Wednesday, 16 October 2024

Wednesday of the 17th week after Pentecost

164 days after Pascha · Tone 7 · Liturgy · Fast

Saints commemorated

Blessed Domna of Tomsk, Fool for Christ

The blessed Domna Karpovna was born in the early years of the nineteenth century into a noble family of central Ukraine and from her youth lived a life of piety. After the death of her parents she fled the marriage that her relatives had arranged for her and, taking upon herself the difficult yoke of folly for Christ's sake, set out as a wanderer through the towns and villages of Russia. She was seen at many monasteries and shrines, and at last came to the Siberian city of Tomsk, where she dwelt in the open under the eaves of houses and in cellars, accepting nothing but a piece of bread or a worn garment. Bearing always upon her shoulders a great bundle of rags and broken trinkets which she called "her sins", she walked barefoot in summer and winter alike, sleeping in the snow, enduring beatings from drunkards and the mockery of children with patience and silent prayer. By the gift of foreknowledge she warned of fires, healed the sick, comforted the dying, and turned many sinners to repentance, while concealing her gifts beneath outward eccentricities. She reposed in peace at the convent of Saint John the Forerunner in Tomsk on the sixteenth of October 1872, and was buried there. The Russian Church glorified her among the saints in 1984, numbering her with the holy fools who, by despising the wisdom of this world, drew nearer to the Wisdom of God.

Holy Martyr Eliphius of Toul

Saint Eliphius, called also Eloff, is said by tradition to have been the son of a Christian king of the Scots and to have come to Gaul in the days of the emperor Julian the Apostate, about the year 362, to preach the Gospel of Christ. With his brother Eucharius and his sisters Menna, Libaria and Susanna he laboured in the country round about Toul in Lorraine, where through his preaching some four hundred persons are said to have been turned from the worship of idols to the true faith. When Julian, passing through the region on his march against the Persians, learned of the multitude of conversions, he gave orders that Eliphius should be seized; and the saint, refusing either to deny Christ or to offer sacrifice, was beheaded outside the gates of Toul together with his sisters Libaria and Susanna. According to the chronicler, when his head was struck off the holy martyr took it up in his hands and carried it to the summit of a nearby hill, called thereafter Mount Eliph, where he laid himself down and gave up his soul. There a chapel was raised in his honour, and his relics were afterwards translated to the cathedral of Toul, where his memory has been kept upon the sixteenth of October.

Holy Martyr Longinus the Centurion

1st c.

This is the Centurion who stood at the Cross of Christ and, seeing Him breathe his last, cried out “Truly this was the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54). From that day forth he was a believer, and was soon baptized. According to some accounts, he was one of the guard at the Tomb of Christ, and was one of those whom the Judaean leaders sought to bribe not to tell the news of the Resurrection. But Longinus would not be bribed, so the leaders plotted to kill him. He left the army and went to his homeland of Cappadocia, where he boldly preached Christ. He was beheaded at the instigation of Pontius Pilate.

Holy Martyr Longinus the Centurion who stood at the Cross of the Lord

Saint Longinus was a Roman centurion of Cappadocian birth who served in Judaea under Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius Caesar. He commanded the company of soldiers at the Crucifixion of our Lord upon Golgotha, and it was he who, beholding the wonders that accompanied the death of Christ, the darkness, the earthquake and the rending of the rocks, confessed aloud, "Truly this man was the Son of God." It was likewise he, according to tradition, who pierced the side of the Lord with the lance, and was healed of an affliction of his eyes by the blood and water that flowed forth. Set afterwards as chief of the watch over the sepulchre, he became with two of his soldiers a witness of the Resurrection, and refused the silver pieces offered by the chief priests for a false report. Resigning his commission, he returned to his homeland in Cappadocia and there preached Christ openly. When Pilate and the Jewish elders denounced him to the emperor, soldiers were sent who, at the saint's own bidding, beheaded him together with his two fellow soldiers. His head, cast outside the city, was afterwards revealed in a vision to a blind widow seeking healing at Jerusalem, who recovered her sight when she found the relics, and so brought them home in honour.

Saint Gall, Enlightener of Switzerland

He was born in Ireland to wealthy parents, who sent him to be educated at the Monastery of Bangor. There he embraced the ascetical life and became a monk. He was one of the twelve monks who traveled with his spiritual father St Columbanus (November 23) as missionaries to Gaul. In time some of the group traveled into pagan lands, up the Rhine river to Lake Zurich. The monks settled on Lake Constance around a chapel dedicated to St Aurelia, which had been taken by the pagans as a shrine; they cleansed and reconsecrated the chapel, which became the center of their new monastery. Saint Gall lived as a hermit, serving the brethren by making nets and catching fish. In 612 St Columbanus went on to Italy with most of his disciples, leaving St Gall and a few others to continue their life. When St Gall delivered Frideburga, the daughter of a local duke, from a demon, he offered the saint a tract of land on the shores of Lake Constance; here was founded the monastery that in later times bore St Gall’s name.

At various times, the holy Gall refused calls to become a bishop, or to take over the abbacy of the great monastery at Luxeuil. To all such requests he answered that he would rather serve than command. He continued living in his isolated monastic community until he reposed in peace in 640, at the age of ninety-nine. In later years, and continuing well into the middle ages, the Monastery of St Gall became famed for the holiness of its monks and for its library.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Ephesians — Ephesians 3.8-21

⁸Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; ⁸Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; ⁹and to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery which for ages hath been hid in God who created all things; ⁹And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: ¹⁰to the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God, ¹⁰To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, ¹¹according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: ¹¹According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: ¹²In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. ¹²in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him. ¹³Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. ¹³Wherefore I ask that ye may not faint at my tribulations for you, which are your glory.

¹⁴For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, ¹⁴For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, ¹⁵Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, ¹⁶That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; ¹⁶that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; ¹⁷That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁷that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; ¹⁸may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. ¹⁹and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God.

²⁰Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

²⁰Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, ²¹Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. ²¹unto him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever. Amen.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 9.44-50

⁴⁴Let these sayings sink down into your ears: for the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men. ⁴⁴Let these words sink into your ears: for the Son of man shall be delivered up into the hands of men. ⁴⁵But they understood not this saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not: and they feared to ask him of that saying. ⁴⁵But they understood not this saying, and it was concealed from them, that they should not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

⁴⁶Then there arose a reasoning among them, which of them should be greatest.

⁴⁶And there arose a reasoning among them, which of them was the greatest. ⁴⁷And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a child, and set him by him, ⁴⁷But when Jesus saw the reasoning of their heart, he took a little child, and set him by his side, ⁴⁸And said unto them, Whosoever shall receive this child in my name receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me receiveth him that sent me: for he that is least among you all, the same shall be great. ⁴⁸and said unto them, Whosoever shall receive this little child in my name receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me receiveth him that sent me: for he that is least among you all, the same is great.

⁴⁹And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us.

⁴⁹And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out demons in thy name; and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us. ⁵⁰And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us. ⁵⁰But Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against you is for you.