Thursday, 20 June 2024

Thursday of the 7th Sunday of Pascha

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

Saints commemorated

Hieromartyr Methodius, Bishop of Patara

312

The Hieromartyr Methodius was Bishop of Patara in Lycia in Asia Minor, and is also called Methodius of Olympus from another see he is said to have held earlier in his life. He was distinguished for his genuine monastic humility and for his great learning, and was numbered among the most eloquent writers of the early Church. He composed treatises against the errors of the philosopher Porphyry and against the doctrines of Origen on the resurrection and the nature of created things, defending the purity of Orthodox teaching and the goodness of the body and of marriage. His best known surviving work, the Symposium of the Ten Virgins, is a dialogue in praise of holy virginity and of the wisdom of Christ. During the last great persecution under the Emperor Maximinus, Saint Methodius was arrested for his confession of Christ, and after firmly defending the faith before the pagan judges he was beheaded in the year 312, around the time the Edict of Milan was about to bring peace to the Church.

Saint Calais of Anille

541

Saint Calais, in Latin Carilephus and in French Calais, was a hermit and abbot of sixth-century Gaul. Born in the Auvergne, he entered the monastery of Menat as a youth and was tonsured a monk, and afterwards moved to the abbey of Micy near Orleans under the rule of Saint Maximinus. Seeking greater solitude, he withdrew with a companion into the forest of Le Mans in the county of Maine, settling beside the river Anille. There the silence of his prayer was disturbed when a hunting wild bull pursued by the king of the Franks, Childebert, took refuge at his feet, and the king, finding the hermit unmoved, granted him the land for a monastery. Around this cell grew up the abbey of Anille, later known as Saint-Calais, of which he became the first abbot, and around it in time the town that bears his name. He fell asleep in the Lord in the year 541, having drawn many to the monastic life by the example of his austere discipline and gentle counsel.

Saint Naum of Ochrid

Saint Naum of Ochrid was a Bulgarian by descent, and one of the chief disciples and fellow workers of the holy Equals of the Apostles Cyril and Methodius. He laboured at their side in the great mission to the Slavs, helping to translate the Scriptures and the divine services into the Slavonic tongue, and shared in their journeys to Rome where he was ordained priest. After the death of Methodius in 885 and the bitter persecution of his disciples by the German clergy in Moravia, Naum, with Saints Clement, Angelar, Sava and Gorazd, was driven from his work and after great hardship found refuge in Bulgaria, where he was received with honour by Prince Boris. He taught and enlightened the Bulgarian people for many years, and at last withdrew to the shores of Lake Ochrid, where he founded a monastery and laboured in solitude for ten years until his repose around the year 910. His tomb at the monastery of Saint Naum on the lake remains a place of pilgrimage and of many miracles of healing.

Translation of the Relics of Saint Gleb of Russia

1174

The Holy Prince Gleb Andreevich, named George in holy baptism, was the younger son of the holy Prince Andrew Bogoliubsky of Vladimir. Under the influence of his pious parents he grew up with a deep faith in Christ from his earliest years, and from the age of twelve he led a solitary spiritual life of prayer, reading and almsgiving, shunning the diversions of his rank. He fell asleep in the Lord in the year 1174 at the age of nineteen, soon after the murder of his father by treacherous boyars. His incorrupt relics were preserved and glorified by miracles, and on this day the Church marks their translation and the dedication of his shrine in the Dormition cathedral in Vladimir, where the south chapel was set apart in his honour in 1774. He is venerated together with his father Saint Andrew Bogoliubsky as a patron of the Vladimir lands and an example of youthful holiness in the princely house of Russia.

St Kallistos I, Patriarch of Constantinople

1363

For twenty-eight years he lived the ascetical life on Mt Athos as a disciple of St Gregory of Mt Sinai. Later, he founded the monastery of St Mamas, also on Mt Athos. In 1350 he was elected Patriarch of Constantinople. After four years, he resigned the patriarchal throne to return to the Holy Mountain, but was called back to the throne, where he remained until his death in 1363. He wrote the definitive lives of St Gregory the Sinaite and St Theodosius of Trnovo. He was known to St Maximos Kapsokalyvia (the Hut-burner), who foretold his death: On his final journey to Serbia, on which he died, the Patriarch stopped on Mt Athos, where St Maximos saw him and said, “This elder will not see his flock again, because I hear behind him the hymn over the grave, ‘Blessed are those that are undefiled in the way…’”

Blessed Studios

5th c.

He was a prominent nobleman and consul in Constantinople. In the City he founded both the Church of St John the Forerunner in 463, and the monastery thereafter called the Studion in honor of him. The Studion monastery nurtured a long line of ascetics, teachers, and martyrs; perhaps the best known is St Theodore the Studite (November 11), the great defender of the holy icons. The monastery was destroyed by the Crusaders in 1204, restored in 1293 by Emperor Andronicus II.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Acts — Acts 25.13-19

¹³And after certain days king Agrippa and Bernice came unto Cæsarea to salute Festus.

¹³Now when certain days were passed, Agrippa the king and Bernice arrived at Cæsarea, and saluted Festus. ¹⁴And when they had been there many days, Festus declared Paul’s cause unto the king, saying, There is a certain man left in bonds by Felix: ¹⁴And as they tarried there many days, Festus laid Paul’s case before the king, saying, There is a certain man left a prisoner by Felix; ¹⁵About whom, when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, desiring to have judgment against him. ¹⁵about whom, when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, asking for sentence against him. ¹⁶To whom I answered, It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him. ¹⁶To whom I answered, that it is not the custom of the Romans to give up any man, before that the accused have the accusers face to face, and have had opportunity to make his defence concerning the matter laid against him. ¹⁷Therefore, when they were come hither, without any delay on the morrow I sat on the judgment seat, and commanded the man to be brought forth. ¹⁷When therefore they were come together here, I made no delay, but on the next day sat on the judgment-seat, and commanded the man to be brought. ¹⁸Against whom when the accusers stood up, they brought none accusation of such things as I supposed: ¹⁸Concerning whom, when the accusers stood up, they brought no charge of such evil things as I supposed; ¹⁹But had certain questions against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive. ¹⁹but had certain questions against him of their own religion, and of one Jesus, who was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.

Gospel

weekly cycle

John — John 16.23-33

²³And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. ²³And in that day ye shall ask me no question. Verily, verily, I say unto you, If ye shall ask anything of the Father, he will give it you in my name. ²⁴Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. ²⁴Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be made full. ²⁵These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father.

²⁵These things have I spoken unto you in dark sayings: the hour cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in dark sayings, but shall tell you plainly of the Father. ²⁶At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: ²⁶In that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you; ²⁷For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. ²⁷for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father. ²⁸I came out from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go unto the Father. ²⁸I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. ²⁹His disciples say, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no dark saying. ²⁹His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. ³⁰Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God. ³⁰Now know we that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God. ³¹Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? ³¹Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? ³²Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. ³²Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. ³³These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. ³³These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye may have peace. In the world ye have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.