Thursday, 22 October 2026

St Abercius, Equal-to-the-Apostles

Thursday of the 21st week after Pentecost

193 days after Pascha · Tone 3 · Liturgy · No Fast

Saints commemorated

★ Holy equal-of-the-apostles Abercius the wonderworker, bishop of Hierapolis

Saint Abercius (Averkios) was bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia in the second century, during the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161-180). Through his fervent preaching, prayers and many miracles he converted multitudes of pagans, destroying their idols and bringing whole regions to the Christian faith. For his apostolic labours the Church gave him the title equal-of-the-apostles. Sent for to heal Lucilla, daughter of the emperor, he restored her at Rome and refused all reward. He travelled through Syria, Cilicia and Mesopotamia, strengthening the faithful, and returned to his own see, where he reposed in peace at a great age. He composed his own famous epitaph, an early Christian inscription describing his journeys and the holy mysteries, fragments of which survive in the Lateran Museum and form one of the earliest surviving Christian inscriptions.

Commemoration of the Kazan icon of the Mother of God and the deliverance from the Poles

This commemoration recalls the deliverance of Moscow and all Russia from the Polish invasion of 1612, during the Time of Troubles. Patriarch Hermogenes had called the people to repentance and a three-day fast, and the wonderworking Kazan icon of the Mother of God was carried at the head of the volunteer army of Prince Dimitri Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin. On 22 October 1612 the Russian forces liberated Moscow from the Polish occupiers, and the victory was attributed to the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. In thanksgiving, Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich and the Church established this annual feast in addition to the original feast of the Kazan icon on 8 July (which commemorates its discovery in 1579). The Kazan icon thereafter became one of the chief protectresses of Russia, taken into battle in subsequent wars and venerated throughout the country.

Holy new martyrs Andrew, Stephen, Paul and Peter

1606

These four holy new martyrs were natives of the Crimea who suffered for Christ at the hands of the Tatars in the year 1606, during the period of Ottoman dominion over the Black Sea region. Refusing to renounce the Christian faith and embrace Islam, they were tortured and put to death together. Their joint commemoration is preserved in the Russian and Greek calendars under 22 October. They are numbered among the host of new martyrs of the Orthodox East who, after the fall of Constantinople, sealed their confession of Christ with their blood under the yoke of the Mussulmans, and they are venerated for their steadfastness in the faith and their solidarity in suffering.

Holy seven youths of Ephesus

The Holy Seven Youths of Ephesus, Maximilian, Iamblichus, Martinian, John, Dionysius, Exacustodian (Constantine) and Antoninus, were Christian soldiers in Ephesus during the persecution of the emperor Decius (249-251). Refusing to offer sacrifice to idols, they were stripped of their military rank but allowed to depart, and they took refuge in a cave on Mount Ochlon. Decius ordered the cave sealed, intending them to perish, but the Lord cast them into a wondrous sleep. About 184 years later, during the reign of Theodosius the Younger (408-450), when a heresy denying the resurrection of the dead troubled the Church, a landowner ordered the cave opened to make a sheepfold and the youths awoke as from a single night. They appeared to the bishop and the emperor as living testimony to the resurrection, then lay down again and fell asleep in the Lord. Their principal feast is 4 August, with a second commemoration on 22 October.

St Abercius, Bishop of Hierapolis, Wonderworker and Equal to the Apostles

167

He was bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia of Asia Minor, during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, a persecutor of Christians. During a pagan festival, Abercius was instructed by an Angel to throw down the idols of Apollo and other pagan gods. When his work was discovered, the people of the city were outraged; but instead of hiding, the bishop went to the marketplace and openly confessed the Christian faith. The people grew angrier still, but when Abercius healed three possessed men they were amazed and listened to him more closely. He preached the Faith with such power that the entire city and surrounding countryside became Christian. These miracles reached the ears of the Emperor, whose daughter was suffering from demonic possession. The Emperor summoned Abercius to Rome, where he was enabled to cast out the spirit and perform several other miracles. The Empress offered him a large reward of gold for healing her daughter, but he would not accept it. On his way home, he was instructed in a vision to travel to Syria. He travelled first to Antioch and surrounding cities, then as far as Mesopotamia, proclaiming Christ and teaching the faith everywhere he went. No other bishop of his time travelled so widely in the service of the Gospel; for this reason he is called Equal to the Apostles. After several years he returned to Phrygia, where he lived the remainder of his life in peace, shepherding his flock.

Venerable Lot of Egypt

5th c.

He was one of the company of ascetic Fathers who fled the world into the Egyptian desert in the fourth and fifth centuries. Once Abba Lot went to his spiritual father Joseph and asked him, simply, ‘What shall I do to be saved?’ Abba Joseph stretched his hands toward heaven and his fingers became ten flames. He said, ‘If you desire it, you can become entirely as a fire.’ A brother once came to Abba Lot in terrible distress and said to him, ‘I have committed a great sin, that I cannot admit to the Fathers.’ ‘Confess it to me and I will bear it for you,’ answered the Elder. ‘I have fallen into fornication,’ the brother said, ‘and to do so, I sacrificed to idols.’ The Elder said to him, ‘Take heart: no sin is beyond God’s mercy. Repentance is always possible. Go and sit in your cave; eat only every other day, and we will each take an equal share of the burden of your offence.’ After three weeks of keeping the same penance, Abba Lot received assurance from God that the brother’s repentance was acceptable. For the rest of his life, the brother served as the Elder’s disciple.

Also commemorated: St Abercius, Equal-to-the-Apostles

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Colossians — Colossians 1.24-29

²⁴Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church: ²⁵Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; ²⁶Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: ²⁷To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: ²⁸Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: ²⁹Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 9.49-56

⁴⁹And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us. ⁵⁰And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us.

⁵¹And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, ⁵²And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. ⁵³And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. ⁵⁴And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? ⁵⁵But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. ⁵⁶For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.