Saturday, 14 March 2026

Memorial Saturday

Third Saturday of Lent

29 days before Pascha · Tone 6 · Liturgy · Lenten Fast (Wine and Oil are Allowed)

Saints commemorated

Saint Euschemon the Confessor, Bishop of Lampsacus

Saint Euschemon lived in the ninth century in Asia Minor, on the Hellespont coast where the city of Lampsacus stood on the eastern shore of the Dardanelles. From his youth he embraced the ascetic life, training himself in fasting, vigil, and unceasing prayer, and his virtues so shone forth that the people of Lampsacus chose him as their bishop. Established on that throne, he proved himself a true shepherd, instructing his flock in the Orthodox faith, distributing his goods to the poor, and adorning his teaching by a life of evangelical simplicity. His episcopate fell during the second outbreak of the iconoclast heresy under the emperor Theophilus, when the holy icons were once again cast down from the churches and those who venerated them suffered persecution. Saint Euschemon stood firmly with the Orthodox party, refusing to surrender the ancient tradition of the Church or to deny the honour due to the sacred images. For this confession he was seized, brought before the emperor, and after enduring imprisonment was driven into exile. Worn down by the rigours of confinement and banishment, the holy bishop reposed in his place of exile, having sealed by his sufferings the office of a confessor of the faith. The Orthodox Church commemorates Saint Euschemon, Bishop of Lampsacus, on 14 March, numbering him with those holy fathers who in their own day defended the veneration of the holy icons against the iconoclasts.

Saint Theognostus, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Russia

1328

Saint Theognostus, called "the Greek" because of his Byzantine origin, was born at Constantinople and was renowned for his learning, especially in the sacred canons of the Church. In the year 1328, after the repose of Saint Peter the wonderworker, he was sent by the Patriarch of Constantinople to occupy the metropolitan throne of Kiev and All Russia. Following the example of his predecessor, he fixed his actual residence at Moscow, thereby further confirming that city as the spiritual centre of the Russian land.

For twenty-five years Saint Theognostus shepherded the Russian Church amid great difficulties. He travelled extensively through the dioceses, consecrated bishops, opposed simony, settled disputes, and built and adorned churches. Under his blessing the great cathedral of the Dormition in the Moscow Kremlin was completed and the holy Prince Ivan Kalita was supported in his peaceful labours for the gathering of Russia.

When the Tatars of the Golden Horde sought to extort tribute from the Russian clergy, Saint Theognostus was summoned to the Khan Janibeg and pressed to render payment for his episcopal office. With apostolic boldness he replied: "Christ our God has redeemed His Church with His own precious Blood from the bondage of the heathen; for what cause then, and on what ground, should I render tribute to the heathen?" Though he was beaten and tormented for his answer, by the grace of God he was at length set free and returned to his see. He blessed the youth Alexis as his successor, foretold his own departure, and reposed in peace on 14 March in the year 1353.

Venerable Benedict of Nursia

His name, Benedictus, means “Blessed” in Latin. He was born in 480 in Nursia, a small town northeast of Rome. He had only rudimentary schooling: he wrote later of his fear that through book-learning he might ‘lose the great understanding of my soul.’ At an early age he fled to a monastery where he was tonsured; he then withdrew to a remote mountain, where he lived or several years in a cave, perfecting himself in prayer. His only food was some bread brought to him by Romanus, the monk who had tonsured him. When he became known in the area, he fled his cave to escape the attentions of the pious; but flight proved useless, and in time a community of monks formed around him. He was granted many spiritual gifts: he healed the sick and drove out evil spirits, raised the dead, and appeared in visions to others many miles away.

Benedict founded twelve monasteries, most famously that at Monte Cassino. Initially, each monastic house had twelve monks, to imitate the number of the Twelve Apostles. The Rule that he established for his monks was based on the works of St John Cassian and St Basil the Great, and became a standard for western monasteries. Thus he is sometimes called the first teacher of monks in the West.

Six days before his death, the Saint ordered that his grave be opened, gathered all his monks together, gave them counsel, then gave his soul back to God on the day that he had predicted. At the moment of his death, two monks in different places had the same vision: they saw a path from earth to heaven, richly adorned and lined on either side with ranks of people. At the top of the path stood a man, clothed in light and unspeakably beautiful, who told them that the path was prepared for Benedict, the beloved of God. In this way, the monks learned that their abbot had gone to his rest.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Hebrews — Hebrews 10.32-38

³²But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; ³³Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. ³⁴For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. ³⁵Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. ³⁶For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. ³⁷For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. ³⁸Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Mark — Mark 2.14-17

¹⁴And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphæus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him. ¹⁵And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many, and they followed him. ¹⁶And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? ¹⁷When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Epistle

— Departed

1 Thessalonians — 1 Thessalonians 4.13-17

¹³But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. ¹⁴For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. ¹⁵For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. ¹⁶For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: ¹⁷Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Gospel

— Departed

John — John 5.24-30

²⁴Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. ²⁵Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. ²⁶For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; ²⁷And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. ²⁸Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, ²⁹And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. ³⁰I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.