Thursday, 3 July 2025

Thursday of the 4th week after Pentecost

74 days after Pascha · Tone 2 · Red cross (polyeleos typikon symbol) · No Fast

Saints commemorated

Blessed John of Moscow, fool for Christ

Blessed John, called Big-Cap because of the heavy iron cap he wore, was born in the village of Vologda in the early sixteenth century. From his youth he laboured at a saltworks, where he carried water for the workmen and gave himself to constant prayer and severe fasting. After a time he moved to Rostov, where for the love of Christ he took upon himself the fearful podvig of folly, going about clad in chains and rags, with great iron weights and an iron cap upon his head, and a heavy chain across his shoulders. Settling at Moscow in the reign of the Tsar Theodore Ioannovich, he walked the streets summer and winter barefoot and almost naked, rebuking the proud and the powerful, foretelling the future, and praying day and night before the cathedrals of the Kremlin. He had the gift of clairvoyance and prophesied the great misfortunes that were soon to befall Russia in the Time of Troubles. He reposed on 3 July 1589 and was buried in the Cathedral of the Intercession on Red Square, the place of his prayer, where his iron weights and cap were long preserved. Many miracles were worked at his tomb, and the Tsar Boris Godunov ordered a special chapel erected in his honour.

Holy martyr Hyacinth of Caesarea in Cappadocia

Saint Hyacinth, a native of Caesarea in Cappadocia, was raised in a Christian family. The emperor Trajan, hearing of his beauty and quick understanding, made the boy his cubicularius, or chamberlain, unaware that he was a secret Christian. One day, while the emperor and his court were offering sacrifice to idols, the young Hyacinth remained in the palace, shut himself up in a small room, and prayed fervently to the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the servants overheard him and denounced him to the emperor.

Brought to trial, Hyacinth refused to deny Christ or to sacrifice to the deaf and dumb idols, declaring himself a Christian. He was scourged and cast into prison, where the only food given him was meat which had already been offered to the idols. Considering the eating of such food a denial of Christ, the brave young athlete refused to taste it, and after some forty days died of hunger in his cell. The prison guards saw a great light fill the dungeon, and two radiant angels: one covered his body with a shining vestment, and the other placed a crown upon his head. Hyacinth suffered at the age of about twenty in 108. His relics were later translated from Rome to Caesarea.

Saint Anatolius, Patriarch of Constantinople

Saint Anatolius was born at Alexandria in the second half of the fourth century, at a time when many representatives of distinguished Byzantine families ardently strove to serve the Church of Christ, armed with Greek philosophic learning. He was ordained deacon by Saint Cyril of Alexandria and was present at the Third Ecumenical Council in Ephesus in 431. Following the deposition of Saint Flavian at the so-called Robber Council of 449, Anatolius was elevated to the throne of Constantinople through the influence of Dioscorus of Alexandria and the emperor Theodosius II. Although he had been consecrated by Dioscorus, Anatolius at once united with the Orthodox. Before the Fourth Ecumenical Council he held a local council in Constantinople in 450 at which the Tome of Saint Leo of Rome was read and approved, and the heresy of Eutyches and Dioscorus was condemned. At the Council of Chalcedon in 451 he affirmed the Orthodox doctrine of the two natures of Christ, divine and human, united without confusion or separation, and he subscribed to the deposition of Nestorius, Eutyches, and Dioscorus. Saint Anatolius zealously laboured to restore the purity of Orthodoxy throughout his patriarchate and made a great contribution to the liturgical treasury of the Church. He composed hymns for Sundays, for the feasts of the Lord, including the Nativity and the Theophany, and for the martyrs; the so-called Anatolika still chanted at vespers bear his name. He reposed on 3 July 458.

Venerable Anatole the Younger of Optina

Saint Anatole the Younger, in the world Alexander Potapov, was born on 15 February 1855 in Moscow into an old merchant family. From his youth he longed for the monastic life, but his mother withheld her blessing, so he served first as a clerk in trade in Kaluga and remained at home until her death. In 1885, at the age of thirty, he came to Optina monastery, where he was received as a novice in 1888 and became the cell attendant of the great elder Saint Ambrose. In 1895 he was tonsured a monk and given the name Anatole in honour of Saint Anatolius, Patriarch of Constantinople. He was ordained deacon in 1899, and people soon began to come to him as to an elder. Following the repose of the elder Joseph in 1911, Anatole took up the burden of the eldership at Optina. Quiet, gentle, and unfailingly loving, he received with patience hundreds of pilgrims each day, weeping with those who wept and bearing their sorrows as his own. He had the gift of healing and of clairvoyance, foretold the coming Russian catastrophe, and consoled the suffering with the assurance that God would not abandon his servants. In the early 1920s the saint was repeatedly mocked and tormented by soldiers of the Red Army. He was to be arrested on 30 July 1922, but asked for one night to prepare himself. When the soldiers returned the next morning and asked his cell attendant Father Barnabas if he was ready, the latter invited them in: they found Father Anatole lying in his coffin, the Lord having taken him during the night to spare him further suffering. He was glorified together with the Optina Elders by the Moscow Patriarchate on 7 August 2000; his memory is also kept on 3 July (the feast of his patron, Saint Anatolius of Constantinople).

