Wednesday, 15 October 2025

Wednesday of the 19th week after Pentecost

178 days after Pascha · Tone 1 · Liturgy · Fast

Saints commemorated

Holy Hieromartyr Lucian, Presbyter of Greater Antioch

312

Saint Lucian was born about the year 240 at Samosata in Syria of Christian parents and was educated at Edessa in the school of Macarius, where he was instructed both in the divine Scriptures and in the secular learning of his age. After distributing his goods to the poor he supported himself by transcribing books, and was ordained presbyter at Antioch, where he founded a celebrated catechetical school whose alumni included many of the most learned teachers of the eastern church. He was renowned for his ascetic strictness and for his careful labour upon the text of the Septuagint and the Greek New Testament, producing a critical recension that was widely used throughout the east. During the persecution of the emperor Maximinus he was arrested at Antioch and conveyed to Nicomedia, where he was kept in prison for nine months and subjected to hunger, the rack and other torments. While in chains, on the feast of Theophany, he is said to have celebrated the divine mysteries upon his own breast, and on the day following, having received Holy Communion, he gave up his soul to God in the year 312. His relics were translated to Drepanum in Bithynia, which Constantine the Great renamed Helenopolis in honour of his mother and out of veneration for the martyr.

Saint Barses the Confessor, Bishop of Edessa

Saint Barses was bishop of Edessa in the fourth century and an unwavering champion of the Orthodox faith against the Arian heresy then patronised by the emperor Valens. He was a man full of apostolic grace, whose name was renowned throughout Phoenicia, Egypt and the Thebaid, and who by a single word could put sicknesses to flight, so that the suffering came to him from many lands and were healed. When Valens turned the imperial power against the defenders of the Council of Nicaea, Barses was driven from his see and sent into exile, first to the island of Aradus, then to Oxyrhynchus in Egypt, and at last to a remote fortress called Pheno on the borders of the barbarian country, where he reposed in confession of the true faith about the year 378. So great was the veneration of the people that the simple bed upon which he had slept in Aradus was preserved as a relic, and many sick persons who lay upon it were restored to health by the prayers of the holy bishop.

Saint Sabinus the Wonderworker, Bishop of Catania

Saint Sabinus lived in Sicily during the eighth century, a period when the dioceses of the island had been removed from the jurisdiction of Rome by the emperor Leo the Isaurian and placed under the patriarch of Constantinople. Distinguished from his youth by piety and learning, he was raised to the episcopal throne of Catania on account of his many virtues. After ruling his flock for some time, finding the cares of office a burden upon his soul, he secretly withdrew into the wilderness, where he gave himself to fasting, prayer and unceasing struggle against the passions. The Lord granted him the gifts of healing and foreknowledge, so that he cured the sick, cast out unclean spirits and foretold things to come; and many young men, persuaded by his teaching, forsook the world and embraced the monastic life under his direction. After many years of ascetic labour he reposed in peace about the year 760, and the faithful of Sicily have honoured his memory ever since.

Venerable Euthymius the New of Thessalonica

Saint Euthymius, called the New or the Younger, was born about the year 824 at Opso in Galatia, of pious parents, and received the baptismal name Niketas. Married in his eighteenth year, he soon left the world after the birth of his daughter, withdrawing first to Mount Olympus in Bithynia where he was tonsured and trained in the ascetic life. Thence he passed to Mount Athos, then little inhabited, and dwelt for many years in caves and small cells, living for a long period upon the bare summit of the holy mountain in continual prayer and great bodily mortification. Ordained deacon in Thessalonica, he afterwards established a double monastery at Peristerai near that city upon the ruins of an ancient church of Saint Andrew, gathering disciples both male and female under his rule. Foreseeing his end, he returned to Athos, where he reposed about the year 889 on the island of Hiera, and his relics, brought back to Thessalonica, became a source of healing and a witness to the renewal of monastic life upon the holy mountain.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Philippians — Philippians 1.12-20

¹²Now I would have you know, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the progress of the gospel;

¹²But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel; ¹³so that my bonds became manifest in Christ throughout the whole prætorian guard, and to all the rest; ¹³So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places; ¹⁴and that most of the brethren in the Lord, being confident through my bonds, are more abundantly bold to speak the word of God without fear. ¹⁴And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. ¹⁵Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: ¹⁵Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: ¹⁶the one do it of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel; ¹⁶The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: ¹⁷But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel. ¹⁷but the other proclaim Christ of faction, not sincerely, thinking to raise up affliction for me in my bonds. ¹⁸What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. ¹⁸What then? only that in every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and therein I rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. ¹⁹For I know that this shall turn out to my salvation, through your supplication and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, ¹⁹For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, ²⁰according to my earnest expectation and hope, that in nothing shall I be put to shame, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether by life, or by death. ²⁰According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 8.22-25

²²Now it came to pass on a certain day, that he went into a ship with his disciples: and he said unto them, Let us go over unto the other side of the lake. And they launched forth.

²²Now it came to pass on one of those days, that he entered into a boat, himself and his disciples; and he said unto them, Let us go over unto the other side of the lake: and they launched forth. ²³But as they sailed he fell asleep: and there came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy. ²³But as they sailed he fell asleep: and there came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy. ²⁴And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm. ²⁴And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. And he awoke, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm. ²⁵And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him. ²⁵And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And being afraid they marvelled, saying one to another, Who then is this, that he commandeth even the winds and the water, and they obey him?