Monday, 31 August 2026

Sash of the Theotokos

Monday of the 14th week after Pentecost

141 days after Pascha · Tone 4 · Liturgy · No Fast

Saints commemorated

★ Placing of the Honourable Cincture of the Most Holy Theotokos

The Orthodox Church keeps as a feast on this day the placing of the venerable Cincture, or Sash, of the Most Holy Theotokos in the Church of the Mother of God at Chalcoprateia in Constantinople, and afterwards in the Church of the Mother of God at Blachernae. According to ancient tradition, after her dormition the Theotokos let down her cincture from heaven into the hands of the Apostle Thomas, in token that her body had been translated to glory; the cincture was preserved by the faithful in Jerusalem and there transmitted from generation to generation, until in the reign of the Emperor Arcadius (395-408) it was brought to Constantinople and laid up in a precious reliquary in the Chalcoprateia Church. Under the Emperor Leo the Wise (886-912) the reliquary was opened and the sash was placed upon the empress Zoe, who was healed of an unclean spirit; the empress in gratitude embroidered the sash with golden threads, and the sealing of the reliquary was henceforth marked by an annual feast. Portions of the precious cincture are preserved on Mount Athos at the monastery of Vatopedi and at other places, where they continue to bestow many graces. The feast is the last of the moveable cycle of the ecclesiastical year, which begins on 1 September.

★ The Placing of the Sash of the Most Holy Theotokos (395-408? 886- 912?)

At the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, her sash came into the possession of the Apostle Thomas and after various transfers came to Cappadocia. It was later taken from there to Constantinople, where it was kept in a sealed casket in the Church of the Theotokos at Blachernae, at the time of the Emperor Arcadius (395-408). The casket was not opened until the reign of the Emperor Leo the Wise (886-912), when the Empress Zoe, who was ill, had a vision in which she was told to have the sash placed upon her. The Emperor obtained the blessing of the Patriarch, the sash was placed upon the Empress, and she was immediately healed. Some accounts say that today’s feast celebrates the bringing of the sash to Constantinople; others that it commemorates the miraculous healing of the Empress.

Holy Hieromartyr Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage

Saint Cyprian was born about the year 200 at Carthage in North Africa to a wealthy and noble pagan family, and was given a brilliant education in rhetoric and philosophy. After many years as a celebrated teacher he was converted to Christ in middle life by the priest Caecilius, who became his spiritual father. Distributing his goods to the poor, he was soon ordained priest and within two years, in 248, was elected Bishop of Carthage. As bishop he led his Church through the great persecution of the Emperor Decius, withdrawing for a time so as to govern by letters, and afterwards through the controversies over the reception of the lapsed and the validity of heretical baptism. His writings, including On the Unity of the Church and a wealth of pastoral letters, are a foundation of Latin theology of the Church and the episcopate. Under the persecution of the Emperor Valerian he was banished, and at last on 14 September 258, he was beheaded with the sword outside Carthage, the first bishop of the African Church to be crowned with martyrdom. The Orthodox Church honours his memory on the thirty first of August, the day of his ordination.

Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne

Saint Aidan was an Irish monk of Iona who became the apostle of Northumbria in northern Britain. After the death of King Edwin in 633 the Christian faith newly planted in that kingdom was almost overthrown, until the holy King Oswald, who had himself been baptised on Iona, asked the brethren of that monastery for a missionary to lead his people back to Christ. Saint Aidan was sent in 635 and was given by the king the island of Lindisfarne, near the royal stronghold of Bamburgh, for his episcopal seat. From there he founded the famous Lindisfarne monastery, trained native English clergy and travelled tirelessly through the north on foot, accompanied often by the king himself who served as his interpreter. He was a man of profound humility, almsgiving and prayer, who gave to the poor whatever he received from the rich, who freed the slaves of his land with money paid by his patrons, and who would not ride on a horse where he could walk among his people. He fell asleep in the Lord on 31 August 651 at Bamburgh, leaning against a beam of the church which by tradition has never since been consumed by fire.

Saint Gennadius, Patriarch of Constantinople

Saint Gennadius served as Patriarch of Constantinople from 458 to 471, during the reigns of the Emperors Leo I and Anastasius. Renowned for his profound knowledge of Holy Scripture, he was the author of commentaries on the books of the prophets and on the epistles of Saint Paul, fragments of which are preserved in the catenae of the fathers. As patriarch he was a careful guardian of the canons of the Church, particularly in his concern that those ordained to the priesthood should be of true learning and piety; he convened a council at Constantinople in 459 against simony, requiring that no man receive holy orders for money under pain of deposition. After thirteen years on the throne he reposed in peace, and is honoured among the holy hierarchs of the great Church.

Also commemorated: Sash of the Theotokos

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

2 Corinthians — 2 Corinthians 12.10-19

¹⁰Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

¹¹I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing. ¹²Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds. ¹³For what is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? forgive me this wrong. ¹⁴Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. ¹⁵And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. ¹⁶But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile. ¹⁷Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you? ¹⁸I desired Titus, and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps? ¹⁹Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves unto you? we speak before God in Christ: but we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Mark — Mark 4.10-23

¹⁰And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the parable. ¹¹And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: ¹²That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them. ¹³And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?

¹⁴The sower soweth the word. ¹⁵And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts. ¹⁶And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; ¹⁷And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word’s sake, immediately they are offended. ¹⁸And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, ¹⁹And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. ²⁰And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.

²¹And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick? ²²For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad. ²³If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.