Thursday, 16 April 2026

Bright Thursday

4 days after Pascha · Tone 5 · Liturgy · No Fast (Fast Free)

Saints commemorated

Holy martyr Leonidas and his companions of Corinth

The holy martyr Leonidas suffered at Corinth in the days of the emperor Decius (249 to 251). He had been a teacher of the Church in Troezen of the Peloponnese, and was brought to Corinth for trial as a Christian together with seven holy women: Chariessa, Nika, Galena, Kalida, Nunechia, Basilissa and Theodora. The governor Venustus questioned them concerning their faith, and finding them firm in their confession of Christ, ordered them to be tormented. Leonidas was suspended in the air and his sides scraped with iron claws, but he confessed all the more boldly that he was a Christian. Together with his women companions he was finally cast into the sea bound with stones; but the holy women, going down into the water as if into a bridal chamber, sang hymns of victory before they drowned. Some accounts add that Leonidas was first beheaded and then his body cast into the deep. Their relics were later transferred to Athens, where they were venerated, and on this account the bishop Leonidas of Athens commemorated yesterday is sometimes confused with this Corinthian martyr. The Greek tradition keeps their memory on this day.

Holy virgin martyrs Agape, Irene and Chionia of Illyria

304

The holy martyrs Agape, Irene and Chionia were sisters who lived at the end of the third century and the beginning of the fourth, near the Italian city of Aquileia. Left orphaned at an early age, the young women led pious Christian lives, refusing many offers of marriage in order to remain faithful to Christ alone. Their names bore witness to their virtues: Chionia, "snow," preserved the purity of her baptism; Irene, "peace," preserved the peace of Christ within her; and Agape, "love," loved God with all her heart and her neighbour as herself. After their spiritual father Zeno was martyred, the sisters were arrested and brought before the emperor Diocletian, who urged them to deny Christ and promised to find them illustrious bridegrooms among his courtiers. The sisters replied that their only Bridegroom was Christ, for whom they were ready to suffer. Diocletian sent them under guard to his vicar Dulcetius, who attempted to violate them but was struck blind. Sisinius then sentenced Agape and Chionia to be burned alive: in the flames they surrendered their pure souls to the Lord, and afterwards their bodies and clothing were found unscorched and their faces peaceful. Saint Irene was sent to a brothel but was miraculously delivered to a high mountain, where Sisinius pursued her and ordered her shot through with an arrow; she died in 304 praising God.

Saint Felix of Seville, deacon and martyr

Saint Felix was a deacon of the church of Seville in the south of Spain who suffered martyrdom for his confession of Christ. The earliest sources, including the Hieronymian Martyrology and the Mozarabic liturgy, preserve his name as a martyr of Seville on this day, and his veneration in the city has continued through the centuries despite the obscurity that attends the lives of many of the early Spanish martyrs. He is generally placed in the period of Roman persecution, and is honoured in the Iberian Orthodox usage among the western saints of the undivided Church before the schism. Seville produced a number of martyrs in the early Christian period, including the famous sister-martyrs Justa and Rufina, and the church there preserved the memory of Felix as one of its earliest witnesses. The relics venerated at the church of San Felix in the city were long associated with him.

Saint Theodore the Sykeote, bishop of Anastasiopolis

613

Saint Theodore was born in the mid sixth century in the village of Sykeon, not far from the city of Anastasiopolis in Galatia of Asia Minor. When his mother Maria conceived him she saw in vision a bright star shining over her womb, and the Great Martyr George appeared to her in a dream, telling her that her son was destined to serve God and not the army. From childhood Theodore was given to fasting and prayer, fleeing the pleasures of the world. He took up the ascetic life in a cave near a chapel of Saint George, eating only what little his sister brought him, and was so closely bound to the holy great martyr that George appeared to him many times throughout his life. The local bishop Theodosius ordained him to the diaconate and afterwards to the priesthood at the age of eighteen. He visited the holy places of Jerusalem and the desert monasteries, receiving the monastic habit at the Lavra of Choziba, then returned to Galatia. About the year 584 he was consecrated bishop of Anastasiopolis, where he shepherded his flock for ten years before being permitted to lay aside the burden of governance and return to the contemplative life while keeping his episcopal rank. He was a great worker of miracles and exorcisms; the demons called him "iron-eater" because of the harshness of his ascetic life. He reposed in 613. Most calendars keep his principal commemoration on 22 April, but a number of Greek sources also note this day, and his name is included on this day in some local usage. His Life by his disciple George of Sykeon is one of the most vivid documents of late antique monasticism.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Acts — Acts 2.38-43

³⁸Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. ³⁹For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. ⁴⁰And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.

⁴¹Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. ⁴²And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. ⁴³And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.

Gospel

weekly cycle

John — John 3.1-15

¹There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: ²The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. ³Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. ⁴Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? ⁵Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. ⁶That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. ⁸The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. ⁹Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? ¹⁰Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? ¹¹Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. ¹²If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? ¹³And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

¹⁴And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: ¹⁵That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.