Tuesday, 4 November 2025

Tuesday of the 22nd week after Pentecost

198 days after Pascha · Tone 4 · Liturgy · No Fast

Saints commemorated

Blessed Simon of Yurievets, fool for Christ

Saint Simon was born into a peasant family in the village of Brattskoye, in the region of Yurievets-Povolzhsky, in the late sixteenth century. From his youth he embraced the path of foolishness for Christ, leaving home to wander barefoot and in the lightest of garments through the bitter Russian winters and burning summers, accepting reproach, hunger and beatings without complaint. For many years he made his way through the towns and villages along the Volga, eventually settling at Yurievets where he became a familiar figure to the townspeople. By his apparent madness he concealed great spiritual gifts: he saw into the hearts of those who came to him, foretold future events, and worked miracles of healing. He spent his nights at prayer in churches, often shedding floods of tears. He reposed on 4 November 1584 in the home of a local nobleman who had taken him in during his last illness, and was buried in the church of the Theophany at Yurievets, where many miracles took place at his tomb.

Holy hieromartyrs Nicander, bishop of Myra, and Hermas the presbyter

The Holy Hieromartyrs Nicander and Hermas were among the first preachers of the Gospel in Lycia in the apostolic age. According to tradition, both were ordained by the Apostle Titus, the disciple and companion of the Apostle Paul, with Nicander consecrated as the first bishop of the city of Myra and Hermas appointed presbyter to assist him. Living the ascetic life amid incessant pastoral labours, the two converted many pagans of Lycia to Christ, distinguished by a great zeal for the faith and tireless preaching. Their success aroused the hatred of the pagan authorities, and they were arrested and brought before the city prefect Libanius. Neither flattery nor threats could move them to deny Christ. After enduring savage tortures, including being beaten with iron rods and having their flesh torn, they were enclosed alive in a tomb, where they surrendered their souls into the hands of God and received the crown of martyrdom.

Saint John the confessor

Saint John the Confessor lived during the reign of the iconoclast emperors and is commemorated for his unyielding witness to the veneration of the holy icons. A monk and hegumen who refused to subscribe to the imperial heresy, he suffered exile, beatings and prolonged imprisonment for the sake of the apostolic tradition. Through the long years of his persecution he sustained his brethren by letters and counsel, encouraging them to hold fast to the Orthodox faith. After enduring many sufferings he reposed in peace, having confessed Christ before kings, and is honoured by the Church as a confessor on the same day as Saint Joannicius the Great, with whom he shared the struggle for the holy images.

Venerable Joannicius the Great

He was born in Bithynia of peasant stock. He worked as a swineherd, then became an officer in the Imperial army, where he served with such distinction in the war against the Bulgars that the Emperor Constantine VI wanted to take him into his personal service. “But the sight of massacres and horrors of war had brought home to him the vanity of this life. He asked leave of the Emperor to retire from the service, in order to wage unseen warfare in the ranks of the angelic army” (Synaxarion). In the coming years he traveled widely, sometimes living as a hermit, sometimes living in monasteries, more than once founding a monastic community. Wherever he went he lived in stillness, solitude and strict asceticism. He was famed for his spiritual counsel, his prophecies, his many miracles of healing ailments bodily and spiritual, and for his friendship with animals. Once a monk who doubted the Saint’s miracles was eating at table with him when a large bear burst in upon them. Joannicius called the bear and it came and lay at his feet; he then told it to lie at the feet of his frightened guest and said “At their creation, the animals looked with veneration on man, who is made in the image of God, and he had no fear of them. We are afraid of them now because we have transgressed God’s commandments. If we love the Lord Jesus and keep his commandments, no animal will be able to do us any harm.” The monk departed greatly edified.

In the last years of Joannicius’ life, when he was about ninety years old, the Emperor Theophilus sought his counsel on the veneration of icons. The Saint’s answer was pointed: “Whoever refuses due honor to the images of Christ, of the Mother of God and of the Saints, will not be received into the Kingdom of Heaven, even if he has lived an otherwise blameless life.”

Once Joannicius traveled to Constantinople to aid the Patriarch in some matters concerning the order of the Church. When he returned to his hermitage, he found that some jealous monks had set it on fire. Knowing who they were, he nevertheless addressed them kindly and invited them to share with him some food that he had managed to salvage from the fire. He did not attempt to rebuild his hermitage, but, taking the fire as a sign of his impending departure from this life, he traveled to the monastery of Antidion, where he had first entered into the monastic life and there, having predicted the day of his death, he reposed in peace. At the moment of his death, the monks of Mt Olympus saw a pillar of fire ascending from the earth to the sky.

The Saint’s relics have been the source of many miracles. His skull is kept and venerated at the Monastery of the Pantocrator on Mt Athos. The widely-used prayer “My hope is the Father; my refuge is the Son; my shelter is the Holy Spirit; O Holy Trinity, glory be to Thee!” is attributed to St Joannicius.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Colossians — Colossians 2.20-3.3

²⁰If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, do ye subject yourselves to ordinances,

²⁰Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, ²¹Handle not, nor taste, nor touch ²¹(Touch not; taste not; handle not; ²²(all which things are to perish with the using), after the precepts and doctrines of men? ²²Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? ²³Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worship, and humility, and severity to the body; but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh. ²³Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.

¹If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.

¹If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. ²Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth. ²Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. ³For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. ³For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 11.34-41

³⁴The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. ³⁴The lamp of thy body is thine eye: when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when it is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. ³⁵Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. ³⁵Look therefore whether the light that is in thee be not darkness. ³⁶If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light. ³⁶If therefore thy whole body be full of light, having no part dark, it shall be wholly full of light, as when the lamp with its bright shining doth give thee light.

³⁷And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat.

³⁷Now as he spake, a Pharisee asketh him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat. ³⁸And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner. ³⁸And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first bathed himself before dinner. ³⁹And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. ³⁹And the Lord said unto him, Now ye the Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter; but your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness. ⁴⁰Ye foolish ones, did not he that made the outside make the inside also? ⁴⁰Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also? ⁴¹But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you. ⁴¹But give for alms those things which are within; and behold, all things are clean unto you.