Monday, 17 June 2024

Monday of the 7th Sunday of Pascha

43 days after Pascha · Tone 6 · Liturgy · No Fast

Saints commemorated

★ Holy Martyrs Manuel, Sabel and Ismael of Persia

The Holy Martyrs Manuel, Sabel and Ismael were brothers descended from an illustrious Persian family. Their father was a pagan, but their mother was a Christian who baptised the children and raised them in firm faith in Christ the Saviour. Sent by the Persian King Alamundar as his emissaries to conclude a peace treaty with the Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate, they were received with honour at his camp near Chalcedon. When the emperor offered the customary sacrifice to the gods and invited the Persian envoys to share in the offerings, the brothers refused, declaring that they were Christians and could not worship idols. Julian, breaking the immunity of ambassadors, annulled the treaty and had them imprisoned and tortured. Their hands and feet were nailed to trees, iron spikes were driven into their heads, and sharp splinters wedged under their fingernails and toenails. At last they were beheaded, and the emperor ordered their bodies to be burned. They suffered around the year 362, and the Persian king, hearing of their death, declared war on Rome to avenge them.

Saint Botolph of Iken

Saint Botolph was an English abbot of the seventh century, the founder of the monastery of Ikanhoe in East Anglia. Born of noble Saxon parents, he and his brother Adulph were sent to the Continent to study the monastic life, where Botolph was trained in a Benedictine house in Gaul. Returning to England around 654, he was granted by King Anna of the East Angles a desolate site on a tidal island all but surrounded by water, traditionally identified with Iken on the estuary of the river Alde in Suffolk. There he built a wooden church and gathered a community of monks, attracting hermits and labourers who together turned areas of marsh and scrub into productive grazing and farmland. Botolph also worked as an itinerant missionary in East Anglia, Kent and Sussex, and was held in such honour by his contemporaries that Saint Ceolfrid travelled from the north to learn from him. He fell asleep in the Lord around 680. The city of Boston in Lincolnshire takes its name from his church, Botolph's Town, and many ancient churches across England bear his name.

Saint Hypatius, Abbot of Rufinian Monastery

446

Saint Hypatius was born in Phrygia in Asia Minor into the family of a lawyer and received a fine secular education. At eighteen, leaving home and worldly prospects behind, he went to Thrace where for a time he herded cattle and lived with a priest who taught him to chant the Psalms. He afterwards travelled to Chalcedon and settled with two companions in the abandoned monastery of Rufinianae a few miles outside the city, which had been built by the consul Rufinus and stood empty since his murder. The community was rebuilt and soon flourished, and many monks gathered around the holy ascetic. At forty he was chosen igumen, and he guided the brotherhood for forty years more. For his strict ascetic life and his love of his neighbour he was granted the gifts of wonderworking and healing. Through his prayers bread was multiplied for the brethren, and many possessed by demons, blind, paralysed and afflicted with bleeding came to him and were made whole. He defended the Orthodox faith against the heresies of Nestorius. Saint Hypatius reposed in the year 446 at the age of eighty.

Our Holy Father Botolph, Abbot of the Monastery of Ikanhoe

680

‘Saint Botolph was born in Britain about the year 610 and in his youth became a monk in Gaul. The sisters of Ethelmund, King of East Anglia, who were also sent to Gaul to learn the monastic discipline, met Saint Botolph, and learning of his intention to return to Britain, bade their brother the King grant him land on which to found a monastery. Hearing the King’s offer, Saint Botolph asked for land not already in any man’s possession, not wishing that his gain should come through another’s loss, and chose a certain desolate place called Ikanhoe. At his coming, the demons inhabiting Ikanhoe rose up against him with tumult, threats, and horrible apparitions, but the Saint drove them away with the sign of the Cross and his prayer. Through his monastery he established in England the rule of monastic life that he had learned in Gaul. He worked signs and wonders, had the gift of prophecy, and “was distinguished for his sweetness of disposition and affability.” In the last years of his life he bore a certain painful sickness with great patience, giving thanks like Job and continuing to instruct his spiritual children in the rules of the monastic life. He fell asleep in peace about the year 680. His relics were later found incorrupt, and giving off a sweet fragrance. The place where he founded his monastery came to be called “Botolphson” (from either “Botolph’s stone” or “Botolph’s town”) which was later contracted to “Boston.”’ (Great Horologion)

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Acts — Acts 21.8-14

⁸And the next day we that were of Paul’s company departed, and came unto Cæsarea: and we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven; and abode with him. ⁸And on the morrow we departed, and came unto Cæsarea: and entering into the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, we abode with him. ⁹And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy. ⁹Now this man had four virgin daughters, who prophesied. ¹⁰And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judæa a certain prophet, named Agabus. ¹⁰And as we tarried there some days, there came down from Judæa a certain prophet, named Agabus. ¹¹And when he was come unto us, he took Paul’s girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. ¹¹And coming to us, and taking Paul’s girdle, he bound his own feet and hands, and said, Thus saith the Holy Spirit, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. ¹²And when we heard these things, both we, and they of that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. ¹²And when we heard these things, both we and they of that place besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. ¹³Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹³Then Paul answered, What do ye, weeping and breaking my heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁴And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done. ¹⁴And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done.

Gospel

weekly cycle

John — John 14.27-15.7

²⁷Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. ²⁷Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful. ²⁸Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. ²⁸Ye heard how I said to you, I go away, and I come unto you. If ye loved me, ye would have rejoiced, because I go unto the Father: for the Father is greater than I. ²⁹And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. ²⁹And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe. ³⁰Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. ³⁰I will no more speak much with you, for the prince of the world cometh: and he hath nothing in me; ³¹but that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence. ³¹But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.

¹I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

¹I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. ²Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh it away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit. ²Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. ³Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. ³Already ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you. ⁴Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. ⁴Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in me. ⁵I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. ⁵I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from me ye can do nothing. ⁶If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. ⁶If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. ⁷If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you. ⁷If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.