Thursday, 14 August 2025

Thursday of the 10th week after Pentecost

116 days after Pascha · Tone 8 · Black squigg (6-stich typikon symbol) · Dormition Fast

Saints commemorated

★ Forefeast of the Dormition of our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos

The fourteenth day of August is observed in the Orthodox Church as the Forefeast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, the great feast which falls on 15 August. The Forefeast prepares the Church to celebrate the falling asleep of the Mother of God and her translation in body and soul to heaven, an event known to the faithful by ancient tradition though not narrated in Scripture. The hymnography of the day calls upon the people to gather in gladness, declaring that the Theotokos is about to depart from earth to heaven and from corruption to incorruption, and praying that her intercessions may guard her flock. The Dormition feast is preceded by a strict two-week fast from 1 to 14 August, called the Dormition Fast, during which the faithful abstain from meat, dairy products, fish, oil and wine, and on weekdays the Great or Small Paraklesis to the Mother of God is sung. The Forefeast itself is one day, and the Feast has eight days of after-feast and is closed on 23 August. On this day also are commemorated the prophet Micah and the translation of the relics of Saint Theodosius of the Kiev Caves.

★ Translation of the Relics of Saint Theodosius of the Kiev Caves

1091

Saint Theodosius of the Kiev Caves (c. 1009 to 1074) was, with Saint Anthony, the co-founder of the Kiev Caves Lavra and the principal organiser of cenobitic monasticism in Kievan Rus'. As abbot of the Caves Monastery he gave his community a written rule modelled on the Studite typicon, established the daily round of prayer and labour, kept open his table to the poor, and reproved princes and rulers without fear when they did wrong. He fell asleep in the Lord on 3 May 1074 and was buried in the cave he had himself dug, in which he was accustomed to spend the great fasts. In the year 1091, on the eve of the seventeenth anniversary of his repose, the brethren of the monastery, with the blessing of the abbot John, opened his tomb and found his relics whole and incorrupt; on the following day, 14 August, in the presence of bishops, princes and a great multitude of the faithful, his holy body was translated in solemn procession to the Dormition Cathedral of the Lavra. He was numbered among the saints of the Russian Church in 1108, the first monastic to be so glorified. The translation of his relics is commemorated on 14 August, while his repose is observed on 3 May and his memory together with Saint Anthony on 2 September.

Holy Hieromartyr Marcellus, Bishop of Apamea

The Hieromartyr Marcellus was born of an illustrious family on the island of Cyprus in the fourth century and received a fine education. He held a high civil office and was admired by all for his purity of life, his mildness, his kindness and his eloquence. In 375 he left his wife and children, having provided for their maintenance, and went to Syria to devote himself to the monastic life. The people of the city of Apamea, having had occasion to see him on some practical business, elected him their bishop, and he was consecrated to that see. According to Theodoret of Cyrrhus, the saint received permission from the emperor Theodosius the Great to demolish the great temple of Jupiter at Apamea, a vast and strongly built sanctuary that dominated the city. By his prayers the building, which the imperial soldiers and engineers had been unable to bring down, suddenly collapsed when the bishop made the sign of the cross over it. He went on to remove other pagan temples in the surrounding district. As soldiers were demolishing a temple at the village of Aulona, the saint, who was watching from a distance because his age and infirmity prevented him from accompanying them, was seized by the pagans of the place and cast into a fire, where together with another confessor named Anthony he received the crown of martyrdom around the year 389. He is commemorated by the Orthodox Church on 14 August.

Holy Prophet Micah

The Holy Prophet Micah (also called Micah the Morasthite, to distinguish him from the earlier prophet Micaiah son of Imlah) was the sixth of the twelve minor prophets and a native of Moresheth, a village in the territory of the tribe of Judah south of Jerusalem. He prophesied during the reigns of the kings of Judah Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, from about the year 778 to 691 before Christ, and was a contemporary of the prophet Isaiah. His preaching denounced the social injustice of his time, the corruption of the rulers of Judah and Israel, the venality of priests and prophets who spoke for hire, and the false security with which the people relied upon outward worship while crushing the poor. At the same time his book opens out into great prophecies of the coming Messiah, foretelling that out of Bethlehem-Ephrathah, "little among the thousands of Judah," should come forth one whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting, and that the law shall go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, that nations shall beat their swords into ploughshares and learn war no more. According to tradition the prophet was killed by Joram, the son of King Ahab of Israel, for rebuking him for his sins, and was buried in his native village; his relics were discovered miraculously in the time of the emperor Theodosius I, near a place called Berathsatia in Eleutheropolis. He is commemorated by the Orthodox Church on 14 August and again with the other minor prophets on 5 January.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

2 Corinthians — 2 Corinthians 1.1-7

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints that are in the whole of Achaia:

¹Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia: ²Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ²Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; ³Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; ⁴who comforteth us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort them that are in any affliction, through the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. ⁴Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. ⁵For as the sufferings of Christ abound unto us, even so our comfort also aboundeth through Christ. ⁵For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. ⁶But whether we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or whether we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which worketh in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: ⁶And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. ⁷and our hope for you is stedfast; knowing that, as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so also are ye of the comfort. ⁷And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 21.43-46

⁴³Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.

⁴³Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. ⁴⁴And he that falleth on this stone shall be broken to pieces: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will scatter him as dust. ⁴⁴And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. ⁴⁵And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. ⁴⁵And when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. ⁴⁶But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet. ⁴⁶And when they sought to lay hold on him, they feared the multitudes, because they took him for a prophet.