Thursday, 8 August 2024

Thursday of the 7th week after Pentecost

95 days after Pascha · Tone 5 · Liturgy · Dormition Fast

Saints commemorated

Saint Aemilian the Confessor, Bishop of Cyzicus

Saint Aemilian (also Emilian or Aimilianos) succeeded Bishop Nicholas as Bishop of Cyzicus, occupying that see from 787 until 815. He was a zealous defender of the holy icons during the second wave of Byzantine iconoclasm under Emperor Leo V the Armenian (813-820). Summoned with other bishops to the imperial tribunal in 815, he was ordered to refrain from teaching his flock to venerate the holy icons. Aemilian replied that questions concerning the veneration of icons ought to be discussed and decided only within the Church, by her spiritual leaders, and not at the imperial court. For this confession he was banished and endured five years of pain and humiliation in exile, suffering torture and reposing as a confessor for the icons around the year 820. He is numbered among the holy hierarchs who upheld Orthodoxy through the iconoclast crisis, and his principal feast in the Orthodox Church is observed on 8 August.

Saint Gregory of Sinai

1346

Saint Gregory of Sinai was born around 1268 in the seacoast village of Klazomenai near Smyrna in Asia Minor, of wealthy parents. About 1290 he was taken into captivity by the Hagarenes and carried off to Laodicea; on gaining his freedom he made his way to Cyprus, where he was tonsured a monk. He travelled afterwards to Mount Sinai and received the great schema, fulfilling obediences as cook, baker and copyist while excelling all in the reading and knowledge of Scripture and the patristic writings. From Jerusalem he went to Crete, where the elder Arsenios instructed him in the practice of the Jesus Prayer and watchful prayer of the heart. Gregory then settled on Mount Athos at the Magoula skete near Philotheou Monastery, gathering disciples and teaching the discipline of inner stillness, hesychia. Together with Saint Gregory Palamas he is reckoned a chief renewer of hesychasm in the fourteenth century, establishing Athos as a centre of mental prayer. To escape pirate raids he founded four monasteries in Thrace, the principal one being his "Concealed" monastery on Mount Paroria on the western shore of the Black Sea, where strict followers gathered around him. His writings include "On Stillness" and "On Commandments and Doctrines," both of which entered the Philokalia. Saint Gregory reposed in 1346 and is commemorated on 8 August.

Saint Myron the Wonderworker, Bishop of Crete

Saint Myron was born around the year 250 in the village of Raukos in Crete, near Knossos. From his youth he was distinguished by zeal and faith, and he received the gift of working wonders even as a layman. As a young man he was a family man and a farmer, known for goodness and ready to assist all who came to him. One celebrated incident records that he distributed the entire harvest of his parents' vineyard to the poor; when his mother feared there would be no wine, he returned to find a single bunch of three berries on the vine, which when pressed yielded enough to supply the whole village. After the persecution of Christians ended, the Cretan people, drawn by his virtue, urged him to accept ordination, and he was raised to the episcopate, most likely as Bishop of Gortyna and thus shepherd of all Crete. While ruling his flock with wisdom he received from the Lord a remarkable gift of wonderworking. On one occasion the river Triton flooded his land; the saint commanded its waters to halt, walked across as on dry ground, and afterwards sent his deacon with his staff to bid the river resume its course. Saint Myron reposed in great old age, and the village of Raukos was renamed Agios Myron in his honour. He is commemorated on 8 August.

Saint Triantaphyllos the New Martyr of Zagora

Saint Triantaphyllos was a young sailor born in 1663 in Zagora of Magnesia, in Thessaly. As a youth he went to Constantinople to work on the ships, where he was pressed by Muslim sailors and Turkish officials to embrace Islam. Triantaphyllos refused steadfastly, professing aloud, "I am an Orthodox Christian and will not deny my Saviour Christ." After enduring imprisonment and pressure to renounce his faith he was condemned and led to the Hippodrome of Constantinople, where he was beheaded on 8 August 1680, in the eighteenth year of his age. His memory was preserved by John Karyophylis, the Great Logothete of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, who recorded the lives of the early new martyrs under the Ottomans. He is especially venerated in Zagora and at Alykes near Volos, where churches are dedicated to him, and is commemorated by the Orthodox Church on 8 August.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

1 Corinthians — 1 Corinthians 7.24-35

²⁴Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God. ²⁴Brethren, let each man, wherein he was called, therein abide with God.

²⁵Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful.

²⁵Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: but I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be trustworthy. ²⁶I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress, I say, that it is good for a man so to be. ²⁶I think therefore that this is good by reason of the distress that is upon us, namely, that it is good for a man to be as he is. ²⁷Art thou bound unto a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife. ²⁷Art thou bound unto a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife. ²⁸But shouldest thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Yet such shall have tribulation in the flesh: and I would spare you. ²⁸But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you. ²⁹But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; ²⁹But this I say, brethren, the time is shortened, that henceforth both those that have wives may be as though they had none; ³⁰and those that weep, as though they wept not; and those that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and those that buy, as though they possessed not; ³⁰And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; ³¹And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away. ³¹and those that use the world, as not using it to the full: for the fashion of this world passeth away. ³²But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: ³²But I would have you to be free from cares. He that is unmarried is careful for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord: ³³But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife. ³³but he that is married is careful for the things of the world, how he may please his wife, ³⁴and is divided. So also the woman that is unmarried and the virgin is careful for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married is careful for the things of the world, how she may please her husband. ³⁴There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband. ³⁵And this I say for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is seemly, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction. ³⁵And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 15.12-21

¹²Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? ¹²Then came the disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, when they heard this saying? ¹³But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. ¹³But he answered and said, Every plant which my heavenly Father planted not, shall be rooted up. ¹⁴Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. ¹⁴Let them alone: they are blind guides. And if the blind guide the blind, both shall fall into a pit. ¹⁵Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable. ¹⁵And Peter answered and said unto him, Declare unto us the parable. ¹⁶And he said, Are ye also even yet without understanding? ¹⁶And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding? ¹⁷Perceive ye not, that whatsoever goeth into the mouth passeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? ¹⁷Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? ¹⁸But the things which proceed out of the mouth come forth out of the heart; and they defile the man. ¹⁸But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. ¹⁹For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: ¹⁹For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, railings: ²⁰These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man. ²⁰these are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not the man.

²¹Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.

²¹And Jesus went out thence, and withdrew into the parts of Tyre and Sidon.