Friday, 8 August 2025

Friday of the 9th week after Pentecost

110 days after Pascha · Tone 7 · Liturgy · Dormition Fast

Saints commemorated

Saint Aemilian the Confessor, Bishop of Cyzicus

Saint Aemilian (also Emilian or Aimilianos) succeeded Bishop Nicholas as Bishop of Cyzicus, occupying that see from 787 until 815. He was a zealous defender of the holy icons during the second wave of Byzantine iconoclasm under Emperor Leo V the Armenian (813-820). Summoned with other bishops to the imperial tribunal in 815, he was ordered to refrain from teaching his flock to venerate the holy icons. Aemilian replied that questions concerning the veneration of icons ought to be discussed and decided only within the Church, by her spiritual leaders, and not at the imperial court. For this confession he was banished and endured five years of pain and humiliation in exile, suffering torture and reposing as a confessor for the icons around the year 820. He is numbered among the holy hierarchs who upheld Orthodoxy through the iconoclast crisis, and his principal feast in the Orthodox Church is observed on 8 August.

Saint Gregory of Sinai

1346

Saint Gregory of Sinai was born around 1268 in the seacoast village of Klazomenai near Smyrna in Asia Minor, of wealthy parents. About 1290 he was taken into captivity by the Hagarenes and carried off to Laodicea; on gaining his freedom he made his way to Cyprus, where he was tonsured a monk. He travelled afterwards to Mount Sinai and received the great schema, fulfilling obediences as cook, baker and copyist while excelling all in the reading and knowledge of Scripture and the patristic writings. From Jerusalem he went to Crete, where the elder Arsenios instructed him in the practice of the Jesus Prayer and watchful prayer of the heart. Gregory then settled on Mount Athos at the Magoula skete near Philotheou Monastery, gathering disciples and teaching the discipline of inner stillness, hesychia. Together with Saint Gregory Palamas he is reckoned a chief renewer of hesychasm in the fourteenth century, establishing Athos as a centre of mental prayer. To escape pirate raids he founded four monasteries in Thrace, the principal one being his "Concealed" monastery on Mount Paroria on the western shore of the Black Sea, where strict followers gathered around him. His writings include "On Stillness" and "On Commandments and Doctrines," both of which entered the Philokalia. Saint Gregory reposed in 1346 and is commemorated on 8 August.

Saint Myron the Wonderworker, Bishop of Crete

Saint Myron was born around the year 250 in the village of Raukos in Crete, near Knossos. From his youth he was distinguished by zeal and faith, and he received the gift of working wonders even as a layman. As a young man he was a family man and a farmer, known for goodness and ready to assist all who came to him. One celebrated incident records that he distributed the entire harvest of his parents' vineyard to the poor; when his mother feared there would be no wine, he returned to find a single bunch of three berries on the vine, which when pressed yielded enough to supply the whole village. After the persecution of Christians ended, the Cretan people, drawn by his virtue, urged him to accept ordination, and he was raised to the episcopate, most likely as Bishop of Gortyna and thus shepherd of all Crete. While ruling his flock with wisdom he received from the Lord a remarkable gift of wonderworking. On one occasion the river Triton flooded his land; the saint commanded its waters to halt, walked across as on dry ground, and afterwards sent his deacon with his staff to bid the river resume its course. Saint Myron reposed in great old age, and the village of Raukos was renamed Agios Myron in his honour. He is commemorated on 8 August.

Saint Triantaphyllos the New Martyr of Zagora

Saint Triantaphyllos was a young sailor born in 1663 in Zagora of Magnesia, in Thessaly. As a youth he went to Constantinople to work on the ships, where he was pressed by Muslim sailors and Turkish officials to embrace Islam. Triantaphyllos refused steadfastly, professing aloud, "I am an Orthodox Christian and will not deny my Saviour Christ." After enduring imprisonment and pressure to renounce his faith he was condemned and led to the Hippodrome of Constantinople, where he was beheaded on 8 August 1680, in the eighteenth year of his age. His memory was preserved by John Karyophylis, the Great Logothete of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, who recorded the lives of the early new martyrs under the Ottomans. He is especially venerated in Zagora and at Alykes near Volos, where churches are dedicated to him, and is commemorated by the Orthodox Church on 8 August.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

1 Corinthians — 1 Corinthians 14.26-40

²⁶How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.

²⁶What is it then, brethren? When ye come together, each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching, hath a revelation, hath a tongue, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. ²⁷If any man speaketh in a tongue, let it be by two, or at the most three, and that in turn; and let one interpret: ²⁷If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret. ²⁸but if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God. ²⁸But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God. ²⁹Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge. ²⁹And let the prophets speak by two or three, and let the others discern. ³⁰If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace. ³⁰But if a revelation be made to another sitting by, let the first keep silence. ³¹For ye all can prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be exhorted; ³¹For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted. ³²and the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets; ³²And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. ³³For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

³³for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints, ³⁴let the women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but let them be in subjection, as also saith the law. ³⁴Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. ³⁵And if they would learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home: for it is shameful for a woman to speak in the church. ³⁵And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. ³⁶What? came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only? ³⁶What? was it from you that the word of God went forth? or came it unto you alone?

³⁷If any man thinketh himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him take knowledge of the things which I write unto you, that they are the commandment of the Lord. ³⁷If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. ³⁸But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. ³⁸But if any man is ignorant, let him be ignorant.

³⁹Wherefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. ³⁹Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. ⁴⁰But let all things be done decently and in order. ⁴⁰Let all things be done decently and in order.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 21.12-14, 17-20

¹²And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,

¹²And Jesus entered into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold the doves; ¹³And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. ¹³and he saith unto them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer: but ye make it a den of robbers. ¹⁴And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them. ¹⁴And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.

¹⁷And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there. ¹⁷And he left them, and went forth out of the city to Bethany, and lodged there.

¹⁸Now in the morning as he returned to the city, he hungered. ¹⁸Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered. ¹⁹And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away. ¹⁹And seeing a fig tree by the way side, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only; and he saith unto it, Let there be no fruit from thee henceforward for ever. And immediately the fig tree withered away. ²⁰And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away! ²⁰And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How did the fig tree immediately wither away?