Tuesday, 26 May 2026

Apostles Carpus and Alphaeus of the Seventy; Greatmartyr George the New at Sofia

Tuesday of the 7th Sunday of Pascha

44 days after Pascha · Tone 6 · Liturgy · No Fast

Saints commemorated

Holy Apostle Alphaeus of the Seventy

The Holy Apostle Alphaeus was one of the Seventy Apostles chosen by the Lord and sent out to preach His Gospel. He came from the Galilean city of Capernaum and was the father of two of the Twelve Apostles, James the son of Alphaeus and, according to tradition, also Matthew the Evangelist and tax collector. Having received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, Alphaeus laboured in the preaching of the Gospel and converted many to the faith of Christ. The synaxaria record that he reposed in peace after his evangelical labours, although some traditions number him among the martyrs. He is commemorated on 26 May together with the Apostle Carpus, and his children, the Holy Martyrs Avercius and Helen, are also remembered upon this day, as are James the son of Alphaeus on 9 October and Saint Matthew on 16 November. The Orthodox Church honours Alphaeus among the first who carried the message of salvation through the cities of Israel, the father of saints, and one of the first witnesses of the resurrection of Christ.

Holy Apostle Carpus of the Seventy

He was one of the Seventy and a companion of St Paul, who mentions him in 2 Timothy 4:13. He became a Bishop in Thrace (the Great Horologion says in Berea, the Prologue in Varna), where he suffered martyrdom. St Dionysius the Areopagite met and wrote about him, stating that Carpus never began the Liturgy without first receiving a heavenly vision.

From the Prologue: “We must not desire the death of a sinner, but his repentance. Nothing so saddens the Lord who suffered on the Cross for sinners as when we pray to Him for the death of a sinner and his removal from our path. It once happened that the Apostle Carpus lost patience and began to pray God to send death upon two sinful men, the one pagan and the other an apostate from the Faith. The Lord appeared to him and said: ‘Behold, here I am; ready to be crucified again for the salvation of men.’ St Carpus related this event to St Dionysius the Areopagite, who wrote it down as a lesson for all in the Church that we must pray for the salvation of sinners and not for their destruction. For the Lord ‘is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance’ (II Peter 3:9).”

Holy Martyrs Avercius and Helen

The Holy Martyrs Avercius and Helen were the children of the holy Apostle Alphaeus, one of the Seventy, and they suffered for Christ in the early years of the preaching of the Gospel. Avercius, having confessed his faith openly, was stripped naked and bound to a beehive, where the bees stung him until he gave up his soul to the Lord. His sister Helen, refusing in like manner to deny Christ, was put to death by stoning at the hands of the unbelievers. By their deaths the holy children sealed the apostolic preaching of their father with their blood, joining the chorus of those first witnesses who suffered for the new-planted faith. The synaxaria of the Greek and Slavonic Churches preserve their names together with that of their father on this day, and they are honoured among the holy martyrs of the apostolic age, whose courage and innocence have been a pattern for many. Their commemoration is kept on 26 May along with the Apostles Carpus and Alphaeus.

Saint Augustine of Canterbury, Apostle of the English

Saint Augustine, the apostle of the English, was an Italian Benedictine monk and prior of the monastery of Saint Andrew on the Coelian Hill in Rome. About the year 596, Saint Gregory the Great, Pope of Rome, sent him at the head of a band of forty monks to preach the Gospel to the still pagan Anglo-Saxons of Britain. Landing in 597 on the Isle of Thanet in Kent, Augustine and his companions were received by King Ethelbert, whose Frankish queen Bertha was already a Christian. The king gave them leave to preach freely, and through their holy lives, their wonders, and their preaching, Augustine converted Ethelbert and many thousands of his subjects, baptising the king and a great multitude in the river Swale. Consecrated bishop and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, he established his see at the church of Saint Martin, founded the monastery of Saints Peter and Paul east of the city, and built the cathedral of Christ Church which he consecrated on 9 June 603. He laboured to bring the British clergy of the older Celtic mission into communion with Rome on the matters of Pascha and other usages. Saint Augustine reposed in the Lord on 26 May 605, leaving behind a flourishing English Church.

Saint Augustine of Canterbury, evangelizer of England

c. 605

He is the founder of the Church in southern England, which at that time was almost entirely pagan, though Christianity thrived in the Celtic lands of Ireland, Wales and parts of Scotland. Augustine, a monk at the monastery of St Andrew in Rome, was chosen by Pope Gregory I to lead a mission to England. He and a party of about forty monks landed in England in 597; they were received warmly by King Aethelbert, who was baptised by Augustine and thus became the first Christian king of the Anglo-Saxon people. In 601 Pope Gregory made Augustine Archbishop of Britain, and he established his cathedral at Canterbury, where he also established a monastery. Saint Augustine worked unsuccessfully to unite his churches with those of the Irish monks and hierarchs, who followed different liturgical practices, kept a different date of Pascha, and disapproved of the less severe Roman monastic practices introduced by the Archbishop. He reposed in peace.

Holy New Martyr Alexander of Thessalonica

1794

He was born in Thessalonica and, though baptised a Christian, he accepted Islam as a young man, eventually becoming a Sufi (one of a mystical sect among the Muslims). But in time he began to repent, and concluded that martyrdom was the only way for him to cleanse himself from the stain of his denial of Christ. Having repented, he presented himself to the Turks dressed as a Christian. He was thrown into prison and tortured, but in response to every enticement, threat or torment, he would only say ‘I was born a Christian, and as a Christian I shall die.’ Finally he was sentenced to death, which Alexander joyfully accepted as a sign of God’s forgiveness. He was slain by the sword in Smyrna in 1794.

Also commemorated: Greatmartyr George the New at Sofia

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Acts — Acts 21.26-32

²⁶Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them.

²⁷And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him, ²⁸Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place. ²⁹(For they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.) ³⁰And all the city was moved, and the people ran together: and they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple: and forthwith the doors were shut. ³¹And as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. ³²Who immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down unto them: and when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they left beating of Paul.

Gospel

weekly cycle

John — John 16.2-13

²They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. ³And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. ⁴But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you. ⁵But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? ⁶But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. ⁷Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. ⁸And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: ⁹Of sin, because they believe not on me; ¹⁰Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; ¹¹Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. ¹²I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. ¹³Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.