Pre-Lenten Triodion, day 15 · 56 days until Pascha
Sunday of the Last Judgment
About Iveron Icon of the Mother of God →
Saints commemorated
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St Meletius, Archbishop of Antioch
Meletius (early 4th century – 381) was Archbishop of Antioch and one of the most beloved and most tried of the Church's hierarchs. Raised to the great Syrian see about the year 360, he confessed the Nicene faith so plainly at his enthronement that within a month the Arians procured his exile; three times he was driven from his city under the Arian emperors, and three times he returned, always in the same gentleness that made his name a byword. Under him the young John Chrysostom was catechised, baptised, and ordained reader. His episcopate was shadowed by the long Meletian schism — a division of the Nicene party at Antioch itself, over the legitimacy of his election rather than over the faith. Vindicated at last, he presided over the opening of the Second Ecumenical Council at Constantinople in 381 and reposed while it sat; Gregory of Nyssa preached his funeral, and his relics were carried home to Antioch and laid beside the martyr Babylas.
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St Aleksy, Metr. of All Russia
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St Meletios, archbishop of Antioch (381)
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Alexis of Moscow
Alexis (c. 1292/1305 – 1378) was Metropolitan of Kiev and All Russia and one of the great architects of Muscovite Russia — a saint remembered equally as a wonderworking hierarch and as a statesman who held the Russian land together in a perilous age. Born Eleutherius, of a boyar family of Chernigov settled at Moscow, he was a monk of the Theophany monastery for over twenty years before his elevation, and Metropolitan from 1354. Twice he journeyed to the Golden Horde; there, at the Khan's summons, he healed Taidula, the mother of the Khan, of blindness, and won by it protection and privileges for the Church. As guardian and regent for the boy-prince Demetrius Donskoy, he steadied the throne of Moscow and reconciled its warring princes. He founded the Chudov (Miracle) Monastery in the Kremlin and other houses, and reposed on February 12, 1378. His relics, uncovered incorrupt in 1431, made him one of the beloved wonderworkers of Russia and one of the Hierarchs of Moscow.
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Antony II Kauleas
Antony Kauleas (c. 829 – 901), called "the Younger" to distinguish him from an earlier patriarch of the name, was Patriarch of Constantinople from 893 until his death, and a peacemaker of the Church. Of a Phrygian family settled in the capital, he was drawn from childhood to the monastic life, entering a monastery at twelve and becoming in time its abbot; he even brought his own widowed father into the brotherhood. Renowned for austere prayer through the night and for great mercy to the poor, he was raised to the patriarchal throne under the emperor Leo VI the Wise, and laboured to compose the divisions left by the long strife between the followers of Photius and of Ignatius, convening a synod that restored peace to the Church. He reposed on February 12; his memory was honoured with encomia by the learned men of his own generation, and the monastery of Kauleas long kept his name.
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Christos the Gardener
Christos (Kristo) the Gardener (c. 1708 – 1748) was a new martyr of the Ottoman period — a simple Albanian market-gardener who died at Constantinople rather than deny Christ. Come to the great city about the age of forty to earn his living by his trade, he fell into a dispute over the price of apples with a Turk, who in his anger denounced him to the authorities with the false claim that Christos had said he wished to become a Muslim. Arrested on the word of Muslim witnesses, Christos steadfastly refused to apostatise, endured imprisonment and torture, and was beheaded on February 12, 1748. His memory was recorded by the monk and writer Kaisarios Dapontes, who ministered to him in prison, and he is numbered among the Neomartyrs of the Faith.
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Mary (called Marinos)
Mary, called Marinos (fifth-to-sixth century), is the ascetic woman who lived out her whole monastic life disguised as a man, and bore in silence a slander that would have crushed a lesser soul. Left motherless, she would not be parted from her father Eugene when he resolved to become a monk; cutting her hair and putting on man's clothing, she entered the monastery with him as the young "monk Marinos," and so excelled in humility and obedience that none suspected her. Falsely accused by an innkeeper's daughter of having fathered her child, "Marinos" made no defence, accepted expulsion, and for years lived outside the gate, raising the child as her own. Restored at last to the monastery and set to the hardest labours, she bore all without complaint; only when she died was her secret revealed, to the confusion and repentance of her accusers. She is a beloved image of humility, patience, and unjust blame borne for Christ.
British Isles and Ireland
- St. Ethelwold, monk and bishop of Lindisfarne (740)
- St. Siadhal (Sedulius) (5th C)
Readings
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
1 Corinthians 8.8-9.2
8But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse. 9But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak. 10For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols; 11And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? 12But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. 13Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend. 1Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are not ye my work in the Lord? 2If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.
Gospel
Matthew 25.31-46
31When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 32And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: 33And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 41Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: 42For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 43I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
Troparia & kontakia
Kontakion — Tone 8
Though thy holy icon was cast into the sea, O Theotokos, by a widow who could not save it from the enemies, yet hast thou been shown forth as the Guardian of Athos and the Keeper of the Gate of the Iveron monastery, striking terror into the foes, and delivering from all afflictions and calamities, in the Orthodox land of Russia, them that honour thee.
Kontakion — Tone 8
Let us all the faithful people faithfully hymn, and with love call blessed, the divine and most honoured hierarch of Christ, the new wonderworker Alexis, as a great shepherd, a servant, and a most wise teacher of the land of Russia. Today, running together to his memory, let us joyfully cry out a song to the God-bearer: since thou hast boldness before God, deliver us from manifold afflictions, that we may cry to thee: Rejoice, O confirmation of our city.
Kontakion — Tone 2
Adorned with the ways of Orthodoxy, thou wast shown to be the protector and champion of the Church, O all-blessed Meletius, setting the ends of the earth ablaze with the true doctrines: O most radiant lamp of the Church.
Troparion — Tone 1
The insolence of them that hate the image of the Lord, and the power of the ungodly, came godlessly upon Nicaea, and those sent thither cruelly tormented a widow who piously honoured the icon of the Mother of God; but she by night, together with her son, sent the icon forth upon the sea, crying aloud: Glory to Thee, O Pure One, for the untrodden sea hath lent Thee its shoulders; glory to Thy straight voyaging, O only Incorrupt One.
Troparion — Tone 8
As one enthroned together with the Apostles, a most excellent physician and a well-pleasing servant, we run to thy precious shrine, O God-wise hierarch Alexis, O wonderworker; gathered together in love, we keep thy memory in brightness, rejoicing in psalms and hymns and glorifying Christ, who hath given thee such grace of healings, and to thy city a great confirmation.
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy Martyr Christos, O Lord, in his contest received from Thee our God the crown of incorruption; for having Thy strength, he cast down the persecutors and broke the feeble boldness of the tormentors. By his prayers, O Christ God, save our souls.
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O Mother, was the image of God preserved unshaken; for taking up the Cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou hast taught us to despise the flesh, which passes away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore thy spirit, O venerable Mary, rejoices with the angels.
Troparion — Tone 4
A rule of faith and an image of gentleness, a teacher of temperance, the truth of things revealed thee to thy flock; therefore by humility thou didst gain the heights, and by poverty riches. O Father and Hierarch Meletius, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.