Tuesday, 3 September 2024

Tuesday of the 11th week after Pentecost

121 days after Pascha · Tone 1 · Liturgy · No Fast

Saints commemorated

Hieromartyr Anthimus, Bishop of Nicomedia

302

The Hieromartyr Anthimus was bishop of the great city of Nicomedia in Bithynia at the height of the persecution against the Christians launched by the emperors Diocletian and Maximian in the closing years of the third century. When the imperial residence at Nicomedia was being purged of believers, Anthimus, then already an elder of advanced years, was hidden in a village called Omana not far from the city by the entreaties of his flock. From his place of concealment he wrote letters of consolation and exhortation to the Christians of Nicomedia, urging them to remain firm in the faith and not to fear those who could kill the body but had no power over the soul. One such letter, entrusted to his deacon Theophilus, was intercepted, and the holy bishop's hiding place was betrayed. The emperor Maximian sent twenty soldiers to seize him. When they arrived, Anthimus himself, without revealing who he was, met them, gave them food and refreshment, and only then declared that he was the bishop they sought. Astonished by his hospitality and his calm confession, several of them fell at his feet and were baptised on the way back to the city. Brought before Maximian, the holy hieromartyr endured many torments. He was beaten, suspended, his sides torn with iron claws, his face pierced, and at last he was beheaded with the sword in the year 302. Together with him are honoured the deacon Theophilus, the deacons Dorotheus and Mardonius, the priests Indes and Gorgonius, and the deacon Migdonius, who suffered with him at Nicomedia.

Holy Martyr Basilissa of Nicomedia

The holy virgin martyr Basilissa of Nicomedia was a child of nine years when she was brought before the governor Alexander during the persecution of the emperor Diocletian at the beginning of the fourth century. Although she was so young, she had been instructed in the Christian faith by her parents and refused with steadfast courage to deny her Lord. The governor, attempting to bend her by terror, ordered her to be flogged. The blows fell upon her, but she did not weep, calling upon the name of Christ. He commanded that she be beaten with rods, that her body be scorched with fire and that she be cast into the heated furnace, but she emerged from each torment without harm, the flames not so much as scorching her hair. Wild beasts let loose upon her lay tame at her feet. Astonished at these wonders, Alexander himself, struck to the heart, fell down before her, confessed Christ as the true God, was baptised by the bishop, and within a few days reposed in peace. Saint Basilissa withdrew outside the city to give thanks to God on a small hill, where, kneeling in prayer, she gave up her soul to her heavenly Bridegroom. Her relics were buried in that same place by the local Christians, and the spring that flowed there became renowned for healings.

Holy New Martyr Polydorus of Cyprus

Saint Polydorus the New Martyr was born on the island of Cyprus, in the city of Nicosia, around the year 1794, the son of pious Orthodox parents. After their early death he travelled in pursuit of his livelihood through the Levant, settling for a time among the Christians of Egypt and later sailing to the West Indies. While at sea, in a moment of weakness brought on by drink and bad company, he was led to deny the Christian faith and to embrace Islam. As soon as he came to himself, he was filled with bitter remorse and resolved to seek out a martyr's death as the only fitting penance. Returning to the East, he confessed his apostasy openly before a Christian priest and at length presented himself before the Turkish judge of New Ephesus, declaring that he had abandoned his denial of Christ and confessed himself once again a Christian. Though offered every inducement to recant, the holy youth was steadfast. He was thrown into prison, beaten, threatened and tortured. At last he was condemned to death and was hanged at New Ephesus on the third of September 1794, at the age of about twenty. His body was reverently taken down by Christians and buried in the local Orthodox cemetery, and his memory has been kept by the Church of Cyprus and the Greek Church as one of the New Martyrs under the Turkish yoke.

Saint Theoctistus, fellow faster of Saint Euthymius the Great

467

Saint Theoctistus was a fellow ascetic and the closest spiritual companion of Saint Euthymius the Great. He came to the Holy Land in the late fourth century from Asia Minor and entered the laura of Pharan in the Judean desert, where he met Saint Euthymius soon after the latter's arrival from Melitene around the year 405. The two embraced one another in spiritual brotherhood and withdrew together to a deserted region near the brook of Wadi Mukellik, southeast of Jerusalem, where they lived in a cave and devoted themselves to silence, fasting and prayer for several years. As disciples gathered around them, Theoctistus, by the will of Euthymius, organised the brotherhood into a coenobitic monastery situated on the slope below the cave of Euthymius, and was appointed its first abbot. Saint Euthymius continued to dwell in the cave higher up, but referred all those who came to him for the angelic life to be tested first under Theoctistus, before being admitted to his own laura. The two cooperated for nearly forty years, Theoctistus governing his community with wisdom, discipline and gentleness, and serving as a father to many spiritual children, including the youthful Saint Sabas. The monastery of Theoctistus, often called Doukos, became one of the foundational houses of Palestinian monasticism. He reposed at a great age in the year 467, having outlived Saint Euthymius by one year, and was buried in the cave where they had first lived together.

Holy Martyr Basilissa

309

She lived near Nicomedia during the great persecution by the Emperor Diocletian. Though she was only nine years old, she was arrested and brought before Alexander, the Governor of Bithynia. When she fearlessly proclaimed her faith in Christ, the Governor had her stripped and beaten, but she only gave thanks to God. Enraged at the steadfastness of a mere child, the Governor ordered her chained and plunged head-first into boiling pitch, then cast into a blazing furnace, then thrown to the lions. Through all these torments she was miraculously preserved. Astonished at the wonders that he beheld, Alexander fell at Basilissa’s feet and confessed that he too believed that Christ is the Savior. He was baptized by the Bishop of Nicomedia and died not long afterward. Basilissa went into the wilderness outside the city to give thanks to God for her endurance under torture and to ask Him to receive her soul in peace. While praying in this way, she entered into her rest.

Our Holy Father Joannicius, Archbishop and first Patriarch of Serbia

1354

“Born in Prizrem, he served as first secretary to King Dušan. He became Archbishop in 1339, and in 1346 was raised to the rank of Patriarch. He was a zealous pastor, and brought order to the Serbian Church, being ‘a great upholder of the Church’s laws’. He entered into rest on September 3rd, 1349, and his relics are preserved at Pec´.” (Prologue)

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

2 Corinthians — 2 Corinthians 2.14-3.3

¹⁴But thanks be unto God, who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest through us the savor of his knowledge in every place. ¹⁴Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. ¹⁵For we are a sweet savor of Christ unto God, in them that are saved, and in them that perish; ¹⁵For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: ¹⁶to the one a savor from death unto death; to the other a savor from life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? ¹⁶To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? ¹⁷For we are not as the many, corrupting the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ. ¹⁷For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

¹Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? or need we, as do some, epistles of commendation to you or from you?

¹Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? ²Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men; ²Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: ³being made manifest that ye are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in tables that are hearts of flesh. ³Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 23.23-28

²³Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

²³Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy, and faith: but these ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone. ²⁴Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. ²⁴Ye blind guides, that strain out the gnat, and swallow the camel! ²⁵Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

²⁵Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full from extortion and excess. ²⁶Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. ²⁶Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the platter, that the outside thereof may become clean also. ²⁷Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.

²⁷Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. ²⁸Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. ²⁸Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but inwardly ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.