Sunday, 21 June 2026

3rd Sunday after Pentecost

70 days after Pascha · Tone 2 · Liturgy · Apostles Fast (Fish, Wine and Oil are Allowed)

Saints commemorated

★ Holy Martyr Julian of Tarsus in Cilicia

“Of a noble senatorial family, he lived in Tarsus in Cilicia and suffered in the reign of Diocletian. Although only eighteen years old when he was taken for trial for the Faith, St Julian was already both educated and resolute in Christian faith and devotion. The imperial governor took him from city to city for a whole year, torturing him all the while and attempting to persuade him to renounce Christ. Julian’s mother followed her son at a distance. When the governor seized her and sent her to urge her son to renounce Christ, she spent three days in the prison with him, giving him precisely the opposite advice, teaching him and giving him the strength not to lose heart but to go to his death with courage and gratitude to God. His torturers then sewed Julian into a sack of sand with scorpions and snakes and threw him into the sea, and his mother also died under torture. The waves carried his body onto the shore, and the faithful took it to Alexandria, where they buried it in 290. His relics were later taken to Antioch. St John Chrysostom himself gave an eulogy for the holy martyr Julian: ‘A holy voice comes forth from the lips of the martyr, and with this voice is poured out a light brighter than the rays of the sun.’ He said further: ‘Take whomsoever you will, be he a madman or one possessed, and lead him to the grave of this saint, to the martyr’s relics, and you will see the demon immediately jump out and flee as from blazing fire.’ It is evident from this speech that many wonders must have been wrought at St Julian’s grave.” (Prologue)

Hieromartyr Terence, Bishop of Iconium

The Hieromartyr Terence, also called Tertius, was the first bishop of Iconium in Lycaonia, ordained, according to early tradition, by the Holy Apostle Paul during his missionary journeys in Asia Minor. He is identified by some Fathers with the Tertius mentioned in the Epistle to the Romans as the scribe of that letter, and is numbered among the seventy. As bishop he laboured zealously to plant the gospel among the people of Lycaonia, contending against the worship of idols and confirming the converts in the faith. After many years of pastoral care he was seized by the pagans and subjected to fearful tortures for the name of Christ, refusing to deny his Lord even under the harshest of trials. He was beheaded in the first century, sealing with his blood the witness he had borne in word and deed, and his relics worked wonders for the faithful in the city he had served.

Holy Hieromartyr Eusebius of Samosata

The Hieromartyr Eusebius was bishop of Samosata in Syria in the fourth century, and a fearless defender of the Orthodox faith against the Arian heresy in the troubled years that followed the First Ecumenical Council. A friend and correspondent of Saints Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and Meletius of Antioch, he laboured tirelessly to consecrate Orthodox bishops in sees that had been left vacant by the Arians, often travelling secretly in the disguise of a soldier through the dioceses of the East. Under the Emperor Valens, who upheld the Arian party, he was sent into exile in Thrace, bearing his banishment with patience and continuing to write letters of encouragement to the persecuted Orthodox. After the death of Valens he returned to his see and resumed his pastoral labours. While he was at Dolikha to install a bishop in that city, an Arian woman threw a tile from the roof which struck him on the head, and dying of the wound around the year 380 he forbade his companions to seek out the murderess, in keeping with the gospel command to forgive.

Saint Aaron of Bretagne

Saint Aaron, called in Breton Aihran or Eran, was a hermit and abbot of sixth-century Brittany. Of British origin, he crossed the sea to Armorica and settled first as a solitary near Lamballe and Pleumeur-Gautier, before withdrawing to the small island of Cézembre in the bay of Saint-Malo, opposite the ancient city of Aleth. There he gave himself wholly to prayer, fasting and the works of his hands. His sanctity drew many disciples, and around his cell there grew up a small monastery of which he became the abbot. Among those whom he received was the young Saint Malo, around 544, who learned from him the discipline of the monastic life before becoming the great enlightener of the region. Saint Aaron fell asleep in the Lord after the year 552, and was buried on his island. The town of Saint-Aaron near Lamballe and many ancient chapels of the coast preserve his name, and his memory is kept on the twenty-first of June in the church of Saint-Malo, on the twenty-second elsewhere in Brittany.

Our Holy Fathers Julius and Julian

5th c.

They were brothers from Greece, Christians from childhood; Julius was a priest, Julian a deacon. At the command of the Emperor Theodosius the Younger, they set out as missionaries to destroy idols and bring the people to faith in Christ throughout the Empire. During their lifetime they built a hundred churches and brought thousands to Christ. They reposed in peace near Milan: that city’s people once invoked St Julius for help against wolves.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Romans — Romans 5.1-10

¹Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: ²By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. ³And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; ⁴And patience, experience; and experience, hope: ⁵And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. ⁶For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. ⁸But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. ¹⁰For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 6.22-33

²²The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. ²³But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

²⁴No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. ²⁵Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? ²⁶Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? ²⁷Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? ²⁸And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: ²⁹And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 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.

3rd Matins Gospel

Mark — Mark 16.9-20

⁹Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. ¹⁰And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept. ¹¹And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not.

¹²After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. ¹³And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them.

¹⁴Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. ¹⁵And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. ¹⁶He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. ¹⁷And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; ¹⁸They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

¹⁹So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. ²⁰And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.