Thursday, 4 September 2025

Thursday of the 13th week after Pentecost

137 days after Pascha · Tone 3 · Liturgy · No Fast

Saints commemorated

Hieromartyr Babylas, Bishop of Antioch, and the three children with him

Saint Babylas was bishop of the great see of Antioch in Syria from about 237, succeeding Saint Zebinas. His episcopate fell in a time of intermittent persecution under the emperors Maximinus Thrax, Gordian, Philip the Arabian and Decius. He is famous for an act of holy boldness recorded by Eusebius and by Saint John Chrysostom. The Emperor Philip, who had embraced Christianity and was making his way to attend the paschal vigil, was met at the doors of the church by Bishop Babylas, who refused him entrance until he had submitted to the discipline of penance for the murder of the young Emperor Gordian. The emperor humbly accepted, took his place among the penitents, and only afterwards was admitted to the assembly of the faithful. When Decius came to the throne in 249 and unleashed his savage edict requiring sacrifice from every citizen, the holy bishop was seized at Antioch together with three young children whom he was instructing in the faith, named Urbanus, Prilidian and Epolonius, the children of a Christian widow named Christodoula. Babylas openly confessed Christ, and the three boys, despite their tender age, refused to deny the Lord, even when the emperor caressed and threatened them by turns. Babylas was loaded with chains and beheaded, asking that his fetters be buried with him as a sign of his confession. The three children were beheaded after him. Many years later, in the reign of Julian the Apostate, the relics of the holy hieromartyr were transferred to Daphne, near Antioch, where their presence silenced the oracle of Apollo, an event recorded by Saint John Chrysostom in his homilies on the saint.

Holy Martyr Hermione, daughter of the Apostle Philip the Deacon

Saint Hermione was one of the four daughters of the Apostle Philip the Deacon, one of the seven first deacons of the Church and not to be confused with Philip the apostle of the Twelve. The Acts of the Apostles records that Philip had four virgin daughters who prophesied, and Hermione, with her sister Eutychia, devoted herself from youth to the life of consecrated virginity in the household of her father at Caesarea in Palestine. After the falling asleep of her father, Hermione travelled to Ephesus together with her sister to venerate the tomb of the holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, intending to receive his blessing. Finding that he had already departed to the Lord, she met instead the Apostle Petronius, a disciple of the Apostle Paul, under whom she was further instructed in the faith. She settled at Ephesus and devoted herself to the practice of medicine, treating the bodies of the sick and at the same time leading them to faith in Christ, healing many also by the power of prayer. When the Emperor Trajan was passing through the East on his Persian expedition, he heard of her gift of prophecy and summoned her to foretell the outcome of his campaign. He attempted by flattery and threat to compel her to deny Christ, and finally subjected her to torments. Trajan died before her death sentence could be executed, but his successor Hadrian renewed the persecution, and Hermione was beheaded at Ephesus in the early second century. She was buried near the tomb of the holy Theologian, and her relics worked many miracles for those who came to her in faith.

Holy Prophet and God-Seer Moses

The Holy Prophet and God-Seer Moses was of the tribe of Levi, the son of Amram and Jochebed, and was born in Egypt around 1689 BC at the time when Pharaoh had decreed that every male Hebrew infant should be cast into the Nile. His mother hid him for three months, and then placed him in a basket of bulrushes among the reeds at the river's edge, where he was found by the daughter of Pharaoh and raised at the royal court, instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. Having defended one of his brethren by slaying an Egyptian taskmaster, he fled to Midian, married Zipporah the daughter of the priest Jethro, and tended his flocks for forty years. There at Mount Horeb the Lord appeared to him in the burning bush which was not consumed, and revealed to him the divine Name, "I AM WHO I AM," sending him back to Egypt to lead His people out of slavery. Through the ten plagues and the Passover lamb, the Hebrews were freed; the Red Sea parted before them and was closed upon their pursuers; in the desert they were fed with manna and quail and given water from the rock. On Mount Sinai Moses received the two tablets of the Law from the hand of God, and conversed with Him face to face as a man speaks with his friend, so that the skin of his face shone with such brightness that the people could not look upon him without a veil. He led the people for forty years in the wilderness, interceding for them in their rebellions and bearing patiently with their murmurings. At the end of his hundred-and-twentieth year, having beheld the promised land from Mount Nebo, he reposed and was buried by the Lord Himself in a place no man knows. The Church honours him as a foreshadowing of Christ the new Lawgiver, and at the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor he appeared with the Prophet Elias, conversing with the incarnate Word.

Holy Prophet Moses, who beheld God.

What can we say of Moses? For his story read the Old Testament books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Church holds him to be the author of the Pentateuch or Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament.

St John Mavropos, Metropolitan of Euchaita

1100

He is best known for his part in the institution of the Synaxis of Sts Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom (see January 30). The three holy hierarchs appeared to him and revealed that all three are united and equally honored in heaven, thus dispelling a spirit of factionalism that was disturbing Constantinople. He is the composer of the Canon to the Most Sweet Jesus and the Canon to the Guardian Angel, both found in many prayer books. He reposed in peace. Mavropos is a nickname meaning ‘Black-foot’. He is commemorated on June 14 on the Slavic Calendar.

