Friday, 26 June 2026

Ven. David of Thessalonica; Tikhvin Icon

Friday of the 4th week after Pentecost

75 days after Pascha · Tone 2 · Red cross (polyeleos typikon symbol) · Apostles Fast

Saints commemorated

Saint David of Thessalonica, the Dendrite

540

Saint David, called the Dendrite or Tree-Dweller, was born in northern Mesopotamia about the year 450 and came to Thessalonica with the monk Adolas, where he embraced the ascetic life at a small monastery dedicated to the holy martyrs Saints Theodore and Mercurius near the northern wall of the city. Inflamed by the example of the holy stylites, but unable to find a pillar, he built himself a cell in the branches of an almond tree beside the church and dwelt there for three full years, exposed to the bitter cold of the Macedonian winters and the burning heat of the summer sun, eating little and praying without ceasing. After three years, when he was full of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, an angel of the Lord appeared to him and told him that his ordeal had been accepted; he came down from the tree and built a cell where he continued in silence and unbroken prayer, granting healings and prophecies to those who came to him. When the Slavs and Avars threatened the city of Thessalonica, the senate sent him as ambassador to the Emperor Justinian at Constantinople, and he was received with great honour, but on his journey home he gave up his soul to God in the year 540. His body was returned to Thessalonica and continued to work many miracles; the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa later took part of his relics to Italy in 1204, and in 1978 they were returned to the city of his ascetic struggle.

Saint Dionysius, Archbishop of Suzdal

Saint Dionysius, in the world David, was tonsured as a youth at the Monastery of the Caves at Kiev, where he was formed in the strict ascetic tradition of Saints Anthony and Theodosius. Receiving from the brethren a small icon of the Mother of God as a blessing, he travelled north to the Volga and settled in a cave on the bank of the river twelve miles below Nizhny Novgorod, where he founded the Pechersk Ascension Monastery and gathered many disciples; among them were Euthymius of Suzdal and Macarius of Unzha. In 1374 he was consecrated Bishop of Suzdal and Nizhny Novgorod, and in 1382 was raised to the dignity of archbishop. The years of his service coincided with the rise of Russia against the Mongol yoke; in 1375, when a Tartar commander shot an arrow at him in his courtyard, the saint's mantle alone was pierced. With his blessing, Saint Lawrence the monk compiled in 1377 the famous Lavrentian Chronicle, which inspired the Russian people in their struggle for freedom. Travelling twice to Constantinople, he was esteemed by Patriarch Nilus, who in 1384 named him Metropolitan of all Russia, calling him a warrior of God and a man of the spirit. On his return through Kiev he was detained by Prince Vladimir Olgerdovich and died in confinement on 15 October 1385. He is commemorated on 26 June, the feast of his patron Saint David of Thessalonica, by whose name he was known in baptism.

Saint John, Bishop of the Goths in the Crimea

Saint John was born in the eighth century in Partenit on the southern coast of the Crimea to a Gothic family of pious parents named Leo and Photina. Refusing to follow the iconoclasm of the Emperor Constantine Copronymus, he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and remained there for three years in the holy places. When the Goths of the Crimea sought a successor for their iconoclast bishop, John was chosen, and since the see at Constantinople was held by an iconoclast he was sent to Iberia in Georgia and there consecrated. He took part in the Seventh Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 787, signing its definitions in defence of the holy icons and on behalf of the Empress Irene. On returning to his diocese he led a rising against the Khazars who held the Crimean Goths in subjection, but the rebellion was crushed; John was imprisoned at Phoulloi, escaped after some years and took refuge at Amastris on the southern shore of the Black Sea, where he reposed in peace about 791. His body was carried back to Partenit and laid in the church he had built there in honour of the holy apostles, where his tomb remained a place of pilgrimage on the Crimean coast.

Translation of the relics of Saint Tikhon of Lukhov, Kostroma

Saint Tikhon was born in the principality of Lithuania in the fifteenth century and served as a courtier under King Casimir IV. Refusing to embrace the Catholicism imposed on his Orthodox countrymen, in 1482 he crossed into the Russian land, gave away all that he had, received the monastic tonsure with the name Tikhon, and after a period at the monastery of Saint Sabbas of Storozhi withdrew into the wilderness of the Kostroma diocese in the region of Lukh. There, by the river Lukh, he settled with two disciples in a small hermitage where he supported the brotherhood by carving wooden vessels with his own hands. Many gathered to him drawn by his ascetic life of prayer, fasting and humility, and out of his solitude grew the Lukhov Monastery dedicated to the Saviour of the Tree of the Cross. He fell asleep in the Lord on 16 June 1503, having on his deathbed received the great schema. In 1569, when many sick people received healing at his tomb, the abbot Constantine raised his relics and they were found to be incorrupt; Constantine, however, was punished with blindness for the unauthorised uncovering and, after repentance, returned the relics to the earth where they had lain. The Russian Church keeps this translation of his holy relics as a feast on this day.

Feast of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God. Feast of the Hodigritia Icon of the Mother of God

This icon was once kept in the Church of Blachernae in Constantinople. In 1383, it suddenly appeared in the sky over Lake Ladoga, then travelled through the air to the city of Tikhvin, where it alit by the River Tikhvina. A monastery was built there to house it. In the twentieth century it was brought to America. Innumerable miracles have been worked through this wonderworking icon, especially healings of children. On this day is also commemorated the Hodigritia Icon of the Mother of God. According to many accounts, this icon and the Tikhvin Icon are one and the same, so we list them together. Hodigritia is translated “Directress” or more literally “She who shows the way.” It was painted by Luke the Evangelist himself, who knew the Mother of God in the flesh. Over the years the icon was taken from Antioch to Jerusalem, then to Constantinople where it was enshrined in the Church of Blachernae. When Constantinople was attacked at the same time by the Persians and the Scythians, Patriarch Sergius carried the holy icon around the ramparts, and the city was miraculously delivered from its pagan enemies. During the iconoclast period, the icon was hidden in a wall in the monastery of the Pantocrator.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Romans — Romans 11.25-36

²⁵For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. ²⁶And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: ²⁷For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. ²⁸As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. ²⁹For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. ³⁰For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: ³¹Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. ³²For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

³³O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! ³⁴For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? ³⁵Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? ³⁶For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 12.1-8

¹At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. ²But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day. ³But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him; ⁴How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests? ⁵Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless? ⁶But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple. ⁷But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. ⁸For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.