Tuesday, 29 October 2024

Tuesday of the 19th week after Pentecost

177 days after Pascha · Tone 1 · Liturgy · No Fast

Saints commemorated

Holy venerable martyr Anastasia the Roman

Saint Anastasia the Roman was born at Rome in the third century. Orphaned at the age of three, she was received and raised by the abbess Sophia in a small community of consecrated virgins outside the city. There, under the guidance of this experienced spiritual mother, she grew up in fervent prayer, fasting and obedience, and by the age of twenty had attained great virtue and was renowned for her beauty no less than for her holiness. During the persecution of the emperor Decius (or, by another reckoning, of Valerian about 256), the city prefect Probus, hearing of a Christian virgin of unusual beauty, sent soldiers to bring her by force. Anastasia bade farewell to her abbess, was strengthened in prayer, and went to her trial fearless. Probus tried both flattery and terror, but the saint mocked the gods of the Empire and confessed Christ. She was then subjected to fearful tortures: her breasts were cut off and her tongue torn out; an angel of the Lord stood by, sustaining and consoling her. At last she was beheaded. The abbess Sophia recovered her relics and gave them honourable burial. Saint Anastasia is distinguished from the other holy martyr Anastasia, the deliverer from potions, commemorated on 22 December.

Righteous Anna of Constantinople

Saint Anna was born in Constantinople in the eighth century, the daughter of a pious deacon of the church of Blachernae. She was given in marriage and bore a son, Saint John. After her husband's death, fearing the second iconoclast persecution and longing for the monastic life, she dressed in the habit of a man, took the name Euthymianus, and with her young son entered a monastery near Mount Olympus in Bithynia. There she lived for many years in great asceticism, her sex unsuspected by the brethren, attaining gifts of prayer, foreknowledge and miracles. She afterwards returned to Constantinople, where she ended her days in 826 in deep humility, the secret of her life becoming known only at her repose. Her son John outlived her in the same monastic discipline. Their joint memory is kept on 29 October, with a second commemoration on 13 June.

Venerable Abramius the recluse and his niece Mary of Mesopotamia

Abramius was a Christian of noble birth who, early in life, left all (including a young bride) to live as a solitary monk. This he did for fifty years. When Abramius’ brother died, leaving his seven-year-old daughter Mary orphaned and alone, The Saint took her under his care, giving her a monastic cell near his own. Though Mary devoted herself joyfully to the monastic life, when she was about twenty she fell into sin with a corrupt monk who visited the hermitage. Far worse, she then fell into despair, thinking that she had cast away her salvation, and fled the hermitage to become a harlot in a nearby town. Abramius, unaware of what had happened or where she had gone, prayed constantly for her safety and to be shown where she had fled.

One day a traveler told Abramius what had become of his niece. Immediately he rose up, dressed himself as a soldier and went to the brothel where Mary worked, “for the salvation of a soul meant more to him than hermitage, Habit, ascesis or prayer itself” (Synaxarion). Still disguised, he ordered a meal, his first wine and meat for fifty years, then went with Mary to her room. Only then did he reveal himself, and with tears, not accusing her at all, pleaded with her to leave that place and return with him. “Let us go, my child; let us return to our hermitage. Let your fault be mine. I will answer for it before Christ on the day of judgment.” She returned with him and, with repentance, prayed so ardently that she was soon granted not only assurance of forgiveness but the power to work miracles. St Abramius reposed in peace in great old age; Mary followed him into eternal joy five years later.

Venerable Abramius, archimandrite of Rostov

Saint Abramius (Abraham) of Rostov was an enlightener of the Russian land in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Born of pious parents at Galich in Kostroma, he sought the monastic life from his youth and was tonsured at the Valaam monastery on Lake Ladoga, then journeyed to Rostov, where the people were still given to the worship of idols, in particular a great stone image of Veles set up on the lake shore. Praying earnestly that the Lord would deliver the city from this delusion, Abramius received a vision of the holy apostle and evangelist John the Theologian, who gave him a staff with which he overthrew and shattered the idol. On the spot the saint built a church in honour of the Theophany of the Lord and founded a monastery (the Bogoyavlensky Avraamiev), of which he became the first abbot. He laboured many years in the conversion of the people of Rostov, baptising both adults and children, and reposed at a great age about 1077. His incorrupt relics were uncovered in 1210 in the time of Saint Demetrius of Rostov's predecessors. Tsar Ivan IV took the saint's iron staff with him on the conquest of Kazan in 1552. His memory is kept on 29 October.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Philippians — Philippians 1.8-14

⁸For God is my witness, how I long after you all in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus. ⁸For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. ⁹And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment; ⁹And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; ¹⁰so that ye may approve the things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and void of offence unto the day of Christ; ¹⁰That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; ¹¹being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. ¹¹Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

¹²Now I would have you know, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the progress of the gospel;

¹²But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel; ¹³so that my bonds became manifest in Christ throughout the whole prætorian guard, and to all the rest; ¹³So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places; ¹⁴and that most of the brethren in the Lord, being confident through my bonds, are more abundantly bold to speak the word of God without fear. ¹⁴And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 11.34-41

³⁴The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. ³⁴The lamp of thy body is thine eye: when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when it is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. ³⁵Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. ³⁵Look therefore whether the light that is in thee be not darkness. ³⁶If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light. ³⁶If therefore thy whole body be full of light, having no part dark, it shall be wholly full of light, as when the lamp with its bright shining doth give thee light.

³⁷And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat.

³⁷Now as he spake, a Pharisee asketh him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat. ³⁸And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner. ³⁸And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first bathed himself before dinner. ³⁹And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. ³⁹And the Lord said unto him, Now ye the Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter; but your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness. ⁴⁰Ye foolish ones, did not he that made the outside make the inside also? ⁴⁰Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also? ⁴¹But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you. ⁴¹But give for alms those things which are within; and behold, all things are clean unto you.