Tuesday, 1 April 2025

Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

19 days before Pascha · Tone 7 · Red squigg (doxology typikon symbol) · Lenten Fast

Saints commemorated

Holy Martyr Abraham the Bulgarian

The Holy Martyr Abraham of Bulgaria (died 1 April 1229) was a Christian convert from Islam who suffered martyrdom on the banks of the Volga. He was born among the Volga Bulgars, in what is now Tatarstan in Russia, and grew up to become a wealthy Muslim merchant noted for his kindness and generosity to the destitute. The exact circumstances of his conversion are not preserved, but having embraced Christ he received the name Abraham at his baptism. Travelling in the course of his trade to the city of Bolgar (Bulgar) on the lower reaches of the Volga, then capital of Volga Bulgaria, Abraham began to preach openly to his countrymen the faith of Christ, calling them to abandon Islam and to seek salvation in the God-Man Jesus Christ. The townspeople grew angry and pressed him repeatedly to deny Christ. He refused. Finding that he was not a subject of the prince of Vladimir-Suzdal and so enjoyed no protection, they arrested him. After a long detention and many tortures, on 1 April 1229 he was hewn limb from limb with the sword and beheaded on the bank of the Volga. His body was gathered up by Russian merchants who buried him in the Christian cemetery at Bolgar. Healings began at his tomb, and Grand Prince George (Yury) Vsevolodovich of Vladimir, hearing of the miracles, in 1230 ordered the relics to be translated to the Cathedral of the Mother of God in Vladimir, where they were placed in the convent founded by his sister, the Princess Theodulia. He was glorified by the Russian Church and is honoured as one of the holy martyrs of Old Russia.

Our Holy Mother Mary of Egypt

4th-6th c.

Her radiant life is also commemorated on the Fifth Sunday of the Great Fast. The Life of St Mary of Egypt, written by St Sophronios of Jerusalem, is read in its entirety on the Thursday of the Great Canon during Lent. Click on the link to read it. The date of her repose is very unclear: it is given variously as 378, 437, and 522.

Venerable Euthymius of Suzdal

Saint Euthymius of Suzdal was born at Nizhni-Novgorod in 1316 to pious parents. From childhood he was drawn to the church, and as a young man he received monastic tonsure at the Caves Monastery of Nizhni-Novgorod under its founder, Saint Dionysius (later Archbishop of Suzdal). There he led a strict life of obedience, vigil and prayer. In 1352 Prince Boris Konstantinovich of Suzdal asked the Caves community to send a monk capable of founding a monastery in his city. The choice fell upon Saint Euthymius. With the blessing of Saint Dionysius and Bishop John of Suzdal, he founded the Spaso-Evfimiev (Saviour-Euthymius) Monastery of the Transfiguration on the bank of the river Kamenka. Soon more than three hundred monks gathered around him, and Euthymius became the first archimandrite of the new house. He was a strict ascetic and a man of unceasing prayer; in cell, refectory and in the labour of the brethren he laboured alongside them, and the spiritual writings record that he loved silence and tears. Saint Euthymius was a close friend of Saint Sergius of Radonezh and of Saint Dionysius of Suzdal, with whom he kept correspondence. He guided the brotherhood for fifty-two years, reposing in peace at Suzdal on 1 April 1404. On 4 July 1507, while a foundation trench was being dug for a new cathedral church in his monastery, his relics were uncovered incorrupt, and he was glorified at the Council of 1549 under Saint Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow.

Venerable Macarius the Confessor of Pelekete

Saint Macarius (Makarios), born Christophoros at Constantinople around the year 750, was orphaned in infancy and raised by an uncle, who saw to his sacred education. Drawn to monastic life, he left the imperial city for the Pelekete monastery on the southern shore of the Sea of Marmara in Bithynia, where he received the angelic schema and the new name Macarius. After serving in many of the obediences of the community and acquiring the virtues, especially humility, he was chosen abbot of the brotherhood and was ordained priest. Numerous miracles of healing are attributed to him, for which reason he is also styled the Wonderworker. During the second iconoclast persecution under Leo V the Armenian (813 to 820), Saint Macarius was seized for venerating the holy icons. He was tortured and imprisoned. Released by Michael II the Stammerer (820 to 829), who attempted by flattery to persuade him to deny the veneration of icons, Macarius refused. He was then exiled to the small island of Aphousia in the Sea of Marmara near Alona, where he lived in privation, working miracles and giving thanks to God to the end of his days. He reposed in exile, traditionally on 18 August around 840; his memory is kept on 1 April in the Greek synaxaria, the day of his name in the calendar of the Pelekete brotherhood.

