Friday, 4 July 2025

Friday of the 4th week after Pentecost

75 days after Pascha · Tone 2 · Liturgy · Fast

Saints commemorated

★ Holy Royal Martyrs of Russia: Tsar Nicholas II, Tsaritsa Alexandra, Crown Prince Alexei, and Grand duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia, and those martyred with them

1918

“Tsar Nicholas II was the son of Alexander III, who had reposed in the arms of St John of Kronstadt. Having been raised in piety, Tsar Nicholas ever sought to rule in a spirit consonant with the precepts of Orthodoxy and the best traditions of his nation. Tsaritsa Alexandra, a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria of England, and a convert from Lutheranism, was noted for her piety and compassion for the poor and suffering. Their five children were beloved of all for their kindness, modesty, and guilelessness. “Amidst the political turmoil of 1917, Tsar Nicholas selflessly abdicated the throne for what he believed was the good of his country. Although he had abdicated willingly, the revolutionaries put him and his family under house arrest, then sent them under guard to Tobolsk and finally Ekaterinburg. A letter written from Tobolsk by Grand Duchess Olga, the eldest of the children, shows their nobility of soul. She writes, ‘My father asks that I convey to all those who have remained devoted to him… that they should not take vengeance on his account, because he has forgiven everyone and prays for them all. Nor should they avenge themselves. Rather, they should bear in mind that this evil which is now present in the world will become yet stronger, but that evil will not conquer evil, but only love shall do so.’ “After enduring sixteen months of imprisonment, deprivation, and humiliation with a Christian patience which moved even their captors, they and those who were with them gained their crowns of martyrdom when they were shot and stabbed to death in the cellar of the Ipatiev house in Ekaterinburg in 1918. “Together with them are also commemorated those who faithfully served them, and were either slain with them, or on their account…” (Great Horologion)

★ Saint Andrew, Archbishop of Crete, the Hymnographer

Saint Andrew was born about 660 in the city of Damascus into a pious Christian family. Until his seventh year the boy was mute and did not speak; only after communing of the Holy Mysteries of Christ did he receive the gift of speech and begin to talk. At fourteen he went to Jerusalem, where he was tonsured at the Lavra of Saint Sabas the Sanctified and afterwards served as notary of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

In 680 the locum tenens of the see of Jerusalem, Theodore, included the archdeacon Andrew among the representatives of the Holy City sent to the Sixth Ecumenical Council in Constantinople. There, by his profound knowledge of Orthodox doctrine, the saint contended successfully against the Monothelite heresy. Choosing to remain in Constantinople after the Council, he was appointed orphanotrophos, head of the Orphanage of Saint Paul, and afterwards director of the home for the aged. Towards the close of the seventh century, during the reign of Justinian II (685-695), he was consecrated Archbishop of Gortyna on the island of Crete.

Saint Andrew is above all renowned as a hymnographer. He is regarded as the inventor, or at least the principal introducer into liturgical use, of the canon, the hymnographic form which afterwards became central to Orthodox worship. His Great Canon of Repentance, sung in the first week and on the Thursday of the fifth week of Great Lent, is the longest canon ever composed, comprising some two hundred and fifty troparia in nine odes. He also composed canons for the Nativity of Christ, for Lazarus Saturday, for Palm Sunday, and for many feasts and saints, together with numerous homilies. Returning from a journey to Constantinople, he reposed on the island of Lesbos in 740, and his relics were afterwards translated to Constantinople.

Holy martyrs Theodotus and Theodota

The holy martyrs Theodotus and Theodota suffered together with Saint Hyacinth of Caesarea during the reign of the emperor Trajan in the early second century. They were Christians of Caesarea in Cappadocia, kinsfolk and friends of the young chamberlain Hyacinth, who openly confessed their faith in Christ at a time when believers were being sought out and put to death. When Hyacinth had been arrested at the imperial court for refusing to take part in the sacrifices to idols, Theodotus and Theodota were also seized and brought before the persecutors. After the death of Hyacinth in prison, they were subjected to many cruel torments. Theodota, after enduring scourgings and the rack, gave up her soul to God; Theodotus, faithful to the end, was finally beheaded by the sword. Their relics were afterwards venerated together with those of Saint Hyacinth in Caesarea.

