Saturday, 12 October 2024

Saturday of the 16th week after Pentecost

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

Saints commemorated

Holy Martyrs Probus, Tarachus, and Andronicus

304

The holy martyrs Tarachus, Probus, and Andronicus suffered for Christ at Tarsus in Cilicia in the year 304, during the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian. Tarachus was a native of Claudiopolis in Syria, an old soldier of mature years who had been raised in the Christian faith. Probus was born at Side in Pamphylia, the son of a wealthy father, and Andronicus was the son of an eminent citizen of Ephesus, all three already known in their cities as confessors of Christ.

Brought before the proconsul Numerian Maximus at Tarsus, the three were commanded to offer sacrifice to the gods of the empire. Tarachus, the eldest, answered that he would offer not the blood of beasts but a pure heart to the one true God. Probus declared that he found in Christ his hope and his crown, and Andronicus that he had been delivered by Christ from the bondage of idols and would not return to them. The proconsul gave them over to long and varied tortures, bringing them three times before the tribunal in the cities of Tarsus, Mopsuestia, and Anazarbus.

Their tortures included scourging, the rending of their flesh with iron hooks, the beating of their bodies with rods of lead, the crushing of their hands and feet, the searing of their wounds with vinegar and salt, and the wrenching of their limbs upon the rack. Through it all they remained unmoved and gave glory to God. The transcript of their interrogations, preserved by Christians who paid the soldiers for the right to copy it, is one of the oldest authentic acts of the martyrs and was treasured throughout antiquity.

At the last, weary of inflicting torment and unable to break their constancy, the proconsul gave them to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre. When the beasts would not touch them, soldiers were sent in and the three were put to the sword. Christians by night gathered their relics with reverence and laid them to rest, and a heavenly light appeared above their tomb.

Saint Cosmas the Hymnographer, Bishop of Maiuma

Saint Cosmas the Hymnographer, also called Cosmas of Jerusalem, was born in Damascus toward the end of the seventh century. Orphaned in early youth, he was taken into the household of Sergius, a noble Christian official who served at the court of the Saracen caliph and was the father of Saint John of Damascus. There he was raised as the foster brother of John, sharing his lessons and his prayers, and the two were as one heart in their love of Christ. Their teacher was a learned Calabrian monk, also named Cosmas, who had been ransomed by Sergius from slavery to the Saracens. Under him the two boys were instructed in grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, music, astronomy, and theology. When their tutor in old age desired to retire to the wilderness, the two foster brothers prepared for him a hermitage and themselves followed in due time, leaving Damascus together to take the habit at the great Lavra of Saint Sabbas the Sanctified in the Judean desert. There Cosmas devoted himself to the chanting of the divine services and to the writing of sacred poetry, sharing with John of Damascus the labour of bringing the hymnody of the Church into a new and lasting splendour. To him are owed the canons of Lazarus Saturday, of Palm Sunday, of the Tridia chanted in Holy Week, the canon of the Nativity drawn from the homily of Saint Gregory the Theologian, and many further hymns of the festal cycle. With John he is honoured as a chief representative of the great age of Greek liturgical poetry. In 743 Saint Cosmas was raised against his will to the bishopric of Maiuma, the port of Gaza, where he ruled his flock with humility, defended the holy icons against the iconoclasts, and continued his hymnographic labours. He reposed in extreme old age and is venerated as a teacher and a poet of the Church.

Saint Symeon the New Theologian

Saint Symeon the New Theologian was born in 949 in Galatia, Paphlagonia, of noble parents, and named George at his baptism. As a youth he was sent to Constantinople and entrusted to his uncle, who served at the imperial court, where he received a thorough education and was prepared for civil office. About his fourteenth year he met the elder Symeon the Pious of the Studite monastery, who became his spiritual father and laid in him the foundation of his interior life.

Drawn by deep spiritual experience even while still in the world, Symeon entered the Studite monastery in Constantinople in due time and afterwards moved to the monastery of Saint Mamas, of which he became abbot in 980. There he gathered a brotherhood whom he led with a strictness and a freshness that stirred both admiration and opposition. He taught that every Christian, from the highest to the least, is called to a personal experience of the grace of the Holy Spirit, and that without this conscious experience the sacramental life is impoverished.

His zeal for the memory of his elder, whom he venerated as a saint, brought him into conflict with Stephen, the syncellus of the patriarch, and in 1009 he was deposed and exiled to Paloukiton on the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus. There, far from being silenced, he gathered disciples, restored a ruined chapel of Saint Marina, and lived his last years in prayer, writing, and the spiritual fatherhood of those who came to him.

Saint Symeon left a great body of writing, the Hymns of Divine Love, the Catechetical Discourses, the Theological and Ethical Treatises, and the Practical and Theological Chapters, in which he taught with a power that has earned him the title of New Theologian, set in the Church beside Saint John the Theologian and Saint Gregory the Theologian. He reposed on 12 March 1022. His principal feast is observed on 12 October, when his relics were translated, since the ordinary date falls in the Great Fast.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

1 Corinthians — 1 Corinthians 10.23-28

²³All things are lawful; but not all things are expedient. All things are lawful; but not all things edify. ²³All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. ²⁴Let no man seek his own, but each his neighbor’s good. ²⁴Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth. ²⁵Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, eat, asking no question for conscience’ sake; ²⁵Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake: ²⁶for the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof. ²⁶For the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof. ²⁷If one of them that believe not biddeth you to a feast, and ye are disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience’ sake. ²⁷If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience sake. ²⁸But if any man say unto you, This hath been offered in sacrifice, eat not, for his sake that showed it, and for conscience’ sake: ²⁸But if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake that shewed it, and for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof:

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 6.1-10

¹And it came to pass on the second sabbath after the first, that he went through the corn fields; and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands.

¹Now it came to pass on a sabbath, that he was going through the grainfields; and his disciples plucked the ears, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. ²And certain of the Pharisees said unto them, Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days? ²But certain of the Pharisees said, Why do ye that which it is not lawful to do on the sabbath day? ³And Jesus answering them said, Have ye not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was an hungred, and they which were with him; ³And Jesus answering them said, Have ye not read even this, what David did, when he was hungry, he, and they that were with him; ⁴How he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the shewbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests alone? ⁴how he entered into the house of God, and took and ate the showbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not lawful to eat save for the priests alone? ⁵And he said unto them, The Son of man is lord of the sabbath. ⁵And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.

⁶And it came to pass on another sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man there, and his right hand was withered. ⁶And it came to pass also on another sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered. ⁷And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath; that they might find how to accuse him. ⁷And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him. ⁸But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth. ⁸But he knew their thoughts; and he said to the man that had his hand withered, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth. ⁹Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it? ⁹And Jesus said unto them, I ask you, Is it lawful on the sabbath to do good, or to do harm? to save a life, or to destroy it? ¹⁰And looking round about upon them all, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so: and his hand was restored whole as the other. ¹⁰And he looked round about on them all, and said unto him, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so: and his hand was restored.