Saturday, 1 August 2026

Procession of the Lifegiving Cross; 7 Maccabean Martyrs

Saturday of the 9th week after Pentecost

111 days after Pascha · Tone 7 · Red squigg (doxology typikon symbol) · Dormition Fast (Wine and Oil are Allowed)

Saints commemorated

★ Procession of the Honourable Wood of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord

1164

This feast, the first of the three "Feasts of the Saviour" in August, originated in Constantinople, where the precious wood of the True Cross, kept in the imperial treasury, was brought out each year on 31 July and laid upon the altar of the Great Church of Hagia Sophia. From 1 August until the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos on 15 August, the Cross was carried in procession through the streets and squares of the imperial city for the sanctification of the people and for relief from the sicknesses commonly occurring in the heat of August. At each station the faithful came forward to venerate the wood and to receive the Lesser Blessing of Water, which became permanently associated with this day. The custom is recorded from at least the ninth century in the church books of Constantinople, and after the recovery of the relics by the Emperor Herakleios in 629, following their seizure by the Persians, devotion to the True Cross in the capital intensified. In the Russian Church a further commemoration was joined to the day, recalling the victory granted to Saint Andrew Bogoliubsky over the Volga Bulgars and to the Greek Emperor Manuel over the Saracens in the year 1164, both having been won on 1 August through the intercession of the Cross and the Mother of God. The day is now also observed as the beginning of the Dormition Fast, a fourteen-day period of preparation for the feast of the Theotokos, and in many parishes the Lesser Blessing of Water is performed at the conclusion of the Liturgy.

Beginning of the Dormition Fast

The Dormition Fast is the shortest and one of the strictest of the four canonical fasts of the Orthodox Church year, observed from 1 August until the eve of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos on 15 August. It prepares the faithful for the great feast of the Mother of God's repose and translation, which the Church understands as the second Pascha and the first-fruits of the resurrection promised to all who are united to her Son. The fast is observed with abstention from meat, dairy products, fish, oil and wine, with oil and wine permitted on Saturdays and Sundays, and fish allowed on the feast of the Transfiguration on 6 August, which falls within the period. The Church of Constantinople fixed the length and rule of the fast at the local council held in Constantinople in 1166 under Patriarch Luke Chrysoberges, settling earlier disputes over its duration. During these days the Paraklesis or Service of Supplication to the Theotokos is sung each evening in cathedrals, monasteries and parishes, the Greater and Lesser canons being chanted on alternating nights. The fast begins on the day of the Procession of the Cross, by which the Church places the Mother under the shadow of the Cross of her Son, and ends with her glorification, teaching the faithful that fasting and prayer are the path by which the body and soul are made ready for the vision of God.

Holy Seven Maccabean Martyrs, their mother Solomonia and their teacher Eleazar

166

The seven Maccabean brothers, Abimus, Antoninus, Gurias, Eleazar, Eusebonus, Achim and Marcellus, together with their mother Solomonia and their teacher, the priest and scribe Eleazar, suffered for the law of God in the year 166 BC under the impious Syrian king Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The king, devoted to Hellenic customs, sought to compel the Jews to abandon the Mosaic Law and to take part in pagan sacrifices. The aged Eleazar, ninety years old and revered as a teacher of the people, was the first to be commanded to eat swine's flesh in violation of the Law. When he refused, even rejecting an offer to feign compliance by substituting other meat, he was tortured and put to death, leaving an example of fidelity for the young. The seven brothers, his pupils, were brought before the king one after another and exhorted to obey. Each in turn confessed his faith in the God of Israel, rebuked the king for his cruelty, and went to torments and execution before the eyes of his mother. Antiochus, hoping that maternal love might prevail where threats had failed, asked Solomonia to persuade her youngest to yield, but she encouraged him instead to follow his brothers. When all seven had been killed, she stood over their bodies, raised her hands in prayer to God, and gave up her own soul. Their martyric deaths inspired Judas Maccabeus to lead a revolt that purified the Temple in Jerusalem, an event recorded in the Second Book of Maccabees and read by the Church as a foreshadowing of Christian witness under persecution.