Saint Andrei Rublev the Iconographer

Saint Andrei Rublev (about 1360 to about 1430) is the most renowned of all Russian iconographers and one of the greatest sacred artists of the Christian East. Little is known of his early life save that he was tonsured at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra under the disciples of Saint Sergius of Radonezh, and afterwards entered the Andronikov monastery in Moscow, where he was the spiritual son of Saint Nikon of Radonezh.

In 1405 he worked alongside Theophanes the Greek and the elder Prokhor of Gorodets in the painting of the Cathedral of the Annunciation in the Kremlin, and in 1408 he laboured with Daniel the Black in the Dormition Cathedral at Vladimir. About 1411, at the request of Saint Nikon and as a memorial to Saint Sergius, he wrote his most celebrated work, the icon of the Holy Trinity, depicting the three angelic visitors of Abraham at the oak of Mamre as a contemplation of the inner life of the Triune God. The Stoglav Council of 1551 declared his manner of icon painting to be the model for the Russian Church.

He reposed at the Andronikov monastery between 1427 and 1430, and was buried there beside his fellow ascetic Daniel. The Russian Orthodox Church glorified him as a saint in 1988, on the millennium of the Baptism of Rus, with his principal feast appointed for 4 July; in some calendars his memory is also kept on 17 October together with Daniel the Black.

Venerable Martha, mother of Saint Symeon of the Wonderful Mountain

Saint Martha lived in the sixth century and was a native of Antioch in Syria. From her youth she prepared herself for a life of virginity and longed for the monastic state, but her parents insisted that she marry. After ardent prayer in a church dedicated to Saint John the Forerunner, she was directed in a vision to submit to the will of her parents, and she entered into marriage with a pious man named John. The Forerunner himself revealed to her that she would bear a son who would be a great pillar of the Church.

In 521, in answer to her prayers, she gave birth to a son who was named Symeon, who from his earliest childhood was filled with extraordinary grace and afterwards became Saint Symeon Stylites the Younger of the Wonderful Mountain. When Symeon was six years old an earthquake destroyed the city of Antioch, in which her husband John perished. Martha thereafter dedicated herself wholly to the service of God and the rearing of her son in the fear of the Lord, presenting him to the elder John on the Pillar, under whom he too began the life of a stylite.

Saint Martha rose every night to pray, watering her prayers with tears, fasted strictly, and gave herself with great charity to the service of the poor, the orphans, and the sick, often selling her own clothing to assist them. She was granted gifts of clairvoyance and miracle-working, and the Theotokos appeared to her to foretell the time of her repose. She fell asleep in the Lord peacefully on 4 July 551, and her body was buried at the foot of her son's pillar on the Wonderful Mountain. Saint Symeon afterwards translated her relics to a place of honour in his monastery, where many miracles were wrought through her prayers.

Also commemorated: St Andrew of Crete

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Romans — Romans 11.25-36

²⁵For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

²⁵For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; ²⁶and so all Israel shall be saved: even as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer; He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: ²⁶And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: ²⁷And this is my covenant unto them, When I shall take away their sins. ²⁷For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. ²⁸As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.

²⁸As touching the gospel, they are enemies for your sake: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake. ²⁹For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. ²⁹For the gifts and the calling of God are not repented of. ³⁰For as ye in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience, ³⁰For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: ³¹even so have these also now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they also may now obtain mercy. ³¹Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. ³²For God hath shut up all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all. ³²For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

³³O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!

³³O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! ³⁴For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? ³⁴For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? ³⁵Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? ³⁵or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? ³⁶For of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever. Amen. ³⁶For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 12.1-8

¹At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.

¹At that season Jesus went on the sabbath day through the grainfields; and his disciples were hungry and began to pluck ears and to eat. ²But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day. ²But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which it is not lawful to do upon the sabbath. ³But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him; ³But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was hungry, and they that were with him; ⁴How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests? ⁴how he entered into the house of God, and ate the showbread, which it was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them that were with him, but only for the priests? ⁵Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless? ⁵Or have ye not read in the law, that on the sabbath day the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are guiltless? ⁶But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple. ⁶But I say unto you, that one greater than the temple is here. ⁷But if ye had known what this meaneth, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. ⁷But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. ⁸For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day. ⁸For the Son of man is lord of the sabbath.