Pre-Lenten Triodion, day 4 · 67 days until Pascha
Saints commemorated
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Saint of the day
Martyr Tryphon
Tryphon of Campsada (c. 232 – c. 250) is among the most beloved of the popular saints of the Orthodox world — a Phrygian peasant boy, keeper of geese, who from childhood was given power over unclean spirits and over the vermin and blights that ruin the fields. While still young he cast a demon out of the daughter of the emperor Gordian, and under the persecution of Decius he was seized, tortured, and condemned at Nicaea, giving up his spirit before the executioner's sword could fall, about the year 250. His memory is bound above all to the land and its labour: he is invoked against locusts, caterpillars, mice, and every pest of the crops, over gardens and vineyards, and the euchologia preserve a "Prayer of Saint Tryphon" adjuring the creatures that harm the fields to depart. Patron of gardeners, farmers, and (in the Russian tradition) of falconers and hunters, he is kept on February 1, the day of the forefeast of the Meeting of the Lord.
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Holy Martyrs Perpetua and Felicity, and those with them at Carthage (203)
Perpetua and Felicity, with their companions Saturus, Revocatus, Saturninus, and Secundulus, were martyred in the amphitheatre at Carthage about the year 203, in the persecution of the emperor Septimius Severus. Vibia Perpetua was a young noblewoman of about twenty-two, a nursing mother; Felicity was a slave, heavily pregnant; the others were young catechumens arrested with them and baptised in prison. Their memory is uniquely precious because part of their story is told in Perpetua's own hand: the Passion of Perpetua and Felicity preserves her prison diary, with the visions that sustained her, and an eyewitness account of their death. Secundulus died in prison; Felicity gave birth to a daughter days before the games; and the rest were exposed to the beasts and then dispatched by the sword. They are among the most celebrated martyrs of the ancient Church, kept in the East on February 1.
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Our Holy Mother Brigid of Kildare (524)
Brigid of Kildare (c. 451 – c. 525) is, with Patrick and Columba, one of the three patron saints of Ireland, and the most beloved of Irish women saints — honoured as the "Mary of the Gael." Born about the year 451 to a Leinster chieftain and a Christian bondwoman, she was drawn from childhood to a life of prayer and boundless charity, took the veil as a consecrated virgin, and founded at Kildare (Cill Dara, "the church of the oak") a great double monastery of women and men that became one of the chief centres of the Irish Church, where a sacred fire was kept perpetually burning in her memory. The hagiography surrounds her with miracles of compassion — food and butter and drink multiplied for the poor, her very cloak spreading to enclose the land granted her. A saint of the undivided Church, she reposed at Kildare about 525 and is kept on February 1.
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Basil of Thessalonica
Basil, Archbishop of Thessalonica, is commemorated among the holy hierarchs on February 1. The Greek synaxarion styles him a confessor — one who suffered for the faith yet reposed in peace — and honours him as an archbishop of the great Macedonian metropolis of Thessalonica; but the surviving notice is bare, and neither his dates nor the circumstances of his confession are securely transmitted. He is most plausibly placed in the age of the iconoclast persecutions, among the hierarchs who upheld the veneration of the holy icons, though this cannot be affirmed from the record. He is kept on February 1 with the martyr Tryphon and the forefeast of the Meeting of the Lord.
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Peter the Hermit of Galatia
Peter the Hermit of Galatia (c. 330 – c. 429) was one of the ascetic fathers of the region of Antioch whose life is recorded by Theodoret of Cyrrhus in his Religious History. A Galatian by origin, he embraced the solitary life from his youth, made pilgrimage to the holy places of Palestine, and settled at last near Antioch, where he lived in stillness and great austerity in a rock-cell, wearing a single garment and taking the barest food. God granted him a gift of healing, and Theodoret — who as a boy knew him and whose own mother he cured — testifies to his miracles from personal knowledge. He reposed in extreme old age, about ninety-nine years, around the year 429, and is commemorated on February 1.
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Vendemianus of Bithynia
Vendemianus (Bendimianos) of Bithynia was an ascetic of the late fifth and early sixth centuries, a disciple of the great ascetic Auxentius of the mountain near Chalcedon. Born in Mysia, he came in his youth to Saint Auxentius, and after his master's repose withdrew to the same Mount Oxia above Chalcedon in Bithynia, where he shut himself into a narrow rock-cell and lived out forty-two years of prayer, fasting, and stillness, adorned with the gift of wonders. He reposed in peace about the year 512, and is commemorated on February 1.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Euny of Western Cornwall (6th C)
- St. Crewenna, missionary in Cornwall (5th C)
- St. Jarlath, bishop of Armagh (c.480)
- St. Cinnia, Princess of Ulster (5th C)
- St. Darlugdach, second abbess of Kildare (c.524)
- St.Ursus, Irish missionary in Gaul & Italy (6th C)
- St. Ina of Llanina (5th C)
Readings
Epistle
2 Peter 3.1-18
1This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: 2That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: 3Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 5For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 6Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 8But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 10But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 11Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 12Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? 13Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 14Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. 15And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; 16As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. 17Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. 18But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
Gospel
Mark 13.24-31
24But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, 25And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. 26And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. 27And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. 28Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near: 29So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors. 30Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done. 31Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 8
By the steadfastness of the Trinity thou didst dissolve the worship of many gods from the ends of the earth, O renowned one; and having become precious in the Lord, and having conquered tyrants through Christ the Saviour, thou didst receive the crown of thy martyrdom and the gifts of divine healings, as one invincible.
Troparion — Tone 4
A rule of faith and an image of gentleness, a teacher of temperance, hast thou shown thyself to thy flock; therefore thou hast gained by humility the things on high, and by poverty the things that are rich. O Father and Hierarch Basil, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O Mother, was the image of God preserved with exactness; for taking up thy cross thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou hast taught us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Therefore doth thy spirit rejoice with the angels, O venerable Brigid.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee our God; for possessed of Thy might, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of demons. By their supplications, O Christ God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 8
By a flood of tears thou didst make the desert flourish, and by thy deep sighs thou didst bear fruit a hundredfold in labours, and thou becamest a beacon, shining upon the world by thy wonders, O Peter our righteous father. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy martyr Tryphon, O Lord, in his contest received an incorruptible crown from Thee our God; for possessed of Thy might, he cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of demons. By his supplications, O Christ God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 8
By a flood of tears thou didst make the desert flourish, and by thy deep sighs thou didst bear fruit a hundredfold in labours, and thou becamest a beacon, shining upon the world by thy wonders, O Vendemianus our righteous father. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.