Apostles' Fast, day 7
All Saints of America, All Saints of Russia
About Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God →
Saints commemorated
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Ven. David of Thessalonica
David was an Athonite monk of the Skete of Saint Anne who was hanged at Thessalonica on 26 June 1813 for confessing Christ before the Ottoman authorities. He came of the Kydonians of Aivali (Ayvalık) on the Asia Minor coast, a town bound to the Holy Mountain by long ties of dependency and patronage. Consumed by the desire for martyrdom that marked the Kollyvades generation, he first went to Magnesia to denounce Islam publicly and was only beaten and driven out; obtaining at length the reluctant blessing of his elder, he went to Thessalonica intending to recall an apostate monk to the faith. The Turkish authorities learned of it, arrested him, and the judge — fearing precisely that the renegade might be won back — ordered his immediate execution. He is one of the last of the Athonite new-martyrs of the Turkish period.
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Tikhvin Icon
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David of Thessalonica
David the Dendrite is the most beloved of the ascetics of Thessalonica and one of the best documented of the tree-dwelling hermits of the Christian East. A Mesopotamian by birth who came west as a young monk to the monastery of the holy martyrs Theodore and Mercurius outside the city walls, he refused to be made abbot and instead climbed into an almond tree beside the church, where he lived exposed to sun, frost and rain for three years until an angel bade him come down. From the cell he then occupied he healed, exorcised, counselled and prophesied for decades. In extreme old age he was sent as the city's ambassador to the emperor Justinian at Constantinople to plead that Thessalonica not be stripped of the prefecture of Illyricum; there he carried live coals and incense in his bare hands before the emperor and the senate without being burned, and won his city's cause. He died on the voyage home, about 540, within sight of the Thessalonian shore, having accomplished exactly the "one last work of love" the angel had foretold.
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Dionysius of Suzdal
Dionysius was the cave-dwelling founder of the Pechersky (Caves) monastery of the Ascension at Nizhny Novgorod, the teacher of a generation of northern ascetics, and one of the most formidable churchmen of the age of Sergius of Radonezh and Dmitry Donskoy. Tonsured at the Kiev Caves and coming north to the Volga with an icon of the Mother of God from that monastery, he dug himself a cave in the bank above Nizhny Novgorod about 1335 and gathered a brotherhood that produced Saints Euthymius of Suzdal and Macarius of Unzha. Made bishop in 1374, he preached against the Strigolniki, survived a Tatar arrow, and stood almost alone against the attempt of Grand Prince Dmitry to impose his confessor Mityai on the metropolitan throne. He went twice to Constantinople, was raised to archbishop in 1382, and in 1384 was named metropolitan of Russia by the Patriarch — but on his way home was seized and imprisoned at Kiev by Prince Vladimir Olgerdovich, and died there on 15 October 1385, buried in the cave of Saint Anthony where his own monastic life had begun.
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John of Gothia
John, bishop of the Goths of the Crimea, is one of the very few named figures through whom the history of the Gothic Church in the Crimea can be seen at all. Born at Partenit under the mountain of Ayu-Dag on the southern Crimean coast, he was consecrated bishop about 758 — not in the Empire, where the hierarchy was then iconoclast under Constantine V Copronymus, but in Georgia, which had kept clear of the heresy — and governed the Gothic see of Doros in the Crimean mountains. In 787 he led his people in a revolt against the Khazars, who then held the peninsula: the rising took the fortress of Doros and the mountain passes, but it collapsed within the year, and John was imprisoned at Phoulloi. He escaped across the Black Sea to Amastris in Paphlagonia, lived there some four years, and died there about 791, having foretold his own death within forty days of hearing that the Khazar ruler was dead. His relics were carried home to Partenit, to the church of the Apostles Peter and Paul which he had built at the foot of Ayu-Dag.
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Tikhon of Lukhov
Tikhon of Lukhov (†16 June 1503), called Timothy in the world, was a nobleman in military service in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania who in 1482 left his country rather than accept the union with Rome, crossing into Muscovy in the train of Prince Feodor Belsky. He refused the rewards of his new service, gave away what he had, took the habit with the name Tikhon, and settled in the forest of the Lukh country on the border of the Kostroma land. There he lived by the work of his hands — a skilled copyist of books and a turner of wooden vessels — refused ordination to the priesthood out of humility, and formed with two companions, Photius and Gerasim, the community that became the Nikolo-Tikhonov monastery. He died so poor that his disciples had nothing to bury him in until the bishop of Suzdal sent a vestment. His relics were found incorrupt in 1569, and the healings that followed established the veneration of one of the most-loved wonderworkers of the Kostroma and Ivanovo country.
British Isles and Ireland
- Translation of the relics of St. Brannock of Braunton
- St. Corbican (8th C)
Troparia & kontakia
Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a monastic saint)
A dweller of the wilderness and an angel in the body wast thou shown to be, O God-bearing Father Tikhon: by fasting, vigil and prayer thou didst receive heavenly gifts, and thou healest the sick and the souls of them that run to thee with faith. Glory to him who gave thee strength, glory to him who crowned thee, glory to him who works healings through thee for all.
