Friday, 15 May 2026

Ven. Pachomius the Great; Slain Crown Prince Dimitry of Moscow

Friday of the 5th Sunday of Pascha

33 days after Pascha · Tone 4 · Red squigg (doxology typikon symbol) · Fast (Wine and Oil are Allowed)

Saints commemorated

★ Venerable Pachomius the Great, founder of cenobitic monasticism

348

His name in his native Coptic, Pachom, means “eagle.” He was an Egyptian pagan who entered the Roman army at a young age. While quartered at Thebes, he was amazed at the kindness of the local Christians, who brought food and drink to the soldiers. Learning who they were, he believed in Christ and vowed, once released from the army, to serve him for the rest of his life. At the end of his military service, he was baptised and became the disciple of the hermit Palamon, with whom he lived for ten years.

At a place called Tabennisis an angel appeared to him dressed in the robes of a monk and gave him a tablet on which was written a rule for a cenobitic monastery — one in which the brethren live communally rather than as hermits, something that had not been seen before among Christians. The angel commanded him to found such a monastery. Pachomius set to work, building many cells though there was no one to live there but himself and his brother John. When John questioned the unnecessary building, Pachomius only said that he was following God’s command, without saying who would live there or when.

But soon men began to assemble there, and in time so many came to be his disciples that he eventually founded nine monasteries housing thousands of monks. The rule that he gave (or had been given) for these monasteries became the model for all communal Christian monasticism thereafter. St Pachomius reposed in 346, before his great Egyptian fellow-strugglers St Anthony the Great and St Athanasius the Great.

Entertaining angels unawares: Christian believers’ simple acts of kindness toward their pagan oppressors may have seemed foolish to many, but it was such acts that opened the eyes of Pachomius to the light of Christ, and which bore incalculably great fruit: the founding of the monastic life which is still the backbone of Christ’s Church.

Saint Achilles, bishop of Larissa

Saint Achilles lived in the fourth century during the reign of the holy emperor Constantine the Great. Renowned for his holy life and his learning, he was elevated to the see of Larissa in Thessaly, where he laboured to root out paganism, demolished idolatrous temples and built and adorned many churches in their place. He took part in the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325, where he stood with the fathers in defence of the Orthodox faith and boldly denounced the heretic Arius. Tradition recounts that, to confound the Arians, he picked up a stone and challenged them, if Christ were merely a creature, to make oil flow from it; when they could not, the saint commanded oil to spring from the stone in witness to the equal divinity of the Son with the Father. He returned to his diocese and reposed in peace in Larissa about the year 330. When Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria later conquered Thessaly, the relics of Saint Achilles were translated to an island in Lake Prespa, which thereafter bore the saint's name.

Saint Isaiah the Wonderworker, bishop of Rostov

Saint Isaiah was born in the region of Kiev in the eleventh century to pious parents who raised him in the Orthodox faith. While still young he renounced the world and entered the Kiev Caves Monastery, where he was tonsured by Saint Theodosius. After a long ascetic struggle in the caves he was appointed abbot of the monastery of Saint Demetrius in Kiev by Prince Iziaslav, and there he laboured for the salvation of his brethren by word and example. In 1077 he was consecrated bishop of Rostov, a region still largely pagan. Travelling tirelessly through his vast diocese, the saint preached the Gospel to the unbelievers, baptising whole villages, building churches and confirming the newly converted in the faith. He is numbered among those holy hierarchs by whose labours the Russian land was won for Christ. According to tradition, in 1089 Saint Isaiah was miraculously borne on a cloud, after the manner of the Apostles, to Kiev, that he might be present at the consecration of the great church of the Dormition at the Caves Monastery. After thirteen years as bishop he reposed on 15 May 1090. His incorrupt relics were uncovered in 1164 and rest in the cathedral of the Dormition at Rostov.

Venerable Euphrosynus of Pskov

Saint Euphrosynus, in the world Eleazar, was born about 1386 in the village of Videlebye near Pskov to pious peasant parents. From his childhood he loved the church and the reading of the holy books. Refusing the marriage his parents had arranged, he secretly left his home and entered the Snetnaia Mountain Monastery near Pskov, where he was tonsured under the name of Euphrosynus. Seeking still greater silence, he withdrew to the banks of the river Tolba about twenty-five versts from Pskov and there built a small chapel and a cell. Disciples gathered around him, and so was founded the Eleazarov monastery of the Three Hierarchs. The saint himself drew up the first known monastic rule of northern Russia, ordering the common life of his brethren in poverty, silence and obedience. He took a leading part in the famous controversy of his day over the singing of the Alleluia, defending the practice received from Constantinople. Refusing all honours, he remained until his death a simple monk and left the office of abbot to one of his disciples. He reposed at the great age of ninety-five on 15 May 1481. His relics are honoured at the monastery he founded.

Venerable Isaiah, wonderworker of the Kiev Near Caves

Saint Isaiah of the Kiev Caves is to be distinguished from his namesake Saint Isaiah, bishop of Rostov, with whom he shares the day of commemoration. He laboured in the Kiev Caves Monastery in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, devoting himself to silence, fasting and unceasing prayer. Living in the cells hewn out of the cliffs above the Dnieper, he received from God the gift of working miracles even during his earthly life, healing the sick who came to him and consoling the sorrowful. He reposed in peace on 15 May 1115, and his relics rest incorrupt in the Near Caves of Saint Anthony at the Kiev Caves Lavra, where he is numbered among the synaxis of the venerable fathers of those caves. The faithful continue to seek his intercession for healing of body and soul.

Our Father among the Saints Achillius, Bishop of Larissa

330

He was born in Cappadocia, and was one of the 318 God-bearing Fathers who attended the First Ecumenical Council. At the council, Achillius took up a stone and said to the Arians, ‘If Christ is a creature of God, as you say, tell oil to flow from this stone.’ When the heretics kept silent, Achilleus went on, ‘And if the Son of God is equal to the Father, as we believe, let oil flow from this stone,’ at which oil flowed out. Returning to Larissa, the holy bishop cast down many pagan temples, built many churches, cast out many demons, and reposed in peace.

Also commemorated: Slain Crown Prince Dimitry of Moscow

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Acts — Acts 15.5-34

⁵But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.

⁶And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter. ⁷And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. ⁸And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; ⁹And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. ¹⁰Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? ¹¹But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.

¹²Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.

¹³And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me: ¹⁴Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. ¹⁵And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, ¹⁶After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: ¹⁷That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. ¹⁸Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. ¹⁹Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: ²⁰But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. ²¹For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day. ²²Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren: ²³And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia: ²⁴Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment: ²⁵It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, ²⁶Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁷We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth. ²⁸For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; ²⁹That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well. ³⁰So when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch: and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle: ³¹Which when they had read, they rejoiced for the consolation. ³²And Judas and Silas, being prophets also themselves, exhorted the brethren with many words, and confirmed them. ³³And after they had tarried there a space, they were let go in peace from the brethren unto the apostles. ³⁴Notwithstanding it pleased Silas to abide there still.

Gospel

weekly cycle

John — John 10.17-28

¹⁷Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. ¹⁸No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

¹⁹There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings. ²⁰And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him? ²¹Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?

²²And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. ²³And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch. ²⁴Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. ²⁵Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. ²⁶But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. ²⁷My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: ²⁸And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.