Thursday, 15 January 2026

Ven. Paul of Thebes and John Calabytes

Thursday of the 32nd week after Pentecost

270 days after Pascha · Tone 6 · Black squigg (6-stich typikon symbol) · No Fast

Saints commemorated

Saint Ita, Hermitess of Killeedy

Saint Ita (c. 480 – c. 570), also known as Itha, Ida, Ide, Deirdre, or Dorothy, was an early Irish nun and saint of the fifth to sixth centuries. Born around 480 into a devout Christian family of nobility in County Waterford in the Munster province of southeastern Ireland, Ita was the daughter of a local chieftain. Her parents raised her in the Christian faith and provided her with an excellent education befitting her station. Responding to a monastic calling, Ita founded a convent school at Killeedy (Cille Ide), near Newcastle West in County Limerick, which bears her name to this day. She became known as the "Foster Mother of the Irish Saints" because of her role in educating and fostering numerous young men who would become prominent saints of Ireland. Among her most notable pupils were Saint Brendan the Navigator of Clonfert, Saint Mochoemoc (her nephew), Saint Cumian, and Saint Fachanan. Her school was famous throughout Ireland as a centre of learning, and parents from various regions sent their sons to be educated under her guidance. Ita is venerated as the patroness of Munster and celebrated for her natural gift for organisation and teaching. It is believed she may have been the abbess of a double monastery, overseeing communities of both men and women. Her feast day on 15 January is celebrated with solemn services and festive events in the surrounding churches of Limerick and beyond.

Saints Salome of Ujarma and Perozhavra of Sivnia

Saints Salome of Ujarma and Perozhavra of Sivnia were devoted disciples and closest companions of Saint Nino, the Enlightener of Georgia, during the fourth century. Both women came from noble Georgian families and played crucial roles in the establishment of Christianity throughout the kingdom of Kartli. Salome was the wife of Revi, son of King Mirian of Georgia, whilst Perozhavra was married to the ruler of the Kartli region. When Saint Nino arrived in Georgia with her holy mission to convert the kingdom to Christianity, these two noble women became her steadfast companions and helpers in spreading the Christian faith. After King Mirian's own conversion and the adoption of Christianity as the official faith of Georgia, Saint Salome, inspired by Saint Nino and under the orders of King Mirian, erected a cross at Ujarma in the Kakheti region—a symbol that stands to this day as a testament to early Georgian Christianity. When Saint Nino fell gravely ill in the village of Bodbe, both Salome and Perozhavra remained devoted at her bedside, weeping at the prospect of losing their beloved teacher and spiritual guide. In her final days, Saint Nino imparted sacred knowledge to them, which they faithfully recorded. Saints Salome and Perozhavra composed The Life of Saint Nino, Enlightener of Georgia, preserving for posterity the account of Georgia's apostolic evangelist. The Apostolic Orthodox Church of Georgia commemorates both saints on 15 January, the day following the commemoration of Saint Nino.

Venerable John the Hutdweller

Venerable John, known as the Kalyvitis or Hutdweller, was an ascetic monk whose spiritual struggle and unwavering devotion to Christ became a model for monastic practice. He dwelt in a small hut (kalyvi) in remote monasticism, pursuing a life of profound prayer, fasting, and contemplation. Through his intense ascetical discipline and mystical communion with God, he attained significant spiritual gifts, becoming known amongst the brethren as a guide to the hesychastic prayer tradition. His life exemplifies the Orthodox monastic commitment to withdrawal from the world in order to pursue union with God through perpetual prayer and contemplative practice. John's feast day is celebrated on 15 January in the Eastern Orthodox Church, where he is venerated as a holy father who illuminated the path of monastic struggle through his own example of steadfast devotion. His memory serves as a reminder of the power and necessity of solitary ascetical practice within the broader monasticism of the Church.

