Saturday, 5 October 2024

Saturday of the 15th week after Pentecost

153 days after Pascha · Tone 5 · Red squigg (doxology typikon symbol) · No Fast

Saints commemorated

★ Holy Hierarchs of Moscow Peter, Alexis, Jonas, Macarius, Philip, Hermogenes, Philaret, Innocent, and Tikhon

1925

This Feast of the Hierarchs of Moscow was established during the reign of Tsar Theodore and Patriarch Job in the year 1596. All of them are commemorated individually as well as on this day. Only Sts Peter, Alexis, Jonas and Philip are specifically mentioned in the Menaion service, but other holy hierarchs of Moscow have been added to the commemoration over the years.

Holy Martyr Charitina of Amisus

Saint Charitina was an orphan from Amisus on the southern shore of the Black Sea, raised in the household of a pious Christian noble named Claudius, who treated her as his own daughter. From childhood she devoted herself to the study of the Scriptures, vowed her virginity to Christ and became known among her townsfolk for her gentle catechesis, which led many pagans to faith. During the persecution under Diocletian about the year 304, the governor Dometian had her brought before him and demanded that she sacrifice to the idols. When she boldly confessed Christ, her head was shaved, burning coals were heaped upon it, her body was lacerated and she was bound to a wheel set over a fire, but she was preserved by the visible help of an angel. Her teeth and the nails of her hands and feet were torn out, and lastly the judge ordered her to be subjected to outrage by lewd men. Praying that the Lord receive her soul before her body could be defiled, she gave up her spirit while still at prayer. Her body, weighted with stones and cast into the sea, was carried back to land three days later and buried with reverence by Claudius.

Saint Eudokimos the Unknown of Vatopedi

1841

Saint Eudokimos is called "the Unknown" because nothing of his earthly life and ascesis was recorded by the brethren of his community. He was a monk of the Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos who is thought to have lived in the early nineteenth century. The discovery of his sanctity came about by chance: when, in the year 1841, the customary opening of the ossuary was made at Vatopedi, a fragrant golden glow filled the chamber and the brethren found the relics of an unknown monk shining with heavenly light. His skull, like those of certain great saints, was found to be the colour of golden wax and to give off a sweet fragrance, traditional signs of holiness in Athonite tradition. Marvelling at God who glorifies his hidden ones, the fathers of the monastery dedicated a chapel to him and named him Eudokimos, meaning "well pleasing", a fitting title for one whose name only the Lord knew. His relics remain at Vatopedi, where they continue to work miracles for the faithful, and his memory is kept on 5 October.

Saint Methodia of Kimolos

1861

Saint Methodia was born Irene Sardis in the year 1861 on the small Cycladic island of Kimolos, the third of eight children of devout parents. From early childhood she was distinguished by her piety, modesty and her love of the Church. To honour her parents she consented to marriage with a seaman from Chios, but soon after the wedding her husband perished in a shipwreck off the coast of Asia Minor. Taking this loss as the call of God, she received the monastic tonsure from the Metropolitan of Syros and was given the name Methodia. She withdrew to a tiny cell at Stiadi within the abandoned inner castle of Kimolos, beside the church of the Nativity, where she lived a hidden life of strict fasting, vigil, study of Holy Scripture, ceaseless prayer and tears. She fasted every day except Saturday and Sunday, and during Great Lent received no visitors at all, emerging only at Pascha. The Lord granted her the gifts of counsel, comfort and healing, so that the people of Kimolos and pilgrims from other islands sought her out. She reposed in peace on 5 October 1908 at the age of forty-three. Her relics were translated to the church of Panagia Odigitria, and she was canonised by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1991.

Synaxis of the holy hierarchs of Moscow Peter, Alexis, Jonah, Philip and Hermogenes

This common feast was first established by Patriarch Job of Moscow in 1596 in honour of Saints Peter, Alexis and Jonah, three Metropolitans of Kiev and All Russia whose see was permanently transferred to Moscow and whose holy relics rest in the Dormition Cathedral of the Kremlin. Saint Peter (1308-1326) was the first metropolitan to settle in Moscow and prophesied its rise as a centre of Orthodoxy. Saint Alexis (1354-1378) governed the Russian Church during a difficult period of Tatar overlordship and was a healer who restored sight to the wife of Khan Janibek. Saint Jonah (1448-1461) was the first metropolitan to be elected by Russian bishops without recourse to Constantinople, marking the autocephaly of the Russian Church. To these three were later joined Saint Philip (1566-1568), who suffered martyrdom for rebuking the cruelty of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, and Saint Hermogenes (1606-1612), Patriarch of Moscow, who from his prison cell roused the Russian people to deliver Moscow from foreign occupation during the Time of Troubles and died of starvation in 1612. The full synaxis now also commemorates the more recent hierarchs Tikhon, Innocent of Alaska, Philaret and others. Their joint feast on 5 October is one of the most beloved patronal celebrations of the city of Moscow.

Also commemorated: Ss Peter, Aleksy, Jonah, Philip, Germogen, Metrs. Moscow

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

1 Corinthians — 1 Corinthians 4.17-5.5

¹⁷For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church. ¹⁷For this cause have I sent unto you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who shall put you in remembrance of my ways which are in Christ, even as I teach everywhere in every church. ¹⁸Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you. ¹⁸Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. ¹⁹But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power. ¹⁹But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will; and I will know, not the word of them that are puffed up, but the power. ²⁰For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. ²⁰For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. ²¹What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness? ²¹What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness?

¹It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles, that one of you hath his father’s wife.

¹It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. ²And ye are puffed up, and did not rather mourn, that he that had done this deed might be taken away from among you. ²And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. ³For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, ³For I verily, being absent in body but present in spirit, have already as though I were present judged him that hath so wrought this thing, ⁴In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴in the name of our Lord Jesus, ye being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, ⁵To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. ⁵to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 5.27-32

²⁷And after these things he went forth, and beheld a publican, named Levi, sitting at the place of toll, and said unto him, Follow me.

²⁷And after these things he went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, Follow me. ²⁸And he left all, rose up, and followed him. ²⁸And he forsook all, and rose up and followed him. ²⁹And Levi made him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them.

²⁹And Levi made him a great feast in his house: and there was a great multitude of publicans and of others that were sitting at meat with them. ³⁰And the Pharisees and their scribes murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with the publicans and sinners? ³⁰But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? ³¹And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. ³¹And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are in health have no need of a physician; but they that are sick. ³²I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. ³²I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.