Friday, 5 June 2026

Hieromartyr Dorotheus, Bishop of Tyre

Friday of the 1st week after Pentecost

54 days after Pascha · Tone 7 · Liturgy · No Fast (Fast Free)

Saints commemorated

Hieromartyr Boniface, archbishop of Mainz and enlightener of Germany

Saint Boniface, born Winfrid in Wessex about the year 675, was educated in the Anglo-Saxon monasteries of Exeter and Nursling and showed from early youth a vocation to the missionary life. After an unsuccessful first journey to Frisia he travelled to Rome in 718, where Pope Gregory II commissioned him to preach the Gospel to the pagan tribes east of the Rhine and gave him the name Boniface. He laboured for more than thirty years among the Hessians, Thuringians and Bavarians, founding the monastery of Fulda and the bishoprics of Wurzburg, Erfurt, Eichstatt and others, and reorganising the Frankish Church. His felling of the sacred oak of Thor at Geismar became a symbol of the conversion of the Germanic peoples. Returning at the end of his life to the still-pagan Frisians, he was attacked by a band of armed heathens at Dokkum on the eve of Pentecost, 5 June 754, and slain together with more than fifty of his clergy and companions while preparing to confirm a group of new Christians. His relics were translated to Fulda, of which he is the patron saint.

Hieromartyr Dorotheus, bishop of Tyre

Saint Dorotheus was bishop of Tyre in Phoenicia at the close of the third century, during the persecution of Diocletian. To escape arrest he retired to Odyssopolis on the Black Sea (modern Varna), where he laboured in obscurity for several years. With the peace of the Church under Constantine the Great he returned to Tyre, resumed his see and shepherded his flock for more than half a century, converting many pagans to the faith and writing several works on the Scriptures and on the lives of the prophets and apostles. When the persecution of Christians was renewed under Julian the Apostate, the aged Dorotheus, then more than a hundred years old, was seized at Odyssopolis to which he had again withdrawn, and was beaten to death for the name of Christ in 362.

Saint Constantine, metropolitan of Kiev

1159

In his day there was great disorder among the princes of Russia and in the Russian Church. One of the rival princes appointed a monk named Kim as Metropolitan of Kiev without seeking the blessing of the Patriarch of Constantinople, as was still done at that time. The Patriarch sent Metropolitan Constantine to investigate, and he deposed Kim and banished the priests whom Kim had ordained. This led to strife among the people, some of whom supported Constantine, some Kim. Finally, at the request of the princes, the Patriarch sent a third Metropolitan, and both Kim and Constantine were removed.

When Constantine died in 1159, his will ordered that he not be buried, but cast out to be eaten by dogs, since he felt that he was guilty of sowing discord in the Church. Horrified, but unwilling to go against his last wishes, the people threw his body outside as he had ordered. During the three days that it lay exposed, Kiev was wracked with thunderstorms and earth tremors, in which eight people were killed. Finally the Prince of Kiev ordered that the Metropolitan’s body be buried in the church, and the weather immediately became calm.

Saint Theodore the Wonderworker, metropolitan of Tobolsk

Saint Theodore (in the world Theodore Leshchinsky), metropolitan of Tobolsk and Siberia, was a Ukrainian by birth who entered the Kievan Caves Lavra and rose to high responsibility there. In 1715 he was consecrated bishop and sent to Siberia as successor to Saint John of Tobolsk. He governed the diocese of Tobolsk twice, first from 1715 until 1721, when he resigned to take up missionary labours in the far north, and again from 1721 to 1727. During his episcopacy he travelled tirelessly among the native peoples of Siberia, the Ostyaks, Voguls and Tungus, baptising many thousands and overseeing the destruction of the chief idols of the region. He also encouraged the foundation of new monasteries and parishes throughout his vast diocese. Returning at last to Tyumen, he reposed in peace in 1727 and was buried at the Tyumen Holy Trinity monastery, where his memory is kept with veneration.

Our Holy Father Theodore the Hermit and Wonderworker

583

He lived for many years as a hermit in the wilderness of the Jordan, and after long and hard ascetic struggle was granted the gift of wonderworking. Once he travelled by ship to Constantinople, and the ship went off course in a storm. The drinking water ran out, and the crew and passengers were near death from thirst. Theodore prayed to God, made the sign of the cross over the sea, and told the crew to drink the seawater. When they did so, they found to their astonishment that it was fresh and sweet. When the people began to honor him, he begged them only to thank God, who had worked the wonder. He reposed in peace.

Blessed Igor-George, tonsured Gabriel, great prince of Chernigov and Kiev

1147

“Persecuted by his kinsfolk, he left the world and became a monk. The citizens of Kiev, disgusted with the Olgovitch dynasty [of which he had been prince], determined to exterminate it. They hurried to the monastery, seized the young and innocent schema-monk and killed him. For this evil-doing, much misfortune fell on the inhabitants of Kiev, but candles were several times seen to light of themselves on the grave of this blessed monk, and a fiery column appeared over the church where he was buried.” (Prologue)

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Romans — Romans 2.14-29

¹⁴For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: ¹⁵Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) ¹⁶In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.

¹⁷Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, ¹⁸And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; ¹⁹And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, ²⁰An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. ²¹Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? ²²Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? ²³Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God? ²⁴For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written. ²⁵For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. ²⁶Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? ²⁷And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law? ²⁸For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: ²⁹But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 5.33-41

³³Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: ³⁴But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne: ³⁵Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. ³⁶Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. ³⁷But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

³⁸Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: ³⁹But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. ⁴⁰And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. ⁴¹And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.