Thursday, 22 January 2026

Apostle Timothy of the Seventy

Thursday of the 33rd week after Pentecost

277 days after Pascha · Tone 7 · Liturgy · No Fast

Saints commemorated

Apostle Timothy of the Seventy

Timothy was from the Lycaonian city of Lystra in Asia Minor, born of a Jewish mother named Eunice and a Greek father. His mother and grandmother, Lois, are noted in Scripture for their piety and Christian faith. The Apostle Paul met Timothy during his second missionary journey and he became Paul's faithful companion and co-worker in spreading the Gospel. Timothy accompanied Paul and Silas on their journey to Macedonia around the year 52. The Apostle Paul loved Timothy deeply and in his Epistles called him his beloved son, addressing the First and Second Epistles to Timothy to him directly as the recipient.

Paul appointed Timothy as Bishop of Ephesus, where the saint remained as bishop for fifteen years. His ministry was marked by dedication to the spreading of the Christian faith and the correction of heresy. According to Orthodox tradition, Timothy was martyred in Ephesus around the year 93. The pagans of Ephesus celebrated a festival in honour of their idols, carrying them through the city accompanied by impious ceremonies and songs. Timothy, zealous for the glory of God, attempted to halt the procession and reason with the people, preaching the true faith in Christ. The pagan crowd, angered by his boldness, fell upon him, beat him, dragged him along the ground, and finally stoned him to death. Timothy is venerated as an apostle, saint, and martyr by the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Bishop Ioasaph Bolotov, enlightener of Alaska

Bishop Joasaph (Ivan Ilyich Bolotov) was born in 1761 and became a dedicated Russian Orthodox missionary and bishop. Because of his exemplary monastic life and piety, he was raised to the dignity of archimandrite in 1793. He was known for his zeal in advancing the Orthodox faith and his commitment to spiritual discipline. In 1794, Archimandrite Joasaph was chosen to lead a group of missionaries from Valaam Monastery on a historic journey to Alaska. This expedition, covering over 12,000 kilometres and lasting more than ten months of travel on foot, horseback, and by boat, became one of the longest missionary journeys in history. Notwithstanding the adverse conditions and physical hardships, Father Joasaph and his party of monks proved very successful in evangelising the native peoples and in expanding their preaching and missionary efforts to the mainland. In 1796, the Most Holy Synod established an auxiliary episcopal see in Alaska and appointed Archimandrite Joasaph to become the Bishop of Kodiak. The formal service of his election as bishop took place in Irkutsk on 3 April 1799. However, the saint was not long for this world. Whilst returning to Alaska aboard the ship Phoenix, Bishop Ioasaph Bolotov perished at sea during a severe storm that raged from 21 to 24 May 1799. The ship was sunk near the Alaskan coast, and all those aboard, including the bishop, were lost. He is remembered as an enlightener of Alaska and the American lands.

Monastic martyr Anastasius the Persian

614

Saint Anastasius was born in the city of Ray, Persia, in the early part of the seventh century. His native name was Magundat, and he was the son of a Zoroastrian magus named Bavi. He served as a soldier in the army of the Sasanian King Chosroes II during the reign of the Roman Emperor Heraclius. In the year 614, King Chosroes II ravaged the city of Jerusalem and carried away the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord to Persia. The heart of the young soldier Magundat was inflamed with a desire to learn more about this sacred object. Questioning everyone about the Holy Cross, he learned that the Lord Himself was crucified upon it for the salvation of mankind. This knowledge awakened him to the true faith. Withdrawing from his military service, Magundat went to the Holy City where he was baptized by Saint Modestus, Patriarch of Jerusalem, receiving the new name Anastasius. He became a monk and devoted himself to ascetical struggles. He went secretly from the monastery to Caesarea in Palestine, but there he was arrested for being a Christian. He was strangled on 22 January 628 and subsequently beheaded so that the executioners could prove to the king that he was killed. A monk who had accompanied him acquired his body and buried it at the Monastery of Saint Sergios, later known as Sergiopolis. His holy relics were later translated to Palestine, Rome, and Constantinople, and are honoured by the Church. The translation of his holy relics is commemorated on 24 January.

Saint Dominic of Sora, abbot and founder of monasteries

Saint Dominic was born in 951 in Foligno, Etruria, in the Tuscany region of what is now Italy. From his youth he was drawn to the monastic life and devoted himself to the ascetical struggle. He was renowned for his holiness and his gift of working miracles. Throughout his monastic career, Dominic established nine monasteries in the Kingdom of Naples, becoming a great spiritual father to many monks. Among the monasteries he founded were San Salvatore at Scandriglia in 986, establishments on Mount Pizzi, San Pietro del Lago, and San Pietro di Avellana. He later transferred his monastic activities to the area of lower Lazio, where he built monasteries at Trisulti and at Sora. At Sora, Dominic became abbot of the monastic community he had established. Throughout his long life he was known for his wisdom, his fatherly care for the brothers in his charge, and the many miracles wrought through his intercession. He reposed in the Lord on 22 January 1031 in his monastery at Sora. Saint Dominic became the patron saint against fever, toothache, poisonous snakes and snake bites, rabid dogs, and is invoked for protection from storms and hail. His legacy as a monastic founder and spiritual guide has been preserved in the Orthodox tradition.

Saint Vincent of Saragossa, deacon and martyr

Saint Vincent was born at Huesca, near Zaragoza, in Spain, during the latter part of the third century. His father was Eutricius and his mother was Enola, a native of Osca. From a young age he was entrusted to the care of Bishop Valerius of Saragossa, who ordained him archdeacon. Bishop Valerius had a speech impediment and appointed the well-spoken Vincent to assist him in his pastoral duties and to preach on his behalf. During the reign of Emperor Diocletian around the year 304, the Roman governor Dacian ruthlessly enforced Diocletian's edict compelling Christians to renounce their faith by burning incense to Roman gods. Dacian had both the elderly bishop and his deacon arrested and imprisoned. Vincent's bold and outspoken manner of confessing Christ so angered the governor that Dacian inflicted every sort of torture upon him. Vincent was stretched on the rack and his flesh was torn with iron hooks. His wounds were rubbed with salt and he was burned alive upon a red-hot gridiron. Finally, he was cast into prison and laid upon a floor scattered with broken pottery, where he suffered greatly before his death. Though the Roman authorities threw his dead body into the sea in a sack, it was later recovered by Christians. His veneration immediately spread throughout the Church and beyond. Saint Vincent is considered a protomartyr of Spain and is the patron saint of Lisbon, Algarve, and Valencia. The Eastern Orthodox Church honours his feast day on 22 January.

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 11.27-33

²⁷And they come again to Jerusalem: and as he was walking in the temple, there come to him the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders, ²⁸And say unto him, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority to do these things? ²⁹And Jesus answered and said unto them, I will also ask of you one question, and answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. ³⁰The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? answer me. ³¹And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then did ye not believe him? ³²But if we shall say, Of men; they feared the people: for all men counted John, that he was a prophet indeed. ³³And they answered and said unto Jesus, We cannot tell. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.