St Nicholas, enlightener of Japan

1912

Born in Russia in 1836, he became one of the great Orthodox missionaries of modern times. As a boy, he resolved to become a missionary in the far East. With the counsel and blessing of Bishop Innocent of Siberia and Alaska, he went to Japan in 1861 and joined a small Russian mission there. Though the mission’s official purpose was to minister to the Russian consular community, the consul-general who invited Hieromonk Nikolai hoped to bring the light of the Orthodox Faith to the Japanese people as well. Realizing that he could only hope to convert the Japanese people if they understood one another well, Fr Nikolai immersed himself in the study of Japanese thought, culture and language. Over the course of his life he translated most of the Bible and most of the Orthodox services into Japanese, and became a fluent speaker of the language. He encountered much resistance: Preaching of Christian doctrine was officially banned in Japan, and a Samurai once approached him with the words “Foreigners must die!” It was this same Samurai who later became his first Japanese priest. In 1880 he was elevated to Bishop of Japan. During the Russo-Japanese war he remained in Japan and labored successfully to overcome nationalist strife that might have harmed or destroyed the Church in Japan. He encouraged all his Japanese faithful to pray for the Japanese armed forces, though he explained that as a Russian he could not do so, and excluded himself from all public services for the duration of the war. He sent Russian-speaking Japanese priests to the prison camps to minister to Russian prisoners of war. At the time of his repose in 1912, after forty-eight years in Japan, St Nikolai left a Cathedral, eight churches, more than 400 chapels and meeting houses, 34 priests, 8 deacons, 115 lay catechists, and 34,110 Orthodox faithful. The Church of Japan is now an autonomous Orthodox Church under the mantle of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Romans — Romans 14.6-9

⁶He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. ⁷For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. ⁸For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. ⁹For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 15.32-39

³²Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way. ³³And his disciples say unto him, Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude? ³⁴And Jesus saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes. ³⁵And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. ³⁶And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. ³⁷And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full. ³⁸And they that did eat were four thousand men, beside women and children. ³⁹And he sent away the multitude, and took ship, and came into the coasts of Magdala.

Epistle

— Cross

1 Corinthians — 1 Corinthians 1.18-24

¹⁸For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. ²⁰Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? ²¹For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. ²²For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: ²³But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; ²⁴But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

Epistle

— Martyrs

Hebrews — Hebrews 11.33-12.2

³³Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, ³⁴Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. ³⁵Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: ³⁶And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: ³⁷They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; ³⁸(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. ³⁹And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: ⁴⁰God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

¹Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, ²Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Gospel

— Cross

John — John 19.6-11, 13-20, 25-28, 30-35

⁶When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him. ⁷The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.

⁸When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid; ⁹And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. ¹⁰Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? ¹¹Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.

¹³When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. ¹⁴And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! ¹⁵But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Cæsar. ¹⁶Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away. ¹⁷And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: ¹⁸Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.

¹⁹And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS. ²⁰This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.

²⁵Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. ²⁶When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! ²⁷Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.

²⁸After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. ³⁰When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. ³¹The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. ³²Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. ³³But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: ³⁴But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. ³⁵And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.

Gospel

— Martyrs

Matthew — Matthew 10.32-36, 11.1

³²Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. ³³But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. ³⁴Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. ³⁵For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. ³⁶And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.

¹And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.

Epistle

— At the Blessing of Waters

Hebrews — Hebrews 2.11-18

¹¹For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, ¹²Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. ¹³And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me. ¹⁴Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; ¹⁵And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. ¹⁶For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. ¹⁷Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. ¹⁸For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

Gospel

— At the Blessing of Waters

John — John 5.1-4

¹After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ²Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. ³In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. ⁴For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.