Thursday, 17 October 2024

Thursday of the 17th week after Pentecost

165 days after Pascha · Tone 7 · Liturgy · No Fast

Saints commemorated

Holy Prophet Hosea

The holy Prophet Hosea, the first of the twelve minor prophets in the order of the Old Testament canon, was the son of Beeri and was reckoned in tradition to the tribe of Issachar, although he prophesied chiefly to the northern kingdom of Israel. He laboured in the eighth century before Christ, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah of Judah and of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, and was a contemporary of the prophets Isaiah, Amos and Micah. By the command of God he took to wife a woman of unfaithful life, that his marriage might serve as a living parable of the apostasy of the people from their Lord, and through his preaching he sought to turn his countrymen from idolatry and injustice back to the faith of their fathers. He foretold the captivity of Israel by the Assyrians, the cessation of the Levitical sacrifices, the calling of the Gentiles, the resurrection of Christ on the third day, in the words "after two days he will revive us, on the third day he will raise us up", and the destruction of death itself, in the saying which the Apostle quotes, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" Having served as a prophet for some sixty years, he reposed in great old age and was buried in his own land.

Holy Unmercenary Martyrs Cosmas and Damian of Cilicia and their brothers

287

The holy and wonderworking Cosmas and Damian, called the Arabian to distinguish them from the homonymous unmercenaries of Asia and of Rome, were brothers born in Arabia and instructed in the Christian faith and the art of medicine from their youth. Together with their three brothers Leontius, Anthimus and Eutropius, they travelled through the cities and villages of Cilicia, healing the sick of every disease and casting out unclean spirits, accepting nothing in return but only requiring of the healed an unfeigned faith in Christ; for which cause the Church names them Unmercenaries. In the persecution under the emperor Diocletian, in the year 287, they were arrested at Aegeae in Cilicia by the prefect Lysias and brought before his tribunal; and when neither flatteries, threats, nor torments could move them from the confession of Christ, they were stripped, bound and cast first into the sea, then into a great fire, and at last shot through with arrows; but the Lord delivered them from these torments, the waters bearing them up and the fire and the arrows turning aside from them. Beholding these wonders the prefect ordered them to be beheaded, and so the five holy brothers received the crown of martyrdom together. Their relics, working healings without number, have been honoured by the faithful from the earliest times, and the Church keeps their memory upon the seventeenth of October.

Holy Venerable Martyr Andrew of Crete

767

Saint Andrew, called the Cretan to distinguish him from the more famous archbishop and hymnographer of the same island, was born in Crete and from his youth embraced the monastic life upon that island. When the iconoclast emperor Constantine Copronymus renewed the persecution against the holy icons and many monks were tortured, exiled or put to death for their veneration, Andrew left his solitude and travelled to Constantinople in order to admonish the emperor to his face. Finding Constantine in the church of the holy martyr Mamas, he stood forth boldly before the imperial throne and rebuked him, declaring that whoever suffered for the holy icons suffered for Christ, while he that reviled the icon offered insult to Christ Himself. The enraged emperor commanded that he be cruelly tortured and dragged through the streets of the city; on the way to the place of execution a fanatic of the heretical party cut off his foot with an axe, and the saint, weakened by his wounds, gave up his soul to God in the year 767. The faithful gathered his body in secret and buried it in honour at the place called Krisis, and his memory was celebrated with great solemnity throughout the city after the restoration of the holy icons.

Translation of the relics of Saint Lazarus the Four-Days-Dead

898

The righteous Lazarus, the friend of Christ and brother of Martha and Mary of Bethany, after his raising from the dead by the Lord on the fourth day of his being in the tomb, was forced by the hatred of the Jewish leaders to flee from Judaea, and came at last to the island of Cyprus. There the holy apostles Barnabas and Paul ordained him bishop of Kition, the modern Larnaca, where he laboured for the salvation of his flock for thirty years and finally reposed in peace, being received a second time into the eternal kingdom. His body was preserved at Kition until the year 890, when in the reign of the emperor Leo the Wise his sepulchre was discovered, bearing the inscription "Lazarus, four days dead, friend of Christ". The pious emperor caused the sacred relics to be translated with great honour to Constantinople in the year 898 and laid them in the church of the Righteous Lazarus which he had built for that purpose, sending in exchange to Cyprus a marble sarcophagus and an icon of the saint. The Church commemorates this translation upon the seventeenth of October, while the raising of Lazarus itself is kept upon the Saturday before Palm Sunday.

Holy Martyrs Cosmas and Damian, the Unmercenaries of Cilicia

4th c.

The Church commemorates three pairs of brothers named Cosmas and Damian, all counted among the Unmercenary Physicians. The first reposed in peace and are commemorated on November 1; the second were stoned to death in Rome, and are commemorated on July 1; the third pair, commemorated today, were Arab doctors. They embraced the Christian faith together and thereafter cared for the sick in the name of the Lord Jesus, performing many miraculous healings. They were handed over to the governor Lysias by jealous pagans. When the governor accused them of healing by sorcery, they replied ‘We have no sort of magic, nor use any, but we have the power of Christ to save us and all who call upon His holy Name.’ The governor first attempted to bribe them to deny Christ then, when this was useless, subjected them to many tortures. Finally they were beheaded. Their holy relics continued to perform many miracles of healing.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Ephesians — Ephesians 4.14-19

¹⁴that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; ¹⁴That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; ¹⁵but speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, even Christ; ¹⁵But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: ¹⁶from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love. ¹⁶From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

¹⁷This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind,

¹⁷This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, ¹⁸being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart; ¹⁸Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: ¹⁹who being past feeling gave themselves up to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. ¹⁹Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 9.49-56

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.

⁵¹And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,

⁵¹And it came to pass, when the days were well-nigh come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, ⁵²And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. ⁵²and sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. ⁵³And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. ⁵³And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he were going to Jerusalem. ⁵⁴And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? ⁵⁴And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we bid fire to come down from heaven, and consume them? ⁵⁵But he turned, and rebuked them. ⁵⁵But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. ⁵⁶For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village. ⁵⁶And they went to another village.