Sunday, 4 October 2026

18th Sunday after Pentecost

175 days after Pascha · Tone 1 · Red squigg (doxology typikon symbol) · No Fast

Saints commemorated

Hieromartyr Hierotheus, Bishop of Athens

Saint Hierotheus was a member of the Athenian Areopagos in the first century and is reckoned as one of the early teachers of Christian wisdom in Greece. A man of philosophical learning, he was converted and baptised by the Apostle Paul during the Apostle's mission to Athens, and was afterwards consecrated by him as the first bishop of the city. In turn Hierotheus became the spiritual father of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, instructing him more perfectly in the mysteries of the faith. The tradition of the Church preserves the memory of his presence at the dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, where, caught up in divine contemplation, he chanted hymns of unearthly beauty alongside the holy apostles. Saint Dionysius in his writings calls him a true initiate into the things of God. After many labours of evangelism and the conversion of many pagans, Hierotheus ended his life as a martyr in the first century. Portions of his relics, including his skull, are venerated in the monastery dedicated to him at Megara in Attica and on Mount Athos.

Saints Guriy, Archbishop of Kazan, and Barsanuphius, Bishop of Tver

1576

This day commemorates the uncovering of the relics of Saints Guriy and Barsanuphius, the missionary hierarchs sent to Christianise the newly conquered Khanate of Kazan in the sixteenth century. Saint Guriy, born Gregory Rugotin about 1500 of a noble Russian family, served as steward in a princely household before false accusations led to his imprisonment, where he turned wholly to prayer and to the writing of small books for poor children. Released after two years, he received the monastic tonsure at the Volokolamsk monastery and became its abbot. In 1555 he was consecrated by Saint Macarius of Moscow as the first archbishop of Kazan, where he laboured to convert the Tatar peoples until his repose in 1563. Saint Barsanuphius, his close companion in the mission, became Bishop of Tver and reposed in 1576. In the year 1595, during the building of a new cathedral at Kazan, the incorrupt relics of both hierarchs were uncovered and have ever since been venerated as wonderworking. Their joint commemoration on this day was established by the Church in thanksgiving for the discovery.

Venerable Ammon of Egypt

Saint Ammon (also called Amun) was born about the year 294 in Egypt and is honoured as one of the founders of monasticism in the Nitrian desert. Compelled by his parents to marry, he persuaded his bride on their wedding night to live with him in continence, and for eighteen years they shared a chaste life of prayer and almsgiving as brother and sister. With his wife's blessing he then withdrew to the wilderness of Nitria, west of the Nile delta, where he laboured in solitude in fasting, vigil and unceasing prayer. To his cell gathered many disciples, and he is credited with developing a form of semi-eremitic monasticism, in which solitaries lived close enough to one another to gather on Sundays for the Liturgy and common meals. The settlement of Kellia, the "Cells", grew out of his counsel. He often visited Saint Anthony the Great, with whom he shared deep friendship, and Anthony beheld in vision the angels bearing his soul to heaven at his death about the year 350. Saint Athanasius records his life and miracles in the Life of Anthony.

Venerable Paul the Simple of Egypt

Saint Paul, called the Simple for his guilelessness and gentleness of soul, was a Egyptian peasant of the fourth century. Already sixty years old when he discovered his wife's infidelity, he left her without bitterness and walked into the desert to seek out Saint Anthony the Great. At first the great hermit refused to receive him, judging him too old for the harsh ascetic life, and bade him return home. Paul stood outside Anthony's cell for three days without food, declaring that he would sooner die there than turn back. Moved by his perseverance, Anthony took him in and tested him by hard manual labour, severe fasting, all-night vigils and ceaseless psalmody. Paul bore every trial without complaint and showed such docility that Anthony declared him a true monk. The Lord granted him remarkable gifts of discernment and authority over demons, so that Anthony himself would on occasion send the more difficult cases of possession to be healed by Paul's prayer. He reposed in old age, having become a model of obedience and simplicity for all who follow the monastic way.

Also commemorated: Unc. Rel. Gurias of Kazan and Varsanuphy of Tver

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

2 Corinthians — 2 Corinthians 9.6-11

⁶But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. ⁷Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. ⁸And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: ⁹(As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever. ¹⁰Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;) ¹¹Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 6.31-36

³¹And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. ³²For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. ³³And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. ³⁴And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. ³⁵But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. ³⁶Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.

7th Matins Gospel

John — John 20.1-10

¹The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. ²Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. ³Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. ⁴So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. ⁵And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. ⁶Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, ⁷And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. ⁸Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. ⁹For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. ¹⁰Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.