Thursday, 18 December 2025

Thursday of the 28th week after Pentecost

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

Saints commemorated

Holy martyr Sebastian and his companions

He grew up in Milan and became an army officer, where he distinguished himself so well that the Emperor Diocletian made him captain of the Praetorian Guard not suspecting that Sebastian was a Christian. In Rome, while fulfilling the duties of a courtier, he used his position to comfort and encourage his imprisoned fellow-Christians. By his labors and example he brought many to faith in Christ, including Chromatius, the Prefect in charge of persecuting the Roman Christians.

Sebastian had upheld two brothers, Mark and Marcellinus, who were awaiting execution for their faith. When the day of execution came, their father Tranquillinus, who had been a pagan but through Sebastian’s example had converted, presented himself to Chromatius and announced that he too was a Christian. His testimony was so powerful that the hard heart of the Prefect was melted, and he himself resolved to become a Christian.

Caius, Bishop of Rome, gathered the new brethren (both men and women — not all of Sebastian’s converts have been mentioned here) to embrace them and baptize them, but also to warn them of their coming Martyrdom. He instructed some to flee the city and others, headed by Sebastian, to remain in Rome, devoting their days to fasting, prayer and thanksgiving as they awaited their death. As the “company of Martyrs” did this, many came to them and were healed of ailments, and many joined them in confessing Christ.

When the time of martyrdom came, each member of the company was subjected to imaginatively cruel tortures before his execution. Sebastian himself was made to witness the deaths of all his companions, then to endure his own trial. He serenely confessed his unshaken faith before Diocletian himself before being taken to the place of execution. There he was tied to a post and made the target of a band of archers until his body bristled with arrows like the quills of a porcupine. He was left for dead, but when Irene, widow of St Castulus, came to bury him, she found him alive and tended his wounds. Amazingly, he recovered, and presented himself once again to the Emperor. Astonished and outraged, the tyrant ordered that Sebastian be beaten to death with clubs and thrown into the city’s sewer. That evening, a pious Christian woman was told in a vision to retrieve his body and bury it in the catacombs. After St Constantine brought peace to the Church, Pope Damasus built a church over the site in the Saint’s honor. For hundreds of years, many miracles were worked there through St Sebastian’s intercessions.

Holy martyr Zoe of Rome

Saint Zoe was the wife of Nicostratus, a senior official of the imperial prison who was charged with overseeing the Christian prisoners during the persecution of Diocletian. She had lost the power of speech six years before meeting Saint Sebastian. When the holy martyr made the sign of the Cross over her, she immediately began to speak and glorified the Lord Jesus Christ. Together with her husband Nicostratus, she received holy baptism and was instructed in the faith. She was arrested while praying at the tomb of the Apostle Peter and brought to trial, where she boldly confessed her belief in Christ. She was hung by the hair over a fire fed with foul-smelling dung and so gave up her soul, around the year 286. Her body was cast into the river Tiber but was later recovered and honoured by the Christians of Rome.

Saint Florus, bishop of Amisus

Saint Florus was the son of pious Christian parents, Florus and Euphemia, who provided him with a fine education. He entered the service of the Byzantine court and was elevated to the rank of patrician. He married and was the father of children, but after his wife and children died of smallpox he renounced the world and withdrew to the outskirts of Constantinople, where he led a solitary and pious life. The bishop of the city of Amisus on the Black Sea coast, taking notice of his virtue and learning, ordained him priest, and after the bishop's repose Florus was raised to that see. As bishop he served his flock with great love, gave generously to the poor and ransomed captives. Foreseeing his end, he reposed in peace in the seventh century.

Saint Sophocles of Egypt

Saint Sophocles was a desert-dwelling ascetic of Egypt, one of the early monastic fathers whose memory is preserved in the synaxarion of the Orthodox Church on this day. He withdrew to the wilderness in his youth to flee the noise of the world and to give himself wholly to the prayer of the heart. The brief notices that survive describe him as a faithful imitator of the great fathers of the desert, Anthony, Macarius and Pachomius, who through fasting, vigil and obedience attained dispassion and the gift of unceasing prayer. Living in the early period of Egyptian monasticism, he reposed in peace and was buried by the brethren of his community.

