Friday, 6 November 2026

St Paul the Confessor of Constantinople

Friday of the 23rd week after Pentecost

208 days after Pascha · Tone 5 · Black squigg (6-stich typikon symbol) · Fast

Saints commemorated

Saint Demetrian, bishop of Cythera

Saint Demetrian was born around 830 in the village of Sykai on the island of Cyprus, the son of a priest. Reared in piety and learning, he was married in his youth at his parents' insistence, but his young wife died only three months after the wedding, and he took this as a sign from God to embrace the monastic life. He entered the monastery of Saint Anthony in Cyprus, where he was tonsured, ordained priest, and eventually appointed hegumen, an office he held for some forty years. When the see of Khytroi (later called Cythera) on the island fell vacant, the people unanimously chose Demetrian as their bishop. He fled and hid himself in a cave until a friend persuaded him to accept the burden, after which he ruled the diocese for twenty-five years with apostolic gentleness. In his old age, when Saracen pirates raided Cyprus and carried off many Christians as captives, the saint travelled to the lands of the invaders and pleaded for the release of his flock. Moved by his courage and selflessness, the Saracens freed the prisoners. He reposed around 911, and is venerated especially as the patron of those held in captivity.

Saint Paul the Confessor, archbishop of Constantinople

350

A native of Thessalonica, he rose from secretary to Alexander, Patriarch of Constantinople (commemorated August 30), to deacon, then succeeded St Alexander as Patriarch around 337. For his virtue and his zeal for Orthodoxy he was hated by the Arians, who were still powerful in the Empire. The Arian Emperor Constantius, learning of Paul’s election, exiled him and made the Arian Eusebius Patriarch in his place. St Paul went to Rome, where he joined St Athanasius the Great in exile. Furnished with letters from Pope Julius, he was able to ascend the Patriarchal throne once again upon the death of Eusebius. But once again the Arians were able to put one of their party on the Patriarchal throne: Macedonius, who even went beyond the Arian heresy and denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Once again the legitimate, Orthodox Patriarch found himself in exile in Rome. In succeeding years St Paul stood firm for Orthodoxy while complex political and military intrigues swirled around him, with the Orthodox Constans, Emperor of the West (and Constantius’ brother) supporting him while Constantius continued to oppose him. For a time Constans was able to enforce Paul’s place on the Patriarchal throne, but when he died, Constantius banished St Paul to Cucusus on the Black Sea. There, while he was celebrating the Divine Liturgy in the house where he was kept prisoner, the Arians strangled him with his own omophorion. His relics were brought back to Constantinople by the Emperor Theodosius the Great.

Venerable Barlaam, abbot of Khutyn, wonderworker of Novgorod

Saint Barlaam of Khutyn, in baptism Alexis, was born in the twelfth century in Novgorod the Great, the son of pious and noble parents. Educated in piety from his youth, he distributed his inheritance to the poor on the death of his parents and entered the Lisich monastery near the city, where he received the monastic tonsure with the name Barlaam. Soon, drawn by the desire for greater stillness, he withdrew to a wooded hill above the river Volkhov known as Khutyn, "the bad place," reputed to be haunted by demons. There he built a small cell and a chapel, sustaining himself by the labour of his hands, cutting timber, splitting firewood and tilling the earth, while spending his nights in vigil and prayer. By his ascetic struggles the place was sanctified, and disciples gathered around him; he then founded the monastery of the Saviour and Transfiguration at Khutyn, which became one of the great spiritual centres of Russia. He was distinguished for the gifts of clairvoyance and miracles, calming a storm, raising a dead boy, and prophesying future events. After giving final counsels to his brethren, urging them to preserve the Orthodox faith and to abide in humility, he reposed on 6 November 1192. His relics work miracles to the present day.

Venerable Luke of Sicily

Saint Luke of Sicily, also known as Leo Luke or Leoluca of Corleone, was born around 815 in the Sicilian city of Tauromenium (modern Taormina) of pious Christian parents. While still a young man he forsook his parents and his betrothed and withdrew to the mountains, where he lived for many years in fasting and prayer on the slopes of Mount Etna. After a time he travelled to Calabria in southern Italy, where the Saracen invasions had driven many ascetics to seek refuge among the Italo-Greek monastic communities. There, on Mount Mula, Saint Luke founded a monastery dedicated to Saints Elias the Prophet and Anastasia, which became one of the cradles of Italo-Greek monasticism. Acknowledged by his brethren as a great wonderworker, he received from God the gift of healing the sick, casting out demons, raising paralytics, and turning back the lost to the path of salvation. Towards the end of his long life he delegated the office of hegumen to the monk Theodore and the priestly cares to Euthymios, that he might prepare for his repose in stillness. He fell asleep in the Lord around 915 at a great old age, and his intercession is credited with saving the city of Corleone from the plague of 1575, of which he is now patron.

Saint Germanus, Archbishop of Kazan

1568

He was born in Tver to a princely family. Drawn to a life of holiness from his earliest childhood, he became a monk at the age of twenty-five, at the Monastery of St Joseph of Volokolamsk. In time he became Archimandrite of the Monastery of the Dormition at Staritsk; but after a few years he returned to Volokolamsk to live in solitude. When his teacher St Gurias (October 4), first Archbishop of Kazan, reposed, Germanus succeeded him as Archbishop, but continued to live as ascetically as when he was a hermit. He was offered the office of Metropolitan of Moscow, but refused. As a faithful shepherd of his church, he fearlessly confronted Tsar Ivan the Terrible for his many and various cruelties; for this he was killed in 1568 by the Tsar’s assassins. Note: Recently, a bizarre movement has arisen among some nationalist sectarians in Russia to canonize Ivan the Terrible. Among the many obvious reasons against such an action (which has been firmly rejected by the Patriarch of Moscow), we could list the Tsar’s murder of some of the Church’s own Saints, Germanus among them.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

1 Thessalonians — 1 Thessalonians 2.14-19

¹⁴For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: ¹⁵Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: ¹⁶Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.

¹⁷But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavoured the more abundantly to see your face with great desire. ¹⁸Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us. ¹⁹For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 12.2-12

²For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. ³Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. ⁴And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. ⁵But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him. ⁶Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? ⁷But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows. ⁸Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: ⁹But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God. ¹⁰And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven. ¹¹And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: ¹²For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.