Friday, 4 October 2024

Friday of the 15th week after Pentecost

152 days after Pascha · Tone 5 · Red squigg (doxology typikon symbol) · Fast

Saints commemorated

Hieromartyr Hierotheus, Bishop of Athens

Saint Hierotheus was a member of the Athenian Areopagos in the first century and is reckoned as one of the early teachers of Christian wisdom in Greece. A man of philosophical learning, he was converted and baptised by the Apostle Paul during the Apostle's mission to Athens, and was afterwards consecrated by him as the first bishop of the city. In turn Hierotheus became the spiritual father of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, instructing him more perfectly in the mysteries of the faith. The tradition of the Church preserves the memory of his presence at the dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, where, caught up in divine contemplation, he chanted hymns of unearthly beauty alongside the holy apostles. Saint Dionysius in his writings calls him a true initiate into the things of God. After many labours of evangelism and the conversion of many pagans, Hierotheus ended his life as a martyr in the first century. Portions of his relics, including his skull, are venerated in the monastery dedicated to him at Megara in Attica and on Mount Athos.

Saints Guriy, Archbishop of Kazan, and Barsanuphius, Bishop of Tver

1576

This day commemorates the uncovering of the relics of Saints Guriy and Barsanuphius, the missionary hierarchs sent to Christianise the newly conquered Khanate of Kazan in the sixteenth century. Saint Guriy, born Gregory Rugotin about 1500 of a noble Russian family, served as steward in a princely household before false accusations led to his imprisonment, where he turned wholly to prayer and to the writing of small books for poor children. Released after two years, he received the monastic tonsure at the Volokolamsk monastery and became its abbot. In 1555 he was consecrated by Saint Macarius of Moscow as the first archbishop of Kazan, where he laboured to convert the Tatar peoples until his repose in 1563. Saint Barsanuphius, his close companion in the mission, became Bishop of Tver and reposed in 1576. In the year 1595, during the building of a new cathedral at Kazan, the incorrupt relics of both hierarchs were uncovered and have ever since been venerated as wonderworking. Their joint commemoration on this day was established by the Church in thanksgiving for the discovery.

Venerable Ammon of Egypt

Saint Ammon (also called Amun) was born about the year 294 in Egypt and is honoured as one of the founders of monasticism in the Nitrian desert. Compelled by his parents to marry, he persuaded his bride on their wedding night to live with him in continence, and for eighteen years they shared a chaste life of prayer and almsgiving as brother and sister. With his wife's blessing he then withdrew to the wilderness of Nitria, west of the Nile delta, where he laboured in solitude in fasting, vigil and unceasing prayer. To his cell gathered many disciples, and he is credited with developing a form of semi-eremitic monasticism, in which solitaries lived close enough to one another to gather on Sundays for the Liturgy and common meals. The settlement of Kellia, the "Cells", grew out of his counsel. He often visited Saint Anthony the Great, with whom he shared deep friendship, and Anthony beheld in vision the angels bearing his soul to heaven at his death about the year 350. Saint Athanasius records his life and miracles in the Life of Anthony.

Venerable Paul the Simple of Egypt

Saint Paul, called the Simple for his guilelessness and gentleness of soul, was a Egyptian peasant of the fourth century. Already sixty years old when he discovered his wife's infidelity, he left her without bitterness and walked into the desert to seek out Saint Anthony the Great. At first the great hermit refused to receive him, judging him too old for the harsh ascetic life, and bade him return home. Paul stood outside Anthony's cell for three days without food, declaring that he would sooner die there than turn back. Moved by his perseverance, Anthony took him in and tested him by hard manual labour, severe fasting, all-night vigils and ceaseless psalmody. Paul bore every trial without complaint and showed such docility that Anthony declared him a true monk. The Lord granted him remarkable gifts of discernment and authority over demons, so that Anthony himself would on occasion send the more difficult cases of possession to be healed by Paul's prayer. He reposed in old age, having become a model of obedience and simplicity for all who follow the monastic way.

Also commemorated: Unc. Rel. Gurias of Kazan and Varsanuphy of Tver

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Galatians — Galatians 4.8-21

⁸Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.

⁸Howbeit at that time, not knowing God, ye were in bondage to them that by nature are no gods: ⁹but now that ye have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how turn ye back again to the weak and beggarly rudiments, whereunto ye desire to be in bondage over again? ⁹But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? ¹⁰Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. ¹⁰Ye observe days, and months, and seasons, and years. ¹¹I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. ¹¹I am afraid of you, lest by any means I have bestowed labor upon you in vain.

¹²Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.

¹²I beseech you, brethren, become as I am, for I also am become as ye are. Ye did me no wrong: ¹³but ye know that because of an infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you the first time: ¹³Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. ¹⁴and that which was a temptation to you in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but ye received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. ¹⁴And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. ¹⁵Where then is that gratulation of yourselves? for I bear you witness, that, if possible, ye would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. ¹⁵Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. ¹⁶So then am I become your enemy, by telling you the truth? ¹⁶Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? ¹⁷They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them. ¹⁷They zealously seek you in no good way; nay, they desire to shut you out, that ye may seek them. ¹⁸But it is good to be zealously sought in a good matter at all times, and not only when I am present with you. ¹⁸But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you. ¹⁹My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, ¹⁹My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you— ²⁰but I could wish to be present with you now, and to change my tone; for I am perplexed about you. ²⁰I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.

²¹Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?

²¹Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 7.31-35

³¹And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like? ³¹Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation, and to what are they like? ³²They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept. ³²They are like unto children that sit in the marketplace, and call one to another; who say, We piped unto you, and ye did not dance; we wailed, and ye did not weep. ³³For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil. ³³For John the Baptist is come eating no bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a demon. ³⁴The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold, a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! ³⁴The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! ³⁵But wisdom is justified of all her children. ³⁵And wisdom is justified of all her children.