Saturday 10 December 2033
Martyrs Menas, Hermogenes, Eugraphus
Saturday of the 26th week after Pentecost
Nativity Fast, day 26
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Martyrs Menas, Hermogenes, Eugraphus
Menas Kallikelados ("the fair-spoken"), Hermogenes and Eugraphus were three martyrs of the early fourth century, commemorated together on December 10. Menas, a Christian of great eloquence, was sent by the emperor from Athens to Alexandria to quiet the strife between Christians and pagans, but instead preached Christ openly and won many converts. The imperial official Hermogenes, despatched to try him, was himself converted by the martyr's endurance under torture and his miraculous healing; and Eugraphus, Menas's own secretary, confessed Christ on witnessing their steadfastness. The emperor, unmoved by their constancy and by the miracles wrought among them, put all three to death.
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Angelina of Serbia
Angelina was an Albanian nobleman's daughter who married the blinded and dispossessed despot Stephen Branković of Serbia, followed him through exile in Venetian Albania and northern Italy, buried him there, and then — twice widowed of a country, since Serbia itself had fallen to the Turks in 1459 — brought her sons and her husband's body north into Hungarian Syrmia to begin again. Both sons, George and John, are numbered among the saints; George became the monk and metropolitan Maximus, and with him Angelina founded the monastery of Krušedol in the Fruška Gora, the house that became the spiritual centre of the Serbs of the Danube for two centuries. She ended her days there as a nun, about 1520, and is venerated as Prepodobna mati Angelina, "our venerable mother Angelina" — the matriarch of the last Serbian ruling house and of its exile.
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Gemellus of Paphlagonia
Gemellus was a Christian of Paphlagonia who, about the year 361, openly rebuked the emperor Julian the Apostate for his renunciation of Christ, and for this confession was seized and cruelly tortured. A red-hot iron belt was fastened about his waist, and he was compelled to follow the emperor on his march eastward; at Edessa in Mesopotamia he was racked, pierced with stakes, and mangled, yet went on reviling the impiety of Julian. Released half-dead, he found a priest and was baptized, whereupon his wounds were healed. Learning of the miracle, Julian ordered him crucified, and so he gave up his soul to God. He is commemorated on December 10.
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Joasaph of Belgorod
Joasaph of Belgorod (1705–1754), born Joachim Gorlenko of a noble Ukrainian family, was a monk and bishop of the Russian Church renowned for the austerity of his personal life and the strictness of his pastoral zeal. Formed at the Kiev Academy and tonsured young, he rose through the monastic offices to be igumen of the Mgarsk monastery and vicar of the Trinity–Sergius Lavra before his consecration as Bishop of Belgorod and Oboyan in 1748. In six years of ascetic and exacting episcopate he laboured for the moral reform of his clergy and people. His body was found incorrupt after his repose, and he was glorified in 1911; he is commemorated on December 10, the day of his death.
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Thomas of Bithynia
Thomas Dephourkinos was a monk of Bithynia in the ninth and tenth centuries, who from his youth loved the monastic life and rose to govern a monastery newly founded on the river Sangarios before withdrawing into the wilderness to labour in solitude. Overcoming, the tradition says, many assaults of the devil, he was glorified by God with the gifts of healing and of prophecy, so that the emperor Leo VI the Wise sought his counsel. He is commemorated on December 10.
Readings
Epistle
Galatians 3.8-12
8And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. 9So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. 10For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. 11But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. 12And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
Gospel
Luke 13.18-29
18Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? 19It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it. 20And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God? 21It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. 22And he went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, 24Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. 25When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: 26Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. 27But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. 28There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. 29And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 8
Who can recount the manifold struggles of thy life, or number the manifold mercies of God made manifest through thee? Knowing well thy boldness before the most pure Theotokos and the all-bountiful God, in compunction of heart we cry to thee: deprive not us also of thy help and protection, O hierarch of Christ and wonderworker Joasaph.
Kontakion — Tone 4
The Lord snatched thee, O Menas, from the passing warfare, and made thee, together with thy fellow-strugglers, a fellow-heir of that which is incorruptible, granting thee the unfading crown.
Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable woman)
In thee, O mother, was preserved unimpaired that which is according to the image; 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. Wherefore, O venerable Angelina, thy spirit rejoiceth with the angels.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy martyr Gemellus, O Lord, in his contest received an incorruptible crown from Thee our God; for possessed of Thy strength, he cast down the tyrant and broke the feeble insolence of demons. By his prayers, O Christ God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 3
O hierarch beloved of Christ God, thou wast a rule of faith and an image of mercy to the people; by vigil, fasting and prayer thou didst shine as a most radiant lamp, and wast shown forth glorified by God. Reposing incorrupt in body, yet standing in spirit before the throne of God, thou dost pour forth wondrous miracles. Entreat Christ God that He confirm us in Orthodoxy and godliness, and save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee our God; for possessed of Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and broke the feeble insolence of demons. By their prayers, O Christ God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O Father, was the divine image preserved with exactness; for taking up thy cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passes away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Therefore, O venerable Thomas, thy spirit rejoices with the angels.