Saturday, 21 June 2025

Saturday of the 2nd week after Pentecost

62 days after Pascha · Tone 8 · Liturgy · Apostles Fast (Fish, Wine and Oil are Allowed)

Saints commemorated

★ Holy Martyr Julian of Tarsus in Cilicia

“Of a noble senatorial family, he lived in Tarsus in Cilicia and suffered in the reign of Diocletian. Although only eighteen years old when he was taken for trial for the Faith, St Julian was already both educated and resolute in Christian faith and devotion. The imperial governor took him from city to city for a whole year, torturing him all the while and attempting to persuade him to renounce Christ. Julian’s mother followed her son at a distance. When the governor seized her and sent her to urge her son to renounce Christ, she spent three days in the prison with him, giving him precisely the opposite advice, teaching him and giving him the strength not to lose heart but to go to his death with courage and gratitude to God. His torturers then sewed Julian into a sack of sand with scorpions and snakes and threw him into the sea, and his mother also died under torture. The waves carried his body onto the shore, and the faithful took it to Alexandria, where they buried it in 290. His relics were later taken to Antioch. St John Chrysostom himself gave an eulogy for the holy martyr Julian: ‘A holy voice comes forth from the lips of the martyr, and with this voice is poured out a light brighter than the rays of the sun.’ He said further: ‘Take whomsoever you will, be he a madman or one possessed, and lead him to the grave of this saint, to the martyr’s relics, and you will see the demon immediately jump out and flee as from blazing fire.’ It is evident from this speech that many wonders must have been wrought at St Julian’s grave.” (Prologue)

Hieromartyr Terence, Bishop of Iconium

The Hieromartyr Terence, also called Tertius, was the first bishop of Iconium in Lycaonia, ordained, according to early tradition, by the Holy Apostle Paul during his missionary journeys in Asia Minor. He is identified by some Fathers with the Tertius mentioned in the Epistle to the Romans as the scribe of that letter, and is numbered among the seventy. As bishop he laboured zealously to plant the gospel among the people of Lycaonia, contending against the worship of idols and confirming the converts in the faith. After many years of pastoral care he was seized by the pagans and subjected to fearful tortures for the name of Christ, refusing to deny his Lord even under the harshest of trials. He was beheaded in the first century, sealing with his blood the witness he had borne in word and deed, and his relics worked wonders for the faithful in the city he had served.

Holy Hieromartyr Eusebius of Samosata

The Hieromartyr Eusebius was bishop of Samosata in Syria in the fourth century, and a fearless defender of the Orthodox faith against the Arian heresy in the troubled years that followed the First Ecumenical Council. A friend and correspondent of Saints Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and Meletius of Antioch, he laboured tirelessly to consecrate Orthodox bishops in sees that had been left vacant by the Arians, often travelling secretly in the disguise of a soldier through the dioceses of the East. Under the Emperor Valens, who upheld the Arian party, he was sent into exile in Thrace, bearing his banishment with patience and continuing to write letters of encouragement to the persecuted Orthodox. After the death of Valens he returned to his see and resumed his pastoral labours. While he was at Dolikha to install a bishop in that city, an Arian woman threw a tile from the roof which struck him on the head, and dying of the wound around the year 380 he forbade his companions to seek out the murderess, in keeping with the gospel command to forgive.

Saint Aaron of Bretagne

Saint Aaron, called in Breton Aihran or Eran, was a hermit and abbot of sixth-century Brittany. Of British origin, he crossed the sea to Armorica and settled first as a solitary near Lamballe and Pleumeur-Gautier, before withdrawing to the small island of Cézembre in the bay of Saint-Malo, opposite the ancient city of Aleth. There he gave himself wholly to prayer, fasting and the works of his hands. His sanctity drew many disciples, and around his cell there grew up a small monastery of which he became the abbot. Among those whom he received was the young Saint Malo, around 544, who learned from him the discipline of the monastic life before becoming the great enlightener of the region. Saint Aaron fell asleep in the Lord after the year 552, and was buried on his island. The town of Saint-Aaron near Lamballe and many ancient chapels of the coast preserve his name, and his memory is kept on the twenty-first of June in the church of Saint-Malo, on the twenty-second elsewhere in Brittany.

Our Holy Fathers Julius and Julian

5th c.

They were brothers from Greece, Christians from childhood; Julius was a priest, Julian a deacon. At the command of the Emperor Theodosius the Younger, they set out as missionaries to destroy idols and bring the people to faith in Christ throughout the Empire. During their lifetime they built a hundred churches and brought thousands to Christ. They reposed in peace near Milan: that city’s people once invoked St Julius for help against wolves.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Romans — Romans 3.19-26

¹⁹Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

¹⁹Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God: ²⁰Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. ²⁰because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for through the law cometh the knowledge of sin.

²¹But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

²¹But now apart from the law a righteousness of God hath been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; ²²Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: ²²even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe; for there is no distinction; ²³For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; ²³for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; ²⁴Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: ²⁴being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: ²⁵whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in his blood, to show his righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God; ²⁵Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; ²⁶To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. ²⁶for the showing, I say, of his righteousness at this present season: that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 7.1-8

¹Judge not, that ye be not judged.

¹Judge not, that ye be not judged. ²For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. ²For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you. ³And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? ³And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? ⁴Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? ⁴Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me cast out the mote out of thine eye; and lo, the beam is in thine own eye? ⁵Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye. ⁵Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

⁶Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

⁶Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine, lest haply they trample them under their feet, and turn and rend you.

⁷Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

⁷Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: ⁸For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. ⁸for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.