Dormition Fast, day 4
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Seven Sleepers of Ephesus
The Seven Youths of Ephesus — Maximilian, Iamblichus, Martinian, John, Dionysius, Exacustodianus (also called Constantine), and Antoninus — were young Christians of noble family who, rather than sacrifice to the idols under the emperor Decius (c. 250), hid in a cave on Mount Ochlon, where the emperor ordered them sealed in to die. God laid them instead in a miraculous sleep of nearly two centuries; they awoke under Theodosius II (408–450), at a moment when the resurrection of the dead was being denied, so that their waking became a living proof of it. Having borne this witness they lay down and reposed. Popularly the "Seven Sleepers," they are among the few saints venerated by both Christians and Muslims, the story being retold in the Qur'an.
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Alexius of Bortsurmany
Alexius Gnevushev (1762–1848) was a village priest of the Volga country who served one parish, the church of the Dormition at Bortsurmany in the Kurmysh district of Simbirsk province, for some sixty years and never held any other. Shaken in 1796 by having let a parishioner die without the Mysteries, he took upon himself a rule of life that belonged to the desert rather than to a parish house — daily Liturgy, the full monastic office, fifteen hundred prostrations a day with the Jesus Prayer, one meal, a hair shirt — and became one of the great clairvoyant elders of the Russian nineteenth century, in the same spiritual country as Seraphim of Sarov, who is remembered to have sent pilgrims on to him. He died on Great Thursday, 21 April 1848, in his eighty-sixth year, blessing the people from the window of his cell, and was glorified by the Russian Church in 2000; the uncovering of his relics is kept on August 4.
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Eleutherius the Cubicularius
Eleutherius was a cubicularius — a chamberlain of the imperial bedchamber — at the court of Byzantium in the last age of the persecutions, a man of wealth and high place who was baptised and thereafter lived, in the emperor's own household, the life of a Christian ascetic: psalmody, almsgiving, and a church built at his own expense on his country estate. Denounced to the emperor by one of his own servants, he refused every inducement to sacrifice and was beheaded, about the years 305–311. His body, cast out to the dogs and the birds, was left untouched and was recovered and buried by a priest. He is commemorated on August 4, and again in the Slavonic books on December 15 among the company of the hieromartyr Eleutherius of Illyricum, with whom he is easily and often confused.
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Eudocia of Heliopolis
Eudocia of Heliopolis (†c. 152–170) was a wealthy Samaritan woman of Heliopolis in Phoenicia — the great sun-city the Romans called Baalbek — who lived by her beauty as a famed and dissolute courtesan, and amassed a fortune from her many lovers. Overhearing through a wall the monk Germanus reading aloud of the Last Judgement and the torments and rewards to come, she was pierced to the heart, sought him out, and was converted; baptised by the bishop Theodotus, she gave her whole fortune to the poor, entered a convent, and gave herself to so severe a repentance that she was counted worthy of the gift of wonders, raising the dead and turning her former companions and their persecutors to Christ. After many years as a nun and at length abbess, she was seized in a renewed persecution and beheaded for the faith. The Church honours her as a venerable-martyr — a monastic who sealed her repentance with her blood — and keeps her as one of its great models of conversion, that the deepest sinner may become the purest saint.
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Ia of Persia
Ia was a Christian woman — the Greek synaxarion remembers her as aged in years — who was seized with nine thousand fellow-Christians in the great fourth-century persecution of Shapur II of Persia and brought to the city of Bisada. Commanded by the chief of the magi to renounce Christ, she refused through repeated tortures and imprisonment, and was at last beheaded, around the year 363. The tradition relates that the sun was darkened at her death and the air filled with a sweet fragrance. She and the nine thousand with her are commemorated on September 11.
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Tathuil and Bebaia
Tathuil (Thathuil, in some sources Thiphael) and his sister Bebaia were martyrs of the second century, remembered for bold and fruitful preaching of Christ among the pagans. The notices place their deaths in the period of Trajan and Hadrian (98–138): after prolonged torture Tathuil was hanged upon a tree and cut with a saw, and Bebaia was killed by a spear-thrust to the neck. They are commemorated together on September 5.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Sezni of Sithney (c.529)
- St. Lugid, abbot and disciple of St. Comgall (609)
Readings
Epistle
1 Corinthians 10.28-11.7
28But if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake that shewed it, and for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof: 29Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other: for why is my liberty judged of another man’s conscience? 30For if I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks? 31Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 32Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: 33Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. 1Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. 2Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you. 3But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God. 4Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head. 5But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. 6For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. 7For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
Gospel
Matthew 16.24-28
24Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 25For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. 26For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 27For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. 28Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 4
In thy contest thou didst nobly struggle, and after death thou dost sanctify us by the outpouring of thy wonders, O all-praised one; therefore, honouring thy holy memory, we glorify Christ who is glorified in thee, O venerable Eudocia.
Kontakion — Tone 4
Having despised the corruptible things of the world, and received the gifts that know no corruption, they died and yet abode beyond decay; therefore they arise after many years, burying all the bitter unbelief of the heretics. Praising them today, O faithful, let us hymn Christ.
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a righteous man)
O righteous father Alexius, thou didst stand before the altar of God with fear and burning love, and offering the bloodless sacrifice day by day thou didst become thyself an offering acceptable unto Him; wherefore, having received the grace of healing and of discernment, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a martyr)
Thy martyr Eleutherius, 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 save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy ewe-lamb, O Jesus, crieth out with a loud voice: "Thee, my Bridegroom, do I long for, and seeking Thee I contend; I am crucified and buried with Thee in Thy baptism, and I suffer for Thy sake, that I may reign with Thee; I die for Thee, that I may live in Thee: receive me, then, as an unblemished sacrifice offered to Thee with love." At her intercessions, O Merciful One, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4 (from the common of a woman martyr)
Thy ewe-lamb Ia crieth to Thee with a great voice, O Jesus: Thee, my Bridegroom, do I love, and seeking Thee I contest, and am crucified and buried with Thee in Thy baptism, and suffer for Thee, that I may reign with Thee, and die for Thee, that I may live in Thee. Receive me then as a spotless sacrifice, slain for Thee with love. By her intercessions, O Merciful One, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4
Great is the wonder of faith: in the cave, as in a royal chamber, the seven holy youths abode, and died without corruption, and after many years arose as from sleep, unto the assurance of the resurrection of all men. By their prayers, O Christ God, have mercy on us.
Troparion — Tone 4 (from the common of martyrs)
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for possessing Thy strength they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their intercessions save our souls.