Tuesday, 16 June 2026

St Tycho, Bishop of Amathus

Tuesday of the 3rd week after Pentecost

65 days after Pascha · Tone 1 · Liturgy · Apostles Fast (Wine and Oil are Allowed)

Saints commemorated

Holy Hieromartyr Tigrius the Presbyter and Martyr Eutropius the Reader

The Hieromartyr Tigrius and the Martyr Eutropius were contemporaries and friends of Saint John Chrysostom and were numbered among his clergy in Constantinople. The presbyter Tigrius was a mild and kindly pastor and a former slave who had been freed for his virtues, while Eutropius the reader was distinguished for his prudence and the purity of his life. When Saint John Chrysostom was driven from his see and sent into exile in 404, Tigrius and Eutropius were arrested as his partisans and accused of having set fire to the cathedral and to the buildings of the senators who opposed him. Tigrius was put to torture, beaten with leather thongs, and banished to Mesopotamia, where he died in prison. Eutropius was flogged, suspended from a pillar, struck with iron rods and cast into prison, and when the torments were renewed he gave up his soul to God. Their bodies were buried by the faithful and their memory was kept by the Church which Saint John had served.

Saint Tikhon of Lukh, Wonderworker of Kostroma

Saint Tikhon of Lukh was born into a noble family in the principality of Lithuania at the end of the fifteenth century. Refusing to accept the Roman confession then being pressed upon his homeland, he left his country and entered the service of the Orthodox prince Theodore Belsky, settling with him in the Russian lands. Receiving monastic tonsure with the name Tikhon, he withdrew into the wilderness of the Kostroma diocese in the region of Lukh, building a cell on the bank of the Kopytovka river. When two monks, Photius and Gerasimus, came to share his solitude, he moved three versts further into the forest to a more remote place. He copied books with great skill and was a fine turner of wood, supporting himself and his brethren by the work of his hands. Saint Tikhon fell asleep in the Lord on 16 June 1503 in such poverty that his disciples scarcely knew how to bury him. After his death the monastery of Saint Nicholas was built on the site of his labours, and in 1569 healings began at his grave, where his relics were found incorrupt.

Saint Tychon the Wonderworker, Bishop of Amathus

He was born to pious Christian parents on Cyprus. Known for his piety and purity of life, he was became a clergyman, then was made Bishop of Amathus by St Epiphanios (May 12). He served faithfully as bishop in Cyprus for many years, finally reposing in peace. At this time there were still many pagans in Cyprus, and he worked tirelessly as a missionary among them, bringing many to the Faith. He was known as a wonder-worker from his youth. “His father was a baker, and whenever his father left him alone in the shop, he would distribute the bread to the poor without payment. His father reproached him once for doing this, so he prayed to God and their storehouse became so full of grain that they could open the door only with difficulty.” (Prologue) Once he planted a dry slip from a grapevine, and it miraculously turned green and bore fruit. After his repose, on his feast day the vine would be laden with unripe grapes, as usual for this time of year; but during the Divine Liturgy, the grapes would become fully ripened.

Holy Martyrs Tigrios and Eutropios

404

When St John Chrysostom was exiled, the Great Church caught fire and was destroyed. Most of the people saw this as a judgment upon the City for exiling the holy Archbishop; but St John’s enemies tried to blame his followers and persecuted them fiercely. Two of these loyal followers were Tigrios, a priest, and Eutropios, a reader. Tigrios had been a slave in his youth and was a eunuch; but once he was freed he had given his life selflessly to the service of the Church. The governor, Optatius, had Tigrios viciously tortured, then sent him into exile in Mesopotamia, where he died in captivity. Eutropios, another pure and holy servant of the Church, was flogged with whips and rods, then hanged. Christians carrying his body for burial heard a beautiful angelic chanting in the sky above them.

Also commemorated: St Tycho, Bishop of Amathus

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Romans — Romans 7.14-8.2

¹⁴For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. ¹⁵For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. ¹⁶If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. ¹⁷Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. ¹⁸For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. ¹⁹For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. ²⁰Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. ²¹I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. ²²For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: ²³But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. ²⁴O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? ²⁵I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

¹There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. ²For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 10.9-15

⁹Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, ¹⁰Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat. ¹¹And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence. ¹²And when ye come into an house, salute it. ¹³And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. ¹⁴And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. ¹⁵Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.