Tuesday, 22 September 2026

Hieromartyr Phocas, Bishop of Sinope

Tuesday of the 17th week after Pentecost

163 days after Pascha · Tone 7 · Liturgy · No Fast

Saints commemorated

Hieromartyr Phocas, Bishop of Sinope

404

Saint Phocas was born in the city of Sinope on the southern shore of the Black Sea. From youth he led a virtuous Christian life, and was made worthy from a young age to receive the grace of the Holy Spirit, working many miracles. In his adult years he became Bishop of Sinope, where he laboured zealously, converting many pagans by his preaching and by the wonders God worked through him. During the persecution under the emperor Trajan, the governor demanded that he renounce Christ. After enduring fierce torments, the saint was enclosed in a hot bath, where he died a martyr's death about the year 117. Before his suffering, a dove came to him and placed a crown on his head, saying with a human voice that a cup was prepared for him to drink. Saint Phocas is especially venerated as a defender against fires and as a helper of those in danger of drowning at sea, and a homily in his honour was composed by Saint John Chrysostom. In the year 404 his relics were translated to Constantinople, an event commemorated on 22 July.

Holy Prophet Jonah

The Holy Prophet Jonah, son of Amathi, lived in the eighth century before the birth of Christ and was a successor of the Prophet Elisha. The Book of the Prophet Jonah, one of the twelve Minor Prophets of the Old Testament, recounts how he was sent by God to the great pagan city of Nineveh to preach repentance. Refusing this commission, Jonah took ship for Tarshish and was cast into the sea during a violent storm, where he was swallowed by a great sea creature. After three days and three nights in its belly, calling on the Lord in prayer, he was cast up alive on dry land and went to Nineveh to deliver his message; the king and people repented in sackcloth and ashes, and the city was spared. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself spoke of Jonah as a sign of His own three-day burial and Resurrection, saying that as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so the Son of Man would be in the heart of the earth. The prophet reposed in great old age and was buried in his native land. In the Slavic tradition his commemoration falls on 22 September, and the Greek tradition observes it on 21 September.

Saint Phocas the Gardener of Sinope

Saint Phocas the Gardener lived near the gates of Sinope, where he tended a small garden by his own labour. From the produce of his garden he refreshed all the passersby, giving to the poor and to strangers and feeding their souls at the same time with the word of God. He used to say that the soul is also a garden which requires care, lest it produce thorns and thistles. By his words and his example he led many pagans to faith in Christ. During a persecution against Christians, the governor sent soldiers to find and kill him; not knowing him, they arrived at his house, and he received them as guests with great kindness. That night, having learned their errand, he secretly dug a grave in his own garden and prepared his belongings for the poor. The next morning, he disclosed to the soldiers that he was the man they sought; reluctant after such hospitality, they nevertheless carried out their orders at his own request and beheaded him. He suffered about the year 320. A church was soon raised over his relics, and he is especially venerated by seafarers, gardeners, farmers and all who travel by sea, who invoke his protection against storms and dangers.

Venerable Cosmas, desert-dweller of Zographou, Mt Athos

1323

“Saint Cosmas came from Bulgaria where his devout parents provided him with a good education in Slavonic and Greek. They wanted him to marry but he was drawn by the love of Christ and, unknown to them, made his way to the Holy Mountain of Athos to become a monk at the Bulgarian monastery of Zographou. On the feast of the Annunciation at the Monastery of Vatopedi, he saw a woman among those serving in the Church and in the refectory, and he was grieved at first to observe this breach of the monastic rule, but overjoyed when he realized that it was the Mother of God who had appeared to him in this way. “He was clothed in the holy angelic Habit and, after some time, was ordained priest. One day, as he was praying before the icon of the Mother of God, asking her with tears how to achieve his salvation, he heard a voice saying, ‘Let my servant withdraw to the desert outside the monastery.’ He was obedient to the will of God and, with the blessing of his Abbot, lived in silence from then on. Some years later, he was found worthy of the grace of discernment of thoughts and of beholding things happening elsewhere, as well as of other spiritual gifts. In the course of many years, he was the spiritual helper of a great number of monks. At the end of his life, Christ appeared to him saying that he would shortly have a great trial to endure from the Devil. Indeed, the prince of demons made his appearance next day with a host of his servants bewailing and bemoaning their inability to annihilate their great enemy Cosmas, who had held them in check for so long and gained possession, by his virtue, of the throne in Heaven that had once been Lucifer’s. Taking a heavy stick, the demon beat the Saint so violently that he left him half-dead. As God allowed, Saint Cosmas died in peace two days later, on 22 September 1323. When the fathers came from the monastery to bury him, the wild animals gathered round. They kept silent until the end of the service, but howled unusually loud as his body was covered with earth. Then having paid their respects, they made off into the wilderness. Forty days later, the monks came to take up the body of Saint Cosmas and translate it to the monastery, but it was no longer in the grave. Where it now is God alone knows.” (Synaxarion)

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Ephesians — Ephesians 2.19-3.7

¹⁹Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; ²⁰And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; ²¹In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: ²²In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

¹For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, ²If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: ³How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, ⁴Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) ⁵Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; ⁶That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: ⁷Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 3.23-4.1

²³And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli, ²⁴Which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi, which was the son of Melchi, which was the son of Janna, which was the son of Joseph, ²⁵Which was the son of Mattathias, which was the son of Amos, which was the son of Naum, which was the son of Esli, which was the son of Nagge, ²⁶Which was the son of Maath, which was the son of Mattathias, which was the son of Semei, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Juda, ²⁷Which was the son of Joanna, which was the son of Rhesa, which was the son of Zorobabel, which was the son of Salathiel, which was the son of Neri, ²⁸Which was the son of Melchi, which was the son of Addi, which was the son of Cosam, which was the son of Elmodam, which was the son of Er, ²⁹Which was the son of Jose, which was the son of Eliezer, which was the son of Jorim, which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi, ³⁰Which was the son of Simeon, which was the son of Juda, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Jonan, which was the son of Eliakim, ³¹Which was the son of Melea, which was the son of Menan, which was the son of Mattatha, which was the son of Nathan, which was the son of David, ³²Which was the son of Jesse, which was the son of Obed, which was the son of Booz, which was the son of Salmon, which was the son of Naasson, ³³Which was the son of Aminadab, which was the son of Aram, which was the son of Esrom, which was the son of Phares, which was the son of Juda, ³⁴Which was the son of Jacob, which was the son of Isaac, which was the son of Abraham, which was the son of Thara, which was the son of Nachor, ³⁵Which was the son of Saruch, which was the son of Ragau, which was the son of Phalec, which was the son of Heber, which was the son of Sala, ³⁶Which was the son of Cainan, which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son of Sem, which was the son of Noe, which was the son of Lamech, ³⁷Which was the son of Mathusala, which was the son of Enoch, which was the son of Jared, which was the son of Maleleel, which was the son of Cainan, ³⁸Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

¹And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,