Friday, 30 October 2026

Hieromartyr Zenobius and His Sister Zenobia

Friday of the 22nd week after Pentecost

201 days after Pascha · Tone 4 · Liturgy · Fast

Saints commemorated

Holy apostles Tertius, Mark, Justus and Artemas of the seventy

Four members of the Lord's seventy apostles are commemorated together on 30 October. Saint Tertius is the disciple mentioned at the close of the Epistle to the Romans (Romans 16:22), who wrote down that letter at the dictation of the apostle Paul; he succeeded Saint Sosipater as bishop of Iconium, where he laboured to convert the pagans and ended his life as a martyr. Saint Mark, called also John (Acts 12:12), was the cousin of Saint Barnabas, accompanied Paul and Barnabas on missionary journeys, and was bishop of Apollonia in Asia Minor (he is to be distinguished from the evangelist Mark of the Seventy commemorated on other dates). Saint Justus, called Barsabas, is the disciple put forward with Matthias to take the place of Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:23); afterwards he was bishop of Eleutheropolis in Judea, where he sealed his apostolic preaching with martyrdom. Saint Artemas was bishop of Lystra in Lycaonia and is mentioned by Paul in his Epistle to Titus (Titus 3:12). All four reposed in the apostolic age, and their joint memory is kept on this day, with separate commemorations elsewhere in the year.

Holy hieromartyr Marcian, bishop of Syracuse

Saint Marcian was a disciple of the holy chief apostle Peter, who, after the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, sent him to preach the gospel in Sicily. Marcian settled in a cave near the city of Syracuse, where he laboured in prayer and preaching, baptising large numbers of pagans and overthrowing the worship of idols. He is venerated as the first bishop of Syracuse and indeed as the first bishop of Sicily. Tradition relates that he was eventually seized by Jews who were enraged at his successful conversion of their pagan neighbours, and he was put to death by them, sealing his episcopate with martyrdom; another account says he was strangled with a rope. His relics were greatly venerated, first at Syracuse and afterwards translated to Gaeta on the mainland for safe-keeping during the Saracen invasions of the ninth century. His memory is kept on 30 October in the Eastern Orthodox calendar and on 14 June in the Western tradition.

Holy hieromartyr Zenobius and his sister Zenobia of Aegae

Saints Zenobius and Zenobia were brother and sister, born of devout Christian parents at Aegae in Cilicia in the third century. Left orphans while still young, they distributed their inheritance to the poor and gave themselves to a life of prayer, almsgiving and the care of the sick. Zenobius received from God the gift of healing, treating diseases without pay, often by simply laying his hands upon the sufferer. The Christians of Aegae elected him their bishop, and he ruled the church there with great zeal. When the persecution of Diocletian broke out about 285, Zenobius was arrested and brought before the prefect Lysias. After being tortured he was sentenced to death, and his sister Zenobia, hearing of his sufferings, came to the tribunal and openly confessed Christ, that she might suffer with him. The two were tortured together on a red-hot iron bed, then cast into a boiling cauldron, from which they emerged unharmed, and finally beheaded together. Their relics work many miracles. Their memory is kept on 30 October.

Holy martyr Eutropia of Alexandria

Saint Eutropia was a Christian woman of Alexandria who suffered for Christ in the third century, in the time of the persecution of Maximian. Out of love for the holy martyrs of her city, she made it her practice to visit the prisons and bring food, clothing and consolation to the confessors of Christ, kissing their wounds and exhorting them to perseverance. Her devotion drew the attention of the persecutors, and she was herself denounced as a Christian. After being subjected to severe tortures and remaining steadfast in her confession of Christ, she gave up her soul to God, joining in heaven those whom she had served on earth. Her memory is kept on 30 October.

Holy Apostle Cleopas

He is numbered among the Seventy. On the day of the Resurrection, Cleopas and St Luke were walking on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus when the Risen Christ appeared to them, as recounted in the twenty-fourth chapter of St Luke’s Gospel. The Gospel account does not name St Cleopas’ companion, but the holy tradition of the Church tells us that it was St Luke himself, and thus that the story is a first-hand account.

St Joseph I, Patriarch of Constantinople

1283

Once a married priest, he entered monastic life when his wife died, and became the spiritual father of the Emperor Michael VIII Paleologus, during whose reign he was elevated to the Patriarchate. Despite this patronage, St Joseph’s integrity was inviolable: At his first Divine Liturgy as Patriarch, he required the Emperor publicly to confess and repent of several sins before admitting him to Communion. He fiercely opposed the Emperor’s expedient policy of union with Rome, and was therefore deposed, retiring once more to monastic life. In old age, he was restored to the Patriarchal throne upon the death of Emperor Michael, but died a few months later.

Holy Martyr Hermengild, Prince of the Visigoths

486

He was the son and appointed heir of Leuvgild, King of the Visigoths, who had embraced the Christianity of the Arian heretics. But through the teaching of Bishop Leander of Seville (February 27), Hermengild was converted to the fullness of the Orthodox faith, for which his father the King had him thrown in prison. On the day of Pascha 486, the King sent one of his priests to give his son communion. But Hermengild refused, proclaiming that to commune with heretics is to assent to their belief and to sink into their error; going further, he told the priest that the heretics’ communion was nothing but bread and wine, for the Body and Blood of Christ are found only in the Offering made by the Church. The enraged King sent soldiers, who at his orders put his own son to death. Later, the King repented of this inhuman deed and asked Bishop Leander to instruct his youngest son Recared in the Orthodox faith. Thus the Visigoth people was brought into the Faith.

Holy Hieromartyr John Kochurov, First Hieromartyr of the Russian Revolution

1917

He was born in Russia in 1871, and as a young priest was sent to America as a missionary. There he worked zealously (he was instrumental in the building of the Orthodox cathedral in Chicago) until he was called back to Russia just before the October Revolution in 1917. Only six days after the Bolsheviks seized power, he was beaten to death in the street by a gang of Bolshevik sailors in Tsarskoye Selo near St Petersburg. Thus he became the first of countless Priest-Martyrs of Russia’s atheist yoke.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Colossians — Colossians 4.10-18

¹⁰Aristarchus my fellowprisoner saluteth you, and Marcus, sister’s son to Barnabas, (touching whom ye received commandments: if he come unto you, receive him;) ¹¹And Jesus, which is called Justus, who are of the circumcision. These only are my fellowworkers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me. ¹²Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. ¹³For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis. ¹⁴Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you. ¹⁵Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house. ¹⁶And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. ¹⁷And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it. ¹⁸The salutation by the hand of me Paul. Remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 11.23-26

²³He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. ²⁴When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. ²⁵And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. ²⁶Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.