Saturday, 15 June 2024

Saturday of the 6th Sunday of Pascha

41 days after Pascha · Tone 5 · Red cross (polyeleos typikon symbol) · No Fast

Saints commemorated

Blessed Augustine, Bishop of Hippo

Blessed Augustine was born in 354 at Tagaste in North Africa to a pagan father, Patricius, and a devout Christian mother, Saint Monica. Possessed of a brilliant mind, he was sent to study at Carthage, where he fell in with the Manichaean sect and lived a worldly life for many years. After teaching rhetoric in Carthage, Rome and Milan he came under the preaching of Saint Ambrose, and through his mother's tears and prayers and the reading of the Apostle Paul he was converted to the Orthodox faith and baptised at the Easter vigil of 387. Returning to Africa, he was ordained priest and then consecrated Bishop of Hippo Regius, where he laboured for thirty-five years, defending the faith against the Manichaeans, Donatists and Pelagians. His writings, including the Confessions and the City of God, fill many volumes. He fell asleep in the Lord in 430 as the Vandals besieged his episcopal city. The Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches keep his memory on 15 June.

Holy Prophet Amos

The Holy Prophet Amos, the third of the twelve Minor Prophets, lived in the eighth century before Christ. He was a native of Tekoah in Judah, six miles south of Bethlehem, and tended sheep and goats and dressed sycamore figs. Simple and uneducated yet fervent in faith and zealous for the glory of God, he was called by the Lord to prophetic service and sent to the Kingdom of Israel to denounce the impiety of King Jeroboam II and the apostasy of the Israelites. The book of his prophecies, fierce in its rebuke of social injustice and idolatry, contains nine chapters preserved within the Old Testament. According to a later tradition, Uzziah, the son of Amaziah the priest of Bethel, struck the prophet with a club after he had spoken against the false sanctuary. He was carried back to his native village and died there of his wounds two days later, around 787 BC.

Saint Jerome of Stridon

Saint Jerome, whose full name is Eusebius Hieronymus Sophronius, was born around 347 into a Christian family in the city of Stridon on the border between Dalmatia and Pannonia. He was sent to Rome for his education, where he studied grammar, rhetoric and philosophy and was baptised by Pope Liberius. After travels in Gaul and the East he settled for a time in the Syrian desert near Chalcis, living as a hermit, learning Hebrew from a converted Jew and giving himself to prayer, fasting and study. Ordained a priest at Antioch, he later served as secretary to Pope Damasus in Rome, who entrusted him with the great labour for which he is best known: the revision and translation of the Scriptures into Latin, the version known as the Vulgate. After the death of Damasus he settled in Bethlehem, founding a monastery near the cave of the Nativity, where he wrote commentaries on the prophets and the gospels, defended the faith against the heresies of his day and laboured at his Bible until his repose around 420.

Saint Orsisius the Lawgiver

Saint Orsisius, sometimes called Ortisius or Orsiesius, was a disciple of Saint Pachomius the Great on the island of Tabennisi in the Nile, and one of the chief organisers of Egyptian coenobitic monasticism. After the repose of Pachomius in 348, Orsisius was chosen as his successor at the head of the federation of monasteries, but the burden weighed upon him and he soon resigned the office in favour of Saint Theodore the Sanctified. With Theodore he is said to have helped Pachomius shape the original monastic rule, and he himself composed a book of instruction known to later writers as his Testament, in which the whole of monastic discipline is set out from the Old and New Testaments in short chapters. After the death of Theodore in 368 he resumed the leadership of the brotherhood and guided it with great wisdom until his own repose, sometime after 386. For his role in shaping the common life of the monks he is honoured among the saints with the title Lawgiver.

Holy Martyr Vitus, with Modestus and Crescentia

303

“St Vitus was born in Sicily of eminent pagan parents. Modestus was his tutor and Crescentia his governess. St Vitus was baptised early and, when only twelve years old, began to live an intensive ascetic life. Angels appeared to him, instructing him and encouraging him in his labours, and he was himself as radiant and handsome as an angel of God. A judge who beat him had the flesh of his arm wither away, but Vitus healed it by his prayers. His father was blinded when he saw twelve angels in his room ‘with eyes like stars and faces like lightning’, but Vitus restored his sight by his prayers. When his father sought to kill him, an angel appeared to him and took him to Lucania on the bank of the river Silaris, together with Modestus and Crescentia. St Vitus performed many miracles there for the sick and insane. He went to Rome at the summons of the Emperor Diocletian and drove out an evil spirit from his son. Far from rewarding him, the Emperor tortured him cruelly when he would not bow down before mute idols, but the Lord delivered him from torture and returned him to Lucania by His invisible arm, and there he and Modestus and Crescentia entered into rest in the Lord. St Vitus’ relics are preserved in Prague.” (Prologue) In the West, St Vitus’ aid is often invoked for the cure of many ailments, especially insanity and demonic possession. For this reason his name is given to St Vitus’ dance, an acute neurological illness that produces uncontrollable movements in the face and limbs, usually occurring in children.

Holy Martyr Lazar, Prince of Serbia

1389

“He was one of the greatest men of Serbia who ruled the kingdom after king Dušan. Upon the death of King Uroš, Lazar was crowned King of Serbia by Patriarch Ephraim. He sent a delegation to Constantinople, including a monk called Isaiah, to plead for the removing of the anathema from the Serbian people. He went to war on several occasions against the Turkish Pasha, finally clashing with the Turkish king, Amurât, at Kosovo on June 15, 1389, being slain there. His body was taken to Ravanica near Cupria, a foundation of his, and buried there, but was later taken to New Ravanica in Srem. During the Second World War, in 1942, it was taken to Belgrade and placed in the Cathedral, where it is preserved to this day and offers comfort and healing to all who turn to him in prayer. He restored Hilandar and Gornjak, built Ravanica and the Lazarica in Kruševac and was the founder of St Panteleimon, the Russian monastery on the Holy Mountain, as well as numerous other churches and monasteries.” (Prologue)

Also commemorated: St Jonah, Metr. of Moscow

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Acts — Acts 20.7-12

⁷And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.

⁷And upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed with them, intending to depart on the morrow; and prolonged his speech until midnight. ⁸And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together. ⁸And there were many lights in the upper chamber where we were gathered together. ⁹And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead. ⁹And there sat in the window a certain young man named Eutychus, borne down with deep sleep; and as Paul discoursed yet longer, being borne down by his sleep he fell down from the third story, and was taken up dead. ¹⁰And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him. ¹⁰And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Make ye no ado; for his life is in him. ¹¹When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed. ¹¹And when he was gone up, and had broken the bread, and eaten, and had talked with them a long while, even till break of day, so he departed. ¹²And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted. ¹²And they brought the lad alive, and were not a little comforted.

Gospel

weekly cycle

John — John 14.10-21

¹⁰Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. ¹⁰Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the Father abiding in me doeth his works. ¹¹Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. ¹¹Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. ¹²Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto the Father. ¹²Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. ¹³And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹³And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴If ye shall ask anything in my name, that will I do. ¹⁴If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

¹⁵If ye love me, keep my commandments. ¹⁵If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments. ¹⁶And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever, ¹⁶And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; ¹⁷even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth him not, neither knoweth him: ye know him; for he abideth with you, and shall be in you. ¹⁷Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. ¹⁸I will not leave you desolate: I come unto you. ¹⁸I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. ¹⁹Yet a little while, and the world beholdeth me no more; but ye behold me: because I live, ye shall live also. ¹⁹Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. ²⁰At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. ²⁰In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. ²¹He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto him. ²¹He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.