Monday, 23 June 2025

Monday of the 3rd week after Pentecost

64 days after Pascha · Tone 1 · Liturgy · Apostles Fast

Saints commemorated

Holy Martyr Eustochios the Presbyter and his companions

Saint Eustochios lived in the city of Ouasada during the reign of the Emperor Maximian at the beginning of the fourth century, when Agrippa was governor. He had been a priest of the idols, but seeing the unyielding courage of the Christian martyrs and the wonders worked through them he turned away from the worship of the demons and sought out Eudoxius, the Bishop of Antioch, who baptised him and afterwards ordained him to the priesthood. Returning to a village in Lycaonia called Lystra, he found his nephew Gaius and the three children Lollius, Probus and Urban, and instructed them in the faith, baptising them together with the rest of his kindred. When the persecution overtook them, all were brought before the court, tortured for their confession of Christ, and beheaded at Lystra. Their joint memorial honours a household drawn out of pagan priesthood into the company of the holy martyrs.

Holy Virgin Martyr Agrippina of Rome

Saint Agrippina was born and brought up in Rome, where from her earliest years she trained herself to live by the Gospel, expelling the passions from her heart through prayer, fasting and unwavering chastity. Betrothed in spirit to Christ alone, she suffered during the persecution of the Emperor Valerian in the middle of the third century. Brought before the tribunal, she boldly confessed her faith and was given over to torture; she was beaten with staves until her bones were broken, and an angel of the Lord appeared to comfort and strengthen her, until under fresh torments she gave up her soul to God around the year 275. Her companions Vassa, Paula and Agathonike took up her body and bore it secretly to Sicily, where they buried it; a church later raised over her relics became famous for healings and miracles, and her intercession was invoked against the raids of the Saracens. In the eleventh century her relics were translated to Constantinople, where her memory was kept with great solemnity.

Saint Etheldreda, Abbess of Ely

Saint Etheldreda, called Aethelthryth in the Old English, was the third and most renowned of the saintly daughters of King Anna of East Anglia, born in the 630s probably at Exning in Suffolk. About the year 652 she was given in marriage to Tondbert, prince of the South Gyrwe, on condition that her vow of perpetual virginity be honoured, and after his death three years later she withdrew to the Isle of Ely which had come to her as her dower. In 660 she was married for political reasons to the youthful Ecgfrith of Northumbria, but after twelve years of unbroken virginity, when the king pressed his rights as her husband, she fled with the consent of Saint Wilfrid of York to the monastery of Coldingham, where she received the veil from Abbess Ebba. In 673 she returned to Ely and there founded a great double monastery for monks and nuns, of which she was installed as abbess by Wilfrid. She lived in extreme austerity, wearing only woollen garments, eating once a day, and rising before matins to remain at prayer until daybreak. Toward the end of her life a tumour appeared on her neck, which she received with thanksgiving as a chastisement for the love of jewelled necklaces in her youth. She died of the plague on 23 June 679 after some six years as abbess. Sixteen years later her sister and successor Saint Seaxburh raised her body and found it incorrupt; she became one of the most loved saints of the English Church, and her shrine at Ely Cathedral remained a place of great pilgrimage until the Reformation.

Translation of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God

On this day the Russian Church commemorates the deliverance of Moscow in 1480 from the invading hordes of Khan Akhmat of the Golden Horde, ascribing the salvation of the city to the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos through her wonder-working Vladimir Icon. The icon, attributed by tradition to the Evangelist Luke and brought from Constantinople to Kiev in the early twelfth century, had been translated to Vladimir by the holy Prince Andrew Bogolyubsky and afterwards to Moscow, where it became the chief palladium of the Russian land. As Khan Akhmat advanced to the river Ugra and Grand Prince Ivan III drew up his forces opposite him, the people of Moscow gathered before the icon in continual prayer; for many weeks the two armies stood without battle, and at length, seized by inexplicable terror, the Tatars turned and fled. This bloodless victory, known as the Standing on the Ugra, ended more than two centuries of the Mongol yoke. The festal celebration of the icon is kept three times in the year, on 21 May, 23 June and 26 August, each marking a different deliverance granted to the Russian people through the prayers of the Mother of God.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Romans — Romans 7.1-13

¹Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

¹Or are ye ignorant, brethren (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law hath dominion over a man for so long time as he liveth? ²For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. ²For the woman that hath a husband is bound by law to the husband while he liveth; but if the husband die, she is discharged from the law of the husband. ³So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. ³So then if, while the husband liveth, she be joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if the husband die, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be joined to another man. ⁴Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. ⁴Wherefore, my brethren, ye also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ; that ye should be joined to another, even to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God. ⁵For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were through the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. ⁵For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. ⁶But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter. ⁶But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

⁷What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

⁷What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Howbeit, I had not known sin, except through the law: for I had not known coveting, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet: ⁸But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. ⁸but sin, finding occasion, wrought in me through the commandment all manner of coveting: for apart from the law sin is dead. ⁹For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. ⁹And I was alive apart from the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died; ¹⁰and the commandment, which was unto life, this I found to be unto death: ¹⁰And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. ¹¹for sin, finding occasion, through the commandment beguiled me, and through it slew me. ¹¹For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. ¹²Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. ¹²So that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good. ¹³Did then that which is good become death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through that which is good;—that through the commandment sin might become exceeding sinful. ¹³Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 9.36-10.8

³⁶But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. ³⁶But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were distressed and scattered, as sheep not having a shepherd. ³⁷Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; ³⁷Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest indeed is plenteous, but the laborers are few. ³⁸Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest. ³⁸Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he send forth laborers into his harvest.

¹And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.

¹And he called unto him his twelve disciples, and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of disease and all manner of sickness. ²Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;

²Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; ³Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphæus, and Thaddæus; ³Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; ⁴Simon the Cananæan, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. ⁴Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. ⁵These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:

⁵These twelve Jesus sent forth, and charged them, saying, Go not into any way of the Gentiles, and enter not into any city of the Samaritans: ⁶But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ⁶but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ⁷And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. ⁷And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. ⁸Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. ⁸Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons: freely ye received, freely give.