Sunday, 19 April 2026

Antipascha: 2nd Sunday of Pascha

7 days after Pascha · Tone 1 · Liturgy · No Fast

Saints commemorated

Hieromartyr Paphnutius of Jerusalem

Saint Paphnutius was a bishop who suffered for Christ during the great persecution. The hagiographical tradition is divided as to his exact see: some sources speak of him as a hierarch of Jerusalem, while others identify him with an Egyptian bishop who suffered with many other Egyptian Christians who had been condemned to the mines of Palestine during the persecution of Diocletian (284 to 305). The two traditions probably reflect a single martyr, exiled from Egypt to Palestine and there put to death. Paphnutius was tortured by being burned with fire, exposed to wild beasts, and at last beheaded with the sword. After his repose his relics streamed forth fragrant myrrh and were glorified by many miracles, becoming a place of pilgrimage for the faithful. The canon for his feast preserved in the Menaion was composed during the iconoclast period before the Triumph of Orthodoxy in 842, attesting to the antiquity of his commemoration. He is honoured among the bishops who preferred to lay down their lives rather than betray the faith of Christ.

Saint George the confessor, bishop of Antioch in Pisidia

Saint George the Confessor lived during the iconoclast persecution of the early ninth century. From his youth he embraced the monastic life, and was renowned for his ascetic struggles, his learning in the holy Scriptures and his unblemished holiness of life. On account of these virtues he was raised to the episcopal throne of Antioch in Pisidia, where he shepherded his flock with apostolic care, teaching the people in the way of Orthodoxy and adorning his see by his prayer and almsgiving. When the emperor Leo V the Armenian (813 to 820) revived the iconoclast heresy and decreed that the holy icons should be cast down from the churches, George went to Constantinople and openly denounced the emperor's impiety at a council of bishops, calling on Leo to abandon the heresy and to confess the truth that God the Word had truly become man and could therefore truly be depicted. When he refused to remove the holy icons from the churches of his diocese, he was driven from his see and exiled to imprisonment, where he remained until the end of Leo's reign. There he ended his earthly course in confession of the holy icons, and the Church numbers him among those bishops who suffered for the truth and is therefore called Confessor.

Saint Tryphon, patriarch of Constantinople

928

Saint Tryphon was a monk from his youth, distinguished by his meekness, lack of malice, full submission to the will of God, and his firm faith and burning love for the Church. At the time of his patriarchate the emperor Romanus I Lecapenus (919 to 944) was ruling in Constantinople. The emperor wished to elevate his younger son Theophylact to the patriarchal throne, but when the patriarch Stephen reposed in 928 Theophylact was only sixteen, too young to be consecrated. The emperor therefore proposed that Saint Tryphon should be made locum tenens, holding the patriarchal office until the boy came of age. Tryphon meekly accepted the burden and for nearly three years governed the Church wisely, ordering its affairs with sobriety and zeal. When Theophylact reached the age of twenty in the year 931, the emperor told Tryphon to lay down his office. Tryphon, judging that it would be unworthy to entrust the helm of the Church to so young and inexperienced a youth, refused. Then a certain bishop Theophilus, by an unworthy stratagem, obtained from Tryphon his signature on a blank sheet, ostensibly to test his handwriting, and over that signature wrote out a letter of abdication declaring Tryphon unworthy of his throne. When this was presented to the emperor, the saint was deposed. Patiently bearing the injustice, Tryphon returned to his monastery and lived out his last days as a simple monk, reposing in peace in the year 933.

Venerable John of the Ancient Caves in Palestine

Saint John was called "of the Ancient Caves" because he made his abode in the eighth century at the Lavra of Saint Chariton, the oldest of the Palestinian cave monasteries, founded by Saint Chariton the Confessor in the fourth century and known as the "Old," or ancient cave. The Lavra was situated near the wilderness of Judaea, not far from Bethlehem and the Dead Sea, in a steep ravine carved by the winter torrents. In his early years John went up to Jerusalem to venerate the holy places of the Lord's life, passion and resurrection, and afterwards he settled at the Lavra of Chariton, where he laboured in fasting, vigils and unceasing prayer. He was found worthy to be ordained to the holy priesthood and was glorified by his ascetic life and gifts of grace. He shone in the lavra as a beacon of the older monastic tradition at a time when Palestinian monasticism was suffering the heavy hand of Saracen rule. Many disciples gathered around him, and he was a teacher of stillness and of the prayer of the heart. He reposed in peace in his cell in extreme old age, in the latter half of the eighth century.

Our Holy Father Agathangelos

1819

“From Thrace, his worldly name being Anastasios, he was a slave to some Turks, and they compelled him to embrace Islam in Smyrna. As a penitent, he was tonsured at the monastery of Esphigmenou on the Holy Mountain. Tormented by his conscience, he desired to wash his sins in his own blood, so he went to Smyrna, where he showed a Cross and an icon of Christ’s Resurrection to the Turks. He was beheaded on April 19th, 1819, at the age of nineteen. He appeared to his spiritual father, Germanos, after his death.” (Prologue)

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Acts — Acts 5.12-20

¹²And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch. ¹³And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them. ¹⁴And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.) ¹⁵Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. ¹⁶There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one.

¹⁷Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation, ¹⁸And laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison. ¹⁹But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, ²⁰Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.

Gospel

weekly cycle

John — John 20.19-31

¹⁹Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. ²⁰And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. ²¹Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. ²²And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: ²³Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.

²⁴But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.

²⁶And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. ²⁷Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. ²⁸And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. ²⁹Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

³⁰And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: ³¹But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

1st Matins Gospel

Matthew — Matthew 28.16-20

¹⁶Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. ¹⁷And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. ¹⁸And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

¹⁹Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: ²⁰Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.