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Thursday 31 March 2033

Repose St Innocent, Metr. Moscow and Apostle to Americas

Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent

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Lenten Fast Tone 7

Great Lent, day 25 · 24 days until Pascha

Saints commemorated

Hieromartyr Hypatius, Bishop of Gangra (326)

Hypatius was bishop of Gangra in Paphlagonia and one of the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325), a wonderworker famed for healing and for the casting-out of demons. Returning from Constantinople some years after the Council, he was set upon by a band of Novatian (or, in some accounts, Arian) heretics and stoned and clubbed to death; a woman who cast the final stone was afterward tormented until she repented at his tomb. He is honoured as a hieromartyr and a protector against serpents and the assaults of demons.

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St Jonah, Metropolitan of Moscow (1461)

Jonah (†1461) was the last Metropolitan of Kiev and All Russia to be styled by the old title and the first to be consecrated in Moscow by Russian bishops alone — the hinge on which the Russian Church turned from dependence on Constantinople to self-government. Tonsured at twelve in a monastery of his native Galich, and afterwards a monk of the Simonov monastery at Moscow, where the Metropolitan Photius found him asleep in the bakery with his right hand set in the gesture of blessing and prophesied that he would be a great hierarch, he was made Bishop of Ryazan and Murom, was twice passed over for the metropolitanate, and finally received it in 1448 after the Russian Church had deposed Isidore for accepting the union of Florence. He governed thirteen years, was credited with the deliverance of Moscow from the Tatar raid of 1451, and reposed in 1461; his relics were found incorrupt in 1472 and lie in the Dormition Cathedral of the Kremlin. He was glorified by the Council of 1547.

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Acacius the Confessor

Acacius the Confessor was bishop of Melitene in Armenia in the middle of the third century. Arrested in the persecution of Decius (249–251) and brought before the governor Marcianus, he confessed Christ boldly under torture but was not put to death; released, he bore the marks of his sufferings for the rest of his life and died in peace. His memory is kept on March 31, and the uncovering of his relic — whose year is not transmitted — on September 15.

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Benjamin of Persia

Benjamin of Persia (†c. 424) was a deacon of the Persian church and a tireless evangelist who converted many Zoroastrian Persians to Christ during the great persecution that broke out at the end of the reign of Yazdegerd I. Imprisoned two years for his preaching, he was released at the intercession of a Roman envoy on the pledge that he would keep silence — a pledge he declared himself unable to keep, for he could not hide the light entrusted to him — and when he resumed his preaching he was put to death under Bahram V with tortures of studied cruelty. His story is told by the church historian Theodoret of Cyrrhus, nearly a contemporary. He is commemorated on October 13 and again on March 31.

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Innocent of Alaska

Innocent (John Veniaminov, 1797–1879) was the great apostle of Orthodoxy in Alaska and the Russian Far East — a married priest of Siberia who volunteered for the missions of the Aleutian Islands, learned the languages of the peoples he served, translated the Scriptures and services into Aleut and other tongues, and, after his wife's death, was consecrated the first Orthodox bishop of Kamchatka, the Kurils and the Aleutians. He crossed and re-crossed a diocese larger than a continent by kayak and dog-sled, and ended his days as Metropolitan of Moscow and founder of the Orthodox Missionary Society. He is honoured as Equal-to-the-Apostles.

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Readings

Matins Gospel

John 10.1-9 (St Innocent)

¹Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. ²But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. ³To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. ⁴And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. ⁵And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers. ⁶This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them. ⁷Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. ⁸All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. ⁹I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

6th Hour

Isaiah 28.14-22

¹⁴Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. ¹⁵Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: ¹⁶Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. ¹⁷Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. ¹⁸And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. ¹⁹From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report. ²⁰For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it. ²¹For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act. ²²Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.

Vespers

Genesis 10.32-11.9

³²These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood. ¹And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. ²And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. ³And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. ⁴And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. ⁵And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. ⁶And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. ⁷Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. ⁸So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. ⁹Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

Proverbs 13.19-14.6

¹⁹The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul: but it is abomination to fools to depart from evil. ²⁰He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. ²¹Evil pursueth sinners: but to the righteous good shall be repayed. ²²A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. ²³Much food is in the tillage of the poor: but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment. ²⁴He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. ²⁵The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul: but the belly of the wicked shall want. ¹Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands. ²He that walketh in his uprightness feareth the LORD: but he that is perverse in his ways despiseth him. ³In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride: but the lips of the wise shall preserve them. ⁴Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox. ⁵A faithful witness will not lie: but a false witness will utter lies. ⁶A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not: but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth.

Epistle

Hebrews 7.26-8.2 (St Innocent)

²⁶For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; ²⁷Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself. ²⁸For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore. ¹Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; ²A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.

Gospel

John 10.9-16 (St Innocent)

⁹I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. ¹⁰The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. ¹¹I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. ¹²But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. ¹³The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. ¹⁴I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. ¹⁵As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

Troparia & kontakia

Kontakion — Tone 8

Having accomplished the ascetic life by desire of the Spirit, and having received a flock as bishop, thou wast kept incorrupt in body also for thy bodily purity by Christ the Master, who made thee the heir of Peter the wonderworker; and thou didst follow his manner of life, and Christ gave thee as a teacher to His own flock. There where thy healing relics lie they are fragrant as with sweet incense, and grant healing to the infirm who come with faith. O hierarch Jonah, pray unceasingly to Christ God for us all.

Troparion — Tone 4 (from the common of a hierarch)

A rule of faith and an image of meekness, a teacher of temperance did the truth of things show thee to thy flock; therefore thou didst gain by humility the things on high, by poverty the things that are rich: O Father and hierarch Acacius, intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4 (from the common of martyrs)

Thy martyr Benjamin, O Lord, in his contest received an incorruptible crown from thee, our God; for possessing thy strength he cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By his intercessions, O Christ God, save our souls.

Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a hieromartyr)

And by thy manner of life thou didst attain unto the reward of the wise, O hieromartyr Hypatius: for by teaching well thou hast gained the talents entrusted to thee; thou wast not silent in the midst of trials, but didst offer thyself unto death for Christ. Wherefore, intercede with Him that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 4

O Father Innocent, in truth thou didst prove to be an apostle to the peoples, and a herald of the Gospel of Christ: for thou didst give thyself to the enlightening of the far-off tribes, translating for them the words of life and gathering them into the Church. Wherefore, as thou didst then labour without ceasing, so now intercede that our souls may be saved.

Troparion — Tone 3

Taking up the yoke of the Lord from thy youth, thou didst follow in His footsteps with a desire that never turned back, and didst attain the labour of the priesthood; receiving a flock as bishop, thou didst receive also from God the gift of wonders, and to those who come with faith to the shrine of thy relics thou givest unstinting healing of every sickness. O our father Jonah, hierarch of Christ, pray to Christ God to grant us great mercy.