Saturday, 30 August 2025

Saturday of the 12th week after Pentecost

132 days after Pascha · Tone 2 · Red cross (polyeleos typikon symbol) · No Fast

Saints commemorated

Saints Alexander, John and Paul the New, Patriarchs of Constantinople

The Orthodox Church commemorates together on this day three of the great hierarchs of the see of Constantinople. Saint Alexander was a vicar bishop under the first Patriarch Saint Metrophanes, whom he replaced at the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325 because of the patriarch's extreme age, and on whose instructions he was elected to the throne after his repose. As patriarch he confronted the heresiarch Arius, whose death by the prayers of the saint preserved the Church from his return to communion. He fell asleep in the Lord in 340 at the age of ninety eight. Saint John IV the Faster (582-595) compiled the Penitential Nomocanon long used as a guide for confessors, but his memory is darkened by his ill advised assumption of the title oecumenical patriarch, against which Saint Gregory the Great of Rome rightly protested; he is honoured for his strict ascetic life and for the gentleness of his confessional discipline. Saint Paul the New, a Cypriot, was Patriarch from 780 to 784 in the time of the iconoclasts, but resigned his throne, withdrew secretly to the monastery of Saint Florus, and counselled the Empress Irene that only an ecumenical council could heal the Church; on his advice Saint Tarasius was chosen to succeed him, and in 787 the Seventh Ecumenical Council at Nicaea restored the holy icons.

Synaxis of the Serbian Hierarchs and Saints

On this day are commemorated seventeen holy Serbian hierarchs, beginning with St Sava (Sabbas), first Archbishop of Serbia and Equal to the Apostles. They are:

St Sava, first Archbishop of Serbia, Equal to the Apostles
Arsenius, his successor
Sava II, son of King Stephen the First-Crowned
Nicodemus, who lived on the Holy Mountain, was abbot of Hilandar Monastery there and Archbishop of Serbia
Joannicius, patriarch from 1346-1349
Ephraim, chosen as patriarch against his will in 1376. He crowned Prince Lazar, then renounced the patriarchal throne and retired into solitude
Spiridon, his successor (+1388)
Macarius, a great restorer of old churches and monasteries; printed many Church books (+1574)
Gabriel, a nobleman by birth. The Prologue says that he ‘took part in the Moscow Council under Patriarch Nikhon, because of which he was tortured by the Turks for treason and hanged in 1656.’
In addition, Eustace, Jacob, Danilo, Sava III, Gregory, John, Maxim and Nikhon.

The vital connection between the Serbian church and the Holy Mountain is obvious here; many of these hierarchs lived and struggled on Mt Athos.

Venerable Alexander of Svir

Saint Alexander of Svir was born in 1448 in the village of Mandera near Lake Onega in the Russian north and given the name Amos at his baptism. As a young man he went to the monastery of Valaam, where he received the monastic tonsure with the name Alexander and embraced the strict ascetic life. After many years on Valaam he withdrew to a remote place by the river Svir and dwelt there as a hermit in great poverty and unceasing prayer. There the Most Holy Trinity appeared to him in the likeness of three radiant men, an event almost without parallel in the Christian East, and instructed him to gather a brotherhood and build a monastery in their honour. Saint Alexander became the founder of the Trinity Monastery of Svir, the spiritual father of many disciples and the teacher of a whole generation of northern saints. He fell asleep in the Lord on 30 August 1533, and his body was found incorrupt and remains so to this day.

Venerable Phantinus the New, Wonderworker of Calabria

Saint Phantinus the Younger was born in Calabria in southern Italy about the year 902 and from his youth was given to the love of God. He embraced the monastic life as a young man and laboured for many years in great asceticism in the mountains of his native land, becoming the spiritual father of a great brotherhood of Greek speaking monks under the rule of Saint Basil. When the Saracens overran Calabria he fled with his disciples and finally came to Thessalonica, where he passed his last years instructing the monks of the city in the ways of perfection. Endowed with the gifts of prophecy and of healing, he foretold his own death and reposed in peace at Thessalonica about the year 974. He is honoured among the new wonderworkers of the West and as the patron of the Greek monastic tradition of Calabria.

Also commemorated: Trans. Rel. St Alexander Nevsky

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

1 Corinthians — 1 Corinthians 1.26-29

²⁶For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

²⁶For behold your calling, brethren, that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: ²⁷but God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might put to shame them that are wise; and God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong; ²⁷But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; ²⁸And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: ²⁸and the base things of the world, and the things that are despised, did God choose, yea and the things that are not, that he might bring to nought the things that are: ²⁹That no flesh should glory in his presence. ²⁹that no flesh should glory before God.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 20.29-34

²⁹And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed him.

²⁹And as they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed him.

³⁰And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. ³⁰And behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, Lord, have mercy on us, thou son of David. ³¹And the multitude rebuked them, because they should hold their peace: but they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. ³¹And the multitude rebuked them, that they should hold their peace: but they cried out the more, saying, Lord, have mercy on us, thou son of David. ³²And Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, What will ye that I shall do unto you? ³²And Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, What will ye that I should do unto you? ³³They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. ³³They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. ³⁴So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him. ³⁴And Jesus, being moved with compassion, touched their eyes; and straightway they received their sight, and followed him.