Monday, 8 June 2026

Trans. Rel. Theodore Stratelates

Monday of the 2nd week after Pentecost

57 days after Pascha · Tone 8 · Black squigg (6-stich typikon symbol) · Apostles Fast

Beginning of Apostles' Fast

Saints commemorated

★ Translation of the relics of the Holy Greatmartyr Theodore the Stratelates

The Holy Great Martyr Theodore Stratelates suffered for Christ at Heraclea Pontica on 8 February 319, during the persecution under Emperor Licinius. Of Greek origin, Theodore had been appointed military commander, or stratelates, of the city of Heraclea on account of his bravery, and from that office he openly confessed his faith in Christ. After enduring crucifixion and miraculous preservation, he refused to flee a martyr's death and was beheaded by the sword. Before his passion he charged his servant Varus to bury his body on the family estate at Euchaita in Asia Minor, the city of his birth.

The translation of his relics from Heraclea to Euchaita took place on 8 June 319, and from that time the saint's tomb at Euchaita became a centre of pilgrimage and miracles. On this day the Church also recalls a celebrated miracle of his icon at Karsat near Damascus, where during the early Muslim incursions an arrow loosed at the painted face of the saint caused blood to flow from the image, after which judgement fell upon the assailants. Theodore is venerated together with Theodore the Tyro as a great patron of Christian armies and is depicted as a soldier on horseback transfixing a serpent.

Saint Ephraim, Patriarch of Antioch

545

“During the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius, Ephraim was governor of the eastern regions. He was famed for his great piety and compassion, and was much esteemed for these virtues. When the rebuilding of Antioch, which had been destroyed by earthquake and fire, was put in hand, the Emperor ordered Ephraim to oversee the work. Ephraim performed this work with dilegence and love. There was among the ordinary workers a certain bishop who had left his see for unknown reasons and was working as a labourer. Not a soul knew that the man was a bishop. One day he lay down to take a rest from the exhausting work with the other labourers, and fell asleep. Ephraim glanced at him, and saw a flaming pillar rising above the man and reaching up to heaven. Amazed and frightened, Ephraim summoned him and bound him under oath to reveal who he was. The man hesitated a long time, but finally admitted that he was a bishop and foretold that Ephraim whould shortly be consecrated Patriarch of Antioch (the patriarchal throne having been empty since the old Patriarch, Euphrasius, perished in the earthquake). Ephraim was indeed elected and consecrated as Patriarch. For his goodness, purity and zeal for Orthodoxy, a great gift of wonderworking was given him by God. Once, in order to convince some heretic that Orthodoxy is the true Faith, he placed his omophor in the flames and prayed to God. The omophor remained unharmed in the fire for three hours. When the heretic saw this, he was afraid and cast his heresy aside. Ephraim entered peacefully into rest in 546.” (Prologue)

Saint Naucratius the Monk, brother of Saint Basil the Great

Naucratius was the son of Basil the Elder and the holy Emmelia of Caesarea, the younger brother of Macrina the Younger and Basil the Great, and the elder brother of Gregory of Nyssa and Peter of Sebaste. Among Basil's siblings, four are venerated as saints: Macrina, Naucratius, Peter and Gregory. Naucratius excelled in natural endowments and physical beauty, and when he reached his twenty-first year, having demonstrated his scholarly abilities publicly in Caesarea, he was drawn by divine providence to despise the prospects of worldly advancement. Renouncing all that lay within his reach, he withdrew to a life of solitude and poverty in the wilderness near the river Iris in Pontus, taking with him only his faithful servant Chrysapius. There he supported in his hut a number of aged people who were sick or destitute, providing for them by hunting and fishing and serving them with his own hands. About the year 357, on one of these expeditions made to feed the poor, Naucratius and Chrysapius perished in a hunting accident. The depth of his sister Macrina's grief for him, recorded in Saint Gregory of Nyssa's Life of Macrina, marked a turning point in the conversion of the family, and his brother Basil dated the beginning of his own serious turn to the ascetic life from this loss.

Venerable Melania the Elder of Rome

Melania the Elder was a Roman noblewoman of the Antonine gens, born about 350 and a member of one of the wealthiest senatorial families of her age. Married young to the patrician Valerius Maximus, she was widowed at twenty-two and lost two of her three sons soon after. Reading her bereavement as a divine summons, she gave herself to the ascetic life. Around 372 she sailed to Alexandria with her remaining son entrusted to a guardian and visited the desert fathers of Nitria and the Cells, sitting at the feet of Pambo, Macarius and Isidore. When the Arian persecution under Valens scattered the orthodox monks, Melania accompanied many of them into exile in Palestine, ministering to the confessors at her own expense. Settling on the Mount of Olives about 378, she founded with Rufinus of Aquileia a double monastery, one for fifty virgins under her own rule and another for monks under his. There she received pilgrims, ransomed captives, and copied and circulated the works of Origen and the Cappadocian fathers. After twenty-seven years on the Mount of Olives she returned to Italy in 400 to recall her granddaughter, the younger Melania, and her family to the ascetic life. Driven once more from Italy by the Gothic invasions, she returned to Jerusalem and reposed there about 410. Her life is preserved in Palladius's Lausiac History, of which she was a principal benefactress.

Our Holy Mother Melania the Elder

410

She was a wealthy and noble lady, born in Spain. Her husband and two of her children died and, seeing the vanity of worldly things, she travelled to Egypt to visit the monks at Nitria. She gave away most of her great wealth to the needy, and to Egyptian Christians being persecuted by the Arians. It is said that in three days she fed some 5,000 people. When the Orthodox in Egypt were exiled to Palestine, she went with them to Jerusalem, where she built a convent for virgins; she entered the convent herself, and reposed there in 410. Her grand-daughter, Melania the Younger, is commemorated on December 31.

St Zosimas, monk, of Phoenicia

6th c.

He labored in asceticism at a monastery near Tyre. Through his exceptional purity of life, he was granted the gift of prophecy. He foresaw the destruction of Antioch by earthquake and, like Abraham pleading for Sodom, prostrated himself on the ground and prayed that the city not be completely destroyed. Once he was traveling in a remote place and a lion attacked and killed his mule. He commanded the lion to serve him in the mule’s place; the lion immediately took up Zosimas’ pack and carried it to Caesarea, where Zosimas released it. St Zosimas reposed in peace.

Also commemorated: Trans. Rel. Theodore Stratelates

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Romans — Romans 2.28-3.18

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.

¹What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? ²Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. ³For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? ⁴God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. ⁵But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) ⁶God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? ⁷For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? ⁸And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.

⁹What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; ¹⁰As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: ¹¹There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. ¹²They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. ¹³Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: ¹⁴Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: ¹⁵Their feet are swift to shed blood: ¹⁶Destruction and misery are in their ways: ¹⁷And the way of peace have they not known: ¹⁸There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 6.31-34, 7.9-11

³¹Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? ³²(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. ³³But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. ³⁴Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. ⁹Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? ¹⁰Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? ¹¹If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?