Wednesday, 16 September 2026

Greatmartyr Euphemia the All-Praised

Wednesday of the 16th week after Pentecost

157 days after Pascha · Tone 6 · Black squigg (6-stich typikon symbol) · Fast

Saints commemorated

★ Holy Great Martyr Euphemia the All-Praised

304

The Holy Great Martyr Euphemia was the daughter of Christian parents, the senator Philophronos and Theodosia, and suffered for Christ in the year 304 in the city of Chalcedon, on the Bosphorus opposite Constantinople. Priscus, the proconsul of Chalcedon, issued a decree requiring all the inhabitants of the city to attend a pagan festival in honour of the idol of Ares, on pain of death. Forty-nine Christians, Euphemia among them, hid in a house and worshipped the true God in secret. Discovered and brought before the proconsul, they confessed Christ and were tortured. The young virgin Euphemia was singled out for the most savage punishments. She was tied to a wheel set with sharp knives, but as she prayed the wheel stopped of itself and she was unhurt. Cast into a fiery furnace, she emerged unscathed; cast among wild beasts in the arena, she remained untouched until a single bear slightly wounded her foot, and at that moment she gave up her soul to God. Her relics later became the focus of the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon in 451, where the Orthodox confession of faith was miraculously confirmed by the saint.

Hieromartyr Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage

He was born to wealthy and noble parents in Carthage (north Africa), and became a prominent lawyer in that city. Around the year 246 he embraced the Christian faith and was baptized by the priest Caecilianus. Immediately he gave all his goods to the poor and retired to a quiet place in the country to devote himself to prayer and study of Christian writings. In 248 or 249 he was elected Bishop of Carthage by the insistence of the people, though some priests opposed the consecration of such a new Christian.

Soon after his election, the Emperor Decius began a terrible persecution of Christians, during which Cyprian, in hiding, upheld his flock by letters. During this time many Christians gave in to fear of death and either sacrificed to the idols or signed statements that they had done so. When the persecution ended, the problem arose of how to treat the apostates who wished to be received back into the Church. Rigorist groups such as the Novatians and Montanists held that these lapsi had removed themselves from all hope of salvation and could never re-enter the Church. Cyprian rejected this view (as well as the position of some who would immediately reconcile the apostates); he established the position, still standard in the Church, that apostates could be restored after confession and long penance. His position led to a schism in the Church at Carthage when Cyprian’s opponents set up Maximus the Montanist as a rival Bishop. The schism was only ended by a plague that swept the Empire and the city of Carthage in 253-254, together with a renewed persecution of Christians. Saint Cyprian’s tireless care for the suffering during this time won most of the schismatics back to his side. When peace returned, Cyprian called a series of Councils in Carthage to resolve the conflicts that had troubled the Church. He upheld the African (and Eastern) churches’ practice of reconciling heretics to the Church by Baptism rather than by laying on of hands, as was done in Rome; though Cyprian did not seek to impose this practice on other churches, Rome was not so tolerant and broke with the African church until the death of Pope Stephen.

In 256, yet another persecution broke out under the Emperor Valerian. Cyprian was arrested and brought before the Proconsul of the region. He refused to defend himself, and when told that he was to be executed, said only Deo Gratias!(Thanks be to God!). At his execution the holy bishop ordered that twenty-five gold pieces be given to the executioner, and put on the blindfold with his own hands.

Note: St Cyprian is missing on this date from traditional martyrologies because he was once confused with St Cyprian of Antioch (October 2). Today is the date of his martyrdom and the date of his commemoration on the Latin calendar.

Holy Martyr Ludmilla of Bohemia

Saint Ludmilla of Bohemia, born around 860, was the daughter of the Sorbian prince Slavibor and the wife of Borivoj I, the first Christian Duke of Bohemia. Both received holy Baptism from Saint Methodius, Archbishop of Moravia and Enlightener of the Slavs. As Christians the ducal couple worked for the enlightenment of their people, building churches and inviting priests to celebrate the divine services among the still largely pagan Czechs. Ludmilla outlived her husband and her son Vratislaus, and devoted herself to the upbringing of her grandson Wenceslaus, whom she catechised and trained in the ways of Christian rulership. Her daughter-in-law Drahomira, who favoured the pagan party, came to hate her mother-in-law for the influence she held over the young heir. When Ludmilla withdrew to her estate at Tetin, Drahomira sent two boyars, Tunna and Gomon, to murder her. They came upon her at prayer in her chamber on the night of 15 September 921 and strangled her with her own veil. Her grandson Saint Wenceslaus later translated her incorrupt relics to the Basilica of Saint George in Prague, where they remain. She is honoured as patroness of Bohemia and grandmother of Saint Wenceslaus.

St Ninian, Enlightener of Scotland

432

One of the great missionaries and early Saints of the British Isles, he was born in Britain around the year 360. Though Britain was still mostly pagan, Ninian was born of Christian parents. He traveled to Rome as a young man, and spent several years there engaged in study and ascetic struggle. He was ordained in Rome and sent back as a missionary to Britain around the year 400. On the way he probably met St Martin of Tours: many of the churches he founded, including his cathedral in Whithorn, were named in honor of St Martin. He established several monasteries, ministered to his Christian Briton countrymen and converted many more Britons to the Faith. He also converted many of the fierce Picts, inhabitants of today’s Scotland, to faith in Christ. He reposed in peace in Whithorn in 432.

Our Holy Father Dorotheos the Solitary of Egypt

4th c.

He was one of the great company of Egyptian desert fathers of the fourth century. He lived alone in a cell in the Thebaid for sixty years, devoting himself to prayer, asceticism and renowned love of labor. He spent his days building cells for new monks, his nights making plaited mats, all the while immersed in prayer and psalmody.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Galatians — Galatians 6.2-10

²Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. ³For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. ⁴But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. ⁵For every man shall bear his own burden. ⁶Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. ⁷Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. ⁸For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. ⁹And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. ¹⁰As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Mark — Mark 7.14-24

¹⁴And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: ¹⁵There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. ¹⁶If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. ¹⁷And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. ¹⁸And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; ¹⁹Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats? ²⁰And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. ²¹For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, ²²Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: ²³All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

²⁴And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid.