Thursday, 10 September 2026

Martyrs Menodora, Metrodora, Nymphodora

Thursday of the 15th week after Pentecost

151 days after Pascha · Tone 5 · Liturgy · No Fast

Saints commemorated

Holy Apostles of the Seventy Apelles, Lucius, and Clement

The three apostles Apelles, Lucius, and Clement are numbered among the Seventy whom Christ chose and sent forth to preach the Kingdom of God. They are mentioned in the Epistles of Saint Paul: Apelles, whom the Apostle calls "approved in Christ" (Romans 16:10); Lucius, whom he names with Jason and Sosipater as his kinsmen (Romans 16:21); and Clement, of whom Paul writes, "with Clement also, and with other my fellow-labourers, whose names are in the book of life" (Philippians 4:3). According to the tradition of the Church, Apelles served as bishop of Heraklea in Thrace, where he proclaimed the Gospel and converted many pagans before completing his course in peace. Lucius is identified with Lucius of Cyrene, mentioned in the Book of Acts among the prophets and teachers at Antioch (Acts 13:1), and is said to have become bishop of Laodicea in Syria. Clement, distinct from Clement of Rome, laboured in the company of Saint Paul and is said to have been bishop of Sardica. All three sealed their apostolic ministry by faithful service to the end and are remembered together on this day.

Holy Martyrs Menodora, Metrodora, and Nymphodora

The three sisters Menodora, Metrodora, and Nymphodora were natives of Bithynia who suffered martyrdom under the emperor Maximian around the year 305 or 311. From their youth they had vowed virginity to Christ and withdrew to a deserted place near the hot springs of Pythia, where they lived a life of prayer, fasting, and works of mercy. The fragrance of their sanctity drew many to seek their counsel, and miraculous healings were granted through their prayers. When their reputation reached the governor Frontonus, he had them brought before him in chains. He first attempted to win Menodora, the eldest, by flattery and promises of marriage and wealth; when she rejected him with the words that she was already betrothed to Christ, she was beaten and tortured for many hours until she gave up her soul. Metrodora, brought to see her sister's body, refused likewise to deny Christ and was burned with torches and beaten to death. Nymphodora, the youngest, was offered her freedom and rich gifts if only she would sacrifice; she too remained steadfast and was beaten with iron rods until she received the crown of martyrdom. Their bodies were cast into a furnace, but a thunderstorm extinguished the fire and Christians recovered the relics. Their tomb at the hot springs of Pythia became a famous place of pilgrimage and healing.

Saint Pulcheria the Empress

453

Saint Pulcheria was born in 399, the daughter of the emperor Arcadius and the empress Eudoxia and the elder sister of Theodosius the Younger. Orphaned in childhood, she was proclaimed Augusta in 414 at the age of fifteen and effectively governed the Eastern Roman Empire on behalf of her younger brother. Together with her sisters Arcadia and Marina she dedicated her virginity to Christ in the great church of Constantinople, transforming the imperial palace into a virtual monastery filled with prayer, fasting, the chanting of the psalms, and works of charity. She built churches, hospices, and homes for the poor; she received the relics of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste with great honour; and she is credited with the construction of three of the most famous churches of Constantinople dedicated to the Mother of God: the Hodegetria, the Blachernae, and the Chalkoprateia. A determined defender of Orthodoxy, she opposed the Nestorian teaching and supported the calling of the Third Ecumenical Council, and after the death of Theodosius she married the senator Marcian on condition that her virginity be preserved, in order to secure the Orthodox faith on the throne. With Marcian she convened the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon in 451, which condemned the Monophysite teaching and confessed Christ as one Person in two natures. Saint Pulcheria reposed in 453 and was honoured by the Council of Chalcedon as "the new Helen."

Saints Peter and Paul, bishops of Nicaea

Saints Peter and Paul were bishops of Nicaea in Bithynia who lived in the ninth century during the second period of iconoclasm. Each in his turn occupied the see of Nicaea, an ancient Christian city famous for the First Ecumenical Council, and each suffered persecution at the hands of the iconoclast emperors for upholding the veneration of the holy icons. Saint Peter, a man of great learning and ascetic life, was deposed and exiled for refusing to abandon the icons; he endured imprisonment and many privations, and after the restoration of Orthodoxy continued to guide his flock until his peaceful repose. Saint Paul, his successor or near-contemporary, likewise confessed Christ before the iconoclasts, was deprived of his see, and bore witness to the truth that the honour given to the icon passes to the prototype, in accordance with the teaching of the Seventh Ecumenical Council. Both are remembered on this day as confessors who, though they did not shed their blood, gave up their freedom and their comfort for the sake of the right confession of the Incarnation, since to deny the icon of Christ is to deny that the Word truly took flesh.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Galatians — Galatians 3.23-4.5

²³But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. ²⁴Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. ²⁶For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁷For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. ²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

¹Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; ²But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. ³Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: ⁴But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, ⁵To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Mark — Mark 6.30-45

³⁰And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught. ³¹And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. ³²And they departed into a desert place by ship privately. ³³And the people saw them departing, and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them, and came together unto him. ³⁴And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things. ³⁵And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed: ³⁶Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat. ³⁷He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat? ³⁸He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes. ³⁹And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. ⁴⁰And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties. ⁴¹And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. ⁴²And they did all eat, and were filled. ⁴³And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes. ⁴⁴And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men. ⁴⁵And straightway he constrained his disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the people.