Paschaltide, day 1
The Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
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Saints commemorated
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Beginning of the Pentecostarion
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Martyr Sabbas Stratelates
Sabbas the Stratelates — "the General" — was a Goth by birth who rose by his courage to high command in the Roman army under the emperor Aurelian (270–275). A Christian from his youth, he spent his pay on the poor and his liberty on visiting confessors in prison, and received from God the gift of healing the sick and driving out demons. Denounced to the emperor, he unbuckled and threw down the soldier's belt that was the badge of his rank rather than deny Christ; and when torture — the scourge, the lighted torches, the cauldron of pitch — left him unharmed, seventy soldiers of his own command confessed Christ and were beheaded where they stood. Comforted in prison by a vision of Christ, Sabbas was tortured again the next morning and then drowned in a river, about the year 272.
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Elizabeth the Wonderworker
Elizabeth the Wonderworker was an ascetic and abbess of the convent of the Holy Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian at Constantinople, born at Heraclea in Thrace of wealthy and long-childless parents who obtained her by prayer and gave her back to God. She kept virginity and an austerity that astonished the capital: a single coarse garment winter and summer, bare feet, no bath, no bread, wine or oil, whole Lents without food, and three years in which she would not so much as raise her eyes to look at the sky. To this life God joined the gift of wonders — she killed a great serpent by her prayer, healed a woman with an issue of blood, and cast out unclean spirits — and after her repose on April 24 both her incorrupt relics and the earth of her grave became a standing remedy for the sick.
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Thomas the Fool-for-Christ of Syria
Thomas was a monk of Coele-Syria who used to come down to Antioch to collect his monastery's annual allowance from the revenues of the great church, and who bore in that city the feigned madness of the fool-for-Christ. Struck on the head by Anastasius, the oikonomos of the church of Antioch, who had grown tired of him, he answered that neither would he ever receive the money again nor Anastasius pay it — and both came true, Anastasius dying within a day and Thomas himself the following night, in the hospice at Daphne. Buried in the plot kept for strangers, his body was found lying above the two corpses afterwards laid in the same grave; the marvel was reported to the patriarch, his relics were carried into Antioch in festal procession, and the plague then wasting the city ceased at their translation. The Antiochenes kept his feast with great splendour for generations afterwards, and Evagrius Scholasticus, an Antiochene writing within living memory, is the source for all of it.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Mellitus, 3rd archbishop of Canterbury (624)
- St. Egbert of Lindisfarne (729)
- St. Dyfnan, son of King Brychan
- St. Ivo, hermit of Huntingdonshire (1001)
Troparia & kontakia
Apolytikion
In thee, O Mother, was that which is according to 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 Elizabeth, rejoice together with the Angels.
Apolytikion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)
In thee, O Father, was that which is according to 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 Thomas, rejoice together with the Angels.
Exapostilarion — Tone 2
Having fallen asleep in the flesh as a mortal man, O King and Lord, on the third day thou didst rise again, raising Adam from corruption and abolishing death: O Pascha of incorruption, O salvation of the world.
Kontakion — Tone 4
Though thou didst descend into the tomb, O Immortal, yet didst thou bring down the power of Hades, and didst rise again as victor, O Christ God, saying to the myrrhbearing women, Rejoice!, and granting peace to thine apostles — thou who dost bestow resurrection on the fallen.
Kontakion — Tone 4
Shown forth unconquerable, O commander, thou didst overthrow the cunning of the barbarians; and contending most steadfastly, O glorious one, thou didst put to flight a multitude of invisible foes, and so didst weave for thyself the crown of victory. Pray thou to Christ for us who honour thee with faith, O all-blessed Sabbas.
Oikos
The maidens bearing myrrh came before the dawn, seeking as men seek the daylight the Sun that was before the sun, who for a while had set within a tomb; and they cried out to one another: O friends, come, let us anoint with spices the life-bearing and buried Body, the flesh that raises up fallen Adam, lying now in the grave. Let us go, let us make haste like the Magi, and worship, and offer our myrrh as gifts to him who is wrapped not in swaddling bands but in a linen shroud; and let us weep and cry aloud: O Master, arise, thou who dost bestow resurrection on the fallen.
The
Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and to those in the tombs bestowing life.
The
The women who were with Mary, having come before the dawn and having found the stone rolled away from the tomb, heard from the angel: Why do you seek among the dead, as though he were a man, him who dwells in everlasting light? Behold the grave-clothes! Run and proclaim to the world that the Lord is risen, having put death to death; for he is the Son of God who saves the race of men.
The
It is the day of Resurrection! Let us be radiant, O peoples: Pascha, the Lord's Pascha! For from death to life and from earth to heaven Christ our God has brought us over, as we sing the hymn of victory. Now all is filled with light — heaven, and earth, and the places beneath the earth. Let all creation therefore keep the feast of the rising of Christ, in whom it is made firm. We keep the feast of the putting to death of death, the pulling down of Hades, and the firstfruits of another life, the eternal one; and leaping for joy we hymn the Cause of it, the only blessed and exceedingly glorious God of our fathers. This is the chosen and holy day, the one and first of the sabbaths, the queen and the lady, the feast of feasts and the festival of festivals, on which we bless Christ unto the ages. Shine, shine, O new Jerusalem, for the glory of the Lord has risen upon thee! Dance now and be glad, O Sion; and do thou rejoice, O pure Theotokos, in the rising of him whom thou didst bear. O Pascha, great and most holy, O Christ! O Wisdom and Word and Power of God! Grant us to partake of thee more perfectly in the day of thy kingdom that knows no evening.
The
Today a sacred Pascha has been shown to us: a Pascha new and holy, a Pascha mystical, a Pascha all-venerable, a Pascha that is Christ the Redeemer; a Pascha unblemished, a Pascha great, the Pascha of the faithful, the Pascha that has opened to us the gates of Paradise, the Pascha that sanctifies all the faithful. It is the day of Resurrection! Let us be radiant for the festival, and let us embrace one another. Let us say, O brethren, even to those that hate us: Let us forgive all things for the Resurrection's sake. And so let us cry aloud: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and to those in the tombs bestowing life.
The
Christ, having gone down alone to wrestle with Hades, came up again bearing many spoils of victory.
Troparion — Tone 5
Leaving behind the belt and the honours of earthly rank, O sufferer, thou didst confess before the tyrant, the deceitful emperor, that Christ is truly God; and for His sake thou didst endure many torments, O glorious one. Therefore wast thou wreathed with the surpassing crown of victory by the King of all who reign, and wast made radiant among the heavenly hosts. Standing now before Him, O Sabbas, pray that our souls may be saved.
Readings
Epistle
Acts 1.1-8
1The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: 3To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: 4And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. 5For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. 6When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? 7And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. 8But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Gospel
John 1.1-17
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. 6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. 8He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. 15John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. 16And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. 17For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.