Wednesday, 18 December 2024

Wednesday of the 26th week after Pentecost

227 days after Pascha · Tone 8 · Liturgy · Nativity Fast

Saints commemorated

Holy martyr Sebastian and his companions

He grew up in Milan and became an army officer, where he distinguished himself so well that the Emperor Diocletian made him captain of the Praetorian Guard not suspecting that Sebastian was a Christian. In Rome, while fulfilling the duties of a courtier, he used his position to comfort and encourage his imprisoned fellow-Christians. By his labors and example he brought many to faith in Christ, including Chromatius, the Prefect in charge of persecuting the Roman Christians.

Sebastian had upheld two brothers, Mark and Marcellinus, who were awaiting execution for their faith. When the day of execution came, their father Tranquillinus, who had been a pagan but through Sebastian’s example had converted, presented himself to Chromatius and announced that he too was a Christian. His testimony was so powerful that the hard heart of the Prefect was melted, and he himself resolved to become a Christian.

Caius, Bishop of Rome, gathered the new brethren (both men and women — not all of Sebastian’s converts have been mentioned here) to embrace them and baptize them, but also to warn them of their coming Martyrdom. He instructed some to flee the city and others, headed by Sebastian, to remain in Rome, devoting their days to fasting, prayer and thanksgiving as they awaited their death. As the “company of Martyrs” did this, many came to them and were healed of ailments, and many joined them in confessing Christ.

When the time of martyrdom came, each member of the company was subjected to imaginatively cruel tortures before his execution. Sebastian himself was made to witness the deaths of all his companions, then to endure his own trial. He serenely confessed his unshaken faith before Diocletian himself before being taken to the place of execution. There he was tied to a post and made the target of a band of archers until his body bristled with arrows like the quills of a porcupine. He was left for dead, but when Irene, widow of St Castulus, came to bury him, she found him alive and tended his wounds. Amazingly, he recovered, and presented himself once again to the Emperor. Astonished and outraged, the tyrant ordered that Sebastian be beaten to death with clubs and thrown into the city’s sewer. That evening, a pious Christian woman was told in a vision to retrieve his body and bury it in the catacombs. After St Constantine brought peace to the Church, Pope Damasus built a church over the site in the Saint’s honor. For hundreds of years, many miracles were worked there through St Sebastian’s intercessions.

Holy martyr Zoe of Rome

Saint Zoe was the wife of Nicostratus, a senior official of the imperial prison who was charged with overseeing the Christian prisoners during the persecution of Diocletian. She had lost the power of speech six years before meeting Saint Sebastian. When the holy martyr made the sign of the Cross over her, she immediately began to speak and glorified the Lord Jesus Christ. Together with her husband Nicostratus, she received holy baptism and was instructed in the faith. She was arrested while praying at the tomb of the Apostle Peter and brought to trial, where she boldly confessed her belief in Christ. She was hung by the hair over a fire fed with foul-smelling dung and so gave up her soul, around the year 286. Her body was cast into the river Tiber but was later recovered and honoured by the Christians of Rome.

Saint Florus, bishop of Amisus

Saint Florus was the son of pious Christian parents, Florus and Euphemia, who provided him with a fine education. He entered the service of the Byzantine court and was elevated to the rank of patrician. He married and was the father of children, but after his wife and children died of smallpox he renounced the world and withdrew to the outskirts of Constantinople, where he led a solitary and pious life. The bishop of the city of Amisus on the Black Sea coast, taking notice of his virtue and learning, ordained him priest, and after the bishop's repose Florus was raised to that see. As bishop he served his flock with great love, gave generously to the poor and ransomed captives. Foreseeing his end, he reposed in peace in the seventh century.

Saint Sophocles of Egypt

Saint Sophocles was a desert-dwelling ascetic of Egypt, one of the early monastic fathers whose memory is preserved in the synaxarion of the Orthodox Church on this day. He withdrew to the wilderness in his youth to flee the noise of the world and to give himself wholly to the prayer of the heart. The brief notices that survive describe him as a faithful imitator of the great fathers of the desert, Anthony, Macarius and Pachomius, who through fasting, vigil and obedience attained dispassion and the gift of unceasing prayer. Living in the early period of Egyptian monasticism, he reposed in peace and was buried by the brethren of his community.

Holy Hieromartyr Modestus I, Archbishop of Jerusalem

634

His parents were pious Christians from Sebaste in Asia Minor, who died in prison while Modestus was still an infant. The child was raised by pagans, but when he learned that his parents had died for Christ, he secretly became a Christian also. When his adoptive parents died, he traveled to Athens, where he was taken in by a Christian goldsmith and his wife, and became a Christian at the age of thirteen. Modestus’ almsgiving and love for the poor soon earned him renown, but aroused the envy of the goldsmith’s sons, who sold Modestus into slavery during a trip to Egypt. But Modestus was able to bring his new master to faith in Christ and regain his freedom. Some time later he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The doors of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre opened at his prayers, and the people, taking this as a sign from God, chose Modestus as Archbishop of Jerusalem. (Accounts of his life do not mention his having been anything but a layman before this.) He served his flock tenderly and zealously, encouraging all to abound in spiritual gifts, and working many miracles. His prayers were effective not only in healing the faithful, but even in curing the ailments of their cattle and other animals. For this reason, it is still customary on this day to sprinkle animals pens and stables, and even houses in which pets dwell, with holy water, asking the Saint’s protection. Saint Modestus served his flock faithfully into old age. According to some accounts he reposed in peace. According to others, in his old age he was delivered up to the pagans by his enemies, and beheaded by them after many torments.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

1 Timothy — 1 Timothy 1.18-20, 2.8-15

¹⁸This charge I commit unto thee, my child Timothy, according to the prophecies which led the way to thee, that by them thou mayest war the good warfare; ¹⁸This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; ¹⁹holding faith and a good conscience; which some having thrust from them made shipwreck concerning the faith: ¹⁹Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: ²⁰of whom is Hymenæus and Alexander; whom I delivered unto Satan, that they might be taught not to blaspheme. ²⁰Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

⁸I desire therefore that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and disputing. ⁸I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. ⁹In like manner, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefastness and sobriety; not with braided hair, and gold or pearls or costly raiment; ⁹In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; ¹⁰but (which becometh women professing godliness) through good works. ¹⁰But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works. ¹¹Let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection. ¹¹Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. ¹²But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness. ¹²But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. ¹³For Adam was first formed, then Eve; ¹³For Adam was first formed, then Eve. ¹⁴And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. ¹⁴and Adam was not beguiled, but the woman being beguiled hath fallen into transgression: ¹⁵but she shall be saved through her child-bearing, if they continue in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety. ¹⁵Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Mark — Mark 10.11-16

¹¹And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. ¹¹And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her: ¹²And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery. ¹²and if she herself shall put away her husband, and marry another, she committeth adultery.

¹³And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them.

¹³And they were bringing unto him little children, that he should touch them: and the disciples rebuked them. ¹⁴But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. ¹⁴But when Jesus saw it, he was moved with indignation, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me; forbid them not: for to such belongeth the kingdom of God. ¹⁵Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. ¹⁵Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter therein. ¹⁶And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them. ¹⁶And he took them in his arms, and blessed them, laying his hands upon them.