Tuesday, 16 December 2025

Tuesday of the 28th week after Pentecost

240 days after Pascha · Tone 2 · Liturgy · Nativity Fast (Wine and Oil are Allowed)

Saints commemorated

Holy prophet Haggai

The Holy Prophet Haggai was the tenth of the Twelve Minor Prophets and a descendant of the tribe of Levi. He was born in Babylon during the captivity and prophesied during the reign of the Persian king Darius Hystaspes, around 500 BC. Returning with his fellow Jews to Jerusalem after the captivity, he urged the people, together with the prophet Zechariah, to take up the rebuilding of the Second Temple, which had been delayed by political opposition and by the people's preoccupation with their own houses. His brief book, preserved among the prophetic writings, contains four oracles delivered in the second year of Darius. He proclaimed that the glory of the Second Temple would surpass that of Solomon's, since the Messiah would appear within it in the latter days. Having seen the foundations of the Temple laid, he reposed in old age and was buried with honour near the priests' tombs in Jerusalem.

Saint Memnon, archbishop of Ephesus

Saint Memnon was metropolitan of Ephesus during the first half of the fifth century and is venerated for his defence of Orthodox christology at the Third Ecumenical Council, held at Ephesus in 431. As metropolitan of the host city he commanded the loyalty of the local population and gathered some forty bishops in addition to twelve from Pamphylia in support of Saint Cyril of Alexandria against the Nestorian heresy. When the verdict of Rome against Nestorius reached the council, Memnon refused communion with him and closed the churches of Ephesus to him. He hosted the second session of the council in his episcopal palace. With Saint Cyril he was unjustly deposed by John of Antioch's separate gathering, but was restored when peace was made in the church. Almost nothing else is known of him outside the council. He reposed in peace some time before the year 440.

Saint Modestus, archbishop of Jerusalem

Saint Modestus was born around the year 537 into a Christian family at Sebasteia in Cappadocia. His parents died when he was five months old, but he was raised in the Christian faith and from an early age was drawn to monastic life. He was tonsured a monk, struggled in ascetic labours on Mount Sinai, and was later made abbot of the monastery of Saint Theodosius in Palestine. In 614 the Persian king Khosrow II captured Jerusalem, burning churches, slaughtering monks, and carrying off Patriarch Zacharias and the precious Cross of the Lord. During the patriarch's fourteen-year captivity, Modestus served as locum tenens and laboured to bury the slain monks of Saint Sabbas's monastery and to restore the Holy Sepulchre and the city's churches and monasteries, helped by Saint John the Merciful, patriarch of Alexandria. After the death of Patriarch Zacharias, Modestus was elected patriarch of Jerusalem, serving from 632 until his repose at the age of ninety-seven in 634. Some Greek calendars commemorate him on 16 December, while the Slavic and other traditions keep his feast on 18 December.

Saint Theophano the empress

Saint Theophano was the first wife of the Byzantine emperor Leo VI the Wise, who reigned from 886 to 911. Born into the noble Martinakios family of Constantinople, she was renowned among the chroniclers of her time for her evangelical life, almsgiving and exceptional piety. Early in her marriage she shared the sufferings of her husband when, falsely accused of plotting against his father, the emperor Basil I, Leo was imprisoned for three years. During this trial she remained constant in prayer. Even as empress she continued to live as an ascetic, wearing simple clothing beneath her imperial robes, fasting strictly and giving generous aid to the poor and to monasteries. She bore patiently the unfaithfulness and cruelty of her husband, returning all things with kindness. She reposed around the year 893 or 897, and her relics were enshrined in a church built in her honour by the emperor.

Holy Empress and Wonderworker Theophano

893

She was born to noble parents in Constantinople. Beautiful and pious, she was chosen by the Emperor Basil (867-886) to be the bride of his son Leo VI the Wise. When Leo ascended the throne, the Empress showed no attraction to the honors and pleasures of the royal life, but devoted her days to prayer and almsgiving. She fulfilled all the duties of her Imperial station while living a life of austerity whenever out of the world’s sight. Beneath her rich garments she wore coarse haircloth, and kept fasts and vigils as if she were living the monastic life. She was humble and respectful to all, and would address even her servants as ‘Master’ or ‘Mistress.’ At night, after her servants had left her alone, she would leave her fine bed and sleep on a mat on the floor, rising often during the night to pray. After her daughter Eudocia died in 892, she wished to leave the world and enter a monastery, but her spiritual father St Euthymius (August 5) would not give his blessing. Nonetheless, her time in the world was not long: only three years later she died, before she had reached the age of thirty. Immediately after her funeral in the Church of the Holy Apostles, her holy relics became the source of many miracles and healings, and are venerated to this day in the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

2 Timothy — 2 Timothy 3.16-4.4

¹⁶Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: ¹⁶All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: ¹⁷that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work. ¹⁷That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

¹I charge thee in the sight of God, and of Christ Jesus, who shall judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:

¹I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; ²preach the word; be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. ²Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. ³For the time will come when they will not endure the sound doctrine; but, having itching ears, will heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts; ³For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; ⁴and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside unto fables. ⁴And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Mark — Mark 8.22-26

²²And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him.

²²And they come unto Bethsaida. And they bring to him a blind man, and beseech him to touch him. ²³And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought. ²³And he took hold of the blind man by the hand, and brought him out of the village; and when he had spit on his eyes, and laid his hands upon him, he asked him, Seest thou aught? ²⁴And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. ²⁴And he looked up, and said, I see men; for I behold them as trees, walking. ²⁵Then again he laid his hands upon his eyes; and he looked stedfastly, and was restored, and saw all things clearly. ²⁵After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly. ²⁶And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town. ²⁶And he sent him away to his home, saying, Do not even enter into the village.