Tuesday, 14 April 2026

Bright Tuesday

2 days after Pascha · Tone 3 · Liturgy · No Fast (Fast Free)

Saints commemorated

Apostles Aristarchus, Pudens and Trophimus of the Seventy

All three are mentioned by name by the Apostle Paul. Aristarchus is mentioned in Acts 19:29, Colossians 4:10 and Philemon 24. He was bishop of Apamea in Syria; St Paul calls him ‘my fellow-prisoner’ and ‘my fellow-laborer’. Pudens is mentioned in 2 Timothy 4:21. He was a prominent Roman citizen who gave refuge to Christians; his house was first a place of refuge for the Apostles, then one of the first churches in Rome. Trophimus is mentioned with Pudens in 2 Timothy 4:21, and in Acts 21:29, where we learn that he was from Ephesus. He accompanied the Apostle Paul on some of his missions. All three, like St Paul, were beheaded during Nero’s persecutions.

Holy Apostle Aristarchus of the Seventy

Saint Aristarchus was a native of Thessalonica and one of the Seventy Apostles whom Christ Himself sent out to preach the Gospel before His face. He became a beloved companion of Saint Paul and shared with him many of the labours and dangers of his apostolic mission. The Acts of the Apostles records that he was seized by the rioting silversmiths at Ephesus together with Gaius (Acts 19:29), that he accompanied Paul from Greece into Macedonia and on to Asia (Acts 20:4), and that he sailed with the Apostle on the perilous voyage to Rome that ended in shipwreck on Malta (Acts 27:2). In his epistles Saint Paul calls him his "fellow prisoner" (Colossians 4:10) and his "fellow worker" (Philemon 24), showing how closely he was joined to him in suffering and in service. After Paul's first imprisonment Saint Aristarchus was made bishop of Apamea in Syria, where he laboured in preaching the Gospel and gathering souls into the Church. He sealed his apostolate with his blood, being beheaded at Rome together with Saint Pudens and Saint Trophimus during the persecution of the Emperor Nero, around the year 67. He is also commemorated on 4 January with the rest of the Seventy and on 27 September.

Holy Apostle Pudens of the Seventy

Saint Pudens was numbered among the Seventy Apostles whom the Lord Jesus Christ sent forth before His face to proclaim the Gospel. He was a Roman of distinguished family, the son of the senator Quintus Cornelius Pudens, and held himself a senatorial rank. Together with his mother Priscilla he was among the first converts of Saint Peter when the chief Apostle came to Rome, and he was baptised by Peter himself. The house of Pudens, on the Viminal Hill, became a centre of the Church in Rome, where Saints Peter and Paul lodged when they were in the city, and where the faithful gathered for prayer and the breaking of bread. Saint Paul greets him by name in his second letter to Timothy: "Eubulus greets you, and so do Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brethren" (2 Timothy 4:21). Tradition gives Saint Pudens two sons, Novatus and Timothy, and two daughters, Praxedes and Pudentiana, who themselves were honoured among the saints. Saint Pudens received the crown of martyrdom in Rome under the Emperor Nero and was buried in the Catacomb of Priscilla on the Via Salaria. He is also commemorated on 4 January.

Holy Apostle Trophimus of the Seventy

Saint Trophimus was a native of the city of Ephesus and one of the Seventy Apostles whom the Lord sent out to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom. He became a faithful companion of Saint Paul, sharing with him sorrows, persecutions and labours alike. Saint Luke names him among those who travelled with Paul from Greece into Asia (Acts 20:4), and it was the sight of Trophimus, a Greek, in the company of Paul that gave occasion in Jerusalem to the false accusation that the Apostle had taken a Gentile into the Temple, leading to the riot that ended in Paul's arrest (Acts 21:29). Saint Paul mentions him in his second letter to Timothy as having been left at Miletus because of illness (2 Timothy 4:20). After his recovery Saint Trophimus continued in the apostolic ministry and laboured in the spreading of the Gospel. He sealed his confession with his blood by being beheaded at Rome under the Emperor Nero around the year 67, together with the holy Apostles Aristarchus and Pudens. He is also commemorated, with all the Seventy, on 4 January.