Kontakion — Tone 8
Let us hasten, O ye people, to the Virgin Theotokos and Queen, giving thanks to Christ our God; and gazing with compunction upon her wonderworking icon, let us fall down and cry out to her: O Mother of God, who hast come from the lands of the East into the land of Russia and hast brought with thee thy grace and thy compassions, save us who flee to thee from every calamity and affliction: rejoice, O Virgin, salvation of the world.
Kontakion — Tone 2 (common of a venerable father)
Having wounded thy flesh by abstinence and enlightened thy soul by unsleeping prayer, thou wast shown forth, O father David, a dwelling-place of the Spirit; wherefore, standing now before the Master of all, entreat Him to grant remission of sins unto us who honour thy memory.
Kontakion — Tone 8 (common of a hierarch and ascetic)
Having hollowed out for thyself a cave in the hill and thy heart for a dwelling of the Holy Spirit, thou didst gather a flock in the wilderness and shepherd it as a father, and didst keep the Church's order unbent before princes, O holy hierarch Dionysius; wherefore, having finished thy course in bonds, thou hast received the crown, and dost pray for our souls.
Synaxarion
With the David of old thou art joined, O new David, for thou didst lay low the Goliath of the passions. On the twenty-sixth, David passed through the gates of life.
Troparion — Tone 4
Today, as a most radiant sun, thy most honourable icon hath shone forth upon us in the air, O Sovereign Lady, enlightening the world with the rays of thy mercy; which great Russia, having reverently received from on high as a divine gift, doth glorify thee, O Mother of God, the Mistress of all, and doth joyfully magnify Christ our God who was born of thee. Pray to Him, O Lady, Queen and Mother of God, that He may preserve all the cities and lands of the Christians unharmed from every assault of the enemy, and may save them that in faith bow down before His divine image and thy most pure likeness, O Virgin who knewest not wedlock.
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a new venerable-martyr)
Having taken up the ascetic's struggle, thou didst add to it the martyr's contest, O David; for despising the fleeting life, thou didst confess Christ before the ungodly and receive the crown by the noose. Wherefore, O new venerable-martyr, entreat Him that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable father)
In thee, O Father, was that which is according to the image preserved unfailing; for taking up the Cross thou didst follow after Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to overlook the flesh, since it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore, O venerable David, thy spirit rejoiceth together with the angels.
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)
O God of our fathers, who dealest with us ever according to Thy gentleness: take not Thy mercy from us, but by the prayers of Thy hierarch Dionysius direct our life in peace.
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch and confessor)
O God of our fathers, who dealest with us ever according to Thy gentleness: take not Thy mercy from us, but by the prayers of Thy hierarch John guide our life in peace; for thou, O holy father, wast a rule of faith to thy people, and didst not bow before the enemies of the holy icons.
Readings
Vespers
Isaiah 43.9-14
9Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth. 10Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. 11I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. 12I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God. 13Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it? 14Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.
Wisdom of Solomon 3.1-9
1But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. 2In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery, 3And their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are in peace. 4For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality. 5And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them, and found them worthy for himself. 6As gold in the furnace hath he tried them, and received them as a burnt offering. 7And in the time of their visitation they shall shine, and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble. 8They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and their Lord shall reign for ever. 9They that put their trust in him shall understand the truth: and such as be faithful in love shall abide with him: for grace and mercy is to his saints, and he hath care for his elect.
Wisdom of Solomon 5.15-6.3
15But the righteous live for evermore; their reward also is with the Lord, and the care of them is with the most High. 16Therefore shall they receive a glorious kingdom, and a beautiful crown from the Lord’s hand: for with his right hand shall he cover them, and with his arm shall he protect them. 17He shall take to him his jealousy for complete armour, and make the creature his weapon for the revenge of his enemies. 18He shall put on righteousness as a breastplate, and true judgment instead of an helmet. 19He shall take holiness for an invincible shield. 20His severe wrath shall he sharpen for a sword, and the world shall fight with him against the unwise. 21Then shall the right aiming thunderbolts go abroad; and from the clouds, as from a well drawn bow, shall they fly to the mark. 22And hailstones full of wrath shall be cast as out of a stone bow, and the water of the sea shall rage against them, and the floods shall cruelly drown them. 23Yea, a mighty wind shall stand up against them, and like a storm shall blow them away: thus iniquity shall lay waste the whole earth, and ill dealing shall overthrow the thrones of the mighty. 1Hear therefore, O ye kings, and understand; learn, ye that be judges of the ends of the earth. 2Give ear, ye that rule the people, and glory in the multitude of nations. 3For power is given you of the Lord, and sovereignty from the Highest, who shall try your works, and search out your counsels.
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
Romans 2.10-16
10But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: 11For there is no respect of persons with God. 12For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; 13(For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. 14For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 15Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) 16In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
Hebrews 11.33-12.2 (Saints)
33Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 35Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: 36And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: 37They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; 38(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 39And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 40God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. 1Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Gospel
Matthew 4.18-23
18And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. 19And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. 20And they straightway left their nets, and followed him. 21And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them. 22And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him. 23And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
Matthew 4.25-5.12 (Saints)
25And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan. 1And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: 2And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, 3Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. 5Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. 6Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. 7Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 8Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. 9Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. 10Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.