Saturday, 3 August 2024

Saturday of the 6th week after Pentecost

90 days after Pascha · Tone 4 · Red squigg (doxology typikon symbol) · Dormition Fast (Wine and Oil are Allowed)

Saints commemorated

Holy Myrrhbearer Salome

Saint Salome the Myrrhbearer is named in the Gospel according to Saint Mark among the women who stood watching the crucifixion of the Lord from afar and who came on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, bringing spices to anoint his body and were the first to receive from the angel the news of his resurrection. She is identified by tradition with the wife of Zebedee mentioned by Saint Matthew, and so as the mother of the holy apostles James the Greater and John the Theologian. According to the tradition received in the Church, Salome was a daughter of Saint Joseph the Betrothed by his first marriage, and therefore was reckoned a sister of the Lord, and a near kinswoman of the Most Holy Theotokos. From the days of his preaching in Galilee she followed Jesus with a number of other devout women, ministering to him from her substance. It was she who came to the Lord with her sons, asking that they might sit one at his right hand and one at his left in his kingdom, receiving the gentle rebuke that drew from her sons the promise of the cup of suffering. After Pascha she remained among the disciples in Jerusalem and is numbered by the Church among the eight myrrhbearing women. Her memory is kept on the Sunday of the Myrrhbearers, the third Sunday of Pascha, and again on this day, on which from antiquity she has been honoured among the saints of the early Church.

Saint Anthony the Roman, Wonderworker of Novgorod

Saint Anthony the Roman was born about 1067 in the city of Rome to wealthy Orthodox parents who, in the years of the schism between East and West, kept the faith of the early Church. After their death he distributed much of his inheritance to the poor, sealed the rest of his gold and silver in a wooden cask which he committed to the sea, and at the age of about eighteen withdrew to a hermitage on a rock by the shore of the western sea, where he lived for twenty years in fasting and prayer. According to the chronicle of his monastery, on 5 September 1106 a great storm arose on the eve of the feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God; the rock on which he was praying was torn from its foundation and carried by the waves out to the open sea. Borne on this stone for two days and two nights through the waters, the saint arrived at last on the bank of the river Volkhov, three versts from Veliky Novgorod, on the very day of the feast. The local people, beholding this marvel, brought him to Saint Nikita, bishop of Novgorod, who blessed him to found a monastery on the spot where the stone had come to rest. The barrel of treasure he had cast into the sea years before was miraculously brought up by fishermen of the river, and with these means the monastery was built, dedicated to the Nativity of the Mother of God; the stone itself remains in the courtyard of the cathedral of the monastery. In 1131 Saint Niphon, bishop of Novgorod, made him igumen of the brotherhood. He fell asleep in the Lord on 3 August 1147, and was buried by Saint Niphon. His relics were uncovered incorrupt in 1597, and in the same year he was glorified for general veneration in the Russian Church.

Sts Isaac, Dalmatus and Faustus, ascetics of the Dalmatian Monastery, Constantinople

5th c.

St Isaac is also commemorated May 30; see his life there. St Dalmatus was a soldier in the Imperial army, but along with his son Faustus left all to become a monk at the monastery founded by St Isaac. He was present at the Third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus in 431; there he labored zealously for the Orthodox faith against Patriarch Nestorius. He was made Archimandrite of all the monasteries in Constantinople, and reposed in peace, having lived for more than eighty years.

Venerable Isaakios, Dalmatos and Faustos of the Dalmaton Monastery

Saint Isaakios was a hermit and confessor of the fourth century who lived in the desert near Constantinople. Hearing of the persecution stirred up by the Arian emperor Valens against the Orthodox, he came to the city to admonish the emperor in person. He met Valens as he was setting out on campaign against the Goths and warned him that he would not return alive unless he restored the Orthodox bishops to their sees. The emperor, mocking the elder, ordered him cast into a thorny pit, but Isaakios was preserved by an angel, and Valens perished as the saint had foretold, burned to death in a barn near Adrianople in 378. The new emperor Theodosius the Great honoured the elder, and a wealthy senator named Saturninus built a monastery for him outside the walls of Constantinople. Saint Isaakios governed the brethren until extreme old age and reposed in peace about 383, leaving as his successor his disciple Dalmatos, formerly an officer in the imperial guard, who had distributed all his goods to the poor and embraced the monastic life. From this Saint Dalmatos the monastery took its lasting name. Saint Dalmatos showed himself a zealous defender of the Orthodox Faith at the Third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus in 431, leaving his cell after forty-eight years of enclosure to plead with the Emperor Theodosius the Younger on behalf of Saint Cyril of Alexandria and the council against the heresy of Nestorius. He was raised to the dignity of archimandrite of all the monasteries of the capital and reposed at the age of about ninety after 446. His son Saint Faustos succeeded him as igumen, distinguished by his abstinence and humility, and bringing the brotherhood through the troubles of the fifth century to a peaceful end of his own labours.

Also commemorated: Ven. Isaac, Dalmatius, Faustus

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Romans — Romans 9.1-5

¹I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,

¹I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit, ²That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. ²that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. ³For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: ³For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren’s sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh: ⁴who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; ⁴Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; ⁵Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. ⁵whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 9.18-26

¹⁸While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.

¹⁸While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live. ¹⁹And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples. ¹⁹And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples.

²⁰And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: ²⁰And behold, a woman, who had an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: ²¹For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. ²¹for she said within herself, If I do but touch his garment, I shall be made whole. ²²But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour. ²²But Jesus turning and seeing her said, Daughter, be of good cheer; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour. ²³And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the flute-players, and the crowd making a tumult, ²³And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, ²⁴he said, Give place: for the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. ²⁴He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. ²⁵But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose. ²⁵But when the crowd was put forth, he entered in, and took her by the hand; and the damsel arose. ²⁶And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land. ²⁶And the fame hereof went forth into all that land.