Thursday, 10 October 2024

Thursday of the 16th week after Pentecost

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

Saints commemorated

Holy Martyrs Eulampius and Eulampia

Saints Eulampius and Eulampia were brother and sister who lived at the beginning of the fourth century in the city of Nicomedia. They came of a noble Christian family at a time when the imperial edicts of Maximian had again unleashed the persecution of the Church, and many of the faithful were hiding in caves and in the surrounding hills.

Eulampius, a young man of fervent zeal, came one day upon the imperial decree posted in the city which sentenced all Christians to execution. Reading it openly, he laughed at the folly of those who waged war against God and was at once seized and brought before the governor. Refusing to deny Christ, he was scourged and torn with iron hooks. His sister Eulampia, hearing what had befallen him, ran to the place of torture, threw her arms about her brother's neck, and confessed Christ also.

The torments inflicted upon them were many. They were placed upon a red-hot bed, cast into a cauldron of boiling oil, and stretched upon the wheel. Throughout, they remained unhurt, and their sufferings won the conversion of two hundred soldiers and bystanders, who confessed Christ on the spot and were beheaded for his sake. In the temple of Mars, Eulampius commanded the idol in the name of Jesus to fall, and the image was at once shattered into dust.

At the last, Eulampius was beheaded. Eulampia, weakened by her tortures, gave up her soul to God before the executioner could complete his work upon her. They are honoured in the Church together, brother and sister steadfast in faith and unmoved in witness, with the host of those whom their endurance led to Christ.

Saint Theophilus the Confessor of Bulgaria

Saint Theophilus the Confessor was born in the lands about the lake of Tiberias in the late seventh century. At thirteen years of age, drawn by the love of God, he secretly left his family home and made his way to a monastery on Mount Selenteia. There he found a wise spiritual father in the Elder Saint Stephen, under whose guidance he was nurtured in the ascetic life and after three years was tonsured a monk. When the heresy of iconoclasm arose under the emperor Leo the Isaurian, Theophilus was already a man of mature spiritual stature, and he openly opposed the imperial folly which set itself against the holy icons. For this confession he was beaten, tied like a criminal, and led through the city in mockery. The emperor then handed him over to a senior official named Hypatius, with orders to break his constancy and turn him from the icons. But Theophilus, far from yielding, became the teacher of his guard. He set before Hypatius the brazen serpent which Moses raised in the wilderness, the cherubim of gold which God himself commanded for the Ark, and the holy image which the Saviour sent to King Abgar of Edessa. By such instruction Hypatius was so persuaded that he embraced the faith and the veneration of the icons, while the saint himself was kept under guard. Saint Theophilus reposed in peace in 716, before the worst of the iconoclast storm had broken upon the Church. He is venerated as a confessor for his early and bold witness to the truth which the Seventh Ecumenical Council later set forth in dogma. He is sometimes called Theophilus of Bulgaria, from the region in which his monastery lay.

Venerable Bassian, Wonderworker of Constantinople

Saint Bassian was born in eastern Syria in the late fourth or early fifth century. From his youth he was drawn to the monastic life, and in due course he came to Constantinople, where the pious emperor Marcian and his consort Saint Pulcheria ruled the empire. There he distinguished himself by his asceticism, his miracles, and the wisdom of his counsel, gathering about him a great brotherhood. He founded a monastery in the imperial city which numbered, according to ancient witness, three hundred monks, all of them under his fatherly direction. Among those drawn to his community in the manner of a man was the holy Matrona of Perge, commemorated on 9 November, who fled an evil husband by taking the dress of a monk and entering Bassian's monastery. When her sex was at length revealed, the holy abbot, far from condemning her, sent her with his blessing to a women's monastery in Emesa, where she lived in great holiness. Saint Bassian was held in such honour by the emperor Marcian that the sovereign himself helped to build a great church in the saint's name, near the church of Saint Mocius. The saint took part in the affairs of the Church of Constantinople in the troubled years following the Council of Chalcedon and was numbered among the bishops and abbots whose faithfulness held the city to the orthodox confession. He reposed in extreme old age, having lived a long life as a shining lamp of his city, working many miracles in his lifetime and after his repose. The Church honours him as Wonderworker of Constantinople and a teacher of monks.

Blessed Fool for Christ Andrew of Totma

1637

“Saint Andrew came of a family of devout, unlettered peasants. He obtained an education by going to church and, on the death of his parents, became a novice at the Monastery of Galich, in the diocese of Kostroma. The Abbot, who was remarkable for his wisdom, discerned Andrew’s spiritual gifts and encouraged him to undertake the unusual and difficult ascesis of Foolishness-for-Christ. Andrew left the monastery to lead a wayfaring life, but often returned to reveal his thoughts and deeds to his starets. On his Elder’s death, he settled near the Church of the Resurrection in the town of Totma, where he was completely unknown. He spent the whole night in prayer and during the day begged alms that he forthwith gave to the poor. He went barefoot summer and winter and lived on nothing but bread and water. Every year he made a pilgrimage to the holy places of the region. One day he was accosted by the chief of an outlandish tribe. The man was suffering from an eye complaint and asked Andrew, who was already looked upon as a wonderworker, to cure him. Andrew fled, but the wild man washed his eyes in the snow trodden by the Saint and was healed. “Worn out by ascesis and privation, Saint Andrew foreknew the day of his decease. He called a priest, confessed and communicated in the holy Mysteries, and not long after he fell asleep in the Lord, a heavenly scent pervading the room where his body lay. Some time later, the Saint appeared to a sick woman as she slept, holding the Gospel for her to venerate and telling her to pray at his tomb. When she awoke, the woman was healed.” (Synaxarion)

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Ephesians — Ephesians 1.1-9

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints that are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus:

¹Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: ²Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ²Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ:

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: ⁴even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love: ⁴According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: ⁵having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, ⁵Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, ⁶To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. ⁶to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved: ⁷In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; ⁷in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, ⁸which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, ⁸Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; ⁹making known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him ⁹Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 9.7-11

⁷Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by him: and he was perplexed, because that it was said of some, that John was risen from the dead;

⁷Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done: and he was much perplexed, because that it was said by some, that John was risen from the dead; ⁸and by some, that Elijah had appeared; and by others, that one of the old prophets was risen again. ⁸And of some, that Elias had appeared; and of others, that one of the old prophets was risen again. ⁹And Herod said, John have I beheaded: but who is this, of whom I hear such things? And he desired to see him. ⁹And Herod said, John I beheaded: but who is this, about whom I hear such things? And he sought to see him.

¹⁰And the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they had done. And he took them, and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida.

¹⁰And the apostles, when they were returned, declared unto him what things they had done. And he took them, and withdrew apart to a city called Bethsaida. ¹¹But the multitudes perceiving it followed him: and he welcomed them, and spake to them of the kingdom of God, and them that had need of healing he cured. ¹¹And the people, when they knew it, followed him: and he received them, and spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing.