Thursday, 24 April 2025

Bright Thursday

4 days after Pascha · Tone 5 · Liturgy · No Fast (Fast Free)

Saints commemorated

Holy Martyr Sabbas the General of Rome and seventy soldiers with him

272

Saint Sabbas was a Goth by descent who served in the Roman army under the Emperor Aurelian in the third century. By his courage and ability he attained the high rank of stratelates, that is general or military commander. While outwardly a Roman officer he secretly lived as a Christian, distributing his pay among the poor, visiting the brethren in prison and ministering to those in need. By the strictness of his prayer and fasting he received from God the gift of casting out unclean spirits. When his faith was reported to the emperor, he was summoned and openly confessed Christ before the imperial tribunal. He was beaten with rods, hung up and torn with iron hooks, burned with torches, and at last thrown into a great cauldron of boiling pitch, from which he came out unharmed. Beholding this miracle, seventy soldiers of the imperial guard at once confessed Christ; refusing to recant they were all beheaded with the sword. Sabbas himself was finally cast bound into the river Tiber, where he received the crown of martyrdom in the year 272. The Church commemorates him on this day as a soldier of Christ and leader of a multitude of fellow martyrs.

Holy Martyrs Eusebius, Neon, Leontius, Longinus and others, at Nicomedia

303

These holy martyrs were among the great company who came to faith in Christ through witnessing the sufferings of the Great Martyr George at Nicomedia. Eusebius, Neon, Leontius and Longinus, together with about forty others, beheld the marvellous endurance of the saint under torture and the miracles of healing wrought upon him by the angel of God, and they openly confessed Christ before the Emperor Diocletian. Imprisoned for their faith, they were brought out one after another and called upon to deny Christ and worship the idols. Each refused, and they were taken outside the walls of the city and put to the sword in the year 303. The Church remembers them on the day after the feast of Saint George, whose witness brought them to martyrdom.

Holy Martyrs Pasicrates and Valentinus of Dorostolum

288

Saints Pasicrates and Valentinus were soldiers of the Roman garrison at Durostorum in Moesia, on the lower Danube, in the time of the Emperor Diocletian. Pasicrates was twenty-two years of age and Valentinus thirty when, in the year 288, the persecution against the Christians reached their city. Brought before the governor Absolanus and commanded to offer sacrifice to the idol of Apollo, Pasicrates approached the idol and spat upon it, declaring, This is the honour due to it. Valentinus likewise refused, professing himself a Christian. The mother of Saint Pasicrates followed the soldiers to the place of execution, exhorting her son not to fear death for the sake of Christ but to bear his testimony bravely to the end. Brother of Pasicrates also ran to embrace him on the path of martyrdom, and although he wavered for a moment Pasicrates persuaded him to remain in the world to comfort their mother. Both saints were beheaded together and received the unfading crown of martyrdom. The Synaxarion records that other martyrs of Dorostolum, including Saint Julius the Veteran, suffered around the same persecution.

Saint Elizabeth the Wonderworker of Constantinople

Saint Elizabeth was born in Heraclea of Thrace and was promised to God by her parents while still in her mother's womb. As a child she was given to the women's monastery of Saints Cosmas and Damian in Constantinople, where she grew up in an atmosphere of fasting and ceaseless prayer. She received from God in early youth the gift of healing illnesses both bodily and spiritual. The sisters of the monastery, recognising her holiness, chose her as their abbess, and she ruled the convent with great gentleness and discernment. Her ascetic struggle was extreme: she ate only herbs and vegetables, abstaining from bread, wine and oil, and during the forty days of Great Lent she would often eat nothing at all. By her prayer she put to death a great serpent that was terrifying the people, healed a woman who had suffered for many years from an issue of blood, and cast out unclean spirits from those who came to her. After her repose her grave and even the soil around it became a source of healings. The exact dates of her life are not known with certainty, but she is generally placed between the sixth and ninth centuries. Her memory is celebrated on this day.

Also commemorated: Martyr Sabbas Stratelates

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Acts — Acts 2.38-43

³⁸Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. ³⁸And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. ³⁹For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him. ⁴⁰And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. ⁴⁰And with many other words he testified, and exhorted them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation.

⁴¹Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. ⁴¹They then that received his word were baptized: and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls. ⁴²And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. ⁴²And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers. ⁴³And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.

⁴³And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

Gospel

weekly cycle

John — John 3.1-15

¹There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:

¹Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: ²The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. ²the same came unto him by night, and said to him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that thou doest, except God be with him. ³Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. ³Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God. ⁴Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? ⁴Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? ⁵Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. ⁵Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. ⁶That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁶That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. ⁷Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born anew. ⁸The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. ⁸The wind bloweth where it will, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. ⁹Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? ⁹Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? ¹⁰Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou the teacher of Israel, and understandest not these things? ¹⁰Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? ¹¹Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. ¹¹Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that which we know, and bear witness of that which we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. ¹²If I told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you heavenly things? ¹²If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? ¹³And no one hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended out of heaven, even the Son of man, who is in heaven. ¹³And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

¹⁴And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: ¹⁴And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; ¹⁵that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life. ¹⁵That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.