Holy Hieromartyr Modestus I, Archbishop of Jerusalem

634

His parents were pious Christians from Sebaste in Asia Minor, who died in prison while Modestus was still an infant. The child was raised by pagans, but when he learned that his parents had died for Christ, he secretly became a Christian also. When his adoptive parents died, he traveled to Athens, where he was taken in by a Christian goldsmith and his wife, and became a Christian at the age of thirteen. Modestus’ almsgiving and love for the poor soon earned him renown, but aroused the envy of the goldsmith’s sons, who sold Modestus into slavery during a trip to Egypt. But Modestus was able to bring his new master to faith in Christ and regain his freedom. Some time later he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The doors of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre opened at his prayers, and the people, taking this as a sign from God, chose Modestus as Archbishop of Jerusalem. (Accounts of his life do not mention his having been anything but a layman before this.) He served his flock tenderly and zealously, encouraging all to abound in spiritual gifts, and working many miracles. His prayers were effective not only in healing the faithful, but even in curing the ailments of their cattle and other animals. For this reason, it is still customary on this day to sprinkle animals pens and stables, and even houses in which pets dwell, with holy water, asking the Saint’s protection. Saint Modestus served his flock faithfully into old age. According to some accounts he reposed in peace. According to others, in his old age he was delivered up to the pagans by his enemies, and beheaded by them after many torments.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Titus — Titus 1.5-2.1

⁵For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that were wanting, and appoint elders in every city, as I gave thee charge;

⁵For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee: ⁶if any man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having children that believe, who are not accused of riot or unruly. ⁶If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. ⁷For the bishop must be blameless, as God’s steward; not self-willed, not soon angry, no brawler, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; ⁷For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; ⁸but given to hospitality, a lover of good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled; ⁸But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; ⁹Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. ⁹holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching, that he may be able both to exhort in the sound doctrine, and to convict the gainsayers. ¹⁰For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:

¹⁰For there are many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision, ¹¹whose mouths must be stopped; men who overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake. ¹¹Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake. ¹²One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle gluttons. ¹²One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.

¹³This testimony is true. For which cause reprove them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, ¹³This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; ¹⁴Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth. ¹⁴not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men who turn away from the truth. ¹⁵Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. ¹⁵To the pure all things are pure: but to them that are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. ¹⁶They profess that they know God; but by their works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. ¹⁶They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.

¹But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine:

¹But speak thou the things which befit the sound doctrine:

Gospel

weekly cycle

Mark — Mark 9.10-16

¹⁰And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean. ¹⁰And they kept the saying, questioning among themselves what the rising again from the dead should mean.

¹¹And they asked him, saying, Why say the scribes that Elias must first come? ¹¹And they asked him, saying, How is it that the scribes say that Elijah must first come? ¹²And he answered and told them, Elias verily cometh first, and restoreth all things; and how it is written of the Son of man, that he must suffer many things, and be set at nought. ¹²And he said unto them, Elijah indeed cometh first, and restoreth all things: and how is it written of the Son of man, that he should suffer many things and be set at nought? ¹³But I say unto you, That Elias is indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of him. ¹³But I say unto you, that Elijah is come, and they have also done unto him whatsoever they would, even as it is written of him.

¹⁴And when he came to his disciples, he saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning with them.

¹⁴And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great multitude about them, and scribes questioning with them. ¹⁵And straightway all the people, when they beheld him, were greatly amazed, and running to him saluted him. ¹⁵And straightway all the multitude, when they saw him, were greatly amazed, and running to him saluted him. ¹⁶And he asked the scribes, What question ye with them? ¹⁶And he asked them, What question ye with them?