Tuesday, 5 August 2025

Tuesday of the 9th week after Pentecost

107 days after Pascha · Tone 7 · Black squigg (6-stich typikon symbol) · Dormition Fast

Saints commemorated

Forefeast of the Transfiguration of our Lord

The eve of the Transfiguration is observed by the Orthodox Church as a single day of forefeast, in which the services begin to anticipate the great feast that follows. At Vespers, Matins and the Liturgy on this day many of the hymns proper to the Transfiguration are sung in the canon and stichera, gathering the faithful to the foot of Mount Tabor in spirit before the feast itself. The forefeast falls within the Dormition Fast and so retains the abstinence of the period, but in spirit it lifts the eyes of the faithful from the labours of fasting to the uncreated light. The hymns of this day call to mind the prophecy of Malachi that the Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings, and prepare the hearer to behold in the Lord of Glory the radiance of the Father which the apostles saw shining from him. Although the Transfiguration is a feast of the Lord and stands alone, the Church, like a careful steward, gives a single day of preparation, that having heard the prophets and the apostles witnesses to the divine glory, the faithful may come to the celebration of the feast itself ready in heart.

Holy Hieromartyr Fabian, Pope of Rome

Saint Fabian was a layman of Rome who, according to the historian Eusebius, came up from the country to take part in the election of a new bishop after the death of Pope Anterus in 236. As the clergy and people gathered to consider the names of various distinguished churchmen, a dove descended from above and rested upon the head of Fabian, an obscure stranger to the assembly. Taking this as a sign from heaven, the gathering proclaimed him bishop by acclamation, and he was consecrated on 10 January 236. He governed the Roman Church for fourteen years in a time of comparative peace under the emperors Gordian and Philip the Arab. He divided the city of Rome into seven ecclesiastical districts, each entrusted to a deacon, with subdeacons appointed to gather the records of the martyrs; he ordered the building of new tombs in the catacombs and the translation of the relics of Saint Pontian, the martyred bishop who had died in exile in the mines of Sardinia. When the persecution of the emperor Decius broke out at the end of 249, Fabian was one of its first victims. He confessed Christ before the imperial tribunal and was put to death on 20 January 250, becoming, in the words of his contemporary Saint Cyprian of Carthage, an example of the integrity of his administration and the purity of his death. The Eastern Church keeps his memory on 5 August, often together with the deacon and martyr Pontius.

Holy Martyr Eusignius of Antioch

312

Saint Eusignius was born at Antioch in the middle of the third century. He served for sixty years as a soldier in the Roman armies under the emperors Diocletian, Maximian, Constantius Chlorus, Constantine the Great and his sons. He had been an eyewitness, in the year 312, of the appearance of the radiant Cross in the heavens before the battle of the Milvian Bridge, and was among those whom Saint Constantine kept as living witnesses of that miracle. After honourable retirement he returned to his native Antioch and lived in the practice of fasting and prayer to a great age. When Julian the Apostate (361 to 363) came to the throne and sought to restore the worship of idols, Eusignius was denounced to him, on the charge brought by an Antiochian to whom he had given offence in some matter of justice. Although he was already one hundred and ten years old, the apostate emperor did not spare him, but had him brought before his tribunal. The aged saint stood without trembling, rebuked Julian for forsaking the Christ before whose Cross his own kinsman had triumphed, and bore witness to the truth of the faith. Julian, far from being moved, ordered him to be beheaded; and so Saint Eusignius received the crown of martyrdom in the year 362.

Saint Oswald, King and Martyr of Northumbria

633

Saint Oswald was born about 605, the second of the seven sons of Aethelfrith, the first ruler to unite the provinces of Bernicia and Deira into a single kingdom of Northumbria. When his uncle Edwin, the Christian king of Northumbria, was killed in 633 by the British king Cadwallon and the pagan Penda of Mercia, Oswald and his brothers had already lived for many years in exile among the Gaels of Iona, where, by the disciples of Saint Columba, they had been instructed in the faith and baptised. The young exile learned the Gaelic tongue and embraced the monastic discipline of the holy island. In 634, gathering an army to recover his patrimony, he met Cadwallon at Heavenfield near Hexham. On the eve of battle he raised a wooden cross with his own hands, and kneeling beside it he commanded his warriors to pray with him to the living God; the next day he gained the victory and the Britons were dispersed. Mounting the throne, Oswald sent at once to Iona for a bishop to bring the gospel to his people. The first messenger returned without success; in his place came the gentle Saint Aidan, for whom the king founded the monastic see of Lindisfarne, and whose Irish words Oswald himself, having forgotten English, translated for the Saxon nobility. He gave alms with great freedom, on one occasion having a silver dish broken up at the table and distributed to the poor, drawing from Saint Aidan the prayer that the hand thus blessed might never see corruption. After a reign of about eight years he fell in battle on 5 August 642 against the pagan Penda of Mercia at Maserfield, the place now called Oswestry, dying with the prayer for the souls of his soldiers on his lips. His head was eventually laid in the coffin of Saint Cuthbert at Durham, and his right arm, as Aidan had foretold, was preserved incorrupt at Bamburgh.

Righteous Nonna, Mother of St Gregory the Theologian

374

In her own lifetime she was a wonderworker through her holy prayers. She brought her husband back from idolatry to Christian faith; he later became bishop of Nazianzus. Her son Gregory’s profound and devout writings bespeak the Christian upbringing she gave him. By her prayers she once saved St Gregory from perishing in a storm. She was a deaconess, and reposed in peace in 374.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

1 Corinthians — 1 Corinthians 12.12-26

¹²For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. ¹²For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. ¹³For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. ¹³For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit. ¹⁴For the body is not one member, but many. ¹⁴For the body is not one member, but many. ¹⁵If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; it is not therefore not of the body. ¹⁵If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? ¹⁶And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? ¹⁶And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; it is not therefore not of the body. ¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? ¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? ¹⁸But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. ¹⁸But now hath God set the members each one of them in the body, even as it pleased him. ¹⁹And if they were all one member, where were the body? ¹⁹And if they were all one member, where were the body? ²⁰But now they are many members, but one body. ²⁰But now are they many members, yet but one body. ²¹And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. ²¹And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee: or again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. ²²Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: ²²Nay, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary: ²³And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. ²³and those parts of the body, which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness; ²⁴whereas our comely parts have no need: but God tempered the body together, giving more abundant honor to that part which lacked; ²⁴For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: ²⁵that there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. ²⁵That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. ²⁶And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. ²⁶And whether one member suffereth, all the members suffer with it; or one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 18.18-22, 19.1-2, 13-15

¹⁸Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. ¹⁸Verily I say unto you, What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. ¹⁹Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. ¹⁹Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father who is in heaven. ²⁰For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. ²⁰For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

²¹Then came Peter and said to him, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? until seven times?

²¹Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? ²²Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. ²²Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times; but, Until seventy times seven.

¹And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan;

¹And it came to pass when Jesus had finished these words, he departed from Galilee, and came into the borders of Judæa beyond the Jordan; ²And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there. ²and great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there.

¹³Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them.

¹³Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should lay his hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them. ¹⁴But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. ¹⁴But Jesus said, Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for to such belongeth the kingdom of heaven. ¹⁵And he laid his hands on them, and departed thence. ¹⁵And he laid his hands on them, and departed thence.