Sunday, 30 August 2026

13th Sunday after Pentecost

140 days after Pascha · Tone 4 · Red cross (polyeleos typikon symbol) · No Fast

Saints commemorated

Saints Alexander, John and Paul the New, Patriarchs of Constantinople

The Orthodox Church commemorates together on this day three of the great hierarchs of the see of Constantinople. Saint Alexander was a vicar bishop under the first Patriarch Saint Metrophanes, whom he replaced at the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325 because of the patriarch's extreme age, and on whose instructions he was elected to the throne after his repose. As patriarch he confronted the heresiarch Arius, whose death by the prayers of the saint preserved the Church from his return to communion. He fell asleep in the Lord in 340 at the age of ninety eight. Saint John IV the Faster (582-595) compiled the Penitential Nomocanon long used as a guide for confessors, but his memory is darkened by his ill advised assumption of the title oecumenical patriarch, against which Saint Gregory the Great of Rome rightly protested; he is honoured for his strict ascetic life and for the gentleness of his confessional discipline. Saint Paul the New, a Cypriot, was Patriarch from 780 to 784 in the time of the iconoclasts, but resigned his throne, withdrew secretly to the monastery of Saint Florus, and counselled the Empress Irene that only an ecumenical council could heal the Church; on his advice Saint Tarasius was chosen to succeed him, and in 787 the Seventh Ecumenical Council at Nicaea restored the holy icons.

Synaxis of the Serbian Hierarchs and Saints

On this day are commemorated seventeen holy Serbian hierarchs, beginning with St Sava (Sabbas), first Archbishop of Serbia and Equal to the Apostles. They are:

St Sava, first Archbishop of Serbia, Equal to the Apostles
Arsenius, his successor
Sava II, son of King Stephen the First-Crowned
Nicodemus, who lived on the Holy Mountain, was abbot of Hilandar Monastery there and Archbishop of Serbia
Joannicius, patriarch from 1346-1349
Ephraim, chosen as patriarch against his will in 1376. He crowned Prince Lazar, then renounced the patriarchal throne and retired into solitude
Spiridon, his successor (+1388)
Macarius, a great restorer of old churches and monasteries; printed many Church books (+1574)
Gabriel, a nobleman by birth. The Prologue says that he ‘took part in the Moscow Council under Patriarch Nikhon, because of which he was tortured by the Turks for treason and hanged in 1656.’
In addition, Eustace, Jacob, Danilo, Sava III, Gregory, John, Maxim and Nikhon.

The vital connection between the Serbian church and the Holy Mountain is obvious here; many of these hierarchs lived and struggled on Mt Athos.

Venerable Alexander of Svir

Saint Alexander of Svir was born in 1448 in the village of Mandera near Lake Onega in the Russian north and given the name Amos at his baptism. As a young man he went to the monastery of Valaam, where he received the monastic tonsure with the name Alexander and embraced the strict ascetic life. After many years on Valaam he withdrew to a remote place by the river Svir and dwelt there as a hermit in great poverty and unceasing prayer. There the Most Holy Trinity appeared to him in the likeness of three radiant men, an event almost without parallel in the Christian East, and instructed him to gather a brotherhood and build a monastery in their honour. Saint Alexander became the founder of the Trinity Monastery of Svir, the spiritual father of many disciples and the teacher of a whole generation of northern saints. He fell asleep in the Lord on 30 August 1533, and his body was found incorrupt and remains so to this day.

Venerable Phantinus the New, Wonderworker of Calabria

Saint Phantinus the Younger was born in Calabria in southern Italy about the year 902 and from his youth was given to the love of God. He embraced the monastic life as a young man and laboured for many years in great asceticism in the mountains of his native land, becoming the spiritual father of a great brotherhood of Greek speaking monks under the rule of Saint Basil. When the Saracens overran Calabria he fled with his disciples and finally came to Thessalonica, where he passed his last years instructing the monks of the city in the ways of perfection. Endowed with the gifts of prophecy and of healing, he foretold his own death and reposed in peace at Thessalonica about the year 974. He is honoured among the new wonderworkers of the West and as the patron of the Greek monastic tradition of Calabria.

Also commemorated: Trans. Rel. St Alexander Nevsky

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

1 Corinthians — 1 Corinthians 16.13-24

¹³Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. ¹⁴Let all your things be done with charity. ¹⁵I beseech you, brethren, (ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints,) ¹⁶That ye submit yourselves unto such, and to every one that helpeth with us, and laboureth. ¹⁷I am glad of the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus: for that which was lacking on your part they have supplied. ¹⁸For they have refreshed my spirit and yours: therefore acknowledge ye them that are such.

¹⁹The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house. ²⁰All the brethren greet you. Greet ye one another with an holy kiss. ²¹The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand. ²²If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha. ²³The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. ²⁴My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 21.33-42

³³Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: ³⁴And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. ³⁵And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. ³⁶Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. ³⁷But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. ³⁸But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. ³⁹And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. ⁴⁰When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? ⁴¹They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. ⁴²Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?

2nd Matins Gospel

Mark — Mark 16.1-8

¹And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. ²And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. ³And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? ⁴And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great. ⁵And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted. ⁶And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him. ⁷But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you. ⁸And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid.