Tuesday, 8 October 2024

Tuesday of the 16th week after Pentecost

156 days after Pascha · Tone 6 · Liturgy · No Fast

Saints commemorated

Saint Pelagia of Tarsus the Virgin Martyr

Saint Pelagia of Tarsus in Cilicia lived in the third century during the reign of Diocletian, and was the daughter of illustrious pagan parents of high rank. Hearing the gospel from Christian friends, she came to believe in Christ, resolved to preserve her virginity, and dedicated her life wholly to the Lord. The emperor Diocletian's adopted heir, struck by her beauty, sought her as his bride. The holy virgin replied that she was already betrothed to Christ the immortal Bridegroom and would not consent to an earthly marriage. In despair the youth fell upon his sword. Fearing imperial wrath, Pelagia's mother bound her daughter and led her to court, accusing her both of being a Christian and of causing the prince's death. Before facing the emperor, Pelagia is said to have sought out Bishop Linus (or Clinon), who baptised her. Brought before Diocletian, the emperor too was overcome by her beauty and offered to make her his wife. Pelagia refused and confessed Christ openly. Enraged, Diocletian commanded that she be enclosed within a red-hot bronze bull, where she yielded up her soul, her body melted in the heat. Christians later gathered her remains for burial. Her commemoration was originally on 8 October together with the other Pelagias of Antioch. In present Orthodox practice she is principally commemorated on 4 May, with mention preserved on 8 October in older menaia and synaxaria.

Saint Thais of Egypt the Penitent

Saint Thais was a celebrated courtesan of fourth-century Egypt, renowned for her beauty and her wealth, and notorious for the multitude of men who ruined themselves for her sake. She lived in luxury at the centre of public life, while families and fortunes were destroyed in pursuit of her. Hearing of the harm she was working among Christians, the desert father Saint Paphnutius, or in some accounts a disciple of his, dressed himself in the garments of a worldly visitor and sought her out. Brought into her inner chamber, he asked whether there was any place still more secret. She answered that none could see them there save God. The elder seized upon her words and asked her if she truly knew that there was a God who saw and would judge, and how she could then live as she did. Pierced by his words, Thais broke into tears and asked how she might be saved. She gathered her costly clothes, her jewels, and all her ill-gotten wealth, brought them to the public square, and burned them, that they might tempt no one further. She then followed Paphnutius to a women's monastery, where he enclosed her in a narrow cell, sealing the door, leaving only a small window for her bread and water. He bade her stand facing the east and repeat one prayer only, "O Thou who didst fashion me, have mercy upon me." After three years, the elder went to Saint Antony the Great to ask whether God had forgiven her. Antony's disciple Saint Paul saw a vision of a great bed in heaven prepared for her. Paphnutius then unsealed her cell. Thais lived only fifteen days more in freedom and reposed in peace. Her conversion has been honoured throughout the Church as a sign that no sinner is beyond mercy.

Venerable Pelagia the Penitent

Saint Pelagia, also called Pelagia of Antioch and Pelagia the Harlot, was a Christian saint and hermit of the fourth or fifth century. Before her conversion, she was the head of a dance troupe in Antioch of Syria, living in luxury, vanity, and prostitution. Adorned in finery and jewels, she was a byword for the city's moral decay.

Her conversion came through Saint Nonnus, Bishop of Edessa. As Pelagia passed by a church one day, dressed in extravagant ornament, the assembled bishops turned their faces from her, but Nonnus looked after her in pity, then withdrew to weep and pray that her outer beauty might be answered by an inner one. Coming later to the church and hearing Nonnus preach upon the dread Last Judgement, Pelagia was pierced to the heart. Weeping bitter tears, she begged for baptism, and Nonnus, persuaded of her sincere repentance, baptised her.

Three days after her baptism, Pelagia gathered her wealth and jewels and brought them to Bishop Nonnus, who ordered them distributed to the poor, saying that riches gained by sin should now become a wealth of righteousness. She left Antioch in secret, dressed as a man, and made her way to Jerusalem, where she enclosed herself in a small cell on the Mount of Olives. There she lived in austere asceticism under the name of the monk Pelagius, attaining great spiritual gifts and unknown to all who came to her for counsel.