Holy Martyrs Antony, John and Eustathius of Vilnius

1347

These three holy martyrs of the Lithuanian land suffered for Christ in the city of Vilnius in the year 1347. Originally bearing the pagan names Kumetis, Nezhilo and Krulis, they were of noble birth and served as courtiers of Algirdas (Olgerd), Grand Duke of Lithuania. Kumetis and Nezhilo were brothers, and Krulis was their cousin. Algirdas had taken to wife the Orthodox princess Maria of Vitebsk, who brought to his court her chaplain, the priest Nestor, and through his preaching the three young men received holy Baptism with the Christian names Antony, John and Eustathius. After the death of the princess, Algirdas turned again to support the old paganism and its priests, who began a persecution of the Christians at the court. The three saints openly confessed their faith. When the Grand Duke commanded them to eat meat during Great Lent and they refused, they were imprisoned and severely tortured. Saint Antony was the first to be hanged on a great oak tree sacred to the pagans, on 14 April 1347. Saint John was strangled by a crowd of pagans soon afterwards and his body hung from the same tree on 24 April. Saint Eustathius, after long sufferings, was hanged on the same oak on 13 December of the same year. Their relics were placed in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Vilnius, and the Monastery of the Holy Trinity was later built on the site of their martyrdom. The Church commemorates all three together on this day.

Saint Thomais of Alexandria

476

Saint Thomais was born into a pious Christian family in the city of Alexandria in Egypt and was raised from her earliest years in the love of God. She loved to read the Holy Scriptures and the lives of the saints, and she grew in modesty, gentleness and prayer. At the age of fifteen she was given in marriage to a young fisherman, and she lived with her husband and his family, beloved by all for her mild and humble disposition. Her father-in-law, however, conceived an unclean passion for her. One night, while his son was out at sea, he came into her chamber and tried to force her to sin with him. Saint Thomais, calling on the Name of God and reminding him of the dread judgement that awaits the impure, defended her chastity with all her strength. Enraged at her refusal he seized a sword and cut her in two, and so she received the unfading crown of martyrdom in the year 476. Even as he stood over her body the murderer was struck blind, and being soon afterwards arrested he confessed his crime and was condemned to death. Many faithful sought spiritual help at the tomb of Saint Thomais, and from earliest times the Church has invoked her aid for those who struggle against the passions of the flesh. The Greek tradition keeps her memory on 14 April, while the Slavic on 13 April.

Holy Martyr Ardalion the Actor

3rd c.

He was a comic actor whose specialty was an act which mocked the Christian martyrs. But during an especially fierce persecution under the Emperor Maximian, his heart was changed in an unknown way, and during one of his performances he called out to the crowd that he was a Christian and that they must not laugh. For this, Ardalion was arrested and tried, and died by torture, as the Prologue says, “playing the role of martyr in very truth and with honour.”

Also commemorated: St Martin the Confessor, Pope of Rome

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Acts — Acts 2.14-21

¹⁴But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judæa, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: ¹⁵For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. ¹⁶But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; ¹⁷And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: ¹⁸And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: ¹⁹And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: ²⁰The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: ²¹And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 24.12-35

¹²Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.

¹³And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. ¹⁴And they talked together of all these things which had happened. ¹⁵And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. ¹⁶But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. ¹⁷And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? ¹⁸And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? ¹⁹And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: ²⁰And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. ²¹But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done. ²²Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; ²³And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. ²⁴And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not. ²⁵Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ²⁶Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? ²⁷And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. ²⁸And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. ²⁹But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. ³⁰And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. ³¹And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. ³²And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? ³³And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, ³⁴Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. ³⁵And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.