Thursday, 8 October 2026

Ven. Pelagia the Penitent

Thursday of the 19th week after Pentecost

179 days after Pascha · Tone 1 · Liturgy · No Fast

Saints commemorated

Saint Pelagia of Tarsus the Virgin Martyr

Saint Pelagia of Tarsus in Cilicia lived in the third century during the reign of Diocletian, and was the daughter of illustrious pagan parents of high rank. Hearing the gospel from Christian friends, she came to believe in Christ, resolved to preserve her virginity, and dedicated her life wholly to the Lord. The emperor Diocletian's adopted heir, struck by her beauty, sought her as his bride. The holy virgin replied that she was already betrothed to Christ the immortal Bridegroom and would not consent to an earthly marriage. In despair the youth fell upon his sword. Fearing imperial wrath, Pelagia's mother bound her daughter and led her to court, accusing her both of being a Christian and of causing the prince's death. Before facing the emperor, Pelagia is said to have sought out Bishop Linus (or Clinon), who baptised her. Brought before Diocletian, the emperor too was overcome by her beauty and offered to make her his wife. Pelagia refused and confessed Christ openly. Enraged, Diocletian commanded that she be enclosed within a red-hot bronze bull, where she yielded up her soul, her body melted in the heat. Christians later gathered her remains for burial. Her commemoration was originally on 8 October together with the other Pelagias of Antioch. In present Orthodox practice she is principally commemorated on 4 May, with mention preserved on 8 October in older menaia and synaxaria.

Saint Thais of Egypt the Penitent

Saint Thais was a celebrated courtesan of fourth-century Egypt, renowned for her beauty and her wealth, and notorious for the multitude of men who ruined themselves for her sake. She lived in luxury at the centre of public life, while families and fortunes were destroyed in pursuit of her. Hearing of the harm she was working among Christians, the desert father Saint Paphnutius, or in some accounts a disciple of his, dressed himself in the garments of a worldly visitor and sought her out. Brought into her inner chamber, he asked whether there was any place still more secret. She answered that none could see them there save God. The elder seized upon her words and asked her if she truly knew that there was a God who saw and would judge, and how she could then live as she did. Pierced by his words, Thais broke into tears and asked how she might be saved. She gathered her costly clothes, her jewels, and all her ill-gotten wealth, brought them to the public square, and burned them, that they might tempt no one further. She then followed Paphnutius to a women's monastery, where he enclosed her in a narrow cell, sealing the door, leaving only a small window for her bread and water. He bade her stand facing the east and repeat one prayer only, "O Thou who didst fashion me, have mercy upon me." After three years, the elder went to Saint Antony the Great to ask whether God had forgiven her. Antony's disciple Saint Paul saw a vision of a great bed in heaven prepared for her. Paphnutius then unsealed her cell. Thais lived only fifteen days more in freedom and reposed in peace. Her conversion has been honoured throughout the Church as a sign that no sinner is beyond mercy.

Venerable Pelagia the Penitent

Saint Pelagia, also called Pelagia of Antioch and Pelagia the Harlot, was a Christian saint and hermit of the fourth or fifth century. Before her conversion, she was the head of a dance troupe in Antioch of Syria, living in luxury, vanity, and prostitution. Adorned in finery and jewels, she was a byword for the city's moral decay.

Her conversion came through Saint Nonnus, Bishop of Edessa. As Pelagia passed by a church one day, dressed in extravagant ornament, the assembled bishops turned their faces from her, but Nonnus looked after her in pity, then withdrew to weep and pray that her outer beauty might be answered by an inner one. Coming later to the church and hearing Nonnus preach upon the dread Last Judgement, Pelagia was pierced to the heart. Weeping bitter tears, she begged for baptism, and Nonnus, persuaded of her sincere repentance, baptised her.

Three days after her baptism, Pelagia gathered her wealth and jewels and brought them to Bishop Nonnus, who ordered them distributed to the poor, saying that riches gained by sin should now become a wealth of righteousness. She left Antioch in secret, dressed as a man, and made her way to Jerusalem, where she enclosed herself in a small cell on the Mount of Olives. There she lived in austere asceticism under the name of the monk Pelagius, attaining great spiritual gifts and unknown to all who came to her for counsel.

