Pre-Lenten Triodion, day 22 · 49 days until Pascha
Forgiveness Sunday
Saints commemorated
-
Forty-two Martyrs of Ammoria
The Forty-Two Martyrs of Amorion (†845) were the Byzantine commanders and officers taken captive when the great Phrygian city of Amorion — the cradle of the reigning imperial dynasty — fell to the Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tasim in August 838, the calamity of the reign of the emperor Theophilus. Carried off to the caliphal capital of Samarra on the Tigris, they were held in prison for seven years, courted and threatened by turns to embrace Islam, and drawn into repeated debates on the truth of the two faiths. Steadfast to the end, they were led out on March 6, 845, and beheaded on the river-bank, their bodies cast into the water. Among them the tradition names Theodore (called Krateros, "the Mighty"), Constantine, Aetius, Theophilus, Callistus, Bassoes, and Melissenus, with their companions to the number of forty-two. Celebrated at once in a martyrdom-account written soon after their death, they are among the most honoured witnesses of the long Byzantine–Arab frontier war, hymned as "towers and guardians of the realm of the Romans."
-
Arcadius of Cyprus
Arcadius (†c. 361) was a monastic ascetic of the island of Cyprus in the age of Constantine the Great and Constantius, remembered above all as the spiritual father and teacher of the holy martyrs Julian the Physician and Eubulos, who suffered on the island under Julian the Apostate. From his youth he gave himself to the ascetic life, and by his teaching and example he formed disciples in the faith for which they went to their death. He is kept on March 6. The record of his life is thin — a synaxarion memory rather than a full biography — but the Church honours him among the venerable fathers of Cyprus, and distinguishes him carefully from the later Arcadius who was archbishop of the island.
-
Conon and his son Conon of Iconium
Conon and his son, also named Conon, were martyrs of Iconium in Lycaonia (Asia Minor) in the third century, about the years 270–275. Left a widower, the elder Conon withdrew with his young son to a monastery, and there the father was granted the gifts of healing and of power over demons: he is remembered as one who cast out devils, healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, and preached Christ among the pagans. Father and son together confessed the faith in time of persecution and were put to death for it, and the Church keeps them as monk-martyrs on March 6. They are to be carefully distinguished from the two other martyrs named Conon kept the day before, on March 5.
-
Hesychius the Wonderworker
Hesychius the Wonderworker (eighth century) was a monastic ascetic of Bithynia in Asia Minor, born at the coastal town of Adrineia and glorified for the solitary life he led on Mount Maionis, where he endured the assaults of demons, of wild beasts, and of robbers, and was granted the gift of wonders. The Greek calendar keeps him on March 6, styling him "the Wonderworker" (ὁ Θαυματουργός); the Slavic books and the Orthodox Church in America keep the same Bithynian ascetic on March 5 under the epithet "the Faster." His life is known only in brief from the synaxarion, but he is honoured among the venerable fathers of the Byzantine ascetic tradition.
-
Job of Anzersk
Job of Anzersk (c. 1635–1720), in the great schema named Jesus (Iisus), was a Russian ascetic of the far North, founder of the Golgotha-Crucifixion Skete on Anzer, an island of the Solovki archipelago in the White Sea. Born at Moscow and long a married parish priest of the capital — the tradition makes him a confessor and spiritual father to the court of Peter the Great — he was slandered and exiled to the Solovetsky Monastery, where he was tonsured a monk as Job. Withdrawing to the greater solitude of Anzer, he became head of its Trinity Skete, received the great schema with the name Jesus, and, after a vision of the Mother of God upon a hill he thereafter called Golgotha, founded there the Skete of the Crucifixion. He reposed on March 6, 1720, and was glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church in the year 2000. He is not to be confused with the Old Testament patriarch Job the Long-suffering (May 6), whose name he received at his tonsure, nor with Job of Pochaev (†1651), nor with Job of Ushchelsk (†1628, August 5) — the confusion likeliest of all, since that Job was also a hieromonk of Solovki and also a saint of the Russian north.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Sithney, missionary abbot (529)
- SS Cyneburgh and Cyneswith, abbesses of Castor and St. Tibba (c.680)
- St. Billfrith, the Goldsmith, hermit (8th C)
- St. Baldred, hermit at Tyningham (756)
- St. Fridolin of Ireland, Enlightener of the Upper Rhine (538)
- St. Cadroel, monk and bishop (976)
- St. Sezin of Guic-Sezni (c.529)
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 2
The newly-manifest men-at-arms of the faith, who eagerly gave themselves to the struggle for Christ, let us all worthily crown with wreaths of praise; for they intercede with Christ on our behalf, as towers and as guardians of the realm of the Romans.
Troparion — Tone 8
With the streams of thy tears thou didst cultivate the barrenness of the desert, and by thy sighings from the depths thou didst bear fruit a hundredfold in labours; and thou becamest a luminary, shining upon the world by thy wonders, O Arcadius our righteous father. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy Martyrs, O Lord, in their courageous contest have received the imperishable crown of thine, our God; for possessed of thy might, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the powerless boldness of the demons. By their prayers, O Christ our God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 5
The achievements of the holy Martyrs the powers of heaven beheld with wonder: how, clothed in a mortal body, by the power of the Cross they contended nobly against the bodiless enemy and unseen overcame him; and now they intercede with the Lord, that our souls may find mercy.
Troparion — Tone 8
With the streams of thy tears thou didst cultivate the barrenness of the desert, and by thy sighings from the depths thou didst bear fruit a hundredfold in labours; and thou becamest a luminary, shining upon the world by thy wonders, O Hesychius our righteous father. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O father, was preserved with exactness that which is according to the image; for taking up thy 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; wherefore thy spirit, O venerable Job, rejoiceth with the Angels.
Readings
4th Matins Gospel
Luke 24.1-12
1Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. 2And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. 3And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. 4And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: 5And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? 6He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, 7Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. 8And they remembered his words, 9And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest. 10It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. 11And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. 12Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.
Epistle
Romans 13.11-14.4
11And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. 12The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. 13Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. 14But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. 1Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. 2For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. 3Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him. 4Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.
Gospel
Matthew 6.14-21
14For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. 16Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 17But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; 18That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. 19Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.