Wednesday, 17 July 2024

Royal Passionbearers

Wednesday of the 4th week after Pentecost

73 days after Pascha · Tone 2 · Red cross (polyeleos typikon symbol) · Fast

Saints commemorated

★ Holy Great Martyr Marina of Antioch in Pisidia

Saint Marina, called Margaret in the West, was born about the year 275 in the city of Antioch in Pisidia, the daughter of Aedesius, a pagan priest. Her mother died while she was still an infant, and her father gave her to a Christian wet-nurse who lived on the family's country estate. There, while still a child, she came to know Christ; the woman taught her of the Saviour and of the lives of the saints, and her own heart was so kindled with faith that, at the age of twelve, she ardently desired to follow Christ even unto martyrdom. When her father learned of her conversion he disowned her, and she remained with her nurse, tending her flocks and meditating on the things of God. About the year 290 the eparch Olybrius, passing through, was struck by her beauty and wished to take her to wife if she would offer sacrifice to the gods, but Marina openly confessed Christ. He had her stripped, scourged, hung up and her body torn with iron combs, then cast into a dungeon, where she was assailed in the form of a hideous dragon; signing herself with the cross, she crushed the head of the demon. The next day fresh tortures were applied, but each time her wounds were healed, and many among the people, beholding the wonders, believed and were themselves martyred. At last she was beheaded under Diocletian, and her relics, after many translations, were enshrined principally at Constantinople and later, after 1213, at Montefiascone. She is honoured by the East as Great Martyr Marina and by the West as Margaret, and is one of the most beloved virgin martyrs of the universal Church.

Holy Scillitan Martyrs of Carthage

The Scillitan Martyrs were twelve Christians of the small African town of Scillium (Scilli), in Numidia, who were brought before the proconsul Publius Vigellius Saturninus at Carthage on 17 July 180 in the reign of the emperor Commodus. Their names were Speratus, Nartzalus, Cittinus, Veturius, Felix, Aquilinus, Laetantius, Januaria, Generosa, Vestia, Donata and Secunda. The principal spokesman was Speratus, who, in answer to the proconsul's question what he carried in his case, replied, "Books and the Epistles of Paul, a just man." Pressed to swear by the genius of the emperor, the martyrs answered that they honoured Caesar as Caesar but offered worship to God alone. They calmly refused the customary thirty days' delay for reflection and were sentenced to be beheaded; on hearing the sentence they cried, "Thanks be to God!" The Acts of their trial, recorded almost in the form of a court protocol, are the earliest surviving Christian document in Latin and the oldest authentic record of the African Church. Tertullian, writing a generation later, calls Saturninus the first persecutor of Christians in Africa. Their feast is kept on 17 July, the day of their crowning at Carthage.

Saint Marcellina, sister of Saint Ambrose of Milan

Saint Marcellina was born in Trier (Treves) in Gaul about the year 327 to a noble Roman family of consular rank, the eldest of three remarkable children, the others being Saint Ambrose, the future Bishop of Milan, and Saint Satyrus. After the death of her father, the family returned to Rome, where Marcellina from her earliest years was drawn to the religious life. On the Nativity of the Lord in 353, in the basilica of Saint Peter, she received the veil of consecrated virginity from the hands of Pope Liberius, becoming one of the first virgins formally consecrated at Rome. She remained in the family home with her widowed mother, devoting herself to prayer, fasting and the reading of Scripture, and was the spiritual mother of her younger brothers. After Ambrose was made bishop of Milan in 374, he wrote for her his three books "On Virgins" and dedicated to her the treatise "On Virginity." Marcellina followed her brother to Milan, lived an ascetic life of great rigour, and reposed there about the year 398, four years after her brother. Her relics were translated by Saint Charles Borromeo to the church of Saint Ambrose, where they are still venerated.

Also commemorated: Greatmartyr Marina

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Romans — Romans 11.2-12

²God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, ²God did not cast off his people which he foreknew. Or know ye not what the scripture saith of Elijah? how he pleadeth with God against Israel: ³Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. ³Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. ⁴But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. ⁴But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have left for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal. ⁵Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. ⁵Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. ⁶And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work. ⁶But if it is by grace, it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. ⁷What then? That which Israel seeketh for, that he obtained not; but the election obtained it, and the rest were hardened:

⁷What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded ⁸according as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this very day. ⁸(According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. ⁹And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them: ⁹And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, And a stumblingblock, and a recompense unto them: ¹⁰Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway. ¹⁰Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, And bow thou down their back always. ¹¹I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.

¹¹I say then, Did they stumble that they might fall? God forbid: but by their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy. ¹²Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? ¹²Now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 11.20-26

²⁰Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not:

²⁰Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not. ²¹Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. ²¹Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. ²²But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. ²²But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment, than for you. ²³And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. ²³And thou, Capernaum, shalt thou be exalted unto heaven? thou shalt go down unto Hades: for if the mighty works had been done in Sodom which were done in thee, it would have remained until this day. ²⁴But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee. ²⁴But I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.

²⁵At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.

²⁵At that season Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes: ²⁶Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. ²⁶yea, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in thy sight.