She died from the rigour of her ascetic struggles, so emaciated that she was at first unrecognisable. Only when the holy fathers prepared her body for burial was it discovered that the renowned monk had been a woman. They sought to keep this secret, but news spread and pilgrims came from Jericho and the Jordan valley to venerate her.

Venerable Tryphon, Archimandrite of Vyatka

Saint Tryphon of Vyatka, in the world Trofim Dmitrievich Podvizaev, was born about 1546 in the village of Malaya Nemyushka in the Pinega district of the diocese of Archangelsk, the youngest son of the pious peasants Demetrios and Pelagia. From his youth he loved prayer, fasting, and the reading of holy books, and rejected the marriage that his family had arranged for him. Leaving his home, he went to the city of Orlov, founded by the Stroganov merchants, and lived there for a time under the spiritual guidance of the priest John. He then withdrew to the upper waters of the Kama and the Chusova river, in the wilderness of the Perm region, taking up the life of a hermit. There he preached the gospel to the pagan Ostiak and Vogul tribes, suffering the hostility of their shamans, and brought many to Christ. Upon the place where he had lived in solitude he established a monastery in honour of the Dormition of the Theotokos. In 1580 he came to the city of Khlynov in the Vyatka region, where the inhabitants entreated him to found a monastery for them. With the blessing of Tsar Ivan IV, he established the Dormition monastery there, of which he was made archimandrite. He governed his community with severity to himself and gentleness to others, wearing a hairshirt and heavy iron chains beneath his habit, and devoting himself to ceaseless prayer. In old age he was driven from his monastery by certain monks who resented his strictness, and wandered through the northern Russian lands, founding new houses and bringing peace where he went. Returning at last to Vyatka, he was received with honour, and reposed peacefully on 8 October 1612. He is venerated as the enlightener of the Vyatka region and a wonderworker, with healings reported at his tomb.

Saint Thaïs the Repentant Harlot

4th c.

She lived in Alexandria, where, when she was seventeen, her own mother placed her in a brothel, where due to her great beauty she was able to amass some wealth. Saint Serapion (March 21), hearing about Thaïs and her way of life, was moved by God to try to convert her. He dressed himself as a soldier, found her, gave her a gold piece, and went with her to her room. When the door was shut, he put aside his tunic, revealing his monastic robe, and asked if he might speak with her. With tears he told her of the doom that awaits sinners, and of the infinite mercy of God, who desires that all should be saved and welcomes every repentant sinner. Thaïs, her heart melted by his words, ran to the public square, burned all the fine clothes and possessions that she had acquired through her trade, and went with Serapion to a women’s monastery. There he instructed her to stay secluded in her cell, beseeching God’s mercy constantly and only eating every other day; she was to do this until she was instructed otherwise. Thaïs lived in this way for three years, with such zeal that she amazed all her monastic sisters. Meanwhile St Serapion went to St Anthony the Great to ask him if God had accepted Thaïs’ repentance. Saint Anthony and his brethren spent a night in prayer and received a vision in which they were assured that Thaïs had been found worthy of God’s mercy. Returning to the monastery, Serapion made the repentant Saint leave her cell, though by now she only wished to spend her life in repentant prayer. After spending only fifteen days in the common life of the monastery, the holy Thaïs reposed in peace.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Galatians — Galatians 5.11-21

¹¹But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? then hath the stumbling-block of the cross been done away. ¹¹And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased. ¹²I would that they that unsettle you would even go beyond circumcision. ¹²I would they were even cut off which trouble you.

¹³For ye, brethren, were called for freedom; only use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through love be servants one to another. ¹³For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. ¹⁴For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. ¹⁴For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. ¹⁵But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. ¹⁵But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. ¹⁶This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

¹⁶But I say, Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. ¹⁷For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. ¹⁷For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that ye may not do the things that ye would. ¹⁸But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law. ¹⁸But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. ¹⁹Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, ¹⁹Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, ²⁰idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, parties, ²⁰Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, ²¹envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they who practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. ²¹Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 8.1-3

¹And it came to pass afterward, that he went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God: and the twelve were with him,

¹And it came to pass soon afterwards, that he went about through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good tidings of the kingdom of God, and with him the twelve, ²And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, ²and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary that was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, ³And Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance. ³and Joanna the wife of Chuzas Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, who ministered unto them of their substance.