Venerable Mary of Egypt

522

Saint Mary of Egypt is one of the most revered desert ascetics of the Eastern Christian tradition. According to the Life composed by Saint Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem (634 to 638), and based on oral tradition received from the monks of Palestine, Mary was born in Egypt and at the age of twelve ran away from her parents to Alexandria, where she lived for seventeen years in unrestrained debauchery, supporting herself by begging and the work of her hands so that her sin might be the more abundant. Drawn by curiosity rather than devotion, she boarded a ship of pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem for the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. At the church of the Holy Sepulchre an unseen force prevented her from entering until, beholding an icon of the Mother of God in the courtyard, she repented with tears and was permitted to venerate the Wood of the Cross. Following a voice that bade her cross the Jordan, Mary withdrew into the desert beyond, where she lived in solitude for forty-seven years with no human contact, no shelter and only three small loaves of bread, sustained thereafter by the wild plants of the wilderness. Her clothing rotted away and her hair grew white. After many years of struggle against the passions, she received the gift of dispassion and the grace of clairvoyance. Toward the end of her life she was discovered by the hieromonk Zosimas, who had withdrawn into the wilderness during Great Lent. She told him her life and asked him to bring her Holy Communion the following year on Holy Thursday at the banks of the Jordan. He did so, and saw her cross the river by walking upon the water. The next year, returning, he found her body undecayed with an inscription in the sand giving her name and asking that she be buried. According to the Life she reposed on the night of the saving Passion of Christ, on or about 1 April in the year 522, having received the Mystical Supper from Saint Zosimas. Her Life is read in its entirety at Matins of the Thursday of the fifth week of Great Lent (the Great Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete), and the fifth Sunday of Great Lent is dedicated to her memory. The Life was cited at the Second Council of Nicaea (787) in defence of the veneration of holy icons.

Daily readings

6th Hour

weekly cycle

Isaiah — Isaiah 40.18-31

¹⁸To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?

¹⁸To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him? ¹⁹The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains. ¹⁹The image, a workman hath cast it, and the goldsmith overlayeth it with gold, and casteth for it silver chains. ²⁰He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved. ²⁰He that is too impoverished for such an oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a skilful workman to set up a graven image, that shall not be moved. ²¹Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? ²¹Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? ²²It is he that sitteth above the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in; ²²It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: ²³that bringeth princes to nothing; that maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. ²³That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. ²⁴Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. ²⁴Yea, they have not been planted; yea, they have not been sown; yea, their stock hath not taken root in the earth: moreover he bloweth upon them, and they wither, and the whirlwind taketh them away as stubble. ²⁵To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. ²⁵To whom then will ye liken me, that I should be equal to him? saith the Holy One. ²⁶Lift up your eyes on high, and see who hath created these, that bringeth out their host by number; he calleth them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and for that he is strong in power, not one is lacking. ²⁶Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.

²⁷Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from Jehovah, and the justice due to me is passed away from my God?

²⁷Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God? ²⁸Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard? The everlasting God, Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary; there is no searching of his understanding.

²⁸Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. ²⁹He giveth power to the faint; and to him that hath no might he increaseth strength. ²⁹He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. ³⁰Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: ³⁰Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: ³¹but they that wait for Jehovah shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint. ³¹But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Vespers

weekly cycle

Genesis — Genesis 15.1-15

¹After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.

¹After these things the word of Jehovah came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.

²And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? ²And Abram said, O Lord Jehovah, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and he that shall be possessor of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? ³And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. ³And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. ⁴And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. ⁴And, behold, the word of Jehovah came unto him, saying, This man shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. ⁵And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and number the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. ⁵And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. ⁶And he believed in Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness. ⁶And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

⁷And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. ⁷And he said unto him, I am Jehovah that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. ⁸And he said, Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? ⁸And he said, O Lord Jehovah, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? ⁹And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. ⁹And he said unto him, Take me a heifer three years old, and a she-goat three years old, and a ram three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon. ¹⁰And he took him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each half over against the other: but the birds divided he not. ¹⁰And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not. ¹¹And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away. ¹¹And the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

¹²And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him.

¹²And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. ¹³And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; ¹³And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; ¹⁴And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. ¹⁴and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. ¹⁵But thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. ¹⁵And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.

Vespers

weekly cycle

Proverbs — Proverbs 15.7-19

⁷The lips of the wise disperse knowledge: but the heart of the foolish doeth not so. ⁷The lips of the wise disperse knowledge; But the heart of the foolish doeth not so. ⁸The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight. ⁸The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to Jehovah; But the prayer of the upright is his delight. ⁹The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the LORD: but he loveth him that followeth after righteousness. ⁹The way of the wicked is an abomination to Jehovah; But he loveth him that followeth after righteousness. ¹⁰Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way: and he that hateth reproof shall die. ¹⁰There is grievous correction for him that forsaketh the way; And he that hateth reproof shall die. ¹¹Sheol and Abaddon are before Jehovah; How much more then the hearts of the children of men! ¹¹Hell and destruction are before the LORD: how much more then the hearts of the children of men? ¹²A scoffer loveth not to be reproved; He will not go unto the wise. ¹²A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him: neither will he go unto the wise. ¹³A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken. ¹³A glad heart maketh a cheerful countenance; But by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken. ¹⁴The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge: but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness. ¹⁴The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge; But the mouth of fools feedeth on folly. ¹⁵All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. ¹⁵All the days of the afflicted are evil; But he that is of a cheerful heart hath a continual feast. ¹⁶Better is little, with the fear of Jehovah, Than great treasure and trouble therewith.

¹⁶Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith. ¹⁷Better is a dinner of herbs, where love is, Than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. ¹⁷Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. ¹⁸A wrathful man stirreth up strife: but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife. ¹⁸A wrathful man stirreth up contention; But he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife. ¹⁹The way of the sluggard is as a hedge of thorns; But the path of the upright is made a highway. ¹⁹The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns: but the way of the righteous is made plain.