Thursday, 12 March 2026

Ven. Theophanes the Confessor

Thursday of the Third Week of Lent

31 days before Pascha · Tone 6 · Liturgy · Lenten Fast

Saints commemorated

Righteous Phineas, Grandson of Aaron

The righteous Phineas was the son of Eleazar and the grandson of Aaron the High Priest, and is honoured by the Church as one of the holy ancestors of Christ. He lived in the days of the Prophet Moses and Joshua the son of Nun, while the people of Israel were on the threshold of the Promised Land. When the Israelites were drawn into the worship of Baal of Peor through the wiles of the daughters of Moab, and a plague broke out among them so that thousands perished, Phineas in his zeal for the Lord rose up from the midst of the assembly and slew an Israelite man and the Midianite woman with whom he had openly transgressed the commandment of God. By this act of fervent zeal the plague was stayed, and the wrath of God turned away from His people. The Lord declared, through Moses, that He gave Phineas His covenant of peace and the everlasting covenant of priesthood, "because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the people of Israel". At the divine command Phineas afterwards led the army of Israel against the Midianites, who had drawn the people into idolatry, and brought upon them the just chastisement of heaven. After the death of his father Eleazar he was unanimously chosen to succeed him as High Priest, and ministered before the Lord in great holiness for many years. He died at an advanced age, around the year 1500 before the coming of Christ, and his memory is celebrated on 12 March.

Saint Gregory the Dialogist, Pope of Rome

He was born in Rome to a wealthy senatorial family. He received a good education in secular and spiritual learning, and became Prefect of Rome. While still in the world, he used his great wealth mostly for the good of the Church, building six monasteries in Sicily and another in Rome itself. At this monastery, dedicated to the Apostle Andrew, Gregory was tonsured a monk. He was appointed Archdeacon of Rome, then, in 579, Papal legate to Constantinople, where he lived for nearly seven years. He returned to Rome in 585 and was elected Pope in 590.

He is famed for his many writings, his generous charity (he gave almost all his income to the poor, and often invited the poor to share his table), and for initiating missionary work among the Anglo-Saxon peoples. The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, celebrated on Wednesday and Friday evenings during Great Lent, was compiled by him. St Gregory introduced elements of the chanting that he had heard in Constantinople into Western Church chant: The Gregorian Chant which beautified the Western churches for many years is named for him. Its system of modes is related to the eight tones of the Eastern church. He is called ‘the Dialogist’ after his book The Dialogues, an account of the lives and miracles of Italian saints.

Saint Gregory reposed in peace in 604.

Saint Symeon the New Theologian

Saint Symeon was a great ascetic and mystic of the Orthodox Church who lived in the tenth and eleventh centuries. He was abbot of the Monastery of Saint Mamas in Constantinople and was renowned for his profound spiritual experiences and his teaching on the possibility of direct experiential knowledge of God. Saint Symeon emphasised the necessity of inner transformation through prayer, particularly the Jesus Prayer, and the cultivation of hesychasm, the mystical practice of inner silence and contemplation. Though some of his teachings were questioned by ecclesiastical authorities in his lifetime, the Church has since recognised the soundness of his doctrine and the depth of his spiritual insight. His writings, including his Hymns of Divine Love and his ethical discourses, provide guidance for those seeking the mystical encounter with God that is the heart of Orthodox spirituality. Saint Symeon is venerated as a great teacher and saint whose life exemplified the principles he taught.

Venerable Theophanes the Confessor of Sigriane

818

Saint Theophanes was born at Constantinople about the year 759, of a noble family related to the imperial house. His father, the governor of the Aegean theme, died when the boy was but three years old, and Theophanes was raised at the court under the protection of the emperor. In due course he was constrained to enter into marriage, but with his bride's consent the two preserved their virginity and lived as brother and sister. After a few years they parted by mutual agreement: his wife took the veil in a convent in Bithynia, and Theophanes withdrew to the district of Sigriane, near the Sea of Marmara, where he embraced the monastic life.

There he founded a monastery known as the "Great Acre" and became its abbot. By his prayers, his fasts, and his works of mercy he shone forth as a beacon of Orthodoxy. When the Seventh Ecumenical Council was convoked at Nicaea in 787 to vindicate the veneration of the holy icons, Theophanes was summoned and appeared in his patched and humble monastic dress, but his words confirmed the assembled bishops in the truth.

In his later years he composed his celebrated "Chronographia", a continuation of the chronicle of George Synkellos covering the events from the reign of Diocletian to his own day, which remains a precious source for the history of the Church. When the iconoclast heresy revived under the emperor Leo the Armenian, the aged confessor was summoned to the capital, refused with great firmness to renounce the holy icons, and was cast into prison. After two years' confinement he was banished to the island of Samothrace, where, worn out with sufferings, he reposed in peace in the year 818.

Daily readings

6th Hour

weekly cycle

Isaiah — Isaiah 11.10-12.2

¹⁰And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious. ¹¹And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. ¹²And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. ¹³The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. ¹⁴But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them. ¹⁵And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod. ¹⁶And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.

¹And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. ²Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.

Vespers

weekly cycle

Genesis — Genesis 7.11-8.3

¹¹In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. ¹²And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

¹³In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; ¹⁴They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. ¹⁵And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. ¹⁶And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.

¹⁷And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. ¹⁸And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. ¹⁹And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. ²⁰Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.

²¹And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: ²²All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. ²³And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. ²⁴And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.

¹And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged; ²The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; ³And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.

Vespers

weekly cycle

Proverbs — Proverbs 10.1-22

¹The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.

²Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death. ³The LORD will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked. ⁴He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. ⁵He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame. ⁶Blessings are upon the head of the just: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked. ⁷The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot. ⁸The wise in heart will receive commandments: but a prating fool shall fall. ⁹He that walketh uprightly walketh surely: but he that perverteth his ways shall be known. ¹⁰He that winketh with the eye causeth sorrow: but a prating fool shall fall. ¹¹The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked. ¹²Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins. ¹³In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found: but a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding. ¹⁴Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction. ¹⁵The rich man’s wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty. ¹⁶The labour of the righteous tendeth to life: the fruit of the wicked to sin. ¹⁷He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction: but he that refuseth reproof erreth. ¹⁸He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool. ¹⁹In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise.

²⁰The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth. ²¹The lips of the righteous feed many: but fools die for want of wisdom. ²²The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.