Saturday, 24 August 2024

Saturday of the 9th week after Pentecost

111 days after Pascha · Tone 7 · Red squigg (doxology typikon symbol) · No Fast

Saints commemorated

★ Translation of the Relics of Saint Peter, Metropolitan of Moscow

Saint Peter, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Russia, reposed on 21 December 1326 in Moscow, the city he had chosen as the see of the Russian primate and where he had laid the foundations of the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos within the Kremlin. On 24 August 1479, during the rebuilding of that cathedral under Grand Prince Ivan III by the architect Aristotle Fioravanti, the relics of the saint were solemnly translated and re-enshrined in the new church. The Russian Church keeps this day as a feast of the translation of his relics, honouring the wonderworking hierarch who, by his blessing of Moscow as the spiritual centre of the Russian land, became the heavenly intercessor of the city and of the metropolitan throne.

Hieromartyr Eutyches

1st c.

He was a disciple and friend of St John the Theologian, and worked with the Apostle Paul, and is himself named as an Apostle though he is not one of the Seventy. He travelled widely in the ministry of the Gospel of Christ, suffering many imprisonments and tortures. He died in Sebastia, the place of his birth. The Prologue says that he was beheaded, the Great Horologion that he reposed in peace “in deep old age.”

Holy Hieromartyr Eutyches, Disciple of Saint John the Theologian

Saint Eutyches was a disciple of the holy Apostles John the Theologian and Paul, and lived from the apostolic age into the beginning of the second century. He was born in the Palestinian city of Sebastea. Although he is not numbered among the seventy, he is honoured with the title Apostle on account of his labours alongside the elder apostles, by whom he was consecrated bishop. Filled with apostolic zeal, he travelled widely preaching Christ and converting many to the faith. Arrested for his confession, he endured great sufferings: he was starved, beaten with iron rods, cast into the fire, and exposed to wild beasts; a lion let loose upon him is said to have praised God with a human voice and refused to harm him. At length he completed his earthly course in his native city, where he was beheaded with the sword.

Saint Cosmas the Aetolian, Equal to the Apostles

Saint Cosmas, called the new hieromartyr and equal to the apostles, was born in 1714 in the village of Megalo Dendro in Aetolia and given the name Constas at his baptism. After early studies in his homeland he went to Mount Athos, where he received the monastic tonsure at the Philotheou Monastery and was ordained priest. With the blessing of the Patriarch of Constantinople Seraphim II he set out in 1760 on a great missionary work, travelling through the Greek lands then under the Ottoman yoke, preaching repentance, founding schools for the children of the people, and recalling the faithful to the worship of the true God. He delivered his teachings in plain village speech and accompanied them with miracles. After eighteen years of apostolic labour he was seized by the Turks at the instigation of those whose interests his preaching had disturbed, and on 24 August 1779, near Berat in Albania, he was strangled and his body cast into a river.

Saint Dionysius of Zakynthos, Archbishop of Aegina

1622

Saint Dionysius was born about 1547 on the Ionian island of Zakynthos to the noble family of Sigouros, and from his youth was given to the study of the Scriptures and to a life of prayer. After taking the monastic habit at the monastery of the Strophades he was called against his will to the see of Aegina, which he served as archbishop with great gentleness and almsgiving. Longing for stillness, he resigned the cathedra and returned to the Strophades, and afterwards lived as the abbot of the monastery of Saint Anastasia on Zakynthos, where he reposed in 1622. The whole island honours him as its protector. Saint Dionysius is especially remembered for his forgiveness of the murderer of his own brother, whom he hid from his pursuers and dismissed in peace, a deed long held up as a luminous icon of Christian mercy. The twenty fourth of August is kept as the feast of the translation of his incorrupt relics from the Strophades to Zakynthos in 1716.

New Hieromartyr Kosmas of Aitolia, Equal-to-the-Apostles

1779

This recent Equal to the Apostles was born in Mega Dendron (Great Tree) in Aetolia. He became a monk on Mt Athos, where he lived and prayed for many years. But he was troubled by the ignorance of the Gospel that had fallen on many of the Orthodox people, living under the oppression of the Ottoman Turks. He went to Constantinople, where he studied the rhetorical arts and received the blessing of Patriarch Seraphim II to preach the Gospel. He travelled throughout Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Albania, preaching at every town he visited. Often not only Greeks but many Muslims would come to hear him, so great was his reputation for holiness. Though he always sought the blessing of the local bishop and the local Turkish governor before he preached in an area, his strong condemnations of dishonest business practices aroused the enmity of Orthodox Christian and Jewish merchants, who falsely accused him to the authorities. He was strangled by the Turks and thrown into a river in Albania, but his wonderworking relics were preserved. He reposed at the age of sixty-five.

Also commemorated: Trans. Rel. Peter, Metr. Kiev

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Romans — Romans 14.6-9

⁶He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. ⁶He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord: and he that eateth, eateth unto the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, unto the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. ⁷For none of us liveth to himself, and none dieth to himself. ⁷For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. ⁸For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. ⁸For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. ⁹For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. ⁹For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 15.32-39

³²Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.

³²And Jesus called unto him his disciples, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days and have nothing to eat: and I would not send them away fasting, lest haply they faint on the way. ³³And his disciples say unto him, Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude? ³³And the disciples say unto him, Whence should we have so many loaves in a desert place as to fill so great a multitude? ³⁴And Jesus saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes. ³⁴And Jesus said unto them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven, and a few small fishes. ³⁵And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. ³⁵And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground; ³⁶And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. ³⁶and he took the seven loaves and the fishes; and he gave thanks and brake, and gave to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes. ³⁷And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full. ³⁷And they all ate, and were filled: and they took up that which remained over of the broken pieces, seven baskets full. ³⁸And they that did eat were four thousand men, besides women and children. ³⁸And they that did eat were four thousand men, beside women and children. ³⁹And he sent away the multitude, and took ship, and came into the coasts of Magdala. ³⁹And he sent away the multitudes, and entered into the boat, and came into the borders of Magadan.