Friday, 11 September 2026

Ven. Theodora of Alexandria

Friday of the 15th week after Pentecost

152 days after Pascha · Tone 5 · Liturgy · Fast

Saints commemorated

Holy Martyrs Diodorus, Didymus, and Diomedes of Laodicea

The holy martyrs Diodorus, Didymus, and Diomedes were inhabitants of Laodicea in Syria who suffered for Christ during one of the persecutions of the late third or early fourth century. Although the precise circumstances of their passion are not preserved in detail, the ancient synaxaria record that they were arrested as Christians, brought before the local governor, and there confessed openly the faith of the crucified and risen Lord. After enduring various torments aimed at compelling them to sacrifice to the idols, all three were condemned to death and gave up their souls to God, receiving together the unfading crown of martyrdom. Their commemoration on this day links them with Saint Theodora of Alexandria as a witness that the path of the martyrs and the path of repentance both lead by different roads to the same Kingdom.

Saint Euphrosynus the Cook

Saint Euphrosynus lived in the ninth century and was a humble cook in a monastery in Palestine. Of simple education and rough appearance, he served the brethren in the kitchen with great patience and lowliness, often bearing the impatience and rebukes of those for whom he laboured without complaint, considering himself unworthy of the monastic name. In his hidden life of prayer he attained, unknown to the brethren, a high measure of grace. One night a certain priest of the monastery, who had often prayed to be shown the rewards prepared for the saints, was carried in a vision to the garden of paradise and there found Euphrosynus walking among the trees of life. The cook, recognising the priest, gave him three apples from paradise as a sign that the vision was true. When the priest awoke he found the apples beside him on his bed, fragrant beyond anything of this world. Going to the kitchen at the hour of matins, he questioned Euphrosynus, who in confusion and humility confessed that he had indeed been in paradise that night. The priest then revealed the vision to the abbot and brethren, but Euphrosynus, unwilling to be honoured, immediately fled the monastery and was never seen again. The fragrant apples were divided among the brethren for blessing and healing, and Saint Euphrosynus is venerated as a model of hidden sanctity.

Saint Theodora of Alexandria

Saint Theodora lived in Alexandria in the late fifth century during the reign of the emperor Zeno. She was a married woman of pious life until, deceived by an evil woman who acted as a procuress, she fell into an act of adultery. Stricken by remorse and unable to bear the weight of her sin, she sought out a holy abbess, who consoled her with the example of the publican and assured her that no sin is too great for the mercy of Christ. Determined to amend her life, Theodora cut off her hair, dressed herself as a man, and withdrew to the men's monastery of Octodecaton near Alexandria, where she was received under the name Theodore. There, unrecognised even by her own husband who at one point came to seek her, she lived for many years in extreme asceticism, in fasting, prayer, and obedience, surpassing the brethren in humility and labour. Falsely accused of being the father of a child borne by a woman of a nearby village, she accepted the accusation in silence, was expelled from the monastery, and lived for seven years in the wilderness with the child, enduring hunger, cold, and the assaults of demons, who once appeared to her in the likeness of her former husband. After many trials she was readmitted to the monastery and continued in her labours until her repose, when only at her death was her true identity discovered. Her relics worked many wonders, and her life is read as a model of repentance.

Translation of the relics of Saints Sergius and Herman of Valaam

Saints Sergius and Herman were monks of Greek origin who, according to the tradition of the Russian North, came as missionaries to the wild and pagan region of Karelia in the fourteenth century, settling on the rocky island of Valaam in Lake Ladoga. There they founded the monastery of the Transfiguration, which became the cradle of monasticism in northern Russia and is sometimes called "the Athos of the North." They lived in great asceticism in the harsh climate of the lake, preached the Gospel to the pagan Karelians and Finns, and gathered around them a community of monks who carried their spiritual tradition into the surrounding lands. After their repose their relics were enshrined in the monastery, but in 1611, during the Swedish invasions, the monastery was destroyed and the relics were hidden underground. After the founding of Saint Petersburg and the recovery of the lands of Karelia, the monastery was restored, and on 11 September 1718 the relics of the founders were translated and returned to their resting place. This translation is the feast kept today, while the principal commemoration of the saints falls on 28 June. Through them and their successors many great elders, missionaries to America, and confessors of the twentieth century have arisen.

St Euphrosynos the Cook of Alexandria

9th c.

His icon is found in countless Orthodox kitchens. A simple and holy man, when he entered monastic life in Alexandria he was judged unfit for any service more demanding than kitchen work. There he labored without complaint, looked down upon by most of the other monks. One night the abbot dreamed that he was in Paradise, and there met Euphrosynos, who gave him a branch that bore three fragrant apples. Awakening, the abbot found the same apples on his pillow. He hurried to find Euphrosynos and asked him, `Where were you last night, brother?’ Euphrosynos only replied, `Where were you, Father?’ The abbot gathered the monks and told them the wonderful story, by which they all realized the cook’s holiness. But Euphrosynos, unwilling to endure the praise of men, fled the monastery for the desert.

St Paphnutius the Confessor

4th c.

“A bishop of the Egyptian Thebaid, he suffered greatly for the Orthodox faith: heretics put out one of his eyes and broke his left leg. He took part in the First Ecumenical Council, refuting the Arian heresy with great power. The Emperor Constantine valued him greatly and often kissed him on the missing eye, lost for the truth of Orthodoxy. At the council, he stood in opposition to the western representatives, who proposed that secular priests be completely forbidden to marry. He was chaste throughout the whole of his life.” (Prologue)

Canonization of St Xenia of St Petersburg

1978

She is commemorated on January 24.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Galatians — Galatians 4.8-21

⁸Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. ⁹But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? ¹⁰Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. ¹¹I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

¹²Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all. ¹³Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. ¹⁴And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. ¹⁵Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. ¹⁶Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? ¹⁷They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them. ¹⁸But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you. ¹⁹My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, ²⁰I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.

²¹Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?

Gospel

weekly cycle

Mark — Mark 6.45-53

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. ⁴⁶And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray. ⁴⁷And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land. ⁴⁸And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them: and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them. ⁴⁹But when they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit, and cried out: ⁵⁰For they all saw him, and were troubled. And immediately he talked with them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid. ⁵¹And he went up unto them into the ship; and the wind ceased: and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered. ⁵²For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened. ⁵³And when they had passed over, they came into the land of Gennesaret, and drew to the shore.