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)
Readings
Epistle
James 3.1-10
1My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. 2For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. 3Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. 4Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. 5Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! 6And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. 7For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: 8But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 9Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. 10Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
Gospel
Mark 11.11-23
11And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve. 12And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: 13And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. 14And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it. 15And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; 16And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. 17And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves. 18And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine. 19And when even was come, he went out of the city. 20And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. 21And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away. 22And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. 23For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
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.