Wednesday, 11 September 2024

Wednesday of the 12th week after Pentecost

129 days after Pascha · Tone 2 · Liturgy · Fast

Saints commemorated

Holy Martyrs Diodorus, Didymus, and Diomedes of Laodicea

The holy martyrs Diodorus, Didymus, and Diomedes were inhabitants of Laodicea in Syria who suffered for Christ during one of the persecutions of the late third or early fourth century. Although the precise circumstances of their passion are not preserved in detail, the ancient synaxaria record that they were arrested as Christians, brought before the local governor, and there confessed openly the faith of the crucified and risen Lord. After enduring various torments aimed at compelling them to sacrifice to the idols, all three were condemned to death and gave up their souls to God, receiving together the unfading crown of martyrdom. Their commemoration on this day links them with Saint Theodora of Alexandria as a witness that the path of the martyrs and the path of repentance both lead by different roads to the same Kingdom.

Saint Euphrosynus the Cook

Saint Euphrosynus lived in the ninth century and was a humble cook in a monastery in Palestine. Of simple education and rough appearance, he served the brethren in the kitchen with great patience and lowliness, often bearing the impatience and rebukes of those for whom he laboured without complaint, considering himself unworthy of the monastic name. In his hidden life of prayer he attained, unknown to the brethren, a high measure of grace. One night a certain priest of the monastery, who had often prayed to be shown the rewards prepared for the saints, was carried in a vision to the garden of paradise and there found Euphrosynus walking among the trees of life. The cook, recognising the priest, gave him three apples from paradise as a sign that the vision was true. When the priest awoke he found the apples beside him on his bed, fragrant beyond anything of this world. Going to the kitchen at the hour of matins, he questioned Euphrosynus, who in confusion and humility confessed that he had indeed been in paradise that night. The priest then revealed the vision to the abbot and brethren, but Euphrosynus, unwilling to be honoured, immediately fled the monastery and was never seen again. The fragrant apples were divided among the brethren for blessing and healing, and Saint Euphrosynus is venerated as a model of hidden sanctity.

Saint Theodora of Alexandria

Saint Theodora lived in Alexandria in the late fifth century during the reign of the emperor Zeno. She was a married woman of pious life until, deceived by an evil woman who acted as a procuress, she fell into an act of adultery. Stricken by remorse and unable to bear the weight of her sin, she sought out a holy abbess, who consoled her with the example of the publican and assured her that no sin is too great for the mercy of Christ. Determined to amend her life, Theodora cut off her hair, dressed herself as a man, and withdrew to the men's monastery of Octodecaton near Alexandria, where she was received under the name Theodore. There, unrecognised even by her own husband who at one point came to seek her, she lived for many years in extreme asceticism, in fasting, prayer, and obedience, surpassing the brethren in humility and labour. Falsely accused of being the father of a child borne by a woman of a nearby village, she accepted the accusation in silence, was expelled from the monastery, and lived for seven years in the wilderness with the child, enduring hunger, cold, and the assaults of demons, who once appeared to her in the likeness of her former husband. After many trials she was readmitted to the monastery and continued in her labours until her repose, when only at her death was her true identity discovered. Her relics worked many wonders, and her life is read as a model of repentance.

Translation of the relics of Saints Sergius and Herman of Valaam

Saints Sergius and Herman were monks of Greek origin who, according to the tradition of the Russian North, came as missionaries to the wild and pagan region of Karelia in the fourteenth century, settling on the rocky island of Valaam in Lake Ladoga. There they founded the monastery of the Transfiguration, which became the cradle of monasticism in northern Russia and is sometimes called "the Athos of the North." They lived in great asceticism in the harsh climate of the lake, preached the Gospel to the pagan Karelians and Finns, and gathered around them a community of monks who carried their spiritual tradition into the surrounding lands. After their repose their relics were enshrined in the monastery, but in 1611, during the Swedish invasions, the monastery was destroyed and the relics were hidden underground. After the founding of Saint Petersburg and the recovery of the lands of Karelia, the monastery was restored, and on 11 September 1718 the relics of the founders were translated and returned to their resting place. This translation is the feast kept today, while the principal commemoration of the saints falls on 28 June. Through them and their successors many great elders, missionaries to America, and confessors of the twentieth century have arisen.

St Euphrosynos the Cook of Alexandria

9th c.

His icon is found in countless Orthodox kitchens. A simple and holy man, when he entered monastic life in Alexandria he was judged unfit for any service more demanding than kitchen work. There he labored without complaint, looked down upon by most of the other monks. One night the abbot dreamed that he was in Paradise, and there met Euphrosynos, who gave him a branch that bore three fragrant apples. Awakening, the abbot found the same apples on his pillow. He hurried to find Euphrosynos and asked him, `Where were you last night, brother?’ Euphrosynos only replied, `Where were you, Father?’ The abbot gathered the monks and told them the wonderful story, by which they all realized the cook’s holiness. But Euphrosynos, unwilling to endure the praise of men, fled the monastery for the desert.

St Paphnutius the Confessor

4th c.

“A bishop of the Egyptian Thebaid, he suffered greatly for the Orthodox faith: heretics put out one of his eyes and broke his left leg. He took part in the First Ecumenical Council, refuting the Arian heresy with great power. The Emperor Constantine valued him greatly and often kissed him on the missing eye, lost for the truth of Orthodoxy. At the council, he stood in opposition to the western representatives, who proposed that secular priests be completely forbidden to marry. He was chaste throughout the whole of his life.” (Prologue)

Canonization of St Xenia of St Petersburg

1978

She is commemorated on January 24.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

2 Corinthians — 2 Corinthians 6.11-16

¹¹Our mouth is open unto you, O Corinthians, our heart is enlarged.

¹¹O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. ¹²Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own affections. ¹²Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels. ¹³Now for a recompense in like kind (I speak as unto my children), be ye also enlarged. ¹³Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged.

¹⁴Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? or what communion hath light with darkness? ¹⁴Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? ¹⁵And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what portion hath a believer with an unbeliever? ¹⁵And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? ¹⁶And what agreement hath a temple of God with idols? for we are a temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ¹⁶And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Mark — Mark 1.23-28

²³And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, ²³And straightway there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, ²⁴Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. ²⁴saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus thou Nazarene? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. ²⁵And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. ²⁵And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. ²⁶And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him. ²⁶And the unclean spirit, tearing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. ²⁷And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him. ²⁷And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What is this? a new teaching! with authority he commandeth even the unclean spirits, and they obey him. ²⁸And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee. ²⁸And the report of him went out straightway everywhere into all the region of Galilee round about.