Tuesday, 3 March 2026

Martyrs Eutropius, Cleonicus and Basiliscus

Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent

40 days before Pascha · Tone 5 · Liturgy · Lenten Fast

Saints commemorated

Holy Martyrs Eutropius, Cleonicus and Basiliscus

They were fellow-soldiers and kinsmen of St Theodore the Tyro (Feb. 17). When St Theodore received his martyrdom, they were kept in prison because the governor of Amasia was unwilling to execute them. But a new and crueler governor, Asclepiodotus, took his place and ordered the three soldiers of Christ to be brought to him. At first, the governor used flattery and bribery to attempt to turn the three from Christ. He invited Eutropius to dine with him, but Eutropius refused, quoting the Psalm ‘Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsels of the ungodly.’ He then offered them a huge amount of silver, which they likewise refused, telling the governor that Judas lost his soul for silver. The governor then turned to torture, subjecting the three to extreme torments. At last, he condemned Eutropius and Cleonicus to crucifixion, for which they joyfully gave thanks that they had been found worthy to die the same death as Christ. Basiliscus was held in prison awhile longer in hopes that the deaths of his companions would weaken his resolve; but when he remained steadfast in the Faith, he was beheaded, on May 22 (on which he is also commemorated) in 308.

Saint Cunegundes, Empress

Saint Cunegundes (also known as Cunegunda) was a tenth-century empress of the Holy Roman Empire and wife of the Emperor Saint Henry II. Born into the royal family of Luxembourg, she was raised in Christian piety and commitment to the faith. Following her marriage to Henry, Cunegundes bore him a son but was widowed while still young. Rather than seek a second marriage or retreat into worldly pursuits, she devoted herself entirely to spiritual life and works of Christian charity. She founded the Benedictine convent of Kaufungen and served as its abbess, establishing it as a beacon of monastic discipline and prayer. Cunegundes walked barefoot to Rome in pilgrimage and visited the holy sites of Christendom, strengthening her faith through these journeys. Throughout her life, she practised extraordinary fasting, wore a hair shirt, and gave generously to the poor and the afflicted. Her marriage had been chaste—she and her husband lived in continence, devoted to prayer and service rather than to worldly pleasures. Following her long life of ascetic devotion, Cunegundes reposed in peace and was canonised by the Church. The Orthodox Church venerates her as an empress who chose God's Kingdom above all earthly honours.

Saint Nikolaj Velimirovic

Nikolaj Velimirovic (1881-1956) was a Serbian Orthodox bishop, theologian, writer, and saint of the twentieth century. Born in Serbia, he was ordained to the priesthood and later elevated to the episcopacy, serving as Bishop of Žiča and Metropolitan of Dalmatia. Bishop Nikolaj was a prolific author of spiritual works, theological treatises, and poetic compositions in Serbian, Greek, English, and other languages. His writings addressed the spiritual challenges of the modern world and sought to present Orthodox Christianity in dialogue with contemporary thought. During the Second World War and its aftermath, Nikolaj suffered imprisonment and persecution for his faith and his defence of Serbian Orthodox identity. He endured considerable hardship with patient faith, emerging from captivity as a living witness to martyrdom. His intellectual gifts and pastoral love made him a beacon of Orthodox witness in the twentieth century. The Serbian Orthodox Church canonised him as a hieromartyr and saint, and the Orthodox Church venerates him as a powerful intercessor.

Venerable Piama the Virgin

Piama was a virgin ascetic and desert mother of Egypt who lived in the fourth or fifth century. Fleeing the distractions of the world, she withdrew into the desert to pursue a life of unceasing prayer, fasting, and communion with God. Through her ascetic labours, Piama became a vessel of divine grace and was granted spiritual gifts including the discernment of spirits and the ability to teach others the ways of repentance. Though she dwelt in solitude, word of her holiness spread, and seekers came to her for spiritual direction. Piama received them with maternal compassion and guided them towards transformation in Christ. Her sayings and example became treasured in the tradition of the Desert Fathers and Mothers. The Orthodox Church venerates her as a venerable mother of monasticism and an intercessor for those pursuing the ascetic life.

An Unknown Girl in Alexandria

“She was from a wealthy house, having a good father who suffered much and had a difficult death, and an evil mother who had an easy life, died in peace and was buried with honour. In uncertainty whether to live by the example of her father or her mother, this maiden had a vision, in which the state of her father and of her mother were shown to her. She saw her father in the Kingdom of God, and her mother in darkness and torment. This determined her to devote her whole life to God, and, like her father, follow the commandments of God without regard to any opposition or misfortune that she might have to endure. And she followed the commandments of God to the end, with His help, and was made worthy of the Kingdom of heaven, in which she was reunited with her beloved father.” (Prologue)

Daily readings

6th Hour

weekly cycle

Isaiah — Isaiah 5.7-16

⁷For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

⁸Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! ⁹In mine ears said the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant. ¹⁰Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah.

¹¹Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! ¹²And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.

¹³Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. ¹⁴Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. ¹⁵And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled: ¹⁶But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.

Vespers

weekly cycle

Genesis — Genesis 4.8-15

⁸And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.

⁹And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper? ¹⁰And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. ¹¹And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand; ¹²When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.

¹³And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear. ¹⁴Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. ¹⁵And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

Vespers

weekly cycle

Proverbs — Proverbs 5.1-15

¹My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding: ²That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.

³For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: ⁴But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword. ⁵Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. ⁶Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them. ⁷Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. ⁸Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: ⁹Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel: ¹⁰Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; ¹¹And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, ¹²And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; ¹³And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! ¹⁴I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.

¹⁵Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.