Friday, 1 November 2024

Friday of the 19th week after Pentecost

180 days after Pascha · Tone 1 · Black squigg (6-stich typikon symbol) · Fast

Saints commemorated

★ Holy Wonderworkers and Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian of Asia

The Holy Wonderworkers and Unmercenary Physicians Cosmas and Damian were brothers, natives of Asia Minor. Their pagan father died while they were still small children, and their mother Theodota raised them in Christian piety. Trained and skilled as physicians, they received from the Holy Spirit the gift of healing illnesses of body and soul through the power of prayer. With fervent love for both God and neighbour, they never took payment for their services, observing strictly the command of the Lord, "Freely you have received, freely give." Their reputation for compassion and miracles spread, and they brought many pagans to faith in Christ. According to tradition, even animals were healed by them, and a camel they had cured later spoke with a human voice to defend Damian, who had reluctantly accepted three eggs from a woman named Palladia in the name of the Holy Trinity. The brothers reposed in peace and were buried together at Thereman in Mesopotamia, after which many miracles continued at their relics.

Hieromartyrs John the bishop and James the presbyter of Persia

The Hieromartyrs John the Bishop and James the Presbyter, called "the zealot," lived during the reign of the Persian King Shapur II (309-379), who unleashed a long and savage persecution of Christians within his realm. Both shepherds laboured tirelessly to preach the true Faith and to confirm believers under the threat of imperial wrath, and many devout persons were drawn to Christianity through their courage and example. Arrested by the Persian authorities, they refused to deny Christ or to worship the sun and fire as the Persian religion demanded. After being subjected to cruel torments, they were beheaded around the year 343, attaining the crown of martyrdom together. Their joint commemoration on this day witnesses to the brotherhood of bishop and priest in the same confession of faith.

Saint David of Evia

Saint David of Evia, also known as David the Elder, was born around 1480 in the village of Gardinitsa in the province of Locrida in central Greece. His father Christodoulos was a priest and his mother Theodora was a pious woman, and they raised their four children in the fear of God. When little David was three years old, he saw in a vision Saint John the Baptist, who took him by the hand to a chapel dedicated to the Forerunner. Drawn from childhood to the monastic life, he was tonsured young and pursued ascetic struggle in several monasteries, eventually being persuaded by the bishop and the local nobility to serve as hegumen of the monastery of the Mother of God at Varnakova. Around 1535-1540 he founded on the island of Euboea (Evia) the monastery dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Saviour, where he spent the remainder of his long life as a teacher, ascetic, and wonderworker. He was renowned for his miracles, his struggle to preserve the Orthodox faith and Greek learning under Ottoman rule, and his gift of prophecy. He reposed around 1589 at his monastery, where his relics continue to work miracles for those who venerate them.

Saint Theodota, mother of the unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian

Saint Theodota was the mother of the holy unmercenary physicians Cosmas and Damian of Asia. Widowed while her sons were still small children, she devoted herself to raising them in the Orthodox faith, instilling in them piety, charity, and a fervent love for Christ. Her example of patient widowhood and strict Christian upbringing was credited by the Church with shaping the holy character of her sons, who would become healers and martyrs. The Orthodox Church honours her on the same day as her sons in recognition of her role in forming saints. She reposed in peace and is venerated alongside her two children as a model of faithful Christian motherhood.

Holy New Martyr Helen of Sinope

18th c.

She was a maiden of fifteen who lived with her parents in the Christian enclave of Sinope in Pontus during the 1700s. One day, as she went to the marketplace, she passed by the house of the local Pasha (governor), who, seeing her beauty, was seized by lust for her. He ordered his servants to bring her to him, and made two attempts to defile her; each time, however, he was prevented by a mysterious power that kept him from her like an invisible wall. Determined to have his way for her, he kept her prisoner in his house; but she was able to slip away and run home to her parents’ house. Enraged that his prey had escaped, the Pasha called together the leaders of the Christian community and promised that, unless Helen were handed over to him, all the Christians in the town would be massacred. Grief-stricken and fearful, the leaders persuaded Helen’s father to return the girl to the palace. The vile Pasha made several more attempts to rape the Saint, but once again he was restrained as if by an invisible wall as she recited the Six Psalms and all the prayers that she knew by heart. Realizing that he was powerless against her, the Pasha had her thrown in the common jail, then ordered that she be tortured to death. The executioners subjected the maiden to several cruel torments before killing her by driving two nails into her skull and beheading her. They then put her body in a sack and threw it in the Black Sea. Some Greek sailors followed a heavenly light to the place where the sack had sunk, and divers retrieved the Saint’s relics, which immediately revealed themselves as a source of healing for many. Her body was taken to Russia; her head was placed in the church in Sinope, where it continued to work miracles, especially for those who suffered from headaches. When the Greeks were driven from Sinope in 1924, refugees took the head with them. It is venerated today in a church near Thessalonika.

Also commemorated: Unmercenaries and Wonderworkers Cosmas and Damian

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Philippians — Philippians 1.27-2.4

²⁷Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ: that, whether I come and see you or be absent, I may hear of your state, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one soul striving for the faith of the gospel; ²⁷Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; ²⁸and in nothing affrighted by the adversaries: which is for them an evident token of perdition, but of your salvation, and that from God; ²⁸And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God. ²⁹because to you it hath been granted in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer in his behalf: ²⁹For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake; ³⁰having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me. ³⁰Having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me.

¹If there is therefore any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassions,

¹If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, ²make full my joy, that ye be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind; ²Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. ³Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. ³doing nothing through faction or through vainglory, but in lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself; ⁴not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others. ⁴Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 12.2-12

²For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. ²But there is nothing covered up, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. ³Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. ³Wherefore whatsoever ye have said in the darkness shall be heard in the light; and what ye have spoken in the ear in the inner chambers shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. ⁴And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. ⁴And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. ⁵But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him. ⁵But I will warn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, who after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him. ⁶Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? ⁶Are not five sparrows sold for two pence? and not one of them is forgotten in the sight of God. ⁷But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not: ye are of more value than many sparrows. ⁷But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows. ⁸And I say unto you, Every one who shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: ⁸Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: ⁹But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God. ⁹but he that denieth me in the presence of men shall be denied in the presence of the angels of God. ¹⁰And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven. ¹⁰And every one who shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Spirit it shall not be forgiven. ¹¹And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: ¹¹And when they bring you before the synagogues, and the rulers, and the authorities, be not anxious how or what ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: ¹²For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say. ¹²for the Holy Spirit shall teach you in that very hour what ye ought to say.