Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Martyr Tryphon
Tryphon of Campsada (c. 232 – c. 250) is among the most beloved of the popular saints of the Orthodox world — a Phrygian peasant boy, keeper of geese, who from childhood was given power over unclean spirits and over the vermin and blights that ruin the fields. While still young he cast a demon out of the daughter of the emperor Gordian, and under the persecution of Decius he was seized, tortured, and condemned at Nicaea, giving up his spirit before the executioner's sword could fall, about the year 250. His memory is bound above all to the land and its labour: he is invoked against locusts, caterpillars, mice, and every pest of the crops, over gardens and vineyards, and the euchologia preserve a "Prayer of Saint Tryphon" adjuring the creatures that harm the fields to depart. Patron of gardeners, farmers, and (in the Russian tradition) of falconers and hunters, he is kept on February 1, the day of the forefeast of the Meeting of the Lord.
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Holy Martyrs Perpetua and Felicity, and those with them at Carthage (203)
Perpetua and Felicity, with their companions Saturus, Revocatus, Saturninus, and Secundulus, were martyred in the amphitheatre at Carthage about the year 203, in the persecution of the emperor Septimius Severus. Vibia Perpetua was a young noblewoman of about twenty-two, a nursing mother; Felicity was a slave, heavily pregnant; the others were young catechumens arrested with them and baptised in prison. Their memory is uniquely precious because part of their story is told in Perpetua's own hand: the Passion of Perpetua and Felicity preserves her prison diary, with the visions that sustained her, and an eyewitness account of their death. Secundulus died in prison; Felicity gave birth to a daughter days before the games; and the rest were exposed to the beasts and then dispatched by the sword. They are among the most celebrated martyrs of the ancient Church, kept in the East on February 1.
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Our Holy Mother Brigid of Kildare (524)
Brigid of Kildare (c. 451 – c. 525) is, with Patrick and Columba, one of the three patron saints of Ireland, and the most beloved of Irish women saints — honoured as the "Mary of the Gael." Born about the year 451 to a Leinster chieftain and a Christian bondwoman, she was drawn from childhood to a life of prayer and boundless charity, took the veil as a consecrated virgin, and founded at Kildare (Cill Dara, "the church of the oak") a great double monastery of women and men that became one of the chief centres of the Irish Church, where a sacred fire was kept perpetually burning in her memory. The hagiography surrounds her with miracles of compassion — food and butter and drink multiplied for the poor, her very cloak spreading to enclose the land granted her. A saint of the undivided Church, she reposed at Kildare about 525 and is kept on February 1.
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Basil of Thessalonica
Basil, Archbishop of Thessalonica, is commemorated among the holy hierarchs on February 1. The Greek synaxarion styles him a confessor — one who suffered for the faith yet reposed in peace — and honours him as an archbishop of the great Macedonian metropolis of Thessalonica; but the surviving notice is bare, and neither his dates nor the circumstances of his confession are securely transmitted. He is most plausibly placed in the age of the iconoclast persecutions, among the hierarchs who upheld the veneration of the holy icons, though this cannot be affirmed from the record. He is kept on February 1 with the martyr Tryphon and the forefeast of the Meeting of the Lord.
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Peter the Hermit of Galatia
Peter the Hermit of Galatia (c. 330 – c. 429) was one of the ascetic fathers of the region of Antioch whose life is recorded by Theodoret of Cyrrhus in his Religious History. A Galatian by origin, he embraced the solitary life from his youth, made pilgrimage to the holy places of Palestine, and settled at last near Antioch, where he lived in stillness and great austerity in a rock-cell, wearing a single garment and taking the barest food. God granted him a gift of healing, and Theodoret — who as a boy knew him and whose own mother he cured — testifies to his miracles from personal knowledge. He reposed in extreme old age, about ninety-nine years, around the year 429, and is commemorated on February 1.
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Vendemianus of Bithynia
Vendemianus (Bendimianos) of Bithynia was an ascetic of the late fifth and early sixth centuries, a disciple of the great ascetic Auxentius of the mountain near Chalcedon. Born in Mysia, he came in his youth to Saint Auxentius, and after his master's repose withdrew to the same Mount Oxia above Chalcedon in Bithynia, where he shut himself into a narrow rock-cell and lived out forty-two years of prayer, fasting, and stillness, adorned with the gift of wonders. He reposed in peace about the year 512, and is commemorated on February 1.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Euny of Western Cornwall (6th C)
- St. Crewenna, missionary in Cornwall (5th C)
- St. Jarlath, bishop of Armagh (c.480)
- St. Cinnia, Princess of Ulster (5th C)
- St. Darlugdach, second abbess of Kildare (c.524)
- St.Ursus, Irish missionary in Gaul & Italy (6th C)
- St. Ina of Llanina (5th C)
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 8
By the steadfastness of the Trinity thou didst dissolve the worship of many gods from the ends of the earth, O renowned one; and having become precious in the Lord, and having conquered tyrants through Christ the Saviour, thou didst receive the crown of thy martyrdom and the gifts of divine healings, as one invincible.
Troparion — Tone 4
A rule of faith and an image of gentleness, a teacher of temperance, hast thou shown thyself to thy flock; therefore thou hast gained by humility the things on high, and by poverty the things that are rich. O Father and Hierarch Basil, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O Mother, was the image of God preserved with exactness; for taking up thy cross thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou hast taught us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Therefore doth thy spirit rejoice with the angels, O venerable Brigid.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee our God; for possessed of Thy might, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of demons. By their supplications, O Christ God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 8
By a flood of tears thou didst make the desert flourish, and by thy deep sighs thou didst bear fruit a hundredfold in labours, and thou becamest a beacon, shining upon the world by thy wonders, O Peter our righteous father. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy martyr Tryphon, O Lord, in his contest received an incorruptible crown from Thee our God; for possessed of Thy might, he cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of demons. By his supplications, O Christ God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 8
By a flood of tears thou didst make the desert flourish, and by thy deep sighs thou didst bear fruit a hundredfold in labours, and thou becamest a beacon, shining upon the world by thy wonders, O Vendemianus our righteous father. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Readings
2nd Matins Gospel
Mark 16.1-8
1And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. 2And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. 3And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? 4And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great. 5And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted. 6And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him. 7But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you. 8And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid.
Epistle
Colossians 3.12-16
12Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; 13Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. 14And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. 15And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. 16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Gospel
Matthew 25.14-30
14For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. 15And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. 16Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. 17And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. 18But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money. 19After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. 20And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. 21His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. 22He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. 23His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. 24Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: 25And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. 26His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: 27Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. 28Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. 29For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. 30And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.