Venerable Anthimos the Blind, New Ascetic

1782

He was born on the island of Kephalonia in 1727, with the name Athanasios Kourouklis. At the age of seven he became blind as a result of smallpox. His devout mother prayed for his healing, and asked her priest to serve forty Ligurgies for her son’s healing. At the fortieth Liturgy, as the priest said ‘In the fear of God and with faith and love draw near,’ Athanasius cried out that he could see the priest’s vestments and chalice. He had recovered sight in his right eye. For a time he followed his father’s occupation as a seaman, but then took up the life of a monk, receiving the name Anthimos. At some point he went blind again, and soon thereafter had a vision: he was praying for the restoration of his sight before an icon of the Theotokos when two young men in radiant garments appeared and led him to the Mother of God herself, who told him ‘Depart, for your continual prayer that I restore your sight is not profitable to you.’ But the two young men pleaded for him, and the Theotokos said ‘Anthimos, because of your great piety and many prayers, I will restore your sight in part, but do not forget that, having gained temporal vision, you can lose that which is eternal.’ Thereafter, though Anthimos was almost completely blind, he could dimly discern the outlines of objects; but in compensation he was granted the gift of spiritual insight,and was able to predict the future and call by name those he had never met. Saint Anthimos was about twenty when he entered monastic life, and lived on Mt Athos for awhile. Despite his blindness, he then took up a life of missionary work that took him throughout the Greek mainland and islands. Traveling from place to place he preached the Gospel, healed the sick, founded several monasteries. Once he restored a blind woman’s sight by his prayers, though he himself remained blind throughout his life. Throughout his amazing labors he maintained a life of the most severe asceticism, eating little, sleeping on a plank or on the floor. In 1782, in the course of one of his many sea journeys, he told the sailors to change course for Kephalonia, saying ‘God’s will is not that I concern myself with [the mission he had undertaken], but that I go back and die in my monastery.’ On returning he fell ill and called his spiritual children to him. ‘My children, the hour has come for me to go where the Lord ordains. Death is the common lot of us all and is nothing to be afraid of. It is important rather to do your best to keep your promises and your monastic vows. The one thing necessary in this life is to please God and save your souls.’ Having said this, he fell asleep in peace, at the age of fifty-four. He was glorified as a Saint in 1976. Note: It is sometimes said that celebrating Divine Liturgies for special intentions is ‘not Orthodox.’ The example of St Anthimos’ mother shows that the practice is a both traditional and efficacious.

Holy New Martyr Gorazd, Bishop of Slovakia and the Czech Lands

1942

He was born in 1879 in Moravia and given the name Matthew Pavlik. He became a Roman Catholic priest, active in a movement for reform within the Roman Catholic Church. When Czechoslovakia became an independent state in 1919, about 800,000 Christians, including Fr Matthew, approached Bishop Dositheus of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Serbia, asking to be received into the Orthodox faith. Father Matthew was received into the Church in 1920; a year later was made Bishop of the Orthodox of Moravia and Silesia by Patriarch Demetrius of Serbia, and was named for St Gorazd, a disciple of St Methodius (July 27). Though many of the original ‘reform’ leaders turned back, finding the demands of Orthodoxy too difficult, Bishop Gorazd labored mightily for the restoration of Orthodoxy in Czechoslovakia: he established eleven parishes, translated the divine services into Czech, and published a Czech Prayer Book. During the Second World War, two priests of the Orthodox Cathedral in Prague were arrested because some of the Czech resistance had taken refuge in the Cathedral. It was clear that the Nazis were planning retaliation against the entire Orthodox Church. Bishop Gorazd presented himself to the Nazis and, to save his priests, took full responsibility for the events in the Cathedral. He was arrested, tortured and finally shot on September 4 1942 (August 22 OC). Despite his selfless sacrifice, the Orthodox Church was severely persecuted by the Nazis: all the churches were closed and the priests sent to concentration camps in Germany. Saint Gorazd was glorified by the Church of Serbia in 1961 and by the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1987.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

2 Corinthians — 2 Corinthians 10.7-18

⁷Ye look at the things that are before your face. If any man trusteth in himself that he is Christ’s, let him consider this again with himself, that, even as he is Christ’s, so also are we. ⁷Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ’s, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ’s, even so are we Christ’s. ⁸For though I should glory somewhat abundantly concerning our authority (which the Lord gave for building you up, and not for casting you down), I shall not be put to shame: ⁸For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed: ⁹that I may not seem as if I would terrify you by my letters. ⁹That I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters. ¹⁰For, His letters, they say, are weighty and strong; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account. ¹⁰For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible. ¹¹Let such an one think this, that, such as we are in word by letters when we are absent, such will we be also in deed when we are present. ¹¹Let such a one reckon this, that, what we are in word by letters when we are absent, such are we also in deed when we are present. ¹²For we are not bold to number or compare ourselves with certain of them that commend themselves: but they themselves, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves with themselves, are without understanding. ¹²For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. ¹³But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you. ¹³But we will not glory beyond our measure, but according to the measure of the province which God apportioned to us as a measure, to reach even unto you. ¹⁴For we stretch not ourselves overmuch, as though we reached not unto you: for we came even as far as unto you in the gospel of Christ: ¹⁴For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto you: for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ: ¹⁵not glorying beyond our measure, that is, in other men’s labors; but having hope that, as your faith groweth, we shall be magnified in you according to our province unto further abundance, ¹⁵Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men’s labours; but having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly, ¹⁶so as to preach the gospel even unto the parts beyond you, and not to glory in another’s province in regard of things ready to our hand. ¹⁶To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man’s line of things made ready to our hand. ¹⁷But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. ¹⁷But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. ¹⁸For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth. ¹⁸For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Mark — Mark 3.28-35

²⁸Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: ²⁸Verily I say unto you, All their sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and their blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: ²⁹But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation: ²⁹but whosoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath never forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin: ³⁰Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit. ³⁰because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.

³¹There came then his brethren and his mother, and, standing without, sent unto him, calling him.

³¹And there come his mother and his brethren; and, standing without, they sent unto him, calling him. ³²And the multitude sat about him, and they said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. ³²And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. ³³And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren? ³³And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? ³⁴And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren! ³⁴And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! ³⁵For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother. ³⁵For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.