She died from the rigour of her ascetic struggles, so emaciated that she was at first unrecognisable. Only when the holy fathers prepared her body for burial was it discovered that the renowned monk had been a woman. They sought to keep this secret, but news spread and pilgrims came from Jericho and the Jordan valley to venerate her.

Venerable Tryphon, Archimandrite of Vyatka

Saint Tryphon of Vyatka, in the world Trofim Dmitrievich Podvizaev, was born about 1546 in the village of Malaya Nemyushka in the Pinega district of the diocese of Archangelsk, the youngest son of the pious peasants Demetrios and Pelagia. From his youth he loved prayer, fasting, and the reading of holy books, and rejected the marriage that his family had arranged for him. Leaving his home, he went to the city of Orlov, founded by the Stroganov merchants, and lived there for a time under the spiritual guidance of the priest John. He then withdrew to the upper waters of the Kama and the Chusova river, in the wilderness of the Perm region, taking up the life of a hermit. There he preached the gospel to the pagan Ostiak and Vogul tribes, suffering the hostility of their shamans, and brought many to Christ. Upon the place where he had lived in solitude he established a monastery in honour of the Dormition of the Theotokos. In 1580 he came to the city of Khlynov in the Vyatka region, where the inhabitants entreated him to found a monastery for them. With the blessing of Tsar Ivan IV, he established the Dormition monastery there, of which he was made archimandrite. He governed his community with severity to himself and gentleness to others, wearing a hairshirt and heavy iron chains beneath his habit, and devoting himself to ceaseless prayer. In old age he was driven from his monastery by certain monks who resented his strictness, and wandered through the northern Russian lands, founding new houses and bringing peace where he went. Returning at last to Vyatka, he was received with honour, and reposed peacefully on 8 October 1612. He is venerated as the enlightener of the Vyatka region and a wonderworker, with healings reported at his tomb.

Saint Thaïs the Repentant Harlot

4th c.

She lived in Alexandria, where, when she was seventeen, her own mother placed her in a brothel, where due to her great beauty she was able to amass some wealth. Saint Serapion (March 21), hearing about Thaïs and her way of life, was moved by God to try to convert her. He dressed himself as a soldier, found her, gave her a gold piece, and went with her to her room. When the door was shut, he put aside his tunic, revealing his monastic robe, and asked if he might speak with her. With tears he told her of the doom that awaits sinners, and of the infinite mercy of God, who desires that all should be saved and welcomes every repentant sinner. Thaïs, her heart melted by his words, ran to the public square, burned all the fine clothes and possessions that she had acquired through her trade, and went with Serapion to a women’s monastery. There he instructed her to stay secluded in her cell, beseeching God’s mercy constantly and only eating every other day; she was to do this until she was instructed otherwise. Thaïs lived in this way for three years, with such zeal that she amazed all her monastic sisters. Meanwhile St Serapion went to St Anthony the Great to ask him if God had accepted Thaïs’ repentance. Saint Anthony and his brethren spent a night in prayer and received a vision in which they were assured that Thaïs had been found worthy of God’s mercy. Returning to the monastery, Serapion made the repentant Saint leave her cell, though by now she only wished to spend her life in repentant prayer. After spending only fifteen days in the common life of the monastery, the holy Thaïs reposed in peace.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Philippians — Philippians 1.20-27

²⁰According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. ²¹For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. ²²But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. ²³For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: ²⁴Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. ²⁵And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith; ²⁶That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again. ²⁷Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 7.17-30

¹⁷And this rumour of him went forth throughout all Judæa, and throughout all the region round about. ¹⁸And the disciples of John shewed him of all these things.

¹⁹And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another? ²⁰When the men were come unto him, they said, John Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another? ²¹And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight. ²²Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached. ²³And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.

²⁴And when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with the wind? ²⁵But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings’ courts. ²⁶But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet. ²⁷This is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. ²⁸For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. ²⁹And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. ³⁰But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.