Friday, 30 August 2024

Friday of the 10th week after Pentecost

117 days after Pascha · Tone 8 · Red cross (polyeleos typikon symbol) · Fast

Saints commemorated

Saints Alexander, John and Paul the New, Patriarchs of Constantinople

The Orthodox Church commemorates together on this day three of the great hierarchs of the see of Constantinople. Saint Alexander was a vicar bishop under the first Patriarch Saint Metrophanes, whom he replaced at the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325 because of the patriarch's extreme age, and on whose instructions he was elected to the throne after his repose. As patriarch he confronted the heresiarch Arius, whose death by the prayers of the saint preserved the Church from his return to communion. He fell asleep in the Lord in 340 at the age of ninety eight. Saint John IV the Faster (582-595) compiled the Penitential Nomocanon long used as a guide for confessors, but his memory is darkened by his ill advised assumption of the title oecumenical patriarch, against which Saint Gregory the Great of Rome rightly protested; he is honoured for his strict ascetic life and for the gentleness of his confessional discipline. Saint Paul the New, a Cypriot, was Patriarch from 780 to 784 in the time of the iconoclasts, but resigned his throne, withdrew secretly to the monastery of Saint Florus, and counselled the Empress Irene that only an ecumenical council could heal the Church; on his advice Saint Tarasius was chosen to succeed him, and in 787 the Seventh Ecumenical Council at Nicaea restored the holy icons.

Synaxis of the Serbian Hierarchs and Saints

On this day are commemorated seventeen holy Serbian hierarchs, beginning with St Sava (Sabbas), first Archbishop of Serbia and Equal to the Apostles. They are:

St Sava, first Archbishop of Serbia, Equal to the Apostles
Arsenius, his successor
Sava II, son of King Stephen the First-Crowned
Nicodemus, who lived on the Holy Mountain, was abbot of Hilandar Monastery there and Archbishop of Serbia
Joannicius, patriarch from 1346-1349
Ephraim, chosen as patriarch against his will in 1376. He crowned Prince Lazar, then renounced the patriarchal throne and retired into solitude
Spiridon, his successor (+1388)
Macarius, a great restorer of old churches and monasteries; printed many Church books (+1574)
Gabriel, a nobleman by birth. The Prologue says that he ‘took part in the Moscow Council under Patriarch Nikhon, because of which he was tortured by the Turks for treason and hanged in 1656.’
In addition, Eustace, Jacob, Danilo, Sava III, Gregory, John, Maxim and Nikhon.

The vital connection between the Serbian church and the Holy Mountain is obvious here; many of these hierarchs lived and struggled on Mt Athos.

Venerable Alexander of Svir

Saint Alexander of Svir was born in 1448 in the village of Mandera near Lake Onega in the Russian north and given the name Amos at his baptism. As a young man he went to the monastery of Valaam, where he received the monastic tonsure with the name Alexander and embraced the strict ascetic life. After many years on Valaam he withdrew to a remote place by the river Svir and dwelt there as a hermit in great poverty and unceasing prayer. There the Most Holy Trinity appeared to him in the likeness of three radiant men, an event almost without parallel in the Christian East, and instructed him to gather a brotherhood and build a monastery in their honour. Saint Alexander became the founder of the Trinity Monastery of Svir, the spiritual father of many disciples and the teacher of a whole generation of northern saints. He fell asleep in the Lord on 30 August 1533, and his body was found incorrupt and remains so to this day.

Venerable Phantinus the New, Wonderworker of Calabria

Saint Phantinus the Younger was born in Calabria in southern Italy about the year 902 and from his youth was given to the love of God. He embraced the monastic life as a young man and laboured for many years in great asceticism in the mountains of his native land, becoming the spiritual father of a great brotherhood of Greek speaking monks under the rule of Saint Basil. When the Saracens overran Calabria he fled with his disciples and finally came to Thessalonica, where he passed his last years instructing the monks of the city in the ways of perfection. Endowed with the gifts of prophecy and of healing, he foretold his own death and reposed in peace at Thessalonica about the year 974. He is honoured among the new wonderworkers of the West and as the patron of the Greek monastic tradition of Calabria.

Also commemorated: Trans. Rel. St Alexander Nevsky

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

2 Corinthians — 2 Corinthians 1.12-20

¹²For our glorying is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we behaved ourselves in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.

¹²For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward. ¹³For we write no other things unto you, than what ye read or even acknowledge, and I hope ye will acknowledge unto the end: ¹³For we write none other things unto you, than what ye read or acknowledge; and I trust ye shall acknowledge even to the end; ¹⁴as also ye did acknowledge us in part, that we are your glorying, even as ye also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus. ¹⁴As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.

¹⁵And in this confidence I was minded to come first unto you, that ye might have a second benefit;

¹⁵And in this confidence I was minded to come unto you before, that ye might have a second benefit; ¹⁶and by you to pass into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come unto you, and of you to be set forward on my journey unto Judæa. ¹⁶And to pass by you into Macedonia, and to come again out of Macedonia unto you, and of you to be brought on my way toward Judaea. ¹⁷When I therefore was thus minded, did I use lightness? or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be yea yea, and nay nay? ¹⁷When I therefore was thus minded, did I show fickleness? or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be the yea yea and the nay nay? ¹⁸But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay. ¹⁸But as God is faithful, our word toward you is not yea and nay. ¹⁹For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not yea and nay, but in him is yea. ¹⁹For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. ²⁰For how many soever be the promises of God, in him is the yea: wherefore also through him is the Amen, unto the glory of God through us. ²⁰For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 22.23-33

²³The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,

²³On that day there came to him Sadducees, they that say that there is no resurrection: and they asked him, ²⁴Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. ²⁴saying, Teacher, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. ²⁵Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: ²⁵Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first married and deceased, and having no seed left his wife unto his brother; ²⁶Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. ²⁶in like manner the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. ²⁷And last of all the woman died also. ²⁷And after them all, the woman died. ²⁸In the resurrection therefore whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. ²⁸Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. ²⁹But Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. ²⁹Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. ³⁰For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. ³⁰For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as angels in heaven. ³¹But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, ³¹But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, ³²I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. ³²I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. ³³And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine. ³³And when the multitudes heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.