Our Holy Father Isaiah the Solitary

491

One of the Desert Fathers, he lived in asceticism first at Scetis in Egypt, then in Palestine; he died in Gaza. His instructive writings are often quoted by the Fathers. Abba Isaiah said: The crown of all good works consists in this: that a man place all his hope in God, that he flee to Him once and for all with all his heart and strength, that he be filled with compassion for all and weep before God, imploring His help and mercy.

Our Holy Father Alexander, founder of the Monastery of the Unsleeping Ones

430

“Born in Asia and educated in Constantinople, he went into the army after completing his studies and became an officer. Reading the Holy Scriptures, he came upon the Saviour’s words: ‘If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell all thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come and follow Me’ (Matt. 19:21). These words made such an impression on him that he sold and gave away all that he had, and went off to the desert. After long asceticism and striving for purification, he founded the community of the ‘Wakeful Ones’ (Acoemetae) with a special rule. According to this rule, the services in the church continued day and night in unbroken sequence. The brethren were divided into six groups, each having its appointed hours of day or night to go to church and take over the reading and singing from the previous group. He travelled a great deal over the East, bringing people to faith in Christ, disputing with heretics, working miracles by God’s grace and growing old in the service of the Lord Jesus. He finished his earthly course in Constantinople in the year 430, where his relics revealed the miraculous power and glory with which God had glorified His holy servant.” (Prologue)

Our Father among the Saints Anatolios, Archbishop of Constantinople

458

He was a priest from Alexandria. At the ‘Robber Council’ at Ephesus in 449, Dioscoros, the monophysite who occupied the Patriarchal throne in Alexandria, had Anatolios installed as Patriarch of Constantinople, thinking that he would prove an ally. But Anatolios quickly emerged as a fervent champion of Orthodoxy: he convened a council of bishops just before the Council of Chalcedon in 451, at which Pope Leo’s Orthodox “Tome” (see February 18) was approved, though Dioscoros had not allowed it to be read at the Robber Council. At the Council of Chalcedon, Anatolios condemned Nestorius, Eutyches, and his frustrated patron Dioscoros. He reposed in peace in 458. Anatolios is believed to be the author of the ‘Anatolian Stichera’ found in the weekly Vespers and Matins services; but these may have been composed by another Anatolios, a monk and a disciple of St Theodore the Studite.

Also commemorated: Trans. Rel. Philip, Metr. Moscow

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Romans — Romans 11.13-24

¹³For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: ¹³But I speak to you that are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I glorify my ministry; ¹⁴If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. ¹⁴if by any means I may provoke to jealousy them that are my flesh, and may save some of them. ¹⁵For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? ¹⁵For if the casting away of them is the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? ¹⁶For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. ¹⁶And if the firstfruit is holy, so is the lump: and if the root is holy, so are the branches. ¹⁷But if some of the branches were broken off, and thou, being a wild olive, wast grafted in among them, and didst become partaker with them of the root of the fatness of the olive tree; ¹⁷And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; ¹⁸Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. ¹⁸glory not over the branches: but if thou gloriest, it is not thou that bearest the root, but the root thee. ¹⁹Thou wilt say then, Branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. ¹⁹Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. ²⁰Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: ²⁰Well; by their unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by thy faith. Be not highminded, but fear: ²¹For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. ²¹for if God spared not the natural branches, neither will he spare thee. ²²Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. ²²Behold then the goodness and severity of God: toward them that fell, severity; but toward thee, God’s goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. ²³And they also, if they continue not in their unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again. ²³And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. ²⁴For if thou wast cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and wast grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree; how much more shall these, which are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? ²⁴For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 11.27-30

²⁷All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. ²⁷All things have been delivered unto me of my Father: and no one knoweth the Son, save the Father; neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him. ²⁸Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

²⁸Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. ³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.