Friday, 14 August 2026

Prophet Micah

Friday of the 11th week after Pentecost

124 days after Pascha · Tone 1 · Black squigg (6-stich typikon symbol) · Dormition Fast

Saints commemorated

★ Forefeast of the Dormition of our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos

The fourteenth day of August is observed in the Orthodox Church as the Forefeast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, the great feast which falls on 15 August. The Forefeast prepares the Church to celebrate the falling asleep of the Mother of God and her translation in body and soul to heaven, an event known to the faithful by ancient tradition though not narrated in Scripture. The hymnography of the day calls upon the people to gather in gladness, declaring that the Theotokos is about to depart from earth to heaven and from corruption to incorruption, and praying that her intercessions may guard her flock. The Dormition feast is preceded by a strict two-week fast from 1 to 14 August, called the Dormition Fast, during which the faithful abstain from meat, dairy products, fish, oil and wine, and on weekdays the Great or Small Paraklesis to the Mother of God is sung. The Forefeast itself is one day, and the Feast has eight days of after-feast and is closed on 23 August. On this day also are commemorated the prophet Micah and the translation of the relics of Saint Theodosius of the Kiev Caves.

★ Translation of the Relics of Saint Theodosius of the Kiev Caves

1091

Saint Theodosius of the Kiev Caves (c. 1009 to 1074) was, with Saint Anthony, the co-founder of the Kiev Caves Lavra and the principal organiser of cenobitic monasticism in Kievan Rus'. As abbot of the Caves Monastery he gave his community a written rule modelled on the Studite typicon, established the daily round of prayer and labour, kept open his table to the poor, and reproved princes and rulers without fear when they did wrong. He fell asleep in the Lord on 3 May 1074 and was buried in the cave he had himself dug, in which he was accustomed to spend the great fasts. In the year 1091, on the eve of the seventeenth anniversary of his repose, the brethren of the monastery, with the blessing of the abbot John, opened his tomb and found his relics whole and incorrupt; on the following day, 14 August, in the presence of bishops, princes and a great multitude of the faithful, his holy body was translated in solemn procession to the Dormition Cathedral of the Lavra. He was numbered among the saints of the Russian Church in 1108, the first monastic to be so glorified. The translation of his relics is commemorated on 14 August, while his repose is observed on 3 May and his memory together with Saint Anthony on 2 September.

Holy Hieromartyr Marcellus, Bishop of Apamea

The Hieromartyr Marcellus was born of an illustrious family on the island of Cyprus in the fourth century and received a fine education. He held a high civil office and was admired by all for his purity of life, his mildness, his kindness and his eloquence. In 375 he left his wife and children, having provided for their maintenance, and went to Syria to devote himself to the monastic life. The people of the city of Apamea, having had occasion to see him on some practical business, elected him their bishop, and he was consecrated to that see. According to Theodoret of Cyrrhus, the saint received permission from the emperor Theodosius the Great to demolish the great temple of Jupiter at Apamea, a vast and strongly built sanctuary that dominated the city. By his prayers the building, which the imperial soldiers and engineers had been unable to bring down, suddenly collapsed when the bishop made the sign of the cross over it. He went on to remove other pagan temples in the surrounding district. As soldiers were demolishing a temple at the village of Aulona, the saint, who was watching from a distance because his age and infirmity prevented him from accompanying them, was seized by the pagans of the place and cast into a fire, where together with another confessor named Anthony he received the crown of martyrdom around the year 389. He is commemorated by the Orthodox Church on 14 August.

Holy Prophet Micah

The Holy Prophet Micah (also called Micah the Morasthite, to distinguish him from the earlier prophet Micaiah son of Imlah) was the sixth of the twelve minor prophets and a native of Moresheth, a village in the territory of the tribe of Judah south of Jerusalem. He prophesied during the reigns of the kings of Judah Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, from about the year 778 to 691 before Christ, and was a contemporary of the prophet Isaiah. His preaching denounced the social injustice of his time, the corruption of the rulers of Judah and Israel, the venality of priests and prophets who spoke for hire, and the false security with which the people relied upon outward worship while crushing the poor. At the same time his book opens out into great prophecies of the coming Messiah, foretelling that out of Bethlehem-Ephrathah, "little among the thousands of Judah," should come forth one whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting, and that the law shall go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, that nations shall beat their swords into ploughshares and learn war no more. According to tradition the prophet was killed by Joram, the son of King Ahab of Israel, for rebuking him for his sins, and was buried in his native village; his relics were discovered miraculously in the time of the emperor Theodosius I, near a place called Berathsatia in Eleutheropolis. He is commemorated by the Orthodox Church on 14 August and again with the other minor prophets on 5 January.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

2 Corinthians — 2 Corinthians 4.13-18

¹³We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; ¹⁴Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. ¹⁵For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. ¹⁶For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. ¹⁷For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; ¹⁸While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 24.27-33, 42-51

²⁷For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. ²⁸For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

²⁹Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: ³⁰And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. ³¹And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. ³²Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: ³³So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.

⁴²Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. ⁴³But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. ⁴⁴Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. ⁴⁵Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? ⁴⁶Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. ⁴⁷Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. ⁴⁸But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; ⁴⁹And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; ⁵⁰The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, ⁵¹And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.