Tuesday, 28 July 2026

Apostles of 70 Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas

Tuesday of the 9th week after Pentecost

107 days after Pascha · Tone 7 · Liturgy · No Fast

Saints commemorated

Holy apostles and deacons Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon and Parmenas of the Seventy

The four holy apostles Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon and Parmenas were among the seven men chosen by the apostles in the early days of the Church at Jerusalem to serve at table and to relieve the apostles for the ministry of the word and prayer. Together with Stephen, Philip and Nicolaus, they were ordained to the diaconate by the laying-on of hands of the Twelve, as the book of Acts records. All four were filled with the Holy Spirit and went forth to preach the Gospel.

Prochorus was a companion and disciple of the holy apostle and evangelist John the Theologian, sharing his exile on the island of Patmos and writing down at his dictation the Gospel and Apocalypse, according to ancient tradition. He is held to have become bishop of Nicomedia in Bithynia and to have suffered martyrdom at Antioch. Nicanor was killed at Jerusalem on the same day as the holy archdeacon Stephen, in the persecution that followed Stephen's death. Timon became bishop of Bostra in Arabia and was thrown into a furnace by the pagans, from which he came forth unharmed and was finally crucified for Christ. Parmenas served the church of Macedonia and reposed in peace, worn out by his long apostolic labours, in the presence of the apostles. The four are commemorated together on 28 July.

Holy martyr Eustathius of Galatia, of Ancyra

Saint Eustathius was a Roman soldier of Galatia in Asia Minor who suffered martyrdom under the emperor Maximian at the close of the third or beginning of the fourth century. A native of the village of Marathon near Ancyra, he was a Christian from his youth and served Christ even within the legions, refusing to take part in the sacrifices ordered for the troops. When his confession was reported to the local commander, he was arrested and brought to the city. Subjected to severe tortures, including the breaking of his bones, the burning of his sides with torches and immersion in boiling pitch, he was strengthened in each ordeal by the appearance of an angel of the Lord. The judge, unable to break his constancy, sent him in chains to Nicaea, where he was thrown into the river. Witnesses testified that he walked upon the water, was beheaded only after he had finished his prayer, and that his body was carried by the stream to a place where Christians could recover it for honourable burial. The Church keeps his commemoration on 28 July.

Venerable Acacius the new of Mount Latros

Saint Acacius was a monk of Mount Latros, the great monastic mountain of western Asia Minor, in the eleventh century. From his youth he loved the things of God and entered one of the lavras of the holy mountain, where he was tonsured and trained in obedience under a wise elder. He surpassed his companions in fasting, vigil, and the warfare of the spirit, eating only every second or third day and sleeping for short hours upon the bare ground. After many years in the community he was permitted to retire to a hermit's cell among the high rocks of Latros, where he gave himself to unceasing prayer. The Lord granted him the gift of tears, the discernment of thoughts, and the working of healings. Many came to him from the surrounding country with their afflictions, and the elder, while loving silence, did not refuse to bring help by his prayers and counsel. He reposed in peace at a great age, and his relics were honoured by the brotherhood of the mountain. The Church remembers him on 28 July among the venerable fathers.

Venerable Irene, abbess of Chrysovalantou

Saint Irene was born in Cappadocia in the ninth century, of a noble Christian family. After the death of the empress Theodora the regent and the betrothal of her son the young emperor Michael III, the imperial servants were sent throughout the empire to find a suitable bride for him, and the maidens chosen for their beauty were brought to Constantinople. Irene was among them, but on her journey she was met by Saint Joannicius the Great on Mount Olympus of Bithynia, who, knowing the secrets of her heart, told her that she had been chosen by the heavenly King and not by the earthly. By the time she reached Constantinople another bride had already been chosen, and Irene asked to be admitted to the women's monastery of Chrysovalantou near the capital.

She advanced quickly in obedience and ascetic struggle, spending whole nights in prayer with her arms extended and her body so still that it seemed without breath. Through the gifts granted to her she was made abbess by the brethren, and led the community for many years in the spirit of the desert. She was favoured with visions of the saints, with the gift of foreknowledge, and with the conversion of sinners; the apostle John the Theologian appeared to her in particular as her heavenly protector. She reposed in great old age, having governed the monastery to her last hours, and is invoked especially by women who suffer in childlessness or in the difficulties of the family.

Venerable Paul of Xeropotamou

Saint Paul was the son of the emperor Michael I Rangabe of Byzantium and was born around 800. After the deposition of his father in 813 the imperial children, including Paul (whose original name was Procopius), were tonsured and dispersed to various monasteries to remove them as possible claimants to the throne. Paul was educated in the imperial city, where he became known for the depth of his learning, and as a young man wrote a treatise in defence of the Mother of God against the heretics. The fame of his life of prayer reached the emperor, who summoned him to court, but he soon withdrew to Mount Athos, drawn by the desert. There he founded the monastery of Xeropotamou, "of the dry stream," which still bears his name, and a little later, with imperial help, the monastery of Saint Paul on the south-western slope of the Holy Mountain. Both communities became great centres of asceticism and learning. Saint Paul governed his brethren with humility, fasting, and unceasing prayer, and refused to receive ordination to the priesthood from a sense of his unworthiness. He reposed at Xeropotamou about 820, having delivered up his soul peacefully in the presence of his disciples. He is venerated as one of the founding fathers of the great Athonite tradition.

Also commemorated: Apostles of 70 Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

1 Corinthians — 1 Corinthians 12.12-26

¹²For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. ¹³For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. ¹⁴For the body is not one member, but many. ¹⁵If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? ¹⁶And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? ¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? ¹⁸But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. ¹⁹And if they were all one member, where were the body? ²⁰But now are they many members, yet but one body. ²¹And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. ²²Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: ²³And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. ²⁴For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: ²⁵That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. ²⁶And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 18.18-22, 19.1-2, 13-15

¹⁸Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. ¹⁹Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. ²⁰For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

²¹Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? ²²Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

¹And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan; ²And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there.

¹³Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them. ¹⁴But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. ¹⁵And he laid his hands on them, and departed thence.