Sunday, 28 June 2026

4th Sunday after Pentecost

77 days after Pascha · Tone 3 · Black squigg (6-stich typikon symbol) · Apostles Fast (Fish, Wine and Oil are Allowed)

Saints commemorated

★ Sts Sergius and Herman, abbots of Valaam

1353

After helping to establish Orthodoxy among the Karelian Finns, they founded the famous Valaam Monastery on Lake Ladoga in northern Russia. Both reposed in the same year.

Holy Martyr Papias the Soldier

The Holy Martyr Papias was a Roman soldier of the third century who, when the persecution of Diocletian fell upon the army, was unmasked as a Christian by his refusal to take part in the customary sacrifices to the idols. Brought before the tribunal, he confessed Christ openly before his fellow soldiers and the magistrate, was deprived of his rank, and after enduring scourgings and other torments was at last beheaded for the name of Jesus. He is numbered among the soldier martyrs whose witness in the Roman barracks bore fruit in the conversion of many of their comrades, and his memory is preserved on this day in the Greek and Slavonic Synaxaria.

Saint Magnus the Wonderworker

Saint Magnus is commemorated by the Church as a venerable monk who reposed while at prayer to the Lord, and who through the gift of unceasing intercession was glorified as a wonderworker for the help he afforded those who called upon him. According to the tradition preserved in the Synaxaria of the Church, he is remembered together with the holy Martyr Magnus who is numbered among the Nine Martyrs of Cyzicus and to whom the Patriarch Germanus of Constantinople composed a hymn; some calendars distinguish them, while others bring their commemorations together on this day. Whether identified with the soldier of Cyzicus martyred under Diocletian or with a later monastic of the same name, Saint Magnus is honoured among those whose hidden life of prayer was made known by the wonders worked through their relics.

Saints Sergius and Germanus, Wonderworkers of Valaam

Saints Sergius and Germanus were Greek hieromonks who came from the territories of Constantinople into the lands of the north and settled, according to the Valaam tradition, on the island of Valaam in Lake Ladoga about the year 1329. Of their ascetic struggles few details are recorded, but they are remembered as the founders of the celebrated Valaam Monastery dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Saviour, which from their cell grew into one of the chief monastic centres of the Russian north and a school of holiness for many later saints, including Saint Arsenius of Konevits, Saint Sabbatius of Solovki and the Apostle of Alaska, Saint Herman. They reposed in the Lord about the year 1353. Their relics, by reason of repeated invasions of Karelia by the Swedes, were translated more than once for safe-keeping; according to a chronicle of the eighteenth century, in 1163 their relics had already been removed to Novgorod for protection, and the Church of Finland keeps the translation of their holy relics on 11 September. The chief commemoration of their repose is observed on this day in the Russian and Finnish Orthodox calendars, and again on 28 September in remembrance of their second translation.

Translation of the relics of the Holy Unmercenaries Cyrus and John

311

The holy Unmercenaries Cyrus and John suffered martyrdom in Egypt in the year 311 in the city of Canopus near Alexandria. Cyrus had been a celebrated physician in Alexandria who, after embracing Christ and refusing to worship the idols, withdrew to Arabia and there continued his medical work, treating both bodies and souls; John, a soldier who heard of his fame, sought him out and joined his life of asceticism. When the holy virgin Athanasia and her three daughters Theoctista, Theodota and Eudoxia were arrested at Canopus, Cyrus and John came to comfort them and to fortify them in their confession; thereupon they too were seized, scourged and beheaded for Christ. Their bodies were buried at Canopus by the faithful and worked many miracles. The pagan temple at Manuphis on the western branch of the Nile was a place possessed by demons; Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria desired to cleanse it but died before he could do so. His successor, Saint Cyril of Alexandria, was directed by an angel to translate the relics of Cyrus and John from Canopus to Manuphis, which he did in the year 412, building over them a church and dispersing the demons by their presence. From that time the place became famous throughout the Christian world for healings, and the saints worked countless wonders, often appearing to the sick in dreams to instruct them in their cure. Their chief feast is kept on 31 January, and on this day the Church remembers the translation of their relics.

Synaxis of the Icon of our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos "Of the Three Hands"

Saint John of Damascus (December 4), the great defender of Orthodoxy against the iconoclasts, was falsely accused of plotting against the Caliph of Damascus through the intrigues of the iconoclast Emperor Leo the Isaurian (reigned 717-741). The Caliph ordered St John’s hand to be cut off for his suspected treachery. The saint asked for the severed hand, and passed the night praying fervently for aid before an icon of the most holy Theotokos. Waking in the morning, he found his hand miraculously restored, with only a scar around the wrist where it had been completely severed. In thanksgiving, St John had a silver hand mounted on the icon. When he became a monk in the monastery of St Sabbas in the Holy Land, he took the icon with him. It remained there until it was given to St Sabbas (Sava) of Serbia (January 14), who brought it to Serbia. Later it was miraculously taken to the Hilandar Monastery on the Holy Mountain (carried, according to legend, from Serbia to Mt Athos by an unguided donkey), where it may now be found.

Our Holy Father Sennuphius the Standard-Bearer

4th c.

“A great ascetic and wonderworker of the Egyptian desert, he was a contemporary of Patriarch Theophilus and the Emperor Theodosius the Great. He is called ‘the Standard-Bearer’ because he once helped the Emperor Theodosius to gain a victory over enemy forces by his prayers. When the Emperor summoned him to Constantinople, he replied that he was unable to go, but sent his torn and patched monastic habit and his staff. Going out to battle, the Emperor put on Sennuphius’s habit and carried his staff in his hand, and returned victorious from the battle.” (Prologue)

Also commemorated: Trans. Rel. Ven. Cyrus and John

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Romans — Romans 6.18-23

¹⁸Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. ¹⁹I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. ²⁰For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. ²¹What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. ²²But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. ²³For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 8.5-13

⁵And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, ⁶And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. ⁷And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. ⁸The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. ⁹For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. ¹⁰When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. ¹¹And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. ¹²But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ¹³And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.

4th Matins Gospel

Luke — Luke 24.1-12

¹Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. ²And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. ³And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: ⁵And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? ⁶He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, ⁷Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. ⁸And they remembered his words, ⁹And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest. ¹⁰It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. ¹¹And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. ¹²Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.