Thursday, 16 October 2025

Thursday of the 19th week after Pentecost

179 days after Pascha · Tone 1 · Liturgy · No Fast

Saints commemorated

Blessed Domna of Tomsk, Fool for Christ

The blessed Domna Karpovna was born in the early years of the nineteenth century into a noble family of central Ukraine and from her youth lived a life of piety. After the death of her parents she fled the marriage that her relatives had arranged for her and, taking upon herself the difficult yoke of folly for Christ's sake, set out as a wanderer through the towns and villages of Russia. She was seen at many monasteries and shrines, and at last came to the Siberian city of Tomsk, where she dwelt in the open under the eaves of houses and in cellars, accepting nothing but a piece of bread or a worn garment. Bearing always upon her shoulders a great bundle of rags and broken trinkets which she called "her sins", she walked barefoot in summer and winter alike, sleeping in the snow, enduring beatings from drunkards and the mockery of children with patience and silent prayer. By the gift of foreknowledge she warned of fires, healed the sick, comforted the dying, and turned many sinners to repentance, while concealing her gifts beneath outward eccentricities. She reposed in peace at the convent of Saint John the Forerunner in Tomsk on the sixteenth of October 1872, and was buried there. The Russian Church glorified her among the saints in 1984, numbering her with the holy fools who, by despising the wisdom of this world, drew nearer to the Wisdom of God.

Holy Martyr Eliphius of Toul

Saint Eliphius, called also Eloff, is said by tradition to have been the son of a Christian king of the Scots and to have come to Gaul in the days of the emperor Julian the Apostate, about the year 362, to preach the Gospel of Christ. With his brother Eucharius and his sisters Menna, Libaria and Susanna he laboured in the country round about Toul in Lorraine, where through his preaching some four hundred persons are said to have been turned from the worship of idols to the true faith. When Julian, passing through the region on his march against the Persians, learned of the multitude of conversions, he gave orders that Eliphius should be seized; and the saint, refusing either to deny Christ or to offer sacrifice, was beheaded outside the gates of Toul together with his sisters Libaria and Susanna. According to the chronicler, when his head was struck off the holy martyr took it up in his hands and carried it to the summit of a nearby hill, called thereafter Mount Eliph, where he laid himself down and gave up his soul. There a chapel was raised in his honour, and his relics were afterwards translated to the cathedral of Toul, where his memory has been kept upon the sixteenth of October.

Holy Martyr Longinus the Centurion

1st c.

This is the Centurion who stood at the Cross of Christ and, seeing Him breathe his last, cried out “Truly this was the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54). From that day forth he was a believer, and was soon baptized. According to some accounts, he was one of the guard at the Tomb of Christ, and was one of those whom the Judaean leaders sought to bribe not to tell the news of the Resurrection. But Longinus would not be bribed, so the leaders plotted to kill him. He left the army and went to his homeland of Cappadocia, where he boldly preached Christ. He was beheaded at the instigation of Pontius Pilate.

Holy Martyr Longinus the Centurion who stood at the Cross of the Lord

Saint Longinus was a Roman centurion of Cappadocian birth who served in Judaea under Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius Caesar. He commanded the company of soldiers at the Crucifixion of our Lord upon Golgotha, and it was he who, beholding the wonders that accompanied the death of Christ, the darkness, the earthquake and the rending of the rocks, confessed aloud, "Truly this man was the Son of God." It was likewise he, according to tradition, who pierced the side of the Lord with the lance, and was healed of an affliction of his eyes by the blood and water that flowed forth. Set afterwards as chief of the watch over the sepulchre, he became with two of his soldiers a witness of the Resurrection, and refused the silver pieces offered by the chief priests for a false report. Resigning his commission, he returned to his homeland in Cappadocia and there preached Christ openly. When Pilate and the Jewish elders denounced him to the emperor, soldiers were sent who, at the saint's own bidding, beheaded him together with his two fellow soldiers. His head, cast outside the city, was afterwards revealed in a vision to a blind widow seeking healing at Jerusalem, who recovered her sight when she found the relics, and so brought them home in honour.

Saint Gall, Enlightener of Switzerland

He was born in Ireland to wealthy parents, who sent him to be educated at the Monastery of Bangor. There he embraced the ascetical life and became a monk. He was one of the twelve monks who traveled with his spiritual father St Columbanus (November 23) as missionaries to Gaul. In time some of the group traveled into pagan lands, up the Rhine river to Lake Zurich. The monks settled on Lake Constance around a chapel dedicated to St Aurelia, which had been taken by the pagans as a shrine; they cleansed and reconsecrated the chapel, which became the center of their new monastery. Saint Gall lived as a hermit, serving the brethren by making nets and catching fish. In 612 St Columbanus went on to Italy with most of his disciples, leaving St Gall and a few others to continue their life. When St Gall delivered Frideburga, the daughter of a local duke, from a demon, he offered the saint a tract of land on the shores of Lake Constance; here was founded the monastery that in later times bore St Gall’s name.

At various times, the holy Gall refused calls to become a bishop, or to take over the abbacy of the great monastery at Luxeuil. To all such requests he answered that he would rather serve than command. He continued living in his isolated monastic community until he reposed in peace in 640, at the age of ninety-nine. In later years, and continuing well into the middle ages, the Monastery of St Gall became famed for the holiness of its monks and for its library.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Philippians — Philippians 1.20-27

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. ²¹For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. ²¹For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. ²²But if to live in the flesh,—if this shall bring fruit from my work, then what I shall choose I know not. ²²But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. ²³But I am in a strait betwixt the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ; for it is very far better: ²³For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: ²⁴yet to abide in the flesh is more needful for your sake. ²⁴Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. ²⁵And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide, yea, and abide with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith; ²⁵And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith; ²⁶That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again. ²⁶that your glorying may abound in Christ Jesus in me through my presence with you again. ²⁷Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ: that, whether I come and see you or be absent, I may hear of your state, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one soul striving for the faith of the gospel; ²⁷Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 9.7-11

⁷Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by him: and he was perplexed, because that it was said of some, that John was risen from the dead;

⁷Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done: and he was much perplexed, because that it was said by some, that John was risen from the dead; ⁸and by some, that Elijah had appeared; and by others, that one of the old prophets was risen again. ⁸And of some, that Elias had appeared; and of others, that one of the old prophets was risen again. ⁹And Herod said, John have I beheaded: but who is this, of whom I hear such things? And he desired to see him. ⁹And Herod said, John I beheaded: but who is this, about whom I hear such things? And he sought to see him.

¹⁰And the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they had done. And he took them, and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida.

¹⁰And the apostles, when they were returned, declared unto him what things they had done. And he took them, and withdrew apart to a city called Bethsaida. ¹¹But the multitudes perceiving it followed him: and he welcomed them, and spake to them of the kingdom of God, and them that had need of healing he cured. ¹¹And the people, when they knew it, followed him: and he received them, and spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing.