Thursday, 13 February 2025

66 days before Pascha · Tone 8 · Liturgy · No Fast (Fast Free)

Saints commemorated

Apostle Aquila of the Seventy

Aquila was one of the apostles of the Seventy chosen by our Lord Jesus Christ to preach the Gospel and establish His Church. He was a faithful disciple who travelled and preached the faith, bringing many souls to salvation through his witness and teaching. Aquila worked alongside his wife Priscilla, and together they served the Church with great devotion. They were known for their hospitality and their willingness to risk their lives for the Gospel. Aquila is remembered as a faithful apostle who laboured in the early Church to spread the Good News of salvation in Christ.

Apostle Priscilla of the Seventy

Priscilla was one of the apostles of the Seventy, a woman of great faith and learning who shared her faith with her husband Aquila. She was renowned for her knowledge of Scripture and her ability to explain the way of God more accurately to those she encountered. Priscilla exemplified the role of women in the early Church as teachers, witnesses, and evangelists. She risked her life for the Gospel and worked alongside her husband to establish Christian communities. She is remembered as a faithful apostle whose courage and faithfulness to Christ served as an inspiration to the early Church.

Saint Eulogius of Alexandria

Eulogius was a patriarch of Alexandria and one of the great Fathers of the Church in Egypt. He lived during the Islamic period and worked to preserve the Orthodox faith and the ecclesiastical tradition among the Coptic Christians. Eulogius was known for his theological writings, his pastoral wisdom, and his defence of Orthodox doctrine. He worked to maintain church discipline and to guide the faithful in holiness and righteousness. He is remembered as a great patriarch and theologian whose contributions to the Church continue to be valued in the Eastern Christian tradition.

Saint Martinian, Monk of Caesarea

“The life of this saint is wonderful beyond measure and is worth reading in full. What did he not endure to fulfil the Law of God? At the age of eighteen, he went off into a mountain in Cappadocia called the Ark and spent 25 years in fasting, vigils and prayer, and struggling with manifold temptations. When a woman came to tempt him and he saw that he would fall into sin with her, he leapt barefoot into the fire and stood in it until the pain brought forth tears from his eyes and he had killed all lust within himself. When other temptations arose, he fled to a lonely rock in the sea and lived there. When, though, in a shipwreck, a woman swam to the rock, he leapt into the sea intending to drown himself. But a dolphin took him upon its back and brought him, by God’s providence, to the shore. He then decided to make nowhere his permanent home but to travel incessantly. Thus he passed through 164 towns in two years, exhorting and advising the people. He finally arrived in Athens, where he died in 422.” (Prologue)

Saints Zoe and Photina

Zoe and Photina were holy women martyrs of the early Church who gave their lives in witness to Christ. According to tradition, they were imprisoned and endured severe tortures for refusing to deny their Christian faith and to participate in pagan sacrifices. Their commitment to Christ was so steadfast that they remained unmoved by the threats and suffering inflicted upon them. They eventually achieved martyrdom and entered into the Kingdom of Heaven. Their memory is venerated in the Orthodox Church as witnesses to the power of faith in Christ and the willingness of the faithful to endure all things for the sake of the Gospel.

Holy Apostles and Martyrs Priscilla and Aquila

Aquila and his wife Priscilla (or Prisca) were Jews from Pontus who settled in Rome, where they worked as tent-makers. When the Emperor Claudius expelled all Jews from Rome in 49-50, they moved to Corinth. (They may already have been Christians; at that time the Empire made no distinction between Christians and Jews.) In Corinth they hosted the Apostle Paul, who lived and worked with them for awhile (Acts 18:1-3). They worked diligently with the Apostle, traveled with him, and were considered worthy to bring Apollos (December 8) to a full knowledge of the Faith (Acts 18:26) Priscilla and Aquila returned to Rome around 58, and later went to Ephesus; they were living there when St Paul asked his disciple Timothy, Bishop of Ephesus, to greet them (2 Tim. 4:19). It was probably in Ephesus that they were martyred by the pagans.

St Symeon the Myrrh-streamer, founder of the Chilandar Monastery

1200

He was born in 1114. In the world, he ruled the kingdom of Serbia as Stephen Nemanja; after ruling wisely and mercifully for many years, he renounced all worldly wealth and glory in 1196 to become a monk. Traveling to the Holy Mountain, he took for his spiritual father his own son Sava, who had preceded him in renouncing royal honor for a life of prayer. Together Symeon (as he was named in monastic life) and his son founded Hilandar monastery. His wife Anna became a nun, taking the name Anastasia; she is also commemorated as a saint of the Church. After his repose, St Symeon’s relics exuded a fragrant and healing myrrh. Saint Sava brought his father’s holy relics back to Serbia. The Synaxarion says “From Saint Symeon’s empty tomb at Chilandar, a vine miraculously sprang up whose dried grape seeds are to this day sent all over the world as a blessing for childless married couples.”

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

1 John — 1 John 1.8-2.6

⁸If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁸If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. ¹⁰If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

¹My little children, these things write I unto you that ye may not sin. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

¹My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: ²And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. ²and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. ³And hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. ³And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. ⁴He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; ⁴He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. ⁵but whoso keepeth his word, in him verily hath the love of God been perfected. Hereby we know that we are in him: ⁵But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. ⁶he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked. ⁶He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Mark — Mark 13.31-14.2

³¹Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. ³¹Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.

³²But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. ³²But of that day or that hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. ³³Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.

³³Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. ³⁴For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. ³⁴It is as when a man, sojourning in another country, having left his house, and given authority to his servants, to each one his work, commanded also the porter to watch. ³⁵Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: ³⁵Watch therefore: for ye know not when the lord of the house cometh, whether at even, or at midnight, or at cockcrowing, or in the morning; ³⁶lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. ³⁶Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. ³⁷And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch. ³⁷And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.

¹After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death.

¹Now after two days was the feast of the passover and the unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him with subtlety, and kill him: ²But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people. ²for they said, Not during the feast, lest haply there shall be a tumult of the people.