Thursday, 16 July 2026

Hieromartyr Athenogenes, Bishop of Heracleopolis

Thursday of the 7th week after Pentecost

95 days after Pascha · Tone 5 · Liturgy · No Fast

Saints commemorated

Commemoration of the Holy Fathers of the First Six Ecumenical Councils

On 16 July, or on the Sunday falling between 13 and 19 July, the Orthodox Church commemorates the holy and God-bearing Fathers who assembled in the first six Ecumenical Councils. These were the council of Nicaea (325), which under Saint Constantine the Great defined the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father against the heresy of Arius and produced the Symbol of Faith; the council of Constantinople I (381) under Saint Theodosius the Great, which completed the Creed and confirmed the divinity of the Holy Spirit against Macedonius; the council of Ephesus (431), which proclaimed Mary as Theotokos against Nestorius; the council of Chalcedon (451) under the emperor Marcian, which defined the two natures of Christ against the Monophysites and is especially associated with this commemoration; the council of Constantinople II (553) under Saint Justinian, condemning the Three Chapters; and the council of Constantinople III (680-681) under Constantine Pogonatos, which condemned the Monothelites. These Councils are held by the Church to be guided by the Holy Spirit and to constitute, together with Holy Scripture and Tradition, the canonical and dogmatic foundation of the Orthodox faith.

Hieromartyr Athenogenes, Bishop of Pidachthoa, and his ten disciples

“In the time of Diocletian, a fierce persecutor of Christians called Philomarchus came to Sebaste. He arrested and killed many Christians in the town. When he saw Athenogenes and his disciples, he told the elder to sacrifice to the idols, that they should not perish as had the other Christians. Athenogenes replied: ‘O Torturer, those whom you describe as having perished have not perished, but are in heaven and make merry with the angels!’ There was a touching moment when a deer, which had been hand-fed by the compassionate Athenogenes, ran up to him and, seeing him in such straits, shed tears. Wild animals of the hills had more pity on the martyrs than did the pagans! After harsh torture, during which an angel of God comforted them, they were all beheaded, first the priests and fellow workers of Athenogenes and then Athenogenes himself, and went to their heavenly home in the year 311.” (Prologue)

The Great Horologion adds “There is a second Martyr Athenogenes commemorated today, mentioned by St Basil… it is said that as this Athenogenes approached the fire, wherein he was to die a martyric death, he chanted the hymn O Joyous Light in praise of the Holy Trinity.” This is one way that we know that the vesperal hymn Gladsome Light was in use before the time of St Basil the Great.

Holy Virgin Martyr Julia of Carthage and Corsica

Saint Julia was born to a noble Christian family in Carthage in North Africa in the fifth century. Still a young girl when the Persians (or, in some versions, Vandals or Saracens) overran the city, she was carried off into captivity and sold into slavery to a wealthy Syrian merchant named Eusebius. Bound to a pagan master, she nonetheless persevered in the Christian way of life: she served her master with diligence and humility, kept the fasts of the Church, watched in prayer through the night, and preserved her virginity. Eusebius, won over by her virtue, came to esteem her almost as a daughter, but neither his persuasions nor his threats could induce her to sacrifice to the idols. On a voyage to Gaul their ship put in at the island of Corsica, where the people were celebrating a pagan festival. While Eusebius and his companions joined the feast and fell asleep drunken on shore, the local governor Felix, learning that Julia would not honour his gods, ordered her to be tortured and at last crucified upon the island. A monastery is said to have arisen on the spot, and her relics, later translated to the convent of Brescia in Italy, made her name beloved across Italy and Corsica, of which she is patroness.

Saint Tenenan of Leon, hermit and bishop

Saint Tenenan (also spelled Ténénan or Tinidor) was a holy hermit and bishop of the seventh century. According to Breton tradition he was born in the British Isles, probably in Wales, and crossed to Brittany in north-western France, where he settled as an anchorite, devoting himself to prayer, fasting and the conversion of the still half-pagan Armorican countryside. About the year 615, on the death of Saint Goulven, Bishop of Léon, he was elected to succeed him. Tenenan accepted the office only with great reluctance, yielding at length to the pleas of the deputies of the diocese, and was consecrated in the cathedral of Dol by Saint Guennou. He governed his see with apostolic simplicity, and on growing old he withdrew to Plabennec, where he reposed about the year 650 and was buried in his own foundation. His relics, long enshrined at Plabennec, made his memory dear to the Bretons, and he is venerated by the Orthodox Church among the Western saints of the pre-schism age. His memory is kept on 16 July.

Also commemorated: Hieromartyr Athenogenes, Bishop of Heracleopolis

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

1 Corinthians — 1 Corinthians 7.24-35

²⁴Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God.

²⁵Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. ²⁶I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress, I say, that it is good for a man so to be. ²⁷Art thou bound unto a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife. ²⁸But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you. ²⁹But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; ³⁰And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; ³¹And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away. ³²But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: ³³But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife. ³⁴There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband. ³⁵And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 15.12-21

¹²Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? ¹³But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. ¹⁴Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. ¹⁵Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable. ¹⁶And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding? ¹⁷Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? ¹⁸But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. ¹⁹For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: ²⁰These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.

²¹Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.