Wednesday, 9 September 2026

Righteous Joachim and Anna; Ven. Joseph of Volotsk

Wednesday of the 15th week after Pentecost

150 days after Pascha · Tone 5 · Red squigg (doxology typikon symbol) · Fast

Saints commemorated

★ Holy Martyr Severian of Sebaste

He was a prominent citizen of Sebaste during the reign of Licinius. When the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (March 9) were in prison, he encouraged and comforted them. For this, and for his Christian example which had converted many pagans in the region, the Provincial Governor Lysias ordered his arrest. But before the soldiers could find him, he presented himself before the Governor and openly proclaimed his faith. For this he was subjected to many days of horrible tortures, during which he constantly exhorted the believers who followed him to stand firm in their confession of Christ. After astonishing endurance of his torments, he gave up his spirit to God.

At the Saint’s burial, the husband of one of his servants was miraculously raised from the dead, living for another fifteen years. The Christians could not decide where to bury Severian, so they wove a crown of flowers and laid it on his body to await a sign from heaven. An eagle took up the crown and dropped it in a nearby forest. The Christians buried the Martyr where the crown fell; his tomb became a fount of miracles, and the man who had been raised from the dead tended it for the rest of his life.

★ Synaxis of the holy and righteous ancestors of God Joachim and Anna

St Joachim was of the tribe of Judah and a descendant of King David. St Anna was of the tribe of Levi, the daughter of a priest named Matthan. Matthan’s three daughters were Mary, Zoia and Anna. Mary became the mother of Salome the Myrrhbearer; Zoia bore Elizabeth, mother of St John the Baptist; and Anna married Joachim in Nazareth. Joachim and Anna, to their great sorrow, were barren for fifty years. They lived prayerfully and kept only a third of their income for themselves, giving a third to the poor and a third to the Temple. Once when they had come to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice at the Temple, Joachim was publicly scorned by the High Priest Issachar for his childlessness. Joachim and Anna, greatly grieved, prayed fervently that God would grant them the miracle that he had wrought for Abraham and Sarah, and give them a child in their old age. Once, as each was praying separately in a secluded place, angels appeared to each of them and revealed to them that they would be given a blessed daughter, `by whom all nations will be blessed, and through whom will come the salvation of the world.’ They both rushed home to tell one another the joyous news, and embraced when they met. (This is the moment depicted in their icon.) Anna conceived and gave birth to the Most Holy Theotokos. Both reposed in peace, not long after they had sent her to live in the Temple.

Commemoration of the Third Ecumenical Council

431

On this day the Orthodox Church commemorates the Third Ecumenical Council, which was convened by the emperor Theodosius the Younger at Ephesus in the year 431 and attended by some two hundred bishops under the presidency of Saint Cyril of Alexandria. The council was summoned to address the teaching of Nestorius, archbishop of Constantinople, who had refused to call the Virgin Mary "Theotokos," that is, "Birthgiver of God," holding instead that she had given birth only to the man Jesus, in whom the Word of God dwelt as in a temple. Saint Cyril, at the head of the council, proclaimed the unity of the Person of the incarnate Word, who is one and the same, eternally begotten of the Father according to His divinity and born in time of the Virgin according to His humanity. The council deposed Nestorius, confirmed the title Theotokos as expressing the orthodox confession of the Incarnation, and approved the Twelve Anathemas of Saint Cyril. Its commemoration is fittingly placed close to the Nativity of the Theotokos, whose dignity it solemnly defined for the whole Church.

Saint Joseph, abbot of Volotsk

Saint Joseph of Volotsk was born in 1439 to a noble family of Volokolamsk in north-eastern Russia and given the name Ivan Sanin in baptism. From childhood he was inclined to the monastic life, and at the age of about twenty he entered the monastery of Saint Paphnutius of Borovsk, where he was clothed as a monk under that great elder. After Paphnutius died, Joseph was elected abbot, but seeking a stricter rule he left and travelled through several monasteries of Russia, finally founding in 1479 his own community in the forests of Volokolamsk, dedicated to the Dormition of the Mother of God. There he established a coenobitic rule of remarkable severity, with full common life, prolonged services, manual labour and intensive almsgiving in time of famine, when the monastery is said to have fed many hundreds daily. He became one of the most influential figures of the Russian Church of his age, defending the Orthodox faith against the Judaising heresy at the councils of 1490 and 1504, and writing the great work known as The Enlightener in refutation of it. He upheld the right of monasteries to hold lands for the support of charity and learning, in opposition to the Trans-Volga elders led by Saint Nilus of Sora, though both sides are honoured as saints. Saint Joseph reposed on 9 September 1515, and his relics rest at the Joseph-Volokolamsk monastery he founded.

Our Holy Father Ciaran of Clonmacnoise

549

Born to the family of a cartwright in Ireland, he entered monastic life when he was very young at the Monastery of Clonard, where he became a disciple of St Finnian (December 12). He became one of the ‘Twelve Apostles of Ireland’, all of them disciples of St Finnian. Ciaran founded the great monastery of Clonmacnoise (pronounced clon-mac-neesh) on the Shannon River, which became one of Ireland’s great monasteries. Once, during a great famine, He distributed all of the monastery’s food to the people, entrusting his monks’ survival, and his own, to providence. Saint Ciaran reposed in peace, aged only thirty-three, in 549.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Galatians — Galatians 3.15-22

¹⁵Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto. ¹⁶Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. ¹⁷And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. ¹⁸For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise. ¹⁹Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. ²⁰Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. ²¹Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. ²²But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Mark — Mark 6.7-13

⁷And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits; ⁸And commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse: ⁹But be shod with sandals; and not put on two coats. ¹⁰And he said unto them, In what place soever ye enter into an house, there abide till ye depart from that place. ¹¹And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city. ¹²And they went out, and preached that men should repent. ¹³And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them.