Tuesday, 11 August 2026

Holy Martyr and Archdeacon Euplus of Catania

Tuesday of the 11th week after Pentecost

121 days after Pascha · Tone 1 · Liturgy · Dormition Fast

Saints commemorated

Hieromartyrs Basil and Theodore of the Kiev Caves

Saints Basil and Theodore were ascetics of the Near Caves of the Kiev Caves Lavra in the eleventh and early twelfth centuries. Theodore came from a wealthy family and, having distributed his riches to the poor, took the monastic habit and settled in the Varangian Cave that adjoined the cells of Saint Theodosius, where he lived a life of strict fasting and labour. Basil joined him as a fellow ascetic, and they laboured together in spiritual struggle for many years. The prince Mstislav, son of Sviatopolk, having heard a rumour that a treasure was hidden in the Varangian cave, demanded that Theodore reveal it to him; the saint refused, and the prince in anger had Theodore tortured. Basil, coming to console his fellow struggler, was also seized; Mstislav grew so enraged that he shot him with an arrow. Saint Basil drew the arrow from his side, gave it back to the prince and foretold the prince's own violent death. Both ascetics fell asleep in the Lord on 11 August 1098. Their incorrupt relics rest in the Near Caves of the Lavra, and they are commemorated on 11 August together with the synaxis of the Kiev Caves fathers.

Holy Martyr Euplus the Archdeacon of Catania

304

The Martyr Euplus was a deacon of the Sicilian city of Catania who suffered in the year 304 during the persecution of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian. He devoted himself to preaching Christ openly to the pagans, always carrying a copy of the holy Gospel with him. While he was reading and explaining the sacred text to a crowd, he was seized and brought before Calvisianus, the governor of the city. Asked why he had not handed over his book of Scriptures as the imperial edict required, Euplus answered that he carried it because he was a Christian and would not be parted from it. He was thrown into prison, where he remained seven days at prayer; the Lord caused a spring of fresh water to well up in the cell to slake his thirst. Brought again to trial he was tortured and condemned to death; when led to execution his Gospel book was hung around his neck, and he was beheaded outside the city. With Saint Agatha he is honoured as a co-patron of Catania, and is commemorated by the Orthodox Church on 11 August.

Holy Martyr and Archdeacon Euplus of Catania

304

He was a deacon from Catania in Sicily during the reign of Diocletian. During a persecution of Christians there, Euplus presented himself to the governor and proclaimed himself a Christian. While he was being tortured on the rack, the governor ordered him to worship Mars, Apollos, and Aeculapius, but he answered that he worshipped the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. He was beheaded in 304. His wonderworking relics are preserved in the village of Vico della Batonia near Naples.

Holy Virgin Martyr Susanna of Rome

Saint Susanna was a daughter of the presbyter Gabinius and a niece of Pope Caius of Rome (283 to 296), reared from childhood in strict Christian piety. As a young woman she dedicated her virginity to God. Her family was related to the emperor Diocletian, who, hearing reports of her virtue and beauty, resolved to give her in marriage to his co-emperor Maximian. He sent his kinsman Claudius and afterwards his brother Maximus to negotiate the match with the priest Gabinius, but both of these men, together with Claudius's wife Praepedigna and her sons Alexander and Cuthias, were converted by the household and accepted holy baptism. When Diocletian learned that all his envoys had become Christians, he banished them and ordered Susanna brought to his palace. She was placed in the care of his wife Serena, who was secretly a Christian, and instructed to reverence the household idols, but she refused. Diocletian then gave Maximian permission to defile her, but an angel protected her. The official Macedonius pressed her to sacrifice, and when she answered, "I offer myself in sacrifice to my Lord," he beheaded her in her father's house. Her uncle Caius, her father Gabinius, and the others of the household were also crowned with martyrdom, and their bodies were buried by Christians at the cemetery of her family's estate. She is commemorated on 11 August.

Saint Niphon, Patriarch of Constantinople

1508

Saint Niphon II was born in the Peloponnese to pious parents Manuel and Maria, and was named Nicholas at his baptism. As a youth he was drawn to the monastic life and was tonsured at Epidaurus by his elder Anthony, receiving the name Niphon. After his elder's repose he travelled to Mount Athos, where he laboured as a copyist of sacred books, was ordained, and was renowned for his strict ascetic life. Brought from the Holy Mountain to serve in the church of Thessaloniki, he was elected metropolitan of that city, and in 1486 was raised to the patriarchal throne of Constantinople. He occupied the see three times: from 1486 to 1488, again from 1497 to 1498, and briefly in 1502. During his first patriarchate he uncovered a scandal involving false witnesses; for his refusal to compromise the truth Sultan Bayezid II confiscated the patriarchate's properties and exiled him. Banished in 1488, he made his way back to Athos, first to Vatopedi and then to the Monastery of Saint John the Forerunner, called Dionysiou, where he concealed his rank and took the lowliest place among the monks. When in 1502 the Holy Synod called him a third time to Constantinople, he resolutely refused and remained at Dionysiou. He reposed in 1508, and only nine years later, in 1517, the Holy Synod proclaimed him a saint. His relics rest in a shrine at Dionysiou, where a chapel is dedicated to him. He is commemorated on 11 August.

The Holy Martyr Susanna the Virgin, and those with her

c. 296

She was the daughter of Gavinius, a Christian priest in Rome, and the niece of Pope Gaius. The Emperor Diocletian’s adopted son Maximian wished to marry Susanna, but she had no desire to marry any one, least of all a pagan. The patricians Claudia and Maxima were sent to Susanna by the Emperor to present Maximian’s suit; but instead she turned both of them, and all their households, to the Faith. The enraged Emperor had Claudia, Maxima and their families executed, then had Susanna herself beheaded. The Emperor’s wife, Serena, was a secret Christian, and took Susanna’s body secretly and buried it. Soon after this Susanna’s father Gavinius and her uncle Pope Gaius also met martyrdom.

Repose of Fr Georges Florovsky

1979

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

2 Corinthians — 2 Corinthians 2.14-3.3

¹⁴Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. ¹⁵For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: ¹⁶To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? ¹⁷For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

¹Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? ²Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: ³Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 23.23-28

²³Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. ²⁴Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. ²⁵Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. ²⁶Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. ²⁷Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. ²⁸Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.