Tuesday, 22 October 2024

Tuesday of the 18th week after Pentecost

170 days after Pascha · Tone 8 · Liturgy · No Fast

Saints commemorated

★ Holy equal-of-the-apostles Abercius the wonderworker, bishop of Hierapolis

Saint Abercius (Averkios) was bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia in the second century, during the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161-180). Through his fervent preaching, prayers and many miracles he converted multitudes of pagans, destroying their idols and bringing whole regions to the Christian faith. For his apostolic labours the Church gave him the title equal-of-the-apostles. Sent for to heal Lucilla, daughter of the emperor, he restored her at Rome and refused all reward. He travelled through Syria, Cilicia and Mesopotamia, strengthening the faithful, and returned to his own see, where he reposed in peace at a great age. He composed his own famous epitaph, an early Christian inscription describing his journeys and the holy mysteries, fragments of which survive in the Lateran Museum and form one of the earliest surviving Christian inscriptions.

Commemoration of the Kazan icon of the Mother of God and the deliverance from the Poles

This commemoration recalls the deliverance of Moscow and all Russia from the Polish invasion of 1612, during the Time of Troubles. Patriarch Hermogenes had called the people to repentance and a three-day fast, and the wonderworking Kazan icon of the Mother of God was carried at the head of the volunteer army of Prince Dimitri Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin. On 22 October 1612 the Russian forces liberated Moscow from the Polish occupiers, and the victory was attributed to the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. In thanksgiving, Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich and the Church established this annual feast in addition to the original feast of the Kazan icon on 8 July (which commemorates its discovery in 1579). The Kazan icon thereafter became one of the chief protectresses of Russia, taken into battle in subsequent wars and venerated throughout the country.

Holy new martyrs Andrew, Stephen, Paul and Peter

1606

These four holy new martyrs were natives of the Crimea who suffered for Christ at the hands of the Tatars in the year 1606, during the period of Ottoman dominion over the Black Sea region. Refusing to renounce the Christian faith and embrace Islam, they were tortured and put to death together. Their joint commemoration is preserved in the Russian and Greek calendars under 22 October. They are numbered among the host of new martyrs of the Orthodox East who, after the fall of Constantinople, sealed their confession of Christ with their blood under the yoke of the Mussulmans, and they are venerated for their steadfastness in the faith and their solidarity in suffering.

Holy seven youths of Ephesus

The Holy Seven Youths of Ephesus, Maximilian, Iamblichus, Martinian, John, Dionysius, Exacustodian (Constantine) and Antoninus, were Christian soldiers in Ephesus during the persecution of the emperor Decius (249-251). Refusing to offer sacrifice to idols, they were stripped of their military rank but allowed to depart, and they took refuge in a cave on Mount Ochlon. Decius ordered the cave sealed, intending them to perish, but the Lord cast them into a wondrous sleep. About 184 years later, during the reign of Theodosius the Younger (408-450), when a heresy denying the resurrection of the dead troubled the Church, a landowner ordered the cave opened to make a sheepfold and the youths awoke as from a single night. They appeared to the bishop and the emperor as living testimony to the resurrection, then lay down again and fell asleep in the Lord. Their principal feast is 4 August, with a second commemoration on 22 October.

St Abercius, Bishop of Hierapolis, Wonderworker and Equal to the Apostles

167

He was bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia of Asia Minor, during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, a persecutor of Christians. During a pagan festival, Abercius was instructed by an Angel to throw down the idols of Apollo and other pagan gods. When his work was discovered, the people of the city were outraged; but instead of hiding, the bishop went to the marketplace and openly confessed the Christian faith. The people grew angrier still, but when Abercius healed three possessed men they were amazed and listened to him more closely. He preached the Faith with such power that the entire city and surrounding countryside became Christian. These miracles reached the ears of the Emperor, whose daughter was suffering from demonic possession. The Emperor summoned Abercius to Rome, where he was enabled to cast out the spirit and perform several other miracles. The Empress offered him a large reward of gold for healing her daughter, but he would not accept it. On his way home, he was instructed in a vision to travel to Syria. He travelled first to Antioch and surrounding cities, then as far as Mesopotamia, proclaiming Christ and teaching the faith everywhere he went. No other bishop of his time travelled so widely in the service of the Gospel; for this reason he is called Equal to the Apostles. After several years he returned to Phrygia, where he lived the remainder of his life in peace, shepherding his flock.

Venerable Lot of Egypt

5th c.

He was one of the company of ascetic Fathers who fled the world into the Egyptian desert in the fourth and fifth centuries. Once Abba Lot went to his spiritual father Joseph and asked him, simply, ‘What shall I do to be saved?’ Abba Joseph stretched his hands toward heaven and his fingers became ten flames. He said, ‘If you desire it, you can become entirely as a fire.’ A brother once came to Abba Lot in terrible distress and said to him, ‘I have committed a great sin, that I cannot admit to the Fathers.’ ‘Confess it to me and I will bear it for you,’ answered the Elder. ‘I have fallen into fornication,’ the brother said, ‘and to do so, I sacrificed to idols.’ The Elder said to him, ‘Take heart: no sin is beyond God’s mercy. Repentance is always possible. Go and sit in your cave; eat only every other day, and we will each take an equal share of the burden of your offence.’ After three weeks of keeping the same penance, Abba Lot received assurance from God that the brother’s repentance was acceptable. For the rest of his life, the brother served as the Elder’s disciple.

Also commemorated: St Abercius, Equal-to-the-Apostles

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Ephesians — Ephesians 5.20-26

²⁰giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; ²⁰Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; ²¹subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ. ²¹Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

²²Wives, be in subjection unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. ²²Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. ²³For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, being himself the saviour of the body. ²³For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. ²⁴But as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in everything. ²⁴Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. ²⁵Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it; ²⁵Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; ²⁶that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, ²⁶That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 11.1-10

¹And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

¹And it came to pass, as he was praying in a certain place, that when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, even as John also taught his disciples. ²And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Father, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. ²And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. ³Give us day by day our daily bread. ³Give us day by day our daily bread. ⁴And forgive us our sins; for we ourselves also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And bring us not into temptation. ⁴And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

⁵And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves; ⁵And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; ⁶For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? ⁶for a friend of mine is come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him; ⁷and he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee? ⁷And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. ⁸I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. ⁸I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will arise and give him as many as he needeth. ⁹And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. ⁹And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. ¹⁰For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. ¹⁰For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.