Monday, 1 June 2026

Day of the Holy Spirit

Monday of the 1st week after Pentecost

50 days after Pascha · Tone 7 · Liturgy · No Fast (Fast Free)

Saints commemorated

Holy Martyr Justin and his companions at Rome

Together with the philosopher and apologist Justin, the Church commemorates on this day his fellow martyrs who suffered with him at Rome under the prefect Junius Rusticus during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. Their names are preserved in the ancient acts of the trial as Chariton, Charita his wife, Euelpistus, Hierax, Peon, Valerian and Justus. They were Christians of various stations who had been instructed in the school Justin had opened at Rome, or had been gathered around him by his preaching. When brought before the prefect they were ordered to sacrifice to the Roman gods, and each in turn confessed Christ, declaring that they would rather suffer than deny the truth. After being scourged they were beheaded together with their teacher around the year 165. The acta of their martyrdom rank among the earliest authentic court records of Christian witness.

Holy Martyr Justin the Philosopher

Born in 103, he was a philosopher from the Samaritan town of Shechem in Palestine, who had devoted his life to the search for truth, trying many philosophical schools and sources of human wisdom: the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans and finally the Platonists. One day an old man (whose name and origin are unknown) appeared to him and spoke to him of the Prophets and Apostles who had learned of God not by their own wisdom, but by revelation of God Himself. He read the scriptures and was convinced of the truth of the Faith, but he would not be baptised or call himself a Christian until he had tested all the pagans’ arguments against Christianity. To this end he traveled to Rome, where he engaged in debate at philosophical gatherings, impressing all with his wisdom. In Rome he also witnessed the martyrdom of Sts Ptolemy and Lucian; this moved him to write an Apologia for the Christian faith and the Christian people, which he gave to the Emperor Antoninus and the Senate. They were so moved by this document that the Emperor ordered that persecution of Christians should cease.

For the remainder of his life, Justin devoted all his skills to the proclamation of the Gospel and the defense of Christians. To the end of his life, wherever he preached Christ, he always wore his philosopher’s garb. In addition to his Apologia, he wrote a number of other learned defenses of the faith.

Eventually he was imprisoned following the false accusations of Crescens, a jealous Cynic philosopher. He died (one source says by beheading, another by poison) in Rome in 167 under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, successor to Antoninus.

Saint Dionysius, abbot of Glushitsa

1437

Saint Dionysius of Glushitsa was a monastic founder of the Vologda region of northern Russia who reposed in 1437. Tonsured at the Spaso-Kamenny monastery on Lake Kubenskoye, he sought greater solitude and in 1393 went deeper into the Vologda forest. Resting one evening by the river Glushitsa, he heard in his sleep the ringing of bells, which he took as a sign that he should build a monastery there. He founded the Pokrov community, which became a major centre of monastic life in the region, and later established a women's house dedicated to Saint Leontius of Rostov. A skilled icon painter, copyist and carpenter, he carved the wooden cross that stood over his grave with his own hands. His disciples carried the eremitic ideal across the northern forests, and he is remembered as one of the great wonderworkers of Vologda.

Venerable Agapitus the unmercenary physician of the Kiev Caves

Saint Agapitus was a native of Kiev who became a disciple of Saint Anthony of the Caves in the eleventh century. He devoted himself to caring for the sick brethren of the monastery, treating them with simple herbs and prayer and refusing all payment, so that he came to be called "the unmercenary physician." His prayer raised many from sickbeds, and he is said to have healed the future Great Prince Vladimir Monomakh of Chernigov by sending him boiled herbs. A learned Armenian physician who at first mocked his methods came to test him during his last illness and predicted his death within three days. Saint Agapitus replied that the Lord had revealed he would be summoned only after three months, and so it was. The Armenian was so struck by the truth of the prophecy and the holiness of the saint that he received Orthodox baptism and the monastic tonsure. Saint Agapitus reposed not later than 1095 and his relics rest in the Near Caves of the Kiev Lavra.

Our Holy Father Agapitus of the Kiev Caves

1095

“A natural doctor, he was a disciple of St Antony of Kiev. He healed people by prayer and the prescribing of cabbage, which they made into a sort of bread. Prince Vladimir Monomachus was healed in this way, and this made Agapitus famed on all sides. The Prince’s doctor, an Armenian, hearing of this, began to spread slander about him. When Agapitus became ill, the Armenian came and, looking at him, said that he would die in three days and that, if he did not do so, then he, the Armenian, would become a monk. Agapitus told him that it had been revealed to him by God that he would die, not in three days but in three months. And so it came to pass. After Agapitus’s death, the Armenian went to the abbot of the Monastery of the Caves and asked him to make him a monk. He explained that Agapitus had appeared to him from the other world and reminded him of his promise. And so the one-time envier became a humble monk, by the providence of God whose care it is that all men be saved. St Agapitus entered into rest in about 1095.” (Prologue)

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Ephesians — Ephesians 5.8-19

⁸For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: ⁹(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) ¹⁰Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. ¹¹And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. ¹²For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. ¹³But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. ¹⁴Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. ¹⁵See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, ¹⁶Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. ¹⁷Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. ¹⁸And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; ¹⁹Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 18.10-20

¹⁰Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. ¹¹For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. ¹²How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? ¹³And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. ¹⁴Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.

¹⁵Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. ¹⁶But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. ¹⁷And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. ¹⁸Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. ¹⁹Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. ²⁰For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.