Venerable Paul of Thebes

Paul of Thebes (c. 227 – c. 341), commonly known as Paul the First Hermit or Paul the Anchorite, was an Egyptian saint regarded as the first Christian hermit and founder of monasticism. Born around 227 in the Thebaid of Egypt during the reign of Emperor Alexander Severus, Paul was left orphaned and suffered many injustices from a greedy relative who sought to seize his inheritance.

During the persecution against Christians under the emperor Decius (249–251), Paul learned of his brother-in-law's insidious plan to deliver him to the persecutors. He fled into the wilderness and settled in a mountain cave, where he dwelt for ninety-one years in continuous prayer. He sustained himself on dates and bread, which according to tradition a raven brought to him, and clothed himself with woven palm leaves. His life became a beacon for future ascetics, inspiring the development of monasticism throughout the Christian world.

Saint Anthony the Great, the founder of communal monasticism, had a divine revelation concerning Paul's sanctity and visited him in his cave. After Paul's repose in 341 at the age of 113, Anthony discovered his body and buried it with great reverence. Though Paul did not establish a monastery, the example of his solitary ascetic life inspired countless imitators who soon filled the Egyptian desert with monastic communities, earning him the title "Father of Monks" amongst solitary hermits.

His iconography depicts him as an elderly ascetic, often shown with a raven bringing him bread. The Coptic Orthodox Church also commemorates him on 2 Meshir (9 February).

Our Holy Father John Kalyvites

c. 450

He was the son of Eutropius, a prominent senator, and Theodora, who lived in Constantinople. At the age of twelve, he secretly fled his home, taking nothing but a Gospel book with him. Entering the Monastery of the Unsleeping Ones in the City, he gave himself up with fervor to a life of prayer, self-denial and obedience. For three years he ate only on Sundays after taking communion, and became so thin and haggard that he bore no resemblance to the young nobleman who had entered the monastery. Tormented by longing to see his parents, but unwilling to give up the ascetic struggle, he left the monastery with his Abbot’s blessing, dressed in beggar’s rags, and took up residence in a poor hut near the gate of his parents’ house. Here he lived, mocked by those who had once been his servants and despised by his own parents, who no longer recognized him. After three years, Christ appeared to him and told him that his end was drawing near, and that in three days angels would come to take him home. John sent a message to his parents, asking them to visit his hut. In perplexity, they came, and John, showing them the Gospel book that they had given him as a child, revealed to them that he was their son, and that he was about to die. They embraced him, rejoicing at their reunion but weeping for his departure from this life. Immediately, he gave back his soul to God. The whole City of Constantinople was stirred by the story, and great crowds came to John’s burial service. A church was later built on the site of his hut, and many miracles were wrought there through the Saint’s prayers.

Saint Ita of Kileedy, Ireland

570

The gentle and motherly St. Ita was descended from the high kings of Tara. From her youth she loved God ardently and shone with the radiance of a soul that loves virtue. Because of her purity of heart she was able to hear the voice of God and communicate it to others. Despite her father’s opposition she embraced the monastic life in her youth. In obedience to the revelation of an angel she went to the people of Ui Conaill in the southwestern part of Ireland. While she was there, the foundation of a convent was laid. It soon grew into a monastic school for the education of boys, quickly becoming known for its high level of learning and moral purity. The most famous of her many students was St. Brendan of Clonfert (May 16). She went to the other world in great holiness to dwell forever with the risen Lord in the year 570. —from the 2003 Saint Herman Calendar

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

James — James 4.7-5.9

⁷Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. ⁹Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. ¹⁰Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. ¹¹Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. ¹²There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

¹³Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: ¹⁴Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. ¹⁵For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. ¹⁶But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. ¹⁷Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

¹Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. ²Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. ³Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. ⁴Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. ⁵Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. ⁶Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.

⁷Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. ⁸Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. ⁹Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Mark — Mark 10.17-27

¹⁷And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? ¹⁸And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. ¹⁹Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. ²⁰And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. ²¹Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. ²²And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.

²³And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! ²⁴And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! ²⁵It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. ²⁶And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? ²⁷And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.