Thursday, 29 October 2026

Martyr Anastasia the Roman

Thursday of the 22nd week after Pentecost

200 days after Pascha · Tone 4 · Liturgy · No Fast

Saints commemorated

Holy venerable martyr Anastasia the Roman

Saint Anastasia the Roman was born at Rome in the third century. Orphaned at the age of three, she was received and raised by the abbess Sophia in a small community of consecrated virgins outside the city. There, under the guidance of this experienced spiritual mother, she grew up in fervent prayer, fasting and obedience, and by the age of twenty had attained great virtue and was renowned for her beauty no less than for her holiness. During the persecution of the emperor Decius (or, by another reckoning, of Valerian about 256), the city prefect Probus, hearing of a Christian virgin of unusual beauty, sent soldiers to bring her by force. Anastasia bade farewell to her abbess, was strengthened in prayer, and went to her trial fearless. Probus tried both flattery and terror, but the saint mocked the gods of the Empire and confessed Christ. She was then subjected to fearful tortures: her breasts were cut off and her tongue torn out; an angel of the Lord stood by, sustaining and consoling her. At last she was beheaded. The abbess Sophia recovered her relics and gave them honourable burial. Saint Anastasia is distinguished from the other holy martyr Anastasia, the deliverer from potions, commemorated on 22 December.

Righteous Anna of Constantinople

Saint Anna was born in Constantinople in the eighth century, the daughter of a pious deacon of the church of Blachernae. She was given in marriage and bore a son, Saint John. After her husband's death, fearing the second iconoclast persecution and longing for the monastic life, she dressed in the habit of a man, took the name Euthymianus, and with her young son entered a monastery near Mount Olympus in Bithynia. There she lived for many years in great asceticism, her sex unsuspected by the brethren, attaining gifts of prayer, foreknowledge and miracles. She afterwards returned to Constantinople, where she ended her days in 826 in deep humility, the secret of her life becoming known only at her repose. Her son John outlived her in the same monastic discipline. Their joint memory is kept on 29 October, with a second commemoration on 13 June.

Venerable Abramius the recluse and his niece Mary of Mesopotamia

Abramius was a Christian of noble birth who, early in life, left all (including a young bride) to live as a solitary monk. This he did for fifty years. When Abramius’ brother died, leaving his seven-year-old daughter Mary orphaned and alone, The Saint took her under his care, giving her a monastic cell near his own. Though Mary devoted herself joyfully to the monastic life, when she was about twenty she fell into sin with a corrupt monk who visited the hermitage. Far worse, she then fell into despair, thinking that she had cast away her salvation, and fled the hermitage to become a harlot in a nearby town. Abramius, unaware of what had happened or where she had gone, prayed constantly for her safety and to be shown where she had fled.

One day a traveler told Abramius what had become of his niece. Immediately he rose up, dressed himself as a soldier and went to the brothel where Mary worked, “for the salvation of a soul meant more to him than hermitage, Habit, ascesis or prayer itself” (Synaxarion). Still disguised, he ordered a meal, his first wine and meat for fifty years, then went with Mary to her room. Only then did he reveal himself, and with tears, not accusing her at all, pleaded with her to leave that place and return with him. “Let us go, my child; let us return to our hermitage. Let your fault be mine. I will answer for it before Christ on the day of judgment.” She returned with him and, with repentance, prayed so ardently that she was soon granted not only assurance of forgiveness but the power to work miracles. St Abramius reposed in peace in great old age; Mary followed him into eternal joy five years later.

Venerable Abramius, archimandrite of Rostov

Saint Abramius (Abraham) of Rostov was an enlightener of the Russian land in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Born of pious parents at Galich in Kostroma, he sought the monastic life from his youth and was tonsured at the Valaam monastery on Lake Ladoga, then journeyed to Rostov, where the people were still given to the worship of idols, in particular a great stone image of Veles set up on the lake shore. Praying earnestly that the Lord would deliver the city from this delusion, Abramius received a vision of the holy apostle and evangelist John the Theologian, who gave him a staff with which he overthrew and shattered the idol. On the spot the saint built a church in honour of the Theophany of the Lord and founded a monastery (the Bogoyavlensky Avraamiev), of which he became the first abbot. He laboured many years in the conversion of the people of Rostov, baptising both adults and children, and reposed at a great age about 1077. His incorrupt relics were uncovered in 1210 in the time of Saint Demetrius of Rostov's predecessors. Tsar Ivan IV took the saint's iron staff with him on the conquest of Kazan in 1552. His memory is kept on 29 October.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Colossians — Colossians 4.2-9

²Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; ³Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: ⁴That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak. ⁵Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. ⁶Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

⁷All my state shall Tychicus declare unto you, who is a beloved brother, and a faithful minister and fellowservant in the Lord: ⁸Whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that he might know your estate, and comfort your hearts; ⁹With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They shall make known unto you all things which are done here.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 11.14-23

¹⁴And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake; and the people wondered. ¹⁵But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils. ¹⁶And others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven. ¹⁷But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth. ¹⁸If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. ¹⁹And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges. ²⁰But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. ²¹When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: ²²But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. ²³He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.