Monday, 4 November 2024

Monday of the 20th week after Pentecost

183 days after Pascha · Tone 2 · Liturgy · No Fast

Saints commemorated

Blessed Simon of Yurievets, fool for Christ

Saint Simon was born into a peasant family in the village of Brattskoye, in the region of Yurievets-Povolzhsky, in the late sixteenth century. From his youth he embraced the path of foolishness for Christ, leaving home to wander barefoot and in the lightest of garments through the bitter Russian winters and burning summers, accepting reproach, hunger and beatings without complaint. For many years he made his way through the towns and villages along the Volga, eventually settling at Yurievets where he became a familiar figure to the townspeople. By his apparent madness he concealed great spiritual gifts: he saw into the hearts of those who came to him, foretold future events, and worked miracles of healing. He spent his nights at prayer in churches, often shedding floods of tears. He reposed on 4 November 1584 in the home of a local nobleman who had taken him in during his last illness, and was buried in the church of the Theophany at Yurievets, where many miracles took place at his tomb.

Holy hieromartyrs Nicander, bishop of Myra, and Hermas the presbyter

The Holy Hieromartyrs Nicander and Hermas were among the first preachers of the Gospel in Lycia in the apostolic age. According to tradition, both were ordained by the Apostle Titus, the disciple and companion of the Apostle Paul, with Nicander consecrated as the first bishop of the city of Myra and Hermas appointed presbyter to assist him. Living the ascetic life amid incessant pastoral labours, the two converted many pagans of Lycia to Christ, distinguished by a great zeal for the faith and tireless preaching. Their success aroused the hatred of the pagan authorities, and they were arrested and brought before the city prefect Libanius. Neither flattery nor threats could move them to deny Christ. After enduring savage tortures, including being beaten with iron rods and having their flesh torn, they were enclosed alive in a tomb, where they surrendered their souls into the hands of God and received the crown of martyrdom.

Saint John the confessor

Saint John the Confessor lived during the reign of the iconoclast emperors and is commemorated for his unyielding witness to the veneration of the holy icons. A monk and hegumen who refused to subscribe to the imperial heresy, he suffered exile, beatings and prolonged imprisonment for the sake of the apostolic tradition. Through the long years of his persecution he sustained his brethren by letters and counsel, encouraging them to hold fast to the Orthodox faith. After enduring many sufferings he reposed in peace, having confessed Christ before kings, and is honoured by the Church as a confessor on the same day as Saint Joannicius the Great, with whom he shared the struggle for the holy images.

Venerable Joannicius the Great

He was born in Bithynia of peasant stock. He worked as a swineherd, then became an officer in the Imperial army, where he served with such distinction in the war against the Bulgars that the Emperor Constantine VI wanted to take him into his personal service. “But the sight of massacres and horrors of war had brought home to him the vanity of this life. He asked leave of the Emperor to retire from the service, in order to wage unseen warfare in the ranks of the angelic army” (Synaxarion). In the coming years he traveled widely, sometimes living as a hermit, sometimes living in monasteries, more than once founding a monastic community. Wherever he went he lived in stillness, solitude and strict asceticism. He was famed for his spiritual counsel, his prophecies, his many miracles of healing ailments bodily and spiritual, and for his friendship with animals. Once a monk who doubted the Saint’s miracles was eating at table with him when a large bear burst in upon them. Joannicius called the bear and it came and lay at his feet; he then told it to lie at the feet of his frightened guest and said “At their creation, the animals looked with veneration on man, who is made in the image of God, and he had no fear of them. We are afraid of them now because we have transgressed God’s commandments. If we love the Lord Jesus and keep his commandments, no animal will be able to do us any harm.” The monk departed greatly edified.

In the last years of Joannicius’ life, when he was about ninety years old, the Emperor Theophilus sought his counsel on the veneration of icons. The Saint’s answer was pointed: “Whoever refuses due honor to the images of Christ, of the Mother of God and of the Saints, will not be received into the Kingdom of Heaven, even if he has lived an otherwise blameless life.”

Once Joannicius traveled to Constantinople to aid the Patriarch in some matters concerning the order of the Church. When he returned to his hermitage, he found that some jealous monks had set it on fire. Knowing who they were, he nevertheless addressed them kindly and invited them to share with him some food that he had managed to salvage from the fire. He did not attempt to rebuild his hermitage, but, taking the fire as a sign of his impending departure from this life, he traveled to the monastery of Antidion, where he had first entered into the monastic life and there, having predicted the day of his death, he reposed in peace. At the moment of his death, the monks of Mt Olympus saw a pillar of fire ascending from the earth to the sky.

The Saint’s relics have been the source of many miracles. His skull is kept and venerated at the Monastery of the Pantocrator on Mt Athos. The widely-used prayer “My hope is the Father; my refuge is the Son; my shelter is the Holy Spirit; O Holy Trinity, glory be to Thee!” is attributed to St Joannicius.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Philippians — Philippians 2.12-16

¹²So then, my beloved, even as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;

¹²Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. ¹³for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure. ¹³For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. ¹⁴Do all things without murmurings and questionings: ¹⁴Do all things without murmurings and disputings: ¹⁵That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; ¹⁵that ye may become blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye are seen as lights in the world, ¹⁶holding forth the word of life; that I may have whereof to glory in the day of Christ, that I did not run in vain neither labor in vain. ¹⁶Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 12.13-15, 22-31

¹³And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.

¹³And one out of the multitude said unto him, Teacher, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me. ¹⁴And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? ¹⁴But he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? ¹⁵And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. ¹⁵And he said unto them, Take heed, and keep yourselves from all covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

²²And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on.

²²And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. ²³The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. ²³For the life is more than the food, and the body than the raiment. ²⁴Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? ²⁴Consider the ravens, that they sow not, neither reap; which have no store-chamber nor barn; and God feedeth them: of how much more value are ye than the birds! ²⁵And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? ²⁵And which of you by being anxious can add a cubit unto the measure of his life? ²⁶If then ye are not able to do even that which is least, why are ye anxious concerning the rest? ²⁶If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? ²⁷Consider the lilies, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin; yet I say unto you, Even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ²⁷Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ²⁸But if God doth so clothe the grass in the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven; how much more shall he clothe you, O ye of little faith? ²⁸If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? ²⁹And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. ²⁹And seek not ye what ye shall eat, and what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. ³⁰For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. ³⁰For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: but your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.

³¹But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. ³¹Yet seek ye his kingdom, and these things shall be added unto you.