Friday, 13 February 2026

Ven. Martinian of Caesarea

Friday of Meatfare

58 days before Pascha · Tone 2 · Liturgy · Fast

Saints commemorated

Apostle Aquila of the Seventy

Aquila was one of the apostles of the Seventy chosen by our Lord Jesus Christ to preach the Gospel and establish His Church. He was a faithful disciple who travelled and preached the faith, bringing many souls to salvation through his witness and teaching. Aquila worked alongside his wife Priscilla, and together they served the Church with great devotion. They were known for their hospitality and their willingness to risk their lives for the Gospel. Aquila is remembered as a faithful apostle who laboured in the early Church to spread the Good News of salvation in Christ.

Apostle Priscilla of the Seventy

Priscilla was one of the apostles of the Seventy, a woman of great faith and learning who shared her faith with her husband Aquila. She was renowned for her knowledge of Scripture and her ability to explain the way of God more accurately to those she encountered. Priscilla exemplified the role of women in the early Church as teachers, witnesses, and evangelists. She risked her life for the Gospel and worked alongside her husband to establish Christian communities. She is remembered as a faithful apostle whose courage and faithfulness to Christ served as an inspiration to the early Church.

Saint Eulogius of Alexandria

Eulogius was a patriarch of Alexandria and one of the great Fathers of the Church in Egypt. He lived during the Islamic period and worked to preserve the Orthodox faith and the ecclesiastical tradition among the Coptic Christians. Eulogius was known for his theological writings, his pastoral wisdom, and his defence of Orthodox doctrine. He worked to maintain church discipline and to guide the faithful in holiness and righteousness. He is remembered as a great patriarch and theologian whose contributions to the Church continue to be valued in the Eastern Christian tradition.

Saint Martinian, Monk of Caesarea

“The life of this saint is wonderful beyond measure and is worth reading in full. What did he not endure to fulfil the Law of God? At the age of eighteen, he went off into a mountain in Cappadocia called the Ark and spent 25 years in fasting, vigils and prayer, and struggling with manifold temptations. When a woman came to tempt him and he saw that he would fall into sin with her, he leapt barefoot into the fire and stood in it until the pain brought forth tears from his eyes and he had killed all lust within himself. When other temptations arose, he fled to a lonely rock in the sea and lived there. When, though, in a shipwreck, a woman swam to the rock, he leapt into the sea intending to drown himself. But a dolphin took him upon its back and brought him, by God’s providence, to the shore. He then decided to make nowhere his permanent home but to travel incessantly. Thus he passed through 164 towns in two years, exhorting and advising the people. He finally arrived in Athens, where he died in 422.” (Prologue)

Saints Zoe and Photina

Zoe and Photina were holy women martyrs of the early Church who gave their lives in witness to Christ. According to tradition, they were imprisoned and endured severe tortures for refusing to deny their Christian faith and to participate in pagan sacrifices. Their commitment to Christ was so steadfast that they remained unmoved by the threats and suffering inflicted upon them. They eventually achieved martyrdom and entered into the Kingdom of Heaven. Their memory is venerated in the Orthodox Church as witnesses to the power of faith in Christ and the willingness of the faithful to endure all things for the sake of the Gospel.

Holy Apostles and Martyrs Priscilla and Aquila

Aquila and his wife Priscilla (or Prisca) were Jews from Pontus who settled in Rome, where they worked as tent-makers. When the Emperor Claudius expelled all Jews from Rome in 49-50, they moved to Corinth. (They may already have been Christians; at that time the Empire made no distinction between Christians and Jews.) In Corinth they hosted the Apostle Paul, who lived and worked with them for awhile (Acts 18:1-3). They worked diligently with the Apostle, traveled with him, and were considered worthy to bring Apollos (December 8) to a full knowledge of the Faith (Acts 18:26) Priscilla and Aquila returned to Rome around 58, and later went to Ephesus; they were living there when St Paul asked his disciple Timothy, Bishop of Ephesus, to greet them (2 Tim. 4:19). It was probably in Ephesus that they were martyred by the pagans.

St Symeon the Myrrh-streamer, founder of the Chilandar Monastery

1200

He was born in 1114. In the world, he ruled the kingdom of Serbia as Stephen Nemanja; after ruling wisely and mercifully for many years, he renounced all worldly wealth and glory in 1196 to become a monk. Traveling to the Holy Mountain, he took for his spiritual father his own son Sava, who had preceded him in renouncing royal honor for a life of prayer. Together Symeon (as he was named in monastic life) and his son founded Hilandar monastery. His wife Anna became a nun, taking the name Anastasia; she is also commemorated as a saint of the Church. After his repose, St Symeon’s relics exuded a fragrant and healing myrrh. Saint Sava brought his father’s holy relics back to Serbia. The Synaxarion says “From Saint Symeon’s empty tomb at Chilandar, a vine miraculously sprang up whose dried grape seeds are to this day sent all over the world as a blessing for childless married couples.”

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

2 John — 2 John 1.1-13

¹The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth; ²For the truth’s sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever. ³Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

⁴I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father. ⁵And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another. ⁶And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it. ⁷For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. ⁸Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. ⁹Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. ¹⁰If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: ¹¹For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.

¹²Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full. ¹³The children of thy elect sister greet thee. Amen.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Mark — Mark 15.22, 25, 33-41

²²And they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull. ²⁵And it was the third hour, and they crucified him. ³³And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. ³⁴And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? ³⁵And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias. ³⁶And one ran and filled a spunge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down. ³⁷And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. ³⁸And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.

³⁹And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God. ⁴⁰There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome; ⁴¹(Who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him;) and many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem.