Thursday, 17 July 2025

Royal Passionbearers

Thursday of the 6th week after Pentecost

88 days after Pascha · Tone 4 · Red cross (polyeleos typikon symbol) · No Fast

Saints commemorated

★ Holy Great Martyr Marina of Antioch in Pisidia

Saint Marina, called Margaret in the West, was born about the year 275 in the city of Antioch in Pisidia, the daughter of Aedesius, a pagan priest. Her mother died while she was still an infant, and her father gave her to a Christian wet-nurse who lived on the family's country estate. There, while still a child, she came to know Christ; the woman taught her of the Saviour and of the lives of the saints, and her own heart was so kindled with faith that, at the age of twelve, she ardently desired to follow Christ even unto martyrdom. When her father learned of her conversion he disowned her, and she remained with her nurse, tending her flocks and meditating on the things of God. About the year 290 the eparch Olybrius, passing through, was struck by her beauty and wished to take her to wife if she would offer sacrifice to the gods, but Marina openly confessed Christ. He had her stripped, scourged, hung up and her body torn with iron combs, then cast into a dungeon, where she was assailed in the form of a hideous dragon; signing herself with the cross, she crushed the head of the demon. The next day fresh tortures were applied, but each time her wounds were healed, and many among the people, beholding the wonders, believed and were themselves martyred. At last she was beheaded under Diocletian, and her relics, after many translations, were enshrined principally at Constantinople and later, after 1213, at Montefiascone. She is honoured by the East as Great Martyr Marina and by the West as Margaret, and is one of the most beloved virgin martyrs of the universal Church.

Holy Scillitan Martyrs of Carthage

The Scillitan Martyrs were twelve Christians of the small African town of Scillium (Scilli), in Numidia, who were brought before the proconsul Publius Vigellius Saturninus at Carthage on 17 July 180 in the reign of the emperor Commodus. Their names were Speratus, Nartzalus, Cittinus, Veturius, Felix, Aquilinus, Laetantius, Januaria, Generosa, Vestia, Donata and Secunda. The principal spokesman was Speratus, who, in answer to the proconsul's question what he carried in his case, replied, "Books and the Epistles of Paul, a just man." Pressed to swear by the genius of the emperor, the martyrs answered that they honoured Caesar as Caesar but offered worship to God alone. They calmly refused the customary thirty days' delay for reflection and were sentenced to be beheaded; on hearing the sentence they cried, "Thanks be to God!" The Acts of their trial, recorded almost in the form of a court protocol, are the earliest surviving Christian document in Latin and the oldest authentic record of the African Church. Tertullian, writing a generation later, calls Saturninus the first persecutor of Christians in Africa. Their feast is kept on 17 July, the day of their crowning at Carthage.

Saint Marcellina, sister of Saint Ambrose of Milan

Saint Marcellina was born in Trier (Treves) in Gaul about the year 327 to a noble Roman family of consular rank, the eldest of three remarkable children, the others being Saint Ambrose, the future Bishop of Milan, and Saint Satyrus. After the death of her father, the family returned to Rome, where Marcellina from her earliest years was drawn to the religious life. On the Nativity of the Lord in 353, in the basilica of Saint Peter, she received the veil of consecrated virginity from the hands of Pope Liberius, becoming one of the first virgins formally consecrated at Rome. She remained in the family home with her widowed mother, devoting herself to prayer, fasting and the reading of Scripture, and was the spiritual mother of her younger brothers. After Ambrose was made bishop of Milan in 374, he wrote for her his three books "On Virgins" and dedicated to her the treatise "On Virginity." Marcellina followed her brother to Milan, lived an ascetic life of great rigour, and reposed there about the year 398, four years after her brother. Her relics were translated by Saint Charles Borromeo to the church of Saint Ambrose, where they are still venerated.

Also commemorated: Greatmartyr Marina

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

1 Corinthians — 1 Corinthians 3.18-23

¹⁸Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.

¹⁸Let no man deceive himself. If any man thinketh that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. ¹⁹For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. ¹⁹For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He that taketh the wise in their craftiness: ²⁰And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. ²⁰and again, The Lord knoweth the reasonings of the wise, that they are vain. ²¹Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; ²¹Wherefore let no one glory in men. For all things are yours; ²²Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; ²²whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; ²³And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s. ²³and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 13.36-43

³⁶Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.

³⁶Then he left the multitudes, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Explain unto us the parable of the tares of the field. ³⁷He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; ³⁷And he answered and said, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; ³⁸The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; ³⁸and the field is the world; and the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; ³⁹The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. ³⁹and the enemy that sowed them is the devil: and the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are angels. ⁴⁰As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. ⁴⁰As therefore the tares are gathered up and burned with fire; so shall it be in the end of the world. ⁴¹The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; ⁴¹The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, ⁴²and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. ⁴²And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. ⁴³Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He that hath ears, let him hear.