Monday, 16 September 2024

Monday of the 13th week after Pentecost

134 days after Pascha · Tone 3 · Black squigg (6-stich typikon symbol) · No Fast

Saints commemorated

★ Holy Great Martyr Euphemia the All-Praised

304

The Holy Great Martyr Euphemia was the daughter of Christian parents, the senator Philophronos and Theodosia, and suffered for Christ in the year 304 in the city of Chalcedon, on the Bosphorus opposite Constantinople. Priscus, the proconsul of Chalcedon, issued a decree requiring all the inhabitants of the city to attend a pagan festival in honour of the idol of Ares, on pain of death. Forty-nine Christians, Euphemia among them, hid in a house and worshipped the true God in secret. Discovered and brought before the proconsul, they confessed Christ and were tortured. The young virgin Euphemia was singled out for the most savage punishments. She was tied to a wheel set with sharp knives, but as she prayed the wheel stopped of itself and she was unhurt. Cast into a fiery furnace, she emerged unscathed; cast among wild beasts in the arena, she remained untouched until a single bear slightly wounded her foot, and at that moment she gave up her soul to God. Her relics later became the focus of the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon in 451, where the Orthodox confession of faith was miraculously confirmed by the saint.

Hieromartyr Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage

He was born to wealthy and noble parents in Carthage (north Africa), and became a prominent lawyer in that city. Around the year 246 he embraced the Christian faith and was baptized by the priest Caecilianus. Immediately he gave all his goods to the poor and retired to a quiet place in the country to devote himself to prayer and study of Christian writings. In 248 or 249 he was elected Bishop of Carthage by the insistence of the people, though some priests opposed the consecration of such a new Christian.

Soon after his election, the Emperor Decius began a terrible persecution of Christians, during which Cyprian, in hiding, upheld his flock by letters. During this time many Christians gave in to fear of death and either sacrificed to the idols or signed statements that they had done so. When the persecution ended, the problem arose of how to treat the apostates who wished to be received back into the Church. Rigorist groups such as the Novatians and Montanists held that these lapsi had removed themselves from all hope of salvation and could never re-enter the Church. Cyprian rejected this view (as well as the position of some who would immediately reconcile the apostates); he established the position, still standard in the Church, that apostates could be restored after confession and long penance. His position led to a schism in the Church at Carthage when Cyprian’s opponents set up Maximus the Montanist as a rival Bishop. The schism was only ended by a plague that swept the Empire and the city of Carthage in 253-254, together with a renewed persecution of Christians. Saint Cyprian’s tireless care for the suffering during this time won most of the schismatics back to his side. When peace returned, Cyprian called a series of Councils in Carthage to resolve the conflicts that had troubled the Church. He upheld the African (and Eastern) churches’ practice of reconciling heretics to the Church by Baptism rather than by laying on of hands, as was done in Rome; though Cyprian did not seek to impose this practice on other churches, Rome was not so tolerant and broke with the African church until the death of Pope Stephen.

In 256, yet another persecution broke out under the Emperor Valerian. Cyprian was arrested and brought before the Proconsul of the region. He refused to defend himself, and when told that he was to be executed, said only Deo Gratias!(Thanks be to God!). At his execution the holy bishop ordered that twenty-five gold pieces be given to the executioner, and put on the blindfold with his own hands.

Note: St Cyprian is missing on this date from traditional martyrologies because he was once confused with St Cyprian of Antioch (October 2). Today is the date of his martyrdom and the date of his commemoration on the Latin calendar.

Holy Martyr Ludmilla of Bohemia

Saint Ludmilla of Bohemia, born around 860, was the daughter of the Sorbian prince Slavibor and the wife of Borivoj I, the first Christian Duke of Bohemia. Both received holy Baptism from Saint Methodius, Archbishop of Moravia and Enlightener of the Slavs. As Christians the ducal couple worked for the enlightenment of their people, building churches and inviting priests to celebrate the divine services among the still largely pagan Czechs. Ludmilla outlived her husband and her son Vratislaus, and devoted herself to the upbringing of her grandson Wenceslaus, whom she catechised and trained in the ways of Christian rulership. Her daughter-in-law Drahomira, who favoured the pagan party, came to hate her mother-in-law for the influence she held over the young heir. When Ludmilla withdrew to her estate at Tetin, Drahomira sent two boyars, Tunna and Gomon, to murder her. They came upon her at prayer in her chamber on the night of 15 September 921 and strangled her with her own veil. Her grandson Saint Wenceslaus later translated her incorrupt relics to the Basilica of Saint George in Prague, where they remain. She is honoured as patroness of Bohemia and grandmother of Saint Wenceslaus.

St Ninian, Enlightener of Scotland

432

One of the great missionaries and early Saints of the British Isles, he was born in Britain around the year 360. Though Britain was still mostly pagan, Ninian was born of Christian parents. He traveled to Rome as a young man, and spent several years there engaged in study and ascetic struggle. He was ordained in Rome and sent back as a missionary to Britain around the year 400. On the way he probably met St Martin of Tours: many of the churches he founded, including his cathedral in Whithorn, were named in honor of St Martin. He established several monasteries, ministered to his Christian Briton countrymen and converted many more Britons to the Faith. He also converted many of the fierce Picts, inhabitants of today’s Scotland, to faith in Christ. He reposed in peace in Whithorn in 432.

Our Holy Father Dorotheos the Solitary of Egypt

4th c.

He was one of the great company of Egyptian desert fathers of the fourth century. He lived alone in a cell in the Thebaid for sixty years, devoting himself to prayer, asceticism and renowned love of labor. He spent his days building cells for new monks, his nights making plaited mats, all the while immersed in prayer and psalmody.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

2 Corinthians — 2 Corinthians 8.7-15

⁷But as ye abound in everything, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all earnestness, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also. ⁷Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also. ⁸I speak not by way of commandment, but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity also of your love. ⁸I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love. ⁹For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might become rich. ⁹For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. ¹⁰And herein I give my judgment: for this is expedient for you, who were the first to make a beginning a year ago, not only to do, but also to will. ¹⁰And herein I give my advice: for this is expedient for you, who have begun before, not only to do, but also to be forward a year ago. ¹¹But now complete the doing also; that as there was the readiness to will, so there may be the completion also out of your ability. ¹¹Now therefore perform the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also out of that which ye have. ¹²For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not. ¹²For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according as a man hath, not according as he hath not. ¹³For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened: ¹³For I say not this that others may be eased and ye distressed; ¹⁴but by equality: your abundance being a supply at this present time for their want, that their abundance also may become a supply for your want; that there may be equality: ¹⁴But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality: ¹⁵as it is written, He that gathered much had nothing over; and he that gathered little had no lack. ¹⁵As it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 3.19-22

¹⁹But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias his brother Philip’s wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, ¹⁹but Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things which Herod had done, ²⁰added this also to them all, that he shut up John in prison. ²⁰Added yet this above all, that he shut up John in prison. ²¹Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened,

²¹Now it came to pass, when all the people were baptized, that, Jesus also having been baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, ²²And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. ²²and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form, as a dove, upon him, and a voice came out of heaven, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.