarchs who suffered in those years for the images of Christ and the saints. His principal feast is August 8; he is commemorated again on January 8, within the afterfeast of the Theophany.
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Gregory of Ohrid
Gregory of Ohrid was a saint of the church of Ohrid (Achris), in the region of the ancient archbishopric, remembered as a faithful teacher and shepherd of Christ's flock. An inscription in the cathedral church of the Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) of Ohrid names him "Gregory the Wise." Beyond this the record is very thin; he is commemorated on January 8, within the afterfeast of the Theophany.
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Julian and Basilissa
Julian and Basilissa were a married couple of Antinoë in Egypt who, by mutual consent, lived together in perpetual virginity and, on the death of their parents, gave their wealth to found two monasteries — one for men under Julian, one for women under Basilissa. Basilissa reposed in peace after guiding her sisters; Julian remained, and in the persecution of the early fourth century he was arrested, tortured, and beheaded, together with a company won to Christ through his constancy: the youth Celsus (son of his persecutor), Marcionilla the boy's mother, the priest Anthony, a converted pagan baptised Anastasius, seven young brothers, and twenty soldiers. They are commemorated together on January 8, within the afterfeast of the Theophany.
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Paisius of Uglich
Paisius of Uglich (c. 1397 – 1504) was the founder and first abbot of the Protection (Pokrov) Monastery near Uglich on the Volga, and a wonderworker of the Russian north. Orphaned as a boy, he entered the monastery of his uncle, Saint Macarius of Kalyazin, at the age of eleven, and was formed there in obedience, fasting, and prayer, labouring at the copying of sacred books. At the wish of the Prince of Uglich, Andrew, he founded in 1464 the cenobitic Protection Monastery a few versts from the city, and served as its abbot; he founded a second monastery in 1489. He lived to a great age and reposed on June 6, 1504; his relics, glorified by miracles, rest in the monastery he built. He is commemorated on January 8, within the afterfeast of the Theophany, and on June 6, the day of his repose.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Ergnad of Ulster (5th C)
- St. Albert of Cashel (7th C)
- St. Pega, anchoress in Northamptonshire (c.719)
- St. Athelhelm, 20th archbishop of Canterbury (923)
- St. Wulsin, bishop of Sherborne (1002)
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 4
In thee, O Father, was preserved unfailing the image; for taking up the Cross thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, and to have care for the soul, a thing immortal. Therefore doth thy spirit, O venerable George, rejoice together with the Angels.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy Martyr Abo, O Lord, in his contest received from thee our God an imperishable crown; for possessed of thy strength, he cast down the persecutors and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By his supplications, O Christ our God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O Mother, was the image preserved with exactness; for taking up the Cross thou didst 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 Domnica, rejoice together with the Angels.
Troparion — Tone 1
Thou wast shown to be a citizen of the wilderness, an angel in the body, and a wonderworker, O our God-bearing Father Elias; by fasting, vigil, and prayer thou didst receive heavenly gifts, and thou healest the sick and the souls of those who run to thee in faith. Glory to him that gave thee strength; glory to him that crowned thee; glory to him that worketh healings for all through thee.
Troparion — Tone 4
O God of our Fathers, who dealest ever with us according to thy gentleness, take not thy mercy from us, but by the prayers of thy hierarch Emilian guide our life in peace.
Troparion — Tone 1
Thou wast shown to be a citizen of the wilderness, an angel in the body, and a wonderworker, O our God-bearing Father George; by fasting, vigil, and prayer thou didst receive heavenly gifts, and thou healest the sick and the souls of those who run to thee in faith. Glory to him that gave thee strength; glory to him that crowned thee; glory to him that worketh healings for all through thee.
Troparion — Tone 1
As a wise teacher and faithful shepherd of the flock of Christ, thou didst shine in the church of Ohrid, O venerable Father Gregory; wherefore, honouring thy holy memory, we entreat thee: intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy Martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received imperishable crowns from thee our God; for possessed of thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their supplications, O Christ our God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4
Having lived on earth as a citizen of heaven, O Father Paisius, thou wast a teacher of the monastic life and an unshaken pillar of thy flock; by fasting, vigil, and prayer thou didst receive the gifts of the Spirit, to heal the sick and to guide the faithful. Wherefore we honour thy holy repose; intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Readings
Epistle
James 4.7-5.9
7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. 9Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. 11Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. 12There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another? 13Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: 14Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 15For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. 16But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. 17Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. 1Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. 2Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. 3Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. 4Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. 5Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. 6Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you. 7Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. 8Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. 9Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.
Gospel
Luke 18.31-34
31Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. 32For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: 33And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again. 34And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.